trodden.

This position will hold true in regard to every nation in all ages. Let the reader accompany me in a brief survey of the condition of wives in different countries.

In no part of the world are the people more ignorant than in Hindostan, and in no part of the world does the condition of woman appear more dreary. "When they are married, their husbands have despotic control over them. If unable to support them, they lend or sell them to a neighbor; and in the Hindoo rage for gambling, wives and children are frequently staked and lost. If they survive their husbands, they must pay implicit obedience to the oldest son. If they have no sons, the nearest male relative holds them in subjection; and if there happen to be no kinsman, they must be dependant on the chief of the tribe." "In Siberia, women are not allowed to eat with men, or to partake of particular dainties. It is considered a wife's duty to obey the most capricious and unreasonable commands of her husband, without one word of expostulation or inquiry. If her master be dissatisfied with the most trifling particular in her conduct, he tears the cap or veil from her head, and this constitutes a divorce." The Druses, who inhabit the mountains called AntiLibanus, divorce their wives upon the most trivial provocation. If a wife requests permission of her husband to make a visit to her friends, and he says "go," without adding, "but come back again," she is divorced!

The degrading and laborious occupations im posed upon wives, in ancient ages and in barbarous countries, evince the estimation in which they were held by their husbands. The Jewish women, in former ages, were not only compelled to spin and weave cloth for garments and for the covering of tents, but also to tend the flocks, to grind the corn, and draw water from the wells. The reader of the Scriptures cannot fail to remember numerous instances where allusion is made to these occupations of females. When Abraham's messenger met Rebekah, who afterwards became the wife of Isaac, she drew water from the well with her pitcher, for all his camels to drink -a task of no small labor. We learn from Homer's Iliad, that the Trojan women, even of high rank, were made to perform the most menial offices. Andromache, though a princess, and well beloved by her husband, fed and took care of the horses of Hector. In China, the women endure as much or more labor and fatigue, than the men. It is said that a wife sometimes drags the plough in rice-fields, with an infant tied upon her back, while her husband performs the less arduous task of holding the plough. In Tartary it is a prevalent opinion among the men, that women were sent into the world for no purpose but to be their servants and slaves; and they treat them as such. And a similar idea seems to prevail among our North American Indians.-They compel their wives to carry the burdens, to cultivate the corn, and perform all the

abor and drudgery which their wants require. In the fall of 1837, a delegation of Western Indians visited Boston, Mass. During their interview with the Governor, one of the chiefs was presented with a splendid rifle, which he viewed with all the pleasure of a connoisseur. On leaving the presence of the Governor, he placed the heavy weapon in the hands of his wife, and strided out with all imaginable dignity, while she servilely followed with her burden, both seeming to view the transaction as a matter of the utmost propriety.

The low estimation placed upon wives in ignorant ages and among barbarous tribes, is undoubtedly owing, in no small degree, to the manner of procuring them. In most cases, love had little or no influence in the selection. It was viewed as a matter of business, of interest, or convenience. Among the Jews, whoever wished to procure a wife, must purchase her of her parents by valua ble presents, or by performing a stipulated period of service. Thus Isaac bestowed rich gifts upon the parents of Rebekah, and Jacob served Laban, the father of Rachel, fourteen years before he could obtain her. "In Babylon, they had a yearly custom of a peculiar kind. In every district, three men, respectable for their virtue, were chosen to conduct all the marriageable girls to the public assembly. Here they were put up at auction by the public crier, while the magistrate presided over the sales. The most beautiful were sold first,

and the rich contended eagerly for the choice. The most ugly and deformed girl was sold next in succession to the handsomest, and assigned to any person who would take her with the least sum of money.--The price given for the beautiful was divided into dowries for the homely." Even the English colonists in the East Indies have indulged in the practice of purchasing, or rather of gambling for, wives. In September, 1818, the following shameful advertisement appeared in the Calcutta Advertiser-“Females raffled for.-Be it known, that six fair, pretty young ladies, with two sweet, engaging children, lately imported from Europe, having the roses of health blooming on their cheeks, and joy sparkling in their eyes, possessing amiable tempers, and highly accomplished, whom the most indifferent cannot behold without rapture, are to be raffled for, next door to the British Gallery." It is not at all astonishing that wives procured in this manner should be estimated exceedingly low, and should be treated with contempt and contumely.

The degrading rank to which women have been confined-the low occupations to which they have been subjected-the numerous restraints of a servile character which have been imposed upon them the obstacles which have always been thrown in the way of their moral and intellectual improvement-have combined to produce a deep and enduring impression, which continues to a great extent to the present hour, that their natural

capabilities are greatly inferior to man's. That men, as a class, during the progress of our race thus far, have exhibited more intellect than women, cannot be doubted. But this, I apprehend, is to be attributed more to the character of their pursuits and their peculiar privileges and advantages, than to any striking disparity of mental endowment made by nature between the sexes. I do not assert that women generally exhibit the same strength and compass of mind as men. It probably is not so. In mathematics, and the more abstruse sciences, as a general rule, they nave been outstripped by their male competitors. But has the trial been a fair one ?-have the parties possessed equal advantages and facilities? Allowing what we have, it must nevertheless be allowed, that in quickness of discernment, in readiness to acquire, in brilliancy of imagination, in vivacity of thought, in chasteness of conception, in all that is ornamental, beautiful, and bright, the mind of woman, whenever it has had an opportunity to develop itself, has far excelled that of the coarser sex! As the Creator endows different individuals with different characteristics, so has he bestowed upon each sex certain diversified peculiarities of excellence. To some extent, the minds of the two sexes differ, as do their bodies. While the mind of man is strong, nervous, and often coarse, that of woman is symmetrical, elastic, and beautiful. Providence here, as in all other respects, exhibits its strict impartiality in equally, yet dif