"
I might accumulate illustrations on this theme, drawn from
acquaintance with the histories of women, which would startle and
grieve all thinking men, but I forbear. Let Sir Charles Grandison
preach to his own sex; or if none there be who feels himself able to
speak with authority from a life unspotted in will or deed, let those
who are convinced of the practicability and need of a pure life, as
the foreign artist was, advise the others, and warn them by their own
example, if need be.
The following passage, from a female writer, on female affairs,
expresses a prevalent way of thinking on this subject:
"It may be that a young woman, exempt from all motives of vanity,
determines to take for a husband a man who does not inspire her with a
very decided inclination. Imperious circumstances, the evident
interest of her family, or the danger of suffering celibacy, may
explain such a resolution. If, however, she were to endeavor to
surmount a personal repugnance, we should look upon this as
_injudicious_. Such a rebellion of nature marks the limit that
the influence of parents, or the self-sacrifice of the young girl,
should never pass. _We shall be told that this repugnance is an
affair of the imagination_.
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