There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd truth, that whoever
the devil finds idle he will employ. And what but habitual idleness
can hereditary wealth and titles produce? For man is so constituted
that he can only attain a proper use of his faculties by exercising
them, and will not exercise them unless necessity, of some kind, first
set the wheels in motion. Virtue likewise can only be acquired by
the discharge of relative duties; but the importance of these sacred
duties will scarcely be felt by the being who is cajoled out of his
humanity by the flattery of sycophants. There must be more equality
established in society, or morality will never gain ground, and this
virtuous equality will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if
one half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for they will be
continually undermining it through ignorance or pride.
It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are, in some
degree, independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of
natural affection, which would make them good wives and mothers.
Whilst they are absolutely dependent on their husbands they will be
cunning, mean, and selfish, and the men who can be gratified by the
fawning fondness of spaniel-like affection, have not much delicacy,
for love is not to be bought, in any sense of the words, its silken
wings are instantly shrivelled up when any thing beside a return in
kind is sought. Yet whilst wealth enervates men; and women live, as it
were, by their personal charms, how can we expect them to discharge
those ennobling duties which equally require exertion and self-denial.
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