Six months in the West-Indies, in 1825

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BARBADOS.

better accommodated, as the man says in the play; and many, many a pale and dark-eyed girl, who has pinned her heart on the merry cheek of England, or the blue glances of the Highlands, has only awakened from her dream when the topsails of the homeward transport have sunk under the ocean. I dislike the man, swordsman or not, who deliberately trifles with the affections of a woman. I would rather shake hands with a highwayman than with a gentleman who has sacrificed to his own vanity the life-long happiness of an inexperienced girl. I fear this sort of conduct has never yet been sufficiently reprobated, and women too often betray the cause of their sex by accepting with pride the homage of a man, who has become notorious for the conquest and desertion of their sisters;—as if his mercy and love could be depended upon, who has once been cruel to an affectionate woman ! The world laughs, and store of lying proverbs and stupid jests on the briefness of woman's love are administered; but you will find, if your heart be not hardened by selfishness, that this will be in vain. Perhaps you had no intention of being serious, you only flirted, tried to be agreeable, and to please for the moment; you had no conception that your behaviour could be misconstrued, and you shudder at the bare thought of earning the icy damnation of a seducer. It may be so, for there is a descent to the hell of seduction,


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