LEDYARD. 
309 
curate observer of man upon the female character, 
do equal credit to his understanding and his heart. 
I have always remarked," says he, " that wo- 
" men, in all countries, are civil and obliging, 
" tender and humane ; that they are ever inclin- 
" ed to be gay and cheerful, timorous and mo- 
" dest ; and that they do not hesitate, like men, 
" to perform a generous action. Not haughty, 
^* not arrogant, not supercilious ; they are full of 
" courtesy, and fond of society ; more liable, in 
general, to err than man, but, in general, also 
** more virtuous, and performing more good ac- 
" tions than he. To a woman, whether civilized 
or savage, I never addressed myself in the lan- 
" guage of decency and friendship, without re- 
ceiving a decent and friendly answer. With 
man it has often been otherwise. In wander- 
^* ing over the barren plains of inhospitable Den- 
" mark, through honest Sweden, and frozen Lap- 
land, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled 
Russia, and the wide-spread regions of the wan- 
** dering Tartar ; if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or 
sick, the women have ever been friendly to 
" me, and uniformly so : and to add to this vir- 
" tue, (so worthy the appellation of benevolence), 
" these actions have been performed in so free 
and so kind a manner, that, if I was dry, I 
" drank the sweetest draught, and, if hungry, 
I ate the coarse morsel with a double relish/' 
