Her great desire to see
and hear whatever tends to excite or create emotion is in a great
measure the source of her curiosity. The education that women for the
most part receive develops this disposition of the heart: an
education which, instead of elevating the mind and giving it a taste
for serious things, narrows it, and accustoms it to feed upon
aliments that are trivial and void of consistency. The mind requires
to he kept in constant activity, and since thoughts alone can do this
they should be such as to amply furnish it with solid and wholesome
food, for all kinds of thoughts are not equally good for it, no more
than all kinds of food are equally good for the body. In some kinds
of food the quantity and quality of nutriment are much inferior to
what they are found to be in other kinds. Hence greater moderation is
required in the use of the latter than in that of the former,
otherwise the stomach, overcharged, would soon become disgusted with
it.
On the other hand, no quantity of food void of nutritious qualities
will ever appease hunger. The same thing may be said of the kind of
thoughts with which the mind is fed; some are used less for their
sound and wholesome nutriment than for their efficiency to flatter
sensuality, inflame the passions, create new wants in the heart, and
excite a depraved curiosity.
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