An eminent French skeptic once asserted, with ingenious sophistry, that woman could never have been degraded under any system of heathen faith, where female deities formed a part of the mythology of the people. A reference to facts, however, completely demonstrates the fallacy of this remark. The mythology of the Greeks and Romans abounded with female deities, and yet the whole tenor of the social life of those ancient nations amply proves that woman, among them, existed in a state of complete pupilage and vassalage. Among the Greeks, in particular, who constructed the mythology afterwards adopted by the Romans, woman was considered merely as an article of property, as much subject to the will of her possessor as any inferior animal, or the inanimate goods and chattels that he possessed. But woman was regarded as a very troublesome species of property, to be watched with a vigilance sharpened by continual suspicion, and to be governed by laws rigorous in proportion to their injustice.

It is an immutable and instructive fact in morals, that every act of injustice perpetrated by one human being against another, operates as unfavorably on the injurer as on the injured. Thus the social system of the most intellectual nation of heathen antiquity, by sanctioning the tyranny of man, and compelling the slavery of woman, deteriorated the character of both. The vice of evil and despotic passions, of narrow-minded, mean suspicions, degraded the character of man; while timid subserviency, deceitful obsequiousness, subtlety, cunning, and fraud, were the most obvious results in the character of All the ennobling confidence of mutual affection and trust was banished; and esteem was impossible between parties who entertained on the one side suspicion, and on the other, fear. In conformity with such sentiments, we find that woman formed no part of polite society among the people in question; that she passed her life in seclusion among her domestics; that she was guarded with rigorous

woman.

vigilance. Even when permitted to leave her house for a visit, the law restricted her to three changes of raiment; and, that there might be no secrecy in her movements, she was compelled at night to have a torch borne before her carriage. She might not converse with a stranger. She might not form an intimacy beyond the walls of her own dwelling; "because," says the historian, "it might lead her to the embezzlement of the goods and chattels committed to her charge.' The wife or daughter might be bequeathed, at death, in the same manner as the rest of the testator's property; and there was no appeal. And, if not so bequeathed, so long as a woman possessed a male relative, however remote, she was not legally her own mistress. In some of the states of Greece, maternal feelings were cruelly outraged; for her offspring, if sickly, was cast into a cavern to perish, if robust it was considered the property of the state, and speedily removed from her superintendence. Under such a humiliating system it cannot be wondered that woman often sunk to the level of her wretched destiny, and displayed all the vices which such injustice was calculated to foster. There were a few noble exceptions, but their rarity is proved by the remark and wonder which every evidence of excellence among woman excited; and the inference is plain, that the mass of women exhibited all the vices of their degraded and enslaved condition.

The effect of this debasement, scholars tell us, may be traced in the literature of the Greeks. With all their gorgeous imagination they could not paint the character of a woman, who to good sense and intelligence added modesty and refinement. They did not understand in what female dignity and purity consisted; and even their female deities are embodiments of the passions rather than of the virtues. So true it is, that wherever woman is treated with injustice, national advancement is retarded, and the literature of the country deteriorated.

If we look farther East, we behold in India a system which has prevailed from time immemorial—the metaphysical subtleties of the Hindus; and here the degradation of woman is more complete, because excessive ignorance is added to other means of humiliation. She is deemed so inferior, that she is debarred all domestic authority, and all religious privileges.

The result of all these civil and religious disabilities may be traced in the horrible cruelties constantly practiced towards women. The destruction of female infants as votive offerings to sanguinary gods; the immolation of the wife and female slaves on the funeral pyre of the husband, that he may have attendants to minister to him in a future state of existence-all attest the despotism of man, and the slavery of woman. The thoughtful mind, careful to note the effects resulting from evil causes, will observe that in the vast region where this odious system yet prevails, all remains stagnant. Other nations progress: civilization follows constantly in the train of Christianity; England has planted her institutions in the East, and tendered her knowledge; but the mighty masses of the people are as yet unchanged; the revolting customs of Hindustan remain predominant, and the degraded character of her people is the same now that it was centuries ago. What an incentive to the pious mind to labor that its daily prayer, "Thy kingdom come," may be accomplished in reference to this unhappy people!"

Another immense section of the human race are devotees of the false prophet of Mecca; and among the Mohammedans a similar estimate of the female character prevails, and similar effects follow. A life of seclusion, and of passive, uncomplaining submission, is the lot of woman. Man is amenable to the restraints of law: woman to the caprices of man. In the seclusion of the harem, the master reigns supreme. He has the power of life and death. No eye penetrates

the recesses where the female is immured; and the voice of accusation, supposing woman had the courage to make any, would not pierce the walls of her gilded and silken prison. Her life is one of monotony, indolence, ignorance, and consequent debasement and sorrow. Our travellers have been sometimes fascinated by the splendor of the habitations, the gorgeous trappings, and the graceful manners of these victims of man's caprice: but it surely must be a very superficial observer who can think that the heart of woman, with all its yearning tenderness, and the mind of woman, with all its vivacious activity, can be satisfied with the dreary, wearisome, soulless monotony of a life where bathing, dressing, stringing beads, embroidery, and passive obedience, form the occupations and duties of the present life, uncheered by any assured hope of a compensating futurity.

It is expressly said, "A woman, a drunkard, and a maniac, may not announce the hour of prayer." "A woman, a dog, and a swine, may not enter the sacred mosques." The degrading associations here connected with the female name, attest the estimate formed of her spiritual and intellectual character.

The reaction of this injustice on the national interests, collectively, is manifest. The manners are dull, the habits indolent, a lethargic supineness characterizes the mind, and a luxurious, cushioned ease spreads a torpor over all society. In literature no advances are made, and few improvements invade the semi-barbaric customs which ignorance has long established. One fact alone speaks volumes as to their intellectual progress. The trade of a scribe, or transcriber of manuscripts, was in full exercise in Constantinople in the early part of the present century, when, in every other city of Europe, the printing press had rendered that occupation, as a matter of trade in multiplying books, entirely obsolete.

Such being the degraded position of woman among what are termed

polished pagan nations, ancient and modern, it is not wonderful to find, that in barbarous, savage tribes-whether among the aborigines of America, the inhabitants of Africa, the population of various island groups, or the wild native Australian race-woman, in consequence of her weaker physical conformation, should be contemned as an inferior being. To procure food, and to defend himself from enemies, appear to be the first efforts that uncivilized man makes to enable himself to live in this world. Woman cannot often equal man in these qualifications, and in such a state of society she must be depressed, and little regarded. Hence, probably, arises all the variety of oppression and cruelty under which she groans among savage nations. Nothing is more affectingly true, than that, from every heathen land, whether polished or rude, the agonizing cry of woman ascends, and calls on all Christian nations to compassionate her state, and labor for her emancipation.

How ennobling and soul-refreshing it is to turn, from contemplations. such as these, to the pages of inspired truth, and there behold the female character elevated by moral attributes, and dignified by in-. tellectual endowments: a recognition expressly given that her duties are as important, her responsibilities as great, her eternal destinies as solemn, as those of man. The burden of existence presses with equal weight on both sexes. Each has to feel that life is solemn and earnest. No duty is remitted, no evil is palliated, by the sex of the individual. No humiliating pleas, founded on the old heathen notion of woman's moral inferiority, will, for a moment, be admitted in extenuation of errors, when brought " to the law and to the testimony." In the sacred page which records the first creation of woman, a term is applied to her, whose wide significance has seldom been reflected upon sufficiently. She is emphatically called the "help-meet" of man. Not help-less, not inadequate, and therefore not inferior; but suited by