Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

S E D. [ i
Sedu&ion. nature (fee Instinct)-$ and nothing fhort of the ex-
tremity of diftrefs could prompt any one fo far to op-
pofe her nature as to embrue her hands in the blood of
her imploring infant.
Even this deed of horror feldom prevents a detec-
iion of the mother’s frailty, which is indeed commonly
difcovered, though no child has been the confequence
of her intrigue. He who can feduce is bafe enough to
betray ; and no woman can part with her honour, and
retain any well-grounded hope that her amour lhall be
kept fecret. The villain to whom fire furrendered will,
glory in his victory, if it was with difficulty obtained ^
and if fhe furrendered at difcretion, her own behaviour
will reveal her fecret. Her reputation is then irretrie¬
vably loft, and no future circumfpedHon will be of the
fmalleft avail to recover it. She will'be ftmnned by the
virtuous part of her own fex, and treated as a mere in-
ftrument of pleafure by the other. In fuch circum-
ftances (he cannot expedl to be married with advantage.
She may perhaps be able to captivate the heart of a
heedlefs youth, and prevail upon him to unite his fate
to her’s before the delirium of his paffion (hall give him
time for reflection •, the may be addrefled by a man who
is a ftranger to her ftory, and married while he has no
fufpicion of her fecret; or Ihe may be foljcited by one
of a ftation inferior to her own, who, though acquaint¬
ed with every thing that has befallen her, can barter the
delicacy of wedded love for lome pecuniary advantage j
but from none of thefe marriages can ftre look for hap-
pinefs. The delirium which prompted the firft will
foon vanifh, and leave the hufband to the bitternefs of
his own reflexions, which can hardly fail to produce
cruelty to the wife. Of the fecret, to which, ip the
fecond cafe, the lover was a ftranger, the hufband will
foon make a difcovery, or at leaft find room for har¬
bouring ftrong fufpicions; and fufpicions of having been
deceived in a point fo delicate have hitherto been uni¬
formly the parents of mifery. In the third cafe, the
man married her merely for money, of which having
got the poffeflion, he has no farther inducement to treat
her with refpeX. Such are fome of the confequences
of feduclion, even when, the perfon feduced has the good
fortune to get afterwards a bufband ; but this is a for¬
tune which few in her circumftancesxan reafonably ex¬
pect. By far the greater part of thofe who have been
defrauded of their virtue by the arts of the feducer fink
deeper and deeper into guilt, till they become at laft
common proftitutes. The public is then deprived of
their fervice as wives and parents ; and inftead of con¬
tributing to the population of the ftate, and to the fum
of domeftic felicity, thefe outcafts of fociety become fe-
ducers in their turn, corrupting the morals of every
young man whofe appetites they can inflame, and of
every young woman whom they can entice to their own
praXices.
All this complication of evil is produced at firft by
arts, which, if employed to deprive a man of his pro¬
perty, would fubjeX the ofl'ender to the execration of
his fellow-fubjeXs, and to an ignominious death : but
while the forger of a bill is purfued with relentlefs ri¬
gour by the minifters of juftice, and the fwindler load¬
ed with univerfal reproach, the man who by fraud and
forgery has enticed an innocent girl to gratify his, de¬
fires at the expence of her virtue, and thus introduced
fcer into a path which muft infallibly lead to. her own
5
ig ] S E- E
ruin, as well as to repeated injuries to the public at SeduXioa.
large, is not defpifed by his own fex, and is too often II,
careffed even by the virtuous part of the other. Yet ee S* »
the lofs of property may be ealily repaired j the lofs of
honour is irreparable ! It is vain to plead in allevia¬
tion of this guilt, that women ftiould be on their guard
againft the arts of the feducer. Moft unquellionably
they fhould ; but arts have been ufed which hardly any
degree of caution would have been fufficient to coun-
teraX. It may as well be faid that the trader ftiould
be on his guard againft the arts of the forger, and ac¬
cept of no bill without previoufly confulting him in
whofe name it is written. Cafes, indeed, occur in
trade, in which this caution would be impoflible $ but
he muft be little acquainted with the workings’ of the
human heart, who does not know that fituations like-
wife occur in life, in which it is equally impoflible for
a girl of virtue and tendernefs to refill the arts of the
man who has completely gained her affeXions.
The mentioning of this circumftance leads us to con-
ftder another fpecies of feduXion, which, though not fo
highly criminal as the former, is yet far removed from
innocence ; we mean the pjraXice which is too prevalent
among young men of fortune ef employing every art
in their power to gain the hearts of heedlefs girls whom
they refolve neither to marry nor to rob of their ho¬
nour. Should a man adhere to the latter part of this
refolution, which is more than common fortitude can
always promife for itfelf, the injury which he does to
the objeX of his amufement is yet very great, as he
raifes hopes of the moft fanguine kind merely to dilap-
point them, and diverts her affeXions perhaps for ever
from fuch men as, had they been fixed on one of them,
might have rendered her completely happy. Hifap-
pointments of this kind have fometimes been fatal to
the unhappy girl •, and even when they have neither de¬
prived her of life, nor difordered her reafon, they have
often kept her wholly from marriage, which, whatever
it be to a man, is that from which every woman ex-
peXs her chief happinefs. We cannot therefore con¬
clude this article more properly than with warning our
female readers not to give up their Hearts haftily to men
whofe ftation in life, is much, higher than their own 5
and we beg leave to affure every one of them, that the
man who folicits the laft favour under the moft folemn
promife of a fubfequent marriage, is a bafe feducer, who
prefers a momentary gratification qf his own to her
honour and happinefs through life, and has no intention
to fulfil Ins promife. Or, if he Ihould by <any means
He compelled to fulfil it, fhe may depend upon much ill
treatment in return for, her premature compliance with,
his bafe defires.
SEDUM, Orpine, a genus of plants belonging to.
the decandria clafs, and in the natural method ranking
under the 13th order, Succulents. See Botany Index.
SEED, in Plujsiology, a fubftance prepared by na¬
ture for the reproduXion and confervation of the fpecies
both in animals and plants. See Botany and Physi¬
ology. .
SEEDLINGS, among, gardeners, denote fuch roots
of gilliflowers, &c. as come from feed fown. Alfo
the young tender ftioots of any plants that are newly
fown.
SEEDS, Preservation of, in a ftate fit for vege¬
tation,, is a matter of great and general importance, be-
caujfe,