ABSTRACT
In the hour of thankfulness for her deliverance, debased and wicked as this girl had proved herself, had Dorothea presented to her view the genuine prospect of religious repentance, in place of rhapsodizing on the glow of sentiment and the natural bias of human nature to goodness; had she taught her to doubt herself, and rely on the mercy of God, instead of attempting to call forth the energy of her own virtue, it is very possible Sophia’s regret might have been effectual and sincere; but she, who had burst all bonds of affection and justice, was not to be held back by the slight ties of moral principle; she even in the first conversation discerned the Quixotic weakness of her benefactress, and determined / to profit by the discovery; for Sophia too had read much; she had contemplated the new light of reason, and finding it quite congenial to her own way of life, had naturally enough adopted the sentiments of authors who wrote to her feelings; it was easy, therefore, for her to follow the bent of Dorothea’s flights, and even to soar beyond them; and Lady Euston, after listening a few times to the jargon of uncontroulable necessity and imperious circumstances, in which Sophia was an adept, became fully convinced, that she had always acted under the influence of principle, and that her misfortunes had arisen from the deplorable state of society, and the unjustifiable and tyrannic reign of prejudice.
