Ruling PASSION 0/ WOMEN. 79 
pear, if not exactly what fhe is, yet certainly not amiable, when 
fhe is foolifh or wicked. 
If we take in the idea of external charms, beauty is confider- 
ed, with refpedt to the body, what virtue is to the mind ; it is 
external virtue. Nothing is more perifhable than beauty ; a 
winter’s wind, or a fummer’s blaft, oftentimes deflroys it in an 
inftant. 
“ All flejlj is frail , and fubjeSl to decay , 
“ And fairest lillies , foonejl fade away l' 
This being fo apparently the cafe, fhe who makes a higher efti- 
mation of beauty than it deferves, which generally happens, 
may find herfelf miferably miftaken in the ifiue. 
On the other hand, virtue, which is juftly called internal 
beauty, never fades ; it fprings, it bloffoms, and the nearer it 
approaches to maturity, the higher pleafure it receives and gives. 
If we cultivate and improve the foil in which it grows, its 
charms will become every day more engaging, at leaf! to thofe 
who fee with virtuous eyes. But however virtue may pafs un- 
obferved -here, “ where we fee, as through a glafs darkly”, we 
fhall certainly carry it with us into the regions of immortality, 
there to fhine in glory amidft myriads of blefied fpirits, and at- 
tract the admiration of angels. 
We fee, however beauty may fiourifh for a time, the admi- 
ration of it often dies away, by being familiarized to the eye, 
even before it is yet decayed. And have you ever obferved a 
woman enamoured of her own beauty, without giving fome 
proof 
