mental powers, and their being constituted by the Creator heads over the woman and rulers of their household, seem destined by Nature to make the first advances of virtuous and honourable courtship to the more delicate females, they should be suffered to give into extremes, and lose sight of that amiable modesty and chaste purity of body and mind which must be equally ornamental and valuable in either sex.

It is this false idea that first paves the way for the relinquishment of that native modesty which is so peculiarly pleasing in male as well as in female youth, and which it generally costs the ingenuous a great deal to shake off, even after the repeated attacks and railleries of their companions have made some progress in undermining their good principles, and their evil communications have gone some length in corrupting the heart.

It is in this mistaken opinion that rakes find an apology for their impudence, and the less precise ladies an excuse for it; but from whence the propriety of the notion can be deduced, it would, I believe, be very difficult to shew. It cannot be from scripture, for there, as in the case of Joseph in particular, it is often strongly and plainly contradicted: "How, then! (says the chaste youth, the future lord of Egypt, when tempted by his master's wife) can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"---It cannot be from reason, for reason must naturally in

form

form us, that what is amiable and praise-worthy in the one sex must be so in the other:---we must, therefore, attribute the prevalence of this wrong notion to custom founded upon the devices of profligate and designing men, who would thus indirectly despoil even the youth of their own sex of its most amiable ornament, in order to make their own impudence and effrontery the less conspicuous:---I need not add, that the consequences of this delusive notion are proportionably more pernicious to the female sex.

The proper tendency of all right education is to mend the morals, improve the mind, and regulate the heart; to correct bad and instil only good principles---among which, those of modesty and chastity are as necessary in male as in female education; and they ought to be more attended to than they usually are; the rather, as young men, just entering into the world, and being in a manner their own masters, are more exposed to the loss of them, from the corrupting influence of vicious companions, than females, who are, perhaps, constantly under the eye of their parents or friends, and whose natural dispositions, improved by a delicate and refined education, may have a stronger tendency to that virtue,

It is to this mistaken notion that male youth are indebted for the facility with which, at their outset in life, they prematurely form those criminal female connexions, which, if persisted in,

are

1

are always sure to end, sooner or later, in their inevitable destruction; and it is for this reason that I am a decided advocate for early marriage; fortune, and the increase of connexion, being but trifles in comparison to the preservation of health, and the happiness, peace, and energy of the soul, all of which the fatal effects of illicit love tend to destroy. But if, in opposition to this, the inexperience of youth, and the want of a competent means of subsistence, should be urged, observe what the wisest and most experienced man that ever lived has said upon the subject:---"Rejoice, my son, with the wife of thy youth," &c. Here the terms, "thy youth", are sufficiently expressive of early marriage being the duty of youth, not to mention the recommendation of it in the single word "rejoice."

But, in addition to this, St. Paul also observes, in recommendation of marriage, "that it is better to marry than to burn;" and I believe it will easily be granted, that in early youth the passions are the warmest. I may also, with propriety, observe, that Solomon in his writings has taken the most frequent opportunities of warning youth against all commerce with the abandoned part of the sex, minutely entering into the description of their alluring ways, and the fatal effects of being seduced by them.

He was a man of the world, and, in the search after happiness, had tried every pleasure and

amusement

amusement that money could procure, or ingenuity devise; but his experience proved them ali to be vain and unsatisfactory; nor is there any one vice that he so strenuously and earnestly endeavours to guard youth against, as that of unlawful love and criminal connexion with lewd

women.

"To deliver thee (says the royal moralist) from the strange woman; even from the stranger which flattereth with her words:

"Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

"For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

"None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

"For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. "But her end is bitter as wormwood; sharp as a two-edged sword.

"Her feet go down to death: her steps take hold on hell.

"Hear me now, therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

"Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house;

"Lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the cruel :

"Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labour be in the house of a stranger.

"And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;

"And say, how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof?"

As a finished picture of the folly of young men in courting any acquaintance with prostitutes, and a just representation of the art and cunning the latter practise to inveigle the simple into their snares, I refer you to the 7th chapter of Proverbs, beginning at the 6th verse; which description, well adapted even to modern times, the ancient royal moralist concludes in these words:

"With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

"He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks :

Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

"Let not thine heart, therefore, incline to her ways; go not astray in her paths.

"For she hath cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

"Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."

The fatal effects of promiscuous commerce with abandoned women, are, disease of body, loss of strength, debility of mind, disinclination to busi

ness,