CONTAINING NOTICES

OF

DISTINGUISHED WOMEN,

IN

DIFFERENT NATIONS AND AGES.

BY SAMUEL L. KNAPP,

AUTHOR OF LECTURES ON AMERICAN LITERATURE, ADVICE IN THE PURSUITS OF LITERATUKE,
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, ETC. ETC.

"O fairest of creation, last and best

Of all God's works, creature in whom excell'd
Whatever can to sight or thought be form'd,
Holy, divine, good, amiable or sweet."-Milton.

"Lords of the world, as ye are proudly called,
By your own sex applauded and extolled
For every good-is woman's lovely frame

A gemless casket-fitted but to claim
The eye's devotion? Perish such a thought,

HERE, learn her worth, and prize her as ye ought;
Though she permits your rougher hand to bear
The rod of power-your loftier brow to wear
The glittering badge of sovereignty-she still
Directs, unseen, the sceptre at her will.

Wisdom may act, determine, or approve,

Still the prime mover is, and must be, Love."-Woodworth.

STEREOTYPED BY FRANCIS F. RIPLEY.

Philadelphia:

THOMAS WARDLE, No. 141 CHESTNUT ST.

.......

ENTERED, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by SAMUEL L. KNAPP, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

INTRODUCTION.

We have carefully examined the histories and biographies of women, as they are found in the literature of European nations, and have come to the conclusion, that many wrong opinions are generally entertained, in regard to the treatment and influence of women, both in times past, and at the present. Alexander, in his history of women, has stated a great number of facts to show that in oriental countries, women have always been in a degraded state. He draws too many unfavorable inferences, from a few individual cases, in our humble opinion. Cox, in his Female Scripture Biography, has followed in the same track; but more modern researches has done much to correct the erroneous impressions we formerly imbibed. It is unquestionably true, that where men are in thraldom, women share the evil; and that when tyranny is the basis of a government, that it will find its way into domestic life: but there are many checks to ambitious power in the very nature of the minds and dispositions of mankind. Egypt, the cradle of nations, and of the arts and sciences, affords us no instances of extraordinary bondage or servitude among their females. If Pharoah's daughter had not possessed a good share of freedom of thought and action, the infant Moses would have perished in the rushes. If Miriam, the sister of Moses, had been secluded from society, she would not have had an opportunity of witnessing the rescue of her brother. If this same Miriam had not been well educated, would she have been a prophetess in Israel? Or, if the women had been entirely secluded, as some would have us believe women of her nation were, could she have led them to sing the chorus of the song of her brother Moses, for the deliverance of the Israelites from the hands of Pharoah; and if the women in that day had not something to do in the affairs of government, would she have joined her brother Aaron in speaking against Moses, her brother; "and they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken by us?" The Jewish history abounds in instances of female distinction. Deborah, who lived under the palm tree, was judge of Israel, and sung with Barack a song of deliver