Another, no less obvious, would be to turn
the attention of woman to the real virtue of chastity; for to little
respect has that woman a claim, on the score of modesty, though her
reputation may be white as the driven snow, who smiles on the
libertine whilst she spurns the victims of his lawless appetites and
their own folly.
Besides, she has a taint of the same folly, pure as she esteems
herself, when she studiously adorns her person only to be seen by men,
to excite respectful sighs, and all the idle homage of what is
called innocent gallantry. Did women really respect virtue for its own
sake, they would not seek for a compensation in vanity, for the
self-denial which they are obliged to practise to preserve their
reputation, nor would they associate with men who set reputation at
defiance.
The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each other. This I
believe to be an indisputable truth, extending it to every virtue.
Chastity, modesty, public spirit, and all the noble train of
virtues, on which social virtue and happiness are built, should be
understood and cultivated by all mankind, or they will be cultivated
to little effect. And, instead of furnishing the vicious or idle
with a pretext for violating some sacred duty, by terming it a
sexual one, it would be wiser to shew that nature has not made any
difference, for that the unchaste man doubly defeats the purpose of
nature, by rendering women barren, and destroying his own
constitution, though he avoids the shame that pursues the crime in the
other sex.
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