|68 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



But how many other defcriptive epithets, ftill more 

 interefling, might be added to this, fuch as thofe 

 of nutritive, confolatory ! They receive us on our 

 entrance into life, and they clofe our eyes when we 

 die. It is not to beauty, but to Religion, that 

 our women are indebted for the greateft part of 

 their influence ; the fame Frenchman who, in 

 Paris, fighs at the feet of his miftrefs, holds her 

 in fetters, and under the difcipHne of the whip, 

 in St. Domingo. Our Religion alone of all, con- 

 templates the conjugal union in the order of 

 Nature ; it is the only Religion, on the face of 

 the Earth, which prefents woman to man as a com- 

 panion ; every other abandons her to him as a 

 flave. To Religion alone do our women owe the 

 liberty which they enjoy in Europe ; and from 

 the liberty of the women it is that the liberty of 

 Nations has flowed, accompanied with the profcrip- 

 tion of a multitude of inhuman ufages, which have 

 been diff'ufed over all the other parts of the World, 

 fuch as flavery, feraglios, and eunuchs. O charm- 

 ing fex ! it is in your virtue that your power 

 confifts. — Save your Country, by recalling to the 

 love of domeftic manners your lovers and your 

 hufbands, from a difplay of your gentle occupa- 

 tions : You would reftore Society at large to a 

 fenfe of duty, if each of you brings back one 

 fmgle man to the order of Nature. Envy not the 



other 



