sand pounds sterling. And though this was the most extraordinary instance of the time, yet it is reasonable to suppose that, of the rest of the ladies, every one strove to get as near the top of the fashion as she could; and that, with all the females who, thought any thing of themselves, the rage was to be fine and fashionable.

This new order of things, while it precipitated the republic down the abyss of ruin, brought marriage almost into disuse insomuch that Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, finding among the men a general disinclination to marry, was fain to pass severe penal laws, to force them, as it were, into the marriage bonds. But it was all to little purpose. Despot and tyrant as he was, he found it as impossible to compel the bachelors to marry, as Peter of Russia long since did, to compel his vassals to shave off their beards. Was it owing to the licentiousness of the men? Considerably it was, no doubt; but not altogether. It was partly owing to their prudence. A Roman bachelor naturally enough would commune with himself thus:-"These extravagant flirts, of whose attire a single article costs more than one of them would earn in her whole life, are fit only for show. I like mighty well to be in their company at routs and assemblies; but the gods save me from a union with them! If I marry, unless she bring me a fortune, she will quickly devour mine. Wherefore I will look out only for number one, in spite of the edicts of the Emper

or."

Consider, ye AMERICAN FAIR, that, in all times and countries, the like causes will produce the like effects.

CHAP. VIII.

On the elevation of the condition and character of Women by means of Christianity.

In all ages of the world, the greatest portion of sorrow and hardship has fallen to the lot of the female part of our race. Amongst all the numerous tribes of savages and barbarians, in whatever quarter of the

earth, or in the islands of the seas, females are despised and degraded, and a wife is but little better conditioned than a bond slave. "While the man passes his days in idleness and amusement, the woman is condemned to incessant toil. Tasks are imposed upon her without mercy, and services are received without complacence or gratitude." The laws and customs of Mahomedism, as well as of Paganism, degrade and enslave the women: a degradation and slavery of vast extent; since far the greater numbers of the human kind are either Mahomedans or Pagans.

It is only in christian countries that women rise to their proper rank, and are treated as companions and equals. For this happy improvement in their condition they are indebted to christianity, which, as well by humanizing and purifying the heart, as by the prohibition of polygamy, has loosed the bonds of their captivity, and at the same time adorned them with virtues the most estimable and amiable.

The New Testament is the great charter of the rights of women; and not only the great charter of their rights, but the unerring directory of their duties, and the choice cabinet as it were of their most precious ornaments. As the benevolent system of christianity frees them from vassalage and exalts their rank in society, so it inspires them at the same time with a taste for what is morally excellent and virtuous and lovely. Nor is it a little remarkable, that, of the religion which so ennobles their sex, they are the first, the most general, and among the most effectual teachers. It is from women that almost our whole sex, as well as theirs, receives its earliest instruction in religion and morality. Though they are neither missionaries abroad nor preachers at home, yet, as spreaders and promulgators of christianity, they are hardly less useful than those venerable orders of men. Throughout all christendom, as preceptresses, as mothers, and in their various domestic relations, they have the moulding of the minds of future men as well as of future women, during those infantile years in which the mind is comparable to soft wax, and when the impressions which are made upon it are the most indelible. So that it would not, perhaps, be extravagant

to believe, that a full half of the whole christianized world has been christianized, or first imbued with christian principles, by means of female teachers.

Nothing scarcely admits of clearer proof from history, than that the institutions for alleviating human misfortune and distress have grown out of the christian religion; and nothing surely could confer greater dignity on the female sex, than its active and zealous co-operation in establishing and supporting such plans of general philanthropy.

All along, from the first age of christianity down to latter times, there have been women highly distinguished for their pious benevolence and active beneficence; but not having learned to form themselves into societies for joint acts of charity, their solitary or individual efforts could afford relief to but few. For the present illustrious epoch in the christianized world, has been reserved the honor of multiplying and extending, far beyond all former examples, their humane plans and insti

tutions.

"What wonders and what pleasures has civilization procured to mankind!" So the philosopher exclaims, and not without reason. The civilized man possesses manifold more enjoyments, and stands vastly higher in the scale of human beings, than the naked savage or the rude barbarian. But it is not mere civilization, nor mere learning, that has imbued the heart with the genuine feelings of humanity. See, on the page of history, only fifteen centuries back, the ladies of Rome, that proud mistress of the world: see them seated in the amphitheatre, as delighted spectatresses of the mortal combats of gladiators; feasting their eyes with the bloody carnage, and their ears with the groans of the dying. And now, see, on the other hand, innumerable females of the present age, formed into societies for the alleviation of human distress; for the purpose of ministering to the widow, of sustaining the orphan, of clothing the naked, of feeding the hungry, of "healing the broken and weak." Behold these objects of striking contrast; and remember that the former had quite as much of polish, as much of elegance, and as much of learning, as the latter. And what is it then, but the in

fluence of christian principles, that has made such an astonishing difference between them in point of taste and sensibility?

Here a cautionary remark will be neither unnecessary, nor out of place. The charity that casteth abroad its alms indiscriminately, that makes no distinction between helpless or unavoidable indigence, and the voluntary neediness of the idle and profligate; that feeds alike bounteously the one whom God hath rendered necessitous, and the sturdy beggar who impudently quarters himself upon alms; such charity, if it may deserve the name, encourages idleness and improvidence, and multiplies paupers and mendicants. For no truth is more fully tested by experience, than that very many will take no care to provide for themselves so long as they can by any means be provided for by others; being lost to all sense both of honor and shame.

CHAP. IX.

Of Self-Ignorance and Self-Adulation.

"The nature of mankind is such,

To see and judge of the affairs of others
Much better than their own."

THE above-cited sentiment has not abated of its force, nor is it the less applicable to human nature at the present instant, though two thousand years have passed away since it came from the pen of Terence, the poet of Carthage.

In one respect, very few, if any, are altogether free from the imputation of making use of deception. It is one of the strange properties of our fallen nature, that we deceive ourselves even more easily than we are deceived by others; and that though we are highly offended when others deceive us, we are pleased with the deception which we palm upon ourselves. We love flattery, because it enables us to flatter ourselves, and we dislike honest reproof or censure, because it impels

us to fix our eyes upon our own faults or frailties. We weigh our own actions, and the actions of others, not in the same balance, or else with different kinds of weights. We judge ourselves and our neighbors by different rules, which always gives the advantage to our own side. Imperfect we readily confess ourselves to be; but if one happen to impute to us any particular imperfection, we deem ourselves insulted, and instantly take fire. Mortal we know we are, and yet seem scarcely to expect either death or sickness; for these events, perhaps for the most part, come unawares. Probably there is not one well man in a hundred but secretly thinks the fatal arrow is more likely to hit almost any body else than himself. The young confidently expect they shall live to be old; and the old, who have already seen one generation pass away, are not without hopes that they shall survive the greater part of another. The mass of mankind are, in short, perpetually deluding themselves one way or the other; nor are the wisest and the best, quite free in all respects from self-delusion. Perhaps if life were not in any wise gilded by the enchanting power of imagination, there would be little relish for most of those things which God hath given us to enjoy under the sun.

A very ancient writer has told us of a poor laborer, who, fancying himself a king, repaired daily to a hillock, where, as on his throne, he sat in state, and exercised regal authority over the imaginary subjects that surrounded him; who, being at length cured of that pleasing error of the imagination, complained hard of his doctors that they had physicked him back again to poverty. Nor is he a solitary instance. The most of mankind, in some period or other of their lives, have perhaps indulged vagaries of the imagination quite as groundless, if not quite so extravagant; and which, if they led them not astray from either duty or prudence, did them benefit, by sweetening their toils and smoothing the path of life. The illusions of hope, which no sooner is disappointed than it springs anew in the human breast, constitute a large portion of the earthly happiness of mankind, and is the main spring of their exertions in worldly affairs.