Who would be that unhappy Person with all her Grandeur, Wit and Beauty, who gave Occasion to these _Reflections_? Who would live so infamously, and die so miserably? Whatever Apologies the Interested may invent, what they call Gallantry will find a harsher Name with the Modest and Discreet. Or else Gallantry, under whatever Form, must pass for a scandalous Amusement, not to be allow’d among Persons of Vertue and Honour. It is indeed ridiculous to talk of harmless Gallantry; there is, there can be no such Thing: For besides the Umbrage and Scandal, a Christian must be pure in Heart and Eyes; she who has vow’d her Affections to one, and is his Property, cannot without Injustice, and even Perjury, parcel them out to more.
It is in Distempers of the Mind as in those of the Body, a little Care and Prudence will prevent what requires a long and difficult Regimen to cure: Therefore in both Cases the Aphorism holds; _Resist the Beginnings_; be early on our Guard. There was a Time when the most abandon’d Sinner would have shrunk with Horror, at what by Degrees becomes familiar, and, as they fancy, natural. The Sap is carry’d on against Vertue as artfully as against a fortified Town, and the Approaches are as methodical: But in this the Case is different, the Besieged cannot fly; whereas Vertue is best secured by avoiding the Enemy. They are sensible of this, and therefore nothing more common than that silly Maxim, _That Vertue is not Vertue till it has been tried_. This is a Mortar-piece that has done more Execution than all their other Arts; for Self-confidence is always a Prelude to Destruction. The Wife who listens to Admirers runs into Temptation, and sports upon a Precipice. For, as a noble Lord, who knew the World perfectly well, instructs his Daughter, she may as well play with Fire, as dally with Gallantry. I can say nothing so well upon this Subject, as what is writ by this noble Author, whom therefore I beg leave to transcribe:
“The _Extravagancies_ of the Age have made _Caution_ more necessary; and by the same Reason that the too great Licence of ill Men, hath by Consequence in many Things restrained the lawful Liberty of those who did not abuse it, the unjustifiable Freedom of some of your Sex, have involved the rest in the Penalty of being reduced. And though this cannot so alter the Nature of Things, as to make that _Criminal_, which in it self is _Indifferent_; yet if it maketh it _dangerous_, that alone is insufficient to justify the _Restraint_. A _close Behaviour_ is the fittest to receive _Vertue_ for its constant _Guest_, because there, and there only, it can be secure. Proper _Reserves_ are the Outworks, and must never be deserted by those who intend to keep the Place; they keep off the Possibility not only of being _taken_, but of being _attempted_; and if a Woman seeth Danger at never so remote a Distance, she is for that Time to shorten her _Line_ of _Liberty_: She who will allow her self to go to the _utmost Extents_ of every thing that is _lawful_, is so very near going further, that those who lie at watch, will begin to count upon her.