The education of the women is not more carefully attended to than that of the men; sometimes it is inferior, on account of the prevailing custom of marrying them at a very early age. Neither sex is regularly instructed in religion, and it is by the mere intercourse of life that they derive their notions of it, and by the examples of their elders that their principles in it are regulated. These circumstances, naturally arising from the discouragement given by the government to every improvement in civilisation, keep the state of society very backward, and are productive of the most pernicious influence over its moral character. The Boyars, indeed, although so little susceptible of great virtues, cannot be taxed with a determined propensity to vice. Established prejudices, which the general state of ignorance has rooted in the two nations, and a universal system of moral corruption, render them, however, familiar with it. Money is their only stimulus; and the means they generally employ to obtain it are not the efforts of industry, nor are they modified by any scruples of conscience. Habit has made them spoliators; and in a country where actions of an ignominious nature are even encouraged, and those of rapacity looked upon as mere proofs of dexterity and cunning, corruption of principles cannot fail to become universal. The prodigality of the Boyars is equal to their avidity; ostentation governs them in one manner, and avarice in another. They are careless of their private affairs, and, with the exception of a few more prudent than the generality, they leave them in the greatest disorder. Averse to the trouble of conducting their pecuniary concerns, they entrust them to the hands of stewards, who take good care to enrich themselves at their expense, and to their great detriment. Many have more debts than the value of their whole property is sufficient to pay; but their personal credit is not injured by them, neither do they experience one moment’s anxiety for such a state of ruin. The quality of nobility protects them from the pursuits of the creditor; and the hope of obtaining lucrative employments, by the revenues of which they may be able to mend their affairs, sets their minds at ease, and induces them to continue in extravagance. Some bring forward their ruin as a pretext for soliciting frequent employment, and when the creditors have so often applied to the prince as to oblige him to interfere, they represent that the payment of their debts depends upon his placing them in office. The office is finally obtained, and the debts remain unpaid. When a sequester is laid upon their property, they contrive to prove that it came to them by marriage; and as the law respects dowries, they save it from public sale.