For Pope has said, in the name of the
whole male sex,
'Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create,
'As when she touch'd the brink of all we hate.'
In what light this sally places men and women, I shall leave to
the judicious to determine; meanwhile I shall content myself with
observing, that I cannot discover why, unless they are mortal, females
should always be degraded by being made subservient to love or lust.
To speak disrespectfully of love is, I know, high treason against
sentiment and fine feelings; but I wish to speak the simple language
of truth, and rather to address the head than the heart. To
endeavour to reason love out of the world, would be to out Quixote
Cervantes, and equally offend against common sense; but an endeavour
to restrain this tumultuous passion, and to prove that it should not
be allowed to dethrone superior powers, or to usurp the sceptre
which the understanding should ever coolly wield, appears less wild.
Youth is the season for love in both sexes; but in those days of
thoughtless enjoyment provision should be made for the more
important years of life, when reflection takes place of sensation. But
Rousseau, and most of the male writers who have followed his steps,
have warmly inculcated that the whole tendency of female education
ought to be directed to one point:- to render them pleasing.
Let me reason with the supporters of this opinion who have any
knowledge of human nature, do they imagine that marriage can eradicate
the habitude of life? The woman who has only been taught to please
will soon find that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they
cannot have much effect on her husband's heart when they are seen
every day, when the summer is passed and gone.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50