the ſame vitiated taſte into life, and fly for amuſement to the wanton, from the unſophiſticated charms of virtue, and the grave reſpectability of ſenſe.
Beſides, the reading of novels makes women, and particularly ladies of faſhion, very fond of uſing ſtrong expreſſions and ſuperlatives in converſation; and, though the diſſipated artificial life which they lead prevents their cheriſhing any ſtrong legitimate paſſion, the language of paſſion in affected tones ſlips forever from their glib tongues, and every trifle produces thoſe phoſphoric burſts which only mimick in the dark the flame of paſſion.
Ignorance and the miſtaken cunning that nature ſharpens in weak heads as a principle of ſelf-preſervation, render women very fond of dreſs, and produce all the vanity which ſuch a fondneſs may naturally be expected to generate, to the excluſion of emulation and magnanimity.
I agree with Rouſſeau that the phyſical part of the art of pleaſing conſiſts in ornaments, and for that very reaſon I ſhould guard girls againſt the contagious fondneſs for dreſs ſo common to weak women, that they may not reſt in the phyſical part. Yet, weak are the women who imagine that they can long pleaſe without the aid of the mind, or, in other words, without the moral art of pleaſing. But the moral art, if it be not a profanation to uſe the word art, when alluding to the grace which is an effect of virtue, and not
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