NUMBER V.

Fram'd to give joy the lovely fex are feen;
Beauteous their form, and heav'nly is their mien.

OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THE HISTORY
OF WOMEN.

As the progrefs of the female sex towards rank in fociety is intimately connected with manners and luxury, it is both curious and important to trace the changes that have ta ken place in their fituation among thofe na-tions of which we have authentic accounts of..

Dampier obferves in general, that, among all the wild nations he was acquainted with, the women carry the burdens, while the men. walk before, and carry nothing but their arms. Women, even of the highest rank, are not better treated. The fovereign of Giagi, in Africa, has many wives, who are literally his. flaves: One carries his bow, one his arrows, and one gives him drink; and while he is drinking, they all fall on their knees, clap their hands, and fing. Not many centuries ago, a.

law was made in England, prohibiting the New Teftament in English to be read by women, apprentices, journeymen, or ferving men. What a pitiful figure must the poor women have made in that age! In Siberia, and even in Ruffia, the capital excepted, men treat their wives in every refpect as flaves. The regulations of Peter I. put marriage upon a more refpectable footing among people of rank; and yet fuch are the brutal manners of the Ruffians, the tyrannical treatment of wives is far from being eradicated.

The low condition of the female fex among favages and barbarians paved the way to Polygamy. Savages, excited by a taste for variety, and still more by pride, which is gratified by many fervants, delight in a multiplicity of wives. The pairing principle, though rooted in human nature, makes little figure among favages, yielding to every irregular appetite; and this fairly accounts why polygamy was once univerfal. It might indeed be thought, that animal love, were there nothing elfe, fhould have raised women to fome degree of eftimation among the men. But male favages, utter ftrangers to decency or refinement, gratify animal love with as little ceremony as they do hunger or thirst,

Hence appears the reafon of a custom that will furprise those who are unacquainted with ancient customs; which is, that women were purchased for wives, as other goods are purchaíed. Women, by marriage, became flaves; and no man will give away his daughter to be a flave, but for a valuable confideration. The practice was univerfal. I begin with the Jews. Abraham bought Rebekah, and gave her to his fon Ifaac for a wife. Jacob having nothing else to give, ferved Laban fourteen years for two wives. Sechem demanding in marriage Dinah, Jacob's daughter, faid, Ask me never fo much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye fhall fay unto me: But give me the damfel to wife. To David, demanding Saul's daughter in marriage, Saul faid,. The king defireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines. In the Iliad, Agamemnon offers his daughter to Achilles for a wife, and fays, that he would not demand for her, any price. Paufanias reports of Danaus, that no fuitors appearing to demand any of his daughters, he publifhed, that he would give them without dowry. In Homer there is frequent mention of nuptial gifts from a bridegroom to his bride's father. From terming them gifts, it is probable that the former me

thod of purchase was beginning to wear out. It wore out before the time of Ariftotle, who infers, that their fore-fathers must have been a very rude people. The ancient Spaniards. purchased their wives. We have the authority of Herodotus and of Heraclides Ponticus, that the fame was practifed in Thrace. And the latter adds, that, if a wife was ill-treated, her relations could demand her back, upon repaying the price they got for her. In the Roman law, mention is made of matrimony, per as et libram, which was folemnized by laying down a quantity of brafs, with a balance for weighing it, understood to be the price paid for the bride. This must have been once a reality, though it funk down to be a mere ceremony, after it became customary for a Roman bride to bring a dowry with her. The Babylonians and the Affyrians, at ftated times, collected all the marriageable young women, and difpofed of them by auction.

These facts give, furely, a humiliating idea of that part of the creation, which, in civilized ages, affords to fociety its most bewitching charm. But, without pretending to enter into a minute examination of them, it may be proper to remark, that, in rude communities, and in the earlier condition of many nations, there may

be traced the marks of attention and respect with which women were honoured. In America, they join in the deliberations of the warriors; and, among all the branches of the Celtae, they were in the highest admiration, and affifted in the national concerns. In Egypt the indignities offered to them were punished with uncommon feverity; the ceremonial of marriage gave authority to the wife over the husband; and the women engaged in business and affairs, while the men remained at home to fpin and to weave. The Lycians, in honour to the fex, took their names from the mother, and counted their genealogy in the female line. Among the Lacedæmonians, the wo men poffcffed dominion over the men, and mixed in the affairs of ftate. And, if it is to be allowed as a general maxim, that wherever modesty and chastity are valued, the women are refpected, it is to be mentioned that polygamy and divorce were never heard of among the Laplanders; that, among the Romans, Sulpitius Gallus repudiated his wife, because he had feen her abroad with her head uncovered; and that, among the Indians of Peru, no widow could engage in a fecond marziage without dishonour.