These are all preparations for adultery; or, should
the fear of the world, or of hell, restrain her desire of pleasing
other men, when she can no longer please her husband, what
substitute can be found by a being who was only formed, by nature
and art, to please man? what can make her amends for this privation,
or where is she to seek for a fresh employment? where find
sufficient strength of mind to determine to begin the search, when her
habits are fixed, and vanity has long ruled her chaotic mind?
But this partial moralist recommends cunning systematically and
Plausibly.
'Daughters should be always submissive; their mothers, however,
should not be inexorable. To make a young person tractable, she
ought not to be made unhappy, to make her modest she ought not to be
rendered stupid. On the contrary, I should not be displeased at her
being permitted to use some art, not to elude punishment in case of
disobedience, but to exempt herself from the necessity of obeying.
It is not necessary to make her dependence burdensome, but only to let
her feel it. Subtilty is a talent natural to the sex; and, as I am
persuaded, all our natural inclinations are right and good in
themselves, I am of opinion this should be cultivated as well as the
others: it is requisite for us only to prevent its abuse.'
'Whatever is, is right,' he then proceeds triumphantly to infer.
Granted;- yet, perhaps, no aphorism ever contained a more
paradoxical assertion. It is a solemn truth with respect to God.
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