INTRODUCTORY.

Quicquid agit mulier-nostri est farrago libelli."

Of all studies, there can be none more worthy the mind than a consideration of itself, and of the great Science of human nature: even in its vices the human race is a fitting subject for contemplation!

But strangely has it happened that enquiries, as respecting one great division of our species, have been prosecuted with little attention, and have been almost received with less. It was a remark of Johnson's, long ago, that "in philosophical discourses which teach by precept, as well as historical narratives that instruct by example, the peculiar virtues or faults of women fill but a small (too small) a part." Don Quixotes of the quill there have, doubtless, never been wanting; but effusions from such quarters have been for

the most part varnished, and put forth in a false tone. They have been, in most instances, palliative, or superfinely favourable, upon a subject where there was surely some ground for censure; and Flattery, never idle and untired, has been lavished by the ream, till it has almost sickened the very objects of its deceit.

To banish Truth in this manner for unmeaning compliment, is as injurious to that sacred cause, as it is unbecoming the dignity of literature. It is not soberly to be denied, that there is much in the character of Woman-especially in our day, which opens wide a field for anxious investigation. This the blindest advocate for the divinity of female nature must perceive-and the noisiest, with more or less limitation, admit.

But even had the subject of Woman' been canvassed in any degree proportionate to its merits and importance, it would still be possible to produce new ideas on an old subject: by mining more deeply, fresh veins may be discovered. be discovered. The advance

of society, under its new phases, must ever continue to give fresh interest to every vital theme. No topic, much less the great topic of human nature, can be said to be exhausted. Previous speculations may be mistakes, and may be proved so; and even among things most known, there will never cease to exist new affinities and fresh differences.

We maintain that Woman has, in our day, attained a false social elevation-an elevation that morally degrades her, and which nature acknowledges not. "It appears to me," observes even a lady-writer of the day, "that the condition of women in society, as at present constituted, is false in itself, and injurious to them: that the education of women, as at present conducted, is founded in mistaken principles, and tends to increase fearfully the sum of misery and error in both sexes *."

The consequence of this false position of Woman in society has been mischiefmischief vast and widely spread. "It is

* Mrs. Jamieson.

not, nor it cannot come to good!" At the same time, be it well understood, we attach not the onus of blame to that sex. It must be evident, that it can be only by Man's verdict that Woman remains on her giddy eminence, for when was it ever known that strength submitted to weakness but by its own consent? Woman is not the responsible party, neither is she to be held morally accountable even for the imperfections that have assailed her. She has been a wanderer-she has left, but she has been seduced to leave, her proper and peculiar sphere. Wrong has been the consequence, but Woman has been as much its victim as its author. Let it not then be still asked who did that wrong; Man suffered it, and his, therefore, and his alone, be the fault! Is blame to rest where error originates, or where it is merely acted upon? The instigator is ever to be accounted the moral criminal!

But, the female character having become faulty, in consequence of the peculiar temptations spread by many circumstances