within itself the first cause of its existence. He attaches all to himself by the unknown.

This will is stamped upon matter. This is the reason why the sciences explain nothing more than phenomena; the absolute cause always escapes them: how much so ever intellect may search, nature answers only by secondary causes; but when the soul unites itself to intellect, all the sciences are eclipsed, the absolute cause is unveiled, and God appears.

CHAPTER XX.

OF THE DIVISION OF EARTHLY DUTIES BETWEEN MAN

AND WOMAN;-A MORAL AND PHYSICAL LAW OF
NATURE.

"Mais encore, quand l'homme aura porté du dehors en la maison ce qui est nécessaire, si est il besoign d'avoir quelqu'un qui le garde, et qui fasse les choses qui ne peuvent être faictes que dans le logis." DE LA BOETIE DE XENOPHON.

MARRIAGE gives to man a companion, and to woman a support. It unites beneath the same roof a strong and a feeble being; but, considering only society in its origin, a similar state of things must have been foreseen, and accordingly it was foreseen. In multiplying earthly goods, God has made of them two parts; or rather, he has doubled his gifts, as if to establish a double sovereignty. Man reigns over the earth; his power subjects the ox to the yoke, the horse to the bridle, and the reindeer to the sledge: he sends the falcon into the air, and makes it bring him its prey; he sends the cormorant to the bottom of the water,

and makes it bring him its fish; he sends the dog across the fields, and makes it bring the game. This is the power of strength; one would say that it could subject everything to it; and yet it suffices to contemplate nature in her most charming works, in order to perceive that after this lordly master, she looks for a more gentle master.

The woman comes and establishes her empire by caresses. All becomes tractable around her: the hen yields up her egg, and the cow her milk; she superintends the bees which yield their honey, and the worm which changes into silk the leaf of the mulberry-tree. There are even some animals which seem to be created expressly to suit her weakness and that of her children; such is the ass, a more patient animal than the horse; the goat, more easy to feed than the cow; and the sheep, of which she spins the fleece, which is warmer than the skins of wild beasts. If nature have attached to man the dog, which like him is unsettled and irascible, to defend him from carnivorous animals, she has subjected to woman the cat, which like herself is more sedentary and patient, to watch over the provisions collected in her store-rooms.

Man learns from animals several kinds of industry: the rabbit teaches him how to excavate subterranean passages; the beaver, to raise embankments; the swan, to navigate. But woman learns from them lessons very different though no less useful: the spider teaches her to spin; the butterfly, to imprint her dress with various colours; the bee, to extract the juice from the sweetest vegetables. It is not then without reason that the Greeks gave, not to the gods, but to a female, a goddess, to Ceres, to Minerva, the glory of these ingenious inventions. Man strives with nature, and each of his victories renders him more proud and unruly woman, on the contrary, is softened and embellished by all her conquests; and the graces of our homes, and the

enjoyment of our well-being, are the invisible chains with which she binds us to civilisation.

In the vegetable kingdom the division is continued: man chooses from it all that may excite his courage, and woman all that may add to her beauty. The one has the forests, in which he exhibits his strength and his courage; the other has the meadows, to which she leads her flocks. It is on the flower-enamelled meads that woman appears to greatest advantage, whether dancing with her companions, or whether in solitude, she receives from nature the celestial thoughts of love and humanity.

In all countries women love flowers, in all countries they form nosegays of them; but it is only in the bosom of plenty that they conceive the idea of embellishing their dwellings with them. The cultivation of flowers among the peasantry indicates a revolution in all their feelings. It is a delicate pleasure, which makes its way through coarse organs; it is a creature, whose eyes are opened; it is the sense of the beautiful, a faculty of the soul which is awakened. Man, then, understands that there is in the gifts of nature a something more than is necessary for existence; colours, forms, odours, are perceived for the first time, and these charming objects have at last spectators. Those who have travelled in the country can testify, that a rose-tree under the window, a honeysuckle around the door of a cottage, are always a good omen to the tired traveller. The hand which cultivates flowers is not closed against the supplications of the poor, or the wants of the stranger.

We may read in the Mesnagerie (L'Art de bien Menager) of Xenophon, (a charming picture of conjugal union among the ancients,) how the pupil of Socrates has founded the duties of the man and woman upon the sweetest harmonies of nature. "And God made the body of the woman less vigorous than that of the man: on which account I am of

opinion that he destined her for the care of domestic matters; and enjoined them to nourish their children at an early age; he also bestowed more natural affection towards them, upon woman than upon man. And likewise, after he had consigned to the woman the care and superintendence of the household things, knowing that in order to preserve them well, it is not a bad thing for the heart to be somewhat apprehensive, he made woman more timid than man ; and seeing, on the other hand, that he who has to do the work out of doors would require to defend himself, should any attack him, he gave to him the advantage in courage and strength. But inasmuch as it was requisite that both should be in a state to receive and to give out, he consigned to them both in common the care of memory; so that in this respect there is no rule that either the one sex or the other should enjoy a greater advantage. This is the reason why the one cannot do without the other, and their union is so much the more useful, as the one possesses that in which the other is deficient."

CHAPTER XXI.

RE-ACTION IS EQUAL TO ACTION; -A PHYSICAL AND MORAL LAW OF NATURE.

66

Quand la politique humaine attache sa chaine au pied d'un esclave, la justice divine en rive l'autre bout au cou du tyran." BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE.

DIVINE justice upon the earth is always the fulfilling of a law: God has arranged all, so that from our actions should arise the penalties or the rewards which they de

serve. Good re-acts upon good-evil upon evil. The re-action may be more or less speedy, more or less visible; no matter, it exists: it is equal to the action, and if its effects sometimes escape our observation, it is not because the law is inactive, it is simply because the last scene of the drama takes place in the depths of the conscience, between man and his God.

It may be objected, that such a law tends to destroy our moral liberty. This is a mistake. Man is always free to choose between vice and virtue; but when he has chosen, an event occurs which he is no longer able to control: an inevitable consequence,—the re-action of his action.

We do not know enough of the matter to cease to be free; we know too much about it not to feel ourselves guilty of a part of the ills which bow down the human

race.

Thou buyest and sellest a man: thou hast slaves: all the vices of these slaves will enter into thy family.

Possessed of immense riches, thou art without pity for misery. Have a care, from this misery will arise robbery, assassination, and prostitution, all the scourges which swallow up riches.

Thou bringest up thy children in impiety, and thou darest to complain of their abandonment; and I hear them curse their existence-a painful existence which leads to nought. What a fine present hast thou given them to deserve their gratitude!

Thou wouldst have a rich and beautiful wife; thou shalt have riches and beauty. But, my wife deceives me; she ruins me; she is carrried into the vortex of the world, forgetting her husband, neglecting her home, abandoning her daughter to the care of a servant. What! didst thou not ask for riches and beauty? thou seest that thou hast forgotten something else in thy bargain.