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present and worldly joys--her ambitious mind and ardent heart
would confess a dreary void, and she would grasp with anxiety
at the hopes of a future, and happier state of being.
Weak and wavering as she was, the dignity of mind and pride of intellect
preserved her from the degradation of vice; that delicacy and refine-
ment of sentiments, which is the result of an exalted imagination
and cultivated mind, secured her from the debasing power
of the senses,
while at the same time it {answered the acuteness and susceptibility
of her naturally keen sensibility.
Too many like Julia believe themselves innocent while
their actions are conformable to the decorums of society
and the precepts of morality, and think it neither dangerous or
criminal to allow their fancies to revel in forbidden
joys, or their hearts to indulge forbidden affections.
They persuade themselves that such indulgences, tho' fatal
to their own, cannot impair the peace of others.
"Actions", as it affects the welfare of society, is justly amenable
to its tribunal, but feeling, sentiment is my own--nor { ?}account-
able to any one, which I conceal it within the recesses of my
own bosom--and as it cannot injure--it cannot be criminal;--
for crime,--as injury", said Julia--and thus have thousands
of others said and like her have been misled and deceived.
But action is as naturally and as necessarily the product
of the feelings in the heart, as plants are of the seed deposited
in the soil; if the seed is good, so will the plant be--if the
feelings are virtuous--so will the actions be.
Would, that the example of Julia, could convince
others of the falacy of her arguments and prove that
the indulgence of any one feeling, incompatible
with any one duty, inevitably lead to the
neglect of all, and by the consequent disorder and confusion
which it introduces into action, as such as sentiment,
proves destructive not only of virtue, but of happiness;
since by a moral law of our nature, virtue and happiness
are inseperable.