Among civilized nations, as long as the code of morality is dictated by the lower feelings, females are looked on as means of gratifying the selfish passions of men. The ancient Greeks and the European nations, during the dark ages, treated them with every indignity. Polygamy is intimately connected with the custom of purchasing wives. It prevailed originally every where, and exists still in many countries. In China, the wives are sold at marriages, and not permitted to make any choice of their own. By polygamy, however, some men usurp the right of others, a custom which is contrary to nature, since more boys are born than girls; or are we authorized to admit that the contrary happens in Asia? The pure spirit of Christianity abolished this odious practice, and re-established the primitive law of the CREATOR.

The female sex has risen by a slow progress to higher and higher degrees of estimation in Europe. Females are respected wherever moral feelings are esteemed. Where this is the case, they are valued as friends; but still they are either considered as weak and delicate creatures, and assisted, since it is thought a duty to compassionate and to succour the feeble, or they are treated as simple and useful housewives.

Where a taste for beautiful forms and elegance of manners prevails, the females are considered as agreeable companions, and often become mis

tresses.

Women are best treated, when polite manners and moral feelings are cultivated. Then they live with men under the decent form of matrimony. Their gentle and insinuating manners are highly appreciated, and they are considered as intimate and faithful friends.

Yet there is no society where the two sexes stand altogether in an equal situation. Is this difference founded on nature, or the result of the selfishness of men? Women speak of vindicating their natural rights; they call it tyranny to deny them a share in civil and political affairs, to force them to remain immured in their families, &c. MARY WOLSTONCROFT has taken great pains to show, that both sexes are by nature equal. She was obliged to admit the actual inferiority of her sex; but still she endeavoured to prove, that women are degraded only by want of education, and by external circumstances; and that men, through jealousy, purposely neglect the cultivation of girls. Male writers, on the contrary, maintain, that nature has made the two sexes

different, though concordant, so as to produce together a delicious harmony; that she has prepared them for their future destinations, by a particular modification of feelings and intellectual faculties given to each, and avoided rivalship between them, by giving them different disposi

tions.

It is to be understood, that I do not speak of single individuals. There are women who resemble men, and vice versa. MARY WOLSTONCROFT speaks of her own manner of feeling and thinking, which resembled that of a man. She contends particularly for the power of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive conclusions from individual observations, a power which seems to her the only requisite of an immortal being; a power which is commonly denied to women, and often considered as inconsistent with the female character. I allow that this power exists in some women stronger than in many men; but MARY WOLSTONCROFT would accuse herself, and speak against her sex, if she would draw general inferences from her own individual feelings. As I am of the decided opinion, that the two sexes, in the actual state of things, are naturally different in their dispositions, I shall contrast

them in a summary view. They possess essentially the same powers of mind, the whole difference consists in the degrees in which they have them.

The form of the female body is rounded, and indicates rather delicacy and beauty than strength and solidity. "Let us be allowed," says MARY WOLSTONCROFT, "to take the same exercise as boys, not only during infancy, but also during youth, and we shall arrive at the same perfection of body." I admit, that in girls, confined to close rooms, and prohibited from taking sufficient exercise, the muscles are relaxed, and the digestive powers destroyed. It would certainly be advisable to take the greatest care of the bodily constitution, and to adopt a manner of living which would secure females against the immense train of nervous complaints that afflict them under the present system; but I am also fully convinced, that although the same physical education were given to the muscular system of both sexes, each would preserve its peculiarities, because the functions, those at least which characterize the sex, are different in each. Country people furnish a certain proof of the truth of this assertion, boys and girls are brought up in the same way, but it

is superfluous to say which sex is the strongest, and which has recourse to the other when muscular strength is required.

Farther, women are exposed to many little disorders unknown to the male sex. In fulfilling their duty as mothers, they are exposed to great sufferings, and causes of weakness. Mankind is treated in this, as in many other respects, like all viviparous animals. Though the manner of living be the same in both sexes, the females are smaller and weaker than the males.

Some of the feelings necessary to the preservation of the species are stronger in men, and others of them stronger in women. In animals, the male pursues, the female yields, and so it is in mankind. Among all nations men court, and women are courted. As to the love of offspring, the two sexes shew a decided difference. Female children delight to dress and undress a baby, to take every possible care of a doll, to get an infant in their arms, to carry it, to sing and to walk about, staggering under the weight. Boys seldom think of such a pastime. They have more inclination to noisy amusements, to run about, to ride upon a stick by way of a horse; they delight in a top, a ball, a drum, &c. Since the 'suckling mo