naturally accompanies a rational hope, namely, the fear of its miscarriage. They are so eagerly disposed to be led by hope, that, when under a criminal form, this passion solicits them to comply with its dictates, they are not deterred from hearkening to them, by any fear placed in an arbitrary connexion with it. They only seek to elude, by subtle wiles, perhaps by adding crime to crime, the punishment with which they are menaced.

But, rashly and blindly as they yield to forbidden hopes, when the fears which would fain dissuade them from doing so, do not appear naturally associated with them; where the hopes which captivated their desires, were virtuous, and that they should trust to their own good conduct for their realization, then would the fear of disappointment usually teach them to act with sound wisdom and discretion. Then would they frequently learn, so calmly to develope and regulate their virtuous sentiments, till the principles involved in them seemed, to their hearts, in unison with the eternal laws of moral harmony, that even should the honours, to which, by their good conduct, they had hoped to arrive, be, in the end, denied to them,—and seldom would they finally be denied to highly meritorious women,—they would readily console themselves, from enjoying the consciousness of a sweet glow of holy peace, which they would find diffused through their bosoms.*

Though the passion of love, properly so called, ought, in a well regulated society, to be much more commonly and profoundly felt by the young, than it is at present,—since the vain and selfish inclinations which so often take possession of them, fritter away a disposition to it,-yet women ought not to be encouraged to trust to their power of establishing their reign in a lover's breast, for obtaining, in society, an important station. Men should determine the general rank which the female sex shall hold, with cool, unbiassed sentiments of friendship.

Girls, placed in seminaries of education wherein the mistress, in presence of the assembled friends of her pupils, bestows honorable marks of her approbation on those whom she considers deserving of them, are well known to burn, frequently, with the most intense desire to receive from her such testimonies of satisfaction.

Is not this a decisive proof that well directed hopes might be taught to exercise, over women, a powerful and salutary influence?

When girls are taught to look upon love as a passion proper, if it be well directed, beautifully to develope their native good qualities, rather than as one, by the inspiration of which they may become possessed of wealth and power, their sensibility to this passion unfolds in them many virtues, adds to their graces, and contributes to support, in the nation, a good moral regimen; but when their personal ambition mingles with their seemingly amorous sentiments; that these sentiments serve as a veil to conceal its nature; and that, instead of becoming, in consequence of a love engagement, determined tenderly to devote themselves, through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, to the lover whom they have chosen, they think, with pride, of the power which, by reigning despotically in his heart, they may hope to obtain; then does their delight in looking on themselves as objects of love, only make them enjoy the thought of being able to introduce great confusion into the social system, and to overthrow the wisdom of the wise.*

When no vent is given to women's personal ambition, but the prospect of finding, in a husband, a lover whom they can rule, the feeling which reminds them of being, to persons of the lordly sex, objects of love, will be obnoxious to merging itself in their bosoms, in an ambitious one.

The consequence of its being absorbed in it will frequently be, that they will look on a husband as an agent bound to furnish them with the means of indulging vain, extravagant dispositions.

NOTE TO THE TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER.

(See page 835.)

(a) As far as my knowledge goes, no notice has ever been bestowed on the fact, that men are the first sources of that civilization, which is effected by a judicious intercourse between the sexes, though the part borne by women, in humanizing the manly character, forms the most prominent feature of it.

* It is well known that men, when they exult in the possession of power over a woman's heart, are commonly tempted to make a capricious or tyrannical use of it.

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 fre quentation 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 constitu tion, 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.