The Steps to Folly, as well as Sin, are gradual, and almost imperceptible, and when we are once on the Decline, we go down without taking Notice on’t; were it not for this, one could not account for those strange unequal Marriages we too often see. For there was a Time, no doubt, when a Woman could not have bore the very Thought of what she has been afterwards betray’d into; it would have appear’d as shocking to her, as it always does to other People; and had a Man been so impolitick as to discover the least Intimation of such a Design, he had given her a sufficient Antidote against it. This your wise Men are well satisfied of, and understand their own Interest too well to let their Design go bare-fac’d, for that would effectually put a Bar to their Success. So innocent are they, that they had not the least Thought at first of what their good Fortune afterwards leads them to! They would draw upon him, (if they wear a Sword) or fly in her Face who should let fall the least Hint that they had such Intentions; and this very Eagerness to avoid the Suspicion, is a shrewd Sign that there is Occasion for’t. But who shall dare to shew the Lady her Danger, when will it be seasonable to give her friendly Notice? If you do it ere she is resolv’d, though with all the Friendship and Tenderness imaginable, she will hardly forgive the Affront, or bear the Provocation; you offer her an Outrage by entertaining such a Thought, and ’tis ten to one if you are not afterwards accus’d for putting in her Head what otherwise she could ne’er have dreamt of. And when no direct Proof can be offer’d, when matter of Prudence is the only Thing in Question, every Body has so good an Opinion of their own Understanding, as to think their own Way the best. And when she has her Innocence and fair Intentions to oppose your Fears and Surmises, and you cannot pretend to wish her better than she does her self, to be more disinterested and diligent in your Watchfulness, or to see farther in what so nearly concerns her, what can be done? Her Ruin is commonly too far advanc’d to be prevented, ere you can in Good-breeding reach out a Hand to help her. For if the Train has took, if she is intangled in the Snare, if Love, or rather a blind unreasonable Fondness, which usurps the Name of that noble Passion, has gain’d on her, Reason and Persuasion may as properly be urg’d to the Folks in _Bethlem_, as to her. Tell her of this World, she is got above it, and has no Regard to its impertinent Censures; tell her of the next, she laughs at you, and will never be convinc’d that Actions which are not expresly forbid can be Criminal, though they proceed from, and must necessarily be reduc’d to ill Principles, though they give Offence, are of ill Example, injure our Reputation, which, next to our Innocence, we are obliged, as Christians, to take the greatest Care of; and, in a Word, do more Mischief than we can readily imagine. Tell her of her own