ſerve appearances, will keep her mind in that childiſh, or vicious, tumult, which deſtroys all its energy. Beſides, in time, like thoſe people who habitually take cordials to raiſe their ſpirits, ſhe will want an intrigue to give life to her thoughts, having loſt all reliſh for pleaſures that are not highly ſeaſoned by hope or fear.
Sometimes married women act ſtill more audaciouſly; I will mention an inſtance.
A woman of quality, notorious for her gallantries, though as ſhe ſtill lived with her huſband, nobody choſe to place her in the claſs where ſhe ought to have been placed, made a point of treating with the moſt inſulting contempt a poor timid creature, abaſhed by a ſenſe of her former weakneſs, whom a neighbouring gentleman had ſeduced and afterwards married. This woman had actually confounded virtue with reputation; and, I do believe, valued herſelf on the propriety of her behaviour before marriage, though when once ſettled, to the ſatisfaction of her family, ſhe and her lord were equally faithleſs,—ſo that the half alive heir to an immenſe eſtate, came from heaven knows where!
To view this ſubject in another light.
I have known a number of women who, if they did not love their huſbands, loved nobody elſe, give themſelves entirely up to vanity and diſſipation, neglecting every domeſtic duty; nay, even ſquandering away all the money which ſhould have been ſaved for their helpleſs younger children, yet have plumed themſelves on their unſullied reputation, as if the whole compaſs of their duty as wives and mothers was only to pre-
