AMONG other arguments in favour of inequality in the intellectual faculties of the sexes, it may be remarked, that there are certain powers, which, to be more perfect, require that station in society occupied by women. Any deficiency in other qualities has been often compensated by the power of their personal charms. In religion and politics, female influence has been infinitely greater than appears in historical records; and it is one great objection to the truth of history, that the female character rarely makes any figure in scenes which, by some other means, we often discover to have been planned and conducted by females. We are apt to be surprised to find, when we reflect on some of the greatest revolutions, that they took their origin from women; that a form of government or religion have been established by a female; and that, while an invasion takes place, a monarch is assassinated, or an inquisition erected, the VOL. V. NO. XXXIII. motive-power of this vast machine is a little unperceived spring, touched and played upon by the dexterity of a woman. That women may excel men in what is termed a knowledge of the world, and that there is a sexual distinction in this not contemptible science, any observer may discover in his private circle. Bruyere is a character more extraordinary among men than it would be among women; for I am persuaded that there are many female Bruyeres not accustomed to write down their observations, and pourtray the characters of their acquaintance. Women of no remarkable talents excel in the knowledge of their own circle; and we may account for this by reflecting on their stationary situation in society, where their opportunities for observation are more frequent and steady, and where their perception becomes more exact, by an attention, which, though fre quently interrupted by its vivacity, is never entirely suspended. They 1 may not view distantly, or penetrate deeply. Their eye, perhaps, is a pleasing microscope, which detects the minutest stroke, if placed near, though incapable of tracing an object remotely. Many experience, and some acknowledge, what Rousseau relates of his Theresa. This woman, who he describes otherwise as heavy and dull, afforded him excellent advice in the most trying occasions. Often, says he, in Switzerland, in England, and in France, amidst my disasters, she saw what I did not see myself; she afforded me the best counsels to follow, and extricated me from dangers in which I blindly precipitated myself. If, therefore, woman displays superior acuteness derived from the peculiarity of her situation, those authoresses who appear jealous of certain privileges claimed by the wandering and active sex cannot be deemed judicious advocates of their own; because if woman, from the natural feebleness of whose organs is derived her beauty and her power, were capable of exerting the same corporeal vigour as man, yet, by becoming his rival, she would only lose that feminine sweetness, that amiable debility, and that retiring modesty, which form her empire; she would lose her actual position in the social order which imparts her present superiority, by enabling her to detect and to manage the secret foibles of man. To her stationary situation I attribute her acknowledged superiority in conversation, and in epistolary composition. To both, woman imparts a peculiar delicacy, and a charming ease, which masters of style can neither imitate nor rival. These excellences consist in a volubility of happy expression and a choice of sprightly ideas; in the bo. som of society female genius is first nurtured; the human scene becomes her school; and hence she derives this facility of language, and this liveliness and selection of ideas. A more obvious advantage in the female character is that suscepti bility of feeling, or facility of imagination, which, without doubt, is peculiar to the irritable delicacy of their fibres. The heart is the great province of woman; if we would attract their regard we must learn to reach the heart; all their finer qualities are so many, sensations of the heart; and it is the heart which imbues with its softness their every excellence. Their favourite amusements are works of imagination and taste, not of memory and reason; their logic consists not of arguments, but of sentiments. Some ladies of true refinement can put as much fancy, and exert as rich an imagination, in the ornaments of a favourite dress, as the poet employs in his most florid descriptions. In every surrounding object they express their love of the beautiful; their most useful instruments have a character of delicacy; women would effeminate even the roughness of steel and the solidity of wood; man is subjugated by these adventitious elegancies, and the fair love to see that beauty admired in inanimate objects which they know must be much more in themselves. I am not surprised that in all nations, civilized or rude, whenever superstition prevailed, the female character has been regarded as an instrument of the Divinity. That peculiar animation which vivifies their perceptions has been considered as something supernatural, and we can easily conceive that the afflatus of prophecy must ever have displayed more powerful illusion in the expressive and picturesque countenance of a woman than in the more hard and labouring visage of a prophet. The Grecian Pythia, the Roman Sybil, and the Pythonissa of the Hebrews, must have communicated a more celestial inspiration with their copious tresses luxuriating on their palpitating bosom, their vivacious eyes, and their snowy arms, than even a passionate Isaiah, or a weeping Jeremiah. But to history, and not to decla mation, I appeal. If we throw a philosophic glance on its instructive records, and have the discernment to read what often is not in history, we shall observe that the female character has ever had a singular influence on most of the great characters and great events of human life. One of the most favourite portions of the historic art, with historians, is an elaborate delineation of the characters of monarchs. We should comprehend these much bet⚫ ter if we were acquainted with those of the queens. Many important resolutions of state councils have been first made behind the curtain. queen has influence on the king her husband, and the king her son. And would it be difficult to show, that if the whole affairs of government depend on a minister, he would be impregnable against the attacks of a mistress? A person must be very ignorant of secret history, whose memory cannot place in ridiculous and humiliating attitudes, some of the most illustrious statesmen. A Cardinal Richelieu, to gain the affections of the duchess de Chevreuse at their private interviews, visited her in the most finical dress. Rejecting his scarlet robes and sacred pantoufles, his eminence wore a fashionable coat, an enormous plume, a long rapier, and tight pumps. The dutchess hated and ridiculed the cardinal, the minister, and the coxcomb; but at that moment through him she conducted innumerable intrigues within and without the kingdom. Read Plutarch's Life of Cicero, and you observe that his wife Terentia was not less concerned than the orator and statesman in the most striking events of his public life. When Cicero was perplexed to know in what manner he should treat Catiline and his crew, Terentia incensed him against them, and invented an ingenious prodigy to fix the waverings of his mind, and cause him to act with an energy he otherwise had wanted. The origin of the enmity between Cicero and Clodius was owing to the jealousy of Teren tia, who knew that his sister Clodia was desirous of marrying Cicero. She therefore instigated him to attack Clodius. By the confession of Cicero himself it appears, that Terentia was ever more ready to interfere in his public transactions than to communicate her domestic affairs to him. Catherine of Medicis was the wife of one king and the mother of three, whom she alike conducted at pleasure. It was owing to the intercessions of women, says Bolingbroke, that Louis XIV acknowledged the pretender as king of England, after the contrary resolution had passed in council. A great vizier, the pillar of the Ottoman empire, solicited suddenly for his dismission, and thus spoke to his friend, who was surprised at his resignation of such power: By the God who created heaven and earth, the secret I now tell thee no one knows: for many years, Jemila Kandahari, the first lady of the bed-chamber to the sultana, has had the secret power of unloosing whatever I tied, and tyeing whatever I unloosed. Saint Evremond and Chesterfield, who excelled in the practical knowledge of life, talk much about female influence at court. At what time have not women governed? I confess woman has as seldom been heard on the public scene as the prompter of a theatre; or as rarely been visible as the scene-shifters: like some other objects, she derives all her influence from concealment. In politics, woman is terrible, not in the rash imbecillity of the storm, but in the sudden explosion of the mine. Ancient and contemporary history will ever abound with multifarious instances of this kind; the saying of Themistocles is noted: That child, said he, pointing to his son, governs all Greece: for he governs his mother; his mother governs me; I govern the Athenians; and the Athenians govern Greece. It may be said that women rule men because men love women; but I take leave to add, that women rule men frequently because men fear women. The excess of their sensibility is observable in all their great passions; and the ancients instruct us truly when they picture their furies, as well as their graces, in the forms of women. From the same enthusiasm is derived their excellent as well as their execrable qualities; their sensations admit of no cold mediocrity; they are at once more or less than human; they listen to the voice of adulation till they sink into idiotism, or they are animated by a fervour of glory till they are elevated into heroines. When the love of glory warms the soul of a woman, she is, perhaps, actuated by a stronger impulse than that which directs our less delicate feelings. A being agitated by a tumultuous and inflamed imagination, experiencing sensations, perhaps, unknown to us, half conscious of her weakness, yet iinpelled by a daring pride; to what height is such a being not capable of soaring? Even her deficiencies become so many tender graces, and her very failings extort our applause. Women, like some men of the greatest genius, have been remarkable for their vanity, if we thus must term their love of glory. To what, but this passion for glory, can we at tribute their partiality for men of genius? Their remarkable attachment to soldiers has brought severe accusations against the sex; some think it proceeds from their timid dispositions, which make them regard with fondness the protecting arm of a brave man ; but a lady has censured it, because she supposes that as these triflers are remarkable for their frivolous accomplishments, and a deficiency in mental ability, they are therefore more on a level with women than any other class of men. The observation will oftener be true than false; yet we may sometimes attribute the female's passion for military men to her vio lent love of glory. Women have also been frequently accused of a foolish loquacity about their own concerns; but an important interest engages their silence. No great enterprise will suffer because a sensible woman unites her aid, and stimulates by her vivacity the torpid prudence of men. We want not examples to prove that some of the greatest conspiracies have been confided to women, fostered by their care, and accomplished by their zeal. The conspiracy of Catiline was discovered by a female to Cicero, and Rome was saved. That against the wretched Caligula was well known to Quintilia, who, however, bore extreme torture rather than discover the secret cabal. Several great conspiracies have indeed failed because they were not confided to females; and there are many evidences to prove, that whenever they were employed, they conferred success on the enterprise. I am persuaded that a female may not only have the faculty of preserving a secret, but also the dexterity of inventing what is worthy of being kept secret at the cost of life. Such has been the influence of the female character in politics; nor has it been less apparent in religion. Women have been more closely connected with religion than per haps they are aware of. A new religion is congenial to their disposition, and not merely for its novelty. There is a luxuriance of fancy and a progress to ideal perfection which every new religion displays; it is honourable to their finer sensibilities that they are ever the first to incline to what appears theoretically beautiful. That the earliest founders of new sects have had recourse to these invisible, yet powerful wheels, in the machine of human nature, I mean women, is not to be controverted. Let the fair sex be converted, and the religion is established; a woman at least can win her husband, a mistress the prime minister, a queen the sovereign. It is certain, that from the influ ence of the female character we derive nearly all the principal events of religious history. The first dominions of the pope, and consequent ly the origin of the papal power, are the gifts of a woman. Gregory VII had so lively an interest in the heart of the countess Mathilda, that she made a donation of all her states to the holy see. Instigated by the eloquence of St. Jerome, the illustrious Paula forsook Rome, retired to the sacred village of Bethlehem, and founded several monasteries. Pope Damasus, who had found the chief part of the inhabitants of Rome adverse to his interests, prevailed by intriguing with the women; and was so skilful in the arts of female flattery that he obtained the nick-name of Matronarum Auriscalpius, the ear-picker of the ladies. To Torquemada, who had taken possession of the mind of Isabella of Spain, the best Spanish estate he could have seized on, the world is in debted for the cruel inquisition. And, in a word, christianity in England is historically derived from a French princess, who, having married Ethelbert, first stipulated for the free exercise of her religion, and soon had such influence on her husband as to christianise his idolatrous Saxons. commands are her caresses, and her threats are her tears. Incapable, perhaps, of patient designs, her plans are rapidly conceived, and often fail, if they require a tedious process of elaborate events. They are not deeply laid, but are adapted for temporary effect. Women attend to those minute particulars, often unperceived, and generally carelessly considered as unworthy of an elevated mind, but which often, adroitly managed, give a new and sudden turn to important affairs; and she appears to know much better than man that little passions can produce great effects. For surrounding objects her perceptions are vivid; but she cannot, with a prescient eye, distinctly trace objects at a remote period. Her intellectual arithmetic can calculate as far as days and months, but extends not to years. She excels man in obtaining a present purpose; her invention is prompt, her boldness happy, and her execution facile; manly perseverance proceeds with a cautious, firm, and gradual step. Let us consider a woman's advantages. She can excite by legitimate eulogiums, and can correct by severe panegyrics; she makes man exult or blush; she can allure by a smile, she can enchant by a touch, she can subdue by her endearments! And gospel light first beam'd from Bul- She overturns, or produces in an len's eyes. It is thus that the female character has ever had an invisible influence on two of the most important branches of human events, politics and religion. A superiority of talents, in one respect, has produced this effect. This talent consists in a great knowledge of man, a susceptibility of impression, and a peculiarity of situation. In the domestic circle, the female is incessantly occupied in disentangling or combining the passions she observes or she inflames. Her sedentary life and her quietness of mind are little interrupted by that variety of pursuits to which the busier sex are devoted. Her social circle is her empire; her hour, the labour of years. She has ever something reserved for the last effort; something which has often degraded wisdom into folly, and elevated folly into wisdom, and which, while it can render activity torpid, imparts action to indolence. The literary character of women, might exceed that of every man who does not make study his profession. Their employments are not unfriendly to reading: occupied at their delicate works, their avocations are ever more agreeably pursued while the circle listens to a reader; frequent readings of this nature would render their taste more lively, and their meditations less interrupted than among those persons whose studies are casual, |