6S6 t O 
confederation, (bat, though a man may have fentimentsof 
eiteem and benevolence towards women who are both old 
and ugly, he never l'uppofes liimfelf to be in love with any 
woman to whom he feels not the fenfual appetite to have 
a Wronger tendency than to other individuals of her fex. 
On the other hand, that animal defire alone, cannot be called 
the affection of love is evident; becaufe he who gratifies 
fitch a defire without elteeming its objeCt, and withing to 
communicate at the fame time that he receives enjoyment, 
loves not the woman, but himfelf. Mere animal defire 
has nothing in view but the fpecies and the fex of its ob¬ 
ject ; and, before it make a feleCtion, it mud be combined 
with fentiments very different from itfelf. The fir ft fen- 
timent with which it is combined, and by which a man 
is induced to prefer one woman' to another, feems to be 
that by which we are delighted with gracefulnefs of per- 
fon, regularity of features, and beauty of complexion. 
It is not indeed to be denied that there is fomething irre- 
fiftible in female beauty. The mod fevere will not pre¬ 
tend that they do not feel an immediate prepofleflion in 
favour of a handfome woman ; but this prepofleflion, even 
when combined with animal defire, does not conllitute 
the whole of that affection which is called love. Savages 
feel the influence of the fenfual appetite, and it is ex¬ 
tremely probable that they have fome ideas of beauty ; 
but among favages the affection of love is feldom felt. 
Even among the lower orders in civil fociety it feems to 
be .a very grofs paffion, and to have in it more of the fel- 
filhnels of appetite than of the generality of eiteem. To 
thefe cbfervations many exceptions will no doubt be 
found ; but we fpeak of favages in general, and of the 
great body of the labouring poor, who in the choice of 
their mates do not ftudy, who indeed are incapable of 
lludying, that reCtitude of mind, and thofe delicacies of 
fentiment, without which neither man nor woman can de- 
ferve to be efteemed. 
Sweetnefs of temper, a capital article with us in the fe¬ 
male character, difplays itfelf externally in mild looks 
and gentle manners, and is the fu ll and perhaps the molt 
powerful inducement to love in a cultivated- mind. But 
fucli graces are fcarcely difcernible in a female favage ; 
and even in the molt polifhed woman would not be per¬ 
ceived by a male favage. Among lavages, ftrength and 
boldnefs are the only valuable qualities. In thefe, females 
are iniferably deficient; for which reafon they are con¬ 
temned by the males as beings of an inferior order. The 
North American tribes glory in idlenefs; the drudgery of 
labour degrades a man in their opinion, and is proper for 
women only. To join young perfcns in marriage is ac¬ 
cordingly the bufinefs of the parents ; and it would be 
.unpardonable meannefs in the bridegroom to fhow any 
fondnefs for the bride. In Guiana a woman never eats 
with her hufband, but after every meal attends him with 
water for wafhing; and in the Caribbee iflands file is not 
even permitted to eat in the prefence of her hufband. Dam- 
pier obferves in general, that among all the wild nations 
with which he was acquainted, the women carry the bur¬ 
dens, while the men walk before and carry nothing but 
their arms ; and that women even of the highefl rank are 
not better treated. In Siberia, and even in Ruffia, the 
capital excepted, men till very lately treated their wives 
in every refpeCt like fiavts. It might indeed be thought, 
that animal defire, were there nothing elfe, fhould have 
railed women to fome degree of ellimation among men ; 
but male favages, utter Grangers to decency and refine¬ 
ment, gratify animal defire with as little ceremony as they 
do hunger or thirfl. Hence it was that in the early ages 
of fociety a man purchafed a woman to be his wife, as one 
purchafes an ox or a (beep to be food ; and valued her 
only as file contributed to his fenfual gratification. In- 
ftances innumerable might be collected from every nation 
of which we are acquainted with the early hillory; but 
we fhall content ourfelves with mentioning a few. Abra¬ 
ham bought Rebekah, and gave her to his Ion Ilaac for a 
wife. (Gen. xxiv.) Jacob, having nothing elfe to give, 
V E. 
ferved Laban fourteen years for two wives'. (Gen. xxlx.)' 
To David, demanding Saul’s daughter in marriage, it was 
faid, The king defreth not any dowry, but an hundredfdrejkin$ 
of the P hilifines. (i Sam. xviii. 28.) In the Iliad (lib. ix.) 
Agamemnon offers his daughter to Achilles for his wife 5 
and fays that he would not demand for her any price. By 
the laws of Ethelbert king of England, a man who com¬ 
mitted adultery with his neighbour’s wife was obliged to 
pay the hufband a fine, and to buy him another wife. (Sect. 
32.) But it is needlefs to multiply inftances; the prac¬ 
tice has prevailed univerfally among nations emerging 
from the favage Hate, or in the rudeft ltage of fociety ; and, 
wherever it prevailed, men could not polfibly have for 
the fair fex any of that tender regard and efleem which 
conflitute fo effential a part of the complex alreCtion of love. 
Accordingly we find the magnanimous Achilles an ab- 
folute Itranger to that generous’ affection, though his heart 
was fufceptible of the warmeft and pureft friendfhip. His 
attachment to Pafroclus was fo heroically difinterefled, 
that he willingly facrificed his own life to revenge the 
death of bis friend 5 but, when Agamemnon threatened to 
rob him of his favourite female captive, though he felt 
the infult offered to his pride, he never fpoke of the woman 
but as a Jlave, whom he was concerned to preferve in point 
of honour, and as a teftimony of his glory. Hence it is 
that we never hear him mention her but as his f'poil, the 
reward of war, or the gift which the Grecians gave him. 
Pope has made the language of this rough warrior lefs in- 
confiftent with the peculiar refentment natural to an in¬ 
jured lover than it is in the original; for in the original 
the hero fays exprefsly, “ I will not fight with you or with 
any other man for the fake of a girl ; but you fliall not 
rob me of any other part of my property which is furely 
the language of a man to whole heart love muft have been 
an utter Itranger. 
Since, then, it is fo apparent, that in the heroic age of 
Greece even princes and kings were ftrangers to the ge¬ 
nerous affection of love, it need not occalion much lur- 
prife that the fame affeCtion has very little influence upon 
mankind in the lowed: ranks of the moll polilhed focie- 
ties of modern Europe. That this is a Chi ally the cafe, 
that among the generality of uneducated men and women 
there is no other bond of attachment than the fenfualap- 
petite, every year furnilhes multiplied proofs. We daily 
fee youths, rejected by their miftreffes, paying their ad- 
drelies without delay to girls who, in looks, temper, and 
difpofition, are diametrically oppolite to thofe whom fo 
lately they pretended to love : we daily fee maidens, 
flighted by their lovers, receiving the addrelfes of men, 
who in nothing but tlieir fex relemble thole to whom a 
week before they wilhed to be married ; and we believe it 
is not very uncommon to find a girl entertaining feveral 
lovers together, that, if one or more of them (hould prove 
falfe, Ihe may (til! have a chance not to be totally delerted. 
Did eiteem and benevolence, placed on manners and cha¬ 
racter, conflitute any part of vulgar love, thefe people 
would aCt very differently ; for they would find it impof- 
fible to change their lovers and their miftrelfes with the 
fame eafe that they change their clothes. 
To this account of love, as it appears in lavage nations, 
fome one may perhaps oppofe the paintings ot the lofter 
pafllon in the poems of Ollian. That bard deferibes the 
female character as commanding refpeCt and eiteem, and 
the Caledonian heroes as cherilhing for their miftrelfes a 
flame fo pure and elevated as never was furpafled, and has 
feldom been equalled, in thole ages which we commonly 
call moll enlightened. This is indeed true ; and it is one 
ofthe many reafons which have induced Johni'on and others 
to pronounce the whole a modern fiction. Into that debate 
we do not enter at prefent. (See the articleOssiAN.) We 
might admit the authenticity of the poems, without ac¬ 
knowledging that they furniih any exception to ourgene- 
ral theory. They furniih indeed, in the manners which 
they deferibe, a wonderful anomaly in the general hif¬ 
tory of man. All other nations of which we read were 
2 iu 
