allows, their countrywomen will remember to preserve on every occasion that propriety, and decorum, and retiring modesty of demeanour, which is the brightest and most engaging ornament of the female character:-and eminently requisite, beyond every other, to rivet the affections of man.

COMPARATIVE VIEW OF LIFE AND HAPPINESS IN EUROPE AND IN THE EAST.

BY THE TRAVELLER, No. 3.

TURKISH Women, especially those of Constantinople, are better educated than other Orientalists; they are more rich, and more free, and more licentious; and yet, in customs, and character, and hostility to all that is Christian, do they, in no respect, deviate from the strictest Mahometanism. Besides which, we are tolerably well acquainted with their private life; and know them to possess splendid and luxurious habits, which distinguish them from other eastern nations, and entitle them, exclusively, to enter the lists of happiness, against the chivalrous dames of the west. On the other side, I am rather anxious to exclude English women from taking any share in the contest-not from any fear that my prejudices should lead me to partiality-for who can be partial where there is so little to censure? but lest any remarks which I may hereafter be obliged painfully to express on the general weakness of the sex, should be supposed applicable also to them-I wish to grow old, and die on good terms with my countrywomen. I do, therefore, entreat that they will consider themselves as furnishing a perpetual exception to all the little sensual frailties, which are so unjustly supposed to be universal; and to believe that they exhibit, (as they do exhibit) the most brilliant specimens of all those amiable virtues, which are so justly and so honourably entitled, feminine. With this understanding well established between us, I shall proceed to the discussion less fearfully.

Lord Chesterfield has told us, that women have but two passions; vanity and love. I am sick of Lord Chesterfield;

he has appointed himself professor of politeness and human nature; and displays as much pedantry in the discharge of the former office, as ignorance in that of the latter. Without then entering into any argument with his Lordship, as to the accuracy of his opinion, I shall be more liberal to that injured sex, and allow them the undisturbed possession of three passions, which I will place in the order of their supposed influence on the female mind, viz., love of admiration, love of pleasure, and love of power: and anxious as I am to acknowledge, that the happiness of some may depend chiefly on the exercise of their virtues and sensibilities, I feel obliged to believe, that from the indulgence of these three passions are derived most of the enjoyments of most women. As such, then, we will successively consider them, and endeavour to ascertain, as seriously as possible, the peculiar influence of each on the comparative happiness of the amiable disputants, on whose claims we are about to decide.

I. The admiration, which is supposed to be sought with so much avidity, may be mental or personal; and though nothing can be more distinct than the methods by which the love of each displays itself, yet both, very frequently, degenerate alike into the folly or the vice of vanity. The former is, however, instrumental in the promotion of much that is delightful, and amiable, and virtuous; as it gives birth to most of that attention, which well-educated women bestow on the improvement of their accomplishments, and the adornment of their sentiments and conversation: it is, in fact, the focus of polite society-the attracting body, round which, benevolence, and generosity, and humanity, with all their little secondary delicacies and refinements, perform their harmonious revolutions, and derive beauty and fertility from the source of their splendour. Such are the inestimable blessings to society which may arise, and which do arise, from the proper application of female talent; and such the happiness which is disseminated by "love of admiration," as long as it is contented to remain a virtue.

It must be added, that this happiness is confined almost entirely to the west. The accomplishments of Turkish women are at last neither numerous, nor productive of much humanizing effect on social character.-Some skill in embroidery

a little indifferent poetry-a few soft and melting love-songs, compose the ornamental part of their education: the various graces of enlightened conversation, and the thousand pleasures of polished intercourse, flourish not among them—they are chilled by the Mahometanism of the soil.

A less pleasing task remains: it is that of examining how far this "love of admiration," when differently directed, may be productive of dangerous errors, or frivolous folly; for to that motive, in itself so natural, and in its possible effects so excellent, we must attribute that impatience of mediocrity, by which women of no very uncommon qualifications are sometimes driven into the perilous paths of profound and controversial literature. Frail and unguided adventurers on a sea, which they can seldom fathom, they trust most to the most treacherous gales, till they are shipwrecked on the inviting shores of licentiousness and infidelity.

I would willingly be contradicted in the assertion, that in France, Germany, and Italy, the ladies most distinguished for genius and literary acquirements, are those who indulge themselves in the most unbounded liberality of opinion and freedom of action: whether they imagine that intellectual splendour reflects some softening colours on moral deformity, or that it is a proof of courage to brave religion, and a part of knowledge to despise virtue. It would, however, be, extremely unfair to deduce from this fact any proof of the inferiority of the female intellect to say to those active, curious, and speculative creatures : "Lay aside ethics and metaphysics, and delightful sentiment;' return to the nursery, or the toilette, or the ball-room-trifle, or scold, or dance, or prattle-do any thing but think-for if you think a little, you will become giddier than before, and if you think much, you are sure to think wrong." Such an address, conveying so universal a suspicion of their incapacity, would be unjust and insulting. It may, however, be perhaps conceded, that, superior in some respects to men, they possess less mental steadiness and stability; and the reason for which the literary ladies of England are so generally free from the reproaches which are objected to the blue stockings of the continent, is probably the existence and excellence of the established church. In France, (which is singular) philo-.

'sophy is not yet out of fashion; and where to err is to conform, the generality of any error need not surprise us. The established superstition of Italy contains such revolting absurdities, that a timid mind, after gazing steadily upon its monstrous defects, takes refuge, by a single and natural transition, in infidelity. In Germany, there is no establishment whatever; and in the plenitude of religious toleration, the efforts of female genius, which is ever full of love, ever prone to piety and philanthropy, but ever in want of some star to steer by, or some support to cling to, are left to the direction of caprice or artifice, and terminate in sophistry and scepticism. The church of England alone presents a steady and substantial landmark, on which all who fix an undivided attention, will continue, even to their journey's end, in the road of sober reason, and unsophisticated religion. It would appear frivolous to descend from such serious considerations, to the mention of any minor peculiarities, which may be supposed to spring from this kind of vanity. Loquacity is, indeed, the prerogative of woman, and is no more a matter of reproach than a soft voice or a fair complexion; and if there be moments when an eternal succession of harmonious "nothings" ceases to be charming—if that perpetual" parler sans rien dire," be ever not fascinating, it must be said that men as well as women talk frequently from very doubtful motives, and that all the brilliancies of mixed conversation originate in vanity.

Whatever evils may arise to society from the high cultivation of the female mind, they are, it will easily be believed, peculiar to Europe. No Turkish woman, most assuredly, ever became loquacious, sceptical, or licentious, from too much learning-they possess no means or opportunities of study, nor are they blessed with that most enviable disposition, by which our 66 gens de qualité savent tout, sans avoir rien appris." But I am ashamed of dwelling upon the rare or unimportant failings of the ladies of the west-failings, which are ten thousand times compensated: to themselves, by the means they possess of exercising and improving their feelings and their talents, and acquiring a character and a soul by mixing in the occupations of men; and to man, by the

warmth which their conversation and their mere presence infuses into society; by the civilisation and humanity inspired by their looks and their actions; and by the enchantment which they throw over the dream of life.

A few words remain to be said respecting the love of personal admiration, from the gratification of which some pleasure is confessedly derived, though the "ladies in council" are unable to agree as to the precise quantity. Here, too, the advantage (whatever be its importance) is very decided in favour of the west: for heavenly as may be the beauty of Turkish women, it has certainly very little opportunity of displaying its fascinations; the veil which conceals the face, and the cloak which envelopes the person, confound all distinctions of feature and of figure; and the dowager buries her sexagenarian deformities in the same shroud, which conceals the graceful form and elastic limb of youth.

We are told that a French lady, attired in the dernier goût de Paris, landed one day on the coast of Africa: the naked savages surrounded and contemplated the fantastic creature, and began after some time to suspect that it might possibly be a woman: at last one of the boldest of the spectators, pointing to the coëffure, and the jabot, and the jupon, and the manchon, and the souliers, couleur de rose, ventured hesitatingly to inquire-" Mais, tout cela, Madame, est-il vousméme?” and, perhaps, this question was not at last so very impertinent. For observing and acknowledging as we do the authority, the omnipotence of the toilette, is it unpardonable to suppose, ladies in council, that the love you bear your vestments and ornaments is a kind of self-love? that the "dear" silks, and ruffles, and ribbands, and flowers, are to you a second vous-même? What delights then must proceed from the continual indulgence of a passion, which is at least innocent! and what genius may be displayed in the diversification of that indulgence! Delights, alas! and genius, which are little felt or exerted by the inhabitants of the haram. Some traveller, Chardin, I think, tells us, that " in Persia the ladies are not permitted, more than children, to choose their own dress: no lady knows in the morning what gown she is to wear that day!" Existence is insufferable on these terms! life, and