Whilſt reaſon raiſes man above the brutal herd, and death is big with promiſes, they alone are ſubject to blind authority who have no reliance on their own ſtrength. 'They are free—who will be free[1]!'—
The being who can govern itſelf has nothing to fear in life; but if any thing is dearer than its own reſpect, the price muſt be paid to the laſt farthing. Virtue, like every thing valuable, muſt be loved for herſelf alone; or ſhe will not take up her abode with us. She will not impart that peace, 'which paſſeth underſtanding,' when ſhe is merely made the ſtilts of reputation; and reſpected, with phariſaical exactneſs, becauſe 'honeſty is the beſt policy.'
That the plan of life which enables us to carry ſome knowledge and virtue into another world, is the one beſt calculated to enſure content in this, cannot be denied; yet few people act according to this principle, though it be univerſally allowed that it admit not of diſpute. Preſent pleaſure, or preſent power, carry before it theſe ſober convictions; and it is for the day, not for life, that man bargains with happineſs. How few!—how very few! have ſufficient foreſight, or reſolution, to endure a ſmall evil at the moment, to avoid a greater hereafter.
Woman in particular, whoſe virtue [2] is built on mutual prejudices, ſeldom attains to this greatneſs of mind; ſo that, becoming the ſlave of her own feelings, ſhe is eaſily ſubjugated by thoſe of
