- Can dignity of mind exist with such trivial cares?
In short, women, in general, as well as the rich of both sexes, have
acquired all the follies and vices of civilization, and missed the
useful fruit. It is not necessary for me always to premise, that I
speak of the condition of the whole sex, leaving exceptions out of the
question. Their senses are inflamed, and their understandings
neglected, consequently they become the prey of their senses,
delicately termed sensibility and are blown about by every momentary
gust of feeling. Civilized women are, therefore, so weakened by
false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition is much
below what it would be were they left in a state nearer to nature.
Ever restless and anxious, their over exercised sensibility not only
renders them uncomfortable themselves, but troublesome, to use a
soft phrase, to others. All their thoughts turn on things calculated
to excite emotion; and feeling, when they should reason, their conduct
is unstable, and their opinions are wavering- not the wavering
produced by deliberation or progressive views, but by contradictory
emotions. By fits and starts they are warm in many pursuits; yet
this warmth, never concentrated into perseverance, soon exhausts
itself; exhaled by its own heat, or meeting with some other fleeting
passion, to which reason has never given any specific gravity,
neutrality ensues. Miserable, indeed, must be that being whose
cultivation of mind has only tended to inflame its passions! A
distinction should be made between inflaming and strengthening them.
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