made apparent! How artlessly does she propound to her waiting-woman "Des. Dost thou in conscience think-tell me, Emilia That there be women do abuse their husbands In such gross kind? "Emilia. There be some such, no question. "Emilia. Why, would not you? This is the very enthusiasm of virtuous womanhood most admirably expressed, and shines as purest gold from the crucible, contrasted with the dross-encumbered equivoque of Emilia, in the lower quality of her virtue, thus betrayed: "Emilia. Nor I, neither, by this heavenly light; I might do't as well i' the dark." Thus in fact in real life, upon the expedient principle of " do't as well i' the dark," does the vice of adultery rage in more extensive licentiousness than P may be generally conceived, or thought probable; though few can imagine that one-half of the adulteries which are committed ever come to light, or are even suspected— "In Venice, they do let heaven see the pranks They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience Is-not to leave undone, but keep unknown." OTHELLO. The possession of immense wealth by so many of the nobles and gentry-the indulgences so habitual to them"Luxurious by their wealth' "-(but which, indeed, are now cheaply (!) to be obtained even by the less affluent at the Clubs) -the ease and idleness in which so many thousands of the younger members of families pass their time, expectant of the estates entailed, and the wealth tied up in settlement for their reversionary enjoyment-also the leisurely donothing listlessness which the "piping times of peace" may be supposed to impose upon the legion of officers, as of necessity! add to which the advantages such favourites of fortune generally possess in personal appearance and manners, improved by sumptuous fare, the art of dress, the polish of accomplishments, and the easy habits and nonchalance of fashionable associations: these several causes contribute their respective influences, and but too many of the individuals so circumstanced are but too prone to avail themselves of their adventitious positions (enjoyed at the expense of the general good of society), to make inroads upon individual virtue and happiness, and disturb the orderly arrangements of domestic life. Also, though in less. vicious failing, women are too apt to be captivated and allured by rank, equipage, pleasure, flattery, presents, and those other various snares against their weakness, with which profligate gallantry in numberless instances, and in pursuit and ruinous attainment of the gratification of impure desires, so successfully assails them. There are men, too, of another class, strangers to spirited gallantry, who, from inherent contemptible meanness of principle, prowl about, or mix in society, in quest of opportunities to take advantage of the vicious inclinations or weakness of "the sex ;"-mean-spirited sensualists, whose thrift, whatsoever may their property, forbids their becoming husbands in fear of the expense of maintaining a domestic hearth; and "in such a poverty of grace" that they "think it a most plenteous crop "To glean the broken ears after the man AS YOU LIKE IT. be Such contemptible beings are utter aliens to the generous influence of love -neither so constituted as to be subject to its power, nor capable of inspiring the sentiment; they cannot even be said to have passions, but merely grovelling desires, more base than the mere instinct of the brutes, leading them, in a "low ambition," to seek to beguile women, in order to obtain stolen or cheaply-bought favours; and when satiated, as meanly to seek new objects. The contempt which a woman soon feels for an adulterer, on his proving merely a mean, selfish, and sensual paramour, is such, that his perfidy inflicts no pang; but rather (with possible remorse at her own misconduct, and with humbled feelings) the debased woman inwardly congratulates herself in being quit of a heartless poltroon; keeping her guilty secret from her husband and from the world, by reason of the absence of feelings, which, if they existed, would betray in her conduct the fact of her misdoing. In all cases of mere sensual, loveless wickedness and weakness 66 All wickedness is weakness," MILTON. |