REMARKS ON ASIATIC WOMEN. 
341 
Half-a-dozen at a time were deemed an inconsiderable conquest; 
and the woman disgraced, past living in the best society, who 
could not number more than three or four. There is something 
too preposterous in such an arrangement, to remark on it 
seriously; so I shall pass again to the infinitely less absurd, 
though nearly as extravagant a practice, still in use amongst our 
friends of the East. 
The personal charms of Asiatic women seldom exceed a term 
, of eight or ten years; for mental fascinations, they seldom 
possess at all; after which period, the lately luxuriant and spor¬ 
tive beauty, full of smiles and inviting glances, becomes thin, 
withered, rheum-eyed, and every way a hag. In short, the brief 
summer of their bloom begins even as early as the age of eleven 
or twelve, and ends soon after twenty ; every year, following that 
fatal period, adding wrinkle to wrinkle, till what had been the 
“ Light of the Harem,” is entirely clouded over. Although so 
many romantic tales still dwell on their tongues, where love is 
almost the sole theme, and which are listened too by all ranks of 
persons with the most rapt attention ; yet I doubt that any such 
sentiment now remains amongst them. A violent transitory 
passion, mere beauty may awaken ; and, perhaps, the less it has 
to do with mental attractions, the more overpowering is its ephe¬ 
meral reign. But the charms of mind are necessary to expand 
those emotions of an hour, into the delicate affections, which 
form the dearest ties of life. Hence, no tender remembrances 
follow the fading of these once lovely objects ; one succeeds to 
another, in the favor of her master, with as little previous notice, 
and no more regret when discarded, than he feels in looking out 
from his window, on the lately blooming, and now earth-strewn 
roses ; emblems, indeed, of the scene whose fountain they had 
