t,--it is impossible not to
shrink from the presence of an impious, and above all an unprincipled
atheistical female, as from an ungrateful and unnatural being.

Man is under eternal obligations to Christianity and its Divine Author,
undoubtedly; but woman seems to be more so.

That charge against females which in the minds of some half atheistical
men is magnified into a stigma on Christianity itself, namely that they
are more apt to become religious than men; and that we find by far the
greater part of professing Christians to be females, is in my own view
one of the highest praises of the sex. I rejoice that their hearts are
more susceptible than ours, and that they do not war so strongly
against that religion which their nature demands. I have met with but
one female, whom I knew to be an avowed atheist.

Indeed there are very few men to be found, who are skeptical
themselves, who do not prefer pious companions of the other sex. I will
not stop to adduce this as an evidence of the truth of our religion
itself, and of its adaptation to the wants of the human race, for
happily it does not need it. Christianity is based on the most abundant
evidence, of a character wholly unquestionable. But this I do and will
say, that to be consistent, young men of loose principles ought not to
rail at females for their piety, and then whenever they seek for a
constant friend, one whom they can love,--for they never really love
the abandoned--always prefer, other things being equal, the society of
the pious and the virtuous.

2. COMMON SENSE.

Next on the list of particular qualifications in a female, for
matrimonial life, I place COMMON SENSE. In the view of some, it ought
to precede moral excellence. A person, it is said, who is deficient in
common sense, is, in proportion to the imbecility, unfit for _social_
life, and yet the same person might possess a kind of negative
excellency, or perhaps even a species of piety. This view appears to
me, however, much more specious than sound.

By _common sense_, as used in this place, I mean the faculty by means
of which we see things _as they_ really are. It implies judgment and
discrimination, and a proper sense of propriety in regard to the common
concerns of life. It leads us to form judicious plans of action, and to
be governed by our circumstances in such a way as will be generally
approved. It is the exercise of reason, uninfluenced by passion or
prejudice. To man, it is nearly