ateful and unnatural being.

"Man is under eternal obligations to Christianity and its Divine
Author, undoubtedly; but woman seems to be more so.

"That charge against females which in the minds of some
half-atheistical men is magnified into a stigma on Christianity
itself, namely, that they are more apt to become religious than
men; and that we find by far the greater part of professing
Christians to be females, is in my own view one of the highest
praises of the sex. I rejoice that their hearts are more
susceptible than ours, and that they do not war so strongly against
that religion which their nature demands. I have met with but one
female, whom I knew to be an avowed atheist.

"Indeed there are very few men to be found, who are skeptical
themselves, who do not prefer pious companions of the other sex.
I will not stop to adduce this as an evidence of the truth of our
religion itself, and of its adaptation to the wants of the human
race, for happily it does not need it. Christianity is based on the
most abundant evidence, of a character wholly unquestionable. But
this I do and will say, that to be consistent, young men of loose
principles ought not to rail at females for their piety, and then
whenever they seek for a constant friend, one whom they can
love,--for they never really love the abandoned--always prefer,
other things being equal, the society of the pious and the virtuous.

"Next on the list of particular qualifications in a female, for
matrimonial life, I place COMMON SENSE. In the view of some, it
ought to precede moral excellence. A person, it is said, who is
deficient in common sense, is, in proportion to the imbecility,
unfit for _social_ life, and yet the same person might possess a
kind of negative excellency, or perhaps even a species of piety.
This view appears to me, however, much more specious than sound.

"By _common sense_, as used in this place, I mean the faculty by
means of which we see things _as they_ really are. It implies
judgment and discrimination, and a proper sense of propriety in
regard to the common concerns of life. It leads us to form judicious
plans of action, and to be governed by our circumstances in such a
way as will be generally approved. It is the exercise of reason,
uninfluenced by passion or prejudice. To man, it is nearly what
instinct is to brutes. It is very different from genius or talent,
as they are commonly defined; but much better than either. It never
blaz