To prove the truth of this remark, I need only advert to the
intrigues of married women, particularly in high life, and in
countries where women are suitably married, according to their
respective ranks, by their parents. If an innocent girl become a
prey to love, she is degraded for ever, though her mind was not
polluted by the arts which married women, under the convenient
cloak of marriage, practise; nor has she violated any duty -- but
the duty of respecting herself. The married woman, on the
contrary, breaks a most sacred engagement, and becomes a cruel
mother when she is a false and faithless wife. If her husband
have still an affection for her, the arts which she must practise
to deceive him, will render her the most contemptible of human
beings; and, at any rate, the contrivances necessary to preserve
appearances, will keep her mind in that childish, or vicious,
tumult, which destroys all its energy. Besides, in time, like
those people who habitually take cordials to raise their spirits,
she will want an intrigue to give life to her thoughts, having
lost all relish for pleasures that are not highly seasoned by
hope or fear.
