The
bulwark which Revelation erected between the passions and the soul is
levelled first; and then that instinctive rule of right which the
modern casuist denominates the citadel of virtue falls of course.
By such gradations the progress of depravity is accomplished; and the
general leaven having worked to Lady Sara's mind on such premises,
(though she might not arrange them so distinctly,) she deduced that
what is called conjugal right is a mere establishment of man, and
might be extended or limited by him to any length he pleased. For
instance, the Turks were not content with one wife, but appropriated
hundreds to one man; and because such indulgence was permitted by
Mohammed, no other nation presumed to call them culpable.
Hence she thought that if she could once reconcile herself to believe
that her own happiness was dearer to her than the notice of half a
thousand people to whom she was indifferent; that only in their
opinion and the world's her flying to the protection of Thaddeus
would be crime;--could she confidently think this, what should deter
her from instantly throwing herself into the arms of the man she
loved? [Footnote: Such were the moral tactics for human conduct at
the commencement of this century. But, thanks to the patience of God,
he has given a better spirit to the present age,--to his philosophy
an admirable development of the wisdom and beneficence of his works,
instead of the former metaphysical vanities and contradictory
bewilderments of opinions concerning the divine nature and the
elements of man, which, as far as a demon-spirit could go, had
plunged the created world, both physically and morally, into the
darkness of chaos again.
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