So Ruling PASSION of WOMEN, 
proof of deformity, or weaknefs, of mind ? And are not thofe 
conftantly expofed to danger, in whom the love of admiration 
becomes their ruling paftion ? The reafon is plain : the body 
and mind are fuch diftindt objects, differing as effentially as fpi- 
rit and matter, that the care and follicitude employed about 
the firft, generally hurts and injures the laft. 
Thofe who think of making their fortune by their beauty, 
think of little beftde. Hence it fometimes arifes, that the moft 
homely filler in a family has more virtue and underftanding 
than the greateft beauty in it : not fo much from any caufe in 
the organization of the body, as from the negledt of the mind. 
Happinefs is much more equally divided than we generally 
apprehend. The beauty, which is fo much admired, is for the 
moft partfeverely taxed. Great beauties, like great princes, 
feldom hear truth : and how many good heads have been 
turned, and good hearts perverted, by the dangerous 
adulation to which beauty is expofed ! Beauties often pervert 
their own ends : they mar their fortunes, or their happiness, 
I believe it is Dr. swift who obferves of them, that they are 
fo bufy in making snares, that they never think of cages. The 
power over men, which they obferve to be derived from their 
beauty, is apt to make them forget to exercife the power which 
god has given them over themfelves, in the ufe of their own 
reafon. It muft be acknowledged, however, that under thefe 
circumftances, it is a proof of fuperior under ftanding, when you 
think juftly on this fubjedl. There are few women for whom 
this lesson is not much too hard. 
Be 
