86 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



The Earth would be aparadife, were the Chrif- 

 tiaii Religion producing univerfally it's native 

 efFeds. It is Chriflianity which has aboliflied 11a- 

 very in the greateft part of Europe. It wrefted, 

 in France, enormous poffefiions out of the hands 

 of the Earls and Barons, and deftroyed there a 

 part of their inhuman rights, by the terrors of a 

 life to come. But the people oppofed ftill another 

 bulwark to tyranny, and that was the power of the 

 Women. 



Our Hiftorians are at pains to remark the in- 

 fluence which fome women have had under certain 

 reigns, but never that of the fex in general. They 

 do not write the Hiftory of the Nation, but 

 merely the Hiftory of the Princes. Women are 

 nothing in their eyes, unlefs they are decorated 

 with titles. It was, however, from this feeble di- 

 vifion of Society, that Providence, from time to 

 time, called forth it's principal defenders. 1 fay 

 nothing of ihofe intrepid females, who have repel- 

 led, even by arms, the invaders of their country, 

 fuch as Joan of Arc ^ to whom Rome and Greece 

 would have erecfted altars : I fpeak of thofe who 

 have defended the nation from internal foes, much 

 more formidable ftill than foreign affailants ; of 

 thofe who are powerful from their weaknefs, and 

 who have nothing to fear, becaufe they have no- 

 thing to hope. 



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