WOMAN. 



raongery, with every branch of the iron trade; and 

 brass, tin, Pont-y-Pool and japanned wares in great- 

 variety : it has also a large chemical laboratory. 

 Many of the farmers in the neighbourhood are said 

 to have their forges, where they work when not 

 employed in the field. The Staffordshire and Wor- 

 cestershire, the Birmingham, Essington and Wyrley 

 Canals, pass close to the town, and unite about a 

 mile to the north, by which a communication is 

 opened with every part of the kingdom. By the 

 reform act of 1832, it was constituted, with Sedgeley, 

 Bilston, Willenhall, and Wednesfield, a borough, 

 returning two members to parliament. Population, 

 in 1841, 70,370. 



WOMAN. Among savages, a slave, in the 

 harem of the luxurious, but half-civilized East, a 

 voluptuous toy, in the more refined countries of 

 Christendom alone is woman the equal and compan- 

 ion of man. It is in the Christian home only that 

 woman reigns the mother, sister, wife and friend.- 

 It is a common remark that, in proportion as civili- 

 zation advances, the respect and attention paid to 

 the weaker sex are increased. In the savage state, 

 the woman nurses her young, prepares the food, and 

 carries the burdens of her master, whom she follows 

 to war and the chase, shares all the privations and 

 hardships of his precarious life, without participat- 

 ing in its excitements and pleasures, and serves and 

 suffers without being thanked, rewarded or pitied. 

 In a more advanced stage of society, as in ancient 

 Egypt and India, the condition of woman, in private 

 life, is that of an humble dependant, respected as a 

 mother, but entirely subject to the will of the hus- 

 band, and, in the higher castes, required to sacrifice 

 herself upon his tomb. In China, the women of 

 the lower classes are allowed to appear in public 

 without restraint ; but all the hard labour is put 

 upon them, while the husband does the lighter work; 

 the wife drags the plough, and the husband sows 

 the seed. In the higher classes, the sex is subjected 

 to a seclusion amounting almost to imprisonment. 

 The temples are the only places to which they have 

 free access. Elsewhere, they are not permitted to 

 lose sight of their inherent inferiority : inhabiting a 

 distinct set of apartments, not permitted to take 

 their meals at the same table as their husbands, re- 

 ceiving no intellectual instruction, the degradation 

 imposed (as is supposed) by nature is perpetuated 

 by these laws which repress all their energies of 

 mind and heart. With the two most polished and 

 interesting nations of the ancient world, the female 

 sex was on a very different footing, but in both less 

 highly respected and less justly estimated, than with 

 the polished nations of modern times. Greece, 

 situated on the borders of Asia, then the seat of 

 civilization, presents a singular mixture of Oriental 

 manners with European institutions and habits. 

 The condition of the Grecian women accordingly 

 resembles this general condition of society, in a 

 union of something of Eastern restraint and seclu- 

 sion, with somewhat of the moral virtues and bril- 

 liant qualities of Western civilization. Among the 

 Greeks, we find some noble examples of womanly 

 heroism, of conjugal love, and sisterly affection, but 

 nothing of that spiritualized respect for the female 

 sex which prevailed in the middle ages, and nothing 

 of that spirit of gallantry which characterized more 

 modern times. Woman was not, in Greece, the 

 ornament and refiner of society, the companion and 

 friend of man. Homer represents women simple, 

 noble and virtuous; Sophocles gives them some- 

 thing of a heroic cast ; and, in Euripides, we find 



some models of female purity and lofty devotion : 

 but no where do we discover that adoration of 

 female beauty which is expressed in modern poetry. 

 (See Schlegel, Upon the Representation of the 

 Female Character in the Greek Poets.') The Gre- 

 cian women were secluded in their own apartments, 

 and passed their time chiefly in directing the labour- 

 of their female slaves. They rarely or never ap- 

 peared in the company of the men ; and this sepa- 

 ration was carried so far that the Grecian houses 

 were usually divided into two parts, in which the 

 two sexes had distinct mansions assigned them. 

 The part assigned for the women, the gyneceon, or 

 gyneconitis, was the farthest from the street, and 

 usually in the uppermost rooms. The unmarried 

 women were subjected to particular restrictions, 

 and were almost entirely confined at home. When 

 the women went abroad, or appeared in public, 

 they covered their faces with veils, and were gene- 

 rally accompanied by attendants. They were not 

 permitted to appear at the theatre, unless at the 

 representation of tragedies ; but they formed reli- 

 gious processions, and took part in religious festi- 

 vals. The want of cultivated females of virtue 

 was supplied by the hetatrce, who were often highly 

 distinguished for their talents and accomplishments. 

 (See Hetcera.') Among the celebrated women of 

 this class are Aspasia, the mistress of Pericles, Lais, 

 Phryne, and others. (See Bbttiger's History of 

 the Female Sex, in the 2d and 3d volumes of the 

 Attisches Museum.') The Lacedaemonian women 

 observed fashions quite different from their neigh- 

 bours: their virgins went abroad barefaced, while 

 the married women covered themselves with veils ; 

 the former designing to get husbands, the latter 

 aiming to keep those they had. The Spartan 

 maidens, says Plutarch (Life of Lycurgus), exer- 

 cised themselves in running, wrestling, throwing 

 quoits, casting darts, that they might be more 

 healthy and vigorous : and they were also accus- 

 tomed to dance naked at solemn feasts and sacrifices. 

 When, however, the laws of Lycurgus were neglect- 

 ed, and the Spartans degenerated from the strict 

 virtue of their forefathers, these practices contri- 

 buted to render the prevailing licentiousness more 

 universal. The Romans were, in many respects^ 

 in advance of their more polished neighbours in the 

 treatment of their women. The Roman women 

 appeared more in society : they were allowed to be 

 present at feasts and entertainments, and at public 

 spectacles, and, in general, associated more with 

 men than the Grecian women. They took a more 

 active part in public matters ; and the institution 

 of the vestal virgins has no example in the manners 

 of the Greeks. Hence we find many models of 

 true feminine greatness among the Roman women. 

 In the period of the republic, they lived, however, 

 considerably retired, occupied with domestic la- 

 bours, and the education of their children, and dis- 

 tinguished for simplicity of appearance and rigid 

 virtue. But with the increase of wealth, luxury 

 and corruption, a great change took place ; and, if 

 Cornelia may be considered the representative of 

 free and virtuous Rome, Messalinamustbe regarded 

 as the emblem of the polluted epoch of the empire. 

 The influence of Christianity gave woman a new 

 station in society, broke her chains, and released 

 her from the odious and degrading restrictions in 

 which she had almost become the soulless thing 

 which she had been represented to be. As man 

 ceased to be a mere citizen of his own country, and 

 felt himself to be a citizen, of the world, so womuu 



