IT may, perhaps, be laid down as an invariable maxim, that the condition of the female part of fociety in any nation will furnifh a tolerable juft criterion of the degree of civilization to which that nation has arrived. The manners, habits, and prevailing fentiments of women, have great influence on thofe of the fociety to which they belong, and generally give a turn to its character. Thus we fhall find that thofe nations, where the moral and intellectual powers of the mind in the female fex are held in moft eftimation, will be governed by fuch laws as are beft calculated to promote the general happinefs of the people; and, on the contrary, where the perfonal qualifications of the fex are the only objects of confideration, as is the cafe in all the defpotic governments of Afiatic nations, tyranny, oppreffion, and flavery are fure to prevail; and thefe perfonal accomplifhments, fo far from being of ufe to the owner, ferve only to deprive her of liberty, and the fociety of her friends; to render her a degraded victim, fubfervient to the fenfual gratification, the caprice, and the jealoufy of tyrant man. Among favage tribes the labour and drudgery invariably fall heavieft on the weaker fex.

The talents of women, in our own happy ifland, began only in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to be held in a proper degree of confideration.