Note 17 — Chapter V · THE QUESTION CONSIDERED IN ITS SOCIAL BEARINGS.

Every reflecting mind will distinguish between the unreasoning—sometimes even generous, imprudence of youthful passion, and the calculating selfishness of the matured and heartless libertine. It is a melancholy truth, that pseudo-civilization produces thousands of seducers by profession, who, while daily calling the heavens to witness their eternal affections, have no affection for any thing on earth but their own precious and profligate selves. It is to characters so utterly worthless as these that my observations apply.