 Section 16 of Sketches of the Fair Sex in All Parts of the World. Custom in the Mogul Empire In a variety of parts of the Mogul Empire, when the women are carried abroad, they are put into a kind of machine like a chariot and placed on the backs of camels or in covered sedan chairs and surrounded by a guard of eunuchs and armed men in such a manner that a stranger would rather suppose the cavalcade to be carrying some desperate villain to execution than employed to prevent the intrigues or escape of a defenseless woman. At home the sex are covered with gauze veils which they dare not take off in the presence of any man except their husband or some near relation. Over the greatest part of Asia and some parts of Africa women are guarded by eunuchs made incapable of violating their chastity. In Spain where the natives are the descendants of the Africans and whose jealousy is not less strong than that of their ancestors, they for many centuries made use of padlocks to secure the chastity of their women, but finding these ineffectual they frequently had recourse to old women called gubernantes. It had been discovered that men deprived of their virility did not guard female virtue so strictly as to be incapable of being bribed to allow another a taste of those pleasures they themselves were incapable of enjoying. The Spaniards sensible of this imagined that vindictive old women were more likely to be incorruptible as envy would stimulate them to prevent the young from enjoying those pleasures which they themselves had no longer any chance for. But all powerful gold soon overcame even this obstacle and the Spaniards at present seemed to give up all restrictive methods and to trust the virtue of their women to good principles instead of rigor and hard usage. Custom of the Muscovites If the laws forbidding the marriage of near relations with each other originated from the political view of preserving the human race from degeneracy, they are the only laws we meet with on that subject and exert almost the only care we find taken of so important a matter. The Asiatic is careful to improve the breed of his elephants, the Arabian of his horses, and the Laplander of his reindeer. The Englishmen, eager to have swift horses, staunch dogs, and victorious cocks grudges no care and spares no expense to have the males and females matched properly. But since the days of Salon, where is the legislator, or since the days of the ancient Greeks, where are the private persons who take any care to improve, or even to keep from degeneracy the breed of their own species? The Englishmen who solicitously attends the training of his colts and puppies would be ashamed to be caught in the nursery, and while no motive could prevail upon him to breed horses or hounds from an improper or contaminated kind, he will calmly or rather inconsiderately match himself with the most decrepit or diseased of the human species. Thoughtless of the weaknesses and evils he is going to entail on posterity and considering nothing but the acquisition of fortune he is by her alliance to convey to an offspring by diseases rendered unable to use it. The Muscovites were formerly the only people, besides the Greeks, who paid a proper attention to the subject. After the preliminaries of a marriage were settled between the parents of a young couple, the bride was stripped naked and carefully examined by a jury of matrons when if they found any bodily defect they endeavored to cure it. But if it would admit of no remedy, the match was broke off and she was considered not only as a very improper subject to breed from, but improper also for maintaining the affections of a husband after he had discovered the imposition she had put upon him. Sale of Children to Purchase Wives In Timor, an island in the Indian Ocean, it is said that parents sell their children in order to purchase more wives. In Circassia, women are reared and improved in beauty and every alluring art only for the purpose of being sold. The Prince of the Circassians demanded of the Prince of Mingrelia in hundred slaves loaded with tapestry and hundred cows, as many oxen, and the same number of horses, as the price of his sister. In New Zealand we meet with a custom which may be called purchasing a wife for a night, and which is proof that those must also be purchased who are intended for a longer duration. And what to us is a little surprising, this temporary wife insisted upon being treated with as much deference and respect as if she had been married for life. But in general, this is not the case in other countries, for the wife who is purchased is always trained up in the principles of slavery, and, being enured to every indignity and mortification from her parents, she expects no better treatment from her husband. There is little difference in the condition of her who is put to sale by her sordid parents and her who is disposed of in the same manner by the magistrates as a part of the state's property. Besides those we have already mentioned in this work, the Thracians put the fairest of their virgins up to public sale, and the magistrates of Crete had the sole power of choosing partners in marriage for their young men. And in the execution of this power the affection and interest of the parties was totally overlooked, and the good of the state the only object of attention, in pursuing which they always allotted the strongest and best made of the sex to one another, that they might raise up a generation of warriors, or of women fit to be mothers of warriors. Polygamy and Concubinage Polygamy and concubinage, having in process of time become fashionable vices, the number of women kept by the great became at last more an article of grandeur and state than a mode of satisfying the animal appetite. Solomon had three score queens and four score concubines and virgins without number. Mamon tells us that among the Jews a man might have as many wives as he pleased, even to the number of a hundred, and that it was not in their power to prevent him, provided he could maintain and pay them all the conjugal debt once a week, but in this duty he was not to run in a rear to any of them above a month, though with regard to concubines he might do as he pleased. It would be an endless task to enumerate all the nations which practiced polygamy. We shall therefore only mention a few where the practice seemed to vary something from the common method. The ancient Sabians were not only said to have had a plurality, but even a community of wives, a thing strongly inconsistent with that spirit of jealousy which prevails among men in most countries where polygamy is allowed. The ancient Germans were so strict monogamists, footnote, monogamy is having only one wife and footnote, that they reckoned it a species of polygamy for a woman to marry a second husband even after the death of the first, quote, a woman, they say, has but one life and but one body, therefore should have but one husband, end quote, and besides they added, quote, that she who knows she is never to have a second husband will the more value and endeavor to promote the happiness and preserve the life of the first, end quote. Among the Heruli this idea was carried farther, a woman was obliged to strangle herself at the death of her husband, lest she should afterwards marry another, so detestable was polygamy in the north, while in the east it was one of those rites which they most of all others esteemed and maintained with such inflexible firmness that it will probably be one of the last of those that it will rest out of their hands. The Egyptians, it is probable, did not allow of polygamy, and as the Greeks borrowed their institutions from them, it was also forbid by the laws of sacrops, though concubinage seems either to have been allowed or overlooked. For in the Odyssey of Homer we find Ulysses declaring himself to be the son of a concubine, which he would probably not have done had any degree of infamy been annexed to it. In some cases, however, polygamy was allowed in Greece from a mistaken notion that it would increase population. The Athenians, once thinking the number of their citizens diminished, decreed that it should be lawful for a man to have children by another woman as well as by his wife. Besides this, particular instances occur of some who have transgressed the law of monogamy. Euripides is said to have had two wives, who, by their constant disagreement, gave him a dislike to the whole sacs, a supposition which received some weight from these lines of his in Andromache. Nair will I commend more beds or wives than one, nor children cursed with double mothers, veins and plagues of life. Socrates, too, had two wives, but the poor culprit had as much reason to repent of his temerity as Euripides. Unix. As the appetite towards the other sacs is one of the strongest and most ungovernable in our nature, as it intrudes itself more than any other into our thoughts and frequently diverts them from every other purpose or employment, it may at first, on this account, have been reckoned criminal when it interfered with worship and devotion, and emasculation was made use of in order to get rid of it, which may perhaps have been the origin of Unix. But, however this be, it is certain that there were men of various religions who made themselves incapable of procreation on a religious account, as we are told that the priests of Cybele constantly castrated themselves, and by our savior that there are Unix who make themselves such for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Girls Sold at Auction The ancient Assyrians seemed more thoroughly to have settled and digested the affairs of marriage than any of their contemporaries. Once in every year they assembled together all the girls that were marriageable when the public crier put them up to sail one after another. For her whose figure was agreeable and whose beauty was attracting, the rich strove against each other who should give the highest price, which price was put into a public stock and distributed in portions to those whom nobody would accept without a reward. After the most beautiful were disposed of, these were also put up by the crier and a certain sum of money offered with each, proportions to what it was thought she stood in need of to bribe a husband to accept her. When a man offered to accept of any of them on the terms upon which she was exposed to sail, the crier proclaimed that such a man had proposed to take such a woman with such a sum of money along with her, provided none could be found who would take her with less. And in this manner the sail went on till she was at last allotted to him who offered to take her with the smallest portion. When this public sail was over, the purchasers of those that were beautiful were not allowed to take them away till they had paid down the price agreed on and given sufficient security that they would marry them, nor on the other hand would those who were to have a premium for accepting of such as were less beautiful take a delivery of them till their portions were previously paid. SALE OF A WIFE In England the sale of a wife sometimes occurs even at the present day of which the following is an example from the Lancaster Herald. SALE OF A WIFE AT CARLYLE The inhabitants of this city lately witnessed the sale of a wife by her husband, Joseph Thompson, who resides in a small village about three miles distant and rents a farm of about forty-two or forty-four acres. She was a spruce, lively, buxom damsel, apparently not exceeding twenty-two years of age, and appeared to feel a pleasure at the exchange she was about to make. They had no children during their union, and that, with some family disputes, caused them by mutual agreement to come to the resolution of finally parting. Accordingly, the bellman was sent round to give public notice of the sale, which was to take place at twelve o'clock, and this announcement attracted the notice of thousands. She appeared above the crowd, standing on a large oak chair surrounded by many of her friends, with a rope or halter made of straw round her neck, being dressed in rather a fashionable country style, and appearing to some advantage. The husband, who was also standing in an elevated position near her, proceeded to put her up for sale, and spoke nearly as follows. Gentlemen, I have to offer to your notice my wife, Mary Ann Thompson, otherwise Williamson, whom I mean to sell to the highest and fairest bidder. It is her wish as well as mine to part forever. I took her for my comfort and the good of my house, but she has become my tormentor and a domestic curse, etc., etc. Now I have shown you her faults and failings, I will explain her qualifications and goodness. She can read fashionable novels and milk cows. She can laugh and weep with the same ease that you can take a glass of ale. She can make butter and scold the maid. She can sing Moors melodies and plate her frills and caps. She cannot make rum, gin or whiskey, but she is a good judge of their quality from long experience in tasting them. I therefore offer her with all her perfections and imperfections for the sum of fifty shillings. After an hour or two, she was purchased by Henry Mears, a pensioner, for the sum of twenty shillings and a Newfoundland dog. The happy pair immediately left town together amidst the shouts and hazzas of the multitude in which they were joined by Thompson, who, with the greatest good humor imaginable, proceeded to put the halter which his wife had taken off round the neck of his Newfoundland dog, and then proceeded to the first public house where he spent the remainder of the day. End of section 19, recording by Tricia G. Section 20. Punishment of adultery. As fidelity to the marriage bed, especially on the part of women, has always been considered as one of the most essential duties of matrimony, wise legislators, in order to secure that benefit, have annexed punishment to the act of adultery. These punishments, however, have generally some reference to the manner in which the wives were acquired, and to the values stamped upon women by civilisation and politeness of manors. It is ordered by the Mosaic Code that both the men and the women taken in adultery shall be stoned to death, whence it would seem that no more latitude was given to the male than to the female. But this is not the case. Such an unlimited power of concubinage was given to the men that we may suppose him, highly licentious indeed, who could not be satisfied therewith, without committing adultery. The Egyptians, among whom women were greatly esteemed, had a singular method of punishing adulterers of both sexes. They cut off the privy parts of the man that he might never be able to debouch another woman, and the nose of the woman, that she might never be the object of temptation to another man. Punishments nearly of the same nature, and perhaps nearly about the same time, were instituted in the East Indies against adulterers. But while those of the Egyptians originated from a love of virtue and of their women, those of the Hindus probably arose from jealousy and revenge. It is ordered by the Shaster that if a man commit adultery with a woman of superior caste, he shall be put to death. If by force he commit adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior caste, the magistrate shall confiscate all his possessions, cut off his genitals, and cause him to be carried round the city, mounted on an ass. If by fraud he commit adultery with a woman of an equal or inferior caste, the magistrate shall take his possessions, brand him on the forehead, and banish him the kingdom. Such are the laws of the Shaster, so far as they regard all the superior castes except the Brahmins. But if any of the most inferior castes commit adultery with a woman of the castes greatly superior, he is not only to be dismembered, but tied to a hot iron plate and burnt to death. Whereas the highest castes may commit adultery with the very lowest for the most trifling fine, and a Brahmin or priest can only suffer by having the hair of his head cut off, and like the clergy of Europe, while under the dominion of the Pope, he cannot be put to death for any crime whatever. But the laws of which he is always the interpreter are not so favourable to his wife. They inflict a severe disgrace upon her if she commit adultery with any of the higher castes. But if with the lowest, the magistrate shall cut off her hair, anoint her body with ghee, and cause her to be carried through the whole city naked, and riding upon an ass, and shall cast her out on the north side of the city, or cause her to be eaten by dogs. If a woman of any other castes goes to a man, and entices him to have a criminal correspondence with her, the magistrate shall cut off her ears, lips, and nose, mount her upon an ass, and drown her, or throw her to the dogs. To the commission of adultery with a dancing girl or prostitute, no punishment, nor fine, is annexed. Anecdote of Caesar When Caesar had subdued all his competitors and most of the foreign nations which made war against him, he found that so many Romans had been destroyed in the quarrels in which he had often engaged them, that to repair the loss, he promised rewards to fathers of families and forbade all Romans who were above twenty and under forty years of age to go out of their native country. Augustus, his successor, to check the debauchery of the Roman youth, laid heavy taxes upon such as continued unmarried after a certain age, and encouraged with great rewards the procreation of lawful children. Some years afterwards the Roman knights having pressingly petitioned him that he would relax the severity of that law. He ordered their whole body to assemble before him, and the married and unmarried to arrange themselves in two separate parties. When observing the unmarried to be much the greater company, he first addressed those who had complied with this law, telling them that they alone had served the purposes of nature and society, that the human race was created male and female to prevent the extinction of the species, and that marriage was contrived as the most proper method of renewing the children of that species. He added that they alone deserved the name of men and fathers, and that he would prefer them to such offices as they might transmit to their posterity. Then, turning to the bachelors, he told them that he knew not by what name to call them, nor by that of men, for they had done nothing that was manly, nor by that of citizens, since the city might perish for them, nor by that of Romans, for they seemed determined to let the race and name become extinct, but by whatever name he called them their crime, he said, equaled all other crimes put together for they were guilty of murder, in not suffering those to be born who should proceed from them, of impiety in abolishing the names and honors of their fathers and ancestors, of sacrilege in destroying their species and human nature, which owed its originals to the gods, and was consecrated to them, that by leading a single life they overturned as far as in them lay the temples and altars of the gods, dissolved the government by disobeying its laws, betrayed their country by making it barren. Having ended his speech, he doubled the rewards and privileges of such as had children, and laid a heavy fine on all unmarried persons by reviving the Popaean law. Though by this law all the males above a certain age were obliged to marry under a severe penalty, Augustus allowed them the space of a full year to comply with its demands, but such was the backwardness to madrimony and perversity of the Roman knights and others, that every possible method was taken to evade the penalty inflicted upon them, and some of them even married children in the cradle for that purpose. Thus fulfilling the letter, they avoided the spirit of the law, and though actually married, had no restraint upon their licentiousness, nor any encumbrance by the expense of a family. Power of Marrying Among nations which had shaken off the authority of the Church of Rome, the priests still retained an almost an exclusive power of joining men and women together in marriage. This appears rather, however, to have been by the tacit consent of the civil power than from any defect in its right hand authority. For in the time of Oliver Cromwell marriages were solemnized frequently by the justices of the peace, and the clergy neither attempted to invalidate them, nor make the children proceeding from them illegitimate. And when the province of New England was first settled, one of the earliest laws of the colony was that the power of marrying should belong to the magistrates. How different was the case with the first French settlers in Canada? For many years a priest had not been seen in the country, and a magistrate could not marry. The consequence was natural. Men and women joined themselves together as husband and wife, trusting to the vows and promises of each other. Fathers Charlevoix, a Jesuit at last travelled into those wild regions, found many of the simple, innocent inhabitants living in that manner, with all of whom he found much fault, and joined them to dupennants and afterwards married them. After the restoration, the power of marrying again reverted to the clergy. The magistrate, however, had not entirely resigned his right to that power, but it was by a late act of parliament entirely surrendered to them, and a penalty annexed to the solemnization of it by any other person whatsoever. End of Section 20. Section 21 of Sketches of the Fair Sex in All Parts of the World by Anonymous. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Randall Ryan. Section 21. Celebrity of the clergy. At a synod held at Winchester under St. Dunstan, the monks of Verde, that so highly criminal was it for a priest to marry, that even a wooden cross had audibly declared against the horrid practice. Others placed the first attempt of this kind to the account of Aelfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the beginning of the 11th century. However this may be, we have among the canons a decree of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York ordaining that all ministers of God, especially priests, should observe chastity and not take wives. And in the year 1076, there was a council assembled at Winchester under Land Frank, which decreed that no canon should have a wife, that such priests as lived in castles and villages should not be obliged to put their wives away, but that such as had none should not be allowed to marry. And that bishops should not ordain priests or deacons, unless they previously declared that they were not married. In the year 1102, Archbishop Anselm held a council at Westminster where it was decreed that no Archdeacon, priest, deacon or canon should either marry a wife or retain her if he had one. Anselm, to give this decree greater weight, desired of the king that the principal men of the kingdom might be present at the council and that the decree might be enforced by the joint consent of both the clergy and laity. The king consented and to these canons the whole realm gave a general sanction. The clergy of the province of York, however, remonstrated against them and refused to put away their wives. The unmarried refused also to oblige themselves to continue in that state, nor were the clergy of Canterbury much more tractable. In the celibacy of the clergy, we may discover also the origin of nunneries. The intrigues they could procure while at confession were only short, occasional, and with women whom they could not entirely appropriate to themselves. To remedy which, they probably fabricated the scheme of having religious houses where young women should be shut up from the world and where no man but a priest, on pain of death, should enter. That in these dark retreats, secluded from censure and from the knowledge of the world, they might riot in licentiousness. They were sensible that women, surrounded with the gay and the amiable, might frequently spurn at the offers of a cloistered priest, but that while confined entirely to their own sex, they would take pleasure in a visit from one of the other, however slovenly and unpolished. In the world at large, should the crimes of the women be detected, the priests have no interest in mitigating their punishment. But here, the whole community of them are interested in the secret of every intrigue, and should Lucinda unluckily proclaim it, she can seldom do it without the walls of the convent, and if she does, the priests lay the crime on some luckless lake that the holy culprit may come off with impunity. Desperate Act of Uthera In ancient and modern history, we are frequently presented with accounts of women who, preferring death to slavery or prostitution, sacrificed their lives with the most undaunted courage to avoid them. Apollodorus tells us that Hercules, having taken the city of Troy, prior to the famous siege of its celebrated by Homer, carried away captive the daughters of Alamedon, then king. One of these, named Uthera, being left with several other Trojan captives on board the Grecian fleet, while the sailors went on shore to take in fresh provisions, had the resolution to propose and the power to persuade her companions to set the ships on fire and to perish themselves amid the devouring flames. The women of Phoenicia met together before an engagement which was to decide the fate of their city, and having agreed to bury themselves in the flames if their husbands and relations were defeated, in the enthusiasm of their courage and resolution, they crowned her with flowers who first made the proposal. Many instances occur in the history of the Romans, of the Gauls and Germans, and of other nations in subsequent periods, where women being driven to despair by their enemies have bravely defended their walls or waded through fields of blood to assist their countrymen, and free themselves from slavery or from ravishment. Such heroic efforts are beauties even in the character of the softer sex when they proceed from necessity, when from choice they are blemishes of the most unnatural kind, indicating a heart of cruelty lodged in a form which has the appearance of gentleness and peace. It has been alleged by some of the writers on human nature that to the fair sex, the loss of beauty is more alarming and insupportable than the loss of life. But even this loss, however opposite to the feelings of their nature, they have voluntarily consented to sustain that they might not be the objects of temptation to the lawless ravisher. The nuns of a convent in France, fearing they should be violated by a Ruffian army, which had taken by storm the town in which their convent was situated, at the recommendation of their abbess, mutually agreed to cut off all their noses that they might save their chastity by becoming objects of disgust instead of desire. Were we to descend to particulars, we could give innumerable instances of women, who from Samirimus down to the present time have distinguished themselves by their courage. Such was Pentecelia, who, if we may credit ancient story, led her army of virgos to the assistance of Priam, king of Troy. Thamiris, who encountered Cyrus, king of Persia, and Thalastris, famous for her fighting as well as for her amours with Alexander the Great. Such was the brave but ill-fated Buddhisha, queen of the Britons, who led on that people to revenge the wrongs done to herself and her country by the Romans. And in later periods, such were the maid of Orleans and Margaret of Anjou, which, last, according to several historians, commanded at no less than twelve pitch battles. But we do not choose to multiply instances of this nature, as we have already said enough to shoe, that the sex are not destitute of courage when that virtue becomes necessary. And were they possessed of it, when unnecessary, it would divest them of one of the principal qualities for which we love and for which we value them. No woman was ever held up as a pattern to her sex, because she was intrepid and brave. No woman ever conciliated the affections of the men by rivaling them in what they reckon the peculiar excellencies of their own character. As the Greeks emerged from the barbarity of the heroic ages, among other articles of culture, they began to bestow more attention on the convenience and elegance of dress. At Athens, the ladies commonly employed the home mourning and dressing themselves in a decent and becoming manner. The toilet consisted in paints and washes of such a nature as to cleanse and beautify the skin, and they took great care to clean their teeth, an article too much neglected. Some also blackened their eyebrows and, if necessary, supplied the deficiency of the vermilion on their lips by a paint said to have been exceedingly beautiful. At this time the women in the Greek islands made much use of a paint which they called Sulama, which imparts a beautiful redness to the cheeks and gives the skin a remarkable gloss. Possibly this may be the same with that made use of in the times we are considering. But however this be, some of the Greek ladies, at present, gild their faces all over on the day of their marriage and consider this coating as an irresistible charm. And in the island of Sceos the dress does not a little resemble that of ancient Sparta, for they go with their bosoms uncovered and with gowns which only reach to the calf of their leg, in order to show the fine garters, which are commonly red ribbons curiously embroidered. But to return to ancient Greece the ladies spent likewise a part of their time in composing headdresses, and though we have reason to suppose that they were not then so preposterously fantastic as those presently composed by a Parisian millner, yet they were probably objects of no small industry and attention, especially as we find that they then dyed their hair, perfumed it with the most costly essences, and by the means of hot irons disposed of it in curls, as fancy or fashion directed. The clothes were made of stuff so extremely light and fine as to show their shapes without offending against the rules of decency. At Sparta the case was widely different. We shall not describe the dress of the women. It is sufficient to say that it has been loudly complained of by almost every ancient author who is treated on the subject. Grecian Courtship In the earlier periods of the history of the Greeks, their love, if we may call it so, was only the animal appetite, impetuous and unrestrained by either cultivation of manners or precepts of morality, and almost every opportunity which fell in their way prompted them to satisfy the appetite by force and to avenge the obstruction of it by murder. When they became a more civilized people, they shone much more illustriously in arts and in arms than in delicacy of sentiment and elegance of manners. Hence we shall find that their method of making love was more directed to compel the fair sex to a compliance with their wishes by charms and filters than to win them by the nameless assiduities and good offices of a lover. As the two sexes in Greece had but little communication with each other, and a lover was seldom favored with an opportunity of telling his passion to his mistress, he used to discover it by inscribing her name on the walls of his house, on the bark of the tree of a public walk, or leaves of his books. It was customary for him also to deck the door of the house where his fair one lived, with garlands and flowers, to make libations of wine before it and to sprinkle the entrance with the same liquor, in the manner that was practiced at the temple of Cupid. Garlands were of great use among the Greeks in love affairs. When a man untied his garland, it was a declaration of his having been subdued by that passion. And when a woman composed a garland, it was a tacit confession of the same thing. And though we are not informed of it, we may presume that both sexes had methods of discovering by these garlands not only that they were in love, but the object also upon whom it was directed. Such were the common methods of discovering the passion of love. The methods of prosecuting it were still more extraordinary and less reconcilable to civilization and to good principles. When a love affair did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, he did not endeavor to become more engaging in his manners and person. He did not lavish his fortune in presence or become more obliging and assiduous in his addresses. But immediately had recourse to incantations and filters, in composing and dispensing of which the women of Thessaly were reckoned the most famous, and drove a traffic in them of no considerable advantage. These potions were given by the women to the men as well as by the men to the women, and were generally so violent in their operations as for some time to deprive the person who took them of sense and not uncommonly of life. Their composition was a variety of herbs of the most strong and virulent nature, which we shall not mention, but herbs were not the only things they relied on for their purpose. They called in the productions of the animal and mineral kingdoms to their assistance. When these failed, they roasted an image of wax before the fire, representing the object of their love, and as this became warm, they flattered themselves that the person represented by it would be proportionally warmed with love. When a lover could obtain anything belonging to his mistress, he imagined it of singular advantage and deposited in the earth beneath the threshold of her door. Besides these, they had a variety of other methods equally ridiculous and unavailing, and of which it would be trifling to give a minute detail. We shall therefore just take notice as we go along that such of either sex as believed themselves forced into love by the power of filters and charms commonly had recourse to the same methods to disengage themselves and break the power of these enchantments, which they supposed operated involuntarily on their inclinations. And thus the old women of Greece, like the lawyers of modern times, were employed to defeat the schemes and operations of each other, and like them too, it is presumable, laughed in their sleeves while they hugged the gains that arose from vulgar credulity. The Romans, who borrowed most of their customs from the Greeks, also followed them in that of endeavouring to conciliate love by the power of filters and charms, the fact of which we have not the least room to doubt, as they are in Virgil and some other of the Latin poets, so many instances that prove it. But it depends not altogether on the testimony of the poets. Plotarch tells us that Loculus, a Roman general, lost his senses by a love potion, and Caius Caligula, according to Suetonius, was thrown into a fit of madness by one which was given him by his wife Cisonia. Lucretius too, according to some others, felt a sacrifice to the same folly. The Romans, like the Greeks, made use of these methods mostly in their affairs of gallantry and unlawful love, but in what manner they addressed themselves to a lady they intended to marry, has not been handed down to us, and the reason we suppose is that little or no courtship was practised among them. Women had no disposing power of themselves, to what purpose was it then to apply to them for their consent? They were under perpetual guardianship, and the guardian having sole power of disposing of them, it was only necessary to apply to him. In the Roman authors we frequently read of a father, a brother, a guardian, giving his daughter, his sister or his ward, in marriage, but we do not recollect one single instance of being told that the intended bridegroom applied to the lady for her consent. A circumstance the more extraordinary, as women in the decline of the Roman Empire had arisen to a dignity and even to a freedom hardly equaled in modern times. It has long been a common observation among mankind that love is the most fruitful source of invention, and that in this case the imagination of a woman is still more fruitful of invention and expedient than that of a man. Agreeably to this we are told that the women of the island of Emboina, being closely watched on all occasions, and destitute of the art of writing, by which, in other places, the sentiments are conveyed to any distance, have methods of making known the inclinations to their lovers, and of fixing assignations with them by means of nosegaze and plates of fruit so disposed as to convey their sentiments in the most explicit manner. By these means their courtship is generally carried on, and by altering the disposition of symbols made use of, they contrive to signify their refusal with the same expliciteness as their probation. In some of the neighboring islands, when a young man has fixed his affection, like the Italians, he goes from time to time to her door and plays upon some musical instrument. If she gives consent, she comes out to him, and they settle the affair of matrimony between them. If, after a certain number of these kind of visits, she does not appear, it is a denial, and the disappointed lover is obliged to desist. We shall see afterward, when we come to treat of the matrimonial compact, that, in some places, the ceremony of marriage consists in tying the garments of the young couple together as an emblem of that union which owed to bind their affections and interests. This ceremony has afforded a hint for lovers to explain their passion to their mistresses in the most intelligible manner, without the help of speech or the possibility of offending the nicest delicacy. A lover in these parts, who is too modest to declare himself, seizes the first opportunity he can find of sitting down by his mistress and tying his garment to hers in the manner that is practiced in the ceremony of marriage. If she permits him to finish the knot, without any interruption, and does not soon after cut or lose it, she thereby gives her consent. If she loses it, he may tie it again on some other occasion, when she may prove more propitious, but if she cuts it, his hopes are blasted forever. Long hair of Saxons and Danes The human hair has ever been regarded as an ornament. The Anglo-Saxons and Danes considered their hair as one of their greatest personal beauties and took great care to dress it to the utmost advantage. Young ladies wore it loose and flowing in ringlets over their shoulders, but after marriage they got it shorter, tied it up, and covered it with a headdress according to the fashion of the times. But to have the haircut entirely off was disgrace of such a nature that it was even thought a punishment not inadequate to the crime of adultery. So great in the Middle Ages was the value set upon the hair by both Saxons that, as a piece of the most peculiar modification, it was ordered by the canons of the church that the clergy should keep their hair short and shave the crown of their head, and that they should not, upon any pretense whatever, endeavor to keep the parts so shaved from public view. Many of the clergy of these times, finding themselves so peculiarly mortified and perhaps so easily distinguished from all other people by this particularity, has to be readily detected when they committed any of the follies or crimes to which human nature is in every situation sometimes liable, and they were to persuade mankind that long hair was criminal in order to reduce the whole to similarity with themselves. Amongst these St. Welston eminently distinguished himself. He rebuked, says William of Momsbury, the wicked of all ranks with great boldness, but was peculiarly severe upon those who were proud of the long hair. When any of these vain people bowed their heads before him to receive his blessing, before he gave it he cut a lot from the hair with a sharp pen-knife which he carried about him for that purpose, and commanded them, by way of penance for their sins, to cut all the rest in the same manner. If any of them refused to comply with his command, he reproached them for their effeminacy and denounced the most dreadful judgments against them. Such, however, was the value of their hair in these days that many rather submitted to his censures than part with it, and such was the folly of the church and of this saint in particular, that the most solemn judgments were denounced against multitudes for no other crime than not making use of pen-knives and scissors to cut off an ornament bestowed by nature. End of Section 23 Section 24 of sketches of the first sex in all parts of the world. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Sketches of the Fair Sex in All Parts of the World by Anonymous St. Valentine's Day On St. Valentine's Day it is customary in many parts of Italy for an unmarried lady to choose from among the young gentlemen of her acquaintance, one to be her guardian or gallant, who, in return for the honour of this appointment, presents to her some nose-gaze or other trifles, and thereby obliges himself to attend her in the most obsequious manner in all her parties of pleasure and to all her public amusements for the space of one year, when he may retire and the lady may choose another in his place. But in the course of this connection it frequently happens that they contract such an inclination to each other as prompts them to be coupled for life. In the times of the chivalry we have seen that the men gloried in protecting the women, and the women thought themselves safe and happy when they obtained that protection. It is probable therefore that this custom, though now more an affair of gallantry than of protection, is a relic of chivalry still subsisting among that romantic and sentimental people. But the observation of some peculiar customs on St. Valentine's Day is not confined to Italy. Almost all Europe has joined in distinguishing it by some particular ceremony. As it always happens about that time of the year when the genial influences of the spring begin to operate, it has been believed by the vulgar that upon it the birds invariably choose their mates for the ensuing season. In imitation therefore of their example, the vulgar of both sexes in many parts of Britain meet together, and having upon slips of paper wrote down the names of all their acquaintances and put them into two different bags. The men drew the female names by lot, and the women the male. The man makes the woman who drew his name some trifling present, and in the rural gamble becomes her partner, and she considers him as her sweetheart till he is otherwise disposed of, or till next Valentine's Day provide her with another. Courts of Love In Spain during the Middle Ages courts of love were established. These courts were composed of ladies summoned to meet together for the purpose of discussing in the most formal and serious manner beautiful and subtle questions of love. They decided the precise amount of inconstancy which a lady might forgive without lowering her own dignity provided her lover made certain supplications and performed certain penances. They took it into solemn consideration whether a lover was justified under any circumstances in expressing the slightest doubt of his lady's fidelity. They laid down definite rules and ceremonials of behaviour to be observed by those who wished to be beloved, and gravely discussed the question whether sentiment or sight, the heart or the eyes contributed most powerfully to inspire affection. Immodesty at Babylon That modesty and chastity which we now esteem as the chief ornament of the female character does not appear in times of remote antiquity to have been much regarded by either sex. At Babylon the capital of the Assyrian Empire it was so little valued that a law of the country even obliged every woman once in her life to depart from it. This abominable law which it is said was promulgated by an oracle ordained that every woman should once in her life repair to the temple of Venus, that on her arrival there her head should be crowned with flowers, and in that attire she should wait till some stranger performed with her the rites sacred to the goddess of debauchery. This temple was constructed with a great many winding galleries appropriated to the reception of the women, and the strangers who, allured by debauchery, never failed to assemble there in great numbers, being allowed to choose any woman they thought proper from among those who came there in obedience to the law. When the stranger accosted the object of his choice he was obliged to present her with some pieces of money, nor was she at liberty to refuse either these or the request of the stranger who offered them, whatever was the value of the money or however mean or disagreeable the donor. These preliminaries being settled they retired together to fulfil the law, after which the woman returned and offered the goddess the sacrifice prescribed by custom, and was then at liberty to return home. Nor was this custom entirely confined to the Babylonians. In the island of Cyprus they sent young women at stated times to the seashore where they prostituted themselves to Venus that they might be chased the rest of their lives. In some other countries a certain number only were doomed to prostitution, as it is supposed by way of a bribe to induce the goddess of debauchery to save the rest. When a woman had once entered the temple of Venus she was not allowed to depart from it till she had fulfilled the law, and it frequently happened that those to whom nature had been less indulgent than to others remained there a long time before any person offered to perform with them the condition of their release. A custom we think, sometimes alluded to in Scripture, and expressly delineated in the book of Baruch. The women also with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn brand for perfume. But if any of them drawn by some that passeth by lie with him, she reproacheth her fellow that she was not thought worthy as herself nor her cord broken. Though this infamous law was at first strictly observed by all the women of Babylon, yet it would seem that in length of time they grew ashamed of and in many cases dispensed with it. For we are informed that women of the superior ranks of life who were not willing literally to fulfill the law were allowed a kind of evasion. They were carrying litters to the gates of the temple where, having dismissed all their attendants, they entered alone, presented themselves before the statue of the goddess and returned home. Possibly this was done by the assistance of a bribe to those who had the care of the temple. In decency at Adrianople. In Adrianople in the neighbouring cities the women have public baths which are a part of their religion and of their amusement and a bride the first time she appears there after her marriage is received in a particular manner. The matrons and widows being seated round the room the virgins immediately put themselves into the original state of Eve. The bride comes to the door, richly dressed and adorned with jewels. Two of the virgins meet her and soon put her into the same condition with themselves. Then filling some silver pots with perfume they make a procession round the room with a filamium in which all the virgins join in chorus. The procession ended, the bride is led up to every matron who bestows on her some trifling presents and to each she returns thanks till she has been led round the whole. We could add many more ceremonies arising from marriage but as they are for the most part such as make a part of the marriage ceremony itself we shall have occasion to mention them with more propriety under another head. End of Section 24 At length, ventured to make this demand, wilt thou, O fair princess, if I may obtain the king's consent, except of me for her husband, to which she prudently replied, I must not make that choice myself, but go thou and offer the same proposal to my father. The sequel of the story informs us that Grimer accordingly made his proposal to the king, who answered him in a rage that though he had learned indeed to handle his arms yet as he had never gained a single victory nor given a banquet to the beasts of the field he had no pretensions to his daughter, and concluded by pointing out to him in a neighbor's room that he had never received a single victory and that he had never received a single victory and that he had never received a single victory and that he had never received a single victory and concluded by pointing out to him in a neighboring kingdom a hero renowned in arms whom if he could conquer the princess should be given him that on waiting on the princess to tell her what had passed she was greatly agitated and felt in the most sensible manner for the safety of her lover whom she was afraid her father had devoted to a death for his presumption that she provided him with a suit of impenetrable armor and a trusty sword with which she went and having slain his adversary he was part of his warriors, returned victorious and received her as the reward of his valor Singular as this method of obtaining a fair lady by a price paid in blood may appear it was not peculiar to the northerns we have already taken notice of the price which David paid for the daughter of Saul and shall add that among the saccay a people of ancient Scythia accustomed something of this kind but still more extraordinary obtained every young man who made his dresses to a lady was obliged to engage her in single combat if he vanquished he let her off in triumph and became her husband in sovereign if he was conquered she let him off in the same manner and made him her husband and her slave Lapland and Greenland Lady the delicacy of a Lapland lady which is not in the least hurt by being drunk as often as she can procure liquor would be wounded in the most sensible manner should she deign at first to listen to the declaration of a lover he is therefore obliged to employ a matchmaker to speak for him and this matchmaker must never go empty handed and of all of the presence that which must infallibly secures him a favorable reception is brandy having by the eloquence of this gained leave to bring the lover along with him and being together with the lover's father or other nearest male relation arrived at the house where the lady resides the father and matchmaker are invited to walk in but the lover must wait patiently at the door till further solicited the parties in the meantime open their suit to the other ladies of the family not forgetting to employ in their favor their irresistible advocate brandy a liberal distribution of which is reckoned the strongest proof of the lover's affection when they have all been warned by the lover's bounty he is brought into the house paces compliments to the family and his desire to partake of their cheer though at this interview seldom indulge with the sight of his mistress but if he is he salutes her and offers her presence of reindeer skins, tongues, etc all which while surrounded with her friends she pretends to refuse but at the same time giving her lover a signal to go out she soon steals after him and is no more that modest creature she affected to appear in company the lover now solicits for the completion of his wishes if she is silent it is construed into consent but if she throws his presence on the ground with disdain the match is broken off forever it is generally observed that women enter into matrimony with more willingness and less anxious care and solicitude than men for which many reasons naturally suggest themselves to the intelligent reader the women of Greenland are however in many cases an exception to this general rule a Greenlander having fixed his affection acquaints his parents with it they acquaint the parents of the girl upon which two female negotiators are sent to her who, lest they should shock her delicacy do not enter directly on the subject of their embassy but launch out in praises of the lover they mean to recommend of his house of his furniture and whatever else belongs to him but dwell most particularly on his dexterity and catching seals she, pretending to be affronted, runs away tearing the ringlets of her hair as she retires after which the two females having obtained a tacit consent from her parents search for her and on discovering her lurking place drag her by force to the house of her lover and there leave her for some days she sits with dishevelled hair silent and dejected refusing every kind of sustenance and at last if kind and treaties cannot prevail upon her is compelled by force and even by blows to complete the marriage with her husband it sometimes happens that when the female matchmakers arrive to propose a lover to a Greenland young woman she either feints or escapes to the uninhabited mountains where she remains until she is discovered and carried back to her by her relations or is forced to return by hunger and cold in both which cases she previously cuts off her hair a most infallible indication that she is determined never to marry end of section 25 in several of the warmer regions of Asia and Africa the little education bestowed upon women is entirely calculated to debauch their minds and give additional charms to their persons they are taught vocal and instrumental music which they accompany with dances in which every movement and every gesture is expressively indecent but receive no moral instruction for it would teach them that they were doing wrong this however is not the practice in all parts of Asia and Africa the women of Hindustan are educated more decently they are not allowed to learn music or dancing which are only reckoned accomplishments fit for those of a lower order they are not withstanding taught all the personal graces and particular care is taken to instruct them in the art of conversing with elegance and vivacity some of them are also taught to write in the generality to read so that they may be able to read the Quran instead of which they more frequently dedicate themselves to tales and romances which painted in all the lively imagery of the East seldom fail to corrupt the minds of creatures shut up from the world and consequently forming to themselves extravagant and romantic notions of all that is transacted in it in well regulated families women are taught by heart some prayers in Arabic which at certain hours they assemble in a hall to repeat never being allowed the liberty of going to the public mosque they are enjoined always to wash themselves before praying and indeed the virtues of cleanliness of chastity and obedience are so strongly and constantly inculcated on their minds that in spite of their general debauchery of manners there are not a few among them who in their common deportment do credit to the instructions bestowed upon them nor is this much to be wondered at when we consider the tempting recompense that is held out to them they are in paradise to flourish forever in the vigor of youth and beauty and however old or ugly when they depart this life are there to be immediately transformed into all that is fair and all that is graceful religious festivals of the Greeks a cause which contributed to make the religious festivals of the Greeks appear as amusements and diversions was that ridiculous buffoonery that constituted so great a part of them it would be tedious to enumerate one half of these buffooneries but let a few serve as a specimen at a festival held in honor of Bacchus the women ran about for a long time seeking the God who they pretended had run away from them this done they passed their time in proposing riddles and questions to each other and laughing at such as could not answer them and at last often close the scene with such enormous excesses that at one of these festivals the daughters of Minna having in their madness killed Hippesis had him dressed and served up to table as a rarity at another kept in honor of Venus and Adonis they beat their breasts toward their hair and mimicked all the signs of the most extravagant grief with which they suppose the goddess to have been affected on the death of her favorite paramour at another in honor of the nymph Cotus they addressed her as the goddess of wantonness with many mysterious rites and ceremonies at Corinth these rites and ceremonies being perhaps thought inconsistent with the character of modest women this festival was only celebrated by Harlots Atheneus mentions a festival at which the women laid hold on all the old bachelors they could find and dragged them round and alter beating them all the time with their fists as punishment for the neglect of the sex we shall only mention two more at one of which after the assembly had met in the temple of Ceres the women shut out all the men and dogs themselves and the bitches remaining in the temple all night in the morning the men were let in and the time was spent in laughing together at the frolic at the other in honor of Bacchus they counterfeited frenzy and madness and to make this madness appear the more real they used to eat the raw and bloody entrails of goats newly slaughtered and indeed the whole of the festivals of Bacchus a deity much worshiped in Greece were celebrated with rites either ridiculous, obscene or madly extravagant there were others however in honor of the other gods and goddesses which were more decent and had more the appearance of religious solemnity though even in these the women dressed out and all their finery and adorned with flowers and garlands either formed splendid processions or assisted in performing ceremonies the general indecency of which was to amuse rather than instruct the deaths of Lucretia in Virginia the force of prejudice appears in nothing more strongly than in the encomiums which have been lavished upon Lucretia for laying violent hands upon herself and Virginia's for killing his own daughter these actions seem to derive all their glory from the revolutions to which they gave rise as the former occasioned the abolition of monarchy amongst the Romans and the latter put an end to the arbitrary power of the December but if we lay aside our prepositions for antiquity and examine these actions without prejudice we cannot but acknowledge that they are rather the effects of human weakness and obstinacy than of resolution and magnanimity Lucretia for fear of worldly censure chose rather to submit to the lewd desires of Tarquin than have it thought that she had been stabbed in the embraces of a slave which sufficiently proves that all her boasted virtue was founded upon vanity and too high a value for the opinion of mankind the younger Pliny with great reason prefers to this famed action that of a woman of low birth whose husband, being seized with an incurable disorder chose rather to perish with him than survive him the action of Aria is likewise much more noble whose husband, Paitis being condemned to death plunged a dagger in her breast and told him with a dying voice Paitis it is not painful but the death of Lucretia gave rise to a revolution and it therefore became illustrious though as St. Augustine justly observes it is only an instance of the weakness of a woman too solicitous about the opinion of the world Virginia's in killing his daughter to preserve her from falling a victim to the lust of the December Claudius was guilty of the highest rashness since he might certainly have gained the people already irritated against the tyrant without intriguing his hands in his own blood it may indeed be extenuated as Virginia's slew his daughter from a false principle of honor and did it to preserve her from what both he and she thought worse than death namely to preserve her from violation but though it may in some measure be excused it should not certainly be praised or admired on looking at the picture the beauty's strike my ravished eyes and fill my soul with pleasure and surprise what blooming sweetness smiles upon that face how mild yet how majestic every grace in those bright eyes what more than mimic fire benignly shies and candles gay desire yet chastened modesty fair white robe dame triumphant sets to check the rising flame sure nature made the fair was ever formed so exquisitely fair yes once there was a form thus heavenly bright but now tis veiled in everlasting night each glory which that lovely face could boast and every charm in traceless dust is lost an unregarded heap of ruin lies that form which lately drew ten thousand eyes what once was courted loved adored and praised now mingles with the dust from once tis raised no more soft dimpling smiles those cheeks adorn whose rosy tincture shamed the rising mourn no more with sparkling radiance shine those eyes nor over those the sable arches rise nor from those ruby lips soft accents flow nor lilies on the snowy forehead blow all are cropped by death's impartial hand charms could not bribe nor beauty's power withstand not all that crowd of wondrous charms could save their fair possessor from the dreary grave how frail is beauty transient false and vain it flies with mourn and near returns again death cruel ravager delights to pray upon the young the lovely and the gay if death appear not oft corroding pain with pining sickness in her languid train blights youth's gay spring with some untimely blast and lays the blooming field of beauty waste but should these spare still time creeps on apace and plucks with withered hand each winning grace the eyes lips cheeks and bosom he disarms no art from him can shield exterior charms but would fair ones be esteemed approved and with everlasting ardour loved would you in wrinkled age admirers find in every female virtue dress the mind adorn the heart and teach the soul to charm and when the eyes no more the breast can warm these ever blooming beauties shall inspire each generous heart with friendships sacred fire these charms shall neither fade nor fly pain sickness time and death they dare defy when the pale tyrant's hand shall seal your doom and lock your ashes in the silent tomb these beauties shall in double luster rise shine round the soul and waft it to the skies end of section 26 section 27 of sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dirk Eichhorn sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous art of determining the precise figure the degree of beauty the habits and the age of women notwithstanding the aids and disguises of dress of figure external indications as to figure are required chiefly as to the limbs which are concealed by drapery such indications are afforded by the walk to every careful observer in considering the proportion of the limbs to the body if even in a young woman the walk though otherwise good be heavy or the fall on each food eternally be sudden and rather upon the heel the limbs though well formed will be found to be slender compared with the body there is confirmation accompanies any great proportional development of the vital system and it is frequently observable in the woman of the sexon of England as in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, etc. in women of this confirmation moreover the slightest indisposition or the ability is indicated by a slight vibration of the shoulders and upper part of the chest at every step in walking in considering the line or direction of the limbs if viewed behind the feet at every step are thrown out backward and somewhat laterally the knees are certainly much inclined inward if viewed in front the dress at every step is as it were gathered toward the front and then tossed more or less to the opposite side the knees are certainly too much inclined in considering the relative size of each portion of the limbs if in the walk there be a crater or less approach to the marching pace the hip is large for we naturally employ the joint which is surrounded with the most powerful muscles and in any approach to the march it is the hip joint which is used and the knee and ankle joints which remain proportionally unemployed if in the walk the tripping pace be used as in an approach to walking on tiptoes the calf is large for it is only by the power of its muscles that under the weight of the whole body the food can be extended for this purpose if in the walk the food be raised in this lovely manner and the heel be seen at each step to lift the bottom of the dress forward and backward neither the hip nor the calf is well developed even with regard to the parts of the figure which are more exposed to observation by the closer adaption of dress much deception occurs it is therefore necessary to understand the arts employed for this purpose at least by skillful women a person having a narrow face wears a bonnet with wide front exposing the lower part of the cheeks one having a broad face wears a closer front and if the jaw be wide it is in appearance diminished by bringing the corners of the bonnet sloping to the point of the chin a person having a long neck has the neck of the bonnet descending the neck of the dress rising and filling more or less of the intermediate space one having a short neck has the whole bonnet short and close in the perpendicular direction and the neck of the dress neither high nor wide persons with narrow shoulders have the shoulders or epaulettes of the dress formed on the outer edge of the natural shoulder very full with the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique folds from the point of the shoulder to the middle of the bust persons with waists too large render them less before by a stomacher or something equivalent and behind by a corresponding form of the dress making the top of the dress smooth across the shoulders and drawing it in plates on the bottom of the waist those who have the bosom too small and large it by the oblique folds of the dress being gathered above and by other means those who have the lower posterior part of the body too flat elevate it by the top of the skirt being gathered behind and by other less skillful adjustments which though hit are easily detected those who have the lower part of the body too prominent anteriorly render it less apparent by shortening the waist by a corresponding projection behind and by increasing the bosom above those who have the haunches too narrow take care not to have the bottom of the dress too wide tall women have a wide skirt or several flounces or both of these shorter women a moderate one but as long as can be conveniently worn with the flounces etc as low as possible of beauty additional indications as to beauty are required chiefly where the woman observed precedes the observer and may by her figure naturally and reasonably excite his interest while at the same time it would be rude to turn and look in her face on passing there can therefore be no impropriety in observing that the conduct of those who may happen to meet the woman thus proceeding will defer according to the sex of the person who meets her if the person meeting her be a man and the lady observed be beautiful she will only look with an expression of pleasure at her countenance but will after that turn more or less completely to survey her from behind if the person meeting her be a woman the case becomes more complex if both be either ugly or beautiful or if the person meeting her be beautiful and the lady observed be ugly then it is probable that the person may pass by inattentively casting merrily and indifferent clans if on the contrary the woman meeting her be ugly and the lady observed be beautiful then the former will examine the letter with the severest scrutiny and if she sees features and shape without defect she will instantly fix her eyes on the head, dress or gown in order to find some object for censure of the beautiful woman and for consolation in her own eucliness thus, he who happens to follow a female may be aided in determining whether it is worth his while to clowns at her face in passing or to devise other means of seeing it even when the face is seen as in meeting in the streets or elsewhere infinite deception occurs as to the degree of beauty this operates so powerfully that a correct estimate of beauty is perhaps never farmed at first this depends on the forms and still more on the colors of dress in relation to the face for this reason it is necessary to understand the principles according to which colors are employed at least by skillful women when it is the fault of a face to contain too much yellow then yellow around the face is used to remove it by contrast and to cause the red and blue to predominate when it is the fault of the face to contain too much red then red around the face is used to remove by contrast and to cause the yellow and blue to predominate when it is the fault of the face to contain too much blue then blue around face is used to remove it by contrast and to cause the yellow and red to predominate. When it is the fault of the face to contain too much yellow and red, then orange is used. When it is the fault of the face to contain too much red and blue, then purple is used. When it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue and yellow, then green is used. It is necessary to observe that the linings of bonnets reflect their color on the face, and transparent bonnets transmit that color and equally tinge it. In both these cases, the color employed is no longer that which is placed around the face and which acts on it by contrast, but the opposite. As green around the face heightens a faint red in the cheeks by contrast, so the pink lining of the bonnet aids it by reflection. Hence, linings which reflect are generally of the town which is wanted in the face, and care is then taken that these linings do not come into the direct view of the observer and operate pretutically on the face by contrast, overpowering the little color which by reflection they should heighten. The fronts of bonnets so lined therefore do not widen greatly forward and bring their color into contrast. When bonnets do widen, the proper contrast is used as a lining, but then it has not a surface much adapted for reflection, otherwise it may perform that office and injure the complexion. Understanding then the application of these colors in a general way, it may be noticed that fair phases are by contrast best acted on by light colors and dark phases by darker colors. Dark phases are best affected by darker colors, evidently because they tend to render the complexion fairer, and fair phases do not require dark colors, because the opposition would be too strong. Apartments which constitute a background to the face, or which on the contrary reflect their use upon it, always either improve or injure the complexion. For this and some other reasons, many persons look better at home in their apartments than in the streets. Apartments may indeed be peculiarly calculated to improve individual complexions of mind. Personal indications as to mind may be derived from figure, from gate and from dress. As to figure, a certain symmetry or disproportion of parts, either of which depends immediately upon the locomotive system, or a certain softness or hardness of form, which belongs exclusively to the vital system, these reciprocally denote a locomotive symmetry or disproportion, or a vital softness or hardness, or a mental delicacy or coarseness, which will be found also indicated by the features of the face. These qualities are marked in pairs, as each belonging to its respective system, for without this there can be no accurate or useful observation. As to gate, that progression which advances, unmodified by any lateral movement of the body, or any perpendicular rising of the head, and which belongs exclusively to the locomotive system, or that soft lateral rolling of the body, which belongs exclusively to the vital system, or that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at every impulse to step, which belongs exclusively to the mental system. These reciprocally indicate a corresponding locomotive or vital or mental character, which will be found also indicated by the features of the face. To put to the test the utility of these elements of observation and indication, let us take a few instances. If, in any individual, locomotive symmetry of figure is combined with direct and linear gate, a character of mind and countenance not absolutely responsive, but cold in the insipid, is indicated. If vital softness of figure is combined with a gentle lateral rolling of the body in its gate, voluptuous character and expression of countenance are indicated. If delicacy of outline in the figure be combined with perpendicular rising of the head, levity, perhaps vanity, is indicated. But there are innumerable combinations and modifications of the elements, which we have just described. Expressions of pride, determination, obstinacy, etc., are all observable. The gate, however, is often formed in a great measure by local or other circumstances, by which it is necessary that the observer should avoid being misled. Dress as affording indications, though less to be relied on than the preceding, is not without its value. The woman who possesses a cultivated taste and a corresponding expression of countenance will generally be tastefully dressed, and the vulgar woman with features correspondingly rude will easily be seen through the inappropriate mask in which her milliner or dressmaker may have invested her. Of habits, external indications as to the personal habits of women are both numerous and interesting. The habit of childbearing is indicated by a flatter breast, a broader back, and thicker cartilages of the bones of the pubis, necessarily widening the pelvis. The same habit is also indicated by a high rise of the nape of the neck, so that the neck from that point bends considerably forward and by an elevation which is diffused between the neck and shoulders. These all arise from temporary distensions of the trunk in women whose secretions are powerful from the habit of throwing the shoulders backward during pregnancy and the head again forward to balance the abdominal weight, and they bestow a character of fatality, peculiarly expressive. The same habit is likewise indicated by an excess of that lateral rolling of the body in walking, which was already described as connected with Volipger's character. This is a very certain indication as it arises from temporary distensions of the pelvis, which nothing else can occasion. As in consequence of this lateral rolling of the body and of the weight of the body being much thrown forward in gestation, the toes are turned somewhat inward, and they aid in the indication. The habit of nursing children is indicated both in mothers and nursery mates, by the right shoulder being larger and more elevated than the left. The habits of the seam stress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending forward and the arms being even in walking considerably bent forward or folded more or less upward from the elbows. Habits of labor are indicated by a considerable thickness of the shoulders below, where they form an angle with the inner part of the arm, and where these habits are of the lowest menial kind, the elbows are turned outward and the palms of the hands backward. External indications of age are required chiefly where the face is veiled or where the woman observed precedes the observer and may reasonably excite his interest. In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle have lost a certain moderate plumpness and assumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the woman has generally passed the period of youth. If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge of the foot first striking the ground, it is the heel which does so, then has the woman in general passed the meridian of life. Unlike the last indication, this is apparent, however the foot and ankle may be clothed. The reason of this indication is the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to receive the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle joint. Exceptions to this last indication are to be found chiefly in women in whom the developments of the body are proportionally much greater, either from a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of the limbs, the muscles of which are consequently incapable of receiving the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle joint. And of Section 27. Section 28 of sketches of the fairer sex in all parts of the world. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous. The Ideal of Female Beauty, or a description of the famous statue of the Venus de Medici. The Venus de Medici at Florence is the most perfect specimen of ancient sculpture remaining and is spoken of as the model of female beauty. It was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans that a hundred ancient repetitions of this statue have been noticed by travelers. This statue is said to have been found in the form of Octavia at Rome. It represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected. The Venus de Medici at Florence, says a distinguished writer, is like a rose which after a beautiful daybreak expands its leaves to the first ray of the sun and represents that age when the limbs assume a more finished form and the breast begins to develop itself. The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave that predominance to the vital organs in the chest, which, as already said, makes the nutritive system peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist, the principles of whose art taught him that a vast head is not a constituent of female beauty. In mentioning the head it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing the rich curls of hair. The eyes next fix our attention by their soft, sweet and glad expression. This is produced with exquisite art. To give softness the ridges of the eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness the under eyelid which I would call the expressive one is slightly raised. To give the expression of gladness or of pleasure the opening of the eyelids is diminished in order to diminish or partially to exclude the excess of those impressions which make even pleasure painful. Other exquisite details about those eyes confer on them unparalleled beauty. Still this look is far from those traits indicative of lasciviousness with which some modern artists have thought to characterize their venuses. Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the configuration of the nose. The peculiar connection of this sense with love was evidently well understood by the artist. Not only is smell peculiarly associated with love in all the higher animals but it is associated with reproduction in plants, the majority of which evolved delicious odors only when the flowers or organs of fructification are displayed. Connected indeed with the capacity of the nose and the cavities which open into it it is the projection of the whole middle part of the face. The mouth is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being undeveloped at their angles and by the upper lip continuing so for a considerable portion of its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the central development of both lips and active love by the special development of the lower lip. By the slight opening of the lips it expresses desire. These exquisite details and the omission of nothing intellectually expressive that nature presents have led some to imagine the Venus de Medici to be a portrait. In doing so however they see not the profound calculation for every feature thus embodied. More strangely still they forget the ideal character of the whole. The notion of this ideal head being too small is especially opposed to such an opinion. With all the look is amorous and languishing without being lascivious and is as powerfully marked by gay coquetry as by charming innocence. The young neck is exquisitely formed, its beautiful curves show a thousand capabilities of motion and its admirably calculated swell over the organ of voice results from and marks the struggling expression of still mysterious love. With regard to the rest of the figure the admirable form of the mamme which without being too large occupy the bosom rise from it with various curves on every side and all terminate in their apices leaving the inferior part in each precisely as pendant as gravity demands. The flexile waist gently tapering little farther than the middle of the trunk the lower portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher even than the umbilicus. The gradual expansion of the haunches those expressive characteristics of the female indicating at once her fitness for the office of generation and that of parturition. Expansions which increase till they reach their greatest extent at the superior part of the thighs the fullness behind their upper part and on each side of the lower part of the spine commencing as high as the waist and terminating in the still greater swell of the distinctly separated hips the flat expanse between these and immediately over the fissure of the hips relieved by a considerable dimple on each side and caused by the elevation of all the surrounding parts the fine swell of the broad abdomen which soon reaching its greatest height immediately under the umbilicus slopes neatly to the Mons Vaneras but narrow at its upper part expands more widely as it descends while throughout it is laterally distinguished by a gentle depression from the more muscular parts on the sides of the pelvis the beautiful elevation of the Mons Vaneras the contiguous elevation of the thighs which almost at their commencement rise as high as it does the admirable expansion of these bodies inward or toward each other by which they almost seem to intrude upon each other and to exclude each from its respective place the general narrowness of the upper and the unembraceable expansion of the lower part thus exquisitely formed all these admirable characteristics of female form the mere existence of which a woman must one is tempted to imagine be even to herself a source of ineffable pleasure these constituted being worthy as the personification of beauty of occupying the temples of Greece present an object finer alas the nature seems even capable of producing an offer to all nations and ages a theme of admiration and delight well might Thompson say so stands the statue that enchants the world so bending tries to veil the matchless post the mingled beauties of exulting Greece and Byron in yet higher strain there to the goddess loves in stone and fills the air around with beauty within the pale we stand and in that form and face behold what mind can make when nature's self would fail and to the fond idolaters of old envy the innate flash which such a soul could mold we gaze and turn away and know not where dazzled and drunk with beauty till the heart reels with its fullness there forever there changed to the chariot of triumphal art we stand as captives and would not depart the first kiss of love by Lord Byron away with those fictions of flimsy romance those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove give me the mild beam of the soul breathing glance or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love he rhymers whose bosoms with fantasy glow whose pastoral passions are made for the grove from what blessed inspiration your sonnets would flow could you ever have tasted the first kiss of love I hate you you cold compositions of art though prudes may condemn me and bigots reprove I court the effusions that spring from the heart which throbs with delight to the first kiss of love oh cease to affirm that man since his birth from Adam till now has with wretchedness strove some portion of paradise still is on earth and Eden revives in the first kiss of love when age chills the blood when our pleasures are past for years fleet away with the wings of the dove the dearest remembrance will still be the last our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love the death of Cleopatra see frontispiece the princess of integrity most renowned for her personal charms was in her unrivaled beauty her mental perfections her weaknesses and the unhappy conclusion of an amorous existence the counterpart of the most beautiful queen of later times the unfortunate Mary of Scotland Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy Alites king of Egypt she was early given to wife to her own brother Ptolemy Dionysius and ascended the throne conjointly with him on the death of their father it was doubtless the policy of the kingdom thus to preserve all the royal honors in one family the daughter being the queen as well as the son king of the country but her ambitious and intriguing spirit restrained by no ties of reciprocal love to her husband who was also her brother sought for means to burst a union at once unnatural and galling and the opportunity at length arrived Julius Caesar the conqueror of the world having pursued the defeated Pompey in Egypt there beheld Cleopatra in the zenith of her beauty and he before whose power the whole world was kneeling prostrated himself before a pretty woman the following is the account of her first introduction to Caesar as given by the historian it shows that she had no maidenly scruples as to the mode of attaining her ends her intrigues to become sole monarch had made her husband slash brother banish her from the capital hearing of the arrival of Caesar she got into a small boat with only one male friend and in the dusk of the evening made for the palace where Caesar as well as her husband lodged as she saw it difficult to enter it undiscovered by her husband's friends she rolled herself up in a carpet her companion tied her up at full length like a bale of goods and carried her in at the gates to Caesar's apartments this stratagem of hers which was a strong proof of her wit and ingenuity is said to have first opened her way to Caesar's heart and her conquest advanced rapidly by the charms of her speech and person the genius of Shakespeare has well depicted the power of her beauty at this time he makes her to say at a later period of life when she grinned at the expected desertion of another lover broad-fronted Caesar when thou was tear above the ground I was a morsel for a monarch and great Pompey would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow there would he fix his longing gaze and die with looking on his life but Cleopatra who was not less remarkable for her cunning than for her beauty knowing that Caesar was resolved to be gratified at whatever cost determined that the price should be a round one the terms of his admission to her arms were that Caesar should expel her brother from the kingdom and give the crown to her which Caesar complied with Cleopatra had a son by Caesar called Caesarean in the civil wars which distracted the Roman Empire after the death of Caesar Cleopatra supported Brutus against Anthony and Octavius Anthony in his expedition to Parthia summoned her to appear before him she arrayed herself in the most magnificent apparel and appeared before her judge in the most captivating attire though somewhat older than when she drew Caesar to her arms her charms were still conspicuous age could not wither her nor customs stale her infinite variety other women cloy the appetite they feed but she made a hungry where most she satisfied her artifice on this occasion succeeded Anthony became enamored of her and publicly married her although his wife the sister of Octavius was living he gave Cleopatra the greater part of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire this behavior was the cause of a rupture between Octavius and Anthony and these two celebrated generals met in battle at Actium where Cleopatra by flying with 60 sale of vessels ruined the interest of Anthony and he was defeated Cleopatra had retired to Egypt where soon after Anthony followed her Anthony stabbed himself upon the false information that Cleopatra was dead and as his wound was not mortal he was carried to the Queen who drew him up by a cord from one of the windows of the monument where she had retired and concealed herself Anthony soon after died of his wounds and Cleopatra after she had received pressing invitations from Octavius and even pretended declarations of love destroyed herself by the bite of an asp not to fall into the conqueror's hands she had previously attempted to stab herself and had once made a resolution to starve herself but the means by which she destroyed herself is said to produce the easiest of deaths the asp is a small serpent found near the river Nile so delicate that it may be concealed in a fig and when presented to the vitals of the body its bite is so deadly as to render medical skill useless while at the same time it's so painless that the victim fancies herself dropping into a sweet slumber instead of the arms of death so Cleopatra while she is applying the venomous reptile to her bosom as represented in the frontispiece is supposed to use language like the following does thou not see my baby at my breast that sucks the nurse asleep thus after having chained in her embrace the two greatest generals that the Roman Empire had produced Julius Caesar and Mark Antony at the periods when they were respectively arbiters of the world's fate perished Cleopatra by her own hand Cleopatra was a voluptuous and extravagant woman and in one of the feasts she gave to Antony at Alexandria she melted pearls into her drink to render the entertainment more sumptuous and expensive she was fond of appearing dressed as a goddess and she advised Antony to make war against the richest nations to support her debaucheries her beauty has been greatly commended and her mental perfections so highly celebrated that she's been described as capable of giving audience to the ambassadors of seven different nations and of speaking their various languages as fluently as her own how vain are the possessions of beauty power personal and mental accomplishments if to these are not united virtuous principles all history as well as all experience is full of examples calculated to impress the great lesson that virtue alone is happiness below end of section 28