chancellorship, or other the highest trusts, of the realm; and in humbler life, though somewhat talked of and censured, such an offender, if rich, and possessing a certain station in society, is viewed with a sort of admiration, by which the disapproval of his conduct is very much modified; and among the women, who suffer most by him, according to a very current and probably not wholly baseless, opinion, he becomes at once a hero and a favorite.

Such being the light in which adulterers and seducers are regarded, it is not remarkable that simple sexual intercourse with unmarried women even on the part of married men, and still more of unmarried, -except in a very few communities in which ascetic mysticism prevails to an unusual degree, — is so far from being esteemed criminal, that virginity on the part of an adult man, is regarded as a mark of pusillanimity, and a matter for ridicule.*

10. The question at once presents itself, upon what ground is this very strong distinction made between the conduct of women and of men? Why are acts, which in men are esteemed innocent, permissible, or, at worst, but slightly wrong, regarded in women as the height of iniquity?

*For the correctness of the above statements; the reader, if he has any doubts, is referred to the Romances of Chivalry, Chaucer, Boccaccio, Shakspeare, Lope de Vega, and the comedies and tales of Modern Europe, down to the last new French or German novel. There are more jokes in Shakspeare upon cuckolds, than upon any other subject. The English of the present day are not so free in their talk, or, at least, in their writings; but, except the professed religious, who, among the men, are comparatively few, their sentiments and conduct are much the same.

The answer to this question is to be found, partly in the inferior and dependent position in which partly, in the peculiar results,

women stand; and which, in their case, indulgence.

are liable to follow from sexual

The woman, from her inferior position, and from the consequent admiration and love with which she is expected to look up to her husband, is held bound to a certain extent, indeed to a very great extent, to prefer his pleasures to her own. The idea of sole possession is so gratifying to the sentiment of selfcomparison, that men naturally, everywhere, have held their wives bound to strict fidelity; and the wife's intercourse with another man, without the husband's consent, which in most communities it has been esteemed disgraceful ever to grant, and which, elsewhere, has only been granted as a special mark of favor and friendship, that is to say, adultery on the part of the wife, has everywhere, and at all times, been esteemed a high crime. Upon this point, some nations, such as the Arabs, the Hindoos, the Turks, and the Orientals generally, have run into what we regard as very extravagant ideas; so that, even to look at another man's wife, is a deadly insult. Hence, in those countries, to enter a man's harem, and especially to expose the women of it to the public gaze, is reckoned the greatest indignity which it is possible to inflict. Hence, too, that remarkable custom of the Hindoos, which requires the wife to immolate herself upon the funeral pile of her husband. In general, the wife does it voluntarily,

a striking instance how easily, at least in the fe

male mind, the sense of duty triumphs even over the fear of death; and a proof, too, how desirable it is, that so potent a sentiment should receive a true ́direction.

In savage and barbarous communities, women who owe no allegiance to a husband, are not heldbound to any such strictness; but are allowed to indulge themselves at their pleasure. This custom is universal among the native tribes of America and tropical Africa, whence it has been transported to the West Indies, where women, who are expected to preserve, and who do preserve, a very strict fidelity after marriage, while unmarried allow themselves and are allowed a wide liberty.

But the same feeling which demands fidelity in a wife, accompanied by a little more reflection, presently requires, that the wife should come a virgin to her husband's bed; and when this idea obtains currency, unmarried women are thenceforth required to preserve their virginity for the honor and pleasure of the husband whom they may one day have.

With the progress of wealth and refinement, women of the upper class become more and more helpless; whence arises an additional reason, why the unmarried should not expose themselves to the risk of bearing children. The unmarried savage mother who brings home her new born babe to her father's lodge, in so doing, imposes no labor nor trouble upon anybody but herself. It is she who will nurse and educate the child. In civilized societies, especially in the upper ranks, whence the lower ranks, by imitation, derive most of their cus

own.

toms, the situation of unmarried women is totally different. For the most part, they are incapable of providing for themselves. Even if they have the requisite talent and skill, they are excluded from following any lucrative occupation. In some countries, as in England, they are greatly restricted even in their chances of acquiring property by inheritance; of course, they seldom have means of their They are totally dependent, even for their own support, upon their fathers or other relatives; and it would be intolerable, if, for their own private gratification, in addition to the burden of supporting themselves, they should impose upon their friends the support and education of a family of children. The same reason applies also to the case of married women. The husband is bound to support and to educate the children of his wife; and he reasonably desires them to be, not only legally but naturally his own.

11. The position of men is altogether different. Even the married man, for the same reason of inferiority on the part of his wife for which he demands. from her the sacrifice of her pleasures to his, holds himself by no means bound to reciprocate that sacrifice; or, for the sake of gratifying her feelings, to put restraint upon his own indulgences. The unmarried man has nobody's feelings to consult. As men, married or unmarried, who become the fathers of illegitimate children, are legally bound to support those children, here is no burden imposed upon others, except that duty be fraudulently evaded, or the father be too poor to fulfil it; in which case,

only, an offence is committed of which the law takes note. As to the mother, the very infamy with which she is overwhelmed leaves little room, in the vulgar mind, for sympathy for her; and the disgrace to her parents and other friends is disposed of, by ascribing the daughter's ruin to the fault, on their part, of a bad education or insufficient watching.

12. Whatever may be thought of other cases, the evils which are constantly arising from adultery and seduction are so intense, that the indulgence with which forensic morals regards these acts on the part of men can only be explained, by supposing that the force of the sentiment impelling to the performance of these acts, is so powerful, as often to be more than a match for the ordinary force of the sentiment of benevolence. But sexual desire is by natural constitution not less powerful, it probably is more powerful in women than in men; and hence the necessity for those terrible cruelties and terrible disgraces, cruelties and disgraces intended to operate upon the fear of death and of bodily pain, and the still more potent sentiment of self-comparison, by which it is sought to restrain and counterbalance this powerful impulse; and hence, too, as has been already observed, the origin of most of those restrictions to which women are subjected. The Orientals employ bolts, bars, eunuchs, and madonnas; we, more ingenious, have converted the women universally into spies upon each other; an employment, affording as it does such easy opportunities to exalt themselves by degrading others, that they enter upon it with thoughtless zeal, finding self-exaltation and