Besides, having two objects in view, he seldom adhered steadily to
either; for wishing to make his daughters amiable, and fearing lest
unhappiness should only be the consequence, of instilling sentiments
that might draw them out of the track of common life without
enabling them to act with consonant independence and dignity, he
checks the natural flow of his thoughts, and neither advises one thing
nor the other.
In the preface he tells them a mournful truth, 'that they will hear,
at least once in their lives, the genuine sentiments of a man who
has no interest in deceiving them.'
Hapless woman! what can be expected from thee when the beings on
whom thou art said naturally to depend for reason and support, have
all an interest in deceiving thee! This is the root of the evil that
has shed a corroding mildew on all thy virtues; and blighting in the
bud thy opening faculties, has rendered thee the weak thing thou
art! It is this separate interest- this insidious state of warfare,
that undermines morality, and divides mankind!
If love have made some women wretched- how many more has the cold
unmeaning intercourse of gallantry rendered vain and useless! yet this
heartless attention to the sex is reckoned so manly, so polite that,
till society is very differently organized, I fear, this vestige of
gothic manners will not be done away by a more reasonable and
affectionate mode of conduct. Besides, to strip it of its imaginary
dignity, I must observe, that in the most uncivilized European
states this lip-service prevails in a very great degree, accompanied
with extreme dissoluteness of morals.
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