Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Of The Influence Of The Female Character On The Manners Of Men.
attention , but perhaps to facilitate the task to the writer , and render it palatable to tire hearer or reader . Briefly tracing , then , this amiable part . of creation from the time ivhen the Almi g hty observing , " It is not meet that man should be alone , " proved that he intended some influence should be added to the natural state of our existence ; as we cannot believe that a cause
was made but with a view to an effect , and Omniscience could never ( unprovoked too , as at that time was the Godhead ) have conceived the idea of producing a beautiful and amiable cause , to operate other than a happy effect , we establish the belief that woman was intended by her Creator to work a benign influence on mankind .
Happy should I be if the nature of this little essay Would admit of in } ' introducing all the instances that occur to me in sacred and profane history in testimony that such has been the fact , speaking generally , with regard to the operation of women on the passions and femnpi-s nf men .
As it is , however , I shall confine my observations to a few heads , that is to say , . . ' ' I . I shall briefly remark on the follies ( must I say the vices ?) usually considered as more peculiarly attaching to the female part of the creation . II . Shall take a view of those to which men are supposed to be
naturally most prone . III . Will humbly attempt a comparison between the two sexes ; with the view , IV . Of proving , not a superiority in the grand scale of things of the-female over the male sex , but of enforcing . what it is the purpose of this essay to establish , the important and happy influence of
the female character on the morals of men . i . Vanity , impertinence , dissimulation , envy , levity , and inconr stancy , are the most striking failings with which I can recollect that the sex has been charged .. As to vanity , though certainl y not commendable , it is yet in sonic cases pardonable ; that is , if the excellencies by which it is excited are real arrd apparent ; but where these are groundless , it is confessedly ridiculous and absurd .
1 he cliief object of vanity in women is personal beauty , and here , perhaps , will occur to my readers au apology derived from the consideration that this foible 'is generally called into action by the admiration of Ihe men , and their submission at the shrine of female beauty . Impertinence , or thc practice of intruding on or meddling with what no way concerns them , is also attributed to the ladies . But I must forbear- to enlarge on flu ' s headfrom the conviction that it is a male
, propensity in the fullest sense of the word , and cannot for a moment be considered as attaching peculiarly or even chiefly to the female sex . From the charge of dissimulation I cannot in candour attempt wholly to exculpate them ; nor perhaps is it necessary that I should ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Of The Influence Of The Female Character On The Manners Of Men.
attention , but perhaps to facilitate the task to the writer , and render it palatable to tire hearer or reader . Briefly tracing , then , this amiable part . of creation from the time ivhen the Almi g hty observing , " It is not meet that man should be alone , " proved that he intended some influence should be added to the natural state of our existence ; as we cannot believe that a cause
was made but with a view to an effect , and Omniscience could never ( unprovoked too , as at that time was the Godhead ) have conceived the idea of producing a beautiful and amiable cause , to operate other than a happy effect , we establish the belief that woman was intended by her Creator to work a benign influence on mankind .
Happy should I be if the nature of this little essay Would admit of in } ' introducing all the instances that occur to me in sacred and profane history in testimony that such has been the fact , speaking generally , with regard to the operation of women on the passions and femnpi-s nf men .
As it is , however , I shall confine my observations to a few heads , that is to say , . . ' ' I . I shall briefly remark on the follies ( must I say the vices ?) usually considered as more peculiarly attaching to the female part of the creation . II . Shall take a view of those to which men are supposed to be
naturally most prone . III . Will humbly attempt a comparison between the two sexes ; with the view , IV . Of proving , not a superiority in the grand scale of things of the-female over the male sex , but of enforcing . what it is the purpose of this essay to establish , the important and happy influence of
the female character on the morals of men . i . Vanity , impertinence , dissimulation , envy , levity , and inconr stancy , are the most striking failings with which I can recollect that the sex has been charged .. As to vanity , though certainl y not commendable , it is yet in sonic cases pardonable ; that is , if the excellencies by which it is excited are real arrd apparent ; but where these are groundless , it is confessedly ridiculous and absurd .
1 he cliief object of vanity in women is personal beauty , and here , perhaps , will occur to my readers au apology derived from the consideration that this foible 'is generally called into action by the admiration of Ihe men , and their submission at the shrine of female beauty . Impertinence , or thc practice of intruding on or meddling with what no way concerns them , is also attributed to the ladies . But I must forbear- to enlarge on flu ' s headfrom the conviction that it is a male
, propensity in the fullest sense of the word , and cannot for a moment be considered as attaching peculiarly or even chiefly to the female sex . From the charge of dissimulation I cannot in candour attempt wholly to exculpate them ; nor perhaps is it necessary that I should ;