the first overtures, which may be made to them on the subject of matrimony.

Their propensities are, perhaps, equal to those of men, though their resources are very different. Men, from their engagements in the world, from a disregard to those restraints, which in the character of a woman must be inviolable, have their desires moderated, or else they take another course, and are impaired through habits of intemperance.

Women, on the contrary, by more sedentary and sober lives, and by fewer avocations of the mind, are particularly left to solitary and strengthened imagination, while the indulgence of it, except in legal wedlock, would be fatal to their honour. It cannot therefore be sufficiently deplored, that this best remedy against Seduction, is to the most lovely part of creation, so encumbered with prohibition.

The

The inclination from being thus persecuted, is not lessened, but aggravated: and if a criminal gratification be entirely withstood; too frequently it happens, that the mind sinks into dejection, or the body pines with disease,

In opposed marriages, it is further obvious, that the person loved, if not himself restrained by noble sentiments, must have much ascendency, if not opportunity, to become the seducer; and when that is effected, too many are the hateful instances, that the lovely victim is first slighted, and then abandoned to every distracting bitter thought; to brood over that disgrace she cannot hide, that contempt and misery which are the sure companions of it. Even parents themselves will bruise the broken reed and plant thorns on the bed of contrition and of pain: where barbarians would have shed the tear of sympathy, they have hardened their hearts; instead of grievously reflecting on themselves, how instrumental to seduction their severity

H 2

severity might have been, and gradually raising up by the tenderest affection a fallen daughter, it is too often seen, that by illtimed reproaches, cutting remonstrances, implacable wrath, and utter abandonment, many a child, against whom temptation has triumphed, has been given up to the scorn of the world, who might have been a recovered jewel to society, had defamation been less industrious, particularly from her own ser, and if others had used caution and clemency.

The tales of many who have sallied forth to eat the precarious, loathsome bread of prostitution, and that only during the miserable term of a diseased and contracted life, would bear an affecting testimony to the truth of these observations; and though bad examples, habit, and necessity, may have altered the first feelings of contrition and dejection, yet the spark, the vital spark of reflection, is not altogether extinguished! a

serious,

serious, but an affectionate appeal to their disreputable situations, will seldom fail to penetrate them with remorse: and though at other times the semblance of gaiety may be put on; yet there is a tender interval, in which the heart will bleed, when the tear will start!

Unhappy pilgrims! they cannot but remember what they so lately were, and feel with poignant distress the situation into which, by one culpable act, they now are reduced, banished from their native homes, deserted by their betrayers; their rivals hoot at them with the triumphant hiss of malice, and those, who had envied their superior attractions, are now delighted to point at them with most fastidious disdain: thus neglected by friends, persecuted by enemies, and despised by the world; a deplorable multitude of unhappy females, beautiful and lovely daughters, who gladly would have returned, had that been permitted, as hum

bled

bled penitents to the bosom of parental clemency, are now prowling about the streets; and at length are become so degraded in their own estimation, so destitute of hope, and so hardened by practice, that reflection is abandoned and their manners are desperate,*

Will parents then, who ought to be the guardian angels of their daughters happiness, to drop a tear on their frailties, and blot them out for ever," will they, by the bitterest invectivę

* The writer of these Essays has often wished that in every city, town, and country, some sort of large manufactory were established, capable of employing both sexes, in whatever department they could be found most useful; where, on expressing a desire to work, they should be welcomed, clothed, and fed, and no questions asked. Such an asylum, under suitable modifications and proper laws, would produce the most salutary effects, by receiving the outcasts of society, who, without character cannot be supposed to get employment, and are hence left to the vilest alternatives: in this institution the most abandoned might be fed, concealed, and what is of moment to the interests of policy, virtue, and religion, and moreover should be the design of all laws, they might here, after proper probation, recover lost characters, they might be reformed!