amiableness

When they read the abstract of the evidence repeatedly laid before the public--When they attend to the conduct of some of the West Indian Ladies towards their slaves--With what horror and anguish must they behold a system which divests the sex of their peculiar glory, their amiableness, their sensibility; a system which transforms the loveliest part of God's creation into savages and brutes

than to be the wife of a man whose amiableness depends upon his own sermons'" (112) while Portia admits it is easier to advise well than to act wisely: "it is a good divine that follows his own instructions" (1.

Her arguments, though earnest and ingenious, tend to the idealistic; as readers we are more likely to smile and think that the worldly Mary has a better understanding in this instance when she wittily responds, "'I wish you a better fate Miss Price, than to be the wife of a man whose amiableness depends upon his own sermons; for though he may preach himself into a good humour every Sunday, it will be bad enough to have him quarrelling about green geese from Monday morning till Saturday night'" (112).