Girls are compelled to assume an air of propriety so that men may be deceived into marrying them by their appearance.  But watch these young people for a moment; under a pretence of coyness they barely conceal the passion which devours them, and already you may read in their eager eyes their desire to imitate their mothers.  It is not a husband they want, but the licence of a married woman.  What need of a husband when there are so many other resources; but a husband there must be to act as a screen. [Footnote:  The way of a man in his youth was one of the four things that the sage could not understand; the fifth was the shamelessness of an adulteress.  “Quae comedit, et tergens os suum dicit; non sum operata malum.”  Prov. xxx. 20.] There is modesty on the brow, but vice in the heart; this sham modesty is one of its outward signs; they affect it that they may be rid of it once for all.  Women of Paris and London, forgive me!  There may be miracles everywhere, but I am not aware of them; and if there is even one among you who is really pure in heart, I know nothing of our institutions.

All these different methods of education lead alike to a taste for the pleasures of the great world, and to the passions which this taste so soon kindles.  In our great towns depravity begins at birth; in the smaller towns it begins with reason.  Young women brought up in the country are soon taught to despise the happy simplicity of their lives, and hasten to Paris to share the corruption of ours.  Vices, cloaked under the fair name of accomplishments, are the sole object of their journey; ashamed to find themselves so much behind the noble licence of the Parisian ladies, they hasten to become worthy of the name of Parisian.  Which is responsible for the evil—­the place where it begins, or the place where it is accomplished?

I would not have a sensible mother bring her girl to Paris to show her these sights so harmful to others; but I assert that if she did so, either the girl has been badly brought up, or such sights have little danger for her.  With good taste, good sense, and a love of what is right, these things are less attractive than to those who abandon themselves to their charm.  In Paris you may see giddy young things hastening to adopt the tone and fashions of the town for some six months, so that they may spend the rest of their life in disgrace; but who gives any heed to those who, disgusted with the rout, return to their distant home and are contented with their lot when they have compared it with that which others desire.  How many young wives have I seen whose good-natured husbands have taken them to Paris where they might live if they pleased; but they have shrunk from it and returned home more willingly than they went, saying tenderly, “Ah, let us go back to our cottage, life is happier there than in these palaces.”  We do not know how many there are who have not bowed the knee to Baal, who scorn his senseless worship.  Fools make a stir; good women pass unnoticed.