Advice to Young Men eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 341 pages of information about Advice to Young Men.

Advice to Young Men eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 341 pages of information about Advice to Young Men.
so a second marriage in the woman is more gross than in the man, argues great deficiency in that delicacy, that innate modesty, which, after all, is the great charm, the charm of charms, in the female sex.  I do not like to hear a man talk of his first wife, especially in the presence of a second; but to hear a woman thus talk of her first husband, has never, however beautiful and good she might be, failed to sink her in my estimation.  I have, in such cases, never been able to keep out of my mind that concatenation of ideas, which, in spite of custom, in spite of the frequency of the occurrence, leave an impression deeply disadvantageous to the party; for, after the greatest of ingenuity has exhausted itself in the way of apology, it comes to this at last, that the person has a second time undergone that surrender, to which nothing but the most ardent affection, could ever reconcile a chaste and delicate woman.

222.  The usual apologies, that ’a lone woman wants a protector; that she cannot manage her estate; that she cannot carry on her business; that she wants a home for her children’; all these apologies are not worth a straw; for what is the amount of them?  Why, that she surrenders her person to secure these ends!  And if we admit the validity of such apologies, are we far from apologising for the kept-mistress, and even the prostitute?  Nay, the former of these may (if she confine herself to one man) plead more boldly in her defence; and even the latter may plead that hunger, which knows no law, and no decorum, and no delicacy.  These unhappy, but justly-reprobated and despised parties, are allowed no apology at all:  though reduced to the begging of their bread, the world grants them no excuse.  The sentence on them is:  ’You shall suffer every hardship; you shall submit to hunger and nakedness; you shall perish by the way-side, rather than you shall surrender your person to the dishonour of the female sex.’  But can we, without crying injustice, pass this sentence upon them, and, at the same time hold it to be proper, decorous, and delicate, that widows shall surrender their persons for worldly gain, for the sake of ease, or for any consideration whatsoever?

223.  It is disagreeable to contemplate the possibility of cases of separation; but amongst the evils of life, such have occurred, and will occur; and the injured parties, while they are sure to meet with the pity of all just persons, must console themselves that they have not merited their fate.  In the making one’s choice, no human foresight or prudence can, in all cases, guard against an unhappy result.  There is one species of husbands to be occasionally met with in all countries, meriting particular reprobation, and causing us to lament, that there is no law to punish offenders so enormous.  There was a man

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Advice to Young Men from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.