the senses exquisite. They may possess tenderness; but they want
that fire of the imagination, which produces _active_ sensibility,

and _positive_ _virtue_. How does the woman deserve to be
characterized, who marries one man, with a heart and imagination

devoted to another? Is she not an object of pity or contempt, when
thus sacrilegiously violating the purity of her own feelings? Nay,

it is as indelicate, when she is indifferent, unless she be
constitutionally insensible; then indeed it is a mere affair of

barter; and I have nothing to do with the secrets of trade. Yes;
eagerly as I wish you to possess true rectitude of mind, and purity

of affection, I must insist that a heartless conduct is the contrary
of virtuous. Truth is the only basis of virtue; and we cannot,

without depraving our minds, endeavour to please a lover or husband,
but in proportion as he pleases us. Men, more effectually to

enslave us, may inculcate this partialmorality, and lose sight of
virtue in subdividing it into the duties of particular stations;

but let us not blush for nature without a cause!
"After these remarks, I am ashamed to own, that I was pregnant.

The greatest sacrifice of my principles in my whole life, was the
allowing my husband again to be familiar with my person, though to

this cruel act of self-denial, when I wished the earth to open and
swallow me, you owe your birth; and I the unutterable pleasure of

being a mother. There was something of delicacy in my husband's
bridal attentions; but now his tainted breath, pimpled face, and

blood-shot eyes, were not more repugnant to my senses, than his
gross manners, and loveless familiarity to my taste.

"A man would only be expected to maintain; yes, barely grant
a subsistence, to a woman rendered odious by habitual intoxication;

but who would expect him, or think it possible to love her? And
unless 'youth, and genial years were flown,' it would be thought

equallyunreasonable to insist, [under penalty of] forfeiting almost
every thing reckoned valuable in life, that he should not love

another: whilst woman, weak in reason, impotent in will, is required
to moralize, sentimentalize herself to stone, and pine her life

away, labouring to reform her embruted mate. He may even spend in
dissipation, and intemperance, the very intemperance which renders

him so hateful, her property, and by stinting her expences, not
permit her to beguile in society, a wearisome, joyless life; for

over their mutual fortune she has no power, it must all pass through
his hand. And if she be a mother, and in the present state of

women, it is a great misfortune to be prevented from discharging
the duties, and cultivating the affections of one, what has she

not to endure?--But I have suffered the tenderness of one to lead
me into reflections that I did not think of making, to interrupt

my narrative--yet the full heart will overflow.
"Mr. Venables' embarrassments did not now endear him to me;

still, anxious to befriend him, I endeavoured to prevail on him to
retrench his expences; but he had always some plausible excuse to

give, to justify his not following my advice. Humanity, compassion,
and the interest produced by a habit of living together, made me

try to relieve, and sympathize with him; but, when I recollected
that I was bound to live with such a being for ever--my heart died

within me; my desire of improvement became languid, and baleful,
corroding melancholy took possession of my soul. Marriage had

bastilled me for life. I discovered in myself a capacity for the
enjoyment of the various pleasures existence affords; yet, fettered

by the partial laws of society, this fair globe was to me
an universal blank.

"When I exhorted my husband to economy, I referred to himself.
I was obliged to practise the most rigid, or contract debts, which

I had too much reason to fear would never be paid. I despised this
paltry privilege of a wife, which can only be of use to the vicious

or inconsiderate, and determined not to increase the torrent that
was bearing him down. I was then ignorant of the extent of his

fraudulent speculations, whom I was bound to honour and obey.
"A woman neglected by her husband, or whose manners form a

striking contrast with his, will always have men on the watch to
soothe and flatter her. Besides, the forlorn state of a neglected

woman, not destitute of personal charms, is particularly interesting,
and rouses that species of pity, which is so near akin, it easily

slides into love. A man of feeling thinks not of seducing, he is
himself seduced by all the noblest emotions of his soul. He figures

to himself all the sacrifices a woman of sensibility must make,
and every situation in which his imagination places her, touches

his heart, and fires his passions. Longing to take to his bosom
the shorn lamb, and bid the drooping buds of hope revive, benevolence

changes into passion: and should he then discover that he is beloved,
honour binds him fast, though foreseeing that he may afterwards be

obliged to pay severe damages to the man, who never appeared to
value his wife's society, till he found that there was a chance of

his being indemnified for the loss of it.
"Such are the partial laws enacted by men; for, only to lay

a stress on the dependent state of a woman in the grand question
of the comforts arising from the possession of property, she is

[even in this article] much more injured by the loss of the husband's
affection, than he by that of his wife; yet where is she, condemned

to the solitude of a deserted home, to look for a compensation from
the woman, who seduces him from her? She cannot drive an unfaithful

husband from his house, nor separate, or tear, his children from
him, however culpable he may be; and he, still the master of his

own fate, enjoys the smiles of a world, that would brand her with
infamy, did she, seeking consolation, venture to retaliate.

"These remarks are not dictated by experience; but merely by
the compassion I feel for many amiable women, the _outlaws_ of the

world. For myself, never encouraging any of the advances that were
made to me, my lovers dropped off like the untimely shoots of

spring. I did not even coquet with them; because I found, on
examining myself, I could not coquet with a man without loving him

a little; and I perceived that I should not be able to stop at the
line of what are termed _innocent_ _freedoms_, did I suffer any.

My reserve was then the consequence of delicacy. Freedom of conduct
has emancipated many women's minds; but my conduct has most rigidly

been governed by my principles, till the improvement of my
understanding has enabled me to discern the fallacy of prejudices

at war with nature and reason.
"Shortly after the change I have mentioned in my husband's

conduct, my uncle was compelled by his declining health, to seek
the succour of a milder climate, and embark for Lisbon. He left

his will in the hands of a friend, an eminentsolicitor; he had
previously questioned me relative to my situation and state of

mind, and declared very freely, that he could place no reliance on
the stability of my husband's professions. He had been deceived

in the unfolding of his character; he now thought it fixed in a
train of actions that would inevitably lead to ruin and disgrace.

"The evening before his departure, which we spent alone
together, he folded me to his heart, uttering the endearing

appellation of 'child.'--My more than father! why was I not permitted
to perform the last duties of one, and smooth the pillow of death?

He seemed by his manner to be convinced that he should never see
me more; yet requested me, most earnestly, to come to him, should

I be obliged to leave my husband. He had before expressed his
sorrow at hearing of my pregnancy, having determined to prevail on

me to accompany him, till I informed him of that circumstance. He
expressed himself unfeignedly sorry that any new tie should bind

me to a man whom he thought so incapable of estimating my value;
such was the kind language of affection.

"I must repeat his own words; they made an indelible impression
on my mind:

"'The marriage state is certainly that in which women, generally
speaking, can be most useful; but I am far from thinking that a

woman, once married, ought to consider the engagement as indissoluble
(especially if there be no children to reward her for sacrificing

her feelings) in case her husband merits neither her love, nor
esteem. Esteem will often supply the place of love; and prevent

a woman from being wretched, though it may not make her happy.
The magnitude of a sacrifice ought always to bear some proportion

to the utility in view; and for a woman to live with a man, for
whom she can cherish neither affection nor esteem, or even be of

any use to him, excepting in the light of a house-keeper, is an
abjectness of condition, the enduring of which no concurrence of

circumstances can ever make a duty in the sight of God or just men.
If indeed she submits to it merely to be maintained in idleness,

she has no right to complainbitterly of her fate; or to act,
as a person of independentcharacter might, as if she had

a title to disregard general rules.
"But the misfortune is, that many women only submit in

appearance, and forfeit their own respect to secure their reputation
in the world. The situation of a woman separated from her husband,

is undoubtedly very different from that of a man who has left his
wife. He, with lordlydignity, has shaken of a clog; and the