Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfortunate
victims to it, if I may so express myself, swathed from their birth,
seldom exert the locomotive faculty of body or mind; and, thus viewing
every thing through one medium, and that a false one, they are
unable to discern in what true merit and happiness consist. False,
indeed, must be the light when the drapery of situation hides the man,
and makes him stalk in masquerade, dragging from one scene of
dissipation to another the nerveless limbs that hang with stupid
listlessness, and rolling round the vacant eye which plainly tells
us that there is no mind at home.
I mean, therefore, to infer that the society is not properly
organized which does not compel men and women to discharge their
respective duties, by making it the only way to acquire that
countenance from their fellow-creatures, which every human being
wishes some way to attain. The respect, consequently, which is paid to
wealth and mere personal charms, is a true north-east blast, that
blights the tender blossoms of affection and virtue. Nature has wisely
attached affections to duties, to sweeten toil, and to give that
vigour to the exertions of reason which only the heart can give.
But, the affection which is put on merely because it is the
appropriated insignia of a certain character, when its duties are
not fulfilled, is one of the empty compliments which vice and folly
are obliged to pay to virtue and the real nature of things.
To illustrate my opinion, I need only observe, that when a woman
is admired for her beauty, and suffers herself to be so far
intoxicated by the admiration she receives, as to neglect to discharge
the indispensable duty of a mother, she sins against herself by
neglecting to cultivate an affection that would equally tend to make
her useful and happy.
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