I do not believe that either sex, were it totally uninfluenced by the other, would ever think of labouring, from natural motives, at the task of ameliorating its native disposition. Mankind would, therefore, continue, for ever, with their moral character, in a rude, uncultivated state, were it not for the types that persons of the stronger sex bear in mind, concerning what those of the weaker ought to be, and for the efforts made by them to engage women to realize them; from which efforts a powerful re-action ensues, that operates to the improvement of their own hearts. Their pas

sions, contracted sentiments and selfish pride often, indeed, cause them to be the corrupters, instead of the reformers, of women's disposition; but, though the rules, which they lay down for their government, too frequently issue in part from a polluted source, greatly prejudiced must that person be, by indignation at their occasional abuse of power over the fair sex, who does not recognise that the laws which they promulgate for the regulation of women's conduct, spring partly from a deep felt, disinterested desire to see them such as they should be, to fulfil the eternal decrees of virtue.

Were there no presiding laws of virtue in the heart of either men or women, to regulate the conditions of their intercourse together, their frequentation of each other's society would, constantly lead, as it too often does now, to vicious licentiousness.

BOOK IV.

CONTENTS.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

I HAVE, in several passages of this work, when pointing out various phenomena in the moral character of mankind, remarked the desiderata which ought to be achieved by their governments, in order to take a virtuous, well regulated ascendency over those of their dispositions whence the said phenomena proceed.

I believe that, if governments cautiously founded and developed the national institutions of the people committed to their charge, consonantly with the principles which I have laid down, they would find themselves, at length, conducted by them to all those moral desiderata to which I allude, the attainment of which I conceive to be necessary, towards impressing on a nation a truly wise, virtuous character.

I shall not, however, attempt to extend so far the sketch which I have drawn of the frame-work of good civil and moral institutions, as to explain the mode in which a system of this nature could have for result effectually to introduce into the national character the desiderata in question.

I have only commented on the advantages which would ensue from their practical realization, and from the universal establishment, by these means, of a just counterbalance between the various passions and orderly inclinations of mankind, for the sake of setting, in a clear light, the principles which ought to regulate a well organized society, and the moral aims to the fulfilment of which it should aspire.

I have now completed the exposition that I wished to offer to the attentive reader of the plan, conformably to which, government, according to my conceptions, should begin its arrangements for giving a constitution to society, at present it seems to me to have none,-whenever the time is ripe for doing so. I make no doubt that if ever, attentive to these suggestions, it actually forms agreeably to them the first nu

cleus of a social corps, it will afterwards discern how it ought to nourish it, and make it take increment, till it arrive at its full growth; without any departure from the primary laws of its organization.

I might, therefore now conclude, were it not that I still wish to expose some abstract opinions which, I think, ought to be kept in view by those who may have the will and the power to new model society.

To the disclosure of them I shall, therefore, dedicate the remainder of this work.

CHAPTER I.

IN IRELAND, THE MALE AND FEMALE CHARACTER MORE FAIRLY CORRESPOND TO EACH OTHER, THAN IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY.

If the reader have paid attention to the lines of distinction which, in the second part of this work,-I have drawn between national characters; as also to those on which I have in this part, endeavoured to fix his attention, as considering them to exist between the mental organization of men and women, he must recognise that I describe the two sexes as corresponding more to each other, by their mental constitution, in Ireland, than in any other country.

In fact, it does appear to me that Irishmen, owing to the comparatively weak hold that a steady principle of ambition has on their mind, offer, by their character, a more analogous, sympathizing counterpart to Irishwomen, than do the men whom I have observed of any other country, to the females thereof.

As no nation allows a strong, regular principle of personal ambition, to unfold itself in the breast of women, where men are much governed by it, it so modifies, and takes such an ascendency in their character, as to cause them to nourish their thoughts with totally different aliments from those which their females do; making the two sexes, in some respects, appear as if they were of a different species.

Irishmen, are further impelled to sympathize strongly with their females, and to yield to the empire of analogous passions, by their metaphysically directed imagination.

All women, considered as such, are inclined to give their imagination that direction: that is, they are more solicitous to read the naked feelings of the heart of the person whom they observe, than to study them in the effect that they produce, when they express themselves by outward signs; though, proportionably to the distinction of imagination prevailing in their country, they, more or less, aid themselves in deciphering the language of those feelings, by fixing their attention on the varieties of the soul's expression, as it gleams through the external figure.

When, therefore, the imagination of a people universally flows towards metaphysical objects, it is easy to conceive that men and women should have the more inducement to a similar occupation of their thoughts, and that they should have greater facility in comprehending each other's manner of viewing all subjects, connected with the study of human nature. Subjects of this nature always did, and always will, principally attract the attention of women.

A metaphysically directed imagination naturally has a tendency to arrest the thoughts of its possessor on the observation of isolated, unconnected facts; for it disposes him to study the mental constitution of every person who passes in review before him, with as intense an interest, as if his ultimate aim in doing so, were, simply, to become acquainted with it.

However, men disdain allowing their thoughts to be immersed in detailed observations on the character of individuals. They seek to generalize their remarks on it, and to extract from them principles concerning the mental constitution of mankind, and the mode of dealing with them. In thus moving, from detailed observations on individuals, towards general maxims touching the nature of the government suited to mankind, the men of the various countries in which imagination is metaphysically disposed, probably stop finally at very different terms, leaving more or less behind them the point whence they originally started. Some may be more inclined to consider human nature abstractly, and to investigate the method of

preserving a great nation, by means of a good public government, in a flourishing state.

Others may like to study it more concretely in the persons of their neighbourhood, and to meditate on the civil or municipal laws by which their prosperity would be best secured.

The ambition of some may incline them, when they reflect on their relations with mankind, ardently to desire either that themselves in particular, or their country in general, may attain to a very triumphant pre-eminence over other individuals or countries. While others may be diverted, in consequence of the want of ambition, and on account of having a sociable temper, from forming any very enterprising desire to aggrandize either themselves or their country.

The mind of Irishmen-as I have already remarked in the second part,-proceeds, I believe, as little beyond the point, at which the character of each individual is the object most present to the thoughts, as that of any men whatever.in Though it be capacious, so as commonly to amuse itself by vast contemplations on the ways of great nations, yet does it settle, almost exclusively, with real interest, on matters concerning particular, familiarly known, societies. It thinks much more of a joyous life amidst a circle of acquaintance, than of ambitious views relatively either to public or private interests.

These distinctive features of the disposition of Irishmen, tend to render it singularly responsive to that of their fe males: the faults, in consequence, of the two sexes, present, in Ireland, a peculiar analogy. Both are tempted, by a metaphysically bent imagination, to apprehend what passes in a neighbour's mind, with a vivacity, a suspicious dread of its sentiments, and a desire arbitrarily to model them, which often kindle in them a fiery ill will. In both, imagination, not sufficiently occupied by studying the naked feelings of mankind, lies in a great measure idle, and is tempted into a wild unsettled, capricious mode of acting. By forming, in both, sometimes transitory, sometimes durable alliances with their ambition to shine in society, it seduces them into picturing to themselves the effect which they produce in it, when they ought merely to be occupied in giving to their genuine, art