Q 8 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



selves and to the world. Their usual reply was 

 that they had been basely seduced, and then basely 

 betrayed. This I believed, and was grieved to 

 think that they were thus, perhaps, prevented from 

 becoming the best of mothers to an offspring of 

 lovely and healthy children. I often told them so; 

 and this ended in their tears : and, if they were in 

 poverty, I contributed my mite to relieve them. 

 What a pity it is that this wretchedness is not 

 prevented ! Base men treat women as if they were 

 inferior beings, made only to be used like brutes 

 and tyrannised over as slaves. I have always 

 beheld such conduct towards women with abhor- 

 rence; for my conceptions of this wretched state of 

 things are of the most soul-harrowing description. 

 It would be extreme weakness to maintain an 

 opinion that all women are good, and that the 

 faults here noticed are always ascribable to the 

 men only. This is not the case ; for I am obliged 

 to admit that there are good and bad of each sex. 

 I have often attempted to make an estimate of 

 their comparative numbers, in which I have felt 

 some difficulties. Sometimes my barometer of 

 estimation has risen to the height of ten to one 

 in favour of the fair sex ; at other times it has 

 fluctuated, and has fallen down some degrees lower 

 in the scale; but, with me, it is now settled, and I 

 cannot go lower than four good women to one 

 good man. I have often wondered how any man 

 could look healthy, beautiful, sensible, and virtuous 

 women in the face without considering them as the 

 link between men and angels. For my part, I have 

 often felt myself so overpowered with reverence 

 in their presence that I have been almost unable to 

 speak, and they must often have noticed my 



