"She heard me thus:

Yet innocence and virgin modesty,

Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be woo'd and not unsought be won,
Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired,
The more desirable or, to say all,

Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought,
Wrought in her so, that, seeing me, she turn'd
I followed her; she what was honour knew,
And with obsequious majesty approved

My pleased reason. To the nuptial bower
I led her, blushing like the morn."

This view of the meaning and use of these demonstrations in love, derives the most decided confirmation from the observation of the manners of animals, which at the same time show these demonstrations to be instinctive.

It was wrongly, therefore, that the Cynics regarded modesty as a dangerous allurement, and made it a duty to do every thing that could possibly be done, to banish it from society.

After all this, it is curious that Mrs. Wolstonecraft should say, "A man, when he undertakes a journey, has, in general, the end in view; a woman thinks more of the incidental occurrences, the strange things that may possibly occur on the road, the impression that she may make on her fellow-travellers, and above all, she is anxiously intent on the care of the finery that she carries with her, which is more than ever a part of herself, when going to figure on a new scene, when, to use an apt French turn of expression, she is going to produce a sensation.-Can dignity of mind exist with such trivial cares?"-On which no other comment need be made than that women instinctively, or if you please, wisely, seek security, for the main,

tenance of the progeny to which they are destined to give birth.

That this faculty may be abused is true. Hence Diogenes said, Γυναιξί μηπί στευε, μήδ ̓ ἂν ἀποθανή: Trust not to a woman, not even if she were dying. To the artifice of woman, her CAPRICE suggests many resources. It is nevertheless perfectly natural : extreme delicacy of organization is inseparable from fickleness of affections, and the inconsistency of conduct which it induces.

Hence Virgil says,

Varium et mutabile semper

Fœmina.*-Hn. iv. 569.

And Terence,

-Nosti mulierum ingenium?
Nolunt ubi velis: ubis nolis, cupiunt ultro.t

This fickleness and inconsistency, physiologists rightly explain by means of the numerous communications both between the various branches of the great sympathetic nerve, and between these and the branches of the cerebro-spinal system. Hence the sympathy of the lips, the nipples, and the mammæ, with the clitoris, the ovaries, and the matrix. And hence, at critical periods especially, woman passes suddenly from tears to laughter, and from bursts of passion to transports of love. This dependence on the vital system is a striking proof of the instinctive character of female caprice.

Women, accordingly, feel the need of frequent lively

*Woman is always inconstant and fickle.
Knowest thou the disposition of woman?

They will when you will-when you will, they will,

impressions, or even of serious agitation; and a French writer says that, among his countrywomen, he has known individuals, who, unconsciously actuated by this thirst for emotion, provoked very lively scenes with their lovers, solely to obtain for themselves the pleasure of tears, reproaches and reconciliation: they go even so far as to derive a secret delight from their remorse and repentance.

But, as already said, caprice suggests resources to artifice, and is of great value in love. It represses desires only to render them more vivid, to make opportunity more valuable, to cause it to be profited by when it occurs. It delays the purpose only the better

to attain it.

With all this is connected the adoption of those pleasant, playful and sometimes infantile airs, which accompany courtship.

Thus it appears that all the faculties in which woman excels are those which depend chiefly upon instinct and all those in which she is deficient require the exercise of reason.

9*

PART III.

MARRIAGE.

AMONG animals, there are species which never marry, and others which do.

Those male animals of which the young are easily fed, as the horse, the bull, and the dog, never approach the females except when under the influence of the œstrum, never cohabit with one exclusively; rarely if ever repeat the reproductive act with the same individual, and commit the care of the offspring entirely to their temporary mates.

Those males of which the young are more difficultly provided for, as the fox, martin, wild cat, and mole, the eagle, sparrow-hawk, pigeon, stork, blackbird, swallow, &c., at the first period of the œstrum, select one from amongst several females, remain attached even when the time of propagation is passed, journey together, and, if in flocks, side by side, provide mutually for their offspring till the latter can provide for themselves, and at each succeeding period of

œstrum, again yield to love, nor seek a new mate till the former is dead.

Marriage for life is, therefore, as natural to the latter as it is unnatural to the former.

We may now better judge of marriage among man. kind.

As marriage, says Hume, "is an engagement entered into by mutual consent, and has for its end the propagation of the species, it is evident, that it must be susceptible of all the variety of conditions which consent establishes, provided they be not contrary to this end.

"A man, in conjoining himself to a woman, is bound to her according to the terms of his engage

In begetting children, he is bound, by all the ties of nature and humanity, to provide for their subsistence and education. When he has performed these two parts of duty, no one can reproach him with injustice or injury. And as the terms of his engagement, as well as the methods of subsisting his offspring, may be various, it is mere superstition to imagine, that marriage can be entirely uniform, and will admit only of one mode or form. Did not human laws restrain the natural liberty of men, every particular marriage would be as different as contracts or bargains of any other kind or species.

"As circumstances vary, and the laws propose different advantages, we find that, in different times and places, they impose different conditions on this important contract. In Tonquin, it is usual for the sailors, when the ship comes into the harbour, to marry for the season; and, notwithstanding this precarious engagement, they are assured, it is said, of the strictest