 Section 1 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 Coleman Shoe. In the following pages, it is our design to present a pleasing and interesting miscellany, which will serve to be guile the leisure hour, and will at the same time couple instruction with amusement. We have used but little method in the arrangement, choosing rather to furnish the reader with a rich profusion of narratives and anecdotes, all tending to illustrate the female character, to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle, or sometimes heroic virtues, its amiable weaknesses, and strange defects than to attempt an accurate analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted to master, namely woman. It will be seen that we do not set down woman as a cipher in the account of human beings. We accord to her her full share of importance in the world, and we have not attempted to relieve her from a sense of her responsibility as an accountable being. Above all, we have not failed to impress upon her the obligations she is under to Christianity, whose benign influences have raised her to be the companion and bosom friend of man, instead of his mere handmaid and dependent. It is religion that must form such a character as the following, which though applied by Pope to one of the most accomplished women of his time, is that of a Christian wife in every age and station. O blessed with temper, whose unclouded ray can make tomorrow cheerful as today, she who can love a sister's charms, or hear sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear, she who nears answers till a husband cools, or if she rules him, never shows she rules, charms by accepting, by submitting sways, by causing the character of a woman to be more thoroughly discussed and better understood, by making it more frequently the theme of rational meditation to the young and ardent, who, from the force of defective education, are apt to regard all the sex beyond a very limited circle, as mere accessories to animal enjoyment, whose peace they may wound without compunction, and whose happiness they may peril without reflection. We feel that we shall do both sexes a good service, and one for which as they advance in life, and in their turn become husbands, wives, and parents, they will thank our little book as having helped them to know themselves and each other. Sketches indeed from that most passionate page, a woman's heart of feelings, thoughts, that make the atmosphere in which her spirit moves, but like all other earthly elements, or cast with clouds, now dark, now touch with light, with rainbows, sunshines, showers, moonlight, stars, chasing each other's change, I feign would trace its brightness and its blackness. Sketches of the Sex The First Woman and Her Antediluvian Descendants The great creator, having formed man of the dust of the earth, made a deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. Hence, the fair sex, in the opinion of some authors, being formed of matter doubly refined, derived their superior beauty and excellence. Not long after the creation, the First Woman was tempted by the serpent to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, in the midst of the garden of Eden. With regard to which God had said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. This deception and the fatal consequences arising from it furnished the most interesting story in the whole history of the sex. On the offerings being brought, and that of Abel accepted, Cain's jealousy and resentment rose to such a pitch, that as soon as they came down from the mount where they had been sacrificing, he fell upon his brother and slew him. For this cruel and barbarous action, Cain and his posterity, being banished from the rest of the human race, indulged themselves in every species of wickedness. On this account it is supposed they were called the sons and daughters of men. The posterity of Seth, on the other hand, became eminent for virtue, and in regard to the divine precepts, by the regular and amiable conduct they acquired the appellation of sons and daughters of God. After the deluge there is a chasm in the history of women until the time of the patriarch Abraham. They then begin to be introduced into the sacred story. Several of their actions are recorded. The laws, customs, and usages by which they were governed are frequently exhibited. Woman in the patriarchal ages. The condition of women among the ancient patriarchs appears to have been but extremely indifferent. When Abraham entertained the angels, sent to denounce the destruction of Sodom, he seems to have treated his wife as a menial servant. Make ready quickly, said he to her. Three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes on the hearth. In many parts of the east, water is only to be met with deep in the earth, and to draw it from the wells is consequently fatiguing and laborious. This however was the task of the daughters of Jethro, the Midianite, to whom so little regard was paid either on account of their sex, or the rank of their father as high priest of the country, that the neighboring shepherds not only insulted them, but forcibly took from them the water they had drawn. This was a task of Rebekah who not only drew water for Abraham's servant, but for his camels also, while the servant stood an idle spectator of the toil. Is it not natural to imagine that as he was on an embassy to court the damsel for Isaac, his master son, he would have exerted his utmost efforts to please and become acceptable? When he had concluded his bargain and was carrying her home, we meet with a circumstance worthy of remark. When she first approached Isaac, who had walked out into the fields to meet her, she did it in the most submissive manner, as if she had been approaching a lord and master, rather than a fond and passionate lover. From this circumstance, as well as from several others related in the sacred history, it would seem that women, instead of endeavoring as in modern times to persuade the world that they confer an immense favor on a lover by deigning to accept of him, did not scruple to confess that the obligation was conferred on themselves. This was a case with Ruth, who had laid herself down at the feet of Boaz and being asked by him who she was, answered, I am Ruth, thy handmaid, spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. When Jacob went to visit his uncle Laban, he met Rachel, Laban's daughter in the fields, attending on the flocks of her father. In a much later period, Tamar, one of the daughters of King David, was sent by her father to perform the servile office of making cakes for her brother Amnon. The simplicity of the times in which these things happen, no doubt, very much invalidates the strength of the conclusions that naturally arise from them. But notwithstanding, it still appears that women were not then treated with a delicacy which they have experienced among people more polished and refined. Polygamy also prevailed, which is so contrary to the inclination of the sex and so deeply wounds a delicacy of their feelings that it is impossible for any woman voluntarily to agree to it, even where it is authorized by custom and by law. Wherever, therefore, polygamy takes place, we may assure ourselves that women have built but little authority and have scarcely arrived at any consequence in society. Women of ancient Egypt, wherever the human race lives solitary and unconnected with each other, they are savage and barbarous. Wherever they associate together, that association produces softer manners and a more engaging deportment. The Egyptians, from the nature of their country, annually overflowed by the Nile, had no wild beasts to hunt, nor could they procure anything by fishing. On these accounts, they were under a necessity of applying themselves to agriculture, a kind of life which naturally brings mankind together for mutual convenience and assistance. They were likewise every year, during the inundation of the river, obliged to assemble together and take shelter, either on the rising grounds or in the houses, which were raised upon piles above the reach of the waters. Here, almost every employment being suspended and the men and women long confined together, a thousand inducements not to be found in a solitary state, would naturally prompt them to render themselves agreeable to each other. Hence, their manners would begin more early to assume a softer polish and more elegant refinement than those of the other nations who surrounded them. The practice of confining women instituted by jealousy and maintained by unlawful power was not adopted by the ancient Egyptians. This appears from the story of Pharaoh's daughter, who was going with her train of maize to bathe in the river when she found Moses hid among the reeds. It is still more evident from that of the wife of Potiphar, who, if she had been confined, could not have found the opportunity she did to solicit Joseph to her adulterous embrace. The queens of Egypt had the greatest attention paid to them. They were more readily obeyed than the kings. It is also related that the husbands were in their marriage contracts, obliged to promise obedience to their wives, an obedience which, in our modern times, we are often obliged to perform, though our wives entered into the promise. The behavior of Solomon to Pharaoh's daughter is a convincing proof that more honor and respect was paid to the Egyptian women than to those of any other people. Solomon had many other wives besides this princess and was married to several of them before her, which, according to the Jewish law, ought to have entitled them to a preference. But notwithstanding this, we hear of no particular palace having been built for any of the others, nor of the worship of any of their gods having been introduced into Jerusalem. But a magnificent palace was erected for Pharaoh's daughter and she was permitted, though expressly contrary to the laws of Israel, to worship the gods of her own country. Modern Egyptian Women The women of modern Egypt are far from being on so respectable footing as they were in ancient times or as the European women are at present. In Europe, women act parts of great consequence and often reign sovereigns on the world's vast theater. They influence manners and morals and decide on the most important events. The fate of nations is frequently in their hands. How different is their situation in Egypt? There they are bound down by the fetters of slavery, condemned to servitude and have no influence in public affairs. Their empire is confined within the walls of the harem. There are their graces and charms entombed. The circle of their life extends not beyond their own family and domestic duties. Their first care is to educate their children and a numerous posterity is their most fervent wish. Mothers always suckle their children. This is expressly commanded by Muhammad. Let the mother suckle her child full two years. If the child does not quit the breast, but she shall be permitted to wean it with the consent of her husband. The harem is the cradle and school of infancy. The newborn feeble being is not there swaddled and fletted up in a swath, the source of a thousand diseases. Layed naked on a mat, exposed in a vast chamber to the pure air, he breathes freely and with his delicate limbs sprawls at pleasure. The daughter's education is the same. Whalebone and husks, which martyr European girls, they know not. They are only covered with a shift until six years old and the dress they afterwards wear confines none of their limbs, but suffers the body to take its true form. Nothing is more uncommon than rickety children and crooked people. In Egypt, man rises in all his majesty and woman displays every charm of person. The Egyptian women, once or twice a week, are permitted to go to the bath and visit female relations and friends. They receive each other's visits very affectionately. When a lady enters the harem, the mistress rises, takes her hand, presses it to her bosom, kisses and makes her sit down by her side. A slave hastens to take her black mantle. She is entreated to be at ease, quits her veil and discovers a floating robe tied around her waist with a sash, which perfectly displays her shape. She then receives compliments according to their manner. Why, my mother or my sister, have you been so long absent? We sighed to see you. Your presence is an honor to our house. It is the happiness of our lives. Slaves present coffee, sherbet and confectionery. They laugh, talk and play. A large dish is placed on the sofa, on which are oranges, pomegranates, bananas and excellent melons. Water and rose water mixed are brought in an ewer and with them a silver basin to wash the hands and loud glee and merry conversation sees on the meal. The chamber is perfumed by wood of aloes and a brazier and the repast ended the slaves danced to the sound of cymbals with whom the mistresses often mingle. At parting they sometimes repeat, God keep you in health. Heaven grant you a numerous offspring. Heaven preserve your children, the delight and glory of your family. When a visitor is in the harem, the husband must not enter. It is the asylum of hospitality and cannot be violated without fatal consequences. A cherished right which the Egyptian women carefully maintained being interested in its preservation. A lover disguised like a woman may be introduced into the harem and it is necessary he should remain undiscovered. Death would otherwise be his reward. In that country where passions are excited by the climate and the difficulty of gratifying them is great, love often produces tragical events. Persian women Several historians in mentioning the ancient Persians have dwelt with peculiar severity on the manner in which they treated their women. Jealous almost to distraction, they confined the whole sex with the strictest attention and could not bear that the eye of a stranger should behold the beauty whom they adored. When Mahomet, the great legislator of the modern Persians was just expiring, the last advice that he gave to his faithful adherents was be careful of your religion and your wives. Hence they pretended to derive not only the power of confining but also of persuading them that they hazard their salvation if they look upon any other man besides their husbands. The Christian religion informs us that in the other world they neither marry nor are given in marriage. The religion of Mahomet teaches us a different doctrine which the Persians believing carry the jealousy of Asia to the fields of Elysium and the groves of paradise where according to them the blessed inhabitants have their eyes placed on the crowns of their heads lest they should see the wives of their neighbors. To offer the least violence to a Persian woman was to incur certain death from her husband or guardian. Even their kings, though the most absolute in the universe could not alter the manners or customs of the country which related to the fair sex. Widely different from this is a present state of Persia. By a law of that country their monarch is now authorized to go whenever he pleases into the harem of any of his subjects and the subject on whose prerogative he thus encroaches so far from exerting his usual jealousy thinks himself highly honored by such a visit. A laughable story on this subject is told of Shah Abbas who having got drunk at the house of one of his favorites and intending to go into the apartment of his wives was stopped by the doorkeeper who bluntly told him not a man, sir, besides my master shall put a moustache here so long as I am porter. What said the king? Dost thou not know me? Yes answered the fellow. I know that you are king of the men but not of the women. End of Section 1 Section 2 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, auto-volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lucy Perry Sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous Grecian women and Grecian courtesans Grecian women Women in ancient Greece seemed to have been regarded merely in the light of an instrument for raising up members of the state and surely it may be said of them that they nobly fulfilled this duty. The catalogue of heroes and sages which shine in Grecian history bright and numerous as stars in the firmament are so many testimonials to the faithfulness of Grecian women in this respect. The sexes were but little society for each other. Even husbands were, in Sparta, limited as to the time and duration of the visits made to their wives. That women in ancient Greece did not enjoy that delicate consideration which other refined nations accord to their sex, may be inferred from the inferiority of the apartments allotted to them. The famous Helen is said to have had her chamber in the attic and Penelope, the Queen of Ulysses, descended from hers by a ladder. Grecian courtesans The rank which the courtesans enjoyed even in the brightest ages of Greece and particularly at Athens is one of the greatest singularities in the manners of any people. By what circumstances could that order of women who debase at once their own sex and ours in a country where the women were possessed of modesty and the men of sentiment arrive at distinction and sometimes even at the highest degree of reputation and consequence? Several reasons may be assigned for that phenomenon in society. In Greece the courtesans were in some measure connected with the religion of the country. The goddess of beauty had her altars and she was supposed to protect prostitution which was to her a species of worship. The people invoked Venus in times of danger and after a battle they thought they had an honour to Miltiades, Anthemisticles, because the Lyses and the Glyceras of the age had taunted hymns to their goddess. The courtesans were likewise connected with religion by means of the arts. Their persons afforded models for statues which were afterwards adored in the temples. Freyn served as a model to Praxiteles for his Venus of Nidus. During the Feasts of Neptune, near Ilusus, Apolles, having seen the same courtesan on the seashore without any other veil than her loose and flowing hair was so much struck by her appearance that he borrowed from it the idea of his Venus rising from the waves. They were, therefore, connected with statuary and painting as they furnished the practises of those arts with the means of embellishing their works. The greater part of them were skilled in music and, as that art was attended with higher effects in Greece than it ever was in any other country, it must have possessed in their hands an irresistible charm. Everyone knows how enthusiastic the Greeks were of beauty. They adored it in their temples. They admired it in the principal works of art. They studied it in the exercises and the games. They thought to perfect it by their marriages. They offered rewards to it at public festivals. But virtuous beauty was seldom to be seen. The modest women were confined to their own apartments and were visited only by their husbands in nearest relations. The courtesans offered themselves everywhere to view and their beauty as might be expected obtained universal homage. Greece was governed by eloquent men and the celebrated courtesans having an influence over those all-raters. Must have had an influence on public affairs. There was not one, not even the thundering, the inflexible, democenaries so terrible to tyrants but was subjected to their sway. Of that great master of eloquence it has been said what he had been a whole year in erecting a woman overturned in a day that influence augmented their consequence and their talent of pleasing increased with the occasions of exerting it. The laws and the public institutions, indeed, by authorising the privacy of women, set a high value on the sanctity of the marriage vow. But in Athens, imagination, sentiment, luxury, the taste in arts and pleasures was opposite to the laws. The courtesans therefore may be said to have come in support of the manors. There was no check upon public licentiousness but private infidelity which concerned the peace of families was punished as a crime. By a strange and perhaps unequal singularity the men were corrupted yet the domestic manors were pure. It seems as if the courtesans had not been considered to belong to their sex and by a convention to which the laws and the manors bended while other women were estimated merely by their virtues they were estimated only by their accomplishments. These reasons will, in some measure account for the honours which the votaries of Venus so often received in Greece. Otherwise we should have been at a loss to conceive why six or seven writers had exerted their talents to celebrate the courtesans of Athens why three great painters had uniformly devoted their pencils to represent them on canvas and why so many poets had strove to immortalise them in verses. We should hardly have believed that so many illustrious men had courted their society that Aspasia had been consulted in deliberations of peace and war that Frein had a statue of gold placed between the statues of two kings at Delphos. That, after death, magnificent tombs had been erected to their memory. The traveller says a Greek writer who, approaching to Athens sees on the side of the way a monument which attracts his notice at a distance will imagine that this is the tomb of Miltiades or Pericles or of some other great man who has done honour to his country by his services he advances, he reads and he learns that it is a courtesan of Athens who is interred with so much pomp. Theopompus, in a letter to Alexander the Great speaks also of the same monument in words to the following effect Thus, after her death is a prostitute honoured While not one of those brave warriors who fell in Asia fighting for you and for the safety of Greece has so much as a stone erected to his memory or an inscription to preserve his ashes from insult Such was the homage which that enthusiastic people voluptuous and passionate paid to beauty more guided by sentiment than reason and having laws rather than principles they banished their great men and their courtesans murdered Socrates permitted themselves to be governed by Aspasia preserved in Violet the marriage bed and placed Frein in the temple of Apollo End of Section 2 Recording by Lucy Perry in Bath on March 14th, 2010 Recording by Susan Wade sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous Chapter 3 Roman Women Among the Romans a grave and austere people who, during 500 years were unequated with the elegancies and the pleasures of life and who, in the middle of furrows and fields of battle were employed in tillage or in the war the manners of the women were a long time as solemn and severe as those of the men and without the smallest mixture of corruption or of weakness The time when the Roman women began to appear in public marks a particular era in history The Roman women, for many ages were respected over the whole world their victorious husbands revisited them with transport at their return from battle They laid at their feet the spoils of the enemy and endeared themselves in their eyes by the wounds which they had received for them and for the state Those warriors often came from imposing commands upon kings and in their own houses accounted it an honor to obey In vain the two rigid laws made them the arbiters of life and death More powerful than the laws of the judges In vain the legislature foreseen the wants which exist only among a corrupt people permitted divorce The indulgence of the polity was prescribed by the manners Such was the influence of beauty at Rome before the licentious intercourse of the sexes had corrupted both The Roman matrons do not seem to have possessed that military courage which Plutarch has praised the weak and barbarian women They partook more of the nature of their sex or at least they departed less from its character Their first quality was decency Everyone knows the story of Cato, the censor who stabbed a Roman senator for kissing his own wife in the presence of his daughter To these austere manners the Roman women joined an enthusiastic love of their country and discovered itself upon many great occasions On the death of Brutus they all clothed themselves in mourning In the time of Coriolanus they saved the city that incensed warrior who had insulted the senate and priests and who was superior even to the pride of pardoning could not resist the tears and entreaties of the women They melted his obdurate heart The senate decreed them public thanks ordered the men to give place to them upon all occasions caused an altar to be erected for them on the spot where the mother had softened her son and the wife her husband and the sex were permitted to add another ornament to their headdress The Roman women saved the city a second time when besieged by Brenus They gave up all their gold as its ransom For that instance of their generosity the senate granted them the honor of having funeral orations pronounced in the rostrum in common with patriots and heroes After the battle of Cannae when Rome had no other treasures but the virtues of her citizens the women sacrificed both their jewels and their gold a new decree rewarded their zeal Valerius Maximus who lived in the reign of Tiberius informs us that in the second triumvirate the assassins who governed Rome thirsting after gold no less than blood and having already practiced every species of robbery and worn out every method of plunder resolved to tax the women They imposed a heavy contribution upon each of them The women sought an orator to defend their cause but found none Nobody would reason against those who had the power of life and death The celebrated Hortensius alone appeared She revived the memory of her father's abilities and supported with intrepidity her own cause and that of her sex The ruffians blushed and revoked their orders Hortensia was conducted home in triumph and had the honor of having given in one day an example of courage to men a pattern of eloquence to women and a lesson of humanity During upwards of 600 years the virtues had been found sufficient to please They now found it necessary to call in the accomplishments They were desirous to join admiration to esteem till they learned to exceed esteem itself For in all countries in proportion as the love of virtue diminishes we find the love of talents to increase 1,000 causes concurred to produce this revolution of manners among the Romans The vast inequality of ranks the enormous fortunes of individuals the ridicule affixed by the imperial court to moral ideas all contributed to hasten the period of corruption There were still, however, some great and virtuous characters among the Roman women Portia, the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus showed herself worthy to be associated with the first of humankind and trusted with the fate of empires After the battle of Philippi she would neither survive liberty nor Brutus but died with the bold intrepidity of Cato The example of Portia was followed by that of Arya who, seeing her husband hesitating and afraid to die in order to encourage him and deliver to him the dagger with a smile Paulemia, too, the wife of Seneca caused her veins to be opened at the same time with her husbands but being forced to live during the few years which she survived him she bore in her countenance says Tacitus the honorable testimony of her love a paleness which proved that part of her blood had sympathetically issued with the blood of her spouse to take notice of all the celebrated women of the empire would much exceed the bounds of the present undertaking but the Empress Julia the wife of Septimius Severus possessed a species of merit so very different from any of those already mentioned as to claim particular attention this lady was born in Syria and a daughter of a priest of the son it was predicted that she would rise to sovereign unity and her character justified the prophecy Julia while on the throne loved or pretended passionately to love letters either from taste from a desire to instruct herself from a love of renown or possibly from all these together she spent her life with philosophers her rank of Empress would not perhaps have been sufficient to subdue those bold spirits but she joined to that powerful influences of wit and beauty these three kinds of empire rendered less necessary to her that which consists only in art and which attentive to their tastes and their weaknesses govern great minds by little means it is said she was a philosopher her philosophy however did not extend so far as to give chastity to her manners her husband who did not love her valued her understanding so much that he consulted her upon all occasions she governed in the same manner under his son Julia was in short an empress and a politician occupied at the same time about literature and affairs of state while she mingled her pleasures freely with both she had courtiers for her lovers scholars for her friends and philosophers for her counselors in the midst of a society where she reigned and was instructed Julia arrived at the highest celebrity but as among all her excellencies we find not those of her sex the virtues of a woman our admiration is lost in blame in her lifetime she obtained more praise than respect and posterity while it has done justice to her talents and her accomplishments has agreed to deny her esteem laws and customs respecting the Roman women the Roman women as well as the Grecian were under perpetual guardianship and were not at any age nor in any condition ever trusted with the management of their own fortunes every father had power of life and death over his own daughters but this power was not restricted to daughters only it extended also to sons the Appian law prohibited women from having more than half an ounce of gold employed in ornamenting their persons from wearing clothes of diverse colors and from riding in chariots either in the city or a thousand paces around it they were strictly forbidden to use wine or even to have in their possession the key of any place where it was kept for either of these faults they were liable to be divorced by their husbands so careful were the Romans in restraining their women from wine that they are supposed to have first introduced the custom of saluting their female relations and acquaintances on entering the house of a friend or neighbor that they might discover by their breath whether they had tasted any of that liquor this strictness however began in time to be relaxed until at last luxury becoming too strong for every law the women indulge themselves in equal liberties with the men but such was not the case in the earlier ages of Rome Romulus even permitted husbands to kill their wives if they found them drinking wine Fabius Pictor relates that the parents of a Roman lady having detected her picking the lock of a chest which contained some wine shut her up and starved her to death women were liable to be divorced by their husbands almost at pleasure provided the portion was returned which they had brought along with them they were also liable to be divorced for barrenness which if it could be construed into a fault was at least the fault of nature and might sometimes be that of the husband a few sumptuary laws a subordination to the men and a total want of authority do not so much affect the sex as to be coldly and indelicately treated by their husbands such a treatment is touching them in the tenderest part such however we have reason to believe they often met with from the Romans who had not learned as in modern times to blend the rigidity of the patriot and roughness of the warrior with that soft and indulging behavior so conspicuous in modern patriots and heroes husbands among the Romans not only themselves behaved roughly to their wives but even sometimes permitted their servants and slaves to do the same the principal eunuch of Justinian II threatened to chastise the Empress his master's wife in the manner that children are chastised at school if she did not obey his orders with regard to the private diversions of the Roman ladies history is silent their public ones were such as were common to both sexes as bathing, theatrical representations horse races shows of wild beasts which fought against one another and sometimes against men whom the emperors in the plenitude of their despotic power ordered to engage them the Romans of both sexes spent a great deal of time at the baths were interwoven with their religion but at last were only considered as refinements in luxury they were places of public resort where people met with their acquaintances and friends where public libraries were kept for such as chose to read and where poets recited their works to such as had patience to hear in the earlier periods of Rome separate baths were appropriated to each sex luxury by degrees getting the better of decency the men and women at last bathed promiscuously together though this indecent manner of bathing was prohibited by the emperor Adrian yet in a short time inclination overcame the prohibition and in spite of every effort promiscuous bathing continued until the time of Constantine who by the coercive force of the legislative authority and the rewards and terrors of the Christian religion put a final stop to it End of Section 3 Section 4 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 sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous Chapter 4 Woman in Savage Life Man in a state of barbarity equally cruel and indolent active by necessity but naturally inclined to repose is acquainted with little more than the physical effects of love and having none of those moral ideas which only can soften the empire of force he has led to consider it as his supreme law subjecting to his despotism those whom reason has made his equals but whose imbecility betrayed them to his strength cast in the lap of naked nature and exposed to every hardship the forms of women in savage life are but little engaging with nothing that deserves the name of culture their latent qualities if they have any are like the diamond while enclosed in the rough flint incapable of showing any luster thus destitute of everything by which they can excite love or acquire esteem a beauty to charm or art to soothe the tyrant man they are by him destined to perform every mean and servile office in this, the American and other savage women differ widely from those of Asia who, if they are destitute of the qualifications necessary for gaining esteem have beauty, ornaments and the art of exciting love in civilized countries a woman acquires some power by being the mother of a numerous family and maternal authority and defends her honor and her life but even as a mother a female savage has not much advantage her children, daily accustomed to see their father treat her nearly as a slave soon begin to imitate his example and either pay little regard to her authority or shake it off altogether of this the hot and taut boys afford a remarkable proof they are brought up by the women till they are 14 years of age then with several ceremonies they are initiated into the society of men after this initiation is over it is reckoned manly for a boy to take the earliest opportunity of returning to the hut of his mother and beating her in the most barbarous manner to show that he is now out of her jurisdiction should the mother complain to the men they would only applaud the boy for showing so laudable contempt for the society and authority of women in the brazils the females are obliged to follow their husbands to war to supply the place of beasts of burden and to carry on their backs their children, provisions, hammocks and everything wanted in the field in the Isthmus of Darien they are sent along with the warriors and travelers as we do baggage horses even their queen appeared before some English gentleman carrying her sucking child wrapped in a red blanket the women among the Indians of America are what the Helets were among the Spartans a vanquished people obliged to toil for their conquerors hence on the banks of the Orinoco we have heard of mothers slaying their daughters out of compassion and smothering them in the hour of their birth they consider this barbarous pity as a virtue Father Joseph Gamilla reproving one of them for this inhuman crime received the following answer I wish to God father I wish to God that my mother had, by my death prevented the manifold distresses I have endured and have yet to endure as long as I live had she kindly stilled me in my birth I should not have felt the pain of death nor the numberless other pains to which life has subjected me consider father our deplorable condition our husbands go to hunt with their bows and arrows and trouble themselves no farther we are dragged along with one infant at our breast and another in a basket they've returned in the evening without any burden we return with the burden of our children though tired with long walking we are not allowed to sleep but must labor the whole night in grinding maize to make chica for them they get drunk and in their drunkenness beat us draw us by the hair of the head and tread us underfoot a young wife has brought upon us and permitted to abuse us and our children what kindness can we show to our female children equal to that of relieving them from such servitude more bitter a thousand times than death I repeat again would to God my mother had put me underground the moment I was born the men, says Commodore Byron in his account of the inhabitants of South America exercise a most despotic authority over their wives whom they consider in the same view they do any other part of their property and dispose of them accordingly even their common treatment of them is cruel for though the toil and hazard of procuring food lies entirely on the women yet they are not suffered to touch any part of it until the husband is satisfied and then signs them their portion which is generally very scanty and such as he has not a stomach for himself the Greenlanders who live mostly upon seals think it's sufficient to catch and bring them on shore and would rather submit to starve than assist their women in skinning, dressing or dragging home the cumbers animals to their huts in some parts of America when the men kill any game in the woods they lay it at the root of a tree fix a mark there and then send their woman to fetch it a task which their own laziness and pride equally forbid among many of the tribes of wandering Arabs the women are not only obliged to do every domestic and every rural work but also to feed, to dress and saddle the horses for the use of their husbands the Moorish women besides doing all the same kinds of drudgery are also obliged to cultivate the fields while their husbands stand idle spectators of the toil or sleep beneath the neighbouring shade in Madura the husband generally speaks to his wife in the most imperious tone while she, with fear and trembling approaches him, waits upon him while it meels and pronounces not his name but with the addition of every dignifying title she can devise in return for all this submission he frequently beats and abuses her in the most barbarous manner being asked the reason of such a behaviour one of them answered as our wives are so much our inferiors why should we allow them to eat and drink with us why should they not serve us with whatever we call for and afterwards sit down and eat up what we leave if they commit faults why should they not suffer correction it is their business only to bring up our children pound our rice, make our oil and do every other kind of drudgery purposes to which only their low and inferior natures are adapted the Circassian custom of breeding young girls on purpose to be sold in the public market is generally known perhaps however upon minute examination we shall find that women are in some degree bought and sold in every country whether savage or civilized Eastern women the women of the East have in general always exhibited the same appearance their manners, customs and fashions unalterable like their rocks have stood the test of many revolving ages though the kingdoms of their country have often changed masters though they have submitted to the arms of almost every invader yet the laws by which their sex are governed and enslaved have never been revised nor amended had the manners and customs of the Asiatic women been subject to the same changes as they are in Europe we might have expected the same changes in the sentiments and writings of their men but as this is not the case we have reason to presume that the sentiments entertained by Solomon by the apocryphal writers and Romans are the sentiments of this day though the confinement of women be an unlawful exertion of superior power yet it affords a proof that the inhabitants of the East are advanced some degrees farther in civilization than mere savages who have hardly any love and consequently as little jealousy this confinement is not very rigid in the empire of the Mogul it is perhaps less so in China and in Japan hardly exists though women are confined in the Turkish empire they experience every other indulgence they are allowed at stated times to go to the public baths their apartments are richly if not elegantly furnished they have a train of female slaves to serve and amuse them and their persons are adorned with every costly ornament which their fathers or husbands can afford notwithstanding the strictness of confinement in Persia their women are treated with several indulgences they are allowed a variety of precious liquors costly perfumes and beautiful slaves their apartments are furnished with the most elegant hangings and carpets their persons ornamented with the finest silks and even loaded with the sparkling jewels of the East but all these trappings however elegant or however gilded are only like the golden chains sometimes made use of to bind a royal prisoner Solomon had a great number of queens and concubines but a petty Hindu chief has been known to have 2,000 women confined within the walls of his harem and appropriated entirely to his pleasure nothing less than unlimited power in the husband is able to restrain women so confined from the utmost disorder and confusion they may repine in secret but they must close their features with cheerfulness when their lord appears Contamnacy draws down on them immediate punishment they are degraded, chastised, divorced shut up in dark dungeons and sometimes put to death their persons however are so sacred that they must not in the least be violated nor even be looked at by anyone but their husbands this female privilege has given an opportunity of executing many conspiracies warriors in such vehicles as are usually employed to carry women have been often conveyed without examination into the apartments of the great from whence instead of issuing forth in the smiles of beauty they have rushed out in the terror of arms and hands and legs at their feet no stranger is ever allowed to see the women of Hindustan nor can even brothers visit their sisters in private to be conscious of the existence of a man's wife seems a crime and he looks surly and offended if their health is inquired after in every country honour exists in something upon which the possessor sets the highest value this with the Hindu is the chastity of his wives a point without in the midst of slaughter and devastation throughout all the east the harem is a sanctuary ruffians covered with the blood of a husband shrink back with veneration from the secret apartment of his wives at Constantinople when the sultan sends an order to strangle a state criminal and sees on his effects the officers who executed enter not into the harem nor touch anything belonging to the women every Turkish in the middle of this garden a large room more or less decorated according to the wealth of the proprietor here the ladies spend most of their time with their attendant nymphs around them employed at their music embroidery or loom it is long been accustomed among the grandees of Asia to entertain storytellers of both sexes who like the bards of ancient Europe divert them with tales and little histories mostly on the subject of bravery and love these often amuse the women and beguile the cheerless hours of the harem by calling up images to their minds which their eyes are forever debarred from seeing all their other amusements as well as this are indolently voluptuous they spend a great part of their time in lolling on silken sofas while a train of female slaves scarcely less voluptuous attend to sing to them to fan them and to rub their bodies an exercise which the Easterns enjoy with a sort of placid ecstasy as it promotes the circulation of their languid blood they bathe themselves in rose water and other baths prepared with the precious odors of the east they perfume themselves with costly essences and adorn their persons that they may please the tyrant with whom they are obliged to live End of Section 4 For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Bologna Times sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous Chinese women of all the other Asiatics the Chinese have perhaps the best title to modesty even the men wrap themselves closely up in their garments and reckon it indecent to discover any more of their arms and legs is necessary the women still more closely wrapped up never discover a naked hand even to their nearest relations if they can possibly avoid it every part of their dress every part of their behavior is calculated to preserve decency and inspire respect and what adds lustre to of their charms is that uncommon modesty which appears in every look and in every action is armed no doubt with so engaging a deportment the men behave to them in a reciprocal manner and that their virtue may not be contaminated by the neighborhood of vice the legislature takes care that no prostitutes shall lodge within the walls of any of the great cities of China some however suspect whether this appearance of modesty be anything else than the custom of the country and alleged that notwithstanding so much decency and decorum they have their peculiar modes of intriguing and embrace every possible opportunity of putting them in practice and that in these intrigues they frequently scruple not to stab the paramour they had invited to their arms as the surest method of preventing detection and loss of character a bridegroom knows nothing of the character and intended wife except what he gathers from the report of some female relative or confidant who undertakes to arrange the marriage and determine the sum that shall be paid for the bride very severe laws are made to prevent deception and fraud in these transactions on the day appointed for the wedding the damsel is placed in a closed palanquin the key of which is sent to the bridegroom is a domestic her relations and friends accompanied by squalling music escort her to his house at the gate of which he stands in full dress ready to receive her he eagerly opens the palanquin and examines his bargain if he is pleased she enters his dwelling and the marriage is celebrated with feasting and rejoicing the men and women being the bridegroom is dissatisfied he shuts the palanquin and sends the woman back to her relations but when this happens he must pay another sum of money equal to the price he first gave for her a woman who unites beauty with accomplishments brings from four to seven hundred Louis de Ours some sell for less than one hundred the apartments of the women are separated from those of the men by a wall at which a guard is stationed the wife is never allowed to eat with her husband she cannot quit her apartments without permission and he does not enter hers without first asking leave brothers are entirely separated from their sisters at the age of nine or ten years African women the Africans were formally renowned for their industry in cultivating the ground for their trade, navigation, caravans and useful arts they are remarkable for their idleness ignorance, superstition treachery and above all for their lawless methods of robbing and murdering all the other inhabitants of the globe though they still remain some sense of their infamous character yet they do not choose to reform their priests therefore endeavor to justify them by the following story Noah say they was no sooner dead than his three sons the first of whom was white the second Tawny and the third black having agreed upon dividing among them his goods and possessions spent the greatest part of the day and sorting them so that they were obliged to adjourn the division till the next morning having supped and smoked a friendly pipe together they all went to rest each in his own tent after a few hours sleep the white brother got up the precious stones and other things of the greatest value loaded the best horses with them and rode away to that country where his white posterity had been settled ever since the Tawny awakening soon after and with the same criminal intention was surprised when he came to the storehouse to find that his brother had been beforehand with him upon which he hastily secured the rest of the horses and camels and loading them with the best carpets, clothes, and other remaining goods directed his route to another part of the world leaving behind him only a few of the coarsest goods and some provisions of little value when the third or black brother came next morning in the simplicity of his heart to make the proposed division and could neither find his brethren nor any of the valuable commodities he easily judged they had tricked him and were by that time fled beyond any possibility of discovery in this most affected situation he took his pipe and begun to consider the most effectual means of retrieving his loss and being revenged on his perfidious brothers after revolving a variety of schemes in his mind he at last fixed upon watching every opportunity of making reprisals on them and laying hold of and carrying away their property as often as it should fall in his way in revenge for that patrimony of which they had so unjustly deprived him having come to this resolution he not only continued in the practice of it all his life but on his death laid the strongest injunctions on his descendants to do so to the end of the world some tribes of the Africans however when they have engaged themselves in the protection of a stranger are remarkable for fidelity many of them are conspicuous for their temperance hospitality and several other virtues their women upon the whole are far from being indelicate or unchaste on the banks of the Niger they are tolerably industrious have a considerable share of vivacity and at the same time a female reserve which would do no discredit to a polite country they are modest affable and faithful an air of innocence appears in their looks and in their language which gives a beauty to their own deportment when from the Niger we approach toward the east the African women degenerate in stature complexion sensibility and chastity even their language like their features and the soil they inhabit is harsh and disagreeable their pleasures resemble more transports of fury than the gentle emotions communicated by agreeable sensations end of section 5 section 6 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 reading by Bologna Times sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous great enterprises of women and the times of chivalry the times and the manners of chivalry by bringing great enterprises, bold adventurers and extravagant heroism into fashion inspired the women with the same taste the two sexes always imitate each other their manners and their minds are refined or corrupted, invigorated together the women in consequence of the prevailing passion were now seen in the middle of camps and of armies they quitted the soft and tender inclinations and the delicate offices of their own sex for the courage and the foilsome occupations of ours during the Crusades animated by the double enthusiasm of religion and of valor they often performed the most romantic exploits they obtained indulgences on the field of battle and died with arms in their hands by the side of their lovers or of their husbands in Europe the women attacked and defended fortifications princesses commanded their armies and obtained victories such was the celebrated Joan de Montfort disputing for her duchy of Bretagne and engaging the enemy herself was the still more celebrated Margaret of Angers Queen of England and wife of Henry the Six she was active and intrepid a general and a soldier her genius for a long time supported her feeble husband taught him to conquer replaced him upon the throne twice relieved him from prison and though oppressed by fortune and by rebels she did not yield till she had decided in person twelve battles the warlike spirit among the women consistent with ages of barbarism when everything is impetuous because nothing is fixed and when all excess is the excess of force continued in Europe upwards of four hundred years showing itself from time to time and always in the middle of convulsions or on the eve of great revolutions but there were eras and countries in which that spirit appeared with particular luster such were the displays it made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Hungary and in the islands of the archipelago and the Mediterranean when they were invaded by the Turks everything conspired to animate the women of those countries with an exalted courage the prevailing spirit of the foregoing ages the terror which the name of the Turks inspired the still more dreadful apprehensions of an unknown enemy the difference of dress which has a stronger effect than is commonly supposed on the imagination of a people the difference of religion which produced a kind of sacred horror the striking difference of manners and above all the confinement of the female sex which presented to the women of Europe nothing but the frightful ideas of servitude and a master the groans of honor the tears of beauty and the embrace of terrorism and the double tyranny of love and pride the contemplation of these objects accordingly roused in the hearts of the women a resolute courage to defend themselves nay sometimes even a courage of enthusiasm which hurled itself against the enemy that courage too was augmented by the promises of a religion which offered eternal happiness in exchange for the sufferings of a moment it is not therefore surprising that when three beautiful women of the Isle of Cyprus were led prisoners to Selim to be secluded in the Seraglio one of them preferring death to such a condition conceived the project of setting fire to the magazine and after having communicated her design to the rest put it in execution the year following a city of Cyprus being besieged by the Turks ran in crowds mingling themselves with the soldiers and fighting gallantly in the breach were the means of saving their country under Mahatma'at 2 a girl of the Isle of Lemnos armed with the sword and shield of her father who had fallen in battle opposed the Turks when they had forced a gate and chased them to the shore in the two celebrated sieges of Rhodes and Malta the women seconding the Isle of the Knights discovered upon all occasions the greatest intrabidity not only that impetuous and temporary impulse that despises death but that cool and deliberate fortitude which can support the continued hardships the toils and the miseries of war other particulars respecting females during the age of chivalry when a man had said anything that reflected dishonor on a woman or accused her of a crime she was not obliged to fight him to prove her innocence the combat would have been unequal but she might choose a champion to fight in her cause or expose himself to the horrid trial in order to clear her reputation such champions were generally selected from her lovers or friends but if she fixed upon any other so high was the spirit of marshal glory and so eager the thirst of defending the weak and helpless sex that we meet with no instance of a champion ever having refused to fight for or undergo whatever custom required in defense of the lady who had honored him with the appointment to the motives already mentioned we may add another he who had refused must inevitably have been branded with the name of coward and so despicable was the condition of a coward in those times of general heroism that appeared the more preferable choice nay such was the rage of fighting for women that it became customary for those who could not be honored with the decision of their real quarrels to create fictitious ones concerning them in order to create also a necessity of fighting nor was fighting for the ladies confined to single combatants crowds of gallants entered the lists against each other kings called out their subjects to shoo their love for their mistresses by cutting the throats of their neighbors who had not in the least offended in the fourteenth century when the Countess of Bloy and the widow of Montfort were at war against each other a conference was agreed to on pretense of settling a peace but in reality to appoint a combat instead of negotiating they soon challenged each other and Beaumont Noir who was at the head of the Britons publicly declared that they fought for no other motive than to see by the victory who had the fairest mistresses in the fifteenth century we find an anecdote of this kind still more extraordinary John Duke de Beaumont published a declaration that he would go over to England with sixteen knights and there fight it out in order to avoid this and merit the good graces of his mistresses James fourth of Scotland having in all tournaments professed himself knight to Queen Anne of France she summoned him to prove himself her true and valorous champion by taking the field in her defence against his brother-in-law Henry VIII of England he obeyed the romantic mandate and the two nations bled to feed the vanity of a woman warriors, when ready to engage invoked the aid of their mistresses as poets do that of the muses if they fought valiantly it reflected honour on the dulcineas they adored but if they turned their backs on their enemies the poor ladies were dishonoured forever love was at that time the most prevailing motive to fighting the famous Gaston Diffois who commanded the French troops took advantage of this foible of his army he rode from rank to rank calling his officers by name and even some of his private men recommending to them their country their honour and above all to shoe what they could do for their mistresses the women of those ages the reader may imagine were certainly more completely happy than in any other period of the world this however was not in reality the case the custom which governs all things with the most absolute sway had through a long succession of years given her sanction to such combats as were undertaken either to defend the innocence or display the beauty of women custom therefore either obliged a man to fight for a woman who desired him or marked the refusal with infamy and disgrace but custom did not oblige him any other part of his conduct to behave to this woman or to the sex in general with that respect and politeness which have happily distinguished the character of more modern times the same man who would have encountered giants or gigantic difficulties when a lady was in the case had but little idea of adding to her happiness by supplying her with the comforts and elegancies of life and had she asked him to stoop to the lesser of a part of that domestic slavery which almost in every country falls to the lot of women he would have thought himself quite affronted but besides men had nothing else in those ages than that kind of romantic gallantry to recommend them ignorant of letters, arts, and sciences and everything that refines human nature they were in everything where gallantry was not concerned rough and unpolished manners and behavior their time was spent in drinking war, gallantry, and idleness in their hours of relaxation they were but little in company with their women and when they were the indelicacies of the carousel or the cruelties of the field were almost the only subjects they had to talk of from the subversion of the Roman Empire to the 14th or 15th century women spent most of their time alone they were almost entire strangers to the joys of social life they seldom went abroad but to the spectators of such public diversions and amusements as the fashion of the times countenanced Francis I was the first monarch who introduced them on public days to court before his time nothing was to be seen at any of the courts of Europe but long bearded politicians plotting the destruction of the rights and liberties of mankind and warriors clad in complete armor ready to put their plots in execution in the 8th century so slavish was the condition of women on the one hand and so much was beauty coveted on the other that for about 200 years the kings of Austria were obliged to pay a tribute to the Moors of 100 beautiful virgins per annum in the 13th and 14th centuries elegance had scarcely any existence and even cleanliness was hardly considered as laudable the use of linen was not known and the most delicate of the fair sex were woollen shifts in the time of Henry the 8th the peers of the realm carried their wives behind them on horseback when they went to London and in the same manner took them back to their country seats with hoods of waxed linen over their heads and wrapped in mantles of cloth to secure them from the cold there was one misfortune of a singular nature to which women were liable in those days they were in perpetual danger of being accused of witchcraft and suffering all the cruelties and indignities of a mob instigated by superstition and directed by enthusiasm or of being condemned by laws which were at once a disgrace to humanity and to sense even the bloom of youth and beauty could not secure them from torture and from death but when age and wrinkles attacked a woman if anything uncommon happened in her neighborhood she was almost sure of atoning with her life for a crime it was impossible for her to commit End of Section 6 Section 7 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 sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous Chapter 7 French women though the ladies of France are not very handsome they are sensible and witty to many of them without the least flattery may be applied to the stick which Sappho ascribes to herself if partial nature has denied me beauty comes of my mind amply make up for the deficiency no women upon earth can excel and few rival them in their almost native arts of pleasing all who approach them add to this an education beyond that of most European ladies a consummate skill in those accomplishments that suit the fair sex and the most graceful manner of displaying that knowledge to the utmost advantage such as the description that may safely be given of the French ladies in general but the spirit or rather the evil genius of gallantry too often perverts all these lovely qualities and renders them subservient to very iniquitous ends in every country women have always a little to do and a great deal to say in France they dictate almost everything that is said and direct everything that is done to fold her hands in idleness and impose silence on her tongue would be to a French woman worse than death the sole joy of her life is to be engaged in the prosecution of some scheme relating either to fashion, ambition or love among the rich and opulent they are entirely the votaries of pleasure which they pursue through all its labyrinths at the expense of fortune reputation and health giddy and extravagant to the last decree they leave to their husbands economy and care which would only spoil their complexions and furrow their brows when we descend to tradesmen and mechanics the case is reversed the wife manages everything in the house and shop while the husband lounges in the backstop an idle spectator or struts about with his sword and bag wig matrimony among the French seems to be a bargain entered into by a male and female to bear the same name, live in the same house and pursue their separate pleasures without restraint or control and so religiously is this part of the bargain kept that both parties shape their course exactly as convenience and inclination dictate the French girls are kept under very strict superintendence they are not allowed to go to parties or places of public amusement without being accompanied by some married female relation and they see their lovers only in the presence of a third person marriages are entirely negotiated by parents and sometimes the wedding day is the second time that a bride and bridegroom see each other nothing is more common than to visit a lady and attend her parties without knowing her husband by sight or to visit a gentleman without ever being introduced to his wife if a married couple were to be seen frequently in each other's company they would be deemed extremely ungentile after ladies are married they have unbounded freedom it is a common practice to receive morning calls from gentlemen before they have risen from bed and they talk with as little reserve to such visitors as they would in the presence of any woman of refinement in no country does real politeness shoot itself more than in France where the company of the woman is accessible to every man who can recommend himself by his dress and by his address to affectation and prudery the French woman are equally strangers easy and unaffected in their manners their politeness has so much the appearance of nature that one would almost believe no part of it to be an effective art an era of sprightliness and gaiety sits perpetually on their countenances and their whole deportment seems to indicate that their only business is to stir the path of life with flowers persuasion hangs on their lips and though their volubility of tongue is indefatigable so soft is their accent so lively their expression so various their attitudes that they fix the attention for hours together on a tale of nothing the Jewish doctors have a fable concerning the etymology of the word Yves which one would almost be tempted to say French women Yves they say comes from a word which signifies to talk and she was so called because soon after the creation there fell from heaven 12 baskets full of chit chat and she picked up 9 of them while her husband was gathering the other 3 French ladies especially those not young use a great deal of rouge a traveler who saw many of them in their opera boxes says I could compare them to nothing after the French Revolution it became the fashion to have everything in ancient classic style loose flowing drapery, naked arms sandaled feet and dresses twisted were the order of the day the state of gross immorality that prevailed at this time ought not to be described if language had the power the profligacy of Rome in its worst days was comparatively thrown into the shade religion and marriage became a mockery and every form of impure addictive passion walked abroad with the consciousness that public opinion did not require them to assume even a slight disguise the fish women of Paris will long retain an unenviable celebrity for the brutal excess of their rage the goddess of reason was worshiped by men under the form of a living woman entirely devoid of clothing and in the public streets ladies might be seen who scarcely paid more attention to decorum Italian women Dr. Goldsmith thus characterizes the Italians in general could nature's bounty satisfy the breast the sons of Italy were surely blessed whatever fruits in different climes are found that proudly rise or humbly court the ground whatever blooms and torrid tracks appear whose brightly succession decks the very year whatever sweets salute the northern sky with vernal leaves that blossom but to die these here disporting own the kindred soil nor ask luxuriance from their planters while seaborn gales their gellid wings expand to winnow fragrance around the smiling land but small the bliss that sense alone bestows and sensual bliss is all a nation knows in floored beauty groves and fields appear man seems the only growth that dwindles here contrasted faults through all his manners reign though poor luxurious though submissive vain though grave yet trifling zealous yet untrue and even in penance planning sins anew all evils here contaminate the mind that opulence departed leaves behind for wealth was theirs not far removed the date when commerce proudly flourished through the state at her command the palace learned to rise again the long fallen column sought the skies the cold beyond even nature warm the pregnant quarry teamed with human form till more unsteady than the southern gale commerce on other shores displayed her sale while not remained of all that riches gave but towns unmanned and lords without a slave and late the nation found with fruitless skill its former strength was but plethoric ill yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied by arts the splendid acts of former pride from them the feeble heart and long fallen mind an easy compensation seem to find here may be seen in bloodless palm arrayed the pace board triumph and the cavalcade processions formed from piety and love a mistress or a saint in every grove almost every traveler who has visited Italy agrees in describing it as the most abandoned of all the countries of Europe at Venice at Naples and indeed almost every port of Italy women are taught from their infancy the various arts of alluring to their arms the young and unwary and of obtaining from them while heated by love or wine everything that flattering false miles can obtain in these unguarded moments the Italians like their neighbors of Spain and Portugal live under the paralyzing influence of a religion that retains its superstitious forms while little of life-giving faith remains like them they have lively passions are extremely susceptible and in the general conduct of life more governed by the impetuosity of impulse than rectitude of principle the ladies have less gravity than the Spanish and less frivolity than the French and in their style of dress inclined towards the freedom of the latter some of the richest and most comodist convents of Europe are in Italy the daughters of wealthy families are generally bestowed in marriage as soon as they leave these places of education these matters are entirely arranged by parents or guardians and youth and age are not unfrequently joined together for the sake of uniting certain acres of land but the affections thus repressed seek their natural level by indirect courses it is a rare thing for an Italian lady to be without her cavaliau salvant or lover who spends much of his time at her house attends her to all public places and appears to live upon her smiles the old maxim of the Provencal Tupadores that matrimony ought to be no hindrance to such liaisons seems to be generally and practically believed in Italy in Genoa there are marriage brokers who have pocketbooks filled with the names of marriageable girls of different classes with an account of their fortunes personal attractions etc when they succeed in arranging connections they have a 4-3% commission on the portion the marriage contract is often drawn up before the parties have even seen each other if a man dislikes the appearances or manners of his future partner he may break off the match on condition of paying the brokerage and other expenses end of section 7 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 Susan Wade sketches of the fair sex in all parts of the world by Anonymous chapter 8 Spanish Women as the Spanish ladies are under a greater seclusion from general society than the sexes in other European countries their desires of an adequate degree of liberty are consequently more strong and urgent a free and open communication being denied them they make it their business to secure themselves a secret and hidden one hence it is that Spain is the country of intrigue the Spanish women are little or nothing indebted to education but nature has liberally supplied them with a fund of wit and sprightliness a small inducement to those who have only transient glimpses of their charms to wish very earnestly for a removal of those impediments that obstruct their most frequent presence this not being attainable in a lawful way of customary intercourse the natural propensity of men to overcome difficulties of this kind incites them to leave no expedient untried to gain admittance to what perhaps was at first only the object of admiration but which by their being refused an innocent gratification of that passion becomes at last the subject of a more serious one thus in Spain as in all countries where the sex is kept much out of sight the thoughts of men are continually employed in devising methods to break into their concealments there is in the Spaniards a native dignity which though the source of conveniences has nevertheless the sciatary effect that it sets them above almost every species of meanness and infidelity this quality is not peculiar to the men it diffuses itself in a great measure among the women also its effects are visible both in their constancy in love and friendship in which respects they are the very reverse of the French women their affections are not to be gained by a bit of sparkling lace or a tawdry set of libraries their deportment is rather grave and reserved and on the whole they have much more of the prude than the coquette in their composition being more confined at home and less engaged in business and pleasure they take more care of their children than the French and have a becoming tenderness in their disposition to all animals except a heretic and a rival something more than a century ago the Marquis d'Astroga having prevailed on a young woman of great beauty to become his mistress the Marquiones hearing of it went to her lodging with some assassins killed her, tore out her heart carried it home made a ragout of it and presented the dish to the Marquis it is exceedingly good said he no wonder answered she since it was made of the heart of that creature you so much doubted on and to confirm what she had said she immediately drew out her head all bloody from beneath her hoop and rolled it on the floor her eyes sparkling all the time with a mixture of pleasure and infernal fury a lady to whom a gentleman pays his addresses time and money and should he refuse her any request whether reasonable or capricious it would reflect eternal dishonor upon him among the men and make him the detestation of all the women but in no situation does their character appear so whimsical or their power so conspicuous as when they are pregnant in this case whatever they long for whatever they ask or whatever they have an inclination to do they must be indulged in English women the women of England are eminent for many good qualities both of the head and of the heart there we meet with that inexpressible softness and delicacy of manners which cultivated by education appears as much superior to what it does without it as the polished diamond appears superior to that which is rough from the mind in some parts of the world women have attained to so little knowledge and so little consequence that we consider their virtues as merely of the negative kind in England they consist not only in abstinence from evil but in doing good there we see the sex every day exerting themselves in acts of benevolence and charity in relieving the distresses of the body and binding up the wounds of the mind in reconciling the differences of friends and preventing the strife of enemies and to sum up all in that care and attention to their offspring which is so necessary and essential a part of their duty a woman may succeed to the throne of England with the same power and privileges as a king and the business of the state is transacted in her name while her husband is only a subject the king's wife is considered as a subject but is exempted from the law which forbids any married woman to possess property in her own right during the lifetime of her husband she may sue any person at law without joining her husband in the suit may buy and sell lands without his interference and she may dispose of her property by will as if she were a single woman she cannot be fined by any court of law but is liable to be tried and punished for crimes by peers of the realm the queen dowager enjoys nearly the same privileges that she did before she became a widow and if she marries a subject still continues to retain her rank and title but such marriages cannot take place without permission from the reigning sovereign a woman who is noble in her own right retains her title when she marries a woman of inferior rank but if ennobled by her husband she loses the title by marrying a commoner a pyrrhus can only be tried by a jury of peers in old times a woman who was convicted of being a common mischief maker and scold was sentenced to the punishment of the ducking stool which consisted of a sort of chair fastened to a pole in which she was seated down into the water amid the shouts of the rabble at Newcastle upon time a woman convicted of the same offense was led about the streets by the hangman with an instrument of iron bars fitted on her head like a helmet a piece of sharp iron entered the mouth and severely pricked the tongue whenever the culprit attempted to move it a great deal of vice prevails in England among the very fashionable and the very low classes misconduct and divorces are not unfrequent among the former because their mode of life corrupts their principles and they deem themselves above the jurisdiction of popular opinion the latter feel as if they were beneath the influence of public censure and find it very difficult to be virtuous on account of extreme poverty and the consequent obstructions in the way of marriage but the general character of English women is modest, reserved sincere and dignified they have strong passions and affections which often develop themselves in the most beautiful forms of domestic life they are in general remarkable for a healthy appearance and an exquisite bloom of complexion perhaps the world does not present a lovelier or more graceful picture than the English home of a virtuous family Russian women it is only a few years since the Russians emerged from a state of barbarity a late empress of Russia as a punishment for some female frailties ordered a most beautiful young lady of family to be publicly chastised in a manner which was hardly less indelicate than severe it is said that the Russian ladies were formerly as submissive to their husbands in their families or to their superiors in the field and that they thought themselves ill-treated if they were not often reminded of their duty by the discipline of a whip manufactured by themselves which they presented to their husbands on the day of their marriage the latest travelers however assert that they find no remaining traces of this custom at present Russian fathers of all classes generally arrange marriages for their children without consulting their inclinations among the peasantry if the girl has the name of being a good housewife her parents will not fail to have applications for her whatever may be her age or personal endowments as soon as a young man is old enough to be married his parents seek a wife for him and all is settled before the young couple know anything of the matter their nuptial ceremonies are peculiar to themselves and formerly consisted of many whimsical rights some of which are now disused on her wedding day the bride is crowned with a garland of warm wood and after the priest has tied the nuptial knot his clerk or sexton throws a handful of hops upon the head of the bride wishing that she might prove as fruitful as that plant she is then led home with abundance of course ceremonies which are now wearing off even among the lowest ranks and the barbarous treatment of wives by their husbands is either guarded against by the laws of the country or by particular stipulations in the marriage contract in the conversation and actions of the Russian ladies there is hardly anything of that softness and delicacy which distinguishes the sex in other parts of Europe even their exercises and diversions have more of the masculine than the feminine the present empress with the ladies of her court sometimes divert themselves by shooting at a mark drunkenness the vice of almost every cold climate they are so little ashamed of that not many years ago when a lady got drunk at the house of a friend it was customary for her to return next day and thank him for the pleasure he had done her females however in Russia possess several advantages they share the rank and splendor of the families from which they are sprung and are even allowed the supreme authority this a few years ago was enjoyed by an empress whose head did honor to her nation and to her sex although on some occasions the virtues of her heart have been much suspected the sex in general are protected from insult by many salutary laws and except among the peasants are exempted from every kind of toil and slavery upon the whole they seem to be approaching fast to the enjoyment of that consequence to which they have already arrived in several parts of Europe end of chapter 8 the idea of female inferiority it is an opinion pretty well established that in strength of mind as well as of body men are greatly superior to women men are endowed with boldness and courage women are not the reason is plain these are beauties in our care women are not women are not these are beauties in our character in theirs they would be blemishes our genius often leads to the great and the arduous theirs to the soft and the pleasing we bend our thoughts to make life convenient they turn theirs to make it easy and agreeable if the endowments allotted to us by nature could not be easily acquired by women it would be as difficult for us to acquire those peculiarly allotted to them are we superior to them in what belongs to the male character they are no less so to us in what belongs to the female character would it not appear rather ludicrous to say that a man was endowed only with inferior abilities because he was not expert in the nursing of children and practicing the various effeminacies which we reckon lovely in a woman would it be reasonable to condemn him on these accounts just as reasonable as it is to reckon women inferior to men because their talents are in general not adapted to tread the horrid path of war nor trace the mazes and intricacies of science the idea of the inferiority of female nature has drawn after it several others the most absurd unreasonable and humiliating to the sex such is the pride of man that in some countries he has considered immortality as a distinction too glorious for women thus degrading the fair partners of his nature he places them on a level with the beasts that perish as the asiatics have time immemorial considered women as little better than slaves this opinion probably originated among them the maho-metons both in Asia and Europe are said by a great variety of writers to entertain this opinion lady Montague in her letters has opposed this general assertion of the writers concerning the maho-metons and says that they do not absolutely deny the existence of female souls but only hold them to be of a nature inferior to those of men and that they enter not into the same but into an inferior paradise prepared for them on purpose lady Montague and the writers whom she has contradicted may perhaps be both right the former might be the opinion which the Turks brought with them from Asia and the latter as a refinement upon it they may have adopted by their intercourse with the Europeans this opinion however has had but few votaries in Europe though some have even here maintained it and assigned various reasons for so doing among these the following laughable reason is not the least particular quote in the revelations of Saint John the Divine said one whose wife was a descendant of the famous Zantipae footnote Zantipae was the wife of Socrates and the most famous scold of antiquity and footnote you will find this passage and there was silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour now I appeal to anyone whether that could possibly have happened had there been any women there and since there are none there charity forbids us to imagine that they are all in a worse place therefore it follows that they have no immortal part and happy is it for them as they are thereby exempted from being accountable for all the noise and disturbance they have raised in this world in a very ancient treatise called the wisdom of all times ascribed to Husheng one of the earliest kings of Persia are the following remarkable words quote the passions of men may by long acquaintance be thoroughly known but the passions of women are inscrutable therefore they ought to be separated from men lest the mutability of their tempers should infect others end quote ideas of a similar nature seem to have been at this time generally diffused over the east for we find Solomon writing exclaiming against women and in the apocrypha the author of ecclesiasticus is still more illiberal in his reflections both these authors it is true join in the most enraptured manner to praise a virtuous woman but take care at the same time to let us know that she is so great a rarity as to be very seldom met with nor have the asiatics alone been addicted to this superiority of thinking concerning the sacks satirists of all ages and countries while they flattered them to their faces have from their closets scattered their spleen and ill nature against them of this the greek and roman poets afford a variety of instances but they must nevertheless yield the palm to one of our moderns in the following lines hope has outdone every one of them quote then some to pleasure some to business take but every woman is at heart a rake end quote swift and doctor young have hardly been behind the celebrated splenetic in ill liberality they perhaps were not favorites of the fair and in revenge vented all their envy and spleen against them but a more modern and accomplished writer who by his rank in life by his natural and acquired graces was undoubtedly a favorite has repaid their kindness by taking every opportunity of exhibiting them in the most contemptible light quote almost every man says he may be gained some way almost every woman anyway can anything exhibit a stronger caution to the sex end quote it is fraught with information and it is to be hoped they will use it accordingly female simplicity would we conceive properly of that simplicity which is the sweetest expression of a well formed and well meaning mind which everywhere diffuses tenderness and delicacy sweetens the relations of life and gives a zest to the minutest duties of humanity let us contemplate every perceptible operation of nature the twilight of the evening the pearly dew drops of the early morning and all that various growth which indicates the genial return of spring the same principle from which all that is soft and pleasing amiable or exquisite to the eye or to the ear in the exterior frame of nature produces that taste for true simplicity which is one of the most useful as well as one of the most elegant lessons that ladies can learn infancy is perhaps the finest and most perfect illustration of simplicity it is a state of genuine nature throughout the feelings of children are under no kind of restraint but pure as the fire free as the winds honest and open as the face of heaven their joys incessantly flow in the thickest succession and their griefs only seem fleeting and evanescent to the calls of nature they are only attentive they know no voice but hers obedience to all her commands is prompt and implicit they never anticipate her bounties nor relinquish her pleasures this situation renders them independent of artifice influenced only by nature their manners like the principle that produces them are always the same genuine simplicity is that peculiar quality of the mind by which some happy characters are enabled to avoid the most distant changes to anything like affectation inconsistency or design in their intercourse with the world it is much more easily understood however than defined and consists not in a specific tone of the voice movement of the body or mode imposed by custom but is the natural and permanent effect of real modesty and good sense on the whole behavior this has been considered in all ages as one of the first and most captivating ornaments of the sex the savage, the plebeian, the man of the world and the courtier are agreed in stamping it with a preference to every other female excellence nature only is lovely and nothing unnatural can ever be amiable the genuine expressions of truth and nature are happily calculated to impress the heart with pleasure no woman, whatever her other qualities may be was ever eminently agreeable but in proportion as distinguished by these the world is good-natured enough to give a lady credit for all the merits she can possess or acquire without affectation but the least shade or coloring of this odious foible brings certain and indelible obliquy on the most elegant accomplishments the blackest suspicion inevitably rests on everything assumed she who is only an ape of others or prefers formality in all its gigantic and preposterous shapes to that plain unembarrassed conduct which nature unavoidably produces will assuredly provoke an abundance of ridicule but never can be an object either of love or esteem the various artifices of the sex discover themselves at a very early period a passion for expense and show is one of the first they exhibit which renders them a taste for refinement which divests their young hearts of almost every other feeling renders their tempers disultry and capricious regulates their dress only by the most fantastic models of finery and fashion and makes their company rather tiresome and awkward than pleasing or elegant no one perhaps can form a more ludicrous contrast to everything just and graceful in nature than the woman whose sole object of life is to pass for a fine lady the attentions she everywhere and uniformly pays, expects, and even exacts are tedious and fatiguing her various movements and attitudes are all adjusted and exhibited by rule by a happy fluency of the most eloquent language she has the art of imparting a momentary dignity and grace to the merest trifles studious only to mimic such peculiarities as are most admired in others she affects a loquacity peculiarly flippant and teasing because scandal routes, finery, fans, china, lovers, lapdogs, or squirrels are her constant themes her amusements like those of a magpie are only hopping over the same spots prying into the same corners and devouring the same species of prey the simple and beautiful versions of nature in her countenance gestures and whole deportment are habitually arranged, distorted or concealed by the affected adoption of whatever grimace or deformity is latest or most invoke she accustoms her face to a simper which every separate feature in it belies she spoils perhaps a blooming complexion with a profusion of artificial coloring she distorts the most exquisite shape and modes or volumes of useless drapery she has her head her arms her feet and her gait equally touched by art and affectation into what is called the taste the ton or the fashion she little considers to what a torrent of ridicule and sarcasm this mode of conduct exposes her or how exceedingly cold and hollow that ceremony must be which is not the language of a warm heart she does not reflect how insipid those smiles are which indicate no internal pleasantry nor how awkward those graces which spring not from habits of good nature and benevolence thus pertness succeeds to delicacy assurance to modesty and all the vagaries of a listless to the sensibilities of an ingenuous mind with her punctilio is politeness dissipation life and levity spirit the miserable and contemptible drudge of every tawdry innovation in dress or ceremony she incessantly mistakes extravagance for taste and finery for elegance her favorite examples are not those persons of acknowledged sincerity who speak as they feel and act as they think but such only as are formed to dazzle her fancy amuse her senses her only study is how to glitter or shine how to captivate and gratify the gaze of the multitude or how to swell her own pump and importance to this interesting object all her assuities and time are religiously devoted how often is debility of mind and even badness of heart concealed under a splendid exterior the fairest of the species and of the sex and without sincerity every other qualification is rather a blemish than a virtue or excellence sincerity operates on the moral somewhat like the sun on the natural world and produces nearly the same effects on the dispositions of the human heart which he does on inanimate objects wherever sincerity prevails and is felt all the smiling and benevolent virtues flourish most in her nature and diffuse their richest fragrance heaven has not a finer or more perfect emblem on earth than a woman of genuine simplicity she affects no braces which are not inspired by sincerity her opinions result not from passion and fancy but from reason and experience candor and humility give expansion to her heart she struggles for no kind of chimerical credit to the appearance of every affectation and is in all things just what she seems and others would be thought nature not art is the great standard of her manners and her exterior wears no varnish or embellishment which is not the genuine signature of an open, undesigning and benevolent mind it is not in her power because not in her nature to hide with a fawning air and a mellow voice of emotion or contempt where her delicacy is hurt her temper ruffled or her feelings insulted in short, whatever appears most amiable, lovely, or interesting in nature, art, manners, or life originates in simplicity what is correctness in taste purity and morals truth in science grace in beauty but simplicity it is the garb of innocence in ages and still adorns the infant state of humanity without simplicity woman is a vixen a coquette, a hypocrite society a masquerade and pleasure a phantom the following story I believe is pretty generally known a lady whose husband had long been afflicted with an acute but lingering disease suddenly feigned such an uncommon tenderness for him as to resolve on dying in his stead she had even the address to persuade him not to outlive this extraordinary instance of her conjugal fidelity and attachment it was instantaneously agreed they should mutually swallow such a quantity of arsenic as would speedily effect their dreadful purpose she composed the fatal draft before his face and even set him the desperate example of drinking first by this device which had all the appearance of affection and candor the dregs only were reserved for him and soon put a period to his life it then appeared that the dose was so tempered as from the weight of the principal ingredient to be deadly only at the bottom which she had artfully appropriated for his share even after all this finesse she seized we are told his inheritance and insulted his memory by a second marriage end of section 9