Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave?

Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education.

Judicious books enlarge the mind and improve the heart.

But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!

The flexible muscles growing daily more rigid give character to the countenance ; that is, they trace the operations of the mind with the iron pen of fate, and tell us not only what powers are within, but how they have been employed.

...trifling employments have rendered woman a trifler.

The graceful ivy, clasping the oak that supported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty would be equally conspicuous.