so essential to, singly, so small a part of the Merit of a Beautiful
Mind, that it is better compar'd to Health, or Youth, in the Body,
which alone have small Attractions, but without which all other
Beauties are of no Value.

To perswade Ladies then that what they cannot want without being
contemptible, is the chief Merit they are capable of having, must
naturally either give them such low thoughts of themselves as will
hinder them from aspiring after any thing Excellent, or else make them
believe that this mean Opinion of them is owing to the injustice of
such Men in their regard as pretend to be their Masters. A belief too
often endeavour'd to be improv'd in them by others.

But whether any Natural, or Design'd ill consequence follow from
hence or no, this is certain, that a true Vertue is the best Security
against all the Misfortunes that can be fear'd, and the surest Pledge
of all the Comforts that can be hop'd for in a Wife, _viz._ such a
Vertue whose Foundation is a desire above all things, of approving our
selves to God; the most opposite Principle whereunto is the making the
Esteem of Men the chief End, and Aim of our Actions; as it is propos'd
to be of Their's who have the empty Idea of Glory set before them as
the great Motive to, and high Reward of that particular Duty, which
(as if it included all others) does ordinarily ingross the Name of
Vertue, with regard to Women. A very wrong Motive this, to Those who
aim at what is truely Honourable, and such as may (and often does) as
well produce an ill, as a good effect.

But these wrong or partial Notions of Vertue, and Honour, are the
Product only of such Men's Inventions as are unwilling to regulate
their own Actions by the Universal, and Eternal Law of Right; and
therefore are ever desirous to find out such Rules for other People,
as will not reach themselves, and as they can extend and contract as
they please. In saying of which, it is not deny'd, that the love of
Praise may be sometimes usefully instill'd into very Young Persons, to
give them the desire of Eminence in things wherein they should
endeavour to excel: But as this ought never to be made the incitement
to any Vertue but in the earliest Childhood of our Reason, so also at
no time should Glory (which is the Reward only of Actions
transcendently Good, either in kind, or degree) be represented as the
purchase of barely not meriting Infamy: The apprehension of which, is
a much stronger perswasive