yields to Greece in fineness of climate ; and the morals of its people in the dark ages of Christianity, were not more pure than those of Greece. By a law of the Vifigoths in Spain, a furgeon was prohibited to take blood from a free woman, except in presence of her husband, or nearest relations. By the Salic law (a), he who fqueezes the hand of a free woman fhall pay a fine of fifteen golden fhillings. In the fourteenth century, it was a rule in France, that no married woman ought to admit a man to vifit her in absence of her husband. Female chastity must at that time have been extremely feeble, when fo little truft was repofed in the fair sex.

To treat women in that manner, may poffibly be neceffary, where they are in request for no end but to gratify animal love. But, where they are intended for the more elevated purposes of being friends and companions, as well as affec

of Sophocles is probably juft with refpect to his coun trywomen, because they were locked up. Old maids have the character with us of being prone to detraction; but that holds not, unless they retire from fociety.

(a) Tit. 22.

VOL. II.

K

tionate

;

tionate mothers, a very different treatment is proper. Locks and fpies will never anfwer; for thefe tend to debafe their minds, to corrupt their morals, and to render them contemptible. By gradual openings in the more delicate fenfes, particularly in all the branches of the moral fense, chastity, one of these branches, acquires a commanding influence over females and becomes their ruling principle. In that refined state, women are trufted with their own conduct, and may fafely be trufted: they make delicious companions, and uncorruptible friends; and that fuch at prefent is generally their cafe in Britain, 1 am bold to affirm. Anne of Britanny, wife to Charles VIII. and to Lewis XII. Kings of France, introduced the fashion of ladies appearing publicly at court. This fashion was introduced much later in England: even down to the Revolution, women of rank never appeared in the ftreets without a mask. In Scotland, the veil, or plaid, continued long in fashion, with which every woman of rank was covered when fhe went abroad. That fashion has not been laid afide above forty years.

In I

taly,

taly, women were much longer confined than in France; and in Spain the indulging them with fome liberty is but creeping into fashion. In Abyffinia, polygamy is prohibited; and married women of fashion have by custom obtained the privilege of visiting their friends, though not much with the good-will of many hufbands.

It were to be wished, that a veil could be drawn over the following part of their history. The growth of luxury and fenfuality, undermining every moral principle, renders both fexes equally diffolute : wives in that cafe deferve to be again locked up; but the time of fuch severity is past. In that cafe, indeed, it becomes indecent for the two fexes to bathe promifcuously. Men in Rome, copying the Greeks, plunged together in the fame bath; and in time men and women did the fame (a). Hadrian prohibited that indecent cuftom. Marcus Antoninus renewed the prohibition ; and Alexander Severus, a fecond time: but to fo little purpose, that even the primitive Christians (a) Plutarch, Life of Cato.

made no difficulty to follow the cuftom: fuch appetite there is for being nudus cum nuda, when juftified by fashion. This cuftom withstood even the thunder of general councils; and was not dropt till people became more decent.

In days of innocence, when chastity is the ruling paffion of the female fex, we find great franknefs in external behaviour; for women above fufpicion are little folicitous about appearances. At the fame period, and for the fame reason, we find great looseness in writing; witness the Queen of Navarre's tales. In the capital of France, at prefent, chastity, far from being practifed, is fcarce admitted to be a female virtue. But people who take much freedom in private, are extremely circumfpect in public: no indecent expreffion nor infinuation is admitted, even into their plays or other writings. In England, the women are lefs corrupted. than in France; and for that reafon are not fo fcrupulous with refpect to decency in writing.

Hitherto of the female fex in temperate climes, where polygamy is prohibited. Very different is their condition in hot climes,

climes, which inflame animal love in both fexes equally. In the hot regions of Afia, where polygamy is indulged, and wives are purchased for gratifying the carnal appetite merely, it is vain to think of reftraining them otherwife than by locks and bars, after having once tafted enjoyment. Where polygamy is indulged, the body is the only object of jealousy, not the mind, as there can be no mutual affection between a man and his inftruments of fenfual pleasure. And, if women be fo little virtuous as not to be fafely trufted with their own conduct, they ought to be locked up; for there is no juft medium between abfolute confinement and absolute freedom. The Chinese are so jealous of their wives, as even to lock them up from their relations; and, fo great is their diffidence of the female fex in general, that brothers and fifters are not permitted to converse together. When women go abroad, they are shut up in a close sedan, into which no eye can penetrate. The intrigues carried on by the wives of the Chinese Emperor, and the jealousy that reigns among them, render them unhappy. But luckily, as women are little regarded

where