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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of
+the World, by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Release Date: July 24, 2008 [EBook #26117]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, David Wilson and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DEATH OF CLEOPATRA. Page 201.]
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF
+THE FAIR SEX,
+
+IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+TO WHICH ARE ADDED
+RULES FOR DETERMINING
+THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY,
+THE HABITS, AND THE AGE
+OF WOMEN,
+
+NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISE
+OF DRESS.
+
+
+BOSTON:
+THEODORE ABBOT,
+388 WASHINGTON ST.
+
+1841.
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of congress, in the year 1841, by
+
+  THEODORE ABBOT,
+
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+In the following Pages,
+
+
+It is our design to present a pleasing and interesting miscellany, which
+will serve to beguile the leisure hour, and will at the same time couple
+instruction with amusement. We have used but little method in the
+arrangement: Choosing rather to furnish the reader with a rich profusion
+of narratives and anecdotes, all tending to illustrate the
+
+  FEMALE CHARACTER,
+
+to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle or sometimes heroic
+virtues, its amiable weaknesses, and strange defects--than to attempt an
+accurate analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted to master,
+viz--WOMAN.
+
+It will be seen that we do not set down Woman as a cipher in the account
+of human beings. We accord to her her full share of importance in the
+world, and we have not attempted to relieve her from a sense of her
+responsibility as an accountable being. Above all, we have not failed to
+impress upon her the obligations she is under to CHRISTIANITY, whose
+benign influences have raised her to be the companion and bosom-friend
+of man, instead of his mere handmaid and dependant. It is religion that
+must form such a character as the following, which though applied by
+Pope to one of the most accomplished women of his time, is that of a
+CHRISTIAN WIFE in every age and station,--
+
+  "Oh! blest with temper whose unclouded ray
+  Can make tomorrow cheerful as to-day:
+  She who can love a sister's charms, or hear
+  Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
+  She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
+  Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;
+  Charms by accepting--by submitting sways,
+  Yet has her humor most, when she obeys."
+
+By causing the character of woman to be more thoroughly discussed and
+better understood;--by making it more frequently the theme of rational
+meditation to the young and ardent, who, from the force of defective
+education, are apt to regard all "the sex," beyond a very limited
+circle, as mere accessaries to animal enjoyment,--whose peace they may
+wound without compunction, and whose happiness they may peril without
+reflection,--we feel that we shall do both sexes a good service, and one
+for which as they advance in life, and in their turn become husbands,
+wives and parents, they will thank our little book, as having helped
+them to know themselves and each other.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+  African Women,                                         43
+  Adultery, punishment of                               155
+  Bathing at Rome,                                       31
+  Betrothing and Marriage,                              104
+  Chinese Women,                                         40
+  Chinese Bridegroom,                                    41
+  Cæsar, Anecdote of                                    157
+  Celibacy of the Clergy,                               160
+  Cleopatra, Death of,                                  199
+  Courts of Love,                                       172
+  Courtship, ancient Swedish                            176
+  Courtship, Grecian                                    165
+  Courtship, Eastern                                    168
+  Condition of Women in the 8th Century,                 52
+  Egyptian Women, Ancient                                13
+  Egyptian Women, Modern                                 15
+  Euthira, desperate act of                             162
+  Eastern Women,                                         37
+  English Women,                                         62
+  First Woman,                                            9
+  Female Friendship,                                    109
+  Female Delicacy,                                       30
+  French Women,                                          53
+  French Girls,                                          55
+  Female Simplicity,                                     71
+  Female Inferiority, idea of                            67
+  Females during the age of Chivalry,                    48
+  First Kiss of Love,                                   198
+  Grecian Women,                                         19
+  German Women,                                          99
+  Grecian Courtezans,                                    20
+  Greeks, religious festivals of                        180
+  Grecian Ladies, luxurious dress of                    164
+  Girls sold at Auction,                                153
+  Husbands, on the choice of                            114
+  Italian Women,                                         57
+  Influence of female society,                           83
+  Immodesty at Babylon,                                 173
+  Indecency at Adrianople,                              175
+  Lucretia and Virginia,                                182
+  Ladies of Lapland and Greenland,                      177
+  Matrimony, an essay on                                203
+  Matrimony among the French                             55
+  Matrimony in three different lights,                  103
+  Magnanimity of Women,                                  77
+  Monastic Life,                                         89
+  Marriage Brokers at Genoa,                             60
+  Marrying, power of                                    159
+  Noah's three sons,                                     43
+  Nuptial Ceremonies,                                    66
+  On looking at the picture of a beautiful female,      183
+  Persian Women,                                         17
+  Philtres and charms, power of                         167
+  Roman Women,                                           24
+  Roman Oppian Law,                                      29
+  Russian Women,                                         65
+  Spanish Women,                                         60
+  St. Valentine's Day,                                  171
+  Sentimental Attachment,                                92
+  Sale of a wife,                                       154
+  Saxons and Danes, long hair of                        170
+  Venus de Medici,                                      194
+  Women, Art of determining the figure, beauty, habits,
+    and the age of                                      185
+  Women in the Patriarchal ages,                         10
+  Woman in Savage Life,                                  32
+  Woman in times of Chivalry,                            45
+  Women in Asia and Africa,                              79
+
+
+
+
+  "Sketches indeed, from that most passionate page,
+  A woman's heart, of feelings, thoughts, that make
+  The atmosphere in which her spirit moves;
+  But like all other earthly elements,
+  O'ercast with clouds; now dark, now touched with light,
+  With rainbows, sunshine, showers, moonlight, stars,
+  Chasing each other's change. I fain would trace
+  Its brightness and its blackness."
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF "THE SEX."
+
+THE FIRST WOMAN, AND HER ANTEDILUVIAN
+DESCENDANTS.
+
+
+The great Creator, having formed man of the dust of the earth, "made a
+deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, and closed up the
+flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from
+man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." Hence the fair sex,
+in the opinion of some authors, being formed of matter doubly refined,
+derive their superior beauty and excellence.
+
+Not long after the creation, the first woman was tempted by the serpent
+to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, in the midst of the garden of
+Eden, with regard to which God had said, "Ye shall not eat of it,
+neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
+
+This deception, and the fatal consequences arising from it, furnish the
+most interesting story in the whole history of the sex.
+
+On the offerings being brought, and that of Abel accepted, Cain's
+jealousy and resentment rose to such a pitch, that, as soon as they came
+down from the mount where they had been sacrificing, he fell upon his
+brother and slew him.
+
+For this cruel and barbarous action, Cain and his posterity, being
+banished from the rest of the human race, indulged themselves in every
+species of wickedness. On this account, it is supposed, they were called
+the _Sons and Daughters of Men_. The posterity of Seth, on the other
+hand, became eminent for virtue, and a regard to the divine precepts. By
+their regular and amiable conduct, they acquired the appellation of
+_Sons and Daughters of God_.
+
+After the deluge there is a chasm in the history of women, until the
+time of the patriarch Abraham. They then begin to be introduced into the
+sacred story. Several of their actions are recorded. The laws, customs,
+and usages, by which they were governed, are frequently exhibited.
+
+
+WOMAN IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.
+
+The condition of women among the ancient patriarchs, appears to have
+been but extremely indifferent. When Abraham entertained the angels,
+sent to denounce the destruction of Sodom, he seems to have treated his
+wife as a menial servant: "Make ready quickly," said he to her, "three
+measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes on the hearth."
+
+In many parts of the east, water is only to be met with deep in the
+earth, and to draw it from the wells is, consequently, fatiguing and
+laborious. This, however, was the task of the daughters of Jethro the
+Midianite; to whom so little regard was paid, either on account of their
+sex, or the rank of their father, as high priest of the country, that
+the neighboring shepherds not only insulted them, but forcibly took from
+them the water they had drawn.
+
+This was the task of Rebecca, who not only drew water for Abraham's
+servant, but for his camels also, while the servant stood an idle
+spectator of the toil. Is it not natural to imagine, that, as he was on
+an embassy to court the damsel for Isaac, his master's son, he would
+have exerted his utmost efforts to please, and become acceptable?
+
+When he had concluded his bargain, and was carrying her home, we meet
+with a circumstance worthy of remark. When she first approached Isaac,
+who had walked out into the fields to meet her, she did it in the most
+submissive manner, as if she had been approaching a lord and master,
+rather than a fond and passionate lover. From this circumstance, as well
+as from several others, related in the sacred history, it would seem
+that women, instead of endeavoring, as in modern times, to persuade the
+world that they confer an immense favor on a lover, by deigning to
+accept of him, did not scruple to confess, that the obligation was
+conferred on themselves.
+
+This was the case with Ruth, who had laid herself down at the feet of
+Boaz; and being asked by him who she was, answered, "I am Ruth, thine
+handmaid; spread, therefore, thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art
+a near kinsman."
+
+When Jacob went to visit his uncle Laban, he met Rachel, Laban's
+daughter, in the fields, attending on the flocks of her father.
+
+In a much later period, Tamar, one of the daughters of king David, was
+sent by her father to perform the servile office of making cakes for her
+brother Amnon.
+
+The simplicity of the times in which these things happened, no doubt,
+very much invalidates the strength of the conclusions that naturally
+arise from them. But, notwithstanding, it still appears that women were
+not then treated with the delicacy which they have experienced among
+people more polished and refined.
+
+Polygamy also prevailed; which is so contrary to the inclination of the
+sex, and so deeply wounds the delicacy of their feelings, that it is
+impossible for any woman voluntarily to agree to it, even where it is
+authorized by custom and by law. Wherever, therefore, polygamy takes
+place, we may assure ourselves that women have but little authority, and
+have scarcely arrived at any consequence in society.
+
+
+WOMEN OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
+
+Wherever the human race live solitary, and unconnected with each other,
+they are savage and barbarous. Wherever they associate together, that
+association produces softer manners and a more engaging deportment.
+
+The Egyptians, from the nature of their country, annually overflowed by
+the Nile, had no wild beasts to hunt, nor could they procure any thing
+by fishing. On these accounts, they were under a necessity of applying
+themselves to agriculture, a kind of life which naturally brings mankind
+together, for mutual convenience and assistance.
+
+They were, likewise, every year, during the inundation of the river,
+obliged to assemble together, and take shelter, either on the rising
+grounds, or in the houses, which were raised upon piles, above the reach
+of the waters. Here, almost every employment being suspended, and the
+men and women long confined together, a thousand inducements, not to be
+found in a solitary state, would naturally prompt them to render
+themselves agreeable to each other. Hence their manners would begin,
+more early, to assume a softer polish, and more elegant refinement, than
+those of the other nations who surrounded them.
+
+The practice of confining women, instituted by jealousy, and maintained
+by unlawful power, was not adopted by the ancient Egyptians. This
+appears from the story of Pharaoh's daughter, who was going with her
+train of maids to bathe in the river, when she found Moses hid among the
+reeds. It is still more evident, from that of the wife of Potiphar, who,
+if she had been confined, could not have found the opportunities she
+did, to solicit Joseph to her adulterous embrace.
+
+The queens of Egypt had the greatest attention paid to them. They were
+more readily obeyed than the kings. It is also related, that the
+husbands were in their marriage-contracts, obliged to promise obedience
+to their wives; an obedience, which, in our modern times, we are often
+obliged to perform, though our wives entered into the promise.
+
+The behavior of Solomon to Pharaoh's daughter is a convincing proof that
+more honor and respect was paid to the Egyptian women, than to those of
+any other people. Solomon had many other wives besides this princess,
+and was married to several of them before her, which, according to the
+Jewish law, ought to have entitled them to a preference. But,
+notwithstanding this, we hear of no particular palace having been built
+for any of the others, nor of the worship of any of their gods having
+been introduced into Jerusalem. But a magnificent palace was erected for
+Pharaoh's daughter; and she was permitted, though expressly contrary to
+the laws of Israel, to worship the gods of her own country.
+
+
+MODERN EGYPTIAN WOMEN.
+
+The women of modern Egypt are far from being on so respectable a
+footing as they were in ancient times, or as the European women are at
+present.
+
+In Europe, women act parts of great consequence, and often reign
+sovereigns on the world's vast theatre. They influence manners and
+morals, and decide on the most important events. The fate of nations is
+frequently in their hands.
+
+How different is their situation in Egypt! There they are bound down by
+the fetters of slavery, condemned to servitude, and have no influence in
+public affairs. Their empire is confined within the walls of the Harem.
+There are their graces and charms entombed. The circle of their life
+extends not beyond their own family and domestic duties.
+
+Their first care is to educate their children; and a numerous posterity
+is their most fervent wish. Mothers always suckle their children. This
+is expressly commanded by Mahomet:--"Let the mother suckle her child
+full two years, if the child does not quit the breast; but she shall be
+permitted to wean it, with the consent of her husband."
+
+The harem is the cradle and school of infancy. The new born feeble being
+is not there swaddled and filletted up in a swathe, the source of a
+thousand diseases. Laid naked on a mat, exposed in a vast chamber to the
+pure air, he breathes freely, and with his delicate limbs sprawls at
+pleasure.
+
+The daughter's education is the same. Whalebone and husks, which martyr
+European girls, they know not. They are only covered with a shift until
+six years old: and the dress they afterwards wear confines none of their
+limbs, but suffers the body to take its true form; and nothing is more
+uncommon than ricketty children, and crooked people. In Egypt, man rises
+in all his majesty, and woman displays every charm of person.
+
+The Egyptian women, once or twice a week, are permitted to go to the
+bath, and visit female relations and friends. They receive each other's
+visits very affectionately. When a lady enters the harem, the mistress
+rises, takes her hand, presses it to her bosom, kisses, and makes her
+sit down by her side; a slave hastens to take her black mantle; she is
+entreated to be at ease, quits her veil, and discovers a floating robe
+tied round her waist with a sash, which perfectly displays her shape.
+She then receives compliments according to their manner: "Why, my
+mother, or my sister, have you been so long absent? We sighed to see
+you! Your presence is an honor to our house! It is the happiness of our
+lives!"
+
+Slaves present coffee, sherbet, and confectionary. They laugh, talk and
+play. A large dish is placed on the sofa, on which are oranges,
+pomegranates, bananas, and excellent melons. Water, and rose-water
+mixed, are brought in an ewer, and with them a silver bason to wash the
+hands; and loud glee and merry conversation season the meal. The chamber
+is perfumed by wood of aloes, in a brazier; and, the repast ended, the
+slaves dance to the sound of cymbals, with whom the mistresses often
+mingle. At parting they several times repeat, "God keep you in health!
+Heaven grant you a numerous offspring! Heaven preserve your children;
+the delight and glory of your family!"
+
+When a visitor is in the harem, the husband must not enter. It is the
+asylum of hospitality, and cannot be violated without fatal
+consequences; a cherished right, which the Egyptian women carefully
+maintain, being interested in its preservation. A lover, disguised like
+a woman, may be introduced into the harem, and it is necessary he should
+remain undiscovered; death would otherwise be his reward. In that
+country, where the passions are excited by the climate, and the
+difficulty of gratifying them is great, love often produces tragical
+events.
+
+
+PERSIAN WOMEN.
+
+Several historians, in mentioning the ancient Persians, have dwelt with
+peculiar severity on the manner in which they treated their women.
+Jealous, almost to distraction, they confined the whole sex with the
+strictest attention, and could not bear that the eye of a stranger
+should behold the beauty whom they adored.
+
+When Mahomet, the great legislator of the modern Persians, was just
+expiring, the last advice that he gave to his faithful adherents, was,
+"Be watchful of your religion, and your wives." Hence they pretend to
+derive not only the power of confining, but also of persuading them,
+that they hazard their salvation, if they look upon any other man
+besides their husbands. The Christian religion informs us, that in the
+other world they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. The religion
+of Mahomet teaches us a different doctrine, which the Persians
+believing, carry the jealousy of Asia to the fields of Elysium, and the
+groves of Paradise; where, according to them, the blessed inhabitants
+have their eyes placed on the crown of their heads, lest they should see
+the wives of their neighbors.
+
+To offer the least violence to a Persian woman, was to incur certain
+death from her husband or guardian. Even their kings, though the most
+absolute in the universe, could not alter the manners or customs of the
+country, which related to the fair sex.
+
+Widely different from this is the present state of Persia. By a law of
+that country, their monarch is now authorized to go, whenever he
+pleases, into the harem of any of his subjects; and the subject, on
+whose prerogative he thus encroaches, so far from exerting his usual
+jealousy, thinks himself highly honored by such a visit.
+
+A laughable story, on this subject, is told of Shah Abbas, who having
+got drunk at the house of one of his favorites, and intending to go into
+the apartment of his wives, was stopped by the door-keeper, who bluntly
+told him, "Not a man, sir, besides my master, shall put a mustachio
+here, so long as I am porter." "What," said the king, "dost thou not
+know me?" "Yes," answered the fellow, "I know that you are king of the
+men, but not of the women."
+
+
+GRECIAN WOMEN.
+
+Woman, in ancient Greece, seems to have been regarded merely in the
+light of an instrument for raising up members of the state. And surely
+it may be said of them that they nobly fulfilled this duty. The
+catalogue of heroes and sages which shine in Grecian history bright and
+numerous as stars in the firmament, are so many testimonials to the
+faithfulness of Grecian women in this respect.
+
+The sexes were but little society for each other. Even husbands were, in
+Sparta, limited as to the time and duration of the visits made to their
+wives.
+
+That women in ancient Greece did not enjoy that delicate consideration
+which other refined nations accord to their sex, may be inferred from
+the inferiority of the apartments allotted to them. The famous Helen is
+said to have had her chamber in the attic; and Penelope, the queen of
+Ulysses, descended from hers by a ladder.
+
+
+GRECIAN COURTEZANS.
+
+The rank which the courtezans enjoyed, even in the brightest ages of
+Greece, and particularly at Athens, is one of the greatest singularities
+in the manners of any people. By what circumstances could that order of
+women, who debase at once their own sex and ours--in a country where the
+women were possessed of modesty, and the men of sentiment, arrive at
+distinction, and sometimes even at the highest degree of reputation and
+consequence? Several reasons may be assigned for that phenomenon in
+society.
+
+In Greece, the courtezans were in some measure connected with the
+religion of the country. The Goddess of Beauty had her altars; and she
+was supposed to protect prostitution, which was to her a species of
+worship. The people invoked Venus in times of danger; and, after a
+battle, they thought they had done honor to Miltiades and Themistocles,
+because the Laises and the Glyceras of the age had chaunted hymns to
+their Goddess.
+
+The courtezans were likewise connected with religion, by means of the
+arts. Their persons afforded models for statues, which were afterwards
+adored in the temples. Phryne served as a model to Praxiteles, for his
+Venus of Cnidus. During the feasts of Neptune, near Eleusis, Apelles
+having seen the same courtezan on the sea-shore, without any other veil
+than her loose and flowing hair, was so much struck with her appearance,
+that he borrowed from it the idea of his Venus rising from the waves.
+
+They were, therefore connected with statuary and painting, as they
+furnished the practisers of those arts with the means of embellishing
+their works.
+
+The greater part of them were skilled in music; and, as that art was
+attended with higher effects in Greece than it ever was in any other
+country, it must have possessed, in their hands, an irresistible charm.
+
+Every one knows how enthusiastic the Greeks were of beauty. They adored
+it in the temples. They admired it in the principal works of art. They
+studied it in the exercises and the games. They thought to perfect it by
+their marriages. They offered rewards to it at the public festivals. But
+virtuous beauty was seldom to be seen. The modest women were confined to
+their own apartments, and were visited only by their husbands and
+nearest relations. The courtezans offered themselves every where to
+view; and their beauty as might be expected, obtained universal homage.
+
+Greece was governed by eloquent men; and the celebrated courtezans,
+having an influence over those orators must have had an influence on
+public affairs. There was not one, not even the thundering, the
+inflexible Demosthenes, so terrible to tyrants, but was subjected to
+their sway. Of that great master of eloquence it has been said, "What he
+had been a whole year in erecting, a woman overturned in a day." That
+influence augmented their consequence; and their talent of pleasing
+increased with the occasions of exerting it.
+
+The laws and the public institutions, indeed, by authorizing the
+privacy of women, set a high value on the sanctity of the marriage vow.
+But in Athens, imagination, sentiment, luxury, the taste in arts and
+pleasures, was opposite to the laws. The courtezans, therefore may be
+said to have come in support of the manners.
+
+There was no check upon public licentiousness; but private infidelity,
+which concerned the peace of families, was punished as a crime. By a
+strange and perhaps unequalled singularity the men were corrupted, yet
+the domestic manners were pure. It seems as if the courtezans had not
+been considered to belong to their sex; and, by a convention to which
+the laws and the manners bended, while other women were estimated merely
+by their virtues, they were estimated only by their accomplishments.
+
+These reasons will in some measure, account for the honors, which the
+votaries of Venus so often received in Greece. Otherwise we should have
+been at a loss to conceive, why six or seven writers had exerted their
+talents to celebrate the courtezans of Athens--why three great painters
+had uniformly devoted their pencils to represent them on canvass--and
+why so many poets had strove to immortalize them in verses. We should
+hardly have believed that so many illustrious men had courted their
+society--that Aspasia had been consulted in deliberations of peace and
+war--that Phryne had a statue of gold placed between the statues of two
+kings at Delphos--that, after death, magnificent tombs had been erected
+to their memory.
+
+"The traveller," says a Greek writer, "who, approaching to Athens, sees
+on the side of the way a monument which attracts his notice at a
+distance, will imagine that it is the tomb of Miltiades or Pericles, or
+of some other great man, who has done honor to his country by his
+services. He advances, he reads, and he learns that it is a courtezan of
+Athens who is interred with so much pomp."
+
+Theopompus, in a letter to Alexander the Great, speaks also of the same
+monument in words to the following effect--"Thus, after her death, is a
+prostitute honored; while not one of those brave warriors who fell in
+Asia, fighting for you, and for the safety of Greece, has so much as a
+stone erected to his memory, or an inscription to preserve his ashes
+from insult."
+
+Such was the homage which that enthusiastic people, voluptuous and
+passionate, paid to beauty. More guided by sentiment than reason, and
+having laws rather than principles, they banished their great men,
+honored their courtezans, murdered Socrates, permitted themselves to be
+governed by Aspasia, preserved inviolate the marriage bed, and placed
+Phryne in the temple of Apollo!
+
+
+ROMAN WOMEN.
+
+Among the Romans, a grave and austere people, who, during five hundred
+years, were unacquainted with the elegancies and the pleasures of life,
+and who, in the middle of furrows and fields of battle, were employed in
+tillage or in war, the manners of the women were a long time as solemn
+and severe as those of the men, and without the smallest mixture of
+corruption, or of weakness.
+
+The time when the Roman women began to appear in public, marks a
+particular era in history.
+
+The Roman women, for many ages, were respected over the whole world.
+Their victorious husbands re-visited them with transport, at their
+return from battle. They laid at their feet the spoils of the enemy, and
+endeared themselves in their eyes by the wounds which they had received
+for them and for the state. Those warriors often came from imposing
+commands upon kings, and in their own houses accounted it an honor to
+obey. In vain the too rigid laws made them the arbiters of life and
+death. More powerful than the laws, the women ruled their judges. In
+vain the legislature, foreseeing the wants which exist only among a
+corrupt people, permitted divorce. The indulgence of the polity was
+proscribed by the manners.
+
+Such was the influence of beauty at Rome before the licentious
+intercourse of the sexes had corrupted both.
+
+The Roman matrons do not seem to have possessed that military courage
+which Plutarch has praised in certain Greek and barbarian women; they
+partook more of the nature of their sex; or, at least, they departed
+less from its character. Their first quality was decency. Every one
+knows the story of Cato the censor, _who stabbed a Roman Senator for
+kissing his own wife in the presence of his daughter_.
+
+To these austere manners, the Roman women joined an enthusiastic love of
+their country, which discovered itself upon many great occasions. On the
+death of Brutus, they all clothed themselves in mourning. In the time of
+Coriolanus they saved the city. That incensed warrior who had insulted
+the senate and priests, and who was superior even to the pride of
+pardoning, could not resist the tears and entreaties of the women.
+_They_ melted his obdurate heart. The senate decreed them public thanks,
+ordered the men to give place to them upon all occasions, caused an
+altar to be erected for them on the spot where the mother had softened
+her son, and the wife her husband; and the sex were permitted to add
+another ornament to their head-dress.
+
+The Roman women saved the city a second time, when besieged by Brennus.
+They gave up all their gold as its ransom. For that instance of their
+generosity, the senate granted them the honor of having funeral orations
+pronounced in the rostrum, in common with patriots and heroes.
+
+After the battle of Cannæ, when Rome had no other treasures but the
+virtues of her citizens, the women sacrificed both their jewels and
+their gold. A new decree rewarded their zeal.
+
+Valerius Maximus who lived in the reign of Tiberius, informs us that, in
+the second triumvirate, the three assassins who governed Rome thirsting
+after gold, no less than blood, and having already practised every
+species of robbery, and worn out every method of plunder; resolved _to
+tax the women_. They imposed a heavy contribution upon each of them. The
+women sought an orator to defend their cause, but found none. Nobody
+would reason against those who had the power of life and death. The
+daughter of the celebrated Hortensius alone appeared. She revived the
+memory of her father's abilities, and supported with intrepidity her own
+cause and that of her sex. The ruffians blushed and revoked their
+orders.
+
+Hortensia was conducted home in triumph, and had the honor of having
+given, in one day, an example of courage to men, a pattern of eloquence
+to women, and a lesson of humanity to tyrants.
+
+During upwards of six hundred years, the _virtues_ had been found
+sufficient to please. They now found it necessary to call in the
+_accomplishments_. They were desirous to join admiration to esteem,
+'till they learned to exceed esteem itself. For in all countries, in
+proportion as the love of virtue diminishes, we find the love of talents
+to increase.
+
+A thousand causes concurred to produce this revolution of manners among
+the Romans. The vast inequality of ranks, the enormous fortunes of
+individuals, the ridicule, affixed by the imperial court to moral ideas,
+all contributed to hasten the period of corruption.
+
+There were still, however, some great and virtuous characters among the
+Roman women. Portia, the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, showed
+herself worthy to be associated with the first of human kind, and
+trusted with the fate of empires. After the battle of Phillippi, she
+would neither survive liberty nor Brutus, but died with the bold
+intrepidity of Cato.
+
+The example of Portia was followed by that of Arria, who seeing her
+husband hesitating and afraid to die, in order to encourage him, pierced
+her own breast, and delivered to him the dagger with a smile.
+
+Paulinia too, the wife of Seneca, caused her veins to be opened at the
+same time with her husband's, but being forced to live, during the few
+years which she survived him, "she bore in her countenance," says
+Tacitus, "the honorable testimony of her love, a _paleness_, which
+proved that part of her blood had sympathetically issued with the blood
+of her spouse."
+
+To take notice of all the celebrated women of the empire, would much
+exceed the bounds of the present undertaking. But the empress Julia the
+wife of Septimius Severus, possessed a species of merit so very
+different from any of those already mentioned, as to claim particular
+attention.
+
+This lady was born in Syria, and a daughter of a priest of the sun. It
+was predicted that she would rise to sovereign dignity; and her
+character justified the prophecy.
+
+Julia, while on the throne, loved, or pretended passionately to love,
+letters. Either from taste, from a desire to instruct herself, from a
+love of renown, or possibly from all these together, she spent her life
+with philosophers. Her rank of empress would not, perhaps, have been
+sufficient to subdue those bold spirits; but she joined to that the more
+powerful influences of wit and beauty. These three kinds of empire
+rendered less necessary to her that which consists only in art; and
+which, attentive to their tastes and their weaknesses, govern great
+minds by little means.
+
+It is said she was a philosopher. Her philosophy, however, did not
+extend so far as to give chastity to her manners. Her husband, who did
+not love her, valued her understanding so much, that he consulted her
+upon all occasions. She governed in the same manner under his son.
+
+Julia was, in short, an empress and a politician, occupied at the same
+time about literature, and affairs of state, while she mingled her
+pleasures freely with both. She had courtiers for her lovers, scholars
+for her friends, and philosophers for her counsellors. In the midst of a
+society, where she reigned and was instructed. Julia arrived at the
+highest celebrity; but as among all her excellencies, we find not those
+of her sex, the virtues of a woman, our admiration is lost in blame. In
+her life time she obtained more praise than respect; and posterity,
+while it has done justice to her talents and her accomplishments, has
+agreed to deny her esteem.
+
+
+LAWS AND CUSTOMS RESPECTING THE ROMAN WOMEN.
+
+The Roman women, as well as the Grecian, were under perpetual
+guardianship; and were not at any age, nor in any condition, ever
+trusted with the management of their own fortunes.
+
+Every father had power of life and death over his own daughters: but
+this power was not restricted to daughters only; it extended also to
+sons.
+
+The Oppian law prohibited women from having more than half an ounce of
+gold employed in ornamenting their persons, from wearing clothes of
+divers colors, and from riding in chariots, either in the city, or a
+thousand paces round it.
+
+They were strictly forbid to use wine, or even to have in their
+possession the key of any place where it was kept. For either of these
+faults they were liable to be divorced by their husbands. So careful
+were the Romans in restraining their women from wine, that they are
+supposed to have first introduced the custom of saluting their female
+relations and acquaintances, on entering the house of a friend or
+neighbor, that they might discover by their breath, whether they had
+tasted any of that liquor.
+
+This strictness, however, began in time to be relaxed; until at last,
+luxury becoming too strong for every law, the women indulged themselves
+in equal liberties with the men.
+
+But such was not the case in the earlier ages of Rome. Romulus even
+permitted husbands to kill their wives, if they found them drinking
+wine.
+
+Fabius Pictor relates, that the parents of a Roman lady, having detected
+her picking the lock of a chest which contained some wine, shut her up
+and starved her to death.
+
+Women were liable to be divorced by their husbands almost at pleasure,
+provided the portion was returned which they had brought along with
+them. They were also liable to be divorced for barrenness, which, if it
+could be construed into a fault, was at least the fault of nature, and
+might sometimes be that of the husband.
+
+A few sumptuary laws, a subordination to the men, and a total want of
+authority, do not so much affect the sex, as to be coldly and
+indelicately treated by their husbands.
+
+Such a treatment is touching them in the tenderest part. Such, however
+we have reason to believe, they often met with from the Romans, who had
+not learned, as in modern times to blend the rigidity of the patriot,
+and roughness of the warrior, with that soft and indulging behavior, so
+conspicuous in our modern patriots and heroes.
+
+Husbands among the Romans not only themselves behaved roughly to their
+wives, but even sometimes permitted their servants and slaves to do the
+same. The principal eunuch of Justinian the Second, threatened to
+chastise the Empress, his master's wife, in the manner that children are
+chastised at school, if she did not obey his orders.
+
+With regard to the private diversions of the Roman ladies, history is
+silent. Their public ones, were such as were common to both sexes; as
+bathing, theatrical representations, horse-races, shows of wild beasts,
+which fought against one another, and sometimes against men, whom the
+emperors, in the plenitude of their despotic power, ordered to engage
+them.
+
+The Romans, of both sexes, spent a great deal of time at the baths;
+which at first, perhaps, were interwoven with their religion, but at
+last were only considered as refinements in luxury. They were places of
+public resort, where people met with their acquaintances and friends,
+where public libraries were kept for such as chose to read, and where
+poets recited their works to such as had patience to hear.
+
+In the earlier periods of Rome, separate baths were appropriated to each
+sex. Luxury, by degrees getting the better of decency, the men and women
+at last bathed promiscuously together. Though this indecent manner of
+bathing was prohibited by the emperor Adrian; yet, in a short time,
+inclination overcame the prohibition; and, in spite of every effort,
+promiscuous bathing continued until the time of Constantine, who, by the
+coercive force of the legislative authority, and the rewards and
+terrors of the Christian religion, put a final stop to it.
+
+
+WOMAN IN SAVAGE LIFE.
+
+Man, in a state of barbarity, equally cruel and indolent, active by
+necessity, but naturally inclined to repose, is acquainted with little
+more than the physical effects of love; and having none of those moral
+ideas which only can soften the empire of force, he is led to consider
+it as his supreme law, subjecting to his despotism those whom reason had
+made his equals, but whose imbecility betrayed them to his strength.
+
+Cast in the lap of naked nature, and exposed to every hardship, the
+forms of women, in savage life, are but little engaging. With nothing
+that deserves the name of culture, their latent qualities, if they have
+any, are like the diamond, while enclosed in the rough flint, incapable
+of shewing any lustre. Thus destitute of every thing by which they can
+excite love, or acquire esteem; destitute of beauty to charm, or art to
+soothe, the tyrant man; they are by him destined to perform every mean
+and servile office. In this the American and other savage women differ
+widely from those of Asia, who, if they are destitute of the
+qualifications necessary for gaining esteem, have beauty, ornaments, and
+the art of exciting love.
+
+In civilized countries a woman acquires some power by being the mother
+of a numerous family, who obey her maternal authority, and defends her
+honor and her life. But, even as a mother, a female savage has not much
+advantage. Her children, daily accustomed to see their father treat her
+nearly as a slave, soon begin to imitate his example, and either pay
+little regard to her authority or shake it off altogether.
+
+Of this the Hottentot boys afford a remarkable proof. They are brought
+up by the women, till they are about fourteen years of age. Then, with
+several ceremonies they are initiated into the society of men. After
+this initiation is over it is reckoned manly for a boy to take the
+earliest opportunity of returning to the hut of his mother, and beating
+her in the most barbarous manner, to show that he is now out of her
+jurisdiction. Should the mother complain to the men, they would only
+applaud the boy for showing so laudable a contempt for the society and
+authority of women.
+
+In the Brazils, the females are obliged to follow their husbands to war,
+to supply the place of beasts of burden, and to carry on their backs
+their children, provisions, hammocks, and every thing wanted in the
+field.
+
+In the Isthmus of Darien, they are sent along with warriors and
+travellers, as we do baggage horses. Even their Queen appeared before
+some English gentlemen, carrying her sucking child, wrapt in a red
+blanket.
+
+The women among the Indians of America are what the Helots were among
+the Spartans, a vanquished people obliged to toil for their conquerors.
+Hence on the banks of the Oroonoko we have heard of mothers slaying
+their daughters out of compassion, and smothering them in the hour of
+their birth. They consider this barbarous pity as a virtue.
+
+Father Joseph Gumilla, reproving one of them for this inhuman crime,
+received the following answer:--"I wish to God, Father, I wish to God,
+that my mother had, by my death, prevented the manifold distresses I
+have endured, and have yet to endure as long as I live. Had she kindly
+stilled me in my birth, I should not have felt the pain of death, nor
+the numberless other pains to which life has subjected me. Consider,
+Father, our deplorable condition. Our husbands go to hunt with their
+bows and arrows, and trouble themselves no farther: we are dragged along
+with one infant at our breast, and another in a basket. They return in
+the evening without any burden; we return with the burden of our
+children. Though tired with long walking, we are not allowed to sleep,
+but must labor the whole night, in grinding maize to make _chica_ for
+them. They get drunk, and in their drunkenness beat us, draw us by the
+hair of the head, and tread us under foot. A young wife is brought upon
+us and permitted to abuse us and our children. What kindness can we show
+to our female children, equal to that of relieving them from such
+servitude, more bitter a thousand times than death? I repeat again,
+would to God my mother had put me under ground, the moment I was born."
+
+"The men," says Commodore Byron, in his account of the inhabitants of
+South America, "exercise a most despotic authority over their wives whom
+they consider in the same view they do any other part of their property,
+and dispose of them accordingly. Even their common treatment of them is
+cruel. For, though the toil and hazard of procuring food lies entirely
+on the women, yet they are not suffered to touch any part of it, until
+the husband is satisfied; and then he assign them their portion, which
+is generally very scanty, and such as he has not a stomach for himself."
+
+The Greenlanders, who live mostly upon seals, think it sufficient to
+catch and bring them on shore; and would rather submit to starve than
+assist their women in skinning, dressing, or dragging home the cumbrous
+animals to their huts.
+
+In some parts of America, when the men kill any game in the woods, they
+lay it at the root of a tree, fix a mark there, and travelling until
+they arrive at their habitation, send their women to fetch it, a task
+which their own laziness and pride equally forbid.
+
+Among many of the tribes of wandering Arabs, the women are not only
+obliged to do every domestic and every rural work, but also to feed, to
+dress, and saddle the horses, for the use of their husbands.
+
+The Moorish women, besides doing all the same kinds of drudgery, are
+also obliged to cultivate the fields, while their husbands stand idle
+spectators of the toil, or sleep inglorious beneath a neighboring shade.
+
+In Madura the husband generally speaks to his wife in the most imperious
+tone; while she with fear and trembling approaches him, waits upon him
+while at meals, and pronounces not his name, but with the addition of
+every dignifying title she can devise. In return for all this submission
+he frequently beats and abuses her in the most barbarous manner. Being
+asked the reason of such a behavior, one of them answered, "As our wives
+are so much our inferiors why should we allow them to eat and drink with
+us? Why should they not serve us with whatever we call for, and
+afterwards sit down and eat up what we leave? If they commit faults, why
+should they not suffer correction? It is their business only to bring up
+our children, pound our rice, make our oil, and do every other kind of
+drudgery, purposes to which only their low and inferior natures are
+adapted."
+
+The Circassian custom of breeding young girls, on purpose to be sold in
+the public market to the highest bidder, is generally known. Perhaps,
+however, upon minute examination, we shall find that women are, in some
+degree, bought and sold in every country, whether savage or civilized.
+
+
+EASTERN WOMEN.
+
+The women of the East, have in general, always exhibited the same
+appearance. Their manners, customs, and fashions, unalterable like their
+rocks, have stood the test of many revolving ages. Though the kingdoms
+of their country have often changed masters, though they have submitted
+to the arms of almost every invader, yet the laws by which their sex are
+governed and enslaved, have never been revised nor amended.
+
+Had the manners and customs of the Asiatic women been subject to the
+same changes as they are in Europe, we might have expected the same
+changes in the sentiments and writings of their men. But, as this is not
+the case, we have reason to presume that the sentiments entertained by
+Solomon, by the apocryphal writers, and by the ancient Bramins, are the
+sentiments of this day.
+
+Though the confinement of women be an unlawful exertion of superior
+power, yet it affords a proof that the inhabitants of the East are
+advanced some degrees farther in civilization than mere savages, who
+have hardly any love and consequently as little jealousy.
+
+This confinement is not very rigid in the empire of the Mogul. It is,
+perhaps, less so in China, and in Japan hardly exists.
+
+Though women are confined in the Turkish empire, they experience every
+other indulgence. They are allowed, at stated times, to go to the public
+baths; their apartments are richly, if not elegantly furnished; they
+have a train of female slaves to serve and amuse them; and their persons
+are adorned with every costly ornament which their fathers or husbands
+can afford.
+
+Notwithstanding the strictness of confinement in Persia, their women are
+treated with several indulgences. They are allowed a variety of precious
+liquors, costly perfumes, and beautiful slaves: their apartments are
+furnished with the most elegant hangings and carpets; their persons
+ornamented with the finest silks, and even loaded with the sparkling
+jewels of the East. But all these trappings, however elegant, or however
+gilded, are only like the golden chains sometimes made use of to bind a
+royal prisoner.
+
+Solomon had a great number of queens and concubines; but a petty Hindoo
+chief has been known to have two thousand women confined within the
+walls of his harem, and appropriated entirely to his pleasure. Nothing
+less than unlimited power in the husband is able to restrain women so
+confined, from the utmost disorder and confusion. They may repine in
+secret, but they must clothe their features with cheerfulness when their
+lord appears. Contumacy draws down on them immediate punishment: they
+are degraded, chastised, divorced, shut up in dark dungeons, and
+sometimes put to death.
+
+Their persons, however, are so sacred, that they must not in the least
+be violated, nor even be looked at, by any one but their husbands. This
+female privilege has given an opportunity of executing many
+conspiracies. Warriors, in such vehicles as are usually employed to
+carry women, have been often conveyed, without examination, into the
+apartments of the great; from whence, instead of issuing forth in the
+smiles of beauty, they have rushed out in the terror of arms, and laid
+the tyrants at their feet.
+
+No stranger is ever allowed to see the women of Hindostan, nor can even
+brothers visit their sisters in private. To be conscious of the
+existence of a man's wives seems a crime; and he looks surly and
+offended if their health is inquired after. In every country, honor
+consists in something upon which the possessor sets the highest value.
+This, with the Hindoo, is the chastity of his wives; a point without
+which he must not live.
+
+In the midst of slaughter and devastation, throughout all the East, the
+harem is a sanctuary. Ruffians, covered with the blood of a husband,
+shrink back with veneration from the secret apartment of his wives.
+
+At Constantinople, when the sultan sends an order to strangle a
+state-criminal, and seize on his effects, the officers who execute it
+enter not into the harem, nor touch any thing belonging to the women.
+
+Every Turkish seraglio and harem, has a garden adjoining to it, and in
+the middle of this garden a large room, more or less decorated according
+to the wealth of the proprietor. Here the ladies spend most of their
+time, with their attendant nymphs around them employed at their music,
+embroidery, or loom.
+
+It has long been a custom among the grandees of Asia, to entertain
+story-tellers of both sexes, who like the _bards_ of ancient Europe,
+divert them with tales, and little histories, mostly on the subject of
+bravery and love. These often amuse the women, and beguile the cheerless
+hours of the harem, by calling up images to their minds which their eyes
+are forever debarred from seeing.
+
+All their other amusements, as well as this, are indolently voluptuous.
+They spend a great part of their time in lolling on skien sofas; while a
+train of female slaves, scarcely less voluptuous, attend to sing to
+them, to fan them, and to rub their bodies; an exercise which the
+Easterns enjoy, with a sort of placid ecstasy, as it promotes the
+circulation of their languid blood.
+
+They bathe themselves in rose water and other baths, prepared with the
+precious odors of the East. They perfume themselves with costly
+essences, and adorn their persons, that they may please the _tyrant_
+with whom they are obliged to live.
+
+
+CHINESE WOMAN.
+
+Of all the other Asiatics, the Chinese have, perhaps the best title to
+modesty. Even the men wrap themselves closely up in their garments, and
+reckon it indecent to discover any more of their arms and legs than is
+necessary.--The women, still more closely wrapt up, never discover a
+naked hand even to their nearest relations, if they can possibly avoid
+it. Every part of their dress, every part of their behavior is
+calculated to preserve decency, and inspire respect. And, what adds
+lustre to of their charms, is that uncommon modesty which appears in
+every look and in every action.
+
+Charmed, no doubt, with so engaging a deportment, the men behave to them
+in a reciprocal manner. And, that their virtue may not be contaminated
+by the neighborhood of vice, the legislature takes care that no
+prostitutes shall lodge within the walls of any of the great cities of
+China.
+
+Some, however, suspect whether this appearance of modesty be any thing
+else than the custom of the country; and allege that, notwithstanding
+so much decency and decorum, they have their peculiar modes of
+intriguing, and embrace every possible opportunity of putting them in
+practice; and that, in these intrigues, they frequently scruple not to
+stab the paramour they had invited to their arms, as the surest method
+of preventing detection and loss of character.
+
+A bridegroom knows nothing of the character or person of his intended
+wife, except what he gathers from the report of some female relative, or
+confidant, who undertakes to arrange the marriage, and determine the sum
+that shall be paid for the bride. Very severe laws are made to prevent
+deception and fraud in these transactions. On the day appointed for the
+wedding the damsel is placed in a close palanquin the key of which is
+sent to the bridegroom, by the hands of some trusty domestic. Her
+relations and friends accompanied by squalling music, escort her to his
+house; at the gate of which he stands in full dress, ready to receive
+her. He eagerly opens the palanquin and examines his bargain. If he is
+pleased, she enters his dwelling, and the marriage is celebrated with
+feasting and rejoicing; the men and women being all the time in separate
+apartments. If the bridegroom is dissatisfied, he shuts the palanquin,
+and sends the woman back to her relations; but when this happens, he
+must pay another sum of money equal to the price he first gave for her.
+A woman who unites beauty with accomplishments brings from four to seven
+hundred louis d'ors; some sell for less than one hundred. The apartments
+of the women are separated from those of the men by a wall at which a
+guard is stationed. The wife is never allowed to eat with her husband;
+she cannot quit her apartments without permission; and he does not enter
+hers without first asking leave. Brothers are entirely separated from
+their sisters at the age of nine or ten years.
+
+
+AFRICAN WOMEN.
+
+The Africans were formerly renowned for their industry in cultivating
+the ground, for their trade, navigation, caravans and useful arts.--At
+present they are remarkable for their idleness, ignorance, superstition,
+treachery, and, above all, for their lawless methods of robbing and
+murdering all the other inhabitants of the globe.
+
+Though they still retain some sense of their infamous character, yet
+they do not choose to reform. Their priests, therefore, endeavor to
+justify them, by the following story: "Noah," say they, "was no sooner
+dead, than his three sons, the first of whom was _white_, the second
+_tawny_, and the third _black_, having agreed upon dividing among them
+his goods and possessions, spent the greatest part of the day in sorting
+them; so that they were obliged to adjourn the division till the next
+morning. Having supped and smoked a friendly pipe together, they all
+went to rest, each in his own tent. After a few hours sleep, the white
+brother got up, seized on the gold, silver, precious stones, and other
+things of the greatest value, loaded the best horses with them, and rode
+away to that country where his white posterity have been settled ever
+since. The tawny, awaking soon after, and with the same criminal
+intention, was surprised when he came to the store house to find that
+his brother had been beforehand with him. Upon which he hastily secured
+the rest of the horses and camels, and loading them with the best
+carpets, clothes, and other remaining goods, directed his route to
+another part of the world, leaving behind him, only a few of the
+coarsest goods, and some provisions of little value.
+
+When the third, or black brother, came next morning in the simplicity of
+his heart to make the proposed division, and could neither find his
+brethren, nor any of the valuable commodities, he easily judged they had
+tricked him, and were by that time fled beyond any possibility of
+discovery.
+
+In this most afflicted situation, he took his _pipe_, and begun to
+consider the most effectual means of retrieving his loss, and being
+revenged on his perfidious brothers.
+
+After revolving a variety of schemes in his mind, he at last fixed upon
+watching every opportunity of making reprisals on them, and laying hold
+of and carrying away their property, as often as it should fall in his
+way, in revenge for that patrimony of which they had so unjustly
+deprived him.
+
+Having come to this resolution, he not only continued in the practice of
+it all his life, but on his death laid the strongest injunctions on his
+descendants to do so, to the end of the world."
+
+Some tribes of the Africans, however, when they have engaged themselves
+in the protection of a stranger, are remarkable for fidelity. Many of
+them are conspicuous for their temperance, hospitality, and several
+other virtues.
+
+Their women, upon the whole, are far from being indelicate or unchaste.
+On the banks of the Niger, they are tolerably industrious, have a
+considerable share of vivacity, and at the same time a female reserve,
+which would do no discredit to a politer country. They are modest,
+affable, and faithful; an air of innocence appears in their looks and in
+their language, which gives a beauty to their whole deportment.
+
+When, from the Niger, we approach toward the East, the African women
+degenerate in stature, complexion, sensibility, and chastity. Even their
+language, like their features, and the soil they inhabit, is harsh and
+disagreeable. Their pleasures resemble more the transports of fury, than
+the gentle emotions communicated by agreeable sensations.
+
+
+GREAT ENTERPRISES OF WOMEN IN THE TIMES OF CHIVALRY.
+
+The times and the manners of chivalry, by bringing great enterprises,
+bold adventures, and extravagant heroism into fashion, inspired the
+women with the same taste.
+
+The two sexes always imitate each other. Their manners and their minds
+are refined or corrupted, invigorated or dissolved together.
+
+The women, in consequence of the prevailing passion, were now seen in
+the middle of camps and of armies. They quitted the soft and tender
+inclinations, and the delicate offices of their own sex, for the
+courage, and the toilsome occupations of ours.
+
+During the crusades, animated by the double enthusiasm of religion and
+of valor, they often performed the most romantic exploits. They
+obtained indulgences on the field of battle, and died with arms in their
+hands, by the side of their lovers, or of their husbands.
+
+In Europe, the women attacked and defended fortifications. Princesses
+commanded their armies, and obtained victories.
+
+Such was the celebrated Joan de Mountfort, disputing for her duchy of
+Bretagne, and engaging the enemy herself.
+
+Such was the still more celebrated Margaret of Anjou, queen of England
+and wife of Henry VI. She was active and intrepid, a general and a
+soldier. Her genius for a long time supported her feeble husband, taught
+him to conquer, replaced him upon the throne, twice relieved him from
+prison, and though oppressed by fortune and by rebels, she did not
+yield, till she had decided in person twelve battles.
+
+The warlike spirit among the women, consistent with ages of barbarism,
+when every thing is impetuous because nothing is fixed, and when all
+excess is the excess of force, continued in Europe upwards of four
+hundred years, showing itself from time to time, and always in the
+middle of convulsions, or on the eve of great revolutions.
+
+But there were eras and countries, in which that spirit appeared with
+particular lustre. Such were the displays it made in the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries in Hungary, and in the Islands of the Archipelago
+and the Mediterranean, when they were invaded by the Turks.
+
+Every thing conspired to animate the women of those countries with an
+exalted courage; the prevailing spirit of the foregoing ages; the terror
+which the name of the Turks inspired; the still more dreadful
+apprehensions of an unknown enemy; the difference of _dress_, which has
+a stronger _effect_ than is commonly supposed on the imagination of a
+people; the difference of religion, which produced a kind of sacred
+horror; the striking difference of manners; and above all, the
+confinement of the female sex, which presented to the women of Europe
+nothing but the frightful ideas of servitude and a master; the groans of
+honor, the tears of beauty in the embrace of barbarism, and the double
+tyranny of love and pride!
+
+The contemplation of these objects, accordingly, roused in the hearts of
+the women a resolute courage to defend themselves; nay, sometimes even a
+courage of enthusiasm, which hurled itself against the enemy.--That
+courage, too, was augmented, by the promises of a religion, which
+offered eternal happiness in exchange for the sufferings of a moment.
+
+It is not therefore surprising, that when three beautiful women of the
+isle of Cyprus were led prisoners to Selim, to be secluded in the
+seraglio, one of them, preferring death to such a condition, conceived
+the project of setting fire to the magazine; and after having
+communicated her design to the rest, put it in execution.
+
+The year following, a city of Cyprus being besieged by the Turks, the
+women ran in crowds, mingling themselves with the soldiers, and,
+fighting gallantly in the breach, were the means of saving their
+country.
+
+Under Mahomet II. a girl of the isle of Lemnos, armed with the sword and
+shield of her father, who had fallen in battle, opposed the Turks, when
+they had forced a gate, and chased them to the shore.
+
+In the two celebrated sieges of Rhodes and Malta, the women, seconding
+the zeal of the knights, discovered upon all occasions the greatest
+intrepidity; not only that impetuous and temporary impulse which
+despises death, but that cool and deliberate fortitude which can support
+the continued hardships, the toils, and the miseries of war.
+
+
+OTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING FEMALES DURING THE AGE OF CHIVALRY.
+
+When a man had said any thing that reflected dishonor on a woman, or
+accused her of a crime, she was not obliged to fight him to prove her
+innocence: the combat would have been unequal. But she might choose a
+champion to fight in her cause, or expose himself to the horrid trial,
+in order to clear her reputation. Such champions were generally selected
+from her lovers or friends. But if she fixed upon any other, so high was
+the spirit of martial glory, and so eager the thirst of defending the
+weak and helpless sex, that we meet with no instance of a champion ever
+having refused to fight for, or undergo whatever custom required, in
+defence of the lady who had honored him with the appointment.
+
+To the motives already mentioned, we may add another. He who had
+refused, must inevitably have been branded with the name of coward: and,
+so despicable was the condition of a coward, in those times of general
+heroism, that death itself appeared the more preferable choice. Nay,
+such was the rage of fighting for women, that it became customary for
+those who could not be honored with the decision of their real quarrels,
+to create fictitious ones concerning them, in order to create also a
+necessity of fighting.
+
+Nor was fighting for the ladies confined to single combatants. Crowds of
+gallants entered the lists against each other. Even kings called out
+their subjects, to shew their love for their mistresses, by cutting the
+throats of their neighbors, who had not in the least offended.
+
+In the fourteenth century, when the Countess of Blois and the widow of
+Mountford were at war against each other, a conference was agreed to, on
+pretence of settling a peace, but in reality to appoint a combat.
+Instead of negotiating, they soon challenged each other; and Beaumanoir,
+who was at the head of the Britons, publicly declared that they fought
+for no other motive, than to see, by the victory, who had the fairest
+mistress.
+
+In the fifteenth century, we find an anecdote of this kind still more
+extraordinary. John, duke de Bourbonnois, published a declaration, that
+he would go over to England, with sixteen knights, and there fight it
+out, in order to avoid idleness, and merit the good graces of his
+mistress.
+
+James IV. of Scotland, having, in all tournaments, professed himself
+knight to queen Anne of France, she summoned him to prove himself her
+true and valorous champion, by taking the field in her defence, against
+his brother-in-law, Henry VIII. of England. He obeyed the romantic
+mandate; and the two nations bled to feed the vanity of a woman.
+
+Warriors, when ready to engage, invoked the aid of their mistresses, as
+poets do that of the Muses. If they fought valiantly, it reflected honor
+on the Dulcineas they adored; but if they turned their backs on their
+enemies, the poor ladies were dishonored forever.
+
+Love, was at that time, the most prevailing motive to fighting. The
+famous Gaston de Foix, who commanded the French troops at the battle of
+Ravenna, took advantage of this foible of his army. He rode from rank to
+rank, calling his officers by name, and even some of his private men,
+recommending to them their country, their honor, and, above all, to shew
+what they could do for their mistresses.
+
+The women of those ages, the reader may imagine, were certainly more
+completely happy than in any other period of the world. This, however,
+was not in reality the case.
+
+Custom, which governs all things with the most absolute sway, had,
+through a long succession of years, given her sanction to such combats
+as were undertaken, either to defend the innocence, or display the
+beauty of women. Custom, therefore, either obliged a man to fight for a
+woman who desired him, or marked the refusal with infamy and disgrace.
+But custom did not oblige him, in every other part of his conduct, to
+behave to this woman, or to the sex in general, with that respect and
+politeness which have happily distinguished the character of more modern
+times.
+
+The same man who would have encountered giants, or gigantic
+difficulties, "when a lady was in the case," had but little idea of
+adding to her happiness, by supplying her with the comforts and
+elegancies of life. And, had she asked him to stoop, and ease her of a
+part of that domestic slavery which, almost in every country, falls to
+the lot of women, he would have thought himself quite affronted.
+
+But besides, men had nothing else, in those ages, than that kind of
+romantic gallantry to recommend them. Ignorant of letters, arts, and
+sciences, and every thing that refines human nature, they were, in every
+thing where gallantry was not concerned, rough and unpolished in their
+manners and behavior. Their time was spent in drinking, war, gallantry,
+and idleness. In their hours of relaxation, they were but little in
+company with their women; and when they were, the indelicacies of the
+carousal, or the cruelties of the field, were almost the only subjects
+they had to talk of.
+
+From the subversion of the Roman empire, to the fourteenth or fifteenth
+century, women spent most of their time alone. They were almost entire
+strangers to the joys of social life. They seldom went abroad, but to be
+spectators of such public diversions and amusements as the fashion of
+the times countenanced. Francis I. was the first monarch who introduced
+them on public days to court.
+
+Before his time, nothing was to be seen at any of the courts of Europe,
+but long bearded politicians, plotting the destruction of the rights and
+liberties of mankind; and warriors clad in complete armor, ready to put
+their plots in execution.
+
+In the eighth century, so slavish was the condition of women on the one
+hand, and so much was beauty coveted on the other, that, for about two
+hundred years, the kings of Austria were obliged to pay a tribute to the
+Moors, of one hundred beautiful virgins per annum.
+
+In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, elegance had scarcely any
+existence, and even cleanliness was hardly considered as laudable. The
+use of linen was not known; and the most delicate of the fair sex wore
+woollen shifts.
+
+In the time of Henry VIII. the peers of the realm carried their wives
+behind them on horseback when they went to London; and, in the same
+manner, took them back to their country seats, with hoods of waxed linen
+over their heads, and wrapped in mantles of cloth, to secure them from
+the cold.
+
+There was one misfortune of a singular nature, to which women were
+liable in those days: they were in perpetual danger of being accused of
+witchcraft, and suffering all the cruelties and indignities of a mob,
+instigated by superstition and directed by enthusiasm; or of being
+condemned by laws, which were at once a disgrace to humanity and to
+sense. Even the bloom of youth and beauty could not secure them from
+torture and from death. But when age and wrinkles attacked a woman, if
+any thing uncommon happened in her neighborhood, she was almost sure of
+atoning with her life for a crime it was impossible for her to commit.
+
+
+FRENCH WOMEN.
+
+Though the ladies of France are not very handsome, they are sensible and
+witty. To many of them, without the least flattery, may be applied the
+distich which Sappho ascribes to herself:
+
+"_If partial nature has denied me beauty, the charms of my mind amply
+make up for the deficiency._"
+
+No women upon earth can excel, and few rival them, in their almost
+native arts of pleasing all who approach them. Add to this, an education
+beyond that of most European ladies, a consummate skill in those
+accomplishments that suit the fair sex, and the most graceful manner of
+displaying that knowledge to the utmost advantage.
+
+Such is the description that may safely be given of the French ladies in
+general. But the spirit, or rather the _evil genius_ of gallantry, too
+often perverts all these lovely qualities, and renders them subservient
+to very iniquitous ends.
+
+In every country, women have always a little to do, and a great deal to
+say. In France, they dictate almost every thing that is said, and direct
+every thing that is done. They are the most restless beings in the
+world. To fold her hands in idleness, and impose silence on her tongue,
+would be to a French woman worse than death. The sole joy of her life is
+to be engaged in the prosecution of some scheme, relating either to
+fashion, ambition, or love.
+
+Among the rich and opulent, they are entirely the votaries of pleasure,
+which they pursue through all its labyrinths, at the expense of fortune,
+reputation, and health. Giddy and extravagant to the last degree, they
+leave to their husbands economy and care, which would only spoil their
+complexions, and furrow their brows.
+
+When we descend to tradesmen and mechanics, the case is reversed: the
+wife manages every thing in the house and shop, while the husband
+lounges in the back-shop an idle spectator, or struts about with his
+sword and bag-wig.
+
+Matrimony among the French, seems to be a bargain entered into by a male
+and female, to bear the same name, live in the same house, and pursue
+their separate pleasures without restraint or control. And, so
+religiously is this part of the bargain kept, that both parties shape
+their course exactly as convenience and inclination dictate.
+
+The French girls are kept under very strict superintendence. They are
+not allowed to go to parties, or places of public amusement, without
+being accompanied by some married female relation; and they see their
+lovers only in the presence of a third person. Marriages are entirely
+negotiated by parents; and sometimes the wedding day is the second time
+that a bride and bridegroom see each other. Nothing is more common than
+to visit a lady, and attend her parties, without knowing her husband by
+sight; or to visit a gentleman without ever being introduced to his
+wife. If a married couple were to be seen frequently in each other's
+company, they would be deemed extremely ungenteel. After ladies are
+married, they have unbounded freedom. It is a common practice to receive
+morning calls from gentlemen, before they have risen from bed; and they
+talk with as little reserve to such visiters, as they would in the
+presence of any woman of refinement.
+
+In no country does real politeness shew itself more than in France,
+where the company of the women is accessible to every man who can
+recommend himself by his dress, and by his address. To affectation and
+prudery the French women are equally strangers. Easy and unaffected in
+their manners, their politeness has so much the appearance of nature,
+that one would almost believe no part of it to be the effect of art. An
+air of sprightliness and gaiety sits perpetually on their countenances,
+and their whole deportment seems to indicate that their only business is
+to "strew the path of life with flowers." Persuasion hangs on their
+lips; and, though their volubility of tongue is indefatigable, so soft
+is their accent, so lively their expression, so various their attitudes,
+that they fix the attention for hours together on a tale of nothing.
+
+The Jewish doctors have a fable concerning the etymology of the word
+Eve, which one would almost be tempted to say is realized in the French
+women. "Eve," say they, "comes from a word, which signifies to talk; and
+she was so called, because, soon after the creation, there fell from
+heaven twelve baskets full of chit chat, and she picked up _nine_ of
+them, while her husband was gathering the other _three_."
+
+French ladies, especially those not young, use a great deal of rouge. A
+traveller who saw many of them in their opera boxes, says, "I could
+compare them to nothing but a large bed of pionies."
+
+After the French revolution, it became the fashion to have everything in
+ancient classic style. Loose flowing drapery, naked arms, sandaled feet,
+and tresses twisted, were the order of the day.
+
+The state of gross immorality that prevailed at this time ought not to
+be described, if language had the power. The profligacy of Rome in its
+worst days was comparatively thrown into the shade. Religion and
+marriage became a mockery, and every form of impure and vindictive
+passion walked abroad, with the consciousness that public opinion did
+not require them to assume even a slight disguise. The fish-women of
+Paris will long retain an unenviable celebrity for the brutal excess of
+their rage. The goddess of Reason was worshipped by men, under the form
+of a living woman entirely devoid of clothing; and in the public streets
+ladies might be seen who scarcely paid more attention to decorum.
+
+
+ITALIAN WOMEN.
+
+Dr Goldsmith thus characterises the Italians in general:
+
+    "Could nature's bounty satisfy the breast,
+  The sons of Italy were surely blest.
+  Whatever fruits in different climes are found,
+  That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground;
+  Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,
+  Whose bright succession decks the varied year:
+  Whatever sweets salute the northern sky,
+  With vernal leaves that blossom but to die:
+  These here disporting, own the kindred soil,
+  Nor ask luxuriance from their planter's toil;
+  While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand,
+  To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
+
+    "But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,
+  And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.
+  In florid beauty groves and fields appear,
+  Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
+  Contrasted faults thro' all his manners rein;
+  Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain;
+  Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue;
+  And e'en in penance planning sins anew.
+  All evils here contaminate the mind,
+  That opulence departed leaves behind:
+  For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the date,
+  When commerce proudly flourish'd thro' the state;
+  At her command the palace learn'd to rise,
+  Again the long fall'n column sought the skies;
+  The canvass glow'd, beyond e'en nature warm;
+  The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
+  Till, more unsteady then the southern gale,
+  Commerce on other shores display'd her sail;
+  While naught remain'd of all that riches gave,
+  But towns unmann'd, and lords without a slave;
+  And late the nation found, with fruitless skill,
+  Its former strength was but plethoric ill.
+
+    "Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied
+  By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride;
+  From them the feeble heart and long fall'n mind
+  An easy compensation seem to find.
+  Here may be seen in bloodless pomp array'd,
+  The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade;
+  Processions form'd from piety and love,
+  A mistress or a saint in every grove."
+
+Almost every traveller who has visited Italy, agrees in describing it as
+the most abandoned of all the countries of Europe. At Venice, at Naples,
+and indeed in almost every port of Italy, women are taught from their
+infancy the various arts of alluring to their arms the young and unwary,
+and of obtaining from them, while heated by love or wine, every thing
+that flattery and false smiles can obtain, in these unguarded moments.
+
+The Italians, like their neighbors of Spain and Portugal, live under the
+paralyzing influence of a religion that retains its superstitious forms,
+while little of life-giving faith remains. Like them they have lively
+passions, are extremely susceptible, and in the general conduct of life
+more governed by the impetuosity of impulse than rectitude of principle.
+The ladies have less gravity than the Spanish, and less frivolity than
+the French, and in their style of dress incline towards the freedom of
+the latter. Some of the richest and most commodious convents of Europe
+are in Italy. The daughters of wealthy families are generally bestowed
+in marriage as soon as they leave these places of education. These
+matters are entirely arranged by parents and guardians, and youth and
+age are not unfrequently joined together, for the sake of uniting
+certain acres of land. But the affections, thus repressed, seek their
+natural level by indirect courses. It is a rare thing for an Italian
+lady to be without her _cavaliere servente_, or lover, who spends much
+of his time at her house, attends her to all public places, and appears
+to live upon her smiles. The old maxim of the Provençal troubadours,
+that matrimony ought to be no hindrance to such _liaisons_, seems to be
+generally and practically believed in Italy.
+
+In Genoa, there are marriage-brokers, who have pocketbooks filled with
+the names of marriageable girls of different classes, with an account of
+their fortunes, personal attractions, &c. When they succeed in
+arranging connections, they have two or three per cent. commission on
+the portion. The marriage-contract is often drawn up before the parties
+have seen each other. If a man dislikes the appearances or manners of
+his future partner, he may break off the match, on condition of paying
+the brokerage and other expenses.
+
+
+SPANISH WOMEN.
+
+As the Spanish ladies are under a greater seclusion from general
+society, than the sex is in other European countries, their desires of
+an adequate degree of liberty are consequently more strong and urgent. A
+free and open communication being denied them, they make it their
+business to secure themselves a secret and hidden one. Hence it is that
+Spain is the country of intrigue.
+
+The Spanish women are little or nothing indebted to education. But
+nature has liberally supplied them with a fund of wit and sprightliness,
+which is certainly no small inducement to those, who have only transient
+glimpses of their charms, to wish very earnestly for a removal of those
+impediments, that obstruct their more frequent presence. This not being
+attainable in a lawful way of customary intercourse, the natural
+propensity of men to overcome difficulties of this kind, incites them to
+leave no expedient untried to gain admittance to what perhaps was at
+first only the object of their admiration, but which, by their being
+refused an innocent gratification of that passion, becomes at last the
+subject of a more serious one. Thus in Spain, as in all countries where
+the sex is kept much out of sight, the thoughts of men are continually
+employed in devising methods to break into their concealments.
+
+There is in the Spaniards a native dignity; which, though the source of
+many inconveniences, has nevertheless this salutary effect, that it sets
+them above almost every species of meanness and infidelity. This quality
+is not peculiar to the men; it diffuses itself, in a great measure,
+among the women also. Its effects are visible both in their constancy in
+love and friendship, in which respects they are the very reverse of the
+French women. Their affections are not to be gained by a bit of
+sparkling lace, or a tawdry set of liveries. Their deportment is rather
+grave and reserved; and, on the whole, they have much more of the prude
+than the coquette in their composition. Being more confined at home, and
+less engaged in business and pleasure, they take more care of their
+children than the French, and have a becoming tenderness in their
+disposition to all animals, except a _heretic_ and a _rival_.
+
+Something more than a century ago, the Marquis D'Astrogas having
+prevailed on a young woman of great beauty to become his mistress, the
+Marchioness hearing of it, went to her lodging with some assassins,
+killed her, tore out her heart, carried it home, made a _ragout_ of it,
+and presented the dish to the Marquis. "It it exceedingly good," said
+he. "No wonder," answered she, "since it was made of the _heart_ of that
+creature you so much doated on." And, to confirm what she had said, she
+immediately drew out her head all bloody from beneath her hoop, and
+rolled it on the floor, her eyes sparkling all the time with a mixture
+of pleasure and infernal fury.
+
+A lady to whom a gentleman pays his addresses, is sole mistress of his
+time and money; and, should he refuse her any request, whether
+reasonable or capricious, it would reflect eternal dishonor upon him
+among the men, and make him the detestation of all the women.
+
+But, in no situation does their character appear so whimsical, or their
+power so conspicuous, as when they are pregnant. In this case, whatever
+they long for, whatever they ask, or whatever they have an inclination
+to do, they must be indulged in.
+
+
+ENGLISH WOMEN.
+
+The women of England are eminent for many good qualities both of the
+head and of the heart. There we meet with that inexpressible softness
+and delicacy of manners, which, cultivated by education, appears as much
+superior to what it does without it, as the polished diamond appears
+superior to that which is rough from the mine. In some parts of the
+world, women have attained to so little knowledge and so little
+consequence, that we consider their virtues as merely of the negative
+kind. In England they consist not only in abstinence from evil, but in
+doing good.
+
+There we see the sex every day exerting themselves in acts of
+benevolence and charity, in relieving the distresses of the body, and
+binding up the wounds of the mind; in reconciling the differences of
+friends, and preventing the strife of enemies; and, to sum up all, in
+that care and attention to their offspring, which is so necessary and
+essential a part of their duty.
+
+A woman may succeed to the throne of England with the same power and
+privileges as a king; and the business of the state is transacted in her
+name, while her husband is only a subject. The king's wife is considered
+as a subject; but is exempted from the law which forbids any married
+woman to possess property in her own right during the lifetime of her
+husband; she may sue any person at law without joining her husband in
+the suit; may buy and sell lands without his interference; and she may
+dispose of her property by will, as if she were a single woman. She
+cannot be fined by any court of law; but is liable to be tried and
+punished for crimes by peers of the realm. The queen dowager enjoys
+nearly the same privileges that she did before she became a widow; and
+if she marries a subject still continues to retain her rank and title;
+but such marriages cannot take place without permission from the
+reigning sovereign. A woman who is noble in her own right, retains her
+title when she marries a man of inferior rank; but if ennobled by her
+husband, she loses the title by marrying a commoner. A peeress can only
+be tried by a jury of peers.
+
+In old times, a woman who was convicted of being a common mischief-maker
+and scold, was sentenced to the punishment of the ducking-stool; which
+consisted of a sort of chair fastened to a pole, in which she was seated
+and repeatedly let down into the water, amid the shouts of the rabble.
+At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a woman convicted of the same offence was led
+about the streets by the hangman, with an instrument of iron bars fitted
+on her head, like a helmet. A piece of sharp iron entered the mouth, and
+severely pricked the tongue whenever the culprit attempted to move it.
+
+A great deal of vice prevails in England, among the very fashionable,
+and the very low classes. Misconduct and divorces are not unfrequent
+among the former, because their mode of life corrupts their principles,
+and they deem themselves above the jurisdiction of popular opinion; the
+latter feel as if they were beneath the influence of public censure, and
+find it very difficult to be virtuous, on account of extreme poverty,
+and the consequent obstructions in the way of marriage. But the general
+character of English women is modest, reserved, sincere, and dignified.
+They have strong passions and affections, which often develope
+themselves in the most beautiful forms of domestic life. They are in
+general remarkable for a healthy appearance, and an exquisite bloom of
+complexion. Perhaps the world does not present a lovelier or more
+graceful picture than the English home of a virtuous family.
+
+
+RUSSIAN WOMEN.
+
+It is only a few years since the Russians emerged from a state of
+barbarity.
+
+A late empress of Russia, as a punishment for some female frailties,
+ordered a most beautiful young lady of family to be publicly chastised,
+in a manner which was hardly less indelicate than severe.
+
+It is said that the Russian ladies were formerly as submissive to their
+husbands in their families, as the latter are to their superiors in the
+field; and that they thought themselves ill treated, if they were not
+often reminded of their duty by the discipline of a _whip_, manufactured
+by themselves, which they presented to their husbands on the day of
+their marriage. The latest travellers, however, assert, that they find
+no remaining traces of this custom at present.
+
+Russian fathers, of all classes, generally arrange marriages for their
+children, without consulting their inclinations. Among the peasantry, if
+the girl has the name of being a good housewife, her parents will not
+fail to have applications for her, whatever may be her age or personal
+endowments. As soon as a young man is old enough to be married, his
+parents seek a wife for him, and all is settled before the young couple
+know any thing of the matter.
+
+Their nuptial ceremonies are peculiar to themselves; and formerly
+consisted of many whimsical rites, some of which are now disused. On her
+wedding day, the bride is crowned with a garland of wormwood; and, after
+the priest has tied the nuptial knot, his clerk or sexton throws a
+handful of hops upon the head of the bride, wishing that she might prove
+as fruitful as that plant. She is then led home, with abundance of
+coarse ceremonies, which are now wearing off even among the lowest
+ranks; and the barbarous treatment of wives by their husbands is either
+guarded against by the laws of the country, or by particular
+stipulations in the marriage contract.
+
+In the conversation and actions of the Russian ladies, there is hardly
+any thing of that softness and delicacy which distinguishes the sex in
+other parts of Europe. Even their exercises and diversions have more of
+the masculine than the feminine. The present empress, with the ladies of
+her court, sometimes divert themselves by shooting at a mark.
+Drunkenness, the vice of almost every cold climate, they are so little
+ashamed of, that not many years ago, when a lady got drunk at the house
+of a friend, it was customary for her to return next day, and thank him
+for the pleasure he had done her.
+
+Females, however, in Russia, possess several advantages. They share the
+rank and splendor of the families from which they are sprung, and are
+even allowed the supreme authority. This a few years ago, was enjoyed by
+an empress, whose head did honor to her nation and to her sex; although,
+on some occasions, the virtues of her heart have been much suspected.
+The sex, in general, are protected from insult, by many salutary laws;
+and, except among the peasants, are exempted from every kind of toil and
+slavery. Upon the whole, they seem to be approaching fast to the
+enjoyment of that consequence, to which they have already arrived in
+several parts of Europe.
+
+
+THE IDEA OF FEMALE INFERIORITY.
+
+It is an opinion pretty well established, that in strength of mind, as
+well as of body, men are greatly superior to women.
+
+Men are endowed with boldness and courage, women are not. The reason is
+plain, these are beauties in our character; in theirs they would be
+blemishes. Our genius often leads to the great and the arduous; theirs
+to the soft and the pleasing; we bend our thoughts to make life
+convenient; they turn theirs to make it easy and agreeable. If the
+endowments allotted to us by nature could not be easily acquired by
+women, it would be as difficult for us to acquire those peculiarly
+allotted to them. Are we superior to them in what belongs to the male
+character? They are no less so to us, in what belongs to the female
+character.
+
+Would it not appear rather ludicrous to say, that a man was endowed only
+with inferior abilities, because he was not expert in the nursing of
+children, and practising the various effeminacies which we reckon lovely
+in a woman? Would it be reasonable to condemn him on these accounts?
+Just as reasonable, as it is to reckon women inferior to men, because
+their talents are in general not adapted to tread the horrid path of
+war, nor trace the mazes and intricacies of science.
+
+The idea of the inferiority of female nature has drawn after it several
+others the most absurd, unreasonable, and humiliating to the sex. Such
+is the pride of man, that in some countries he has considered
+immortality as a distinction too glorious for women. Thus degrading the
+fair partners of his nature, he places them on a level with the beasts
+that perish.
+
+As the Asiatics have, time immemorial, considered women as little better
+than slaves, this opinion probably originated among them. The
+Mahometans, both in Asia and Europe, are said, by a great variety of
+writers, to entertain this opinion.
+
+Lady Montague, in her letters, has opposed this general assertion of the
+writers concerning the Mahometans; and says that they do not absolutely
+deny the existence of female souls, but only hold them to be of a
+nature inferior to those of men; and that they enter not into the same,
+but into an inferior paradise, prepared for them on purpose. Lady
+Montague, and the writers whom she has contradicted, may perhaps be both
+right. The former might be the opinion which the Turks brought with them
+from Asia; and the latter, as a refinement upon it they may have adopted
+by their intercourse with the Europeans.
+
+This opinion, however, has had but few votaries in Europe: though some
+have even here maintained it, and assigned various reasons for so doing.
+Among these, the following laughable reason is not the least
+particular--"In the Revelations of St. John the divine," said one, whose
+wife was a descendant of the famous Xantippe,[1] "you will find this
+passage: _And there was silence in heaven for about the space of half an
+hour_. Now, I appeal to any one, whether that could possibly have
+happened, had there been any women there? And, since there are none
+there, charity forbids us to imagine that they are all in a worse place;
+therefore it follows that they have no immortal part: and happy is it
+for them, as they are thereby exempted from being accountable for all
+the noise and disturbance they have raised in this world."
+
+In a very ancient treatise, called the Wisdom of all Times, ascribed to
+Hushang, one of the earliest kings of Persia, are the following
+remarkable words: "The passions of men may, by long acquaintance, be
+thoroughly known; but the passions of women are inscrutable; therefore
+they ought to be separated from men, lest the mutability of their
+tempers should infect others."
+
+Ideas of a similar nature seem to have been at this time, generally
+diffused over the East. For we find Solomon, almost every where in his
+writings, exclaiming against women; and, in the Apocrypha, the author of
+Ecclesiasticus is still more illiberal in his reflections.
+
+Both these authors, it is true, join in the most enraptured manner to
+praise a virtuous woman; but take care at the same time to let us know,
+that she is so great a rarity as to be very seldom met with.
+
+Nor have the Asiatics alone been addicted to this illiberality of
+thinking concerning the sex. Satirists of all ages and countries, while
+they flattered them to their faces, have from their closets scattered
+their spleen and ill-nature against them. Of this the Greek and Roman
+poets afford a variety of instances; but they must nevertheless yield
+the palm to some of our moderns. In the following lines, Pope has
+outdone every one of them:
+
+  "Men some to pleasure, some to business take;
+  But every woman is at heart--a rake."
+
+Swift and Dr Young have hardly been behind this celebrated splenetic in
+illiberality. They perhaps were not favorites of the fair, and in
+revenge vented all their envy and spleen against them. But a more modern
+and accomplished writer who by his rank in life, by his natural and
+acquired _graces_, was undoubtedly a favorite, has repaid their kindness
+by taking every opportunity of exhibiting them in the most contemptible
+light. "Almost every man," says he, "may be gained some way, almost
+every woman any way, can any thing exhibit a stronger caution to the
+sex?" It is fraught with information; and it is to be hoped they will
+use it accordingly.
+
+    [1] Xantippe, was the wife of Socrates, and the most famous scold
+        of antiquity.
+
+
+FEMALE SIMPLICITY.
+
+Would we conceive properly of that simplicity which is the sweetest
+expression of a well-informed and well-meaning mind, which every where
+diffuses tenderness and delicacy, sweetens the relations of life, and
+gives a zest to the minutest duties of humanity, let us contemplate
+every perceptible operation of nature, the twilight of the evening, the
+pearly dew-drops of the early morning, and all that various growth which
+indicates the genial return of spring. The same principle from which all
+that is soft and pleasing, amiable or exquisite, to the eye or to the
+ear, in the exterior frame of nature, produces that taste for true
+simplicity, which is one of the most useful, as well as the most elegant
+lessons, that _ladies_ can learn.
+
+Infancy, is perhaps, the finest and most perfect illustration of
+simplicity. It is a state of genuine nature throughout. The feelings of
+children are under no kind of restraint, but pure as the fire, free as
+the winds, honest and open as the face of heaven. Their joys incessantly
+flow in the thickest succession, and their griefs only seem fleeting and
+evanescent. To the calls of nature they are only attentive. They know no
+voice but hers. Their obedience to all her commands is prompt and
+implicit. They never anticipate her bounties, nor relinquish her
+pleasures. This situation renders them independent of artifice.
+Influenced only by nature, their manners, like the principle that
+produces them, are always the same.
+
+Genuine simplicity is that peculiar quality of the mind, by which some
+happy characters are enabled to avoid the most distant approaches to any
+thing like affectation, inconstancy, or design, in their intercourse
+with the world. It is much more easily understood, however than defined;
+and consists not in a specific tone of the voice, movement of the body,
+or mode imposed by custom, but is the natural and permanent effect of
+real modesty and good sense on the whole behavior.
+
+This has been considered in all ages, as one of the first and most
+captivating ornaments of the sex. The savage, the plebeian, the man of
+the world, and the courtier, are agreed in stamping it with a preference
+to every other female excellence.
+
+Nature only is lovely, and nothing unnatural can ever be amiable. The
+genuine expressions of truth and nature are happily calculated to
+impress the heart with pleasure. No woman, whatever her other qualities
+may be, was ever eminently agreeable, but in proportion as
+distinguished by these. The world is good-natured enough to give a lady
+credit for all the merit she can possess or acquire, without
+affectation. But the least shade or coloring of this odious foible
+brings certain and indelible obloquy on the most elegant
+accomplishments. The blackest suspicion inevitably rests on every thing
+assumed. She who is only an ape of others, or prefers formality in all
+its gigantic and preposterous shapes, to that plain, unembarassed
+conduct which nature unavoidably produces, will assuredly provoke an
+abundance of ridicule, but never can be an object either of love or
+esteem.
+
+The various artifices of the sex discover themselves at a very early
+period. A passion for expense and show is one of the first they exhibit.
+This gives them a taste for refinement, which divests their young hearts
+of almost every other feeling, renders their tempers desultory and
+capricious, regulates their dress only by the most fantastic models of
+finery and fashion, and makes their company rather tiresome and awkward,
+than pleasing or elegant.
+
+No one perhaps can form a more ludicrous contrast to every thing just
+and graceful in nature, than the woman whose sole object in life is to
+pass for a _fine lady_. The attentions she every where and uniformly
+pays, expects, and even exacts, are tedious and fatiguing. Her various
+movements and attitudes are all adjusted and exhibited by rule. By a
+happy fluency of the most eloquent language, she has the art of
+imparting a momentary dignity and grace to the merest trifles. Studious
+only to mimic such peculiarities as are most admired in others, she
+affects a loquacity peculiarly flippant and teazing because scandal,
+routs, finery, fans, china, lovers, lap-dogs, or squirrels, are her
+constant themes. Her amusements, like those of a magpie, are only
+hopping over the same spots, prying into the same corners, and devouring
+the same species of prey. The simple and beautiful delineations of
+nature, in her countenance, gestures and whole deportment, are
+habitually arranged, distorted, or concealed, by the affected adoption
+of whatever grimace or deformity is latest or most in vogue.
+
+She accustoms her face to a simper, which every separate feature in it
+belies. She spoils, perhaps, a blooming complexion with a profusion of
+artificial coloring, she distorts the most exquisite shape by loads or
+volumes of useless drapery. She has her head, her arms, her feet, and
+her gait, equally touched by art and affectation, into what is called
+the _taste_, the _ton_, or the _fashion_.
+
+She little considers to what a torrent of ridicule and sarcasm this mode
+of conduct exposes her; or how exceedingly cold and hollow that ceremony
+must be, which is not the language of a warm heart. She does not reflect
+how insipid those smiles are, which indicate no internal pleasantry; nor
+how awkward those graces, which spring not from habits of good-nature
+and benevolence. Thus, pertness succeeds to delicacy, assurance to
+modesty, and all the vagaries of a listless to the sensibilities of an
+ingenuous mind.
+
+With her, punctilio is politeness; dissipation, life; and levity,
+spirit. The miserable and contemptible drudge of every tawdry innovation
+in dress or ceremony, she incessantly mistakes extravagance for taste,
+and finery for elegance.
+
+Her favorite examples are not those persons of acknowledged sincerity,
+who speak as they feel, and act as they think; but such only as are
+formed to dazzle her fancy, amuse her senses, or humor her whims. Her
+only study is how to glitter or shine, how to captivate and gratify the
+gaze of the multitude, or how to swell her own pomp and importance. To
+this interesting object all her assiduities and time are religiously
+devoted.
+
+How often is debility of mind, and even badness of heart concealed under
+a splendid exterior! The fairest of the species, and of the sex, often
+want sincerity; and without sincerity every other qualification is
+rather a blemish, than a virtue, or excellence. Sincerity operates on
+the moral, somewhat like the sun on the natural world; and produces
+nearly the same effects on the dispositions of the human heart, which he
+does on inanimate objects. Wherever sincerity prevails and is felt, all
+the smiling and benevolent virtues flourish most, disclose their
+sweetest lustre, and diffuse their richest fragrance.
+
+Heaven has not a finer or more perfect emblem on earth than a woman of
+genuine simplicity. She affects no graces which are not inspired by
+sincerity. Her opinions result not from passion and fancy, but from
+reason and experience. Candor and humility give expansion to her heart.
+She struggles for no kind of chimerical credit, disclaims the appearance
+of every affectation, and is in all things just what she seems, and
+others would be thought. Nature, not art, is the great standard of her
+manners; and her exterior wears no varnish, or embellishment, which is
+not the genuine signature of an open, undesigning, and benevolent mind.
+It is not in her power, because not in her nature, to hide, with a
+fawning air, and a mellow voice, her aversion or contempt, where her
+delicacy is hurt, here temper ruffled, or her feelings insulted.
+
+In short, whatever appears most amiable, lovely, or interesting in
+nature, art, manners, or life, originates in simplicity. What is
+correctness in taste, purity in morals, truth in science, grace in
+beauty, but simplicity? It is the garb of innocence. It adorned the
+first ages, and still adorns the infant state of humanity. Without
+simplicity, woman is a vixen, a coquette, a hypocrite; society a
+masquerade, and pleasure a phantom.
+
+The following story, I believe, is pretty generally known. A lady, whose
+husband had long been afflicted with an acute but lingering disease,
+suddenly feigned such an uncommon _tenderness_ for him, as to resolve on
+dying in his stead. She had even the address to persuade him not to
+outlive this extraordinary instance of her conjugal fidelity and
+attachment. It was instantaneously agreed they should mutually swallow
+such a quantity of arsenic, as would speedily effect their dreadful
+purpose. She composed the fatal draught before his face and even set him
+the desperate example of drinking first. By this device, which had all
+the appearance of the greatest affection and candor, the dregs only were
+reserved for him, and soon put a period to his life.
+
+It then appeared that the dose was so tempered, as, from the weight of
+the principal ingredient, to be deadly only at the bottom, which she had
+artfully appropriated for his share. Even after all this finesse, she
+seized, we are told, his inheritance, and insulted his memory by a
+second marriage.
+
+
+THE MILD MAGNANIMITY OF WOMEN.
+
+A late eminent anatomist, in a professional discourse on the female
+frame, is said to have declared, that it almost appeared an act of
+cruelty in nature to produce such a being as woman. This remark may,
+indeed, be the natural exclamation of refined sensibility, in
+contemplating the various maladies to which a creature of such delicate
+organs is inevitably exposed; but, if we take a more enlarged survey of
+human existence, we shall be far from discovering any just reason to
+arraign the benevolence of its provident and gracious Author. If the
+delicacy of woman must render her familiar with pain and sickness, let
+us remember that her charms, her pleasures, and her happiness, arise
+also from the same attractive quality. She is a being, to use the
+forcible and elegant expression of a poet,
+
+  "Fine by defect, and admirably weak."
+
+There is, perhaps, no charm by which she more effectually secures the
+tender admiration and the lasting love, of the more hardy sex, than her
+superior endurance, her mild and _graceful_ submission to the common
+evils of life.
+
+Nor is this the sole advantage she derives from her gentle fortitude. It
+is the prerogative of this lovely virtue, to lighten the pressure of all
+those incorrigible evils which it cheerfully endures. The frame of man
+may be compared to the sturdy _oak_, which is often shattered by
+resisting the tempest. Woman is the pliant _osier_, which, in bending to
+the storm, eludes its violence.
+
+The accurate observers of human nature will readily allow, that patience
+is most eminently the characteristic of woman. To what a sublime and
+astonishing height this virtue has been carried by beings of the most
+delicate texture, we have striking examples in the many female martyrs
+who were exposed, in the first ages of christianity, to the most
+barbarous and lingering torture.
+
+Nor was it only from christian zeal that woman derived the power of
+defying the utmost rigors of persecution with invincible fortitude.
+Saint Ambrose, in his elaborate and pious treatise on this subject,
+records the resolution of a fair disciple of Pythagoras, who, being
+severely urged by a tyrant to reveal the secrets of her sex, to convince
+him that no torments should reduce her to so unworthy a breach of her
+vow, bit her own _tongue_ asunder, and darted it in the face of her
+oppressor.
+
+In consequence of those happy changes which have taken place in the
+world, from the progress of purified religion, the inexpressible spirit
+of the tender sex is no longer exposed to such inhuman trials. But if
+the earth is happily delivered from the demons of torture and
+superstition; if beauty and innocence are no more in danger of being
+dragged to perish at the stake--perhaps there are situations, in female
+life, that require as much patience and magnanimity, as were formerly
+exerted in the fiery torments of the virgin martyr. It is more difficult
+to support an accumulation of _minute_ infelicities, than any single
+calamity of the most terrific magnitude.
+
+
+FEMALE DELICACY.
+
+Where the human race has little other culture than what it receives from
+nature, the two sexes live together, unconscious of almost any restraint
+on their words or on their actions. The Greeks, in the heroic ages, as
+appears from the whole history of their conduct, were totally
+unacquainted with delicacy. The Romans in the infancy of their empire,
+were the same. Tacitus informs us that the ancient Germans had not
+separate beds for the two sexes, but that they lay promiscuously on
+reeds or on heath, spread along the walls of their houses. This custom
+still prevails in Lapland, among the peasants of Norway, Poland, and
+Russia; and it is not altogether obliterated in some parts of the
+highlands of Scotland and Wales.
+
+In Otaheite, to appear naked or in clothes, are circumstances equally
+indifferent to both sexes; nor does any word in their language, nor any
+action to which they are prompted by nature, seem more indelicate or
+reprehensible than another. Such are the effects of a total want of
+culture.
+
+Effects not very dissimilar, are, in France and Italy, produced from a
+redundance of it. Though those are the polite countries in Europe, women
+there set themselves above shame, and despise delicacy. It is laughed
+out of existence, as a silly and unfashionable weakness.
+
+But in China, one of the politest countries in Asia, and perhaps not
+even, in this respect, behind France, or Italy, the case is quite
+otherwise. No human being can be more delicate than a Chinese woman in
+her dress, in her behavior, and in her conversation; and should she ever
+happen to be exposed in any unbecoming manner, she feels with the
+greatest poignancy the awkwardness of her situation, and if possible,
+covers her face, that she may not be known.
+
+In the midst of so many discordant appearances, the mind is perplexed,
+and can hardly fix upon any cause to which female delicacy is to be
+ascribed. If we attend, however, to the whole animal creation, if we
+consider it attentively wherever it falls under our observation, it will
+discover to us, that in the female there is a greater degree of delicacy
+or coy reserve than in the male. Is not this a proof, that, through the
+wide extent of creation, the seeds of delicacy are more liberally
+bestowed upon females than upon males?
+
+In the remotest periods of which we have any historical account, we find
+that the women had a delicacy to which the other sex were strangers.
+Rebecca veiled herself when she first approached Isaac, her future
+husband. Many of the fables of antiquity mark, with the most
+distinguishing characters, the force of female delicacy. Of this kind is
+the fable of Actæon and Diana. Actæon, a famous hunter, being in the
+woods with his hounds, beating for game, accidentally spied Diana and
+her nymphs bathing in a river. Prompted by curiosity, he stole silently
+into a neighboring thicket, that he might have a nearer view of them.
+The goddess discovering him, was so affronted at his audacity, and so
+much ashamed to have been seen naked, that in revenge she immediately
+transformed him into a stag, set his own hounds upon him, and encouraged
+them to overtake and devour him. Besides this, and other fables, and
+historical anecdotes of antiquity, their poets seldom exhibit a female
+character without adorning it with the graces of modesty and delicacy.
+Hence we may infer, that these qualities have not been only essential to
+virtuous women in civilized countries, but were also constantly praised
+and esteemed by men of sensibility; and that delicacy is an innate
+principle in the female mind.
+
+There are so many evils attending the loss of virtue in women, and so
+greatly are the minds of that sex depraved when they have deviated from
+the path of rectitude, that a general contamination of their morals may
+be considered as one of the greatest misfortunes that can befal a state,
+as in time it destroys almost every public virtue of the men. Hence all
+wise legislators have strictly enforced upon the sex a particular purity
+of manners; and not satisfied that they should abstain from vice only,
+have required them even to shun every appearance of it.
+
+Such, in some periods, were the laws of the Romans; and such were the
+effects of these laws, that if ever female delicacy shone forth in a
+conspicuous manner, it was perhaps among those people, after they had
+worn off much of the barbarity of their first ages, and before they
+became contaminated, by the wealth and manners of the nations which they
+plundered and subjected. Then it was that we find many of their women
+surpassing in modesty almost every thing related by fable; and then it
+was that their ideas of delicacy were so highly refined, that they could
+not even bear the secret consciousness of an involuntary crime, and far
+less of having tacitly consented to it.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF FEMALE SOCIETY.
+
+The company of ladies has a very powerful influence on the sentiments
+and conduct of men. Women, the fruitful source of half our joys, and
+perhaps of _more_ than half our sorrows, give an elegance to our manner,
+and a relish to our pleasures. They soothe our afflictions, and soften
+our cares. Too much of their company will render us effeminate, and
+infallibly stamp upon us many signatures of the female nature. A rough
+and unpolished behavior, as well as slovenliness of person, will
+certainly be the consequence of an almost constant exclusion from it. By
+spending a reasonable portion of our time in the company of women, and
+another in the company of our own sex, we shall imbibe a proper share of
+the softness of the female, and at the same time retain the firmness and
+constancy of the male.
+
+As little social intercourse subsisted between the two sexes, in the
+more early ages of antiquity, we find the men less courteous, and the
+women less engaging. Vivacity and cheerfulness seem hardly to have
+existed. Even the Babylonians, who appear to have allowed their women
+more liberty than any of the ancients, seem not to have lived with them
+in a friendly and familiar manner. But, as their intercourse with them
+was considerably greater than that of the neighboring nations, they
+acquired thereby a polish and refinement unknown to any of the people
+who surrounded them. The manners of both sexes were softer, and better
+calculated to please.
+
+They likewise paid more attention to cleanliness and dress.
+
+After the Greeks became famous for their knowledge of the arts and
+sciences, their rudeness and barbarity were only softened a _few
+degrees_. It is not therefore arts, sciences, and _learning_, but the
+company of the other sex, that forms the manner and renders the man
+_agreeable_.
+
+The Romans were, for some time, a community without any thing to soften
+the ferocity of male nature. The Sabine virgins, whom they had stolen,
+appear to have infused into them the first ideas of politeness. But it
+was many ages before this politeness banished the roughness of the
+warrior, and assumed the refinement of the gentleman.
+
+During the times of chivalry, female influence was at the zenith of its
+glory and perfection. It was the source of valor, it gave birth to
+politeness, it awakened pity, it called forth benevolence, it restricted
+the hand of oppression, and meliorated the human heart. "I cannot
+approach my mistress," said one, "till I have done some glorious deed to
+deserve her notice. Actions should be the messengers of the heart; they
+are the homage due to beauty, and they only should discover love."
+
+Marsan, instructing a young knight how to behave so as to gain the favor
+of the fair, has these remarkable words:--"When your arm is raised, if
+your lance fail, draw your sword directly; and let heaven and hell
+resound with the clash. Lifeless is the soul which beauty cannot
+animate, and weak is the arm which cannot fight valiantly to defend it."
+
+The Russians, Poles, and even the Dutch, pay less attention to their
+females than any of their neighbors, and are, by consequence, less
+distinguished for the graces of their persons, and the feelings of their
+hearts.
+
+The lightness of their food, and the salubrity of their air, have been
+assigned as reasons for the vivacity and cheerfulness of the French, and
+their fortitude, in supporting their spirits through all the adverse
+circumstances of this world. But the constant mixture of the young and
+old, of the two sexes, is no doubt one of the _principal_ reasons why
+the cares and ills of life sit lighter on the shoulders of that
+fantastic people, than on those of any other country in the world.
+
+The French reckon an excursion dull, and a party of pleasure without
+relish, unless a mixture of both sexes join to compose in. The French
+women do not even withdraw from the table after meals; nor do the men
+discover that impatience to have them dismissed, which they so often do
+in England.
+
+It is alleged by those who have no relish for the conversation of the
+fair sex, that their presence curbs the freedom of speech, and
+restrains the jollity of mirth. But, if the conversation and the mirth
+are decent, if the company are capable of relishing any thing but wine,
+the very reverse is the case. Ladies, in general, are not only more
+cheerful than gentlemen, but more eager to promote mirth and good humor.
+
+So powerful, indeed, are the company and conversation of the fair, in
+diffusing happiness and hilarity, that even the cloud which hangs on the
+_thoughtful brow_ of an Englishman, begins in the present age to
+brighten, by his devoting to the ladies a larger share of time than was
+formerly done by his ancestors.
+
+Though the influence of the sexes be reciprocal, yet that of the ladies
+is certainly the greatest. How often may one see a company of men, who
+were disposed to be riotous, checked at once into decency by the
+accidental entrance of an amiable woman; while her good sense and
+obliging deportment charms them into at least a temporary conviction,
+that there is nothing so delightful as female conversation, in its
+best form! Were such conviction frequently repeated, what might we not
+expect from it at last?
+
+"Were virtue," said an ancient philosopher, "to appear amongst men in a
+visible shape, what vehement desires would she enkindle!" Virtue,
+exhibited without affectation, by a lovely young person, of improved
+understanding and gentle manners, may be said to appear with the most
+alluring aspect, surrounded by the _Graces_.
+
+It would be an easy matter to point out instances of the most evident
+reformation, wrought on particular men, by their having happily
+conceived a passion for virtuous women.
+
+To form the manners of men, various causes contribute; but nothing,
+perhaps, so much as the turn of the women with whom they converse. Those
+who are most conversant with women of virtue and understanding, will be
+always found the most amiable characters, other circumstances being
+supposed alike. Such society, beyond every thing else, rubs off the
+_corners_ that gives many of our sex an ungracious roughness. It
+produces a polish more perfect, and more pleasing than that which is
+received from a general commerce with the world. This last is often
+specious, but commonly superficial. The other is the result of gentler
+feelings, and more humanity. The heart itself is moulded. Habits of
+undissembled courtesy are formed. A certain flowing urbanity is
+acquired. Violent passions, rash oaths, coarse jests, indelicate
+language of every kind, are precluded and disrelished.
+
+Female society gives men a taste for cleanliness and elegance of person.
+Our ancestors, who kept but little company with their women, were not
+only slovenly in their dress, but had their countenances disfigured with
+long beards. By female influence, however, beards were, in process of
+time, mutilated down to mustaches. As the gentlemen found that the
+ladies had no great relish for mustaches, which were the relics of a
+beard, they cut and curled them into various fashions, to render them
+more agreeable. At last, however, finding such labor vain, they gave
+them up altogether. But as those of the three learned professions were
+supposed to be endowed with, or at least to stand in need of, more
+wisdom than other people, and as the longest beard had always been
+deemed to sprout from the wisest chin, to supply this mark of
+distinction, which they had lost, they contrived to smother their heads
+in enormous quantities of frizzled hair, that they might bear greater
+resemblance to an owl, the bird sacred to wisdom and Minerva.
+
+To female society it has been objected by the learned and studious, that
+it enervates the mind, and gives it such a turn for trifling, levity,
+and dissipation, as renders it altogether unfit for that application
+which is necessary in order to become eminent in any of the sciences. In
+proof of this they allege, that the greatest philosophers seldom or
+never were men who enjoyed, or were fit for, the company or conversation
+of women. Sir Isaac Newton hardly ever conversed with any of the sex.
+Bacon, Boyle, Des Cartes, and many others, conspicuous for their
+learning and application, were but indifferent companions to the fair.
+
+It is certain, indeed, that the youth who devotes his whole time and
+attention to female conversation, and the little offices of gallantry,
+never distinguishes himself in the literary world. But notwithstanding
+this, without the fatigue and application of severe study, he often
+obtains, by female interest, that which is denied to the merited
+improvements acquired by the labor of many years.
+
+
+MONASTIC LIFE.
+
+The venerable _Bede_ has given us a very striking picture of Monastic
+enormities, in his epistle to Egbert. From this we learn that many young
+men who had no title to the monastic profession, got possession of
+monasteries; where, instead of engaging in the defence of their country,
+as their age and rank required, they indulged themselves in the most
+dissolute indolence.
+
+We learn from Dugdale, that in the reign of Henry the Second, the nuns
+of Amsbury abbey in Wiltshire were expelled from that religious house on
+account of their incontinence. And to exhibit in the most lively colors
+the total corruption of monastic chastity, bishop Burnet informs us in
+his "History of the Reformation," that when the nunneries were visited
+by the command of Henry the VIII. "whole houses almost, were found whose
+vows had been made in vain."
+
+When we consider to what oppressive indolence, to what a variety of
+wretchedness and guilt, the young and fair inhabitants of the cloister
+were frequently betrayed, we ought to admire those benevolent authors
+who, when the tide of religious prejudice ran very strong in favor of
+monastic virginity, had spirit enough to oppose the torrent, and to
+caution the devout and tender sex against so dangerous a profession. It
+is in this point of view that the character of Erasmus appears with the
+most amiable lustre; and his name ought to be eternally dear to the
+female world in particular. Though his studies and constitution led him
+almost to idolize those eloquent fathers of the church who have
+magnified this kind of life, his good sense and his accurate survey of
+the human race, enabled him to judge of the misery in which female youth
+was continually involved by a precipitate choice of the veil. He knew
+the successful arts by which the subtle and rapacious monks inveigled
+young women of opulent families into the cloister; and he exerted his
+lively and delicate wit in opposition to so pernicious an evil.
+
+In those nations of Europe where nunneries still exist, how many lovely
+victims are continually sacrificed to the avarice or absurd ambition of
+inhuman parents! The misery of these victims has been painted with great
+force by some benevolent writers of France.
+
+In most of those pathetic histories that are founded on the abuse of
+convents, the misery originates from the parent, and falls upon the
+child. The reverse has sometime happened; and there are examples of
+unhappy parents, who have been rendered miserable by the religious
+perversity of a daughter. In the fourteenth volume of that very amusing
+work, _Les Causes Celebres_, a work which is said to have been the
+favorite reading of Voltaire, there is a striking history of a girl
+under age, who was tempted by pious artifice to settle herself in a
+convent, in express opposition to parental authority. Her parents, who
+had in vain tried the most tender persuasion, endeavored at last to
+redeem their lost child, by a legal process against the nunnery in which
+she was imprisoned. The pleadings on this remarkable trial may, perhaps,
+be justly reckoned amongst the finest pieces of eloquence that the
+lawyers of France have produced. Monsieur Gillet, the advocate for the
+parents, represented, in the boldest and most affecting language, the
+extreme baseness of this religious seduction. His eloquence appeared to
+have fixed the sentiments of the judges; but the cause of superstition
+was pleaded by an advocate of equal power, and it finally prevailed. The
+unfortunate parents of Maria Vernal (for this was the name of the
+unfortunate girl) were condemned to resign her forever, and to make a
+considerable payment to those artful devotees who had piously robbed
+them of their child.
+
+When we reflect on the various evils that have arisen in convents, we
+have the strongest reason to rejoice and glory in that reformation by
+which the nunneries of England were abolished. Yet it would not be
+candid or just to consider all these as the mere harbors of
+licentiousness; since we are told that, at the time of their
+suppression, some of our religious houses were very honorably
+distinguished by the purity of their inhabitants. "The visitors," says
+Bishop Burnet, "interceded earnestly for one nunnery in Oxfordshire,
+where there was great strictness of life, and to which most of the young
+gentlewomen of the country were sent to be bred; so that the gentry of
+the country desired the king would spare the house: yet all was
+ineffectual."
+
+
+DEGREES OF SENTIMENTAL ATTACHMENT AT DIFFERENT PERIODS.
+
+In the earlier ages, sentiment in love does not appear to have been much
+attended to. When Abraham sent his servant to court a bride for his son
+Isaac, we do not so much as hear that Isaac was consulted on the matter:
+nor is there even a suspicion, that he might refuse or dislike the wife
+which his father had selected for him.
+
+From the manner in which Rebecca was solicited, we learn, that women
+were not then courted in person by the lover, but by a proxy, whom he,
+or his parents, deputed in his stead. We likewise see, that this proxy
+did not, as in modern times, endeavor to gain the affection of the lady
+he was sent to, by enlarging on the personal properties, and mental
+qualifications of the lover; but by the richness and magnificence of the
+presents he made to her and her relations.
+
+Presents have been, from the earliest ages, and are to this day, the
+mode of transacting all kinds of business in the east. When a favor is
+to be asked of a superior, one cannot hope to obtain it without a
+present. Courtship, therefore, having been anciently transacted in this
+manner, it is plain, that it was only considered in the same light as
+any other negotiable business, and not as a matter of sentiment, and of
+the heart.
+
+In the courtship, however, or rather purchase of a wife by Jacob, we
+meet with something like sentiment; for when he found that he was not
+possessed of money or goods, equal to the price which was set upon her,
+he not only condescended to purchase her by servitude, but even seemed
+much disappointed when the tender-eyed Leah was faithlessly imposed upon
+him instead of the beautiful Rachel.
+
+The ancient Gauls, Germans, and neighboring nations of the North, had so
+much veneration for the sex in general, that in courtship they behaved
+with a spirit of gallantry, and showed a degree of sentiment, to which
+_those_ who called them barbarians, never arrived. Not contented with
+getting possession of the person of his mistress, a northern lover could
+not be satisfied without the sincere affection of her heart; nor was his
+mistress ever to be gained but by such methods as plainly indicated to
+her the tenderest attachment from the most deserving man.
+
+The women of Scandinavia were not to be courted but by the most
+assiduous attendance, seconded by such warlike achievements as the
+custom of the country had rendered necessary to make a man deserving of
+his mistress. On these accounts, we frequently find a lover accosting
+the object of his passion by a minute and circumstantial detail of his
+exploits, and all his accomplishments. "We fought with swords," says
+King Regner, in a beautiful ode composed by himself, in memory of the
+deeds of his former days, "that day wherein I saw ten thousand of my
+foes rolling in the dust, near a promontory of England. A dew of blood
+distilled from our swords. The arrows which flew in search of the
+helmets, bellowed through the air. The pleasure of that day was truly
+exquisite.
+
+"We fought with swords. A young man should march early to the conflict
+of arms. Man should attack man, or bravely resist him. In this hath
+always consisted the nobility of the warrior. He who aspires to the love
+of his mistress, ought to be dauntless in the clash of swords."
+
+The descendants of the northern nations, long after they had plundered
+and repeopled the greatest part of Europe, retained nearly the same
+ideas of love, and practised the same methods in declaring it, that they
+had imbibed from their ancestors. "Love," says William of Montagnogout,
+"engages to the most amiable conduct. Love inspires the greatest
+actions. Love has no will but that of the object beloved, nor seeks any
+thing but what will augment her glory. You cannot love, nor ought to be
+beloved, if you ask any thing that virtue condemns. Never did I form a
+wish that could wound the heart of my beloved, nor delight in a pleasure
+that was inconsistent with her delicacy."
+
+The method of addressing females, among some of the tribes of American
+Indians, is the most simple that can possibly be devised. When the
+lover goes to visit his mistress, he only begs leave, by signs, to enter
+her hut. After obtaining this, he goes in, and sits down by her in the
+most respectful silence. If she suffers him to remain there without
+interruption, her doing so is consenting to his suit. If, however, the
+lover has any thing given him to eat and drink, it is a refusal; though
+the woman is obliged to sit by him until he has finished his repast. He
+then retires in silence.
+
+In Canada, courtship is not carried on with that coy reserve, and
+seeming secrecy, which politeness has introduced among the inhabitants of
+civilized nations. When a man and a woman meet, though they never saw
+each other before, if he is captivated by her charms, he declares his
+passion in the plainest manner; and she, with the same simplicity,
+answers, Yes, or No, without further deliberation. "That female
+reserve," says an ingenious writer, [Dr Alexander,] "that seeming
+reluctance to enter into the married state, observable in polite
+countries, is the work of art, and not of nature. The history of every
+uncultivated people amply proves it. It tells us, that their women not
+only speak with freedom the sentiments of their hearts, but even blush
+not to have these sentiments made as public as possible."
+
+In Formosa, however, they differ so much from the simplicity of the
+Canadians, that it would be reckoned the greatest indecency in the man
+to declare, or in the woman to hear, a declaration of the passion of
+love. The lover is, therefore, obliged to depute his mother, sister, or
+some female relation; and from any of these the soft tale may be heard
+without the least offence to delicacy.
+
+In Spain, the women had formerly no voice in disposing of themselves in
+matrimony. But as the empire of common sense began to extend itself,
+they began to claim a privilege, at least of being consulted in the
+choice of the partners of their lives. Many fathers and guardians, hurt
+by this female innovation, and puffed up with Spanish pride, still
+insisted on forcing their daughters to marry according to their
+pleasure, by means of duennas, locks, hunger, and even sometimes of
+poison and daggers. But as nature will revolt against every species of
+oppression and injustice, the ladies have for some time begun to assert
+their own rights. The authority of fathers and guardians begins to
+decline, and lovers find themselves obliged to apply to the affections
+of the fair, as well as to the pride and avarice of their relations.
+
+The nightly musical serenades of mistresses by their lovers are still in
+use. The gallant composes some love sonnets, as expressive as he can,
+not only of the situation of his heart, but of every particular
+circumstance between him and the lady, not forgetting to lard them with
+the most extravagant encomiums on her beauty and merit. These he sings
+in the night below her window accompanied with his lute, or sometimes
+with a whole band of music. The more piercingly cold the air, the more
+the lady's heart is supposed to be thawed with the patient sufferance
+of her lover, who, from night to night, frequently continues his
+exercises for many hours, heaving the deepest sighs, and casting the
+most piteous looks towards the window; at which if his goddess at last
+deigns to appear, and drops him a curtsey, he is superlatively paid for
+all his watching; but if she blesses him with a smile, he is ready to
+run distracted.
+
+In Italy the manner of addressing the ladies, so far as it relates to
+serenading, nearly resembles that of Spain. The Italian, however, goes a
+step farther than the Spaniard. He endeavors to blockade the house where
+his fair one lives, so as to prevent the entrance of any rival. If he
+marries the lady who cost him all this trouble and attendance, he shuts
+her up for life: If not, she becomes the object of his eternal hatred,
+and he too frequently endeavors to revenge by poison the success of his
+happier rival.
+
+In one circumstance relating to courtship, the Italians are said to be
+particular. They protract the time as long as possible, well knowing
+that even with all the little ills attending it, a period thus employed
+is one of the sweetest of human life.
+
+A French lover, with the word sentiment perpetually in his mouth, seems
+by every action to have excluded it from his heart. He places his whole
+confidence in his exterior air and appearance. He dresses for his
+mistress, dances for her, flutters constantly about her, helps her to
+lay on her rouge, and to place her patches. He attends her round the
+whole circle of amusements, chatters to her constantly, whistles and
+sings, and plays the fool with her. Whatever be his station, every thing
+gaudy and glittering within the sphere of it is called in to his
+assistance, particularly splendid carriages and tawdry liveries; but if,
+by the help of all these, he cannot make an impression on the fair one's
+heart, it costs him nothing but a few shrugs of his shoulders, two or
+three silly exclamations, and as many stanzas of some satirical song
+against her; and, as it is impossible for a Frenchman to live without an
+amour, he immediately betakes himself to another.
+
+There is hardly any such thing among people of fashion as courtship.
+Matters are generally so ordered by parents and guardians, that to a
+bride and bridegroom, the day of marriage is often the second time of
+their meeting. In many countries, to be married in this manner would be
+reckoned the greatest of misfortunes. In France it is little regarded.
+In the fashionable world, few people are greater strangers to, or more
+indifferent about each other, than husband and wife; and any appearance
+of fondness between them, or their being seen frequently together, would
+infallibly make them forfeit the reputation of the _ton_, and be laughed
+at by all polite company. On this account, nothing is more common than
+to be acquainted with a lady without knowing her husband, or visiting
+the husband without ever seeing his wife.
+
+
+GERMAN WOMEN.
+
+Of all the German females, the ladies of Saxony are the most amiable.
+Their persons are so superiorly charming and preferable in whatever can
+recommend them to be notice of mankind, that the German youth often
+visit Saxony in quest of _companions_ for life. Exclusive of their
+beauty and comeliness of appearance, they are brought up in a knowledge
+of all those arts, both useful and ornamental, which are so brilliant an
+addition to their native attractions. But what chiefly enhances their
+value, and gives it reality and duration, is a _sweetness_ of temper and
+festivity of disposition, that never fail to endear them on a very
+slight acquaintance. To crown all, they are generally patterns of
+conjugal tenderness and fidelity.
+
+As they are commonly careful to improve their minds by reading and
+instructive conversation, they have no small share of facetiousness and
+ingenuity. From their innate liveliness, they are extremely addicted to
+all the gay kind of amusements. They excel in the allurements of dress
+and decoration, and are in general skilful in music.
+
+The character, however, of the women in most other parts of Germany,
+particularly of the Austrian, is very different from this.
+Notwithstanding the advantages of size and make, their looks and
+features, though not unsightly, betray a vacancy of that life and
+spirit, without which beauty is uninteresting, and, like a mere picture,
+becomes utterly void of that indication of sensibility, which alone can
+awaken a delicacy of feeling.
+
+As their education is conducted by the rules of the grossest
+superstition, and they are taught little else than set forms of
+devotion, they arrive to the years of maturity uninstructed in the use
+of reason, and usually continue profoundly ignorant the remainder of
+their days, which are spent, or rather loitered away, in apathy and
+indolence.
+
+The principal happiness of the Austrian ladies of fashion consists in
+ruminating on the dignity of their birth and families, the antiquity of
+their race, the rank they hold, the respect attached to it, and the
+prerogatives they enjoy over the inferior classes, whom they treat with
+the utmost superciliousness, and hold in the most unreasonable contempt.
+In the mean time, their domestic affairs are condemned to the most
+unaccountable neglect. They dwell at home, careless of what passes
+there; and suffer disorder and confusion to prevail, without feeling the
+least uneasiness. Great frequenters of churches, their piety consists in
+the strictest conformity to all the externals of religion. They profess
+the most boundless belief in all the silly legends with which their
+treatises of devotion are filled; and these are the only books they ever
+read. The coldness of their constitution occasions a species of
+regulated gallantry, which is rather the effect of an opinion that it
+is an appendage of high life, than the result of their natural
+inclination.
+
+It must, at the same time be allowed, that the Austrian women are
+endowed with a great fund of sincerity and candor; and, though too much
+on the reserve, and prone to keep at an unnecessary distance, are yet
+capable of the truest attachment, and always warm and zealous in the
+cause of those whom they have admitted to their friendship.
+
+Though the Germans are rather a dull and phlegmatic people, and not
+greatly enslaved by the warmer passions, yet at the court of Vienna they
+are much given to intrigue: and an amour is so far from being
+scandalous, that a woman gains credit by the rank of her gallant, and is
+reckoned silly and unfashionable if she scrupulously adheres to the
+virtue of chastity. But such customs are more the customs of courts,
+than of places less exposed to temptation, and consequently less
+dissolute; and we are well assured that in Germany there are many women
+who do honor to humanity, not by chastity only, but also by a variety of
+other virtues.
+
+The ladies at the principal courts, differ not much in their dress from
+the French and English. They are not, however, so excessively fond of
+paint as the former. At some courts, they appear in rich furs: and all
+of them are loaded with jewels, if they can obtain them. The female part
+of the burgher's families, in many of the German towns, dress in a very
+different manner, and some of them inconceivably fantastic, as may be
+seen in many prints published in books of travels. But, in this respect,
+they are gradually reforming, and many of them make quite a different
+appearance in their dress from what they did thirty or forty years ago.
+
+The inhabitants of Vienna lived luxuriously, a great part of their time
+being spent in feasting and carousing. In winter, when the different
+branches of the Danube are frozen over, and the ground covered with
+snow, the ladies take their recreation in sledges of different shapes,
+such as griffins, tigers, swans, scallop-shells, etc. Here the lady
+sits, dressed in velvet lined with rich furs, and adorned with laces and
+jewels, having on her head a velvet cap. The sledge is drawn by one
+horse, stag or other creature, set off with plumes of feathers, ribbons
+and bells. As this diversion is taken chiefly in the night time,
+servants ride before the sledge with torches; and a gentleman, standing
+on the sledge behind, guides the horse.
+
+
+A VIEW OF MATRIMONY IN THREE DIFFERENT LIGHTS.
+
+The marriage life is always an insipid, a vexatious, or a happy
+condition, the first is, when two people of no taste meet together, upon
+such a settlement as has been thought reasonable by parents and
+conveyancers, from an exact valuation of the land and cash of both
+parties. In this case the young lady's person is no more regarded than
+the house and improvements in purchase of an estate; but she goes with
+her fortune, rather than her fortune with her. These make up the crowd
+or vulgar of the rich, and fill up the lumber of the human race, without
+beneficence towards those below them, or respect towards those above
+them; and lead a despicable, independent, and useless life, without
+sense of the laws of kindness, good-nature, mutual offices, and the
+elegant satisfactions which flow from reason and virtue.
+
+The vexatious life arises from a conjunction of two people of quick
+taste and resentment, put together for reasons well known to their
+friends, in which especial care is taken to avoid (what they think the
+chief of evils) poverty; and ensure them riches with every evil besides.
+These good people live in a constant restraint before company, and when
+alone, revile each other's person and conduct. In company they are in
+purgatory; when by themselves, in hell.
+
+The happy marriage is, where two persons meet, and voluntarily make
+choice of each other without principally regarding or neglecting the
+circumstances of fortune or beauty. These may still love in spite of
+adversity or sickness. The former we may in some measure defend
+ourselves from; the other is the common lot of humanity. Love has
+nothing to do with riches or state. Solitude, with the person beloved,
+has a pleasure, even in a woman's mind, beyond show or pomp.
+
+
+BETROTHING AND MARRIAGE.
+
+At a very early period, families who lived in a friendly manner, fell
+upon a method of securing their children to each other by what is called
+in the sacred writings Betrothing. This was agreeing on a price to be
+paid for the bride, the time when it should be paid, and when she should
+be delivered into the hands of her husband.
+
+There were, according to the Talmudists, three ways of betrothing. The
+first by a written contract. The second, by a verbal agreement,
+accompanied with a piece of money. And the third, by the parties coming
+together, and living as husband and wife; which might as properly be
+called marriage as betrothing.
+
+The written contract was in the following manner--"On such a day, month,
+year, A the son of B, has said to D the daughter of E, be thou my spouse
+according to the law of Moses and of the Israelites; and I give thee as
+a dowry the sum of two hundred suzims, as it is ordered by our law. And
+the said D hath promised to be his spouse upon the conditions aforesaid,
+which the said A doth promise to perform on the day of marriage. And to
+this the said A doth hereby bind himself and all that he hath, to the
+very cloak upon his back; engages himself to love, honor, feed, clothe,
+and protect her, and to perform all that is generally implied in
+contracts of marriage in favor of the Israelitish wives."
+
+The verbal agreement was made in the presence of a sufficient number of
+witnesses, by the man saying to the women, "Take this money as a pledge
+that at such a time I will take thee to be my wife." A woman who was
+thus betrothed or bargained for, was almost in every respect by the law
+considered as already married.
+
+Before the legislation of Moses, "marriages among the Jews," say the
+Rabbies, "were agreed on by the parents and relations of both sides.
+When this was done, the bridegroom was introduced to his bride. Presents
+were mutually exchanged, the contract signed before witnesses, and the
+bride, having remained sometime with her relations, was sent away to the
+habitation of her husband, in the night, with singing, dancing, and the
+sound of musical instruments."
+
+By the institution of Moses, the Rabbies tell us the contract of
+marriage was read in the presence of, and signed by, at least ten
+witnesses, who were free, and of age. The bride, who had taken care to
+bathe herself the night before, appeared in all her splendor, but
+veiled, in imitation of Rebecca, who veiled herself when she came in
+sight of Isaac. She was then given to the bridegroom by her parents, in
+words to this purpose: "Take her according to the law of Moses." And he
+received her, by saying, "I take her according to that law." Some
+blessings were then pronounced on the young couple, both by the parents
+and the rest of the company.
+
+The blessings or prayers generally run in this style: "Blessed art thou,
+O Lord of heaven, and earth, who has created man in thine own likeness,
+and hast appointed woman to be his partner and companion! Blessed art
+thou, who fillest Zion with joy for the multitude of her children!
+Blessed art thou who sendest gladness to the bridegroom and his bride;
+who hast ordained for them, love, joy, tenderness, peace and mutual
+affection. Be pleased to bless not only this couple, but Judah and
+Jerusalem, with songs of joy, and praise for the joy that thou givest
+them, by the multitudes of their sons and of their daughters."
+
+After the virgins had sung a marriage song, the company partook of a
+repast, the most magnificent the parties could afford; after which they
+began a dance, the men round the bridegroom, the women round the bride.
+They pretended that this dance was of divine institution and an
+essential part of the ceremony. The bride was then carried to the
+nuptial bed, and the bridegroom left with her. The company again
+returned to their feasting and rejoicing; and the Rabbies inform us,
+that this feasting, when the bride, was a widow, lasted only three days,
+but seven if she was a virgin.
+
+At the birth of a son, the father planted a cedar; and at that of a
+daughter, he planted a pine. Of these trees the nuptial bed was
+constructed, when the parties, at whose birth they were planted, entered
+into the married state.
+
+The Assyrians had a court, or tribunal whose only business was to
+dispose of young women in marriage, and see the laws of that union
+properly executed. What these laws were, or how the execution of them
+was enforced, are circumstances that have not been handed down to us.
+But the erecting a court solely for the purpose of taking cognizance of
+them, suggests an idea that they were many and various.
+
+Among the Greeks, the multiplicity of male and female deities who were
+concerned in the affairs of love, made the invocations and sacrifices on
+a matrimonial occasion a very tedious affair. Fortunate omens gave great
+joy, and the most fortunate of all others was a pair of turtles seen in
+the air, as those birds were reckoned the truest emblems of conjugal
+love and fidelity. If, however, one of them was seen alone it infallibly
+denoted separation, and all the ills attending an unhappy marriage.
+
+On the wedding day, the bride and bridegroom were richly dressed, and
+adorned with garlands of herbs and flowers. The bride was conducted in
+the evening to the house of her husband in a chariot, seated between her
+husband and one of his relations. When she alighted from the chariot the
+axle-tree of it was burnt to show that there was no method for her to
+return back. As soon as the young couple entered the house, figs and
+other fruits were thrown upon their heads to denote plenty; and a
+sumptuous entertainment was ready for them to partake of, to which all
+the relations on both sides were invited.
+
+The bride was lighted to bed by a number of torches, according to her
+quality; and the company returned in the morning to salute the new
+married couple, and to sing _epithalamia_ at the door of their
+bed-chamber.
+
+Epithalamia were marriage songs, anciently sung in praise of the bride
+or bridegroom, wishing them happiness, prosperity and a numerous issue.
+
+Among the Romans there were three different kinds of marriage. The
+ceremony of the first consisted in the young couple eating a cake
+together made only of wheat, salt and water. The second kind was
+celebrated by the parties solemnly pledging their faith to each other,
+by giving and receiving a piece of money. This was the most common way
+of marrying among the Romans. It continued in use, even after they
+became Christians. When writings were introduced to testify that a man
+and a woman had become husband and wife, and also, that the husband had
+settled a dower upon his bride, these writings were called _Tabulæ
+Dotales_ (dowry tables;) and hence, perhaps the words in our marriage
+ceremony, "I thee endow."
+
+The third kind of marriage was, when a man and woman, having cohabited
+for some time and had children, found it expedient to continue together.
+In this case, if they made up the matter between themselves, it became
+a valid marriage, and the children were considered as legitimate.
+
+Something similar to this is the present custom in Scotland. There, if a
+man live with, and have children by a woman, though he do not marry her
+till he be upon his death-bed, all the children are thereby legitimated
+and become entitled to the honors and estates of their father. The case
+is the same in Holland and some parts of Germany; with this difference
+only, that all the children to be legitimated must appear with the
+father and mother in church at the ceremony of their marriage.
+
+
+FEMALE FRIENDSHIP.
+
+It has long been a question, Which of the two sexes is most capable of
+friendship? Montague, who is so much celebrated for his knowledge of
+human nature, has given it positively against the women; and his opinion
+has been generally embraced.
+
+Friendship perhaps, in women, is more rare than among men; but, at the
+same time, it must be allowed that where it is found, it is more tender.
+
+Men, in general, have more of the parade than the graces of friendship.
+They often wound while they serve; and their warmest sentiments are not
+very enlightened, with respect to those minute sentiments which are of
+so much value. But women have a refined sensibility, which makes them
+see every thing; nothing escapes them. They divine the silent
+friendship; they encourage the bashful or timid friendship; they offer
+the sweetest consolations to friendship in distress. Furnished with
+finer instruments, they treat more delicately a wounded heart. They
+compose it, and prevent it from feeling its agonies. They know, above
+all, how to give value to a thousand things, which have no value in
+themselves.
+
+We ought therefore, perhaps, to desire the friendship of a man upon
+great occasions; but, for general happiness, we must prefer the
+friendship of a woman.
+
+With regard to female intimacies, it may be taken for granted that there
+is no young woman who has not, or wishes not to have, a companion of her
+own sex, to whom she may unbosom herself on every occasion. That there
+are women capable of friendship with women, few impartial observers will
+deny. There have been many evident proofs of it, and those carried as
+far as seemed compatible with the imperfections of our common nature. It
+is, however, questioned by some; while others believe that it happens
+exceedingly seldom. Between married and unmarried women, it no doubt
+happens very often; whether it does so between those that are single, is
+not so certain. Young men appear more frequently susceptible of a
+generous and steady friendship for each other, than females as yet
+unconnected; especially, if the latter have, or are supposed to have,
+pretensions to beauty, not adjusted by the public.
+
+In the frame and condition of females, however, compared with those of
+the other sex, there are some circumstances which may help towards an
+apology for this unfavorable feature in their character.
+
+The state of matrimony is necessary to the support, order, and comfort
+of society. But it is a state that subjects the women to a great variety
+of solicitude and pain. Nothing could carry them through it with any
+tolerable satisfaction or spirit, but very strong and almost
+unconquerable attachments. To produce these, is it not fit they should
+be peculiarly sensible to the attention and regards of the men? Upon the
+same ground, does it not seem agreeable to the purposes of Providence,
+that the securing of this attention, and these regards, should be a
+principal aim? But can such an aim be pursued without frequent
+competition? And will not that too readily occasion jealousy, envy, and
+all the unamiable effects of mutual _rivalship_? Without the restraints
+of superior worth and sentiment, it certainly will. But can these be
+ordinarily expected from the prevailing turn of female education; or
+from the little pains that women, as well as other human beings,
+commonly take to _control_ themselves, and to act nobly? In this _last_
+respect, the sexes appear pretty much on the same footing.
+
+This reasoning is not meant to justify the indulgence of those little
+and sometimes base passions towards one another, with which females
+have been so generally charged. It is only intended to represent such
+passions in the first approach; and, while not entertained, as less
+criminal than the men are apt to state them; and to prove that, in their
+attachments to each other, the latter have not always that merit above
+the women, which they are apt to claim. In the mean time, let it be the
+business of the ladies, by emulating the gentlemen, where they appear
+good-natured and disinterested, to disprove their imputation, and to
+show a temper open to _friendship_ as well as to _love_.
+
+To talk much of the latter is natural for both; to talk much of the
+former, is considered by the men as one way of doing themselves honor.
+Friendship, they well know, is that dignified form, which, in
+speculation at least every heart must respect.
+
+But in friendship, as in religion, which on many accounts it resembles,
+speculation is often substituted in the place of practice. People fancy
+themselves possessed of the thing, and hope that others will fancy so
+too, because they are fond of the name, and have learned to talk about
+it with plausibility. Such talk indeed imposes, till experience give it
+the lie.
+
+To say the truth, there seems in either sex but little of what a fond
+imagination, unacquainted with the falsehood of the world, and
+warmed by affections which its selfishness has not yet chilled, would
+reckon friendship. In theory, the standard is raised too high; we ought
+not, however, to wish it much lower. The honest sensibilities of
+ingenuous nature should not be checked by the over-cautious maxims of
+political prudence. No advantage, obtained by such frigidity, can
+compensate for the want of those warm effusions of the heart into the
+bosom of a friend, which are doubtless among the most exquisite
+pleasures. At the same time, however, it must be owned, that they often
+by the inevitable lot of humanity, make way for the bitterest pains
+which the breast can experience. Happy beyond the common condition of
+her sex, is she who has found a friend indeed; open hearted, yet
+discreet; generously fervent, yet steady; thoroughly virtuous, but not
+severe; wise, as well as cheerful! Can such a friend be loved too much,
+or cherished too tenderly? If to excellence and happiness there be any
+one way more compendious than another, next to friendship with the
+Supreme Being, it is this.
+
+But when a mixture of minds so beautiful and so sweet takes place, it is
+generally, or rather always the result of early prepossession, casual
+intercourse, or in short, a combination of such causes as are not to be
+brought together by management or design. This noble plant may be
+cultivated; but it must grow spontaneously.
+
+
+ON THE CHOICE OF A HUSBAND.
+
+        Assist me, ye Nine,
+        While the youth I define,
+  With whom I in wedlock would class;
+        And ye blooming fair,
+        Lend a listening ear,
+  To approve of the man as you pass.
+
+        Not the changeable fry
+        Who love, nor know why,
+  But follow bedup'd by their passions:
+        Such votaries as these
+        Are like waves of the seas,
+  And steer'd by their own inclinations.
+
+        The hectoring blade
+        How unfit for the maid,
+  Where meekness and modesty reigns!
+        Such a blundering bully
+        I'll speak against truly,
+  Whatever I get for my pains.
+
+        Not the dogmatic elf,
+        Whose great all is himself,
+  Whose alone _ipse dixit_ is law:
+        What a figure he'll make,
+        How like Momus he'll speak
+  With sneering burlesque, a pshaw! pshaw!
+
+        Not the covetous wretch
+        Whose heart's at full stretch
+  To gain an inordinate treasure;
+        Him leave with the rest,
+        And such mortals detest,
+  Who sacrifice life without measure.
+
+        The fluttering fop,
+        How empty his top!
+  Nay, but some call him coxcomb, I trow;
+        But 'tis losing your time,
+        He's not worth half a rhyme,
+  Let the fag ends of prose bind his brow.
+
+        The guttling sot,
+        What a conduit his throat!
+  How beastly and vicious his life!
+        Where drunkards prevail,
+        Whole families feel,
+  Much more an affectionate wife.
+
+        One character yet;
+        I with sorrow repeat,
+  And O! that the number were less;
+        'Tis the blasphemous crew:
+        What a pattern they'll shew
+  To their hapless and innocent race!
+
+        Let wisdom then shine
+        In the youth that is mine,
+  Whilst virtue his footsteps impress;
+        Such I'd choose for my mate,
+        Whether sooner or late:
+  Tell me, Ladies, what think you of this?
+
+"The chief point to be regarded," says Lady Pennington in her Advice to
+her Daughters, "in the choice of a companion for life, is a really
+virtuous principle--an unaffected goodness of heart. Without this, you
+will be continually shocked by indecency, and pained by impiety. So
+numerous have been the unhappy victims to the ridiculous opinion, _a
+reformed libertine makes the best husband_--that, did not experience
+daily evince the contrary, one would believe it impossible for a girl
+who has a tolerable degree of common understanding, to be made the dupe
+of so erroneous a position, which has not the least shadow of reason for
+its foundation, and which a small share of observation will prove to be
+false in fact. A man who has been conversant with the worst sort of
+women, is very apt to contract a bad opinion of, and a contempt for, the
+sex in general. Incapable of esteeming any, he is suspicious of all;
+jealous without cause, angry without provocation, his own disturbed
+imagination is a continued source of ill-humor. To this is frequently
+joined a bad habit of body, the natural consequence of an irregular
+life, which gives an additional sourness to the temper. What rational
+prospect of happiness can there be with such a companion? And, that this
+is the general character of those who are called _reformed rakes_,
+observation will certify. But, admit there may be some exceptions, it is
+a hazard upon which no considerate woman would venture the peace of her
+whole life. The vanity of those girls who believe themselves capable of
+working miracles of this kind, and who give up their persons to men of
+libertine principles, upon the wild expectation of reclaiming them,
+justly deserves the disappointment which it will generally meet with;
+for, believe me, a wife is, of all persons, the least likely to succeed
+in such an attempt. Be it your care to find that virtue in a lover which
+you must never hope to form in a husband. Good sense, and good nature,
+are almost equally requisite. If the former is wanting, it will be next
+to an impossibility for you to esteem the person, of whose behavior you
+may have cause to be ashamed. Mutual esteem is as essential to happiness
+in the married state, as mutual affection. Without the latter, every day
+will bring with it some fresh cause of vexation, until repeated quarrels
+produce a coldness, which will settle into an irreconcilable aversion,
+and you will become, not only each other's torment, but the object of
+contempt to your family, and to your acquaintance.
+
+"This quality of good nature is, of all others, the most difficult to be
+ascertained, on account of the general mistake of blending it with
+good-humor, as if they were in themselves the same; whereas, in fact, no
+two principles of action are more essentially different. But this may
+require some explanation. By good nature, I mean that true benevolence,
+which partakes in the felicity of every individual within the reach of
+its ability, which relieves the distressed, comforts the afflicted,
+diffuses blessings, and communicates happiness, far as its sphere of
+action can extend; and which, in the private scenes of life, will shine
+conspicuous in the dutiful son, in the affectionate husband, the
+indulgent father, the faithful friend, and in the compassionate master
+both to man and beast. Good humor, on the other hand, is nothing more
+than a cheerful, pleasing deportment, arising either from a natural
+gaiety of mind, or from an affection of popularity, joined to an
+affability of behavior, the result of good breeding, and from a ready
+compliance with the taste of every company. This kind of mere good humor
+is, by far, the most striking quality. It is frequently mistaken for and
+complimented with the superior name of _real good nature_. A man, by
+this specious appearance, has often acquired that appellation who, in
+all the actions of private life, has been a morose, cruel, revengeful,
+sullen, haughty tyrant. Let them put on the cap, whose temples fit the
+galling wreath!
+
+"A man of a truly benevolent disposition, and formed to promote the
+happiness of all around him, may sometimes, perhaps, from an ill habit
+of body, an accidental vexation, or from a commendable openness of
+heart, above the meanness of disguise, be guilty of little sallies of
+peevishness, or of ill humor, which, carrying the appearance of ill
+nature, may be unjustly thought to proceed from it, by persons who are
+unacquainted with his true character, and who, take ill humor and ill
+nature to be synonymous terms, though in reality they bear not the least
+analogy to each other. In order to the forming a right judgment, it is
+absolutely necessary to observe this distinction, which will effectually
+secure you from the dangerous error of taking the shadow for the
+substance, an irretrievable mistake, pregnant with innumerable
+consequent evils!
+
+"From what has been said, it plainly appears, that the criterion of this
+amiable virtue is not to be taken for the general opinion; mere good
+humor being, to all intents and purposes, sufficient in this particular,
+to establish the public voice in favor of a man utterly devoid of every
+humane and benevolent affection of heart. It is only from the less
+conspicuous scenes of life, the more retired sphere of action, from the
+artless tenor of domestic conduct, that the real character can, with any
+certainty be drawn. These, undisguised, proclaim the man. But, as they
+shun the glare of light, nor court the noise of popular applause, they
+pass unnoticed, and are seldom known till after an intimate
+acquaintance. The best method, therefore, to avoid the deception in this
+case, is to lay no stress on outward appearances, which are too often
+fallacious, but to take the rule of judging from the simple unpolished
+sentiments of those whose dependent connections give them undeniable
+certainty; who not only see, but who hourly feel, the good or bad effect
+of that disposition, to which they are subjected. By this, I mean, that
+if a man is equally respected, esteemed, and beloved by his dependants
+and domestics, you may justly conclude, he has that true good nature,
+that real benevolence, which delights in communicating felicity, and
+enjoys the satisfaction it diffuses. But if by these he is despised and
+hated, served merely from a principle of fear, devoid of affection,
+which is ever easily discoverable, whatever may be his public character,
+however favorable the general opinion, be assured, that his disposition
+is such as can never be productive of domestic happiness. I have been
+the more particular on this head, as it is one of the most essential
+qualifications to be regarded, and of all others the most liable to be
+mistaken.
+
+"Never be prevailed with, my dear, to give your hand to a person
+defective in these material points. Secure of virtue, of good nature,
+and understanding, in a husband, you may be secure of happiness. Without
+the two former it is unattainable. Without the latter in a tolerable
+degree, it must be very imperfect.
+
+"Remember, however, that infallibility is not the property of man, or
+you may entail disappointment on yourself, by expecting what is never to
+be found. The best men are sometimes inconsistent with themselves. They
+are liable to be hurried, by sudden starts of passion, into expressions
+and actions, which their _cooler_ reason will condemn. They may have
+some oddities of behavior, and some peculiarities of temper. They may be
+subject to accidental ill humor, or to whimsical complaints. Blemishes
+of this kind often shade the brightest character; but they are never
+destructive of mutual felicity, unless when they are made so by an
+improper resentment, or by an ill-judged opposition. When cooled, and in
+his usual temper, the man of understanding, if he has been wrong, will
+suggest to himself all that could be urged against him. The man of good
+nature will, unupbraided, own his error. Immediate contradiction is,
+therefore, wholly unserviceable, and highly imprudent; an after
+repetition is equally unnecessary and injudicious. Any peculiarities in
+the temper or behavior ought to be properly represented in the tenderest
+and in the most friendly manner. If the representation of them is made
+discreetly, it will generally be well taken. But if they are so habitual
+as not easily to be altered, strike not too often upon the unharmonious
+string. Rather let them pass unobserved. Such a cheerful compliance will
+better cement your union; and they may be made easy to yourself, by
+reflecting on the superior good qualities by which these trifling faults
+are so greatly overbalanced.
+
+"You must remember, my dear, these rules are laid down on the
+supposition of your being united to a person who possesses the three
+qualifications for happiness before mentioned. In this case no farther
+direction is necessary, but that you strictly perform the duty of a
+wife, namely, to love, to honor, and obey. The two first articles are a
+tribute so indispensably due to _merit_, that they must be paid by
+_inclination_--and they naturally lead to the performance of the last,
+which will not only be easy, but a pleasing task, since nothing can ever
+be enjoined by such a person that is in itself improper, and a few
+things will, that can, with any reason, be disagreeable to you.
+
+"The being united to a man of irreligious principles, makes it
+impossible to discharge a great part of the proper duty of a wife. To
+name but one instance, obedience will be rendered impracticable, by
+frequent injunctions inconsistent with, and contrary to, the higher
+obligations of morality. This is not a supposition, but is a certainty
+founded upon facts, which I have too often seen and can attest. Where
+this happens, the reasons for non-compliance ought to be offered in a
+plain, strong, good natured manner. There is at least the chance of
+success from being heard. But should those reasons be rejected, or the
+hearing them refused, and silence on the subject enjoined, which is most
+probable, few people caring to hear what they know to be right, when
+they are determined not to be convinced by it--obey the injunction, and
+urge not the argument farther. Keep, however, steady to your principles,
+and suffer neither persuasion nor threats to prevail on you to act
+contrary to them. All commands repugnant to the laws of christianity,
+it is your indispensable duty to disobey. All requests that are
+inconsistent with prudence, or incompatible with the rank and character
+which you ought to maintain in life, it is your interest to refuse. A
+compliance with the former would be criminal, a consent to the latter
+highly indiscreet; and it might thereby subject you to general censure.
+For a man, capable of requiring, from his wife, what he knows to be in
+itself wrong, is equally capable of throwing the whole blame of such
+misconduct on her, and of afterwards upbraiding her for a behavior, to
+which he will, upon the same principle, disown that he has been
+accessary. Many similar instances have come within the compass of my own
+observation. In things of less material nature, that are neither
+criminal in themselves, nor pernicious in their consequences, always
+acquiesce, if insisted on, however disagreeable they may be to your own
+temper and inclination. Such a compliance will evidently prove that your
+refusal, in the other cases, proceeds not from a spirit of
+contradiction, but merely from a just regard to that superior duty which
+can never be infringed with impunity.
+
+"As the want of understanding is by no art to be concealed, by no
+address to be disguised, it might be supposed impossible for a woman of
+sense to unite herself to a person whose defect, in this instance, must
+render that sort of rational society, which constitutes the chief
+happiness of such an union, impossible. Yet here, how often has the
+weakness of female judgment been conspicuous! The advantages of great
+superiority in rank or fortune have frequently proved so irresistible a
+temptation, as, in opinion, to outweigh, not only the folly, but even
+the vices of its possessor--a grand mistake, ever tacitly acknowledged
+by a subsequent repentance, when the expected pleasures of affluence,
+equipage, and all the glittering pageantry, have been experimentally
+found insufficient to make amends for the want of that constant
+satisfaction which results from the social joy of conversing with a
+reasonable friend!
+
+"But however weak this motive must be acknowledged, it is more excusable
+than another, which, I fear, has sometimes had an equal influence on the
+mind--I mean so great a love of sway, as to induce her to give the
+preference to a person of weak intellectuals, in hopes of holding,
+uncontrolled, the reins of government. The expectation is, in fact, ill
+grounded. Obstinacy and pride are generally the companions of folly. The
+silliest people are often the most tenacious of their opinions, and,
+consequently, the hardest of all others to be managed. But admit the
+contrary, the principle is in itself bad. It tends to invert the order
+of nature, and to counteract the design of Providence.
+
+"A woman can never be seen in a more ridiculous light than when she
+appears to govern her husband. If, unfortunately, the superiority of
+understanding is on her side, the apparent consciousness of that
+superiority betrays a weakness, that renders her contemptible in the
+sight of every considerate person, and it may, very probably, fix in his
+mind a dislike never to be eradicated. In such a case, if it should ever
+be your own, remember that some degree of dissimulation is commendable,
+so far as to let your husband's defects appear unobserved. When he
+judges wrong, never flatly contradict, but lead him insensibly into
+another opinion, in so discreet a manner, that it may seem entirely his
+own, and let the whole credit of every prudent determination rest on
+him, without indulging the foolish vanity of claiming any merit to
+yourself. Thus a person of but an indifferent capacity, may be so
+assisted, as, in many instances, to shine with borrowed lustre, scarce
+distinguishable from the native, and by degrees he may be brought into a
+kind of mechanical method of acting properly, in all the common
+occurrences of life. Odd as this position may seem, it is founded in
+fact. I have seen the method successfully practised by more than one
+person, where a weak mind, on the governed side, has been so prudently
+set off as to appear the sole director; like the statue of the Delphic
+god, which was thought to give forth its own oracles, whilst the humble
+priest, who lent his voice, was by the shrine concealed, nor sought a
+higher glory than a supposed obedience to the power he would be thought
+to serve."
+
+
+A LETTER TO A NEW MARRIED MAN.
+
+I received the news of your marriage with infinite delight, and hope
+that the sincerity with which I wish you happiness, may excuse the
+liberty I take in giving you a few rules, whereby more certainly to
+obtain it. I see you smile at my wrong-headed kindness, and, reflecting
+on the charms of your bride, cry out in a rapture, that you are happy
+enough without any rules. I know you are. But after one of the forty
+years, which I hope you will pass pleasingly together, is over, this
+letter may come in turn, and rules for felicity may not be found
+unnecessary, however some of them may appear impracticable.
+
+Could that kind of love be kept alive through the marriage state, which
+makes the charm of a single one, the sovereign good would no longer be
+sought for; in the union of two faithful lovers it would be found: but
+reason shows that this is impossible, and experience informs us that it
+never was so; we must preserve it as long, and supply it as happily as
+we can.
+
+When your present violence of passion subsides, however, and a more cool
+and tranquil affection takes its place, be not hasty to censure yourself
+as indifferent, or to lament yourself as unhappy; you have lost that
+only which it was impossible to retain, and it were graceless amid the
+pleasures of a prosperous summer to regret the blossoms of a transient
+spring. Neither unwarily condemn your bride's insipidity till you have
+recollected that no object however sublime, no sounds however charming,
+can continue to transport us with delight when they no longer strike us
+with novelty. The skill to renovate the powers of pleasing is said
+indeed to be possessed by some women in an eminent degree; but the
+artifices of maturity are seldom seen to adorn the innocence of youth:
+you have made your choice, and ought to approve it.
+
+Satiety follows quickly upon the heels of possession; and to be happy,
+we must always have something in view. The person of your lady is
+already all your own, and will not grow more pleasing in your eyes I
+doubt, though the rest of your sex will think her handsome for these
+dozen of years. Turn therefore all your attention to her mind, which
+will daily grow brighter by polishing. Study some easy science together,
+and acquire a similarity of tastes while you enjoy a community of
+pleasures. You will by this means have many images in common, and be
+freed from the necessity of separating to find amusement. Nothing is so
+dangerous to wedded love as the possibility of either being happy out of
+the company of the other: endeavor therefore, to cement the present
+intimacy on every side; let your wife never be kept ignorant of your
+income, your expenses, your friendships, or aversions; let her know your
+very faults, but make them amiable by your virtues; consider all
+concealment as a breach of fidelity; let her never have any thing to
+find out in your character; and remember, that from the moment one of
+the partners turns spy upon the other, they have commenced a state of
+hostility.
+
+Seek not for happiness in singularity; and dread a refinement of wisdom
+as a deviation into folly. Listen not to those sages who advise you
+always to scorn the counsel of a woman, and if you comply with her
+requests pronounce you to be wife-ridden.
+
+I said that the person of your lady would not grow more pleasing to you;
+but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so: that a woman will
+pardon an affront to her understanding much sooner than one to her
+person, is well known; nor will any of us contradict the assertion. All
+our attainments, all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart
+of man: and what mortification can exceed the disappointment, if the end
+be not obtained? There is no reproof however pointed, no punishment
+however severe, that a woman of spirit will not prefer to neglect; and
+if she can endure it without complaint, it only proves that she means to
+make herself amends by the attention of others for the slights of her
+husband. For this, and for every reason, it behoves a married man not to
+let his politeness fail, though his ardor may abate, but to retain at
+least that general civility towards his own lady which he is so willing
+to pay to every other, and not show a wife of eighteen or twenty years
+old, that every man in company can treat her with more complaisance than
+he, who so often vowed to her eternal fondness.
+
+It is not my opinion that a young woman should be indulged in every wild
+wish of her gay heart or giddy head; but contradiction may be softened
+by domestic kindness, and quiet pleasures substituted in the place of
+noisy ones. Public amusements are not indeed so expensive as is
+sometimes imagined, but they tend to alienate the minds of married
+people from each other. A well chosen society of friends and
+acquaintance, more eminent for virtue and good sense than for gaiety and
+splendor, where the conversation of the day may afford comment for the
+evening, seems the most rational pleasure this great town can afford.
+
+That your own superiority should always be seen, but never felt, seems
+an excellent general rule. A wife should outshine her husband in
+nothing, not even in her dress. The bane of married happiness among the
+city men in general has been, that finding themselves unfit for polite
+life, they transferred their vanity to their ladies, dressed them up
+gaily, and sent them out a gallanting, while the good man was to regale
+with port wine or rum punch, perhaps among mean companions, after the
+compting house was shut. This practice produced the ridicule thrown on
+them in all our comedies and novels since commerce began to prosper. But
+now that I am so near the subject, a word or two on jealousy may not be
+amiss; for though not a failing of the present age's growth, yet the
+seeds of it are too certainly sown in every warm bosom, for us to
+neglect it as a fault of no consequence. If you are ever tempted to be
+jealous, watch your wife narrowly--but never tease her; tell her your
+jealousy but conceal your suspicion; let her, in short, be satisfied
+that it is only your odd temper, and even troublesome attachment, that
+makes you follow her; but let her not dream that you ever doubted
+seriously of her virtue even for a moment. If she is disposed towards
+jealousy of you, let me beseech you to be always explicit with her and
+never mysterious: be above delighting in her pain, of all things--nor do
+your business nor pay your visits with an air of concealment, when all
+you are doing might as well be proclaimed perhaps in the parish vestry.
+But I hope better than this of your tenderness and of your virtue, and
+will release you from a lecture you have so little need of, unless your
+extreme youth and my uncommon regard will excuse it. And now farewell;
+make my kindest compliments to your wife, and be happy in proportion as
+happiness is wished you by, Dear Sir, &c.
+
+
+GARRICK'S ADVICE TO MARRIED LADIES.
+
+  Ye fair married dames who so often deplore
+  That a lover once blest is a lover no more;
+  Attend to my counsel, nor blush to be taught
+  That prudence must cherish what beauty has caught.
+
+  The bloom on your cheek, and the glance of your eye,
+  Your roses and lilies may make the men sigh;
+  But roses, and lilies, and sighs pass away,
+  And passion will die as your beauties decay.
+
+  Use the man that you wed like your fav'rite guitar,
+  Though music in both, they are both apt to jar;
+  How tuneful and soft from a delicate touch,
+  Not handled too roughly, nor play'd on too much!
+
+  The sparrow and linnet will feed from your hand,
+  Grow tame by your kindness, and come at command:
+  Exert with your husband the same happy skill,
+  For hearts, like your birds, may be tamed to your will.
+
+  Be gay and good-humour'd, complying and kind,
+  Turn the chief of your care from your face to your mind;
+  'Tis thus that a wife may her conquests improve,
+  And Hymen shall rivet the fetters of love.
+
+
+ORIGIN OF NUNNERIES.
+
+Soon after the introduction of Christianity, St. Mark is said to have
+founded a society called Therapeutes, who dwelt by the lake Moeris in
+Egypt, and devoted themselves to solitude and religious offices. About
+the year 305 of the christian computation, St. Anthony being persecuted
+by Dioclesian, retired into the desert near the lake Moeris; numbers of
+people soon followed his example, joined themselves to the Therapeutes;
+St. Anthony being placed at their head, and improving upon their rules,
+first formed them into regular monasteries, and enjoined them to live
+in mortification and chastity. About the same time, or soon after,
+St. Synclitica, resolving not to be behind St. Anthony in her zeal for
+chastity, is generally believed to have collected together a number of
+enthusiastic females, and to have founded the first nunnery for their
+reception. Some imagine the scheme of celibacy was concerted between
+St. Anthony and St. Synclitica, as St. Anthony, on his first retiring
+into solitude, is said to have put his sister into a nunnery, which must
+have been that of St. Synclitica; but however this be, from their
+institution, monks and nuns increased so fast, that in the city of
+Orixa, about seventeen years after the death of St. Anthony, there were
+twenty thousand virgins devoted to celibacy.
+
+Such at this time was the rage of celibacy; a rage which, however
+unnatural, will cease to excite our wonder, when we consider, that it
+was accounted by both sexes the sure and only infallible road to heaven
+and eternal happiness; and as such, it behoved the church vigorously to
+maintain and countenance it, which she did by beginning about this time
+to deny the liberty of marriage to her sons. In the first council of
+Nice, held soon after the introduction of christianity, the celibacy of
+the clergy was strenuously argued for, and some think that even in an
+earlier period it had been the subject of debate; however this be, it
+was not agreed to in the council of Nice, though at the end of the
+fourth century it is said that Syricus, bishop of Rome, enacted the
+first decree against the marriage of monks; a decree which was not
+universally received: for several centuries after, we find that it was
+not uncommon for clergymen to have wives; even the popes were allowed
+this liberty, as it is said in some of the old statutes of the church,
+that it was lawful for the pope to marry a virgin for the sake of
+having children. So exceedingly difficult is it to combat against
+nature, that little regard seems to have been paid to this decree of
+Syricus; for we are informed, that several centuries after, it was no
+uncommon thing for the clergy to have wives, and perhaps even a
+plurality of them; as we find it among the ordonnances of pope
+Sylvester, that every priest should be the husband of one wife only; and
+Pius the Second affirmed, that though many strong reasons might be
+adduced in support of the celibacy of the clergy, there were still
+stronger reasons against it.
+
+
+DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT CONVENT AT AJUDA IN RIO JANERIO.
+
+At the end of the chapel is a large quadrangle, entered by a massive
+gateway, surrounded by three stories of grated windows. Here female
+negro pedlars come with their goods, and expose them in the court-yard
+below. The nuns, from their grated windows above, see what they like,
+and, letting down a cord, the article is fastened to it; it is then
+drawn up and examined, and, if approved of, the price is let down. Some
+that I saw in the act of buying and selling in this way, were very
+merry, joking and laughing with the blacks below, and did not seem at
+all indisposed to do the same with my companion. In three of the lower
+windows, on a level with the court-yard, are revolving cupboards, like
+half-barrels, and at the back of each is a plate of tin, perforated like
+the top of a nutmeg-grater. The nuns of this convent are celebrated for
+making sweet confectionary, which people purchase. There is a bell which
+the purchaser applies to, and a nun peeps through the perforated tin;
+she then lays the dish on a shelf of the revolving cupboard, and turns
+it inside out; the dish is taken, the price laid in its place, and it is
+turned in. While we stood there, the invisible lady-warder asked for a
+pinch of snuff; the box was laid down in the same way, and turned in and
+out.
+
+
+CEREMONY OF THE INITIATION OF A NUN.
+
+The disposition to take the veil, even among young girls, is not
+uncommon in Brazil. The opposition of friends can prevent it, until they
+are twenty five years old; but after that time they are considered
+competent to decide for themselves. A writer describes the initiation of
+a young lady, whose wealthy parents were extremely reluctant to have her
+take the vow. She held a lighted torch in her hand, in imitation of the
+prudent virgins; and when the priest chanted, "Your spouse approaches;
+come forth and meet him," she approached the altar singing, "I follow
+with my whole heart;" and, accompanied by two nuns already professed,
+she knelt before the bishop. She seemed very lovely, with an unusually
+sweet, gentle, and pensive countenance. She did not look particularly or
+deeply affected; but when she sung her responses, there was something
+exceedingly mournful in the soft, tremulous, and timid tones of her
+voice. The bishop now exhorted her to make a public profession of her
+vows before the congregation, and said, "Will you persevere in your
+purpose of holy chastity?" She blushed deeply, and, with a downcast
+look, lowly, but firmly answered, "I will." He again said, more
+distinctly, "Do you promise to preserve it?" and she replied more
+emphatically, "I do promise." The bishop then said, "Thanks be to God;"
+and she bent forward and reverently kissed his hand, while he asked her,
+"Will you be blest and consecrated?" She replied, "Oh! I wish it."
+
+The habiliments, in which she was hereafter to be clothed, were
+sanctified by the aspersion of holy water: then followed several prayers
+to God, that "As he had blessed the garments of Aaron, with ointment
+which flowed from his head to his beard, so he would now bless the
+garments of his servant, with the copious dew of his benediction." When
+the garment was thus blessed, the girl retired with it; and having laid
+aside the dress in which she had appeared, she returned, arrayed in her
+new attire, except her veil. A gold ring was next provided, and
+consecrated with a prayer, that she who wore it "might be fortified with
+celestial virtue, to preserve a pure faith, and incorrupt fidelity to
+her spouse, Jesus Christ." He last took the veil, and her female
+attendants having uncovered her head, he threw it over her, so that it
+fell on her shoulders and bosom, and said, "Receive this sacred veil,
+under the shadow of which you may learn to despise the world, and submit
+yourself truly, and with all humility of heart, to your Spouse;" to
+which she sung a response, in a very sweet, soft, and touching voice:
+"He has placed this veil before my face that I should see no lover but
+himself."
+
+The bishop now kindly took her hand, and held it while the following
+hymn was chanted by the choir with great harmony: "Beloved Spouse,
+come--the winter is passed--the turtle sings, and the blooming vines are
+redolent of summer."
+
+A crown, a necklace, and other female ornaments, were now taken by the
+bishop and separately blessed; and the girl bending forward, he placed
+them on her head and neck, praying that she might be thought worthy "to
+be enrolled into the society of the hundred and forty-four thousand
+virgins, who preserved their chastity and did not mix with the society
+of impure women."
+
+Last of all, he placed the ring on the middle finger of her right hand,
+and solemnly said, "So I marry you to Jesus Christ, who will henceforth
+be your protector. Receive this ring, the pledge of your faith, that you
+may be called the spouse of God." She fell on her knees, and sung, "I am
+married to him whom angels serve, whose beauty the sun and moon admire;"
+then rising, and showing with exultation her right hand, she said,
+emphatically, as if to impress it on the attention of the congregation,
+"My Lord has wedded me with this ring, and decorated me with a crown as
+his spouse. I here renounce and despise all earthly ornaments for his
+sake, whom alone I see, whom alone I love, in whom alone I trust, and to
+whom alone I give all my affections. My heart hath uttered a good word:
+I speak of the deed I have done for my King." The bishop then pronounced
+a general benediction, and retired up to the altar; while the nun
+professed was borne off between her friends, with lighted tapers, and
+garlands waving.
+
+
+
+WEDDED LOVE IS INFINITELY PREFERABLE TO VARIETY.
+
+  Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source
+  Of human offspring, sole propriety,
+  In Paradise of all things common else!
+
+    By thee adult'rous lust was driven from men,
+  Among the bestial herds to range; by thee,
+  Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure,
+  Relations dear, and all the charities
+  Of father, son, and brother, first were known.
+
+    Thou art the fountain of domestic sweets,
+  Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced.
+  Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights
+  His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings,
+  Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile
+  Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendear'd,
+  Casual fruition; nor in court amours,
+  Mix'd dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball,
+  Or serenade, which the starved lover sings
+  To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.
+
+
+ITALIAN DEBAUCHERY.
+
+If chastity is none of the most shining virtues of the French, it is
+still less so of the Italians. Almost all the travellers who have
+visited Italy, agree in describing it as the most abandoned of all the
+countries of Europe. At Venice, at Naples, and indeed in almost every
+part of Italy, women are taught from their infancy, the various arts of
+alluring to their arms, the young and unwary, and of obtaining from
+them, while heated by love or wine, every thing that flattery and false
+smiles can obtain in those unguarded moments: and so little infamous is
+the trade of prostitution, and so venal the women, that hardly any rank
+or condition set them above being bribed to it, nay, they are frequently
+assisted by their male friends and acquaintances to drive a good
+bargain; nor does their career of debauchery finish with their unmarried
+state; the vows of fidelity which they make at the altar, are like the
+vows and oaths made upon too many other occasions, only considered as
+nugatory forms, which law has obliged them to take, but custom absolved
+them from performing. They even claim and enjoy greater liberties after
+marriage than before; every married woman has a cicisbey, or gallant,
+who attends her to all public places, hands her in and out of her
+carriage, picks up her gloves or fan, and a thousand other little
+offices of the same natures; but this is only his public employment, as
+a reward for which, he is entitled to have the lady as often as he
+pleases at a place of retirement sacred to themselves, where no person
+not even the most intrusive husband must enter, to be witness of what
+passes between them. This has been considered by people of other
+nations, as a custom not altogether consistent with chastity and purity
+of manners; the Italians themselves however, endeavor to justify it in
+their conversations with strangers, and Baretti has of late years
+published a formal vindication of it to the world. In this vindication
+he has not only deduced the original of it from pure Platonic love, but
+would willingly persuade us that it is still continued upon the same
+mental principles; a doctrine which the world will hardly be credulous
+enough to swallow, even though he should offer more convincing arguments
+to support it than he has already done.
+
+
+NAKED FAKIERS
+
+So different over all the world are the sects of saints as well as of
+sinners, that besides the Bramins, a set of innocent and religious
+priests, who have rendered their women virtuous by treating them with
+kindness and humanity, there are another sect of religio-philosophical
+drones, called Fakiers, who contribute as much as they can to debauch
+the sex, under a pretence of superior sanctity. These hypocritical
+saints, like some of the ridiculous sects which formerly existed in
+Europe, wear no clothes; considering them only as proper appendages to
+sinners, who are ashamed, because they are sensible of guilt; while
+they, being free from every stain of pollution, have no shame to cover.
+In this original state of nature, these idle and pretended devotees,
+assemble together sometimes in armies of ten or twelve thousand, and
+under a pretence of going in pilgrimage to certain temples, like locusts
+devour every thing on their way; the men flying before them, and
+carrying all that they can out of the reach of their depredations; while
+the women, not in the least afraid of a naked army of lusty saints,
+throw themselves in their way, or remain quietly at home to receive
+them.
+
+It has long been an opinion, well established all over India, that there
+is not in nature so powerful a remedy for removing the sterility of
+women, as the prayers of these sturdy naked saints. On this account,
+barren women constantly apply to them for assistance; which when the
+good natured Fakier has an indication to grant, he leaves his slipper,
+or his staff at the door of the lady's apartment with whom he is
+praying; a symbol so sacred, that it effectually prevents any one from
+violating the secrecy of their devotion; but should he forget this
+signal, and at the same time be distant from the protection of his
+brethren, a sound drubbing is frequently the reward of his pious
+endeavors. But though they venture sometimes in Hindostan, to treat a
+Fakier in this unholy manner, in other parts of Asia and Africa, such is
+the veneration in which these lusty saints are held, that they not only
+have access when they please, to perform private devotions with barren
+women, but are accounted so holy, that they may at any time, in public
+or private, confer a personal favor upon a woman, without bringing upon
+her either shame or guilt; and no woman dare refuse to gratify their
+passion. Nor indeed, has any one an inclination of this kind; because
+she, upon whom this personal favor has been conferred, is considered by
+herself, and by all the people, as having been sanctified and made more
+holy by the action.
+
+So much concerning the conduct of the Fakiers in debauching women, seems
+certain. But it is by travellers further related, that wherever they
+find a woman who is exceedingly handsome, they carry her off privately
+to one of their temples; but in such a manner, as to make her and the
+people believe, that she is carried away by the god who is there
+worshipped; who being violently in love with her, took that method to
+procure her for his wife. This done, they perform a nuptial ceremony,
+and make her further believe that she is married to the god; when, in
+reality, she is only married to one of the Fakiers who personates him.
+Women who are treated in this manner are revered by the people as the
+wives of the gods, and by that stratagem secured solely to the Fakiers,
+who have cunning enough to impose themselves as gods upon some of these
+women, through the whole of their lives. In countries where reason is
+stronger than superstition, we almost think this impossible: where the
+contrary is the case, there is nothing too hard to be credited.
+Something like this was done by the priests of ancient Greece and Rome;
+and a few centuries ago, tricks of the same nature were practiced by the
+monks, and other libertines, upon some of the visionary and enthusiastic
+women of Europe. Hence we need not think it strange, if the Fakiers
+generally succeed in attempts of this nature; when we consider that they
+only have to deceive a people brought up in the most consummate
+ignorance; and that nothing can be more flattering to female vanity,
+than for a woman to suppose herself such a peculiar favorite of the
+divinity she worships, as to be chosen, from all her companions, to the
+honor of being admitted to his embraces; a favor, which her
+self-admiration will dispose her more readily to believe than examine.
+
+
+MAHOMETAN PLURALITY OF WIVES.
+
+But it is not the religion of the Hindoos only, that is unfavorable to
+chastity; that of Mahomet which now prevails over a great part of India,
+is unfavorable to it likewise. Mahometanism every where indulges men
+with a plurality of wives while it ties down the women to the strictest
+conjugal fidelity; hence, while the men riot in unlimited variety, the
+women are in great numbers confined to share among them the scanty
+favors of one man only. This unnatural and impolitic conduct induces
+them to seek by art and intrigue, what they are denied by the laws of
+their prophet. As polygamy prevails over all Asia, this art and intrigue
+follow as the consequence of it; some have imagined, that it is the
+result of climate, but it rather appears to be the result of the
+injustice which women suffer by polygamy; for it seems to reign, as much
+in Constantinople, and in every other place where polygamy is in
+fashion, as it does on the banks of the Ganges, or the Indus. The famous
+Montesquieu, whose system was, that the passions are entirely regulated
+by the climate, brings as a proof of this system, a story from the
+collection of voyages for the establishment of an East India Company, in
+which it is said, that at Patan, "the wanton desires of the women are so
+outrageous, that the men are obliged to make use of a certain apparel to
+shelter them from their designs." Were this story really true, it would
+be but a partial proof of the effect of climate, for why should the
+burning suns of Patan only influence the passions of the fair? Why
+should they there transport that sex beyond decency, which in all other
+climates is the most decent? And leave in so cool and defensive a state,
+that sex, which in all other climates is apt to be the most offensive
+and indecent? To whatever length the spirit of intrigue may be carried
+in Asia and Africa, however the passions of the women may prompt them to
+excite desire, and to throw themselves in the way of gratification, we
+have the strongest reasons to reprobate all these stories, which would
+make us believe, that they are so lost to decency as to attack the other
+sex: such a system would be overturning nature, and inverting the
+established laws by which she governs the world.
+
+
+WOMEN OF OTAHEITE.
+
+In Otaheite, an island in the Southern Ocean, we are presented with
+women of a singular character. As far as we can recollect, we think it
+is a pretty general rule, that whatever the sex are accustomed to be
+constantly clothed, they are ashamed to appear naked: those of Otaheite
+seem however to be an exception to this rule; to show themselves in
+public, with or without clothing, appears to be to them a matter of
+equal indifference, and the exposition of any part of their bodies, is
+not attended with the least backwardness or reluctance; circumstances
+from which we may reasonably infer, that among them, clothes were not
+originally invented to cover shame, but either as ornaments, or as a
+defence against the cold. But a still more striking singularity in the
+character of these women, and which distinguishes them not only from the
+females of all other nations, but likewise from those of almost all
+other animals, is, their performing in public those rites, which in
+every other part of the globe, and among almost all animals, are
+performed in privacy and retirement: whether this is the effect of
+innocence, or of a dissoluteness of manners to which no other people
+have yet arrived, remains still to be discovered; that they are
+dissolute, even beyond any thing we have hitherto recorded, is but too
+certain. As polygamy is not allowed among them, to satisfy the lust of
+variety, they have a society called Arreoy, in which every woman is
+common to every man; and when any of these women happens to have a
+child, it is smothered in the moment of its birth, that it may not
+interrupt the pleasures of its infamous mother; but in this juncture,
+should nature relent at so horrid a deed, even then the mother is not
+allowed to save her child, unless she can find a man who will patronise
+it as a father; in which case, the man is considered as having
+appropriated the woman to himself, and she is accordingly extruded from
+this hopeful society. These few anecdotes sufficiently characterise the
+women of this island.
+
+
+CRIM. CON. OF CLAUDIUS AND POMPEIA.
+
+Our own times furnish us with an instance of a ceremony from which all
+women are carefully excluded;[2] but the Roman ladies, in performing the
+rites sacred to the good goddess, were even more afraid of the men than
+our masons are of women; for we are told by some authors, that so
+cautious were they of concealment, that even the statutes and pictures
+of men and other male animals were hood-winked with a thick veil. The
+house of the consul, though commonly so large that they might have been
+perfectly secured against all intrusion in some remote apartment of it,
+was obliged to be evacuated by all male animals, and even the consul
+himself was not suffered to remain in it. Before they began their
+ceremonies, every corner and lurking place in the house was carefully
+searched, and no caution omitted to prevent all possibility of being
+discovered by impertinent curiosity, or disturbed by presumptive
+intrusion. But these cautions were not all the guard that was placed
+around them; The laws of the Romans made it death for any man to be
+present at the solemnity.
+
+Such being the precautions, and such the penalties for insuring the
+secrecy of this ceremony, it was only once attempted to be violated,
+though it existed from the foundation of the Roman empire till the
+introduction of Christianity; and this attempt was made, not so much
+perhaps with a view to be present at the ceremony, as to fulfil an
+assignation with a mistress. Pompeia, the wife of Cæsar, having been
+suspected of a criminal correspondence with Claudius, and so closely
+watched that she could find no opportunity of gratifying her passion, at
+last, by the means of a female slave, settled an assignation with him at
+the celebration of the rites of the good goddess. Claudius was directed
+to come in the habit of a singing girl, a character he could easily
+personate, being young and of a fair complexion. As soon as the slave
+saw him enter, she ran to inform her mistress. The mistress eager to
+meet her lover, immediately left the company and threw herself into his
+arms, but could not be prevailed upon by him to return so soon as he
+thought necessary for their mutual safety; upon which he left her, and
+began to take a walk through the rooms, always avoiding the light as
+much as possible. While he was thus walking by himself, a maid servant
+accosted him, and desired him to sing; he took no notice of her, but she
+followed and urging him so closely, that he was at last obliged to
+speak. His voice betrayed his sex; the maid servant shrieked, and
+running into the room where the rites were performing, told that a man
+was in the house. The women in the utmost consternation, threw a veil
+ever the mysteries, ordered the doors to be secured, and with lights in
+their hands, ran about the house searching for the sacrilegious
+intruder. They found him in the apartment of the slave who had admitted
+him, drove him out with ignominy, and, though it was in the middle of
+the night immediately dispersed, to give an account to their husbands of
+what had happened. Claudius was soon after accused of having profaned
+the holy rites; but the populace declaring in his favor, the judges,
+fearing an insurrection, were obliged to acquit him.
+
+    [2] Masonry
+
+
+A WORD TO A VERY NICE CLASS OF LADIES.
+
+There is amongst us a female character, not uncommon, which we
+denominate the outrageously virtuous. Women of this stamp never fail to
+seize all opportunities of exclaiming, in the bitterest manner, against
+every one upon whom even the slightest suspicion of indiscretion or
+unchastity has fallen; taking care, as they go along, to magnify every
+mole-hill into a mountain, and every thoughtless freedom into the
+blackest of crimes. But besides the illiberality of thus treating such
+as may frequently be innocent, you may credit us, dear countrywomen,
+when we aver, that such a behavior, instead of making you appear more
+virtuous, only draws down upon you, by those who know the world,
+suspicions not much to your advantage. Your sex are in general suspected
+by ours, of being too much addicted to scandal and defamation; a
+suspicion, which has not arisen of late years, as we find in the ancient
+laws of England a punishment, known by the name of ducking-stool,
+annexed to scolding and defamation in the women, though no such
+punishment nor crime is taken notice of in the men. This crime, however,
+we persuade ourselves, you are less guilty of, than is commonly
+believed: but there is another of a nature not more excusable, from
+which we cannot so much exculpate you; which is, that harsh and
+forbidding appearance you put on, and that ill treatment, which you no
+doubt think necessary, for the illustration of your own virtue, you
+should bestow on every one of your sex who has deviated from the path of
+rectitude. A behaviour of this nature, besides being so opposite to that
+meek and gentle spirit which should distinguish female nature, is in
+every respect contrary to the charitable and forgiving temper of the
+Christian religion, and infallibly shuts the door of repentance against
+an unfortunate sister, willing, perhaps, to abandon the vices into which
+heedless inadvertency had plunged her, and from which none of you can
+promise yourselves an absolute security.
+
+We wish not, fair countrywomen, like the declaimer and satirist, to
+paint you all vice and imperfection, nor, like the venal panegyrist, to
+exhibit you all virtue. As impartial historians, we confess that you
+have, in the present age, many virtues and good qualities, which were
+either nearly or altogether unknown to your ancestors; but do you not
+exceed them in some follies and vices also? Is not the levity,
+dissipation, and extravagance of the women of this century arrived to a
+pitch unknown and unheard of in former times? Is not the course which
+you steer in life, almost entirely directed by vanity and fashion? And
+are there not too many of you who, throwing aside reason and good
+conduct, and despising the counsel of your friends and relations, seem
+determined to follow the mode of the world, however it may be mixed with
+vice? Do not the generality of you dress, and appear above your station,
+and are not many of you ashamed to be seen performing the duties of it?
+To sum up all, do not too, too many of you act as if you thought the
+care of a family, and the other domestic virtues, beneath your
+attention, and that the sole end for which you were sent into the world,
+was to please and divert yourselves, at the expense of those poor
+wretches the men, whom you consider as obliged to support you in every
+kind of idleness and extravagance? While such is your conduct, and while
+the contagion is every day increasing, you are not to be surprised if
+the men, still fond of you as playthings in the hours of mirth and
+revelry, ever shun serious connection with you; and while they wish to
+be possessed of your charms, are so much afraid of your manners and
+conduct, that they prefer the cheerless state of a bachelor, to the
+numberless evils arising from being tied to a modern wife.
+
+
+CUSTOM IN THE MOGUL EMPIRE.
+
+In a variety of parts of the Mogul empire, when the women are carried
+abroad, they are put into a kind of machine like a chariot, and placed
+on the backs of camels, or in covered sedan chairs, and surrounded by a
+guard of eunuchs and armed men, in such a manner, that a stranger would
+rather suppose the cavalcade to be carrying some desperate villain to
+execution, than employed to prevent the intrigues or escape of a
+defenceless woman. At home, the sex are covered with gauze veils, which
+they dare not take off in the presence of any man, except their husband,
+or some near relation. Over the greatest part of Asia, and some parts of
+Africa, women are guarded by eunuchs, made incapable of violating their
+chastity. In Spain, where the natives are the descendants of the
+Africans, and whose jealousy is not less strong than that of their
+ancestors, they, for many centuries, made use of padlocks to secure the
+chastity of their women; but finding these ineffectual, they frequently
+had recourse to old women, called Gouvernantes. It had been discovered,
+that men deprived of their virility, did not guard female virtue so
+strictly, as to be incapable of being bribed to allow another a taste of
+those pleasures they themselves were incapable of enjoying. The
+Spaniards, sensible of this, imagined, that vindictive old women were
+more likely to be incorruptible; as envy would stimulate them to prevent
+the young from enjoying those pleasures, which they themselves had no
+longer any chance for; but all powerful gold soon overcame even this
+obstacle; and the Spaniards, at present, seem to give up all restrictive
+methods, and to trust the virtue of their women to good principles,
+instead of rigor and hard usage.
+
+
+CUSTOM OF THE MUSCOVITES.
+
+If the laws forbidding the marriage of near relations with each other,
+originated from the political view of preserving the human race from
+degeneracy, they are the only laws we meet with on that subject, and
+exert almost the only care we find taken of so important a matter. The
+Asiatic is careful to improve the breed of his elephants, the Arabian of
+his horses, and the Laplander of his reindeer. The Englishman, eager to
+have swift horses, staunch dogs, and victorious cocks, grudges no care
+and spares no expense, to have the males and females matched properly;
+but since the days of Solon, where is the legislator, or since the days
+of the ancient Greeks, where are the private persons who take any care
+to improve, or even to keep from degeneracy the breed of their own
+species? The Englishman who solicitously attends the training of his
+colts and puppies, would be ashamed to be caught in the nursery; and
+while no motive could prevail upon him to breed horses or hounds from an
+improper or contaminated kind, he will calmly, or rather
+inconsiderately, match himself with the most decrepid or diseased of the
+human species; thoughtless of the weaknesses and evils he is going to
+entail on posterity, and considering nothing but the acquisition of
+fortune he is by her alliance to convey to an offspring, by diseases
+rendered unable to use it. The Muscovites were formerly the only people,
+besides the Greeks, who paid a proper attention to this subject. After
+the preliminaries of a marriage were settled between the parents of a
+young couple, the bride was stripped naked, and carefully examined by a
+jury of matrons, when if they found any bodily defect they endeavored to
+cure it; but if it would admit of no remedy, the match was broke off,
+and she was considered not only as a very improper subject to breed
+from, but improper also for maintaining the affections of a husband,
+after he had discovered the imposition she had put upon him.
+
+
+SALE OF CHILDREN TO PURCHASE WIVES.
+
+In Timor, an island in the Indian Ocean, it is said, that parents sell
+their children in order to purchase more wives. In Circassia, women are
+reared and improved in beauty and every alluring art, only for the
+purpose of being sold. The prince of the Circassians demanded of the
+prince of Mingrelia an hundred slaves loaded with tapestry, an hundred
+cows, as many oxen, and the same number of horses, as the price of his
+sister. In New-Zealand, we meet with a custom which may be called
+purchasing a wife for a night, and which is proof that those must also
+be purchased who are intended for a longer duration; and what to us is a
+little supprising, this temporary wife, insisted upon being treated with
+as much deference and respect, as if she had been married for life; but
+in general, this is not the case in other countries, for the wife who is
+purchased, is always trained up in the principles of slavery; and, being
+inured to every indignity and mortification from her parents, she
+expects no better treatment from her husband.
+
+There is little difference in the condition of her who is put to sale by
+her sordid parents, and her who is disposed of in the same manner by the
+magistrates, as a part of the state's property. Besides those we have
+already mentioned in this work, the Thracians put the fairest of their
+virgins up to public sale, and the magistrates of Crete had the sole
+power of choosing partners in marriage for their young men; and, in the
+execution of this power, the affection and interest of the parties was
+totally overlooked, and the good of the state the only object of
+attention; in pursuing which, they always allotted the strongest and
+best made of the sex to one another, that they might raise up a
+generation of warriors, or of women fit to be the mothers of warriors.
+
+
+POLYGAMY AND CONCUBINAGE.
+
+Polygamy and concubinage having in process of time become fashionable
+vices, the number of women kept by the great became at last more an
+article of grandeur and state, than a mode of satisfying the animal
+appetite: Solomon had threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and
+virgins without number. Maimon tells us, that among the Jews a man might
+have as many wives as he pleased, even to the number of a hundred, and
+that it was not in their power to prevent him, provided he could
+maintain, and pay them all the conjugal debt once a week; but in this
+duty he was not to run in arrear to any of them above a month, though
+with regard to concubines he might do as he pleased.
+
+It would be an endless task to enumerate all the nations which practised
+polygamy; we shall, therefore, only mention a few, where the practice
+seemed to vary something from the common method. The ancient Sabæans are
+not only said to have had a plurality, but even a community of wives; a
+thing strongly inconsistent with that spirit of jealousy which prevails
+among men in most countries where polygamy is allowed. The ancient
+Germans were so strict monogamists,[3] that they reckoned it a species
+of polygamy for a woman to marry a second husband even after the death
+of the first. "A woman (say they) has but one life, and but one body,
+therefore should have but one husband;" and besides, they added, "that
+she who knows she is never to have a second husband, will the more value
+and endeavor to promote the happiness and preserve the life of the
+first." Among the Heruli this idea was carried farther, a woman was
+obliged to strangle herself at the death of her husband, lest she
+should, afterwards marry another; so detestable was polygamy in the
+North, while in the East it is one of these rights which they most of
+all others esteem, and maintain with such inflexible firmness, that it
+will probably be one of the last of those that it will wrest out of
+their hands.
+
+The Egyptians, it is probable, did not allow of polygamy, and as the
+Greeks borrowed their institutions from them, it was also forbid by the
+laws of Cecrops, though concubinage seems either to have been allowed or
+overlooked; for in the Odyssey of Homer we find Ulysses declaring
+himself to be the son of a concubine, which he would probably not have
+done, had any degree of infamy been annexed to it. In some cases,
+however, polygamy was allowed in Greece, from a mistaken notion that it
+would increase population. The Athenians, once thinking the number of
+their citizens diminished, decreed that it should be lawful for a man to
+have children by another woman as well as by his wife; besides this,
+particular instances occur of some who have transgressed the law of
+monogamy. Euripides is said to have had two wives, who, by their
+constant disagreement, gave him a dislike to the whole sex; a
+supposition which receives some weight from these lines of his in
+Andromache:
+
+            ne'er will I commend
+  More beds, more wives than one, nor children curs'd
+  With double mothers, banes and plagues of life.
+
+Socrates too had two wives, but the poor culprit
+had as much reason to repent of his temerity
+as Euripides.
+
+    [3] Monogamy is having only one wife.
+
+
+EUNUCHS.
+
+As the appetite towards the other sex is one of the strongest and most
+ungovernable in our nature; as it intrudes itself more than any other
+into our thoughts, and frequently diverts them from every other purpose
+or employment; it may, at first, on this account, have been reckoned
+criminal when it interfered with worship and devotion; and emasculation
+was made use of in order to get rid of it, which may, perhaps, have been
+the origin of Eunuchs. But however this be, it is certain, that there
+were men of various religions who made themselves incapable of
+procreation on a religious account, as we are told that the priests of
+Cybele constantly castrated themselves; and by our Saviour, that there
+are eunuchs who make themselves such for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
+
+
+GIRLS SOLD AT AUCTION.
+
+The ancient Assyrians seem more thoroughly to have settled and digested
+the affairs of marriage, than any of their cotemporaries. Once in every
+year they assembled together all the girls that were marriageable, when
+the public crier put them up to sale, one after another. For her whose
+figure was agreeable, and whose beauty was attracting, the rich strove
+against each other, who should give the highest price; which price was
+put into a public stock, and distributed in portions to those whom
+nobody would accept without a reward. After the most beautiful were
+disposed of, these were also put up by the crier, and a certain sum of
+money offered with each, proportioned to what it was thought she stood
+in need of to bribe a husband to accept her. When a man offered to
+accept of any of them, on the terms upon which she was exposed to sale,
+the crier proclaimed that such a man had proposed to take such a woman,
+with such a sum of money along with her, provided none could be found
+who would take her with less; and in this manner the sale went on, till
+she was at last allotted to him who offered to take her with the
+smallest portion.--When this public sale was over, the purchasers of
+those that were beautiful were not allowed to take them away, till they
+had paid down the price agreed on, and given sufficient security that
+they would marry them; nor, on the other hand, would those who were to
+have a premium for accepting of such as were less beautiful, take a
+delivery of them, till their portions were previously paid.
+
+
+SALE OF A WIFE.
+
+In England, the sale of a wife sometimes occurs, even at the present
+day, of which the following is an example, from the Lancaster Herald.
+
+"_Sale of a wife at Carlisle_--The inhabitants of this city lately
+witnessed the sale of a wife by her husband, Joseph Thompson, who
+resides in a small village about three miles distant, and rents a farm
+of about forty-two or forty-four acres. She was a spruce, lively, buxom
+damsel, apparently not exceeding twenty-two years of age, and appeared
+to feel a pleasure at the exchange she was about to make. They had no
+children during their union, and that, with some family disputes, caused
+them by mutual agreement to come to the resolution of finally parting.
+Accordingly, the bellman was sent round to give public notice of the
+sale, which was to take place at twelve o'clock; and this announcement
+attracted the notice of thousands. She appeared above the crowd,
+standing on a large oak chair, surrounded by many of her friends, with a
+rope or halter, made of straw, round her neck, being dressed in rather a
+fashionable country style, and appearing to some advantage. The husband,
+who was also standing in an elevated position near her, proceeded to put
+her up for sale, and spoke nearly as follows:--'Gentlemen, I have to
+offer to your notice my wife, Mary Anne Thompson, otherwise Williamson,
+whom I mean to sell to the highest and fairest bidder. It is her wish as
+well as mine to part for ever. I took her for my comfort, and the good
+of my house, but she has become my tormentor and a domestic curse, &c.
+&c. Now I have shown you her faults and failings, I will explain her
+qualifications and goodness. She can read fashionable novels and milk
+cows; she can laugh and weep with the same ease that you can take a
+glass of ale; she can make butter, and scold the maid; she can sing
+Moore's melodies, and plait her frills and caps; she cannot make rum,
+gin, or whiskey, but she is a good judge of their quality from long
+experience in tasting them, I therefore offer her, with all her
+perfections and imperfections, for the sum of fifty shillings.'--After
+an hour or two, she was purchased by Henry Mears, a pensioner, for the
+sum of twenty shillings and a Newfoundland dog. The happy pair
+immediately left town together, amidst the shouts and huzzas of the
+multitude, in which they were joined by Thompson, who, with the greatest
+good-humor imaginable, proceeded to put the halter, which his wife had
+taken off, round the neck of his Newfoundland dog, and then proceeded
+to the first public house, where he spent the remainder of the day."
+
+
+PUNISHMENT OF ADULTERY.
+
+As fidelity to the marriage-bed, especially on the part of woman, has
+always been considered as one of the most essential duties of matrimony,
+wise legislators, in order to secure that benefit have annexed
+punishment to the act of adultery; these punishments, however, have
+generally some reference to the manner in which wives were acquired, and
+to the value stamped upon woman by civilization and politeness of
+manners. It is ordained by the Mosaic code, that both the men and the
+women taken in adultery shall be stoned to death; whence it would seem,
+that no more latitude was given to the male than to the female. But this
+is not the case; such an unlimited power of concubinage was given to the
+men, that we may suppose him highly licentious indeed, who could not be
+satisfied therewith, without committing adultery. The Egyptians, among
+whom women were greatly esteemed, had a singular method of punishing
+adulterers of both sexes; they cut off the privy parts of the man, that
+he might never be able to debauch another woman; and the nose of the
+woman, that she might never be the object of temptation to another man.
+
+Punishments nearly of the same nature, and perhaps nearly about the same
+time, were instituted in the East Indies against adulterers; but while
+those of the Egyptians originated from a love of virtue and of their
+woman, those of the Hindoos probably arose from jealousy and revenge.
+It is ordained by the Shaster, that if a man commit adultery with a
+woman of a superior cast, he shall be put to death; if by force he
+commit adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior cast, the
+magistrate shall confiscate all his possessions, cut off his genitals,
+and cause him to be carried round the city, mounted on a ass. If by
+fraud he commit adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior cast, the
+magistrate shall take his possessions, brand him in the forehead, and
+banish him the kingdom. Such are the laws of the Shaster, so far as they
+regard all the superior casts, except the Bramins; but if any of the
+most inferior casts commit adultery with a woman of the casts greatly
+superior, he is not only to be dismembered, but tied to a hot iron
+plate, and burnt to death; whereas the highest casts may commit adultery
+with the very lowest, for the most trifling fine; and a Bramin, or
+priest, can only suffer by having the hair of his head cut off; and,
+like the clergy of Europe, while under the dominion of the Pope, he
+cannot be put to death for any crime whatever. But the laws, of which he
+is always the interpreter, are not so favorable to his wife; they
+inflict a severe disgrace upon her, if she commit adultery with any of
+the higher casts; but if with the lowest, the magistrate shall cut off
+her hair, anoint her body with Ghee, and cause her to be carried through
+the whole city, naked, and riding upon an ass; and shall cast her out on
+the north side of the city, or cause her to be eaten by dogs. If a woman
+of any of the other casts goes to a man, and entices him to have
+criminal correspondence with her, the magistrate shall cut off her ears,
+lips and nose, mount her upon an ass, and drown her, or throw her to the
+dogs. To the commission of adultery with a dancing girl, or prostitute,
+no punishment nor fine is annexed.
+
+
+ANECDOTE OF CÆSAR.
+
+When Cæsar had subdued all his competitors, and most of the foreign
+nations which made war against him, he found that so many Romans had
+been destroyed in the quarrels in which he had often engaged them, that,
+to repair the loss, he promised rewards to fathers of families, and
+forbade all Romans who were above twenty, and under forty years of age,
+to go out of their native country. Augustus, his successor, to check the
+debauchery of the Roman youth, laid heavy taxes upon such as continued
+unmarried after a certain age, and encouraged with great rewards, the
+procreation of lawful children. Some years afterwards, the Roman knights
+having pressingly petitioned him that he would relax the severity of
+that law, he ordered their whole body to assemble before him, and the
+married and unmarried to arrange themselves in two separate parties,
+when, observing the unmarried to be much the greater company, he first
+addressed those who had complied with his law, telling them, that they
+alone had served the purposes of nature and society; that the human race
+was created male and female to prevent the extinction of the species;
+and that marriage was contrived as the most proper method of renewing
+the children of that species. He added, that they alone deserved the
+name of men and fathers, and that he would prefer them to such offices,
+as they might transmit to their posterity. Then turning to the
+bachelors, he told them, that he knew not by what name to call them; not
+by that of men, for they had done nothing that was manly; nor by that of
+citizens, since the city might perish for them; nor by that of Romans,
+for they seemed determined to let the race and name become extinct; but
+by whatever name he called them, their crime, he said, equalled all
+other crimes put together, for they were guilty of murder, in not
+suffering those to be born who should proceed from them; of impiety, in
+abolishing the names and honors of their fathers and ancestors; of
+sacrilege, in destroying their species, and human nature, which owed its
+original to the gods, and was consecrated to them; that by leading a
+single life they overturned, as far as in them lay, the temples and
+altars of the gods; dissolved the government, by disobeying its laws;
+betrayed their country, by making it barren. Having ended his speech, he
+doubled the rewards and privileges of such as had children, and laid a
+heavy fine on all unmarried persons, by reviving the Poppæan law.
+
+Though by this law all the males above a certain age were obliged to
+marry under a severe penalty, Augustus allowed them the space of a full
+year to comply with its demands; but such was the backwardness to
+matrimony, and perversity of the Roman knights, and others, that every
+possible method was taken to evade the penalty inflicted upon them, and
+some of them even married children in the cradle for that purpose; thus
+fulfilling the letter, they avoided the spirit of the law, and though
+actually married, had no restraint upon their licentiousness, nor any
+incumbrance by the expense of a family.
+
+
+POWER OF MARRYING.
+
+Among nations which had shaken off the authority of the church of Rome,
+the priests still retained almost an exclusive power of joining men and
+women together in marriage. This appears rather, however, to have been
+by the tacit consent of the civil power, than from any defect in its
+right and authority; for in the time of Oliver Cromwell, marriages were
+solemnized frequently by the justices of the peace; and the clergy
+neither attempted to invalidate them, nor make the children proceeding
+from them illegitimate; and when the province of New England was first
+settled, one of the earliest laws of the colony was, that the power of
+marrying should belong to the magistrates. How different was the case
+with the first French settlers in Canada! For many years a priest had
+not been seen in the country, and a magistrate could not marry: the
+consequence was natural; men and woman joined themselves together as
+husband and wife, trusting to the vows and promises of each other.
+Father Charlevoix, a Jesuit, at last travelled into those wild regions,
+found many of the simple, innocent inhabitants living in that manner;
+with all of whom he found much fault, enjoined them to do penance, and
+afterwards married them. After the Restoration, the power of marrying
+again reverted to the clergy. The magistrate, however, had not entirely
+resigned his right to that power; but it was by a late act of parliament
+entirely surrendered to them, and a penalty annexed to the solemnization
+of it by any other person whatever.
+
+
+CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.
+
+At a synod held at Winchester under St. Dunstan, the monks averred, that
+so highly criminal was it for a priest to marry, that even a wooden
+cross had audibly declared against the horrid practice. Others place the
+first attempt of this kind, to the account of Aelfrick, archbishop of
+Canterbury, about the beginning of the eleventh century; however this
+may be, we have among the canons a decree of the archbishops of
+Canterbury, and York, ordaining, That all ministers of God, especially
+priests, should observe chastity, and not take wives: and in the year
+1076, there was a council assembled at Winchester, under Lanfranc, which
+decreed, that no canon should have a wife; that such priests as lived in
+castles and villages should not be obliged to put their wives away, but
+that such as had none should not be allowed to marry; and that bishops
+should not ordain priests or deacons, unless they previously declared
+that they were not married. In the year 1102, archbishop Anselm held a
+council at Westminster, where it was decreed, that no archdeacon,
+priest, deacon, or canon, should either marry a wife, or retain her if
+he had one. Anselm, to give this decree greater weight, desired of the
+king, that the principal men of the kingdom might be present at the
+council, and that the decree might be enforced by the joint consent both
+of the clergy and laity; the king consented, and to these canons the
+whole realm gave a general sanction. The clergy of the province of York,
+however, remonstrated against them, and refused to put away their wives;
+the unmarried refused also to oblige themselves to continue in that
+state; nor were the clergy of Canterbury much more tractable.
+
+In the celibacy of the clergy, we may discover also the origin of
+nunneries; the intrigues they could procure, while at confession, were
+only short, occasional, and with women whom they could not entirely
+appropriate to themselves; to remedy which, they probably fabricated the
+scheme of having religious houses, where young women should be shut up
+from the world, and where no man but a priest, on pain of death, should
+enter. That in these dark retreats, secluded from censure, and from the
+knowledge of the world, they might riot in licentiousness. They were
+sensible, that women, surrounded with the gay and the amiable, might
+frequently spurn at the offers of a cloistered priest, but that while
+confined entirely to their own sex, they would take pleasure in a visit
+from one of the other, however slovenly and unpolished. In the world at
+large, should the crimes of the women be detected, the priests have no
+interest in mitigating their punishment; but here the whole community of
+them are interested in the secret of every intrigue, and should Lucinda
+unluckily proclaim it, she can seldom do it without the walls of the
+convent, and if she does, the priests lay the crime on some luckless
+laic, that the holy culprit may come off with impunity.
+
+
+DESPERATE ACT OF EUTHIRA.
+
+In ancient and modern history, we are frequently presented with accounts
+of women, who, preferring death to slavery or prostitution, sacrificed
+their lives with the most undaunted courage to avoid them. Apollodorus
+tells us, that Hercules having taken the city of Troy, prior to the
+famous siege of it celebrated by Homer, carried away captive the
+daughters of Laomedon then king. One of these, named Euthira, being left
+with several other Trojan captives on board the Grecian fleet, while the
+sailors went on shore to take in fresh provisions, had the resolution to
+propose, and the power to persuade her companions, to set the ships on
+fire, and to perish themselves amid the devouring flames. The women of
+Phoenicia met together before an engagement which was to decide the fate
+of their city, and having agreed to bury themselves in the flames, if
+their husbands and relations were defeated, in the enthusiasm of their
+courage and resolution, they crowned her with flowers who first made the
+proposal. Many instances occur in the history of the Romans of the Gauls
+and Germans, and of other nations in subsequent periods; where women
+being driven to despair by their enemies, have bravely defended their
+walls, or waded through fields of blood to assist their countrymen, and
+free themselves from slavery or from ravishment. Such heroic efforts are
+beauties, even in the character of the softer sex, when they proceed
+from necessity: when from choice, they are blemishes of the most
+unnatural kind, indicating a heart of cruelty, lodged in a form which
+has the appearance of gentleness and peace.
+
+It has been alleged by some of the writers on human nature, that to the
+fair sex the loss of beauty is more alarming and insupportable than the
+loss of life; but even this loss, however opposite to the feelings of
+their nature, they have voluntarily consented to sustain, that they
+might not be the objects of temptation to the lawless ravisher. The nuns
+of a convent in France, fearing they should be violated by a ruffian
+army, which had taken by storm the town in which their convent was
+situated, at the recommendation of their abbess, mutually agreed to cut
+off all their noses, that they might save their chastity by becoming
+objects of disgust instead of desire. Were we to descend to particulars,
+we could give innumerable instances of women, who from Semiramis down to
+the present time, have distinguished themselves by their courage. Such
+was Penthesilea, who, if we may credit ancient story, led her army of
+viragoes to the assistance of Priam, king of Troy; Thomyris, who
+encountered Cyrus, king of Persia; and Thalestris, famous for her
+fighting, as well as for her amours with Alexander the Great. Such was
+the brave but ill-fated Boadicea, queen of the Britons, who led on that
+people to revenge the wrongs done to herself and her country by the
+Romans. And in later periods, such were the Maid of Orleans, and
+Margaret of Anjou; which last, according to several historians,
+commanded at no less than twelve pitched battles. But we do not choose
+to multiply instances of this nature, as we have already said enough to
+shew, that the sex are not destitute of courage when that virtue becomes
+necessary; and were they possessed of it, when unnecessary, it would
+divest them of one of the principal qualities for which we love, and for
+which we value them. No woman was ever held up as a pattern to her sex,
+because she was intrepid and brave; no woman ever conciliated the
+affections of the men, by rivalling them in what they reckon the
+peculiar excellencies of their own character.
+
+
+LUXURIOUS DRESS OF THE GRECIAN LADIES.
+
+As the Greeks emerged from the barbarity of the heroic ages, among other
+articles of culture, they began to bestow more attention on the
+convenience and elegance of dress. At Athens, the ladies commonly employ
+the whole morning in dressing themselves in a decent and becoming
+manner; their toilet consisted in paints and washes, of such a nature as
+to cleanse and beautify the skin, and they took great care to clean
+their teeth, an article too much neglected: some also blackened their
+eyebrows, and, if necessary, supplied the deficiency of the vermillion
+on their lips, by a paint said to have been exceedingly beautiful. At
+this time the women in the Greek islands make much use of a paint which
+they call Sulama, which imparts a beautiful redness to the cheeks, and
+gives the skin a remarkable gloss. Possibly this may be the same with
+that made use of in the times we are considering; but however this be,
+some of the Greek ladies at present gild their faces all over on the day
+of their marriage, and consider this coating as an irresistible charm;
+and in the island of Scios, their dress does not a little resemble that
+of ancient Sparta, for they go with their bosoms uncovered, and with
+gowns which only reach to the calf of their leg, in order to show their
+fine garters, which are commonly red ribbons curiously embroidered. But
+to return to ancient Greece; the ladies spent likewise a part of their
+time in composing head-dresses, and though we have reason to suppose
+that they were not then so preposterously fantastic as those presently
+composed by a Parisian milliner, yet they were probably objects of no
+small industry and attention, especially as we find that they then dyed
+their hair, perfumed it with the most costly essences, and by the means
+of hot irons disposed of it in curls, as fancy or fashion directed.
+Their clothes were made of stuffs so extremely light and fine as to show
+their shapes without offending against the rules of decency. At Sparta,
+the case was widely different; we shall not describe the dress of the
+women; it is sufficient to say that it has been loudly complained of by
+almost every ancient author who has treated on the subject.
+
+
+GRECIAN COURTSHIP.
+
+In the earlier periods of the history of the Greeks, their love, if we
+may call it so, was only the animal appetite, impetuous and unrestrained
+either by cultivation of manners, or precepts of morality; and almost
+every opportunity which fell in their way, prompted them to satisfy that
+appetite by force, and to revenge the obstruction of it by murder. When
+they became a more civilized people, they shone much more illustriously
+in arts and in arms, than in delicacy of sentiment and elegance of
+manners: hence we shall find, that their method of making love was more
+directed to compel the fair sex to a compliance with their wishes by
+charms and philtres, than to win them by the nameless assiduities and
+good offices of a lover.
+
+As the two sexes in Greece had but little communication with each other,
+and a lover was seldom favored with an opportunity of telling his
+passion to his mistress, he used to discover it by inscribing her name
+on the walls of his house, on the bark of the trees of a public walk, or
+leaves of his books; it was customary for him also to deck the door of
+the house where his fair one lived, with garlands and flowers, to make
+libations of wine before it, and to sprinkle the entrance with the same
+liquor, in the manner that was practised at the temple of Cupid.
+Garlands were of great use among the Greeks in love affairs; when a man
+untied his garland, it was a declaration of his having been subdued by
+that passion; and when a woman composed a garland, it was a tacit
+confession of the same thing: and though we are not informed of it, we
+may presume that both sexes had methods of discovering by these
+garlands, not only that they were in love, but the object also upon whom
+it was directed.
+
+Such were the common methods of discovering the passion of love; the
+methods of prosecuting it were still more extraordinary, and less
+reconcilable to civilization and to good principles; when a love affair
+did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, he did not endeavor to become
+more engaging in his manners and person, he did not lavish his fortune
+in presents, or become more obliging and assiduous in his addresses, but
+immediately had recourse to incantations and philtres; in composing and
+dispensing of which, the women of Thessaly were reckoned the most
+famous, and drove a traffic in them of no considerable advantage. These
+potions were given by the women to the men, as well as by the men to the
+women, and were generally so violent in their operations as for some
+time to deprive the person who took them, of sense, and not uncommonly
+of life: their composition was a variety of herbs of the most strong and
+virulent nature, which we shall not mention; but herbs were not the only
+things they relied on for their purpose; they called in the productions
+of the animal and mineral kingdoms to their assistance; when these
+failed, they roasted an image of wax before the fire, representing the
+object of their love, and as this became warm, they flattered themselves
+that the person represented by it would be proportionally warmed with
+love. When a lover could obtain any thing belonging to his mistress, he
+imagined it of singular advantage, and deposited in the earth beneath
+the threshold of her door. Besides these, they had a variety of other
+methods equally ridiculous and unavailing, and of which it would be
+trifling to give a minute detail; we shall, therefore, just take notice
+as we go along, that such of either sex as believed themselves forced
+into love by the power of philtres and charms, commonly had recourse to
+the same methods to disengage themselves, and break the power of these
+enchantments, which they supposed operated involuntarily on their
+inclinations; and thus the old women of Greece, like the lawyers of
+modern times, were employed to defeat the schemes and operations of each
+other, and like them too, it is presumable, laughed in their sleeves,
+while they hugged the gains that arose from vulgar credulity.
+
+
+POWER OF PHILTRES AND CHARMS.
+
+The Romans, who borrowed most of their customs from the Greeks, also
+followed them in that of endeavoring to conciliate love by the power of
+philtres and charms; a fact of which we have not the least room to
+doubt, as they are in Virgil and some other of the Latin poets so many
+instances that prove it. But it depends not altogether on the testimony
+of the poets: Plutarch tells us, that Lucullus, a Roman General, lost
+his senses by a love potion; and Caius Caligula, according to Suetonius,
+was thrown into a fit of madness by one which was given him by his wife
+Cæsonia; Lucretius too, according to some authors, fell a sacrifice to
+the same folly. The Romans, like the Greeks, made use of these methods
+mostly in their affairs of gallantry and unlawful love; but in what
+manner they addressed themselves to a lady they intended to marry, has
+not been handed down to us, and the reason we suppose is, that little or
+no courtship was practised among them; women had no disposing power of
+themselves, to what purpose was it then to apply to them for their
+consent? They were under perpetual guardianship, and the guardian having
+sole power of disposing of them, it was only necessary to apply to him.
+In the Roman authors, we frequently read of a father, a brother, or a
+guardian, giving his daughter, his sister, or his ward, in marriage;
+but we do not recollect one single instance of being told that the
+intended bridegroom applied to the lady for her consent; a circumstance
+the more extraordinary, as women in the decline of the Roman empire had
+arisen to a dignity, and even to a freedom hardly equalled in modern
+times.
+
+
+EASTERN COURTSHIP.
+
+It has long been a common observation among mankind, that love is the
+most fruitful source of invention; and that in this case the imagination
+of a woman is still more fruitful of invention and expedient than that
+of a man; agreeably to this, we are told, that the women of the island
+of Amboyna, being closely watched on all occasions, and destitute of the
+art of writing, by which, in other places, the sentiments are conveyed
+to any distance, have methods of making known their inclinations to
+their lovers, and of fixing assignations with them, by means of
+nosegays, and plates of fruit so disposed, as to convey their sentiments
+in the most explicit manner: by these means their courtship is generally
+carried on, and by altering the disposition of symbols made use of, they
+contrive to signify their refusal, with the same explicitness as their
+approbation. In some of the neighboring islands, when a young man has
+fixed his affection, like the Italians, he goes from time to time to her
+door, and plays upon some musical instrument; if she gives consent, she
+comes out to him, and they settle the affair of matrimony between them;
+if, after a certain number of these kind of visits, she does not appear,
+it is a denial; and the disappointed lover is obliged to desist.
+
+We shall see afterward when we come to treat of the matrimonial compact,
+that, in some places, the ceremony of marriage consists in tying the
+garments of the young couple together, as an emblem of that union which
+ought to bind their affections and interests. This ceremony has afforded
+a hint for lovers to explain their passion to their mistresses, in the
+most intelligible manner, without the help of speech, or the possibility
+of offending the nicest delicacy. A lover in these parts, who is too
+modest to declare himself, seizes the first opportunity he can find, of
+sitting down by his mistress, and tying his garment to hers, in the
+manner that is practised in the ceremony of marriage: if she permits him
+to finish the knot, without any interruption, and does not soon after
+cut or loose it, she thereby gives her consent; if she looses it, he may
+tie it again on some other occasion, when she may prove more propitious;
+but if she cuts it, his hopes are blasted forever.
+
+
+LONG HAIR OF SAXONS AND DANES.
+
+The human hair has ever been regarded as an ornament. The Anglo-Saxons
+and Danes considered their hair as one of their greatest personal
+beauties, and took great care to dress it to the utmost advantage. Young
+ladies wore it loose, and flowing in ringlets over their shoulders; but
+after marriage they cut it shorter, tied it up, and covered it with a
+head-dress, according to the fashion of the times; but to have the hair
+cut entirely off, was a disgrace of such a nature, that it was even
+thought a punishment not inadequate to the crime of adultery; so great,
+in the Middle ages, was the value set upon the hair by both sexes, that,
+as a piece of the most peculiar mortification, it was ordered by the
+canons of the church, that the clergy should keep their hair short, and
+shave the crown of their head; and that they should not, upon any
+pretence whatever, endeavor to keep the part so shaved from public view.
+Many of the clergy of these times, finding themselves so peculiarly
+mortified, and perhaps so easily distinguished from all other people by
+this particularity, as to be readily detected when they committed any of
+the follies or crimes to which human nature is in every situation
+sometimes liable, endeavored to persuade mankind that long hair was
+criminal, in order to reduce the whole to a similarity with themselves.
+Amongst these, St. Wulstan eminently distinguished himself. "He rebuked,"
+says William of Malmsbury, "the wicked of all ranks with great boldness,
+but was _peculiarly_ severe upon those who were proud of their long
+hair. When any of these vain people bowed their heads before him, to
+receive his blessing, before he gave it he cut a lock from their hair,
+with a sharp penknife, which he carried about him for that purpose; and
+commanded them, by way of penance for their sins, to cut all the rest in
+the same manner: if any of them refused to comply with his command he
+reproached them for their effeminacy, and denounced the most dreadful
+judgments against them. Such, however, was the value of their hair in
+these days, that many rather submitted to his censures than part with
+it; and such was the folly of the church, and of this saint in
+particular, that the most solemn judgments were denounced against
+multitudes, for no other crime than not making use of pen-knives and
+scissors, to cut off an ornament bestowed by nature."
+
+
+ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.
+
+On St. Valentine's day, it is customary, in many parts of Italy, for an
+unmarried lady to choose, from among the young gentlemen of her
+acquaintance, one to be her guardian or gallant; who, in return for the
+honor of this appointment, presents to her some nosegays, or other
+trifles, and thereby obliges himself to attend her in the most
+obsequious manner in all her parties of pleasure, and to all her public
+amusements, for the space of one year, when he may retire, and the lady
+may choose another in his place. But in the course of this connection it
+frequently happens, that they contract such an inclination to each
+other, as prompts them to be coupled for life. In the times of the
+chivalry, we have seen that the men gloried in protecting the women, and
+the women thought themselves safe and happy when they obtained that
+protection. It is probable, therefore, that this custom, though now more
+an affair of gallantry than of protection, is a relic of chivalry still
+subsisting among that romantic and sentimental people.
+
+But the observation of some peculiar customs on St. Valentine's day is
+not confined to Italy; almost all Europe has joined in distinguishing it
+by some particular ceremony. As it always happens about that time of the
+year, when the genial influences of the spring begin to operate, it has
+been believed by the vulgar, that upon it the birds invariably choose
+their mates for the ensuing season. In imitation, therefore, of their
+example, the vulgar of both sexes, in many parts of Britain, meet
+together; and having upon slips of paper wrote down the names of all
+their acquaintances, and put them into two different bags, the men drew
+the female names by lot, and the women the male; the man makes the woman
+who drew his name some trifling present, and in the rural gambol becomes
+her partner; and she considers him as her sweetheart, till he is
+otherwise disposed of, or till next Valentine's day provide her with
+another.
+
+
+COURTS OF LOVE.
+
+In Spain, during the Middle Ages, courts of Love were established. These
+courts were composed of ladies summoned to meet together, for the
+purpose of discussing, in the most formal and serious manner, "beautiful
+and subtle questions of love." They decided the precise amount of
+inconstancy which a lady might forgive, without lowering her own
+dignity, provided her lover made certain supplications, and performed
+certain penances; they took it into solemn consideration whether a lover
+was justified, under any circumstances, in expressing the slightest
+doubt of his lady's fidelity; they laid down definite rules, and
+ceremonials of behavior, to be observed by those who wished to be
+beloved; and gravely discussed the question whether sentiment, or sight,
+the heart, or the eyes, contributed most powerfully to inspire
+affection.
+
+
+IMMODESTY AT BABYLON.
+
+That modesty and chastity, which we now esteem as the chief ornament of
+the female character, does not appear in times of remote antiquity to
+have been much regarded by either sex. At Babylon, the capital of the
+Assyrian empire, it was so little valued, that a law of the country
+even obliged every woman once in her life to depart from it. This
+abominable law, which, it is said, was promulgated by an oracle,
+ordained, That every woman should once in her life repair to the temple
+of Venus; that on her arrival there, her head should be crowned with
+flowers, and in that attire, she should wait till some stranger
+performed with her the rites sacred to the goddess of debauchery.
+
+This temple was constructed with a great many winding galleries
+appropriated to the reception of the women, and the strangers who,
+allured by debauchery, never failed to assemble there in great numbers,
+being allowed to choose any woman they thought proper from among those
+who came there in obedience to the law. When the stranger accosted the
+object of his choice, he was obliged to present her with some pieces of
+money, nor was she at liberty to refuse either these, or the request of
+the stranger who offered them, whatever was the value of the money, or
+however mean or disagreeable the donor. These preliminaries being
+settled, they retired together to fulfil the law, after which the woman
+returned and offered the goddess the sacrifice prescribed by custom, and
+then was at liberty to return home. Nor was this custom entirely
+confined to the Babylonians; in the island of Cyprus they sent young
+women at stated times to the sea-shore, where they prostituted
+themselves to Venus, that they might be chaste the rest of their lives.
+In some other countries, a certain number only were doomed to
+prostitution, as it is supposed, by way of a bribe, to induce the
+goddess of debauchery to save the rest.
+
+When a woman had once entered the temple of Venus, she was not allowed
+to depart from it till she had fulfilled the law: and it frequently
+happened that those to whom nature had been less indulgent than to
+others, remained there a long time before any person offered to perform
+with them the condition of their release. A custom, we think, some times
+alluded to in scripture, and expressly delineated in the book of Baruch:
+"The women also, with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran
+for perfume; but, if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie
+with him, she reproacheth her fellow that she was not thought worthy as
+herself, nor her cord broken." Though this infamous law was at first
+strictly observed by all the women of Babylon, yet it would seem that,
+in length of time, they grew ashamed of, and in many cases dispensed
+with it; for we are informed that women of the superior ranks of life,
+who were not willing literally to fulfil the law, were allowed a kind of
+evasion; they were carried in litters to the gates of the temple, where,
+having dismissed all their attendants, they entered alone, presented
+themselves before the statue of the goddess, and returned home. Possibly
+this was done by the assistance of a bribe, to those who had the care of
+the temple.
+
+
+INDECENCY AT ADRIANOPLE.
+
+In Adrianople and the neighboring cities, the women have public baths,
+which are a part of their religion and of their amusement, and a bride,
+the first time she appears there, after her marriage, is received in a
+particular manner. The matrons and widows being seated round the room,
+the virgins immediately put themselves into the original state of Eve.
+The bride comes to the door richly dressed and adorned with jewels; two
+of the virgins meet her, and soon put her into the same condition with
+themselves; then filling some silver pots with perfume, they make a
+procession round the rooms, singing an epithalamium, in which all the
+virgins join in chorus; the procession ended, the bride is led up to
+every matron, who bestows on her some trifling presents, and to each she
+returns thanks, till she has been led round the whole. We could add many
+more ceremonies arising from marriage, but as they are for the most part
+such as make a part of the marriage ceremony itself, we shall have
+occasion to mention them with more propriety under another head.
+
+
+ANCIENT SWEDISH COURTSHIP.
+
+Grymer, a youth early distinguished in arms, who well knew how to dye
+his sword in the blood of his enemies, to run over the craggy mountains,
+to wrestle, to play at chess, trace the motions of the stars, and throw
+far from him heavy weights, frequently shewed his skill in the chamber
+of the damsels, before the king's lovely daughter; desirous of acquiring
+her regard, he displayed his dexterity in handling his weapons, and the
+knowledge he had attained in the sciences he had learned; at length
+ventured to make this demand: "Wilt thou, O fair princess, if I may
+obtain the king's consent, accept of me for a husband?" To which she
+prudently replied, "I must not make that choice myself, but go thou and
+offer the same proposal to my father."
+
+The sequel of the story informs us, that Grymer accordingly made his
+proposal to the king, who answered him in a rage, that though he had
+learned indeed to handle his arms, yet as he had never gained a single
+victory, nor given a banquet to the beasts of the field, he had no
+pretensions to his daughter, and concluded by pointing out to him, in a
+neighboring kingdom, a hero renowned in arms, whom, if he could conquer,
+the princess should be given him: that on waiting on the princess to
+tell her what had passed, she was greatly agitated, and felt in the most
+sensible manner for the safety of her lover, whom she was afraid her
+father had devoted to death for his presumption, that she provided him
+with a suit of impenetrable armor and a trusty sword, with which he
+went, and having slain his adversary, and the most part of his warriors,
+returned victorious, and received her as the reward of his valor.
+Singular as this method of obtaining a fair lady by a price paid in
+blood may appear, it was not peculiar to the northerns: we have already
+taken notice of the price which David paid for the daughter of Saul, and
+shall add, that among the Sacæ, a people of ancient Scythia, a custom
+something of this kind, but still more extraordinary, obtained: every
+young man who made his addresses to a lady, was obliged to engage her in
+single combat; if he vanquished, he led her off in triumph, and became
+her husband and sovereign; if he was conquered, she led him off in the
+same manner, and made him her husband and her slave.
+
+
+LAPLAND AND GREENLAND LADY.
+
+The delicacy of a Lapland lady, which is not in the least hurt by being
+drunk as often as she can procure liquor, would be wounded in the most
+sensible manner, should she deign at first to listen to the declaration
+of a lover; he is therefore obliged to employ a match-maker to speak for
+him; and this match-maker must never go empty handed; and of all other
+presents, that which must infallibly secures him a favorable reception
+is brandy. Having, by the eloquence of this, gained leave to bring the
+lover along with him, and being, together with the lover's father or
+other nearest-male relation, arrived at the house where the lady
+resides, the father and match-maker are invited to walk in, but the
+lover must wait patiently at the door till further solicited. The
+parties, in the mean time, open their suit to the other ladies of the
+family, not forgetting to employ in their favor their irresistible
+advocate brandy, a liberal distribution of which is reckoned the
+strongest proof of the lover's affection. When they have all been warmed
+by the lover's bounty, he is brought into the house, pays his
+compliments to the family, and is desired to partake of their cheer,
+though at this interview seldom indulged with a sight of his mistress;
+but if he is, he salutes her, and offers her presents of reindeer skins,
+tongues, &c.; all which, while surrounded with her friends, she pretends
+to refuse; but at the same time giving her lover a signal to go out, she
+soon steals after him, and is no more that modest creature she affected
+to appear in company. The lover now solicits for the completion of his
+wishes; if she is silent, it is construed into consent; but if she
+throws his presents on the ground with disdain the match is broken off
+forever.
+
+It is generally observed, that women enter into matrimony with more
+willingness, and less anxious care and solicitude, than men, for which
+many reasons naturally suggest themselves to the intelligent reader. The
+women of Greenland are however, in many cases, an exception to this
+general rule. A Greenlander, having fixed his affection, acquaints his
+parents with it; they acquaint the parents of the girl; upon which two
+female negociators are sent to her, who, lest they should shock her
+delicacy, do not enter directly on the subject of their embassy, but
+launch out in praises of the lover they mean to recommend, of his house,
+of his furniture, and whatever else belongs to him, but dwell most
+particularly on his dexterity in catching seals. She, pretending to be
+affronted, runs away, tearing the ringlets of her hair as she retires;
+after which the two females, having obtained a tacit consent from her
+parents, search for her, and on discovering her lurking place, drag her
+by force to the house of her lover, and there leave her. For some days
+she sits with dishevelled hair, silent and dejected, refusing every kind
+of sustenance, and at last, if kind entreaties cannot prevail upon her,
+is compelled by force, and even by blows, to complete the marriage with
+her husband. It sometimes happens, that when the female match-makers
+arrive to propose a lover to a Greenland young woman, she either faints,
+or escapes to the uninhabited mountains, where she remains till she is
+discovered and carried back by her relations, or is forced to return by
+hunger and cold; in both which cases, she previously cuts off her hair;
+a most infallible indication, that she is determined never to marry.
+
+
+EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN ASIA AND AFRICA.
+
+In several of the warmer regions of Asia and Africa, the little
+education bestowed upon women, is entirely calculated to debauch their
+minds and give additional charms to their persons. They are taught vocal
+and instrumental music, which they accompany with dances, in which every
+movement and every gesture is expressively indecent: but receive no
+moral instruction; for it would teach them that they were doing wrong.
+This, however, is not the practice in all parts of Asia and Africa: the
+women of Hindostan are educated more decently; they are not allowed to
+learn music or dancing; which are only reckoned accomplishments fit for
+those of a lower order; they are notwithstanding, taught all the
+personal graces; and particular care is taken to instruct them in the
+art of conversing with elegance and vivacity; some of them are also
+taught to write, and the generality to read, so that they may be able to
+read the Koran; instead of which they more frequently dedicate
+themselves to tales and romances; which, painted in all the lively
+imagery of the East, seldom fail to corrupt the minds of creatures shut
+up from the world, and consequently forming to themselves extravagant
+and romantic notions of all that is transacted in it.
+
+In well regulated families, women are taught by heart some prayers in
+Arabic, which at certain hours they assemble in a hall to repeat; never
+being allowed the liberty of going to the public mosque. They are
+enjoined always to wash themselves before praying; and, indeed, the
+virtues of cleanliness, of chastity, and obedience, are so strongly and
+constantly inculcated on their minds, that in spite of their general
+debauchery of manners, there are not a few among them, who, in their
+common deportment, do credit to the instructions bestowed upon them;
+nor is this much to be wondered at, when we consider the tempting
+recompense that is held out to them; they are, in paradise, to flourish
+forever, in the vigor of youth and beauty; and however old, or ugly,
+when they depart this life, are there to be immediately transformed into
+all that is fair, and all that is graceful.
+
+
+RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE GREEKS.
+
+A cause, which contributed to make the religious festivals of the Greeks
+appear as amusements and diversions, was that ridiculous buffoonery that
+constituted so great a part of them: it would be tedious to enumerate
+one half of these buffooneries; but let a few serve as a specimen. At a
+festival held in honor of Bacchus, the women ran about for a long time
+seeking the god, who, they pretended, had run away from them: this done,
+they passed their time in proposing riddles and questions to each other,
+and laughing at such as could not answer them; and at last often closed
+the scene with such enormous excesses, that at one of these festivals,
+the daughters of Minya, having, in their madness, killed Hippasus, had
+him dressed and served up to table as a rarity. At another, kept in
+honor of Venus and Adonis, they beat their breasts, tore their hair, and
+mimicked all the signs of the most extravagant grief, with which they
+supposed the goddess to have been affected on the death of her favorite
+paramour. At another, in honor of the nymph Cotys, they addressed her as
+the goddess of wantonness with many mysterious rites and ceremonies. At
+Corinth, these rites and ceremonies, being perhaps thought inconsistent
+with the character of modest women, this festival was only celebrated by
+harlots. Athenæus mentions a festival, at which the women laid hold on
+all the old bachelors they could find, and dragged them round an altar;
+beating them all the time with their fists, as punishment for their
+neglect of the sex. We shall only mention two more; at one of which,
+after the assembly had met in the temple of Ceres, the women shut out
+all the men and dogs, themselves and the bitches remaining in the temple
+all night; in the morning, the men were let in, and the time was spent
+in laughing together at the frolic. At the other, in honor of Bacchus,
+they counterfeited phrenzy and madness; and to make this madness appear
+the more real, they used to eat the raw and bloody entrails of goats
+newly slaughtered. And, indeed, the whole of the festivals of Bacchus, a
+deity much worshipped in Greece, were celebrated with rites either
+ridiculous, obscene, or madly extravagant. There were others, however,
+in honor of the other gods and goddesses, which were more decent, and
+had more the appearance of religious solemnity, though even in these,
+the women dressed out in all their finery; and, adorned with flowers and
+garlands, either formed splendid processions, or assisted in performing
+ceremonies, the general tendency of which was to amuse rather than
+instruct.
+
+
+THE DEATHS OF LUCRETIA AND VIRGINIA.
+
+The force of prejudice appears in nothing more strongly than in the
+encomiums which have been lavished upon Lucretia for laying violent
+hands upon herself, and Virginius for killing his own daughter. These
+actions seem to derive all their glory from the revolutions to which
+they gave rise, as the former occasioned the abolition of monarchy
+amongst the Romans, and the latter put an end to the arbitrary power of
+the decemviri. But if we lay aside our prepossessions for antiquity, and
+examine these actions without prejudice, we cannot but acknowledge,
+that they are rather the effects of human weakness and obstinacy than of
+resolution and magnanimity. Lucretia, for fear of worldly censure, chose
+rather to submit to the lewd desires of Tarquin, than have it thought
+that she had been stabbed in the embraces of a slave; which sufficiently
+proves that all her boasted virtue was founded upon vanity, and too high
+a value for the opinion of mankind. The younger Pliny, with great
+reason, prefers to this famed action that of a woman of low birth, whose
+husband being seized with an incurable disorder, chose rather to perish
+with him than survive him. The action of Arria is likewise much more
+noble, whose husband Pætus, being condemned to death, plunged a dagger
+in her breast, and told him, with a dying voice, "Pætus, it is not
+painful." But the death of Lucretia gave rise to a revolution, and it
+therefore became illustrious; though, as St. Augustine justly observes,
+it is only an instance of the weakness of a woman, too solicitous about
+the opinion of the world.
+
+Virginius, in killing his daughter, to preserve her from falling a
+victim to the lust of the decemvir Claudius, was guilty of the highest
+rashness; since he might certainly have gained the people, already
+irritated against the tyrant, without imbruing his hands in his own
+blood. This action may indeed be extenuated, as Virginius slew his
+daughter from a false principle of honor, and did it to preserve her
+from what both he and she thought worse than death; namely, to preserve
+her from violation; but though it may in some measure be excused, it
+should not certainly be praised or admired.
+
+
+ON LOOKING AT THE PICTURE OF A BEAUTIFUL FEMALE.
+
+  What dazzling beauties strike my ravish'd eyes,
+  And fill my soul with pleasure and surprise!
+  What blooming sweetness smiles upon that face!
+  How mild, yet how majestic every grace!
+  In those bright eyes what more than mimic fire
+  Benignly shines, and kindles gay desire!
+  Yet chasten'd modesty, fair white-robed dame,
+  Triumphant sits to check the rising flame.
+  Sure nature made thee her peculiar care:
+  Was ever form so exquisitely fair?
+  Yes, once there was a form thus heavenly bright,
+  But now 'tis veil'd in everlasting night;
+  Each glory which that lovely face could boast,
+  And every charm, in traceless dust is lost;
+  An unregarded heap of ruin lies
+  That form which lately drew ten thousand eyes.
+  What once was courted, lov'd, adored, and prais'd,
+  Now mingles with the dust from whence 'twas raised.
+  No more soft dimpling smiles those cheeks adorn,
+  Whose rosy tincture sham'd the rising morn;
+  No more with sparkling radiance shine those eyes,
+  Nor over those the sable arches rise;
+  Nor from those ruby lips soft accents flow,
+  Nor lilies on the snowy forehead blow;
+  All, all are cropp'd by death's impartial hand,
+  Charms could not bribe, nor beauty's power withstand;
+  Not all that crowd of wondrous charms could save
+  Their fair possessor from the dreary grave.
+
+    How frail is beauty, transient, false and vain!
+  It flies with morn, and ne'er returns again.
+  Death, cruel ravager, delights to prey
+  Upon the young, the lovely and the gay.
+  If death appear not, oft corroding pain,
+  With pining sickness in her languid train,
+  Blights youth's gay spring with some untimely blast,
+  And lays the blooming field of beauty waste;
+  But should these spare, still time creeps on apace,
+  And plucks with wither'd hand each winning grace;
+  The eyes, lips, cheeks, and bosom he disarms,
+  No art from him can shield exterior charms.
+
+    But would you, fair ones, be esteem'd, approved,
+  And with an everlasting ardor loved;
+  Would you in wrinkled age, admirers find,
+  In every female virtue dress the mind;
+  Adorn the heart, and teach the soul to charm,
+  And when the eyes no more the breast can warm,
+  These ever-blooming beauties shall inspire
+  Each gen'rous heart with friendship's sacred fire;
+  These charms shall neither wither, fade, nor fly;
+  Pain, sickness, time, and death, they dare defy.
+  When the pale tyrant's hand shall seal your doom,
+  And lock your ashes in the silent tomb,
+  These beauties shall in double lustre rise,
+  Shine round the soul, and waft it to the skies.
+
+
+
+
+ART OF DETERMINING
+THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY,
+THE HABITS, AND THE AGE,
+OF WOMEN,
+
+NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISES OF
+DRESS.
+
+
+OF FIGURE.
+
+External indications as to figure are required chiefly as to the limbs
+which are concealed by drapery. Such indications are afforded by the
+walk, to every careful observer.
+
+In considering _the proportion of the limbs to the body_--if, even in a
+young woman, the walk, though otherwise good, be heavy, or the fall on
+each foot alternately be sudden, and rather upon the heel, the limbs
+though well formed, will be found to be slender, compared with the body.
+
+This conformation accompanies any great proportional developement of the
+vital system; and it is frequently observable in the woman of the Saxon
+population of England, as in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, &c.
+
+In women of this conformation, moreover, the slightest indisposition or
+debility is indicated by a slight vibration of the shoulders, and upper
+part of the chest, at every step, in walking.
+
+In considering _the line or direction of the limbs_--if, viewed behind,
+the feet, at every step, are thrown out backward, and somewhat
+laterally, the knees are certainly much inclined inward.
+
+If, viewed in front, the dress, at every step, is as it were, gathered
+toward the front, and then tossed more or less to the opposite side, the
+knees are certainly too much inclined.
+
+In considering _the relative size of each portion of the limbs_--if, in
+the walk, there be a greater or less approach to the marching pace, the
+hip is large; for we naturally employ the joint which is surrounded with
+the most powerful muscles, and in any approach to the march, it is the
+hip-joint which is used, and the knee and ancle-joints which remain
+proportionally unemployed.
+
+If, in the walk, the tripping pace be used, as in an approach to walking
+on tiptoes, the calf is large; for it is only by the power of its
+muscles that, under the weight of the whole body, the foot can be
+extended for this purpose.
+
+If, in the walk, the foot be raised in a slovenly manner, and the heel
+be seen, at each step, to lift the bottom of the dress upward and
+backward, neither the hip nor the calf is well developed.
+
+Even with regard to the parts of the figure which are more exposed to
+observation by the closer adaptation of dress, much deception occurs. It
+is, therefore, necessary to understand the arts employed for this
+purpose, at least by skilful women.
+
+A person having a narrow face, wears a bonnet with wide front, exposing
+the lower part of the cheeks.--One having a broad face, wears a closer
+front; and, if the jaw be wide, it is in appearance diminished, by
+bringing the corners of the bonnet sloping to the point of the chin.
+
+A person having a long neck has the neck of the bonnet descending, the
+neck of the dress rising, and filling more or less of the intermediate
+space. One having a short neck has the whole bonnet short and close in
+the perpendicular direction, and the neck of the dress neither high nor
+wide.
+
+Persons with narrow shoulders have the shoulders or epaulets of the
+dress formed on the outer edge of the natural shoulder, very full, and
+both the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique folds, from the
+point of the shoulder to the middle of the bust.
+
+Persons with waists too large, render them less before by a stomacher,
+or something equivalent, and behind by a corresponding form of the
+dress, making the top of the dress smooth across the shoulders, and
+drawing it in plaits to a narrow point at the bottom of the waist.
+
+Those who have the bosom too small, enlarge it by the oblique folds of
+the dress being gathered above, and by other means.
+
+Those who have the lower posterior part of the body too flat, elevate it
+by the top of the skirt being gathered behind, and by other less skilful
+adjustments, which though hid, are easily detected.
+
+Those who have the lower part of the body too prominent anteriorly,
+render it less apparent by shortening the waist, by a corresponding
+projection behind, and by increasing the bosom above.
+
+Those who have the haunches too narrow, take care not to have the bottom
+of the dress too wide.
+
+Tall women have a wide skirt, or several flounces, or both of these:
+shorter women, a moderate one, but as long as can be conveniently worn,
+with the flounces, &c., as low as possible.
+
+
+OF BEAUTY.
+
+Additional indications as to beauty are required chiefly where the woman
+observed precedes the observer, and may, by her figure, naturally and
+reasonably excite his interest, while at the same time it would be rude
+to turn and look in her face on passing.
+
+There can, therefore, be no impropriety in observing, that the conduct
+of those who may happen to meet the women thus preceding, will differ
+according to the sex of the person who meets her.--If the person meeting
+her be a man, and the lady observed be beautiful, he will not only look
+with an expression of pleasure at her countenance, but will afterward
+turn more or less completely to survey her from behind.--If the person
+meeting her be a woman, the case becomes more complex. If both be either
+ugly or beautiful, or if the person meeting her be beautiful and the
+lady observed be ugly, then it is probable, that the approaching person
+may pass by inattentively, casting merely an indifferent glance; if, on
+the contrary, the woman meeting her be ugly, and the lady observed be
+beautiful, then the former will examine the latter with the severest
+scrutiny, and if she sees features and shape without defect, she will
+instantly fix her eyes on the head-dress or gown, in order to find some
+object for censure of the beautiful woman, and for consolation in her
+own ugliness.
+
+Thus he who happens to follow a female may be aided in determining
+whether it is worth his while to glance at her face in passing, or to
+devise other means of seeing it.
+
+Even when the face is seen, as in meeting in the streets or elsewhere,
+infinite deception occurs as to the degree of beauty. This operates so
+powerfully, that a correct estimate of beauty is perhaps never formed at
+first. This depends on the forms and still more on the colors of dress
+in relation to the face. For this reason, it is necessary to understand
+the principles according to which colors are employed at least by
+skilful women.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much yellow, then yellow
+around the face is used to remove it by contrast, and to cause the red
+and blue to predominate.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much red, then red around
+the face is used to remove by contrast, and to cause the yellow and blue
+to predominate.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue, then blue
+around the face is used to remove it by contrast, and to cause the
+yellow and red to predominate.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much yellow and red, then
+orange is used.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much red and blue, then
+purple is used.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue and yellow, then
+green is used.
+
+It is necessary to observe that the linings of bonnets reflect their
+color on the face, and transparent bonnets transmit that color, and
+equally tinge it. In both these cases, the color employed is no longer
+that which is placed around the face, and which acts on it by contrast,
+but the opposite. As green around the face heightens a faint red in the
+cheeks by contrast, so the pink lining of the bonnet aids it by
+reflection.
+
+Hence linings which reflect, are generally of the teint which is wanted
+in the face; and care is then taken that these linings do not come into
+the direct view of the observer, and operate prejudicially on the face
+by contrast, overpowering the little color which by reflection they
+should heighten. The fronts of bonnets so lined, therefore, do not widen
+greatly forward, and bring their color into contrast.
+
+When bonnets do widen, the proper contrast is used as a lining; but then
+it has not a surface much adapted for reflection, otherwise it may
+perform that office, and injure the complexion.
+
+Understanding, then, the application of these colors in a general way,
+it may be noticed, that fair faces are by contrast best acted on by
+light colors, and dark faces by darker colors.
+
+Dark faces are best affected by darker colors, evidently because they
+tend to render the complexion fairer; and fair faces do not require dark
+colors, because the opposition would be too strong.
+
+Objects which constitute a background to the face, or which, on the
+contrary, reflect their hues upon it, always either improve or injure
+the complexion. For this and some other reasons, many persons look
+better at home in their apartments than in the streets. Apartments may,
+indeed, be peculiarly calculated to improve individual complexions.
+
+
+OF MIND.
+
+External indications as to mind may be derived from figure, from gait,
+and from dress.
+
+As to figure, a certain symmetry or disproportion of parts (either of
+which depends immediately upon the locomotive system)--or a certain
+softness or hardness of form (which belongs exclusively to the vital
+system)--these reciprocally denote a locomotive symmetry or
+disproportion--or a vital softness or hardness--or a mental delicacy or
+coarseness, which will be found also indicated by the features of the
+face.
+
+These qualities are marked in pairs, as each belonging to its respective
+system; for, without this, there can be no accurate or useful
+observation.
+
+As to gait, that progression which advances, unmodified by any lateral
+movement of the body, or any perpendicular rising of the head, and which
+belongs exclusively to the locomotive system--or that soft lateral
+rolling of the body, which belongs exclusively to the vital system--or
+that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at every impulse to
+step, which belongs exclusively to the mental system--these reciprocally
+indicate a corresponding locomotive, or vital, or mental character,
+which will be found also indicated by the features of the face.
+
+To put to the test the utility of these elements of observation and
+indication, let us take a few instances.--If, in any individual,
+locomotive symmetry of figure is combined with direct and linear gait, a
+character of mind and countenance not absolutely repulsive, but cold and
+insipid, is indicated. If vital softness of figure is combined, with a
+gentle lateral rolling of the body in its gait, voluptuous character and
+expression of countenance are indicated.--If delicacy of outline in the
+figure, be combined with perpendicular rising of the head, levity,
+perhaps vanity, is indicated.--But there are innumerable combinations
+and modifications of the elements which we have just described.
+Expressions of pride, determination, obstinacy, &c., are all observable.
+
+The gait, however, is often formed, in a great measure, by local or
+other circumstances, by which it is necessary that the observer should
+avoid being misled.
+
+Dress, as affording indications, though less to be relied on than the
+preceding, is not without its value. The woman who possesses a
+cultivated taste, and a corresponding expression of countenance, will
+generally be tastefully dressed; and the vulgar woman, with features
+correspondingly rude, will easily be seen through the inappropriate mask
+in which her milliner or dressmaker may have invested her.
+
+
+OF HABITS.
+
+External indications as to the personal habits of women are both
+numerous and interesting.
+
+The habit of child-bearing is indicated by a flatter breast, a broader
+back, and thicker cartilages of the bones of the pubis, necessarily
+widening the pelvis.
+
+The same habit is also indicated by a high rise of the nape of the neck,
+so that the neck from that point bends considerably forward, and by an
+elevation which is diffused between the neck and shoulders. These all
+arise from temporary distensions of the trunk in women whose secretions
+are powerful, from the habit of throwing the shoulders backward during
+pregnancy, and the head again forward, to balance the abdominal weight;
+and they bestow a character of vitality peculiarly expressive.
+
+The same habit is likewise indicated by an excess of that lateral
+rolling of the body in walking, which was already described as connected
+with voluptuous character. This is a very certain indication, as it
+arises from temporary distensions of the pelvis, which nothing else can
+occasion. As in consequence of this lateral rolling of the body, and of
+the weight of the body being much thrown forward in gestation, the toes
+are turned somewhat inward, they aid in the indication.
+
+The habit of nursing children is indicated, both in mothers and
+nursery-maids, by the right shoulder being larger and more elevated than
+the left.
+
+The habits of the seamstress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending
+forward, and the arms being, even in walking, considerably bent forward
+or folded more or less upward from the elbows.
+
+Habits of labor are indicated by a considerable thickness of the
+shoulders below, where they form an angle with the inner part of the
+arm; and, where these habits are of the lowest menial kind, the elbows
+are turned outward, and the palms of the hands backward.
+
+
+OF AGE.
+
+External indications of age are required chiefly where the face is
+veiled, or where the woman observed precedes the observer and may
+reasonably excite his interest.
+
+In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle have lost a certain
+moderate plumpness, and assumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the
+woman has generally passed the period of youth.
+
+If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge of the foot first
+striking the ground, it is the heel which does so, then has the woman in
+general passed the meridian of life. Unlike the last indication, this is
+apparent, however the foot and ankle may be clothed.--The reason of this
+indication is the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to receive
+the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.
+
+Exceptions to this last indication are to be found chiefly in women in
+whom the developments of the body are proportionally much greater,
+either from a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of the limbs,
+the muscles of which are consequently incapable of receiving the weight
+of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.
+
+
+
+
+_THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY_;
+
+OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS STATUE
+OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI.
+
+
+The Venus de Medici at Florence is the most perfect specimen of ancient
+sculpture remaining; and is spoken of as the Model of Female Beauty. It
+was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans, that a hundred ancient
+repetitions of this statue have been noticed by travellers. This statue
+is said to have been found in the forum of Octavia at Rome. It
+represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected.
+
+"The Venus de Medici at Florence," says a distinguished writer, "is like
+a rose which, after a beautiful daybreak, expands its leaves to the
+first ray of the sun, and represents that age when the limbs assume a
+more finished form and the breast begins to develop itself."
+
+The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave that predominance to
+the vital organs in the chest, which, as already said, makes the
+nutritive system peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most
+striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist, the principles
+of whose art taught him that a vast head is not a constituent of female
+beauty. In mentioning the head it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing
+the rich curls of hair.
+
+The eyes next fix our attention by their soft, sweet, and glad
+expression. This is produced with exquisite art. To give softness, the
+ridges of the eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness, the under eyelid,
+which I would call the expressive one, is slightly raised. To give the
+expression of gladness or of pleasure, the opening of the eyelids is
+diminished, in order to diminish, or partially to exclude, the excess of
+those impressions, which make even pleasure painful. Other exquisite
+details about those eyes, confer on them unparallelled beauty. Still,
+this look is far from those traits indicative of lasciviousness, with
+which some modern artists have thought to characterize their Venuses.
+
+Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the configuration of the nose.
+The peculiar connexion of this sense with love was evidently well
+understood by the artist. Not only is smell peculiarly associated with
+love, in all the higher animals, but it is associated with reproduction
+in plants, the majority of which evolve delicious odors only when the
+flowers or organs of fructification are displayed. Connected, indeed,
+with the capacity of the nose, and the cavities which open into it, is
+the projection of the whole middle part of the face.
+
+The mouth is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being undeveloped
+at their angles, and by the upper lip continuing so, for a considerable
+portion of its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the central
+development of both lips, and active love by the especial development of
+the lower lip. By the slight opening of the lips, it expresses desire.
+
+These exquisite details, and the omission of nothing intellectually
+expressive that nature presents, have led some to imagine the Venus de
+Medici to be a portrait. In doing so, however, they see not the profound
+calculation for every feature thus embodied. More strangely still, they
+forget the ideal character of the whole: the notion of this ideal head
+being too small, is especially opposed to such an opinion.
+
+Withal, the look is amorous and languishing, without being lascivious,
+and is as powerfully marked by gay coquetry, as by charming innocence.
+
+The young neck is exquisitely formed. Its beautiful curves show a
+thousand capabilities of motion; and its admirably-calculated swell over
+the organ of voice, results from, and marks the struggling expression of
+still mysterious love.
+
+With regard to the rest of the figure, the admirable form of the mammæ,
+which, without being too large, occupy the bosom, rise from it with
+various curves on every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving
+the inferior part in each precisely as pendent as gravity demands; the
+flexile waist gently tapering little farther than the middle of the
+trunk; the lower portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher
+even than the umbilicus; the gradual expansion of the haunches, those
+expressive characteristics of the female, indicating at once her fitness
+for the office of generation and that of parturition--expansions which
+increase till they reach their greatest extent at the superior part of
+the thighs; the fulness behind their upper part, and on each side of the
+lower part of the spine, commencing as high as the waist, and
+terminating in the still greater swell of the distinctly-separated hips;
+the flat expanse between these, and immediately over the fissure of the
+hips, relieved by a considerable dimple on each side, and caused by the
+elevation of all the surrounding parts; the fine swell of the broad
+abdomen which, soon reaching its greatest height immediately under the
+umbilicus, slopes neatly to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its upper
+part, expands more widely as it descends, while, throughout, it is
+laterally distinguished by a gentle depression from the more muscular
+parts on the sides of the pelvis; the beautiful elevation of the mons
+veneris; the contiguous elevation of the thighs which, almost at their
+commencement rise as high as it does; the admirable expansion of these
+bodies inward, or toward each other, by which they almost seem to
+intrude upon each other, and to exclude each from its respective place;
+the general narrowness of the upper, and the unembraceable expansion of
+the lower part thus exquisitely formed;--all these admirable
+characteristics of female form, the mere existence of which in woman
+must, one is tempted to imagine, be even to herself, a source of
+ineffable pleasure--these constitute a being worthy, as the
+personification of beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece; present
+an object finer, alas! than nature seems even capable of producing; and
+offer to all nations and ages a theme of admiration and delight.
+
+Well might Thomson say:--
+
+  "So stands the statue that enchants the world,
+  So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
+  The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."
+
+And Byron, in yet higher strain:--
+
+  "There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills
+  The air around with beauty;
+                        within the pale
+  We stand, and in that form and face behold
+  What Mind can make, when Nature's self would fail;
+  And to the fond idolaters of old
+  Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould.
+
+  We gaze and turn away, and know not where,
+  Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart
+  Reels with its fulness; there--forever there--
+  Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art,
+  We stand as captives, and would not depart."
+
+
+THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE.
+
+BY LORD BYRON.
+
+  Away with those fictions of flimsy romance!
+    Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!
+  Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,
+    Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.
+
+  Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,
+    Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove,
+  From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,
+    Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love!
+
+  I hate you, ye cold compositions of art;
+    Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove,
+  I court the effusions that spring from the heart
+    Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.
+
+  Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,
+    From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove;
+  Some portion of paradise still is on earth,
+    And Eden revives in the first kiss of love.
+
+  When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past--
+    For years fleet away with the wings of the dove--
+  The dearest remembrance will still be the last,
+    Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.
+
+
+
+
+THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA.
+
+_See Frontispiece._
+
+The Princess of antiquity, most renowned for her personal charms, was in
+her unrivalled beauty, her mental perfections, her weaknesses, and the
+unhappy conclusion of an amorous existence the counterpart of the most
+beautiful queen of later times, the unfortunate Mary of Scotland.
+
+Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt. She was
+early given to wife to her own brother, Ptolemy Dionysius, and ascended
+the throne conjointly with him, on the death of their father. It was
+doubtless the policy of the kingdom thus to preserve all the royal
+honors in one family--the daughter being the queen, as well as the son
+king of the country. But her ambitious and intriguing spirit, restrained
+by no ties of reciprocal love to her husband, who was also her brother,
+sought for means to burst a union at once unnatural and galling: and the
+opportunity at length arrived. Julius Cæsar, the conqueror of the world,
+having pursued the defeated Pompey into Egypt, there beheld Cleopatra in
+the zenith of her beauty; and he before whose power the whole world was
+kneeling, prostrated himself before a pretty woman. The following is the
+account of her first introduction to Cæsar, as given by the historian.
+It shows that she had no maidenly scruples as to the mode of attaining
+her ends.
+
+Her intrigues to become sole monarch, had made her husband-brother
+banish her from the capital. Hearing of the arrival of Cæsar, she got
+into a small boat, with only one male friend, and in the dusk of the
+evening made for the palace where Cæsar as well as her husband lodged.
+As she saw it difficult to enter it undiscovered by her husband's
+friends, she rolled herself up in a carpet. Her companion tied her up at
+full length like a bale of goods, and carried her in at the gates to
+Cæsar's apartments. This stratagem of hers, which was a strong proof of
+her wit and ingenuity, is said to have first opened her way to Cæsar's
+heart, and her conquest advanced rapidly by the charms of her speech and
+person. The genius of Shakspeare has well depicted the power of her
+beauty at this time. He makes her to say, at a later period of life,
+when chagrined at the expected desertion of another lover,--
+
+          "Broad-fronted Cæsar!
+  When thou wast here above the ground, I was
+  A morsel for a monarch: And great Pompey
+  Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;
+  There would he fix his longing gaze, and die
+  With looking on his life."
+
+But Cleopatra, who was not less remarkable for her cunning than for her
+beauty, knowing that Cæsar was resolved to be gratified at whatever
+cost, determined that the price should be a round one: the terms of his
+admission to her arms, were that Cæsar should expel her brother from the
+kingdom, and give the crown to her; which Cæsar complied with. Cleopatra
+had a son by Cæsar called Cæsarion.
+
+In the civil wars which distracted the Roman empire after the death of
+Cæsar, Cleopatra supported Brutus, against Antony and Octavius. Antony,
+in his expedition to Parthia, summoned her to appear before him. She
+arrayed herself in the most magnificent apparel, and appeared before her
+judge in the most captivating attire. Though somewhat older than when
+she drew Cæsar to her arms, her charms were still conspicuous;
+
+  "Age could not wither her, nor custom stale
+  Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
+  The appetite they feed. But she made hungry
+  Where most she satisfied."
+
+Her artifice on this occasion succeeded; Antony became enamoured of her,
+and publicly married her, although his wife the sister of Octavius was
+living. He gave Cleopatra the greater part of the eastern provinces of
+the Roman empire. This behaviour was the cause of a rupture between
+Octavius and Antony; and these two celebrated generals met in battle at
+Actium, where Cleopatra, by flying with sixty sail of vessels, ruined
+the interest of Antony, and he was defeated. Cleopatra had retired to
+Egypt, where soon after Antony followed her. Antony stabbed himself upon
+the false information that Cleopatra was dead; and as his wound was not
+mortal, he was carried to the queen, who drew him up by a cord from one
+of the windows of the monument, where she had retired and concealed
+herself.
+
+Antony soon after died of his wounds, and Cleopatra, after she had
+received pressing invitations from Octavius, and even pretended
+declarations of love, destroyed herself by the bite of an asp, not to
+fall into the conqueror's hands. She had previously attempted to stab
+herself, and had once made a resolution to starve herself. But the means
+by which she destroyed herself, is said to produce the easiest of
+deaths: the Asp is a small serpent found near the river Nile, so
+delicate that it may be concealed in a fig; and when presented to the
+vitals of the body, its bite is so deadly as to render medical skill
+useless, while at the same time it is so painless, that the victim
+fancies herself dropping into a sweet slumber, instead of the arms of
+death. So Cleopatra, while she is applying the venomous reptile to her
+bosom, (as represented in the Frontispiece,) is supposed to use language
+like the following,--
+
+  "Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
+  That sucks the nurse asleep?"
+
+Thus, after having chained in her embrace the two greatest generals that
+the Roman empire had produced, Julius Cæsar and Mark Antony, at the
+periods when they were respectively arbiters of the world's fate,
+perished Cleopatra by her own hand.
+
+Cleopatra was a voluptuous and extravagant woman, and in one of the
+feasts she gave to Antony at Alexandria, she melted pearls into her
+drink to render the entertainment more sumptuous and expensive. She was
+fond of appearing dressed as a goddess; and she advised Antony to make
+war against the richest nations, to support her debaucheries. Her beauty
+has been greatly commended, and her mental perfections so highly
+celebrated, that she has been described as capable of giving audience to
+the ambassadors of seven different nations, and of speaking their
+various languages as fluently as her own.
+
+How vain are the possessions of beauty, power, personal and mental
+accomplishments, if to these are not united virtuous principles. All
+history, as well as all experience, is full of examples calculated to
+impress the great lesson that
+
+  "VIRTUE alone is HAPPINESS below."
+
+
+
+
+AN ESSAY ON MATRIMONY.
+
+Socrates, being asked, whether it were better for a man to marry, or to
+remain single, replied,--"Let him do either, he will repent of it."
+
+The philosopher spoke 'like an oracle,' leaving the world as much in the
+dark as to his views of the comparative advantages of matrimony and
+celibacy, as they could have been before. But a vast majority of men
+have chosen, since they must repent of one or the other, to repent of
+marrying, deeming perhaps that this repentance is "_the repentance which
+needeth not to be repented of_."
+
+We shall conclude our little treatise on "the sex," with a few remarks
+on the subject of--we were about to say--Happiness,--but as we are
+content that every married man and woman should judge for themselves as
+to the happiness of the married state, we will simply style it an ESSAY
+ON MATRIMONY.
+
+No event is more important, and none is conducted, on many occasions,
+with less prudence, than Marriage. Providence has allowed the passions
+to exercise a powerful influence in this matter, otherwise the cares and
+anxieties with which it is attended would deter most persons from
+launching their bark of earthly happiness on the great ocean of
+matrimony. But too frequently the passions are the only guide, and these
+stimulate to bewilder: they exhibit pleasing and attractive imagery, and
+then the possession destroys the bliss.
+
+Love is a pleasing but exciting passion. The eye is delighted by form,
+manners, and the expression of the features, the ears by musical
+language, and the imagination paints future joys; all of which
+contribute to one great principle, that of receiving happiness from
+those we love, and evincing love for those from whom we derive our
+happiness. As the crystal streams are absorbed by the sun, and
+distributed as brilliant clouds in the heavens, and then fall and run in
+their accustomed channels, and thus the rivers supply the clouds, and
+the vapors the rivers, so is the interchange between love and happiness.
+This will agree with the opinion that love may be occasioned suddenly,
+because enjoyment is expected; or it may arise gradually, because the
+unattractiveness which first existed, may be succeeded by attraction.
+
+There was no appointment by nature of particular persons for each other;
+but we may expect among a great variety of occurrences to meet with some
+singular and astonishing coincidences. Human beings appear to be left in
+this respect, as in many others, to their own judgment. If they act
+discreetly, they enjoy the comfort of it; but if otherwise, they bring
+upon themselves a disadvantage.
+
+The happiness arising from an union depends chiefly on the character of
+the persons who are concerned in it. If men and women were as consistent
+and virtuous as they should be, the connubial bond would be soft and
+pleasant; but as these effects do not always arise, where is the fault?
+Which is better, or more worthy, the male or the female sex? This is
+rather a difficult question; and let the palm of superior merit be
+awarded to either, the imputation of prejudice would be connected with
+the decision. But fortunately there is little difference: one varies
+from the other in particular qualities; but if the aggregate of merit be
+taken in each, the amount will not differ much. Education forms the
+principal variation: men are instructed in the more active and laborious
+employments, women in the more sedentary and domestic. Dr Southey says,
+that "if women are not formed of finer clay, there has been more of the
+dew of heaven to temper it." Richard Flecknoe, a contemporary with
+Dryden, observes of the female sex,--"I have always been conversant with
+the best and worthiest in all places where I came; and among the rest
+with ladies, in whose conversation, as in an academy of virtue, I learnt
+nothing but goodness, and saw nothing but nobleness." It must be
+granted, that women in general possess more of the sweetness and
+softness of human nature, while men are endowed with more vigorous
+virtues; women are gifted with more fortitude, and men with more valor.
+
+Jeremy Taylor says,--"Marriage hath in it the labor of love, and the
+delicacies of friendship; the blessings of society, and the union of
+hands and hearts."
+
+Cowper has also alluded to the advantages of a matrimonial settlement,--
+
+  "O friendly to the best pursuits of man,
+  Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,
+  Domestic life in rural pleasure pass'd."
+
+Marriage is frequently an union of interest: the happiness of one is
+made a source of enjoyment to the other. It is for life, because it is
+most agreeable with the inclination of mankind that friendship, esteem
+and love should be permanent. In this instance a continuance of the
+union constitutes no small part of the bliss. The expectation of a
+durable connection makes men careful, otherwise they would marry and
+unmarry every week. There is, by the arrangement of the Almighty, a
+comparative power or influence vested in the man, because, agreeably
+with all good government,--
+
+  "Some are, and must be, greater than the rest;"
+
+but then, as Dr Beattie observes, "the superiority vested by law in the
+man is compensated to the woman by that superior complaisance which is
+paid them by every man who aspires to elegance of manners." And besides
+this, the husband has frequently the nominal, while the wife has the
+actual power:--
+
+  "Like as the helme doth rule the shippe,"
+
+so she regulates all the household affairs. This is proper, when the
+husband allows it; and he ought to do so, when his wife is capable of
+managing these things; but when the inclinations of his Eve run
+perversely, when he is conscious that he has reason on his side, and she
+only folly, and yet he is vacillating and yielding, he is unmanly and
+inconsistent; he sacrifices future happiness to present peace. Every
+woman, it must be granted, is not a sensible one; and "there is
+nothing," as Lord Burleigh observed to his son, "more fulsome than a she
+foole." If Socrates had properly controlled his Xantippe before her
+disorder had increased beyond cure, it would have contributed to her
+happiness and his own. Prince Eugene observed, on one occasion, rather
+satirically, that love was a mere amusement, and calculated for nothing
+more than to enlarge the influence of the woman, and abridge the power
+of the man. Goldsmith's Hermit said to his lovely visiter,--
+
+  "And love is still an emptier sound,
+    The modern fair one's jest;
+  On earth unseen, or only found
+    To warm the turtle's nest."
+
+But love is an actual, a powerful, and a beneficial principle, if it be
+properly regulated. Among married persons there ought to be as much love
+as would induce either to yield in trifling matters; and there ought to
+be as much reason as would enable both to act correctly. Matrimony
+should be something like the union of the ivy and the oak: the latter is
+firm, and capable of supporting its more tender companion; the ivy,
+however, must follow in some measure the humors and windings of the oak;
+but they grow together, and the longer they continue the more closely
+they are united. There have been many instances of great attachment.
+Porcia, the wife of Brutus, when she heard of her husband's death
+swallowed burning coals that she might go with him. Alceste, wife of
+Admetus king of Thessaly, sacrificed herself for the safety of her
+husband. This monarch was ill; and when the oracle was consulted, it was
+declared that he would not recover except some friend would die for him;
+and as no one else would do so, the wife heroically drank a cup of
+poison. Paulina the wife of Seneca in his old age, was young, beautiful,
+and accomplished; and she was so much attached to her husband, that when
+the veins of Seneca were opened by the command of Nero, she caused her
+own to be cut, that she might also bleed to death. When Conrad III. had
+taken the town of Winsberg in Bavaria, he allowed only the women to go
+out; but they had leave to carry with them as much as they pleased. They
+loaded themselves, therefore, with their husbands and children, and
+brought them all out on their shoulders! When love is genuine; when
+professions are sincere, and the practice agreeable therewith; when
+health is enjoyed, and as many comforts as are necessary for this life;
+when children grow up in vigor, good behaviour, and mental improvement;
+when old age is solaced by the company of each other, and the kind
+attention of daughters and sons; then matrimony is a cause of
+happiness.
+
+But if all these enjoyments were the lot of every married person, men
+would become too much contented with the present life, and they would
+scarcely think, as they sail on smoothly, of the haven, for which they
+are bound. Besides, the fascinations of domestic life would attract
+them from many duties which they owe to their fellow creatures. There
+are then many disadvantages connected with matrimony. There is so
+much ignorance, perverseness, undue inclination for power, disposition
+to contradict, anger, jealousy, hatred, and versatility among human
+beings that many unpleasant occurrences will necessarily arise, and
+especially in the marriage state, because here most of these feelings
+are brought into action, and are most sensibly felt by those who are
+subject to their influence. He that paints the experience of human
+life in brilliant colors only gives a flattering and deceptive
+representation,--he may just as well pretend that the heavens are
+always cloudless. People soon discover that there are sorrows in the
+world as well as joys, unpleasant as well as pleasant events; hence
+arises the advantage of examining, of pointing out, and endeavoring
+to avoid "the ills which flesh is heir to." The perpetuity of marriage,
+under pleasing circumstances, is its most lovely character; but the
+same peculiarity, under a different aspect, is its principal source of
+misery. It is too frequently a state of bondage, "which thousands once
+fast-chained to quit no more." But what exists, and cannot be removed,
+should always be borne as patiently as possible; and thus we may keep a
+cheerful heart, when another, less prudent, would be gloomy. Besides, an
+ill temper makes every condition of life unhappy; a cheerful disposition
+will throw a gleam of sunshine over the scenery of a November day. Some
+people, very foolishly, make themselves uneasy because they are bound.
+Sir Jonah Barrington seems to think it a natural propensity. He
+says,--"The moment any two animals, however fond before, are fastened
+together by a chain they cannot break, they begin to quarrel without
+any apparent reason, and peck each other solely because they cannot get
+loose again." But it must be remembered that people enter into marriage
+with a knowledge of the permanency of the union, and perhaps they seldom
+repent, except they had been deceived; and this we may hope would not
+occur frequently. After the Romans had introduced a law of divorce, no
+respectable person, for the space of forty years, availed himself of it.
+Divorcement was much practised among the Jews, and was productive of
+great evil. One of the Jewish doctors asserted, that if a man beheld a
+woman who was handsomer than his wife, he might put away his wife and
+marry her; and thus all the wives in Judea, except the handsomest, might
+have been divorced. Josephus observes, on one occasion, very
+coolly,--"About this time I put away my wife, who had borne me three
+children, not being pleased with her manners."
+
+One cause of unhappiness in a married state, is too little affection;
+and in other instances, although affection may be possessed, it is not
+shown. Montesquieu observes, "that women commonly reserve their love for
+their husbands until their husbands are dead." Sometimes a mortal hatred
+springs up, which induces a man, like Henry VIII., to cause the murder
+of those whom he has sworn to love and preserve; or a woman, like Livia,
+to poison her husband. Not only is a great dissimilarity of rank and
+condition a cause of dislike, but a great variation in age is frequently
+the cause of distrust and unhappiness. The proportion which Aristotle
+suggests (a man of thirty-seven to a woman of eighteen,) may be
+appropriate in one respect, but it is objectionable in others. The life
+of the female is just as long as that of the male; and the union of
+middle age and youth, where the one is twice as old as the other, will
+not always allow an uniformity of feelings and disposition. The case of
+Seneca (to which we have alluded,) and that of Sir Matthew Hale, are
+exceptions. Youth is generally gay, thoughtless, and frivolous; but
+life, in more advanced periods, is sober, thoughtful, and dignified. A
+husband should not be deemed a teacher or guardian for the wife so much
+as a companion; and the wife should not be considered as guardian for
+the husband: there ought to be a mutual sympathy, and in most respects
+an equality of influence.
+
+Jealousy is a passion which allows the hapless possessor to enjoy
+neither rest nor confidence. It is frequently the companion of love.
+Shakspeare says,
+
+  "For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy
+  Doth call himself affection's sentinel."
+
+When this principle obtains possession of the breast, it destroys the
+health and spirits: the streams which gladden the heart become
+corrupted, and productive of rage and melancholy. Jealousy is like the
+snake which insidiously entwines itself around its victim; or like the
+bohun upas of Java, which diffuses death. The bright beams of hope,
+which cheered the possessor, and carried his vision to distant days and
+distant scenes of enjoyment, are all eclipsed by this pillar of
+darkness. Moliere the poet was endowed with an eminent genius--he was
+esteemed as the first wit in Europe; but his wife was faithless, and no
+enjoyment, or success, or honor could tranquillize his mind, and make
+him happy. The attractions of youth and beauty will sometimes excite an
+illicit passion, but the indulgence of this feeling is the path to
+anxiety and degradation. The female may be less faulty; but she will be
+the greater sufferer; for, with regard to her lawful companion,
+confidence is changed to timidity, love to hypocrisy, and a continual
+fear torments her, lest accident or malice should discover her
+imprudence. How dearly is the pleasure of a moment procured when it is
+purchased by years of unhappiness! On the other hand, it is extremely
+unreasonable for some persons to indulge as they do, their natural
+disposition of suspicion, and thus make others unhappy. Where virtue
+only exists, it is a most grievous hardship that the possessor should be
+subject to the penalty of vice. Nothing should be made with more caution
+than a decision in which the innocent may receive the odium which
+belongs to the guilty.
+
+Sometimes the worst sort of accomplishments are brought by a lady into
+the marriage state: she may be capable of singing admirably, of dancing,
+of painting, of performing skilfully on the harp or piano, of making
+ingenious trinkets and ornaments; all this may be well enough for an
+unmarried lady, but of what use are they in a state of matrimony? It is
+true, that if she be favored with a handsome fortune, she may indulge
+herself agreeably with her inclination, and employ others to manage her
+household affairs; but not many are thus situated; and, even in this
+case, there are duties which belong to the wife, in regard to her
+husband and children, which would occupy pretty much of her time. It is
+still worse if she be fond of dissipation,--of routs, balls, and public
+amusements; if she fly abroad in pursuit of a phantom while domestic
+enjoyment is neglected. A good wife will endeavor to make herself happy
+at home, and she will try to make all at home happy: she should endeavor
+to make the pathway of life cheerful by her smiles and attention, so
+that her husband may be delighted with his dwelling, and find it his
+happiest place; and that the children may be regulated with all
+necessary care.
+
+A good temper is essential for matrimonial happiness. An habitually
+irritable or gloomy disposition is a source of misery to the possessor
+and to others. A dark and murky cave could as well throw out a cheerful
+lustre, as a surly person communicate happiness to those around him.
+Obstinacy must not be indulged by either party; for, as the bond of
+union cannot be easily broken, if one be perverse the other must bend.
+If two trees be bound tightly together, and both be stiff, the cords
+will probably break; if not immediately, they will when the cords become
+weaker: and thus with regard to matrimony, what God has joined together,
+the perversity of human beings will put asunder. Obstinacy in trifling
+matters in the marriage state is an evidence of little love and a bad
+heart; but if trifling matters appear important, and the gaining of
+every point be as the taking of a citadel, the person is wrong in his
+judgment; he is insane, or partially so. Many worthy women have been
+cursed with worthless husbands; but, unfortunately, the grievances of
+the female sex have been less frequently known than those of the men;
+for women are not authors, and men are frequently so; consequently, in
+all estimates of the comparative merit of the sexes, it must be
+remembered that more has been said on the one side than on the other.
+Home, however, is the castle of the wife, if she be a good one; here she
+keeps her permanent abode, agreeably with the injunction of St. Paul.
+The husband is absent the principal part of his time, may there not
+therefore, on some occasions, be too greet an inclination in the lady to
+consider herself as the governor of the establishment, while the husband
+may be deemed a visiter, rather than the master? This would not arise in
+the breast of an amiable and affectionate wife, but it has sometimes
+arisen; for, unfortunately, all wives have not been good ones. Jerome
+Cardan was so unfortunate as to have a wife who was proverbial for her
+ill temper and arbitrary conduct. John Knox said of Lord Erskine, "He
+has a very Jezebel to his wife." Salmasius, the opponent of Milton, was
+made perpetually uneasy by a similar thorn. The unfortunate husband was
+a Frenchman, and Milton said (as Dr Johnson observes,) "Tu es Gallus,
+et, ut aiunt, nimium gallinaceus." Milton himself seems to have suffered
+from a similar cause, for he evinces so much hostility to the female
+sex, that no other reason would so naturally account for it. He
+exclaims,
+
+                            "O why did God,
+  Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven
+  With spirits masculine, create at last
+  This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+  Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+  With men and angels without feminine?"
+
+Milton adds a great deal more, which, if he had a high opinion of woman,
+even his anxiety to make his character of Adam consistent would not have
+demanded. An amiable temper on the part of a wife, with her own natural
+softness, and an inclination to yield in unimportant matters, will not
+only increase love, but power; for in this respect, agreeably to the
+opinion of Prince Eugene, love is power.
+
+Marriage is sometimes made a matter of mere convenience; people enter
+into it with as much indifference as they would into any other
+speculation, and when one companion dies they take another. In the book
+of Tobit we have an account of Sara, the daughter of Raguel, who had
+been favored with seven husbands, whom "Asmodeus the evil spirit had
+killed." Love must be exceedingly pliable, it must be love to man, and
+not to a man, that would suffer a woman to transfer her affections seven
+times. It would be a ludicrous occurrence, if, upon any particular
+occasion, a man's three or four wives, or a woman's three or four
+husbands, should "burst their cerements," and visit their former
+dwelling. What astonishment! What uplifted hands and distended
+eyeballs! What speechlessness and violent speeches,--reproaches and
+animosities! When the Duke of Rutland was Viceroy of Ireland, Sir John
+Hamilton attended one of his Grace's levees. "This is timely rain," said
+the Duke, "it will bring every thing above ground."--"I hope not, my
+Lord," replied Sir John, "for I have three wives there." Marriage may be
+well extended to two wives and two husbands in succession; this, in some
+cases, is necessary; but when it goes to three or four it is
+objectionable. The man who moves from place, sometimes living here and
+sometimes there, will never gain a pure and ardent love of home; by the
+same rule, a succession of wives will only induce an habitual or
+mechanical regard to the wife for the time being; in the same way as
+loyalty may be transferred from one sovereign to another. Besides, a
+family with different degrees of relationship and with different
+interests is formed, and this contributes nothing towards domestic
+tranquillity. There may be some particular cases in which the evils to
+which we have alluded may not arise; these may be deemed exceptions.
+
+There are some sorrows peculiar to matrimony; and some which, though
+they fall on other conditions of life, are felt more heavily when they
+intrude themselves within the boundary of connubial love. Poverty and
+sickness are more grievous evils under circumstances of this sort;
+because a man feels not only for himself, but for others. How dreadful
+must it be when the husband beholds his wife in squalid misery. What are
+the feelings of a mother when she sees her innocent children suffering
+from hunger! And when the iron hand of affliction presses upon the brow
+of a husband or a wife, and the sharp arrows of pain occasion groans, is
+there not an almost equal anguish is the breast of an affectionate
+partner? And when the heavy clouds of sorrow gather around at the
+anticipated separation of those who had lived in the bonds of
+harmony--when the chilly arms of death are held out to clasp him, or
+her, who had been used to a more tender embrace, how dreadful is that
+period! Is not the woe of separating generally in the same proportion as
+the bliss of uniting? And is it not a valuable loan to be paid by a
+mighty sacrifice?
+
+Unhappiness may be occasioned by indulging an undue degree of love.
+Sentimental bliss is generally followed by sentimental sorrow;
+consequently, people may love one another too ardently, so as to make
+the thought of parting a source of misery. If two plants grow up
+together, imparting to each other shelter and fragrance, it may
+contribute to their mutual advantage; but if they become so closely
+united as to grow from the same stalk, and depend on the same nutriment,
+then take away one, and both will perish. Connubial love should,
+therefore, be regulated by reason. Extremes are seldom durable. Violent
+love in the marriage state may change to hatred; and an unusual quantity
+expended on the husband or wife, may occasion a lesser degree of regard
+towards others. It is not an uncommon event for external enemies to
+occasion harmony at home; and harmony at home, or the yielding to the
+foolish notions of each other, may occasion enemies without. So
+difficult is it to act consistently, and to live in peace with all men!
+But the Scripture demands it, and we have a long period for studying our
+lesson.
+
+In matrimony it is necessary that many things should contribute to a
+permanency of enjoyment. A good temper on both sides; property enough to
+supply the wants of a family; good health; children--not too many, nor
+too few, nor all of one sex; a continuance in each other's society, till
+both pass away gradually as the twilight into darkness: but, if chilly
+poverty exert its influence; if the husband or the wife be ill-tempered;
+if he or she be unfaithful or jealous; if love be followed by hatred; if
+one be taken, and the other left in solitude; if children be imperfect
+in birth, or habitually sickly, or drop off in early years as unripe
+fruit; if sons prove vicious, and daughters bring disgrace on themselves
+and their families; if the extravagance of children bring their aged
+parents in sorrow to the grave; where, then, will be the pleasure of
+matrimony? The cares of a family, when the family is large and unruly,
+are more perplexing than the cares of a state. Cardan confessed, that
+out of four great troubles which he had experienced, two arose from his
+children. When Thales was asked why he did not marry, he replied,
+"because I want no children." One of the ancient sages was so much
+impressed with the disappointments and anxieties of matrimony, that when
+he was asked, at what time, a man should marry? replied, "If he be
+young, not yet; if older, not at all."
+
+This sentiment however, so repugnant to all our ideas of social
+improvement, as well as to the command of our Creator, who presented
+woman to man as a helpmate, because it was not good that he should live
+alone, and demanded of them to "be fruitful and multiply," will find no
+advocates except among the disappointed, the ignorant, and the
+abandoned. "The love of woman" is a feeling too deeply rooted in the
+breast of man, and the reality of domestic felicity has been too long
+tested by experience, for either to be sacrificed on the altar of the
+revilers of matrimony, whether they be libertines, weak husbands, or
+misnamed "philosophers."
+
+  The dearest boon from Heaven above,
+    Is bliss which brightly hallows home,
+  'Tis sunlight to the world of love,
+    And life's pure wine without its foam.
+  There is a sympathy of heart
+    Which consecrates the social shrine,
+  Robs grief of gloom and doth impart
+    A joy to gladness all divine.
+
+
+
+
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |                                                              |
+    | Transcriber's Note                                           |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Details    |
+    | are provided in the source of the associated html version.   |
+    | Archaic spellings have been retained.                        |
+    |                                                              |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts
+of the World, by Anonymous
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX ***
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+    line-height: 1.2;
+    text-align: justify; }
+  hr.footnote {width: 5em;
+    margin: 1em auto 0.2em 0;
+    text-align: left;
+    page-break-before: avoid;
+    page-break-after: avoid; }
+
+  span.pgmark {font-size: x-small;
+    font-family: serif;
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+    border-bottom: 0;}
+  /* for transcriber's note at the top */
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+    padding: .5em;
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+    page-break-after: always; }
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+    font-weight: bold;
+    padding-top: 0; }
+
+  .ns {display: none; visibility: hidden; }
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+    text-transform: lowercase; }
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+  .ctr {text-indent: 0; text-align: center; }
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+  .nw {white-space: nowrap; }
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+    text-indent: 0.2em ! important; }
+
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of
+the World, by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Release Date: July 24, 2008 [EBook #26117]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, David Wilson and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="pg" />
+
+<div class="illus">
+<p class="noindent"><a name="png.001" id="png.001"></a><br
+ /><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">ii</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span><img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="391" height="508"
+  alt="" title="" /><br
+ /><img src="images/cleo.png" width="341" height="42"
+ alt="DEATH OF CLEOPATRA." title="DEATH OF CLEOPATRA." /><br
+ /><small class="flrt">Page <a href="#png.200">201</a>.</small></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h1><a name="png.002" id="png.002"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">iii</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>SKETCHES<br
+ /><small>OF</small><br
+ /><big class="so">THE FAIR SEX,</big><br
+ /><small>IN</small><br
+ /><span class="smallish">ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.</span></h1>
+
+<div class="h3"><small>TO WHICH ARE ADDED</small><br
+ /><big>RULES FOR DETERMINING</big>
+ <p class="ctr">THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY,<br
+ />THE HABITS, AND THE AGE</p>
+ <small>OF</small><br
+ /><big class="so">WOMEN</big>,
+ <p class="ctr"><small>NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISE<br
+ />OF DRESS.</small></p></div>
+
+<hr class="tp" />
+
+<p class="publ ctr"><span class="so2">BOSTON</span>:<br
+ /><span class="so">THEODORE ABBOT</span>,<br
+ /><small>388 WASHINGTON ST.</small></p>
+
+<p class="ctr pgbrk">1841.</p>
+
+
+<p class="ctr pgbrk fourem"><small><a name="png.003" id="png.003"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">iv</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Entered according to act of congress, in the year 1841, by<br
+ /><span class="allsc">THEODORE ABBOT</span>,<br
+ />in the Clerk&#8217;s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.</small></p>
+
+<div class="main">
+<p class="h2"><a name="png.004" id="png.004"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">v</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span><img src="images/following.png" width="296" height="39"
+ alt="In the following Pages," title="In the following Pages," /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smc">It</span> is our design to present a pleasing and interesting
+miscellany, which will serve to beguile the
+leisure hour, and will at the same time couple
+instruction with amusement. We have used but
+little method in the arrangement: Choosing rather
+to furnish the reader with a rich profusion of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'nartives'">narratives</ins>
+and anecdotes, all tending to illustrate the</p>
+
+<p class="ctr allsc so2">FEMALE CHARACTER,</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle or
+sometimes heroic virtues, its amiable weaknesses,
+and strange defects&mdash;than to attempt an accurate
+analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted
+to master, viz&mdash;<span class="allsc">WOMAN</span>.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that we do not set down Woman
+as a cipher in the account of human beings. We
+accord to her her full share of importance in the
+world, and we have not attempted to relieve her
+from a sense of her responsibility as an accountable
+being. Above all, we have not failed to impress
+upon her the obligations she is under to <span class="smc">Christianity</span>,
+whose benign influences have raised her
+to be the companion and bosom-friend of man,
+<a name="png.005" id="png.005"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">vi</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>instead of his mere handmaid and dependant. It
+is religion that must form such a character as the
+following, which though applied by Pope to one of
+the most accomplished women of his time, is that
+of a <span class="smc">Christian Wife</span> in every age and station,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Oh! blest with temper whose unclouded ray</div>
+<div>Can make tomorrow cheerful as to-day:</div>
+<div>She who can love a sister&#8217;s charms, or hear</div>
+<div>Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;</div>
+<div>She who ne&#8217;er answers till a husband cools,</div>
+<div>Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;</div>
+<div>Charms by accepting&mdash;by submitting sways,</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="pgbrk">By causing the character of woman to be more
+thoroughly discussed and better understood;&mdash;by
+making it more frequently the theme of rational
+meditation to the young and ardent, who, from the
+force of defective education, are apt to regard all
+&ldquo;the sex,&rdquo; beyond a very limited circle, as mere
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ this may be a typo, but the OED gives a meaning of
+ 'an adjunct, or accompaniment' for the word spelled this way">accessaries</ins> to animal enjoyment,&mdash;whose peace
+they may wound without compunction, and whose
+happiness they may peril without reflection,&mdash;we
+feel that we shall do both sexes a good service,
+and one for which as they advance in life, and in
+their turn become husbands, wives and parents,
+they will thank our little book, as having helped
+them to know themselves and each other.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="secn fourem"><a name="png.006" id="png.006"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">vii</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
+<hr class="toc" />
+
+
+<table class="toc" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td>African Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.042">43</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Adultery, <span class="nw">punishment of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.154">155</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Bathing at Rome,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.030">31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'Bethrothing'">Betrothing</ins> and Marriage,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.103">104</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Chinese Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.039">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Chinese Bridegroom,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.040">41</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Cæsar, <span class="nw">Anecdote of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.156">157</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Celibacy of the Clergy,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.159">160</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Cleopatra, <span class="nw">Death of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.198">199</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Courts of Love,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.171">172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Courtship, ancient Swedish</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.175">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Courtship, Grecian</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.164">165</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Courtship, Eastern</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.167">168</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Condition of Women in the 8th Century,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.051">52</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Egyptian Women, Ancient</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.012">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Egyptian Women, Modern</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.014">15</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Euthira, desperate <span class="nw">act of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.161">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Eastern Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.036">37</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>English Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.061">62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>First Woman,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.008">9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Female Friendship,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.108">109</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Female Delicacy,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.029">30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>French Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.052">53</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>French Girls,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.054">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Female Simplicity,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.070">71</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Female Inferiority, <span class="nw">idea of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.066">67</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Females during the age of Chivalry,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.047">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>First Kiss of Love,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.197">198</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Grecian Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.018">19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>German Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.098">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Grecian Courtezans,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.019">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Greeks, religious <span class="nw">festivals of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.179">180</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Grecian Ladies, luxurious <span class="nw">dress of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.163">164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Girls sold at Auction,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.152">153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Husbands, on the <span class="nw">choice of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.113">114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Italian Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.056">57</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Influence of female society,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.082">83</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Immodesty at Babylon,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.172">173</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Indecency at Adrianople,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.174">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lucretia and Virginia,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.181">182</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Ladies of Lapland and Greenland,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.176">177</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Matrimony, an <span class="nw">essay on</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.202">203</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Matrimony among the French</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.054">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Matrimony in three different lights,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.102">103</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Magnanimity of Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.076">77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Monastic Life,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.088">89</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Marriage Brokers at Genoa,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.059">60</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Marrying, <span class="nw">power of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.158">159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Noah&#8217;s three sons,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.042">43</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Nuptial Ceremonies,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.065">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>On looking at the picture of a beautiful female,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.182">183</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Persian Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.016">17</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Philtres and charms, <span class="nw">power of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.166">167</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Roman Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.023">24</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Roman Oppian Law,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.028">29</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Russian Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.064">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Spanish Women,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.059">60</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>St. Valentine&#8217;s Day,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.170">171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Sentimental Attachment,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.091">92</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Sale of <span class="nw">a wife</span>,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.153">154</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Saxons and Danes, long <span class="nw">hair of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.169">170</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Venus de Medici,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.193">194</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Women, Art of determining the figure, beauty, habits,
+ and the <span class="nw">age of</span></td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.184">185</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Women in the Patriarchal ages,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.009">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Woman in Savage Life,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.031">32</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Woman in times of Chivalry,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.044">45</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Women in Asia and Africa,</td><td class="pg"><a href="#png.078">79</a></td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem pgbrk">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div><a name="png.007" id="png.007"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">viii</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>&ldquo;<span class="smc">Sketches</span> indeed, from that most passionate page,</div>
+<div>A woman&#8217;s heart, of feelings, thoughts, that make</div>
+<div>The atmosphere in which her spirit moves;</div>
+<div>But like all other earthly elements,</div>
+<div>O&#8217;ercast with clouds; now dark, now touched with light,</div>
+<div>With rainbows, sunshine, showers, moonlight, stars,</div>
+<div>Chasing each other&#8217;s change. I fain would trace</div>
+<div>Its brightness and its blackness.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h1><a name="png.008" id="png.008"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">9</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>SKETCHES OF &ldquo;THE SEX.&rdquo;</h1>
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<h2 class="secn">THE FIRST WOMAN, AND HER ANTEDILUVIAN
+DESCENDANTS.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> great Creator, having formed man of
+the dust of the earth, &ldquo;made a deep sleep to
+fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, and
+closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the
+rib, which the Lord God had taken from man,
+made he a woman, and brought her unto the
+man.&rdquo; Hence the fair sex, in the opinion of
+some authors, being formed of matter doubly
+refined, derive their superior beauty and excellence.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after the creation, the first woman
+was tempted by the serpent to eat of the fruit
+of a certain tree, in the midst of the garden of
+Eden, with regard to which God had said, &ldquo;Ye
+shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
+ye die.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This deception, and the fatal consequences
+arising from it, furnish the most interesting story
+in the whole history of the sex.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.009" id="png.009"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">10</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>On the offerings being brought, and that of
+Abel accepted, Cain&#8217;s jealousy and resentment
+rose to such a pitch, that, as soon as they came
+down from the mount where they had been
+sacrificing, he fell upon his brother and slew
+him.</p>
+
+<p>For this cruel and barbarous action, Cain
+and his posterity, being banished from the rest
+of the human race, indulged themselves in every
+species of wickedness. On this account, it
+is supposed, they were called the <cite>Sons and
+Daughters of Men</cite>. The posterity of Seth, on
+the other hand, became eminent for virtue, and
+a regard to the divine precepts. By their regular
+and amiable conduct, they acquired the
+appellation of <cite>Sons and Daughters of God</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>After the deluge there is a chasm in the history
+of women, until the time of the patriarch
+Abraham. They then begin to be introduced
+into the sacred story. Several of their actions
+are recorded. The laws, customs, and usages,
+by which they were governed, are frequently
+exhibited.</p>
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">WOMAN IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> condition of women among the ancient
+patriarchs, appears to have been but extremely
+indifferent. When Abraham entertained the
+angels, sent to denounce the destruction of
+Sodom, he seems to have treated his wife as a
+menial servant: &ldquo;Make ready quickly,&rdquo; said
+<a name="png.010" id="png.010"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">11</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>he to her, &ldquo;three measures of fine meal, knead
+it, and make cakes on the hearth.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In many parts of the east, water is only to
+be met with deep in the earth, and to draw it
+from the wells is, consequently, fatiguing and
+laborious. This, however, was the task of the
+daughters of Jethro the Midianite; to whom
+so little regard was paid, either on account of
+their sex, or the rank of their father, as high
+priest of the country, that the neighboring
+shepherds not only insulted them, but forcibly
+took from them the water they had drawn.</p>
+
+<p>This was the task of Rebecca, who not only
+drew water for Abraham&#8217;s servant, but for his
+camels also, while the servant stood an idle
+spectator of the toil. Is it not natural to
+imagine, that, as he was on an embassy to court
+the damsel for Isaac, his master&#8217;s son, he would
+have exerted his utmost efforts to please, and
+become acceptable?</p>
+
+<p>When he had concluded his bargain, and was
+carrying her home, we meet with a circumstance
+worthy of remark. When she first approached
+Isaac, who had walked out into the
+fields to meet her, she did it in the most submissive
+manner, as if she had been approaching
+a lord and master, rather than a fond and passionate
+lover. From this circumstance, as well
+as from several others, related in the sacred
+history, it would seem that women, instead of
+endeavoring, as in modern times, to persuade
+the world that they confer an immense favor on
+a lover, by deigning to accept of him, did not
+<a name="png.011" id="png.011"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">12</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>scruple to confess, that the obligation was conferred
+on themselves.</p>
+
+<p>This was the case with Ruth, who had laid
+herself down at the feet of Boaz; and being
+asked by him who she was, answered, &ldquo;I am
+Ruth, thine handmaid; spread, therefore, thy
+skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near
+kinsman.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When Jacob went to visit his uncle Laban,
+he met Rachel, Laban&#8217;s daughter, in the fields,
+attending on the flocks of her father.</p>
+
+<p>In a much later period, Tamar, one of the
+daughters of king David, was sent by her father
+to perform the servile office of making cakes
+for her brother Amnon.</p>
+
+<p>The simplicity of the times in which these
+things happened, no doubt, very much invalidates
+the strength of the conclusions that
+naturally arise from them. But, notwithstanding,
+it still appears that women were not then
+treated with the delicacy which they have experienced
+among people more polished and
+refined.</p>
+
+<p>Polygamy also prevailed; which is so contrary
+to the inclination of the sex, and so deeply
+wounds the delicacy of their feelings, that it is
+impossible for any woman voluntarily to agree
+to it, even where it is authorized by custom and
+by law. Wherever, therefore, polygamy takes
+place, we may assure ourselves that women
+have but little authority, and have scarcely
+arrived at any consequence in society.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.012" id="png.012"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">13</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>WOMEN OF ANCIENT EGYPT.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Wherever</span> the human race live solitary, and
+unconnected with each other, they are savage
+and barbarous. Wherever they <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'asssociate'">associate</ins> together,
+that association produces softer manners
+and a more engaging deportment.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptians, from the nature of their
+country, annually overflowed by the Nile, had
+no wild beasts to hunt, nor could they procure
+any thing by fishing. On these accounts, they
+were under a necessity of applying themselves
+to agriculture, a kind of life which naturally
+brings mankind together, for mutual convenience
+and assistance.</p>
+
+<p>They were, likewise, every year, during the
+inundation of the river, obliged to assemble
+together, and take shelter, either on the rising
+grounds, or in the houses, which were raised
+upon piles, above the reach of the waters.
+Here, almost every employment being suspended,
+and the men and women long confined
+together, a thousand inducements, not to be
+found in a solitary state, would naturally prompt
+them to render themselves agreeable to each
+other. Hence their manners would begin, more
+early, to assume a softer polish, and more elegant
+refinement, than those of the other nations
+who surrounded them.</p>
+
+<p>The practice of confining women, instituted
+by jealousy, and maintained by unlawful power,
+was not adopted by the ancient Egyptians.
+This appears from the story of Pharaoh&#8217;s
+<a name="png.013" id="png.013"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">14</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>daughter, who was going with her train of
+maids to bathe in the river, when she found
+Moses hid among the reeds. It is still more
+evident, from that of the wife of Potiphar, who,
+if she had been confined, could not have found
+the opportunities she did, to solicit Joseph to her
+adulterous embrace.</p>
+
+<p>The queens of Egypt had the greatest attention
+paid to them. They were more readily
+obeyed than the kings. It is also related, that
+the husbands were in their marriage-contracts,
+obliged to promise obedience to their wives; an
+obedience, which, in our modern times, we are
+often obliged to perform, though our wives
+entered into the promise.</p>
+
+<p>The behavior of Solomon to Pharaoh&#8217;s
+daughter is a convincing proof that more honor
+and respect was paid to the Egyptian women,
+than to those of any other people. Solomon
+had many other wives besides this princess, and
+was married to several of them before her,
+which, according to the Jewish law, ought to
+have entitled them to a preference. But, notwithstanding
+this, we hear of no particular
+palace having been built for any of the others,
+nor of the worship of any of their gods having
+been introduced into Jerusalem. But a magnificent
+palace was erected for Pharaoh&#8217;s daughter;
+and she was permitted, though expressly
+contrary to the laws of Israel, to worship the
+gods of her own country.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.014" id="png.014"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">15</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>MODERN EGYPTIAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> women of modern Egypt are far from
+being on so respectable a footing as they were
+in ancient times, or as the European women
+are at present.</p>
+
+<p>In Europe, women act parts of great consequence,
+and often reign sovereigns on the
+world&#8217;s vast theatre. They influence manners
+and morals, and decide on the most important
+events. The fate of nations is frequently in
+their hands.</p>
+
+<p>How different is their situation in Egypt!
+There they are bound down by the fetters of
+slavery, condemned to servitude, and have no
+influence in public affairs. Their empire is
+confined within the walls of the Harem. There
+are their graces and charms entombed. The
+circle of their life extends not beyond their own
+family and domestic duties.</p>
+
+<p>Their first care is to educate their children;
+and a numerous posterity is their most fervent
+wish. Mothers always suckle their children.
+This is expressly commanded by Mahomet:&mdash;&ldquo;Let
+the mother suckle her child full two years,
+if the child does not quit the breast; but she
+shall be permitted to wean it, with the consent
+of her husband.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The harem is the cradle and school of infancy.
+The new born feeble being is not there swaddled
+and filletted up in a swathe, the source of a
+thousand diseases. Laid naked on a mat, exposed
+in a vast chamber to the pure air, he
+<a name="png.015" id="png.015"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">16</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>breathes freely, and with his delicate limbs
+sprawls at pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>The daughter&#8217;s education is the same.
+Whalebone and husks, which martyr European
+girls, they know not. They are only covered
+with a shift until six years old: and the dress
+they afterwards wear confines none of their
+limbs, but suffers the body to take its true form;
+and nothing is more uncommon than ricketty
+children, and crooked people. In Egypt, man
+rises in all his majesty, and woman displays
+every charm of person.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptian women, once or twice a week,
+are permitted to go to the bath, and visit female
+relations and friends. They receive each other&#8217;s
+visits very affectionately. When a lady
+enters the harem, the mistress rises, takes her
+hand, presses it to her bosom, kisses, and makes
+her sit down by her side; a slave hastens to
+take her black mantle; she is entreated to be
+at ease, quits her veil, and discovers a floating
+robe tied round her waist with a sash, which
+perfectly displays her shape. She then receives
+compliments according to their manner: &ldquo;Why,
+my mother, or my sister, have you been so long
+absent? We sighed to see you! Your presence
+is an honor to our house! It is the happiness
+of our lives!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Slaves present coffee, sherbet, and confectionary.
+They laugh, talk and play. A large
+dish is placed on the sofa, on which are oranges,
+pomegranates, bananas, and excellent
+melons.  Water, and rose-water mixed, are
+<a name="png.016" id="png.016"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">17</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>brought in an ewer, and with them a silver bason
+to wash the hands; and loud glee and
+merry conversation season the meal. The
+chamber is perfumed by wood of aloes, in a
+brazier; and, the repast ended, the slaves
+dance to the sound of cymbals, with whom the
+mistresses often mingle. At parting they several
+times repeat, &ldquo;God keep you in health!
+Heaven grant you a numerous offspring! Heaven
+preserve your children; the delight and
+glory of your family!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When a visitor is in the harem, the husband
+must not enter. It is the asylum of hospitality,
+and cannot be violated without fatal consequences;
+a cherished right, which the Egyptian
+women carefully maintain, being interested in
+its preservation. A lover, disguised like a
+woman, may be introduced into the harem, and
+it is necessary he should remain undiscovered;
+death would otherwise be his reward. In that
+country, where the passions are excited by the
+climate, and the difficulty of gratifying them
+is great, love often produces tragical events.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">PERSIAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Several</span> historians, in mentioning the ancient
+Persians, have dwelt with peculiar severity
+on the manner in which they treated their
+women. Jealous, almost to distraction, they
+confined the whole sex with the strictest attention,
+and could not bear that the eye of a stranger
+<a name="png.017" id="png.017"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">18</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>should behold the beauty whom they
+adored.</p>
+
+<p>When Mahomet, the great legislator of the
+modern Persians, was just expiring, the last advice
+that he gave to his faithful adherents, was,
+&ldquo;Be watchful of your religion, and your wives.&rdquo;
+Hence they pretend to derive not only the
+power of confining, but also of persuading them,
+that they hazard their salvation, if they look
+upon any other man besides their husbands.
+The Christian religion informs us, that in the
+other world they neither marry, nor are given
+in marriage. The religion of Mahomet teaches
+us a different doctrine, which the Persians believing,
+carry the jealousy of Asia to the fields
+of Elysium, and the groves of Paradise; where,
+according to them, the blessed inhabitants have
+their eyes placed on the crown of their heads,
+lest they should see the wives of their neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>To offer the least violence to a Persian woman,
+was to incur certain death from her husband
+or guardian. Even their kings, though
+the most absolute in the universe, could not
+alter the manners or customs of the country,
+which related to the fair sex.</p>
+
+<p>Widely different from this is the present state
+of Persia. By a law of that country, their
+monarch is now authorized to go, whenever he
+pleases, into the harem of any of his subjects;
+and the subject, on whose prerogative he thus
+encroaches, so far from exerting his usual
+jealousy, thinks himself highly honored by such
+a visit.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.018" id="png.018"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">19</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>A laughable story, on this subject, is told of
+Shah Abbas, who having got drunk at the
+house of one of his favorites, and intending to
+go into the apartment of his wives, was stopped
+by the door-keeper, who bluntly told him, &ldquo;Not
+a man, sir, besides my master, shall put a mustachio
+here, so long as I am porter.&rdquo; &ldquo;What,&rdquo;
+said the king, &ldquo;dost thou not know me?&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered the fellow, &ldquo;I know that you
+are king of the men, but not of the women.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">GRECIAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Woman</span>, in ancient Greece, seems to have
+been regarded merely in the light of an instrument
+for raising up members of the state.
+And surely it may be said of them that they
+nobly fulfilled this duty. The catalogue of heroes
+and sages which shine in Grecian history
+bright and numerous as stars in the firmament,
+are so many testimonials to the faithfulness of
+Grecian women in this respect.</p>
+
+<p>The sexes were but little society for each
+other. Even husbands were, in Sparta, limited
+as to the time and duration of the visits made
+to their wives.</p>
+
+<p>That women in ancient Greece did not enjoy
+that delicate consideration which other refined
+nations accord to their sex, may be inferred
+from the inferiority of the apartments allotted to
+them. The famous Helen is said to have had her
+chamber in the attic; and Penelope, the queen
+of Ulysses, descended from hers by a ladder.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.019" id="png.019"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">20</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>GRECIAN COURTEZANS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> rank which the courtezans enjoyed, even
+in the brightest ages of Greece, and particularly
+at Athens, is one of the greatest singularities in
+the manners of any people. By what circumstances
+could that order of women, who debase
+at once their own sex and ours&mdash;in a country
+where the women were possessed of modesty, and
+the men of sentiment, arrive at distinction, and
+sometimes even at the highest degree of reputation
+and consequence? Several reasons may
+be assigned for that phenomenon in society.</p>
+
+<p>In Greece, the courtezans were in some measure
+connected with the religion of the country.
+The Goddess of Beauty had her altars; and she
+was supposed to protect prostitution, which was
+to her a species of worship. The people invoked
+Venus in times of danger; and, after a
+battle, they thought they had done honor to
+Miltiades and Themistocles, because the Laises
+and the Glyceras of the age had chaunted hymns
+to their Goddess.</p>
+
+<p>The courtezans were likewise connected with
+religion, by means of the arts. Their persons
+afforded models for statues, which were afterwards
+adored in the temples. Phryne served as
+a model to Praxiteles, for his Venus of Cnidus.
+During the feasts of Neptune, near Eleusis, Apelles
+having seen the same courtezan on the
+sea-shore, without any other veil than her loose
+and flowing hair, was so much struck with her
+<a name="png.020" id="png.020"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">21</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>appearance, that he borrowed from it the idea of
+his Venus rising from the waves.</p>
+
+<p>They were, therefore connected with statuary
+and painting, as they furnished the practisers of
+those arts with the means of embellishing their
+works.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of them were skilled in music;
+and, as that art was attended with higher
+effects in Greece than it ever was in any other
+country, it must have possessed, in their hands,
+an irresistible charm.</p>
+
+<p>Every one knows how enthusiastic the Greeks
+were of beauty. They adored it in the temples.
+They admired it in the principal works of art.
+They studied it <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks 'in'">in</ins> the exercises and the games.
+They thought to perfect it by their marriages.
+They offered rewards to it at the public festivals.
+But virtuous beauty was seldom to be
+seen. The modest women were confined to
+their own apartments, and were visited only by
+their husbands and nearest relations. The
+courtezans offered themselves every where to
+view; and their beauty as might be expected,
+obtained universal homage.</p>
+
+<p>Greece was governed by eloquent men; and
+the celebrated courtezans, having an influence
+over those orators must have had an influence
+on public affairs. There was not one, not even
+the thundering, the inflexible Demosthenes, so
+terrible to tyrants, but was subjected to their
+sway. Of that great master of eloquence it has
+been said, &ldquo;What he had been a whole year in
+erecting, a woman overturned in a day.&rdquo; That
+<a name="png.021" id="png.021"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">22</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>influence augmented their consequence; and
+their talent of pleasing increased with the occasions
+of exerting it.</p>
+
+<p>The laws and the public institutions, indeed,
+by authorizing the privacy of women, set a high
+value on the sanctity of the marriage vow. But
+in Athens, imagination, sentiment, luxury, the
+taste in arts and pleasures, was opposite to the
+laws. The courtezans, therefore may be said
+to have come in support of the manners.</p>
+
+<p>There was no check upon public licentiousness;
+but private infidelity, which concerned
+the peace of families, was punished as a crime.
+By a strange and perhaps unequalled singularity
+the men were corrupted, yet the domestic manners
+were pure. It seems as if the courtezans
+had not been considered to belong to their sex;
+and, by a convention to which the laws and the
+manners bended, while other women were estimated
+merely by their virtues, they were estimated
+only by their accomplishments.</p>
+
+<p>These reasons will in some measure, account
+for the honors, which the votaries of Venus so
+often received in Greece. Otherwise we should
+have been at a loss to conceive, why six or seven
+writers had exerted their talents to celebrate the
+courtezans of Athens&mdash;why three great painters
+had uniformly devoted their pencils to represent
+them on canvass&mdash;and why so many poets
+had strove to immortalize them in verses. We
+should hardly have believed that so many illustrious
+men had courted their society&mdash;that Aspasia
+had been consulted in deliberations of
+<a name="png.022" id="png.022"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">23</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>peace and war&mdash;that Phryne had a statue of gold
+placed between the statues of two kings at Delphos&mdash;that,
+after death, magnificent tombs had
+been erected to their memory.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The traveller,&rdquo; says a Greek writer, &ldquo;who,
+approaching to Athens, sees on the side of the
+way a monument which attracts his notice at a
+distance, will imagine that it is the tomb of Miltiades
+or Pericles, or of some other great man,
+who has done honor to his country by his services.
+He advances, he reads, and he learns
+that it is a courtezan of Athens who is interred
+with so much pomp.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Theopompus, in a letter to Alexander the
+Great, speaks also of the same monument in
+words to the following effect&mdash;&ldquo;Thus, after her
+death, is a prostitute honored; while not one of
+those brave warriors who fell in Asia, fighting
+for you, and for the safety of Greece, has so
+much as a stone erected to his memory, or an
+inscription to preserve his ashes from insult.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Such was the homage which that enthusiastic
+people, voluptuous and passionate, paid to beauty.
+More guided by sentiment than reason, and
+having laws rather than principles, they banished
+their great men, honored their courtezans,
+murdered Socrates, permitted themselves to be
+governed by Aspasia, preserved inviolate the
+marriage bed, and placed Phryne in the temple
+of Apollo!</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.023" id="png.023"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">24</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>ROMAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Among</span> the Romans, a grave and austere
+people, who, during five hundred years, were
+unacquainted with the elegancies and the pleasures
+of life, and who, in the middle of furrows
+and fields of battle, were employed in tillage or
+in war, the manners of the women were a long
+time as solemn and severe as those of the men,
+and without the smallest mixture of corruption,
+or of weakness.</p>
+
+<p>The time when the Roman women began to
+appear in public, marks a particular era in history.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman women, for many ages, were respected
+over the whole world. Their victorious
+husbands re-visited them with transport, at their
+return from battle. They laid at their feet the
+spoils of the enemy, and endeared themselves in
+their eyes by the wounds which they had received
+for them and for the state. Those warriors
+often came from imposing commands upon
+kings, and in their own houses accounted it an
+honor to obey. In vain the too rigid laws made
+them the arbiters of life and death. More powerful
+than the laws, the women ruled their judges.
+In vain the legislature, foreseeing the wants
+which exist only among a corrupt people, permitted
+divorce. The indulgence of the polity
+was proscribed by the manners.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the influence of beauty at Rome
+before the licentious intercourse of the sexes had
+corrupted both.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.024" id="png.024"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">25</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>The Roman matrons do not seem to have possessed
+that military courage which Plutarch has
+praised in certain Greek and barbarian women;
+they partook more of the nature of their sex;
+or, at least, they departed less from its character.
+Their first quality was decency. Every
+one knows the story of Cato the censor, <em>who
+stabbed a Roman Senator for kissing his own
+wife in the presence of his daughter</em>.</p>
+
+<p>To these austere manners, the Roman women
+joined an enthusiastic love of their country,
+which discovered itself upon many great occasions.
+On the death of Brutus, they all clothed
+themselves in mourning. In the time of Coriolanus
+they saved the city. That incensed warrior
+who had insulted the senate and priests, and
+who was superior even to the pride of pardoning,
+could not resist the tears and entreaties of the
+women. <em>They</em> melted his obdurate heart. The
+senate decreed them public thanks, ordered the
+men to give place to them upon all occasions,
+caused an altar to be erected for them on the
+spot where the mother had softened her son, and
+the wife her husband; and the sex were permitted
+to add another ornament to their head-dress.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman women saved the city a second
+time, when besieged by Brennus. They gave
+up all their gold as its ransom. For that instance
+of their generosity, the senate granted
+them the honor of having funeral orations
+<a name="png.025" id="png.025"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">26</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>pronounced in the rostrum, in common with patriots
+and heroes.</p>
+
+<p>After the battle of Cannæ, when Rome had
+no other treasures but the virtues of her citizens,
+the women sacrificed both their jewels and their
+gold. A new decree rewarded their zeal.</p>
+
+<p>Valerius Maximus who lived in the reign of
+Tiberius, informs us that, in the second triumvirate,
+the three assassins who governed Rome
+thirsting after gold, no less than blood, and having
+already practised every species of robbery,
+and worn out every method of plunder; resolved
+<em>to tax the women</em>. They imposed a heavy contribution
+upon each of them. The women
+sought an orator to defend their cause, but
+found none. Nobody would reason against
+those who had the power of life and death. The
+daughter of the celebrated Hortensius alone appeared.
+She revived the memory of her father&#8217;s
+abilities, and supported with intrepidity her own
+cause and that of her sex. The ruffians blushed
+and revoked their orders.</p>
+
+<p>Hortensia was conducted home in triumph,
+and had the honor of having given, in one day,
+an example of courage to men, a pattern of eloquence
+to women, and a lesson of humanity to
+tyrants.</p>
+
+<p>During upwards of six hundred years, the
+<em>virtues</em> had been found sufficient to please.
+They now found it necessary to call in the <em>accomplishments</em>.
+They were desirous to join admiration
+to esteem, &#8217;till they learned to exceed
+esteem itself. For in all countries, in proportion
+<a name="png.026" id="png.026"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">27</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>as the love of virtue diminishes, we find the
+love of talents to increase.</p>
+
+<p>A thousand causes concurred to produce this
+revolution of manners among the Romans. The
+vast inequality of ranks, the enormous fortunes
+of individuals, the ridicule, affixed by the imperial
+court to moral ideas, all contributed to hasten
+the period of corruption.</p>
+
+<p>There were still, however, some great and
+virtuous characters among the Roman women.
+Portia, the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus,
+showed herself worthy to be associated with the
+first of human kind, and trusted with the fate of
+empires.  After the battle of Phillippi, she
+would neither survive liberty nor Brutus, but
+died with the bold intrepidity of Cato.</p>
+
+<p>The example of Portia was followed by that
+of Arria, who seeing her husband hesitating and
+afraid to die, in order to encourage him, pierced
+her own breast, and delivered to him the dagger
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>Paulinia too, the wife of Seneca, caused her
+veins to be opened at the same time with her
+husband&#8217;s, but being forced to live, during the
+few years which she survived him, &ldquo;she bore in
+her countenance,&rdquo; says Tacitus, &ldquo;the honorable
+testimony of her love, a <em>paleness</em>, which
+proved that part of her blood had sympathetically
+issued with the blood of her spouse.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>To take notice of all the celebrated women of
+the empire, would much exceed the bounds of
+the present undertaking. But the empress Julia
+the wife of Septimius Severus, possessed a
+<a name="png.027" id="png.027"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">28</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>species of merit so very different from any of those
+already mentioned, as to claim particular attention.</p>
+
+<p>This lady was born in Syria, and a daughter
+of a priest of the sun. It was predicted that she
+would rise to sovereign dignity; and her character
+justified the prophecy.</p>
+
+<p>Julia, while on the throne, loved, or pretended
+passionately to love, letters. Either from taste,
+from a desire to instruct herself, from a love of
+renown, or possibly from all these together, she
+spent her life with philosophers. Her rank of
+empress would not, perhaps, have been sufficient
+to subdue those bold spirits; but she joined to
+that the more powerful influences of wit and
+beauty. These three kinds of empire rendered
+less necessary to her that which consists only in
+art; and which, attentive to their tastes and
+their weaknesses, govern great minds by little
+means.</p>
+
+<p>It is said she was a philosopher. Her philosophy,
+however, did not extend so far as to give
+chastity to her manners. Her husband, who
+did not love her, valued her understanding so
+much, that he consulted her upon all occasions.
+She governed in the same manner under his
+son.</p>
+
+<p>Julia was, in short, an empress and a politician,
+occupied at the same time about literature,
+and affairs of state, while she mingled her pleasures
+freely with both. She had courtiers for
+her lovers, scholars for her friends, and philosophers
+for her counsellors. In the midst of a
+<a name="png.028" id="png.028"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">29</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>society, where she reigned and was instructed.
+Julia arrived at the highest celebrity; but as
+among all her excellencies, we find not those of
+her sex, the virtues of a woman, our admiration
+is lost in blame. In her life time she obtained
+more praise than respect; and posterity, while
+it has done justice to her talents and her accomplishments,
+has agreed to deny her esteem.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">LAWS AND CUSTOMS RESPECTING THE ROMAN
+WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> Roman women, as well as the Grecian,
+were under perpetual guardianship; and were
+not at any age, nor in any condition, ever
+trusted with the management of their own fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Every father had power of life and death over
+his own daughters: but this power was not restricted
+to daughters only; it extended also to
+sons.</p>
+
+<p>The Oppian law prohibited women from having
+more than half an ounce of gold employed in
+ornamenting their persons, from wearing clothes
+of divers colors, and from riding in chariots,
+either in the city, or a thousand paces round it.</p>
+
+<p>They were strictly forbid to use wine, or even
+to have in their possession the key of any place
+where it was kept. For either of these faults
+they were liable to be divorced by their husbands.
+So careful were the Romans in restraining
+their women from wine, that they are supposed
+<a name="png.029" id="png.029"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">30</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>to have first introduced the custom of saluting
+their female relations and acquaintances, on entering
+the house of a friend or neighbor, that they
+might discover by their breath, whether they had
+tasted any of that liquor.</p>
+
+<p>This strictness, however, began in time to be
+relaxed; until at last, luxury becoming too strong
+for every law, the women indulged themselves
+in equal liberties with the men.</p>
+
+<p>But such was not the case in the earlier ages
+of Rome. Romulus even permitted husbands
+to kill their wives, if they found them drinking
+wine.</p>
+
+<p>Fabius Pictor relates, that the parents of a
+Roman lady, having detected her picking the
+lock of a chest which contained some wine, shut
+her up and starved her <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks 'to'">to</ins> death.</p>
+
+<p>Women were liable to be divorced by their
+husbands almost at pleasure, provided the portion
+was returned which they had brought along
+with them. They were also liable to be divorced
+for barrenness, which, if it could be construed
+into a fault, was at least the fault of nature, and
+might sometimes be that of the husband.</p>
+
+<p>A few sumptuary laws, a subordination to the
+men, and a total want of authority, do not so
+much affect the sex, as to be coldly and indelicately
+treated by their husbands.</p>
+
+<p>Such a treatment is touching them in the
+tenderest part. Such, however we have reason
+to believe, they often met with from the Romans,
+who had not learned, as in modern times
+to blend the rigidity of the patriot, and roughness
+<a name="png.030" id="png.030"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">31</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of the warrior, with that soft and indulging
+behavior, so conspicuous in our modern patriots
+and heroes.</p>
+
+<p>Husbands among the Romans not only themselves
+behaved roughly to their wives, but even
+sometimes permitted their servants and slaves to
+do the same. The principal eunuch of Justinian
+the Second, threatened to chastise the Empress,
+his master&#8217;s wife, in the manner that children
+are chastised at school, if she did not obey
+his orders.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the private diversions of the
+Roman ladies, history is silent. Their public
+ones, were such as were common to both sexes;
+as bathing, theatrical representations, horse-races,
+shows of wild beasts, which fought against
+one another, and sometimes against men, whom
+the emperors, in the plenitude of their despotic
+power, ordered to engage them.</p>
+
+<p>The Romans, of both sexes, spent a great
+deal of time at the baths; which at first, perhaps,
+were interwoven with their religion, but at last
+were only considered as refinements in luxury.
+They were places of public resort, where people
+met with their acquaintances and friends, where
+public libraries were kept for such as chose to
+read, and where poets recited their works to
+such as had patience to hear.</p>
+
+<p>In the earlier periods of Rome, separate baths
+were appropriated to each sex. Luxury, by degrees
+getting the better of decency, the men and
+women at last bathed promiscuously together.
+Though this indecent manner of bathing was
+<a name="png.031" id="png.031"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">32</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>prohibited by the emperor Adrian; yet, in a
+short time, inclination overcame the prohibition;
+and, in spite of every effort, promiscuous bathing
+continued until the time of Constantine,
+who, by the coercive force of the legislative authority,
+and the rewards and terrors of the Christian
+religion, put a final stop to it.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">WOMAN IN SAVAGE LIFE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Man</span>, in a state of barbarity, equally cruel and
+indolent, active by necessity, but naturally inclined
+to repose, is acquainted with little more
+than the physical effects of love; and having
+none of those moral ideas which only can soften
+the empire of force, he is led to consider it as his
+supreme law, subjecting to his despotism those
+whom reason had made his equals, but whose
+imbecility betrayed them to his strength.</p>
+
+<p>Cast in the lap of naked nature, and exposed
+to every hardship, the forms of women, in savage
+life, are but little engaging. With nothing
+that deserves the name of culture, their latent
+qualities, if they have any, are like the diamond,
+while enclosed in the rough flint, incapable of
+shewing any lustre. Thus destitute of every
+thing by which they can excite love, or acquire
+esteem; destitute of beauty to charm, or art to
+soothe, the tyrant man; they are by him destined
+to perform every mean and servile office. In
+this the American and other savage women differ
+widely from those of Asia, who, if they are
+<a name="png.032" id="png.032"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">33</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>destitute of the qualifications necessary for gaining
+esteem, have beauty, ornaments, and the art
+of exciting love.</p>
+
+<p>In civilized countries a woman acquires some
+power by being the mother of a numerous family,
+who obey her maternal authority, and defends
+her honor and her life. But, even as a mother,
+a female savage has not much advantage. Her
+children, daily accustomed to see their father
+treat her nearly as a slave, soon begin to imitate
+his example, and either pay little regard to her
+authority or shake it off altogether.</p>
+
+<p>Of this the Hottentot boys afford a remarkable
+proof. They are brought up by the women, till
+they are about fourteen years of age. Then,
+with several ceremonies they are initiated into
+the society of men. After this initiation is over
+it is reckoned manly for a boy to take the earliest
+opportunity of returning to the hut of his
+mother, and beating her in the most barbarous
+manner, to show that he is now out of her jurisdiction.
+Should the mother complain to the
+men, they would only applaud the boy for showing
+so laudable a contempt for the society and
+authority of women.</p>
+
+<p>In the Brazils, the females are obliged to follow
+their husbands to war, to supply the place
+of beasts of burden, and to carry on their backs
+their children, provisions, hammocks, and every
+thing wanted in the field.</p>
+
+<p>In the Isthmus of Darien, they are sent along
+with warriors and travellers, as we do baggage
+horses. Even their Queen appeared before
+<a name="png.033" id="png.033"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">34</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>some English gentlemen, carrying her sucking
+child, wrapt in a red blanket.</p>
+
+<p>The women among the Indians of America
+are what the Helots were among the Spartans, a
+vanquished people obliged to toil for their conquerors.
+Hence on the banks of the Oroonoko
+we have heard of mothers slaying their daughters
+out of compassion, and smothering them in the
+hour of their birth. They consider this barbarous
+pity as a virtue.</p>
+
+<p>Father Joseph Gumilla, reproving one of them
+for this inhuman crime, received the following
+answer:&mdash;&ldquo;I wish to God, Father, I wish to
+God, that my mother had, by my death, prevented
+the manifold distresses I have endured,
+and have yet to endure as long as I live. Had
+she kindly stilled me in my birth, I should not
+have felt the pain of death, nor the numberless
+other pains to which life has subjected me.
+Consider, Father, our deplorable condition.
+Our husbands go to hunt with their bows and
+arrows, and trouble themselves no farther: we
+are dragged along with one infant at our breast,
+and another in a basket. They return in the
+evening without any burden; we return with
+the burden of our children. Though tired with
+long walking, we are not allowed to sleep, but
+must labor the whole night, in grinding maize
+to make <i>chica</i> for them. They get drunk, and
+in their drunkenness beat us, draw us by the
+hair of the head, and tread us under foot. A
+young wife is brought upon us and permitted to
+abuse us and our children. What kindness can
+<a name="png.034" id="png.034"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">35</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>we show to our female children, equal to that
+of relieving them from such servitude, more bitter
+a thousand times than death? I repeat again,
+would to God my mother had put me under
+ground, the moment I was born.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The men,&rdquo; says Commodore Byron, in his
+account of the inhabitants of South America,
+&ldquo;exercise a most despotic authority over their
+wives whom they consider in the same view they
+do any other part of their property, and dispose
+of them accordingly. Even their common treatment
+of them is cruel. For, though the toil and
+hazard of procuring food lies entirely on the
+women, yet they are not suffered to touch any
+part of it, until the husband is satisfied; and
+then he assign them their portion, which is generally
+very scanty, and such as he has not a
+stomach for himself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Greenlanders, who live mostly upon
+seals, think it sufficient to catch and bring them
+on shore; and would rather submit to starve
+than assist their women in skinning, dressing,
+or dragging home the cumbrous animals to their
+huts.</p>
+
+<p>In some parts of America, when the men kill
+any game in the woods, they lay it at the root of
+a tree, fix a mark there, and travelling until
+they arrive at their habitation, send their women
+to fetch it, a task which their own laziness and
+pride equally forbid.</p>
+
+<p>Among many of the tribes of wandering Arabs,
+the women are not only obliged to do every domestic
+and every rural work, but also to feed,
+<a name="png.035" id="png.035"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">36</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>to dress, and saddle the horses, for the use of
+their husbands.</p>
+
+<p>The Moorish women, besides doing all the
+same kinds of drudgery, are also obliged to cultivate
+the fields, while their husbands stand idle
+spectators of the toil, or sleep inglorious beneath
+a neighboring shade.</p>
+
+<p>In Madura the husband generally speaks to
+his wife in the most imperious tone; while she
+with fear and trembling approaches him, waits
+upon him while at meals, and pronounces not
+his name, but with the addition of every dignifying
+title she can devise. In return for all this
+submission he frequently beats and abuses her
+in the most barbarous manner. Being asked
+the reason of such a behavior, one of them answered,
+&ldquo;As our wives are so much our inferiors
+why should we allow them to eat and drink with
+us? Why should they not serve us with whatever
+we call for, and afterwards sit down and eat
+up what we leave? If they commit faults, why
+should they not suffer correction? It is their
+business only to bring up our children, pound
+our rice, make our oil, and do every other kind
+of drudgery, purposes to which only their low
+and inferior natures are adapted.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Circassian custom of breeding young
+girls, on purpose to be sold in the public market
+to the highest bidder, is generally known. Perhaps,
+however, upon minute examination, we
+shall find that women are, in some degree,
+bought and sold in every country, whether savage
+or civilized.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.036" id="png.036"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">37</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>EASTERN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> women of the East, have in general, always
+exhibited the same appearance. Their
+manners, customs, and fashions, unalterable like
+their rocks, have stood the test of many revolving
+ages. Though the kingdoms of their country
+have often changed masters, though they have
+submitted to the arms of almost every invader,
+yet the laws by which their sex are governed
+and enslaved, have never been revised nor
+amended.</p>
+
+<p>Had the manners and customs of the Asiatic
+women been subject to the same changes as
+they are in Europe, we might have expected the
+same changes in the sentiments and writings of
+their men. But, as this is not the case, we have
+reason to presume that the sentiments entertained
+by Solomon, by the apocryphal writers,
+and by the ancient Bramins, are the sentiments
+of this day.</p>
+
+<p>Though the confinement of women be an unlawful
+exertion of superior power, yet it affords a
+proof that the inhabitants of the East are advanced
+some degrees farther in civilization than
+mere savages, who have hardly any love and
+consequently as little jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>This confinement is not very rigid in the empire
+of the Mogul. It is, perhaps, less so in
+China, and in Japan hardly exists.</p>
+
+<p>Though women are confined in the Turkish
+empire, they experience every other indulgence.
+They are allowed, at stated times, to go to the
+<a name="png.037" id="png.037"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">38</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>public baths; their apartments are richly, if not
+elegantly furnished; they have a train of female
+slaves to serve and amuse them; and their persons
+are adorned with every costly ornament
+which their fathers or husbands can afford.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the strictness of confinement
+in Persia, their women are treated with several
+indulgences. They are allowed a variety of
+precious liquors, costly perfumes, and beautiful
+slaves: their apartments are furnished with the
+most elegant hangings and carpets; their persons
+ornamented with the finest silks, and even
+loaded with the sparkling jewels of the East.
+But all these trappings, however elegant, or
+however gilded, are only like the golden chains
+sometimes made use of to bind a royal prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Solomon had a great number of queens and
+concubines; but a petty Hindoo chief has been
+known to have two thousand women confined
+within the walls of his harem, and appropriated
+entirely to his pleasure. Nothing less than unlimited
+power in the husband is able to restrain
+women so confined, from the utmost disorder
+and confusion. They may repine in secret, but
+they must clothe their features with cheerfulness
+when their lord appears. Contumacy draws
+down on them immediate punishment: they are
+degraded, chastised, divorced, shut up in dark
+dungeons, and sometimes put to death.</p>
+
+<p>Their persons, however, are so sacred, that
+they must not in the least be violated, nor even
+be looked at, by any one but their husbands.
+This female privilege has given an opportunity
+<a name="png.038" id="png.038"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">39</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of executing many conspiracies. Warriors, in
+such vehicles as are usually employed to carry
+women, have been often conveyed, without examination,
+into the apartments of the great;
+from whence, instead of issuing forth in the
+smiles of beauty, they have rushed out in the
+terror of arms, and laid the tyrants at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>No stranger is ever allowed to see the women
+of Hindostan, nor can even brothers visit their
+sisters in private. To be conscious of the existence
+of a man&#8217;s wives seems a crime; and he
+looks surly and offended if their health is inquired
+after. In every country, honor consists
+in something upon which the possessor sets the
+highest value. This, with the Hindoo, is the
+chastity of his wives; a point without which he
+must not live.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of slaughter and devastation,
+throughout all the East, the harem is a sanctuary.
+Ruffians, covered with the blood of a
+husband, shrink back with veneration from the
+secret apartment of his wives.</p>
+
+<p>At Constantinople, when the sultan sends an
+order to strangle a state-criminal, and seize on
+his effects, the officers who execute it enter not
+into the harem, nor touch any thing belonging
+to the women.</p>
+
+<p>Every Turkish seraglio and harem, has a garden
+adjoining to it, and in the middle of this
+garden a large room, more or less decorated according
+to the wealth of the proprietor. Here
+the ladies spend most of their time, with their
+<a name="png.039" id="png.039"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">40</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>attendant nymphs around them employed at
+their music, embroidery, or loom.</p>
+
+<p>It has long been a custom among the grandees
+of Asia, to entertain story-tellers of both
+sexes, who like the <i>bards</i> of ancient Europe,
+divert them with tales, and little histories, mostly
+on the subject of bravery and love. These often
+amuse the women, and beguile the cheerless
+hours of the harem, by calling up images to
+their minds which their eyes are forever debarred
+from seeing.</p>
+
+<p>All their other amusements, as well as this,
+are indolently voluptuous. They spend a great
+part of their time in lolling on <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'siken'">silken</ins> sofas;
+while a train of female slaves, scarcely less voluptuous,
+attend to sing to them, to fan them,
+and to rub their bodies; an exercise which the
+Easterns enjoy, with a sort of placid ecstasy, as it
+promotes the circulation of their languid blood.</p>
+
+<p>They bathe themselves in rose water and
+other baths, prepared with the precious odors of
+the East. They perfume themselves with costly
+essences, and adorn their persons, that they may
+please the <em>tyrant</em> with whom they are obliged to
+live.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">CHINESE WOMAN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Of</span> all the other Asiatics, the Chinese have,
+perhaps the best title to modesty. Even the
+men wrap themselves closely up in their garments,
+and reckon it indecent to discover any
+<a name="png.040" id="png.040"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">41</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>more of their arms and legs than is necessary.&mdash;The
+women, still more closely wrapt up, never
+discover a naked hand even to their nearest relations,
+if they can possibly avoid it. Every part
+of their dress, every part of their behavior is calculated
+to preserve decency, and inspire respect.
+And, what adds lustre to of their charms, is that
+uncommon modesty which appears in every look
+and in every action.</p>
+
+<p>Charmed, no doubt, with so engaging a deportment,
+the men behave to them in a reciprocal
+manner. And, that their virtue may not
+be contaminated by the neighborhood of vice,
+the legislature takes care that no prostitutes
+shall lodge within the walls of any of the great
+cities of China.</p>
+
+<p>Some, however, suspect whether this appearance
+of modesty be any thing else than the custom
+of the country; and allege that, <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'nothwithstanding'">notwithstanding</ins>
+so much decency and decorum, they
+have their peculiar modes of intriguing, and
+embrace every possible opportunity of putting
+them in practice; and that, in these intrigues,
+they frequently scruple not to stab the paramour
+they had invited to their arms, as the surest
+method of preventing detection and loss of
+character.</p>
+
+<p>A bridegroom knows nothing of the character
+or person of his intended wife, except what he
+gathers from the report of some female relative,
+or confidant, who undertakes to arrange the
+marriage, and determine the sum that shall be
+paid for the bride. Very severe laws are made
+<a name="png.041" id="png.041"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">42</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>to prevent deception and fraud in these transactions.
+On the day appointed for the wedding
+the damsel is placed in a close palanquin the
+key of which is sent to the bridegroom, by the
+hands of some trusty domestic. Her relations
+and friends accompanied by squalling music,
+escort her to his house; at the gate of which he
+stands in full dress, ready to receive her.  He
+eagerly opens the palanquin and examines his
+bargain. If he is pleased, she enters his dwelling,
+and the marriage is celebrated with feasting
+and rejoicing; the men and women being
+all the time in separate apartments. If the
+bridegroom is dissatisfied, he shuts the palanquin,
+and sends the woman back to her relations;
+but when this happens, he must pay another sum
+of money equal to the price he first gave for
+her. A woman who unites beauty with accomplishments
+brings from four to seven hundred
+louis d&#8217;ors; some sell for less than one hundred.
+The apartments of the women are separated
+from those of the men by a wall at which a
+guard is stationed. The wife is never allowed
+to eat with her husband; she cannot quit her
+apartments without permission; and he does not
+enter hers without first asking leave. Brothers
+are entirely separated from their sisters at the
+age of nine or ten years.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.042" id="png.042"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">43</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>AFRICAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> Africans were formerly renowned for
+their industry in cultivating the ground, for their
+trade, navigation, caravans and useful arts.&mdash;At
+present they are remarkable for their idleness,
+ignorance, superstition, treachery, and,
+above all, for their lawless methods of robbing
+and murdering all the other inhabitants of the
+globe.</p>
+
+<p>Though they still retain some sense of their
+infamous character, yet they do not choose to
+reform. Their priests, therefore, endeavor to
+justify them, by the following story: &ldquo;Noah,&rdquo;
+say they, &ldquo;was no sooner dead, than his three
+sons, the first of whom was <em>white</em>, the second
+<em><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'tawney'">tawny</ins></em>, and the third <em>black</em>, having agreed upon
+dividing among them his goods and possessions,
+spent the greatest part of the day in sorting
+them; so that they were obliged to adjourn the
+division till the next morning. Having supped
+and smoked a friendly pipe together, they all
+went to rest, each in his own tent. After a few
+hours sleep, the white brother got up, seized
+on the gold, silver, precious stones, and other
+things of the greatest value, loaded the best
+horses with them, and rode away to that country
+where his white posterity have been settled ever
+since. The tawny, awaking soon after, and
+with the same criminal intention, was surprised
+when he came to the store house to find that his
+brother had been beforehand with him. Upon
+which he hastily secured the rest of the horses
+<a name="png.043" id="png.043"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">44</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and camels, and loading them with the best
+carpets, clothes, and other remaining goods,
+directed his route to another part of the
+world, leaving behind him, only a few of the
+coarsest goods, and some provisions of little
+value.</p>
+
+<p>When the third, or black brother, came next
+morning in the simplicity of his heart to make
+the proposed division, and could neither find his
+brethren, nor any of the valuable commodities,
+he easily judged they had tricked him, and were
+by that time fled beyond any possibility of discovery.</p>
+
+<p>In this most afflicted situation, he took his
+<em>pipe</em>, and begun to consider the most effectual
+means of retrieving his loss, and being revenged
+on his perfidious brothers.</p>
+
+<p>After revolving a variety of schemes in his
+mind, he at last fixed upon watching every opportunity
+of making reprisals on them, and laying
+hold of and carrying away their property, as
+often as it should fall in his way, in revenge for
+that patrimony of which they had so unjustly deprived
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Having come to this resolution, he not only
+continued in the practice of it all his life, but on
+his death laid the strongest injunctions on his
+descendants to do so, to the end of the world.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Some tribes of the Africans, however, when
+they have engaged themselves in the protection
+of a stranger, are remarkable for fidelity. Many
+of them are conspicuous for their temperance,
+hospitality, and several other virtues.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.044" id="png.044"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">45</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Their women, upon the whole, are far from
+being indelicate or unchaste. On the banks of
+the Niger, they are tolerably industrious, have a
+considerable share of vivacity, and at the same
+time a female reserve, which would do no discredit
+to a politer country. They are modest,
+affable, and faithful; an air of innocence appears
+in their looks and in their language, which
+gives a beauty to their whole deportment.</p>
+
+<p>When, from the Niger, we approach toward
+the East, the African women degenerate in
+stature, complexion, sensibility, and chastity.
+Even their language, like their features, and the
+soil they inhabit, is harsh and disagreeable.
+Their pleasures resemble more the transports
+of fury, than the gentle emotions communicated
+by <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'agreeble'">agreeable</ins> sensations.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">GREAT ENTERPRISES OF WOMEN IN THE TIMES OF
+CHIVALRY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> times and the manners of chivalry, by
+bringing great enterprises, bold adventures, and
+extravagant heroism into fashion, inspired the
+women with the same taste.</p>
+
+<p>The two sexes always imitate each other.
+Their manners and their minds are refined or
+corrupted, invigorated or dissolved together.</p>
+
+<p>The women, in consequence of the prevailing
+passion, were now seen in the middle of camps
+and of armies. They quitted the soft and tender
+inclinations, and the delicate offices of their
+<a name="png.045" id="png.045"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">46</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>own sex, for the courage, and the toilsome occupations
+of ours.</p>
+
+<p>During the crusades, animated by the double
+enthusiasm of religion and of valor, they often
+performed the most romantic exploits. They
+obtained indulgences on the field of battle, and
+died with arms in their hands, by the side of
+their lovers, or of their husbands.</p>
+
+<p>In Europe, the women attacked and defended
+fortifications. Princesses commanded their armies,
+and obtained victories.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the celebrated Joan de Mountfort,
+disputing for her duchy of Bretagne, and engaging
+the enemy herself.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the still more celebrated Margaret
+of Anjou, queen of England and wife of Henry
+VI. She was active and intrepid, a general and
+a soldier. Her genius for a long time supported
+her feeble husband, taught him to conquer, replaced
+him upon the throne, twice relieved him
+from prison, and though oppressed by fortune
+and by rebels, she did not yield, till she had decided
+in person twelve battles.</p>
+
+<p>The warlike spirit among the women, consistent
+with ages of barbarism, when every thing
+is impetuous because nothing is fixed, and
+when all excess is the excess of force, continued
+in Europe upwards of four hundred years,
+showing itself from time to time, and always in
+the middle of convulsions, or on the eve of great
+revolutions.</p>
+
+<p>But there were eras and countries, in which
+that spirit appeared with particular lustre. Such
+<a name="png.046" id="png.046"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">47</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>were the displays it made in the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries in Hungary, and in the
+Islands of the Archipelago and the Mediterranean,
+when they were invaded by the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>Every thing conspired to animate the women
+of those countries with an exalted courage; the
+prevailing spirit of the foregoing ages; the
+terror which the name of the Turks inspired;
+the still more dreadful apprehensions of an unknown
+enemy; the difference of <em>dress</em>, which
+has a stronger <em>effect</em> than is commonly supposed
+on the imagination of a people; the difference
+of religion, which produced a kind of sacred
+horror; the striking difference of manners; and
+above all, the confinement of the female sex,
+which presented to the women of Europe nothing
+but the frightful ideas of servitude and a master;
+the groans of honor, the tears of beauty in the
+embrace of barbarism, and the double tyranny of
+love and pride!</p>
+
+<p>The contemplation of these objects, <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'accordly'">accordingly</ins>,
+roused in the hearts of the women a resolute
+courage to defend themselves; nay, sometimes
+even a courage of enthusiasm, which hurled
+itself against the enemy.&mdash;That courage, too,
+was augmented, by the promises of a religion,
+which offered eternal happiness in exchange for
+the sufferings of a moment.</p>
+
+<p>It is not therefore surprising, that when three
+beautiful women of the isle of Cyprus were led
+prisoners to Selim, to be secluded in the seraglio,
+one of them, preferring death to such a condition,
+conceived the project of setting fire to the
+<a name="png.047" id="png.047"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">48</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>magazine; and after having communicated her
+design to the rest, put it in execution.</p>
+
+<p>The year following, a city of Cyprus being
+besieged by the Turks, the women ran in
+crowds, mingling themselves with the soldiers,
+and, fighting gallantly in the breach, were the
+means of saving their country.</p>
+
+<p>Under Mahomet II. a girl of the isle of
+Lemnos, armed with the sword and shield of
+her father, who had fallen in battle, opposed the
+Turks, when they had forced a gate, and chased
+them to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>In the two celebrated sieges of Rhodes and
+Malta, the women, seconding the zeal of the
+knights, <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'discoverd'">discovered</ins> upon all occasions the greatest
+intrepidity; not only that impetuous and
+temporary impulse which despises death, but
+that cool and deliberate fortitude which can
+support the continued hardships, the toils, and
+the miseries of war.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">OTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING FEMALES DURING
+THE AGE OF CHIVALRY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">When</span> a man had said any thing that reflected
+dishonor on a woman, or accused her of a
+crime, she was not obliged to fight him to prove
+her innocence: the combat would have been
+unequal. But she might choose a champion to
+fight in her cause, or expose himself to the horrid
+trial, in order to clear her reputation. Such
+champions were generally selected from her
+<a name="png.048" id="png.048"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">49</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>lovers or friends. But <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+  original text obscured, so 'if' inferred from context">if</ins> she fixed upon any
+other, so high was the spirit of martial glory, and
+so eager the thirst of defending the weak and
+helpless sex, that we meet with no instance of a
+champion ever having refused to fight for, or
+undergo whatever custom required, in defence
+of the lady who had honored him with the appointment.</p>
+
+<p>To the motives already mentioned, we may
+add another. He who had refused, must inevitably
+have been branded with the name of coward:
+and, so despicable was the condition of a
+coward, in those times of general heroism, that
+death itself appeared the more preferable choice.
+Nay, such was the rage of fighting for women,
+that it became customary for those who could
+not be honored with the decision of their real
+quarrels, to create fictitious ones concerning
+them, in order to create also a necessity of fighting.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was fighting for the ladies confined to
+single combatants. Crowds of gallants entered
+the lists against each other. Even kings called
+out their subjects, to shew their love for their
+mistresses, by cutting the throats of their neighbors,
+who had not in the least offended.</p>
+
+<p>In the fourteenth century, when the Countess
+of Blois and the widow of Mountford were at
+war against each other, a conference was agreed
+to, on pretence of settling a peace, but in reality
+to appoint a combat. Instead of negotiating,
+they soon challenged each other; and Beaumanoir,
+who was at the head of the Britons,
+<a name="png.049" id="png.049"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">50</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>publicly declared that they fought for no other motive,
+than to see, by the victory, who had the
+fairest mistress.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth century, we find an anecdote
+of this kind still more extraordinary. John,
+duke de Bourbonnois, published a declaration,
+that he would go over to England, with sixteen
+knights, and there fight it out, in order to avoid
+idleness, and merit the good graces of his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>James IV. of Scotland, having, in all tournaments,
+professed himself knight to queen Anne
+of France, she summoned him to prove himself
+her true and valorous champion, by taking the
+field in her defence, against his brother-in-law,
+Henry VIII. of England. He obeyed the romantic
+mandate; and the two nations bled to
+feed the vanity of a woman.</p>
+
+<p>Warriors, when ready to engage, invoked the
+aid of their mistresses, as poets do that of the
+Muses. If they fought valiantly, it reflected
+honor on the Dulcineas they adored; but if they
+turned their backs on their enemies, the poor
+ladies were dishonored forever.</p>
+
+<p>Love, was at that time, the most prevailing
+motive to fighting. The famous Gaston de Foix,
+who commanded the French troops at the battle
+of Ravenna, took advantage of this foible of his
+army. He rode from rank to rank, calling his
+officers by name, and even some of his private
+men, recommending to them their country, their
+honor, and, above all, to shew what they could
+do for their mistresses.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.050" id="png.050"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">51</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>The women of those ages, the reader may
+imagine, were certainly more completely happy
+than in any other period of the world. This,
+however, was not in reality the case.</p>
+
+<p>Custom, which governs all things with the
+most absolute sway, had, through a long succession
+of years, given her sanction to such combats
+as were undertaken, either to defend the
+innocence, or display the beauty of women.
+Custom, therefore, either obliged a man to fight
+for a woman who desired him, or marked the
+refusal with infamy and disgrace. But custom
+did not oblige him, in every other part of his
+conduct, to behave to this woman, or to the sex
+in general, with that respect and politeness
+which have happily distinguished the character
+of more modern times.</p>
+
+<p>The same man who would have encountered
+giants, or gigantic difficulties, &ldquo;when a lady
+was in the case,&rdquo; had but little idea of adding
+to her happiness, by supplying her with the comforts
+and elegancies of life. And, had she asked
+him to stoop, and ease her of a part of that
+domestic slavery which, almost in every country,
+falls to the lot of women, he would have thought
+himself quite affronted.</p>
+
+<p>But besides, men had nothing else, in those
+ages, than that kind of romantic gallantry to
+recommend them. Ignorant of letters, arts, and
+sciences, and every thing that refines human
+nature, they were, in every thing where gallantry
+was not concerned, rough and unpolished in
+their manners and behavior. Their time was
+<a name="png.051" id="png.051"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">52</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>spent in drinking, war, gallantry, and idleness.
+In their hours of relaxation, they were but little
+in company with their women; and when they
+were, the indelicacies of the carousal, or the cruelties
+of the field, were almost the only subjects
+they had to talk of.</p>
+
+<p>From the subversion of the Roman empire,
+to the fourteenth or fifteenth century, women
+spent most of their time alone. They were almost
+entire strangers to the joys of social life.
+They seldom went abroad, but to be spectators
+of such public diversions and amusements as the
+fashion of the times countenanced. Francis I.
+was the first monarch who introduced them on
+public days to court.</p>
+
+<p>Before his time, nothing was to be seen at any
+of the courts of Europe, but long bearded politicians,
+plotting the destruction of the rights
+and liberties of mankind; and warriors clad in
+complete armor, ready to put their plots in execution.</p>
+
+<p>In the eighth century, so slavish was the condition
+of women on the one hand, and so much
+was beauty coveted on the other, that, for about
+two hundred years, the kings of Austria were
+obliged to pay a tribute to the Moors, of one
+hundred beautiful virgins per annum.</p>
+
+<p>In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
+elegance had scarcely any existence, and even
+cleanliness was hardly considered as laudable.
+The use of linen was not known; and the most
+delicate of the fair sex wore woollen shifts.</p>
+
+<p>In the time of Henry VIII. the peers of the
+<a name="png.052" id="png.052"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">53</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>realm carried their wives behind them on horseback
+when they went to London; and, in the
+same manner, took them back to their country
+seats, with hoods of waxed linen over their
+heads, and wrapped in mantles of cloth, to secure
+them from the cold.</p>
+
+<p>There was one misfortune of a singular nature,
+to which women were liable in those days:
+they were in perpetual danger of being accused
+of witchcraft, and suffering all the cruelties and
+indignities of a mob, instigated by superstition
+and directed by enthusiasm; or of being condemned
+by laws, which were at once a disgrace
+to humanity and to sense. Even the bloom of
+youth and beauty could not secure them from
+torture and from death. But when age and
+wrinkles attacked a woman, if any thing uncommon
+happened in her neighborhood, she was almost
+sure of atoning with her life for a crime it
+was impossible for her to commit.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">FRENCH WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Though</span> the ladies of France are not very
+handsome, they are sensible and witty. To
+many of them, without the least flattery, may be
+applied the distich which Sappho ascribes to
+herself:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>If partial nature has denied me beauty, the
+charms of my mind amply make up for the deficiency.</i>&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.053" id="png.053"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">54</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>No women upon earth can excel, and few
+rival them, in their almost native arts of pleasing
+all who approach them. Add to this, an
+education beyond that of most European ladies,
+a consummate skill in those accomplishments
+that suit the fair sex, and the most graceful manner
+of displaying that knowledge to the utmost
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the description that may safely be
+given of the French ladies in general. But the
+spirit, or rather the <em>evil genius</em> of gallantry, too
+often perverts all these lovely qualities, and renders
+them subservient to very iniquitous ends.</p>
+
+<p>In every country, women have always a little
+to do, and a great deal to say. In France, they
+dictate almost every thing that is said, and direct
+every thing that is done. They are the most
+restless beings in the world. To fold her hands
+in idleness, and impose silence on her tongue,
+would be to a French woman worse than death.
+The sole joy of her life is to be engaged in the
+prosecution of some scheme, relating either to
+fashion, ambition, or love.</p>
+
+<p>Among the rich and opulent, they are entirely
+the votaries of pleasure, which they pursue
+through all its labyrinths, at the expense of fortune,
+reputation, and health. Giddy and extravagant
+to the last degree, they leave to their husbands
+economy and care, which would only
+spoil their complexions, and furrow their brows.</p>
+
+<p>When we descend to tradesmen and mechanics,
+the case is reversed: the wife manages
+every thing in the house and shop, while the
+<a name="png.054" id="png.054"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">55</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>husband lounges in the back-shop an idle spectator,
+or struts about with his sword and bag-wig.</p>
+
+<p>Matrimony among the French, seems to be a
+bargain entered into by a male and female, to
+bear the same name, live in the same house, and
+pursue their separate pleasures without restraint
+or control. And, so religiously is this part of
+the bargain kept, that both parties shape their
+course exactly as convenience and inclination
+dictate.</p>
+
+<p>The French girls are kept under very strict
+superintendence. They are not allowed to go
+to parties, or places of public amusement, without
+being accompanied by some married female
+relation; and they see their lovers only in the
+presence of a third person. Marriages are entirely
+negotiated by parents; and sometimes the
+wedding day is the second time that a bride and
+bridegroom see each other. Nothing is more
+common than to visit a lady, and attend her
+parties, without knowing her husband by sight;
+or to visit a gentleman without ever being introduced
+to his wife. If a married couple were to
+be seen frequently in each other&#8217;s company, they
+would be deemed extremely ungenteel. After
+ladies are married, they have unbounded freedom.
+It is a common practice to receive morning
+calls from gentlemen, before they have risen
+from bed; and they talk with as little reserve to
+such visiters, as they would in the presence of
+any woman of refinement.</p>
+
+<p>In no country does real politeness shew itself
+<a name="png.055" id="png.055"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">56</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>more than in France, where the company of the
+women is accessible to every man who can recommend
+himself by his dress, and by his address.
+To affectation and prudery the French
+women are equally strangers. Easy and unaffected
+in their manners, their politeness has so
+much the appearance of nature, that one would
+almost believe no part of it to be the effect of
+art. An air of sprightliness and gaiety sits perpetually
+on their countenances, and their whole
+deportment seems to indicate that their only
+business is to &ldquo;strew the path of life with flowers.&rdquo;
+Persuasion hangs on their lips; and,
+though their volubility of tongue is indefatigable,
+so soft is their accent, so lively their expression,
+so various their attitudes, that they fix
+the attention for hours together on a tale of nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The Jewish doctors have a fable concerning
+the etymology of the word Eve, which one
+would almost be tempted to say is realized in
+the French women. &ldquo;Eve,&rdquo; say they, &ldquo;comes
+from a word, which signifies to talk; and she
+was so called, because, soon after the creation,
+there fell from heaven twelve baskets full of chit
+chat, and she picked up <em>nine</em> of them, while her
+husband was gathering the other <em>three</em>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>French ladies, especially those not young, use
+a great deal of rouge.  A traveller who saw
+many of them in their opera boxes, says, &ldquo;I
+could compare them to nothing but a large bed
+of pionies.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After the French revolution, it became the
+<a name="png.056" id="png.056"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">57</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>fashion to have everything in ancient classic
+style. Loose flowing drapery, naked arms, sandaled
+feet, and tresses twisted, were the order of
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>The state of gross immorality that prevailed
+at this time ought not to be described, if language
+had the power. The profligacy of Rome
+in its worst days was comparatively thrown into
+the shade. Religion and marriage became a
+mockery, and every form of impure and vindictive
+passion walked abroad, with the consciousness
+that public opinion did not require them to
+assume even a slight disguise. The fish-women
+of Paris will long retain an unenviable celebrity
+for the brutal excess of their rage. The goddess
+of Reason was worshipped by men, under
+the form of a living woman entirely devoid of
+clothing; and in the public streets ladies might
+be seen who scarcely paid more attention to decorum.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">ITALIAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Dr</span> Goldsmith thus characterises the Italians
+in general:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i2">&ldquo;Could nature&#8217;s bounty satisfy the breast,</div>
+<div>The sons of Italy were surely blest.</div>
+<div>Whatever fruits in different climes are found,</div>
+<div>That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground;</div>
+<div>Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,</div>
+<div>Whose bright succession decks the varied year:</div>
+<div>Whatever sweets salute the northern sky,</div>
+<div>With vernal leaves that blossom but to die:</div>
+<div><a name="png.057" id="png.057"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">58</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>These here disporting, own the kindred soil,</div>
+<div>Nor ask luxuriance from their planter&#8217;s toil;</div>
+<div>While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand,</div>
+<div>To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i2">&ldquo;But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,</div>
+<div>And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.</div>
+<div>In florid beauty groves and fields appear,</div>
+<div>Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.</div>
+<div>Contrasted faults thro&#8217; all his manners rein;</div>
+<div>Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain;</div>
+<div>Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue;</div>
+<div>And e&#8217;en in penance planning sins anew.</div>
+<div>All evils here contaminate the mind,</div>
+<div>That opulence departed leaves behind:</div>
+<div>For wealth was theirs, not far remov&#8217;d the date,</div>
+<div>When commerce proudly flourish&#8217;d thro&#8217; the state;</div>
+<div>At her command the palace learn&#8217;d to rise,</div>
+<div>Again the long fall&#8217;n column sought the skies;</div>
+<div>The canvass glow&#8217;d, beyond e&#8217;en nature warm;</div>
+<div>The pregnant quarry teem&#8217;d with human form.</div>
+<div>Till, more unsteady then the southern gale,</div>
+<div>Commerce on other shores display&#8217;d her sail;</div>
+<div>While naught remain&#8217;d of all that riches gave,</div>
+<div>But towns unmann&#8217;d, and lords without a slave;</div>
+<div>And late the nation found, with fruitless skill,</div>
+<div>Its former strength was but plethoric ill.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i2">&ldquo;Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied</div>
+<div>By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride;</div>
+<div>From them the feeble heart and long fall&#8217;n mind</div>
+<div>An easy compensation seem to find.</div>
+<div>Here may be seen in bloodless pomp array&#8217;d,</div>
+<div>The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade;</div>
+<div>Processions form&#8217;d from piety and love,</div>
+<div>A mistress or a saint in every grove.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Almost every traveller who has visited Italy,
+agrees in describing it as the most abandoned
+of all the countries of Europe. At Venice, at
+Naples, and indeed in almost every port of Italy,
+women are taught from their infancy the various
+<a name="png.058" id="png.058"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">59</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>arts of alluring to their arms the young and
+unwary, and of obtaining from them, while heated
+by love or wine, every thing that flattery and
+false smiles can obtain, in these unguarded moments.</p>
+
+<p>The Italians, like their neighbors of Spain
+and Portugal, live under the paralyzing influence
+of a religion that retains its superstitious
+forms, while little of life-giving faith remains.
+Like them they have lively passions, are extremely
+susceptible, and in the general conduct
+of life more governed by the impetuosity of impulse
+than rectitude of principle. The ladies
+have less gravity than the Spanish, and less frivolity
+than the French, and in their style of
+dress incline towards the freedom of the latter.
+Some of the richest and most commodious convents
+of Europe are in Italy. The daughters of
+wealthy families are generally bestowed in marriage
+as soon as they leave these places of education.
+These matters are entirely arranged by
+parents and guardians, and youth and age are
+not unfrequently joined together, for the sake of
+uniting certain acres of land. But the affections,
+thus repressed, seek their natural level by
+indirect courses. It is a rare thing for an Italian
+lady to be without her <i>cavaliere servente</i>, or
+lover, who spends much of his time at her
+house, attends her to all public places, and
+appears to live upon her smiles. The old maxim
+of the Provençal troubadours, that matrimony
+ought to be no hindrance to such <i>liaisons</i>, seems
+to be generally and practically believed in Italy.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.059" id="png.059"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">60</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>In Genoa, there are marriage-brokers, who
+have pocketbooks filled with the names of marriageable
+girls of different classes, with an account
+of their fortunes, personal attractions,
+&amp;c. When they succeed in arranging connections,
+they have two or three per cent. commission
+on the portion. The marriage-contract is
+often drawn up before the parties have seen
+each other. If a man dislikes the appearances
+or manners of his future <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'parter'">partner</ins>, he may break
+off the match, on condition of paying the brokerage
+and other expenses.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">SPANISH WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">As</span> the Spanish ladies are under a greater seclusion
+from general society, than the sex is in
+other European countries, their desires of an
+adequate degree of liberty are consequently
+more strong and urgent. A free and open communication
+being denied them, they make it
+their business to secure themselves a secret and
+hidden one. Hence it is that Spain is the
+country of intrigue.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish women are little or nothing indebted
+to education. But nature has liberally
+supplied them with a fund of wit and sprightliness,
+which is certainly no small inducement to
+those, who have only transient glimpses of their
+charms, to wish very earnestly for a removal of
+those impediments, that obstruct their more frequent
+presence. This not being attainable in a
+<a name="png.060" id="png.060"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">61</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>lawful way of customary intercourse, the natural
+propensity of men to overcome difficulties of
+this kind, incites them to leave no expedient
+untried to gain admittance to what perhaps was
+at first only the object of their admiration, but
+which, by their being refused an innocent gratification
+of that passion, becomes at last the subject
+of a more serious one. Thus in Spain, as
+in all countries where the sex is kept much out
+of sight, the thoughts of men are continually
+employed in devising methods to break into their
+concealments.</p>
+
+<p>There is in the Spaniards a native dignity;
+which, though the source of many inconveniences,
+has nevertheless this salutary effect, that it
+sets them above almost every species of meanness
+and infidelity. This quality is not peculiar
+to the men; it diffuses itself, in a great measure,
+among the women also. Its effects are visible
+both in their constancy in love and friendship,
+in which respects they are the very reverse
+of the French women. Their affections are not
+to be gained by a bit of sparkling lace, or a
+tawdry set of liveries. Their deportment is
+rather grave and reserved; and, on the whole,
+they have much more of the prude than the
+coquette in their composition. Being more
+confined at home, and less engaged in business
+and pleasure, they take more care of their children
+than the French, and have a becoming tenderness
+in their disposition to all animals, except
+a <em>heretic</em> and a <em>rival</em>.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.061" id="png.061"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">62</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Something more than a century ago, the Marquis
+D&#8217;Astrogas having prevailed on a young
+woman of great beauty to become his mistress,
+the Marchioness hearing of it, went to her lodging
+with some assassins, killed her, tore out her
+heart, carried it home, made a <i>ragout</i> of it, and
+presented the dish to the Marquis. &ldquo;It it exceedingly
+good,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;No wonder,&rdquo; answered
+she, &ldquo;since it was made of the <em>heart</em> of
+that creature you so much doated on.&rdquo; And, to
+confirm what she had said, she immediately
+drew out her head all bloody from beneath her
+hoop, and rolled it on the floor, her eyes sparkling
+all the time with a mixture of pleasure and
+infernal fury.</p>
+
+<p>A lady to whom a gentleman pays his addresses,
+is sole mistress of his time and money; and,
+should he refuse her any request, whether reasonable
+or capricious, it would reflect eternal
+dishonor upon him among the men, and make
+him the detestation of all the women.</p>
+
+<p>But, in no situation does their character appear
+so whimsical, or their power so conspicuous,
+as when they are pregnant. In this case,
+whatever they long for, whatever they ask, or
+whatever they have an inclination to do, they
+must be indulged in.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">ENGLISH WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> women of England are eminent for
+many good qualities both of the head and of the
+<a name="png.062" id="png.062"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">63</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>heart. There we meet with that inexpressible
+softness and delicacy of manners, which, cultivated
+by education, appears as much superior to
+what it does without it, as the polished diamond
+appears superior to that which is rough from the
+mine. In some parts of the world, women have
+attained to so little knowledge and so little consequence,
+that we consider their virtues as
+merely of the negative kind. In England they
+consist not only in abstinence from evil, but in
+doing good.</p>
+
+<p>There we see the sex every day exerting
+themselves in acts of benevolence and charity,
+in relieving the distresses of the body, and binding
+up the wounds of the mind; in reconciling
+the differences of friends, and preventing the
+strife of enemies; and, to sum up all, in that
+care and attention to their offspring, which is so
+necessary and essential a part of their duty.</p>
+
+<p>A woman may succeed to the throne of England
+with the same power and privileges as a
+king; and the business of the state is transacted
+in her name, while her husband is only a
+subject.  The king&#8217;s wife is considered as a
+subject; but is exempted from the law which
+forbids any married woman to possess property
+in her own right during the lifetime of her husband;
+she may sue any person at law without
+joining her husband in the suit; may buy and
+sell lands without his interference; and she may
+dispose of her property by will, as if she were a
+single woman.  She cannot be fined by any
+court of law; but is liable to be tried and
+<a name="png.063" id="png.063"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">64</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>punished for crimes by peers of the realm. The
+queen dowager enjoys nearly the same privileges
+that she did before she became a widow;
+and if she marries a subject still continues to
+retain her rank and title; but such marriages
+cannot take place without permission from the
+reigning sovereign. A woman who is noble in
+her own right, retains her title when she marries
+a man of inferior rank; but if ennobled by
+her husband, she loses the title by marrying a
+commoner. A peeress can only be tried by a
+jury of peers.</p>
+
+<p>In old times, a woman who was convicted of
+being a common mischief-maker and scold, was
+sentenced to the punishment of the ducking-stool;
+which consisted of a sort of chair fastened
+to a pole, in which she was seated and repeatedly
+let down into the water, amid the
+shouts of the rabble. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
+a woman convicted of the same offence was led
+about the streets by the hangman, with an instrument
+of iron bars fitted on her head, like a
+helmet. A piece of sharp iron entered the
+mouth, and severely pricked the tongue whenever
+the culprit attempted to move it.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal of vice prevails in England,
+among the very fashionable, and the very low
+classes. Misconduct and divorces are not unfrequent
+among the former, because their mode
+of life corrupts their principles, and they deem
+themselves above the jurisdiction of popular
+opinion; the latter feel as if they were beneath
+the influence of public censure, and find it very
+<a name="png.064" id="png.064"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">65</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>difficult to be virtuous, on account of extreme
+poverty, and the consequent obstructions in the
+way of marriage. But the general character of
+English women is modest, reserved, sincere,
+and dignified. They have strong passions and
+affections, which often develope themselves in
+the most beautiful forms of domestic life. They
+are in general remarkable for a healthy appearance,
+and an exquisite bloom of complexion.
+Perhaps the world does not present a lovelier or
+more graceful picture than the English home of
+a virtuous family.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">RUSSIAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">It</span> is only a few years since the Russians
+emerged from a state of barbarity.</p>
+
+<p>A late empress of Russia, as a punishment
+for some female frailties, ordered a most beautiful
+young lady of family to be publicly chastised,
+in a manner which was hardly less indelicate
+than severe.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that the Russian ladies were formerly
+as submissive to their husbands in their families,
+as the latter are to their superiors in the
+field; and that they thought themselves ill treated,
+if they were not often reminded of their duty
+by the discipline of a <em>whip</em>, manufactured by
+themselves, which they presented to their husbands
+on the day of their marriage. The latest
+travellers, however, assert, that they find no remaining
+traces of this custom at present.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.065" id="png.065"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">66</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Russian fathers, of all classes, generally arrange
+marriages for their children, without consulting
+their inclinations. Among the peasantry,
+if the girl has the name of being a good
+housewife, her parents will not fail to have applications
+for her, whatever may be her age or
+personal endowments. As soon as a young
+man is old enough to be married, his parents
+seek a wife for him, and all is settled before the
+young couple know any thing of the matter.</p>
+
+<p>Their nuptial ceremonies are peculiar to
+themselves; and formerly consisted of many
+whimsical rites, some of which are now disused.
+On her wedding day, the bride is crowned with
+a garland of wormwood; and, after the priest
+has tied the nuptial knot, his clerk or sexton
+throws a handful of hops upon the head of the
+bride, wishing that she might prove as fruitful
+as that plant. She is then led home, with abundance
+of coarse ceremonies, which are now
+wearing off even among the lowest ranks; and
+the barbarous treatment of wives by their husbands
+is either guarded against by the laws of
+the country, or by particular stipulations in the
+marriage contract.</p>
+
+<p>In the conversation and actions of the Russian
+ladies, there is hardly any thing of that
+softness and delicacy which distinguishes the
+sex in other parts of Europe. Even their exercises
+and diversions have more of the masculine
+than the feminine. The present empress, with
+the ladies of her court, sometimes divert themselves
+by shooting at a mark. Drunkenness,
+<a name="png.066" id="png.066"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">67</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the vice of almost every cold climate, they are
+so little ashamed of, that not many years ago,
+when a lady got drunk at the house of a friend,
+it was customary for her to return next day, and
+thank him for the pleasure he had done her.</p>
+
+<p>Females, however, in Russia, possess several
+advantages. They share the rank and splendor
+of the families from which they are sprung, and
+are even allowed the supreme authority. This a
+few years ago, was enjoyed by an empress, whose
+head did honor to her nation and to her sex;
+although, on some occasions, the virtues of her
+heart have been much suspected. The sex, in
+general, are protected from insult, by many salutary
+laws; and, except among the peasants,
+are exempted from every kind of toil and slavery.
+Upon the whole, they seem to be approaching
+fast to the enjoyment of that consequence, to
+which they have already arrived in several parts
+of Europe.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">THE IDEA OF FEMALE INFERIORITY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">It</span> is an opinion pretty well established, that
+in strength of mind, as well as of body, men are
+greatly superior to women.</p>
+
+<p>Men are endowed with boldness and courage,
+women are not. The reason is plain, these are
+beauties in our character; in theirs they would
+be blemishes. Our genius often leads to the
+great and the arduous; theirs to the soft and
+the pleasing; we bend our thoughts to make
+<a name="png.067" id="png.067"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">68</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>life convenient; they turn theirs to make it easy
+and agreeable. If the endowments allotted to
+us by nature could not be easily acquired by
+women, it would be as difficult for us to acquire
+those peculiarly allotted to them. Are we superior
+to them in what belongs to the male character?
+They are no less so to us, in what belongs
+to the female character.</p>
+
+<p>Would it not appear rather ludicrous to say,
+that a man was endowed only with inferior abilities,
+because he was not expert in the nursing
+of children, and practising the various effeminacies
+which we reckon lovely in a woman?
+Would it be reasonable to condemn him on these
+accounts? Just as reasonable, as it is to reckon
+women inferior to men, because their talents
+are in general not adapted to tread the horrid
+path of war, nor trace the mazes and intricacies
+of science.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of the inferiority of female nature
+has drawn after it several others the most absurd,
+unreasonable, and humiliating to the sex.
+Such is the pride of man, that in some countries
+he has considered immortality as a distinction
+too glorious for women. Thus degrading the
+fair partners of his nature, he places them on a
+level with the beasts that perish.</p>
+
+<p>As the Asiatics have, time immemorial, considered
+women as little better than slaves, this
+opinion probably originated among them. The
+Mahometans, both in Asia and Europe, are
+said, by a great variety of writers, to entertain
+this opinion.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.068" id="png.068"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">69</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Lady Montague, in her letters, has opposed
+this general assertion of the writers concerning
+the Mahometans; and says that they do not absolutely
+deny the existence of female souls, but
+only hold them to be of a nature inferior to those
+of men; and that they enter not into the same,
+but into an inferior paradise, prepared for them
+on purpose. Lady Montague, and the writers
+whom she has contradicted, may perhaps be
+both right. The former might be the opinion
+which the Turks brought with them from Asia;
+and the latter, as a refinement upon it they may
+have adopted by their intercourse with the Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>This opinion, however, has had but few votaries
+in Europe: though some have even here
+maintained it, and assigned various reasons for
+so doing. Among these, the following laughable
+reason is not the least particular&mdash;&ldquo;In the Revelations
+of St. John the divine,&rdquo; said one, whose
+wife was a descendant of the famous Xantippe,<sup><a href="#fn.1"
+ name="fna.1" id="fna.1">1</a></sup>
+&ldquo;you will find this passage: <cite>And there was silence
+in heaven for about the space of half an hour.</cite>
+Now, I appeal to any one, whether that
+could possibly have happened, had there been
+any women there? And, since there are none
+there, charity forbids us to imagine that they
+are all in a worse place; therefore it follows
+that they have no immortal part: and happy is
+it for them, as they are thereby exempted from
+<a name="png.069" id="png.069"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">70</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>being accountable for all the noise and disturbance
+they have raised in this world.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In a very ancient treatise, called the Wisdom
+of all Times, ascribed to Hushang, one of the
+earliest kings of Persia, are the following remarkable
+words: &ldquo;The passions of men may,
+by long acquaintance, be thoroughly known;
+but the passions of women are inscrutable;
+therefore they ought to be separated from men,
+lest the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'mutabiliy'">mutability</ins> of their tempers should infect
+others.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Ideas of a similar nature seem to have been at
+this time, generally diffused over the East. For
+we find Solomon, almost every where in his
+writings, exclaiming against women; and, in
+the Apocrypha, the author of Ecclesiasticus is
+still more illiberal in his reflections.</p>
+
+<p>Both these authors, it is true, join in the most
+enraptured manner to praise a virtuous woman;
+but take care at the same time to let us know,
+that she is so great a rarity as to be very seldom
+met with.</p>
+
+<p>Nor have the Asiatics alone been addicted to
+this illiberality of thinking concerning the sex.
+Satirists of all ages and countries, while they
+flattered them to their faces, have from their
+closets scattered their spleen and ill-nature
+against them. Of this the Greek and Roman
+poets afford a variety of instances; but they
+must nevertheless yield the palm to some of our
+moderns. In the following lines, Pope has outdone
+every one of them:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Men some to pleasure, some to business take;</div>
+<div>But every woman is at heart&mdash;a rake.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="png.070" id="png.070"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">71</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Swift and Dr Young have hardly been behind
+this celebrated splenetic in illiberality. They
+perhaps were not favorites of the fair, and in revenge
+vented all their envy and spleen against
+them. But a more modern and accomplished
+writer who by his rank in life, by his natural and
+acquired <em>graces</em>, was undoubtedly a favorite,
+has repaid their kindness by taking every opportunity
+of exhibiting them in the most contemptible
+light. &ldquo;Almost every man,&rdquo; says he,
+&ldquo;may be gained some way, almost every woman
+any way, can any thing exhibit a stronger caution
+to the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks closing quote">sex?&rdquo;</ins> It is fraught with information;
+and it is to be hoped they will use it accordingly.</p>
+
+<hr class="footnote" />
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a href="#fna.1" name="fn.1" id="fn.1">1</a>
+ Xantippe, was the wife of Socrates, and the most famous scold of antiquity.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">FEMALE SIMPLICITY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Would</span> we conceive properly of that simplicity
+which is the sweetest expression of a well-informed
+and well-meaning mind, which every
+where diffuses tenderness and delicacy, sweetens
+the relations of life, and gives a zest to the
+minutest duties of humanity, let us contemplate
+every perceptible operation of nature, the twilight
+of the evening, the pearly dew-drops of
+the early morning, and all that various growth
+which indicates the genial return of spring.
+The same principle from which all that is soft
+and pleasing, amiable or exquisite, to the eye or
+to the ear, in the exterior frame of nature, produces
+that taste for true simplicity, which is one
+<a name="png.071" id="png.071"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">72</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of the most useful, as well as the most elegant
+lessons, that <em>ladies</em> can learn.</p>
+
+<p>Infancy, is perhaps, the finest and most perfect
+illustration of simplicity. It is a state of
+genuine nature throughout. The feelings of
+children are under no kind of restraint, but
+pure as the fire, free as the winds, honest and
+open as the face of heaven. Their joys incessantly
+flow in the thickest succession, and their
+griefs only seem fleeting and evanescent. To
+the calls of nature they are only attentive.
+They know no voice but hers. Their obedience
+to all her commands is prompt and implicit.
+They never anticipate her bounties, nor relinquish
+her pleasures. This situation renders
+them independent of artifice. Influenced only
+by nature, their manners, like the principle that
+produces them, are always the same.</p>
+
+<p>Genuine simplicity is that peculiar quality of
+the mind, by which some happy characters are
+enabled to avoid the most distant approaches to
+any thing like affectation, inconstancy, or design,
+in their intercourse with the world. It is
+much more easily understood, however than defined;
+and consists not in a specific tone of the
+voice, movement of the body, or mode imposed
+by custom, but is the natural and permanent effect
+of real modesty and good sense on the whole
+behavior.</p>
+
+<p>This has been considered in all ages, as one
+of the first and most captivating ornaments of the
+sex. The savage, the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'plebiean'">plebeian</ins>, the man of the
+world, and the courtier, are agreed in stamping
+<a name="png.072" id="png.072"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">73</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>it with a preference to every other female excellence.</p>
+
+<p>Nature only is lovely, and nothing unnatural
+can ever be amiable. The genuine expressions
+of truth and nature are happily calculated to impress
+the heart with pleasure. No woman, whatever
+her other qualities may be, was ever eminently
+agreeable, but in proportion as distinguished
+by these. The world is good-natured
+enough to give a lady credit for all the
+merit she can <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'posses'">possess</ins> or acquire, without affectation.
+But the least shade or coloring of this
+odious foible brings certain and indelible obloquy
+on the most elegant accomplishments. The
+blackest suspicion inevitably rests on every thing
+assumed. She who is only an ape of others, or
+prefers formality in all its gigantic and preposterous
+shapes, to that plain, unembarassed conduct
+which nature unavoidably produces, will assuredly
+provoke an abundance of ridicule, but
+never can be an object either of love or esteem.</p>
+
+<p>The various artifices of the sex discover themselves
+at a very early period. A passion for expense
+and show is one of the first they exhibit.
+This gives them a taste for refinement, which
+divests their young hearts of almost every other
+feeling, renders their tempers desultory and capricious,
+regulates their dress only by the most
+fantastic models of finery and fashion, and makes
+their company rather tiresome and awkward,
+than pleasing or elegant.</p>
+
+<p>No one perhaps can form a more ludicrous
+contrast to every thing just and graceful in
+<a name="png.073" id="png.073"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">74</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>nature, than the woman whose sole object in life
+is to pass for a <em>fine lady</em>. The attentions she
+every where and uniformly pays, expects, and
+even exacts, are tedious and fatiguing. Her various
+movements and attitudes are all adjusted
+and exhibited by rule. By a happy fluency of
+the most eloquent language, she has the art of
+imparting a momentary dignity and grace to the
+merest trifles. Studious only to mimic such peculiarities
+as are most admired in others, she
+affects a loquacity peculiarly flippant and teazing
+because scandal, routs, finery, fans, china, lovers,
+lap-dogs, or squirrels, are her constant themes.
+Her amusements, like those of a magpie, are
+only hopping over the same spots, prying into
+the same corners, and devouring the same species
+of prey. The simple and beautiful delineations
+of nature, in her countenance, gestures
+and whole deportment, are habitually arranged,
+distorted, or concealed, by the affected adoption
+of whatever grimace or deformity is latest or
+most in vogue.</p>
+
+<p>She accustoms her face to a simper, which
+every separate feature in it belies. She spoils,
+perhaps, a blooming complexion with a profusion
+of artificial coloring, she distorts the most
+exquisite shape by loads or volumes of useless
+drapery. She has her head, her arms, her feet,
+and her gait, equally touched by art and affectation,
+into what is called the <em>taste</em>, the <em>ton</em>, or
+the <em>fashion</em>.</p>
+
+<p>She little considers to what a torrent of ridicule
+and sarcasm this mode of conduct exposes
+<a name="png.074" id="png.074"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">75</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>her; or how <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+  original reads 'exceedinly'">exceedingly</ins> cold and hollow that
+ceremony must be, which is not the language
+of a warm heart. She does not reflect how
+insipid those smiles are, which indicate no
+internal pleasantry; nor how awkward those
+graces, which spring not from habits of good-nature
+and benevolence. Thus, pertness succeeds
+to delicacy, assurance to modesty, and all
+the vagaries of a listless to the sensibilities of an
+ingenuous mind.</p>
+
+<p>With her, punctilio is politeness; dissipation,
+life; and levity, spirit. The miserable and contemptible
+drudge of every tawdry innovation
+in dress or ceremony, she incessantly mistakes
+extravagance for taste, and finery for elegance.</p>
+
+<p>Her favorite examples are not those persons of
+acknowledged sincerity, who speak as they feel,
+and act as they think; but such only as are
+formed to dazzle her fancy, amuse her senses, or
+humor her whims. Her only study is how to
+glitter or shine, how to captivate and gratify the
+gaze of the multitude, or how to swell her own
+pomp and importance. To this interesting object
+all her assiduities and time are religiously
+devoted.</p>
+
+<p>How often is debility of mind, and even badness
+of heart concealed under a splendid exterior!
+The fairest of the species, and of the sex, often
+want sincerity; and without sincerity every
+other qualification is rather a blemish, than a
+virtue, or excellence. Sincerity operates on the
+moral, somewhat like the sun on the natural
+world; and produces nearly the same effects on
+<a name="png.075" id="png.075"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">76</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the dispositions of the human heart, which he
+does on inanimate objects. Wherever sincerity
+prevails and is felt, all the smiling and benevolent
+virtues flourish most, disclose their sweetest
+lustre, and diffuse their richest fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>Heaven has not a finer or more perfect emblem
+on earth than a woman of genuine simplicity.
+She affects no graces which are not inspired
+by sincerity. Her opinions result not
+from passion and fancy, but from reason and experience.
+Candor and humility give expansion
+to her heart. She struggles for no kind of chimerical
+credit, disclaims the appearance of every
+affectation, and is in all things just what she
+seems, and others would be thought. Nature,
+not art, is the great standard of her manners;
+and her exterior wears no varnish, or embellishment,
+which is not the genuine signature of an
+open, undesigning, and benevolent mind. It is
+not in her power, because not in her nature, to
+hide, with a fawning air, and a mellow voice,
+her aversion or contempt, where her delicacy is
+hurt, here temper ruffled, or her feelings insulted.</p>
+
+<p>In short, whatever appears most amiable,
+lovely, or interesting in nature, art, manners, or
+life, originates in simplicity. What is correctness
+in taste, purity in morals, truth in science,
+grace in beauty, but simplicity? It is the garb of
+innocence. It adorned the first ages, and still
+adorns the infant state of humanity. Without
+simplicity, woman is a vixen, a coquette, a hypocrite;
+society a masquerade, and pleasure a
+phantom.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.076" id="png.076"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">77</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>The following story, I believe, is pretty generally
+known. A lady, whose husband had long
+been afflicted with an acute but lingering disease,
+suddenly feigned such an uncommon <em>tenderness</em>
+for him, as to resolve on dying in his stead.
+She had even the address to persuade him not to
+outlive this extraordinary instance of her conjugal
+fidelity and attachment. It was instantaneously
+agreed they should mutually swallow
+such a quantity of arsenic, as would speedily
+effect their dreadful purpose. She composed
+the fatal draught before his face and even set
+him the desperate example of drinking first.
+By this device, which had all the appearance of
+the greatest affection and candor, the dregs only
+were reserved for him, and soon put a period to
+his life.</p>
+
+<p>It then appeared that the dose was so tempered,
+as, from the weight of the principal ingredient,
+to be deadly only at the bottom, which
+she had artfully appropriated for his share.
+Even after all this finesse, she seized, we are
+told, his inheritance, and insulted his memory by
+a second marriage.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">THE MILD MAGNANIMITY OF WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">A late</span> eminent anatomist, in a professional
+discourse on the female frame, is said to have
+declared, that it almost appeared an act of cruelty
+in nature to produce such a being as woman.
+This remark may, indeed, be the natural
+<a name="png.077" id="png.077"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">78</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>exclamation of refined sensibility, in contemplating
+the various maladies to which a creature of such
+delicate organs is inevitably exposed; but, if we
+take a more enlarged survey of human existence,
+we shall be far from discovering any just
+reason to arraign the benevolence of its provident
+and gracious Author. If the delicacy of
+woman must render her familiar with pain and
+sickness, let us remember that her charms, her
+pleasures, and her happiness, arise also from the
+same attractive quality. She is a being, to use
+the forcible and elegant expression of a poet,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Fine by defect, and admirably weak.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">There is, perhaps, no charm by which she more
+effectually secures the tender admiration and
+the lasting love, of the more hardy sex, than her
+superior endurance, her mild and <em>graceful</em> submission
+to the common evils of life.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this the sole advantage she derives
+from her gentle fortitude. It is the prerogative
+of this lovely virtue, to lighten the pressure of
+all those incorrigible evils which it cheerfully
+endures. The frame of man may be compared
+to the sturdy <em>oak</em>, which is often shattered by
+resisting the tempest. Woman is the pliant
+<em>osier</em>, which, in bending to the storm, eludes its
+violence.</p>
+
+<p>The accurate observers of human nature will
+readily allow, that patience is most eminently
+the characteristic of woman. To what a sublime
+and astonishing height this virtue has been
+carried by beings of the most delicate texture,
+<a name="png.078" id="png.078"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">79</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>we have striking examples in the many female
+martyrs who were exposed, in the first ages of
+christianity, to the most barbarous and lingering
+torture.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was it only from christian zeal that woman
+derived the power of defying the utmost
+rigors of persecution with invincible fortitude.
+Saint Ambrose, in his elaborate and pious treatise
+on this subject, records the resolution of a
+fair disciple of Pythagoras, who, being severely
+urged by a tyrant to reveal the secrets of her
+sex, to convince him that no torments should
+reduce her to so unworthy a breach of her vow,
+bit her own <em>tongue</em> asunder, and darted it in the
+face of her oppressor.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of those happy changes which
+have taken place in the world, from the progress
+of purified religion, the inexpressible spirit of
+the tender sex is no longer exposed to such inhuman
+trials. But if the earth is happily delivered
+from the demons of torture and superstition;
+if beauty and innocence are no more in
+danger of being dragged to perish at the stake&mdash;perhaps
+there are situations, in female life,
+that require as much patience and magnanimity,
+as were formerly exerted in the fiery torments
+of the virgin martyr. It is more difficult
+to support an accumulation of <em>minute</em> infelicities,
+than any single calamity of the most terrific
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">magnitude.</ins></p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.079" id="png.079"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">80</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>FEMALE DELICACY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Where</span> the human race has little other culture
+than what it receives from nature, the two
+sexes live together, unconscious of almost any
+restraint on their words or on their actions.
+The Greeks, in the heroic ages, as appears from
+the whole history of their conduct, were totally
+unacquainted with delicacy. The Romans in
+the infancy of their empire, were the same.
+Tacitus informs us that the ancient Germans
+had not separate beds for the two sexes, but that
+they lay promiscuously on reeds or on heath,
+spread along the walls of their houses. This
+custom still prevails in Lapland, among the
+peasants of Norway, Poland, and Russia; and
+it is not altogether obliterated in some parts of
+the highlands of Scotland and Wales.</p>
+
+<p>In Otaheite, to appear naked or in clothes,
+are circumstances equally indifferent to both
+sexes; nor does any word in their language,
+nor any action to which they are prompted by
+nature, seem more indelicate or reprehensible
+than another. Such are the effects of a total
+want of culture.</p>
+
+<p>Effects not very dissimilar, are, in France
+and Italy, produced from a redundance of it.
+Though those are the polite countries in Europe,
+women there set themselves above shame, and
+despise delicacy. It is laughed out of existence,
+as a silly and unfashionable weakness.</p>
+
+<p>But in China, one of the politest countries in
+Asia, and perhaps not even, in this respect,
+<a name="png.080" id="png.080"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">81</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>behind France, or Italy, the case is quite otherwise.
+No human being can be more delicate
+than a Chinese woman in her dress, in her behavior,
+and in her conversation; and should she
+ever happen to be exposed in any unbecoming
+manner, she feels with the greatest poignancy
+the awkwardness of her situation, and if possible,
+covers her face, that she may not be known.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of so many discordant appearances,
+the mind is perplexed, and can hardly fix
+upon any cause to which female delicacy is to
+be ascribed. If we attend, however, to the whole
+animal creation, if we consider it attentively
+wherever it falls under our observation, it will
+discover to us, that in the female there is a
+greater degree of delicacy or coy reserve than in
+the male. Is not this a proof, that, through the
+wide extent of creation, the seeds of delicacy are
+more liberally bestowed upon females than upon
+males?</p>
+
+<p>In the remotest periods of which we have any
+historical account, we find that the women had
+a delicacy to which the other sex were strangers.
+Rebecca veiled herself when she first
+approached Isaac, her future husband. Many
+of the fables of antiquity mark, with the most
+distinguishing characters, the force of female
+delicacy. Of this kind is the fable of Actæon
+and Diana. Actæon, a famous hunter, being in
+the woods with his hounds, beating for game,
+accidentally spied Diana and her nymphs bathing
+in a river. Prompted by curiosity, he stole
+silently into a neighboring thicket, that he
+<a name="png.081" id="png.081"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">82</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>might have a nearer view of them. The goddess
+discovering him, was so affronted at his
+audacity, and so much ashamed to have been
+seen naked, that in revenge she immediately
+transformed him into a stag, set his own hounds
+upon him, and encouraged them to overtake and
+devour him. Besides this, and other fables,
+and historical anecdotes of antiquity, their poets
+seldom exhibit a female character without
+adorning it with the graces of modesty and delicacy.
+Hence we may infer, that these qualities
+have not been only essential to virtuous women
+in civilized countries, but were also constantly
+praised and esteemed by men of sensibility; and
+that delicacy is an innate principle in the female
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>There are so many evils attending the loss of
+virtue in women, and so greatly are the minds
+of that sex depraved when they have deviated
+from the path of rectitude, that a general contamination
+of their morals may be considered
+as one of the greatest misfortunes that can befal
+a state, as in time it destroys almost every public
+virtue of the men. Hence all wise legislators
+have strictly enforced upon the sex a particular
+purity of manners; and not satisfied that they
+should abstain from vice only, have required
+them even to shun every appearance of it.</p>
+
+<p>Such, in some periods, were the laws of the
+Romans; and such were the effects of these
+laws, that if ever female delicacy shone forth in
+a conspicuous manner, it was perhaps among
+those people, after they had worn off much of
+<a name="png.082" id="png.082"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">83</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the barbarity of their first ages, and before they
+became contaminated, by the wealth and manners
+of the nations which they plundered and
+subjected. Then it was that we find many of
+their women surpassing in modesty almost every
+thing related by fable; and then it was that their
+ideas of delicacy were so highly refined, that
+they could not even bear the secret consciousness
+of an involuntary crime, and far less of
+having tacitly consented to it.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">INFLUENCE OF FEMALE SOCIETY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> company of ladies has a very powerful
+influence on the sentiments and conduct of men.
+Women, the fruitful source of half our joys, and
+perhaps of <em>more</em> than half our sorrows, give an
+elegance to our manner, and a relish to our
+pleasures. They soothe our afflictions, and soften
+our cares. Too much of their company will
+render us effeminate, and infallibly stamp upon
+us many signatures of the female nature. A
+rough and unpolished behavior, as well as slovenliness
+of person, will certainly be the consequence
+of an almost constant exclusion from it.
+By spending a reasonable portion of our time in
+the company of women, and another in the company
+of our own sex, we shall imbibe a proper
+share of the softness of the female, and at the
+same time retain the firmness and constancy of
+the male.</p>
+
+<p>As little social intercourse subsisted between
+<a name="png.083" id="png.083"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">84</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the two sexes, in the more early ages of antiquity,
+we find the men less courteous, and the
+women less engaging. Vivacity and cheerfulness
+seem hardly to have existed. Even the
+Babylonians, who appear to have allowed their
+women more liberty than any of the ancients,
+seem not to have lived with them in a friendly
+and familiar manner. But, as their intercourse
+with them was considerably greater
+than that of the neighboring nations, they acquired
+thereby a polish and refinement unknown
+to any of the people who surrounded them.
+The manners of both sexes were softer, and better
+calculated to please.</p>
+
+<p>They likewise paid more attention to cleanliness
+and dress.</p>
+
+<p>After the Greeks became famous for their
+knowledge of the arts and sciences, their rudeness
+and barbarity were only softened a <em>few <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'degress'">degrees</ins></em>.
+It is not therefore arts, sciences, and
+<em>learning</em>, but the company of the other sex,
+that forms the manner and renders the man
+<em>agreeable</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The Romans were, for some time, a community
+without any thing to soften the ferocity of
+male nature. The Sabine virgins, whom they
+had stolen, appear to have infused into them the
+first ideas of politeness. But it was many ages
+before this politeness banished the roughness
+of the warrior, and assumed the refinement of
+the gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>During the times of chivalry, female influence
+was at the zenith of its glory and perfection.
+<a name="png.084" id="png.084"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">85</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>It was the source of valor, it gave birth to politeness,
+it awakened pity, it called forth benevolence,
+it restricted the hand of oppression, and
+meliorated the human heart. &ldquo;I cannot approach
+my mistress,&rdquo; said one, &ldquo;till I have done
+some glorious deed to deserve her notice. Actions
+should be the messengers of the heart;
+they are the homage due to beauty, and they
+only should discover love.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Marsan, instructing a young knight how to
+behave so as to gain the favor of the fair, has
+these remarkable words:&mdash;&ldquo;When your arm is
+raised, if your lance fail, draw your sword directly;
+and let heaven and hell resound with
+the clash. Lifeless is the soul which beauty
+cannot animate, and weak is the arm which
+cannot fight valiantly to defend it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The Russians, Poles, and even the Dutch,
+pay less attention to their females than any of
+their neighbors, and are, by consequence, less
+distinguished for the graces of their persons,
+and the feelings of their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The lightness of their food, and the salubrity
+of their air, have been assigned as reasons for
+the vivacity and cheerfulness of the French, and
+their fortitude, in supporting their spirits through
+all the adverse circumstances of this world.
+But the constant mixture of the young and old,
+of the two sexes, is no doubt one of the <em>principal</em>
+reasons why the cares and ills of life sit
+lighter on the shoulders of that fantastic people,
+than on those of any other country in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The French reckon an excursion dull, and a
+<a name="png.085" id="png.085"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">86</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>party of pleasure without relish, unless a mixture
+of both sexes join to compose in. The French
+women do not even withdraw from the table
+after meals; nor do the men discover that impatience
+to have them dismissed, which they so
+often do in England.</p>
+
+<p>It is alleged by those who have no relish for
+the conversation of the fair sex, that their presence
+curbs the freedom of speech, and restrains
+the jollity of mirth. But, if the conversation
+and the mirth are decent, if the company are
+capable of relishing any thing but wine, the
+very reverse is the case. Ladies, in general, are
+not only more cheerful than gentlemen, but
+more eager to promote mirth and good humor.</p>
+
+<p>So powerful, indeed, are the company and
+conversation of the fair, in diffusing happiness
+and hilarity, that even the cloud which hangs
+on the <em>thoughtful brow</em> of an Englishman, begins
+in the present age to brighten, by his devoting
+to the ladies a larger share of time than
+was formerly done by his ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>Though the influence of the sexes be reciprocal,
+yet that of the ladies is certainly the greatest.
+How often may one see a company of men,
+who were disposed to be riotous, checked at
+once into decency by the accidental entrance of
+an amiable woman; while her good sense and
+obliging deportment charms them into at least
+a temporary conviction, that there is nothing <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'so so'">so</ins>
+delightful as female conversation, in its best
+form! Were such conviction frequently repeated,
+what might we not expect from it at last?</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.086" id="png.086"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">87</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>&ldquo;Were virtue,&rdquo; said an ancient philosopher,
+&ldquo;to appear amongst men in a visible shape,
+what vehement desires would she enkindle!&rdquo;
+Virtue, exhibited without affectation, by a lovely
+young person, of improved understanding and
+gentle manners, may be said to appear with the
+most alluring aspect, surrounded by the <cite>Graces</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>It would be an easy matter to point out instances
+of the most evident reformation, wrought on
+particular men, by their having happily conceived
+a passion for virtuous women.</p>
+
+<p>To form the manners of men, various causes
+contribute; but nothing, perhaps, so much as
+the turn of the women with whom they converse.
+Those who are most conversant with women of
+virtue and understanding, will be always found
+the most amiable characters, other circumstances
+being supposed alike. Such society, beyond
+every thing else, rubs off the <em>corners</em> that gives
+many of our sex an ungracious roughness. It
+produces a polish more perfect, and more pleasing
+than that which is received from a general
+commerce with the world. This last is often
+specious, but commonly superficial. The other
+is the result of gentler feelings, and more humanity.
+The heart itself is moulded. Habits
+of undissembled courtesy are formed. A certain
+flowing urbanity is acquired. Violent passions,
+rash oaths, coarse jests, indelicate language
+of every kind, are precluded and disrelished.</p>
+
+<p>Female society gives men a taste for cleanliness
+and elegance of person. Our ancestors,
+<a name="png.087" id="png.087"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">88</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>who kept but little company with their women,
+were not only slovenly in their dress, but had
+their countenances disfigured with long beards.
+By female influence, however, beards were, in
+process of time, mutilated down to mustaches.
+As the gentlemen found that the ladies had no
+great relish for mustaches, which were the
+relics of a beard, they cut and curled them into
+various fashions, to render them more agreeable.
+At last, however, finding such labor vain, they
+gave them up altogether. But as those of the
+three learned professions were supposed to be endowed
+with, or at least to stand in need of,
+more wisdom than other people, and as the longest
+beard had always been deemed to sprout
+from the wisest chin, to supply this mark of distinction,
+which they had lost, they contrived to
+smother their heads in enormous quantities of
+frizzled hair, that they might bear greater resemblance
+to an owl, the bird sacred to wisdom
+and Minerva.</p>
+
+<p>To female society it has been objected by the
+learned and studious, that it enervates the mind,
+and gives it such a turn for trifling, levity, and
+dissipation, as renders it altogether unfit for that
+application which is necessary in order to become
+eminent in any of the sciences. In proof
+of this they allege, that the greatest philosophers
+seldom or never were men who enjoyed, or were
+fit for, the company or conversation of women.
+Sir Isaac Newton hardly ever conversed with
+any of the sex. Bacon, Boyle, Des Cartes, and
+many others, conspicuous for their learning and
+<a name="png.088" id="png.088"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">89</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>application, were but indifferent companions to
+the fair.</p>
+
+<p>It is certain, indeed, that the youth who devotes
+his whole time and attention to female conversation,
+and the little offices of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'gallanty'">gallantry</ins>, never
+distinguishes himself in the literary world. But
+notwithstanding this, without the fatigue and
+application of severe study, he often obtains, by
+female interest, that which is denied to the merited
+improvements acquired by the labor of many
+years.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">MONASTIC LIFE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> venerable <cite>Bede</cite> has given us a very striking
+picture of Monastic enormities, in his epistle
+to Egbert. From this we learn that many
+young men who had no title to the monastic
+profession, got <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'possesion'">possession</ins> of monasteries; where,
+instead of engaging in the defence of their country,
+as their age and rank required, they indulged
+themselves in the most dissolute indolence.</p>
+
+<p>We learn from Dugdale, that in the reign of
+Henry the Second, the nuns of Amsbury abbey
+in Wiltshire were expelled from that religious
+house on account of their incontinence. And
+to exhibit in the most lively colors the total corruption
+of monastic chastity, bishop Burnet <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'inform'">informs</ins>
+us in his &ldquo;History of the Reformation,&rdquo;
+that when the nunneries were visited by the
+command of Henry the VIII. &ldquo;whole houses
+almost, were found whose vows had been made
+in vain.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.089" id="png.089"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">90</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>When we consider to what oppressive indolence,
+to what a variety of wretchedness and
+guilt, the young and fair inhabitants of the cloister
+were frequently betrayed, we ought to admire
+those benevolent authors who, when the tide of
+religious prejudice ran very strong in favor of
+monastic virginity, had spirit enough to oppose
+the torrent, and to caution the devout and tender
+sex against so dangerous a profession. It is in
+this point of view that the character of Erasmus
+appears with the most amiable lustre; and his
+name ought to be eternally dear to the female
+world in particular. Though his studies and
+constitution led him almost to idolize those eloquent
+fathers of the church who have magnified
+this kind of life, his good sense and his accurate
+survey of the human race, enabled him to judge
+of the misery in which female youth was continually
+involved by a precipitate choice of the
+veil. He knew the successful arts by which the
+subtle and rapacious monks inveigled young
+women of opulent families into the cloister; and
+he exerted his lively and delicate wit in opposition
+to so pernicious an evil.</p>
+
+<p>In those nations of Europe where nunneries
+still exist, how many lovely victims are continually
+sacrificed to the avarice or absurd ambition
+of inhuman parents! The misery of these victims
+has been painted with great force by some
+benevolent writers of France.</p>
+
+<p>In most of those pathetic histories that are
+founded on the abuse of convents, the misery
+originates from the parent, and falls upon the
+<a name="png.090" id="png.090"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">91</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>child. The reverse has sometime happened;
+and there are examples of unhappy parents, who
+have been rendered miserable by the religious
+perversity of a daughter. In the fourteenth volume
+of that very amusing work, <cite>Les Causes
+Celebres</cite>, a work which is said to have been the
+favorite reading of Voltaire, there is a striking
+history of a girl under age, who was tempted by
+pious artifice to settle herself in a convent, in
+express opposition to parental authority. Her
+parents, who had in vain tried the most tender
+persuasion, endeavored at last to redeem their
+lost child, by a legal process against the nunnery
+in which she was imprisoned. The pleadings
+on this remarkable trial may, perhaps, be
+justly reckoned amongst the finest pieces of eloquence
+that the lawyers of France have produced.
+Monsieur Gillet, the advocate for the parents,
+represented, in the boldest and most affecting
+language, the extreme baseness of this
+religious seduction. His eloquence appeared to
+have fixed the sentiments of the judges; but the
+cause of superstition was pleaded by an advocate
+of equal power, and it finally prevailed. The
+unfortunate parents of Maria Vernal (for this
+was the name of the unfortunate girl) were condemned
+to resign her forever, and to make a
+considerable payment to those artful devotees
+who had piously robbed them of their child.</p>
+
+<p>When we reflect on the various evils that have
+arisen in convents, we have the strongest reason
+to rejoice and glory in that reformation by which
+the nunneries of England were abolished. Yet
+<a name="png.091" id="png.091"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">92</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>it would not be candid or just to consider all
+these as the mere harbors of licentiousness;
+since we are told that, at the time of their suppression,
+some of our religious houses were very
+honorably distinguished by the purity of their
+inhabitants. &ldquo;The visitors,&rdquo; says Bishop Burnet,
+&ldquo;interceded earnestly for one nunnery in
+Oxfordshire, where there was great strictness of
+life, and to which most of the young gentlewomen
+of the country were sent to be bred; so
+that the gentry of the country desired the king
+would spare the house: yet all was ineffectual.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">DEGREES OF SENTIMENTAL ATTACHMENT AT
+DIFFERENT PERIODS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> the earlier ages, sentiment in love does not
+appear to have been much attended to. When
+Abraham sent his servant to court a bride for
+his son Isaac, we do not so much as hear that
+Isaac was consulted on the matter: nor is there
+even a suspicion, that he might refuse or dislike
+the wife which his father had selected for him.</p>
+
+<p>From the manner in which Rebecca was solicited,
+we learn, that women were not then
+courted in person by the lover, but by a proxy,
+whom he, or his parents, deputed in his stead.
+We likewise see, that this proxy did not, as in
+modern times, endeavor to gain the affection of
+the lady he was sent to, by enlarging on the
+personal properties, and mental qualifications of
+the lover; but by the richness and magnificence
+<a name="png.092" id="png.092"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">93</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of the presents he made to her and her relations.</p>
+
+<p>Presents have been, from the earliest ages,
+and are to this day, the mode of transacting all
+kinds of business in the east. When a favor is
+to be asked of a superior, one cannot hope to
+obtain it without a present. Courtship, therefore,
+having been anciently transacted in this
+manner, it is plain, that it was only considered
+in the same light as any other negotiable business,
+and not as a matter of sentiment, and of the
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>In the courtship, however, or rather purchase
+of a wife by Jacob, we meet with something like
+sentiment; for when he found that he was not
+possessed of money or goods, equal to the price
+which was set upon her, he not only condescended
+to purchase her by servitude, but even seemed
+much disappointed when the tender-eyed Leah
+was faithlessly imposed upon him instead of the
+beautiful Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient Gauls, Germans, and neighboring
+nations of the North, had so much veneration
+for the sex in general, that in courtship they
+behaved with a spirit of gallantry, and showed a
+degree of sentiment, to which <em>those</em> who called
+them barbarians, never arrived. Not contented
+with getting possession of the person of his mistress,
+a northern lover could not be satisfied
+without the sincere affection of her heart; nor
+was his mistress ever to be gained but by such
+methods as plainly indicated to her the tenderest
+attachment from the most deserving man.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.093" id="png.093"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">94</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>The women of Scandinavia were not to be
+courted but by the most assiduous attendance,
+seconded by such warlike achievements as the
+custom of the country had rendered necessary to
+make a man deserving of his mistress. On
+these accounts, we frequently find a lover accosting
+the object of his passion by a minute and
+circumstantial detail of his exploits, and all his
+accomplishments. &ldquo;We fought with swords,&rdquo;
+says King Regner, in a beautiful ode composed
+by himself, in memory of the deeds of his former
+days, &ldquo;that day wherein I saw ten thousand
+of my foes rolling in the dust, near a promontory
+of England. A dew of blood distilled from our
+swords. The arrows which flew in search of
+the helmets, bellowed through the air. The
+pleasure of that day was truly exquisite.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We fought with swords. A young man
+should march early to the conflict of arms. Man
+should attack man, or bravely resist him. In
+this hath always consisted the nobility of the
+warrior. He who aspires to the love of his
+mistress, ought to be dauntless in the clash of
+swords.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The descendants of the northern nations, long
+after they had plundered and repeopled the
+greatest part of Europe, retained nearly the same
+ideas of love, and practised the same methods in
+declaring it, that they had imbibed from their
+ancestors. &ldquo;Love,&rdquo; says William of Montagnogout,
+&ldquo;engages to the most amiable conduct.
+Love inspires the greatest actions. Love has
+no will but that of the object beloved, nor seeks
+<a name="png.094" id="png.094"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">95</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>any thing but what will augment her glory.
+You cannot love, nor ought to be beloved, if you
+ask any thing that virtue condemns. Never did
+I form a wish that could wound the heart of my
+beloved, nor delight in a pleasure that was inconsistent
+with her delicacy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The method of addressing females, among
+some of the tribes of American Indians, is the
+most simple that can possibly be devised. When
+the lover goes to visit his mistress, he only begs
+leave, by signs, to enter her hut. After obtaining
+this, he goes in, and sits down by her in the
+most respectful silence. If she suffers him to
+remain there without interruption, her doing so
+is consenting to his suit. If, however, the lover
+has any thing given him to eat and drink, it is a
+refusal; though the woman is obliged to sit by
+him until he has finished his repast. He then
+retires in silence.</p>
+
+<p>In Canada, courtship is not carried on with
+that coy reserve, and seeming secrecy, which
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'politenes'">politeness</ins> has introduced among the inhabitants
+of civilized nations. When a man and a woman
+meet, though they never saw each other before,
+if he is captivated by her charms, he declares his
+passion in the plainest manner; and she, with
+the same simplicity, answers, Yes, or No, without
+further deliberation. &ldquo;That female reserve,&rdquo;
+says an ingenious writer, [Dr Alexander,] &ldquo;that
+seeming reluctance to enter into the married
+state, observable in polite countries, is the work
+of art, and not of nature. The history of every
+uncultivated people amply proves it. It tells us,
+<a name="png.095" id="png.095"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">96</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>that their women not only speak with freedom
+the sentiments of their hearts, but even blush not
+to have these sentiments made as public as
+possible.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In Formosa, however, they differ so much
+from the simplicity of the Canadians, that it
+would be reckoned the greatest indecency in the
+man to declare, or in the woman to hear, a declaration
+of the passion of love. The lover is,
+therefore, obliged to depute his mother, sister,
+or some female relation; and from any of these
+the soft tale may be heard without the least offence
+to delicacy.</p>
+
+<p>In Spain, the women had formerly no voice
+in disposing of themselves in matrimony. But
+as the empire of common sense began to extend
+itself, they began to claim a privilege, at least of
+being consulted in the choice of the partners of
+their lives. Many <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'farthers'">fathers</ins> and guardians, hurt
+by this female innovation, and puffed up with
+Spanish pride, still insisted on forcing their
+daughters to marry according to their pleasure,
+by means of duennas, locks, hunger, and even
+sometimes of poison and daggers. But as nature
+will revolt against every species of oppression
+and injustice, the ladies have for some time
+begun to assert their own rights. The authority
+of fathers and guardians begins to decline, and
+lovers find themselves obliged to apply to the affections
+of the fair, as well as to the pride and
+avarice of their relations.</p>
+
+<p>The nightly musical serenades of mistresses
+by their lovers are still in use. The gallant
+<a name="png.096" id="png.096"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">97</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>composes some love sonnets, as expressive as he
+can, not only of the situation of his heart, but of
+every particular circumstance between him and
+the lady, not forgetting to lard them with the
+most extravagant encomiums on her beauty and
+merit. These he sings in the night below her
+window accompanied with his lute, or sometimes
+with a whole band of music. The more piercingly
+cold the air, the more the lady&#8217;s heart is
+supposed to be thawed with the patient sufferance
+of her lover, who, from night to night, frequently
+continues his exercises for many hours,
+heaving the deepest sighs, and casting the most
+piteous looks towards the window; at which if
+his goddess at last deigns to appear, and drops
+him a curtsey, he is superlatively paid for all his
+watching; but if she blesses him with a smile,
+he is ready to run distracted.</p>
+
+<p>In Italy the manner of addressing the ladies,
+so far as it relates to serenading, nearly resembles
+that of Spain. The Italian, however, goes
+a step farther than the Spaniard. He endeavors
+to blockade the house where his fair one lives,
+so as to prevent the entrance of any rival. If
+he marries the lady who cost him all this trouble
+and attendance, he shuts her up for life: If not,
+she becomes the object of his eternal hatred, and
+he too frequently endeavors to revenge by poison
+the success of his happier rival.</p>
+
+<p>In one circumstance relating to courtship, the
+Italians are said to be particular. They protract
+the time as long as possible, well knowing that
+even with all the little ills attending it, a period
+<a name="png.097" id="png.097"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">98</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>thus employed is one of the sweetest of human
+life.</p>
+
+<p>A French lover, with the word sentiment perpetually
+in his mouth, seems by every action to
+have excluded it from his heart. He places his
+whole confidence in his exterior air and appearance.
+He dresses for his mistress, dances for
+her, flutters constantly about her, helps her to lay
+on her rouge, and to place her patches. He attends
+her round the whole circle of amusements,
+chatters to her constantly, whistles and sings,
+and plays the fool with her. Whatever be his
+station, every thing gaudy and glittering within
+the sphere of it is called in to his assistance, particularly
+splendid carriages and tawdry liveries;
+but if, by the help of all these, he cannot make
+an impression on the fair one&#8217;s heart, it costs
+him nothing but a few shrugs of his shoulders,
+two or three silly exclamations, and as many
+stanzas of some satirical song against her; and,
+as it is impossible for a Frenchman to live without
+an amour, he immediately betakes himself to
+another.</p>
+
+<p>There is hardly any such thing among people
+of fashion as courtship. Matters are generally
+so ordered by parents and guardians, that to a
+bride and bridegroom, the day of marriage is
+often the second time of their meeting. In many
+countries, to be married in this manner would
+be reckoned the greatest of misfortunes. In
+France it is little regarded. In the fashionable
+world, few people are greater strangers to, or
+more indifferent about each other, than husband
+<a name="png.098" id="png.098"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">99</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and wife; and any appearance of fondness between
+them, or their being seen frequently together,
+would infallibly make them forfeit the
+reputation of the <i>ton</i>, and be laughed at by all
+polite company. On this account, nothing is
+more common than to be acquainted with a lady
+without knowing her husband, or visiting the
+husband without ever seeing his wife.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">GERMAN WOMEN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Of</span> all the German females, the ladies of
+Saxony are the most amiable. Their persons
+are so superiorly charming and preferable in
+whatever can recommend them to be notice of
+mankind, that the German youth often visit
+Saxony in quest of <em>companions</em> for life. Exclusive
+of their beauty and comeliness of appearance,
+they are brought up in a knowledge of all
+those arts, both useful and ornamental, which
+are so brilliant an addition to their native attractions.
+But what chiefly enhances their
+value, and gives it reality and duration, is a
+<em>sweetness</em> of temper and festivity of disposition,
+that never fail to endear them on a very slight
+acquaintance. To crown all, they are generally
+patterns of conjugal tenderness and fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>As they are commonly careful to improve
+their minds by reading and instructive conversation,
+they have no small share of facetiousness
+and ingenuity. From their innate liveliness,
+they are extremely addicted to all the gay kind
+<a name="png.099" id="png.099"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">100</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of amusements. <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'The'">They</ins> excel in the allurements
+of dress and decoration, and are in general
+skilful in music.</p>
+
+<p>The character, however, of the women in
+most other parts of Germany, particularly of the
+Austrian, is very different from this. Notwithstanding
+the advantages of size and make, their
+looks and features, though not unsightly, betray
+a vacancy of that life and spirit, without which
+beauty is uninteresting, and, like a mere picture,
+becomes utterly void of that indication of
+sensibility, which alone can awaken a delicacy
+of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>As their education is conducted by the rules of
+the grossest superstition, and they are taught
+little else than set forms of devotion, they arrive
+to the years of maturity uninstructed in the use
+of reason, and usually continue profoundly ignorant
+the remainder of their days, which are
+spent, or rather loitered away, in apathy and
+indolence.</p>
+
+<p>The principal happiness of the Austrian
+ladies of fashion consists in ruminating on the
+dignity of their birth and families, the antiquity
+of their race, the rank they hold, the respect
+attached to it, and the prerogatives they enjoy
+over the inferior classes, whom they treat with
+the utmost superciliousness, and hold in the
+most unreasonable contempt. In the mean
+time, their domestic affairs are condemned to
+the most unaccountable neglect. They dwell
+at home, careless of what passes there; and
+suffer disorder and confusion to prevail, without
+<a name="png.100" id="png.100"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">101</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>feeling the least uneasiness. Great frequenters
+of churches, their piety consists in the strictest
+conformity to all the externals of religion.
+They profess the most boundless belief in all
+the silly legends with which their treatises of
+devotion are filled; and these are the only books
+they ever read. The coldness of their constitution
+occasions a species of regulated gallantry,
+which is rather the effect of an opinion that it
+is an appendage of high life, than the result of
+their <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'natuaal'">natural</ins> inclination.</p>
+
+<p>It must, at the same time be allowed, that the
+Austrian women are endowed with a great fund
+of sincerity and candor; and, though too much
+on the reserve, and prone to keep at an unnecessary
+distance, are yet capable of the truest
+attachment, and always warm and zealous in
+the cause of those whom they have admitted to
+their friendship.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Germans are rather a dull and
+phlegmatic people, and not greatly enslaved by
+the warmer passions, yet at the court of Vienna
+they are much <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'give'">given</ins> to intrigue: and an amour
+is so far from being scandalous, that a woman
+gains credit by the rank of her gallant, and is
+reckoned silly and unfashionable if she scrupulously
+adheres to the virtue of chastity. But
+such customs are more the customs of courts,
+than of places less exposed to temptation, and
+consequently less dissolute; and we are well
+assured that in Germany there are many women
+who do honor to humanity, not by chastity only,
+but also by a variety of other virtues.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.101" id="png.101"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">102</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>The ladies at the principal courts, differ not
+much in their dress from the French and English.
+They are not, however, so excessively
+fond of paint as the former. At some courts,
+they appear in rich furs: and all of them are
+loaded with jewels, if they can obtain them.
+The female part of the burgher&#8217;s families, in
+many of the German towns, dress in a very different
+manner, and some of them inconceivably
+fantastic, as may be seen in many prints published
+in books of travels. But, in this respect,
+they are gradually reforming, and many of them
+make quite a different appearance in their dress
+from what they did thirty or forty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Vienna lived luxuriously,
+a great part of their time being spent in feasting
+and carousing. In winter, when the different
+branches of the Danube are frozen over, and
+the ground covered with snow, the ladies take
+their recreation in sledges of different shapes,
+such as griffins, tigers, swans, scallop-shells,
+etc. Here the lady sits, dressed in velvet lined
+with rich furs, and adorned with laces and
+jewels, having on her head a velvet cap. The
+sledge is drawn by one horse, stag or other
+creature, set off with plumes of feathers, ribbons
+and bells. As this diversion is taken
+chiefly in the night time, servants ride before
+the sledge with torches; and a gentleman,
+standing on the sledge behind, guides the
+horse.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.102" id="png.102"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">103</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>A VIEW OF MATRIMONY IN THREE DIFFERENT
+LIGHTS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> marriage life is always an insipid, a vexatious,
+or a happy condition, the first is, when
+two people of no taste meet together, upon such
+a settlement as has been thought reasonable by
+parents and conveyancers, from an exact valuation
+of the land and cash of both parties. In this
+case the young lady&#8217;s person is no more regarded
+than the house and improvements in
+purchase of an estate; but she goes with her
+fortune, rather than her fortune with her. These
+make up the crowd or vulgar of the rich, and fill
+up the lumber of the human race, without beneficence
+towards those below them, or respect
+towards <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'these'">those</ins> above them; and lead a despicable,
+independent, and useless life, without
+sense of the laws of kindness, good-nature, mutual
+offices, and the elegant satisfactions which
+flow from reason and virtue.</p>
+
+<p>The vexatious life arises from a conjunction
+of two people of quick taste and resentment, put
+together for reasons well known to their friends,
+in which especial care is taken to avoid (what
+they think the chief of evils) poverty; and ensure
+them riches with every evil besides. These
+good people live in a constant restraint before
+company, and when alone, revile each other&#8217;s
+person and conduct. In company they are in
+purgatory; when by themselves, in hell.</p>
+
+<p>The happy marriage is, where two persons
+<a name="png.103" id="png.103"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">104</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>meet, and voluntarily make choice of each other
+without principally regarding or neglecting
+the circumstances of fortune or beauty. These
+may still love in spite of adversity or sickness.
+The former we may in some measure
+defend ourselves from; the other is the common
+lot of humanity. Love has nothing to do with
+riches or state. Solitude, with the person beloved,
+has a pleasure, even in a woman&#8217;s mind, beyond
+show or pomp.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">BETROTHING AND MARRIAGE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">At</span> a very early period, families who lived in
+a friendly manner, fell upon a method of securing
+their children to each other by what is called in
+the sacred writings Betrothing. This was
+agreeing on a price to be paid for the bride,
+the time when it should be paid, and when she
+should be delivered into the hands of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>There were, according to the Talmudists,
+three ways of betrothing. The first by a written
+contract. The second, by a verbal agreement,
+accompanied with a piece of money. And
+the third, by the parties coming together, and
+living as husband and wife; which might as
+properly be called marriage as betrothing.</p>
+
+<p>The written contract was in the following
+manner&mdash;&ldquo;On such a day, month, year, A the
+son of B, has said to D the daughter of E, be
+thou my spouse according to the law of Moses
+<a name="png.104" id="png.104"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">105</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and of the Israelites; and I give thee as a dowry
+the sum of two hundred suzims, as it is ordered
+by our law. And the said D hath promised
+to be his spouse upon the conditions aforesaid,
+which the said A doth promise to perform
+on the day of marriage. And to this the said A
+doth hereby bind himself and all that he hath, to
+the very cloak upon his back; engages himself
+to love, honor, feed, clothe, and protect her, and
+to perform all that is generally implied in
+contracts of marriage in favor of the Israelitish
+wives.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The verbal agreement was made in the presence
+of a sufficient number of witnesses, by the
+man saying to the women, &ldquo;Take this money
+as a pledge that at such a time I will take thee
+to be my wife.&rdquo; A woman who was thus
+betrothed or bargained for, was almost in every
+respect by the law considered as already married.</p>
+
+<p>Before the legislation of Moses, &ldquo;marriages
+among the Jews,&rdquo; say the Rabbies, &ldquo;were
+agreed on by the parents and relations of both
+sides. When this was done, the bridegroom was
+introduced to his bride. Presents were mutually
+exchanged, the contract signed before witnesses,
+and the bride, having remained sometime
+with her relations, was sent away to the
+habitation of her husband, in the night, with
+singing, dancing, and the sound of musical instruments.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>By the institution of Moses, the Rabbies tell us
+the contract of marriage was read in the presence
+<a name="png.105" id="png.105"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">106</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of, and signed by, at least ten witnesses, who
+were free, and of age. The bride, who had
+taken care to bathe herself the night before, appeared
+in all her splendor, but veiled, in imitation
+of Rebecca, who veiled herself when she
+came in sight of Isaac. She was then given to
+the bridegroom by her parents, in words to this
+purpose: &ldquo;Take her according to the law of
+Moses.&rdquo; And he received her, by saying, &ldquo;I
+take her according to that law.&rdquo; Some blessings
+were then pronounced on the young couple,
+both by the parents and the rest of the company.</p>
+
+<p>The blessings or prayers generally run in this
+style: &ldquo;Blessed art thou, O Lord of heaven, and
+earth, who has created man in thine own likeness, and
+hast appointed woman to be his partner
+and companion! Blessed art thou, who
+fillest Zion with joy for the multitude of her
+children! Blessed art thou who sendest gladness
+to the bridegroom and his bride; who hast ordained
+for them, love, joy, tenderness, peace and
+mutual affection. Be pleased to bless not only
+this couple, but Judah and Jerusalem, with songs
+of joy, and praise for the joy that thou givest
+them, by the multitudes of their sons and of their
+daughters.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After the virgins had sung a marriage song,
+the company partook of a repast, the most magnificent
+the parties could afford; after which they
+began a dance, the men round the bridegroom,
+the women round the bride. They pretended
+that this dance was of divine institution and an
+essential part of the ceremony. The bride was
+<a name="png.106" id="png.106"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">107</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>then carried to the nuptial bed, and the bridegroom
+left with her. The company again returned
+to their feasting and rejoicing; and the
+Rabbies inform us, that this feasting, when the
+bride, was a widow, lasted only three days, but
+seven if she was a virgin.</p>
+
+<p>At the birth of a son, the father planted a cedar;
+and at that of a daughter, he planted a pine.
+Of these trees the nuptial bed was constructed,
+when the parties, at whose birth they were planted,
+entered into the married state.</p>
+
+<p>The Assyrians had a court, or tribunal
+whose only business was to dispose of young
+women in marriage, and see the laws of that
+union properly executed. What these laws
+were, or how the execution of them was enforced,
+are circumstances that have not been
+handed down to us. But the erecting a court
+solely for the purpose of taking cognizance of
+them, suggests an idea that they were many and
+various.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Greeks, the multiplicity of male
+and female deities who were concerned in the
+affairs of love, made the invocations and sacrifices
+on a matrimonial occasion a very tedious
+affair. Fortunate omens gave great joy, and the
+most fortunate of all others was a pair of turtles
+seen in the air, as those birds were reckoned the
+truest emblems of conjugal love and fidelity. If,
+however, one of them was seen alone it infallibly
+denoted separation, and all the ills attending an
+unhappy marriage.</p>
+
+<p>On the wedding day, the bride and bridegroom
+<a name="png.107" id="png.107"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">108</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>were richly dressed, and adorned with garlands
+of herbs and flowers. The bride was conducted
+in the evening to the house of her husband in a
+chariot, seated between her husband and one of
+his relations. When she alighted from the
+chariot the axle-tree of it was burnt to show that
+there was no method for her to return back. As
+soon as the young couple entered the house, figs
+and other fruits were thrown upon their heads
+to denote plenty; and a sumptuous entertainment
+was ready for them to partake of, to which
+all the relations on both sides were invited.</p>
+
+<p>The bride was lighted to bed by a number of
+torches, according to her quality; and the company
+returned in the morning to salute the new
+married couple, and to sing <i>epithalamia</i> at the
+door of their bed-chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Epithalamia were marriage songs, anciently
+sung in praise of the bride or bridegroom, wishing
+them happiness, prosperity and a numerous
+issue.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Romans there were three different
+kinds of marriage. The ceremony of the first
+consisted in the young couple eating a cake together
+made only of wheat, salt and water.
+The second kind was celebrated by the parties
+solemnly pledging their faith to each other, by
+giving and receiving a piece of money. This
+was the most common way of marrying among
+the Romans. It continued in use, even after
+they became Christians. When writings were
+introduced to testify that a man and a woman had
+become husband and wife, and also, that the
+<a name="png.108" id="png.108"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">109</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>husband had settled a dower upon his bride, these
+writings were called <i>Tabulæ Dotales</i> (dowry tables;)
+and hence, perhaps the words in our
+marriage ceremony, &ldquo;I thee endow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The third kind of marriage was, when a man
+and woman, having cohabited for some time and
+had children, found it expedient to continue together.
+In this case, if they made up the matter
+between themselves, it became a valid marriage,
+and the children were considered as legitimate.</p>
+
+<p>Something similar to this is the present custom
+in Scotland. There, if a man live with,
+and have children by a woman, though he do
+not marry her till he be upon his death-bed, all
+the children are thereby legitimated and become
+entitled to the honors and estates of their father.
+The case is the same in Holland and some parts
+of Germany; with this difference only, that all
+the children to be legitimated must appear with
+the father and mother in church at the ceremony
+of their marriage.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">FEMALE FRIENDSHIP.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">It</span> has long been a question, Which of the
+two sexes is most capable of friendship? Montague,
+who is so much celebrated for his knowledge
+of human nature, has given it positively
+against the women; and his opinion has been
+generally embraced.</p>
+
+<p>Friendship perhaps, in women, is more rare
+than among men; but, at the same time, it must
+<a name="png.109" id="png.109"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">110</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>be allowed that where it is found, it is more
+tender.</p>
+
+<p>Men, in general, have more of the parade
+than the graces of friendship. They often
+wound while they serve; and their warmest
+sentiments are not very enlightened, with respect
+to those minute sentiments which are of so
+much value. But women have a refined sensibility,
+which makes them see every thing; nothing
+escapes them. They divine the silent
+friendship; they encourage the bashful or timid
+friendship; they offer the sweetest consolations
+to friendship in distress. Furnished with finer
+instruments, they treat more delicately a wounded
+heart. They compose it, and prevent it
+from feeling its agonies. They know, above
+all, how to give value to a thousand things,
+which have no value in themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We ought therefore, perhaps, to desire the
+friendship of a man upon great occasions; but,
+for general happiness, we must prefer the
+friendship of a woman.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to female intimacies, it may be
+taken for granted that there is no young woman
+who has not, or wishes not to have, a companion
+of her own sex, to whom she may unbosom herself
+on every occasion. That there are women
+capable of friendship with women, few impartial
+observers will deny. There have been many
+evident proofs of it, and those carried as far as
+seemed compatible with the imperfections of
+our common nature. It is, however, questioned
+by some; while others believe that it happens
+<a name="png.110" id="png.110"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">111</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>exceedingly seldom. Between married and unmarried
+women, it no doubt happens very often;
+whether it does so between those that are single,
+is not so certain. Young men appear more
+frequently susceptible of a generous and steady
+friendship for each other, than females as yet
+unconnected; especially, if the latter have, or
+are supposed to have, pretensions to beauty,
+not adjusted by the public.</p>
+
+<p>In the frame and condition of females, <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'howe-ever'">however</ins>,
+compared with those of the other sex,
+there are some circumstances which may help
+towards an apology for this unfavorable feature
+in their character.</p>
+
+<p>The state of matrimony is necessary to the
+support, order, and comfort of society. But it
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'it'">is</ins> a state that subjects the women to a great
+variety of solicitude and pain. Nothing could
+carry them through it with any tolerable satisfaction
+or spirit, but very strong and almost unconquerable
+attachments. To produce these, is
+it not fit they should be peculiarly sensible to
+the attention and regards of the men? Upon
+the same ground, does it not seem agreeable to
+the purposes of Providence, that the securing of
+this attention, and these regards, should be a
+principal aim? But can such an aim be pursued
+without frequent competition? And will
+not that too readily occasion jealousy, envy,
+and all the unamiable effects of mutual <em>rivalship</em>?
+Without the restraints of superior worth
+and sentiment, it certainly will. But can these
+be ordinarily expected from the prevailing turn
+<a name="png.111" id="png.111"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">112</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of female education; or from the little pains
+that women, as well as other human beings,
+commonly take to <i>control</i> themselves, and to
+act nobly? In this <i>last</i> respect, the sexes appear
+pretty much on the same footing.</p>
+
+<p>This reasoning is not meant to justify the
+indulgence of those little and sometimes base
+passions towards one another, with which females
+have been so generally charged. It is
+only intended to represent such passions in the
+first approach; and, while not entertained, as
+less criminal than the men are apt to state them;
+and to prove that, in their attachments to each
+other, the latter have not always that merit
+above the women, which they are apt to claim.
+In the mean time, let it be the business of the
+ladies, by emulating the gentlemen, where they
+appear good-natured and disinterested, to disprove
+their imputation, and to show a temper
+open to <em>friendship</em> as well as to <em>love</em>.</p>
+
+<p>To talk much of the latter is natural for both;
+to talk much of the former, is considered by the
+men as one way of doing themselves honor.
+Friendship, they well know, is that dignified
+form, which, in speculation at least every heart
+must respect.</p>
+
+<p>But in friendship, as in religion, which on
+many accounts it resembles, speculation is often
+substituted in the place of practice. People
+fancy themselves possessed of the thing, and
+hope that others will fancy so too, because they
+are fond of the name, and have learned to talk
+about it with plausibility. Such talk indeed
+imposes, till experience give it the lie.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.112" id="png.112"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">113</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>To say the truth, there seems in either sex
+but little of what a fond imagination, unacquainted
+with the falsehood of the world, <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'and and'">and</ins>
+warmed by affections which its selfishness
+has not yet chilled, would reckon friendship.
+In theory, the standard is raised too high; we
+ought not, however, to wish it much lower.
+The honest sensibilities of ingenuous nature
+should not be checked by the over-cautious
+maxims of political prudence. No advantage,
+obtained by such frigidity, can compensate for
+the want of those warm effusions of the heart
+into the bosom of a friend, which are doubtless
+among the most exquisite pleasures. At the
+same time, however, it must be owned, that they
+often by the inevitable lot of humanity, make
+way for the bitterest pains which the breast can
+experience. Happy beyond the common condition
+of her sex, is she who has found a friend
+indeed; open hearted, yet discreet; generously
+fervent, yet steady; thoroughly virtuous, but not
+severe; wise, as well as cheerful! Can such a
+friend be loved too much, or cherished too tenderly?
+If to excellence and happiness there
+be any one way more compendious than another,
+next to friendship with the Supreme Being,
+it is this.</p>
+
+<p>But when a mixture of minds so beautiful and
+so sweet takes place, it is generally, or rather
+always the result of early prepossession, casual
+intercourse, or in short, a combination of such
+causes as are not to be brought together by
+management or design. This noble plant may
+be cultivated; but it must grow spontaneously.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.113" id="png.113"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">114</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>ON THE CHOICE OF A HUSBAND.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i6"><span class="smc">Assist</span> me, ye Nine,</div>
+<div class="i6">While the youth I define,</div>
+<div>With whom I in wedlock would class;</div>
+<div class="i6">And ye blooming fair,</div>
+<div class="i6">Lend a listening ear,</div>
+<div>To approve of the man as you pass.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">Not the changeable fry</div>
+<div class="i6">Who love, nor know why,</div>
+<div>But follow bedup&#8217;d by their passions:</div>
+<div class="i6">Such votaries as these</div>
+<div class="i6">Are like waves of the seas,</div>
+<div>And steer&#8217;d by their own inclinations.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">The hectoring blade</div>
+<div class="i6">How unfit for the maid,</div>
+<div>Where meekness and modesty reigns!</div>
+<div class="i6">Such a blundering bully</div>
+<div class="i6">I&#8217;ll speak against truly,</div>
+<div>Whatever I get for my pains.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">Not the dogmatic elf,</div>
+<div class="i6">Whose great all is himself,</div>
+<div>Whose alone <i>ipse dixit</i> is law:</div>
+<div class="i6">What a figure he&#8217;ll make,</div>
+<div class="i6">How like Momus he&#8217;ll speak</div>
+<div>With sneering burlesque, a pshaw! pshaw!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">Not the covetous wretch</div>
+<div class="i6">Whose heart&#8217;s at full stretch</div>
+<div>To gain an inordinate treasure;</div>
+<div class="i6">Him leave with the rest,</div>
+<div class="i6">And such mortals detest,</div>
+<div>Who sacrifice life without measure.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">The fluttering fop,</div>
+<div class="i6">How empty his top!</div>
+<div>Nay, but some call him coxcomb, I trow;</div>
+<div class="i6"><a name="png.114" id="png.114"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">115</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>But &#8217;tis losing your time,</div>
+<div class="i6">He&#8217;s not worth half a rhyme,</div>
+<div>Let the fag ends of prose bind his brow.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">The guttling sot,</div>
+<div class="i6">What a conduit his throat!</div>
+<div>How beastly and vicious his life!</div>
+<div class="i6">Where drunkards prevail,</div>
+<div class="i6">Whole families feel,</div>
+<div>Much more an affectionate wife.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">One character yet;</div>
+<div class="i6">I with sorrow repeat,</div>
+<div>And O! that the number were less;</div>
+<div class="i6">&#8217;Tis the blasphemous crew:</div>
+<div class="i6">What a pattern they&#8217;ll shew</div>
+<div>To their hapless and innocent race!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i6">Let wisdom then shine</div>
+<div class="i6">In the youth that is mine,</div>
+<div>Whilst virtue his footsteps impress;</div>
+<div class="i6">Such I&#8217;d choose for my mate,</div>
+<div class="i6">Whether sooner or late:</div>
+<div>Tell me, Ladies, what think you of this?</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The chief point to be regarded,&rdquo; says Lady
+Pennington in her Advice to her Daughters, &ldquo;in
+the choice of a companion for life, is a really
+virtuous principle&mdash;an unaffected goodness of
+heart. Without this, you will be continually
+shocked by indecency, and pained by impiety.
+So numerous have been the unhappy victims to
+the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'rediculous'">ridiculous</ins> opinion, <i>a reformed libertine
+makes the best husband</i>&mdash;that, did not experience
+daily evince the contrary, one would believe it
+impossible for a girl who has a tolerable degree
+of common understanding, to be made the dupe
+of so erroneous a position, which has not the
+<a name="png.115" id="png.115"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">116</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>least shadow of reason for its foundation, and
+which a small share of observation will prove to
+be false in fact. A man who has been conversant
+with the worst sort of women, is very apt
+to contract a bad opinion of, and a contempt for,
+the sex in general. Incapable of esteeming any,
+he is suspicious of all; jealous without cause,
+angry without provocation, his own disturbed
+imagination is a continued source of ill-humor.
+To this is frequently joined a bad habit of body,
+the natural consequence of an irregular life,
+which gives an additional sourness to the temper.
+What rational prospect of happiness can there
+be with such a companion? And, that this is
+the general character of those who are called
+<i>reformed rakes</i>, observation will certify. But,
+admit there may be some exceptions, it is a hazard
+upon which no considerate woman would
+venture the peace of her whole life. The vanity
+of those girls who believe themselves capable of
+working miracles of this kind, and who give up
+their persons to men of libertine principles, upon
+the wild expectation of reclaiming them, justly
+deserves the disappointment which it will generally
+meet with; for, believe me, a wife is, of
+all persons, the least likely to succeed in such an
+attempt.  Be it your care to find that virtue in
+a lover which you must never hope to form in a
+husband. Good sense, and good nature, are
+almost equally requisite. If the former is wanting,
+it will be next to an impossibility for you to
+esteem the person, of whose behavior you may
+have cause to be ashamed. Mutual esteem is
+<a name="png.116" id="png.116"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">117</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>as essential to happiness in the married state, as
+mutual affection. Without the latter, every day
+will bring with it some fresh cause of vexation,
+until repeated quarrels produce a coldness, which
+will settle into an irreconcilable aversion, and
+you will become, not only each other&#8217;s torment,
+but the object of contempt to your family, and to
+your acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This quality of good nature is, of all others,
+the most difficult to be ascertained, on account of
+the general mistake of blending it with good-humor,
+as if they were in themselves the same;
+whereas, in fact, no two principles of action are
+more essentially different. But this may require
+some explanation. By good nature, I mean
+that true benevolence, which partakes in the felicity
+of every individual within the reach of its
+ability, which relieves the distressed, comforts
+the afflicted, diffuses blessings, and communicates
+happiness, far as its sphere of action can
+extend; and which, in the private scenes of life,
+will shine conspicuous in the dutiful son, in the
+affectionate husband, the indulgent father, the
+faithful friend, and in the compassionate master
+both to man and beast. Good humor, on the
+other hand, is nothing more than a cheerful,
+pleasing deportment, arising either from a natural
+gaiety of mind, or from an affection of popularity,
+joined to an affability of behavior, the result
+of good breeding, and from a ready compliance
+with the taste of every company. This
+kind of mere good humor is, by far, the most
+striking quality. It is frequently mistaken for
+<a name="png.117" id="png.117"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">118</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and complimented with the superior name of
+<i>real good nature</i>. A man, by this specious appearance,
+has often acquired that appellation
+who, in all the actions of private life, has been a
+morose, cruel, revengeful, sullen, haughty tyrant.
+Let them put on the cap, whose temples
+fit the galling wreath!</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A man of a truly benevolent disposition, and
+formed to promote the happiness of all around
+him, may sometimes, perhaps, from an ill habit
+of body, an accidental vexation, or from a commendable
+openness of heart, above the meanness
+of disguise, be guilty of little sallies of peevishness,
+or of ill humor, which, carrying the appearance
+of ill nature, may be unjustly thought
+to proceed from it, by persons who are unacquainted
+with his true character, and <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ the possibly superfluous comma is in the original">who,</ins> take
+ill humor and ill nature to be synonymous terms,
+though in reality they bear not the least analogy
+to each other. In order to the forming a right
+judgment, it is absolutely necessary to observe
+this distinction, which will effectually secure
+you from the dangerous error of taking the
+shadow for the substance, an irretrievable mistake,
+pregnant with innumerable consequent
+evils!</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;From what has been said, it plainly appears,
+that the criterion of this amiable virtue is not to
+be taken for the general opinion; mere good
+humor being, to all intents and purposes, sufficient
+in this particular, to establish the public
+voice in favor of a man utterly devoid of every
+humane and benevolent affection of heart. It is
+<a name="png.118" id="png.118"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">119</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>only from the less conspicuous scenes of life, the
+more retired sphere of action, from the artless
+tenor of domestic conduct, that the real character
+can, with any certainty be drawn. These,
+undisguised, proclaim the man. But, as they
+shun the glare of light, nor court the noise of
+popular applause, they pass unnoticed, and are
+seldom known till after an intimate acquaintance.
+The best method, therefore, to avoid the deception
+in this case, is to lay no stress on outward
+appearances, which are too often fallacious, but
+to take the rule of judging from the simple unpolished
+sentiments of those whose dependent
+connections give them undeniable certainty;
+who not only see, but who hourly feel, the good
+or bad effect of that disposition, to which they are
+subjected. By this, I mean, that if a man is
+equally respected, esteemed, and beloved by his
+dependants and domestics, you may justly conclude,
+he has that true good nature, that real benevolence,
+which delights in communicating felicity,
+and enjoys the satisfaction it diffuses.
+But if by these he is despised and hated, served
+merely from a principle of fear, devoid of affection,
+which is ever easily discoverable, whatever
+may be his public character, however favorable
+the general opinion, be assured, that his disposition
+is such as can never be productive of domestic
+happiness. I have been the more particular
+on this head, as it is one of the most essential
+qualifications to be regarded, and of all others
+the most liable to be mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Never be prevailed with, my dear, to give
+<a name="png.119" id="png.119"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">120</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>your hand to a person defective in these material
+points. Secure of virtue, of good nature, and
+understanding, in a husband, you may be secure
+of happiness. Without the two former it is unattainable.
+Without the latter in a tolerable
+degree, it must be very imperfect.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Remember, however, that infallibility is not
+the property of man, or you may entail disappointment
+on yourself, by expecting what is
+never to be found. The best men are sometimes
+inconsistent with themselves. They are
+liable to be hurried, by sudden starts of passion,
+into expressions and actions, which their <i>cooler</i>
+reason will condemn. They may have some
+oddities of behavior, and some peculiarities of
+temper. They may be subject to accidental ill
+humor, or to whimsical complaints. Blemishes
+of this kind often shade the brightest character;
+but they are never destructive of mutual felicity,
+unless when they are made so by an improper
+resentment, or by an ill-judged opposition.
+When cooled, and in his usual temper, the man
+of understanding, if he has been wrong, will
+suggest to himself all that could be urged against
+him. The man of good nature will, unupbraided,
+own his error. Immediate contradiction is,
+therefore, wholly unserviceable, and highly imprudent;
+an after repetition is equally unnecessary
+and injudicious. Any peculiarities in the
+temper or behavior ought to be properly represented
+in the tenderest and in the most friendly
+manner. If the representation of them is made
+discreetly, it will generally be well taken. But
+<a name="png.120" id="png.120"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">121</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>if they are so habitual as not easily to be altered,
+strike not too often upon the unharmonious
+string. Rather let them pass unobserved.
+Such a cheerful compliance will better cement
+your union; and they may be made easy to
+yourself, by reflecting on the superior good qualities
+by which these trifling faults are so greatly
+overbalanced.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You must remember, my dear, these rules
+are laid down on the supposition of your being
+united to a person who possesses the three qualifications
+for happiness before mentioned. In
+this case no farther direction is necessary, but
+that you strictly perform the duty of a wife,
+namely, to love, to honor, and obey. The two
+first articles are a tribute so indispensably due to
+<i>merit</i>, that they must be paid by <i>inclination</i>&mdash;and
+they naturally lead to the performance of
+the last, which will not only be easy, but a pleasing
+task, since nothing can ever be enjoined by
+such a person that is in itself improper, and a
+few things will, that can, with any reason, be
+disagreeable to you.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The being united to a man of irreligious
+principles, makes it impossible to discharge a
+great part of the proper duty of a wife. To
+name but one instance, obedience will be rendered
+impracticable, by frequent injunctions inconsistent
+with, and contrary to, the higher obligations
+of morality. This is not a supposition, but
+is a certainty founded upon facts, which I have
+too often seen and can attest. Where this happens,
+the reasons for non-compliance ought to be
+<a name="png.121" id="png.121"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">122</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>offered in a plain, strong, good natured manner.
+There is at least the chance of success from being
+heard. But should those reasons be rejected,
+or the hearing them refused, and silence on the
+subject enjoined, which is most probable, few
+people caring to hear what they know to be
+right, when they are determined not to be convinced
+by it&mdash;obey the injunction, and urge not
+the argument farther. Keep, however, steady to
+your principles, and suffer neither persuasion
+nor threats to prevail on you to act contrary to
+them. All commands repugnant to the laws of
+christianity, it is your indispensable duty to disobey.
+All requests that are inconsistent with
+prudence, or incompatible with the rank and
+character which you ought to maintain in life, it
+is your interest to refuse. A compliance with
+the former would be criminal, a consent to the
+latter highly indiscreet; and it might thereby
+subject you to general censure. For a man,
+capable of requiring, from his wife, what he
+knows to be in itself wrong, is equally capable
+of throwing the whole blame of such misconduct
+on her, and of afterwards upbraiding her for a
+behavior, to which he will, upon the same principle,
+disown that he has been <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ this may be a typo, but the OED gives a meaning of
+ 'an adjunct, or accompaniment' for the word spelled this way">accessary</ins>. Many
+similar instances have come within the compass
+of my own observation. In things of less material
+nature, that are neither criminal in themselves,
+nor pernicious in their consequences, always
+acquiesce, if insisted on, however disagreeable
+they may be to your own temper and inclination.
+Such a compliance will evidently prove
+<a name="png.122" id="png.122"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">123</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>that your refusal, in the other cases, proceeds
+not from a spirit of contradiction, but merely
+from a just regard to that superior duty which
+can never be infringed with impunity.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;As the want of understanding is by no art to
+be concealed, by no address to be disguised, it
+might be supposed impossible for a woman of
+sense to unite herself to a person whose defect,
+in this instance, must render that sort of rational
+society, which constitutes the chief happiness of
+such an union, impossible. Yet here, how often
+has the weakness of female judgment been conspicuous!
+The advantages of great superiority
+in rank or fortune have frequently proved so irresistible
+a temptation, as, in opinion, to outweigh,
+not only the folly, but even the vices of
+its possessor&mdash;a grand mistake, ever tacitly acknowledged
+by a subsequent repentance, when
+the expected pleasures of affluence, equipage,
+and all the glittering pageantry, have been experimentally
+found insufficient to make amends
+for the want of that constant satisfaction which
+results from the social joy of conversing with a
+reasonable friend!</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But however weak this motive must be acknowledged,
+it is more excusable than another,
+which, I fear, has sometimes had an equal influence
+on the mind&mdash;I mean so great a love of
+sway, as to induce her to give the preference to
+a person of weak intellectuals, in hopes of holding,
+uncontrolled, the reins of government. The
+expectation is, in fact, ill grounded. Obstinacy
+and pride are generally the companions of folly.
+<a name="png.123" id="png.123"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">124</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>The silliest people are often the most tenacious
+of their opinions, and, consequently, the hardest
+of all others to be managed. But admit the
+contrary, the principle is in itself bad. It tends
+to invert the order of nature, and to counteract
+the design of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A woman can never be seen in a more ridiculous
+light than when she appears to govern her
+husband. If, unfortunately, the superiority of
+understanding is on her side, the apparent consciousness
+of that superiority betrays a weakness,
+that renders her contemptible in the sight of
+every considerate person, and it may, very probably,
+fix in his mind a dislike never to be eradicated.
+In such a case, if it should ever be your
+own, remember that some degree of dissimulation
+is commendable, so far as to let your husband&#8217;s
+defects appear unobserved. When he
+judges wrong, never flatly contradict, but lead
+him insensibly into another opinion, in so discreet
+a manner, that it may seem entirely his
+own, and let the whole credit of every prudent
+determination rest on him, without indulging
+the foolish vanity of claiming any merit to yourself.
+Thus a person of but an indifferent capacity,
+may be so assisted, as, in many instances, to
+shine with borrowed lustre, scarce distinguishable
+from the native, and by degrees he may be
+brought into a kind of mechanical method of
+acting properly, in all the common occurrences
+of life. Odd as this position may seem, it is
+founded in fact. I have seen the method successfully
+practised by more than one person,
+<a name="png.124" id="png.124"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">125</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>where a weak mind, on the governed side, has
+been so prudently set off as to appear the sole
+director; like the statue of the Delphic god,
+which was thought to give forth its own oracles,
+whilst the humble priest, who lent his voice, was
+by the shrine concealed, nor sought a higher
+glory than a supposed obedience to the power
+he would be thought to serve.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">A LETTER TO A NEW MARRIED MAN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">I received</span> the news of your marriage with
+infinite delight, and hope that the sincerity with
+which I wish you happiness, may excuse the
+liberty I take in giving you a few rules, whereby
+more certainly to obtain it. I see you smile
+at my wrong-headed kindness, and, reflecting on
+the charms of your bride, cry out in a rapture,
+that you are happy enough without any rules.
+I know you are. But after one of the forty
+years, which I hope you will pass pleasingly together,
+is over, this letter may come in turn,
+and rules for felicity may not be found unnecessary,
+however some of them may appear impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>Could that kind of love be kept alive through
+the marriage state, which makes the charm of a
+single one, the sovereign good would no longer
+be sought for; in the union of two faithful lovers
+it would be found: but reason shows that
+this is impossible, and experience informs us that
+<a name="png.125" id="png.125"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">126</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>it never was so; we must preserve it as long,
+and supply it as happily as we can.</p>
+
+<p>When your present violence of passion subsides,
+however, and a more cool and tranquil
+affection takes its place, be not hasty to censure
+yourself as indifferent, or to lament yourself as
+unhappy; you have lost that only which it was
+impossible to retain, and it were graceless amid
+the pleasures of a prosperous summer to regret
+the blossoms of a transient spring. Neither unwarily
+condemn your bride&#8217;s insipidity till you
+have recollected that no object however sublime,
+no sounds however charming, can continue to
+transport us with delight when they no longer
+strike us with novelty. The skill to renovate
+the powers of pleasing is said indeed to be possessed
+by some women in an eminent degree;
+but the artifices of maturity are seldom seen to
+adorn the innocence of youth: you have made
+your choice, and ought to approve it.</p>
+
+<p>Satiety follows quickly upon the heels of possession;
+and to be happy, we must always have
+something in view. The person of your lady is
+already all your own, and will not grow more
+pleasing in your eyes I doubt, though the rest of
+your sex will think her handsome for these dozen
+of years. Turn therefore all your attention
+to her mind, which will daily grow brighter by
+polishing. Study some easy science together,
+and acquire a similarity of tastes while you enjoy
+a community of pleasures. You will by this
+means have many images in common, and be
+freed from the necessity of separating to find
+<a name="png.126" id="png.126"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">127</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>amusement. Nothing is so dangerous to wedded
+love as the possibility of either being happy
+out of the company of the other: endeavor therefore,
+to cement the present intimacy on every
+side; let your wife never be kept ignorant of
+your income, your expenses, your <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'frienships'">friendships</ins>, or
+aversions; let her know your very faults, but
+make them amiable by your virtues; consider
+all concealment as a breach of fidelity; let her
+never have any thing to find out in your character;
+and remember, that from the moment one
+of the partners turns spy upon the other, they
+have commenced a state of hostility.</p>
+
+<p>Seek not for happiness in singularity; and
+dread a refinement of wisdom as a deviation into
+folly. Listen not to those sages who advise you
+always to scorn the counsel of a woman, and if
+you comply with her requests pronounce you to
+be wife-ridden.</p>
+
+<p>I said that the person of your lady would not
+grow more pleasing to you; but pray let her
+never suspect that it grows less so: that a woman
+will pardon an affront to her understanding
+much sooner than one to her person, is well
+known; nor will any of us contradict the assertion.
+All our attainments, all our arts, are employed
+to gain and keep the heart of man: and
+what mortification can exceed the disappointment,
+if the end be not obtained? There is no reproof
+however pointed, no punishment however
+severe, that a woman of spirit will not prefer to
+neglect; and if she can endure it without complaint,
+it only proves that she means to make
+<a name="png.127" id="png.127"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">128</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>herself amends by the attention of others for the
+slights of her husband. For this, and for every
+reason, it behoves a married man not to let his
+politeness fail, though his ardor may abate, but
+to retain at least that general civility towards his
+own lady which he is so willing to pay to every
+other, and not show a wife of eighteen or twenty
+years old, that every man in company can treat
+her with more complaisance than he, who so often
+vowed to her eternal fondness.</p>
+
+<p>It is not my opinion that a young woman
+should be indulged in every wild wish of her
+gay heart or giddy head; but contradiction may
+be softened by domestic kindness, and quiet
+pleasures substituted in the place of noisy ones.
+Public amusements are not indeed so expensive
+as is sometimes imagined, but they tend to alienate
+the minds of married people from each
+other. A well chosen society of friends and acquaintance,
+more eminent for virtue and good
+sense than for gaiety and splendor, where the
+conversation of the day may afford comment for
+the evening, seems the most rational pleasure
+this great town can afford.</p>
+
+<p>That your own superiority should always be
+seen, but never felt, seems an excellent general
+rule. A wife should outshine her husband in
+nothing, not even in her dress. The bane of
+married happiness among the city men in general
+has been, that finding themselves unfit for
+polite life, they transferred their vanity to their
+ladies, dressed them up gaily, and sent them out
+a gallanting, while the good man was to regale
+<a name="png.128" id="png.128"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">129</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>with port wine or rum punch, perhaps among
+mean companions, after the compting house was
+shut. This practice produced the ridicule thrown
+on them in all our comedies and novels since
+commerce began to prosper. But now that I
+am so near the subject, a word or two on jealousy
+may not be amiss; for though not a failing
+of the present age&#8217;s growth, yet the seeds of
+it are too certainly sown in every warm bosom,
+for us to neglect it as a fault of no consequence.
+If you are ever tempted to be jealous, watch
+your wife narrowly&mdash;but never tease her; tell
+her your <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'jealously'">jealousy</ins>, but conceal your suspicion;
+let her, in short, be satisfied that it is only your
+odd temper, and even troublesome attachment,
+that makes you follow her; but let her not
+dream that you ever doubted seriously of her
+virtue even for a moment. If she is disposed
+towards jealousy of you, let me beseech you to
+be always explicit with her and never mysterious:
+be above delighting in her pain, of all
+things&mdash;nor do your business nor pay your visits
+with an air of concealment, when all you are
+doing might as well be proclaimed perhaps in the
+parish vestry. But I hope better than this of
+your tenderness and of your virtue, and will release
+you from a lecture you have so little need
+of, unless your extreme youth and my uncommon
+regard will excuse it. And now farewell;
+make my kindest compliments to your wife, and
+be happy in proportion as happiness is wished
+you by,  Dear Sir, &amp;c.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.129" id="png.129"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">130</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>GARRICK&#8217;S ADVICE TO MARRIED LADIES.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="smc">Ye</span> fair married dames who so often deplore</div>
+<div>That a lover once blest is a lover no more;</div>
+<div>Attend to my counsel, nor blush to be taught</div>
+<div>That prudence must cherish what beauty has caught.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>The bloom on your cheek, and the glance of your eye,</div>
+<div>Your roses and lilies may make the men sigh;</div>
+<div>But roses, and lilies, and sighs pass away,</div>
+<div>And passion will die as your beauties decay.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>Use the man that you wed like your fav&#8217;rite guitar,</div>
+<div>Though music in both, they are both apt to jar;</div>
+<div>How tuneful and soft from a delicate touch,</div>
+<div>Not handled too roughly, nor play&#8217;d on too much!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>The sparrow and linnet will feed from your hand,</div>
+<div>Grow tame by your kindness, and come at command:</div>
+<div>Exert with your husband the same happy skill,</div>
+<div>For hearts, like your birds, may be tamed to your will.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>Be gay and good-humour&#8217;d, complying and kind,</div>
+<div>Turn the chief of your care from your face to your mind;</div>
+<div>&#8217;Tis thus that a wife may her conquests improve,</div>
+<div>And Hymen shall rivet the fetters of love.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.130" id="png.130"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">131</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>ORIGIN OF NUNNERIES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Soon</span> after the introduction of Christianity,
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'St Mark,'">St. Mark</ins> is said to have founded a society called Therapeutes,
+who dwelt by the lake Moeris in Egypt,
+and devoted themselves to solitude and religious
+offices. About the year 305 of the christian computation,
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Anthony being persecuted by Dioclesian,
+retired into the desert near the lake Moeris;
+numbers of people soon followed his example,
+joined themselves to the Therapeutes; <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Anthony
+being placed at their head, and improving upon
+their rules, first formed them into regular monasteries,
+and enjoined them to live in mortification
+and chastity. About the same time, or soon after,
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Synclitica, resolving not to be behind <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Anthony
+in her zeal for chastity, is generally believed to
+have collected together a number of enthusiastic
+females, and to have founded the first nunnery for
+their reception. Some imagine the scheme of celibacy
+was concerted between <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Anthony and <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Synclitica,
+as <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Anthony, on his first retiring into
+solitude, is said to have put his sister into a nunnery,
+which must have been that of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Synclitica; but
+however this be, from their institution, monks and
+nuns increased so fast, that in the city of Orixa,
+about seventeen years after the death of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Anthony,
+there were twenty thousand virgins devoted to
+celibacy.</p>
+
+<p>Such at this time was the rage of celibacy; a
+rage which, however unnatural, will cease to excite
+our wonder, when we consider, that it was accounted
+by both sexes the sure and only infallible
+road to heaven and eternal happiness; and as such,
+it behoved the church vigorously to maintain and
+countenance it, which she did by beginning about
+this time to deny the liberty of marriage to her
+sons. In the first council of Nice, held soon after
+<a name="png.131" id="png.131"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">132</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the introduction of christianity, the celibacy of the
+clergy was strenuously argued for, and some think
+that even in an earlier period it had been the subject
+of debate; however this be, it was not agreed
+to in the council of Nice, though at the end of the
+fourth century it is said that Syricus, bishop of
+Rome, enacted the first decree against the marriage
+of monks; a decree which was not universally received:
+for several centuries after, we find that it
+was not uncommon for clergymen to have wives;
+even the popes were allowed this liberty, as it is
+said in some of the old statutes of the church, that
+it was lawful for the pope to marry a virgin for the
+sake of having children. So exceedingly difficult
+is it to combat against nature, that little regard
+seems to have been paid to this decree of Syricus;
+for we are informed, that several centuries after, it
+was no uncommon thing for the clergy to have
+wives, and perhaps even a plurality of them; as
+we find it among the ordonnances of pope Sylvester,
+that every priest should be the husband of one
+wife only; and Pius the Second affirmed, that
+though many strong reasons might be adduced in
+support of the celibacy of the clergy, there were
+still stronger reasons against it.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT CONVENT AT
+AJUDA IN RIO JANERIO.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">At</span> the end of the chapel is a large quadrangle,
+entered by a massive gateway, surrounded by three
+stories of grated windows. Here female negro pedlars
+come with their goods, and expose them in the
+court-yard below. The nuns, from their grated
+windows above, see what they like, and, letting
+down a cord, the article is fastened to it; it is then
+<a name="png.132" id="png.132"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">133</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>drawn up and examined, and, if approved of, the
+price is let down. Some that I saw in the act of
+buying and selling in this way, were very merry,
+joking and laughing with the blacks below, and did
+not seem at all indisposed to do the same with my
+companion. In three of the lower windows, on a
+level with the court-yard, are revolving cupboards,
+like half-barrels, and at the back of each is a plate
+of tin, perforated like the top of a nutmeg-grater.
+The nuns of this convent are celebrated for making
+sweet confectionary, which people purchase.
+There is a bell which the purchaser applies to, and
+a nun peeps through the perforated tin; she then
+lays the dish on a shelf of the revolving cupboard,
+and turns it inside out; the dish is taken, the price
+laid in its place, and it is turned in. While we
+stood there, the invisible lady-warder asked for a
+pinch of snuff; the box was laid down in the same
+way, and turned in and out.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">CEREMONY OF THE INITIATION OF A NUN.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> disposition to take the veil, even among
+young girls, is not uncommon in Brazil. The opposition
+of friends can prevent it, until they are
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'twentyfive'">twenty-five</ins> years old; but after that time they are
+considered competent to decide for themselves. A
+writer describes the initiation of a young lady,
+whose wealthy parents were extremely reluctant to
+have her take the vow. She held a lighted torch
+in her hand, in imitation of the prudent virgins;
+and when the priest chanted, &ldquo;Your spouse approaches;
+come forth and meet him,&rdquo; she approached
+the altar singing, &ldquo;I follow with my whole
+heart;&rdquo; and, accompanied by two nuns already
+professed, she knelt before the bishop. She seemed
+<a name="png.133" id="png.133"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">134</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>very lovely, with an unusually sweet, gentle, and
+pensive countenance. She did not look particularly
+or deeply affected; but when she sung her responses,
+there was something exceedingly mournful
+in the soft, tremulous, and timid tones of her
+voice. The bishop now exhorted her to make a
+public profession of her vows before the congregation,
+and said, &ldquo;Will you persevere in your purpose
+of holy chastity?&rdquo; She blushed deeply, and,
+with a downcast look, lowly, but firmly answered,
+&ldquo;I will.&rdquo; He again said, more distinctly, &ldquo;Do you
+promise to preserve it?&rdquo; and she replied more emphatically,
+&ldquo;I do promise.&rdquo; The bishop then said,
+&ldquo;Thanks be to God;&rdquo; and she bent forward and
+reverently kissed his hand, while he asked her,
+&ldquo;Will you be blest and consecrated?&rdquo; She replied,
+&ldquo;Oh! I wish it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The habiliments, in which she was hereafter to
+be clothed, were sanctified by the aspersion of holy
+water: then followed several prayers to God, that
+&ldquo;As he had blessed the garments of Aaron, with
+ointment which flowed from his head to his beard,
+so he would now bless the garments of his servant,
+with the copious dew of his benediction.&rdquo; When
+the garment was thus blessed, the girl retired with
+it; and having laid aside the dress in which she
+had appeared, she returned, arrayed in her new attire,
+except her veil. A gold ring was next provided,
+and consecrated with a prayer, that she who
+wore it &ldquo;might be fortified with celestial virtue,
+to preserve a pure faith, and incorrupt fidelity to
+her spouse, Jesus Christ.&rdquo; He last took the veil,
+and her female attendants having uncovered her
+head, he threw it over her, so that it fell on her
+shoulders and bosom, and said, &ldquo;Receive this sacred
+veil, under the shadow of which you may learn
+to despise the world, and submit yourself truly, and
+with all humility of heart, to your Spouse;&rdquo; to
+<a name="png.134" id="png.134"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">135</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>which she sung a response, in a very sweet, soft,
+and touching voice: &ldquo;He has placed this veil before
+my face that I should see no lover but himself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The bishop now kindly took her hand, and held
+it while the following hymn was chanted by the
+choir with great harmony: &ldquo;Beloved Spouse,
+come&mdash;the winter is passed&mdash;the turtle sings, and
+the blooming vines are redolent of summer.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A crown, a necklace, and other female ornaments,
+were now taken by the bishop and separately
+blessed; and the girl bending forward, he
+placed them on her head and neck, praying that she
+might be thought worthy &ldquo;to be enrolled into the
+society of the hundred and <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'fortyfour'">forty-four</ins> thousand virgins,
+who preserved their chastity and did not mix
+with the society of impure women.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Last of all, he placed the ring on the middle finger
+of her right hand, and solemnly said, &ldquo;So I
+marry you to Jesus Christ, who will henceforth be
+your protector. Receive this ring, the pledge of
+your faith, that you may be called the spouse of
+God.&rdquo; She fell on her knees, and sung, &ldquo;I am
+married to him whom angels serve, whose beauty
+the sun and moon admire;&rdquo; then rising, and showing
+with exultation her right hand, she said, emphatically,
+as if to impress it on the attention of the
+congregation, &ldquo;My Lord has wedded me with this
+ring, and decorated me with a crown as his spouse.
+I here renounce and <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'despire'">despise</ins> all earthly ornaments
+for his sake, whom alone I see, whom alone I love,
+in whom alone I trust, and to whom alone I give all
+my affections. My heart hath uttered a good word:
+I speak of the deed I have done for my King.&rdquo;
+The bishop then pronounced a general benediction,
+and retired up to the altar; while the nun professed
+was borne off between her friends, with lighted tapers,
+and garlands waving.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.135" id="png.135"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">136</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>WEDDED LOVE IS INFINITELY PREFERABLE TO
+VARIETY.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="smc">Hail</span>, wedded love, mysterious law, true source</div>
+<div>Of human offspring, sole propriety,</div>
+<div>In Paradise of all things common else!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i2">By thee adult&#8217;rous lust was driven from men,</div>
+<div>Among the bestial herds to range; by thee,</div>
+<div>Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure,</div>
+<div>Relations dear, and all the charities</div>
+<div>Of father, son, and brother, first were known.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i2">Thou art the fountain of domestic sweets,</div>
+<div>Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced.</div>
+<div>Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights</div>
+<div>His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings,</div>
+<div>Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile</div>
+<div>Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendear&#8217;d,</div>
+<div><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'Easual'">Casual</ins> fruition; nor in court amours,</div>
+<div>Mix&#8217;d dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball,</div>
+<div>Or serenade, which the starved lover sings</div>
+<div>To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">ITALIAN DEBAUCHERY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">If</span> chastity is none of the most shining virtues of
+the French, it is still less so of the Italians. Almost
+all the travellers who have visited Italy, agree in
+describing it as the most abandoned of all the countries
+of Europe. At Venice, at Naples, and indeed
+in almost every part of Italy, women are
+taught from their infancy, the various arts of alluring
+<a name="png.136" id="png.136"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">137</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>to their arms, the young and unwary, and of obtaining
+from them, while heated by love or wine, every
+thing that flattery and false smiles can obtain in
+those unguarded moments: and so little infamous
+is the trade of prostitution, and so venal the women,
+that hardly any rank or condition set them above
+being bribed to it, nay, they are frequently assisted
+by their male friends and acquaintances to drive a
+good bargain; nor does their career of debauchery
+finish with their unmarried state; the vows of
+fidelity which they make at the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'alter'">altar</ins>, are like the
+vows and oaths made upon too many other occasions,
+only considered as nugatory forms, which
+law has obliged them to take, but custom absolved
+them from performing. They even claim and enjoy
+greater liberties after marriage than before;
+every married woman has a cicisbey, or gallant,
+who attends her to all public places, hands her in
+and out of her carriage, picks up her gloves or fan,
+and a thousand other little offices of the same natures;
+but this is only his public employment, as a
+reward for which, he is entitled to have the lady as
+often as he pleases at a place of retirement sacred
+to themselves, where no person not even the most
+intrusive husband must enter, to be witness of what
+passes between them. This has been considered
+by people of other nations, as a custom not altogether
+consistent with chastity and purity of manners;
+the Italians themselves however, endeavor to
+justify it in their conversations with strangers, and
+Baretti has of late years published a formal vindication
+of it to the world. In this vindication he has
+not only deduced the original of it from pure Platonic
+love, but would willingly persuade us that it
+is still continued upon the same mental principles;
+a doctrine which the world will hardly be credulous
+enough to swallow, even though he should offer
+more convincing arguments to support it than
+he has already done.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.137" id="png.137"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">138</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>NAKED FAKIERS</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">So</span> different over all the world are the sects of
+saints as well as of sinners, that besides the Bramins,
+a set of innocent and religious priests, who
+have rendered their women virtuous by treating
+them with kindness and humanity, there are another
+sect of religio-philosophical drones, called Fakiers,
+who contribute as much as they can to debauch
+the sex, under a pretence of superior sanctity.
+These hypocritical saints, like some of the
+ridiculous sects which formerly existed in Europe,
+wear no clothes; considering them only as proper
+appendages to sinners, who are ashamed, because
+they are sensible of guilt; while they, being free
+from every stain of pollution, have no shame to
+cover. In this original state of nature, these idle
+and pretended devotees, assemble together sometimes
+in armies of ten or twelve thousand, and under
+a pretence of going in pilgrimage to certain
+temples, like locusts devour every thing on their
+way; the men flying before them, and carrying all
+that they can out of the reach of their depredations;
+while the women, not in the least afraid of
+a naked army of lusty saints, throw themselves in
+their way, or remain quietly at home to receive
+them.</p>
+
+<p>It has long been an opinion, well established all
+over India, that there is not in nature so powerful
+a remedy for removing the sterility of women, as
+the prayers of these sturdy naked saints. On this
+account, barren women constantly apply to them
+for assistance; which when the good natured Fakier
+has an indication to grant, he leaves his slipper,
+or his staff at the door of the lady&#8217;s apartment
+with whom he is praying; a symbol so sacred, that
+it effectually prevents any one from violating the
+secrecy of their devotion; but should he forget this
+<a name="png.138" id="png.138"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">139</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>signal, and at the same time be distant from the
+protection of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'bis'">his</ins> brethren, a sound drubbing is frequently
+the reward of his pious endeavors. But
+though they venture sometimes in Hindostan, to
+treat a Fakier in this unholy manner, in other parts
+of Asia and Africa, such is the veneration in which
+these lusty saints are held, that they not only have
+access when they please, to perform private devotions
+with barren women, but are accounted so
+holy, that they may at any time, in public or private,
+confer a personal favor upon a woman, without
+bringing upon her either shame or guilt; and
+no woman dare refuse to gratify their passion.
+Nor indeed, has any one an inclination of this kind;
+because she, upon whom this personal favor has
+been conferred, is considered by herself, and by
+all the people, as having been sanctified and made
+more holy by the action.</p>
+
+<p>So much concerning the conduct of the Fakiers
+in debauching women, seems certain. But it is by
+travellers further related, that wherever they find a
+woman who is exceedingly handsome, they carry
+her off privately to one of their temples; but in
+such a manner, as to make her and the people believe,
+that she is carried away by the god who is
+there worshipped; who being violently in love
+with her, took that method to procure her for his
+wife. This done, they perform a nuptial ceremony,
+and make her further believe that she is married
+to the god; when, in reality, she is only married
+to one of the Fakiers who personates him.
+Women who are treated in this manner are revered
+by the people as the wives of the gods, and by that
+stratagem secured solely to the Fakiers, who have
+cunning enough to impose themselves as gods upon
+some of these women, through the whole of their
+lives. In countries where reason is stronger than
+superstition, we almost think this impossible:
+<a name="png.139" id="png.139"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">140</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>where the contrary is the case, there is nothing too
+hard to be credited. Something like this was done
+by the priests of ancient Greece and Rome; and a
+few centuries ago, tricks of the same nature were
+practiced by the monks, and other libertines, upon
+some of the visionary and enthusiastic women of
+Europe. Hence we need not think it strange, if
+the Fakiers generally succeed in attempts of this
+nature; when we consider that they only have to
+deceive a people brought up in the most consummate
+ignorance; and that nothing can be more flattering
+to female vanity, than for a woman to suppose
+herself such a peculiar favorite of the divinity she
+worships, as to be chosen, from all her companions,
+to the honor of being admitted to his embraces; a
+favor, which her self-admiration will dispose her
+more readily to believe than examine.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">MAHOMETAN PLURALITY OF WIVES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">But</span> it is not the religion of the Hindoos only,
+that is unfavorable to chastity; that of Mahomet
+which now prevails over a great part of India, is
+unfavorable to it likewise. Mahometanism every
+where indulges men with a plurality of wives
+while it ties down the women to the strictest conjugal
+fidelity; hence, while the men riot in unlimited
+variety, the women are in great numbers confined
+to share among them the scanty favors of one
+man only. This unnatural and impolitic conduct
+induces them to seek by art and intrigue, what they
+are denied by the laws of their prophet. As polygamy
+prevails over all Asia, this art and intrigue
+follow as the consequence of it; some have imagined,
+that it is the result of climate, but it rather
+appears to be the result of the injustice which
+<a name="png.140" id="png.140"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">141</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>women suffer by polygamy; for it seems to reign, as
+much in Constantinople, and in every other place
+where polygamy is in fashion, as it does on the
+banks of the Ganges, or the Indus. The famous
+Montesquieu, whose system was, that the passions
+are entirely regulated by the climate, brings as a
+proof of this system, a story from the collection of
+voyages for the establishment of an East India
+Company, in which it is said, that at Patan, &ldquo;the
+wanton desires of the women are so outrageous,
+that the men are obliged to make use of a certain
+apparel to shelter them from their designs.&rdquo; Were
+this story really true, it would be but a partial proof
+of the effect of climate, for why should the burning
+suns of Patan only influence the passions of the
+fair? Why should they there transport that sex
+beyond decency, which in all other climates is the
+most decent? And leave in so cool and defensive
+a state, that sex, which in all other climates is apt
+to be the most offensive and indecent? To whatever
+length the spirit of intrigue may be carried in
+Asia and Africa, however the passions of the women
+may prompt them to excite desire, and to
+throw themselves in the way of gratification, we
+have the strongest reasons to reprobate all these
+stories, which would make us believe, that they are
+so lost to decency as to attack the other sex: such
+a system would be overturning nature, and inverting
+the established laws by which she governs the
+world.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">WOMEN OF OTAHEITE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> Otaheite, an island in the Southern Ocean, we
+are presented with women of a singular character.
+As far as we can recollect, we think it is a pretty
+<a name="png.141" id="png.141"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">142</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>general rule, that whatever the sex are accustomed
+to be constantly clothed, they are ashamed to appear
+naked: those of Otaheite seem however to be
+an exception to this rule; to show themselves in
+public, with or without clothing, appears to be to
+them a matter of equal indifference, and the exposition
+of any part of their bodies, is not attended
+with the least backwardness or reluctance; circumstances
+from which we may reasonably infer, that
+among them, clothes were not originally invented
+to cover shame, but either as ornaments, or as a
+defence against the cold. But a still more striking
+singularity in the character of these women, and
+which distinguishes them not only from the females
+of all other nations, but likewise from those of almost
+all other animals, is, their performing in public
+those rites, which in every other part of the
+globe, and among almost all animals, are performed
+in privacy and retirement: whether this is the effect
+of innocence, or of a dissoluteness of manners
+to which no other people have yet arrived, remains
+still to be discovered; that they are dissolute, even
+beyond any thing we have hitherto recorded, is but
+too certain. As polygamy is not allowed among
+them, to satisfy the lust of variety, they have a society
+called Arreoy, in which every woman is common
+to every man; and when any of these women
+happens to have a child, it is smothered in the moment
+of its birth, that it may not interrupt the pleasures
+of its infamous mother; but in this juncture,
+should nature relent at so horrid a deed, even then
+the mother is not allowed to save her child, unless
+she can find a man who will patronise it as a father;
+in which case, the man is considered as having appropriated
+the woman to himself, and she is accordingly
+extruded from this hopeful society.
+These few anecdotes sufficiently characterise the
+women of this island.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.142" id="png.142"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">143</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>CRIM. CON. OF CLAUDIUS AND POMPEIA.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Our</span> own times furnish us with an instance of a
+ceremony from which all women are carefully excluded;<sup><a href="#fn.2"
+ name="fna.2" id="fna.2">2</a></sup>
+but the Roman ladies, in performing the
+rites sacred to the good goddess, were even more
+afraid of the men than our masons are of women;
+for we are told by some authors, that so cautious
+were they of concealment, that even the statutes
+and pictures of men and other male animals were
+hood-winked with a thick veil. The house of the
+consul, though commonly so large that they might
+have been perfectly secured against all intrusion in
+some remote apartment of it, was obliged to be
+evacuated by all male animals, and even the consul
+himself was not suffered to remain in it. Before
+they began their ceremonies, every corner and
+lurking place in the house was carefully searched,
+and no caution omitted to prevent all possibility of
+being discovered by impertinent curiosity, or disturbed
+by presumptive intrusion. But these cautions
+were not all the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'gaurd'">guard</ins> that was placed around
+them; The laws of the Romans made it death for
+any man to be present at the solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>Such being the precautions, and such the penalties
+for insuring the secrecy of this ceremony, it
+was only once attempted to be violated, though it
+existed from the foundation of the Roman empire
+till the introduction of Christianity; and this attempt
+was made, not so much perhaps with a view
+to be present at the ceremony, as to fulfil an assignation
+with a mistress. Pompeia, the wife of
+Cæsar, having been suspected of a criminal correspondence
+with Claudius, and so closely watched
+that she could find no opportunity of gratifying her
+passion, at last, by the means of a female slave,
+<a name="png.143" id="png.143"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">144</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>settled an assignation with him at the celebration of
+the rites of the good goddess. Claudius was directed
+to come in the habit of a singing girl, a character
+he could easily personate, being young and of
+a fair complexion. As soon as the slave saw him
+enter, she ran to inform her mistress. The mistress
+eager to meet her lover, immediately left the
+company and threw herself into his arms, but could
+not be prevailed upon by him to return so soon as
+he thought necessary for their mutual safety; upon
+which he left her, and began to take a walk through
+the rooms, always avoiding the light as much as
+possible. While he was thus walking by himself,
+a maid servant accosted him, and desired him to
+sing; he took no notice of her, but she followed
+and urging him so closely, that he was at last
+obliged to speak. His voice betrayed his sex; the
+maid servant shrieked, and running into the room
+where the rites were performing, told that a man
+was in the house. The women in the utmost consternation,
+threw a veil ever the mysteries, ordered
+the doors to be secured, and with lights in their
+hands, ran about the house searching for the sacrilegious
+intruder. They found him in the apartment
+of the slave who had admitted him, drove him out
+with ignominy, and, though it was in the middle of
+the night immediately dispersed, to give an account
+to their husbands of what had happened. Claudius
+was soon after accused of having profaned the
+holy rites; but the populace declaring in his favor,
+the judges, fearing an insurrection, were obliged to
+acquit him.</p>
+
+<hr class="footnote" />
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a href="#fna.2" name="fn.2" id="fn.2">2</a> Masonry</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.144" id="png.144"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">145</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>A WORD TO A VERY NICE CLASS OF LADIES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">There</span> is amongst us a female character,
+not uncommon, which we denominate the outrageously
+virtuous. Women of this stamp never fail
+to seize all opportunities of exclaiming, in the bitterest
+manner, against every one upon whom even
+the slightest suspicion of indiscretion or unchastity
+has fallen; taking care, as they go along, to magnify
+every mole-hill into a mountain, and every
+thoughtless freedom into the blackest of crimes.
+But besides the illiberality of thus treating such as
+may frequently be innocent, you may credit us, dear
+countrywomen, when we aver, that such a behavior,
+instead of making you appear more virtuous,
+only draws down upon you, by those who know
+the world, suspicions not much to your advantage.
+Your sex are in general suspected by ours, of being
+too much addicted to scandal and defamation; a suspicion,
+which has not arisen of late years, as we
+find in the ancient laws of England a punishment,
+known by the name of ducking-stool, annexed to
+scolding and defamation in the women, though no
+such punishment nor crime is taken notice of in
+the men. This crime, however, we persuade ourselves,
+you are less guilty of, than is commonly believed:
+but there is another of a nature not more
+excusable, from which we cannot so much exculpate
+you; which is, that harsh and forbidding appearance
+you put on, and that ill treatment, which
+you no doubt think necessary, for the illustration of
+your own virtue, you should bestow on every one
+of your sex who has deviated from the path of rectitude.
+A behaviour of this nature, besides being
+so opposite to that meek and gentle spirit which
+should distinguish female nature, is in every respect
+contrary to the charitable and forgiving
+<a name="png.145" id="png.145"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">146</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>temper of the Christian religion, and infallibly shuts
+the door of repentance against an unfortunate sister,
+willing, perhaps, to abandon the vices into
+which heedless inadvertency had plunged her, and
+from which none of you can promise yourselves an
+absolute security.</p>
+
+<p>We wish not, fair countrywomen, like the declaimer
+and satirist, to paint you all vice and imperfection,
+nor, like the venal panegyrist, to exhibit
+you all virtue. As impartial historians, we confess
+that you have, in the present age, many virtues
+and good qualities, which were either nearly or altogether
+unknown to your ancestors; but do you
+not exceed them in some follies and vices also? Is
+not the levity, dissipation, and extravagance of the
+women of this century arrived to a pitch unknown
+and unheard of in former times? Is not the course
+which you steer in life, almost entirely directed by
+vanity and fashion? And are there not too many
+of you who, throwing aside reason and good conduct,
+and despising the counsel of your friends and
+relations, seem determined to follow the mode of
+the world, however it may be mixed with vice?
+Do not the generality of you dress, and appear
+above your station, and are not many of you
+ashamed to be seen performing the duties of it?
+To sum up all, do not too, too many of you act as
+if you thought the care of a family, and the other
+domestic virtues, beneath your attention, and that
+the sole end for which you were sent into the world,
+was to please and divert yourselves, at the expense
+of those poor wretches the men, whom you consider
+as obliged to support you in every kind of idleness
+and extravagance? While such is your conduct,
+and while the contagion is every day increasing,
+you are not to be surprised if the men, still
+fond of you as playthings in the hours of mirth
+and revelry, ever shun serious connection with you;
+<a name="png.146" id="png.146"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">147</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and while they wish to be possessed of your charms,
+are so much afraid of your manners and conduct,
+that they prefer the cheerless state of a bachelor, to
+the numberless evils arising from being tied to a
+modern wife.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">CUSTOM IN THE MOGUL EMPIRE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> a variety of parts of the Mogul empire, when
+the women are carried abroad, they are put into a
+kind of machine like a chariot, and placed on the
+backs of camels, or in covered sedan chairs, and
+surrounded by a guard of eunuchs and armed men,
+in such a manner, that a stranger would rather suppose
+the cavalcade to be carrying some desperate
+villain to execution, than employed to prevent the
+intrigues or escape of a defenceless woman. At
+home, the sex are covered with gauze veils, which
+they dare not take off in the presence of any man,
+except their husband, or some near relation. Over
+the greatest part of Asia, and some parts of Africa,
+women are guarded by eunuchs, made incapable of
+violating their chastity. In Spain, where the natives
+are the descendants of the Africans, and
+whose jealousy is not less strong than that of their
+ancestors, they, for many centuries, made use of padlocks
+to secure the chastity of their women; but finding
+these ineffectual, they frequently had recourse
+to old women, called Gouvernantes. It had been
+discovered, that men deprived of their virility, did
+not guard female virtue so strictly, as to be incapable
+of being bribed to allow another a taste of those
+pleasures they themselves were incapable of enjoying.
+The Spaniards, sensible of this, imagined,
+that vindictive old women were more likely to be
+incorruptible; as envy would stimulate them to
+<a name="png.147" id="png.147"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">148</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>prevent the young from enjoying those pleasures,
+which they themselves had no longer any chance
+for; but all powerful gold soon overcame even this
+obstacle; and the Spaniards, at present, seem to
+give up all restrictive methods, and to trust the virtue
+of their women to good principles, instead of
+rigor and hard usage.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">CUSTOM OF THE MUSCOVITES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc"><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original is not small-capped">If</ins></span> the laws forbidding the marriage of near relations
+with each other, originated from the political
+view of preserving the human race from degeneracy,
+they are the only laws we meet with on that
+subject, and exert almost the only care we find taken
+of so important a matter. The Asiatic is careful
+to improve the breed of his elephants, the Arabian
+of his horses, and the Laplander of his reindeer.
+The Englishman, eager to have swift horses,
+staunch dogs, and victorious cocks, grudges no
+care and spares no expense, to have the males and
+females matched properly; but since the days of
+Solon, where is the legislator, or since the days of
+the ancient Greeks, where are the private persons
+who take any care to improve, or even to keep
+from degeneracy the breed of their own species?
+The Englishman who solicitously attends the
+training of his colts and puppies, would be ashamed
+to be caught in the nursery; and while no motive
+could prevail upon him to breed horses or hounds
+from an improper or contaminated kind, he will
+calmly, or rather inconsiderately, match himself
+with the most decrepid or diseased of the human
+species; thoughtless of the weaknesses and evils
+he is going to entail on posterity, and considering
+nothing but the acquisition of fortune he is by her
+<a name="png.148" id="png.148"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">149</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>alliance to convey to an offspring, by diseases rendered
+unable to use it. The Muscovites were formerly
+the only people, besides the Greeks, who
+paid a proper attention to this subject. After the
+preliminaries of a marriage were settled between
+the parents of a young couple, the bride was stripped
+naked, and carefully examined by a jury of
+matrons, when if they found any bodily defect
+they endeavored to cure it; but if it would admit
+of no remedy, the match was broke off, and she
+was considered not only as a very improper subject
+to breed from, but improper also for maintaining the
+affections of a husband, after he had discovered the
+imposition she had put upon him.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">SALE OF CHILDREN TO PURCHASE WIVES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> Timor, an island in the Indian Ocean, it is
+said, that parents sell their children in order to purchase
+more wives. In Circassia, women are reared
+and improved in beauty and every alluring art,
+only for the purpose of being sold. The prince of
+the Circassians demanded of the prince of Mingrelia
+an hundred slaves loaded with tapestry, an hundred
+cows, as many oxen, and the same number of
+horses, as the price of his sister. In New-Zealand,
+we meet with a custom which may be called purchasing
+a wife for a night, and which is proof that
+those must also be purchased who are intended for
+a longer duration; and what to us is a little supprising,
+this temporary wife, insisted upon being
+treated with as much deference and respect, as if
+she had been married for life; but in general, this
+is not the case in other countries, for the wife who
+is purchased, is always <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'traiued'">trained</ins> up in the principles
+of slavery; and, being inured to every indignity
+<a name="png.149" id="png.149"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">150</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and mortification from her parents, she expects
+no better treatment from her husband.</p>
+
+<p>There is little difference in the condition of her
+who is put to sale by her sordid parents, and her
+who is disposed of in the same manner by the magistrates,
+as a part of the state&#8217;s property. Besides
+those we have already mentioned in this work, the
+Thracians put the fairest of their virgins up to
+public sale, and the magistrates of Crete had the
+sole power of choosing partners in marriage for
+their young men; and, in the execution of this
+power, the affection and interest of the parties
+was totally overlooked, and the good of the state
+the only object of attention; in pursuing which,
+they always allotted the strongest and best made
+of the sex to one another, that they might raise up
+a generation of warriors, or of women fit to be
+the mothers of warriors.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">POLYGAMY AND CONCUBINAGE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Polygamy</span> and concubinage having in process
+of time become fashionable vices, the number of
+women kept by the great became at last more an
+article of grandeur and state, than a mode of satisfying
+the animal appetite: Solomon had threescore
+queens, and <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'forescore'">fourscore</ins> concubines, and virgins
+without number. Maimon tells us, that
+among the Jews a man might have as many wives
+as he pleased, even to the number of a hundred,
+and that it was not in their power to prevent him,
+provided he could maintain, and pay them all the
+conjugal debt once a week; but in this duty he
+was not to run in arrear to any of them above a
+month, though with regard to concubines he might
+do as he pleased.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.150" id="png.150"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">151</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>It would be an endless task to enumerate all the
+nations which practised polygamy; we shall, therefore,
+only mention a few, where the practice
+seemed to vary something from the common method.
+The ancient Sabæans are not only said to
+have had a plurality, but even a community of
+wives; a thing strongly inconsistent with that
+spirit of jealousy which prevails among men in
+most countries where polygamy is allowed. The
+ancient Germans were so strict monogamists,<sup><a href="#fn.3"
+ name="fna.3" id="fna.3">3</a></sup>
+that they reckoned it a species of polygamy for a
+woman to marry a second husband even after the
+death of the first. &ldquo;A woman (say they) has but
+one life, and but one body, therefore should have
+but one husband;&rdquo; and besides, they added, &ldquo;that
+she who knows she is never to have a second husband,
+will the more value and endeavor to promote
+the happiness and preserve the life of the first.&rdquo;
+Among the Heruli this idea was carried farther, a
+woman was obliged to strangle herself at the death
+of her husband, lest she should, afterwards marry
+another; so detestable was <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'polygmay'">polygamy</ins> in the North,
+while in the East it is one of these rights which
+they most of all others esteem, and maintain with
+such inflexible firmness, that it will probably be one
+of the last of those that it will wrest out of their
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>The Egyptians, it is probable, did not allow of
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'polgyamy'">polygamy</ins>, and as the Greeks borrowed their institutions
+from them, it was also forbid by the laws
+of Cecrops, though concubinage seems either to
+have been allowed or overlooked; for in the
+Odyssey of Homer we find Ulysses declaring himself
+to be the son of a concubine, which he would
+probably not have done, had any degree of infamy
+been annexed to it. In some cases, however, polygamy
+<a name="png.151" id="png.151"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">152</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>was allowed in Greece, from a mistaken notion
+that it would increase population. The Athenians,
+once thinking the number of their citizens diminished,
+decreed that it should be lawful for a
+man to have children by another woman as well
+as by his wife; besides this, particular instances
+occur of some who have transgressed the law of
+monogamy. Euripides is said to have had two
+wives, who, by their constant disagreement, gave
+him a dislike to the whole sex; a supposition
+which receives some weight from these lines of
+his in Andromache:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i10">ne&#8217;er will I commend</div>
+<div>More beds, more wives than one, nor children curs&#8217;d</div>
+<div>With double mothers, banes and plagues of life.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Socrates too had two wives, but <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'the the'">the</ins> poor culprit
+had as much reason to repent of his temerity
+as Euripides.</p>
+
+<hr class="footnote" />
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a href="#fna.3" name="fn.3" id="fn.3">3</a>
+ Monogamy is having only one wife.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">EUNUCHS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">As</span> the appetite towards the other sex is one of
+the strongest and most ungovernable in our nature;
+as it intrudes itself more than any other into our
+thoughts, and frequently diverts them from every
+other purpose or employment; it may, at first, on
+this account, have been reckoned criminal when it
+interfered with worship and devotion; and emasculation
+was made use of in order to get rid of it, which
+may, perhaps, have been the origin of Eunuchs.
+But however this be, it is certain, that there were
+men of various religions who made themselves incapable
+of procreation on a religious account, as
+we are told that the priests of Cybele constantly
+castrated themselves; and by our Saviour, that
+there are eunuchs who make themselves such for
+the kingdom of heaven&#8217;s sake.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.152" id="png.152"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">153</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>GIRLS SOLD AT AUCTION.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> ancient Assyrians seem more thoroughly
+to have settled and digested the affairs of marriage,
+than any of their <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ legitimate archaic spelling">cotemporaries</ins>. Once in every
+year they assembled together all the girls that were
+marriageable, when the public crier put them up to
+sale, one after another. For her whose figure
+was agreeable, and whose beauty was attracting,
+the rich strove against each other, who should give
+the highest price; which price was put into a public
+stock, and distributed in portions to those whom
+nobody would accept without a reward. After
+the most beautiful were disposed of, these were
+also put up by the crier, and a certain sum of money
+offered with each, proportioned to what it was
+thought she stood in need of to bribe a husband to
+accept her. When a man offered to accept of any
+of them, on the terms upon which she was exposed
+to sale, the crier proclaimed that such a man
+had proposed to take such a woman, with such a
+sum of money along with her, provided none
+could be found who would <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'taker'">take</ins> her with less;
+and in this manner the sale went on, till she was
+at last allotted to him who offered to take her with
+the smallest portion.&mdash;When this public sale was
+over, the purchasers of those that were beautiful
+were not allowed to take them away, till they had
+paid down the price agreed on, and given sufficient
+security that they would marry them; nor, on the
+other hand, would those who were to have a premium
+for accepting of such as were less beautiful,
+take a delivery of them, till their portions were
+previously paid.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.153" id="png.153"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">154</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>SALE OF A WIFE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc"><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original is not small-capped">In</ins></span> England, the sale of a wife sometimes occurs,
+even at the present day, of which the following is
+an example, from the Lancaster Herald.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Sale of a wife at Carlisle</i>&mdash;The inhabitants of
+this city lately witnessed the sale of a wife by her
+husband, Joseph Thompson, who resides in a
+small village about <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'thee'">three</ins> miles distant, and rents a
+farm of about forty-two or forty-four acres. She
+was a spruce, lively, buxom damsel, apparently
+not exceeding twenty-two years of age, and appeared
+to feel a pleasure at the exchange she was
+about to make. They had no children during
+their union, and that, with some family disputes,
+caused them by mutual agreement to come to the
+resolution of finally parting. Accordingly, the
+bellman was sent round to give public notice of the
+sale, which was to take place at twelve o&#8217;clock;
+and this announcement attracted the notice of
+thousands. She appeared above the crowd, standing
+on a large oak chair, surrounded by many of
+her friends, with a rope or halter, made of straw,
+round her neck, being dressed in rather a fashionable
+country style, and appearing to some advantage.
+The husband, who was also standing in an
+elevated position near her, proceeded to put her up
+for sale, and spoke nearly as follows:&mdash;&lsquo;Gentlemen,
+I have to offer to your notice my wife, Mary
+Anne Thompson, otherwise Williamson, whom I
+mean to sell to the highest and fairest bidder. It
+is her wish as well as mine to part for ever. I
+took her for my comfort, and the good of my
+house, but she has become my tormentor and a
+domestic curse, &amp;c. &amp;c. Now I have shown you
+her faults and failings, I will explain her qualifications
+<a name="png.154" id="png.154"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">155</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and goodness. She can read fashionable novels
+and milk cows; she can laugh and weep with
+the same ease that you can take a glass of ale;
+she can make butter, and scold the maid; she can
+sing Moore&#8217;s melodies, and plait her frills and caps;
+she cannot make rum, gin, or whiskey, but she is a
+good judge of their quality from long experience
+in tasting them, I therefore offer her, with all her
+perfections and imperfections, for the sum of fifty
+shillings.&rsquo;&mdash;After an hour or two, she was purchased
+by Henry Mears, a pensioner, for the sum of
+twenty shillings and a <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'New-foundland'">Newfoundland</ins> dog. The
+happy pair immediately left town together, amidst
+the shouts and huzzas of the multitude, in which
+they were joined by Thompson, who, with the
+greatest good-humor imaginable, proceeded to put
+the halter, which his wife had taken off, round the
+neck of his Newfoundland dog, and then proceeded
+to the first public house, where he spent the
+remainder of the day.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">PUNISHMENT OF ADULTERY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">As</span> fidelity to the marriage-bed, especially on
+the part of woman, has always been considered
+as one of the most essential duties of matrimony,
+wise legislators, in order to secure that benefit
+have annexed punishment to the act of adultery;
+these punishments, however, have generally some
+reference to the manner in which wives were acquired,
+and to the value stamped upon woman by
+civilization and politeness of manners. It is ordained
+by the Mosaic code, that both the men and
+the women taken in adultery shall be stoned to
+death; whence it would seem, that no more latitude
+was given to the male than to the female.
+<a name="png.155" id="png.155"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">156</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>But this is not the case; such an unlimited power
+of concubinage was given to the men, that we may
+suppose him highly licentious indeed, who could
+not be satisfied therewith, without committing adultery.
+The Egyptians, among whom women were
+greatly esteemed, had a singular method of punishing
+adulterers of both sexes; they cut off the privy
+parts of the man, that he might never be able to
+debauch another woman; and the nose of the woman,
+that she might never be the object of temptation
+to another man.</p>
+
+<p>Punishments nearly of the same nature, and perhaps
+nearly about the same time, were instituted
+in the East Indies against adulterers; but while
+those of the Egyptians originated from a love of
+virtue and of their woman, those of the Hindoos
+probably arose from jealousy and revenge. It is
+ordained by the Shaster, that if a man commit adultery
+with a woman of a superior <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ OED lists 'cast' as a common earlier spelling of 'caste'">cast</ins>, he shall be
+put to death; if by force he commit adultery with
+a woman of an equal or inferior cast, the magistrate
+shall confiscate all his possessions, cut off his
+genitals, and cause him to be carried round the
+city, mounted on a ass. If by fraud he commit
+adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior cast,
+the magistrate shall take his possessions, brand him
+in the forehead, and banish him the kingdom.
+Such are the laws of the Shaster, so far as they
+regard all the superior casts, except the Bramins;
+but if any of the most inferior casts commit adultery
+with a woman of the casts greatly superior,
+he is not only to be dismembered, but tied to a hot
+iron plate, and burnt to death; whereas the highest
+casts may commit adultery with the very lowest,
+for the most trifling fine; and a Bramin, or
+priest, can only suffer by having the hair of his
+head cut off; and, like the clergy of Europe, while
+under the dominion of the Pope, he cannot be put
+<a name="png.156" id="png.156"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">157</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>to death for any crime whatever. But the laws,
+of which he is always the interpreter, are not so
+favorable to his wife; they inflict a severe disgrace
+upon her, if she commit adultery with any of the
+higher casts; but if with the lowest, the magistrate
+shall cut off her hair, anoint her body with Ghee,
+and cause her to be carried through the whole city,
+naked, and riding upon an ass; and shall cast her
+out on the north side of the city, or cause her to be
+eaten by dogs. If a woman of any of the other
+casts goes to a man, and entices him to have criminal
+correspondence with her, the magistrate shall
+cut off her ears, lips and nose, mount her upon an
+ass, and drown her, or throw her to the dogs. To
+the commission of adultery with a dancing girl, or
+prostitute, no punishment nor fine is annexed.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">ANECDOTE OF CÆSAR.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">When</span> Cæsar had subdued all his competitors,
+and most of the foreign nations which made war
+against him, he found that so many Romans had
+been destroyed in the quarrels in which he had often
+engaged them, that, to repair the loss, he promised
+rewards to fathers of families, and forbade all Romans
+who were above twenty, and under forty
+years of age, to go out of their native country.
+Augustus, his successor, to check the debauchery of
+the Roman youth, laid heavy taxes upon such as
+continued unmarried after a certain age, and encouraged
+with great rewards, the procreation of
+lawful children. Some years afterwards, the Roman
+knights having pressingly petitioned him that
+he would relax the severity of that law, he ordered
+their whole body to assemble before him, and the
+married and unmarried to arrange themselves in
+<a name="png.157" id="png.157"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">158</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>two separate parties, when, observing the unmarried
+to be much the greater company, he first addressed
+those who had complied with his law, telling
+them, that they alone had served the purposes of
+nature and society; that the human race was created
+male and female to prevent the extinction of the
+species; and that marriage was contrived as the
+most proper method of renewing the children
+of that species. He added, that they alone deserved
+the name of men and fathers, and that he would
+prefer them to such offices, as they might transmit
+to their posterity. Then turning to the bachelors,
+he told them, that he knew not by what
+name to call them; not by that of men, for they
+had done nothing that was manly; nor by that of
+citizens, since the city might perish for them; nor
+by that of Romans, for they seemed determined to
+let the race and name become extinct; but by whatever
+name he called them, their crime, he said,
+equalled all other crimes put together, for they
+were guilty of murder, in not suffering those to be
+born who should proceed from them; of impiety,
+in abolishing the names and honors of their fathers
+and ancestors; of sacrilege, in destroying their
+species, and human nature, which owed its original
+to the gods, and was consecrated to them; that
+by leading a single life they overturned, as far as
+in them lay, the temples and altars of the gods;
+dissolved the government, by disobeying its laws;
+betrayed their country, by making it barren.
+Having ended his speech, he doubled the rewards
+and privileges of such as had children, and laid a
+heavy fine on all unmarried persons, by reviving
+the Poppæan law.</p>
+
+<p>Though by this law all the males above a certain
+age were obliged to marry under a severe penalty,
+Augustus allowed them the space of a full
+year to comply with its demands; but such was the
+<a name="png.158" id="png.158"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">159</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>backwardness to matrimony, and perversity of the
+Roman knights, and others, that every possible
+method was taken to evade the penalty inflicted
+upon them, and some of them even married children
+in the cradle for that purpose; thus fulfilling
+the letter, they avoided the spirit of the law, and
+though actually married, had no restraint upon their
+licentiousness, nor any incumbrance by the expense
+of a family.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">POWER OF MARRYING.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Among</span> nations which had shaken off the authority
+of the church of Rome, the priests still retained
+almost an exclusive power of joining men and
+women together in marriage. This appears rather,
+however, to have been by the tacit consent of the
+civil power, than from any defect in its right and
+authority; for in the time of Oliver Cromwell, marriages
+were solemnized frequently by the justices of
+the peace; and the clergy neither attempted to invalidate
+them, nor make the children proceeding
+from them illegitimate; and when the province of
+New England was first settled, one of the earliest
+laws of the colony was, that the power of marrying
+should belong to the magistrates. How different
+was the case with the first French settlers in
+Canada! For many years a priest had not been
+seen in the country, and a magistrate could not
+marry: the consequence was natural; men and
+woman joined themselves together as husband and
+wife, trusting to the vows and promises of each
+other. Father Charlevoix, a Jesuit, at last travelled
+into those wild regions, found many of the simple,
+innocent inhabitants living in that manner;
+with all of whom he found much fault, enjoined
+them to do penance, and afterwards married them.
+<a name="png.159" id="png.159"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">160</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>After the Restoration, the power of marrying
+again reverted to the clergy. The magistrate,
+however, had not entirely resigned his right to that
+power; but it was by a late act of parliament entirely
+surrendered to them, and a penalty annexed
+to the solemnization of it by any other person whatever.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">At</span> a synod held at Winchester under St. Dunstan,
+the monks averred, that so highly criminal
+was it for a priest to marry, that even a
+wooden cross had audibly declared against the
+horrid practice. Others place the first attempt of
+this kind, to the account of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'Alefrick'">Aelfrick</ins>, archbishop of
+Canterbury, about the beginning of the eleventh
+century; however this may be, we have among
+the canons a decree of the archbishops of Canterbury,
+and York, ordaining, That all ministers of
+God, especially priests, should observe chastity,
+and not take wives: and in the year 1076, there
+was a council assembled at Winchester, under
+Lanfranc, which decreed, that no canon should have
+a wife; that such priests as lived in castles and villages
+should not be obliged to put their wives
+away, but that such as had none should not be allowed
+to marry; and that bishops should not ordain
+priests or deacons, unless they previously declared
+that they were not married. In the year
+1102, archbishop Anselm held a council at Westminster,
+where it was decreed, that no archdeacon,
+priest, deacon, or canon, should either marry a
+wife, or <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'retainer'">retain</ins> her if he had one. Anselm, to
+give this decree greater weight, desired of the
+king, that the principal men of the kingdom
+might be present at the council, and that the
+<a name="png.160" id="png.160"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">161</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>decree might be enforced by the joint consent both
+of the clergy and laity; the king consented, and to
+these canons the whole realm gave a general
+sanction. The clergy of the province of York,
+however, remonstrated against them, and refused
+to put away their wives; the unmarried refused
+also to oblige themselves to continue in that state;
+nor were the clergy of Canterbury much more
+tractable.</p>
+
+<p>In the celibacy of the clergy, we may discover
+also the origin of nunneries; the intrigues they
+could procure, while at confession, were only short,
+occasional, and with women whom they could not
+entirely appropriate to themselves; to remedy
+which, they probably fabricated the scheme of
+having religious houses, where young women
+should be shut up from the world, and where no
+man but a priest, on pain of death, should enter.
+That in these dark retreats, secluded from censure,
+and from the knowledge of the world, they might
+riot in licentiousness. They were sensible, that
+women, surrounded with the gay and the amiable,
+might frequently spurn at the offers of a cloistered
+priest, but that while confined entirely to their own
+sex, they would take pleasure in a visit from one
+of the other, however slovenly and unpolished.
+In the world at large, should the crimes of the women
+be detected, the priests have no interest in
+mitigating their punishment; but here the whole
+community of them are interested in the secret of
+every intrigue, and should Lucinda unluckily proclaim
+it, she can seldom do it without the walls of
+the convent, and if she does, the priests lay the
+crime on some luckless laic, that the holy culprit
+may come off with impunity.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.161" id="png.161"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">162</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>DESPERATE ACT OF EUTHIRA.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> ancient and modern history, we are frequently
+presented with accounts of women, who, preferring
+death to slavery or prostitution, sacrificed their
+lives with the most undaunted courage to avoid
+them. Apollodorus tells us, that Hercules having
+taken the city of Troy, prior to the famous <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'seige'">siege</ins> of
+it celebrated by Homer, carried away captive the
+daughters of Laomedon then king. One of these,
+named Euthira, being left with several other Trojan
+captives on board the Grecian fleet, while the
+sailors went on shore to take in fresh provisions,
+had the resolution to propose, and the power to
+persuade her companions, to set the ships on fire,
+and to perish themselves amid the devouring flames.
+The women of Ph&oelig;nicia met together before an
+engagement which was to decide the fate of their
+city, and having agreed to bury themselves in the
+flames, if their husbands and relations were defeated,
+in the enthusiasm of their courage and resolution,
+they crowned her with flowers who first
+made the proposal. Many instances occur in the
+history of the Romans of the Gauls and Germans,
+and of other nations in subsequent periods; where
+women being driven to despair by their enemies,
+have bravely defended their walls, or waded
+through fields of blood to assist their countrymen,
+and free themselves from slavery or from ravishment.
+Such heroic efforts are beauties, even in
+the character of the softer sex, when they proceed
+from necessity: when from choice, they are blemishes
+of the most unnatural kind, indicating a heart
+of cruelty, lodged in a form which has the appearance
+of gentleness and peace.</p>
+
+<p>It has been alleged by some of the writers on
+human nature, that to the fair sex the loss of beauty
+<a name="png.162" id="png.162"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">163</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>is more alarming and insupportable than the loss of
+life; but even this loss, however opposite to the
+feelings of their nature, they have voluntarily consented
+to sustain, that they might not be the objects
+of temptation to the lawless ravisher. The
+nuns of a convent in France, fearing they should
+be violated by a ruffian army, which had taken by
+storm the town in which their convent was situated,
+at the recommendation of their abbess, mutually
+agreed to cut off all their noses, that they might
+save their chastity by becoming objects of disgust
+instead of desire. Were we to descend to particulars,
+we could give innumerable instances of women,
+who from Semiramis down to the present
+time, have distinguished themselves by their courage.
+Such was Penthesilea, who, if we may credit
+ancient story, led her army of viragoes to the assistance
+of Priam, king of Troy; Thomyris, who encountered
+Cyrus, king of Persia; and Thalestris,
+famous for her fighting, as well as for her amours
+with Alexander the Great. Such was the brave
+but ill-fated Boadicea, queen of the Britons, who
+led on that people to revenge the wrongs done to
+herself and her country by the Romans. And in
+later periods, such were the Maid of Orleans, and
+Margaret of Anjou; which last, according to several
+historians, commanded at no less than twelve
+pitched battles. But we do not choose to multiply
+instances of this nature, as we have already said
+enough to shew, that the sex are not destitute of
+courage when that virtue becomes necessary; and
+were they possessed of it, when unnecessary, it
+would divest them of one of the principal qualities
+for which we love, and for which we value them.
+No woman was ever held up as a pattern to her
+sex, because she was intrepid and brave; no woman
+ever conciliated the affections of the men, by
+rivalling them in what they reckon the peculiar excellencies
+of their own character.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.163" id="png.163"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">164</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>LUXURIOUS DRESS OF THE GRECIAN LADIES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">As</span> the Greeks emerged from the barbarity of the
+heroic ages, among other articles of culture, they
+began to bestow more attention on the convenience
+and elegance of dress. At Athens, the ladies commonly
+employ the whole morning in dressing themselves
+in a decent and becoming manner; their toilet
+consisted in paints and washes, of such a nature
+as to cleanse and beautify the skin, and they took
+great care to clean their teeth, an article too much
+neglected: some also blackened their <ins class="TN" title="Transciber's note:
+ original reads 'eye-brows'">eyebrows</ins>,
+and, if necessary, supplied the deficiency of the
+vermillion on their lips, by a paint said to have been
+exceedingly beautiful. At this time the women in
+the Greek islands make much use of a paint which
+they call Sulama, which imparts a beautiful redness
+to the cheeks, and gives the skin a remarkable
+gloss. Possibly this may be the same with that
+made use of in the times we are considering; but
+however this be, some of the Greek ladies at present
+gild their faces all over on the day of their marriage,
+and consider this coating as an irresistible charm;
+and in the island of Scios, their dress does not a
+little resemble that of ancient Sparta, for they go
+with their bosoms uncovered, and with gowns
+which only reach to the calf of their leg, in order
+to show their fine garters, which are commonly
+red ribbons curiously embroidered. But to return
+to ancient Greece; the ladies spent likewise a part
+of their time in composing head-dresses, and though
+we have reason to suppose that they were not then
+so preposterously fantastic as those presently composed
+by a Parisian milliner, yet they were probably
+objects of no small industry and attention, especially
+as we find that they then dyed their hair,
+<a name="png.164" id="png.164"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">165</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>perfumed it with the most costly essences, and by
+the means of hot irons disposed of it in curls, as
+fancy or fashion directed. Their clothes were
+made of stuffs so extremely light and fine as to show
+their shapes without offending against the rules of
+decency. At Sparta, the case was widely different;
+we shall not describe the dress of the women;
+it is sufficient to say that it has been loudly complained
+of by almost every ancient author who has
+treated on the subject.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">GRECIAN COURTSHIP.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc"><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original is not small-capped">In</ins></span> the earlier periods of the history of the Greeks,
+their love, if we may call it so, was only the animal
+appetite, impetuous and unrestrained either by cultivation
+of manners, or precepts of morality; and
+almost every opportunity which fell in their way,
+prompted them to satisfy that appetite by force,
+and to revenge the obstruction of it by murder.
+When they became a more civilized people, they
+shone much more illustriously in arts and in arms,
+than in delicacy of sentiment and elegance of manners:
+hence we shall find, that their method of
+making love was more directed to compel the fair
+sex to a compliance with their wishes by charms
+and philtres, than to win them by the nameless assiduities
+and good offices of a lover.</p>
+
+<p>As the two sexes in Greece had but little communication
+with each other, and a lover was seldom
+favored with an opportunity of telling his passion
+to his mistress, he used to discover it by inscribing
+her name on the walls of his house, on
+the bark of the trees of a public walk, or leaves of
+his books; it was customary for him also to deck
+<a name="png.165" id="png.165"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">166</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the door of the house where his fair one lived, with
+garlands and flowers, to make libations of wine before
+it, and to sprinkle the entrance with the same
+liquor, in the manner that was practised at the
+temple of Cupid. Garlands were of great use
+among the Greeks in love affairs; when a man
+untied his garland, it was a declaration of his having
+been subdued by that passion; and when a
+woman composed a garland, it was a tacit confession
+of the same thing: and though we are not informed
+of it, we may presume that both sexes had
+methods of discovering by these garlands, not only
+that they were in love, but the object also upon
+whom it was directed.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the common methods of discovering
+the passion of love; the methods of prosecuting it
+were still more extraordinary, and less reconcilable
+to civilization and to good principles; when a love
+affair did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, he
+did not endeavor to become more engaging in his
+manners and person, he did not lavish his fortune
+in presents, or become more obliging and assiduous
+in his addresses, but immediately had recourse to
+incantations and philtres; in composing and dispensing
+of which, the women of Thessaly were
+reckoned the most famous, and drove a traffic in
+them of no considerable advantage. These potions
+were given by the women to the men, as well as
+by the men to the women, and were generally so
+violent in their operations as for some time to deprive
+the person who took them, of sense, and not
+uncommonly of life: their composition was a variety
+of herbs of the most strong and virulent nature,
+which we shall not mention; but herbs were not
+the only things they relied on for their purpose;
+they called in the productions of the animal and
+mineral kingdoms to their assistance; when these
+<a name="png.166" id="png.166"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">167</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>failed, they roasted an image of wax before the
+fire, representing the object of their love, and as
+this became warm, they flattered themselves that
+the person represented by it would be proportionally
+warmed with love. When a lover could obtain
+any thing belonging to his mistress, he imagined
+it of singular advantage, and deposited in the
+earth beneath the threshold of her door. Besides
+these, they had a variety of other methods equally
+ridiculous and unavailing, and of which it would
+be trifling to give a minute detail; we shall, therefore,
+just take notice as we go along, that such of
+either sex as believed themselves forced into love
+by the power of philtres and charms, commonly
+had recourse to the same methods to disengage
+themselves, and break the power of these enchantments,
+which they supposed operated involuntarily
+on their inclinations; and thus the old women of
+Greece, like the lawyers of modern times, were
+employed to defeat the schemes and operations of
+each other, and like them too, it is presumable,
+laughed in their sleeves, while they hugged the
+gains that arose from vulgar credulity.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">POWER OF PHILTRES AND CHARMS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> Romans, who borrowed most of their customs
+from the Greeks, also followed them in that
+of endeavoring to conciliate love by the power of
+philtres and charms; a fact of which we have not
+the least room to doubt, as they are in Virgil and
+some other of the Latin poets so many instances
+that prove it. But it depends not altogether on the
+testimony of the poets: Plutarch tells us, that Lucullus,
+a Roman General, lost his senses by a love
+potion; and Caius Caligula, according to Suetonius,
+<a name="png.167" id="png.167"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">168</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>was thrown into a fit of madness by one which
+was given him by his wife Cæsonia; Lucretius
+too, according to some authors, fell a sacrifice to
+the same folly. The Romans, like the Greeks,
+made use of these methods mostly in their affairs of
+gallantry and unlawful love; but in what manner
+they addressed themselves to a lady they intended
+to marry, has not been handed down to us, and the
+reason we suppose is, that little or no courtship
+was practised among them; women had no disposing
+power of themselves, to what purpose was
+it then to apply to them for their consent? They
+were under perpetual guardianship, and the guardian
+having sole power of disposing of them, it
+was only necessary to apply to him. In the Roman
+authors, we frequently read of a father, a
+brother, or a guardian, giving his daughter, his sister,
+or his ward, in marriage; but we do not recollect
+one single instance of being told that the intended
+bridegroom applied to the lady for her consent;
+a circumstance the more extraordinary, as women
+in the decline of the Roman empire had arisen to a
+dignity, and even to a freedom hardly equalled in
+modern times.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">EASTERN COURTSHIP.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">It</span> has long been a common observation among
+mankind, that love is the most fruitful source of
+invention; and that in this case the imagination of
+a woman is still more fruitful of invention and expedient
+than that of a man; agreeably to this, we
+are told, that the women of the island of Amboyna,
+being closely watched on all occasions, and destitute
+of the art of writing, by which, in other places,
+<a name="png.168" id="png.168"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">169</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the sentiments are conveyed to any distance, have
+methods of making known their inclinations to
+their lovers, and of fixing assignations with them,
+by means of nosegays, and plates of fruit so disposed,
+as to convey their sentiments in the most
+explicit manner: by these means their courtship is
+generally carried on, and by altering the disposition
+of symbols made use of, they contrive to signify
+their refusal, with the same explicitness as their
+approbation. In some of the neighboring islands,
+when a young man has fixed his affection, like the
+Italians, he goes from time to time to her door, and
+plays upon some musical instrument; if she gives
+consent, she comes out to him, and they settle the
+affair of matrimony between them; if, after a certain
+number of these kind of visits, she does not
+appear, it is a denial; and the disappointed lover
+is obliged to desist.</p>
+
+<p>We shall see afterward when we come to treat
+of the matrimonial compact, that, in some places,
+the ceremony of marriage consists in tying the garments
+of the young couple together, as an emblem
+of that union which ought to bind their affections
+and interests. This ceremony has afforded a hint
+for lovers to explain their passion to their mistresses,
+in the most intelligible manner, without the
+help of speech, or the possibility of offending the
+nicest delicacy. A lover in these parts, who is too
+modest to declare himself, seizes the first opportunity
+he can find, of sitting down by his mistress,
+and tying his garment to hers, in the manner that is
+practised in the ceremony of marriage: if she permits
+him to finish the knot, without any interruption,
+and does not soon after cut or loose it, she
+thereby gives her consent; if she looses it, he may
+tie it again on some other occasion, when she may
+<a name="png.169" id="png.169"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">170</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>prove more propitious; but if she cuts it, his hopes
+are blasted forever.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">LONG HAIR OF SAXONS AND DANES.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> human hair has ever <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original damaged, 'en' inferred">been</ins> regarded as
+an ornament. The Anglo-<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original damaged, 'ons' inferred">Saxons</ins> and Danes
+considered their hair as one of <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original damaged, 'eir' inferred">their</ins> greatest personal
+beauties, and took great care to dress it to the
+utmost advantage. Young ladies wore it loose,
+and flowing in ringlets over their shoulders; but
+after marriage they cut it shorter, tied it up, and
+covered it with a head-dress, according to the fashion
+of the times; but to have the hair cut entirely
+off, was a disgrace of such a nature, that it was
+even thought a punishment not inadequate to the
+crime of adultery; so great, in the Middle ages,
+was the value set upon the hair by both sexes, that,
+as a piece of the most peculiar mortification, it was
+ordered by the canons of the church, that the clergy
+should keep their hair short, and shave the crown
+of their head; and that they should not, upon any
+pretence whatever, endeavor to keep the part so
+shaved from public view. Many of the clergy of
+these times, finding themselves so peculiarly mortified,
+and perhaps so easily distinguished from all
+other people by this particularity, as to be readily
+detected when they committed any of the follies or
+crimes to which human nature is in every situation
+sometimes liable, endeavored to persuade mankind
+that long hair was criminal, in order to reduce the
+whole to a similarity with themselves. Amongst
+these, <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Wulstan eminently distinguished himself.
+&ldquo;He rebuked,&rdquo; says William of Malmsbury, &ldquo;the
+wicked of all ranks with great boldness, but was
+<em>peculiarly</em> severe upon those who were proud of
+<a name="png.170" id="png.170"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">171</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>their long hair. When any of these vain people
+bowed their heads before him, to receive his blessing,
+before he gave it he cut a lock from their hair,
+with a sharp penknife, which he carried about
+him for that purpose; and commanded them, by
+way of penance for their sins, to cut all the rest in
+the same manner: if any of them refused to comply
+with his command he reproached them for their
+effeminacy, and denounced the most dreadful judgments
+against them. Such, however, was the value
+of their hair in these days, that many rather
+submitted to his censures than part with it; and
+such was the folly of the church, and of this saint
+in particular, that the most solemn judgments
+were denounced against multitudes, for no other
+crime than not making use of pen-knives and scissors,
+to cut off an ornament bestowed by <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks closing quote">nature.&rdquo;</ins></p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">ST. VALENTINE&#8217;S DAY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">On</span> St. Valentine&#8217;s day, it is customary, in many
+parts of Italy, for an unmarried lady to choose,
+from among the young gentlemen of her acquaintance,
+one to be her guardian or gallant; who, in
+return for the honor of this appointment, presents
+to her some nosegays, or other trifles, and thereby
+obliges himself to attend her in the most obsequious
+manner in all her parties of pleasure, and to all her
+public amusements, for the space of one year, when
+he may retire, and the lady may choose another in
+his place. But in the course of this connection it
+frequently happens, that they contract such an inclination
+to each other, as prompts them to be coupled
+for life. In the times of the chivalry, we have
+seen that the men gloried in protecting the women,
+and the women thought themselves safe and happy
+<a name="png.171" id="png.171"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">172</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>when they obtained that protection. It is probable,
+therefore, that this custom, though now more an
+affair of gallantry than of protection, is a relic of
+chivalry still subsisting among that romantic and
+sentimental people.</p>
+
+<p>But the observation of some peculiar customs on
+<ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original lacks period">St.</ins> Valentine&#8217;s day is not confined to Italy; almost
+all Europe has joined in distinguishing it by some
+particular ceremony. As it always happens about
+that time of the year, when the genial influences of
+the spring begin to operate, it has been believed by
+the vulgar, that upon it the birds invariably choose
+their mates for the ensuing season. In imitation,
+therefore, of their example, the vulgar of both sexes,
+in many parts of Britain, meet together; and
+having upon slips of paper wrote down the names
+of all their acquaintances, and put them into two
+different bags, the men drew the female names by
+lot, and the women the male; the man makes the
+woman who drew his name some trifling present,
+and in the rural gambol becomes her partner; and
+she considers him as her sweetheart, till he is otherwise
+disposed of, or till next Valentine&#8217;s day provide
+her with another.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">COURTS OF LOVE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> Spain, during the Middle Ages, courts of Love
+were established. These courts were composed of
+ladies summoned to meet together, for the purpose
+of discussing, in the most formal and serious manner,
+&ldquo;beautiful and subtle questions of love.&rdquo;
+They decided the precise amount of inconstancy
+which a lady might forgive, without lowering her
+own dignity, provided her lover made certain supplications,
+and performed certain penances; they
+<a name="png.172" id="png.172"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">173</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>took it into solemn consideration whether a lover
+was justified, under any circumstances, in expressing
+the slightest doubt of his lady&#8217;s fidelity; they
+laid down definite rules, and ceremonials of behavior,
+to be observed by those who wished to be beloved;
+and gravely discussed the question whether
+sentiment, or sight, the heart, or the eyes, contributed
+most powerfully to inspire affection.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">IMMODESTY AT BABYLON.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">That</span> modesty and chastity, which we now esteem
+as the chief ornament of the female character,
+does not appear in times of remote antiquity to have
+been much regarded by either sex. At Babylon,
+the capital of the Assyrian empire, it was so little
+valued, that a law of the country even obliged
+every woman once in her life to depart from it.
+This abominable law, which, it is said, was promulgated
+by an oracle, ordained, That every woman
+should once in her life repair to the temple of Venus;
+that on her arrival there, her head should be
+crowned with flowers, and in that attire, she should
+wait till some stranger performed with her the rites
+sacred to the goddess of debauchery.</p>
+
+<p>This temple was constructed with a great many
+winding galleries appropriated to the reception of
+the women, and the strangers who, allured by debauchery,
+never failed to assemble there in great
+numbers, being allowed to choose any woman they
+thought proper from among those who came there
+in obedience to the law. When the stranger accosted
+the object of his choice, he was obliged to
+present her with some pieces of money, nor was
+she at liberty to refuse either these, or the request
+of the stranger who offered them, whatever was the
+<a name="png.173" id="png.173"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">174</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>value of the money, or however mean or disagreeable
+the donor. These preliminaries being settled,
+they retired together to fulfil the law, after which
+the woman returned and offered the goddess the
+sacrifice prescribed by custom, and then was at liberty
+to return home. Nor was this custom entirely
+confined to the Babylonians; in the island of Cyprus
+they sent young women at stated times to the
+sea-shore, where they prostituted themselves to
+Venus, that they might be chaste the rest of their
+lives. In some other countries, a certain number
+only were doomed to prostitution, as it is supposed,
+by way of a bribe, to induce the goddess of debauchery
+to save the rest.</p>
+
+<p>When a woman had once entered the temple of
+Venus, she was not allowed to depart from it till
+she had fulfilled the law: and it frequently happened
+that those to whom nature had been less indulgent
+than to others, remained there a long time before
+any person offered to perform with them the
+condition of their release. A custom, we think, some
+times alluded to in scripture, and expressly delineated
+in the book of Baruch: &ldquo;The women also,
+with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn
+bran for perfume; but, if any of them, drawn by
+some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproacheth
+her fellow that she was not thought worthy as herself,
+nor her cord broken.&rdquo; Though this infamous
+law was at first strictly observed by all the women
+of Babylon, yet it would seem that, in length of
+time, they grew ashamed of, and in many cases
+dispensed with it; for we are informed that women
+of the superior ranks of life, who were not
+willing literally to fulfil the law, were allowed a
+kind of evasion; they were carried in litters to the
+gates of the temple, where, having dismissed all
+their attendants, they entered alone, presented themselves
+<a name="png.174" id="png.174"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">175</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>before the statue of the goddess, and returned
+home. Possibly this was done by the assistance
+of a bribe, to those who had the care of the temple.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">INDECENCY AT ADRIANOPLE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> Adrianople and the neighboring cities, the
+women have public baths, which are a part of their
+religion and of their amusement, and a bride, the
+first time she appears there, after her marriage, is
+received in a particular manner. The matrons and
+widows being seated round the room, the virgins
+immediately put themselves into the original state
+of Eve. The bride comes to the door richly dressed
+and adorned with jewels; two of the virgins
+meet her, and soon put her into the same condition
+with themselves; then filling some silver pots with
+perfume, they make a procession round the rooms,
+singing an epithalamium, in which all the virgins
+join in chorus; the procession ended, the bride is
+led up to every matron, who bestows on her some
+trifling presents, and to each she returns thanks, till
+she has been led round the whole. We could add
+many more ceremonies arising from marriage, but
+as they are for the most part such as make a part
+of the marriage ceremony itself, we shall have occasion
+to mention them with more propriety under
+another head.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.175" id="png.175"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">176</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>ANCIENT SWEDISH COURTSHIP.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Grymer</span>, a youth early distinguished in arms,
+who well knew how to dye his sword in the blood of
+his enemies, to run over the craggy mountains, to
+wrestle, to play at chess, trace the motions of the
+stars, and throw far from him heavy weights, frequently
+shewed his skill in the chamber of the damsels,
+before the king&#8217;s lovely daughter; desirous of
+acquiring her regard, he displayed his dexterity in
+handling his weapons, and the knowledge he had attained
+in the sciences he had learned; at length
+ventured to make this demand: &ldquo;Wilt thou, O
+fair princess, if I may obtain the king&#8217;s consent, accept
+of me for a husband?&rdquo; To which she prudently
+replied, &ldquo;I must not make that choice myself,
+but go thou and offer the same proposal to my
+father.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The sequel of the story informs us, that Grymer
+accordingly made his proposal to the king, who answered
+him in a rage, that though he had learned
+indeed to handle his arms, yet as he had never gained
+a single victory, nor given a banquet to the
+beasts of the field, he had no pretensions to his
+daughter, and concluded by pointing out to him, in
+a neighboring kingdom, a hero renowned in arms,
+whom, if he could conquer, the princess should be
+given him: that on waiting on the princess to tell
+her what had passed, she was greatly agitated, and
+felt in the most sensible manner for the safety of
+her lover, whom she was afraid her father had devoted
+to death for his presumption, that she provided
+him with a suit of impenetrable armor and a
+trusty sword, with which he went, and having slain
+his adversary, and the most part of his warriors,
+returned victorious, and received her as the reward
+<a name="png.176" id="png.176"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">177</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of his valor. Singular as this method of obtaining
+a fair lady by a price paid in blood may appear, it
+was not peculiar to the northerns: we have already
+taken notice of the price which David paid
+for the daughter of Saul, and shall add, that among
+the Sacæ, a people of ancient Scythia, a custom
+something of this kind, but still more extraordinary,
+obtained: every young man who made his addresses
+to a lady, was obliged to engage her in single combat;
+if he vanquished, he led her off in triumph, and
+became her husband and sovereign; if he was conquered,
+she led him off in the same manner, and
+made him her husband and her slave.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">LAPLAND AND GREENLAND LADY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> delicacy of a Lapland lady, which is not in
+the least hurt by being drunk as often as she can
+procure liquor, would be wounded in the most sensible
+manner, should she deign at first to listen to
+the declaration of a lover; he is therefore obliged
+to employ a match-maker to speak for him; and
+this match-maker must never go empty handed;
+and of all other presents, that which must infallibly
+secures him a favorable reception is brandy. Having,
+by the eloquence of this, gained leave to bring
+the lover along with him, and being, together with
+the lover&#8217;s father or other nearest-male relation, arrived
+at the house where the lady resides, the father
+and match-maker are invited to walk in, but
+the lover must wait patiently at the door till further
+solicited. The parties, in the mean time, open their
+suit to the other ladies of the family, not forgetting
+to employ in their favor their irresistible advocate
+brandy, a liberal distribution of which is reckoned
+the strongest proof of the lover&#8217;s affection. When
+<a name="png.177" id="png.177"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">178</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>they have all been warmed by the lover&#8217;s bounty,
+he is brought into the house, pays his compliments
+to the family, and is desired to partake of their
+cheer, though at this interview seldom indulged
+with a sight of his mistress; but if he is, he salutes
+her, and offers her presents of reindeer skins,
+tongues, &amp;c.; all which, while surrounded with her
+friends, she pretends to refuse; but at the same
+time giving her lover a signal to go out, she soon
+steals after him, and is no more that modest creature
+she affected to appear in company. The lover
+now solicits for the completion of his wishes; if she
+is silent, it is construed into consent; but if she
+throws his presents on the ground with disdain the
+match is broken off forever.</p>
+
+<p>It is generally observed, that women enter into
+matrimony with more willingness, and less anxious
+care and solicitude, than men, for which many reasons
+naturally suggest themselves to the intelligent
+reader. The women of Greenland are however,
+in many cases, an exception to this general rule.
+A Greenlander, having fixed his affection, acquaints
+his parents with it; they acquaint the parents of
+the girl; upon which two female negociators are
+sent to her, who, lest they should shock her delicacy,
+do not enter directly on the subject of their embassy,
+but launch out in praises of the lover they
+mean to recommend, of his house, of his furniture,
+and whatever else belongs to him, but dwell most
+particularly on his dexterity in catching seals.
+She, pretending to be affronted, runs away, tearing
+the ringlets of her hair as she retires; after which
+the two females, having obtained a tacit consent
+from her parents, search for her, and on discovering
+her lurking place, drag her by force to the house of
+her lover, and there leave her. For some days she
+sits with dishevelled hair, silent and dejected,
+<a name="png.178" id="png.178"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">179</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>refusing every kind of sustenance, and at last, if kind
+entreaties cannot prevail upon her, is compelled by
+force, and even by blows, to complete the marriage
+with her husband. It sometimes happens, that
+when the female match-makers arrive to propose a
+lover to a Greenland young woman, she either
+faints, or escapes to the uninhabited mountains,
+where she remains till she is discovered and carried
+back by her relations, or is forced to return by
+hunger and cold; in both which cases, she previously
+cuts off her hair; a most infallible indication,
+that she is determined never to marry.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN ASIA AND AFRICA.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">In</span> several of the warmer regions of Asia and
+Africa, the little education bestowed upon women,
+is entirely calculated to debauch their minds and
+give additional charms to their persons. They are
+taught vocal and instrumental music, which they
+accompany with dances, in which every movement
+and every gesture is expressively indecent: but
+receive no moral instruction; for it would teach
+them that they were doing wrong. This, however,
+is not the practice in all parts of Asia and Africa:
+the women of Hindostan are educated more decently;
+they are not allowed to learn music or
+dancing; which are only reckoned accomplishments
+fit for those of a lower order; they are
+notwithstanding, taught all the personal graces;
+and particular care is taken to instruct them in the
+art of conversing with elegance and vivacity; some
+of them are also taught to write, and the generality
+to read, so that they may be able to read the Koran;
+instead of which they more frequently dedicate
+themselves to tales and romances; which, painted
+<a name="png.179" id="png.179"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">180</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>in all the lively imagery of the East, seldom fail to
+corrupt the minds of creatures shut up from the
+world, and consequently forming to themselves
+extravagant and romantic notions of all that is
+transacted in it.</p>
+
+<p>In well regulated families, women are taught by
+heart some prayers in Arabic, which at certain
+hours they assemble in a hall to repeat; never being
+allowed the liberty of going to the public
+mosque. They are enjoined always to wash themselves
+before praying; and, indeed, the virtues of
+cleanliness, of chastity, and obedience, are so
+strongly and constantly inculcated on their minds,
+that in spite of their general debauchery of manners,
+there are not a few among them, who, in their
+common deportment, do credit to the instructions
+bestowed upon them; nor is this much to be wondered
+at, when we consider the tempting recompense
+that is held out to them; they are, in paradise,
+to flourish forever, in the vigor of youth and
+beauty; and however old, or ugly, when they depart
+this life, are there to be immediately transformed
+into all that is fair, and all that is graceful.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE GREEKS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">A cause</span>, which contributed to make the religious
+festivals of the Greeks appear as amusements and
+diversions, was that ridiculous buffoonery that constituted
+so great a part of them: it would be tedious
+to enumerate one half of these buffooneries; but let
+a few serve as a specimen. At a festival held in
+honor of Bacchus, the women ran about for a long
+time seeking the god, who, they pretended, had run
+away from them: this done, they passed their time in
+proposing riddles and questions to each other, and
+<a name="png.180" id="png.180"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">181</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>laughing at such as could not answer them; and at
+last often closed the scene with such enormous excesses,
+that at one of these festivals, the daughters of
+Minya, having, in their madness, killed Hippasus,
+had him dressed and served up to table as a rarity.
+At another, kept in honor of Venus and Adonis, they
+beat their breasts, tore their hair, and mimicked all
+the signs of the most extravagant grief, with which
+they supposed the goddess to have been affected on
+the death of her favorite paramour. At another, in
+honor of the nymph Cotys, they addressed her as the
+goddess of wantonness with many mysterious rites and
+ceremonies. At Corinth, these rites and ceremonies,
+being perhaps thought inconsistent with the character
+of modest women, this festival was only celebrated
+by harlots. Athenæus mentions a festival, at which
+the women laid hold on all the old bachelors they
+could find, and dragged them round an altar; beating
+them all the time with their fists, as punishment for
+their neglect of the sex. We shall only mention two
+more; at one of which, after the assembly had met
+in the temple of Ceres, the women shut out all the
+men and dogs, themselves and the bitches remaining
+in the temple all night; in the morning, the men
+were let in, and the time was spent in laughing together
+at the frolic. At the other, in honor of Bacchus,
+they counterfeited phrenzy and madness; and to make
+this madness appear the more real, they used to eat
+the raw and bloody entrails of goats newly slaughtered.
+And, indeed, the whole of the festivals of Bacchus,
+a deity much worshipped in Greece, were celebrated
+with rites either ridiculous, obscene, or madly
+extravagant. There were others, however, in honor
+of the other gods and goddesses, which were more
+decent, and had more the appearance of religious
+solemnity, though even in these, the women
+dressed out in all their finery; and, adorned with
+flowers and garlands, either formed splendid
+<a name="png.181" id="png.181"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">182</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>processions, or assisted in performing ceremonies, the general
+tendency of which was to amuse rather than instruct.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">THE DEATHS OF LUCRETIA AND VIRGINIA.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> force of prejudice appears in nothing more
+strongly than in the encomiums which have been
+lavished upon Lucretia for laying violent hands
+upon herself, and Virginius for killing his own
+daughter. These actions seem to derive all their
+glory from the revolutions to which they gave rise,
+as the former occasioned the abolition of monarchy
+amongst the Romans, and the latter put an end to
+the arbitrary power of the decemviri. But if we
+lay aside our prepossessions for antiquity, and examine
+these actions without prejudice, we cannot
+but acknowledge, that they are rather the effects of
+human weakness and obstinacy than of resolution
+and magnanimity. Lucretia, for fear of worldly
+censure, chose rather to submit to the lewd desires
+of Tarquin, than have it thought that she had
+been stabbed in the embraces of a slave; which
+sufficiently proves that all her boasted virtue was
+founded upon vanity, and too high a value for the
+opinion of mankind. The younger Pliny, with
+great reason, prefers to this famed action that of a
+woman of low birth, whose husband being seized
+with an incurable disorder, chose rather to perish
+with him than survive him. The action of Arria
+is likewise much more noble, whose husband Pætus,
+being condemned to death, plunged a dagger
+in her breast, and told him, with a dying voice,
+&ldquo;Pætus, it is not painful.&rdquo; But the death of Lucretia
+gave rise to a revolution, and it therefore
+became illustrious; though, as St. Augustine justly
+<a name="png.182" id="png.182"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">183</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>observes, it is only an instance of the weakness of
+a woman, too solicitous about the opinion of the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Virginius, in killing his daughter, to preserve
+her from falling a victim to the lust of the decemvir
+Claudius, was guilty of the highest rashness; since
+he might certainly have gained the people, already
+irritated against the tyrant, without imbruing his
+hands in his own blood. This action may indeed
+be extenuated, as Virginius slew his daughter from
+a false principle of honor, and did it to preserve
+her from what both he and she thought worse than
+death; namely, to preserve her from violation;
+but though it may in some measure be excused, it
+should not certainly be praised or admired.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">ON LOOKING AT THE PICTURE OF A BEAUTIFUL
+FEMALE.</h2>
+
+<div class="poem pgbrk">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="smc">What</span> dazzling beauties strike my ravish&#8217;d eyes,</div>
+<div>And fill my soul with pleasure and surprise!</div>
+<div>What blooming sweetness smiles upon that face!</div>
+<div>How mild, yet how majestic every grace!</div>
+<div>In those bright eyes what more than mimic fire</div>
+<div>Benignly shines, and kindles gay desire!</div>
+<div>Yet chasten&#8217;d modesty, fair white-robed dame,</div>
+<div>Triumphant sits to check the rising flame.</div>
+<div>Sure nature made thee her peculiar care:</div>
+<div>Was ever form so exquisitely fair?</div>
+<div>Yes, once there was a form thus heavenly bright,</div>
+<div>But now &#8217;tis veil&#8217;d in everlasting night;</div>
+<div>Each glory which that lovely face could boast,</div>
+<div>And every charm, in traceless dust is lost;</div>
+<div>An unregarded heap of ruin lies</div>
+<div>That form which lately drew ten thousand eyes.</div>
+<div>What once was courted, lov&#8217;d, adored, and prais&#8217;d,</div>
+<div>Now mingles with the dust from whence &#8217;twas raised.</div>
+<div>No more soft dimpling smiles those cheeks adorn,</div>
+<div>Whose rosy tincture sham&#8217;d the rising morn;</div>
+<div><a name="png.183" id="png.183"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">184</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>No more with sparkling radiance shine those eyes,</div>
+<div>Nor over those the sable arches rise;</div>
+<div>Nor from those ruby lips soft accents flow,</div>
+<div>Nor lilies on the snowy forehead blow;</div>
+<div>All, all are cropp&#8217;d by death&#8217;s impartial hand,</div>
+<div>Charms could not bribe, nor beauty&#8217;s power withstand;</div>
+<div>Not all that crowd of wondrous charms could save</div>
+<div>Their fair possessor from the dreary grave.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i2">How frail is beauty, transient, false and vain!</div>
+<div>It flies with morn, and ne&#8217;er returns again.</div>
+<div>Death, cruel ravager, delights to prey</div>
+<div>Upon the young, the lovely and the gay.</div>
+<div>If death appear not, oft corroding pain,</div>
+<div>With pining sickness in her languid train,</div>
+<div>Blights youth&#8217;s gay spring with some untimely <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original appears to read 'blast.'">blast,</ins></div>
+<div>And lays the blooming field of beauty waste;</div>
+<div>But should these spare, still time creeps on apace,</div>
+<div>And plucks with wither&#8217;d hand each winning grace;</div>
+<div>The eyes, lips, cheeks, and bosom he disarms,</div>
+<div>No art from him can shield exterior charms.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div class="i2">But would you, fair ones, be esteem&#8217;d, approved,</div>
+<div>And with an everlasting ardor loved;</div>
+<div>Would you in wrinkled age, admirers find,</div>
+<div>In every female virtue dress the mind;</div>
+<div>Adorn the heart, and teach the soul to charm,</div>
+<div>And when the eyes no more the breast can warm,</div>
+<div>These ever-blooming beauties shall inspire</div>
+<div>Each gen&#8217;rous heart with friendship&#8217;s sacred fire;</div>
+<div>These charms shall neither wither, fade, nor fly;</div>
+<div>Pain, sickness, time, and death, they dare defy.</div>
+<div>When the pale tyrant&#8217;s hand shall seal your doom,</div>
+<div>And lock your ashes in the silent tomb,</div>
+<div>These beauties shall in double lustre rise,</div>
+<div>Shine round the soul, and waft it to the skies.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h1 class="part"><a name="png.184" id="png.184"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">185</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>ART OF DETERMINING<br
+ /><small>THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY,</small><br
+ /><span class="so2">THE HABITS, AND THE AGE,</span><br
+ /><small><span class="allsc">OF</span></small><br
+ /><big class="so">WOMEN</big>,<br
+ /><small>NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISES OF
+DRESS.</small></h1>
+
+<hr class="secn" />
+<h2 class="secn">OF FIGURE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">External</span> indications as to figure are required
+chiefly as to the limbs which are concealed by
+drapery. Such indications are afforded by the
+walk, to every careful observer.</p>
+
+<p>In considering <i>the proportion of the limbs to the
+body</i>&mdash;if, even in a young woman, the walk, though
+otherwise good, be heavy, or the fall on each foot
+alternately be sudden, and rather upon the heel, the
+limbs though well formed, will be found to be slender,
+compared with the body.</p>
+
+<p>This conformation accompanies any great proportional
+developement of the vital system; and it
+is frequently observable in the woman of the Saxon
+population of England, as in the counties of Norfolk,
+<span class="nw">Suffolk, &amp;c.</span></p>
+
+<p>In women of this conformation, moreover, the
+slightest indisposition or debility is indicated by
+a slight vibration of the shoulders, and upper part
+of the chest, at every step, in walking.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.185" id="png.185"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">186</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>In considering <i>the line or direction of the limbs</i>&mdash;if,
+viewed behind, the feet, at every step, are thrown
+out backward, and somewhat laterally, the knees
+are certainly much inclined inward.</p>
+
+<p>If, viewed in front, the dress, at every step, is
+as it were, gathered toward the front, and then
+tossed more or less to the opposite side, the knees
+are certainly too much inclined.</p>
+
+<p>In considering <i>the relative size of each portion
+of the limbs</i>&mdash;if, in the walk, there be a greater
+or less approach to the marching pace, the hip is
+large; for we naturally employ the joint which is
+surrounded with the most powerful muscles, and
+in any approach to the march, it is the hip-joint
+which is used, and the knee and ancle-joints which
+remain proportionally unemployed.</p>
+
+<p>If, in the walk, the tripping pace be used, as in
+an approach to walking on tiptoes, the calf is large;
+for it is only by the power of its muscles that, under
+the weight of the whole body, the foot can be extended
+for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>If, in the walk, the foot be raised in a slovenly
+manner, and the heel be seen, at each step, to lift
+the bottom of the dress upward and backward,
+neither the hip nor the calf is well developed.</p>
+
+<p>Even with regard to the parts of the figure which
+are more exposed to observation by the closer
+adaptation of dress, much deception occurs. It is,
+therefore, necessary to understand the arts employed
+for this purpose, at least by skilful women.</p>
+
+<p>A person having a narrow face, wears a bonnet
+with wide front, exposing the lower part of the
+cheeks.&mdash;One having a broad face, wears a closer
+front; and, if the jaw be wide, it is in appearance
+diminished, by bringing the corners of the bonnet
+sloping to the point of the chin.</p>
+
+<p>A person having a long neck has the neck of the
+bonnet descending, the neck of the dress rising,
+<a name="png.186" id="png.186"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">187</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>and filling more or less of the intermediate space.
+One having a short neck has the whole bonnet
+short and close in the perpendicular direction, and
+the neck of the dress neither high nor wide.</p>
+
+<p>Persons with narrow shoulders have the shoulders
+or epaulets of the dress formed on the outer
+edge of the natural shoulder, very full, and both
+the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique
+folds, from the point of the shoulder to the middle
+of the bust.</p>
+
+<p>Persons with waists too large, render them less
+before by a stomacher, or something equivalent,
+and behind by a corresponding form of the dress,
+making the top of the dress smooth across the
+shoulders, and drawing it in plaits to a narrow
+point at the bottom of the waist.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have the bosom too small, enlarge it
+by the oblique folds of the dress being gathered
+above, and by other means.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have the lower posterior part of the
+body too flat, elevate it by the top of the skirt being
+gathered behind, and by other less skilful adjustments,
+which though hid, are easily detected.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have the lower part of the body too
+prominent anteriorly, render it less apparent by
+shortening the waist, by a corresponding projection
+behind, and by increasing the bosom above.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have the haunches too narrow, take
+care not to have the bottom of the dress too wide.</p>
+
+<p>Tall women have a wide skirt, or several
+flounces, or both of these: shorter women, a moderate
+one, but as long as can be conveniently worn,
+with the flounces, &amp;c., as low as possible.</p>
+
+
+<h2 class="secn">OF BEAUTY.</h2>
+
+<p>Additional indications as to beauty are required
+chiefly where the woman observed precedes the
+<a name="png.187" id="png.187"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">188</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>observer, and may, by her figure, naturally and
+reasonably excite his interest, while at the same
+time it would be rude to turn and look in her face
+on passing.</p>
+
+<p>There can, therefore, be no impropriety in observing,
+that the conduct of those who may happen
+to meet the women thus preceding, will differ according
+to the sex of the person who meets her.&mdash;If
+the person meeting her be a man, and the lady
+observed be beautiful, he will not only look with an
+expression of pleasure at her countenance, but will
+afterward turn more or less completely to survey
+her from behind.&mdash;If the person meeting her be a
+woman, the case becomes more complex. If both
+be either ugly or beautiful, or if the person meeting
+her be beautiful and the lady observed be ugly,
+then it is probable, that the approaching person
+may pass by inattentively, casting merely an <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'inferent'">indifferent</ins>
+glance; if, on the contrary, the woman
+meeting her be ugly, and the lady observed be
+beautiful, then the former will examine the latter
+with the severest scrutiny, and if she sees features
+and shape without defect, she will instantly fix her
+eyes on the head-dress or gown, in order to find
+some object for censure of the beautiful woman,
+and for consolation in her own ugliness.</p>
+
+<p>Thus he who happens to follow a female may be
+aided in determining whether it is worth his while
+to glance at her face in passing, or to devise other
+means of seeing it.</p>
+
+<p>Even when the face is seen, as in meeting in the
+streets or elsewhere, infinite deception occurs as to
+the degree of beauty. This operates so powerfully,
+that a correct estimate of beauty is perhaps never
+formed at first. This depends on the forms and
+still more on the colors of dress in relation to the
+face. For this reason, it is necessary to understand
+the principles according to which colors are
+employed at least by skilful women.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.188" id="png.188"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">189</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>When it is the fault of a face to contain too
+much yellow, then yellow around the face is used
+to remove it by contrast, and to cause the red and
+blue to predominate.</p>
+
+<p>When it is the fault of a face to contain too
+much red, then red around the face is used to remove
+by contrast, and to cause the yellow and
+blue to predominate.</p>
+
+<p>When it is the fault of a face to contain too
+much blue, then blue around the face is used to
+remove it by contrast, and to cause the yellow
+and red to predominate.</p>
+
+<p>When it is the fault of a face to contain too
+much yellow and red, then orange is used.</p>
+
+<p>When it is the fault of a face to contain too
+much red and blue, then purple is used.</p>
+
+<p>When it is the fault of a face <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'too'">to</ins> contain too
+much blue and yellow, then green is used.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to observe that the linings of
+bonnets reflect their color on the face, and transparent
+bonnets transmit that color, and equally
+tinge it. In both these cases, the color employed
+is no longer that which is placed around the face,
+and which acts on it by contrast, but the opposite.
+As green around the face heightens a faint red in
+the cheeks by contrast, so the pink lining of the
+bonnet aids it by reflection.</p>
+
+<p>Hence linings which reflect, are generally of the
+<ins class="TN" title="Transciber's note:
+ 'teint' is French for 'tint' and appears in the 1913 Webster's with that meaning">teint</ins> which is wanted in the face; and care is then
+taken that these linings do not come into the direct
+view of the observer, and operate prejudicially
+on the face by contrast, overpowering the little
+color which by reflection they should heighten.
+The fronts of bonnets so lined, therefore, do not
+widen greatly forward, and bring their color into
+contrast.</p>
+
+<p>When bonnets do widen, the proper contrast is
+used as a lining; but then it has not a surface
+<a name="png.189" id="png.189"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">190</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>much adapted for reflection, otherwise it may perform
+that office, and injure the complexion.</p>
+
+<p>Understanding, then, the application of these
+colors in a general way, it may be noticed, that
+fair faces are by contrast best acted on by light
+colors, and dark faces by darker colors.</p>
+
+<p>Dark faces are best affected by darker colors,
+evidently because they tend to render the complexion
+fairer; and fair faces do not require dark colors,
+because the opposition would be too strong.</p>
+
+<p>Objects which constitute a background to the
+face, or which, on the contrary, reflect their hues
+upon it, always either improve or injure the complexion.
+For this and some other reasons, many
+persons look better at home in their apartments
+than in the streets. Apartments may, indeed, be
+peculiarly calculated to improve individual complexions.</p>
+
+
+<h2 class="secn">OF MIND.</h2>
+
+<p>External indications as to mind may be derived
+from figure, from gait, and from dress.</p>
+
+<p>As to figure, a certain symmetry or disproportion
+of parts (either of which depends immediately upon
+the locomotive system)&mdash;or a certain softness
+or hardness of form (which belongs exclusively to
+the vital system)&mdash;these reciprocally denote a locomotive
+symmetry or disproportion&mdash;or a vital softness
+or hardness&mdash;or a mental delicacy or coarseness,
+which will be found also indicated by the
+features of the face.</p>
+
+<p>These qualities are marked in pairs, as each belonging
+to its respective system; for, without this,
+there can be no accurate or useful observation.</p>
+
+<p>As to gait, that progression which advances, unmodified
+by any lateral movement of the body, or
+any perpendicular rising of the head, and which
+<a name="png.190" id="png.190"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">191</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>belongs exclusively to the locomotive system&mdash;or
+that soft lateral rolling of the body, which belongs
+exclusively to the vital system&mdash;or that perpendicular
+rising or falling of the head at every impulse
+to step, which belongs exclusively to the mental
+system&mdash;these reciprocally indicate a corresponding
+locomotive, or vital, or mental character, which
+will be found also indicated by the features of the
+face.</p>
+
+<p>To put to the test the utility of these elements
+of observation and indication, let us take a few
+instances.&mdash;If, in any individual, locomotive symmetry
+of figure is combined with direct and linear
+gait, a character of mind and countenance not absolutely
+repulsive, but cold and insipid, is indicated.
+If vital softness of figure is combined, with a gentle
+lateral rolling of the body in its gait, voluptuous
+character and expression of countenance are indicated.&mdash;If
+delicacy of outline in the figure, be combined
+with perpendicular rising of the head, levity,
+perhaps vanity, is indicated.&mdash;But there are innumerable
+combinations and modifications of the
+elements which we have just described. Expressions
+of pride, determination, obstinacy, &amp;c., are
+all observable.</p>
+
+<p>The gait, however, is often formed, in a great
+measure, by local or other circumstances, by which
+it is necessary that the observer should avoid being
+misled.</p>
+
+<p>Dress, as affording indications, though less to be
+relied on than the preceding, is not without its value.
+The woman who possesses a cultivated taste,
+and a corresponding expression of countenance,
+will generally be tastefully dressed; and the vulgar
+woman, with features correspondingly rude,
+will easily be seen through the inappropriate mask
+in which her milliner or dressmaker may have invested
+her.</p>
+
+
+<h2 class="secn"><a name="png.191" id="png.191"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">192</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>OF HABITS.</h2>
+
+<p>External indications as to the personal habits of
+women are both numerous and interesting.</p>
+
+<p>The habit of child-bearing is indicated by a flatter
+breast, a broader back, and thicker cartilages of
+the bones of the pubis, necessarily widening the
+pelvis.</p>
+
+<p>The same habit is also indicated by a high rise of
+the nape of the neck, so that the neck from that
+point bends considerably forward, and by an elevation
+which is diffused between the neck and shoulders.
+These all arise from temporary distensions
+of the trunk in women whose secretions are powerful,
+from the habit of throwing the shoulders
+backward during pregnancy, and the head again
+forward, to balance the abdominal weight; and
+they bestow a character of vitality peculiarly expressive.</p>
+
+<p>The same habit is likewise indicated by an excess
+of that lateral rolling of the body in walking, which
+was already described as connected with voluptuous
+character. This is a very certain indication, as it
+arises from temporary distensions of the pelvis,
+which nothing else can occasion. As in consequence
+of this lateral rolling of the body, and of the
+weight of the body being much thrown forward in
+gestation, the toes are turned somewhat inward,
+they aid in the indication.</p>
+
+<p>The habit of nursing children is indicated, both
+in mothers and nursery-maids, by the right shoulder
+being larger and more elevated than the left.</p>
+
+<p>The habits of the seamstress are indicated by
+the neck suddenly bending forward, and the arms
+being, even in walking, considerably bent forward
+or folded more or less upward from the elbows.</p>
+
+<p>Habits of labor are indicated by a considerable
+<a name="png.192" id="png.192"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">193</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>thickness of the shoulders below, where they
+form an angle with the inner part of the arm;
+and, where these habits are of the lowest menial
+kind, the elbows are turned outward, and the
+palms of the hands backward.</p>
+
+
+<h2 class="secn">OF AGE.</h2>
+
+<p>External indications of age are required chiefly
+where the face is veiled, or where the woman
+observed precedes the observer and may reasonably
+excite his interest.</p>
+
+<p>In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle
+have lost a certain moderate plumpness, and assumed
+a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the
+woman has generally passed the period of youth.</p>
+
+<p>If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge
+of the foot first striking the ground, it is the heel
+which does so, then has the woman in general
+passed the meridian of life. Unlike the last indication,
+this is apparent, however the foot and ankle
+may be clothed.&mdash;The reason of this indication is
+the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to
+receive the weight of the body by maintaining the
+extension of the ankle-joint.</p>
+
+<p class="pgbrk">Exceptions to this last indication are to be found
+chiefly in women in whom the developments of the
+body are proportionally much greater, either from
+a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of
+the limbs, the muscles of which are consequently
+incapable of receiving the weight of the body by
+maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1 class="part"><a name="png.193" id="png.193"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">194</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span><em>THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY</em>;<br
+ /><small><span class="allsc">OR A</span></small><br
+ /><small class="so2">DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS STATUE</small><br
+ /><small><span class="allsc">OF THE</span></small><br
+ /><big class="so2">VENUS DE MEDICI</big>.</h1>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> Venus de Medici at Florence is the most
+perfect specimen of ancient sculpture remaining;
+and is spoken of as the Model of Female Beauty.
+It was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans,
+that a hundred ancient repetitions of this statue have
+been noticed by travellers. This statue is said to
+have been found in the forum of Octavia at Rome.
+It represents woman at that age when every beauty
+has just been perfected.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Venus de Medici at Florence,&rdquo; says a distinguished
+writer, &ldquo;is like a rose which, after a
+beautiful daybreak, expands its leaves to the first ray
+of the sun, and represents that age when the limbs
+assume a more finished form and the breast begins to
+develop itself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave
+that predominance to the vital organs in the chest,
+which, as already said, makes the nutritive system
+peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most
+striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist,
+the principles of whose art taught him that a vast
+head is not a constituent of female beauty. In mentioning
+the head it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing
+the rich curls of hair.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.194" id="png.194"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">195</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>The eyes next fix our attention by their soft,
+sweet, and glad expression. This is produced with
+exquisite art. To give softness, the ridges of the
+eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness, the under
+eyelid, which I would call the expressive one, is
+slightly raised. To give the expression of gladness
+or of pleasure, the opening of the eyelids is diminished,
+in order to diminish, or partially to exclude, the
+excess of those impressions, which make even pleasure
+painful. Other exquisite details about those
+eyes, confer on them unparallelled beauty. Still, this
+look is far from those traits indicative of lasciviousness,
+with which some modern artists have thought to
+characterize their Venuses.</p>
+
+<p>Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the
+configuration of the nose. The peculiar connexion
+of this sense with love was evidently well understood
+by the artist. Not only is smell peculiarly associated
+with love, in all the higher animals, but it is associated
+with reproduction in plants, the majority of
+which evolve delicious odors only when the flowers
+or organs of fructification are displayed. Connected,
+indeed, with the capacity of the nose, and the cavities
+which open into it, is the projection of the whole
+middle part of the face.</p>
+
+<p>The mouth is rendered sweet and delicate by the
+lips being undeveloped at their angles, and by the
+upper lip continuing so, for a considerable portion of
+its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the central
+development of both lips, and active love by the
+especial development of the lower lip. By the
+slight opening of the lips, it expresses desire.</p>
+
+<p>These exquisite details, and the omission of nothing
+intellectually expressive that nature presents,
+have led some to imagine the Venus de Medici to be
+a portrait. In doing so, however, they see not the
+profound calculation for every feature thus embodied.
+More strangely still, they forget the ideal character
+<a name="png.195" id="png.195"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">196</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>of the whole: the notion of this ideal head being too
+small, is especially opposed to such an opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Withal, the look is amorous and languishing,
+without being lascivious, and is as powerfully marked
+by gay coquetry, as by charming innocence.</p>
+
+<p>The young neck is exquisitely formed. Its beautiful
+curves show a thousand capabilities of motion;
+and its admirably-calculated swell over the organ of
+voice, results from, and marks the struggling expression
+of still mysterious love.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the rest of the figure, the admirable
+form of the mammæ, which, without being too large,
+occupy the bosom, rise from it with various curves on
+every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving
+the inferior part in each precisely as pendent as
+gravity demands; the flexile waist gently tapering
+little farther than the middle of the trunk; the lower
+portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher
+even than the umbilicus; the gradual expansion of
+the haunches, those expressive characteristics of the
+female, indicating at once her fitness for the office of
+generation and that of parturition&mdash;expansions which
+increase till they reach their greatest extent at the
+superior part of the thighs; the fulness behind their
+upper part, and on each side of the lower part of the
+spine, commencing as high as the waist, and terminating
+in the still greater swell of the distinctly-separated
+hips; the flat expanse between these, and
+immediately over the fissure of the hips, relieved by
+a considerable dimple on each side, and caused by
+the elevation of all the surrounding parts; the fine
+swell of the broad abdomen which, soon reaching
+its greatest height immediately under the umbilicus,
+slopes neatly to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its
+upper part, expands more widely as it descends,
+while, throughout, it is laterally distinguished by a
+gentle depression from the more muscular parts on
+the sides of the pelvis; the beautiful elevation of the
+<a name="png.196" id="png.196"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">197</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>mons veneris; the contiguous elevation of the thighs
+which, almost at their commencement rise as high as
+it does; the admirable expansion of these bodies inward,
+or toward each other, by which they almost
+seem to intrude upon each other, and to exclude each
+from its respective place; the general narrowness of
+the upper, and the unembraceable expansion of the
+lower part thus exquisitely formed;&mdash;all these admirable
+characteristics of female form, the mere existence
+of which in woman must, one is tempted to imagine, be
+even to herself, a source of ineffable pleasure&mdash;these
+constitute a being worthy, as the personification of
+beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece; present
+an object finer, alas! than nature seems even capable
+of producing; and offer to all nations and ages a theme
+of admiration and delight.</p>
+
+<p>Well might Thomson say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;So stands the statue that enchants the world,</div>
+<div>So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,</div>
+<div>The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>And Byron, in yet higher strain:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem pgbrk">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills</div>
+<div>The air around with beauty;</div>
+<div class="i20">within the pale</div>
+<div>We stand, and in that form and face behold</div>
+<div>What Mind can make, when Nature&#8217;s self would fail;</div>
+<div>And to the fond idolaters of old</div>
+<div>Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>We gaze and turn away, and know not where,</div>
+<div>Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart</div>
+<div>Reels with its fulness; there&mdash;forever there&mdash;</div>
+<div>Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art,</div>
+<div>We stand as captives, and would not depart.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2 class="secn fourem"><a name="png.197" id="png.197"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">198</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE.</h2>
+
+<p class="ctr oneembelow"><small class="allsc">BY LORD BYRON.</small></p>
+
+<div class="poem pgbrk">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div><span class="smc">Away</span> with those fictions of flimsy romance!</div>
+<div class="i2">Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!</div>
+<div>Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,</div>
+<div class="i2">Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,</div>
+<div class="i2">Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove,</div>
+<div>From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,</div>
+<div class="i2">Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love!</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>I hate you, ye cold compositions of art;</div>
+<div class="i2">Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove,</div>
+<div>I court the effusions that spring from the heart</div>
+<div class="i2">Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,</div>
+<div class="i2">From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove;</div>
+<div>Some portion of paradise still is on earth,</div>
+<div class="i2">And Eden revives in the first kiss of love.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza"><br class="ns" />
+<div>When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past&mdash;</div>
+<div class="i2">For years fleet away with the wings of the dove&mdash;</div>
+<div>The dearest remembrance will still be the last,</div>
+<div class="i2">Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2 class="chap"><a name="png.198" id="png.198"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">199</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA.</h2>
+
+<p class="ctr oneembelow"><cite>See <a href="#png.001">Frontispiece</a>.</cite></p>
+
+<p><span class="smc">The</span> Princess of antiquity, most renowned for her
+personal charms, was in her unrivalled beauty, her
+mental perfections, her weaknesses, and the unhappy
+conclusion of an amorous existence the counterpart
+of the most beautiful queen of later times, the unfortunate
+Mary of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes,
+king of Egypt. She was early given to wife to her
+own brother, Ptolemy Dionysius, and ascended the
+throne conjointly with him, on the death of their
+father. It was doubtless the policy of the kingdom
+thus to preserve all the royal honors in one family&mdash;the
+daughter being the queen, as well as the
+son king of the country. But her ambitious and
+intriguing spirit, restrained by no ties of reciprocal
+love to her husband, who was also her brother, sought
+for means to burst a union at once unnatural and
+galling: and the opportunity at length arrived.
+Julius Cæsar, the conqueror of the world, having
+pursued the defeated Pompey into Egypt, there beheld
+Cleopatra in the zenith of her beauty; and he
+before whose power the whole world was kneeling,
+prostrated himself before a pretty woman. The
+following is the account of her first introduction to
+Cæsar, as given by the historian. It shows that she
+had no maidenly scruples as to the mode of attaining
+her ends.</p>
+
+<p>Her intrigues to become sole monarch, had made
+her husband-brother banish her from the capital.
+<a name="png.199" id="png.199"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">200</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>Hearing of the arrival of Cæsar, she got into a small
+boat, with only one male friend, and in the dusk of the
+evening made for the palace where Cæsar as well
+as her husband lodged. As she saw it difficult
+to enter it undiscovered by her husband&#8217;s friends,
+she rolled herself up in a carpet. Her companion
+tied her up at full length like a bale of goods, and
+carried her in at the gates to Cæsar&#8217;s apartments.
+This stratagem of hers, which was a strong proof of
+her wit and ingenuity, is said to have first opened
+her way to Cæsar&#8217;s heart, and her conquest advanced
+rapidly by the charms of her speech and person. The
+genius of Shakspeare has well depicted the power of
+her beauty at this time. He makes her to say, at a
+later period of life, when chagrined at the expected
+desertion of another lover,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i10">&ldquo;Broad-fronted Cæsar!</div>
+<div>When thou wast here above the ground, I was</div>
+<div>A morsel for a monarch: And great Pompey</div>
+<div>Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;</div>
+<div>There would he fix his longing gaze, and die</div>
+<div>With looking on his life.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">But Cleopatra, who was not less remarkable for her
+cunning than for her beauty, knowing that Cæsar was
+resolved to be gratified at whatever cost, determined
+that the price should be a round one: the terms of
+his admission to her arms, were that Cæsar should
+expel her brother from the kingdom, and give the
+crown to her; which Cæsar complied with. Cleopatra
+had a son by Cæsar called Cæsarion.</p>
+
+<p>In the civil wars which distracted the Roman empire
+after the death of Cæsar, Cleopatra supported
+Brutus, against Antony and Octavius. Antony, in
+his expedition to Parthia, summoned her to appear
+before him. She arrayed herself in the most magnificent
+apparel, and appeared before her judge in the
+most captivating attire. Though somewhat older
+<a name="png.200" id="png.200"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">201</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>than when she drew Cæsar to her arms, her charms
+were still conspicuous;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Age could not wither her, nor custom stale</div>
+<div>Her infinite variety. Other women cloy</div>
+<div>The appetite they feed. But she made hungry</div>
+<div>Where most she satisfied.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Her artifice on this occasion succeeded; Antony became
+enamoured of her, and publicly married her,
+although his wife the sister of Octavius was living.
+He gave Cleopatra the greater part of the eastern
+provinces of the Roman empire. This behaviour
+was the cause of a rupture between Octavius and
+Antony; and these two celebrated generals met in
+battle at Actium, where Cleopatra, by flying with
+sixty sail of vessels, ruined the interest of Antony,
+and he was defeated. Cleopatra had retired to
+Egypt, where soon after Antony followed her. Antony
+stabbed himself upon the false information that
+Cleopatra was dead; and as his wound was not mortal,
+he was carried to the queen, who drew him up by
+a cord from one of the windows of the monument,
+where she had retired and concealed herself.</p>
+
+<p>Antony soon after died of his wounds, and Cleopatra,
+after she had received pressing invitations from
+Octavius, and even pretended declarations of love,
+destroyed herself by the bite of an asp, not to fall
+into the conqueror&#8217;s hands. She had previously
+attempted to stab herself, and had once made a resolution
+to starve herself. But the means by which
+she destroyed herself, is said to produce the easiest
+of deaths: the Asp is a small serpent found near the
+river Nile, so delicate that it may be concealed in a
+fig; and when presented to the vitals of the body, its
+bite is so deadly as to render medical skill useless,
+while at the same time it is so painless, that the victim
+fancies herself dropping into a sweet slumber,
+instead of the arms of death. So Cleopatra, while
+<a name="png.201" id="png.201"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">202</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>she is applying the venomous reptile to her bosom,
+(as represented in the Frontispiece,) is supposed to
+use language like the following,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,</div>
+<div>That sucks the nurse asleep?&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Thus, after having chained in her embrace the two
+greatest generals that the Roman empire had produced,
+Julius Cæsar and Mark Antony, at the periods
+when they were respectively arbiters of the world&#8217;s
+fate, perished Cleopatra by her own hand.</p>
+
+<p>Cleopatra was a voluptuous and extravagant woman,
+and in one of the feasts she gave to Antony at
+Alexandria, she melted pearls into her drink to render
+the entertainment more sumptuous and expensive.
+She was fond of appearing dressed as a goddess; and
+she advised Antony to make war against the richest nations,
+to support her debaucheries. Her beauty has
+been greatly commended, and her mental perfections
+so highly celebrated, that she has been described as
+capable of giving audience to the ambassadors of
+seven different nations, and of speaking their various
+languages as fluently as her own.</p>
+
+<p>How vain are the possessions of beauty, power,
+personal and mental accomplishments, if to these
+are not united virtuous principles. All history, as
+well as all experience, is full of examples calculated
+to impress the great lesson that</p>
+
+<p class="ctr oneem pgbrk">&ldquo;<span class="smc">Virtue</span> alone is <span class="smc">Happiness</span> below.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="chap"><a name="png.202" id="png.202"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">203</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>AN ESSAY ON MATRIMONY.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smc">Socrates</span>, being asked, whether it were better
+for a man to marry, or to remain single, replied,&mdash;&ldquo;Let
+him do either, he will repent of it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher spoke &lsquo;like an oracle,&rsquo; leaving the
+world as much in the dark as to his views of the
+comparative advantages of matrimony and celibacy,
+as they could have been before. But a vast majority
+of men have chosen, since they must repent of one
+or the other, to repent of marrying, deeming perhaps
+that this repentance is &ldquo;<i>the repentance which needeth
+not to be repented of</i>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We shall conclude our little treatise on &ldquo;the sex,&rdquo;
+with a few remarks on the subject of&mdash;we were
+about to say&mdash;Happiness,&mdash;but as we are content
+that every married man and woman should judge for
+themselves as to the happiness of the married state,
+we will simply style it an <span class="smc">Essay on Matrimony</span>.</p>
+
+<p>No event is more important, and none is conducted,
+on many occasions, with less prudence, than Marriage.
+Providence has allowed the passions to exercise
+a powerful influence in this matter, otherwise
+the cares and anxieties with which it is attended
+would deter most persons from launching their bark
+of earthly happiness on the great ocean of matrimony.
+But too frequently the passions are the only
+guide, and these stimulate to bewilder: they exhibit
+pleasing and attractive imagery, and then the possession
+destroys the bliss.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.203" id="png.203"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">204</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>Love is a pleasing but exciting passion. The eye
+is delighted by form, manners, and the expression of
+the features, the ears by musical language, and the
+imagination paints future joys; all of which contribute
+to one great principle, that of receiving happiness
+from those we love, and evincing love for those
+from whom we derive our happiness. As the crystal
+streams are absorbed by the sun, and distributed as
+brilliant clouds in the heavens, and then fall and run
+in their accustomed channels, and thus the rivers
+supply the clouds, and the vapors the rivers, so is the
+interchange between love and happiness. This will
+agree with the opinion that love may be occasioned
+suddenly, because enjoyment is expected; or it may
+arise gradually, because the unattractiveness which
+first existed, may be succeeded by attraction.</p>
+
+<p>There was no appointment by nature of particular
+persons for each other; but we may expect among a
+great variety of occurrences to meet with some singular
+and astonishing coincidences. Human beings appear to be
+left in this respect, as in many others,
+to their own judgment. If they act discreetly, they
+enjoy the comfort of it; but if otherwise, they bring
+upon themselves a disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>The happiness arising from an union depends
+chiefly on the character of the persons who are
+concerned in it. If men and women were as consistent
+and virtuous as they should be, the connubial bond
+would be soft and pleasant; but as these effects do
+not always arise, where is the fault? Which is
+better, or more worthy, the male or the female sex?
+This is rather a difficult question; and let the palm
+of superior merit be awarded to either, the imputation
+of prejudice would be connected with the decision.
+But fortunately there is little difference: one
+varies from the other in particular qualities; but if
+the aggregate of merit be taken in each, the amount
+will not differ much. Education forms the principal
+<a name="png.204" id="png.204"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">205</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>variation: men are instructed in the more active and
+laborious employments, women in the more sedentary
+and domestic. Dr Southey says, that &ldquo;if women are
+not formed of finer clay, there has been more of the
+dew of heaven to temper it.&rdquo; Richard Flecknoe, a
+contemporary with Dryden, observes of the female
+sex,&mdash;&ldquo;I have always been conversant with the best
+and worthiest in all places where I came; and among
+the rest with ladies, in whose conversation, as in an
+academy of virtue, I learnt nothing but goodness,
+and saw nothing but nobleness.&rdquo; It must be granted,
+that women in general possess more of the sweetness
+and softness of human nature, while men are endowed
+with more vigorous virtues; women are gifted
+with more fortitude, and men with more
+valor.</p>
+
+<p>Jeremy Taylor says,&mdash;&ldquo;Marriage hath in it the
+labor of love, and the delicacies of friendship; the
+blessings of society, and the union of hands and
+hearts.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Cowper has also alluded to the advantages of a
+matrimonial settlement,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;O friendly to the best pursuits of man,</div>
+<div>Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,</div>
+<div>Domestic life in rural pleasure pass&#8217;d.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Marriage is frequently an union of interest: the
+happiness of one is made a source of enjoyment to
+the other. It is for life, because it is most agreeable
+with the inclination of mankind that friendship, esteem
+and love should be permanent. In this instance
+a continuance of the union constitutes no small part
+of the bliss. The expectation of a durable connection
+makes men careful, otherwise they would marry
+and unmarry every week. There is, by the arrangement
+of the Almighty, a comparative power or influence
+<a name="png.205" id="png.205"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">206</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>vested in the man, because, agreeably with all
+good government,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Some are, and must be, greater than the rest;&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">but then, as Dr Beattie observes, &ldquo;the superiority
+vested by law in the man is compensated to the
+woman by that superior complaisance which is paid
+them by every man who aspires to elegance of
+manners.&rdquo; And besides this, the husband has frequently
+the nominal, while the wife has the actual
+power:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;Like as the helme doth rule the shippe,&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">so she regulates all the household affairs. This is
+proper, when the husband allows it; and he ought to
+do so, when his wife is capable of managing these
+things; but when the inclinations of his Eve run
+perversely, when he is conscious that he has reason
+on his side, and she only folly, and yet he is vacillating
+and yielding, he is unmanly and inconsistent;
+he sacrifices future happiness to present peace. Every
+woman, it must be granted, is not a sensible one;
+and &ldquo;there is nothing,&rdquo; as Lord Burleigh observed to
+his son, &ldquo;more fulsome than a she foole.&rdquo; If Socrates
+had properly controlled his Xantippe before her
+disorder had increased beyond cure, it would have
+contributed to her happiness and his own. Prince
+Eugene observed, on one occasion, rather satirically,
+that love was a mere amusement, and calculated for
+nothing more than to enlarge the influence of the
+woman, and abridge the power of the man. Goldsmith&#8217;s
+Hermit said to his lovely visiter,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;And love is still an emptier sound,</div>
+<div class="i2">The modern fair one&#8217;s jest;</div>
+<div>On earth unseen, or only found</div>
+<div class="i2">To warm the turtle&#8217;s nest.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">But love is an actual, a powerful, and a beneficial
+<a name="png.206" id="png.206"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">207</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>principle, if it be properly regulated. Among married
+persons there ought to be as much love as
+would induce either to yield in trifling matters;
+and there ought to be as much reason as would
+enable both to act correctly. Matrimony should
+be something like the union of the ivy and the
+oak: the latter is firm, and capable of supporting
+its more tender companion; the ivy, however,
+must follow in some measure the humors and windings
+of the oak; but they grow together, and the
+longer they continue the more closely they are united.
+There have been many instances of great attachment.
+Porcia, the wife of Brutus, when she
+heard of her husband&#8217;s death swallowed burning coals
+that she might go with him. Alceste, wife of Admetus
+king of Thessaly, sacrificed herself for the safety
+of her husband. This monarch was ill; and when
+the oracle was consulted, it was declared that he
+would not recover except some friend would die for
+him; and as no one else would do so, the wife heroically
+drank a cup of poison. Paulina the wife of
+Seneca in his old age, was young, beautiful, and
+accomplished; and she was so much attached to her
+husband, that when the veins of Seneca were opened
+by the command of Nero, she caused her own to be
+cut, that she might also bleed to death. When
+Conrad III. had taken the town of Winsberg in
+Bavaria, he allowed only the women to go out; but
+they had leave to carry with them as much as they
+pleased. They loaded themselves, therefore, with
+their husbands and children, and brought them all
+out on their shoulders! When love is genuine;
+when professions are sincere, and the practice <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'agreeble'">agreeable</ins>
+therewith; when health is enjoyed, and as many
+comforts as are necessary for this life; when children
+grow up in vigor, good behaviour, and mental improvement;
+when old age is solaced by the company
+of each other, and the kind attention of daughters and
+sons; then matrimony is a cause of happiness.</p>
+
+<p><a name="png.207" id="png.207"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">208</span><span class="ns">]<br
+ /></span>But if all these enjoyments were the lot of every
+married person, men would become too much contented
+with the present life, and they would scarcely
+think, as they sail on smoothly, of the haven, for
+which they are bound. Besides, the fascinations of
+domestic life would attract them from many duties
+which they owe to their fellow creatures. There are
+then many disadvantages connected with matrimony.
+There is so much ignorance, perverseness, undue
+inclination for power, disposition to contradict, anger,
+jealousy, hatred, and versatility among human beings
+that many unpleasant occurrences will necessarily
+arise, and especially in the marriage state, because
+here most of these feelings are brought into action,
+and are most sensibly felt by those who are subject
+to their influence. He that paints the experience of
+human life in brilliant colors only gives a flattering
+and deceptive representation,&mdash;he may just as well
+pretend that the heavens are always cloudless. People
+soon discover that there are sorrows in the world
+as well as joys, unpleasant as well as pleasant events;
+hence arises the advantage of examining, of pointing
+out, and endeavoring to avoid &ldquo;the ills which flesh is
+heir to.&rdquo; The perpetuity of marriage, under pleasing
+circumstances, is its most lovely character; but the
+same peculiarity, under a different aspect, is its principal
+source of misery. It is too frequently a state
+of bondage, &ldquo;which thousands once fast-chained to
+quit no more.&rdquo; But what exists, and cannot be
+removed, should always be borne as patiently as
+possible; and thus we may keep a cheerful heart,
+when another, less prudent, would be gloomy. Besides,
+an ill temper makes every condition of life unhappy;
+a cheerful disposition will throw a gleam of
+sunshine over the scenery of a November day. Some
+people, very foolishly, make themselves uneasy because
+they are bound. Sir Jonah Barrington seems
+to think it a natural propensity. He says,&mdash;&ldquo;The
+<a name="png.208" id="png.208"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">209</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>moment any two animals, however fond before, are
+fastened together by a chain they cannot break, they
+begin to quarrel without any apparent reason, and
+peck each other solely because they cannot get loose
+again.&rdquo; But it must be remembered that people enter
+into marriage with a knowledge of the permanency
+of the union, and perhaps they seldom repent, except
+they had been deceived; and this we may hope
+would not occur frequently. After the Romans had
+introduced a law of divorce, no respectable person,
+for the space of forty years, availed himself of it.
+Divorcement was much practised among the Jews,
+and was productive of great evil. One of the Jewish
+doctors asserted, that if a man beheld a woman who
+was handsomer than his wife, he might put away his
+wife and marry her; and thus all the wives in Judea,
+except the handsomest, might have been divorced.
+Josephus observes, on one occasion, very coolly,&mdash;&ldquo;About
+this time I put away my wife, who had
+borne me three children, not being pleased with her
+manners.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>One cause of unhappiness in a married state, is too
+little affection; and in other instances, although affection
+may be possessed, it is not shown. Montesquieu
+observes, &ldquo;that women commonly reserve their love
+for their husbands until their husbands are dead.&rdquo;
+Sometimes a mortal hatred springs up, which induces
+a man, like Henry VIII., to cause the murder of those
+whom he has sworn to love and preserve; or a woman,
+like Livia, to poison her husband. Not only is a
+great dissimilarity of rank and condition a cause of
+dislike, but a great variation in age is frequently the
+cause of distrust and unhappiness. The proportion
+which Aristotle suggests (a man of thirty-seven to a
+woman of eighteen,) may be appropriate in one respect,
+but it is objectionable in others. The life of
+the female is just as long as that of the male; and
+the union of middle age and youth, where the one is
+<a name="png.209" id="png.209"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">210</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>twice as old as the other, will not always allow an
+uniformity of feelings and disposition. The case of
+Seneca (to which we have alluded,) and that of Sir
+Matthew Hale, are exceptions. Youth is generally
+gay, thoughtless, and frivolous; but life, in more advanced
+periods, is sober, thoughtful, and dignified.
+A husband should not be deemed a teacher or guardian
+for the wife so much as a companion; and the
+wife should not be considered as guardian for the
+husband: there ought to be a mutual sympathy, and
+in most respects an equality of influence.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy is a passion which allows the hapless
+possessor to enjoy neither rest nor confidence. It is
+frequently the companion of love. Shakspeare says,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>&ldquo;For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy</div>
+<div>Doth call himself affection&#8217;s sentinel.&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">When this principle obtains possession of the breast,
+it destroys the health and spirits: the streams which
+gladden the heart become corrupted, and productive
+of rage and melancholy. Jealousy is like the snake
+which insidiously entwines itself around its victim;
+or like the bohun upas of Java, which diffuses death.
+The bright beams of hope, which cheered the possessor,
+and carried his vision to distant days and distant
+scenes of enjoyment, are all eclipsed by this pillar of
+darkness. Moliere the poet was endowed with an
+eminent genius&mdash;he was esteemed as the first wit in
+Europe; but his wife was faithless, and no enjoyment,
+or success, or honor could tranquillize his mind, and
+make him happy. The attractions of youth and
+beauty will sometimes excite an illicit passion, but
+the indulgence of this feeling is the path to anxiety
+and degradation. The female may be less faulty;
+but she will be the greater sufferer; for, with regard
+to her lawful companion, confidence is changed to
+timidity, love to hypocrisy, and a continual fear torments
+<a name="png.210" id="png.210"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">211</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>her, lest accident or malice should discover
+her imprudence. How dearly is the pleasure of a
+moment procured when it is purchased by years of
+unhappiness! On the other hand, it is extremely unreasonable
+for some persons to indulge as they do,
+their natural disposition of suspicion, and thus make
+others unhappy. Where virtue only exists, it is a
+most grievous hardship that the possessor should be
+subject to the penalty of vice. Nothing should be
+made with more caution than a decision in which the
+innocent may receive the odium which belongs to the
+guilty.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the worst sort of accomplishments are
+brought by a lady into the marriage state: she may
+be capable of singing admirably, of dancing, of
+painting, of performing skilfully on the harp or piano,
+of making ingenious trinkets and ornaments; all this
+may be well enough for an unmarried lady, but of
+what use are they in a state of matrimony? It is
+true, that if she be favored with a handsome fortune,
+she may indulge herself agreeably with her inclination,
+and employ others to manage her household
+affairs; but not many are thus situated; and, even in
+this case, there are duties which belong to the wife,
+in regard to her husband and children, which would
+occupy pretty much of her time. It is still worse if
+she be fond of dissipation,&mdash;of routs, balls, and public
+amusements; if she fly abroad in pursuit of a phantom
+while domestic enjoyment is neglected. A good
+wife will endeavor to make herself happy at home,
+and she will try to make all at home happy: she
+should endeavor to make the pathway of life cheerful
+by her smiles and attention, so that her husband may
+be delighted with his dwelling, and find it his happiest
+place; and that the children may be regulated with
+all necessary care.</p>
+
+<p>A good temper is essential for matrimonial happiness.
+An habitually irritable or gloomy disposition
+<a name="png.211" id="png.211"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">212</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>is a source of misery to the possessor and to others.
+A dark and murky cave could as well throw out a
+cheerful lustre, as a surly person communicate happiness
+to those around him. Obstinacy must not be
+indulged by either party; for, as the bond of union
+cannot be easily broken, if one be perverse the other
+must bend. If two trees be bound tightly together,
+and both be stiff, the cords will probably break; if
+not immediately, they will when the cords become
+weaker: and thus with regard to matrimony, what
+God has joined together, the perversity of human beings
+will put asunder. Obstinacy in trifling matters
+in the marriage state is an evidence of little love
+and a bad heart; but if trifling matters appear important,
+and the gaining of every point be as the taking
+of a citadel, the person is wrong in his judgment;
+he is insane, or partially so. Many worthy women
+have been cursed with worthless husbands; but, unfortunately,
+the grievances of the female sex have
+been less frequently known than those of the men;
+for women are not authors, and men are frequently
+so; consequently, in all estimates of the comparative
+merit of the sexes, it must be remembered that more
+has been said on the one side than on the other.
+Home, however, is the castle of the wife, if she be a
+good one; here she keeps her permanent abode, agreeably
+with the injunction of St. Paul. The husband
+is absent the principal part of his time, may
+there not therefore, on some occasions, be too greet
+an inclination in the lady to consider herself as the
+governor of the establishment, while the husband
+may be deemed a visiter, rather than the master?
+This would not arise in the breast of an amiable and
+affectionate wife, but it has sometimes arisen; for,
+unfortunately, all wives have not been good ones.
+Jerome Cardan was so unfortunate as to have a wife
+who was proverbial for her ill temper and arbitrary
+conduct. John Knox said of Lord Erskine, &ldquo;He
+<a name="png.212" id="png.212"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">213</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>has a very Jezebel to his wife.&rdquo; Salmasius, the opponent
+of Milton, was made perpetually uneasy by a
+similar thorn. The unfortunate husband was a
+Frenchman, and Milton said (as Dr Johnson observes,)
+&ldquo;Tu es Gallus, et, ut aiunt, nimium gallinaceus.&rdquo;
+Milton himself seems to have suffered from a similar
+cause, for he evinces so much hostility to the female
+sex, that no other reason would so naturally account
+for it. He exclaims,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div class="i20">&ldquo;O why did God,</div>
+<div>Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven</div>
+<div>With spirits masculine, create at last</div>
+<div>This novelty on earth, this fair defect</div>
+<div>Of nature, and not fill the world at once</div>
+<div>With men and angels without feminine?&rdquo;</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Milton adds a great deal more, which, if he had a
+high opinion of woman, even his anxiety to make his
+character of Adam consistent would not have demanded.
+An amiable temper on the part of a wife,
+with her own natural softness, and an inclination to
+yield in unimportant matters, will not only increase
+love, but power; for in this respect, agreeably to the
+opinion of Prince Eugene, love is power.</p>
+
+<p>Marriage is sometimes made a matter of mere
+convenience; people enter into it with as much indifference
+as they would into any other speculation,
+and when one companion dies they take another. In
+the book of Tobit we have an account of Sara, the
+daughter of Raguel, who had been favored with seven
+husbands, whom &ldquo;Asmodeus the evil spirit had killed.&rdquo;
+Love must be exceedingly pliable, it must be
+love to man, and not to a man, that would suffer a
+woman to transfer her affections seven times. It
+would be a ludicrous occurrence, if, upon any particular
+occasion, a man&#8217;s three or four wives, or a woman&#8217;s
+three or four husbands, should &ldquo;burst their
+<a name="png.213" id="png.213"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">214</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>cerements,&rdquo; and visit their former dwelling. What
+astonishment! What uplifted hands and distended
+eyeballs! What speechlessness and violent speeches,&mdash;reproaches
+and animosities! When the Duke
+of Rutland was Viceroy of Ireland, Sir John Hamilton
+attended one of his Grace&#8217;s levees. &ldquo;This is timely
+rain,&rdquo; said the <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original has an extraneous closing quote">Duke,</ins> &ldquo;it will bring every thing
+above ground.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I hope not, my Lord,&rdquo; replied Sir
+John, &ldquo;for I have three wives there.&rdquo; Marriage may
+be well extended to two wives and two husbands in
+succession; this, in some cases, is necessary; but
+when it goes to three or four it is objectionable. The
+man who moves from place, sometimes living here
+and sometimes there, will never gain a pure and ardent
+love of home; by the same rule, a succession of
+wives will only induce an habitual or mechanical
+regard to the wife for the time being; in the same
+way as loyalty may be transferred from one sovereign
+to another. Besides, a family with different degrees
+of relationship and with different interests is formed,
+and this contributes nothing towards domestic tranquillity.
+There may be some particular cases in
+which the evils to which we have alluded may not
+arise; these may be deemed exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>There are some sorrows peculiar to matrimony;
+and some which, though they fall on other conditions
+of life, are felt more heavily when they intrude themselves
+within the boundary of connubial love. Poverty
+and sickness are more grievous evils under circumstances
+of this sort; because a man feels not only
+for himself, but for others. How dreadful must it be
+when the husband beholds his wife in squalid misery.
+What are the feelings of a mother when she sees her
+innocent children suffering from hunger! And when
+the iron hand of affliction presses upon the brow of a
+husband or a wife, and the sharp arrows of pain occasion
+groans, is there not an almost equal anguish
+is the breast of an affectionate partner? And when
+<a name="png.214" id="png.214"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">215</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>the heavy clouds of sorrow gather around at the anticipated
+separation of those who had lived in the
+bonds of harmony&mdash;when the chilly arms of death
+are held out to clasp him, or her, who had been used
+to a more tender embrace, how dreadful is that period!
+Is not the woe of separating generally in the
+same proportion as the bliss of uniting? And is it
+not a valuable loan to be paid by a mighty sacrifice?</p>
+
+<p>Unhappiness may be occasioned by indulging an
+undue degree of love. <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
+ original reads 'Sentimetal'">Sentimental</ins> bliss is generally
+followed by sentimental sorrow; consequently, people
+may love one another too ardently, so as to make the
+thought of parting a source of misery. If two plants
+grow up together, imparting to each other shelter and
+fragrance, it may contribute to their mutual advantage;
+but if they become so closely united as to grow
+from the same stalk, and depend on the same nutriment,
+then take away one, and both will perish.
+Connubial love should, therefore, be regulated by
+reason. Extremes are seldom durable. Violent love
+in the marriage state may change to hatred; and an
+unusual quantity expended on the husband or wife,
+may occasion a lesser degree of regard towards others.
+It is not an uncommon event for external enemies
+to occasion harmony at home; and harmony at
+home, or the yielding to the foolish notions of each
+other, may occasion enemies without. So difficult is
+it to act consistently, and to live in peace with all
+men! But the Scripture demands it, and we have a
+long period for studying our lesson.</p>
+
+<p>In matrimony it is necessary that many things should
+contribute to a permanency of enjoyment. A good
+temper on both sides; property enough to supply the
+wants of a family; good health; children&mdash;not too
+many, nor too few, nor all of one sex; a continuance
+in each other&#8217;s society, till both pass away gradually
+as the twilight into darkness: but, if chilly poverty
+exert its influence; if the husband or the wife be
+<a name="png.215" id="png.215"></a><span class="ns">[p</span><span
+ class="pgmark">216</span><span class="ns">]
+ </span>ill-tempered; if he or she be unfaithful or jealous; if
+love be followed by hatred; if one be taken, and the
+other left in solitude; if children be imperfect in birth,
+or habitually sickly, or drop off in early years as unripe
+fruit; if sons prove vicious, and daughters bring
+disgrace on themselves and their families; if the extravagance
+of children bring their aged parents in
+sorrow to the grave; where, then, will be the pleasure
+of matrimony? The cares of a family, when the
+family is large and unruly, are more perplexing than
+the cares of a state. Cardan confessed, that out of
+four great troubles which he had experienced, two
+arose from his children. When Thales was asked
+why he did not marry, he replied, &ldquo;because I want no
+children.&rdquo; One of the ancient sages was so much
+impressed with the disappointments and anxieties of
+matrimony, that when he was asked, at what time, a
+man should marry? replied, &ldquo;If he be young, not yet;
+if older, not at all.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This sentiment however, so repugnant to all our
+ideas of social improvement, as well as to the command
+of our Creator, who presented woman to man
+as a helpmate, because it was not good that he
+should live alone, and demanded of them to &ldquo;be
+fruitful and multiply,&rdquo; will find no advocates except
+among the disappointed, the ignorant, and the abandoned.
+&ldquo;The love of woman&rdquo; is a feeling too deeply
+rooted in the breast of man, and the reality of domestic
+felicity has been too long tested by experience,
+for either to be sacrificed on the altar of the revilers
+of matrimony, whether they be libertines, weak husbands,
+or misnamed &ldquo;philosophers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<div>The dearest boon from Heaven above,</div>
+<div class="i2">Is bliss which brightly hallows home,</div>
+<div>&#8217;Tis sunlight to the world of love,</div>
+<div class="i2">And life&#8217;s pure wine without its foam.</div>
+<div>There is a sympathy of heart</div>
+<div class="i2">Which consecrates the social shrine,</div>
+<div>Robs grief of gloom and doth impart</div>
+<div class="i2">A joy to gladness all divine.</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="tnote">
+<h3>Transcriber's Note</h3>
+
+<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Details
+are provided in the source code (search for <tt>class="TN"</tt>).
+Archaic spellings have been retained.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="pg" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts
+of the World, by Anonymous
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,6230 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of
+the World, by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Release Date: July 24, 2008 [EBook #26117]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, David Wilson and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DEATH OF CLEOPATRA. Page 201.]
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF
+THE FAIR SEX,
+
+IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+TO WHICH ARE ADDED
+RULES FOR DETERMINING
+THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY,
+THE HABITS, AND THE AGE
+OF WOMEN,
+
+NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISE
+OF DRESS.
+
+
+BOSTON:
+THEODORE ABBOT,
+388 WASHINGTON ST.
+
+1841.
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of congress, in the year 1841, by
+
+  THEODORE ABBOT,
+
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+In the following Pages,
+
+
+It is our design to present a pleasing and interesting miscellany, which
+will serve to beguile the leisure hour, and will at the same time couple
+instruction with amusement. We have used but little method in the
+arrangement: Choosing rather to furnish the reader with a rich profusion
+of narratives and anecdotes, all tending to illustrate the
+
+  FEMALE CHARACTER,
+
+to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle or sometimes heroic
+virtues, its amiable weaknesses, and strange defects--than to attempt an
+accurate analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted to master,
+viz--WOMAN.
+
+It will be seen that we do not set down Woman as a cipher in the account
+of human beings. We accord to her her full share of importance in the
+world, and we have not attempted to relieve her from a sense of her
+responsibility as an accountable being. Above all, we have not failed to
+impress upon her the obligations she is under to CHRISTIANITY, whose
+benign influences have raised her to be the companion and bosom-friend
+of man, instead of his mere handmaid and dependant. It is religion that
+must form such a character as the following, which though applied by
+Pope to one of the most accomplished women of his time, is that of a
+CHRISTIAN WIFE in every age and station,--
+
+  "Oh! blest with temper whose unclouded ray
+  Can make tomorrow cheerful as to-day:
+  She who can love a sister's charms, or hear
+  Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
+  She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
+  Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;
+  Charms by accepting--by submitting sways,
+  Yet has her humor most, when she obeys."
+
+By causing the character of woman to be more thoroughly discussed and
+better understood;--by making it more frequently the theme of rational
+meditation to the young and ardent, who, from the force of defective
+education, are apt to regard all "the sex," beyond a very limited
+circle, as mere accessaries to animal enjoyment,--whose peace they may
+wound without compunction, and whose happiness they may peril without
+reflection,--we feel that we shall do both sexes a good service, and one
+for which as they advance in life, and in their turn become husbands,
+wives and parents, they will thank our little book, as having helped
+them to know themselves and each other.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+  African Women,                                         43
+  Adultery, punishment of                               155
+  Bathing at Rome,                                       31
+  Betrothing and Marriage,                              104
+  Chinese Women,                                         40
+  Chinese Bridegroom,                                    41
+  Caesar, Anecdote of                                   157
+  Celibacy of the Clergy,                               160
+  Cleopatra, Death of,                                  199
+  Courts of Love,                                       172
+  Courtship, ancient Swedish                            176
+  Courtship, Grecian                                    165
+  Courtship, Eastern                                    168
+  Condition of Women in the 8th Century,                 52
+  Egyptian Women, Ancient                                13
+  Egyptian Women, Modern                                 15
+  Euthira, desperate act of                             162
+  Eastern Women,                                         37
+  English Women,                                         62
+  First Woman,                                            9
+  Female Friendship,                                    109
+  Female Delicacy,                                       30
+  French Women,                                          53
+  French Girls,                                          55
+  Female Simplicity,                                     71
+  Female Inferiority, idea of                            67
+  Females during the age of Chivalry,                    48
+  First Kiss of Love,                                   198
+  Grecian Women,                                         19
+  German Women,                                          99
+  Grecian Courtezans,                                    20
+  Greeks, religious festivals of                        180
+  Grecian Ladies, luxurious dress of                    164
+  Girls sold at Auction,                                153
+  Husbands, on the choice of                            114
+  Italian Women,                                         57
+  Influence of female society,                           83
+  Immodesty at Babylon,                                 173
+  Indecency at Adrianople,                              175
+  Lucretia and Virginia,                                182
+  Ladies of Lapland and Greenland,                      177
+  Matrimony, an essay on                                203
+  Matrimony among the French                             55
+  Matrimony in three different lights,                  103
+  Magnanimity of Women,                                  77
+  Monastic Life,                                         89
+  Marriage Brokers at Genoa,                             60
+  Marrying, power of                                    159
+  Noah's three sons,                                     43
+  Nuptial Ceremonies,                                    66
+  On looking at the picture of a beautiful female,      183
+  Persian Women,                                         17
+  Philtres and charms, power of                         167
+  Roman Women,                                           24
+  Roman Oppian Law,                                      29
+  Russian Women,                                         65
+  Spanish Women,                                         60
+  St. Valentine's Day,                                  171
+  Sentimental Attachment,                                92
+  Sale of a wife,                                       154
+  Saxons and Danes, long hair of                        170
+  Venus de Medici,                                      194
+  Women, Art of determining the figure, beauty, habits,
+    and the age of                                      185
+  Women in the Patriarchal ages,                         10
+  Woman in Savage Life,                                  32
+  Woman in times of Chivalry,                            45
+  Women in Asia and Africa,                              79
+
+
+
+
+  "Sketches indeed, from that most passionate page,
+  A woman's heart, of feelings, thoughts, that make
+  The atmosphere in which her spirit moves;
+  But like all other earthly elements,
+  O'ercast with clouds; now dark, now touched with light,
+  With rainbows, sunshine, showers, moonlight, stars,
+  Chasing each other's change. I fain would trace
+  Its brightness and its blackness."
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF "THE SEX."
+
+THE FIRST WOMAN, AND HER ANTEDILUVIAN
+DESCENDANTS.
+
+
+The great Creator, having formed man of the dust of the earth, "made a
+deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, and closed up the
+flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from
+man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." Hence the fair sex,
+in the opinion of some authors, being formed of matter doubly refined,
+derive their superior beauty and excellence.
+
+Not long after the creation, the first woman was tempted by the serpent
+to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, in the midst of the garden of
+Eden, with regard to which God had said, "Ye shall not eat of it,
+neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
+
+This deception, and the fatal consequences arising from it, furnish the
+most interesting story in the whole history of the sex.
+
+On the offerings being brought, and that of Abel accepted, Cain's
+jealousy and resentment rose to such a pitch, that, as soon as they came
+down from the mount where they had been sacrificing, he fell upon his
+brother and slew him.
+
+For this cruel and barbarous action, Cain and his posterity, being
+banished from the rest of the human race, indulged themselves in every
+species of wickedness. On this account, it is supposed, they were called
+the _Sons and Daughters of Men_. The posterity of Seth, on the other
+hand, became eminent for virtue, and a regard to the divine precepts. By
+their regular and amiable conduct, they acquired the appellation of
+_Sons and Daughters of God_.
+
+After the deluge there is a chasm in the history of women, until the
+time of the patriarch Abraham. They then begin to be introduced into the
+sacred story. Several of their actions are recorded. The laws, customs,
+and usages, by which they were governed, are frequently exhibited.
+
+
+WOMAN IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.
+
+The condition of women among the ancient patriarchs, appears to have
+been but extremely indifferent. When Abraham entertained the angels,
+sent to denounce the destruction of Sodom, he seems to have treated his
+wife as a menial servant: "Make ready quickly," said he to her, "three
+measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes on the hearth."
+
+In many parts of the east, water is only to be met with deep in the
+earth, and to draw it from the wells is, consequently, fatiguing and
+laborious. This, however, was the task of the daughters of Jethro the
+Midianite; to whom so little regard was paid, either on account of their
+sex, or the rank of their father, as high priest of the country, that
+the neighboring shepherds not only insulted them, but forcibly took from
+them the water they had drawn.
+
+This was the task of Rebecca, who not only drew water for Abraham's
+servant, but for his camels also, while the servant stood an idle
+spectator of the toil. Is it not natural to imagine, that, as he was on
+an embassy to court the damsel for Isaac, his master's son, he would
+have exerted his utmost efforts to please, and become acceptable?
+
+When he had concluded his bargain, and was carrying her home, we meet
+with a circumstance worthy of remark. When she first approached Isaac,
+who had walked out into the fields to meet her, she did it in the most
+submissive manner, as if she had been approaching a lord and master,
+rather than a fond and passionate lover. From this circumstance, as well
+as from several others, related in the sacred history, it would seem
+that women, instead of endeavoring, as in modern times, to persuade the
+world that they confer an immense favor on a lover, by deigning to
+accept of him, did not scruple to confess, that the obligation was
+conferred on themselves.
+
+This was the case with Ruth, who had laid herself down at the feet of
+Boaz; and being asked by him who she was, answered, "I am Ruth, thine
+handmaid; spread, therefore, thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art
+a near kinsman."
+
+When Jacob went to visit his uncle Laban, he met Rachel, Laban's
+daughter, in the fields, attending on the flocks of her father.
+
+In a much later period, Tamar, one of the daughters of king David, was
+sent by her father to perform the servile office of making cakes for her
+brother Amnon.
+
+The simplicity of the times in which these things happened, no doubt,
+very much invalidates the strength of the conclusions that naturally
+arise from them. But, notwithstanding, it still appears that women were
+not then treated with the delicacy which they have experienced among
+people more polished and refined.
+
+Polygamy also prevailed; which is so contrary to the inclination of the
+sex, and so deeply wounds the delicacy of their feelings, that it is
+impossible for any woman voluntarily to agree to it, even where it is
+authorized by custom and by law. Wherever, therefore, polygamy takes
+place, we may assure ourselves that women have but little authority, and
+have scarcely arrived at any consequence in society.
+
+
+WOMEN OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
+
+Wherever the human race live solitary, and unconnected with each other,
+they are savage and barbarous. Wherever they associate together, that
+association produces softer manners and a more engaging deportment.
+
+The Egyptians, from the nature of their country, annually overflowed by
+the Nile, had no wild beasts to hunt, nor could they procure any thing
+by fishing. On these accounts, they were under a necessity of applying
+themselves to agriculture, a kind of life which naturally brings mankind
+together, for mutual convenience and assistance.
+
+They were, likewise, every year, during the inundation of the river,
+obliged to assemble together, and take shelter, either on the rising
+grounds, or in the houses, which were raised upon piles, above the reach
+of the waters. Here, almost every employment being suspended, and the
+men and women long confined together, a thousand inducements, not to be
+found in a solitary state, would naturally prompt them to render
+themselves agreeable to each other. Hence their manners would begin,
+more early, to assume a softer polish, and more elegant refinement, than
+those of the other nations who surrounded them.
+
+The practice of confining women, instituted by jealousy, and maintained
+by unlawful power, was not adopted by the ancient Egyptians. This
+appears from the story of Pharaoh's daughter, who was going with her
+train of maids to bathe in the river, when she found Moses hid among the
+reeds. It is still more evident, from that of the wife of Potiphar, who,
+if she had been confined, could not have found the opportunities she
+did, to solicit Joseph to her adulterous embrace.
+
+The queens of Egypt had the greatest attention paid to them. They were
+more readily obeyed than the kings. It is also related, that the
+husbands were in their marriage-contracts, obliged to promise obedience
+to their wives; an obedience, which, in our modern times, we are often
+obliged to perform, though our wives entered into the promise.
+
+The behavior of Solomon to Pharaoh's daughter is a convincing proof that
+more honor and respect was paid to the Egyptian women, than to those of
+any other people. Solomon had many other wives besides this princess,
+and was married to several of them before her, which, according to the
+Jewish law, ought to have entitled them to a preference. But,
+notwithstanding this, we hear of no particular palace having been built
+for any of the others, nor of the worship of any of their gods having
+been introduced into Jerusalem. But a magnificent palace was erected for
+Pharaoh's daughter; and she was permitted, though expressly contrary to
+the laws of Israel, to worship the gods of her own country.
+
+
+MODERN EGYPTIAN WOMEN.
+
+The women of modern Egypt are far from being on so respectable a
+footing as they were in ancient times, or as the European women are at
+present.
+
+In Europe, women act parts of great consequence, and often reign
+sovereigns on the world's vast theatre. They influence manners and
+morals, and decide on the most important events. The fate of nations is
+frequently in their hands.
+
+How different is their situation in Egypt! There they are bound down by
+the fetters of slavery, condemned to servitude, and have no influence in
+public affairs. Their empire is confined within the walls of the Harem.
+There are their graces and charms entombed. The circle of their life
+extends not beyond their own family and domestic duties.
+
+Their first care is to educate their children; and a numerous posterity
+is their most fervent wish. Mothers always suckle their children. This
+is expressly commanded by Mahomet:--"Let the mother suckle her child
+full two years, if the child does not quit the breast; but she shall be
+permitted to wean it, with the consent of her husband."
+
+The harem is the cradle and school of infancy. The new born feeble being
+is not there swaddled and filletted up in a swathe, the source of a
+thousand diseases. Laid naked on a mat, exposed in a vast chamber to the
+pure air, he breathes freely, and with his delicate limbs sprawls at
+pleasure.
+
+The daughter's education is the same. Whalebone and husks, which martyr
+European girls, they know not. They are only covered with a shift until
+six years old: and the dress they afterwards wear confines none of their
+limbs, but suffers the body to take its true form; and nothing is more
+uncommon than ricketty children, and crooked people. In Egypt, man rises
+in all his majesty, and woman displays every charm of person.
+
+The Egyptian women, once or twice a week, are permitted to go to the
+bath, and visit female relations and friends. They receive each other's
+visits very affectionately. When a lady enters the harem, the mistress
+rises, takes her hand, presses it to her bosom, kisses, and makes her
+sit down by her side; a slave hastens to take her black mantle; she is
+entreated to be at ease, quits her veil, and discovers a floating robe
+tied round her waist with a sash, which perfectly displays her shape.
+She then receives compliments according to their manner: "Why, my
+mother, or my sister, have you been so long absent? We sighed to see
+you! Your presence is an honor to our house! It is the happiness of our
+lives!"
+
+Slaves present coffee, sherbet, and confectionary. They laugh, talk and
+play. A large dish is placed on the sofa, on which are oranges,
+pomegranates, bananas, and excellent melons. Water, and rose-water
+mixed, are brought in an ewer, and with them a silver bason to wash the
+hands; and loud glee and merry conversation season the meal. The chamber
+is perfumed by wood of aloes, in a brazier; and, the repast ended, the
+slaves dance to the sound of cymbals, with whom the mistresses often
+mingle. At parting they several times repeat, "God keep you in health!
+Heaven grant you a numerous offspring! Heaven preserve your children;
+the delight and glory of your family!"
+
+When a visitor is in the harem, the husband must not enter. It is the
+asylum of hospitality, and cannot be violated without fatal
+consequences; a cherished right, which the Egyptian women carefully
+maintain, being interested in its preservation. A lover, disguised like
+a woman, may be introduced into the harem, and it is necessary he should
+remain undiscovered; death would otherwise be his reward. In that
+country, where the passions are excited by the climate, and the
+difficulty of gratifying them is great, love often produces tragical
+events.
+
+
+PERSIAN WOMEN.
+
+Several historians, in mentioning the ancient Persians, have dwelt with
+peculiar severity on the manner in which they treated their women.
+Jealous, almost to distraction, they confined the whole sex with the
+strictest attention, and could not bear that the eye of a stranger
+should behold the beauty whom they adored.
+
+When Mahomet, the great legislator of the modern Persians, was just
+expiring, the last advice that he gave to his faithful adherents, was,
+"Be watchful of your religion, and your wives." Hence they pretend to
+derive not only the power of confining, but also of persuading them,
+that they hazard their salvation, if they look upon any other man
+besides their husbands. The Christian religion informs us, that in the
+other world they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. The religion
+of Mahomet teaches us a different doctrine, which the Persians
+believing, carry the jealousy of Asia to the fields of Elysium, and the
+groves of Paradise; where, according to them, the blessed inhabitants
+have their eyes placed on the crown of their heads, lest they should see
+the wives of their neighbors.
+
+To offer the least violence to a Persian woman, was to incur certain
+death from her husband or guardian. Even their kings, though the most
+absolute in the universe, could not alter the manners or customs of the
+country, which related to the fair sex.
+
+Widely different from this is the present state of Persia. By a law of
+that country, their monarch is now authorized to go, whenever he
+pleases, into the harem of any of his subjects; and the subject, on
+whose prerogative he thus encroaches, so far from exerting his usual
+jealousy, thinks himself highly honored by such a visit.
+
+A laughable story, on this subject, is told of Shah Abbas, who having
+got drunk at the house of one of his favorites, and intending to go into
+the apartment of his wives, was stopped by the door-keeper, who bluntly
+told him, "Not a man, sir, besides my master, shall put a mustachio
+here, so long as I am porter." "What," said the king, "dost thou not
+know me?" "Yes," answered the fellow, "I know that you are king of the
+men, but not of the women."
+
+
+GRECIAN WOMEN.
+
+Woman, in ancient Greece, seems to have been regarded merely in the
+light of an instrument for raising up members of the state. And surely
+it may be said of them that they nobly fulfilled this duty. The
+catalogue of heroes and sages which shine in Grecian history bright and
+numerous as stars in the firmament, are so many testimonials to the
+faithfulness of Grecian women in this respect.
+
+The sexes were but little society for each other. Even husbands were, in
+Sparta, limited as to the time and duration of the visits made to their
+wives.
+
+That women in ancient Greece did not enjoy that delicate consideration
+which other refined nations accord to their sex, may be inferred from
+the inferiority of the apartments allotted to them. The famous Helen is
+said to have had her chamber in the attic; and Penelope, the queen of
+Ulysses, descended from hers by a ladder.
+
+
+GRECIAN COURTEZANS.
+
+The rank which the courtezans enjoyed, even in the brightest ages of
+Greece, and particularly at Athens, is one of the greatest singularities
+in the manners of any people. By what circumstances could that order of
+women, who debase at once their own sex and ours--in a country where the
+women were possessed of modesty, and the men of sentiment, arrive at
+distinction, and sometimes even at the highest degree of reputation and
+consequence? Several reasons may be assigned for that phenomenon in
+society.
+
+In Greece, the courtezans were in some measure connected with the
+religion of the country. The Goddess of Beauty had her altars; and she
+was supposed to protect prostitution, which was to her a species of
+worship. The people invoked Venus in times of danger; and, after a
+battle, they thought they had done honor to Miltiades and Themistocles,
+because the Laises and the Glyceras of the age had chaunted hymns to
+their Goddess.
+
+The courtezans were likewise connected with religion, by means of the
+arts. Their persons afforded models for statues, which were afterwards
+adored in the temples. Phryne served as a model to Praxiteles, for his
+Venus of Cnidus. During the feasts of Neptune, near Eleusis, Apelles
+having seen the same courtezan on the sea-shore, without any other veil
+than her loose and flowing hair, was so much struck with her appearance,
+that he borrowed from it the idea of his Venus rising from the waves.
+
+They were, therefore connected with statuary and painting, as they
+furnished the practisers of those arts with the means of embellishing
+their works.
+
+The greater part of them were skilled in music; and, as that art was
+attended with higher effects in Greece than it ever was in any other
+country, it must have possessed, in their hands, an irresistible charm.
+
+Every one knows how enthusiastic the Greeks were of beauty. They adored
+it in the temples. They admired it in the principal works of art. They
+studied it in the exercises and the games. They thought to perfect it by
+their marriages. They offered rewards to it at the public festivals. But
+virtuous beauty was seldom to be seen. The modest women were confined to
+their own apartments, and were visited only by their husbands and
+nearest relations. The courtezans offered themselves every where to
+view; and their beauty as might be expected, obtained universal homage.
+
+Greece was governed by eloquent men; and the celebrated courtezans,
+having an influence over those orators must have had an influence on
+public affairs. There was not one, not even the thundering, the
+inflexible Demosthenes, so terrible to tyrants, but was subjected to
+their sway. Of that great master of eloquence it has been said, "What he
+had been a whole year in erecting, a woman overturned in a day." That
+influence augmented their consequence; and their talent of pleasing
+increased with the occasions of exerting it.
+
+The laws and the public institutions, indeed, by authorizing the
+privacy of women, set a high value on the sanctity of the marriage vow.
+But in Athens, imagination, sentiment, luxury, the taste in arts and
+pleasures, was opposite to the laws. The courtezans, therefore may be
+said to have come in support of the manners.
+
+There was no check upon public licentiousness; but private infidelity,
+which concerned the peace of families, was punished as a crime. By a
+strange and perhaps unequalled singularity the men were corrupted, yet
+the domestic manners were pure. It seems as if the courtezans had not
+been considered to belong to their sex; and, by a convention to which
+the laws and the manners bended, while other women were estimated merely
+by their virtues, they were estimated only by their accomplishments.
+
+These reasons will in some measure, account for the honors, which the
+votaries of Venus so often received in Greece. Otherwise we should have
+been at a loss to conceive, why six or seven writers had exerted their
+talents to celebrate the courtezans of Athens--why three great painters
+had uniformly devoted their pencils to represent them on canvass--and
+why so many poets had strove to immortalize them in verses. We should
+hardly have believed that so many illustrious men had courted their
+society--that Aspasia had been consulted in deliberations of peace and
+war--that Phryne had a statue of gold placed between the statues of two
+kings at Delphos--that, after death, magnificent tombs had been erected
+to their memory.
+
+"The traveller," says a Greek writer, "who, approaching to Athens, sees
+on the side of the way a monument which attracts his notice at a
+distance, will imagine that it is the tomb of Miltiades or Pericles, or
+of some other great man, who has done honor to his country by his
+services. He advances, he reads, and he learns that it is a courtezan of
+Athens who is interred with so much pomp."
+
+Theopompus, in a letter to Alexander the Great, speaks also of the same
+monument in words to the following effect--"Thus, after her death, is a
+prostitute honored; while not one of those brave warriors who fell in
+Asia, fighting for you, and for the safety of Greece, has so much as a
+stone erected to his memory, or an inscription to preserve his ashes
+from insult."
+
+Such was the homage which that enthusiastic people, voluptuous and
+passionate, paid to beauty. More guided by sentiment than reason, and
+having laws rather than principles, they banished their great men,
+honored their courtezans, murdered Socrates, permitted themselves to be
+governed by Aspasia, preserved inviolate the marriage bed, and placed
+Phryne in the temple of Apollo!
+
+
+ROMAN WOMEN.
+
+Among the Romans, a grave and austere people, who, during five hundred
+years, were unacquainted with the elegancies and the pleasures of life,
+and who, in the middle of furrows and fields of battle, were employed in
+tillage or in war, the manners of the women were a long time as solemn
+and severe as those of the men, and without the smallest mixture of
+corruption, or of weakness.
+
+The time when the Roman women began to appear in public, marks a
+particular era in history.
+
+The Roman women, for many ages, were respected over the whole world.
+Their victorious husbands re-visited them with transport, at their
+return from battle. They laid at their feet the spoils of the enemy, and
+endeared themselves in their eyes by the wounds which they had received
+for them and for the state. Those warriors often came from imposing
+commands upon kings, and in their own houses accounted it an honor to
+obey. In vain the too rigid laws made them the arbiters of life and
+death. More powerful than the laws, the women ruled their judges. In
+vain the legislature, foreseeing the wants which exist only among a
+corrupt people, permitted divorce. The indulgence of the polity was
+proscribed by the manners.
+
+Such was the influence of beauty at Rome before the licentious
+intercourse of the sexes had corrupted both.
+
+The Roman matrons do not seem to have possessed that military courage
+which Plutarch has praised in certain Greek and barbarian women; they
+partook more of the nature of their sex; or, at least, they departed
+less from its character. Their first quality was decency. Every one
+knows the story of Cato the censor, _who stabbed a Roman Senator for
+kissing his own wife in the presence of his daughter_.
+
+To these austere manners, the Roman women joined an enthusiastic love of
+their country, which discovered itself upon many great occasions. On the
+death of Brutus, they all clothed themselves in mourning. In the time of
+Coriolanus they saved the city. That incensed warrior who had insulted
+the senate and priests, and who was superior even to the pride of
+pardoning, could not resist the tears and entreaties of the women.
+_They_ melted his obdurate heart. The senate decreed them public thanks,
+ordered the men to give place to them upon all occasions, caused an
+altar to be erected for them on the spot where the mother had softened
+her son, and the wife her husband; and the sex were permitted to add
+another ornament to their head-dress.
+
+The Roman women saved the city a second time, when besieged by Brennus.
+They gave up all their gold as its ransom. For that instance of their
+generosity, the senate granted them the honor of having funeral orations
+pronounced in the rostrum, in common with patriots and heroes.
+
+After the battle of Cannae, when Rome had no other treasures but the
+virtues of her citizens, the women sacrificed both their jewels and
+their gold. A new decree rewarded their zeal.
+
+Valerius Maximus who lived in the reign of Tiberius, informs us that, in
+the second triumvirate, the three assassins who governed Rome thirsting
+after gold, no less than blood, and having already practised every
+species of robbery, and worn out every method of plunder; resolved _to
+tax the women_. They imposed a heavy contribution upon each of them. The
+women sought an orator to defend their cause, but found none. Nobody
+would reason against those who had the power of life and death. The
+daughter of the celebrated Hortensius alone appeared. She revived the
+memory of her father's abilities, and supported with intrepidity her own
+cause and that of her sex. The ruffians blushed and revoked their
+orders.
+
+Hortensia was conducted home in triumph, and had the honor of having
+given, in one day, an example of courage to men, a pattern of eloquence
+to women, and a lesson of humanity to tyrants.
+
+During upwards of six hundred years, the _virtues_ had been found
+sufficient to please. They now found it necessary to call in the
+_accomplishments_. They were desirous to join admiration to esteem,
+'till they learned to exceed esteem itself. For in all countries, in
+proportion as the love of virtue diminishes, we find the love of talents
+to increase.
+
+A thousand causes concurred to produce this revolution of manners among
+the Romans. The vast inequality of ranks, the enormous fortunes of
+individuals, the ridicule, affixed by the imperial court to moral ideas,
+all contributed to hasten the period of corruption.
+
+There were still, however, some great and virtuous characters among the
+Roman women. Portia, the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, showed
+herself worthy to be associated with the first of human kind, and
+trusted with the fate of empires. After the battle of Phillippi, she
+would neither survive liberty nor Brutus, but died with the bold
+intrepidity of Cato.
+
+The example of Portia was followed by that of Arria, who seeing her
+husband hesitating and afraid to die, in order to encourage him, pierced
+her own breast, and delivered to him the dagger with a smile.
+
+Paulinia too, the wife of Seneca, caused her veins to be opened at the
+same time with her husband's, but being forced to live, during the few
+years which she survived him, "she bore in her countenance," says
+Tacitus, "the honorable testimony of her love, a _paleness_, which
+proved that part of her blood had sympathetically issued with the blood
+of her spouse."
+
+To take notice of all the celebrated women of the empire, would much
+exceed the bounds of the present undertaking. But the empress Julia the
+wife of Septimius Severus, possessed a species of merit so very
+different from any of those already mentioned, as to claim particular
+attention.
+
+This lady was born in Syria, and a daughter of a priest of the sun. It
+was predicted that she would rise to sovereign dignity; and her
+character justified the prophecy.
+
+Julia, while on the throne, loved, or pretended passionately to love,
+letters. Either from taste, from a desire to instruct herself, from a
+love of renown, or possibly from all these together, she spent her life
+with philosophers. Her rank of empress would not, perhaps, have been
+sufficient to subdue those bold spirits; but she joined to that the more
+powerful influences of wit and beauty. These three kinds of empire
+rendered less necessary to her that which consists only in art; and
+which, attentive to their tastes and their weaknesses, govern great
+minds by little means.
+
+It is said she was a philosopher. Her philosophy, however, did not
+extend so far as to give chastity to her manners. Her husband, who did
+not love her, valued her understanding so much, that he consulted her
+upon all occasions. She governed in the same manner under his son.
+
+Julia was, in short, an empress and a politician, occupied at the same
+time about literature, and affairs of state, while she mingled her
+pleasures freely with both. She had courtiers for her lovers, scholars
+for her friends, and philosophers for her counsellors. In the midst of a
+society, where she reigned and was instructed. Julia arrived at the
+highest celebrity; but as among all her excellencies, we find not those
+of her sex, the virtues of a woman, our admiration is lost in blame. In
+her life time she obtained more praise than respect; and posterity,
+while it has done justice to her talents and her accomplishments, has
+agreed to deny her esteem.
+
+
+LAWS AND CUSTOMS RESPECTING THE ROMAN WOMEN.
+
+The Roman women, as well as the Grecian, were under perpetual
+guardianship; and were not at any age, nor in any condition, ever
+trusted with the management of their own fortunes.
+
+Every father had power of life and death over his own daughters: but
+this power was not restricted to daughters only; it extended also to
+sons.
+
+The Oppian law prohibited women from having more than half an ounce of
+gold employed in ornamenting their persons, from wearing clothes of
+divers colors, and from riding in chariots, either in the city, or a
+thousand paces round it.
+
+They were strictly forbid to use wine, or even to have in their
+possession the key of any place where it was kept. For either of these
+faults they were liable to be divorced by their husbands. So careful
+were the Romans in restraining their women from wine, that they are
+supposed to have first introduced the custom of saluting their female
+relations and acquaintances, on entering the house of a friend or
+neighbor, that they might discover by their breath, whether they had
+tasted any of that liquor.
+
+This strictness, however, began in time to be relaxed; until at last,
+luxury becoming too strong for every law, the women indulged themselves
+in equal liberties with the men.
+
+But such was not the case in the earlier ages of Rome. Romulus even
+permitted husbands to kill their wives, if they found them drinking
+wine.
+
+Fabius Pictor relates, that the parents of a Roman lady, having detected
+her picking the lock of a chest which contained some wine, shut her up
+and starved her to death.
+
+Women were liable to be divorced by their husbands almost at pleasure,
+provided the portion was returned which they had brought along with
+them. They were also liable to be divorced for barrenness, which, if it
+could be construed into a fault, was at least the fault of nature, and
+might sometimes be that of the husband.
+
+A few sumptuary laws, a subordination to the men, and a total want of
+authority, do not so much affect the sex, as to be coldly and
+indelicately treated by their husbands.
+
+Such a treatment is touching them in the tenderest part. Such, however
+we have reason to believe, they often met with from the Romans, who had
+not learned, as in modern times to blend the rigidity of the patriot,
+and roughness of the warrior, with that soft and indulging behavior, so
+conspicuous in our modern patriots and heroes.
+
+Husbands among the Romans not only themselves behaved roughly to their
+wives, but even sometimes permitted their servants and slaves to do the
+same. The principal eunuch of Justinian the Second, threatened to
+chastise the Empress, his master's wife, in the manner that children are
+chastised at school, if she did not obey his orders.
+
+With regard to the private diversions of the Roman ladies, history is
+silent. Their public ones, were such as were common to both sexes; as
+bathing, theatrical representations, horse-races, shows of wild beasts,
+which fought against one another, and sometimes against men, whom the
+emperors, in the plenitude of their despotic power, ordered to engage
+them.
+
+The Romans, of both sexes, spent a great deal of time at the baths;
+which at first, perhaps, were interwoven with their religion, but at
+last were only considered as refinements in luxury. They were places of
+public resort, where people met with their acquaintances and friends,
+where public libraries were kept for such as chose to read, and where
+poets recited their works to such as had patience to hear.
+
+In the earlier periods of Rome, separate baths were appropriated to each
+sex. Luxury, by degrees getting the better of decency, the men and women
+at last bathed promiscuously together. Though this indecent manner of
+bathing was prohibited by the emperor Adrian; yet, in a short time,
+inclination overcame the prohibition; and, in spite of every effort,
+promiscuous bathing continued until the time of Constantine, who, by the
+coercive force of the legislative authority, and the rewards and
+terrors of the Christian religion, put a final stop to it.
+
+
+WOMAN IN SAVAGE LIFE.
+
+Man, in a state of barbarity, equally cruel and indolent, active by
+necessity, but naturally inclined to repose, is acquainted with little
+more than the physical effects of love; and having none of those moral
+ideas which only can soften the empire of force, he is led to consider
+it as his supreme law, subjecting to his despotism those whom reason had
+made his equals, but whose imbecility betrayed them to his strength.
+
+Cast in the lap of naked nature, and exposed to every hardship, the
+forms of women, in savage life, are but little engaging. With nothing
+that deserves the name of culture, their latent qualities, if they have
+any, are like the diamond, while enclosed in the rough flint, incapable
+of shewing any lustre. Thus destitute of every thing by which they can
+excite love, or acquire esteem; destitute of beauty to charm, or art to
+soothe, the tyrant man; they are by him destined to perform every mean
+and servile office. In this the American and other savage women differ
+widely from those of Asia, who, if they are destitute of the
+qualifications necessary for gaining esteem, have beauty, ornaments, and
+the art of exciting love.
+
+In civilized countries a woman acquires some power by being the mother
+of a numerous family, who obey her maternal authority, and defends her
+honor and her life. But, even as a mother, a female savage has not much
+advantage. Her children, daily accustomed to see their father treat her
+nearly as a slave, soon begin to imitate his example, and either pay
+little regard to her authority or shake it off altogether.
+
+Of this the Hottentot boys afford a remarkable proof. They are brought
+up by the women, till they are about fourteen years of age. Then, with
+several ceremonies they are initiated into the society of men. After
+this initiation is over it is reckoned manly for a boy to take the
+earliest opportunity of returning to the hut of his mother, and beating
+her in the most barbarous manner, to show that he is now out of her
+jurisdiction. Should the mother complain to the men, they would only
+applaud the boy for showing so laudable a contempt for the society and
+authority of women.
+
+In the Brazils, the females are obliged to follow their husbands to war,
+to supply the place of beasts of burden, and to carry on their backs
+their children, provisions, hammocks, and every thing wanted in the
+field.
+
+In the Isthmus of Darien, they are sent along with warriors and
+travellers, as we do baggage horses. Even their Queen appeared before
+some English gentlemen, carrying her sucking child, wrapt in a red
+blanket.
+
+The women among the Indians of America are what the Helots were among
+the Spartans, a vanquished people obliged to toil for their conquerors.
+Hence on the banks of the Oroonoko we have heard of mothers slaying
+their daughters out of compassion, and smothering them in the hour of
+their birth. They consider this barbarous pity as a virtue.
+
+Father Joseph Gumilla, reproving one of them for this inhuman crime,
+received the following answer:--"I wish to God, Father, I wish to God,
+that my mother had, by my death, prevented the manifold distresses I
+have endured, and have yet to endure as long as I live. Had she kindly
+stilled me in my birth, I should not have felt the pain of death, nor
+the numberless other pains to which life has subjected me. Consider,
+Father, our deplorable condition. Our husbands go to hunt with their
+bows and arrows, and trouble themselves no farther: we are dragged along
+with one infant at our breast, and another in a basket. They return in
+the evening without any burden; we return with the burden of our
+children. Though tired with long walking, we are not allowed to sleep,
+but must labor the whole night, in grinding maize to make _chica_ for
+them. They get drunk, and in their drunkenness beat us, draw us by the
+hair of the head, and tread us under foot. A young wife is brought upon
+us and permitted to abuse us and our children. What kindness can we show
+to our female children, equal to that of relieving them from such
+servitude, more bitter a thousand times than death? I repeat again,
+would to God my mother had put me under ground, the moment I was born."
+
+"The men," says Commodore Byron, in his account of the inhabitants of
+South America, "exercise a most despotic authority over their wives whom
+they consider in the same view they do any other part of their property,
+and dispose of them accordingly. Even their common treatment of them is
+cruel. For, though the toil and hazard of procuring food lies entirely
+on the women, yet they are not suffered to touch any part of it, until
+the husband is satisfied; and then he assign them their portion, which
+is generally very scanty, and such as he has not a stomach for himself."
+
+The Greenlanders, who live mostly upon seals, think it sufficient to
+catch and bring them on shore; and would rather submit to starve than
+assist their women in skinning, dressing, or dragging home the cumbrous
+animals to their huts.
+
+In some parts of America, when the men kill any game in the woods, they
+lay it at the root of a tree, fix a mark there, and travelling until
+they arrive at their habitation, send their women to fetch it, a task
+which their own laziness and pride equally forbid.
+
+Among many of the tribes of wandering Arabs, the women are not only
+obliged to do every domestic and every rural work, but also to feed, to
+dress, and saddle the horses, for the use of their husbands.
+
+The Moorish women, besides doing all the same kinds of drudgery, are
+also obliged to cultivate the fields, while their husbands stand idle
+spectators of the toil, or sleep inglorious beneath a neighboring shade.
+
+In Madura the husband generally speaks to his wife in the most imperious
+tone; while she with fear and trembling approaches him, waits upon him
+while at meals, and pronounces not his name, but with the addition of
+every dignifying title she can devise. In return for all this submission
+he frequently beats and abuses her in the most barbarous manner. Being
+asked the reason of such a behavior, one of them answered, "As our wives
+are so much our inferiors why should we allow them to eat and drink with
+us? Why should they not serve us with whatever we call for, and
+afterwards sit down and eat up what we leave? If they commit faults, why
+should they not suffer correction? It is their business only to bring up
+our children, pound our rice, make our oil, and do every other kind of
+drudgery, purposes to which only their low and inferior natures are
+adapted."
+
+The Circassian custom of breeding young girls, on purpose to be sold in
+the public market to the highest bidder, is generally known. Perhaps,
+however, upon minute examination, we shall find that women are, in some
+degree, bought and sold in every country, whether savage or civilized.
+
+
+EASTERN WOMEN.
+
+The women of the East, have in general, always exhibited the same
+appearance. Their manners, customs, and fashions, unalterable like their
+rocks, have stood the test of many revolving ages. Though the kingdoms
+of their country have often changed masters, though they have submitted
+to the arms of almost every invader, yet the laws by which their sex are
+governed and enslaved, have never been revised nor amended.
+
+Had the manners and customs of the Asiatic women been subject to the
+same changes as they are in Europe, we might have expected the same
+changes in the sentiments and writings of their men. But, as this is not
+the case, we have reason to presume that the sentiments entertained by
+Solomon, by the apocryphal writers, and by the ancient Bramins, are the
+sentiments of this day.
+
+Though the confinement of women be an unlawful exertion of superior
+power, yet it affords a proof that the inhabitants of the East are
+advanced some degrees farther in civilization than mere savages, who
+have hardly any love and consequently as little jealousy.
+
+This confinement is not very rigid in the empire of the Mogul. It is,
+perhaps, less so in China, and in Japan hardly exists.
+
+Though women are confined in the Turkish empire, they experience every
+other indulgence. They are allowed, at stated times, to go to the public
+baths; their apartments are richly, if not elegantly furnished; they
+have a train of female slaves to serve and amuse them; and their persons
+are adorned with every costly ornament which their fathers or husbands
+can afford.
+
+Notwithstanding the strictness of confinement in Persia, their women are
+treated with several indulgences. They are allowed a variety of precious
+liquors, costly perfumes, and beautiful slaves: their apartments are
+furnished with the most elegant hangings and carpets; their persons
+ornamented with the finest silks, and even loaded with the sparkling
+jewels of the East. But all these trappings, however elegant, or however
+gilded, are only like the golden chains sometimes made use of to bind a
+royal prisoner.
+
+Solomon had a great number of queens and concubines; but a petty Hindoo
+chief has been known to have two thousand women confined within the
+walls of his harem, and appropriated entirely to his pleasure. Nothing
+less than unlimited power in the husband is able to restrain women so
+confined, from the utmost disorder and confusion. They may repine in
+secret, but they must clothe their features with cheerfulness when their
+lord appears. Contumacy draws down on them immediate punishment: they
+are degraded, chastised, divorced, shut up in dark dungeons, and
+sometimes put to death.
+
+Their persons, however, are so sacred, that they must not in the least
+be violated, nor even be looked at, by any one but their husbands. This
+female privilege has given an opportunity of executing many
+conspiracies. Warriors, in such vehicles as are usually employed to
+carry women, have been often conveyed, without examination, into the
+apartments of the great; from whence, instead of issuing forth in the
+smiles of beauty, they have rushed out in the terror of arms, and laid
+the tyrants at their feet.
+
+No stranger is ever allowed to see the women of Hindostan, nor can even
+brothers visit their sisters in private. To be conscious of the
+existence of a man's wives seems a crime; and he looks surly and
+offended if their health is inquired after. In every country, honor
+consists in something upon which the possessor sets the highest value.
+This, with the Hindoo, is the chastity of his wives; a point without
+which he must not live.
+
+In the midst of slaughter and devastation, throughout all the East, the
+harem is a sanctuary. Ruffians, covered with the blood of a husband,
+shrink back with veneration from the secret apartment of his wives.
+
+At Constantinople, when the sultan sends an order to strangle a
+state-criminal, and seize on his effects, the officers who execute it
+enter not into the harem, nor touch any thing belonging to the women.
+
+Every Turkish seraglio and harem, has a garden adjoining to it, and in
+the middle of this garden a large room, more or less decorated according
+to the wealth of the proprietor. Here the ladies spend most of their
+time, with their attendant nymphs around them employed at their music,
+embroidery, or loom.
+
+It has long been a custom among the grandees of Asia, to entertain
+story-tellers of both sexes, who like the _bards_ of ancient Europe,
+divert them with tales, and little histories, mostly on the subject of
+bravery and love. These often amuse the women, and beguile the cheerless
+hours of the harem, by calling up images to their minds which their eyes
+are forever debarred from seeing.
+
+All their other amusements, as well as this, are indolently voluptuous.
+They spend a great part of their time in lolling on skien sofas; while a
+train of female slaves, scarcely less voluptuous, attend to sing to
+them, to fan them, and to rub their bodies; an exercise which the
+Easterns enjoy, with a sort of placid ecstasy, as it promotes the
+circulation of their languid blood.
+
+They bathe themselves in rose water and other baths, prepared with the
+precious odors of the East. They perfume themselves with costly
+essences, and adorn their persons, that they may please the _tyrant_
+with whom they are obliged to live.
+
+
+CHINESE WOMAN.
+
+Of all the other Asiatics, the Chinese have, perhaps the best title to
+modesty. Even the men wrap themselves closely up in their garments, and
+reckon it indecent to discover any more of their arms and legs than is
+necessary.--The women, still more closely wrapt up, never discover a
+naked hand even to their nearest relations, if they can possibly avoid
+it. Every part of their dress, every part of their behavior is
+calculated to preserve decency, and inspire respect. And, what adds
+lustre to of their charms, is that uncommon modesty which appears in
+every look and in every action.
+
+Charmed, no doubt, with so engaging a deportment, the men behave to them
+in a reciprocal manner. And, that their virtue may not be contaminated
+by the neighborhood of vice, the legislature takes care that no
+prostitutes shall lodge within the walls of any of the great cities of
+China.
+
+Some, however, suspect whether this appearance of modesty be any thing
+else than the custom of the country; and allege that, notwithstanding
+so much decency and decorum, they have their peculiar modes of
+intriguing, and embrace every possible opportunity of putting them in
+practice; and that, in these intrigues, they frequently scruple not to
+stab the paramour they had invited to their arms, as the surest method
+of preventing detection and loss of character.
+
+A bridegroom knows nothing of the character or person of his intended
+wife, except what he gathers from the report of some female relative, or
+confidant, who undertakes to arrange the marriage, and determine the sum
+that shall be paid for the bride. Very severe laws are made to prevent
+deception and fraud in these transactions. On the day appointed for the
+wedding the damsel is placed in a close palanquin the key of which is
+sent to the bridegroom, by the hands of some trusty domestic. Her
+relations and friends accompanied by squalling music, escort her to his
+house; at the gate of which he stands in full dress, ready to receive
+her. He eagerly opens the palanquin and examines his bargain. If he is
+pleased, she enters his dwelling, and the marriage is celebrated with
+feasting and rejoicing; the men and women being all the time in separate
+apartments. If the bridegroom is dissatisfied, he shuts the palanquin,
+and sends the woman back to her relations; but when this happens, he
+must pay another sum of money equal to the price he first gave for her.
+A woman who unites beauty with accomplishments brings from four to seven
+hundred louis d'ors; some sell for less than one hundred. The apartments
+of the women are separated from those of the men by a wall at which a
+guard is stationed. The wife is never allowed to eat with her husband;
+she cannot quit her apartments without permission; and he does not enter
+hers without first asking leave. Brothers are entirely separated from
+their sisters at the age of nine or ten years.
+
+
+AFRICAN WOMEN.
+
+The Africans were formerly renowned for their industry in cultivating
+the ground, for their trade, navigation, caravans and useful arts.--At
+present they are remarkable for their idleness, ignorance, superstition,
+treachery, and, above all, for their lawless methods of robbing and
+murdering all the other inhabitants of the globe.
+
+Though they still retain some sense of their infamous character, yet
+they do not choose to reform. Their priests, therefore, endeavor to
+justify them, by the following story: "Noah," say they, "was no sooner
+dead, than his three sons, the first of whom was _white_, the second
+_tawny_, and the third _black_, having agreed upon dividing among them
+his goods and possessions, spent the greatest part of the day in sorting
+them; so that they were obliged to adjourn the division till the next
+morning. Having supped and smoked a friendly pipe together, they all
+went to rest, each in his own tent. After a few hours sleep, the white
+brother got up, seized on the gold, silver, precious stones, and other
+things of the greatest value, loaded the best horses with them, and rode
+away to that country where his white posterity have been settled ever
+since. The tawny, awaking soon after, and with the same criminal
+intention, was surprised when he came to the store house to find that
+his brother had been beforehand with him. Upon which he hastily secured
+the rest of the horses and camels, and loading them with the best
+carpets, clothes, and other remaining goods, directed his route to
+another part of the world, leaving behind him, only a few of the
+coarsest goods, and some provisions of little value.
+
+When the third, or black brother, came next morning in the simplicity of
+his heart to make the proposed division, and could neither find his
+brethren, nor any of the valuable commodities, he easily judged they had
+tricked him, and were by that time fled beyond any possibility of
+discovery.
+
+In this most afflicted situation, he took his _pipe_, and begun to
+consider the most effectual means of retrieving his loss, and being
+revenged on his perfidious brothers.
+
+After revolving a variety of schemes in his mind, he at last fixed upon
+watching every opportunity of making reprisals on them, and laying hold
+of and carrying away their property, as often as it should fall in his
+way, in revenge for that patrimony of which they had so unjustly
+deprived him.
+
+Having come to this resolution, he not only continued in the practice of
+it all his life, but on his death laid the strongest injunctions on his
+descendants to do so, to the end of the world."
+
+Some tribes of the Africans, however, when they have engaged themselves
+in the protection of a stranger, are remarkable for fidelity. Many of
+them are conspicuous for their temperance, hospitality, and several
+other virtues.
+
+Their women, upon the whole, are far from being indelicate or unchaste.
+On the banks of the Niger, they are tolerably industrious, have a
+considerable share of vivacity, and at the same time a female reserve,
+which would do no discredit to a politer country. They are modest,
+affable, and faithful; an air of innocence appears in their looks and in
+their language, which gives a beauty to their whole deportment.
+
+When, from the Niger, we approach toward the East, the African women
+degenerate in stature, complexion, sensibility, and chastity. Even their
+language, like their features, and the soil they inhabit, is harsh and
+disagreeable. Their pleasures resemble more the transports of fury, than
+the gentle emotions communicated by agreeable sensations.
+
+
+GREAT ENTERPRISES OF WOMEN IN THE TIMES OF CHIVALRY.
+
+The times and the manners of chivalry, by bringing great enterprises,
+bold adventures, and extravagant heroism into fashion, inspired the
+women with the same taste.
+
+The two sexes always imitate each other. Their manners and their minds
+are refined or corrupted, invigorated or dissolved together.
+
+The women, in consequence of the prevailing passion, were now seen in
+the middle of camps and of armies. They quitted the soft and tender
+inclinations, and the delicate offices of their own sex, for the
+courage, and the toilsome occupations of ours.
+
+During the crusades, animated by the double enthusiasm of religion and
+of valor, they often performed the most romantic exploits. They
+obtained indulgences on the field of battle, and died with arms in their
+hands, by the side of their lovers, or of their husbands.
+
+In Europe, the women attacked and defended fortifications. Princesses
+commanded their armies, and obtained victories.
+
+Such was the celebrated Joan de Mountfort, disputing for her duchy of
+Bretagne, and engaging the enemy herself.
+
+Such was the still more celebrated Margaret of Anjou, queen of England
+and wife of Henry VI. She was active and intrepid, a general and a
+soldier. Her genius for a long time supported her feeble husband, taught
+him to conquer, replaced him upon the throne, twice relieved him from
+prison, and though oppressed by fortune and by rebels, she did not
+yield, till she had decided in person twelve battles.
+
+The warlike spirit among the women, consistent with ages of barbarism,
+when every thing is impetuous because nothing is fixed, and when all
+excess is the excess of force, continued in Europe upwards of four
+hundred years, showing itself from time to time, and always in the
+middle of convulsions, or on the eve of great revolutions.
+
+But there were eras and countries, in which that spirit appeared with
+particular lustre. Such were the displays it made in the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries in Hungary, and in the Islands of the Archipelago
+and the Mediterranean, when they were invaded by the Turks.
+
+Every thing conspired to animate the women of those countries with an
+exalted courage; the prevailing spirit of the foregoing ages; the terror
+which the name of the Turks inspired; the still more dreadful
+apprehensions of an unknown enemy; the difference of _dress_, which has
+a stronger _effect_ than is commonly supposed on the imagination of a
+people; the difference of religion, which produced a kind of sacred
+horror; the striking difference of manners; and above all, the
+confinement of the female sex, which presented to the women of Europe
+nothing but the frightful ideas of servitude and a master; the groans of
+honor, the tears of beauty in the embrace of barbarism, and the double
+tyranny of love and pride!
+
+The contemplation of these objects, accordingly, roused in the hearts of
+the women a resolute courage to defend themselves; nay, sometimes even a
+courage of enthusiasm, which hurled itself against the enemy.--That
+courage, too, was augmented, by the promises of a religion, which
+offered eternal happiness in exchange for the sufferings of a moment.
+
+It is not therefore surprising, that when three beautiful women of the
+isle of Cyprus were led prisoners to Selim, to be secluded in the
+seraglio, one of them, preferring death to such a condition, conceived
+the project of setting fire to the magazine; and after having
+communicated her design to the rest, put it in execution.
+
+The year following, a city of Cyprus being besieged by the Turks, the
+women ran in crowds, mingling themselves with the soldiers, and,
+fighting gallantly in the breach, were the means of saving their
+country.
+
+Under Mahomet II. a girl of the isle of Lemnos, armed with the sword and
+shield of her father, who had fallen in battle, opposed the Turks, when
+they had forced a gate, and chased them to the shore.
+
+In the two celebrated sieges of Rhodes and Malta, the women, seconding
+the zeal of the knights, discovered upon all occasions the greatest
+intrepidity; not only that impetuous and temporary impulse which
+despises death, but that cool and deliberate fortitude which can support
+the continued hardships, the toils, and the miseries of war.
+
+
+OTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING FEMALES DURING THE AGE OF CHIVALRY.
+
+When a man had said any thing that reflected dishonor on a woman, or
+accused her of a crime, she was not obliged to fight him to prove her
+innocence: the combat would have been unequal. But she might choose a
+champion to fight in her cause, or expose himself to the horrid trial,
+in order to clear her reputation. Such champions were generally selected
+from her lovers or friends. But if she fixed upon any other, so high was
+the spirit of martial glory, and so eager the thirst of defending the
+weak and helpless sex, that we meet with no instance of a champion ever
+having refused to fight for, or undergo whatever custom required, in
+defence of the lady who had honored him with the appointment.
+
+To the motives already mentioned, we may add another. He who had
+refused, must inevitably have been branded with the name of coward: and,
+so despicable was the condition of a coward, in those times of general
+heroism, that death itself appeared the more preferable choice. Nay,
+such was the rage of fighting for women, that it became customary for
+those who could not be honored with the decision of their real quarrels,
+to create fictitious ones concerning them, in order to create also a
+necessity of fighting.
+
+Nor was fighting for the ladies confined to single combatants. Crowds of
+gallants entered the lists against each other. Even kings called out
+their subjects, to shew their love for their mistresses, by cutting the
+throats of their neighbors, who had not in the least offended.
+
+In the fourteenth century, when the Countess of Blois and the widow of
+Mountford were at war against each other, a conference was agreed to, on
+pretence of settling a peace, but in reality to appoint a combat.
+Instead of negotiating, they soon challenged each other; and Beaumanoir,
+who was at the head of the Britons, publicly declared that they fought
+for no other motive, than to see, by the victory, who had the fairest
+mistress.
+
+In the fifteenth century, we find an anecdote of this kind still more
+extraordinary. John, duke de Bourbonnois, published a declaration, that
+he would go over to England, with sixteen knights, and there fight it
+out, in order to avoid idleness, and merit the good graces of his
+mistress.
+
+James IV. of Scotland, having, in all tournaments, professed himself
+knight to queen Anne of France, she summoned him to prove himself her
+true and valorous champion, by taking the field in her defence, against
+his brother-in-law, Henry VIII. of England. He obeyed the romantic
+mandate; and the two nations bled to feed the vanity of a woman.
+
+Warriors, when ready to engage, invoked the aid of their mistresses, as
+poets do that of the Muses. If they fought valiantly, it reflected honor
+on the Dulcineas they adored; but if they turned their backs on their
+enemies, the poor ladies were dishonored forever.
+
+Love, was at that time, the most prevailing motive to fighting. The
+famous Gaston de Foix, who commanded the French troops at the battle of
+Ravenna, took advantage of this foible of his army. He rode from rank to
+rank, calling his officers by name, and even some of his private men,
+recommending to them their country, their honor, and, above all, to shew
+what they could do for their mistresses.
+
+The women of those ages, the reader may imagine, were certainly more
+completely happy than in any other period of the world. This, however,
+was not in reality the case.
+
+Custom, which governs all things with the most absolute sway, had,
+through a long succession of years, given her sanction to such combats
+as were undertaken, either to defend the innocence, or display the
+beauty of women. Custom, therefore, either obliged a man to fight for a
+woman who desired him, or marked the refusal with infamy and disgrace.
+But custom did not oblige him, in every other part of his conduct, to
+behave to this woman, or to the sex in general, with that respect and
+politeness which have happily distinguished the character of more modern
+times.
+
+The same man who would have encountered giants, or gigantic
+difficulties, "when a lady was in the case," had but little idea of
+adding to her happiness, by supplying her with the comforts and
+elegancies of life. And, had she asked him to stoop, and ease her of a
+part of that domestic slavery which, almost in every country, falls to
+the lot of women, he would have thought himself quite affronted.
+
+But besides, men had nothing else, in those ages, than that kind of
+romantic gallantry to recommend them. Ignorant of letters, arts, and
+sciences, and every thing that refines human nature, they were, in every
+thing where gallantry was not concerned, rough and unpolished in their
+manners and behavior. Their time was spent in drinking, war, gallantry,
+and idleness. In their hours of relaxation, they were but little in
+company with their women; and when they were, the indelicacies of the
+carousal, or the cruelties of the field, were almost the only subjects
+they had to talk of.
+
+From the subversion of the Roman empire, to the fourteenth or fifteenth
+century, women spent most of their time alone. They were almost entire
+strangers to the joys of social life. They seldom went abroad, but to be
+spectators of such public diversions and amusements as the fashion of
+the times countenanced. Francis I. was the first monarch who introduced
+them on public days to court.
+
+Before his time, nothing was to be seen at any of the courts of Europe,
+but long bearded politicians, plotting the destruction of the rights and
+liberties of mankind; and warriors clad in complete armor, ready to put
+their plots in execution.
+
+In the eighth century, so slavish was the condition of women on the one
+hand, and so much was beauty coveted on the other, that, for about two
+hundred years, the kings of Austria were obliged to pay a tribute to the
+Moors, of one hundred beautiful virgins per annum.
+
+In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, elegance had scarcely any
+existence, and even cleanliness was hardly considered as laudable. The
+use of linen was not known; and the most delicate of the fair sex wore
+woollen shifts.
+
+In the time of Henry VIII. the peers of the realm carried their wives
+behind them on horseback when they went to London; and, in the same
+manner, took them back to their country seats, with hoods of waxed linen
+over their heads, and wrapped in mantles of cloth, to secure them from
+the cold.
+
+There was one misfortune of a singular nature, to which women were
+liable in those days: they were in perpetual danger of being accused of
+witchcraft, and suffering all the cruelties and indignities of a mob,
+instigated by superstition and directed by enthusiasm; or of being
+condemned by laws, which were at once a disgrace to humanity and to
+sense. Even the bloom of youth and beauty could not secure them from
+torture and from death. But when age and wrinkles attacked a woman, if
+any thing uncommon happened in her neighborhood, she was almost sure of
+atoning with her life for a crime it was impossible for her to commit.
+
+
+FRENCH WOMEN.
+
+Though the ladies of France are not very handsome, they are sensible and
+witty. To many of them, without the least flattery, may be applied the
+distich which Sappho ascribes to herself:
+
+"_If partial nature has denied me beauty, the charms of my mind amply
+make up for the deficiency._"
+
+No women upon earth can excel, and few rival them, in their almost
+native arts of pleasing all who approach them. Add to this, an education
+beyond that of most European ladies, a consummate skill in those
+accomplishments that suit the fair sex, and the most graceful manner of
+displaying that knowledge to the utmost advantage.
+
+Such is the description that may safely be given of the French ladies in
+general. But the spirit, or rather the _evil genius_ of gallantry, too
+often perverts all these lovely qualities, and renders them subservient
+to very iniquitous ends.
+
+In every country, women have always a little to do, and a great deal to
+say. In France, they dictate almost every thing that is said, and direct
+every thing that is done. They are the most restless beings in the
+world. To fold her hands in idleness, and impose silence on her tongue,
+would be to a French woman worse than death. The sole joy of her life is
+to be engaged in the prosecution of some scheme, relating either to
+fashion, ambition, or love.
+
+Among the rich and opulent, they are entirely the votaries of pleasure,
+which they pursue through all its labyrinths, at the expense of fortune,
+reputation, and health. Giddy and extravagant to the last degree, they
+leave to their husbands economy and care, which would only spoil their
+complexions, and furrow their brows.
+
+When we descend to tradesmen and mechanics, the case is reversed: the
+wife manages every thing in the house and shop, while the husband
+lounges in the back-shop an idle spectator, or struts about with his
+sword and bag-wig.
+
+Matrimony among the French, seems to be a bargain entered into by a male
+and female, to bear the same name, live in the same house, and pursue
+their separate pleasures without restraint or control. And, so
+religiously is this part of the bargain kept, that both parties shape
+their course exactly as convenience and inclination dictate.
+
+The French girls are kept under very strict superintendence. They are
+not allowed to go to parties, or places of public amusement, without
+being accompanied by some married female relation; and they see their
+lovers only in the presence of a third person. Marriages are entirely
+negotiated by parents; and sometimes the wedding day is the second time
+that a bride and bridegroom see each other. Nothing is more common than
+to visit a lady, and attend her parties, without knowing her husband by
+sight; or to visit a gentleman without ever being introduced to his
+wife. If a married couple were to be seen frequently in each other's
+company, they would be deemed extremely ungenteel. After ladies are
+married, they have unbounded freedom. It is a common practice to receive
+morning calls from gentlemen, before they have risen from bed; and they
+talk with as little reserve to such visiters, as they would in the
+presence of any woman of refinement.
+
+In no country does real politeness shew itself more than in France,
+where the company of the women is accessible to every man who can
+recommend himself by his dress, and by his address. To affectation and
+prudery the French women are equally strangers. Easy and unaffected in
+their manners, their politeness has so much the appearance of nature,
+that one would almost believe no part of it to be the effect of art. An
+air of sprightliness and gaiety sits perpetually on their countenances,
+and their whole deportment seems to indicate that their only business is
+to "strew the path of life with flowers." Persuasion hangs on their
+lips; and, though their volubility of tongue is indefatigable, so soft
+is their accent, so lively their expression, so various their attitudes,
+that they fix the attention for hours together on a tale of nothing.
+
+The Jewish doctors have a fable concerning the etymology of the word
+Eve, which one would almost be tempted to say is realized in the French
+women. "Eve," say they, "comes from a word, which signifies to talk; and
+she was so called, because, soon after the creation, there fell from
+heaven twelve baskets full of chit chat, and she picked up _nine_ of
+them, while her husband was gathering the other _three_."
+
+French ladies, especially those not young, use a great deal of rouge. A
+traveller who saw many of them in their opera boxes, says, "I could
+compare them to nothing but a large bed of pionies."
+
+After the French revolution, it became the fashion to have everything in
+ancient classic style. Loose flowing drapery, naked arms, sandaled feet,
+and tresses twisted, were the order of the day.
+
+The state of gross immorality that prevailed at this time ought not to
+be described, if language had the power. The profligacy of Rome in its
+worst days was comparatively thrown into the shade. Religion and
+marriage became a mockery, and every form of impure and vindictive
+passion walked abroad, with the consciousness that public opinion did
+not require them to assume even a slight disguise. The fish-women of
+Paris will long retain an unenviable celebrity for the brutal excess of
+their rage. The goddess of Reason was worshipped by men, under the form
+of a living woman entirely devoid of clothing; and in the public streets
+ladies might be seen who scarcely paid more attention to decorum.
+
+
+ITALIAN WOMEN.
+
+Dr Goldsmith thus characterises the Italians in general:
+
+    "Could nature's bounty satisfy the breast,
+  The sons of Italy were surely blest.
+  Whatever fruits in different climes are found,
+  That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground;
+  Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,
+  Whose bright succession decks the varied year:
+  Whatever sweets salute the northern sky,
+  With vernal leaves that blossom but to die:
+  These here disporting, own the kindred soil,
+  Nor ask luxuriance from their planter's toil;
+  While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand,
+  To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
+
+    "But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,
+  And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.
+  In florid beauty groves and fields appear,
+  Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
+  Contrasted faults thro' all his manners rein;
+  Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain;
+  Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue;
+  And e'en in penance planning sins anew.
+  All evils here contaminate the mind,
+  That opulence departed leaves behind:
+  For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the date,
+  When commerce proudly flourish'd thro' the state;
+  At her command the palace learn'd to rise,
+  Again the long fall'n column sought the skies;
+  The canvass glow'd, beyond e'en nature warm;
+  The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
+  Till, more unsteady then the southern gale,
+  Commerce on other shores display'd her sail;
+  While naught remain'd of all that riches gave,
+  But towns unmann'd, and lords without a slave;
+  And late the nation found, with fruitless skill,
+  Its former strength was but plethoric ill.
+
+    "Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied
+  By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride;
+  From them the feeble heart and long fall'n mind
+  An easy compensation seem to find.
+  Here may be seen in bloodless pomp array'd,
+  The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade;
+  Processions form'd from piety and love,
+  A mistress or a saint in every grove."
+
+Almost every traveller who has visited Italy, agrees in describing it as
+the most abandoned of all the countries of Europe. At Venice, at Naples,
+and indeed in almost every port of Italy, women are taught from their
+infancy the various arts of alluring to their arms the young and unwary,
+and of obtaining from them, while heated by love or wine, every thing
+that flattery and false smiles can obtain, in these unguarded moments.
+
+The Italians, like their neighbors of Spain and Portugal, live under the
+paralyzing influence of a religion that retains its superstitious forms,
+while little of life-giving faith remains. Like them they have lively
+passions, are extremely susceptible, and in the general conduct of life
+more governed by the impetuosity of impulse than rectitude of principle.
+The ladies have less gravity than the Spanish, and less frivolity than
+the French, and in their style of dress incline towards the freedom of
+the latter. Some of the richest and most commodious convents of Europe
+are in Italy. The daughters of wealthy families are generally bestowed
+in marriage as soon as they leave these places of education. These
+matters are entirely arranged by parents and guardians, and youth and
+age are not unfrequently joined together, for the sake of uniting
+certain acres of land. But the affections, thus repressed, seek their
+natural level by indirect courses. It is a rare thing for an Italian
+lady to be without her _cavaliere servente_, or lover, who spends much
+of his time at her house, attends her to all public places, and appears
+to live upon her smiles. The old maxim of the Provencal troubadours,
+that matrimony ought to be no hindrance to such _liaisons_, seems to be
+generally and practically believed in Italy.
+
+In Genoa, there are marriage-brokers, who have pocketbooks filled with
+the names of marriageable girls of different classes, with an account of
+their fortunes, personal attractions, &c. When they succeed in
+arranging connections, they have two or three per cent. commission on
+the portion. The marriage-contract is often drawn up before the parties
+have seen each other. If a man dislikes the appearances or manners of
+his future partner, he may break off the match, on condition of paying
+the brokerage and other expenses.
+
+
+SPANISH WOMEN.
+
+As the Spanish ladies are under a greater seclusion from general
+society, than the sex is in other European countries, their desires of
+an adequate degree of liberty are consequently more strong and urgent. A
+free and open communication being denied them, they make it their
+business to secure themselves a secret and hidden one. Hence it is that
+Spain is the country of intrigue.
+
+The Spanish women are little or nothing indebted to education. But
+nature has liberally supplied them with a fund of wit and sprightliness,
+which is certainly no small inducement to those, who have only transient
+glimpses of their charms, to wish very earnestly for a removal of those
+impediments, that obstruct their more frequent presence. This not being
+attainable in a lawful way of customary intercourse, the natural
+propensity of men to overcome difficulties of this kind, incites them to
+leave no expedient untried to gain admittance to what perhaps was at
+first only the object of their admiration, but which, by their being
+refused an innocent gratification of that passion, becomes at last the
+subject of a more serious one. Thus in Spain, as in all countries where
+the sex is kept much out of sight, the thoughts of men are continually
+employed in devising methods to break into their concealments.
+
+There is in the Spaniards a native dignity; which, though the source of
+many inconveniences, has nevertheless this salutary effect, that it sets
+them above almost every species of meanness and infidelity. This quality
+is not peculiar to the men; it diffuses itself, in a great measure,
+among the women also. Its effects are visible both in their constancy in
+love and friendship, in which respects they are the very reverse of the
+French women. Their affections are not to be gained by a bit of
+sparkling lace, or a tawdry set of liveries. Their deportment is rather
+grave and reserved; and, on the whole, they have much more of the prude
+than the coquette in their composition. Being more confined at home, and
+less engaged in business and pleasure, they take more care of their
+children than the French, and have a becoming tenderness in their
+disposition to all animals, except a _heretic_ and a _rival_.
+
+Something more than a century ago, the Marquis D'Astrogas having
+prevailed on a young woman of great beauty to become his mistress, the
+Marchioness hearing of it, went to her lodging with some assassins,
+killed her, tore out her heart, carried it home, made a _ragout_ of it,
+and presented the dish to the Marquis. "It it exceedingly good," said
+he. "No wonder," answered she, "since it was made of the _heart_ of that
+creature you so much doated on." And, to confirm what she had said, she
+immediately drew out her head all bloody from beneath her hoop, and
+rolled it on the floor, her eyes sparkling all the time with a mixture
+of pleasure and infernal fury.
+
+A lady to whom a gentleman pays his addresses, is sole mistress of his
+time and money; and, should he refuse her any request, whether
+reasonable or capricious, it would reflect eternal dishonor upon him
+among the men, and make him the detestation of all the women.
+
+But, in no situation does their character appear so whimsical, or their
+power so conspicuous, as when they are pregnant. In this case, whatever
+they long for, whatever they ask, or whatever they have an inclination
+to do, they must be indulged in.
+
+
+ENGLISH WOMEN.
+
+The women of England are eminent for many good qualities both of the
+head and of the heart. There we meet with that inexpressible softness
+and delicacy of manners, which, cultivated by education, appears as much
+superior to what it does without it, as the polished diamond appears
+superior to that which is rough from the mine. In some parts of the
+world, women have attained to so little knowledge and so little
+consequence, that we consider their virtues as merely of the negative
+kind. In England they consist not only in abstinence from evil, but in
+doing good.
+
+There we see the sex every day exerting themselves in acts of
+benevolence and charity, in relieving the distresses of the body, and
+binding up the wounds of the mind; in reconciling the differences of
+friends, and preventing the strife of enemies; and, to sum up all, in
+that care and attention to their offspring, which is so necessary and
+essential a part of their duty.
+
+A woman may succeed to the throne of England with the same power and
+privileges as a king; and the business of the state is transacted in her
+name, while her husband is only a subject. The king's wife is considered
+as a subject; but is exempted from the law which forbids any married
+woman to possess property in her own right during the lifetime of her
+husband; she may sue any person at law without joining her husband in
+the suit; may buy and sell lands without his interference; and she may
+dispose of her property by will, as if she were a single woman. She
+cannot be fined by any court of law; but is liable to be tried and
+punished for crimes by peers of the realm. The queen dowager enjoys
+nearly the same privileges that she did before she became a widow; and
+if she marries a subject still continues to retain her rank and title;
+but such marriages cannot take place without permission from the
+reigning sovereign. A woman who is noble in her own right, retains her
+title when she marries a man of inferior rank; but if ennobled by her
+husband, she loses the title by marrying a commoner. A peeress can only
+be tried by a jury of peers.
+
+In old times, a woman who was convicted of being a common mischief-maker
+and scold, was sentenced to the punishment of the ducking-stool; which
+consisted of a sort of chair fastened to a pole, in which she was seated
+and repeatedly let down into the water, amid the shouts of the rabble.
+At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a woman convicted of the same offence was led
+about the streets by the hangman, with an instrument of iron bars fitted
+on her head, like a helmet. A piece of sharp iron entered the mouth, and
+severely pricked the tongue whenever the culprit attempted to move it.
+
+A great deal of vice prevails in England, among the very fashionable,
+and the very low classes. Misconduct and divorces are not unfrequent
+among the former, because their mode of life corrupts their principles,
+and they deem themselves above the jurisdiction of popular opinion; the
+latter feel as if they were beneath the influence of public censure, and
+find it very difficult to be virtuous, on account of extreme poverty,
+and the consequent obstructions in the way of marriage. But the general
+character of English women is modest, reserved, sincere, and dignified.
+They have strong passions and affections, which often develope
+themselves in the most beautiful forms of domestic life. They are in
+general remarkable for a healthy appearance, and an exquisite bloom of
+complexion. Perhaps the world does not present a lovelier or more
+graceful picture than the English home of a virtuous family.
+
+
+RUSSIAN WOMEN.
+
+It is only a few years since the Russians emerged from a state of
+barbarity.
+
+A late empress of Russia, as a punishment for some female frailties,
+ordered a most beautiful young lady of family to be publicly chastised,
+in a manner which was hardly less indelicate than severe.
+
+It is said that the Russian ladies were formerly as submissive to their
+husbands in their families, as the latter are to their superiors in the
+field; and that they thought themselves ill treated, if they were not
+often reminded of their duty by the discipline of a _whip_, manufactured
+by themselves, which they presented to their husbands on the day of
+their marriage. The latest travellers, however, assert, that they find
+no remaining traces of this custom at present.
+
+Russian fathers, of all classes, generally arrange marriages for their
+children, without consulting their inclinations. Among the peasantry, if
+the girl has the name of being a good housewife, her parents will not
+fail to have applications for her, whatever may be her age or personal
+endowments. As soon as a young man is old enough to be married, his
+parents seek a wife for him, and all is settled before the young couple
+know any thing of the matter.
+
+Their nuptial ceremonies are peculiar to themselves; and formerly
+consisted of many whimsical rites, some of which are now disused. On her
+wedding day, the bride is crowned with a garland of wormwood; and, after
+the priest has tied the nuptial knot, his clerk or sexton throws a
+handful of hops upon the head of the bride, wishing that she might prove
+as fruitful as that plant. She is then led home, with abundance of
+coarse ceremonies, which are now wearing off even among the lowest
+ranks; and the barbarous treatment of wives by their husbands is either
+guarded against by the laws of the country, or by particular
+stipulations in the marriage contract.
+
+In the conversation and actions of the Russian ladies, there is hardly
+any thing of that softness and delicacy which distinguishes the sex in
+other parts of Europe. Even their exercises and diversions have more of
+the masculine than the feminine. The present empress, with the ladies of
+her court, sometimes divert themselves by shooting at a mark.
+Drunkenness, the vice of almost every cold climate, they are so little
+ashamed of, that not many years ago, when a lady got drunk at the house
+of a friend, it was customary for her to return next day, and thank him
+for the pleasure he had done her.
+
+Females, however, in Russia, possess several advantages. They share the
+rank and splendor of the families from which they are sprung, and are
+even allowed the supreme authority. This a few years ago, was enjoyed by
+an empress, whose head did honor to her nation and to her sex; although,
+on some occasions, the virtues of her heart have been much suspected.
+The sex, in general, are protected from insult, by many salutary laws;
+and, except among the peasants, are exempted from every kind of toil and
+slavery. Upon the whole, they seem to be approaching fast to the
+enjoyment of that consequence, to which they have already arrived in
+several parts of Europe.
+
+
+THE IDEA OF FEMALE INFERIORITY.
+
+It is an opinion pretty well established, that in strength of mind, as
+well as of body, men are greatly superior to women.
+
+Men are endowed with boldness and courage, women are not. The reason is
+plain, these are beauties in our character; in theirs they would be
+blemishes. Our genius often leads to the great and the arduous; theirs
+to the soft and the pleasing; we bend our thoughts to make life
+convenient; they turn theirs to make it easy and agreeable. If the
+endowments allotted to us by nature could not be easily acquired by
+women, it would be as difficult for us to acquire those peculiarly
+allotted to them. Are we superior to them in what belongs to the male
+character? They are no less so to us, in what belongs to the female
+character.
+
+Would it not appear rather ludicrous to say, that a man was endowed only
+with inferior abilities, because he was not expert in the nursing of
+children, and practising the various effeminacies which we reckon lovely
+in a woman? Would it be reasonable to condemn him on these accounts?
+Just as reasonable, as it is to reckon women inferior to men, because
+their talents are in general not adapted to tread the horrid path of
+war, nor trace the mazes and intricacies of science.
+
+The idea of the inferiority of female nature has drawn after it several
+others the most absurd, unreasonable, and humiliating to the sex. Such
+is the pride of man, that in some countries he has considered
+immortality as a distinction too glorious for women. Thus degrading the
+fair partners of his nature, he places them on a level with the beasts
+that perish.
+
+As the Asiatics have, time immemorial, considered women as little better
+than slaves, this opinion probably originated among them. The
+Mahometans, both in Asia and Europe, are said, by a great variety of
+writers, to entertain this opinion.
+
+Lady Montague, in her letters, has opposed this general assertion of the
+writers concerning the Mahometans; and says that they do not absolutely
+deny the existence of female souls, but only hold them to be of a
+nature inferior to those of men; and that they enter not into the same,
+but into an inferior paradise, prepared for them on purpose. Lady
+Montague, and the writers whom she has contradicted, may perhaps be both
+right. The former might be the opinion which the Turks brought with them
+from Asia; and the latter, as a refinement upon it they may have adopted
+by their intercourse with the Europeans.
+
+This opinion, however, has had but few votaries in Europe: though some
+have even here maintained it, and assigned various reasons for so doing.
+Among these, the following laughable reason is not the least
+particular--"In the Revelations of St. John the divine," said one, whose
+wife was a descendant of the famous Xantippe,[1] "you will find this
+passage: _And there was silence in heaven for about the space of half an
+hour_. Now, I appeal to any one, whether that could possibly have
+happened, had there been any women there? And, since there are none
+there, charity forbids us to imagine that they are all in a worse place;
+therefore it follows that they have no immortal part: and happy is it
+for them, as they are thereby exempted from being accountable for all
+the noise and disturbance they have raised in this world."
+
+In a very ancient treatise, called the Wisdom of all Times, ascribed to
+Hushang, one of the earliest kings of Persia, are the following
+remarkable words: "The passions of men may, by long acquaintance, be
+thoroughly known; but the passions of women are inscrutable; therefore
+they ought to be separated from men, lest the mutability of their
+tempers should infect others."
+
+Ideas of a similar nature seem to have been at this time, generally
+diffused over the East. For we find Solomon, almost every where in his
+writings, exclaiming against women; and, in the Apocrypha, the author of
+Ecclesiasticus is still more illiberal in his reflections.
+
+Both these authors, it is true, join in the most enraptured manner to
+praise a virtuous woman; but take care at the same time to let us know,
+that she is so great a rarity as to be very seldom met with.
+
+Nor have the Asiatics alone been addicted to this illiberality of
+thinking concerning the sex. Satirists of all ages and countries, while
+they flattered them to their faces, have from their closets scattered
+their spleen and ill-nature against them. Of this the Greek and Roman
+poets afford a variety of instances; but they must nevertheless yield
+the palm to some of our moderns. In the following lines, Pope has
+outdone every one of them:
+
+  "Men some to pleasure, some to business take;
+  But every woman is at heart--a rake."
+
+Swift and Dr Young have hardly been behind this celebrated splenetic in
+illiberality. They perhaps were not favorites of the fair, and in
+revenge vented all their envy and spleen against them. But a more modern
+and accomplished writer who by his rank in life, by his natural and
+acquired _graces_, was undoubtedly a favorite, has repaid their kindness
+by taking every opportunity of exhibiting them in the most contemptible
+light. "Almost every man," says he, "may be gained some way, almost
+every woman any way, can any thing exhibit a stronger caution to the
+sex?" It is fraught with information; and it is to be hoped they will
+use it accordingly.
+
+    [1] Xantippe, was the wife of Socrates, and the most famous scold
+        of antiquity.
+
+
+FEMALE SIMPLICITY.
+
+Would we conceive properly of that simplicity which is the sweetest
+expression of a well-informed and well-meaning mind, which every where
+diffuses tenderness and delicacy, sweetens the relations of life, and
+gives a zest to the minutest duties of humanity, let us contemplate
+every perceptible operation of nature, the twilight of the evening, the
+pearly dew-drops of the early morning, and all that various growth which
+indicates the genial return of spring. The same principle from which all
+that is soft and pleasing, amiable or exquisite, to the eye or to the
+ear, in the exterior frame of nature, produces that taste for true
+simplicity, which is one of the most useful, as well as the most elegant
+lessons, that _ladies_ can learn.
+
+Infancy, is perhaps, the finest and most perfect illustration of
+simplicity. It is a state of genuine nature throughout. The feelings of
+children are under no kind of restraint, but pure as the fire, free as
+the winds, honest and open as the face of heaven. Their joys incessantly
+flow in the thickest succession, and their griefs only seem fleeting and
+evanescent. To the calls of nature they are only attentive. They know no
+voice but hers. Their obedience to all her commands is prompt and
+implicit. They never anticipate her bounties, nor relinquish her
+pleasures. This situation renders them independent of artifice.
+Influenced only by nature, their manners, like the principle that
+produces them, are always the same.
+
+Genuine simplicity is that peculiar quality of the mind, by which some
+happy characters are enabled to avoid the most distant approaches to any
+thing like affectation, inconstancy, or design, in their intercourse
+with the world. It is much more easily understood, however than defined;
+and consists not in a specific tone of the voice, movement of the body,
+or mode imposed by custom, but is the natural and permanent effect of
+real modesty and good sense on the whole behavior.
+
+This has been considered in all ages, as one of the first and most
+captivating ornaments of the sex. The savage, the plebeian, the man of
+the world, and the courtier, are agreed in stamping it with a preference
+to every other female excellence.
+
+Nature only is lovely, and nothing unnatural can ever be amiable. The
+genuine expressions of truth and nature are happily calculated to
+impress the heart with pleasure. No woman, whatever her other qualities
+may be, was ever eminently agreeable, but in proportion as
+distinguished by these. The world is good-natured enough to give a lady
+credit for all the merit she can possess or acquire, without
+affectation. But the least shade or coloring of this odious foible
+brings certain and indelible obloquy on the most elegant
+accomplishments. The blackest suspicion inevitably rests on every thing
+assumed. She who is only an ape of others, or prefers formality in all
+its gigantic and preposterous shapes, to that plain, unembarassed
+conduct which nature unavoidably produces, will assuredly provoke an
+abundance of ridicule, but never can be an object either of love or
+esteem.
+
+The various artifices of the sex discover themselves at a very early
+period. A passion for expense and show is one of the first they exhibit.
+This gives them a taste for refinement, which divests their young hearts
+of almost every other feeling, renders their tempers desultory and
+capricious, regulates their dress only by the most fantastic models of
+finery and fashion, and makes their company rather tiresome and awkward,
+than pleasing or elegant.
+
+No one perhaps can form a more ludicrous contrast to every thing just
+and graceful in nature, than the woman whose sole object in life is to
+pass for a _fine lady_. The attentions she every where and uniformly
+pays, expects, and even exacts, are tedious and fatiguing. Her various
+movements and attitudes are all adjusted and exhibited by rule. By a
+happy fluency of the most eloquent language, she has the art of
+imparting a momentary dignity and grace to the merest trifles. Studious
+only to mimic such peculiarities as are most admired in others, she
+affects a loquacity peculiarly flippant and teazing because scandal,
+routs, finery, fans, china, lovers, lap-dogs, or squirrels, are her
+constant themes. Her amusements, like those of a magpie, are only
+hopping over the same spots, prying into the same corners, and devouring
+the same species of prey. The simple and beautiful delineations of
+nature, in her countenance, gestures and whole deportment, are
+habitually arranged, distorted, or concealed, by the affected adoption
+of whatever grimace or deformity is latest or most in vogue.
+
+She accustoms her face to a simper, which every separate feature in it
+belies. She spoils, perhaps, a blooming complexion with a profusion of
+artificial coloring, she distorts the most exquisite shape by loads or
+volumes of useless drapery. She has her head, her arms, her feet, and
+her gait, equally touched by art and affectation, into what is called
+the _taste_, the _ton_, or the _fashion_.
+
+She little considers to what a torrent of ridicule and sarcasm this mode
+of conduct exposes her; or how exceedingly cold and hollow that ceremony
+must be, which is not the language of a warm heart. She does not reflect
+how insipid those smiles are, which indicate no internal pleasantry; nor
+how awkward those graces, which spring not from habits of good-nature
+and benevolence. Thus, pertness succeeds to delicacy, assurance to
+modesty, and all the vagaries of a listless to the sensibilities of an
+ingenuous mind.
+
+With her, punctilio is politeness; dissipation, life; and levity,
+spirit. The miserable and contemptible drudge of every tawdry innovation
+in dress or ceremony, she incessantly mistakes extravagance for taste,
+and finery for elegance.
+
+Her favorite examples are not those persons of acknowledged sincerity,
+who speak as they feel, and act as they think; but such only as are
+formed to dazzle her fancy, amuse her senses, or humor her whims. Her
+only study is how to glitter or shine, how to captivate and gratify the
+gaze of the multitude, or how to swell her own pomp and importance. To
+this interesting object all her assiduities and time are religiously
+devoted.
+
+How often is debility of mind, and even badness of heart concealed under
+a splendid exterior! The fairest of the species, and of the sex, often
+want sincerity; and without sincerity every other qualification is
+rather a blemish, than a virtue, or excellence. Sincerity operates on
+the moral, somewhat like the sun on the natural world; and produces
+nearly the same effects on the dispositions of the human heart, which he
+does on inanimate objects. Wherever sincerity prevails and is felt, all
+the smiling and benevolent virtues flourish most, disclose their
+sweetest lustre, and diffuse their richest fragrance.
+
+Heaven has not a finer or more perfect emblem on earth than a woman of
+genuine simplicity. She affects no graces which are not inspired by
+sincerity. Her opinions result not from passion and fancy, but from
+reason and experience. Candor and humility give expansion to her heart.
+She struggles for no kind of chimerical credit, disclaims the appearance
+of every affectation, and is in all things just what she seems, and
+others would be thought. Nature, not art, is the great standard of her
+manners; and her exterior wears no varnish, or embellishment, which is
+not the genuine signature of an open, undesigning, and benevolent mind.
+It is not in her power, because not in her nature, to hide, with a
+fawning air, and a mellow voice, her aversion or contempt, where her
+delicacy is hurt, here temper ruffled, or her feelings insulted.
+
+In short, whatever appears most amiable, lovely, or interesting in
+nature, art, manners, or life, originates in simplicity. What is
+correctness in taste, purity in morals, truth in science, grace in
+beauty, but simplicity? It is the garb of innocence. It adorned the
+first ages, and still adorns the infant state of humanity. Without
+simplicity, woman is a vixen, a coquette, a hypocrite; society a
+masquerade, and pleasure a phantom.
+
+The following story, I believe, is pretty generally known. A lady, whose
+husband had long been afflicted with an acute but lingering disease,
+suddenly feigned such an uncommon _tenderness_ for him, as to resolve on
+dying in his stead. She had even the address to persuade him not to
+outlive this extraordinary instance of her conjugal fidelity and
+attachment. It was instantaneously agreed they should mutually swallow
+such a quantity of arsenic, as would speedily effect their dreadful
+purpose. She composed the fatal draught before his face and even set him
+the desperate example of drinking first. By this device, which had all
+the appearance of the greatest affection and candor, the dregs only were
+reserved for him, and soon put a period to his life.
+
+It then appeared that the dose was so tempered, as, from the weight of
+the principal ingredient, to be deadly only at the bottom, which she had
+artfully appropriated for his share. Even after all this finesse, she
+seized, we are told, his inheritance, and insulted his memory by a
+second marriage.
+
+
+THE MILD MAGNANIMITY OF WOMEN.
+
+A late eminent anatomist, in a professional discourse on the female
+frame, is said to have declared, that it almost appeared an act of
+cruelty in nature to produce such a being as woman. This remark may,
+indeed, be the natural exclamation of refined sensibility, in
+contemplating the various maladies to which a creature of such delicate
+organs is inevitably exposed; but, if we take a more enlarged survey of
+human existence, we shall be far from discovering any just reason to
+arraign the benevolence of its provident and gracious Author. If the
+delicacy of woman must render her familiar with pain and sickness, let
+us remember that her charms, her pleasures, and her happiness, arise
+also from the same attractive quality. She is a being, to use the
+forcible and elegant expression of a poet,
+
+  "Fine by defect, and admirably weak."
+
+There is, perhaps, no charm by which she more effectually secures the
+tender admiration and the lasting love, of the more hardy sex, than her
+superior endurance, her mild and _graceful_ submission to the common
+evils of life.
+
+Nor is this the sole advantage she derives from her gentle fortitude. It
+is the prerogative of this lovely virtue, to lighten the pressure of all
+those incorrigible evils which it cheerfully endures. The frame of man
+may be compared to the sturdy _oak_, which is often shattered by
+resisting the tempest. Woman is the pliant _osier_, which, in bending to
+the storm, eludes its violence.
+
+The accurate observers of human nature will readily allow, that patience
+is most eminently the characteristic of woman. To what a sublime and
+astonishing height this virtue has been carried by beings of the most
+delicate texture, we have striking examples in the many female martyrs
+who were exposed, in the first ages of christianity, to the most
+barbarous and lingering torture.
+
+Nor was it only from christian zeal that woman derived the power of
+defying the utmost rigors of persecution with invincible fortitude.
+Saint Ambrose, in his elaborate and pious treatise on this subject,
+records the resolution of a fair disciple of Pythagoras, who, being
+severely urged by a tyrant to reveal the secrets of her sex, to convince
+him that no torments should reduce her to so unworthy a breach of her
+vow, bit her own _tongue_ asunder, and darted it in the face of her
+oppressor.
+
+In consequence of those happy changes which have taken place in the
+world, from the progress of purified religion, the inexpressible spirit
+of the tender sex is no longer exposed to such inhuman trials. But if
+the earth is happily delivered from the demons of torture and
+superstition; if beauty and innocence are no more in danger of being
+dragged to perish at the stake--perhaps there are situations, in female
+life, that require as much patience and magnanimity, as were formerly
+exerted in the fiery torments of the virgin martyr. It is more difficult
+to support an accumulation of _minute_ infelicities, than any single
+calamity of the most terrific magnitude.
+
+
+FEMALE DELICACY.
+
+Where the human race has little other culture than what it receives from
+nature, the two sexes live together, unconscious of almost any restraint
+on their words or on their actions. The Greeks, in the heroic ages, as
+appears from the whole history of their conduct, were totally
+unacquainted with delicacy. The Romans in the infancy of their empire,
+were the same. Tacitus informs us that the ancient Germans had not
+separate beds for the two sexes, but that they lay promiscuously on
+reeds or on heath, spread along the walls of their houses. This custom
+still prevails in Lapland, among the peasants of Norway, Poland, and
+Russia; and it is not altogether obliterated in some parts of the
+highlands of Scotland and Wales.
+
+In Otaheite, to appear naked or in clothes, are circumstances equally
+indifferent to both sexes; nor does any word in their language, nor any
+action to which they are prompted by nature, seem more indelicate or
+reprehensible than another. Such are the effects of a total want of
+culture.
+
+Effects not very dissimilar, are, in France and Italy, produced from a
+redundance of it. Though those are the polite countries in Europe, women
+there set themselves above shame, and despise delicacy. It is laughed
+out of existence, as a silly and unfashionable weakness.
+
+But in China, one of the politest countries in Asia, and perhaps not
+even, in this respect, behind France, or Italy, the case is quite
+otherwise. No human being can be more delicate than a Chinese woman in
+her dress, in her behavior, and in her conversation; and should she ever
+happen to be exposed in any unbecoming manner, she feels with the
+greatest poignancy the awkwardness of her situation, and if possible,
+covers her face, that she may not be known.
+
+In the midst of so many discordant appearances, the mind is perplexed,
+and can hardly fix upon any cause to which female delicacy is to be
+ascribed. If we attend, however, to the whole animal creation, if we
+consider it attentively wherever it falls under our observation, it will
+discover to us, that in the female there is a greater degree of delicacy
+or coy reserve than in the male. Is not this a proof, that, through the
+wide extent of creation, the seeds of delicacy are more liberally
+bestowed upon females than upon males?
+
+In the remotest periods of which we have any historical account, we find
+that the women had a delicacy to which the other sex were strangers.
+Rebecca veiled herself when she first approached Isaac, her future
+husband. Many of the fables of antiquity mark, with the most
+distinguishing characters, the force of female delicacy. Of this kind is
+the fable of Actaeon and Diana. Actaeon, a famous hunter, being in the
+woods with his hounds, beating for game, accidentally spied Diana and
+her nymphs bathing in a river. Prompted by curiosity, he stole silently
+into a neighboring thicket, that he might have a nearer view of them.
+The goddess discovering him, was so affronted at his audacity, and so
+much ashamed to have been seen naked, that in revenge she immediately
+transformed him into a stag, set his own hounds upon him, and encouraged
+them to overtake and devour him. Besides this, and other fables, and
+historical anecdotes of antiquity, their poets seldom exhibit a female
+character without adorning it with the graces of modesty and delicacy.
+Hence we may infer, that these qualities have not been only essential to
+virtuous women in civilized countries, but were also constantly praised
+and esteemed by men of sensibility; and that delicacy is an innate
+principle in the female mind.
+
+There are so many evils attending the loss of virtue in women, and so
+greatly are the minds of that sex depraved when they have deviated from
+the path of rectitude, that a general contamination of their morals may
+be considered as one of the greatest misfortunes that can befal a state,
+as in time it destroys almost every public virtue of the men. Hence all
+wise legislators have strictly enforced upon the sex a particular purity
+of manners; and not satisfied that they should abstain from vice only,
+have required them even to shun every appearance of it.
+
+Such, in some periods, were the laws of the Romans; and such were the
+effects of these laws, that if ever female delicacy shone forth in a
+conspicuous manner, it was perhaps among those people, after they had
+worn off much of the barbarity of their first ages, and before they
+became contaminated, by the wealth and manners of the nations which they
+plundered and subjected. Then it was that we find many of their women
+surpassing in modesty almost every thing related by fable; and then it
+was that their ideas of delicacy were so highly refined, that they could
+not even bear the secret consciousness of an involuntary crime, and far
+less of having tacitly consented to it.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF FEMALE SOCIETY.
+
+The company of ladies has a very powerful influence on the sentiments
+and conduct of men. Women, the fruitful source of half our joys, and
+perhaps of _more_ than half our sorrows, give an elegance to our manner,
+and a relish to our pleasures. They soothe our afflictions, and soften
+our cares. Too much of their company will render us effeminate, and
+infallibly stamp upon us many signatures of the female nature. A rough
+and unpolished behavior, as well as slovenliness of person, will
+certainly be the consequence of an almost constant exclusion from it. By
+spending a reasonable portion of our time in the company of women, and
+another in the company of our own sex, we shall imbibe a proper share of
+the softness of the female, and at the same time retain the firmness and
+constancy of the male.
+
+As little social intercourse subsisted between the two sexes, in the
+more early ages of antiquity, we find the men less courteous, and the
+women less engaging. Vivacity and cheerfulness seem hardly to have
+existed. Even the Babylonians, who appear to have allowed their women
+more liberty than any of the ancients, seem not to have lived with them
+in a friendly and familiar manner. But, as their intercourse with them
+was considerably greater than that of the neighboring nations, they
+acquired thereby a polish and refinement unknown to any of the people
+who surrounded them. The manners of both sexes were softer, and better
+calculated to please.
+
+They likewise paid more attention to cleanliness and dress.
+
+After the Greeks became famous for their knowledge of the arts and
+sciences, their rudeness and barbarity were only softened a _few
+degrees_. It is not therefore arts, sciences, and _learning_, but the
+company of the other sex, that forms the manner and renders the man
+_agreeable_.
+
+The Romans were, for some time, a community without any thing to soften
+the ferocity of male nature. The Sabine virgins, whom they had stolen,
+appear to have infused into them the first ideas of politeness. But it
+was many ages before this politeness banished the roughness of the
+warrior, and assumed the refinement of the gentleman.
+
+During the times of chivalry, female influence was at the zenith of its
+glory and perfection. It was the source of valor, it gave birth to
+politeness, it awakened pity, it called forth benevolence, it restricted
+the hand of oppression, and meliorated the human heart. "I cannot
+approach my mistress," said one, "till I have done some glorious deed to
+deserve her notice. Actions should be the messengers of the heart; they
+are the homage due to beauty, and they only should discover love."
+
+Marsan, instructing a young knight how to behave so as to gain the favor
+of the fair, has these remarkable words:--"When your arm is raised, if
+your lance fail, draw your sword directly; and let heaven and hell
+resound with the clash. Lifeless is the soul which beauty cannot
+animate, and weak is the arm which cannot fight valiantly to defend it."
+
+The Russians, Poles, and even the Dutch, pay less attention to their
+females than any of their neighbors, and are, by consequence, less
+distinguished for the graces of their persons, and the feelings of their
+hearts.
+
+The lightness of their food, and the salubrity of their air, have been
+assigned as reasons for the vivacity and cheerfulness of the French, and
+their fortitude, in supporting their spirits through all the adverse
+circumstances of this world. But the constant mixture of the young and
+old, of the two sexes, is no doubt one of the _principal_ reasons why
+the cares and ills of life sit lighter on the shoulders of that
+fantastic people, than on those of any other country in the world.
+
+The French reckon an excursion dull, and a party of pleasure without
+relish, unless a mixture of both sexes join to compose in. The French
+women do not even withdraw from the table after meals; nor do the men
+discover that impatience to have them dismissed, which they so often do
+in England.
+
+It is alleged by those who have no relish for the conversation of the
+fair sex, that their presence curbs the freedom of speech, and
+restrains the jollity of mirth. But, if the conversation and the mirth
+are decent, if the company are capable of relishing any thing but wine,
+the very reverse is the case. Ladies, in general, are not only more
+cheerful than gentlemen, but more eager to promote mirth and good humor.
+
+So powerful, indeed, are the company and conversation of the fair, in
+diffusing happiness and hilarity, that even the cloud which hangs on the
+_thoughtful brow_ of an Englishman, begins in the present age to
+brighten, by his devoting to the ladies a larger share of time than was
+formerly done by his ancestors.
+
+Though the influence of the sexes be reciprocal, yet that of the ladies
+is certainly the greatest. How often may one see a company of men, who
+were disposed to be riotous, checked at once into decency by the
+accidental entrance of an amiable woman; while her good sense and
+obliging deportment charms them into at least a temporary conviction,
+that there is nothing so delightful as female conversation, in its
+best form! Were such conviction frequently repeated, what might we not
+expect from it at last?
+
+"Were virtue," said an ancient philosopher, "to appear amongst men in a
+visible shape, what vehement desires would she enkindle!" Virtue,
+exhibited without affectation, by a lovely young person, of improved
+understanding and gentle manners, may be said to appear with the most
+alluring aspect, surrounded by the _Graces_.
+
+It would be an easy matter to point out instances of the most evident
+reformation, wrought on particular men, by their having happily
+conceived a passion for virtuous women.
+
+To form the manners of men, various causes contribute; but nothing,
+perhaps, so much as the turn of the women with whom they converse. Those
+who are most conversant with women of virtue and understanding, will be
+always found the most amiable characters, other circumstances being
+supposed alike. Such society, beyond every thing else, rubs off the
+_corners_ that gives many of our sex an ungracious roughness. It
+produces a polish more perfect, and more pleasing than that which is
+received from a general commerce with the world. This last is often
+specious, but commonly superficial. The other is the result of gentler
+feelings, and more humanity. The heart itself is moulded. Habits of
+undissembled courtesy are formed. A certain flowing urbanity is
+acquired. Violent passions, rash oaths, coarse jests, indelicate
+language of every kind, are precluded and disrelished.
+
+Female society gives men a taste for cleanliness and elegance of person.
+Our ancestors, who kept but little company with their women, were not
+only slovenly in their dress, but had their countenances disfigured with
+long beards. By female influence, however, beards were, in process of
+time, mutilated down to mustaches. As the gentlemen found that the
+ladies had no great relish for mustaches, which were the relics of a
+beard, they cut and curled them into various fashions, to render them
+more agreeable. At last, however, finding such labor vain, they gave
+them up altogether. But as those of the three learned professions were
+supposed to be endowed with, or at least to stand in need of, more
+wisdom than other people, and as the longest beard had always been
+deemed to sprout from the wisest chin, to supply this mark of
+distinction, which they had lost, they contrived to smother their heads
+in enormous quantities of frizzled hair, that they might bear greater
+resemblance to an owl, the bird sacred to wisdom and Minerva.
+
+To female society it has been objected by the learned and studious, that
+it enervates the mind, and gives it such a turn for trifling, levity,
+and dissipation, as renders it altogether unfit for that application
+which is necessary in order to become eminent in any of the sciences. In
+proof of this they allege, that the greatest philosophers seldom or
+never were men who enjoyed, or were fit for, the company or conversation
+of women. Sir Isaac Newton hardly ever conversed with any of the sex.
+Bacon, Boyle, Des Cartes, and many others, conspicuous for their
+learning and application, were but indifferent companions to the fair.
+
+It is certain, indeed, that the youth who devotes his whole time and
+attention to female conversation, and the little offices of gallantry,
+never distinguishes himself in the literary world. But notwithstanding
+this, without the fatigue and application of severe study, he often
+obtains, by female interest, that which is denied to the merited
+improvements acquired by the labor of many years.
+
+
+MONASTIC LIFE.
+
+The venerable _Bede_ has given us a very striking picture of Monastic
+enormities, in his epistle to Egbert. From this we learn that many young
+men who had no title to the monastic profession, got possession of
+monasteries; where, instead of engaging in the defence of their country,
+as their age and rank required, they indulged themselves in the most
+dissolute indolence.
+
+We learn from Dugdale, that in the reign of Henry the Second, the nuns
+of Amsbury abbey in Wiltshire were expelled from that religious house on
+account of their incontinence. And to exhibit in the most lively colors
+the total corruption of monastic chastity, bishop Burnet informs us in
+his "History of the Reformation," that when the nunneries were visited
+by the command of Henry the VIII. "whole houses almost, were found whose
+vows had been made in vain."
+
+When we consider to what oppressive indolence, to what a variety of
+wretchedness and guilt, the young and fair inhabitants of the cloister
+were frequently betrayed, we ought to admire those benevolent authors
+who, when the tide of religious prejudice ran very strong in favor of
+monastic virginity, had spirit enough to oppose the torrent, and to
+caution the devout and tender sex against so dangerous a profession. It
+is in this point of view that the character of Erasmus appears with the
+most amiable lustre; and his name ought to be eternally dear to the
+female world in particular. Though his studies and constitution led him
+almost to idolize those eloquent fathers of the church who have
+magnified this kind of life, his good sense and his accurate survey of
+the human race, enabled him to judge of the misery in which female youth
+was continually involved by a precipitate choice of the veil. He knew
+the successful arts by which the subtle and rapacious monks inveigled
+young women of opulent families into the cloister; and he exerted his
+lively and delicate wit in opposition to so pernicious an evil.
+
+In those nations of Europe where nunneries still exist, how many lovely
+victims are continually sacrificed to the avarice or absurd ambition of
+inhuman parents! The misery of these victims has been painted with great
+force by some benevolent writers of France.
+
+In most of those pathetic histories that are founded on the abuse of
+convents, the misery originates from the parent, and falls upon the
+child. The reverse has sometime happened; and there are examples of
+unhappy parents, who have been rendered miserable by the religious
+perversity of a daughter. In the fourteenth volume of that very amusing
+work, _Les Causes Celebres_, a work which is said to have been the
+favorite reading of Voltaire, there is a striking history of a girl
+under age, who was tempted by pious artifice to settle herself in a
+convent, in express opposition to parental authority. Her parents, who
+had in vain tried the most tender persuasion, endeavored at last to
+redeem their lost child, by a legal process against the nunnery in which
+she was imprisoned. The pleadings on this remarkable trial may, perhaps,
+be justly reckoned amongst the finest pieces of eloquence that the
+lawyers of France have produced. Monsieur Gillet, the advocate for the
+parents, represented, in the boldest and most affecting language, the
+extreme baseness of this religious seduction. His eloquence appeared to
+have fixed the sentiments of the judges; but the cause of superstition
+was pleaded by an advocate of equal power, and it finally prevailed. The
+unfortunate parents of Maria Vernal (for this was the name of the
+unfortunate girl) were condemned to resign her forever, and to make a
+considerable payment to those artful devotees who had piously robbed
+them of their child.
+
+When we reflect on the various evils that have arisen in convents, we
+have the strongest reason to rejoice and glory in that reformation by
+which the nunneries of England were abolished. Yet it would not be
+candid or just to consider all these as the mere harbors of
+licentiousness; since we are told that, at the time of their
+suppression, some of our religious houses were very honorably
+distinguished by the purity of their inhabitants. "The visitors," says
+Bishop Burnet, "interceded earnestly for one nunnery in Oxfordshire,
+where there was great strictness of life, and to which most of the young
+gentlewomen of the country were sent to be bred; so that the gentry of
+the country desired the king would spare the house: yet all was
+ineffectual."
+
+
+DEGREES OF SENTIMENTAL ATTACHMENT AT DIFFERENT PERIODS.
+
+In the earlier ages, sentiment in love does not appear to have been much
+attended to. When Abraham sent his servant to court a bride for his son
+Isaac, we do not so much as hear that Isaac was consulted on the matter:
+nor is there even a suspicion, that he might refuse or dislike the wife
+which his father had selected for him.
+
+From the manner in which Rebecca was solicited, we learn, that women
+were not then courted in person by the lover, but by a proxy, whom he,
+or his parents, deputed in his stead. We likewise see, that this proxy
+did not, as in modern times, endeavor to gain the affection of the lady
+he was sent to, by enlarging on the personal properties, and mental
+qualifications of the lover; but by the richness and magnificence of the
+presents he made to her and her relations.
+
+Presents have been, from the earliest ages, and are to this day, the
+mode of transacting all kinds of business in the east. When a favor is
+to be asked of a superior, one cannot hope to obtain it without a
+present. Courtship, therefore, having been anciently transacted in this
+manner, it is plain, that it was only considered in the same light as
+any other negotiable business, and not as a matter of sentiment, and of
+the heart.
+
+In the courtship, however, or rather purchase of a wife by Jacob, we
+meet with something like sentiment; for when he found that he was not
+possessed of money or goods, equal to the price which was set upon her,
+he not only condescended to purchase her by servitude, but even seemed
+much disappointed when the tender-eyed Leah was faithlessly imposed upon
+him instead of the beautiful Rachel.
+
+The ancient Gauls, Germans, and neighboring nations of the North, had so
+much veneration for the sex in general, that in courtship they behaved
+with a spirit of gallantry, and showed a degree of sentiment, to which
+_those_ who called them barbarians, never arrived. Not contented with
+getting possession of the person of his mistress, a northern lover could
+not be satisfied without the sincere affection of her heart; nor was his
+mistress ever to be gained but by such methods as plainly indicated to
+her the tenderest attachment from the most deserving man.
+
+The women of Scandinavia were not to be courted but by the most
+assiduous attendance, seconded by such warlike achievements as the
+custom of the country had rendered necessary to make a man deserving of
+his mistress. On these accounts, we frequently find a lover accosting
+the object of his passion by a minute and circumstantial detail of his
+exploits, and all his accomplishments. "We fought with swords," says
+King Regner, in a beautiful ode composed by himself, in memory of the
+deeds of his former days, "that day wherein I saw ten thousand of my
+foes rolling in the dust, near a promontory of England. A dew of blood
+distilled from our swords. The arrows which flew in search of the
+helmets, bellowed through the air. The pleasure of that day was truly
+exquisite.
+
+"We fought with swords. A young man should march early to the conflict
+of arms. Man should attack man, or bravely resist him. In this hath
+always consisted the nobility of the warrior. He who aspires to the love
+of his mistress, ought to be dauntless in the clash of swords."
+
+The descendants of the northern nations, long after they had plundered
+and repeopled the greatest part of Europe, retained nearly the same
+ideas of love, and practised the same methods in declaring it, that they
+had imbibed from their ancestors. "Love," says William of Montagnogout,
+"engages to the most amiable conduct. Love inspires the greatest
+actions. Love has no will but that of the object beloved, nor seeks any
+thing but what will augment her glory. You cannot love, nor ought to be
+beloved, if you ask any thing that virtue condemns. Never did I form a
+wish that could wound the heart of my beloved, nor delight in a pleasure
+that was inconsistent with her delicacy."
+
+The method of addressing females, among some of the tribes of American
+Indians, is the most simple that can possibly be devised. When the
+lover goes to visit his mistress, he only begs leave, by signs, to enter
+her hut. After obtaining this, he goes in, and sits down by her in the
+most respectful silence. If she suffers him to remain there without
+interruption, her doing so is consenting to his suit. If, however, the
+lover has any thing given him to eat and drink, it is a refusal; though
+the woman is obliged to sit by him until he has finished his repast. He
+then retires in silence.
+
+In Canada, courtship is not carried on with that coy reserve, and
+seeming secrecy, which politeness has introduced among the inhabitants of
+civilized nations. When a man and a woman meet, though they never saw
+each other before, if he is captivated by her charms, he declares his
+passion in the plainest manner; and she, with the same simplicity,
+answers, Yes, or No, without further deliberation. "That female
+reserve," says an ingenious writer, [Dr Alexander,] "that seeming
+reluctance to enter into the married state, observable in polite
+countries, is the work of art, and not of nature. The history of every
+uncultivated people amply proves it. It tells us, that their women not
+only speak with freedom the sentiments of their hearts, but even blush
+not to have these sentiments made as public as possible."
+
+In Formosa, however, they differ so much from the simplicity of the
+Canadians, that it would be reckoned the greatest indecency in the man
+to declare, or in the woman to hear, a declaration of the passion of
+love. The lover is, therefore, obliged to depute his mother, sister, or
+some female relation; and from any of these the soft tale may be heard
+without the least offence to delicacy.
+
+In Spain, the women had formerly no voice in disposing of themselves in
+matrimony. But as the empire of common sense began to extend itself,
+they began to claim a privilege, at least of being consulted in the
+choice of the partners of their lives. Many fathers and guardians, hurt
+by this female innovation, and puffed up with Spanish pride, still
+insisted on forcing their daughters to marry according to their
+pleasure, by means of duennas, locks, hunger, and even sometimes of
+poison and daggers. But as nature will revolt against every species of
+oppression and injustice, the ladies have for some time begun to assert
+their own rights. The authority of fathers and guardians begins to
+decline, and lovers find themselves obliged to apply to the affections
+of the fair, as well as to the pride and avarice of their relations.
+
+The nightly musical serenades of mistresses by their lovers are still in
+use. The gallant composes some love sonnets, as expressive as he can,
+not only of the situation of his heart, but of every particular
+circumstance between him and the lady, not forgetting to lard them with
+the most extravagant encomiums on her beauty and merit. These he sings
+in the night below her window accompanied with his lute, or sometimes
+with a whole band of music. The more piercingly cold the air, the more
+the lady's heart is supposed to be thawed with the patient sufferance
+of her lover, who, from night to night, frequently continues his
+exercises for many hours, heaving the deepest sighs, and casting the
+most piteous looks towards the window; at which if his goddess at last
+deigns to appear, and drops him a curtsey, he is superlatively paid for
+all his watching; but if she blesses him with a smile, he is ready to
+run distracted.
+
+In Italy the manner of addressing the ladies, so far as it relates to
+serenading, nearly resembles that of Spain. The Italian, however, goes a
+step farther than the Spaniard. He endeavors to blockade the house where
+his fair one lives, so as to prevent the entrance of any rival. If he
+marries the lady who cost him all this trouble and attendance, he shuts
+her up for life: If not, she becomes the object of his eternal hatred,
+and he too frequently endeavors to revenge by poison the success of his
+happier rival.
+
+In one circumstance relating to courtship, the Italians are said to be
+particular. They protract the time as long as possible, well knowing
+that even with all the little ills attending it, a period thus employed
+is one of the sweetest of human life.
+
+A French lover, with the word sentiment perpetually in his mouth, seems
+by every action to have excluded it from his heart. He places his whole
+confidence in his exterior air and appearance. He dresses for his
+mistress, dances for her, flutters constantly about her, helps her to
+lay on her rouge, and to place her patches. He attends her round the
+whole circle of amusements, chatters to her constantly, whistles and
+sings, and plays the fool with her. Whatever be his station, every thing
+gaudy and glittering within the sphere of it is called in to his
+assistance, particularly splendid carriages and tawdry liveries; but if,
+by the help of all these, he cannot make an impression on the fair one's
+heart, it costs him nothing but a few shrugs of his shoulders, two or
+three silly exclamations, and as many stanzas of some satirical song
+against her; and, as it is impossible for a Frenchman to live without an
+amour, he immediately betakes himself to another.
+
+There is hardly any such thing among people of fashion as courtship.
+Matters are generally so ordered by parents and guardians, that to a
+bride and bridegroom, the day of marriage is often the second time of
+their meeting. In many countries, to be married in this manner would be
+reckoned the greatest of misfortunes. In France it is little regarded.
+In the fashionable world, few people are greater strangers to, or more
+indifferent about each other, than husband and wife; and any appearance
+of fondness between them, or their being seen frequently together, would
+infallibly make them forfeit the reputation of the _ton_, and be laughed
+at by all polite company. On this account, nothing is more common than
+to be acquainted with a lady without knowing her husband, or visiting
+the husband without ever seeing his wife.
+
+
+GERMAN WOMEN.
+
+Of all the German females, the ladies of Saxony are the most amiable.
+Their persons are so superiorly charming and preferable in whatever can
+recommend them to be notice of mankind, that the German youth often
+visit Saxony in quest of _companions_ for life. Exclusive of their
+beauty and comeliness of appearance, they are brought up in a knowledge
+of all those arts, both useful and ornamental, which are so brilliant an
+addition to their native attractions. But what chiefly enhances their
+value, and gives it reality and duration, is a _sweetness_ of temper and
+festivity of disposition, that never fail to endear them on a very
+slight acquaintance. To crown all, they are generally patterns of
+conjugal tenderness and fidelity.
+
+As they are commonly careful to improve their minds by reading and
+instructive conversation, they have no small share of facetiousness and
+ingenuity. From their innate liveliness, they are extremely addicted to
+all the gay kind of amusements. They excel in the allurements of dress
+and decoration, and are in general skilful in music.
+
+The character, however, of the women in most other parts of Germany,
+particularly of the Austrian, is very different from this.
+Notwithstanding the advantages of size and make, their looks and
+features, though not unsightly, betray a vacancy of that life and
+spirit, without which beauty is uninteresting, and, like a mere picture,
+becomes utterly void of that indication of sensibility, which alone can
+awaken a delicacy of feeling.
+
+As their education is conducted by the rules of the grossest
+superstition, and they are taught little else than set forms of
+devotion, they arrive to the years of maturity uninstructed in the use
+of reason, and usually continue profoundly ignorant the remainder of
+their days, which are spent, or rather loitered away, in apathy and
+indolence.
+
+The principal happiness of the Austrian ladies of fashion consists in
+ruminating on the dignity of their birth and families, the antiquity of
+their race, the rank they hold, the respect attached to it, and the
+prerogatives they enjoy over the inferior classes, whom they treat with
+the utmost superciliousness, and hold in the most unreasonable contempt.
+In the mean time, their domestic affairs are condemned to the most
+unaccountable neglect. They dwell at home, careless of what passes
+there; and suffer disorder and confusion to prevail, without feeling the
+least uneasiness. Great frequenters of churches, their piety consists in
+the strictest conformity to all the externals of religion. They profess
+the most boundless belief in all the silly legends with which their
+treatises of devotion are filled; and these are the only books they ever
+read. The coldness of their constitution occasions a species of
+regulated gallantry, which is rather the effect of an opinion that it
+is an appendage of high life, than the result of their natural
+inclination.
+
+It must, at the same time be allowed, that the Austrian women are
+endowed with a great fund of sincerity and candor; and, though too much
+on the reserve, and prone to keep at an unnecessary distance, are yet
+capable of the truest attachment, and always warm and zealous in the
+cause of those whom they have admitted to their friendship.
+
+Though the Germans are rather a dull and phlegmatic people, and not
+greatly enslaved by the warmer passions, yet at the court of Vienna they
+are much given to intrigue: and an amour is so far from being
+scandalous, that a woman gains credit by the rank of her gallant, and is
+reckoned silly and unfashionable if she scrupulously adheres to the
+virtue of chastity. But such customs are more the customs of courts,
+than of places less exposed to temptation, and consequently less
+dissolute; and we are well assured that in Germany there are many women
+who do honor to humanity, not by chastity only, but also by a variety of
+other virtues.
+
+The ladies at the principal courts, differ not much in their dress from
+the French and English. They are not, however, so excessively fond of
+paint as the former. At some courts, they appear in rich furs: and all
+of them are loaded with jewels, if they can obtain them. The female part
+of the burgher's families, in many of the German towns, dress in a very
+different manner, and some of them inconceivably fantastic, as may be
+seen in many prints published in books of travels. But, in this respect,
+they are gradually reforming, and many of them make quite a different
+appearance in their dress from what they did thirty or forty years ago.
+
+The inhabitants of Vienna lived luxuriously, a great part of their time
+being spent in feasting and carousing. In winter, when the different
+branches of the Danube are frozen over, and the ground covered with
+snow, the ladies take their recreation in sledges of different shapes,
+such as griffins, tigers, swans, scallop-shells, etc. Here the lady
+sits, dressed in velvet lined with rich furs, and adorned with laces and
+jewels, having on her head a velvet cap. The sledge is drawn by one
+horse, stag or other creature, set off with plumes of feathers, ribbons
+and bells. As this diversion is taken chiefly in the night time,
+servants ride before the sledge with torches; and a gentleman, standing
+on the sledge behind, guides the horse.
+
+
+A VIEW OF MATRIMONY IN THREE DIFFERENT LIGHTS.
+
+The marriage life is always an insipid, a vexatious, or a happy
+condition, the first is, when two people of no taste meet together, upon
+such a settlement as has been thought reasonable by parents and
+conveyancers, from an exact valuation of the land and cash of both
+parties. In this case the young lady's person is no more regarded than
+the house and improvements in purchase of an estate; but she goes with
+her fortune, rather than her fortune with her. These make up the crowd
+or vulgar of the rich, and fill up the lumber of the human race, without
+beneficence towards those below them, or respect towards those above
+them; and lead a despicable, independent, and useless life, without
+sense of the laws of kindness, good-nature, mutual offices, and the
+elegant satisfactions which flow from reason and virtue.
+
+The vexatious life arises from a conjunction of two people of quick
+taste and resentment, put together for reasons well known to their
+friends, in which especial care is taken to avoid (what they think the
+chief of evils) poverty; and ensure them riches with every evil besides.
+These good people live in a constant restraint before company, and when
+alone, revile each other's person and conduct. In company they are in
+purgatory; when by themselves, in hell.
+
+The happy marriage is, where two persons meet, and voluntarily make
+choice of each other without principally regarding or neglecting the
+circumstances of fortune or beauty. These may still love in spite of
+adversity or sickness. The former we may in some measure defend
+ourselves from; the other is the common lot of humanity. Love has
+nothing to do with riches or state. Solitude, with the person beloved,
+has a pleasure, even in a woman's mind, beyond show or pomp.
+
+
+BETROTHING AND MARRIAGE.
+
+At a very early period, families who lived in a friendly manner, fell
+upon a method of securing their children to each other by what is called
+in the sacred writings Betrothing. This was agreeing on a price to be
+paid for the bride, the time when it should be paid, and when she should
+be delivered into the hands of her husband.
+
+There were, according to the Talmudists, three ways of betrothing. The
+first by a written contract. The second, by a verbal agreement,
+accompanied with a piece of money. And the third, by the parties coming
+together, and living as husband and wife; which might as properly be
+called marriage as betrothing.
+
+The written contract was in the following manner--"On such a day, month,
+year, A the son of B, has said to D the daughter of E, be thou my spouse
+according to the law of Moses and of the Israelites; and I give thee as
+a dowry the sum of two hundred suzims, as it is ordered by our law. And
+the said D hath promised to be his spouse upon the conditions aforesaid,
+which the said A doth promise to perform on the day of marriage. And to
+this the said A doth hereby bind himself and all that he hath, to the
+very cloak upon his back; engages himself to love, honor, feed, clothe,
+and protect her, and to perform all that is generally implied in
+contracts of marriage in favor of the Israelitish wives."
+
+The verbal agreement was made in the presence of a sufficient number of
+witnesses, by the man saying to the women, "Take this money as a pledge
+that at such a time I will take thee to be my wife." A woman who was
+thus betrothed or bargained for, was almost in every respect by the law
+considered as already married.
+
+Before the legislation of Moses, "marriages among the Jews," say the
+Rabbies, "were agreed on by the parents and relations of both sides.
+When this was done, the bridegroom was introduced to his bride. Presents
+were mutually exchanged, the contract signed before witnesses, and the
+bride, having remained sometime with her relations, was sent away to the
+habitation of her husband, in the night, with singing, dancing, and the
+sound of musical instruments."
+
+By the institution of Moses, the Rabbies tell us the contract of
+marriage was read in the presence of, and signed by, at least ten
+witnesses, who were free, and of age. The bride, who had taken care to
+bathe herself the night before, appeared in all her splendor, but
+veiled, in imitation of Rebecca, who veiled herself when she came in
+sight of Isaac. She was then given to the bridegroom by her parents, in
+words to this purpose: "Take her according to the law of Moses." And he
+received her, by saying, "I take her according to that law." Some
+blessings were then pronounced on the young couple, both by the parents
+and the rest of the company.
+
+The blessings or prayers generally run in this style: "Blessed art thou,
+O Lord of heaven, and earth, who has created man in thine own likeness,
+and hast appointed woman to be his partner and companion! Blessed art
+thou, who fillest Zion with joy for the multitude of her children!
+Blessed art thou who sendest gladness to the bridegroom and his bride;
+who hast ordained for them, love, joy, tenderness, peace and mutual
+affection. Be pleased to bless not only this couple, but Judah and
+Jerusalem, with songs of joy, and praise for the joy that thou givest
+them, by the multitudes of their sons and of their daughters."
+
+After the virgins had sung a marriage song, the company partook of a
+repast, the most magnificent the parties could afford; after which they
+began a dance, the men round the bridegroom, the women round the bride.
+They pretended that this dance was of divine institution and an
+essential part of the ceremony. The bride was then carried to the
+nuptial bed, and the bridegroom left with her. The company again
+returned to their feasting and rejoicing; and the Rabbies inform us,
+that this feasting, when the bride, was a widow, lasted only three days,
+but seven if she was a virgin.
+
+At the birth of a son, the father planted a cedar; and at that of a
+daughter, he planted a pine. Of these trees the nuptial bed was
+constructed, when the parties, at whose birth they were planted, entered
+into the married state.
+
+The Assyrians had a court, or tribunal whose only business was to
+dispose of young women in marriage, and see the laws of that union
+properly executed. What these laws were, or how the execution of them
+was enforced, are circumstances that have not been handed down to us.
+But the erecting a court solely for the purpose of taking cognizance of
+them, suggests an idea that they were many and various.
+
+Among the Greeks, the multiplicity of male and female deities who were
+concerned in the affairs of love, made the invocations and sacrifices on
+a matrimonial occasion a very tedious affair. Fortunate omens gave great
+joy, and the most fortunate of all others was a pair of turtles seen in
+the air, as those birds were reckoned the truest emblems of conjugal
+love and fidelity. If, however, one of them was seen alone it infallibly
+denoted separation, and all the ills attending an unhappy marriage.
+
+On the wedding day, the bride and bridegroom were richly dressed, and
+adorned with garlands of herbs and flowers. The bride was conducted in
+the evening to the house of her husband in a chariot, seated between her
+husband and one of his relations. When she alighted from the chariot the
+axle-tree of it was burnt to show that there was no method for her to
+return back. As soon as the young couple entered the house, figs and
+other fruits were thrown upon their heads to denote plenty; and a
+sumptuous entertainment was ready for them to partake of, to which all
+the relations on both sides were invited.
+
+The bride was lighted to bed by a number of torches, according to her
+quality; and the company returned in the morning to salute the new
+married couple, and to sing _epithalamia_ at the door of their
+bed-chamber.
+
+Epithalamia were marriage songs, anciently sung in praise of the bride
+or bridegroom, wishing them happiness, prosperity and a numerous issue.
+
+Among the Romans there were three different kinds of marriage. The
+ceremony of the first consisted in the young couple eating a cake
+together made only of wheat, salt and water. The second kind was
+celebrated by the parties solemnly pledging their faith to each other,
+by giving and receiving a piece of money. This was the most common way
+of marrying among the Romans. It continued in use, even after they
+became Christians. When writings were introduced to testify that a man
+and a woman had become husband and wife, and also, that the husband had
+settled a dower upon his bride, these writings were called _Tabulae
+Dotales_ (dowry tables;) and hence, perhaps the words in our marriage
+ceremony, "I thee endow."
+
+The third kind of marriage was, when a man and woman, having cohabited
+for some time and had children, found it expedient to continue together.
+In this case, if they made up the matter between themselves, it became
+a valid marriage, and the children were considered as legitimate.
+
+Something similar to this is the present custom in Scotland. There, if a
+man live with, and have children by a woman, though he do not marry her
+till he be upon his death-bed, all the children are thereby legitimated
+and become entitled to the honors and estates of their father. The case
+is the same in Holland and some parts of Germany; with this difference
+only, that all the children to be legitimated must appear with the
+father and mother in church at the ceremony of their marriage.
+
+
+FEMALE FRIENDSHIP.
+
+It has long been a question, Which of the two sexes is most capable of
+friendship? Montague, who is so much celebrated for his knowledge of
+human nature, has given it positively against the women; and his opinion
+has been generally embraced.
+
+Friendship perhaps, in women, is more rare than among men; but, at the
+same time, it must be allowed that where it is found, it is more tender.
+
+Men, in general, have more of the parade than the graces of friendship.
+They often wound while they serve; and their warmest sentiments are not
+very enlightened, with respect to those minute sentiments which are of
+so much value. But women have a refined sensibility, which makes them
+see every thing; nothing escapes them. They divine the silent
+friendship; they encourage the bashful or timid friendship; they offer
+the sweetest consolations to friendship in distress. Furnished with
+finer instruments, they treat more delicately a wounded heart. They
+compose it, and prevent it from feeling its agonies. They know, above
+all, how to give value to a thousand things, which have no value in
+themselves.
+
+We ought therefore, perhaps, to desire the friendship of a man upon
+great occasions; but, for general happiness, we must prefer the
+friendship of a woman.
+
+With regard to female intimacies, it may be taken for granted that there
+is no young woman who has not, or wishes not to have, a companion of her
+own sex, to whom she may unbosom herself on every occasion. That there
+are women capable of friendship with women, few impartial observers will
+deny. There have been many evident proofs of it, and those carried as
+far as seemed compatible with the imperfections of our common nature. It
+is, however, questioned by some; while others believe that it happens
+exceedingly seldom. Between married and unmarried women, it no doubt
+happens very often; whether it does so between those that are single, is
+not so certain. Young men appear more frequently susceptible of a
+generous and steady friendship for each other, than females as yet
+unconnected; especially, if the latter have, or are supposed to have,
+pretensions to beauty, not adjusted by the public.
+
+In the frame and condition of females, however, compared with those of
+the other sex, there are some circumstances which may help towards an
+apology for this unfavorable feature in their character.
+
+The state of matrimony is necessary to the support, order, and comfort
+of society. But it is a state that subjects the women to a great variety
+of solicitude and pain. Nothing could carry them through it with any
+tolerable satisfaction or spirit, but very strong and almost
+unconquerable attachments. To produce these, is it not fit they should
+be peculiarly sensible to the attention and regards of the men? Upon the
+same ground, does it not seem agreeable to the purposes of Providence,
+that the securing of this attention, and these regards, should be a
+principal aim? But can such an aim be pursued without frequent
+competition? And will not that too readily occasion jealousy, envy, and
+all the unamiable effects of mutual _rivalship_? Without the restraints
+of superior worth and sentiment, it certainly will. But can these be
+ordinarily expected from the prevailing turn of female education; or
+from the little pains that women, as well as other human beings,
+commonly take to _control_ themselves, and to act nobly? In this _last_
+respect, the sexes appear pretty much on the same footing.
+
+This reasoning is not meant to justify the indulgence of those little
+and sometimes base passions towards one another, with which females
+have been so generally charged. It is only intended to represent such
+passions in the first approach; and, while not entertained, as less
+criminal than the men are apt to state them; and to prove that, in their
+attachments to each other, the latter have not always that merit above
+the women, which they are apt to claim. In the mean time, let it be the
+business of the ladies, by emulating the gentlemen, where they appear
+good-natured and disinterested, to disprove their imputation, and to
+show a temper open to _friendship_ as well as to _love_.
+
+To talk much of the latter is natural for both; to talk much of the
+former, is considered by the men as one way of doing themselves honor.
+Friendship, they well know, is that dignified form, which, in
+speculation at least every heart must respect.
+
+But in friendship, as in religion, which on many accounts it resembles,
+speculation is often substituted in the place of practice. People fancy
+themselves possessed of the thing, and hope that others will fancy so
+too, because they are fond of the name, and have learned to talk about
+it with plausibility. Such talk indeed imposes, till experience give it
+the lie.
+
+To say the truth, there seems in either sex but little of what a fond
+imagination, unacquainted with the falsehood of the world, and
+warmed by affections which its selfishness has not yet chilled, would
+reckon friendship. In theory, the standard is raised too high; we ought
+not, however, to wish it much lower. The honest sensibilities of
+ingenuous nature should not be checked by the over-cautious maxims of
+political prudence. No advantage, obtained by such frigidity, can
+compensate for the want of those warm effusions of the heart into the
+bosom of a friend, which are doubtless among the most exquisite
+pleasures. At the same time, however, it must be owned, that they often
+by the inevitable lot of humanity, make way for the bitterest pains
+which the breast can experience. Happy beyond the common condition of
+her sex, is she who has found a friend indeed; open hearted, yet
+discreet; generously fervent, yet steady; thoroughly virtuous, but not
+severe; wise, as well as cheerful! Can such a friend be loved too much,
+or cherished too tenderly? If to excellence and happiness there be any
+one way more compendious than another, next to friendship with the
+Supreme Being, it is this.
+
+But when a mixture of minds so beautiful and so sweet takes place, it is
+generally, or rather always the result of early prepossession, casual
+intercourse, or in short, a combination of such causes as are not to be
+brought together by management or design. This noble plant may be
+cultivated; but it must grow spontaneously.
+
+
+ON THE CHOICE OF A HUSBAND.
+
+        Assist me, ye Nine,
+        While the youth I define,
+  With whom I in wedlock would class;
+        And ye blooming fair,
+        Lend a listening ear,
+  To approve of the man as you pass.
+
+        Not the changeable fry
+        Who love, nor know why,
+  But follow bedup'd by their passions:
+        Such votaries as these
+        Are like waves of the seas,
+  And steer'd by their own inclinations.
+
+        The hectoring blade
+        How unfit for the maid,
+  Where meekness and modesty reigns!
+        Such a blundering bully
+        I'll speak against truly,
+  Whatever I get for my pains.
+
+        Not the dogmatic elf,
+        Whose great all is himself,
+  Whose alone _ipse dixit_ is law:
+        What a figure he'll make,
+        How like Momus he'll speak
+  With sneering burlesque, a pshaw! pshaw!
+
+        Not the covetous wretch
+        Whose heart's at full stretch
+  To gain an inordinate treasure;
+        Him leave with the rest,
+        And such mortals detest,
+  Who sacrifice life without measure.
+
+        The fluttering fop,
+        How empty his top!
+  Nay, but some call him coxcomb, I trow;
+        But 'tis losing your time,
+        He's not worth half a rhyme,
+  Let the fag ends of prose bind his brow.
+
+        The guttling sot,
+        What a conduit his throat!
+  How beastly and vicious his life!
+        Where drunkards prevail,
+        Whole families feel,
+  Much more an affectionate wife.
+
+        One character yet;
+        I with sorrow repeat,
+  And O! that the number were less;
+        'Tis the blasphemous crew:
+        What a pattern they'll shew
+  To their hapless and innocent race!
+
+        Let wisdom then shine
+        In the youth that is mine,
+  Whilst virtue his footsteps impress;
+        Such I'd choose for my mate,
+        Whether sooner or late:
+  Tell me, Ladies, what think you of this?
+
+"The chief point to be regarded," says Lady Pennington in her Advice to
+her Daughters, "in the choice of a companion for life, is a really
+virtuous principle--an unaffected goodness of heart. Without this, you
+will be continually shocked by indecency, and pained by impiety. So
+numerous have been the unhappy victims to the ridiculous opinion, _a
+reformed libertine makes the best husband_--that, did not experience
+daily evince the contrary, one would believe it impossible for a girl
+who has a tolerable degree of common understanding, to be made the dupe
+of so erroneous a position, which has not the least shadow of reason for
+its foundation, and which a small share of observation will prove to be
+false in fact. A man who has been conversant with the worst sort of
+women, is very apt to contract a bad opinion of, and a contempt for, the
+sex in general. Incapable of esteeming any, he is suspicious of all;
+jealous without cause, angry without provocation, his own disturbed
+imagination is a continued source of ill-humor. To this is frequently
+joined a bad habit of body, the natural consequence of an irregular
+life, which gives an additional sourness to the temper. What rational
+prospect of happiness can there be with such a companion? And, that this
+is the general character of those who are called _reformed rakes_,
+observation will certify. But, admit there may be some exceptions, it is
+a hazard upon which no considerate woman would venture the peace of her
+whole life. The vanity of those girls who believe themselves capable of
+working miracles of this kind, and who give up their persons to men of
+libertine principles, upon the wild expectation of reclaiming them,
+justly deserves the disappointment which it will generally meet with;
+for, believe me, a wife is, of all persons, the least likely to succeed
+in such an attempt. Be it your care to find that virtue in a lover which
+you must never hope to form in a husband. Good sense, and good nature,
+are almost equally requisite. If the former is wanting, it will be next
+to an impossibility for you to esteem the person, of whose behavior you
+may have cause to be ashamed. Mutual esteem is as essential to happiness
+in the married state, as mutual affection. Without the latter, every day
+will bring with it some fresh cause of vexation, until repeated quarrels
+produce a coldness, which will settle into an irreconcilable aversion,
+and you will become, not only each other's torment, but the object of
+contempt to your family, and to your acquaintance.
+
+"This quality of good nature is, of all others, the most difficult to be
+ascertained, on account of the general mistake of blending it with
+good-humor, as if they were in themselves the same; whereas, in fact, no
+two principles of action are more essentially different. But this may
+require some explanation. By good nature, I mean that true benevolence,
+which partakes in the felicity of every individual within the reach of
+its ability, which relieves the distressed, comforts the afflicted,
+diffuses blessings, and communicates happiness, far as its sphere of
+action can extend; and which, in the private scenes of life, will shine
+conspicuous in the dutiful son, in the affectionate husband, the
+indulgent father, the faithful friend, and in the compassionate master
+both to man and beast. Good humor, on the other hand, is nothing more
+than a cheerful, pleasing deportment, arising either from a natural
+gaiety of mind, or from an affection of popularity, joined to an
+affability of behavior, the result of good breeding, and from a ready
+compliance with the taste of every company. This kind of mere good humor
+is, by far, the most striking quality. It is frequently mistaken for and
+complimented with the superior name of _real good nature_. A man, by
+this specious appearance, has often acquired that appellation who, in
+all the actions of private life, has been a morose, cruel, revengeful,
+sullen, haughty tyrant. Let them put on the cap, whose temples fit the
+galling wreath!
+
+"A man of a truly benevolent disposition, and formed to promote the
+happiness of all around him, may sometimes, perhaps, from an ill habit
+of body, an accidental vexation, or from a commendable openness of
+heart, above the meanness of disguise, be guilty of little sallies of
+peevishness, or of ill humor, which, carrying the appearance of ill
+nature, may be unjustly thought to proceed from it, by persons who are
+unacquainted with his true character, and who, take ill humor and ill
+nature to be synonymous terms, though in reality they bear not the least
+analogy to each other. In order to the forming a right judgment, it is
+absolutely necessary to observe this distinction, which will effectually
+secure you from the dangerous error of taking the shadow for the
+substance, an irretrievable mistake, pregnant with innumerable
+consequent evils!
+
+"From what has been said, it plainly appears, that the criterion of this
+amiable virtue is not to be taken for the general opinion; mere good
+humor being, to all intents and purposes, sufficient in this particular,
+to establish the public voice in favor of a man utterly devoid of every
+humane and benevolent affection of heart. It is only from the less
+conspicuous scenes of life, the more retired sphere of action, from the
+artless tenor of domestic conduct, that the real character can, with any
+certainty be drawn. These, undisguised, proclaim the man. But, as they
+shun the glare of light, nor court the noise of popular applause, they
+pass unnoticed, and are seldom known till after an intimate
+acquaintance. The best method, therefore, to avoid the deception in this
+case, is to lay no stress on outward appearances, which are too often
+fallacious, but to take the rule of judging from the simple unpolished
+sentiments of those whose dependent connections give them undeniable
+certainty; who not only see, but who hourly feel, the good or bad effect
+of that disposition, to which they are subjected. By this, I mean, that
+if a man is equally respected, esteemed, and beloved by his dependants
+and domestics, you may justly conclude, he has that true good nature,
+that real benevolence, which delights in communicating felicity, and
+enjoys the satisfaction it diffuses. But if by these he is despised and
+hated, served merely from a principle of fear, devoid of affection,
+which is ever easily discoverable, whatever may be his public character,
+however favorable the general opinion, be assured, that his disposition
+is such as can never be productive of domestic happiness. I have been
+the more particular on this head, as it is one of the most essential
+qualifications to be regarded, and of all others the most liable to be
+mistaken.
+
+"Never be prevailed with, my dear, to give your hand to a person
+defective in these material points. Secure of virtue, of good nature,
+and understanding, in a husband, you may be secure of happiness. Without
+the two former it is unattainable. Without the latter in a tolerable
+degree, it must be very imperfect.
+
+"Remember, however, that infallibility is not the property of man, or
+you may entail disappointment on yourself, by expecting what is never to
+be found. The best men are sometimes inconsistent with themselves. They
+are liable to be hurried, by sudden starts of passion, into expressions
+and actions, which their _cooler_ reason will condemn. They may have
+some oddities of behavior, and some peculiarities of temper. They may be
+subject to accidental ill humor, or to whimsical complaints. Blemishes
+of this kind often shade the brightest character; but they are never
+destructive of mutual felicity, unless when they are made so by an
+improper resentment, or by an ill-judged opposition. When cooled, and in
+his usual temper, the man of understanding, if he has been wrong, will
+suggest to himself all that could be urged against him. The man of good
+nature will, unupbraided, own his error. Immediate contradiction is,
+therefore, wholly unserviceable, and highly imprudent; an after
+repetition is equally unnecessary and injudicious. Any peculiarities in
+the temper or behavior ought to be properly represented in the tenderest
+and in the most friendly manner. If the representation of them is made
+discreetly, it will generally be well taken. But if they are so habitual
+as not easily to be altered, strike not too often upon the unharmonious
+string. Rather let them pass unobserved. Such a cheerful compliance will
+better cement your union; and they may be made easy to yourself, by
+reflecting on the superior good qualities by which these trifling faults
+are so greatly overbalanced.
+
+"You must remember, my dear, these rules are laid down on the
+supposition of your being united to a person who possesses the three
+qualifications for happiness before mentioned. In this case no farther
+direction is necessary, but that you strictly perform the duty of a
+wife, namely, to love, to honor, and obey. The two first articles are a
+tribute so indispensably due to _merit_, that they must be paid by
+_inclination_--and they naturally lead to the performance of the last,
+which will not only be easy, but a pleasing task, since nothing can ever
+be enjoined by such a person that is in itself improper, and a few
+things will, that can, with any reason, be disagreeable to you.
+
+"The being united to a man of irreligious principles, makes it
+impossible to discharge a great part of the proper duty of a wife. To
+name but one instance, obedience will be rendered impracticable, by
+frequent injunctions inconsistent with, and contrary to, the higher
+obligations of morality. This is not a supposition, but is a certainty
+founded upon facts, which I have too often seen and can attest. Where
+this happens, the reasons for non-compliance ought to be offered in a
+plain, strong, good natured manner. There is at least the chance of
+success from being heard. But should those reasons be rejected, or the
+hearing them refused, and silence on the subject enjoined, which is most
+probable, few people caring to hear what they know to be right, when
+they are determined not to be convinced by it--obey the injunction, and
+urge not the argument farther. Keep, however, steady to your principles,
+and suffer neither persuasion nor threats to prevail on you to act
+contrary to them. All commands repugnant to the laws of christianity,
+it is your indispensable duty to disobey. All requests that are
+inconsistent with prudence, or incompatible with the rank and character
+which you ought to maintain in life, it is your interest to refuse. A
+compliance with the former would be criminal, a consent to the latter
+highly indiscreet; and it might thereby subject you to general censure.
+For a man, capable of requiring, from his wife, what he knows to be in
+itself wrong, is equally capable of throwing the whole blame of such
+misconduct on her, and of afterwards upbraiding her for a behavior, to
+which he will, upon the same principle, disown that he has been
+accessary. Many similar instances have come within the compass of my own
+observation. In things of less material nature, that are neither
+criminal in themselves, nor pernicious in their consequences, always
+acquiesce, if insisted on, however disagreeable they may be to your own
+temper and inclination. Such a compliance will evidently prove that your
+refusal, in the other cases, proceeds not from a spirit of
+contradiction, but merely from a just regard to that superior duty which
+can never be infringed with impunity.
+
+"As the want of understanding is by no art to be concealed, by no
+address to be disguised, it might be supposed impossible for a woman of
+sense to unite herself to a person whose defect, in this instance, must
+render that sort of rational society, which constitutes the chief
+happiness of such an union, impossible. Yet here, how often has the
+weakness of female judgment been conspicuous! The advantages of great
+superiority in rank or fortune have frequently proved so irresistible a
+temptation, as, in opinion, to outweigh, not only the folly, but even
+the vices of its possessor--a grand mistake, ever tacitly acknowledged
+by a subsequent repentance, when the expected pleasures of affluence,
+equipage, and all the glittering pageantry, have been experimentally
+found insufficient to make amends for the want of that constant
+satisfaction which results from the social joy of conversing with a
+reasonable friend!
+
+"But however weak this motive must be acknowledged, it is more excusable
+than another, which, I fear, has sometimes had an equal influence on the
+mind--I mean so great a love of sway, as to induce her to give the
+preference to a person of weak intellectuals, in hopes of holding,
+uncontrolled, the reins of government. The expectation is, in fact, ill
+grounded. Obstinacy and pride are generally the companions of folly. The
+silliest people are often the most tenacious of their opinions, and,
+consequently, the hardest of all others to be managed. But admit the
+contrary, the principle is in itself bad. It tends to invert the order
+of nature, and to counteract the design of Providence.
+
+"A woman can never be seen in a more ridiculous light than when she
+appears to govern her husband. If, unfortunately, the superiority of
+understanding is on her side, the apparent consciousness of that
+superiority betrays a weakness, that renders her contemptible in the
+sight of every considerate person, and it may, very probably, fix in his
+mind a dislike never to be eradicated. In such a case, if it should ever
+be your own, remember that some degree of dissimulation is commendable,
+so far as to let your husband's defects appear unobserved. When he
+judges wrong, never flatly contradict, but lead him insensibly into
+another opinion, in so discreet a manner, that it may seem entirely his
+own, and let the whole credit of every prudent determination rest on
+him, without indulging the foolish vanity of claiming any merit to
+yourself. Thus a person of but an indifferent capacity, may be so
+assisted, as, in many instances, to shine with borrowed lustre, scarce
+distinguishable from the native, and by degrees he may be brought into a
+kind of mechanical method of acting properly, in all the common
+occurrences of life. Odd as this position may seem, it is founded in
+fact. I have seen the method successfully practised by more than one
+person, where a weak mind, on the governed side, has been so prudently
+set off as to appear the sole director; like the statue of the Delphic
+god, which was thought to give forth its own oracles, whilst the humble
+priest, who lent his voice, was by the shrine concealed, nor sought a
+higher glory than a supposed obedience to the power he would be thought
+to serve."
+
+
+A LETTER TO A NEW MARRIED MAN.
+
+I received the news of your marriage with infinite delight, and hope
+that the sincerity with which I wish you happiness, may excuse the
+liberty I take in giving you a few rules, whereby more certainly to
+obtain it. I see you smile at my wrong-headed kindness, and, reflecting
+on the charms of your bride, cry out in a rapture, that you are happy
+enough without any rules. I know you are. But after one of the forty
+years, which I hope you will pass pleasingly together, is over, this
+letter may come in turn, and rules for felicity may not be found
+unnecessary, however some of them may appear impracticable.
+
+Could that kind of love be kept alive through the marriage state, which
+makes the charm of a single one, the sovereign good would no longer be
+sought for; in the union of two faithful lovers it would be found: but
+reason shows that this is impossible, and experience informs us that it
+never was so; we must preserve it as long, and supply it as happily as
+we can.
+
+When your present violence of passion subsides, however, and a more cool
+and tranquil affection takes its place, be not hasty to censure yourself
+as indifferent, or to lament yourself as unhappy; you have lost that
+only which it was impossible to retain, and it were graceless amid the
+pleasures of a prosperous summer to regret the blossoms of a transient
+spring. Neither unwarily condemn your bride's insipidity till you have
+recollected that no object however sublime, no sounds however charming,
+can continue to transport us with delight when they no longer strike us
+with novelty. The skill to renovate the powers of pleasing is said
+indeed to be possessed by some women in an eminent degree; but the
+artifices of maturity are seldom seen to adorn the innocence of youth:
+you have made your choice, and ought to approve it.
+
+Satiety follows quickly upon the heels of possession; and to be happy,
+we must always have something in view. The person of your lady is
+already all your own, and will not grow more pleasing in your eyes I
+doubt, though the rest of your sex will think her handsome for these
+dozen of years. Turn therefore all your attention to her mind, which
+will daily grow brighter by polishing. Study some easy science together,
+and acquire a similarity of tastes while you enjoy a community of
+pleasures. You will by this means have many images in common, and be
+freed from the necessity of separating to find amusement. Nothing is so
+dangerous to wedded love as the possibility of either being happy out of
+the company of the other: endeavor therefore, to cement the present
+intimacy on every side; let your wife never be kept ignorant of your
+income, your expenses, your friendships, or aversions; let her know your
+very faults, but make them amiable by your virtues; consider all
+concealment as a breach of fidelity; let her never have any thing to
+find out in your character; and remember, that from the moment one of
+the partners turns spy upon the other, they have commenced a state of
+hostility.
+
+Seek not for happiness in singularity; and dread a refinement of wisdom
+as a deviation into folly. Listen not to those sages who advise you
+always to scorn the counsel of a woman, and if you comply with her
+requests pronounce you to be wife-ridden.
+
+I said that the person of your lady would not grow more pleasing to you;
+but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so: that a woman will
+pardon an affront to her understanding much sooner than one to her
+person, is well known; nor will any of us contradict the assertion. All
+our attainments, all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart
+of man: and what mortification can exceed the disappointment, if the end
+be not obtained? There is no reproof however pointed, no punishment
+however severe, that a woman of spirit will not prefer to neglect; and
+if she can endure it without complaint, it only proves that she means to
+make herself amends by the attention of others for the slights of her
+husband. For this, and for every reason, it behoves a married man not to
+let his politeness fail, though his ardor may abate, but to retain at
+least that general civility towards his own lady which he is so willing
+to pay to every other, and not show a wife of eighteen or twenty years
+old, that every man in company can treat her with more complaisance than
+he, who so often vowed to her eternal fondness.
+
+It is not my opinion that a young woman should be indulged in every wild
+wish of her gay heart or giddy head; but contradiction may be softened
+by domestic kindness, and quiet pleasures substituted in the place of
+noisy ones. Public amusements are not indeed so expensive as is
+sometimes imagined, but they tend to alienate the minds of married
+people from each other. A well chosen society of friends and
+acquaintance, more eminent for virtue and good sense than for gaiety and
+splendor, where the conversation of the day may afford comment for the
+evening, seems the most rational pleasure this great town can afford.
+
+That your own superiority should always be seen, but never felt, seems
+an excellent general rule. A wife should outshine her husband in
+nothing, not even in her dress. The bane of married happiness among the
+city men in general has been, that finding themselves unfit for polite
+life, they transferred their vanity to their ladies, dressed them up
+gaily, and sent them out a gallanting, while the good man was to regale
+with port wine or rum punch, perhaps among mean companions, after the
+compting house was shut. This practice produced the ridicule thrown on
+them in all our comedies and novels since commerce began to prosper. But
+now that I am so near the subject, a word or two on jealousy may not be
+amiss; for though not a failing of the present age's growth, yet the
+seeds of it are too certainly sown in every warm bosom, for us to
+neglect it as a fault of no consequence. If you are ever tempted to be
+jealous, watch your wife narrowly--but never tease her; tell her your
+jealousy but conceal your suspicion; let her, in short, be satisfied
+that it is only your odd temper, and even troublesome attachment, that
+makes you follow her; but let her not dream that you ever doubted
+seriously of her virtue even for a moment. If she is disposed towards
+jealousy of you, let me beseech you to be always explicit with her and
+never mysterious: be above delighting in her pain, of all things--nor do
+your business nor pay your visits with an air of concealment, when all
+you are doing might as well be proclaimed perhaps in the parish vestry.
+But I hope better than this of your tenderness and of your virtue, and
+will release you from a lecture you have so little need of, unless your
+extreme youth and my uncommon regard will excuse it. And now farewell;
+make my kindest compliments to your wife, and be happy in proportion as
+happiness is wished you by, Dear Sir, &c.
+
+
+GARRICK'S ADVICE TO MARRIED LADIES.
+
+  Ye fair married dames who so often deplore
+  That a lover once blest is a lover no more;
+  Attend to my counsel, nor blush to be taught
+  That prudence must cherish what beauty has caught.
+
+  The bloom on your cheek, and the glance of your eye,
+  Your roses and lilies may make the men sigh;
+  But roses, and lilies, and sighs pass away,
+  And passion will die as your beauties decay.
+
+  Use the man that you wed like your fav'rite guitar,
+  Though music in both, they are both apt to jar;
+  How tuneful and soft from a delicate touch,
+  Not handled too roughly, nor play'd on too much!
+
+  The sparrow and linnet will feed from your hand,
+  Grow tame by your kindness, and come at command:
+  Exert with your husband the same happy skill,
+  For hearts, like your birds, may be tamed to your will.
+
+  Be gay and good-humour'd, complying and kind,
+  Turn the chief of your care from your face to your mind;
+  'Tis thus that a wife may her conquests improve,
+  And Hymen shall rivet the fetters of love.
+
+
+ORIGIN OF NUNNERIES.
+
+Soon after the introduction of Christianity, St. Mark is said to have
+founded a society called Therapeutes, who dwelt by the lake Moeris in
+Egypt, and devoted themselves to solitude and religious offices. About
+the year 305 of the christian computation, St. Anthony being persecuted
+by Dioclesian, retired into the desert near the lake Moeris; numbers of
+people soon followed his example, joined themselves to the Therapeutes;
+St. Anthony being placed at their head, and improving upon their rules,
+first formed them into regular monasteries, and enjoined them to live
+in mortification and chastity. About the same time, or soon after,
+St. Synclitica, resolving not to be behind St. Anthony in her zeal for
+chastity, is generally believed to have collected together a number of
+enthusiastic females, and to have founded the first nunnery for their
+reception. Some imagine the scheme of celibacy was concerted between
+St. Anthony and St. Synclitica, as St. Anthony, on his first retiring
+into solitude, is said to have put his sister into a nunnery, which must
+have been that of St. Synclitica; but however this be, from their
+institution, monks and nuns increased so fast, that in the city of
+Orixa, about seventeen years after the death of St. Anthony, there were
+twenty thousand virgins devoted to celibacy.
+
+Such at this time was the rage of celibacy; a rage which, however
+unnatural, will cease to excite our wonder, when we consider, that it
+was accounted by both sexes the sure and only infallible road to heaven
+and eternal happiness; and as such, it behoved the church vigorously to
+maintain and countenance it, which she did by beginning about this time
+to deny the liberty of marriage to her sons. In the first council of
+Nice, held soon after the introduction of christianity, the celibacy of
+the clergy was strenuously argued for, and some think that even in an
+earlier period it had been the subject of debate; however this be, it
+was not agreed to in the council of Nice, though at the end of the
+fourth century it is said that Syricus, bishop of Rome, enacted the
+first decree against the marriage of monks; a decree which was not
+universally received: for several centuries after, we find that it was
+not uncommon for clergymen to have wives; even the popes were allowed
+this liberty, as it is said in some of the old statutes of the church,
+that it was lawful for the pope to marry a virgin for the sake of
+having children. So exceedingly difficult is it to combat against
+nature, that little regard seems to have been paid to this decree of
+Syricus; for we are informed, that several centuries after, it was no
+uncommon thing for the clergy to have wives, and perhaps even a
+plurality of them; as we find it among the ordonnances of pope
+Sylvester, that every priest should be the husband of one wife only; and
+Pius the Second affirmed, that though many strong reasons might be
+adduced in support of the celibacy of the clergy, there were still
+stronger reasons against it.
+
+
+DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT CONVENT AT AJUDA IN RIO JANERIO.
+
+At the end of the chapel is a large quadrangle, entered by a massive
+gateway, surrounded by three stories of grated windows. Here female
+negro pedlars come with their goods, and expose them in the court-yard
+below. The nuns, from their grated windows above, see what they like,
+and, letting down a cord, the article is fastened to it; it is then
+drawn up and examined, and, if approved of, the price is let down. Some
+that I saw in the act of buying and selling in this way, were very
+merry, joking and laughing with the blacks below, and did not seem at
+all indisposed to do the same with my companion. In three of the lower
+windows, on a level with the court-yard, are revolving cupboards, like
+half-barrels, and at the back of each is a plate of tin, perforated like
+the top of a nutmeg-grater. The nuns of this convent are celebrated for
+making sweet confectionary, which people purchase. There is a bell which
+the purchaser applies to, and a nun peeps through the perforated tin;
+she then lays the dish on a shelf of the revolving cupboard, and turns
+it inside out; the dish is taken, the price laid in its place, and it is
+turned in. While we stood there, the invisible lady-warder asked for a
+pinch of snuff; the box was laid down in the same way, and turned in and
+out.
+
+
+CEREMONY OF THE INITIATION OF A NUN.
+
+The disposition to take the veil, even among young girls, is not
+uncommon in Brazil. The opposition of friends can prevent it, until they
+are twenty five years old; but after that time they are considered
+competent to decide for themselves. A writer describes the initiation of
+a young lady, whose wealthy parents were extremely reluctant to have her
+take the vow. She held a lighted torch in her hand, in imitation of the
+prudent virgins; and when the priest chanted, "Your spouse approaches;
+come forth and meet him," she approached the altar singing, "I follow
+with my whole heart;" and, accompanied by two nuns already professed,
+she knelt before the bishop. She seemed very lovely, with an unusually
+sweet, gentle, and pensive countenance. She did not look particularly or
+deeply affected; but when she sung her responses, there was something
+exceedingly mournful in the soft, tremulous, and timid tones of her
+voice. The bishop now exhorted her to make a public profession of her
+vows before the congregation, and said, "Will you persevere in your
+purpose of holy chastity?" She blushed deeply, and, with a downcast
+look, lowly, but firmly answered, "I will." He again said, more
+distinctly, "Do you promise to preserve it?" and she replied more
+emphatically, "I do promise." The bishop then said, "Thanks be to God;"
+and she bent forward and reverently kissed his hand, while he asked her,
+"Will you be blest and consecrated?" She replied, "Oh! I wish it."
+
+The habiliments, in which she was hereafter to be clothed, were
+sanctified by the aspersion of holy water: then followed several prayers
+to God, that "As he had blessed the garments of Aaron, with ointment
+which flowed from his head to his beard, so he would now bless the
+garments of his servant, with the copious dew of his benediction." When
+the garment was thus blessed, the girl retired with it; and having laid
+aside the dress in which she had appeared, she returned, arrayed in her
+new attire, except her veil. A gold ring was next provided, and
+consecrated with a prayer, that she who wore it "might be fortified with
+celestial virtue, to preserve a pure faith, and incorrupt fidelity to
+her spouse, Jesus Christ." He last took the veil, and her female
+attendants having uncovered her head, he threw it over her, so that it
+fell on her shoulders and bosom, and said, "Receive this sacred veil,
+under the shadow of which you may learn to despise the world, and submit
+yourself truly, and with all humility of heart, to your Spouse;" to
+which she sung a response, in a very sweet, soft, and touching voice:
+"He has placed this veil before my face that I should see no lover but
+himself."
+
+The bishop now kindly took her hand, and held it while the following
+hymn was chanted by the choir with great harmony: "Beloved Spouse,
+come--the winter is passed--the turtle sings, and the blooming vines are
+redolent of summer."
+
+A crown, a necklace, and other female ornaments, were now taken by the
+bishop and separately blessed; and the girl bending forward, he placed
+them on her head and neck, praying that she might be thought worthy "to
+be enrolled into the society of the hundred and forty-four thousand
+virgins, who preserved their chastity and did not mix with the society
+of impure women."
+
+Last of all, he placed the ring on the middle finger of her right hand,
+and solemnly said, "So I marry you to Jesus Christ, who will henceforth
+be your protector. Receive this ring, the pledge of your faith, that you
+may be called the spouse of God." She fell on her knees, and sung, "I am
+married to him whom angels serve, whose beauty the sun and moon admire;"
+then rising, and showing with exultation her right hand, she said,
+emphatically, as if to impress it on the attention of the congregation,
+"My Lord has wedded me with this ring, and decorated me with a crown as
+his spouse. I here renounce and despise all earthly ornaments for his
+sake, whom alone I see, whom alone I love, in whom alone I trust, and to
+whom alone I give all my affections. My heart hath uttered a good word:
+I speak of the deed I have done for my King." The bishop then pronounced
+a general benediction, and retired up to the altar; while the nun
+professed was borne off between her friends, with lighted tapers, and
+garlands waving.
+
+
+
+WEDDED LOVE IS INFINITELY PREFERABLE TO VARIETY.
+
+  Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source
+  Of human offspring, sole propriety,
+  In Paradise of all things common else!
+
+    By thee adult'rous lust was driven from men,
+  Among the bestial herds to range; by thee,
+  Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure,
+  Relations dear, and all the charities
+  Of father, son, and brother, first were known.
+
+    Thou art the fountain of domestic sweets,
+  Whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced.
+  Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights
+  His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings,
+  Reigns here and revels; not in the bought smile
+  Of harlots, loveless, joyless, unendear'd,
+  Casual fruition; nor in court amours,
+  Mix'd dance, or wanton mask, or midnight ball,
+  Or serenade, which the starved lover sings
+  To his proud fair, best quitted with disdain.
+
+
+ITALIAN DEBAUCHERY.
+
+If chastity is none of the most shining virtues of the French, it is
+still less so of the Italians. Almost all the travellers who have
+visited Italy, agree in describing it as the most abandoned of all the
+countries of Europe. At Venice, at Naples, and indeed in almost every
+part of Italy, women are taught from their infancy, the various arts of
+alluring to their arms, the young and unwary, and of obtaining from
+them, while heated by love or wine, every thing that flattery and false
+smiles can obtain in those unguarded moments: and so little infamous is
+the trade of prostitution, and so venal the women, that hardly any rank
+or condition set them above being bribed to it, nay, they are frequently
+assisted by their male friends and acquaintances to drive a good
+bargain; nor does their career of debauchery finish with their unmarried
+state; the vows of fidelity which they make at the altar, are like the
+vows and oaths made upon too many other occasions, only considered as
+nugatory forms, which law has obliged them to take, but custom absolved
+them from performing. They even claim and enjoy greater liberties after
+marriage than before; every married woman has a cicisbey, or gallant,
+who attends her to all public places, hands her in and out of her
+carriage, picks up her gloves or fan, and a thousand other little
+offices of the same natures; but this is only his public employment, as
+a reward for which, he is entitled to have the lady as often as he
+pleases at a place of retirement sacred to themselves, where no person
+not even the most intrusive husband must enter, to be witness of what
+passes between them. This has been considered by people of other
+nations, as a custom not altogether consistent with chastity and purity
+of manners; the Italians themselves however, endeavor to justify it in
+their conversations with strangers, and Baretti has of late years
+published a formal vindication of it to the world. In this vindication
+he has not only deduced the original of it from pure Platonic love, but
+would willingly persuade us that it is still continued upon the same
+mental principles; a doctrine which the world will hardly be credulous
+enough to swallow, even though he should offer more convincing arguments
+to support it than he has already done.
+
+
+NAKED FAKIERS
+
+So different over all the world are the sects of saints as well as of
+sinners, that besides the Bramins, a set of innocent and religious
+priests, who have rendered their women virtuous by treating them with
+kindness and humanity, there are another sect of religio-philosophical
+drones, called Fakiers, who contribute as much as they can to debauch
+the sex, under a pretence of superior sanctity. These hypocritical
+saints, like some of the ridiculous sects which formerly existed in
+Europe, wear no clothes; considering them only as proper appendages to
+sinners, who are ashamed, because they are sensible of guilt; while
+they, being free from every stain of pollution, have no shame to cover.
+In this original state of nature, these idle and pretended devotees,
+assemble together sometimes in armies of ten or twelve thousand, and
+under a pretence of going in pilgrimage to certain temples, like locusts
+devour every thing on their way; the men flying before them, and
+carrying all that they can out of the reach of their depredations; while
+the women, not in the least afraid of a naked army of lusty saints,
+throw themselves in their way, or remain quietly at home to receive
+them.
+
+It has long been an opinion, well established all over India, that there
+is not in nature so powerful a remedy for removing the sterility of
+women, as the prayers of these sturdy naked saints. On this account,
+barren women constantly apply to them for assistance; which when the
+good natured Fakier has an indication to grant, he leaves his slipper,
+or his staff at the door of the lady's apartment with whom he is
+praying; a symbol so sacred, that it effectually prevents any one from
+violating the secrecy of their devotion; but should he forget this
+signal, and at the same time be distant from the protection of his
+brethren, a sound drubbing is frequently the reward of his pious
+endeavors. But though they venture sometimes in Hindostan, to treat a
+Fakier in this unholy manner, in other parts of Asia and Africa, such is
+the veneration in which these lusty saints are held, that they not only
+have access when they please, to perform private devotions with barren
+women, but are accounted so holy, that they may at any time, in public
+or private, confer a personal favor upon a woman, without bringing upon
+her either shame or guilt; and no woman dare refuse to gratify their
+passion. Nor indeed, has any one an inclination of this kind; because
+she, upon whom this personal favor has been conferred, is considered by
+herself, and by all the people, as having been sanctified and made more
+holy by the action.
+
+So much concerning the conduct of the Fakiers in debauching women, seems
+certain. But it is by travellers further related, that wherever they
+find a woman who is exceedingly handsome, they carry her off privately
+to one of their temples; but in such a manner, as to make her and the
+people believe, that she is carried away by the god who is there
+worshipped; who being violently in love with her, took that method to
+procure her for his wife. This done, they perform a nuptial ceremony,
+and make her further believe that she is married to the god; when, in
+reality, she is only married to one of the Fakiers who personates him.
+Women who are treated in this manner are revered by the people as the
+wives of the gods, and by that stratagem secured solely to the Fakiers,
+who have cunning enough to impose themselves as gods upon some of these
+women, through the whole of their lives. In countries where reason is
+stronger than superstition, we almost think this impossible: where the
+contrary is the case, there is nothing too hard to be credited.
+Something like this was done by the priests of ancient Greece and Rome;
+and a few centuries ago, tricks of the same nature were practiced by the
+monks, and other libertines, upon some of the visionary and enthusiastic
+women of Europe. Hence we need not think it strange, if the Fakiers
+generally succeed in attempts of this nature; when we consider that they
+only have to deceive a people brought up in the most consummate
+ignorance; and that nothing can be more flattering to female vanity,
+than for a woman to suppose herself such a peculiar favorite of the
+divinity she worships, as to be chosen, from all her companions, to the
+honor of being admitted to his embraces; a favor, which her
+self-admiration will dispose her more readily to believe than examine.
+
+
+MAHOMETAN PLURALITY OF WIVES.
+
+But it is not the religion of the Hindoos only, that is unfavorable to
+chastity; that of Mahomet which now prevails over a great part of India,
+is unfavorable to it likewise. Mahometanism every where indulges men
+with a plurality of wives while it ties down the women to the strictest
+conjugal fidelity; hence, while the men riot in unlimited variety, the
+women are in great numbers confined to share among them the scanty
+favors of one man only. This unnatural and impolitic conduct induces
+them to seek by art and intrigue, what they are denied by the laws of
+their prophet. As polygamy prevails over all Asia, this art and intrigue
+follow as the consequence of it; some have imagined, that it is the
+result of climate, but it rather appears to be the result of the
+injustice which women suffer by polygamy; for it seems to reign, as much
+in Constantinople, and in every other place where polygamy is in
+fashion, as it does on the banks of the Ganges, or the Indus. The famous
+Montesquieu, whose system was, that the passions are entirely regulated
+by the climate, brings as a proof of this system, a story from the
+collection of voyages for the establishment of an East India Company, in
+which it is said, that at Patan, "the wanton desires of the women are so
+outrageous, that the men are obliged to make use of a certain apparel to
+shelter them from their designs." Were this story really true, it would
+be but a partial proof of the effect of climate, for why should the
+burning suns of Patan only influence the passions of the fair? Why
+should they there transport that sex beyond decency, which in all other
+climates is the most decent? And leave in so cool and defensive a state,
+that sex, which in all other climates is apt to be the most offensive
+and indecent? To whatever length the spirit of intrigue may be carried
+in Asia and Africa, however the passions of the women may prompt them to
+excite desire, and to throw themselves in the way of gratification, we
+have the strongest reasons to reprobate all these stories, which would
+make us believe, that they are so lost to decency as to attack the other
+sex: such a system would be overturning nature, and inverting the
+established laws by which she governs the world.
+
+
+WOMEN OF OTAHEITE.
+
+In Otaheite, an island in the Southern Ocean, we are presented with
+women of a singular character. As far as we can recollect, we think it
+is a pretty general rule, that whatever the sex are accustomed to be
+constantly clothed, they are ashamed to appear naked: those of Otaheite
+seem however to be an exception to this rule; to show themselves in
+public, with or without clothing, appears to be to them a matter of
+equal indifference, and the exposition of any part of their bodies, is
+not attended with the least backwardness or reluctance; circumstances
+from which we may reasonably infer, that among them, clothes were not
+originally invented to cover shame, but either as ornaments, or as a
+defence against the cold. But a still more striking singularity in the
+character of these women, and which distinguishes them not only from the
+females of all other nations, but likewise from those of almost all
+other animals, is, their performing in public those rites, which in
+every other part of the globe, and among almost all animals, are
+performed in privacy and retirement: whether this is the effect of
+innocence, or of a dissoluteness of manners to which no other people
+have yet arrived, remains still to be discovered; that they are
+dissolute, even beyond any thing we have hitherto recorded, is but too
+certain. As polygamy is not allowed among them, to satisfy the lust of
+variety, they have a society called Arreoy, in which every woman is
+common to every man; and when any of these women happens to have a
+child, it is smothered in the moment of its birth, that it may not
+interrupt the pleasures of its infamous mother; but in this juncture,
+should nature relent at so horrid a deed, even then the mother is not
+allowed to save her child, unless she can find a man who will patronise
+it as a father; in which case, the man is considered as having
+appropriated the woman to himself, and she is accordingly extruded from
+this hopeful society. These few anecdotes sufficiently characterise the
+women of this island.
+
+
+CRIM. CON. OF CLAUDIUS AND POMPEIA.
+
+Our own times furnish us with an instance of a ceremony from which all
+women are carefully excluded;[2] but the Roman ladies, in performing the
+rites sacred to the good goddess, were even more afraid of the men than
+our masons are of women; for we are told by some authors, that so
+cautious were they of concealment, that even the statutes and pictures
+of men and other male animals were hood-winked with a thick veil. The
+house of the consul, though commonly so large that they might have been
+perfectly secured against all intrusion in some remote apartment of it,
+was obliged to be evacuated by all male animals, and even the consul
+himself was not suffered to remain in it. Before they began their
+ceremonies, every corner and lurking place in the house was carefully
+searched, and no caution omitted to prevent all possibility of being
+discovered by impertinent curiosity, or disturbed by presumptive
+intrusion. But these cautions were not all the guard that was placed
+around them; The laws of the Romans made it death for any man to be
+present at the solemnity.
+
+Such being the precautions, and such the penalties for insuring the
+secrecy of this ceremony, it was only once attempted to be violated,
+though it existed from the foundation of the Roman empire till the
+introduction of Christianity; and this attempt was made, not so much
+perhaps with a view to be present at the ceremony, as to fulfil an
+assignation with a mistress. Pompeia, the wife of Caesar, having been
+suspected of a criminal correspondence with Claudius, and so closely
+watched that she could find no opportunity of gratifying her passion, at
+last, by the means of a female slave, settled an assignation with him at
+the celebration of the rites of the good goddess. Claudius was directed
+to come in the habit of a singing girl, a character he could easily
+personate, being young and of a fair complexion. As soon as the slave
+saw him enter, she ran to inform her mistress. The mistress eager to
+meet her lover, immediately left the company and threw herself into his
+arms, but could not be prevailed upon by him to return so soon as he
+thought necessary for their mutual safety; upon which he left her, and
+began to take a walk through the rooms, always avoiding the light as
+much as possible. While he was thus walking by himself, a maid servant
+accosted him, and desired him to sing; he took no notice of her, but she
+followed and urging him so closely, that he was at last obliged to
+speak. His voice betrayed his sex; the maid servant shrieked, and
+running into the room where the rites were performing, told that a man
+was in the house. The women in the utmost consternation, threw a veil
+ever the mysteries, ordered the doors to be secured, and with lights in
+their hands, ran about the house searching for the sacrilegious
+intruder. They found him in the apartment of the slave who had admitted
+him, drove him out with ignominy, and, though it was in the middle of
+the night immediately dispersed, to give an account to their husbands of
+what had happened. Claudius was soon after accused of having profaned
+the holy rites; but the populace declaring in his favor, the judges,
+fearing an insurrection, were obliged to acquit him.
+
+    [2] Masonry
+
+
+A WORD TO A VERY NICE CLASS OF LADIES.
+
+There is amongst us a female character, not uncommon, which we
+denominate the outrageously virtuous. Women of this stamp never fail to
+seize all opportunities of exclaiming, in the bitterest manner, against
+every one upon whom even the slightest suspicion of indiscretion or
+unchastity has fallen; taking care, as they go along, to magnify every
+mole-hill into a mountain, and every thoughtless freedom into the
+blackest of crimes. But besides the illiberality of thus treating such
+as may frequently be innocent, you may credit us, dear countrywomen,
+when we aver, that such a behavior, instead of making you appear more
+virtuous, only draws down upon you, by those who know the world,
+suspicions not much to your advantage. Your sex are in general suspected
+by ours, of being too much addicted to scandal and defamation; a
+suspicion, which has not arisen of late years, as we find in the ancient
+laws of England a punishment, known by the name of ducking-stool,
+annexed to scolding and defamation in the women, though no such
+punishment nor crime is taken notice of in the men. This crime, however,
+we persuade ourselves, you are less guilty of, than is commonly
+believed: but there is another of a nature not more excusable, from
+which we cannot so much exculpate you; which is, that harsh and
+forbidding appearance you put on, and that ill treatment, which you no
+doubt think necessary, for the illustration of your own virtue, you
+should bestow on every one of your sex who has deviated from the path of
+rectitude. A behaviour of this nature, besides being so opposite to that
+meek and gentle spirit which should distinguish female nature, is in
+every respect contrary to the charitable and forgiving temper of the
+Christian religion, and infallibly shuts the door of repentance against
+an unfortunate sister, willing, perhaps, to abandon the vices into which
+heedless inadvertency had plunged her, and from which none of you can
+promise yourselves an absolute security.
+
+We wish not, fair countrywomen, like the declaimer and satirist, to
+paint you all vice and imperfection, nor, like the venal panegyrist, to
+exhibit you all virtue. As impartial historians, we confess that you
+have, in the present age, many virtues and good qualities, which were
+either nearly or altogether unknown to your ancestors; but do you not
+exceed them in some follies and vices also? Is not the levity,
+dissipation, and extravagance of the women of this century arrived to a
+pitch unknown and unheard of in former times? Is not the course which
+you steer in life, almost entirely directed by vanity and fashion? And
+are there not too many of you who, throwing aside reason and good
+conduct, and despising the counsel of your friends and relations, seem
+determined to follow the mode of the world, however it may be mixed with
+vice? Do not the generality of you dress, and appear above your station,
+and are not many of you ashamed to be seen performing the duties of it?
+To sum up all, do not too, too many of you act as if you thought the
+care of a family, and the other domestic virtues, beneath your
+attention, and that the sole end for which you were sent into the world,
+was to please and divert yourselves, at the expense of those poor
+wretches the men, whom you consider as obliged to support you in every
+kind of idleness and extravagance? While such is your conduct, and while
+the contagion is every day increasing, you are not to be surprised if
+the men, still fond of you as playthings in the hours of mirth and
+revelry, ever shun serious connection with you; and while they wish to
+be possessed of your charms, are so much afraid of your manners and
+conduct, that they prefer the cheerless state of a bachelor, to the
+numberless evils arising from being tied to a modern wife.
+
+
+CUSTOM IN THE MOGUL EMPIRE.
+
+In a variety of parts of the Mogul empire, when the women are carried
+abroad, they are put into a kind of machine like a chariot, and placed
+on the backs of camels, or in covered sedan chairs, and surrounded by a
+guard of eunuchs and armed men, in such a manner, that a stranger would
+rather suppose the cavalcade to be carrying some desperate villain to
+execution, than employed to prevent the intrigues or escape of a
+defenceless woman. At home, the sex are covered with gauze veils, which
+they dare not take off in the presence of any man, except their husband,
+or some near relation. Over the greatest part of Asia, and some parts of
+Africa, women are guarded by eunuchs, made incapable of violating their
+chastity. In Spain, where the natives are the descendants of the
+Africans, and whose jealousy is not less strong than that of their
+ancestors, they, for many centuries, made use of padlocks to secure the
+chastity of their women; but finding these ineffectual, they frequently
+had recourse to old women, called Gouvernantes. It had been discovered,
+that men deprived of their virility, did not guard female virtue so
+strictly, as to be incapable of being bribed to allow another a taste of
+those pleasures they themselves were incapable of enjoying. The
+Spaniards, sensible of this, imagined, that vindictive old women were
+more likely to be incorruptible; as envy would stimulate them to prevent
+the young from enjoying those pleasures, which they themselves had no
+longer any chance for; but all powerful gold soon overcame even this
+obstacle; and the Spaniards, at present, seem to give up all restrictive
+methods, and to trust the virtue of their women to good principles,
+instead of rigor and hard usage.
+
+
+CUSTOM OF THE MUSCOVITES.
+
+If the laws forbidding the marriage of near relations with each other,
+originated from the political view of preserving the human race from
+degeneracy, they are the only laws we meet with on that subject, and
+exert almost the only care we find taken of so important a matter. The
+Asiatic is careful to improve the breed of his elephants, the Arabian of
+his horses, and the Laplander of his reindeer. The Englishman, eager to
+have swift horses, staunch dogs, and victorious cocks, grudges no care
+and spares no expense, to have the males and females matched properly;
+but since the days of Solon, where is the legislator, or since the days
+of the ancient Greeks, where are the private persons who take any care
+to improve, or even to keep from degeneracy the breed of their own
+species? The Englishman who solicitously attends the training of his
+colts and puppies, would be ashamed to be caught in the nursery; and
+while no motive could prevail upon him to breed horses or hounds from an
+improper or contaminated kind, he will calmly, or rather
+inconsiderately, match himself with the most decrepid or diseased of the
+human species; thoughtless of the weaknesses and evils he is going to
+entail on posterity, and considering nothing but the acquisition of
+fortune he is by her alliance to convey to an offspring, by diseases
+rendered unable to use it. The Muscovites were formerly the only people,
+besides the Greeks, who paid a proper attention to this subject. After
+the preliminaries of a marriage were settled between the parents of a
+young couple, the bride was stripped naked, and carefully examined by a
+jury of matrons, when if they found any bodily defect they endeavored to
+cure it; but if it would admit of no remedy, the match was broke off,
+and she was considered not only as a very improper subject to breed
+from, but improper also for maintaining the affections of a husband,
+after he had discovered the imposition she had put upon him.
+
+
+SALE OF CHILDREN TO PURCHASE WIVES.
+
+In Timor, an island in the Indian Ocean, it is said, that parents sell
+their children in order to purchase more wives. In Circassia, women are
+reared and improved in beauty and every alluring art, only for the
+purpose of being sold. The prince of the Circassians demanded of the
+prince of Mingrelia an hundred slaves loaded with tapestry, an hundred
+cows, as many oxen, and the same number of horses, as the price of his
+sister. In New-Zealand, we meet with a custom which may be called
+purchasing a wife for a night, and which is proof that those must also
+be purchased who are intended for a longer duration; and what to us is a
+little supprising, this temporary wife, insisted upon being treated with
+as much deference and respect, as if she had been married for life; but
+in general, this is not the case in other countries, for the wife who is
+purchased, is always trained up in the principles of slavery; and, being
+inured to every indignity and mortification from her parents, she
+expects no better treatment from her husband.
+
+There is little difference in the condition of her who is put to sale by
+her sordid parents, and her who is disposed of in the same manner by the
+magistrates, as a part of the state's property. Besides those we have
+already mentioned in this work, the Thracians put the fairest of their
+virgins up to public sale, and the magistrates of Crete had the sole
+power of choosing partners in marriage for their young men; and, in the
+execution of this power, the affection and interest of the parties was
+totally overlooked, and the good of the state the only object of
+attention; in pursuing which, they always allotted the strongest and
+best made of the sex to one another, that they might raise up a
+generation of warriors, or of women fit to be the mothers of warriors.
+
+
+POLYGAMY AND CONCUBINAGE.
+
+Polygamy and concubinage having in process of time become fashionable
+vices, the number of women kept by the great became at last more an
+article of grandeur and state, than a mode of satisfying the animal
+appetite: Solomon had threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and
+virgins without number. Maimon tells us, that among the Jews a man might
+have as many wives as he pleased, even to the number of a hundred, and
+that it was not in their power to prevent him, provided he could
+maintain, and pay them all the conjugal debt once a week; but in this
+duty he was not to run in arrear to any of them above a month, though
+with regard to concubines he might do as he pleased.
+
+It would be an endless task to enumerate all the nations which practised
+polygamy; we shall, therefore, only mention a few, where the practice
+seemed to vary something from the common method. The ancient Sabaeans are
+not only said to have had a plurality, but even a community of wives; a
+thing strongly inconsistent with that spirit of jealousy which prevails
+among men in most countries where polygamy is allowed. The ancient
+Germans were so strict monogamists,[3] that they reckoned it a species
+of polygamy for a woman to marry a second husband even after the death
+of the first. "A woman (say they) has but one life, and but one body,
+therefore should have but one husband;" and besides, they added, "that
+she who knows she is never to have a second husband, will the more value
+and endeavor to promote the happiness and preserve the life of the
+first." Among the Heruli this idea was carried farther, a woman was
+obliged to strangle herself at the death of her husband, lest she
+should, afterwards marry another; so detestable was polygamy in the
+North, while in the East it is one of these rights which they most of
+all others esteem, and maintain with such inflexible firmness, that it
+will probably be one of the last of those that it will wrest out of
+their hands.
+
+The Egyptians, it is probable, did not allow of polygamy, and as the
+Greeks borrowed their institutions from them, it was also forbid by the
+laws of Cecrops, though concubinage seems either to have been allowed or
+overlooked; for in the Odyssey of Homer we find Ulysses declaring
+himself to be the son of a concubine, which he would probably not have
+done, had any degree of infamy been annexed to it. In some cases,
+however, polygamy was allowed in Greece, from a mistaken notion that it
+would increase population. The Athenians, once thinking the number of
+their citizens diminished, decreed that it should be lawful for a man to
+have children by another woman as well as by his wife; besides this,
+particular instances occur of some who have transgressed the law of
+monogamy. Euripides is said to have had two wives, who, by their
+constant disagreement, gave him a dislike to the whole sex; a
+supposition which receives some weight from these lines of his in
+Andromache:
+
+            ne'er will I commend
+  More beds, more wives than one, nor children curs'd
+  With double mothers, banes and plagues of life.
+
+Socrates too had two wives, but the poor culprit
+had as much reason to repent of his temerity
+as Euripides.
+
+    [3] Monogamy is having only one wife.
+
+
+EUNUCHS.
+
+As the appetite towards the other sex is one of the strongest and most
+ungovernable in our nature; as it intrudes itself more than any other
+into our thoughts, and frequently diverts them from every other purpose
+or employment; it may, at first, on this account, have been reckoned
+criminal when it interfered with worship and devotion; and emasculation
+was made use of in order to get rid of it, which may, perhaps, have been
+the origin of Eunuchs. But however this be, it is certain, that there
+were men of various religions who made themselves incapable of
+procreation on a religious account, as we are told that the priests of
+Cybele constantly castrated themselves; and by our Saviour, that there
+are eunuchs who make themselves such for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
+
+
+GIRLS SOLD AT AUCTION.
+
+The ancient Assyrians seem more thoroughly to have settled and digested
+the affairs of marriage, than any of their cotemporaries. Once in every
+year they assembled together all the girls that were marriageable, when
+the public crier put them up to sale, one after another. For her whose
+figure was agreeable, and whose beauty was attracting, the rich strove
+against each other, who should give the highest price; which price was
+put into a public stock, and distributed in portions to those whom
+nobody would accept without a reward. After the most beautiful were
+disposed of, these were also put up by the crier, and a certain sum of
+money offered with each, proportioned to what it was thought she stood
+in need of to bribe a husband to accept her. When a man offered to
+accept of any of them, on the terms upon which she was exposed to sale,
+the crier proclaimed that such a man had proposed to take such a woman,
+with such a sum of money along with her, provided none could be found
+who would take her with less; and in this manner the sale went on, till
+she was at last allotted to him who offered to take her with the
+smallest portion.--When this public sale was over, the purchasers of
+those that were beautiful were not allowed to take them away, till they
+had paid down the price agreed on, and given sufficient security that
+they would marry them; nor, on the other hand, would those who were to
+have a premium for accepting of such as were less beautiful, take a
+delivery of them, till their portions were previously paid.
+
+
+SALE OF A WIFE.
+
+In England, the sale of a wife sometimes occurs, even at the present
+day, of which the following is an example, from the Lancaster Herald.
+
+"_Sale of a wife at Carlisle_--The inhabitants of this city lately
+witnessed the sale of a wife by her husband, Joseph Thompson, who
+resides in a small village about three miles distant, and rents a farm
+of about forty-two or forty-four acres. She was a spruce, lively, buxom
+damsel, apparently not exceeding twenty-two years of age, and appeared
+to feel a pleasure at the exchange she was about to make. They had no
+children during their union, and that, with some family disputes, caused
+them by mutual agreement to come to the resolution of finally parting.
+Accordingly, the bellman was sent round to give public notice of the
+sale, which was to take place at twelve o'clock; and this announcement
+attracted the notice of thousands. She appeared above the crowd,
+standing on a large oak chair, surrounded by many of her friends, with a
+rope or halter, made of straw, round her neck, being dressed in rather a
+fashionable country style, and appearing to some advantage. The husband,
+who was also standing in an elevated position near her, proceeded to put
+her up for sale, and spoke nearly as follows:--'Gentlemen, I have to
+offer to your notice my wife, Mary Anne Thompson, otherwise Williamson,
+whom I mean to sell to the highest and fairest bidder. It is her wish as
+well as mine to part for ever. I took her for my comfort, and the good
+of my house, but she has become my tormentor and a domestic curse, &c.
+&c. Now I have shown you her faults and failings, I will explain her
+qualifications and goodness. She can read fashionable novels and milk
+cows; she can laugh and weep with the same ease that you can take a
+glass of ale; she can make butter, and scold the maid; she can sing
+Moore's melodies, and plait her frills and caps; she cannot make rum,
+gin, or whiskey, but she is a good judge of their quality from long
+experience in tasting them, I therefore offer her, with all her
+perfections and imperfections, for the sum of fifty shillings.'--After
+an hour or two, she was purchased by Henry Mears, a pensioner, for the
+sum of twenty shillings and a Newfoundland dog. The happy pair
+immediately left town together, amidst the shouts and huzzas of the
+multitude, in which they were joined by Thompson, who, with the greatest
+good-humor imaginable, proceeded to put the halter, which his wife had
+taken off, round the neck of his Newfoundland dog, and then proceeded
+to the first public house, where he spent the remainder of the day."
+
+
+PUNISHMENT OF ADULTERY.
+
+As fidelity to the marriage-bed, especially on the part of woman, has
+always been considered as one of the most essential duties of matrimony,
+wise legislators, in order to secure that benefit have annexed
+punishment to the act of adultery; these punishments, however, have
+generally some reference to the manner in which wives were acquired, and
+to the value stamped upon woman by civilization and politeness of
+manners. It is ordained by the Mosaic code, that both the men and the
+women taken in adultery shall be stoned to death; whence it would seem,
+that no more latitude was given to the male than to the female. But this
+is not the case; such an unlimited power of concubinage was given to the
+men, that we may suppose him highly licentious indeed, who could not be
+satisfied therewith, without committing adultery. The Egyptians, among
+whom women were greatly esteemed, had a singular method of punishing
+adulterers of both sexes; they cut off the privy parts of the man, that
+he might never be able to debauch another woman; and the nose of the
+woman, that she might never be the object of temptation to another man.
+
+Punishments nearly of the same nature, and perhaps nearly about the same
+time, were instituted in the East Indies against adulterers; but while
+those of the Egyptians originated from a love of virtue and of their
+woman, those of the Hindoos probably arose from jealousy and revenge.
+It is ordained by the Shaster, that if a man commit adultery with a
+woman of a superior cast, he shall be put to death; if by force he
+commit adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior cast, the
+magistrate shall confiscate all his possessions, cut off his genitals,
+and cause him to be carried round the city, mounted on a ass. If by
+fraud he commit adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior cast, the
+magistrate shall take his possessions, brand him in the forehead, and
+banish him the kingdom. Such are the laws of the Shaster, so far as they
+regard all the superior casts, except the Bramins; but if any of the
+most inferior casts commit adultery with a woman of the casts greatly
+superior, he is not only to be dismembered, but tied to a hot iron
+plate, and burnt to death; whereas the highest casts may commit adultery
+with the very lowest, for the most trifling fine; and a Bramin, or
+priest, can only suffer by having the hair of his head cut off; and,
+like the clergy of Europe, while under the dominion of the Pope, he
+cannot be put to death for any crime whatever. But the laws, of which he
+is always the interpreter, are not so favorable to his wife; they
+inflict a severe disgrace upon her, if she commit adultery with any of
+the higher casts; but if with the lowest, the magistrate shall cut off
+her hair, anoint her body with Ghee, and cause her to be carried through
+the whole city, naked, and riding upon an ass; and shall cast her out on
+the north side of the city, or cause her to be eaten by dogs. If a woman
+of any of the other casts goes to a man, and entices him to have
+criminal correspondence with her, the magistrate shall cut off her ears,
+lips and nose, mount her upon an ass, and drown her, or throw her to the
+dogs. To the commission of adultery with a dancing girl, or prostitute,
+no punishment nor fine is annexed.
+
+
+ANECDOTE OF CAESAR.
+
+When Caesar had subdued all his competitors, and most of the foreign
+nations which made war against him, he found that so many Romans had
+been destroyed in the quarrels in which he had often engaged them, that,
+to repair the loss, he promised rewards to fathers of families, and
+forbade all Romans who were above twenty, and under forty years of age,
+to go out of their native country. Augustus, his successor, to check the
+debauchery of the Roman youth, laid heavy taxes upon such as continued
+unmarried after a certain age, and encouraged with great rewards, the
+procreation of lawful children. Some years afterwards, the Roman knights
+having pressingly petitioned him that he would relax the severity of
+that law, he ordered their whole body to assemble before him, and the
+married and unmarried to arrange themselves in two separate parties,
+when, observing the unmarried to be much the greater company, he first
+addressed those who had complied with his law, telling them, that they
+alone had served the purposes of nature and society; that the human race
+was created male and female to prevent the extinction of the species;
+and that marriage was contrived as the most proper method of renewing
+the children of that species. He added, that they alone deserved the
+name of men and fathers, and that he would prefer them to such offices,
+as they might transmit to their posterity. Then turning to the
+bachelors, he told them, that he knew not by what name to call them; not
+by that of men, for they had done nothing that was manly; nor by that of
+citizens, since the city might perish for them; nor by that of Romans,
+for they seemed determined to let the race and name become extinct; but
+by whatever name he called them, their crime, he said, equalled all
+other crimes put together, for they were guilty of murder, in not
+suffering those to be born who should proceed from them; of impiety, in
+abolishing the names and honors of their fathers and ancestors; of
+sacrilege, in destroying their species, and human nature, which owed its
+original to the gods, and was consecrated to them; that by leading a
+single life they overturned, as far as in them lay, the temples and
+altars of the gods; dissolved the government, by disobeying its laws;
+betrayed their country, by making it barren. Having ended his speech, he
+doubled the rewards and privileges of such as had children, and laid a
+heavy fine on all unmarried persons, by reviving the Poppaean law.
+
+Though by this law all the males above a certain age were obliged to
+marry under a severe penalty, Augustus allowed them the space of a full
+year to comply with its demands; but such was the backwardness to
+matrimony, and perversity of the Roman knights, and others, that every
+possible method was taken to evade the penalty inflicted upon them, and
+some of them even married children in the cradle for that purpose; thus
+fulfilling the letter, they avoided the spirit of the law, and though
+actually married, had no restraint upon their licentiousness, nor any
+incumbrance by the expense of a family.
+
+
+POWER OF MARRYING.
+
+Among nations which had shaken off the authority of the church of Rome,
+the priests still retained almost an exclusive power of joining men and
+women together in marriage. This appears rather, however, to have been
+by the tacit consent of the civil power, than from any defect in its
+right and authority; for in the time of Oliver Cromwell, marriages were
+solemnized frequently by the justices of the peace; and the clergy
+neither attempted to invalidate them, nor make the children proceeding
+from them illegitimate; and when the province of New England was first
+settled, one of the earliest laws of the colony was, that the power of
+marrying should belong to the magistrates. How different was the case
+with the first French settlers in Canada! For many years a priest had
+not been seen in the country, and a magistrate could not marry: the
+consequence was natural; men and woman joined themselves together as
+husband and wife, trusting to the vows and promises of each other.
+Father Charlevoix, a Jesuit, at last travelled into those wild regions,
+found many of the simple, innocent inhabitants living in that manner;
+with all of whom he found much fault, enjoined them to do penance, and
+afterwards married them. After the Restoration, the power of marrying
+again reverted to the clergy. The magistrate, however, had not entirely
+resigned his right to that power; but it was by a late act of parliament
+entirely surrendered to them, and a penalty annexed to the solemnization
+of it by any other person whatever.
+
+
+CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.
+
+At a synod held at Winchester under St. Dunstan, the monks averred, that
+so highly criminal was it for a priest to marry, that even a wooden
+cross had audibly declared against the horrid practice. Others place the
+first attempt of this kind, to the account of Aelfrick, archbishop of
+Canterbury, about the beginning of the eleventh century; however this
+may be, we have among the canons a decree of the archbishops of
+Canterbury, and York, ordaining, That all ministers of God, especially
+priests, should observe chastity, and not take wives: and in the year
+1076, there was a council assembled at Winchester, under Lanfranc, which
+decreed, that no canon should have a wife; that such priests as lived in
+castles and villages should not be obliged to put their wives away, but
+that such as had none should not be allowed to marry; and that bishops
+should not ordain priests or deacons, unless they previously declared
+that they were not married. In the year 1102, archbishop Anselm held a
+council at Westminster, where it was decreed, that no archdeacon,
+priest, deacon, or canon, should either marry a wife, or retain her if
+he had one. Anselm, to give this decree greater weight, desired of the
+king, that the principal men of the kingdom might be present at the
+council, and that the decree might be enforced by the joint consent both
+of the clergy and laity; the king consented, and to these canons the
+whole realm gave a general sanction. The clergy of the province of York,
+however, remonstrated against them, and refused to put away their wives;
+the unmarried refused also to oblige themselves to continue in that
+state; nor were the clergy of Canterbury much more tractable.
+
+In the celibacy of the clergy, we may discover also the origin of
+nunneries; the intrigues they could procure, while at confession, were
+only short, occasional, and with women whom they could not entirely
+appropriate to themselves; to remedy which, they probably fabricated the
+scheme of having religious houses, where young women should be shut up
+from the world, and where no man but a priest, on pain of death, should
+enter. That in these dark retreats, secluded from censure, and from the
+knowledge of the world, they might riot in licentiousness. They were
+sensible, that women, surrounded with the gay and the amiable, might
+frequently spurn at the offers of a cloistered priest, but that while
+confined entirely to their own sex, they would take pleasure in a visit
+from one of the other, however slovenly and unpolished. In the world at
+large, should the crimes of the women be detected, the priests have no
+interest in mitigating their punishment; but here the whole community of
+them are interested in the secret of every intrigue, and should Lucinda
+unluckily proclaim it, she can seldom do it without the walls of the
+convent, and if she does, the priests lay the crime on some luckless
+laic, that the holy culprit may come off with impunity.
+
+
+DESPERATE ACT OF EUTHIRA.
+
+In ancient and modern history, we are frequently presented with accounts
+of women, who, preferring death to slavery or prostitution, sacrificed
+their lives with the most undaunted courage to avoid them. Apollodorus
+tells us, that Hercules having taken the city of Troy, prior to the
+famous siege of it celebrated by Homer, carried away captive the
+daughters of Laomedon then king. One of these, named Euthira, being left
+with several other Trojan captives on board the Grecian fleet, while the
+sailors went on shore to take in fresh provisions, had the resolution to
+propose, and the power to persuade her companions, to set the ships on
+fire, and to perish themselves amid the devouring flames. The women of
+Phoenicia met together before an engagement which was to decide the fate
+of their city, and having agreed to bury themselves in the flames, if
+their husbands and relations were defeated, in the enthusiasm of their
+courage and resolution, they crowned her with flowers who first made the
+proposal. Many instances occur in the history of the Romans of the Gauls
+and Germans, and of other nations in subsequent periods; where women
+being driven to despair by their enemies, have bravely defended their
+walls, or waded through fields of blood to assist their countrymen, and
+free themselves from slavery or from ravishment. Such heroic efforts are
+beauties, even in the character of the softer sex, when they proceed
+from necessity: when from choice, they are blemishes of the most
+unnatural kind, indicating a heart of cruelty, lodged in a form which
+has the appearance of gentleness and peace.
+
+It has been alleged by some of the writers on human nature, that to the
+fair sex the loss of beauty is more alarming and insupportable than the
+loss of life; but even this loss, however opposite to the feelings of
+their nature, they have voluntarily consented to sustain, that they
+might not be the objects of temptation to the lawless ravisher. The nuns
+of a convent in France, fearing they should be violated by a ruffian
+army, which had taken by storm the town in which their convent was
+situated, at the recommendation of their abbess, mutually agreed to cut
+off all their noses, that they might save their chastity by becoming
+objects of disgust instead of desire. Were we to descend to particulars,
+we could give innumerable instances of women, who from Semiramis down to
+the present time, have distinguished themselves by their courage. Such
+was Penthesilea, who, if we may credit ancient story, led her army of
+viragoes to the assistance of Priam, king of Troy; Thomyris, who
+encountered Cyrus, king of Persia; and Thalestris, famous for her
+fighting, as well as for her amours with Alexander the Great. Such was
+the brave but ill-fated Boadicea, queen of the Britons, who led on that
+people to revenge the wrongs done to herself and her country by the
+Romans. And in later periods, such were the Maid of Orleans, and
+Margaret of Anjou; which last, according to several historians,
+commanded at no less than twelve pitched battles. But we do not choose
+to multiply instances of this nature, as we have already said enough to
+shew, that the sex are not destitute of courage when that virtue becomes
+necessary; and were they possessed of it, when unnecessary, it would
+divest them of one of the principal qualities for which we love, and for
+which we value them. No woman was ever held up as a pattern to her sex,
+because she was intrepid and brave; no woman ever conciliated the
+affections of the men, by rivalling them in what they reckon the
+peculiar excellencies of their own character.
+
+
+LUXURIOUS DRESS OF THE GRECIAN LADIES.
+
+As the Greeks emerged from the barbarity of the heroic ages, among other
+articles of culture, they began to bestow more attention on the
+convenience and elegance of dress. At Athens, the ladies commonly employ
+the whole morning in dressing themselves in a decent and becoming
+manner; their toilet consisted in paints and washes, of such a nature as
+to cleanse and beautify the skin, and they took great care to clean
+their teeth, an article too much neglected: some also blackened their
+eyebrows, and, if necessary, supplied the deficiency of the vermillion
+on their lips, by a paint said to have been exceedingly beautiful. At
+this time the women in the Greek islands make much use of a paint which
+they call Sulama, which imparts a beautiful redness to the cheeks, and
+gives the skin a remarkable gloss. Possibly this may be the same with
+that made use of in the times we are considering; but however this be,
+some of the Greek ladies at present gild their faces all over on the day
+of their marriage, and consider this coating as an irresistible charm;
+and in the island of Scios, their dress does not a little resemble that
+of ancient Sparta, for they go with their bosoms uncovered, and with
+gowns which only reach to the calf of their leg, in order to show their
+fine garters, which are commonly red ribbons curiously embroidered. But
+to return to ancient Greece; the ladies spent likewise a part of their
+time in composing head-dresses, and though we have reason to suppose
+that they were not then so preposterously fantastic as those presently
+composed by a Parisian milliner, yet they were probably objects of no
+small industry and attention, especially as we find that they then dyed
+their hair, perfumed it with the most costly essences, and by the means
+of hot irons disposed of it in curls, as fancy or fashion directed.
+Their clothes were made of stuffs so extremely light and fine as to show
+their shapes without offending against the rules of decency. At Sparta,
+the case was widely different; we shall not describe the dress of the
+women; it is sufficient to say that it has been loudly complained of by
+almost every ancient author who has treated on the subject.
+
+
+GRECIAN COURTSHIP.
+
+In the earlier periods of the history of the Greeks, their love, if we
+may call it so, was only the animal appetite, impetuous and unrestrained
+either by cultivation of manners, or precepts of morality; and almost
+every opportunity which fell in their way, prompted them to satisfy that
+appetite by force, and to revenge the obstruction of it by murder. When
+they became a more civilized people, they shone much more illustriously
+in arts and in arms, than in delicacy of sentiment and elegance of
+manners: hence we shall find, that their method of making love was more
+directed to compel the fair sex to a compliance with their wishes by
+charms and philtres, than to win them by the nameless assiduities and
+good offices of a lover.
+
+As the two sexes in Greece had but little communication with each other,
+and a lover was seldom favored with an opportunity of telling his
+passion to his mistress, he used to discover it by inscribing her name
+on the walls of his house, on the bark of the trees of a public walk, or
+leaves of his books; it was customary for him also to deck the door of
+the house where his fair one lived, with garlands and flowers, to make
+libations of wine before it, and to sprinkle the entrance with the same
+liquor, in the manner that was practised at the temple of Cupid.
+Garlands were of great use among the Greeks in love affairs; when a man
+untied his garland, it was a declaration of his having been subdued by
+that passion; and when a woman composed a garland, it was a tacit
+confession of the same thing: and though we are not informed of it, we
+may presume that both sexes had methods of discovering by these
+garlands, not only that they were in love, but the object also upon whom
+it was directed.
+
+Such were the common methods of discovering the passion of love; the
+methods of prosecuting it were still more extraordinary, and less
+reconcilable to civilization and to good principles; when a love affair
+did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, he did not endeavor to become
+more engaging in his manners and person, he did not lavish his fortune
+in presents, or become more obliging and assiduous in his addresses, but
+immediately had recourse to incantations and philtres; in composing and
+dispensing of which, the women of Thessaly were reckoned the most
+famous, and drove a traffic in them of no considerable advantage. These
+potions were given by the women to the men, as well as by the men to the
+women, and were generally so violent in their operations as for some
+time to deprive the person who took them, of sense, and not uncommonly
+of life: their composition was a variety of herbs of the most strong and
+virulent nature, which we shall not mention; but herbs were not the only
+things they relied on for their purpose; they called in the productions
+of the animal and mineral kingdoms to their assistance; when these
+failed, they roasted an image of wax before the fire, representing the
+object of their love, and as this became warm, they flattered themselves
+that the person represented by it would be proportionally warmed with
+love. When a lover could obtain any thing belonging to his mistress, he
+imagined it of singular advantage, and deposited in the earth beneath
+the threshold of her door. Besides these, they had a variety of other
+methods equally ridiculous and unavailing, and of which it would be
+trifling to give a minute detail; we shall, therefore, just take notice
+as we go along, that such of either sex as believed themselves forced
+into love by the power of philtres and charms, commonly had recourse to
+the same methods to disengage themselves, and break the power of these
+enchantments, which they supposed operated involuntarily on their
+inclinations; and thus the old women of Greece, like the lawyers of
+modern times, were employed to defeat the schemes and operations of each
+other, and like them too, it is presumable, laughed in their sleeves,
+while they hugged the gains that arose from vulgar credulity.
+
+
+POWER OF PHILTRES AND CHARMS.
+
+The Romans, who borrowed most of their customs from the Greeks, also
+followed them in that of endeavoring to conciliate love by the power of
+philtres and charms; a fact of which we have not the least room to
+doubt, as they are in Virgil and some other of the Latin poets so many
+instances that prove it. But it depends not altogether on the testimony
+of the poets: Plutarch tells us, that Lucullus, a Roman General, lost
+his senses by a love potion; and Caius Caligula, according to Suetonius,
+was thrown into a fit of madness by one which was given him by his wife
+Caesonia; Lucretius too, according to some authors, fell a sacrifice to
+the same folly. The Romans, like the Greeks, made use of these methods
+mostly in their affairs of gallantry and unlawful love; but in what
+manner they addressed themselves to a lady they intended to marry, has
+not been handed down to us, and the reason we suppose is, that little or
+no courtship was practised among them; women had no disposing power of
+themselves, to what purpose was it then to apply to them for their
+consent? They were under perpetual guardianship, and the guardian having
+sole power of disposing of them, it was only necessary to apply to him.
+In the Roman authors, we frequently read of a father, a brother, or a
+guardian, giving his daughter, his sister, or his ward, in marriage;
+but we do not recollect one single instance of being told that the
+intended bridegroom applied to the lady for her consent; a circumstance
+the more extraordinary, as women in the decline of the Roman empire had
+arisen to a dignity, and even to a freedom hardly equalled in modern
+times.
+
+
+EASTERN COURTSHIP.
+
+It has long been a common observation among mankind, that love is the
+most fruitful source of invention; and that in this case the imagination
+of a woman is still more fruitful of invention and expedient than that
+of a man; agreeably to this, we are told, that the women of the island
+of Amboyna, being closely watched on all occasions, and destitute of the
+art of writing, by which, in other places, the sentiments are conveyed
+to any distance, have methods of making known their inclinations to
+their lovers, and of fixing assignations with them, by means of
+nosegays, and plates of fruit so disposed, as to convey their sentiments
+in the most explicit manner: by these means their courtship is generally
+carried on, and by altering the disposition of symbols made use of, they
+contrive to signify their refusal, with the same explicitness as their
+approbation. In some of the neighboring islands, when a young man has
+fixed his affection, like the Italians, he goes from time to time to her
+door, and plays upon some musical instrument; if she gives consent, she
+comes out to him, and they settle the affair of matrimony between them;
+if, after a certain number of these kind of visits, she does not appear,
+it is a denial; and the disappointed lover is obliged to desist.
+
+We shall see afterward when we come to treat of the matrimonial compact,
+that, in some places, the ceremony of marriage consists in tying the
+garments of the young couple together, as an emblem of that union which
+ought to bind their affections and interests. This ceremony has afforded
+a hint for lovers to explain their passion to their mistresses, in the
+most intelligible manner, without the help of speech, or the possibility
+of offending the nicest delicacy. A lover in these parts, who is too
+modest to declare himself, seizes the first opportunity he can find, of
+sitting down by his mistress, and tying his garment to hers, in the
+manner that is practised in the ceremony of marriage: if she permits him
+to finish the knot, without any interruption, and does not soon after
+cut or loose it, she thereby gives her consent; if she looses it, he may
+tie it again on some other occasion, when she may prove more propitious;
+but if she cuts it, his hopes are blasted forever.
+
+
+LONG HAIR OF SAXONS AND DANES.
+
+The human hair has ever been regarded as an ornament. The Anglo-Saxons
+and Danes considered their hair as one of their greatest personal
+beauties, and took great care to dress it to the utmost advantage. Young
+ladies wore it loose, and flowing in ringlets over their shoulders; but
+after marriage they cut it shorter, tied it up, and covered it with a
+head-dress, according to the fashion of the times; but to have the hair
+cut entirely off, was a disgrace of such a nature, that it was even
+thought a punishment not inadequate to the crime of adultery; so great,
+in the Middle ages, was the value set upon the hair by both sexes, that,
+as a piece of the most peculiar mortification, it was ordered by the
+canons of the church, that the clergy should keep their hair short, and
+shave the crown of their head; and that they should not, upon any
+pretence whatever, endeavor to keep the part so shaved from public view.
+Many of the clergy of these times, finding themselves so peculiarly
+mortified, and perhaps so easily distinguished from all other people by
+this particularity, as to be readily detected when they committed any of
+the follies or crimes to which human nature is in every situation
+sometimes liable, endeavored to persuade mankind that long hair was
+criminal, in order to reduce the whole to a similarity with themselves.
+Amongst these, St. Wulstan eminently distinguished himself. "He rebuked,"
+says William of Malmsbury, "the wicked of all ranks with great boldness,
+but was _peculiarly_ severe upon those who were proud of their long
+hair. When any of these vain people bowed their heads before him, to
+receive his blessing, before he gave it he cut a lock from their hair,
+with a sharp penknife, which he carried about him for that purpose; and
+commanded them, by way of penance for their sins, to cut all the rest in
+the same manner: if any of them refused to comply with his command he
+reproached them for their effeminacy, and denounced the most dreadful
+judgments against them. Such, however, was the value of their hair in
+these days, that many rather submitted to his censures than part with
+it; and such was the folly of the church, and of this saint in
+particular, that the most solemn judgments were denounced against
+multitudes, for no other crime than not making use of pen-knives and
+scissors, to cut off an ornament bestowed by nature."
+
+
+ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.
+
+On St. Valentine's day, it is customary, in many parts of Italy, for an
+unmarried lady to choose, from among the young gentlemen of her
+acquaintance, one to be her guardian or gallant; who, in return for the
+honor of this appointment, presents to her some nosegays, or other
+trifles, and thereby obliges himself to attend her in the most
+obsequious manner in all her parties of pleasure, and to all her public
+amusements, for the space of one year, when he may retire, and the lady
+may choose another in his place. But in the course of this connection it
+frequently happens, that they contract such an inclination to each
+other, as prompts them to be coupled for life. In the times of the
+chivalry, we have seen that the men gloried in protecting the women, and
+the women thought themselves safe and happy when they obtained that
+protection. It is probable, therefore, that this custom, though now more
+an affair of gallantry than of protection, is a relic of chivalry still
+subsisting among that romantic and sentimental people.
+
+But the observation of some peculiar customs on St. Valentine's day is
+not confined to Italy; almost all Europe has joined in distinguishing it
+by some particular ceremony. As it always happens about that time of the
+year, when the genial influences of the spring begin to operate, it has
+been believed by the vulgar, that upon it the birds invariably choose
+their mates for the ensuing season. In imitation, therefore, of their
+example, the vulgar of both sexes, in many parts of Britain, meet
+together; and having upon slips of paper wrote down the names of all
+their acquaintances, and put them into two different bags, the men drew
+the female names by lot, and the women the male; the man makes the woman
+who drew his name some trifling present, and in the rural gambol becomes
+her partner; and she considers him as her sweetheart, till he is
+otherwise disposed of, or till next Valentine's day provide her with
+another.
+
+
+COURTS OF LOVE.
+
+In Spain, during the Middle Ages, courts of Love were established. These
+courts were composed of ladies summoned to meet together, for the
+purpose of discussing, in the most formal and serious manner, "beautiful
+and subtle questions of love." They decided the precise amount of
+inconstancy which a lady might forgive, without lowering her own
+dignity, provided her lover made certain supplications, and performed
+certain penances; they took it into solemn consideration whether a lover
+was justified, under any circumstances, in expressing the slightest
+doubt of his lady's fidelity; they laid down definite rules, and
+ceremonials of behavior, to be observed by those who wished to be
+beloved; and gravely discussed the question whether sentiment, or sight,
+the heart, or the eyes, contributed most powerfully to inspire
+affection.
+
+
+IMMODESTY AT BABYLON.
+
+That modesty and chastity, which we now esteem as the chief ornament of
+the female character, does not appear in times of remote antiquity to
+have been much regarded by either sex. At Babylon, the capital of the
+Assyrian empire, it was so little valued, that a law of the country
+even obliged every woman once in her life to depart from it. This
+abominable law, which, it is said, was promulgated by an oracle,
+ordained, That every woman should once in her life repair to the temple
+of Venus; that on her arrival there, her head should be crowned with
+flowers, and in that attire, she should wait till some stranger
+performed with her the rites sacred to the goddess of debauchery.
+
+This temple was constructed with a great many winding galleries
+appropriated to the reception of the women, and the strangers who,
+allured by debauchery, never failed to assemble there in great numbers,
+being allowed to choose any woman they thought proper from among those
+who came there in obedience to the law. When the stranger accosted the
+object of his choice, he was obliged to present her with some pieces of
+money, nor was she at liberty to refuse either these, or the request of
+the stranger who offered them, whatever was the value of the money, or
+however mean or disagreeable the donor. These preliminaries being
+settled, they retired together to fulfil the law, after which the woman
+returned and offered the goddess the sacrifice prescribed by custom, and
+then was at liberty to return home. Nor was this custom entirely
+confined to the Babylonians; in the island of Cyprus they sent young
+women at stated times to the sea-shore, where they prostituted
+themselves to Venus, that they might be chaste the rest of their lives.
+In some other countries, a certain number only were doomed to
+prostitution, as it is supposed, by way of a bribe, to induce the
+goddess of debauchery to save the rest.
+
+When a woman had once entered the temple of Venus, she was not allowed
+to depart from it till she had fulfilled the law: and it frequently
+happened that those to whom nature had been less indulgent than to
+others, remained there a long time before any person offered to perform
+with them the condition of their release. A custom, we think, some times
+alluded to in scripture, and expressly delineated in the book of Baruch:
+"The women also, with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran
+for perfume; but, if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie
+with him, she reproacheth her fellow that she was not thought worthy as
+herself, nor her cord broken." Though this infamous law was at first
+strictly observed by all the women of Babylon, yet it would seem that,
+in length of time, they grew ashamed of, and in many cases dispensed
+with it; for we are informed that women of the superior ranks of life,
+who were not willing literally to fulfil the law, were allowed a kind of
+evasion; they were carried in litters to the gates of the temple, where,
+having dismissed all their attendants, they entered alone, presented
+themselves before the statue of the goddess, and returned home. Possibly
+this was done by the assistance of a bribe, to those who had the care of
+the temple.
+
+
+INDECENCY AT ADRIANOPLE.
+
+In Adrianople and the neighboring cities, the women have public baths,
+which are a part of their religion and of their amusement, and a bride,
+the first time she appears there, after her marriage, is received in a
+particular manner. The matrons and widows being seated round the room,
+the virgins immediately put themselves into the original state of Eve.
+The bride comes to the door richly dressed and adorned with jewels; two
+of the virgins meet her, and soon put her into the same condition with
+themselves; then filling some silver pots with perfume, they make a
+procession round the rooms, singing an epithalamium, in which all the
+virgins join in chorus; the procession ended, the bride is led up to
+every matron, who bestows on her some trifling presents, and to each she
+returns thanks, till she has been led round the whole. We could add many
+more ceremonies arising from marriage, but as they are for the most part
+such as make a part of the marriage ceremony itself, we shall have
+occasion to mention them with more propriety under another head.
+
+
+ANCIENT SWEDISH COURTSHIP.
+
+Grymer, a youth early distinguished in arms, who well knew how to dye
+his sword in the blood of his enemies, to run over the craggy mountains,
+to wrestle, to play at chess, trace the motions of the stars, and throw
+far from him heavy weights, frequently shewed his skill in the chamber
+of the damsels, before the king's lovely daughter; desirous of acquiring
+her regard, he displayed his dexterity in handling his weapons, and the
+knowledge he had attained in the sciences he had learned; at length
+ventured to make this demand: "Wilt thou, O fair princess, if I may
+obtain the king's consent, accept of me for a husband?" To which she
+prudently replied, "I must not make that choice myself, but go thou and
+offer the same proposal to my father."
+
+The sequel of the story informs us, that Grymer accordingly made his
+proposal to the king, who answered him in a rage, that though he had
+learned indeed to handle his arms, yet as he had never gained a single
+victory, nor given a banquet to the beasts of the field, he had no
+pretensions to his daughter, and concluded by pointing out to him, in a
+neighboring kingdom, a hero renowned in arms, whom, if he could conquer,
+the princess should be given him: that on waiting on the princess to
+tell her what had passed, she was greatly agitated, and felt in the most
+sensible manner for the safety of her lover, whom she was afraid her
+father had devoted to death for his presumption, that she provided him
+with a suit of impenetrable armor and a trusty sword, with which he
+went, and having slain his adversary, and the most part of his warriors,
+returned victorious, and received her as the reward of his valor.
+Singular as this method of obtaining a fair lady by a price paid in
+blood may appear, it was not peculiar to the northerns: we have already
+taken notice of the price which David paid for the daughter of Saul, and
+shall add, that among the Sacae, a people of ancient Scythia, a custom
+something of this kind, but still more extraordinary, obtained: every
+young man who made his addresses to a lady, was obliged to engage her in
+single combat; if he vanquished, he led her off in triumph, and became
+her husband and sovereign; if he was conquered, she led him off in the
+same manner, and made him her husband and her slave.
+
+
+LAPLAND AND GREENLAND LADY.
+
+The delicacy of a Lapland lady, which is not in the least hurt by being
+drunk as often as she can procure liquor, would be wounded in the most
+sensible manner, should she deign at first to listen to the declaration
+of a lover; he is therefore obliged to employ a match-maker to speak for
+him; and this match-maker must never go empty handed; and of all other
+presents, that which must infallibly secures him a favorable reception
+is brandy. Having, by the eloquence of this, gained leave to bring the
+lover along with him, and being, together with the lover's father or
+other nearest-male relation, arrived at the house where the lady
+resides, the father and match-maker are invited to walk in, but the
+lover must wait patiently at the door till further solicited. The
+parties, in the mean time, open their suit to the other ladies of the
+family, not forgetting to employ in their favor their irresistible
+advocate brandy, a liberal distribution of which is reckoned the
+strongest proof of the lover's affection. When they have all been warmed
+by the lover's bounty, he is brought into the house, pays his
+compliments to the family, and is desired to partake of their cheer,
+though at this interview seldom indulged with a sight of his mistress;
+but if he is, he salutes her, and offers her presents of reindeer skins,
+tongues, &c.; all which, while surrounded with her friends, she pretends
+to refuse; but at the same time giving her lover a signal to go out, she
+soon steals after him, and is no more that modest creature she affected
+to appear in company. The lover now solicits for the completion of his
+wishes; if she is silent, it is construed into consent; but if she
+throws his presents on the ground with disdain the match is broken off
+forever.
+
+It is generally observed, that women enter into matrimony with more
+willingness, and less anxious care and solicitude, than men, for which
+many reasons naturally suggest themselves to the intelligent reader. The
+women of Greenland are however, in many cases, an exception to this
+general rule. A Greenlander, having fixed his affection, acquaints his
+parents with it; they acquaint the parents of the girl; upon which two
+female negociators are sent to her, who, lest they should shock her
+delicacy, do not enter directly on the subject of their embassy, but
+launch out in praises of the lover they mean to recommend, of his house,
+of his furniture, and whatever else belongs to him, but dwell most
+particularly on his dexterity in catching seals. She, pretending to be
+affronted, runs away, tearing the ringlets of her hair as she retires;
+after which the two females, having obtained a tacit consent from her
+parents, search for her, and on discovering her lurking place, drag her
+by force to the house of her lover, and there leave her. For some days
+she sits with dishevelled hair, silent and dejected, refusing every kind
+of sustenance, and at last, if kind entreaties cannot prevail upon her,
+is compelled by force, and even by blows, to complete the marriage with
+her husband. It sometimes happens, that when the female match-makers
+arrive to propose a lover to a Greenland young woman, she either faints,
+or escapes to the uninhabited mountains, where she remains till she is
+discovered and carried back by her relations, or is forced to return by
+hunger and cold; in both which cases, she previously cuts off her hair;
+a most infallible indication, that she is determined never to marry.
+
+
+EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN ASIA AND AFRICA.
+
+In several of the warmer regions of Asia and Africa, the little
+education bestowed upon women, is entirely calculated to debauch their
+minds and give additional charms to their persons. They are taught vocal
+and instrumental music, which they accompany with dances, in which every
+movement and every gesture is expressively indecent: but receive no
+moral instruction; for it would teach them that they were doing wrong.
+This, however, is not the practice in all parts of Asia and Africa: the
+women of Hindostan are educated more decently; they are not allowed to
+learn music or dancing; which are only reckoned accomplishments fit for
+those of a lower order; they are notwithstanding, taught all the
+personal graces; and particular care is taken to instruct them in the
+art of conversing with elegance and vivacity; some of them are also
+taught to write, and the generality to read, so that they may be able to
+read the Koran; instead of which they more frequently dedicate
+themselves to tales and romances; which, painted in all the lively
+imagery of the East, seldom fail to corrupt the minds of creatures shut
+up from the world, and consequently forming to themselves extravagant
+and romantic notions of all that is transacted in it.
+
+In well regulated families, women are taught by heart some prayers in
+Arabic, which at certain hours they assemble in a hall to repeat; never
+being allowed the liberty of going to the public mosque. They are
+enjoined always to wash themselves before praying; and, indeed, the
+virtues of cleanliness, of chastity, and obedience, are so strongly and
+constantly inculcated on their minds, that in spite of their general
+debauchery of manners, there are not a few among them, who, in their
+common deportment, do credit to the instructions bestowed upon them;
+nor is this much to be wondered at, when we consider the tempting
+recompense that is held out to them; they are, in paradise, to flourish
+forever, in the vigor of youth and beauty; and however old, or ugly,
+when they depart this life, are there to be immediately transformed into
+all that is fair, and all that is graceful.
+
+
+RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS OF THE GREEKS.
+
+A cause, which contributed to make the religious festivals of the Greeks
+appear as amusements and diversions, was that ridiculous buffoonery that
+constituted so great a part of them: it would be tedious to enumerate
+one half of these buffooneries; but let a few serve as a specimen. At a
+festival held in honor of Bacchus, the women ran about for a long time
+seeking the god, who, they pretended, had run away from them: this done,
+they passed their time in proposing riddles and questions to each other,
+and laughing at such as could not answer them; and at last often closed
+the scene with such enormous excesses, that at one of these festivals,
+the daughters of Minya, having, in their madness, killed Hippasus, had
+him dressed and served up to table as a rarity. At another, kept in
+honor of Venus and Adonis, they beat their breasts, tore their hair, and
+mimicked all the signs of the most extravagant grief, with which they
+supposed the goddess to have been affected on the death of her favorite
+paramour. At another, in honor of the nymph Cotys, they addressed her as
+the goddess of wantonness with many mysterious rites and ceremonies. At
+Corinth, these rites and ceremonies, being perhaps thought inconsistent
+with the character of modest women, this festival was only celebrated by
+harlots. Athenaeus mentions a festival, at which the women laid hold on
+all the old bachelors they could find, and dragged them round an altar;
+beating them all the time with their fists, as punishment for their
+neglect of the sex. We shall only mention two more; at one of which,
+after the assembly had met in the temple of Ceres, the women shut out
+all the men and dogs, themselves and the bitches remaining in the temple
+all night; in the morning, the men were let in, and the time was spent
+in laughing together at the frolic. At the other, in honor of Bacchus,
+they counterfeited phrenzy and madness; and to make this madness appear
+the more real, they used to eat the raw and bloody entrails of goats
+newly slaughtered. And, indeed, the whole of the festivals of Bacchus, a
+deity much worshipped in Greece, were celebrated with rites either
+ridiculous, obscene, or madly extravagant. There were others, however,
+in honor of the other gods and goddesses, which were more decent, and
+had more the appearance of religious solemnity, though even in these,
+the women dressed out in all their finery; and, adorned with flowers and
+garlands, either formed splendid processions, or assisted in performing
+ceremonies, the general tendency of which was to amuse rather than
+instruct.
+
+
+THE DEATHS OF LUCRETIA AND VIRGINIA.
+
+The force of prejudice appears in nothing more strongly than in the
+encomiums which have been lavished upon Lucretia for laying violent
+hands upon herself, and Virginius for killing his own daughter. These
+actions seem to derive all their glory from the revolutions to which
+they gave rise, as the former occasioned the abolition of monarchy
+amongst the Romans, and the latter put an end to the arbitrary power of
+the decemviri. But if we lay aside our prepossessions for antiquity, and
+examine these actions without prejudice, we cannot but acknowledge,
+that they are rather the effects of human weakness and obstinacy than of
+resolution and magnanimity. Lucretia, for fear of worldly censure, chose
+rather to submit to the lewd desires of Tarquin, than have it thought
+that she had been stabbed in the embraces of a slave; which sufficiently
+proves that all her boasted virtue was founded upon vanity, and too high
+a value for the opinion of mankind. The younger Pliny, with great
+reason, prefers to this famed action that of a woman of low birth, whose
+husband being seized with an incurable disorder, chose rather to perish
+with him than survive him. The action of Arria is likewise much more
+noble, whose husband Paetus, being condemned to death, plunged a dagger
+in her breast, and told him, with a dying voice, "Paetus, it is not
+painful." But the death of Lucretia gave rise to a revolution, and it
+therefore became illustrious; though, as St. Augustine justly observes,
+it is only an instance of the weakness of a woman, too solicitous about
+the opinion of the world.
+
+Virginius, in killing his daughter, to preserve her from falling a
+victim to the lust of the decemvir Claudius, was guilty of the highest
+rashness; since he might certainly have gained the people, already
+irritated against the tyrant, without imbruing his hands in his own
+blood. This action may indeed be extenuated, as Virginius slew his
+daughter from a false principle of honor, and did it to preserve her
+from what both he and she thought worse than death; namely, to preserve
+her from violation; but though it may in some measure be excused, it
+should not certainly be praised or admired.
+
+
+ON LOOKING AT THE PICTURE OF A BEAUTIFUL FEMALE.
+
+  What dazzling beauties strike my ravish'd eyes,
+  And fill my soul with pleasure and surprise!
+  What blooming sweetness smiles upon that face!
+  How mild, yet how majestic every grace!
+  In those bright eyes what more than mimic fire
+  Benignly shines, and kindles gay desire!
+  Yet chasten'd modesty, fair white-robed dame,
+  Triumphant sits to check the rising flame.
+  Sure nature made thee her peculiar care:
+  Was ever form so exquisitely fair?
+  Yes, once there was a form thus heavenly bright,
+  But now 'tis veil'd in everlasting night;
+  Each glory which that lovely face could boast,
+  And every charm, in traceless dust is lost;
+  An unregarded heap of ruin lies
+  That form which lately drew ten thousand eyes.
+  What once was courted, lov'd, adored, and prais'd,
+  Now mingles with the dust from whence 'twas raised.
+  No more soft dimpling smiles those cheeks adorn,
+  Whose rosy tincture sham'd the rising morn;
+  No more with sparkling radiance shine those eyes,
+  Nor over those the sable arches rise;
+  Nor from those ruby lips soft accents flow,
+  Nor lilies on the snowy forehead blow;
+  All, all are cropp'd by death's impartial hand,
+  Charms could not bribe, nor beauty's power withstand;
+  Not all that crowd of wondrous charms could save
+  Their fair possessor from the dreary grave.
+
+    How frail is beauty, transient, false and vain!
+  It flies with morn, and ne'er returns again.
+  Death, cruel ravager, delights to prey
+  Upon the young, the lovely and the gay.
+  If death appear not, oft corroding pain,
+  With pining sickness in her languid train,
+  Blights youth's gay spring with some untimely blast,
+  And lays the blooming field of beauty waste;
+  But should these spare, still time creeps on apace,
+  And plucks with wither'd hand each winning grace;
+  The eyes, lips, cheeks, and bosom he disarms,
+  No art from him can shield exterior charms.
+
+    But would you, fair ones, be esteem'd, approved,
+  And with an everlasting ardor loved;
+  Would you in wrinkled age, admirers find,
+  In every female virtue dress the mind;
+  Adorn the heart, and teach the soul to charm,
+  And when the eyes no more the breast can warm,
+  These ever-blooming beauties shall inspire
+  Each gen'rous heart with friendship's sacred fire;
+  These charms shall neither wither, fade, nor fly;
+  Pain, sickness, time, and death, they dare defy.
+  When the pale tyrant's hand shall seal your doom,
+  And lock your ashes in the silent tomb,
+  These beauties shall in double lustre rise,
+  Shine round the soul, and waft it to the skies.
+
+
+
+
+ART OF DETERMINING
+THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY,
+THE HABITS, AND THE AGE,
+OF WOMEN,
+
+NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISES OF
+DRESS.
+
+
+OF FIGURE.
+
+External indications as to figure are required chiefly as to the limbs
+which are concealed by drapery. Such indications are afforded by the
+walk, to every careful observer.
+
+In considering _the proportion of the limbs to the body_--if, even in a
+young woman, the walk, though otherwise good, be heavy, or the fall on
+each foot alternately be sudden, and rather upon the heel, the limbs
+though well formed, will be found to be slender, compared with the body.
+
+This conformation accompanies any great proportional developement of the
+vital system; and it is frequently observable in the woman of the Saxon
+population of England, as in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, &c.
+
+In women of this conformation, moreover, the slightest indisposition or
+debility is indicated by a slight vibration of the shoulders, and upper
+part of the chest, at every step, in walking.
+
+In considering _the line or direction of the limbs_--if, viewed behind,
+the feet, at every step, are thrown out backward, and somewhat
+laterally, the knees are certainly much inclined inward.
+
+If, viewed in front, the dress, at every step, is as it were, gathered
+toward the front, and then tossed more or less to the opposite side, the
+knees are certainly too much inclined.
+
+In considering _the relative size of each portion of the limbs_--if, in
+the walk, there be a greater or less approach to the marching pace, the
+hip is large; for we naturally employ the joint which is surrounded with
+the most powerful muscles, and in any approach to the march, it is the
+hip-joint which is used, and the knee and ancle-joints which remain
+proportionally unemployed.
+
+If, in the walk, the tripping pace be used, as in an approach to walking
+on tiptoes, the calf is large; for it is only by the power of its
+muscles that, under the weight of the whole body, the foot can be
+extended for this purpose.
+
+If, in the walk, the foot be raised in a slovenly manner, and the heel
+be seen, at each step, to lift the bottom of the dress upward and
+backward, neither the hip nor the calf is well developed.
+
+Even with regard to the parts of the figure which are more exposed to
+observation by the closer adaptation of dress, much deception occurs. It
+is, therefore, necessary to understand the arts employed for this
+purpose, at least by skilful women.
+
+A person having a narrow face, wears a bonnet with wide front, exposing
+the lower part of the cheeks.--One having a broad face, wears a closer
+front; and, if the jaw be wide, it is in appearance diminished, by
+bringing the corners of the bonnet sloping to the point of the chin.
+
+A person having a long neck has the neck of the bonnet descending, the
+neck of the dress rising, and filling more or less of the intermediate
+space. One having a short neck has the whole bonnet short and close in
+the perpendicular direction, and the neck of the dress neither high nor
+wide.
+
+Persons with narrow shoulders have the shoulders or epaulets of the
+dress formed on the outer edge of the natural shoulder, very full, and
+both the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique folds, from the
+point of the shoulder to the middle of the bust.
+
+Persons with waists too large, render them less before by a stomacher,
+or something equivalent, and behind by a corresponding form of the
+dress, making the top of the dress smooth across the shoulders, and
+drawing it in plaits to a narrow point at the bottom of the waist.
+
+Those who have the bosom too small, enlarge it by the oblique folds of
+the dress being gathered above, and by other means.
+
+Those who have the lower posterior part of the body too flat, elevate it
+by the top of the skirt being gathered behind, and by other less skilful
+adjustments, which though hid, are easily detected.
+
+Those who have the lower part of the body too prominent anteriorly,
+render it less apparent by shortening the waist, by a corresponding
+projection behind, and by increasing the bosom above.
+
+Those who have the haunches too narrow, take care not to have the bottom
+of the dress too wide.
+
+Tall women have a wide skirt, or several flounces, or both of these:
+shorter women, a moderate one, but as long as can be conveniently worn,
+with the flounces, &c., as low as possible.
+
+
+OF BEAUTY.
+
+Additional indications as to beauty are required chiefly where the woman
+observed precedes the observer, and may, by her figure, naturally and
+reasonably excite his interest, while at the same time it would be rude
+to turn and look in her face on passing.
+
+There can, therefore, be no impropriety in observing, that the conduct
+of those who may happen to meet the women thus preceding, will differ
+according to the sex of the person who meets her.--If the person meeting
+her be a man, and the lady observed be beautiful, he will not only look
+with an expression of pleasure at her countenance, but will afterward
+turn more or less completely to survey her from behind.--If the person
+meeting her be a woman, the case becomes more complex. If both be either
+ugly or beautiful, or if the person meeting her be beautiful and the
+lady observed be ugly, then it is probable, that the approaching person
+may pass by inattentively, casting merely an indifferent glance; if, on
+the contrary, the woman meeting her be ugly, and the lady observed be
+beautiful, then the former will examine the latter with the severest
+scrutiny, and if she sees features and shape without defect, she will
+instantly fix her eyes on the head-dress or gown, in order to find some
+object for censure of the beautiful woman, and for consolation in her
+own ugliness.
+
+Thus he who happens to follow a female may be aided in determining
+whether it is worth his while to glance at her face in passing, or to
+devise other means of seeing it.
+
+Even when the face is seen, as in meeting in the streets or elsewhere,
+infinite deception occurs as to the degree of beauty. This operates so
+powerfully, that a correct estimate of beauty is perhaps never formed at
+first. This depends on the forms and still more on the colors of dress
+in relation to the face. For this reason, it is necessary to understand
+the principles according to which colors are employed at least by
+skilful women.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much yellow, then yellow
+around the face is used to remove it by contrast, and to cause the red
+and blue to predominate.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much red, then red around
+the face is used to remove by contrast, and to cause the yellow and blue
+to predominate.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue, then blue
+around the face is used to remove it by contrast, and to cause the
+yellow and red to predominate.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much yellow and red, then
+orange is used.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much red and blue, then
+purple is used.
+
+When it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue and yellow, then
+green is used.
+
+It is necessary to observe that the linings of bonnets reflect their
+color on the face, and transparent bonnets transmit that color, and
+equally tinge it. In both these cases, the color employed is no longer
+that which is placed around the face, and which acts on it by contrast,
+but the opposite. As green around the face heightens a faint red in the
+cheeks by contrast, so the pink lining of the bonnet aids it by
+reflection.
+
+Hence linings which reflect, are generally of the teint which is wanted
+in the face; and care is then taken that these linings do not come into
+the direct view of the observer, and operate prejudicially on the face
+by contrast, overpowering the little color which by reflection they
+should heighten. The fronts of bonnets so lined, therefore, do not widen
+greatly forward, and bring their color into contrast.
+
+When bonnets do widen, the proper contrast is used as a lining; but then
+it has not a surface much adapted for reflection, otherwise it may
+perform that office, and injure the complexion.
+
+Understanding, then, the application of these colors in a general way,
+it may be noticed, that fair faces are by contrast best acted on by
+light colors, and dark faces by darker colors.
+
+Dark faces are best affected by darker colors, evidently because they
+tend to render the complexion fairer; and fair faces do not require dark
+colors, because the opposition would be too strong.
+
+Objects which constitute a background to the face, or which, on the
+contrary, reflect their hues upon it, always either improve or injure
+the complexion. For this and some other reasons, many persons look
+better at home in their apartments than in the streets. Apartments may,
+indeed, be peculiarly calculated to improve individual complexions.
+
+
+OF MIND.
+
+External indications as to mind may be derived from figure, from gait,
+and from dress.
+
+As to figure, a certain symmetry or disproportion of parts (either of
+which depends immediately upon the locomotive system)--or a certain
+softness or hardness of form (which belongs exclusively to the vital
+system)--these reciprocally denote a locomotive symmetry or
+disproportion--or a vital softness or hardness--or a mental delicacy or
+coarseness, which will be found also indicated by the features of the
+face.
+
+These qualities are marked in pairs, as each belonging to its respective
+system; for, without this, there can be no accurate or useful
+observation.
+
+As to gait, that progression which advances, unmodified by any lateral
+movement of the body, or any perpendicular rising of the head, and which
+belongs exclusively to the locomotive system--or that soft lateral
+rolling of the body, which belongs exclusively to the vital system--or
+that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at every impulse to
+step, which belongs exclusively to the mental system--these reciprocally
+indicate a corresponding locomotive, or vital, or mental character,
+which will be found also indicated by the features of the face.
+
+To put to the test the utility of these elements of observation and
+indication, let us take a few instances.--If, in any individual,
+locomotive symmetry of figure is combined with direct and linear gait, a
+character of mind and countenance not absolutely repulsive, but cold and
+insipid, is indicated. If vital softness of figure is combined, with a
+gentle lateral rolling of the body in its gait, voluptuous character and
+expression of countenance are indicated.--If delicacy of outline in the
+figure, be combined with perpendicular rising of the head, levity,
+perhaps vanity, is indicated.--But there are innumerable combinations
+and modifications of the elements which we have just described.
+Expressions of pride, determination, obstinacy, &c., are all observable.
+
+The gait, however, is often formed, in a great measure, by local or
+other circumstances, by which it is necessary that the observer should
+avoid being misled.
+
+Dress, as affording indications, though less to be relied on than the
+preceding, is not without its value. The woman who possesses a
+cultivated taste, and a corresponding expression of countenance, will
+generally be tastefully dressed; and the vulgar woman, with features
+correspondingly rude, will easily be seen through the inappropriate mask
+in which her milliner or dressmaker may have invested her.
+
+
+OF HABITS.
+
+External indications as to the personal habits of women are both
+numerous and interesting.
+
+The habit of child-bearing is indicated by a flatter breast, a broader
+back, and thicker cartilages of the bones of the pubis, necessarily
+widening the pelvis.
+
+The same habit is also indicated by a high rise of the nape of the neck,
+so that the neck from that point bends considerably forward, and by an
+elevation which is diffused between the neck and shoulders. These all
+arise from temporary distensions of the trunk in women whose secretions
+are powerful, from the habit of throwing the shoulders backward during
+pregnancy, and the head again forward, to balance the abdominal weight;
+and they bestow a character of vitality peculiarly expressive.
+
+The same habit is likewise indicated by an excess of that lateral
+rolling of the body in walking, which was already described as connected
+with voluptuous character. This is a very certain indication, as it
+arises from temporary distensions of the pelvis, which nothing else can
+occasion. As in consequence of this lateral rolling of the body, and of
+the weight of the body being much thrown forward in gestation, the toes
+are turned somewhat inward, they aid in the indication.
+
+The habit of nursing children is indicated, both in mothers and
+nursery-maids, by the right shoulder being larger and more elevated than
+the left.
+
+The habits of the seamstress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending
+forward, and the arms being, even in walking, considerably bent forward
+or folded more or less upward from the elbows.
+
+Habits of labor are indicated by a considerable thickness of the
+shoulders below, where they form an angle with the inner part of the
+arm; and, where these habits are of the lowest menial kind, the elbows
+are turned outward, and the palms of the hands backward.
+
+
+OF AGE.
+
+External indications of age are required chiefly where the face is
+veiled, or where the woman observed precedes the observer and may
+reasonably excite his interest.
+
+In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle have lost a certain
+moderate plumpness, and assumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the
+woman has generally passed the period of youth.
+
+If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge of the foot first
+striking the ground, it is the heel which does so, then has the woman in
+general passed the meridian of life. Unlike the last indication, this is
+apparent, however the foot and ankle may be clothed.--The reason of this
+indication is the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to receive
+the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.
+
+Exceptions to this last indication are to be found chiefly in women in
+whom the developments of the body are proportionally much greater,
+either from a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of the limbs,
+the muscles of which are consequently incapable of receiving the weight
+of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.
+
+
+
+
+_THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY_;
+
+OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS STATUE
+OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI.
+
+
+The Venus de Medici at Florence is the most perfect specimen of ancient
+sculpture remaining; and is spoken of as the Model of Female Beauty. It
+was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans, that a hundred ancient
+repetitions of this statue have been noticed by travellers. This statue
+is said to have been found in the forum of Octavia at Rome. It
+represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected.
+
+"The Venus de Medici at Florence," says a distinguished writer, "is like
+a rose which, after a beautiful daybreak, expands its leaves to the
+first ray of the sun, and represents that age when the limbs assume a
+more finished form and the breast begins to develop itself."
+
+The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave that predominance to
+the vital organs in the chest, which, as already said, makes the
+nutritive system peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most
+striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist, the principles
+of whose art taught him that a vast head is not a constituent of female
+beauty. In mentioning the head it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing
+the rich curls of hair.
+
+The eyes next fix our attention by their soft, sweet, and glad
+expression. This is produced with exquisite art. To give softness, the
+ridges of the eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness, the under eyelid,
+which I would call the expressive one, is slightly raised. To give the
+expression of gladness or of pleasure, the opening of the eyelids is
+diminished, in order to diminish, or partially to exclude, the excess of
+those impressions, which make even pleasure painful. Other exquisite
+details about those eyes, confer on them unparallelled beauty. Still,
+this look is far from those traits indicative of lasciviousness, with
+which some modern artists have thought to characterize their Venuses.
+
+Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the configuration of the nose.
+The peculiar connexion of this sense with love was evidently well
+understood by the artist. Not only is smell peculiarly associated with
+love, in all the higher animals, but it is associated with reproduction
+in plants, the majority of which evolve delicious odors only when the
+flowers or organs of fructification are displayed. Connected, indeed,
+with the capacity of the nose, and the cavities which open into it, is
+the projection of the whole middle part of the face.
+
+The mouth is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being undeveloped
+at their angles, and by the upper lip continuing so, for a considerable
+portion of its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the central
+development of both lips, and active love by the especial development of
+the lower lip. By the slight opening of the lips, it expresses desire.
+
+These exquisite details, and the omission of nothing intellectually
+expressive that nature presents, have led some to imagine the Venus de
+Medici to be a portrait. In doing so, however, they see not the profound
+calculation for every feature thus embodied. More strangely still, they
+forget the ideal character of the whole: the notion of this ideal head
+being too small, is especially opposed to such an opinion.
+
+Withal, the look is amorous and languishing, without being lascivious,
+and is as powerfully marked by gay coquetry, as by charming innocence.
+
+The young neck is exquisitely formed. Its beautiful curves show a
+thousand capabilities of motion; and its admirably-calculated swell over
+the organ of voice, results from, and marks the struggling expression of
+still mysterious love.
+
+With regard to the rest of the figure, the admirable form of the mammae,
+which, without being too large, occupy the bosom, rise from it with
+various curves on every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving
+the inferior part in each precisely as pendent as gravity demands; the
+flexile waist gently tapering little farther than the middle of the
+trunk; the lower portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher
+even than the umbilicus; the gradual expansion of the haunches, those
+expressive characteristics of the female, indicating at once her fitness
+for the office of generation and that of parturition--expansions which
+increase till they reach their greatest extent at the superior part of
+the thighs; the fulness behind their upper part, and on each side of the
+lower part of the spine, commencing as high as the waist, and
+terminating in the still greater swell of the distinctly-separated hips;
+the flat expanse between these, and immediately over the fissure of the
+hips, relieved by a considerable dimple on each side, and caused by the
+elevation of all the surrounding parts; the fine swell of the broad
+abdomen which, soon reaching its greatest height immediately under the
+umbilicus, slopes neatly to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its upper
+part, expands more widely as it descends, while, throughout, it is
+laterally distinguished by a gentle depression from the more muscular
+parts on the sides of the pelvis; the beautiful elevation of the mons
+veneris; the contiguous elevation of the thighs which, almost at their
+commencement rise as high as it does; the admirable expansion of these
+bodies inward, or toward each other, by which they almost seem to
+intrude upon each other, and to exclude each from its respective place;
+the general narrowness of the upper, and the unembraceable expansion of
+the lower part thus exquisitely formed;--all these admirable
+characteristics of female form, the mere existence of which in woman
+must, one is tempted to imagine, be even to herself, a source of
+ineffable pleasure--these constitute a being worthy, as the
+personification of beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece; present
+an object finer, alas! than nature seems even capable of producing; and
+offer to all nations and ages a theme of admiration and delight.
+
+Well might Thomson say:--
+
+  "So stands the statue that enchants the world,
+  So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
+  The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."
+
+And Byron, in yet higher strain:--
+
+  "There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills
+  The air around with beauty;
+                        within the pale
+  We stand, and in that form and face behold
+  What Mind can make, when Nature's self would fail;
+  And to the fond idolaters of old
+  Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould.
+
+  We gaze and turn away, and know not where,
+  Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart
+  Reels with its fulness; there--forever there--
+  Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art,
+  We stand as captives, and would not depart."
+
+
+THE FIRST KISS OF LOVE.
+
+BY LORD BYRON.
+
+  Away with those fictions of flimsy romance!
+    Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!
+  Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,
+    Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.
+
+  Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,
+    Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove,
+  From what blest inspiration your sonnets would flow,
+    Could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love!
+
+  I hate you, ye cold compositions of art;
+    Though prudes may condemn me, and bigots reprove,
+  I court the effusions that spring from the heart
+    Which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love.
+
+  Oh! cease to affirm that man, since his birth,
+    From Adam till now, has with wretchedness strove;
+  Some portion of paradise still is on earth,
+    And Eden revives in the first kiss of love.
+
+  When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past--
+    For years fleet away with the wings of the dove--
+  The dearest remembrance will still be the last,
+    Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.
+
+
+
+
+THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA.
+
+_See Frontispiece._
+
+The Princess of antiquity, most renowned for her personal charms, was in
+her unrivalled beauty, her mental perfections, her weaknesses, and the
+unhappy conclusion of an amorous existence the counterpart of the most
+beautiful queen of later times, the unfortunate Mary of Scotland.
+
+Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt. She was
+early given to wife to her own brother, Ptolemy Dionysius, and ascended
+the throne conjointly with him, on the death of their father. It was
+doubtless the policy of the kingdom thus to preserve all the royal
+honors in one family--the daughter being the queen, as well as the son
+king of the country. But her ambitious and intriguing spirit, restrained
+by no ties of reciprocal love to her husband, who was also her brother,
+sought for means to burst a union at once unnatural and galling: and the
+opportunity at length arrived. Julius Caesar, the conqueror of the world,
+having pursued the defeated Pompey into Egypt, there beheld Cleopatra in
+the zenith of her beauty; and he before whose power the whole world was
+kneeling, prostrated himself before a pretty woman. The following is the
+account of her first introduction to Caesar, as given by the historian.
+It shows that she had no maidenly scruples as to the mode of attaining
+her ends.
+
+Her intrigues to become sole monarch, had made her husband-brother
+banish her from the capital. Hearing of the arrival of Caesar, she got
+into a small boat, with only one male friend, and in the dusk of the
+evening made for the palace where Caesar as well as her husband lodged.
+As she saw it difficult to enter it undiscovered by her husband's
+friends, she rolled herself up in a carpet. Her companion tied her up at
+full length like a bale of goods, and carried her in at the gates to
+Caesar's apartments. This stratagem of hers, which was a strong proof of
+her wit and ingenuity, is said to have first opened her way to Caesar's
+heart, and her conquest advanced rapidly by the charms of her speech and
+person. The genius of Shakspeare has well depicted the power of her
+beauty at this time. He makes her to say, at a later period of life,
+when chagrined at the expected desertion of another lover,--
+
+          "Broad-fronted Caesar!
+  When thou wast here above the ground, I was
+  A morsel for a monarch: And great Pompey
+  Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;
+  There would he fix his longing gaze, and die
+  With looking on his life."
+
+But Cleopatra, who was not less remarkable for her cunning than for her
+beauty, knowing that Caesar was resolved to be gratified at whatever
+cost, determined that the price should be a round one: the terms of his
+admission to her arms, were that Caesar should expel her brother from the
+kingdom, and give the crown to her; which Caesar complied with. Cleopatra
+had a son by Caesar called Caesarion.
+
+In the civil wars which distracted the Roman empire after the death of
+Caesar, Cleopatra supported Brutus, against Antony and Octavius. Antony,
+in his expedition to Parthia, summoned her to appear before him. She
+arrayed herself in the most magnificent apparel, and appeared before her
+judge in the most captivating attire. Though somewhat older than when
+she drew Caesar to her arms, her charms were still conspicuous;
+
+  "Age could not wither her, nor custom stale
+  Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
+  The appetite they feed. But she made hungry
+  Where most she satisfied."
+
+Her artifice on this occasion succeeded; Antony became enamoured of her,
+and publicly married her, although his wife the sister of Octavius was
+living. He gave Cleopatra the greater part of the eastern provinces of
+the Roman empire. This behaviour was the cause of a rupture between
+Octavius and Antony; and these two celebrated generals met in battle at
+Actium, where Cleopatra, by flying with sixty sail of vessels, ruined
+the interest of Antony, and he was defeated. Cleopatra had retired to
+Egypt, where soon after Antony followed her. Antony stabbed himself upon
+the false information that Cleopatra was dead; and as his wound was not
+mortal, he was carried to the queen, who drew him up by a cord from one
+of the windows of the monument, where she had retired and concealed
+herself.
+
+Antony soon after died of his wounds, and Cleopatra, after she had
+received pressing invitations from Octavius, and even pretended
+declarations of love, destroyed herself by the bite of an asp, not to
+fall into the conqueror's hands. She had previously attempted to stab
+herself, and had once made a resolution to starve herself. But the means
+by which she destroyed herself, is said to produce the easiest of
+deaths: the Asp is a small serpent found near the river Nile, so
+delicate that it may be concealed in a fig; and when presented to the
+vitals of the body, its bite is so deadly as to render medical skill
+useless, while at the same time it is so painless, that the victim
+fancies herself dropping into a sweet slumber, instead of the arms of
+death. So Cleopatra, while she is applying the venomous reptile to her
+bosom, (as represented in the Frontispiece,) is supposed to use language
+like the following,--
+
+  "Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
+  That sucks the nurse asleep?"
+
+Thus, after having chained in her embrace the two greatest generals that
+the Roman empire had produced, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, at the
+periods when they were respectively arbiters of the world's fate,
+perished Cleopatra by her own hand.
+
+Cleopatra was a voluptuous and extravagant woman, and in one of the
+feasts she gave to Antony at Alexandria, she melted pearls into her
+drink to render the entertainment more sumptuous and expensive. She was
+fond of appearing dressed as a goddess; and she advised Antony to make
+war against the richest nations, to support her debaucheries. Her beauty
+has been greatly commended, and her mental perfections so highly
+celebrated, that she has been described as capable of giving audience to
+the ambassadors of seven different nations, and of speaking their
+various languages as fluently as her own.
+
+How vain are the possessions of beauty, power, personal and mental
+accomplishments, if to these are not united virtuous principles. All
+history, as well as all experience, is full of examples calculated to
+impress the great lesson that
+
+  "VIRTUE alone is HAPPINESS below."
+
+
+
+
+AN ESSAY ON MATRIMONY.
+
+Socrates, being asked, whether it were better for a man to marry, or to
+remain single, replied,--"Let him do either, he will repent of it."
+
+The philosopher spoke 'like an oracle,' leaving the world as much in the
+dark as to his views of the comparative advantages of matrimony and
+celibacy, as they could have been before. But a vast majority of men
+have chosen, since they must repent of one or the other, to repent of
+marrying, deeming perhaps that this repentance is "_the repentance which
+needeth not to be repented of_."
+
+We shall conclude our little treatise on "the sex," with a few remarks
+on the subject of--we were about to say--Happiness,--but as we are
+content that every married man and woman should judge for themselves as
+to the happiness of the married state, we will simply style it an ESSAY
+ON MATRIMONY.
+
+No event is more important, and none is conducted, on many occasions,
+with less prudence, than Marriage. Providence has allowed the passions
+to exercise a powerful influence in this matter, otherwise the cares and
+anxieties with which it is attended would deter most persons from
+launching their bark of earthly happiness on the great ocean of
+matrimony. But too frequently the passions are the only guide, and these
+stimulate to bewilder: they exhibit pleasing and attractive imagery, and
+then the possession destroys the bliss.
+
+Love is a pleasing but exciting passion. The eye is delighted by form,
+manners, and the expression of the features, the ears by musical
+language, and the imagination paints future joys; all of which
+contribute to one great principle, that of receiving happiness from
+those we love, and evincing love for those from whom we derive our
+happiness. As the crystal streams are absorbed by the sun, and
+distributed as brilliant clouds in the heavens, and then fall and run in
+their accustomed channels, and thus the rivers supply the clouds, and
+the vapors the rivers, so is the interchange between love and happiness.
+This will agree with the opinion that love may be occasioned suddenly,
+because enjoyment is expected; or it may arise gradually, because the
+unattractiveness which first existed, may be succeeded by attraction.
+
+There was no appointment by nature of particular persons for each other;
+but we may expect among a great variety of occurrences to meet with some
+singular and astonishing coincidences. Human beings appear to be left in
+this respect, as in many others, to their own judgment. If they act
+discreetly, they enjoy the comfort of it; but if otherwise, they bring
+upon themselves a disadvantage.
+
+The happiness arising from an union depends chiefly on the character of
+the persons who are concerned in it. If men and women were as consistent
+and virtuous as they should be, the connubial bond would be soft and
+pleasant; but as these effects do not always arise, where is the fault?
+Which is better, or more worthy, the male or the female sex? This is
+rather a difficult question; and let the palm of superior merit be
+awarded to either, the imputation of prejudice would be connected with
+the decision. But fortunately there is little difference: one varies
+from the other in particular qualities; but if the aggregate of merit be
+taken in each, the amount will not differ much. Education forms the
+principal variation: men are instructed in the more active and laborious
+employments, women in the more sedentary and domestic. Dr Southey says,
+that "if women are not formed of finer clay, there has been more of the
+dew of heaven to temper it." Richard Flecknoe, a contemporary with
+Dryden, observes of the female sex,--"I have always been conversant with
+the best and worthiest in all places where I came; and among the rest
+with ladies, in whose conversation, as in an academy of virtue, I learnt
+nothing but goodness, and saw nothing but nobleness." It must be
+granted, that women in general possess more of the sweetness and
+softness of human nature, while men are endowed with more vigorous
+virtues; women are gifted with more fortitude, and men with more valor.
+
+Jeremy Taylor says,--"Marriage hath in it the labor of love, and the
+delicacies of friendship; the blessings of society, and the union of
+hands and hearts."
+
+Cowper has also alluded to the advantages of a matrimonial settlement,--
+
+  "O friendly to the best pursuits of man,
+  Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,
+  Domestic life in rural pleasure pass'd."
+
+Marriage is frequently an union of interest: the happiness of one is
+made a source of enjoyment to the other. It is for life, because it is
+most agreeable with the inclination of mankind that friendship, esteem
+and love should be permanent. In this instance a continuance of the
+union constitutes no small part of the bliss. The expectation of a
+durable connection makes men careful, otherwise they would marry and
+unmarry every week. There is, by the arrangement of the Almighty, a
+comparative power or influence vested in the man, because, agreeably
+with all good government,--
+
+  "Some are, and must be, greater than the rest;"
+
+but then, as Dr Beattie observes, "the superiority vested by law in the
+man is compensated to the woman by that superior complaisance which is
+paid them by every man who aspires to elegance of manners." And besides
+this, the husband has frequently the nominal, while the wife has the
+actual power:--
+
+  "Like as the helme doth rule the shippe,"
+
+so she regulates all the household affairs. This is proper, when the
+husband allows it; and he ought to do so, when his wife is capable of
+managing these things; but when the inclinations of his Eve run
+perversely, when he is conscious that he has reason on his side, and she
+only folly, and yet he is vacillating and yielding, he is unmanly and
+inconsistent; he sacrifices future happiness to present peace. Every
+woman, it must be granted, is not a sensible one; and "there is
+nothing," as Lord Burleigh observed to his son, "more fulsome than a she
+foole." If Socrates had properly controlled his Xantippe before her
+disorder had increased beyond cure, it would have contributed to her
+happiness and his own. Prince Eugene observed, on one occasion, rather
+satirically, that love was a mere amusement, and calculated for nothing
+more than to enlarge the influence of the woman, and abridge the power
+of the man. Goldsmith's Hermit said to his lovely visiter,--
+
+  "And love is still an emptier sound,
+    The modern fair one's jest;
+  On earth unseen, or only found
+    To warm the turtle's nest."
+
+But love is an actual, a powerful, and a beneficial principle, if it be
+properly regulated. Among married persons there ought to be as much love
+as would induce either to yield in trifling matters; and there ought to
+be as much reason as would enable both to act correctly. Matrimony
+should be something like the union of the ivy and the oak: the latter is
+firm, and capable of supporting its more tender companion; the ivy,
+however, must follow in some measure the humors and windings of the oak;
+but they grow together, and the longer they continue the more closely
+they are united. There have been many instances of great attachment.
+Porcia, the wife of Brutus, when she heard of her husband's death
+swallowed burning coals that she might go with him. Alceste, wife of
+Admetus king of Thessaly, sacrificed herself for the safety of her
+husband. This monarch was ill; and when the oracle was consulted, it was
+declared that he would not recover except some friend would die for him;
+and as no one else would do so, the wife heroically drank a cup of
+poison. Paulina the wife of Seneca in his old age, was young, beautiful,
+and accomplished; and she was so much attached to her husband, that when
+the veins of Seneca were opened by the command of Nero, she caused her
+own to be cut, that she might also bleed to death. When Conrad III. had
+taken the town of Winsberg in Bavaria, he allowed only the women to go
+out; but they had leave to carry with them as much as they pleased. They
+loaded themselves, therefore, with their husbands and children, and
+brought them all out on their shoulders! When love is genuine; when
+professions are sincere, and the practice agreeable therewith; when
+health is enjoyed, and as many comforts as are necessary for this life;
+when children grow up in vigor, good behaviour, and mental improvement;
+when old age is solaced by the company of each other, and the kind
+attention of daughters and sons; then matrimony is a cause of
+happiness.
+
+But if all these enjoyments were the lot of every married person, men
+would become too much contented with the present life, and they would
+scarcely think, as they sail on smoothly, of the haven, for which they
+are bound. Besides, the fascinations of domestic life would attract
+them from many duties which they owe to their fellow creatures. There
+are then many disadvantages connected with matrimony. There is so
+much ignorance, perverseness, undue inclination for power, disposition
+to contradict, anger, jealousy, hatred, and versatility among human
+beings that many unpleasant occurrences will necessarily arise, and
+especially in the marriage state, because here most of these feelings
+are brought into action, and are most sensibly felt by those who are
+subject to their influence. He that paints the experience of human
+life in brilliant colors only gives a flattering and deceptive
+representation,--he may just as well pretend that the heavens are
+always cloudless. People soon discover that there are sorrows in the
+world as well as joys, unpleasant as well as pleasant events; hence
+arises the advantage of examining, of pointing out, and endeavoring
+to avoid "the ills which flesh is heir to." The perpetuity of marriage,
+under pleasing circumstances, is its most lovely character; but the
+same peculiarity, under a different aspect, is its principal source of
+misery. It is too frequently a state of bondage, "which thousands once
+fast-chained to quit no more." But what exists, and cannot be removed,
+should always be borne as patiently as possible; and thus we may keep a
+cheerful heart, when another, less prudent, would be gloomy. Besides, an
+ill temper makes every condition of life unhappy; a cheerful disposition
+will throw a gleam of sunshine over the scenery of a November day. Some
+people, very foolishly, make themselves uneasy because they are bound.
+Sir Jonah Barrington seems to think it a natural propensity. He
+says,--"The moment any two animals, however fond before, are fastened
+together by a chain they cannot break, they begin to quarrel without
+any apparent reason, and peck each other solely because they cannot get
+loose again." But it must be remembered that people enter into marriage
+with a knowledge of the permanency of the union, and perhaps they seldom
+repent, except they had been deceived; and this we may hope would not
+occur frequently. After the Romans had introduced a law of divorce, no
+respectable person, for the space of forty years, availed himself of it.
+Divorcement was much practised among the Jews, and was productive of
+great evil. One of the Jewish doctors asserted, that if a man beheld a
+woman who was handsomer than his wife, he might put away his wife and
+marry her; and thus all the wives in Judea, except the handsomest, might
+have been divorced. Josephus observes, on one occasion, very
+coolly,--"About this time I put away my wife, who had borne me three
+children, not being pleased with her manners."
+
+One cause of unhappiness in a married state, is too little affection;
+and in other instances, although affection may be possessed, it is not
+shown. Montesquieu observes, "that women commonly reserve their love for
+their husbands until their husbands are dead." Sometimes a mortal hatred
+springs up, which induces a man, like Henry VIII., to cause the murder
+of those whom he has sworn to love and preserve; or a woman, like Livia,
+to poison her husband. Not only is a great dissimilarity of rank and
+condition a cause of dislike, but a great variation in age is frequently
+the cause of distrust and unhappiness. The proportion which Aristotle
+suggests (a man of thirty-seven to a woman of eighteen,) may be
+appropriate in one respect, but it is objectionable in others. The life
+of the female is just as long as that of the male; and the union of
+middle age and youth, where the one is twice as old as the other, will
+not always allow an uniformity of feelings and disposition. The case of
+Seneca (to which we have alluded,) and that of Sir Matthew Hale, are
+exceptions. Youth is generally gay, thoughtless, and frivolous; but
+life, in more advanced periods, is sober, thoughtful, and dignified. A
+husband should not be deemed a teacher or guardian for the wife so much
+as a companion; and the wife should not be considered as guardian for
+the husband: there ought to be a mutual sympathy, and in most respects
+an equality of influence.
+
+Jealousy is a passion which allows the hapless possessor to enjoy
+neither rest nor confidence. It is frequently the companion of love.
+Shakspeare says,
+
+  "For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy
+  Doth call himself affection's sentinel."
+
+When this principle obtains possession of the breast, it destroys the
+health and spirits: the streams which gladden the heart become
+corrupted, and productive of rage and melancholy. Jealousy is like the
+snake which insidiously entwines itself around its victim; or like the
+bohun upas of Java, which diffuses death. The bright beams of hope,
+which cheered the possessor, and carried his vision to distant days and
+distant scenes of enjoyment, are all eclipsed by this pillar of
+darkness. Moliere the poet was endowed with an eminent genius--he was
+esteemed as the first wit in Europe; but his wife was faithless, and no
+enjoyment, or success, or honor could tranquillize his mind, and make
+him happy. The attractions of youth and beauty will sometimes excite an
+illicit passion, but the indulgence of this feeling is the path to
+anxiety and degradation. The female may be less faulty; but she will be
+the greater sufferer; for, with regard to her lawful companion,
+confidence is changed to timidity, love to hypocrisy, and a continual
+fear torments her, lest accident or malice should discover her
+imprudence. How dearly is the pleasure of a moment procured when it is
+purchased by years of unhappiness! On the other hand, it is extremely
+unreasonable for some persons to indulge as they do, their natural
+disposition of suspicion, and thus make others unhappy. Where virtue
+only exists, it is a most grievous hardship that the possessor should be
+subject to the penalty of vice. Nothing should be made with more caution
+than a decision in which the innocent may receive the odium which
+belongs to the guilty.
+
+Sometimes the worst sort of accomplishments are brought by a lady into
+the marriage state: she may be capable of singing admirably, of dancing,
+of painting, of performing skilfully on the harp or piano, of making
+ingenious trinkets and ornaments; all this may be well enough for an
+unmarried lady, but of what use are they in a state of matrimony? It is
+true, that if she be favored with a handsome fortune, she may indulge
+herself agreeably with her inclination, and employ others to manage her
+household affairs; but not many are thus situated; and, even in this
+case, there are duties which belong to the wife, in regard to her
+husband and children, which would occupy pretty much of her time. It is
+still worse if she be fond of dissipation,--of routs, balls, and public
+amusements; if she fly abroad in pursuit of a phantom while domestic
+enjoyment is neglected. A good wife will endeavor to make herself happy
+at home, and she will try to make all at home happy: she should endeavor
+to make the pathway of life cheerful by her smiles and attention, so
+that her husband may be delighted with his dwelling, and find it his
+happiest place; and that the children may be regulated with all
+necessary care.
+
+A good temper is essential for matrimonial happiness. An habitually
+irritable or gloomy disposition is a source of misery to the possessor
+and to others. A dark and murky cave could as well throw out a cheerful
+lustre, as a surly person communicate happiness to those around him.
+Obstinacy must not be indulged by either party; for, as the bond of
+union cannot be easily broken, if one be perverse the other must bend.
+If two trees be bound tightly together, and both be stiff, the cords
+will probably break; if not immediately, they will when the cords become
+weaker: and thus with regard to matrimony, what God has joined together,
+the perversity of human beings will put asunder. Obstinacy in trifling
+matters in the marriage state is an evidence of little love and a bad
+heart; but if trifling matters appear important, and the gaining of
+every point be as the taking of a citadel, the person is wrong in his
+judgment; he is insane, or partially so. Many worthy women have been
+cursed with worthless husbands; but, unfortunately, the grievances of
+the female sex have been less frequently known than those of the men;
+for women are not authors, and men are frequently so; consequently, in
+all estimates of the comparative merit of the sexes, it must be
+remembered that more has been said on the one side than on the other.
+Home, however, is the castle of the wife, if she be a good one; here she
+keeps her permanent abode, agreeably with the injunction of St. Paul.
+The husband is absent the principal part of his time, may there not
+therefore, on some occasions, be too greet an inclination in the lady to
+consider herself as the governor of the establishment, while the husband
+may be deemed a visiter, rather than the master? This would not arise in
+the breast of an amiable and affectionate wife, but it has sometimes
+arisen; for, unfortunately, all wives have not been good ones. Jerome
+Cardan was so unfortunate as to have a wife who was proverbial for her
+ill temper and arbitrary conduct. John Knox said of Lord Erskine, "He
+has a very Jezebel to his wife." Salmasius, the opponent of Milton, was
+made perpetually uneasy by a similar thorn. The unfortunate husband was
+a Frenchman, and Milton said (as Dr Johnson observes,) "Tu es Gallus,
+et, ut aiunt, nimium gallinaceus." Milton himself seems to have suffered
+from a similar cause, for he evinces so much hostility to the female
+sex, that no other reason would so naturally account for it. He
+exclaims,
+
+                            "O why did God,
+  Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven
+  With spirits masculine, create at last
+  This novelty on earth, this fair defect
+  Of nature, and not fill the world at once
+  With men and angels without feminine?"
+
+Milton adds a great deal more, which, if he had a high opinion of woman,
+even his anxiety to make his character of Adam consistent would not have
+demanded. An amiable temper on the part of a wife, with her own natural
+softness, and an inclination to yield in unimportant matters, will not
+only increase love, but power; for in this respect, agreeably to the
+opinion of Prince Eugene, love is power.
+
+Marriage is sometimes made a matter of mere convenience; people enter
+into it with as much indifference as they would into any other
+speculation, and when one companion dies they take another. In the book
+of Tobit we have an account of Sara, the daughter of Raguel, who had
+been favored with seven husbands, whom "Asmodeus the evil spirit had
+killed." Love must be exceedingly pliable, it must be love to man, and
+not to a man, that would suffer a woman to transfer her affections seven
+times. It would be a ludicrous occurrence, if, upon any particular
+occasion, a man's three or four wives, or a woman's three or four
+husbands, should "burst their cerements," and visit their former
+dwelling. What astonishment! What uplifted hands and distended
+eyeballs! What speechlessness and violent speeches,--reproaches and
+animosities! When the Duke of Rutland was Viceroy of Ireland, Sir John
+Hamilton attended one of his Grace's levees. "This is timely rain," said
+the Duke, "it will bring every thing above ground."--"I hope not, my
+Lord," replied Sir John, "for I have three wives there." Marriage may be
+well extended to two wives and two husbands in succession; this, in some
+cases, is necessary; but when it goes to three or four it is
+objectionable. The man who moves from place, sometimes living here and
+sometimes there, will never gain a pure and ardent love of home; by the
+same rule, a succession of wives will only induce an habitual or
+mechanical regard to the wife for the time being; in the same way as
+loyalty may be transferred from one sovereign to another. Besides, a
+family with different degrees of relationship and with different
+interests is formed, and this contributes nothing towards domestic
+tranquillity. There may be some particular cases in which the evils to
+which we have alluded may not arise; these may be deemed exceptions.
+
+There are some sorrows peculiar to matrimony; and some which, though
+they fall on other conditions of life, are felt more heavily when they
+intrude themselves within the boundary of connubial love. Poverty and
+sickness are more grievous evils under circumstances of this sort;
+because a man feels not only for himself, but for others. How dreadful
+must it be when the husband beholds his wife in squalid misery. What are
+the feelings of a mother when she sees her innocent children suffering
+from hunger! And when the iron hand of affliction presses upon the brow
+of a husband or a wife, and the sharp arrows of pain occasion groans, is
+there not an almost equal anguish is the breast of an affectionate
+partner? And when the heavy clouds of sorrow gather around at the
+anticipated separation of those who had lived in the bonds of
+harmony--when the chilly arms of death are held out to clasp him, or
+her, who had been used to a more tender embrace, how dreadful is that
+period! Is not the woe of separating generally in the same proportion as
+the bliss of uniting? And is it not a valuable loan to be paid by a
+mighty sacrifice?
+
+Unhappiness may be occasioned by indulging an undue degree of love.
+Sentimental bliss is generally followed by sentimental sorrow;
+consequently, people may love one another too ardently, so as to make
+the thought of parting a source of misery. If two plants grow up
+together, imparting to each other shelter and fragrance, it may
+contribute to their mutual advantage; but if they become so closely
+united as to grow from the same stalk, and depend on the same nutriment,
+then take away one, and both will perish. Connubial love should,
+therefore, be regulated by reason. Extremes are seldom durable. Violent
+love in the marriage state may change to hatred; and an unusual quantity
+expended on the husband or wife, may occasion a lesser degree of regard
+towards others. It is not an uncommon event for external enemies to
+occasion harmony at home; and harmony at home, or the yielding to the
+foolish notions of each other, may occasion enemies without. So
+difficult is it to act consistently, and to live in peace with all men!
+But the Scripture demands it, and we have a long period for studying our
+lesson.
+
+In matrimony it is necessary that many things should contribute to a
+permanency of enjoyment. A good temper on both sides; property enough to
+supply the wants of a family; good health; children--not too many, nor
+too few, nor all of one sex; a continuance in each other's society, till
+both pass away gradually as the twilight into darkness: but, if chilly
+poverty exert its influence; if the husband or the wife be ill-tempered;
+if he or she be unfaithful or jealous; if love be followed by hatred; if
+one be taken, and the other left in solitude; if children be imperfect
+in birth, or habitually sickly, or drop off in early years as unripe
+fruit; if sons prove vicious, and daughters bring disgrace on themselves
+and their families; if the extravagance of children bring their aged
+parents in sorrow to the grave; where, then, will be the pleasure of
+matrimony? The cares of a family, when the family is large and unruly,
+are more perplexing than the cares of a state. Cardan confessed, that
+out of four great troubles which he had experienced, two arose from his
+children. When Thales was asked why he did not marry, he replied,
+"because I want no children." One of the ancient sages was so much
+impressed with the disappointments and anxieties of matrimony, that when
+he was asked, at what time, a man should marry? replied, "If he be
+young, not yet; if older, not at all."
+
+This sentiment however, so repugnant to all our ideas of social
+improvement, as well as to the command of our Creator, who presented
+woman to man as a helpmate, because it was not good that he should live
+alone, and demanded of them to "be fruitful and multiply," will find no
+advocates except among the disappointed, the ignorant, and the
+abandoned. "The love of woman" is a feeling too deeply rooted in the
+breast of man, and the reality of domestic felicity has been too long
+tested by experience, for either to be sacrificed on the altar of the
+revilers of matrimony, whether they be libertines, weak husbands, or
+misnamed "philosophers."
+
+  The dearest boon from Heaven above,
+    Is bliss which brightly hallows home,
+  'Tis sunlight to the world of love,
+    And life's pure wine without its foam.
+  There is a sympathy of heart
+    Which consecrates the social shrine,
+  Robs grief of gloom and doth impart
+    A joy to gladness all divine.
+
+
+
+
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |                                                              |
+    | Transcriber's Note                                           |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Details    |
+    | are provided in the source of the associated html version.   |
+    | Archaic spellings have been retained.                        |
+    |                                                              |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts
+of the World, by Anonymous
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX ***
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