claſs of people, becauſe reſpectability is not attached to the diſcharge of the relative duties of life, but to the ſtation, and when the duties are not fulfilled the affections cannot gain ſufficient ſtrength to fortify the virtue of which they are not natural reward. Still there are ſome loopholes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think and act for himſelf; but for a woman it is an herculean taſk, becauſe ſhe has difficulties peculiar to her ſex to overcome, which require almoſt ſuper-human powers.
A truly benevolent legiſlator always endeavours to make it the intereſt of each individual to be virtuous; and thus private virtue becoming the cement of public happineſs, an orderly whole is conſolidated by the tendency of all the parts towards a common centre. But, the private or public virtue of woman is very problematical; for Rouſſeau, and a numerous liſt of male writers, inſiſt that ſhe ſhould all her life be ſubjected to a ſevere reſtraint, that of propriety. Why ſubject her to propriety—blind propriety, if ſhe be capable of acting from a nobler ſpring, if ſhe be an heir of immortality? Is ſugar always to be produced by vital blood? Is one half of the human ſpecies, like the poor African ſlaves, to be ſubject to prejudices that brutalize them, when principles would be a ſurer guard, only to ſweeten the cup of man? Is not this indirectly to deny woman reaſon? for a gift is a mockery, if it be unfit for uſe.
Women are, in common with men, rendered weak and luxurious by the relaxing pleaſures which wealth procures; but added to this they
