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to worse if he lets it alone? And thus my Reproof, they say, will do more hurt than good.
To this I answer: Let the Woman then provide against that; for I shall never think Pity due to any Woman after this, who, being thus warn'd, will let a Man lie with her upon Promises of After-Marriage; there can be no wrong done to the Woman, seeing she may avoid the Danger by avoiding the Crime, and yet the Man is greatly mistaken too, who pretends, that to break his Engagement with the Womon does not encrease the Offence. If this were true, and that by performing the Promise the Person was not the less Criminal, the Offender would always take care not to perform the Obligation, and so we should have a continual Complaint. But, I say, let it be so, nay, let the Woman take it for granted, I am sure she ought to do so, that whenever she yields on such Terms, she will be left in the lurch, and exposed; and this, if any thing, would shut the Door against her complying.
Nay, I must needs say, the common Usage is so much against her, that one would wonder any Woman should be so weak to yield upon those Conditions; and, to me, it argues necessarily one of these two Things.
I. Great neglect of the Consequences of Things; great Indifference not only as to her being with Child or not with Child, taken or refused, married or not married, and so also also with respect to her Fame and Character, whether Honest or a Whore. But,
2. It
