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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: three counties; and I must also add, that though it is far from
true that all that appear at the assembly are there for matches or
intrigues, yet I will venture to say that they are not the worst of
the ladies who stay away, neither are they the fewest in number or
the meanest in beauty, but just the contrary; and I do not at all
doubt, but that the scandalous liberty some take at those
assemblies will in time bring them out of credit with the virtuous
part of the sex here, as it has done already in Kent and other
places, and that those ladies who most value their reputation will
be seen less there than they have been; for though the institution
of them has been innocent and virtuous, the ill use of them, and
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