the
strictest test, 'that all the sex, who may be shewn any passages in my
letters,' [and I know thou cheerest the hearts of all thy acquaintance
with such detached parts of mine as tend not to dishonour characters
or reveal names: and this gives me an appetite to oblige thee by
interlardment,] 'that all the sex, I say, may see what they ought to be;
what is expected from them; and if they have to deal with a person of
reflection and punctilio, [of pride, if thou wilt,] how careful they
ought to be, by a regular and uniform conduct, not to give him cause to
think lightly of them for favours granted, which may be interpreted into
natural weakness. For is not a wife the keeper of a man's honour? And
do not her faults bring more disgrace upon a husband than even upon
herself?'

It is not for nothing, Jack, that I have disliked the life of shackles.

To the test then, as I said, since now I have the question brought home
to me, Whether I am to have a wife? And whether she be to be a wife at
the first or at the second hand?

I will proceed fairly. I do the dear creature not only strict but
generous justice; for I will try her by her own judgment, as well as by
our principles.

She blames herself for having corresponded with me, a man of free
character; and one indeed whose first view it was to draw her into this
correspondence; and who succeeded in it by means unknown to herself.

'Now, what were her inducements to this correspondence?' If not what her
niceness makes her think blameworthy, why does she blame herself?

Has she been capable of error? Of persisting in that error?

Whoever was the tempter, that is not the thing; nor what the temptation.
The fact, the error, is now before us.

Did she persist in it against parental prohibition?

She owns she did.

Was a daughter ever known who had higher notions of the filial duty, of
the parental authority?

Never.

'What must be the inducements, how strong, that were too strong for
duty, in a daughter so dutiful?--What must my thoughts have been of
these inducements, what my hopes built upon them at the time, taken in
this light?'

Well, but it will be said, That her principal view was to prevent
mischief between her brother and her other friends, and the man vilely
insulted by them all.

But why should she be more concerned for the safety of others than they
were for their own? And had not the rencounter then happened? 'Was a
person of virtue to be prevaile