effects, that ever prevailed in this world. The custom which shut up women in convents till they were married, and then launched them innocent and ignorant on society, was bad enough; but not worse than a system of education which inundates us with hard, clever, sophisticated girls, trained by knowing mothers and all-accomplished governesses, with whom vanity and expediency take place of conscience and affection-(in other words, of romance)" frutto senile in sul giovenil fiore;" with feelings and passions suppressed or contracted, not governed by higher faculties and purer principles; with whom opinion—the same false honour which sends men out to fight duels -stands instead of the strength and the light of virtue within their own souls. Hence the strange anomalies of artificial society-girls of sixteen who are models of manner, miracles of prudence, marvels of learning, who sneer at sentiment, and laugh at the Juliets and the Imogens; and matrons of forty, who, when the passions should be tame and wait upon the judgment, amaze the world and put us to confusion with their doings. MEDON. Or turn politicians, to vary the excitement. How I hate political women! ALDA. Why do you hate them? MEDON. Because they are mischievous. ALDA. But why are they mischievous? MEDON. Why!-why are they mischievous? Nay, ask them or ask the father of all mischief, who has not a more efficient instrument to further his designs in this world, than a woman run mad with politics. The number of political intriguing women of this time, whose boudoirs and drawingrooms are the foyers of party spirit, is another trait of resemblance between the state of society now, and that which existed at Paris before the revolution. ALDA. And do you think, like some interesting young lady in Miss Edgeworth's tales, that "women have nothing to do with politics?" Do you mean to say that women are not capable of comprehending the principles of legislation, or of feeling an interest in the government and welfare of their country?—of perceiving and sympathising in the progress of great events? That they cannot feel patriotism? Believe me, when we do feel it, our patriotism, like our courage and our love, has a purer source than with you; for a man's patriotism has always some tinge of egotism, while a woman's patriotism is generally a sentiment of the noblest kind mixed up with her best affections. MEDON. I agree in all this; and all this does not mitigate my horror of political women in general, who are, I repeat it, both mischievous and absurd. If you could but hear the reasoning in these feminine coteries! politics. -but you never talk ALDA. Indeed I do, when I can get any one to listen to me; but I prefer listening. As for the evil you complain of, impute it to that imperfect education which at once cultivates and enslaves the intellect, and loads the memory, while it fetters the judgment. Women, however well read in history, never generalize in politics; never argue on any broad or general principle; never reason from a consideration of past events, their causes and consequences. But they are always political, through their affections, their prejudices, their personal liasons, their hopes, their fears. MEDON. If it were no worse, I could endure it; for that is at least feminine. ALDA. But most mischievous. For hence it is, that we make such blind partizans, such violent party women, and such wretched politicians. I never heard a woman talk politics, as it is termed, that I could not discern at once the motive, the affection, the secret bias, which swayed her opinions and inspired her arguments. If it appeared to the Grecian sage so "difficult for a man not to love himself, nor the things that belong to him, but justice only"-how much more for woman! MEDON. Then you think that a better education, based on truer moral principles, would render women more reasonable politicians, or at least give them some right to meddle with politics? ALDA. It would cease in that case to be meddling, as you term it, for it would be legitimatized. It is easy to sneer at political and mathematical ladies, |