since the beginning of the world, for want of enlightenment and education. In conclusion; What is the child to the preceptor? It is an ignorant being to be instructed. What is the child to the mother? It is a soul which requires to be formed. Good teachers make good scholars, but it is only mothers that form men; this constitutes all the difference of their mission; it follows that the care of educating the child belongs altogether to the mother, and that if it has been usurped by men, it is because education has been confounded with instruction-things essentially different, and between which it is important to make the distinction, for instruction may be interrupted, and pass without danger into other hands; but education should be continued by the same person; when it is interrupted it ceases, and whoever gives it up after having began it, will see his child. fall into the tortuous ways of error, or, what is more deplorable, into an indifference to truth. Let us, then, not seek out of the family for the governor of our children; the one which nature presents to us will relieve us from the necessity of inquiring further, and that one we shall everywhere find; in the cottage of the poor, as in the palace of the rich; everywhere endowed with the same perfection, and ready to make the same sacrifices. Young mothers, young wives, let not the stern title of governor alarm your weakness; I would not impose upon you pedantic studies or austere duties: it is to happiness that I wish to lead you. I come to reveal to you your rights, your power, your sovereignty; it is in inviting you to roam through the happy paths of virtue and love that I prostrate myself at your feet, and that I ask of you the peace of the world, the order of families, the glory of your children, and the happiness of the human race. Some inattentive minds will perhaps accuse me of wish ing to resuscitate learned women; let them not be alarmed, the genitive and the dative, as Montaigne says, are not the object of this book. Leaving, then, aside the mere works of the memory, these mechanical attributes of teachers, I will call upon women to fulfil their mission, by taking charge of the superior education which comprises the development of the soul. I will trace out its elements, I will lay down its principles, I will unfold its science, so that the road once opened, it may be easy for them to penetrate into it without any other study than that of theirown hearts. But before entering into it myself, I must examine this power which I invoke. We know women as mothers, let us try to know them as lovers and as wives. In the age which has just passed away, they were nothing more than that, and yet they have reigned in the age which is approaching, they will be something more, they will be citizens; and this title, which requires more enlightenment and reflection, promises to them a new empire. : CHAPTER III. ON THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN-CIVILIZATION EXISTS ONLY BY MARRIAGE. "L'ignorance où les femmes sont de leurs devoirs, l'abus qu'elles font de leur puissance, leur font perdre le plus beau et le plus précieux de leurs avantages, celui d'être utiles." MADAME BERNIER, Discours sur l'Education des Femmes. WHATEVER be the customs or the laws of a country, it is the women who give the direction to its manners. Whether free or subject, they reign because they derive their power from our passions. But this influence is more or less salutary according to the degree of estimation in which they are held; be they our idols or our companions, courtesans, slaves, or beasts of burthen, the re-action will be complete-they will make us what they themselves are. It appears as if nature attached our intelligence to their dignity, just as we attach our happiness to their virtue. Here then is a law of eternal justice; man cannot debase women without becoming himself degraded; he cannot elevate them without becoming better. Let us cast our eyes over the earth, and observe the two great divisions of the human race-the East and the West; one half of the old world continues without improvement, and without ideas, beneath the weight of a barbarous civilization; there the women are slaves; the other half progresses towards equality and enlightenment, and we there see women free and honoured. A few months ago* was published in the papers the account of an English physician, whom curiosity had led to the East. Being accidentally introduced into the slavemarket, he perceived a score of Greek women, half naked, lying on the ground, in expectation of a purchaser. One of them had attracted the attention of an old Turk; the barbarian examined her minutely as one would examine a horse, while during his inspection the merchant praised the beauty of her eyes, the elegance of her figure, and other minor perfections; he protested that the poor girl was not more than thirteen years of age, that she was a virgin, and neither dreamed nor snored in the night. In short, after a close examination, and some bargaining about the price, she was sold, body and soul, for about sixty pounds. The soul, it is true, was but little considered *The first edition was published soon after the Greek revolution. in the bargain. The unhappy creature, half-fainting in the arms of her mother, (for this horrid compact was made beneath the eyes of her mother,) implored with piercing cries the assistance of her sorrowing companions. But in this barbarous land all hearts were closed; the laws render one insensible to the evils which they sanction. The affair was concluded, and the young girl was delivered to her master. Thus vanished for her, thus must vanish for all women in this part of the world, that delightful futurity of love and happiness which nature has prepared for them. Who would believe it? this infernal transaction took place in Europe in 1829, at the distance of six hundred leagues from Paris and London, the two capitals of the human race; and at the present moment it is the living history of two-thirds of the inhabitants of the globe. What monsters would be produced by such an union! kind of progeny will arise from this combination of vileness, hatred, and misfortune! Worshipper of Mahomet, is this one of the companions of thy life, one of the mothers of thy children? Thou requirest from her delights for thyself and an affectionate disposition for thy son! An affectionate disposition! Nothing can be expected from this sorrowing creature but thy own degradation and that of thy posterity. What Nature has so willed it, that true love, the most exclusive of all the feelings, should be the only possible foundation of civilization. This sentiment invites all men to a simple life, exempt at the same time from idleness, from effeminacy, and from brutal passions. All is harmony, all is happiness, in the intimate link which unites two young married persons. The man, happy in the society of his wife, finds his faculties increase with his duties: he attends to out-door avocations, takes his part in the burdens of a citizen, cultivates his lands, or is usefully occupied in the town. The woman, more retiring, presides over the domestic arrangements. At home she influences her husband; diffuses joy in the midst of order and abundance; both see themselves reflected in the children seated at their table, who promise by the force of example to perpetuate their virtues. Contrast with this picture of the European family that of an Eastern one; the former is based upon equality and love; the latter, upon polygamy and slavery, which leave to love its brutal fury, but which deprive it of its sweet sympathy and its divine illusions. A man may shut himself up with a number of women, but it is impossible that he can love several. See him, then, reduced, amidst a crowd of young beauties, to the saddest of all conditionsthat of possessing without loving, and without being beloved. Inebriated with the coarsest pleasures, without family in the midst of his slaves, without affection in the midst of his children, he imprisons his companions, he mutilates their keepers, and makes of his house a place of punishment, crime, and prostitution. And, after all, does this animal life yield him happiness? No; his senses become blunted, his mind becomes enervated, and he vainly pursues unto the brink of the tomb the sensual delights which, while they excite him, elude his grasp. In order properly to estimate the wretchedness of a similar degradation, we may allude to the recent history of a French officer called Seve, who has lately become celebrated in the East under the name of Soliman-Bey. Being obliged to quit the service at the period of the fall of Napoleon, Seve offered his services to the Pacha of Egypt, who, on account of his military talents, employed him and made his fortune, without requiring him to change his religion. In 1826, Seve was living in a most luxurious style; he had in his harem the most beautiful Greek and Egyp |