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for he obliged the young women to perform the fame exercifes as the young men; to appear in public, on certain days, ftark naked, and to dance with the men, who were likewife naked. Was not this the way to make them very impudent? And are we to wonder, after this, that the Lacedæmonian young women had fo bad a character? Plutarch, though in other respects very much inclined to juftify Lycurgus in this article, allows, that the licentioufnefs in which he indulged the Lacedæmonian maidens, exposed them to the lafh of poetical fatire; and he confefles, ingenuoufly, that the laws of Numa Pompilius were more favourable to modefty.'.

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Marriageable maidens," fays Plutarch, "according to "the ordinances of Numa, were kept more strictly, and in a manner more becoming the honour of the fair fex; those "of Lycurgus being too free and licentious, gave occafion to the poets to take notice of them, and to give them ap"pellations which are not very decent; Ibycus calling them “ Phænomerides, i. e. Bare-thighs, and Andromanes, i. e. Men"mad; and Euripides fays alfo of them,

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Too wanton girls, who leave their fathers houses,

To roam with boys. Gay girls, who fhew their thighs,
Tho' their flit petticoats.-

I know not,' continues Bayle, whether Lycurgus reafoned juftly, when he afferted that these practices would prompt young perfons to marry. We learn from Plutarch, that the only reafon why young laffes were permitted to go naked, was, that they might get hufbands; for the inftant they did fo, they were not allowed to appear naked. Lycurgus, perhaps confidered, that the number of handsome women is, every where, very fmall, in comparison of thofe who are otherwife; and that it frequently happens, that thofe who are not very pretty, receive from nature a fingular compenfation, in thofe parts of the body that are concealed. He therefore thought it neceffary to give all the laffes an opportunity of difplaying the utmoft force of their charms, imagining, very probably, that fuch as could not allure by a beautiful face, would reveal other attractions to gain the heart of fome young man; and, on the other hand, that those young fellows, whole form was not very inviting, might, by the fame means, frike the heart of fome female fpectator, and make a compl te conquest of it, without the affistance of the stars, notwithstanding what Juvenal says:

Fatum eft et partibus illis

Quas finus abfcondit, nam fi tibi fidera ceffent

Nil faciet, &c.

In this manner a remedy was found against ugliness; and no one could escape the fhafts of love, or have cause to complain of being wronged in his bargain, or purchase, by not being allowed to have a fight of the goods before-hand. But was not this introducing, into a fociety where virtue ought to flourish, the pretended advantages of brothels, which Horace has highly celebrated? Was not this infpiring young girls with the impudence of the eye, which is worfe than the impudence of the ear? And was it not alfo the way to blunt the edge of curiofity, which is exceedingly strong?

A modern author has undertaken to apologize for the nakednefs of the Lacedæmonian maidens, but his apology does not appear to me to be founded upon folid reasons. His words are thefe," It was the custom for the Spartan maidens, to dance naked in public; and few perfons think, that this was a modeft fight." I nevertheless imagine, that the Lacedæmonians had their reasons for this practice; and that, as it was fo very common among them, it did not make any dangerous, or criminal, impreffions upon their minds. A familiarity is contracted between the eye and the object, which difpofes the mind for infenfibility, and banishes all lafcivious defires from the imagination. The emotion arifes only from the novelty of the fpectacle. A perpetual cuftom is more diftafteful than tempting to the eye: and if we do but confider the integrity of the Spartan manners, we fhall be obliged to acknowlege the truth of the following faying: The Spartan maidens were not naked, public decency ferving as a veil to them. I will not fay, that, in general, their excufe would be one for us; how ever, there are feveral countries in North America, in which the women appear always as naked as thofe who danced in Sparta; and yet we are affured by travellers, that not fo much. as the fhadow of guilt arifes from it. I perceive, that I should never be able to make you entertain a favourable opinion of the modefty of the Spartan women, though I fhould plead ten years for it. You would much fooner give credit to the sharp fatires of the Athenians, and even that of Ariftotle; who, though a Macedonian, had lived fo long in Athens, that he could not but contract the contagious hatred which prevailed there against the Spartans. Here follows what he fays of the Lacedemonians, in the fecond book of his politicks. When Lycurgus endeavoured to introduce refolution and patience in Sparta, it is plain that he fucceeded with respect to the men; but he was more negligent with regard to the women, they leading, in general, an effeminate and diffolute life.

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What

• What we are here told, concerning this familiarity between the eye and the object, which inclines the mind to infenfibility, is, in general, just and solid. But how folid and reafonable foever the doctrine may be, I know not whether it can be applied to the prefent fubject, fince the Lacedemonian young women did not appear naked, but on certain grand days, and at all other times wore cloaths which fhewed only their thighs. This was adapted to excite concupifcence, without inclining the mind to infenfibility by a perpetual cuftem. Farther, there is a wide difference between the Spartans, and fo many favage nations, where it is the cuftom to go naked. The latter appeared in that manner in all ages; but Lycurgus introduced the cuftom of going naked into a city, where it was not known; and at a time when all the neighbouring nations obferved the rules of decency: no apology therefore can be made for him. In fine, the virtue of the Americans, if what travellers relate concerning it be true, is of no use to juftify this legiflator; for the event fhewed, that Lacedemon was not a place where fuch innovations could be introduced with innocence. It is to no purpose to attempt to weaken Ariftotle's teftimony. Nothing can be graver and more judicious than the book in which that philofopher speaks to disadvantageoufly of the Spartan women. A fpirit of partiality does not appear in this work; and therefore, inftead of faying, that the calumnies of the poets made an impreffion on this phiJofopher's mind; it should be faid, that the authority of this philofopher juftifies the reproaches of the poets.

'It were an easy matter to criticise the laws of Lycurgus in other refpects; but there is one thing wherein he seems to delerve greater commendation than Numa, viz. his not allowing young women to marry till they were of a proper age, and capable of fupporting the pains of child-bearing. Numa, on the contrary, allowed them to marry at twelve years of age, and under. Ariftotle gives fome very judicious precepts on this head. He would not have young women married till eighteen years of age, nor the men till thirty-feven. He obferves, that the inhabitants of all the countries, where perfons are married too young, are infirm, and little in ftature; and that immature marriages make many women die in child-bed. He adds, that thofe children who are not much younger than eir parents, have little regard, or veneration for them, which occafions numberlefs domeftic feuds and diffenfions.'

I fhall now tranflate the fhort article concerning the Mammillarians it is as follows. The Mammillarians were a fect among the Anabaptifts. I cannot be politive as to the

time when this new fchifm formed itfelf: but the city of HaerJem is reckoned the native place of this fub-divifion.. It owes its origin to the liberty a young man took of putting his hand in the breaft of a young woman whom he loved, and intended to marry. The affair reached the ears of the church, who thereupon confulted about the punishment which the delinquent ought to fuffer. Some were for excommunicating him, others for a more moderate punishment. The debate grew fo hot, that the contending parties came to a total rupture. Thofe who appeared favourable to the young man, were called Mammillarians.

This, in one refpect, does honour to the Anabaptifts, as it is a proof, that they carry the feverity of their morals farther than any other Chriftian fociety. I know, that the most moderate cafuifts, the Sanchez, and the Efcobars, would condemn this action of the young man; they agree, that the touching of breafts is an impurity, a branch of lewdness, and one of the feven mortal fins; but if I am not miftaken, they do not impofe upon the guilty a very fevere penance; and in many countries of Europe they are obliged to confider it among the Peccadilloes, which they call Quotidiance incurfionis. We are fo accustomed, in these countries, to that wicked practice, and it is fo common a thing, even in the public streets, that the Cafuifts have abated of their feverity, and are perfuaded, that its being fo common effaces half the guilt of it. It is for this realon that they pafs flightly over this article of confeffion. I do not believe, that any Janfenift, upon fuch an account, ever deferred the abfolution of his penitent, not even in those climates where this fort of toying is the leaft in ufe, and paffes for one of thofe liberties which the fair fex ought seriously to refent. Thus the Anabaptifts are the most rigid of all the Chriftian moralifts, fince they excommunicate a man for touching the breasts of a miftrefs whom he courts for his wife, and break their church communion with those who are against excommunicating such a spark.

I shall here relate a story which is told of the Sieur Labadie. All who have heard of this perfon know, that he recommended to the devotees of both fexes fome spiritual exercifes, and trained them up to internal recollection, and mental prayer. They fay that he once gave out a point of meditation to one of his female pupils, and having ftrongly recommended it to her to apply herfelf entirely, for fome hours, to fuch an important object, he went up to her, when he believed her to be at the heighth of her recollection, and put his hand into her breaft. She gave him a hafty repulfe, and ex

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prefled

preffed a great deal of furprize at that proceeding, and was preparing to rebuke him; when he, without being in the leaft difconcerted, and with a devout air, prevented her thus: "I "fee plainly, my Child, that you are ftill at a great distance "from perfection. Acknowlege your weakness with an hum"ble fpirit. Afk forgivenefs of God, for your having given "fo little attention to the myfteries upon which you ought to ❝have meditated. Had you beftowed all neceffary attention rr upon those things, you would not have been fenfible of what 66 was doing about your breaft. I wanted to try whether your ❝fervency in prayer had raised you above the material world,

and united you with the Sovereign Being, the living fource of immortality, and a fpiritual ftate; and I fee, to my great "grief, that you have made very fmall progrefs, and that you "only creep on the ground: may this, my Child, make you

afhamed, and move you, for the future, to perform the fa*cred duties of mental prayer better than you have hitherto ❝done."

< They fay, that the young Lady, who had as much good fenfe as virtue, was no lefs provoked at these words, than at the bold action of Labadie; and that he could never after bear the name of this holy Father. I will not vouch for the certainty of all these facts, though I think them very probable, and am inclined to believe, that moft fpiritual directors abufe thefe pretended fpiritual exercises, in order to feduce their fair difciples. This is what the Molinifts are accused of. In general, there is nothing more dangerous for the foul, than acts of devotion too myftical and refined; the body to be fure runs fome rifques in them, and a great many are pleased with the deceit.'

The third volume of this work contains an account of the various fyftems and opinions of fome of the antient philofophers, víz. Thales, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, Critias, Xenophanes, Zeno, Democritus, Pythagoras, Epicurus, Bion, &c. with feveral particulars concerning their lives and characters, which render it both inftructive and entertaining. In the article of Xenophanes, Bayle enquires, pretty largely, into the proportions of moral and physical good and evil in the world, and affirms, that the virtuous actions of mankind are not as ten to ten thoufand, in comparison of their vices, A tranflation of what he fays upon this fubject, which is both curious and important, will not, I prefume, be unacceptable to your Readers. What he has advanced, is reduced to two heads of enquiry; the firft is, whether moral good, or moral evil, preponderates in the world?

How

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