when confidence is unchecked by ſuſpicion, and rendered intereſting by ſenſe?
The man who can be contented to live with a pretty, uſeful companion, without a mind, has loſt in voluptuous gratifications a taſte for more refined enjoyments; he has never felt the calm ſatisfaction, that refreſhes the parched heart, like the ſilent dew of heaven,—of being beloved by one who could underſtand him.—In the ſociety of his wife he is ſtill alone, unleſs when the man is ſunk in the brute. 'The charm of life,' ſays a grave philoſophical reaſoner, is 'ſympathy; nothing pleaſes us more than to obſerve in other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own breaſt.'
But, according to the tenour of reaſoning, by which women are kept from the tree of knowledge, the important years of youth, the uſefulneſs of age, and the rational hopes of futurity, are all to be ſacrificed to render women an object of deſire for a ſhort time. Beſides, how could Rouſſeau expect them to be virtuous and conſtant when reaſon is neither allowed to be the foundation of their virtue, nor truth the object of their inquiries?
But all Rouſſeau's errors in reaſoning aroſe from ſenſibility, and ſenſibility to their charms women are very ready to forgive! When he ſhould have reaſoned he became impaſſioned, and reflection inflamed his imagination inſtead of enlightening his underſtanding. Even his virtues alſo led him farther aſtray; for, born with a warm conſtitution and lively fancy, nature carried him toward the other ſex with ſuch eager fondneſs, that he
