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on Clifton's evident admiration of Mrs Brunel, & by irritating her
vanity, as well as her affection, inflamed the worst passions in Julia's bosom.
A woman, but especially a young, beauti-
ful & happy woman never knew the world. Since the
seclusion of domestic, or the polish of fashionable life,
are equally exempt
from those jarring interests, those strange events, those daring characters
those violent & conflicting passions, which produce such a vanity
in the human character. -- such alternations of light & shade,
such wonderful vicissitudes, & such dark intricacy in human life,
& which makes [constitutes above] a knowledge of the world a science difficult
for men, & unattainable to women.

For them the world is a stage in which they see
the actors in their assumed characters & [??] dress, & while
amused & interested in the action of the piece, they are ignorant
of the secret springs & complicated machinery which produces
the pleasing illusion, an illusion which would be quickly
destroyed if they could peek behind the scenes.
They see only its flowery surface,
& suspect not that there flowers
conceal thorns, or contain poison. Of all women Julia sus
-pected it the least, as she felt kindness & goodwill
towards all -- she supposed that every one felt kindness & good
-will for her. Trusting to appearances, confiding in professions
she examined not the principles of conduct, or the motives
of action, by which society
was governed. Conscious of her own ignorance, she more
readily confided in the representations of Madam Luneville,
yet while she listened, & confessed that she was indeed
a mere infant in the knowledge of the world, a science
in which her friend seemed such an abdept, she would
involuntarily shudder & exclaim "If this is the world, oh
conceal it from, let me still trust -- still believe, that virtue, is
not hypocrisy -- tempt me not to eat of the tree of knowledge
since, whene Ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to beware."