Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Cristian life | Page 5

viz. When their Nurses, or Maids, Taught them their
Catechisms; that is to say, Certain Answers to a Train of Questions
adapted to some approv'd System of Divinity.
That this is sufficient Instruction in Religion, is apparently a Belief
pretty general: And not only such Young Ladies as have newly put off
their Bibs and Aprons, but even the greatest Number of their Parents,
and Teachers themselves, would, yet less than They, be pleas'd if one
should tell them that those who know so much as this, may
nevertheless be very Ignorant concerning the Christian Religion; these
Old People no more than the Young Ones, being able to give any
farther Account thereof than they have thus been taught. It is yet true
that many who have Learn'd, and who well remember long Catechisms,
with all their pretended Proofs, are so far from having that Knowledge
which Rational Creatures ought to have of a Religion they profess to

Believe they can only be Sav'd by, as that they are not able to say,
either what this Religion does Consist in, or why it is they Believe it;
and are so little instructed by their Catechisms, as that, oftentimes, they
understand not so much as the very Terms they have Learn'd in them:
And more often find the Proportions therein contain'd, so short in the
Information of their Ignorance; or so unintelligible, to their
Apprehensions; or so plainly contradictory of the most obvious
Dictates of common Sense; that Religion (for the which they never
think of looking beyond these Systems) appears to them indeed a thing
not Built upon, or defensible by Reason: In consequence of which
Opinion, the weakest attaques made against it, must needs render such
Persons (at the least) wavering in their Belief of it; Whence those
Precepts of Vertue, which they have receiv'd as bottom'd thereon, are,
in a Time wherein Scepticism and Vice, pass for Wit and Gallantry,
necessarily brought under the suspicion of having no solid Foundation;
and the recommenders thereof, either of Ignorance, or Artifice.
But the not making Young People understand their Religion, is a fault
not peculiar in regard to the instruction of one Sex alone, any otherwise
than as consider'd in its Consequences; whereby (ordinarily speaking)
Women do the most inevitably suffer; as not having the like Advantage
(at least early enough) of Correcting the Ignorance, or Errors of their
Child-hood that Men have.
The other thing which I imagine faulty, does more peculiarly concern
the Sex, but is yet chiefly practic'd in regard of Those of it who are of
Quality, and that is, the insinuating into them such a Notion of Honour
as if the praise of Men ought to be the Supreme Object of their Desires,
and the great Motive with them to Vertue: A Term which when apply'd
to Women, is rarely design'd, by some People, to signifie any thing but
the single Vertue of Chastity; the having whereof does with no more
Reason intitle a Lady to the being thought such as she should be in
respect of Vertue, than a handsome Face, unaccompany'd by other
Graces, can render her Person truly Amiable. Or rather, Chastity is so
essential to, singly, so small a part of the Merit of a Beautiful Mind,
that it is better compar'd to Health, or Youth, in the Body, which alone
have small Attractions, but without which all other Beauties are of no
Value.
To perswade Ladies then that what they cannot want without being

contemptible, is the chief Merit they are capable of having, must
naturally either give them such low thoughts of themselves as will
hinder them from aspiring after any thing Excellent, or else make them
believe that this mean Opinion of them is owing to the injustice of such
Men in their regard as pretend to be their Masters. A belief too often
endeavour'd to be improv'd in them by others.
But whether any Natural, or Design'd ill consequence follow from
hence or no, this is certain, that a true Vertue is the best Security
against all the Misfortunes that can be fear'd, and the surest Pledge of
all the Comforts that can be hop'd for in a Wife, _viz._ such a Vertue
whose Foundation is a desire above all things, of approving our selves
to God; the most opposite Principle whereunto is the making the
Esteem of Men the chief End, and Aim of our Actions; as it is propos'd
to be of Their's who have the empty Idea of Glory set before them as
the great Motive to, and high Reward of that particular Duty, which (as
if it included all others) does ordinarily ingross the Name of Vertue,
with regard to Women. A very wrong Motive this, to Those who aim at
what is truely Honourable,