MOSCOW. 
103 
the class of the nobles, the women are far supe- 
rior to the men; they are mild, affectionate, 
often well-informed, beautiful, and highly ac- 
complished : the men are destitute of every 
qualification to render them, in the eyes of 
their female companions, objects of love or of 
esteem. It is not therefore wonderful, that 
ladies of rank in Moscow have the character of 
not being strict in their fidelity to their hus- 
bands ; especially if the profligate example so 
lately offered them in their Empress Catherine 
be taken into consideration. Indeed, it is dif- 
ficult to conceive how the wives of the gene- 
rality of the nobles in Moscow can entertain any 
respect for their husbands 1 . Married, without 
passion, by the policy and self-love of their 
parents, frequently to men they never saw 
until the time of wedlock ; subjected to tyrants, 
who neither afford good examples to their 
children, nor any source of social enjoyment 
to themselves; who are superannuated before 
the age of thirty; diseased, dirty, and over- 
whelmed with debt; the women of Moscow 
regard the matrimonial life as superior indeed 
to that of imprisonment in a convent, but as 
a state of slavery, from which they look towards 
(1) “ Mulierum conditio miserrima est ; neque quicquam authori- 
tatis in tcdibus usurpant : a mantis bene verberatie,” &c. Guagnin. 
Descript. Moscovitz, p. 65. L, But. 1630. 
CHAP. 
V. 
' * ' 
Wives of 
the Noble}. 
