mary hays -- the victim of prejudice (1799):
...an expression of lively sympathy... p9
The wise government of our inordinate desires, a graceful regard to the propriety of our actions, a rational and dignified self-respect: in its stead has been substituted a sordid calculation of self-interest, a bigoted attachment to forms and semblances, a persevering suppression of every generous, every ardent, every amiable, affection, that should threaten to interfere with our baser and more sinister views. p26
I pretend no heroism, though, aware of my inexperience, I yield, for the present, my conduct to your directions: Mark out for me the path I should pursue; my heart assures me that you have not exacted from me this first instance of implicit resignation without important reasons, reasons that you will not always think it just to withhold. p37
Every subsequent incident of an eventful life has but led the way to new persecutions and new sorrows, against which the purest intentions, the most unconquerable fortitude, the most spotless innocence, have availed me nothing. Entangled in a series of unavoidable circumstances, hemmed in by insuperable obstacles, overwhelmed by a torrent of resistless prejudice, wearied with opposition and exhausted by conflict, I yield, at length, to a destiny against which precautions and struggles have been alike fruitless. p41
Happiness, coy and fair fugitive, who shunnest the gaudy pageants of courts and cities, the crowded haunts of vanity, the restless cares of ambition, the insatiable pursuits of avarice, the revels of voluptuousness, and the riot of giddy mirth, who turneth alike from fastidious refinement and brutal ignorance, if, indeed, thou art not a phantom that mockest our research, though art only to be found in the real solid pleasures of nature and social affection. p47