hinker may affect to treat religion
himself, he will think it necessary his wife should entertain
different notions of it. He may pretend to despise it as a matter of
opinion, depending on creeds and systems; but, if he is a man of sense,
he will know the value of it, as a governing principle, which is to
influence her conduct and direct her actions. If he sees her
unaffectedly sincere in the practice of her religious duties, it will be
a secret pledge to him, that she will be equally exact in fulfilling the
conjugal; for he can have no reasonable dependance on her attachment to
_him_, if he has no opinion of her fidelity to GOD; for she who neglects
first duties, gives but an indifferent proof of her disposition to fill
up inferior ones; and how can a man of any understanding (whatever his
own religious professions may be) trust that woman with the care of
his family, and the education of his children, who wants herself the
best incentive to a virtuous life, the belief that she is an accountable
creature, and the reflection that she has an immortal soul?

CICERO spoke it as the highest commendation of Cato's character, that he
embraced philosophy, not for the sake of _disputing_ like a philosopher,
but of _living_ like one. The chief purpose of christian knowledge is to
promote the great end of a christian life. Every rational woman should,
no doubt, be able to give a reason of the hope that is in her; but this
knowledge is best acquired, and the duties consequent on it best
performed, by reading books of plain piety and practical devotion, and
not by entering into the endless feuds, and engaging in the unprofitable
contentions of partial controversialists. Nothing is more unamiable than
the narrow spirit of party zeal, nor more disgusting than to hear a
woman deal out judgments, and denounce vengeance against any one, who
happens to differ from her in some opinion, perhaps of no real
importance, and which, it is probable, she may be just as wrong in
rejecting, as the object of her censure is in embracing. A furious and
unmerciful female bigot wanders as far beyond the limits prescribed to
her sex, as a Thalestris or a Joan d'Arc. Violent debate has made as few
converts as the sword, and both these instruments are particularly
unbecoming when wielded by a female hand.

BUT, though no one will be frightened out of their opinions, yet they
may be persuaded out of them: they may be touched by the affecting
earnestness of