Page:The Female Advocate.djvu/98

them: trace them through every stage of life and then see if they are not the most pitiable of all mortals! Then, how can the time of the opulent part of the sex be better employed, than in searching into the source of their sorrow and endeavouring to obtain redress? To investigate the cause will be speak a remedy near at hand. But for a continuation of the various distresses which poor females are subject to, we need but take a general review, an represent the case as it evidently is, which will save the unpleasant task of using names: for, it is to be feared, few there are who have any knowledge of life, but can reason upon this subject, if not through fatal self-experience, yet through experimental observations on others. For example: how often do we see whole families entirely ruined by the improper conduct of a husband or father, who, through giving way to some predominant vice, at once overwhelms the whole of his family in ruin and distress, or, at least, the female part of it, who, not being able to defend themselves, or seek redress, are liable to every misfortune.