PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Seducliolz.
her reputation ~nd prospects of marriage, and of the
tiepra1Jation of hel· moral priciple.
This pain must be extreme, if we may judge of it
from those barbarous endeavours to conceal their
disgrace, to which wome~, under such circumstan,~es,
.som~tirr.~s have recourse; comparing also this barbarity
with their passionate fondness for their offspring
in other cases. N otbing but an agony of
nUnd the most insupportable can induce a woman
to forget her nature, and the pity which even a
stranger would shew to a helpless and imploring infant.
It is true, that all are not urged to this extremity;
but if ~ny are, it affords an indication of
how much all ~uffer from the same cause. What
shall we say to the authors of such mischief?
The loss which a WOlnan sustains by the ruin of
her reputation almosi. ~'!{ceeds computation. Every
person's happiness depends in part upon the respect
~nd reception which tJley meet with in the world ;
and it is no inconsiderable mortification even to the
firmest tempe .. s, to be rejected from the society of
their equals, or received there with neglect and disdain.
But this is not all, nor the worst. By a rule
of life, which is not easy to blame, and which it
_
J
is impossible to alter, a woman loses with her chastity
the chance of marrr~D.~ at all, or in any manner
equal_ to the hopes she had oeen accustomed to en.
tenain. Now marriage, whatever it be to a man, is
that, from which every woman - expects her chief
bappine'\s. Alld this is still more true in low life,
of- which ~(·!ldition tIle women are, who are most
exposed to solicitat;ons of this sort. Add to this,
that wllere a woman's maintenance depends upon her
charc,cter , (AS it does, ill a great measure, with those
who are to support th.!mselves by service) Httle some ..
times is left to the forsaken sufferer, but to starve
for want of employment, or to have recourse to eros..
titution fpr food and raiment. :