These are mere expedients, and expedients are only
useful for the moment.
Let the husband beware of trusting too implicitly to this servile
obedience; for if his wife can with winning sweetness caress him
when angry, and when she ought to be angry, unless contempt had
stifled a natural effervescence, she may do the same after parting
with a lover. These are all preparations for adultery; or, should
the fear of the world, or of hell, restrain her desire of pleasing
other men, when she can no longer please her husband, what
substitute can be found by a being who was only formed by nature
and art to please man? what can make her amends for this
privation, or where is she to seek for a fresh employment? where
find sufficient strength of mind to determine to begin the search,
when her habits are fixed, and vanity has long ruled her chaotic
mind?
But this partial moralist recommends cunning systematically and
plausibly.
"Daughters should be always submissive; their mothers, however,
should not be inexorable. To make a young person tractable, she
ought not to be made unhappy; to make her modest she ought not to
be rendered stupid. On the contrary, I should not be displeased at
her being permitted to use some art, not to elude punishment in
case of disobedience, but to exempt herself from the necessity of
obeying. It is not necessary to make her dependence burdensome,
but only to let her feel it.
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