( 55G ) 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 



Corpora magnanimo satis est prosttasse Jeoni : 

 At lupus, et turpes instant morientibus ursi j 



El quemque minor nobilitate fera est. OVID. 



IT is an odd thing for a man who is a bachelor, not merely by profes- 

 sion, but in point of fact, to think of deciding on the kind and quantity 

 of influence which is exercised on the part of females over men. "If 

 the question were reversed," cries a love-sick youth of eighteen, " and a 

 bachelor, instead of writing on the influence of females over males, had 

 to speak of the influence of males over females, his own ugly face or some 

 other natural defect would sufficiently testify, that he had exercised the 

 influence of fear over all the spinsters of his parish ; for few men of good 

 report, and tolerable proportions, are allowed to remain in a state of 

 single blessedness." The fit having taken me, however, (by the way, I 

 must acknowledge the exactness of the other fit in regard to the ugliness 

 of my phiz), I will not be discouraged by any inuendoes from pursuing my 

 original plan. When I commenced this paper, my intention was to 

 inform you of something which may illustrate the question already started, 

 and I now proceed to the task. 



Returning the other evening rather earlier than usual, from the club 

 of bachelors to which I have the honour to belong, I was led to follow 

 up the conversation of my friends, by my own solitary meditations. It 

 is a curious fact, that, whenever I arrive at my lodgings before the 

 " witching time of night," I grow exceedingly wise and moral in my 

 reflections ; and what is not always the case with my poor head, am able 

 to remember, with distinctness, the most trivial occurrence, and to dis- 

 tinguish with accuracy every object of the sight. Whereas, if " the 

 clock strikes one" while I am out, " I take no note of time," and am 

 never able to hear it, either on account of some peculiarity in the atmos- 

 phere at that particular juncture, or in my ears, or both. And as to 

 seeing, I can see nothing at all, nor am I able to determine whether this 

 myopy arises from the excessive darkness of the midnight hour, or from 

 some periodical defect in my organs of vision. But I am only wandering 

 from the point. 



On the evening to which I have alluded, I was the more inclined to 

 moralize, because I had not only retained a mens sana in corpore sano, 

 having neither received the salutations of the charlie's bludgeon, nor 

 passed my meridian, but had also, on account of the tremendous lagomachy 

 of my boon companions, refrained from expressing my own opinion con- 

 cerning the Influence of Women. I was, therefore, left to chew my 

 cud over the question, and digest it at my leisure. Well, thought I, as 

 I arranged my person in the easy chair, and wheeled round to the fire, 

 without any faith in astrology, the Influence of Women is equally various 

 with that of the stars ; and God knows with a sigh they are equally 

 numerous. Numerous, however, as they are, I think one might abbrc- 



