and follow the Hindoo wife to the funeral pile of her husband. In that extensive region of the world, the manners and customs, which have been the same through many centuries, all proclaim the degradation of the sex. If we resort to the land of Judea, where all is singular and astonishing in the history of the inhabitants, we shall not find much to relieve the picture of woman. The laws of Moses, it is true, were, in many respects, more humane, impartial and favourable to the sex, than any thing we find in the rest of Asia; and we have left us, in the Proverbs of Solomon, a description of what the wisest man of the east conceived to be the perfection of a virtuous wife, whose price, he says, is above rubies. But though we may admit, that it is a picture of an excellent wife, yet, if the king were now to draw a portrait of ideal female perfection, he might gather, from some living excellence, traits of moral beauty, and of female glory, of which the princes of the east, in the days of Solomon, had a very faint conception.

We come now to the period, when the light of the gospel began to break upon the world, and woman was first raised to share with man the same destiny and duties, by being interested in the same redemption and the same hopes. The christian communities, in the first century, collected by a new and supernatural impulse from the corruption and degradation of humanity in the pagan world, were early filled with women, who, at once, preached and practised, ennobled and recommended the new religion. In the course of a few years, the christian martyrologies are full of the names of female sufferers, who, for Jesus' sake, went to the stake with all the courage and inflexibility of apostles.

From Judah's rocks the sacred light expands,
And beans and broadens into distant lands.

But O ye weak, beneath a master's rod,
Trembling and prostrate, own a helping God!
Ardent in faith, through bonds, and toil, and loss,
Bear the glad tidings, triumph in the cross!
Away with woman's fears! proud man shall own
As proud a mate on virtue's loftiest throne;

On to the death in joy-for Jesus' sake
Writhed on the rack, or blackening at the stake,
Scorn the vain splendours of the world below,

And soar to bliss, that only martyrs know!*

But the effect of christianity upon the character and condition of your sex did not terminate in raising the armies of martyrs, with which the annals of the church are crowded. The truly important and permanent influence of christianity arose from the check which it gave to the licentiousness of divorce, and from the abolition of the practice of polygamy. By these sacred laws of the new dispensation, man and woman were raised from the abyss of depravity, in which they were sunk together. By the prevalence of the gospel it was soon understood, that the souls of your sex were of an origin as high, a value as precious, a destination as lofty, and a duration as lasting, as our own. Woman then began to be the companion and the partner of man; the condition of domestic life was changed; and the household gods of the pagans were supplanted. It was understood to be one of the principles of christianity, that, while man was the head of the woman, woman was the glory of the man; the unbelieving husband was sanctified by the wife; and the holy spirit had been poured, without distinction of sex, on the male and female converts. Not only was the bond of marriage fastened indissolubly by the force of religion, as well as by its laws, and woman delivered from the caprices of divorce, and the miseries of polygamy;

Lucy Aikin's Epistles on Women.

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but, by the introduction of the gospel, a new impulse was given to the ideas, and a new direction to the pursuits of the sex. They were not only pure maidens and faithful wives, but they became, also, thinkers and students; apologists, as well as martyrs for christianity. Where the new faith was received, they often introduced it. They established it on the thrones of the northern nations, who were preparing to burst in upon the tottering empire of the west; and what our religion owes to them of its rapid extension, it abundantly repaid by its influence on their condition. It was, in fact, the regeneration of one half of the human race. The life, liberty, talents and virtues of mankind were doubled, as it were, by this wonderful moral revolution. New vigour was imparted to benevolence, a new charm given to social life, a new spring to the energies of the human mind, and a new and celestial character to the religion of the world. While christianity was accomplishing these benefits for the female sex, Mahometanism arose from the corruptions, which began to obscure and deprave it, and formed, at the same time, a contrast to the effects of the pure, original religion of Jesus. As the religion of Mahomet extended and established itself in Asia, it sealed forever the domestic slavery and relative degradation of women; while under the influence of christianity, even in its degenerating form, the sex continued to ascend to the condition, which they now enjoy in Europe. The parallel, which this new revolution suggests, might be drawn, perhaps, with effect; but the cause of christianity, before such an audience, does not, I hope, require illustrations from the condition of Asiatic females.

In fine, when we compare the condition of your sex, even under the present partial reign of the christian faith, with their condition under the best forms of paganism, it is not difficult to admit, that the gospel ought to have the honour of this renova

tion. There may be those, however, who are inclined to attribute these favourable changes to what they would call, the influence of philosophy. If by this word is meant, a philosophy unenlightened by the gospel, the facts, we have already adduced, sufficiently refute the claim; for the progress of women, in the course of pagan refinement, was uniformly found to be from slavery to licentiousness. On this subject we, at least, may be satisfied with the memorable acknowledgment of Rousseau, "that philosophy has not been able to do any good, which religion could not have done better; and religion has done much, which philosophy could not have done at all." Or if by philosophy be meant, the best modes of thinking which have prevailed in the most enlightened part of christendom, or that mental cultivation, to which modern Europe has attained, we must first determine, what christianity has done for all the true and sound philosophy, which now exists, before we pretend to ascribe to the latter alone those blessings of modern times, which are comprised under the general name of civilization.

There is, however, an institution, which arose in times of danger and confusion, to which an influence has been ascribed, highly favourable to the cause of politeness, humanity, and female dignity and virtue. But, when you would know, what chivalry has done for your sex, you must be careful, *that you do not form your notions of its nature from the gorgeous and fascinating descriptions, with which the early romances and chivalrous bards abound. The true European lady of those gallant days was a being very little like the sweet female portraits, which Spenser has left us. It was not until after the revival of learning in Italy, in the fifteenth century, that the fair lady, who figured in the pageant of knighthood, had any other brightness, than that, which radiated from her eyes, or sparkled in her ornaments.

The natural effect of the idolatrous homage, then paid to rank and beauty, must have been, to enfeeble the female mind, already perverted by the sight of scenes of blood and single combat, by which the favour of the sex was obtained. Chivalry, no doubt, did much for the general courtesy of christendom; but, whether it contributed much to the cultivation of the heart or of the understanding, in your sex, we may be allowed to doubt. The relics of chivalry, in modern days, are not often to be met with; nor is the little, we have left, of such a nature, as to induce us to wish, that more had been preserved; for to it we certainly owe that spurious gallantry, which has perverted the morals of the sex in a great part of Europe; and to it we trace those horrible notions of honour, which yet prevail among us, to the disgrace and condemnation of a christian people.

When we compare the influence of that gallantry, which grew out of this strange institution, with the influence of the monastic spirit, which was intended to counteract or repair its effects, we may, perhaps, find reasons for believing, that the convent was not always a step in the degradation, but often in the elevation of your sex. We may find, perhaps, that the schools, the charities, the studies, and the devotions, which these institutions encouraged, were some contributions to the progress of the female mind.

Labour and rest, that equal periods keep,

Obedient slumbers, that can wake and weep,
Desires composed, affections ever even,

Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven,

were not all, that was to be found in those religious retreats. There, repentance not only found a place to weep, but charity found objects of its constant care; the mind received a kind of melancholy cultivation, and the heart enjoyed an enthusiastic exercise of some of its strongest affections.