which has made so many
infidels. It may proceed from the arrogance of a self-sufficient pride,
that some philosophers disdain to acknowledge their belief in a being,
who has judged proper to conceal from them the infinite wisdom of his
counsels; who, (to borrow the lofty language of the man of Uz) refused
to consult them when he laid the foundations of the earth, when he shut
up the sea with doors, and made the clouds the garment thereof.

A MAN must be an infidel either from pride, prejudice, or bad education:
he cannot be one unawares or by surprise; for infidelity is not
occasioned by sudden impulse or violent temptation. He may be hurried by
some vehement desire into an immoral action, at which he will blush in
his cooler moments, and which he will lament as the sad effect of a
spirit unsubdued by religion; but infidelity is a calm, considerate act,
which cannot plead the weakness of the heart, or the seduction of the
senses. Even good men frequently fail in their duty through the
infirmities of nature, and the allurements of the world; but the infidel
errs on a plan, on a settled and deliberate principle.

BUT though the minds of men are sometimes fatally infected with this
disease, either through unhappy prepossession, or some of the other
causes above mentioned; yet I am unwilling to believe, that there is in
nature so monstrously incongruous a being, as a _female infidel_. The
least reflexion on the temper, the character, and the education of
women, makes the mind revolt with horror from an idea so improbable, and
so unnatural.

MAY I be allowed to observe, that, in general, the minds of girls seem
more aptly prepared in their early youth for the reception of serious
impressions than those of the other sex, and that their less exposed
situations in more advanced life qualify them better for the
preservation of them? The daughters (of good parents I mean) are often
more carefully instructed in their religious duties, than the sons, and
this from a variety of causes. They are not so soon sent from under the
paternal eye into the bustle of the world, and so early exposed to the
contagion of bad example: their hearts are naturally more flexible,
soft, and liable to any kind of impression the forming hand may stamp
on them; and, lastly, as they do not receive the same classical
education with boys, their feeble minds are not obliged at once to
receive and separate the precepts of christianity, and the documents of