kings have been more under the reſtraint of law, and the curb, however weak, of honour, the records of hiſtory are not filled with ſuch unnatural inſtances of folly and cruelty, nor does the deſpotiſm that kills virtue and genius in the bud, hover over Europe with that deſtructive blaſt which deſolates Turky, and renders the men, as well as the ſoil, unfruitful.
Women are every where in this deplorable ſtate; for, in order to preſerve their innocence, as ignorance is courteouſly termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to aſſume an artificial character before their faculties have acquired any ſtrength. Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's ſceptre, the mind ſhapes itſelf to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only ſeeks to adorn its priſon. Men have various employments and purſuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts conſtantly directed to the moſt inſignificant part of themſelves, ſeldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour. But was their underſtanding once emancipated from the ſlavery to which the pride and ſenſuality of man and their ſhort-ſighted deſire, like that of dominion in tyrants, of preſent ſway, has ſubjected them, we ſhould probably read of their weakneſſes with ſurpriſe. I muſt be allowed to purſue the argument a little farther.
Perhaps, if the exiſtence of an evil being was allowed, who, in the allegorical language of ſcripture, went about ſeeking whom he ſhould devour, he could not more effectually degrade the human
