66% 
that is chaste, dignified, and noble. Un- 
der the reign of the emperors they par- 
took of the general corruption, and were 
involved in, if they‘did not absolutely 
contribute to, the dissoluteness of the 
age and the consequent fall of the em- 
pire. At length Christianity arose, and 
into whateyer country its precepts have 
enetrated, women, by becoming more 
intrinsically respectable, have been nioxe 
respected: the disorders of the passions 
ave been corrected, and latent unsus- 
pected virtues have been elicited. 
.M., de Segur is of opinion that the 
arbarians of the north, who overran 
the Roman empire, brought with them 
the first germ of that gallantry which so 
ong remained in Europe. 
» ¢ If,in the south, Asiatic manners render- 
ed the women wretched ; if these people, by 
durns slaves and tyrants, had for them a sen- 
sual love, but little esteem ; if they passed 
aM at once from worshipping to despise 
‘them, from an idolatrous regard, to the ex- 
rcess of an inhuman jealousy ; in the north, on 
‘the contrary, the Scandinavians and the Celis 
regarded the women as their equa!s and their 
companions, and eyen sought to merit their 
approbation by efforts of courage aad gene- 
Tous ,atchievements., These are the nations 
who contributed most to spread throughout 
Europe thht spirit of equity, of moderation, 
“and of politeness, which forms the distine- 
tive’ cHaracter of our manners. We may, 
‘perhaps, assign one cause for this. Among 
“the Scandinavians their fortunes were limit- 
ed, and nearly equal; their manners were 
simple, and the passions only unfolded them- 
selves late; and in unison with their reason. 
They were more restrained under a severe 
climate’: and if we revert to the religion of 
“the Celts, we shall find that one of its most 
revered tenets was, that the Deity interfered 
-even in the smallést things; and that every 
phenomenon which appeared was only a nie- 
thod: whereby the divine spirit smanifesied 
his will... Thus visions, involuntary motions, 
sudden and unexpected desires, became the 
admonitions of heaven, and merited the re- 
, Spect of those who felt them, and served as 
‘the organ of the Deity. °.' * 
*¢ The women, who, for the greater part, 
seem less influenced by reflection than by the 
“instinct ofinature, appeared to this pally as 
ul have observed, to be better adapted than the 
tmenifor filling this honourable ministry ; 
nand..on this idea rested the principal base of 
_ their influence. ‘They carricd them along 
“with them in their expeditions, followed their 
counsels, and sought in their esteem motives 
to brave every danger; and, in their ill-suc- 
cess, they feared more their reproaches than 
. the sword of the enenty. tes 
*», 6£ We may perceive with the most supct- 
ficial glance, in this simple and hasty skeich 
cf the esteem in which women wt. held by 
»! Fe 
MISCELLANIES. 
the men of these harharous countries; all the 
first ideas of chivalry, which the nations of 
the north diffused, when they inundated 
Europe. A taste for heroic adventures, and 
a desire of glory, had for a long while carried 
many Scandinavian warriors, to peuctrate 
into countries the most remote, in order to 
render their names illustrious. A constant 
habit of rapine continually exposed the weak 
to sudden attack ; and superinduced the ne- 
cessity of defenders. Every young warrior, 
cager of renown, took pou himself the no- 
ble charge of protecting the fair sex, and fol- 
lowed his taste in pursuing an adventurous 
career. ; 
«* The multitudes of Scandinavians, which- 
established themselves in France, Spain, 
England, and Italy, carried with them the 
taste of chivalry ; and this passion, since re- 
strained within very just limits, produced 
the refined politeness which has for so long 
a time formed a part of our manners. ~ 
«* This first impulse of chivalrous gallantry 
among the nations of the north, was far 
from possessing all that delicacy and fasci- 
nation which it afterwards acquired in Eu- 
rope, by the admixture of the tenderness of 
the Spaniards, the elegance of the French,” 
and the splendid romanticity of the Moors.— 
All the first notions were conceived without 
being developed: respect for the sex, love, 
devouidn, the enthusiasm of glory, and a con- 
stancy which yielded every thing to one sin- 
gle cbject. These foundations weie laid; 
but they were yet covered by a shade of 
coarseness and simplicity, which, even in the 
means of pleasing, announced a rude tender- 
ness, and left more to be seen of the warrior 
than the lover.” 
We next come to the condition of 
women in Asia. Wherever the religion 
of Mahomet prevails, there the domestic 
slavery of the female sex is confirmed. 
Mahomet, says our author, wishing to 
stifle all those passions which he thought 
sufficiently strong to counterbalance his 
own influence on the minds of bis fol- 
lowers, felt that though he could restrain 
men from intoxication by prohibiting the 
use of wine, it would be in vain to at- 
tempt to triumph over love. M. de 
Segur does not seem to have dived into 
the policy of Mahomet ; many textsof 
the Koran are calculated to check the 
uncontrouled indulgence of sexual gra- 
tification. Mahomet is the only luw- 
giver who enforced a positive and gene- 
ral interdiction of the use of wine; the 
climate of Arabia, it is probable, he. 
thought would sufiiciently inflame the 
blood, and required rather a moderating 
than a stimulating beverage. Mahomet 
certainly did not wish to ‘‘ triumph over 
love: no one was a more ardent vo- 
ary of the sex than himself, and this 
