A most insignificant amusement this, said I to myself! How little can it redound to the honor and happiness of these unthinking girls, thus to squander their time in folly’s giddy maze! They undoubtedly wish to attract eclat; but they would do well to remember those words of the satirist, which, with the alteration of a single term, may be applied to them.
“Columbia’s daughters, much more fair than nice,
Too fond of admiration, lose their price!
Worn in the public eye, give cheap delight
To throngs, and tarnish to the sated sight.”
Viewing their conduct in this light, I withstood their solicitations, though I palliated my refusal in such a manner as to give no umbrage.
Of all expedients to kill time, this appears to me, as I know it will to you, the most ridiculous and absurd.
What possible satisfaction can result from such a practice? It certainly fatigues the body; and is it any advantage to the mind? Does it enlarge the understanding, inspire useful ideas, or furnish a source of pleasing reflection? True, it may gratify a vitiated imagination, and exhilarate a light and trifling mind. But these ought to be restrained and regulated by reason and judgment, rather than indulged.
I wish those ladies, who make pleasure the supreme object of their pursuit, and argue in vindication of their conduct, that
“Pleasure is good, and they for pleasure made,”