73 
Hindoos; their dress generally consists of a turban, a short cotton 
vest and drawers; but some wear only a turban, and a cloth 
round the waist; although the poorest among them usually con- 
trive to purchase a silver bangle, or bracelet, for the arm. 
The Hindoo women, when young, are delicate and beautiful; 
so far as we can reconcile beauty with the olive complexion. They 
are finely proportioned ; their limbs small, their features soft and 
regular, and their eyes black and languishing: but the bloom of 
beauty soon decays, and age makes a rapid progress before they 
have seen thirty years: this may be accounted for, from the heat 
of the climate, and the customs of the country; as they often are 
mothers at twelve years of age, and grandmothers at five and 
twenty. Montesquieu justly remarks, “ that women in hot cli- 
mates, are marriageable at eight, nine, or ten years of age; there- 
fore in those countries infancy and marriage generally go together. 
They are old at twenty; their reason therefore never accompanies 
their beauty: when beauty demands the empire, the want of 
reason forbids the claim; when reason is obtained, beauty is no 
more!” And he further observes, that “ those women ought to be 
in a state of dependence; for reason cannot procure in old age, 
that empire, which even youth and beauty could not give.” 
What superior advantages do my fair countrywomen derive 
from a liberal education, and a milder climate? the virtues and 
graces assemble in their train, and form a delightful union of 
chastity, beauty, elegance, and affability! what influence such 
women have over our sex, every man of feeling and sensibility 
must acknowledge. 
L 
