I may be told that great as this enormity is, it only affects a
devoted part of the sex- devoted for the salvation of the rest. But,
false as every assertion might easily be proved, that recommends the
sanctioning a small evil to produce a greater good; the mischief
does not stop here, for the moral character, and peace of mind, of the
chaster part of the sex, is undermined by the conduct of the very
women to whom they allow no refuge from guilt: whom they inexorably
consign to the exercise of arts that lure their husbands from them,
debauch their sons, and force them, let not modest women start, to
assume, in some degree, the same character themselves. For I will
venture to assert, that all the causes of female weakness, as well
as depravity, which I have already enlarged on, branch out of one
grand cause- want of chastity in men.
This intemperance, so prevalent, depraves the appetite to such a
degree, that a wanton stimulus is necessary to rouse it; but the
parental design of nature is forgotten, and the mere person, and
that for a moment, alone engrosses the thoughts. So voluptuous,
indeed, often grows the lustful prowler, that he refines on female
softness. Something more soft than woman is then sought for; till,
in Italy, and Portugal, men attend the levees of equivocal beings,
to sigh for more than female languor.
To satisfy this genus of men, women are made systematically
voluptuous, and though they may not all carry their libertinism to the
same height, yet this heartless intercourse with the sex, which they
allow themselves, depraves both sexes, because the taste of men is
vitiated; and women, of all classes, naturally square their
behaviour to gratify the taste by which they obtain pleasure and
power.
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