you, that might render it doubly more interesting, and of which you are at present but little aware."
The curiosity of Rosilia being thus raised, she hastened anxiously attentive to what was to follow.
"It is," added Mrs. Belmour, "that you will find in Julia a second self. Had you lived in the time of Rousseau, and had he known you, one might have conceived he had taken you for his model: thence you may learn how inimitably he has copied nature, in the charming character he has painted."
A lively blush suffused the cheek of Rosilia, at the compliment she supposed Mrs. Belmour intended to pay her, who was earnestly awaiting a reply.
"I cannot," she said, "attempt to refute you, Mrs. Belmour, because I have no doubt your ideas are the ideas of many; but, as it is by the generally received opinions I wish to be guided, I feel no inclination to become an admirer of Rousseau."
She would have said more, but she feared she had already piqued her adversary, and wished, therefore, to change the subject; at the same time, a sudden recollection flashed across her mind of what she had once heard fall from the lips of her esteemed friend, Dr. Lovesworth. "That Rousseau refined upon sensuality, and that no virtuous woman should read him, whether married or single, because he painted scenes and images pernicious in their effects, having a tendency to injure chastity, blight modesty, and destroy innocence, which in the married as in the single state, ought to be alike tenaciously preserved."
