WOMEN'S BIGIITS AND DUTIES.

THIS is an intelligent and agreeable work. As a philoso- phical treatise it may want originality ; and it is deficient in depth, commencing rather with the stream than the fountain ; it is also rather overladen with matter, and diffusive in style, introducing subjects which, though true in themselves, and well enough expressed, have little obvious bearing upon the points at

issue. But its divisions are well and clearly arranged; it abounds with just and convincing remarks,- deduced from observations on life, and expressed with feminine taste and refinement. It is also very readable, and likely to be very useful : perhaps more so than a treatise of greater penetration and rigorous exactness ; for it will be perused in quarters to which a philosophical work might not penetrate, and its gentle reasoning and advice will be opera- tive, where masculine deduction, based on the comprehensive nature of things, might not be understood, or be praised and disregarded.

The commencement resembles the rhetorical Woman and her Master; but it completes the survey which Lady MORGAN left incomplete, bringing down the historical examination of woman's condition to the age of chivalry and modern times : and the treat- ment of this section, though less elaborate and forceful than that of "the Irish De Steel," is quite as attractive to read, and much more satisfactory and impartial. The next division balances the respective qualities and powers of the two sexes ; the subordination due by nature to man, with its extents and limits. The writer then enters upon an examination of the position and characters of women in the present stage of society, the evils to which they are subject, the power, or more strictly, the influence they possess, and the means they have of elevating their own characters and that of the other sex. These topics exhaust examination. The writer next begins suggestion ; pointing out such social defects as seem capable of being improved by knowledge and early education; for both of which purposes she contends that the abilities and opportunities of women are peculiarly adapted. In the last division these sugges- tions are developed and applied to practice, by examining, under the heads of luxury, frivolity, and ignorance, those habits and manners which come more especially within the control of women.

The basis of any inquiry into the position of the sex must rest upon the determination of the point, whether she is inferior, or if the word be better liked, subordinate to man, and to what degree. This question is handled with temper and truth in the work before us ; but the feminine delicacy of the writer naturally restrains her from the thorough examination of the matter necessary to arrive at such clinching truth as the point admits of. However we may exalt, and properly exalt, the mind over the body, the body is de- veloped before the mind ; and not only our character and conduct, but our intellect and generic nature, must remotely depend upon physical organization. The subject is one which cannot be dis- cussed in a miscellaneous journal • but an obvious point or two may be glanced at, to show the kind of inquiry we allude to. There are some foolish philosophers in petticoats—and, for that matter, in " smalls "—who wish to place women on an equality with men : but to this Nature has opposed a barrier. The conformation of woman is different ; so is her nervous temper.. ament. The function of childbearing incapacitates the female from active exertion for long periods during the prime of life; the nurture and bringing-up of offspring, properly performed, is in itself a business, and a business for which the tenderness and weakness or ductility of the sex are peculiarly fitted—which man, if he performs of necessity or affection, performs awkwardly. The sexual peculiarities we have glanced at render infidelity a greater offence in women than in men, from the adulterate blood introduced into families, and its fraudful consequences. The same peculiarities may also contribute to the practice of polygamy, as well as the " licentiousness " of man, tyrannizing over the physical weakness of woman. The functions of nurse and moiler having to be performed for so long a period, renderconstant tenderness and an instinctive or physical constancy, as it were, necessary to women. The duties of man, leading him to engage in more active pur- suits, do not require this sort of fidelity in his nature : in savage life it is only found in very peculiar instances ; but it seems to gain strength with advancing civilization, as the intellectual cha- racter of woman is developed, the ties and attractions of domestic life are increased, and a stricter public opinion begins to operate. Any attempt to change the decision of Nature, by carrying woman into active life, is not only certain to fail, but also produces evils beyond the failure. The writer before us judiciously notes the effects, in savage life, of imposing laborious employments on fe-

males, but scarcely to their full extent. By diverting women from their proper functions of nursing and bringing-up children, not only is less labour performed and less effectively than by men, but what an enormous waste of life takes place ; and, though savage man does nothing, at least in the way of taking upon himself the functions of nurse, the mortality would not probably be less if he did.

In arguing for the natural subordination of women, and a more limited sphere of exertion, let it not be supposed that we advocate tyranny, or are unconscious of the evils to which law and opinion

condemn them. But if reason were insensible to their wrongs, it could not be to the consequences that flow from them. Force, as the writer before us truly observes, generates fraud ; and the

domestic tyrant who cannot be opposed is baffled and duped by cunning. But the law of consequences takes a wider range ; and women cannot be degraded or abused without a reaction upon their oppressors—if, indeed, to speak more accurately, this abuse does not result from the general degradation of society.

In the lowest state of savage life, where man" enslaves the weaker sex, the punishment is seen in a scanty population, not much denser than the beasts of prey ; to which, indeed, the savage is little superior, either in feelings or in modes of subsistence. As we approach civilization, we find women rising in the scale ; and in some of the more amiable tribes, which seem to realize the poetical conception of pastoral life, she takes an equal position with man, so far as the difference of sex permits. Where polygamy prevails, and woman is immured, as throughout Asia, she has her revenge in a gross and sensual state of society, and in a feeble character of man, as well as in an insecure, unsettled, and bloody tyranny ; from which, however, she is more safe than her lord. Without entering into the question, whether human advancement can grow spontaneously, or must be grafted, we may observe that woman always has great influence, and that the virtuous of her sex always command respect. The arts and blandishments and consequent power of women, with the weakness of their victim man, is, we learn from travellers, a pretty widely-spread theme for the dramatist and satirist as soon as the germs of dramas and satires appear. Similar authorities let us see that the painted chieftain, mighty and terrible to a hostile tribe, is forced to succumb at home to the unceasing clatter of woman's tongue ; whilst they have preserved instances of conjugal devotion, to which the more subdued passions of civilization can afford no parallel. Even in the harem, it is not mere youth and beauty that eventually bear sway over the house- hold, but sense and temper: be it also remembered, that narrow circumstances prevent the great bulk of mankind from indulging in the expenses of polygamy. We are not, therefore, prepared to agree with those one-sided theorists who pick out the more glaring examples of female oppression to enlarge upon—then, having ex- hausted that theme, exhibit man's corresponding degradation in an equally inflated style—and lastly, proceed to charge the whole upon his tyranny. We believe that, on the average, the power of woman is very considerable, even' when she seems the most enslaved; and, though we are not to expect a CORNELIA in every village, yet if she were better than she is, she would make man better too—that, in short, the influence of the sexes is nearer an equality than declaimers allow.

Turning from this larger glance, to the volumes before us, we will take a few passages, more exhibitive of the powers of the writer than intended to exhaust any particular points of her trea- tise. It will be seen that they rather approach the didactic novel in the character of their style, though that is no disadvantage to the reader of the book.

A TRUE PICTURE.

Before marriage, the condition of women is frequently so depressed, that a marriage with any man of respectability, however unsuited to their taste or faulty in temper, is the least of two evils. Destitute as they already are of any heart-filling affection, they gain at least some station in society, and some pursuit in the avocations of a home. In their father's house, it too often happens that, without any intentional unkindness, nothing is theirs. In childhood this is no evil. The mind of youth is so elastic, the spirits so vola- tile, that nothing checks happiness, except present and positive harshness. Theirs is "the tear forgot as soon as shed." They live in the present ; amuse- ment is their highest idea of happiness, and they find amusement in every thing that is variety. But soon a great change takes place—the heart and the head demand fuller and more earnest occupation. The present is no longer enough. Hope and pursuit become necessary to the full-grown creature ; but a meagre education has left her nearly incapable of the latter, and dull restraint has compelled the tenacious vitality of the former to run wild among deceitful and dangerous regions. Even if disposed to self-improvement, a dis- position which very slender opportunities sometimes arouse very strongly, what, under such circumstances, can women do who remain many years unmarried? The first and best portion of life, while health and faculties are in their highest vigour, perhaps till the age of five-and-thirty or more, is spent without the command of money or of their own time, or the choice of their own mode of life, whether retired or social; unable to pass a short time from home, except by permission, and almost without the power of cultivating a friendship. Surely there seldom has been a system more calculated to prevent the forma- tion of judgment and experience, and to blight those years that are flying past for ever.

A DISAGREEABLE ENGLISIIMAN.

Polished life throws out few less pleasing varieties than an ignorant frivolous Englishman. When the disposition of the English to lofty and somewhat stern morality, to deep enthusiastic affections, to serious investigations and ardour of imagination, is stifled, their character has not the grace of a French- man's. The Englishman labours in vain to be a refined and agreeable trifler ; he becomes a solemn, vapid coxcomb, or a heavy sensualist.

REAL LOVE.

The happiness which married life is capable of producing is, in truth, too great to expect to find it often unalloyed. As in nature there is a touch of beauty neither painting nor sculpture can express, so also there is a real love, beside which all the love in poetry and romance seems frigid. The young are warned not to take the romantic passions of the novelist as a description of what they are to expect in real life. Alas that there should be many who find those imperfect descriptions so much brighter than what they have ever known of man's affection. The sudden violence of passion, its dangers and its crimes, the frenzies of jealousy, the despair of disappointment and desertion, may perhaps be painted with the force of nature. But who could—who at least ever did--describe the love that carries such evidence of its intensity in every look, in every arrangement of daily life, in every speculation which fancy or hope indulges, that all possibility of jealousy, apprehension, or doubt, is completely destroyed ? Before the enthusiasm of such affection, all the flattery of other lips seems cold and lifeless. Petrarch alone has given voice and expression to its deep and fervent emotions ; and few are they of his numerous readers who even understand his sentiments. But even his adora- tion was for youth, and grace, and beauty. Who has ever painted that love which fondly sees the grace of youth and beauty, when both have been gone for years, that love which is never impaired by the common infirmities of our weak nature, the wayward humours of unsteady health, or the temporary languor that checks our better purpose, and which carries the animation of its early spring through all the varied forms of tenderness and care that life requires in its passage from youth to age ? If any thing can raise our feeble nature to a semblance of virtue, it is such an affection as this, where the idea of a dissevered interest cannot exist, and where mutual tastes stimulate the interest of generous pursuits and give variety to daily conversation. The seductions of ambition or pleasure lose all their danger when there is a being at home whose love and admiration shed a radiance over every course of life. And never yet did hearts, so united, shrink from any sacrifice that could win the other's praise. Seldom indeed are such pictures realized ; yet they exist, and might be oftener than they are. But we are such erring creatures, that it is better not to expect too much ; and as the unseen shafts that are to level our happiness in the dust are ever flying in the air, it is perhaps better on the whole that the feelings of the many should not be too highly strung.

MENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN.

The difference of mental power between the sexes is probably just sufficient to make them divide the duties of life beneficially. It may be a good reason for not exacting from women the same mental exertions as from men, hut e- very bad one for not fully cultivating the powers that they have. There has been a good deal of fanciful theory upon this subject. Sometimes it has been pretended the whole difference between the minds of the two sexes was the consequence of education : at other times it has been contended that though, there was a natural difference, it was only dissimilarity ; the male being just as deficient in some respects as the female is in others; but that she ought not on that account to be held inferior. Rousseau maintained, that the mind of man was distinguished by the sole possession of genius, of which the mind of woman was absolutely destitute in every degree. Johnson thought there was a natural want of precision in woman's ideas. An eminent man, lately dead, tried the capacities of his daughters to ascertain the fact ; and came to the conclusion that the minds of both sexes were equal, except in respect to patience. Many other fanciful views might be enumerated, were it worth the trouble.

The simple truth seems to be, that every faculty in the minds of the two sexes is the same, except that there is less general vigour in those of women. There is no mental exercise in which men have excelled, that women have not also succeeded in extremely well up to a certain point. But whenever the greatest efforts are required, whether of judgment, imagination, attention, per- severance, or any other power, the superior vigour of the masculine mind be- comes evident. Hence, as the greater part of the business of life does not re- quire the utmost exertion even of ordinary ability, it is only in the more arduous pursuits that the constitutional superiority of the masculine mind ap- pears invariably. In low stages of civilization it occasionally happens that the advantage is observed to be on the side of the women; for any circumstance in their habits that imposes upon them the necessity of greater exercise of ob- servation and judgment, turns the balance in their favour. But in the compli- cated and laborious offices of civilized societies, no education would give gene- ral superiority or even equality to the female sex : the demand for laborious investigations and the highest powers of combination and invention is too con- stant both in professions and science.