True happiness, I mean all the contentment,
and virtuous satisfaction, that can be snatched in this imperfect
state, must arise from well regulated affections; and an affection
includes a duty. Men are not aware of the misery they cause, and the
vicious weakness they cherish, by only inciting women to render
themselves pleasing; they do not consider that they thus make
natural and artificial duties clash, by sacrificing the comfort and
respectability of a woman's life to voluptuous notions of beauty, when
in nature they all harmonize.
Cold would be the heart of a husband, were he not rendered unnatural
by early debauchery, who did not feel more delight at seeing his child
suckled by its mother, than the most artful wanton tricks could ever
raise; yet this natural way of cementing the matrimonial tie, and
twisting esteem with fonder recollections, wealth leads women to
spurn. To preserve their beauty, and wear the flowery crown of the
day, which gives them a kind of right to reign for a short time over
the sex, they neglect to stamp impressions on their husbands'
hearts, that would be remembered with more tenderness when the snow on
the head began to chill the bosom, than even their virgin charms.
The maternal solicitude of a reasonable affectionate woman is very
interesting, and the chastened dignity with which a mother returns the
caresses that she and her child receive from a father who has been
fulfilling the serious duties of his station, is not only a
respectable, but a beautiful sight.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238