MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 
should be made clean, and not tri- 
vial ceremonies observed, which it 
is not very difficult to fulfil with 
srupulous exactness when vicereigns 
in the heart. 
Women ought to endeavour to 
purify their hearts; but can they 
do so when their uncultivated un- 
derstandings make them entirely 
dependent on their senses for em- 
ployment and amusement, when no 
noble pursuit sets them above the 
little vanities vf the day, or enables 
them to curb the wild emotions 
that agitate a reed over which every 
passing breeze has power! To gain 
the affections of a virtuous man, is 
affectation necessary? Nature has 
given woman a weaker frame than 
man; but, to ensure her husband’s 
affections, must a wife, who by the 
exercise of her mind and body whilst 
she was discharging the duties of a 
daughter, wife, and mother, has al- 
lowed her constitution to retain its 
natural strength, and her nerves a 
healthy tone,—is she, I say, to con- 
descend to use art and feign a sickly 
elicacy, in order to secure her 
husband’s affection? Weakness 
may excite tenderness, and gratify 
the arrogant pride of man; but the 
lordly caresses of a protector will 
Mot gratify a noble mind that pants 
for and deserves to be respected. 
Fondness is a poor substitute for 
friendship ! 
. In a seraglio, 1 grant, that all 
these arts are necessary; the epicure 
roust have his palate tickled, or he 
will sink into apathy; but have wo- 
men so little ambition as'to be satis- 
fied with such a condition? Can 
hey supinely dream life away in 
lap of pleasure, or the Janguor 
of weariness, rather than assert their 
im to pursue reasonable pleasures, 
Gt) 
459 
and render themselves conspicuous, 
by practising the virtues which dig- 
nify mankind? Surely she has not 
an immortal soul who can loiter life 
away merely employed to adorn her 
person, that she may amuse the 
languid hours, and soften the cares 
of a fellow-creature, who is willing 
to be enlivened by her smiles and 
tricks, when the serious business of 
life is over. 
Besides, the woman who strength- 
ens her body and exercises her 
mind, will, by managing her family 
and practising various virtues, be- 
come the friend, and not the humble 
dependant of her husband; and. if 
she deserve: his regard by possess- 
ing such substantial qualities, she 
will not find ic necessary to conceal 
her affection, nor to pretend to an 
unnatural coldness of constitution 
to excite her husband's passions. In 
fact, if we revert to history, we shall 
find that the women who have dis- 
tinguished themselves, have neither 
been the most beautiful nor the 
most gentle of their sex. 
Nature, or to speak with strict 
propriety, God has made all things 
right: but man has sought him out 
maby inventions to mar the work. 
I now allude to that part of Dr. 
Gregory’s treatise, where he advises 
a wife never to Jet her husband 
know the extent of her sensibility 
or affection. Voluptuous precau- 
tion! and as ineffectual as absurd. 
—Love, from its very nature, must 
be transitory. To seek for a secret 
that would render it constant, would 
be as wild a search as for the philo- 
sopher’s stove, or the grand pa- 
nacea: and the discovery would be 
equally useless, or rather pernicious 
to mankind. The most holy band 
of society is friendship. It has pee 
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