SKETCHES of the History, Genius, Disposition, Accomplishments, Employments, Customs, Virtues, and Vices, of the FAIR SEX in All Parts of the World, Interspersed with Many Singular and Entertaining ANECDOTES
By a Friend to the Sex.
“Graceful in all her steps - Heaven in her eyes - In every gesture
dignity and love—–”
BOSTON: PRINTED FOR JOSEPH BUMSTEAD, (Printer and Bookseller)
Sold by him at No. 20, Union-Street, and by Booksellers in Various Parts of the United States
1807
—————————————
ADVERTISEMENT.
TO give a brief detail of the history of the Fair Sex - to excite them to Laudable pursuits - to teach them that
“Virtue alone is happiness below—”
that an amiable conduct can only secure love and esteem - and to furnish them with innocent amusement - is the design of this work.
The following authors have been consulted for materials, viz - Drs. Robertson, Alexander, Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Gregory, Fordyce, and Schomberg - Professors Ferguson and Miller - Fenelon, Montaigne, Thomas, Grosley, Knox, and Hayley - Lady Pennington, Mrs. Kindersley, and others.
————————————
[1]
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX.
CHAP. I.
Of the First Woman and her Antediluvian Descendants.
The great Creator, having formed man of the dust of the earth, “made a deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” Hence the fair sex, in the opinion of some authors, being formed of matter doubly refined, derive their superior beauty and excellence.
Not long after the creation, the first woman was tempted by the serpent to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, in the midst of the garden of Eden, with regard to which God had said, “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
This deception, and the fatal consequences arising from it, furnish the most interesting story in the whole history of the sex.
[pages 2-5 missing]
[6] On the offerings being brought, and that of Abel accepted, Cain’s jealousy and resentment rose to such a pitch, as soon as they came down from the mount where they had been sacrificing, he fell upon his brother and slew him.
For this cruel and barbarous action Cain and his posterity, being banished from the rest of the human race, indulged themselves in every species of wickedness. On this account, it is supposed, they were called the Sons and Daughters of Men. The posterity of Seth, on the other hand, became eminent for virtue, and a regard to the divine precepts. By their regular and amiable conduct, they acquired the appellation of Sons and Daughters of God.
After the deluge there is a chasm in the history of women, until the time of the patriarch Abraham. They then begin to be introduced into the sacred story. Several of their actions. are recorded. The laws, customs, and usages, by which they were governed, are. frequently exhibited.
CHAP. II.
Of the Women in the Patriarchal Ages
The condition of women, among the ancient patriarchs, appears to have been but extremely indifferent. When Abraham entertained the angels, sent
to denounce the destruction of Sodom, he seems to have treated his wife as a menial servant: “Make ready quickly,” said he to her, “three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes on the hearth.”
In many parts of the East, water is only to be met with deep in the earth, and to draw it from the wells is, consequently, fatiguing and laborious. This however was the task of the daughters of Jethro [7] the Midianite; to whom so little regard was paid either on account of their sex, or the rank of their father, as high-priest of the country, that the neighboring shepherds not only insulted them, but forcibly took from them the water they had drawn.
This was the talk of Rebecca, who not only drew water for Abraham’s servant, but for his camels also, while the servant stood an idle spectator of the toil. Is it not natural to imagine, that, as he was on an embassy to court the damsel for Isaac, his master’s son, he would have exerted his utmost efforts to please, and become acceptable?
When he had concluded his bargain, and was carrying her home, we meet with a circumstance worthy of remark. When she first approached Isaac, who had walked out into the fields to meet her, she did it in the most submissive manner, as if she had been approaching a lord and master, rather than a fond and passionate lover. From this circumstance, as well as from several others, related in the sacred history, it would seem that women, instead of endeavouring, as in modern times, to persuade the world that they confer an immense favour on a lover, by deigning to accept of him, did not scruple to confess, that the obligation was conferred on themselves.
This was the case with Ruth, who had laid herself down at the feet of Boaz; and being asked by him who she was, answered, “I am Ruth, thine handmaid; spread, therefore, thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman.”
When Jacob went to visit his uncle Laban, he met Rachel, Laban’s daughter, in the fields, attending on the flocks of her father.
In a much later period, Tamar, one of the daughters of king David, was sent by her father to perform the servile office of making cakes for her brother Amnon.
The simplicity of the times in which these things happened, no doubt, very much invalidates the strength [8] of the conclusions that naturally arise from them. But, notwithstanding, it still appears that women were not then treated with the delicacy which they have experienced among people more polished and refined.
Polygamy also prevailed; which is so contrary to the inclination of the sex, and so deeply wounds the delicacy of their feelings, that it is impossible for any woman voluntarily to agree to it, even where it is authorized by custom and by law. Whereever therefore, polygamy takes place, we may assure ourselves that women have but little authority, and have scarcely arrived at any consequence in society.
CHAP. III.
Of the Women of Ancient Egypt.
WHEREVER the human race live solitary and unconnected with each ether, they are savage and barbarous. Wherever they associate together, that association produces softer manners, and a more engaging department.
The Egyptians, from the nature of their country, annually overflowed by the Nile, had no wild beasts to hunt, nor could they procure any thing by fishing. On these accounts, they were under a necessity of applying themselves to agriculture, a kind of life which naturally brings mankind together, for mutual convenience and assistance.
They were, likewise, every year, during the inundation of the river, obliged to assemble together, and take shelter, either on the rising grounds, or in the houses, which were raised upon piles, above the reach of the waters. Here, almost every employment being suspended; and the men and women long confined [9] together, a thousand inducements, not to be found in a solitary state, would naturally prompt them to render themselves agreeable to each other. Hence their manners would begin, more early, to assume a softer polish, and more elegant refinement, than those of the other nations who surrounded them.
The practice of confining women, instituted by jealousy, and maintained by unlawful power, was not adopted by the ancient Egyptians. This appears from the story of Pharoah’s daughter, who was going with her train of maids to bathe in the river, when she found Moses hid among the reeds. It is still more evident, from that of the wife of Potiphar, who, if she had been confined, could not have found the opportunities she did, to solicit Joseph to her adulterous embrace.
The queens of Egypt had the greatest attention paid to them. They were more readily obeyed than the kings. It is also related, that the husbands were in their marriage-contracts, obliged to promise obedience to their wives; “an obedience,” says an ingenious author, “which, in our modern times, we are often obliged to perform, though our wives entered into the promise.”
The behaviour of Solomon to Pharoah’s daughter is a convincing proof that more honor and respect was paid to the Egyptian women, than to those of any other people. Solomon had many other wives besides this princess, and was married to several of them before her, which, according to the Jewish law, ought to have entitled them to a preference. But, notwithstanding this, we hear of no particular palace having been built for any of the others, nor of the worship of any of their gods having been introduced into Jerusalem. But a magnificent palace was permitted, though expressly contrary to the laws of Israel, to worship the gods of her own country.
[10]
CHAP. IV.
Of the Modern Egyptian Women.
THE women of modern Egypt are far from being on so respectable a footing as they were in ancient times, or as the European women are at present.
In Europe, women act parts of great consequence, and often reign sovereigns on the world’s vast theatre. They influence manners and morals, and decide on the most important events. The fate of nations is frequently in their hands.
How different is their situation in Egypt! There they are bound down by the fetters of slavery, condemned to servitude, and have no influence in public affairs. Their empire is confined within the walls of the Harem.* [*The Women’s apartment.] There are their graces and charms entombed. The circle of their life extends not beyond their own family and domestic duties.
Their first care is to educate their children; and a numerous posterity is their most fervent wish. Mothers always suckle their children. This is expressly commanded by Mahomet: Let the mother suckle her child full two years if the child does not quit the breast; but she shall be permitted to wean it with the consent of her husband.
The harem is the cradle and school of infancy. The new-born feeble being is not there swaddled and filletted up in a swathe, the source of a thousand diseases. Laid naked on a mat, exposed in a vast chamber to the pure air, he breathes freely, and with his delicate limbs sprawls at pleasure. The new element, in which he is to live, is not entered with pain and tears. Daily bathed beneath his mother’s eye, he grows apace. Free to act, he tries his coming powers ; rolls, crawls, rises ; and, should he fall, cannot [11] much hurt himself on the carpet or mat which covers the floor.
The daughter’s education is the fame. Whale- bone and bulks, which martyr European girls, they know not. They are only covered with a shirt until six years old: and the dress they afterwards wear confines none of their limbs, but suffers the body to take its true form ; and nothing is more uncommon than ricketty children, and crooked people. In Egypt, man rises in all his majesty, and woman displays every charm of person.
Subject to the immutable laws by which custom governs the East, the women do not associate with the men, not even at table, where the union of sexes produces mirth and wit, and makes food more sweet. When the great incline to dine with one of their wives, she is informed, prepares the apartment, perfumes it with precious essences, procures the most delicate viands, and receives her lord with the utmost attention and respect.
Among the common people, the women usually stand, or sit in a corner of the room, while the husband dines. They often hold the bason for him to wash, and serve him at table.
Customs like these, which the Europeans rightly call barbarous, and exclaim against with justice, appear so natural in Egypt, that they do not suspect it can be otherwise elsewhere. Such is the power of habit over men. What has been for ages, he supposes a law of nature.
The Egyptian women, once or twice a week, are permitted to go to the bath, and visit female relations and friends. They receive each other’s visits very affectionately. When a lady enters the harem, the mistress rises, takes her hand, presses it to her bofom, kisses, and makes her sit down by her side; a slave hastens to take her black mantle; she is entreated to be at ease. quits her veil, and discovers a floating robe tied round the waist with a sash, which perfectly displays [12] her shape. She then receives compliments according to their manner: “Why, my mother, or my, sister, have you been so long absent? We sighed to see you! Your presence is an honour to our house. It is the happiness of cur lives!’”
Slaves present coffee, sherbet, and confectionary. They laugh, talk and play. A large dish is placed on the sofa, on which are oranges, pomegranates, bananas, and excellent melons. Water, and rose-water mixed are brought in an ewer, and with them a silver bason to wash the hands; and loud glee and merry conversation season the meal. The chamber is perfumed by wood of aloes, in a brazier; and, the repast ended, the slaves dance to the found of cymbals, with whom the mistresses often mingle. At parting they several times repeat, “God keep you in health! Heaven grant you a numerous offspring! Heaven preserve your children ; the delight and glory of your family!”
When a visitor is in the harem, the husband must not enter. It is the asylum of hospitality, and cannot be violated without fatal consequences ; a cherished right, which the Egyptian women carefully maintain, being interested in its preservation. A lover, disguised like a woman, may be introduced into the harem, and it is necessary he should remain undiscovered ; death would otherwise be his reward. In that country, where the passions are excited by the climate, and the difficulty of gratifying them, love often produces tragical events.
The Egyptian women, guarded by their eunuchs, go also upon the water, and enjoy the charming prospects of the banks of the Nile. Their cabins are pleasant, richly embellished, and the boats well carved and painted. They are known by the blinds over the windows, and the music by which they are accompanied.
When they cannot go abroad, they endeavor to be merry in their prison. Toward sun-setting they [13] go on the terrace, and take the fresh air among the flowers which are there carefully reared. Here they often bathe; and thus, at once, enjoy the cool, limpid water, the perfume of odoriferous plants, the balmy air, and the starry host, which shine in the firmaments
Thus Bathsheba bathed, when David beheld her from the roof of his palace.
Such is the usual life of the Egyptian women. Their duties are to educate their children, take care of their houshold, and live retired with their family: their pleasures, to visit, give feasts, in which they often yield to excessive mirth and licentiousness, go on the water, take the air in orange groves, and listen to the Almai. They deck themselves as carefully to receive their acquaintance, as European women do to allure the men. Usually mild and timid, they become daring and furious, when under the dominion of violent love. Neither locks nor grim keepers can then prescribe bounds to their passions; which, though death be suspended over their heads, they search the means to gratify, and are seldom unsuccessful.
CHAP. V.
Of the Persian Women.
SEVERAL historians, in mentioning the ancient Persians, have dwelt with peculiar severity on the manner in which they treated their women. Jealous, almost to distraction, they confined the whole sex with the strictest attention, and could not bear that the eye of a stranger should behold the beauty whom they adored.
When Mahomet, the great legislator of the modern Persians, was just expiring, the last advice that he gave his faithful adherents, was, “Be watchful [14] of your religion, and your wives.” Hence they pretend to derive not only the power of confining, but also of persuading them, that they hazard their salvation, if they look upon any other man besides their husbands. The Christian religion informs us, that in the other world they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. The religion of Mahomet teaches us a different doctrine, which the Persians believing, carry the jealousy of Asia to the fields of Elysium, and the groves of Paradise ; where, according to them, the blessed inhabitants have their eyes placed on the crown of their heads left they should see the wives of their neighbors.
Every circumstance in the Persian history tends to persuade us, that the motive, which induced them to confine their women with so much care and solicitude, was only exuberance of love and affection. In the enjoyment of their smiles, and their embraces, the happiness of the men consisted, and their approbation was an incentive to deeds of glory and of heroism.
For thase [sic] reasons they are said to have been the first who introduced the custom of carrying their wives and concubines to the field, “That the sight,” said they, “of all that is dear to us, may animate us to fight more valiantly.”
To offer the least violence to a Persian woman, was to incur certain death from her husband or guardian. Even their kings, though the most absolute in the universe, could not alter the manners or customs of the country, which related to the fair sex.
Widely different from this is the present state of Persia. By a law of that country, their monarch is now authorized to go. whenever he pleases, into the harem of any of his subjects; and the subject, on whose prerogative he thus encroaches, so far from exerting his usual jealousy, thinks himself highly honored by such a visit.
A laughable story, on this subject, is told of Shah Abbas who having got drunk at the house of one of [15] his favourites, and intending to go into the apartment of his wives, was slopped by the door-keeper, who bluntly told him, “Not a man. Sir, besides my master, shall put a mustacho here, so long as I am porter.” “What,” said the king, “dost thou not know me? “Yes,” answered the fellow, “I know you are king of the men, but not of the women.” Shah Abbas, pleased with the answer, and the fidelity of the servant, retired to his palace. The favorite, at whose house the adventure happened, as soon as he heard it, went and fell at his master’s feet, intreating that he would not impute to him the crime committed by his domestic. He likewise added, “I have already turned him away from my service for his presumption.” - “I am glad of it,” answered the king; “I will take him into my service for his fidelity.”
CHAP. VI
Of the Grecian Women.
IT is observed by an able panegyrist for the fair “that the greatest respect has always been paid them by the wisest and best of nations. “If this be true, the Greeks certainly forfeited one great claim to that wisdom which has always been attributed to them; for we have good reason to believe, that they regarded their women only as instruments of raising up members to the state.
In order to esteem the sex, we must do more than see them. By social intercourse, and a mutual reciprocation of good offices, we must become acquainted with their worth and excellence. This, to the G reeks, was a pleasure totally unknown. As the
women lived retired in their own apartments, if they had any amiable qualities, they were buried in perpetual obscurity. Even husbands were, in Sparta, [16] limited as to the time and duration of the visits made to their wives ; and it was the custom at meals for the two sexes always to eat separately.
The apartments destined for the women, in order to keep them more private, were always in the back, and generally in the upper part of the house. The famous Helen is said to have had her chamber in the loftiest part of it; and so wretched were their dwellings, that even Penelope, queen of Ulysses, seems to have descended from hers by a ladder.
Unmarried women, whether maids or widows, were under the strictest confinement. The former, indeed, were not allowed to pass without leave from one part of the house to another, left they should be seen.
New married women were almost as strictly confined as virgins. Hermoine was severely reproved by her old duenna, for appearing out of doors; a freedom, which, she tells her, was not usually taken by women in her situation, and which would endanger her reputation should she happen to be seen.
Aristophanes introduces an Athenian lady, loudly complaining, that women were confined to their chambers, under lock and key, and guarded by mastiffs, goblins, or any thing that could frighten away admirers.
The confinement however of the Grecian women, does not appear, in some cases, to have been so much the effect of jealousy, as of indifference. The men did not think them proper companions; and that ignorance, which is the result of a recluse life,
gave them too good reason to think so. Nothing in Greece was held in estimation, but valor and eloquence. Nature had disqualified the fair sex for both. They were therefore considered as mean and contemptible beings, much beneath the notice of heroes and of orators, who seldom favored them with their company. Thus deserted by a sex which ought to be the source of knowledge, the understandings of the [17] women were but shallow, and their company uninteresting; circumstances which invariably happen in every country where the two sexes have little communication with each other.
In perusing the Grecian history, we every where meet with the most convincing proofs of the low condition of their women. Homer considers Helen, the wife of Menelaus, of little other value than as a part of the goods which were stolen along with her; and the restitution of these, and of her, are commonly mentioned in the same sentence, in such a manner, as to shew, that such restitution would be considered a full reparation of the injury sustained.
The same author, in celebrating Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, for refusing in his absence so many suitors, does not appear to place the merit of her conduct, in a superior regard to chastity, or in love to her husband; but in preserving to his family the dowry she had brought along with her, which, on a second marriage, must have been restored to her father Icarius.
Telemachus is always reprefented as a most dutiful son. But, notwithstanding this, we find him reproving his mother in a manner which shows that the sex, in general, were not treated with softness and delicacy, however dignified, or with whatever authority invested.
“Your widowed hours, apart with female toil,
“And various labors of the loom, beguile.
“There rule, from palace cares remote and free;
“That care to man belongs, and most to me.”
If we take a view of the privileges bestowed by law or custom on the Grecian women, we shall find, that, in the earlier ages, they were allowed a vote in the public assemblies. This privilege, however, was afterwards taken from them. They succeeded equally with brothers to the inheritance of their fathers; and to the whole of that inheritance, if they had no brothers. [18] But to this last privilege was always annexed a circumstance, which must have been extremely disagreeable to every woman of sentiment and feeling. An heiress was obliged, by the laws of Greece, to marry her nearest relation,’ that the estate might not go out of the family; and this relation, in case of a refusal, had a right to sue for the delivery of her person, as we do for goods and chattels.
He who divorced his wife was obliged either to return her dowry, or pay her so much per month, by way of maintenance. He who ravished a free woman was obliged in some states to marry her, in others to pay a hundred, and in others again, a thousand drachmas.
But, when we impartially consider the good and ill treatment of the Grecian women, we find that the balance was much against them, and may therefore conclude, that, though the Greeks were eminent in arts, and illustrious in arms; yet, in politeness and elegance of manners, the highest pitch to which they ever arrived, was only a few degrees above savage barbarity.
In the different areas of Grecian history, however, we must not suppose that the women were always the same. It appears that the manners in the Isles of Greece, in general, were much purer than on the continent. Those islanders, by being less exposed to foreign intercourse, could more easily preserve their laws and their virtues. The war-like convents of Lacedemon, the nurseries only of soldiers, would be
much more rigid than the smiling retreats of Athens, whence politeness was propagated, and fashion announced; and the city of Thebes, where a rustic grossness supplied the place of an elegant luxury, must have been very different from Corinth, which on account of its situation and commerce, obtained the name of the “The two seats of Wealth and Pleasure.”
[19]
CHAP. VII
Of the Grecian Courtezans.
THE rank which the courtezans enjoyed, even in the brightest ages of Greece, and particularly at Athens, is one of the greatest singularities in the manners of any people. By what circumstances could that order of women, who debase at once their own sex and ours - in a country, where the women were possessed of modesty, and the men of sentiment, arrive at distinction, and sometimes even at the highest degree of reputation and consequence ? - Several reasons may be assigned for that phenomenon in society.
In Greece, the courtezans were in some measure connected with the religion of the country. The goddess of Beauty had her altars; and she was supposed to protect prostitution, which was to her a species of worship. The people invoked Venus in times of danger; and, after a battle, they thought they had done honor to Miltiades and Themistocles, because the Laifes and the Glyceras of the age had chaunted hymns to their goddess.
The courtezans were likewise connected with religion, by means of the arts. Their persons afforded models for statues, which were afterwards adored in the temples. Phrine [Phryne] served as a model to Praxiteles, for his Venus [Aphrodite] of Cnidus.
During the feasts of Neptune, near Eleusis, Appeles [sic] having seen the same courtezan on the sea-shore, without any other veil than her loose and flowing hair, was so much struck with her appearance, that he borrowed from it the idea of his Venus rising from the waves [Venus Anadyomene].
They were, therefore connected with statuary and painting, as they furnished the pactisers of those arts with the means of embellishing their works.
The greater part of them were skilled in music; [20] and, as that art was attended with higher effects in Greece, than it has ever been in any other country, it must have possessed, in their hands, an irresistible charm.
Every one knows how enthusiastic the Greek’s were of beauty. They adored it in the temples. They admired it in the principal works of art. They studied it in the exercises and the games. They thought to perfect it by their marriages. They offered rewards to it at the public festivals. But virtuous beauty was seldom to be seen. The modest women were confined to their own apartments, and were visited only by their husbands and nearest relations. The courtezans offered themselves every where to view; and their beauty, as might be expected, obtained universal homage.
Society only can unfold the beauties of the mind. Modest women were excluded from it. The courtezans of Athens, by living in public, and conversing freely with all ranks of people, upon all manner of subjects, acquired by degrees, a knowledge of history,
of philosophy, of policy, and a taste in the whole circle of the arts. Their ideas were more extensive and various, and their conversation was more sprightly and entertaining, than any thing that was to be found among the virtuous part of the sex. Hence their houses became the schools of elegance. The poets and the painters went there to catch the fleeting forms of grace and the changeable features of ridicule; the musicians, to perfect the delicacy of harmony ; and the philosophers, to collect those particulars of human life, which had hitherto escaped their observation.
The house of Aspasia was the resort of Socrates and Pericles, as that of Ninon was of St. Evremont and Conde. They acquired from those fair libertines taste and politeness, and they gave them in exchange knowledge and reputation.
Greece was governed by eloquent men ; and [21] the celebrated courtezans, having an influence over those orators, must have had an influence on public affairs. There was not one, not even the thundering, the inflexible Demosthenes, so terrible to tyrants, but was subjected to their sway. Of that great master of eloquence it has been said, “What he had been a whole year in erecting, a woman overturned in a day.” That influence augmented their consequence; and their talent of pleasing increased with the occasions of exerting it.
The laws and the public institutions, indeed, by authorizing the privacy of women, set a high value on the sanctity of the marriage vow. But in Athens, imagination, sentiment, luxury, the taste in arts and pleasures, was opposite to the laws. The courtezans, therefore, may be said to have come in support of the manners.
There was no check upon public licentiousness; but private infidelity, which concerned the peace of families, was punished as a crime. By a strange and perhaps unequalled singularity, the men were corrupted, yet the domestic manners were pure. It seems as if the courtezans had not been considered to belong to their sex; and, by a convention to which the laws and the manners bended, while other women were estimated merely by their virtues, they were estimated only by their accomplishments.
These reasons will, in some measure, account for the honours, which the votaries of Venus often received in Greece. Otherwise we should have been at a loss to conceive, why six or seven writers had exerted their talents to celebrate the courtezans of Athens - why three great painters had uniformly devoted their pencils to represent them on canvass - and why so many poets had strove to immortalize them in verses. We should hardly have believed that so many illustrious men had courted their society - that Aspasia had been consulted in deliberations of peace and war - that Phrine had a statue of gold placed [22] between the statues of two kings at Delphos - that, after death, magnificent tombs had been erected to their memory.
“The traveler,” says a Greek writer, “who, approaching to Athens, sees on the side of the way a monument which attracts his notice at a distance, will imagine that it is the tomb of Miltiades or Pericles, or of some other great man, who has done honour to his country by his services. He advances, he reads, and he learns that it is a courtezan of Athens who is interred with so much pomp.”
Theopompus, in a letter to Alexander the Great, speaks also of the same monument in words to the following effect - “Thus, after her death, is a prostitute honoured; while not one of those brave warriors who fell in Asia, fighting for you and for the safety of Greece, has so much as a stone erected to his memory, or an inscription to preserve his ashes from insult.”
Such was the homage which that enthusiastic people, voluptuous and passionate, paid to beauty. More guided by sentiment than by reason, and having laws rather than principles, they banished their great men, honored their courtezans, murdered Socrates, permitted themselves to be governed by Aspasia, preserved inviolate the marriage bed, and. placed Phrine in the temple of Apollo!
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Roman Women
AMONG the Romans, a grave and austere people, who, during five hundred years, were unacquainted with the elegancies and the pleasures of life, and who, in the middle of furrows and field of battle, were employed in tillage or in war, the manners of the women were a long time as solemn and severe as those of the men, and without the smallest: mixture of corruption, or of weakness.
The time when the Roman women began to appear in public, marks a particular era in history.
In the infancy of the city, and even until the conquest of Carthage, shut up in their houses, where a simple and rustic virtue paid every thing to instinct, and nothing to elegance - so nearly allied to barbarism, as only to know what it was to be wives and mother - chaste without apprehending they could be otherwise - tender and affectionate, before they had learned the meaning of the words - occupied in duties, and ignorant that there were other pleasures; they spent their life in retirement, in domestic economy, in nursing their children, and in rearing to the republic a race of labourers, or of soldiers.
The Roman women, for many ages, were respected over the whole world. Their victorious husbands re-visited them with transport, at their return from battle. They laid at their feet the spoils of the enemy, and endeared themselves in their eyes, by the wounds which they had received for them and for the state. Those warriors often came from imposing commands upon kings ; and in their own houses accounted it an honour to obey. In vain the too rigid laws had made them the arbiters of life and death. More powerful than the laws, the women ruled their judges. In vain the legislature, foreseeing the wants which exist only among a corrupt people, permitted divorce. The indulgence of the polity was proscribed by the manners.
Such was the influence of beauty at Rome before the licentious intercourse of the sexes had corrupted both.
The Roman matrons do not seen to have possessed that military courage which Plutarch had praised in certain Greek and Barbarian women: they partook more of the nature of their sex; or, at least, they [24] departed less from its character. Their first quality was decency. Every one knows the story of Cato the censor, who stabbed a Roman Senator for killing his own wife in the presence of his daughter.
To these austere manners, the Roman women joined an enthusiastic love of their country, which discovered itself upon many great occasions. On the death of Brutus, they all cloathed themselves in mourning. In the time of Coriolanus they saved the city. That incensed warrior who had insulted the senate and the priests, and who was superior even to the pride of pardoning, could not resist the tears and entreaties of the women. They melted his obdurate heart. The senate decreed them public thanks, ordered the men to give place to them upon all occasions, caused an altar to be erected for them on the spot where the mother had softened her son, and the wife her husband; and the sex were permitted to add another ornament to their head-dress.
It is to be wished that our modern ladies could assign as good a reason for the size of their caps.
The Roman women saved the city a second time, when besieged by Brennus. They gave up all their gold as its ransom. For that instance of their generosity, the senate granted them the honour of having funeral orations pronounced in the rostrum, in common with patriots and heroes.
After the battle of Cannae, when Rome had no other treasures but the virtues of their citizens, the women sacrificed both their gold and their jewels. A new decree rewarded their zeal.
Valerius Maximus, who lived in the reign of Tiberius, informs us that, in the second triumvirate, the three assassins, who governed Rome, thirsting after gold, no less than blood. and having already practised every species of robbery, and worn out every method of plunder resolved to tax the women. They imposed a heavy contribution upon each of them. The women sought an orator to defend their cause, [25] but found none. Nobody would reason against those who had the power of life and death. The daughter of the celebrated Hortensius alone appeared. She revived the memory of her father’s abilities, and supported with intrepidity her own cause, and that of her sex. The ruffians blushed, and revoked their orders.
Hortensia was conducted home in triumph, and had the honour of having given, in one day, an example of courage to men, a pattern of eloquence to women, and a lesson of humanity to tyrants.
But the era of the talents of women at Rome is to be found under the emperors. Society was then more perfected by opulence, by luxury, by the use and abuse of the arts, and by commerce. Their retirement was then less strict; their genius, being more active, was more exerted; their heart had new wants ; the idea of reputation sprung up in their minds ; their leisure increased with the division of employments.
During upwards of six hundred years, the virtues had been found sufficient to please. They now found it necessary to call in the accomplishments. They were desirous to join admiration to esteem, ‘till they learned to exceed esteem itself. For in all countries, in proportion as the love of virtue diminishes, we find the love of talents to increase.
A thousand causes concurred to produce this revolution of manners among the Romans. The vast inequality of ranks, the enormous fortunes of individuals, the ridicule, affixed by the imperial court to moral ideas, all contributed to hasten the period of corruption. There were still, however, some great and virtuous characters among the Roman women. Portia, the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, in the conspiracy against Caesar, shewed herself worthy to be associated with the first of human kind, and crafted [?] with the fate of empires. After the battle of Philippi [26] she would neither survive liberty nor Brutus, but died with the bold intrepidity of Cato.
The example of Portia was followed by that of Arria, who seeing her husband hesitating and afraid to die, in order to encourage him, pierced her own breast, and delivered to him the dagger with a smile.
The name of Arria’s hufband was Paetus. The manner of their death has furnished Martial with the subject of an elegant epigram, which may be thus paraphrased:
“When to her husband Arria gave the sword,
“Which from her chast, her bleeding breast she drew;
“She said, My Paetus, this I do not fear;
“But, O! the wound that must he made by you!
“She could no more - but on her Paetus still
“She fix’d her feeble, her expiring eyes;
“And when she saw him raise the pointed steel,
“She sunk, and seem’d to say Now Arria dies!”
Paulinia too, the wife of Seneca, caused her veins to be opened at the same time with her husband’s; but being forced to live, during the few years which she survived him, “she bore in her countenance” says Tacitus, “the honourable testimony of her love, a paleness, which proved that part of her blood had sympathetically issued with the blood of her spouse.”
The same exalted virtues were displayed, though in a different manner, by Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus; who, naturally haughty and sensible, after the death of that great man, buried herself in retirement in all the bloom. of youth; and who, neither bending her stateliness under Tiberius, nor allowing herself to be corrupted by the manners of her age - as implacable in her hatred to the tyrant, as she had been faithful to her husband - spent her life in lamenting the one, and in detesting the other. Nor should the celebrated Epiniana be forgot, whom Vespasian ought to have admired, but whom he so basely put to death. [27] To take notice of all the celebrated women of the empire, would much exceed the bounds of the present undertaking. But the empress Julia, the wife of Septimius Severus, possessed a species of merit so very different from any of those already mentioned, as to claim particular attention.
This lady was born in Syria, and the daughter of a priest of the sun. It was predicted that she should rise to sovereign dignity ; and her character justified the prophecy.
Julia, while on the throne, loved, or pretended passionately to love, letters. Either from taste, from a desire to instruct herself, from a love of renown, or possibly from all these together, she spent her life with philosophers. Her rank of empress would not, perhaps, have been sufficient to subdue those bold spirits ; but she joined to that the more powerful influences of wit and beauty. These three kinds of empire rendered less necessary to her that which consists only in art ; and which, attentive to their lades and their weaknesses, governs great minds by little means.
It is fact that she was a philosopher. Her philosophy, however, did not extend so far as to give chastity to her manners. Her husband, who did not love her, valued her understanding so much, that he consulted her upon all occasions. She governed in the same manner under his son.
Julia was, in short, an empress and a politician, occupied at the fame time about literature and affairs of state, while she mingled her pleasures freely with both. She had courtiers for her lovers, scholars for her friends, and philosophers for her counsellors. In the midst of a society, where she reigned and was instructed, Julia arrived at the highest celebrity; but as, among all her excellencies, we find not those of her sex, the virtues of a woman, our admiration is lost in blame. In her life time she obtained more praise than respect: and posterity, while it has done [28] justice to her talents and her accomplishments, has agreed to deny her esteem.
At last, in following the course of history, the famous Zenobia presents herself: she was worthy to have been a pupil of Longinus; for she knew how to write, as well as how to conquer. When she was afterward unfortunate, she was so with dignity. She consoled herself for the loss of a throne, and the pleasures of grandeur, with the sweets of solitude and the joys of reason.
CHAP. IX.
Laws and Customs respecting the Roman Women.
THE Roman women, as well as the Grecian, were under perpetual guardianship; and were not at any age, nor in any condition, ever trusted with the management of their own fortunes.
Every father had a power of life and death over his own daughters : but this power was not restricted to daughters only; it extended also to sons.
The Oppian law prohibited women from having more than half an ounce of gold employed in ornamenting their persons, from wearing clothes of divers colours, and from riding in chariots, either in the city, or a thousand paces round it.
They were strictly forbid to use wine, or even to have in their possession the key of any place where it was kept. For either of these faults they were liable to be divorced by their husbands. So careful were the Romans in restraining their women from wine, that they are supposed to have first introduced the custom of saluting their female relations and acquaintances, on entering into the house of a friend or neighbor, that they might discover by their breath, whether they had tasted any of that liquor.
This strictness, however, began in time to be relaxed [29] until at last, luxury becoming too strong; for every law, the women indulged themselves in equal liberties with the men.
But such was not the case in the earlier ages of Rome. Romulus even permitted husbands to kill their wives, if they found them drinking wine. And if we may believe Valerius Maximus, Egnatius Metellus, having detected his wife drinking out of a cask, actually made use of this permission and was acquitted by Romulus.
Fabius Pictor relates, that the parents of a Roman lady, having detected her picking the lock of a chest which contained some wine, shut her up and starved her to death.
Women were liable to be divorced by their husbands almost at pleasure, provided the portion was returned which they had brought along with them. They were also liable to be divorced for barrenness, which, if it could be construed into a fault, was at least the fault of nature, and might sometimes be that of the husband.
A few sumptuary laws, a subordination to the men, and a total want of authority, do not so much affect the sex, as to be coldly and indelicately treated by their husbands.
Such a treatment is touching them in the tenderest part. Such, however, we have reason to believe, they often met with from the Romans, who had not yet learned, as in modern times, to blend the rigidity of the patriot, and roughness of the warrior, with that soft and indulging behaviour, so conspicuous in our modern patriots and heroes.
Husbands among the Romans not only themselves behaved roughly to their wives, but even sometimes permitted their servants and slaves to do the same. The principal eunuch of Justinian the Second, threatened to chastise the Empress, his master’s wife, in the manner that children are chastised at school, if she did not obey his orders. [30]
With regard to the private diversions of the Roman ladies, history is silent. Their public ones were such as were common to both sexes; as bathing, theatrical representations, horse-races, shows of wild beasts, which fought against one another, and sometimes against men, whom the emperors, in the plenitude of their despotic power, ordered to engage them.
The Romans, of both sexes, spent a great deal of time at the baths ; which at first, perhaps, were interwoven with their religion, but at last were only considered as refinements in luxury. They were places of public resort, where all the news of the times were to be heard, where people met with their acquaintances and friends, where public libraries were kept for such as chose to read, and where poets recited their works to such as had patience to hear.
In the earlier periods of Rome, separate baths were appropriated to each sex. Luxury by degrees getting the better of decency, the men and women at last bathed promiscuously together. Though this indecent manner of bathing was prohibited by the emperor Adrian; yet, in a short time, inclination overcame the prohibition, and, in spite of every effort, promiscuous bathing continued until the time of Constantine, who, by the coercive force of the legislative authority, and the rewards and terrors of the Christian religion, put a final stop to it.
CHAP. X.
Of the Effects of Christianity on the Manners of Women
PHILOSOPHY had no fixed principles for women. The religion of antiquity was only a kind of sacred policy, which had rather ceremonies than precepts- The ancients honored their gods as we honour [31] our great men: they offered them incense, and expected their protection in exchange. The gods were their guardians, not their legislators.
Christianity on the other hand, was a legislation : it imposed laws for the regulation of manners ; it strengthened the marriage knot; to the political it added a sacred tie, and placed the matrimonial engagements under the jurisdiction of Heaven.
Not satisfied with regulating the actions, Christianity extended its empire even to the thoughts. Above all, it combated the senses. It waged war even with such inanimate objects as might be the objects of seduction, or were the means of seduction.
In a word, routing vice in her secret cell, it made her become her own tormentor.
The legislation of the Greeks and Romans referred the motive of every action to the political interest of society. But the new and sacred legislation, inspiring only contempt for this world, referred all things to a future and very different state of existence.
The detachment of the senses, the reign of the soul, and an inexpressibly sublime and supernatural something, which blended itself with both, became the doctrine of a body of the people. Hence the vow of continence, and the consecration of celibacy.
Life was a combat. The sanctity of the manners threw a veil over nature and over society; Beauty was afraid to please; Valor dropt his spear; the passions were taught to submit ; the severity of the soul increased every day, by the sacrifices of the senses.
The women, who generally possess a lively imagination, and a warm heart, devoted themselves to virtues, which were as flattering as they were difficult, and no less elevated than austere.
The disciples of christianity were taught to love and comfort one another, like children of the same family. In consequence of this doctrine, the more tender sex, converting to pity the sensibility of nature, [32] devoted their lives to the service of indigence and distress. Delicacy learned to overcome disgust. The tears of pity were seen to flow in the huts of misery, and in the cells of disease, with the friendly sympathy of a sister.
The persecutions which arose in the empire, soon after the introduction of christianity, afforded that religion a new opportunity of discovering its efficacy. To preserve the faith, it was often necessary to suffer imprisonment, banishment, and death. Courage then became necessary.
There is a deliberate courage which is the result of reason, and which is equally bold and calm: it is the courage of philosophers and of heroes. There is a courage which springs from the imagination, which is ardent and precipitate; such is most commonly the courage of martyrs, or religious courage.
The courage of the Christian women was founded upon the noblest motives. Animated by the glorious hope of immortality, they embraced flames and gibbets, and offered their delicate and feeble bodies to the most excruciating tortures.
This revolution in the ideas, and in the manners, was followed by another in the writings. Such as made women their subject became as austere and seraphic as they.
Almost all the doctors of those times, raised by the church both to the rank of orators and of saints, emulated each other in praising the Christian women. But he who speaks of them with most eloquence and with most zeal, is Saint Jerome ; who, born with a soul of fire, spent twenty-four years, in writing, in combating, and in conquering himself.
The manners of this saint were probably more severe than his thoughts. He had a number of illustrious women at Rome among his disciples. Thus surrounded with beauty, though he escaped weakness, yet he was not able to escape calumny. At last, flying from the world, from women, and from [33] himself, he retired to Palestine; where all that he had fled from still pursued him, tormented him under the penitential sackcloth, and, in the middle of solitary desarts, re-echoed in his ears the tumult of Rome.
Such was Saint Jerome, the most eloquent panegyrist of the Christian women of the fourth century. That warm and pious writer, though generally harsh and obscure, softens his style, in a thousand places, to praise a great number of Roman women, who at the Capitol, had embraced christianity, and studied in Rome the language of the Hebrews, that they might read and understand the books of Moses.
