Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 2.djvu/13



Palgrave, 1774.

HANKS to my dear brother for his letter, and the copy of verses, which Mr. B. and I admire much. As to your system, I do not know what to say; I think I could make out just the contrary with as plausible arguments: as thus, Women are naturally inclined not only to love, but to all the soft and gentle affections; all the tender at tentions and kind sympathies of nature. When, therefore, one of our sex shows any particular complacency towards one of yours, it may be re solved into friendship; into a temper naturally caressing, and those endearing intercourses of life which to a woman are become habitual. But when