TO a sex, subject to many oppressions, the author of this work has endeavoured to shew every possible protection. Yet, never let the reader imagine, that a blind or mistaken partiality can ever guide a pen, devoted to the cause of candour, and a fair investigation of the manners of the age it treats of. /

Woman, when the deluded victim of refinement and superior qualifications, is entitled to every defence and kind mitigation of her conduct. When man deludes, with, often, the most specious sophistry, and calls in that depth of understanding to his aid, which woman, however bright her talents, never yet could boast; the heart is devoid of every generous sentiment, which cannot feel for her fallen state, and afford her, at least, the tribute of pity and commiseration. But when a woman descends to court her servant, a man every way her inferior; when she is so wretchedly depraved; death is not too severe a punishment for such a breach of her marriage vow.

It is an old and just remark, that / a wicked woman exceeds by far a wicked man in vice; and it may well be accounted for. The feelings of woman are of the most exquisite kind; and she is less under the control of those other virtues, which mark the mind of man. Strength of reason, courage, and austere virtue, are scarcely known in the feminine composition; but, in recompence; she is endowed with an innate veneration for modesty, and that keen apprehensive fear, that, should she give way to her inclinations, she may lose the love of that object, to which she might otherwise be willing to sacrifice her dearest fame. The pride of that virtue, with the dread of his contempt, bear her up firm on the dangerous basis of chastity; while the softness and disinterestedness of her nature, render her / more thoughtful of the happiness of her lover than of her own; and, if he is a man of strict honour, she will be safe to cherish her affection for him, in all its native and unsullied purity.