Temptations, 1722 edition

Let them remember that a time of distress is a time of dreadful temptation...

--From Moll Flanders--

Is it any wonder that those most in distress are those most prone to temptation?

Sticking together, circa 1 AD

Can you imagine either of them with anyone else?

Life without contraception, 1722 edition

...but she was full of this argument, that she save the life of many an innocent lamb, as she called them, which would otherwise perhaps have been murdered; and of many women who, made desperate by the misfortune, would otherwise be tempted to destroy their children, and bring themselves to the gallows...

...The only thing I found in all her conversation on these subjects that gave me any distaste, was, that one time in discouraging about my being far gone with child, and the time I expected to come, she said something that looked as if she could help me off with my burthen sooner, if I was willing; or, in English, that she could give me something to make me miscarry...

... 'Why, first,' says I, 'you give a piece of money to these people to take the child off the parent's hands, and to take care of it as long as it lives. Now we know, mother,' said I, 'that those are poor people, and their gain consists in being quit of the charge as soon as they can; how can I doubt but that, as it is best for them to have the child die...

--From Moll Flanders--

How to please your man (on a rainy day), 1894 edition

Upon rising, dress with particular care. On the certainty that no one will be in, there is a tendency to don old clothes and add to the gloominess of the wet evening. Father and Fred will be unconsciously cheered by the sight of smiling faces and bright dresses. They will enjoy and appreciate the hot chocolate or cocoa or some little extra planned as a pleasant surprise.

The feeling of satisfaction on looking back over the well-employed hours and uncongenial tasks performed will help to create a happy atmosphere at the dinner table and enable all to laugh heartily over the little joke which Fred brings home from the office--his way of contributing to the family cheer.

--From Good Housekeeping--

The housewife was also enjoined to take a short rest during the day to "smooth her brow".

Music for a rainy day circa 1580

A rainy day circa 1580

I read this in Moll Flanders:

...I took care to lay up as much money as I could for a wet day...

and went looking for the origin of the idiom "to save for a rainy day". I found it was from a play, The Bugbears, by John Jeffere/Jefferay/Jefferie (they can't agree on the spelling) but couldn't find how it was actually used. Here it is:

wold he have me kepe nothyng agaynst a raynye day?

Would he have me keep nothing against a rainy day?

You have got to love the spelling. My thanks to Google book search. Link to text (see page 26)

The purpose of marriage circa 1722

...it was requisite to a whore to be handsome, well-shaped, have a good mien and a graceful behaviour; but that for a wife, no deformity would shock the fancy, no ill qualities the judgment; the money was the thing; the portion was neither crooked nor monstrous, but the money was always agreeable, whatever the wife was.

--From Moll Flanders--

I think I have to put "traditional family values" in scare quotes from now on.

Boy wearing a dress, 1849 edition

Everyone was doing it.

Self destruction

It was indeed a subject of strange reflection to me to see men who were overwhelmed in perplexed circumstances, who were reduced some degrees below being ruined, whose families were objects of their own terror and other people's charity, yet while a penny lasted, nay, even beyond it, endeavouring to drown themselves, labouring to forget former things, which now it was the proper time to remember, making more work for repentance, and sinning on, as a remedy for sin past.

--From Moll Flanders--

Take away a man's hope and he'll take away the rest.

The trouble with vanity

If a young woman once thinks herself handsome, she never doubts the truth of any man that tells her he is in love with her...

--From Moll Flanders--

People want to feel love so much now-a-days, that this quality of vanity makes it a virtue instead of a vice.

Leaked sex tape, 1722 edition

...was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and dies a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums …

--From Moll Flanders--

We could use this as a soundtrack, to class it up: