ughter who would
be more backward to receive you? Honour is not concerned in these
engagements." It need not be supposed that such sentiments were
general; but that they were all too prevalent is manifested by the
literature that mirrors the times.

Drinking and swearing, the coarse associations of the alehouse, the
obscene jokes and sallies which were indulged in freely in such places
and made up a great part of the conversation, were conducive to a very
low moral standard for men, and there was nothing in the times to lead
women to uphold higher ideals of conduct than those which were imposed
upon them by the male sex. Consequently, they were accustomed to a
lower standard than would be tolerated to-day; but as libertinism was
largely concerned with the outcast element of society, the women of
the homes were not called upon to sacrifice integrity of character for
its satisfaction. So that the lower moral standard was set up for men,
and a woman who would attempt at once to maintain her respectability
and follow such courses would very soon have found that difference in
standards for the sexes visited a stricter condemnation upon her than
upon the male delinquent.

The testimony of foreigners to the chastity of the English matron
quite coincides with that which comes from English sources. Le Blanc
remarks: "Most of those who among us pass for men of good fortune in
amours would with difficulty succeed in addressing an English fair.
She would not sooner be subdued by the insinuating softness of their
jargon than by the amber with which they are perfumed." Another
observer, of the same nationality, speaking of the unassailability of
the English woman, attributes it to the insurmountable rampart which
she had in the love for her family, the care of her household, and her
natural gravity, and says that he does not know any city in the world
where the honor of husbands is in less danger of deflection than in
London.

The social hypocrisy of the eighteenth century, as it relates to
woman, was due to the failure as yet to place the sex in correct
adjustment with the times. Instead of considering her as having
serious qualities and value other than the realization of matrimony,
everything that entered into woman's life pointed in that one
direction. The art of pleasing was not cultivated as an opportunity
of the sex due to their special graces of spirit and of person, which
might legitimately be employed for their own sake