I Would Not Send A Poor Girl

If Ever I Am A Mother I Will Zealously Strive Against This Crime Of Over- Indulgence. I Can Hardly Give It A Milder Name When I Think Of The Evils It Brings.

The Bud, Though Plucked, Would Not Be Withered, Only Transplanted To A Fitter Soil To Ripen And Blow Beneath A Brighter Sun; And Though I Might Not Cherish And Watch My Child's Unfolding Intellect, He Would Be Snatched Away From All The Suffering And Sins Of Earth; And My Understanding Tells Me This Would Be No Great Evil; But My Heart Shrinks From The Contemplation Of Such A Possibility, And Whispers I Could Not Bear To See Him Die.

I Had Been Seasoned By Adversity, And Tutored By Experience, And I Longed To Redeem My Lost Honour In The Eyes Of Those Whose Opinion Was More Than That Of All The World To Me.

Well, But You Affirm That Virtue Is Only Elicited By Temptation; - And You Think That A Woman Cannot Be Too Little Exposed To Temptation, Or Too Little Acquainted With Vice, Or Anything Connected Therewith - It Must Be, Either, That You Think She Is Essentially So Vicious, Or So Feeble-minded That She Cannot Withstand Temptation, - And Though She May Be Pure And Innocent As Long As She Is Kept In Ignorance And Restraint, Yet, Being Destitute Of Real Virtue, To Teach Her How To Sin Is At Once To Make Her A Sinner.

I See That A Man Cannot Give Himself Up To Drinking Without Being Miserable One Half His Days And Mad The Other; Besides, I Like To Enjoy My Life At All Sides And Ends, Which Cannot Be Done By One That Suffers Himself To Be The Slave Of A Single Propensity.