SECT.VIII.
AStheWidowhas in her former Days, tasted both of theSweetsand theSoursof theMaiden, as well as of themarry’d State; so she is now also subject to all theAffectionsof theOne, as well as to some of theOther. Whatever she may judge of her self, and however she may, in some measure, be liberated from theSolicitudesof theFirst, and freed from theAnxietiesof theother; yet she is still so far from being exempted from theMorbifick Consequencesof the Natural Imbecillity of her tenderSex; that she now, tho’ in differentRespectsand variousCases, participates of theIndispositionsofBoth.
HOWEVERyet, notwithstanding this Variety ofAfflictions, to which theWidowis actually expos’d; I confess, that, I know not so much asone DiseaseorSymptom, which is singularly peculiar toHer self, that is, but what either theMaidenor theWifemay be lyable to, as well as theWidow: Tho’, in the mean time, I must also acknowledge, that,Thosewhich I am now about to touch upon, may however, be justly esteem’d to be more familiar toHer, than to either ofThese, as will by and by more evidently appear.
UPONwhich Consideration, I hope the followingHeadsmay here pertinently take place; not but that theothers, I mean theMaidand theWife, may also sometimes, and perhaps frequently too, find theirCaseincluded in theThemeof thisSection, as well as theWidowHer self, according to theDiversityof their Circumstances.
FORtheseReasons, I shall begin withThat, from which none of theThree, that is, neither theMaid, nor theWife, nor theWidow, can altogether plead Exemption, which notwithstanding, according to my best Judgment, is more immediately the particularRootandSourceof the most, if not of all, theWidow’sDistempers, which however, that I may not too much over-run my Design ofBrevity, I shall briefly comprehend underOneorTwo Heads, viz.——