Page:The Female Advocate.djvu/69

 seemed good at the beginning, and yet have been productive of much evil in the end, as the one in question; at the commencement of which, as I before observed, it might be, and was, a very laudable pursuit; for, in those days, when all things were in a more contracted state, and trade not so universally extended, the father of a family was glad to dispose of his sons to such mechanical branches of trade as first presented, that his son might be empowered to improve or increase his little fund, and be able to make a provision, not only for himself, but for a wife which, in primitive times, he was obliged to endow.

Alas! how much unlike our modern days, when women endow their husbands, and, with large portions, frequently purchase a very heavy bondage.

In fact, the generality of things appear to be diametrically opposite to what they were in former times.

We need but look back about three centuries, and then see the vast change; for example: What would be the consequence, were a labourer, in the present times, to receive no