<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<h1></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><SPAN name="png.003" id="png.003"></SPAN><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’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.</small></p>
<div class="main">
<p class="h2"><SPAN name="png.004" id="png.004"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">v</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span><ANTIMG src="images/following.png" width-obs="296" height-obs="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>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—<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,
<SPAN name="png.005" id="png.005"></SPAN><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,—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“Oh! blest with temper whose unclouded ray</div>
<div>Can make tomorrow cheerful as to-day:</div>
<div>She who can love a sister’s charms, or hear</div>
<div>Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;</div>
<div>She who ne’er answers till a husband cools,</div>
<div>Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;</div>
<div>Charms by accepting—by submitting sways,</div>
</div></div>
<p class="pgbrk">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
<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,—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.</p>
<h2 class="secn fourem"><SPAN name="png.006" id="png.006"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">vii</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
<hr />
<table summary="Table of Contents">
<tr><td>African Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.042">43</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Adultery, <span class="nw">punishment of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.154">155</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Bathing at Rome,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.030">31</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
original reads 'Bethrothing'">Betrothing</ins> and Marriage,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.103">104</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Chinese Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.039">40</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Chinese Bridegroom,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.040">41</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>C�sar, <span class="nw">Anecdote of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.156">157</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Celibacy of the Clergy,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.159">160</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Cleopatra, <span class="nw">Death of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.198">199</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Courts of Love,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.171">172</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Courtship, ancient Swedish</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.175">176</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Courtship, Grecian</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.164">165</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Courtship, Eastern</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.167">168</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Condition of Women in the 8th Century,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.051">52</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Egyptian Women, Ancient</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.012">13</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Egyptian Women, Modern</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.014">15</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Euthira, desperate <span class="nw">act of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.161">162</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Eastern Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.036">37</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>English Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.061">62</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>First Woman,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.008">9</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Female Friendship,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.108">109</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Female Delicacy,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.029">30</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>French Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.052">53</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>French Girls,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.054">55</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Female Simplicity,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.070">71</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Female Inferiority, <span class="nw">idea of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.066">67</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Females during the age of Chivalry,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.047">48</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>First Kiss of Love,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.197">198</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Grecian Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.018">19</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>German Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.098">99</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Grecian Courtezans,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.019">20</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Greeks, religious <span class="nw">festivals of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.179">180</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Grecian Ladies, luxurious <span class="nw">dress of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.163">164</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Girls sold at Auction,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.152">153</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Husbands, on the <span class="nw">choice of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.113">114</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Italian Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.056">57</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Influence of female society,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.082">83</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Immodesty at Babylon,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.172">173</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Indecency at Adrianople,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.174">175</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Lucretia and Virginia,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.181">182</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Ladies of Lapland and Greenland,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.176">177</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Matrimony, an <span class="nw">essay on</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.202">203</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Matrimony among the French</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.054">55</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Matrimony in three different lights,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.102">103</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Magnanimity of Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.076">77</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Monastic Life,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.088">89</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Marriage Brokers at Genoa,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.059">60</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Marrying, <span class="nw">power of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.158">159</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Noah’s three sons,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.042">43</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Nuptial Ceremonies,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.065">66</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>On looking at the picture of a beautiful female,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.182">183</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Persian Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.016">17</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Philtres and charms, <span class="nw">power of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.166">167</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Roman Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.023">24</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Roman Oppian Law,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.028">29</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Russian Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.064">65</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Spanish Women,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.059">60</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>St. Valentine’s Day,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.170">171</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Sentimental Attachment,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.091">92</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Sale of <span class="nw">a wife</span>,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.153">154</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Saxons and Danes, long <span class="nw">hair of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.169">170</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Venus de Medici,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.193">194</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Women, Art of determining the figure, beauty, habits,
and the <span class="nw">age of</span></td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.184">185</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Women in the Patriarchal ages,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.009">10</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Woman in Savage Life,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.031">32</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Woman in times of Chivalry,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.044">45</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td>Women in Asia and Africa,</td><td class="pg"><SPAN href="#png.078">79</SPAN></td></tr>
</table>
<div class="poem pgbrk">
<div class="stanza">
<div><SPAN name="png.007" id="png.007"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">viii</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span>“<span class="smc">Sketches</span> indeed, from that most passionate page,</div>
<div>A woman’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’ercast with clouds; now dark, now touched with light,</div>
<div>With rainbows, sunshine, showers, moonlight, stars,</div>
<div>Chasing each other’s change. I fain would trace</div>
<div>Its brightness and its blackness.”</div>
</div></div>
<h1><SPAN name="png.008" id="png.008"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">9</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span>SKETCHES OF “THE SEX.”</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, “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.</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, “Ye
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
ye die.”</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><SPAN name="png.009" id="png.009"></SPAN><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’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: “Make ready quickly,” said
<SPAN name="png.010" id="png.010"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">11</span><span class="ns">]
</span>he to her, “three measures of fine meal, knead
it, and make cakes on the hearth.”</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’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?</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
<SPAN name="png.011" id="png.011"></SPAN><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, “I am
Ruth, thine handmaid; spread, therefore, thy
skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near
kinsman.”</p>
<p>When Jacob went to visit his uncle Laban,
he met Rachel, Laban’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"><SPAN name="png.012" id="png.012"></SPAN><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’s
<SPAN name="png.013" id="png.013"></SPAN><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’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.</p>
<hr class="secn" />
<h2 class="secn"><SPAN name="png.014" id="png.014"></SPAN><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’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:—“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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.015" id="png.015"></SPAN><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’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’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!”</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
<SPAN name="png.016" id="png.016"></SPAN><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, “God keep you in health!
Heaven grant you a numerous offspring! Heaven
preserve your children; the delight and
glory of your family!”</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
<SPAN name="png.017" id="png.017"></SPAN><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,
“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.</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><SPAN name="png.018" id="png.018"></SPAN><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, “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.”</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"><SPAN name="png.019" id="png.019"></SPAN><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—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
<SPAN name="png.020" id="png.020"></SPAN><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, “What he had been a whole year in
erecting, a woman overturned in a day.” That
<SPAN name="png.021" id="png.021"></SPAN><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—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
<SPAN name="png.022" id="png.022"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">23</span><span class="ns">]
</span>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.”</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"><SPAN name="png.023" id="png.023"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.024" id="png.024"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.025" id="png.025"></SPAN><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 Cann�, 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’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, ’till they learned to exceed
esteem itself. For in all countries, in proportion
<SPAN name="png.026" id="png.026"></SPAN><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’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 <em>paleness</em>, which
proved that part of her blood had sympathetically
issued with the blood of her spouse.”</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
<SPAN name="png.027" id="png.027"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.028" id="png.028"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.029" id="png.029"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.030" id="png.030"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.031" id="png.031"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.032" id="png.032"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.033" id="png.033"></SPAN><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:—“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
<SPAN name="png.034" id="png.034"></SPAN><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.”</p>
<p>“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.”</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,
<SPAN name="png.035" id="png.035"></SPAN><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,
“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.”</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"><SPAN name="png.036" id="png.036"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.037" id="png.037"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.038" id="png.038"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.039" id="png.039"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.040" id="png.040"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">41</span><span class="ns">]
</span>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.</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
<SPAN name="png.041" id="png.041"></SPAN><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’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"><SPAN name="png.042" id="png.042"></SPAN><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.—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: “Noah,”
say they, “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
<SPAN name="png.043" id="png.043"></SPAN><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.”</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><SPAN name="png.044" id="png.044"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.045" id="png.045"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.046" id="png.046"></SPAN><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.—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
<SPAN name="png.047" id="png.047"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.048" id="png.048"></SPAN><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,
<SPAN name="png.049" id="png.049"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.050" id="png.050"></SPAN><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, “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.</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
<SPAN name="png.051" id="png.051"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.052" id="png.052"></SPAN><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>“<i>If partial nature has denied me beauty, the
charms of my mind amply make up for the deficiency.</i>”</p>
<p><SPAN name="png.053" id="png.053"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.054" id="png.054"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.055" id="png.055"></SPAN><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 “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.</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. “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 <em>nine</em> of them, while her
husband was gathering the other <em>three</em>.”</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, “I
could compare them to nothing but a large bed
of pionies.”</p>
<p>After the French revolution, it became the
<SPAN name="png.056" id="png.056"></SPAN><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">“Could nature’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><SPAN name="png.057" id="png.057"></SPAN><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’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">“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’ 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’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’d the date,</div>
<div>When commerce proudly flourish’d thro’ the state;</div>
<div>At her command the palace learn’d to rise,</div>
<div>Again the long fall’n column sought the skies;</div>
<div>The canvass glow’d, beyond e’en nature warm;</div>
<div>The pregnant quarry teem’d with human form.</div>
<div>Till, more unsteady then the southern gale,</div>
<div>Commerce on other shores display’d her sail;</div>
<div>While naught remain’d of all that riches gave,</div>
<div>But towns unmann’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">“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’n mind</div>
<div>An easy compensation seem to find.</div>
<div>Here may be seen in bloodless pomp array’d,</div>
<div>The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade;</div>
<div>Processions form’d from piety and love,</div>
<div>A mistress or a saint in every grove.”</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
<SPAN name="png.058" id="png.058"></SPAN><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 Proven�al troubadours, that matrimony
ought to be no hindrance to such <i>liaisons</i>, seems
to be generally and practically believed in Italy.</p>
<p><SPAN name="png.059" id="png.059"></SPAN><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,
&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
<SPAN name="png.060" id="png.060"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.061" id="png.061"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">62</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span>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 <i>ragout</i> 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 <em>heart</em> 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.</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
<SPAN name="png.062" id="png.062"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.063" id="png.063"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.064" id="png.064"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.065" id="png.065"></SPAN><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,
<SPAN name="png.066" id="png.066"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.067" id="png.067"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.068" id="png.068"></SPAN><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—“In the Revelations
of St. John the divine,” said one, whose
wife was a descendant of the famous Xantippe,<sup><SPAN href="#fn.1"
name="fna.1" id="fna.1">1</SPAN></sup>
“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
<SPAN name="png.069" id="png.069"></SPAN><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.”</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: “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.”</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>“Men some to pleasure, some to business take;</div>
<div>But every woman is at heart—a rake.”</div>
</div></div>
<p><SPAN name="png.070" id="png.070"></SPAN><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. “Almost every man,” says he,
“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?”</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><SPAN href="#fna.1" name="fn.1" id="fn.1">1</SPAN>
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
<SPAN name="png.071" id="png.071"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.072" id="png.072"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.073" id="png.073"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.074" id="png.074"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.075" id="png.075"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.076" id="png.076"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.077" id="png.077"></SPAN><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>“Fine by defect, and admirably weak.”</div>
</div></div>
<p>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,
<SPAN name="png.078" id="png.078"></SPAN><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—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"><SPAN name="png.079" id="png.079"></SPAN><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,
<SPAN name="png.080" id="png.080"></SPAN><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 Act�on
and Diana. Act�on, 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
<SPAN name="png.081" id="png.081"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.082" id="png.082"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.083" id="png.083"></SPAN><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.
<SPAN name="png.084" id="png.084"></SPAN><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. “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.”</p>
<p>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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.085" id="png.085"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.086" id="png.086"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">87</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span>“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 <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,
<SPAN name="png.087" id="png.087"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.088" id="png.088"></SPAN><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 “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.”</p>
<p><SPAN name="png.089" id="png.089"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.090" id="png.090"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.091" id="png.091"></SPAN><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. “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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.092" id="png.092"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.093" id="png.093"></SPAN><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. “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.</p>
<p>“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.”</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. “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
<SPAN name="png.094" id="png.094"></SPAN><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.”</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. “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,
<SPAN name="png.095" id="png.095"></SPAN><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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.096" id="png.096"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.097" id="png.097"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.098" id="png.098"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.099" id="png.099"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.100" id="png.100"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.101" id="png.101"></SPAN><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’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"><SPAN name="png.102" id="png.102"></SPAN><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’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’s
person and conduct. In company they are in
purgatory; when by themselves, in hell.</p>
<p>The happy marriage is, where two persons
<SPAN name="png.103" id="png.103"></SPAN><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’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—“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
<SPAN name="png.104" id="png.104"></SPAN><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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>By the institution of Moses, the Rabbies tell us
the contract of marriage was read in the presence
<SPAN name="png.105" id="png.105"></SPAN><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: “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.</p>
<p>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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.106" id="png.106"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.107" id="png.107"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.108" id="png.108"></SPAN><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>Tabul� Dotales</i> (dowry tables;)
and hence, perhaps the words in our
marriage ceremony, “I thee endow.”</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
<SPAN name="png.109" id="png.109"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.110" id="png.110"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.111" id="png.111"></SPAN><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><SPAN name="png.112" id="png.112"></SPAN><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"><SPAN name="png.113" id="png.113"></SPAN><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’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’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’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’ll make,</div>
<div class="i6">How like Momus he’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’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"><SPAN name="png.114" id="png.114"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">115</span><span class="ns">]
</span>But ’tis losing your time,</div>
<div class="i6">He’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">’Tis the blasphemous crew:</div>
<div class="i6">What a pattern they’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’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>“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 <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
original reads 'rediculous'">ridiculous</ins> opinion, <i>a reformed libertine
makes the best husband</i>—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
<SPAN name="png.115" id="png.115"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.116" id="png.116"></SPAN><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’s torment,
but the object of contempt to your family, and to
your acquaintance.</p>
<p>“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
<SPAN name="png.117" id="png.117"></SPAN><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>“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>“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
<SPAN name="png.118" id="png.118"></SPAN><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>“Never be prevailed with, my dear, to give
<SPAN name="png.119" id="png.119"></SPAN><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>“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
<SPAN name="png.120" id="png.120"></SPAN><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>“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>—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>“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
<SPAN name="png.121" id="png.121"></SPAN><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—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
<SPAN name="png.122" id="png.122"></SPAN><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>“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!</p>
<p>“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.
<SPAN name="png.123" id="png.123"></SPAN><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>“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,
<SPAN name="png.124" id="png.124"></SPAN><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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.125" id="png.125"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.126" id="png.126"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.127" id="png.127"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.128" id="png.128"></SPAN><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’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 <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—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.</p>
<hr class="secn" />
<h2 class="secn"><SPAN name="png.129" id="png.129"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">130</span><span class="ns">]<br/></span>GARRICK’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’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’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’d, complying and kind,</div>
<div>Turn the chief of your care from your face to your mind;</div>
<div>’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"><SPAN name="png.130" id="png.130"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.131" id="png.131"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.132" id="png.132"></SPAN><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, “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
<SPAN name="png.133" id="png.133"></SPAN><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, “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.”</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
“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
<SPAN name="png.134" id="png.134"></SPAN><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: “He has placed this veil before
my face that I should see no lover but himself.”</p>
<p>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.”</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 “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.”</p>
<p>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 <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.”
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"><SPAN name="png.135" id="png.135"></SPAN><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’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’d,</div>
<div><ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
original reads 'Easual'">Casual</ins> fruition; nor in court amours,</div>
<div>Mix’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
<SPAN name="png.136" id="png.136"></SPAN><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"><SPAN name="png.137" id="png.137"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.138" id="png.138"></SPAN><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:
<SPAN name="png.139" id="png.139"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.140" id="png.140"></SPAN><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, “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.</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
<SPAN name="png.141" id="png.141"></SPAN><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"><SPAN name="png.142" id="png.142"></SPAN><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><SPAN href="#fn.2"
name="fna.2" id="fna.2">2</SPAN></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
C�sar, 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,
<SPAN name="png.143" id="png.143"></SPAN><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><SPAN href="#fna.2" name="fn.2" id="fn.2">2</SPAN> Masonry</p>
</div>
<hr class="secn" />
<h2 class="secn"><SPAN name="png.144" id="png.144"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.145" id="png.145"></SPAN><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;
<SPAN name="png.146" id="png.146"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.147" id="png.147"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.148" id="png.148"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.149" id="png.149"></SPAN><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’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><SPAN name="png.150" id="png.150"></SPAN><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 Sab�ans 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><SPAN href="#fn.3"
name="fna.3" id="fna.3">3</SPAN></sup>
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 <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
<SPAN name="png.151" id="png.151"></SPAN><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’er will I commend</div>
<div>More beds, more wives than one, nor children curs’d</div>
<div>With double mothers, banes and plagues of life.</div>
</div></div>
<p>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><SPAN href="#fna.3" name="fn.3" id="fn.3">3</SPAN>
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’s sake.</p>
<hr class="secn" />
<h2 class="secn"><SPAN name="png.152" id="png.152"></SPAN><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.—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"><SPAN name="png.153" id="png.153"></SPAN><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>“<i>Sale of a wife at Carlisle</i>—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’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
<SPAN name="png.154" id="png.154"></SPAN><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’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 <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.”</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.
<SPAN name="png.155" id="png.155"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.156" id="png.156"></SPAN><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 C�SAR.</h2>
<p><span class="smc">When</span> C�sar 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
<SPAN name="png.157" id="png.157"></SPAN><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 Popp�an 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
<SPAN name="png.158" id="png.158"></SPAN><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.
<SPAN name="png.159" id="png.159"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.160" id="png.160"></SPAN><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"><SPAN name="png.161" id="png.161"></SPAN><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 Phœnicia 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
<SPAN name="png.162" id="png.162"></SPAN><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"><SPAN name="png.163" id="png.163"></SPAN><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,
<SPAN name="png.164" id="png.164"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.165" id="png.165"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.166" id="png.166"></SPAN><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,
<SPAN name="png.167" id="png.167"></SPAN><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 C�sonia; 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,
<SPAN name="png.168" id="png.168"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.169" id="png.169"></SPAN><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.
“He rebuked,” says William of Malmsbury, “the
wicked of all ranks with great boldness, but was
<em>peculiarly</em> severe upon those who were proud of
<SPAN name="png.170" id="png.170"></SPAN><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.”</ins></p>
<hr class="secn" />
<h2 class="secn">ST. VALENTINE’S DAY.</h2>
<p><span class="smc">On</span> 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
<SPAN name="png.171" id="png.171"></SPAN><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’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.</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,
“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
<SPAN name="png.172" id="png.172"></SPAN><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’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
<SPAN name="png.173" id="png.173"></SPAN><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: “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
<SPAN name="png.174" id="png.174"></SPAN><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"><SPAN name="png.175" id="png.175"></SPAN><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’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.”</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
<SPAN name="png.176" id="png.176"></SPAN><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 Sac�, 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’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
<SPAN name="png.177" id="png.177"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">178</span><span class="ns">]
</span>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.</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,
<SPAN name="png.178" id="png.178"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.179" id="png.179"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.180" id="png.180"></SPAN><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. Athen�us 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
<SPAN name="png.181" id="png.181"></SPAN><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 P�tus,
being condemned to death, plunged a dagger
in her breast, and told him, with a dying voice,
“P�tus, it is not painful.” But the death of Lucretia
gave rise to a revolution, and it therefore
became illustrious; though, as St. Augustine justly
<SPAN name="png.182" id="png.182"></SPAN><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’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’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 ’tis veil’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’d, adored, and prais’d,</div>
<div>Now mingles with the dust from whence ’twas raised.</div>
<div>No more soft dimpling smiles those cheeks adorn,</div>
<div>Whose rosy tincture sham’d the rising morn;</div>
<div><SPAN name="png.183" id="png.183"></SPAN><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’d by death’s impartial hand,</div>
<div>Charms could not bribe, nor beauty’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’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’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’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’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’rous heart with friendship’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’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"><SPAN name="png.184" id="png.184"></SPAN><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>—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, &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><SPAN name="png.185" id="png.185"></SPAN><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>—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>—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.—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,
<SPAN name="png.186" id="png.186"></SPAN><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, &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
<SPAN name="png.187" id="png.187"></SPAN><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.—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 <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><SPAN name="png.188" id="png.188"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.189" id="png.189"></SPAN><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)—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.</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
<SPAN name="png.190" id="png.190"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">191</span><span class="ns">]
</span>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.</p>
<p>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.</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"><SPAN name="png.191" id="png.191"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.192" id="png.192"></SPAN><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.—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"><SPAN name="png.193" id="png.193"></SPAN><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>“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.”</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><SPAN name="png.194" id="png.194"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.195" id="png.195"></SPAN><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 mamm�, 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
<SPAN name="png.196" id="png.196"></SPAN><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;—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.</p>
<p>Well might Thomson say:—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“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.”</div>
</div></div>
<p>And Byron, in yet higher strain:—</p>
<div class="poem pgbrk">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“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’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—forever there—</div>
<div>Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art,</div>
<div>We stand as captives, and would not depart.”</div>
</div></div>
<h2 class="secn fourem"><SPAN name="png.197" id="png.197"></SPAN><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—</div>
<div class="i2">For years fleet away with the wings of the dove—</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"><SPAN name="png.198" id="png.198"></SPAN><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 <SPAN href="#png.001">Frontispiece</SPAN>.</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—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 C�sar, 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
C�sar, 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.
<SPAN name="png.199" id="png.199"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">200</span><span class="ns">]
</span>Hearing of the arrival of C�sar, she got into a small
boat, with only one male friend, and in the dusk of the
evening made for the palace where C�sar 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 C�sar’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 C�sar’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,—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div class="i10">“Broad-fronted C�sar!</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.”</div>
</div></div>
<p>But Cleopatra, who was not less remarkable for her
cunning than for her beauty, knowing that C�sar 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 C�sar should
expel her brother from the kingdom, and give the
crown to her; which C�sar complied with. Cleopatra
had a son by C�sar called C�sarion.</p>
<p>In the civil wars which distracted the Roman empire
after the death of C�sar, 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
<SPAN name="png.200" id="png.200"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">201</span><span class="ns">]
</span>than when she drew C�sar to her arms, her charms
were still conspicuous;</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“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.”</div>
</div></div>
<p>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’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
<SPAN name="png.201" id="png.201"></SPAN><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,—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,</div>
<div>That sucks the nurse asleep?”</div>
</div></div>
<p>Thus, after having chained in her embrace the two
greatest generals that the Roman empire had produced,
Julius C�sar and Mark Antony, at the periods
when they were respectively arbiters of the world’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">“<span class="smc">Virtue</span> alone is <span class="smc">Happiness</span> below.”</p>
<h2 class="chap"><SPAN name="png.202" id="png.202"></SPAN><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,—“Let
him do either, he will repent of it.”</p>
<p>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 “<i>the repentance which needeth
not to be repented of</i>.”</p>
<p>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 <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><SPAN name="png.203" id="png.203"></SPAN><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
<SPAN name="png.204" id="png.204"></SPAN><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 “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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>Cowper has also alluded to the advantages of a
matrimonial settlement,—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“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’d.”</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
<SPAN name="png.205" id="png.205"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">206</span><span class="ns">]
</span>vested in the man, because, agreeably with all
good government,—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“Some are, and must be, greater than the rest;”</div>
</div></div>
<p>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:—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“Like as the helme doth rule the shippe,”</div>
</div></div>
<p>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,—</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div>“And love is still an emptier sound,</div>
<div class="i2">The modern fair one’s jest;</div>
<div>On earth unseen, or only found</div>
<div class="i2">To warm the turtle’s nest.”</div>
</div></div>
<p>But love is an actual, a powerful, and a beneficial
<SPAN name="png.206" id="png.206"></SPAN><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’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><SPAN name="png.207" id="png.207"></SPAN><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,—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
<SPAN name="png.208" id="png.208"></SPAN><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.” 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.”</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, “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
<SPAN name="png.209" id="png.209"></SPAN><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>“For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy</div>
<div>Doth call himself affection’s sentinel.”</div>
</div></div>
<p>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
<SPAN name="png.210" id="png.210"></SPAN><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,—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
<SPAN name="png.211" id="png.211"></SPAN><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, “He
<SPAN name="png.212" id="png.212"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">213</span><span class="ns">]
</span>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,</p>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<div class="i20">“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?”</div>
</div></div>
<p>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 “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
<SPAN name="png.213" id="png.213"></SPAN><span class="ns">[p</span><span class="pgmark">214</span><span class="ns">]
</span>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 <ins class="TN" title="Transcriber's note:
original has an extraneous closing quote">Duke,</ins> “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.</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
<SPAN name="png.214" id="png.214"></SPAN><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—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—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
<SPAN name="png.215" id="png.215"></SPAN><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, “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.”</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 “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.”</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>’Tis sunlight to the world of love,</div>
<div class="i2">And life’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>
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