of women, (who would yield rather from reason or affection than contented servility,) would be less irritating than the opposition to their just wishes, which men now so frequently experience from the petulance of ill-regulated tempers, who resist, not when they ought, but when they can. Nothing produces a more willing obedience, than a thorough conviction of the reasonableness of subordination, and a clear view of the limits to authority. But indefinite control is always liable to provoke either a spirit of resistance, or a system of art, because the mind, never knowing what to prepare for, can never adapt its habits to its circumstances. It is not yielding to the just prerogative but to the vices of others, that either debases the mind, or wets the pillow with nightly tears. Women have such great control over education and the formation of opinion, that it rests very much with them to spread the conviction, that neither law nor custom can justify one human being for depriving another of the common rights of rational agents. They who push their interference beyond what is due to the interests of their profession, their duties as heads of families, and the indulgence of their own conscientious tastes and pleasures, have no sanction for their conduct, but the power of the strong over the weak. And when it is exercised to force acquiescence in wrongs of affection, that wither the very soul of a wife, in vices that disgrace society and may bring their contagion on her children, what exercise of tyranny can be more degrading to the man, and more cruel to his victim? However difficult for legislation to define or prevent such aggressions, it is, at least, possible for opinion to discountenance them. When the real interests of society, necessarily impose sacrifices on one party from which another is free, what moral principle can be clearer than that such sacrifices should be reduced to the least possible? But when we proceed to the exactions of mere pride, folly, or vice, submission to these, however unavoidable, just doubles their evils to society. If one parent disgrace his household by intemperance, or violence, and the other assent to it as if it were all right, the children are misled by two parents instead of one. If one person set the example of vice to society, and another be compelled to yield him respect and obedience, vice has the countenance of two members instead of one. The end of society is the maintenance of virtue and happiness; if the virtue of one member be destroyed by his vices, and the happiness of another be destroyed by the consequences of them, there is a double amount of evil in society. I beg to observe, that this argument is used only to exhibit the ill consequences of laws and customs, adapted to compel the endurance of wrong rather than to assist in restraining it. It does not justify acrimony, violence, or insult in resistance to domestic oppression. These are the worst methods that can be adopted by the strong towards the weak; by the weak towards the strong, they are preposterous. A person with an arbitrary temper, and a high moral character, frequently justifies his perpetual and teasing interference, by some solemn reason for the prevention of every free movement he steps in to overrule. This is indeed the delusion, which, in every relation of social life, leads man from the generosity of the hero, to the selfishness of the despot. For how few are they who do not cloke their violences to their own eyes, by some show of justice? Who says to himself, "This will I prevent, that I may check so much innocent enjoyment "-"That will I enforce, that I may embitter life with cares and mortifications." But the susceptibility of an indulged will, first converts a trifle into a great matter, makes it a mine of crime or danger, and then the pride of power acts with self-satisfaction. Even when authority is most sincerely guided by conscience, experience has fully proved, that the attempt to rule everything is a mistake. Whether in education, government, or domestic economy, the attempt to regulate everything may succeed in repressing a good many petty mal-practices, but it is at the expense of that candour, and that vigour of principle and of judgment, which are the growth only of freedom. Thus a character is fashioned, of great form and moral deficiencies. regularity in trifles, but great When not successful, the system fails to produce even the timid and petty virtues; and whether in education or government, the human mind bursts forth into open resistance and a contempt for all authority. It would be well, were it possible, to check every defect and every folly, but it is not possible. Experience has proved that the attempt leads to vices and miseries, much greater than such faults and errors as do not unhinge society. The fallible lawgiver to the fallible creature, has always proved of the two so much the greater foe to the interests of humanity, that philosophers have ever directed their speculations to the best means of enlarging the freedom, rather than increasing the restraints of the subject. The more that can be left safely to the moral sentiments of mankind, and to the decisions of their own judgment, the better for all parties, the master as well as the governed. For this reason, nature has made the love of liberty the most unconquerable desire, of all that submit to the restraints of civilization; and it is never extinguished without carrying with it many of our best virtues. SECTION V. Comparative Condition of Men and Women. That the laborious and anxious pursuits of professional and political life, are upon the whole a source of superior happiness to the male sex, no reasonable doubt can be entertained. Man is formed Ambition and Those pro for industry, action, and enterprise. hope are the springs of his existence. pensities and passions, which in barbarous life lead to wars and cruelties that tend to destroy the species, in the public, professional, and industrious occupations of a civilized community, are directed into beneficial channels; in which, while they animate existence, they lose much of their turbulence and irregularity. But it is only in the aggregate, that those occupations can be regarded as such a superior privilege. They are mixed with a very large propor tion of cares and sufferings. Often the labour comes without the reward; and often, hope and ambition outgrow the means of gratification, and produce discontent which nothing within the range of probability can appease. If eminence could be reached by a bound, however daring and dangerous, it would be every man's desire; but the slow prospects of regular industry are no great incitements to men of ordinary minds. In the daily and common business of life, the hopes of emolument and the prospects of future distinction, are not kept steadily in sight, but the hours of dulness and restraint are faithfully numbered. Most men who have either spirit or ability, entertain sufficient contempt for absolute idleness, to prefer, at least in idea, the trammels of a profession. There are very few who would not like to engage in some eventful enterprise, somewhat, in short, that as nearly as possible resembled gambling for life. It is seldom however that civil employments are so exciting, and upon the whole, it may be said that the duties of professional, and even of political life, are undertaken less frequently for ambition than for subsistence, for the comfort and pleasures of domestic life which are attained by exertion. It is the hardearned leisure which is sought for, whether to be spent in the quiet of domestic affections, or the animation of social intercourse. Far from the shore, when dark'ning clouds increase, |