ANIMALS. 403 



follows his appetites, too soon seizes the cup, be- 

 fore it has received its best ingredients ; and, 

 by anticipating his pleasures, robs the remaining 

 parts of life of their share ; so that his eagerness 

 only produces a manhood of imbecility, and an 

 age of pain. 



The time of puberty is different in various 

 countries, and always more late in men than in 

 women. In the warm countries of India, the 

 women are marriageable at nine or ten, and the 

 men at twelve or thirteen. It is also different 

 in cities where the inhabitants lead a more soft 

 luxurious life, from the country where they work 

 harder, and fare less delicately. Its symptoms are 

 seldom alike in different persons ; but it is usual- 

 ly known by a swelling of the breasts in one sex, 

 and a roughness of the voice in the other. At 

 this season, also, the women seem to acquire new 

 beauty, while the men lose all that delicate effe- 

 minacy of countenance which they had when 

 boys. 



All countries, in proportion as they are civilized 

 or barbarous, improve or degrade the nuptial sa- 

 tisfaction. In those miserable regions, where 

 strength makes the only law, the stronger sex 

 exerts its power, and becomes the tyrant over 

 the weaker : while the inhabitant of Negroland 

 is indolently taking his pleasure in the fields, his 

 wife is obliged to till the grounds that serve for 

 their mutual support. It is thus in all barbarous 

 countries, where the men throw all the laborious 

 duties of life upon the women j and, regardless 



