Hence it is
that women endowed with this doleful gift have the sad privilege of
drawing around them persons of volatile minds and inconstant hearts.
They invariably finish by becoming the dupes of their own fickle
impressions, and are taken in the snares in which their vanity sought
to inveigle others.
Could you but see the living tableau of one of those souls
tyrannized by the imagination, the sight would arouse both your
compassion and disgust; for hers is a fickle, inconstant, fretful and
worried life. During the long dreary days not a single instant is
completely and sincerely given to God. Her thoughts, affections,
desires and occupations never rise above trivialness. Among the
multitude of persons of her acquaintance there is not a single one
whom she sincerely loves, or to whom she can render herself amiable.
In the multiplied interviews to which she has devoted her life-time
not a single genuine affection can be found: words which the lips
pronounce and which the heart ignores; visits made through etiquette
or inspired by frivolity; conversations that are mutually indulged in
for mutual illusion or deception;--such are the joys, such the
occupations, of this woman.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106