There is amongst us a female character, not uncommon, which we
denominate the outrageously virtuous. Women of this stamp never fail to
seize all opportunities of exclaiming, in the bitterest manner, against
every one upon whom even the slightest suspicion of indiscretion or
unchastity has fallen; taking care, as they go along, to magnify every
mole-hill into a mountain, and every thoughtless freedom into the
blackest of crimes. But besides the illiberality of thus treating such
as may frequently be innocent, you may credit us, dear countrywomen,
when we aver, that such a behavior, instead of making you appear more
virtuous, only draws down upon you, by those who know the world,
suspicions not much to your advantage. Your sex are in general suspected
by ours, of being too much addicted to scandal and defamation; a
suspicion, which has not arisen of late years, as we find in the ancient
laws of England a punishment, known by the name of ducking-stool,
annexed to scolding and defamation in the women, though no such
punishment nor crime is taken notice of in the men. This crime, however,
we persuade ourselves, you are less guilty of, than is commonly
believed: but there is another of a nature not more excusable, from
which we cannot so much exculpate you; which is, that harsh and
forbidding appearance you put on, and that ill treatment, which you no
doubt think necessary, for the illustration of your own virtue, you
should bestow on every one of your sex who has deviated from the path of
rectitude. A behaviour of this nature, besides being so opposite to that
meek and gentle spirit which should distinguish female nature, is in
every respect contrary to the charitable and forgiving temper of the
Christian religion, and infallibly shuts the door of repentance against
an unfortunate sister, willing, perhaps, to abandon the vices into which
heedless inadvertency had plunged her, and from which none of you can
promise yourselves an absolute security.
We wish not, fair countrywomen, like the declaimer and satirist, to
paint you all vice and imperfection, nor, like the venal panegyrist, to
exhibit you all virtue. As impartial historians, we confess that you
have, in the present age, many virtues and good qualities, which were
either nearly or altogether unknown to your ancestors; but do you not
exceed them in some follies and vices also? Is not the levity,
dissipation, and extravagance of the women of this century arrived to a
pitch unknown and unheard of in former times? Is not the course which
you steer in life, almost entirely directed by vanity and fashion? And
are there not too many of you who, throwing aside reason and good
conduct, and despising the counsel of your friends and relations, seem
determined to follow the mode of the world, however it may be mixed with
vice? Do not the generality of you dress, and appear above your station,
and are not many of you ashamed to be seen performing the duties of it?
To sum up all, do not too, too many of you act as if you thought the
care of a family, and the other domestic virtues, beneath your
attention, and that the sole end for which you were sent into the world,
was to please and divert yourselves, at the expense of those poor
wretches the men, whom you consider as obliged to support you in every
kind of idleness and extravagance? While such is your conduct, and while
the contagion is every day increasing, you are not to be surprised if
the men, still fond of you as playthings in the hours of mirth and
revelry, ever shun serious connection with you; and while they wish to
be possessed of your charms, are so much afraid of your manners and
conduct, that they prefer the cheerless state of a bachelor, to the
numberless evils arising from being tied to a modern wife.