women, is fuppofed to hold good to all eternity, however different circumftances may favour them, and, as is often the cafe, impel them to better their fituation; while that part of it which regards man may be broke through the firft opportunity, and ever after difpenfed

with?

"I CAN indeed very well imagine, that to man and woman precifely in the state in which Adam and Eve are described to have been, fuch a fubmiffion as is enjoined the woman, might have been neither impracticable nor unreasonable. When the faw her husband daily toiling for her fupport and that of her offspring; when she saw that by the order of the Almighty thorns and thistles were produced by the earth, if he on his part were not a flave for her fake; when added to this fhe felt the humiliating confciousness of guilt, and the ftill more dreadful consciousness of having feduced her husband, and involved him in her guilt, and the calamitous confequences; was it poffible that she on her's fhould not look up to him, with a mixture of gratitude, affection, refpect and pity, which made this command, now deemed fo hard, the fweetest part of her duty?

"But now the fcene is completely changed. The circumstances in which our first parents were placed, were fo extremely unlike whatever has, or can take place in common life, that to fuppofe fub. jection on the part of women to be from fuch a cause the conftant and unalterable appointment of Heaven, is fuch a perverfion of the spirit as well as of the letter of the law, as does not come short of abfolute and decided abfurdity. I must therefore repeat, that it is a most extraordinary circumftance, and not to be accounted for upon any of the common principles of reasoning; that a wife, a just, a beneficent Creator, fhould frame laws, and enact punishments for a race of beings, all equally dependent upon him, and equally refponfible for disobedience; yet allow fome to deviate from his will with impunity, and others not. Indeed it has always appeared to me fo fhocking to imagine, if either of the maledictions had been intended by the Creator to have been handed down to pofterity, that they should not have literally taken place; that if I may be permitted to give my explanation of the paffages, I think the plain and obvious meaning of them must have been,a punishment for the firft pair, and for them. only."

We fhall leave it to Theologians to meet this lady on their own ground. But, perhaps, it may be admitted us to make this remark, en paffant. The whole of the verse containing the denunciation on Eve, (the latter part of which is fo ingeniously handled by her acute daughter,) we find to run thus: unto the woman he faid, I will greatly multiply thy forrow and thy conception; in forrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy defire fhall be to thy husband, AND he shall rule over thee*. The

different parts of this fentence are clofely connected. The inference, therefore, appears to be, that either the whole of this denunciation was fimply and exclufively applicable to Eve for her perfonal tranfgreffion, or elfe that the whole, if any of its parts, is to be confidered as extending to all her female pofterity. That the former part of this curfe, including pain and forrow in child-bearing, has ever fince been the lot of womanhood, daily obfervation and experience fhow; but if they were not, in the least, to be involved in the latter part of the denunciation, originally addreffed to Eve, including fubjection to their husbands, upon what ground of fair argument or criticism is it to be understood that the former part of the fame curse, which refpects forrow in child-bearing, should ftill be attached on the daughters of Eve? We fimply ask the queftion; we wifh not to push the argument.

The condition of women in fociety has, undoubtedly, undergone a variety of changes, even in the fame country; and, unto the present day, it appears very different in rude and in civilized nations. Perhaps the obfervation will be found to hold pretty generally true, that the rank which women hold in fociety, and the refpect which is paid to them, bear an equal proportion to that degree of civilization and polished manners to which, any country has attained. In the difcoveries of our voyagers, and in the accounts given us by our late travellers in Africa, &c. of the barbarous or half-favage tribes and nations which they vifited, the condition of the female part appears truly wretched; they have been degraded almost to a level with their beafts of burden, whilft they have been regarded as the mere flaves of the paffions of their brutal lords; but, where the blandifhments of polifhed fociety, and, above all, where the mild dictates and benign influence of the Christian religion have prevailed, women have been advanced to the rank of the help-mates of their hufbands. Different has been the treatment which they have doubtless met with ; and we are inclined, with our authorefs, to think that in many inftances they have been regarded with too much inequality, and have been fubjected to flights and harfhnefs by their lordly mafters. The mode of female education is that which allo requires a ferious revifion; nor are we unwilling to allow that many inftances might be produced of female talents and capacity for imbibing a general knowledge of the languages, and of the liberal arts and fciences, equal to thofe of men, and equally deferving of encouragement and cultivation. "Mind," as has been justly obferved," is of no fex; therefore it is not in the power of education or art to unfex it. But manners may,

and

and we apprehend, to render the two fexes more completely pleafing to each other, muft, be fomewhat differently modified, according to the different paths they have to purfue, and the different parts they have to act in fociety."

Whilft in this lively performance we find fome positions which we must wholly condemn, there are many other remarks, fenfible and juft, upon which we are led chearfully to bestow a due degree of commendation.

Such are the following pertinent reflections on what is commonly called " a mafculine woman."

"When we speak of a masculine woman, it is confidered as a term of reproach; yet we do not confider whether it deferves to be fo or not. We allow ourselves to be run away with by a vague idea, —an undefined term, of which we do not take the trouble to know the precife meaning, or the exact bounds.

"IF therefore we are to understand by a masculine woman, one who emulates thofe virtues and accomplishments, which, as common to human nature, are common to both fexes; the attempt is natural, amiable, and highly honourable to that woman, under whatever name her conduct may be difguifed or cenfured. For even virtue and truth may be mifnamed, difguifed, and cenfured; but they cannot change their natures in compliance with the tyranny of fashion and prejudice. Thefe may, indeed, for a time throw a fhade over them; but this once removed we find them ftill the fame,-IMMUTABLE, and ETERNAL. It is in vain perhaps therefore, honestly speaking and impartially, to attempt to make any very ferious distinctions between the virtues and accomplishments of the fexes. We may, indeed, drefs out thefe fomewhat differently, to fuit a reigning tafte, or through love of variety, and we may call this manners; by which if women can please the other fex, without materially injuring themfelves, they ought moft certainly to do so. But fuch vain diftinctions vanish before the fuperior light of reafon and religion; and women in all the different ftations in life, find fcope for the exercise of every virtue, of which human nature is capable. And under the paffive characters of humility, refignation, and abfolute fubmiffion to their authority-under thefe do men expect to fee exercised and exerted— every thing which they, in their proud moments, arrogate to themfelves, and fondly claim as fole proprietors.

"Ir may appear fomewhat fingular to advance, yet a little reflection will prove it to be true; that women in general poffefs even fortitude, that firft of mafculine virtues,in a much greater degree, and of a much fuperior kind, to that poffeffed by then. I do not here fpeak of perfonal courage, or prowefs, which is mere conftitutional affair: a matter of nerves, of finews; and as it is much oftener applied to bad, nay to barbarous purposes, than any other, it can by no perverfion of language or ideas be conftituted a virtue. M 3 "I fpeak

"I fpeak of that fortitude, which has enemies to encounter, against which mere animal courage can be of no avail; and this virtue, I again repeat it, women, happily for themselves, poffefs in an eminent degree. For, notwithstanding the natural delicacy of their frame, they are fubject to bodily pains, that, to use a figure of the fublime Dante, Tanto è amara, che poco più è morte.' And with the fame feelings and propenfities do they not refrain from pleasures, and often from folicited pleasures, to which man with all his boafted fuperiority falls, alas! a willing and felf-devoted facrifice? Here, indeed, lies the teft of true fortitude, the touchstone of virtue. And here it is, that, with all her difadvantages, woman fhines pre-eminent.

"But as if a greater proportion of bodily pain, as if abftinence. from pleasure, were not fufficient for women to encounter, all that the mind of man is doomed to endure, all that flesh is heir to,' all the mournful miferies of life,' are theirs likewife in an exquifite degree."

If then my reafoning is well founded it appears, that, if we use the term mafculine woman, for characters fuch as I have been defcribing, it is undeniably true, that knowledge does naturally produce fuch. But I will not fo far infult the common fenfe of men, to whose common fenfe, indeed, and humanity, the whole of this Appeal is addreffed, I will not, I fay, fo far infult it, as to fuppofe, even for a moment, that becaufe a woman is rational, though perhaps in a fuperior degree than is abfolutely neceffary, that the muft of courfe be dif agreeable to them.

"But, if on the other hand, we mean by a masculine woman, one who apes the exercifes, the attributes, the unreftrained paffions, and the numberless improprieties, which men fondly choofe to think fuit. able enough for their own fex, and which exceffes, to fay the truth after all, chiefly diftinguish their moral characters from those of women; I must say that knowledge has no tendency whatever to produce fuch aukward imitations; and I must confefs, that fuch are masculine in the worst fenfe of the word, and as we fhould imagine confequently difagreeable. This, however, as we hinted before would be a hafty and ill-grounded conclufion, though apparently founded in reason, for the fact is otherwife; and the prefent age furnishes examples enough, that women may be truly mafculine in their conduct and demeanor, without wounding the delicacy of the men. Nay that thus adorned, fuch women meet their full approbation, if at the moment the fluctuating time of fashion be in their favour."

In like manner, who can forbear to ftanip their approbation on the following fuggeftions which immediately apply to those who have the charge of educating young females ?

"It is, therefore, the duty of these who have the care of females in their youth, to convince them, that truth, fincerity, gentleness, the practice in fhort of. every virtue, will not only entitle them to the approbation of their Creator, and to future happiness; for thefe, alas! great as they are, are not fufficient motives to frail, and short-fighted,

and

and impatient mortals, but muft likewife convince them, that fuch conduct only, can fecure to them real and folid confort, and fuch degrees of happiness as are attainable in this mortal ftate. Here are, indeed, adequate motives; and by fuch alone, ought rational beings, in reality, to be actuated. Here nothing but realities will do. We cannot impose upon God, nor very easily upon our own confciences, which tell us, if we will but liften, that in virtue alone lies true happinefs. Whereas if women are taught to place their chief dependence on the approbation and admiration of men, they foon find out that falfe appearances, will often anfwer their purpofes perfectly well; and with a certain degree of management and cunning, often better, than the realities of those virtues they affume.

We heartily join, likewife, in condemning, with this lively writer, the unaccountable peculiarity of women of the higher ranks, over whom, one fhould fuppofe, delicacy and refinement, if not real modefty, would have more influence, admitting, without fcruple, men hair-dreffers, men-milliners, menmantua-makers, and, to crown all, men staymakers; whilst, from an over-ftrained delicacy, women of the inferior claffes are excluded from doing various articles of work for the men, by which they might gain their living without hard labour. On this branch of the fubject, our female author may be allowed to exprefs the honeft warmth of her feelings.

"This is an abufe of privileges indeed. Why do not husbands come boldly forward againft ufages fuch as thefe; and employ their ill-gotten authority, for once, in a good caufe? Why does not the legiflature tax fuch fhe-he gentry to the teeth? Why are not men made afhamed of monopolizing trades, in which, if the more helplefs sex were early inftructed, and made thereby to taste the fweets of honest industry, might fave millions of valuable subjects to the commonwealth of virtue, who, alas! flock to the standard of vice, often more from neceffity than inclination ?”

The reader will find in this little volume a variety of other lively and ingenious remarks interfperfed; and, allowing for the predilection, which the author difcovers throughout, for the fyftem she has adopted, there will nothing occur offenfive to the feelings of delicacy, nor injurious to the interefts of religion and morality.

We are not quite fatisfied with the excufe which this lady affigns in her advertisement for not fubmitting her MS. previous to its being published, to the eye of friendship or affection; for, had a judicious friend previously revised it, we think such a one would not only have corrected the fanciful and injudicious mode of punctuation, and the variety of unnatural dashes, but alfo fome improprieties of diction, and the use of such Scotticifms

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