themselves versed in the history of remote ages, and of their own, as well as foreign countries;

That they should watch, with a vigilant eye, the numerous and complicated wheels of government, to distinguish, accurately, the direction given to them;

That, in order to qualify themselves to superintend its march, they must profoundly study the perplexing system of finance, and the theory of the political sciences.

Few are the men, it may be said, possessed of such deep, extensive knowledge. That may be; but there are very many whose mental views are just as wide and lofty, as if they did possess it; and whose self-love fills up the whole extent of the scene that they contemplate; making them take pride in considering the entire world as a theatre, on which they are invited, by the impartial laws of their country, to endeavour to act a conspicuous part.

Men who have chosen a liberal profession,-as most of those in the higher walk of life have done, when they have chosen any, are led, by their ambition, to eye, continually, the lofty eminence, that raises the persons who shine at the head of the profession pursued by them, to universal renown.

To that height they look as the only one that would satisfy them; and, proud of their own greatness, for being qualified to aim at such a glorious mark, they behold with scorn,-nor can they do otherwise, the fair ones, all whose thoughts and employments result from the hope to be splendidly attired the next gala day.*

They are, commonly, too polite to say so; nay, they often appear, complaisantly, to take great interest in a female friend's choice of a ribbon or arrangement of a feather; but they can not, by the utmost stretch of an amiable condescension, prevent the fair from perceiving that their ambition kens a point infinitely more lofty than the one which theirs surveys.

This conviction does not, indeed, usually cause any pain to women, but it kills in them the hope of being raised, by the

I have mentioned, in the second part, that Frenchmen, as it appears to me, succeed less happily than the British and Irish ones, in concealing, from the fair, the scorn with which they contemplate them, as beings immeasurably their inferiors.

occupations assigned to them, to the rank of men's companions; and it fosters in them the ambition to maintain, in spite of the pride of men, a boundless empire over them, by dint of wheedling attractions.

Even after that the ambition to dazzle the world by the display of towering talents, has been, owing to repeated mortifications and disappointments, extinguished in men's breast, they do not, on that account, place women more in the light of companions, rendered nearly their equals by having business to occupy their thoughts, of almost the same importance as theirs. Still they commonly take a lively interest in the affairs of the nation and choose them for their principal topic of conversation; nor do they speak of them as mere passive observers; it is constantly tacitly understood, that it is their proper business to have an opinion on them, and to judge the men who conduct them, while it is not that of women.

Some learned men withdraw their thoughts from all public affairs, to devote themselves solely, to the investigation of one particular science. But not the less do they consider themselves mounted on an elevation whence women appear far beneath them, since their object is to explore truths, the discovery of which would benefit all mankind and entitle them to universal gratitude.

The natural result of the present mode of distributing occupations to each of the sexes, is, to fire men with a boundless ambition, so that even where they have but an ordinary capacity they shall long to perform great actions in the sight of the world, and despise themselves in some sort, if they cannot accomplish them; and to engage women, to whom it gives no sphere of exertion, not to pride themselves, at all, on the nature of their actions or occupations, but to let all their ambition degenerate into a vain hope to be admired for their personal attractions.

It is true, that men and women now associate so amicably together, and there is such a soft sympathy between them, that the wish for equal companionship, rising in the breast of both, does not fail, greatly, to assimilate their characters.

A remarkable importance is, accordingly, given to those accomplishments, the culture of which is acknowledged to ap

pertain to the province of both sexes. In consequence, an elegant acquaintance with literature and a refined taste for some of the fine arts, if not a practical knowledge of them, is considered almost essential to all persons, indiscriminately, of a distinguished education.

These tastes and accomplishments, certainly, afford to those who know how to enjoy them, a pure, blameless species of happiness. However, literature and the fine arts, to appear respectable, should not seem to take the place of those more solid, though less showy branches of practical science or industry, which have in view to produce results more obviously tending to advance the weal of a family or a nation.

When women are taught, exclusively, those accomplishments which render them a brilliant society in a drawingroom, and to which we cannot much attend, unless possessed of more ease and leisure than fall to the lot of many, they do not learn how to be men's grave, useful, companions, but are rather fitted to be the light, seductive objects, proper to inflame their passions.

'Tis falling in too much with the bent of the propensities that excite them to be frivolous, and to study the attractions that may render them charming, thus to give them accomplishments which may delight the husband to whom prospeperous fortune affords much leisure, without accustoming them to the employments, that might render them useful to one who had a harder fate to struggle with.

What makes it more particularly desirable that they should have such employments, is, that even the prosperous husband, no wise in want of being assisted by their talents or industry, would still respect them the more, when he saw them habituated to occupations generally useful, and calculated to prove them governed by a sedate, well ordered mind.

So little is it left in a wife's power to be a usefully employed companion to her husband, that she seems destined to be either his mistress* or servant. His mistress, in as far as she reigns over him by her blandishments and polished taste; his servant, when she applies to regulating his house. As she is not

* Whenever I use this word, it is in an honorable acceptation.

impelled to it by any hope of being honored or praised for her exertions; and as she, usually, has little to do, unless she enter into servile details, she appears, when she attends much to housekeeping, in the light of a servant employed by her husband to conduct his domestic affairs.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EXAMINATION OF THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT ROMAN REPUBLIC, AS COMPARED WITH WHAT IT IS AMONG US.

The better to elucidate my opinion, respecting the remarkable degree of insignificance to which women are reduced at present, let me invite the reader to cast a slight glance on the situation of mistresses of families among the Romans, in the early times of the nation, when the principles on which its prosperity was founded were still in vigour.

The institutions of the Romans, to ensure the subordination of wives, were very severe. They were, absolutely in a husband's power, and he was required to keep them in entire ignorance of what passed in the assemblies, at which, conjointly with his fellow-citizens, he deliberated on the important ininterests of his country.

Judging from these facts, we might suppose, that among the Romans, women were far less respected, and treated with much less tenderness, than they are at present.

However, a scrupulous inquiry into the manners of the ancient Romans leads us, I think, to conclude that it was their ideas of necessity, and not a wish to depreciate women, which determined them to hold them in such subjection. The constitution of their government, nay, the care of their existence, required them to bend all their thoughts to war and conquest. It was essential to them, then, not to be disturbed by domestic broils, and not to commit their state secrets to female imprudence. To secure to the few wheels of the simple machine of their government an unclogged and vigorous motion, they

took every precaution to oblige women to look up to their husbands with awe-struck deference. But that, notwithstanding, they had not any wish to reduce them into the situation of timorous slaves, is, I think, amply proved by the accounts transmitted to us of their treatment of them. A very high sense of honour seems to have been kindled among them, and to it they trusted for preventing a husband from using his wife tyrannically. Though they, apparently, kept silence as to the restraint which they thus imposed on his passions, believing that they would act, imprudently, in speaking of it, their history seems to me to leave no room to doubt, that, during some centuries, it was, tacitly, understood that any man who would use his wife ill, would be viewed with universal indignation, as a disgrace to the Roman citizens.

The Romans seem to have been desirous to raise women, in the quality of men's companions, to the highest rank possible. After having made it men's duty to place themselves on the loftiest eminence of what they considered moral excellence, far from frowning on the audacity of those women who had resolution to mount to a similar elevation, to station themselves by the side of a husband or son, they hailed and applauded them, with a hope of engaging others of their sex to imitate their example.

If they despised women, it was because so few wives had sufficient grandeur of soul to emulate an heroic husband's actions. Convinced, as they were, that the only way to communicate, to women, lofty sentiments, is, to engage men by their education and the circumstances environing them, to make such sentiments the law of their conduct, and then to leave it in women's power to prove themselves, if they have a suitable ambition, companions worthy them, they could not but think that the softer sex must be, generally, condemned by nature to be under the empire of frivolous passions, when they saw so many men sublimely devoted to their country, while their wives passed their time in dress, chat, and childish competition with each other.

Yet, if ever the national adoption of the system whose design is, simply, to form men's character, and to leave it to their domestic cares to fashion that of women, till they have become suitable companions for them, could succeed in gene