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CHAP. IX.

FEMALE DEFECTS.

THE fickleness of woman is proverbial. Yet the reproach, in its usual acceptation, is, in a great measure, undeserved; for she is capable of long and steady attachment, and inconstancy is chargeable rather on the other sex.

But though the heart be not in fault, the head, perhaps, may be; and to inconstancy of opinion, though not of affection, women are, it is to be feared, somewhat liable.

This proceeds, in great measure, from inconsiderateness. They are apt to imbibe opinions rashly, and to abandon them precipitately; and they are ever ready to hear and to adopt whatever has the charm of novelty.

The love of what is new is, indeed, natural to the sex. In many of their pursuits or pleasures novelty is the attraction. A new dress or a

new song, is each, in its way, thought very delightful. On the contrary, nothing is so fatiguing as sameness. This is especially felt by the woman of the world. Monotony is, above every thing, the object of her dread. The same faces weary her-beauty wearies her; and she often flies from the country, for no better reason, than because she is tired of flowers and green fields, and the unvaried dulness of the family circle. Modern ingenuity must therefore be exhausted to captivate her fancy: the town is a magazine of novelties; and the artist, as well as milliner, must supply the demand.

Unhappily, the same weakness is sometimes indulged in more serious matters. The appetite is still greedy, though the food is different; and the spiritual novelty is welcomed, with the same avidity, as once was the worldly bauble. Women, indeed, love portents in every thing. A wonder, whatever it be, excites their interest; and extravagance seems, with some, almost a recommendation.

Religious persons, however, should be especially on their guard against this foible; lest their religion be identified with caprice, and

be thought nothing more than a paroxysm of devotion, which will subside like any other fit.

It is sterling principle alone which imparts stability, and which gives truth for a foundation and a guide; and she who is possessed of it may be depended on alike, in all relations and circumstances. Her religion is no wayward fancy; no day-dream; no precocious and sickly plant, that springs up in a night and withers in an hour: its growth is sure and steady, though it may be slow; its roots are deep; and it will, in time, reach to Heaven.

There is a contrariety observable in the female mind, for which allowance is not always made; and on which account, the comparative estimate of the sexes is sometimes incorrect. Women have so much aptitude of talent; they can learn so many things, and are so dexterous in applying their knowledge; that their intellectual gifts are by some over-rated, and regarded as on a level with those of the other sex. But strength and weakness are often sadly blended in the same individual; and high

attainments are found to be, in many women, quite compatible with an unsound judgment. We are startled at the incongruity; and are surprised to see so much weakness combined with so much acquirement; to meet with a woman, for instance, who can talk Greek, without being able to act common sense. But the solution is not difficult.

Want of judgment is, indeed, one of the most common defects in female character; and it is in discernment, rather than in capacity, that the inferiority of woman consists. She chose wrong at first, and liability to error seems entailed upon her. We see this repeatedly exemplified. It is where judgment is required, that she is most apt to fail; and it is this, in part, which renders her so susceptible of religious error. All of us are apt to identify theoretical knowledge with spiritual discernment; yet it is very possible to talk well upon religion; to quote Scripture; to have a text for every occasion; to read the religious miscellany, and the religious controversy of the day; and yet be but ill-grounded in Divine truth. It is very

possible to obtain credit for much piety, and yet to go wrong on the very points on which our judgment is least mistrusted. And it is, in this way, that some apparently conscientious persons not unfrequently mistake. They have in religion, as in other subjects, just that ready knowledge which is always producible; and which leads them to imagine themselves proficients in theology, and to obtain credit for being so when, in fact, they are mere babes in spiritual experience.

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It is a refreshment when we do meet with those and such there doubtless are many who are free from all these faults. Such persons are not unconscious of their natural inferiority, or of their individual defects; but they labour to remove the one, and to correct the other. They have disciplined the mind in early youth; they have gathered experience from the trials of life, and they afford a beautiful instance of steadiness and discretion.

There have been examples of female excellence in every thing. We have heard of the heroine, and of the female martyr; of the woman of letters, and of the poetess. We are instructed

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