404 HlSTOHt OF 



of beauty, put the softer sex to those employ- 

 ments that must effectually destroy it. 



But in countries that are half barbarous, parti- 

 cularly wherever Mahometanism prevails, the men 

 run into the very opposite extreme. Equally 

 brutal with the former, they exert their tyranny 

 over the weaker sex, and consider that half of 

 the human creation as merely made to be subser- 

 vient to the depraved desires of the other. The 

 chief, and indeed the only aim of an Asiatic, is 

 to be possessed of many women ; and to be able 

 to furnish a seraglio is the only tendency of his 

 ambition. As the savage was totally regardless 

 of beauty, he, on the contrary, prizes it too highu 

 ly ; be excludes the person who is possessed of 

 such personal attractions from- any share in the 

 duties or employments of life ; and, as if will- 

 ing to engross all beauty to himself, increases the 

 number of his captives in proportion to the pro- 

 gress of his fortune. In this manner, he vainly 

 expects to augment his satisfactions, by seeking, 

 from many that happiness which he ought to 

 look for in the society of one alone. He lives- 

 a gloomy tyrant, amidst wretches of his own. 

 making ; he feels none of those endearments 

 which spring from affection, none of those deli- 

 cacies which arise from knowledge. His mis- 

 tresses, being shut out from the world, and totally 

 ignorant of all that passes there, have no arts to 

 entertain his mind, or calm his anxieties ; the day 

 passes with them in sullen silence, or languid re- 

 pose ; appetite can furnish but few opportunities 



