with any freedom, they polish fooner than men * These are not the only particulars that diftinguish the fexes. With respect to matrimony, it is the privilege of the male, as fuperior and protector, to make a choice; the female preferred has no privilege but barely to confent or to refufe. Nature fits them for thefe different parts: the male is bold, the female bafhful. Hence among all nations it is the practice for men to court, and for women to be courted: which holds alfo among many other animals, probably among all that pair. Another diftinction is equally vifible: The mafter of a family is immediately connected with his country; his wife, his The chief quality of women, fays Rouffeau, is fweetness of temper. Made by nature for fubmiffion in the married ftate, they ought to learn to fuffer wrong, even without complaining. Sournefs and ftubborness serve but to increase the husband's unkindnefs and their own diftreffes. It was not to indulge bad humour, that Heaven beftowed on them manners infinuating and perfuafive: they were not made weak in order to be imperious: a fweet voice fuits ill with fcolding; delicate features ought not to be disfigured with paffion. They frequently may have reafon for complaints; but never, to utter them publicly. children, children, his fervants, are immediately connected with him, and with their country through him only. Women accordingly have lefs patriotifm than men; and lefs bitterness against the enemies of their country. The peculiar modefty of the female fex, is also a diftinguishing circumftance. Nature hath provided them with it as a defence against the artful folicitations of the other fex before marriage, and also as a fupport of conjugal fidelity. A fundamental article in the prefent fketch is matrimony; and it has been much controverted, whether it be an appointment of nature, or only of municipal law. Many writers have exercised their talents in that controverfy, but without giving fatisfaction to a judicious inquirer. If I mistake not, it may be determined upon folid principles; and as it is of importance in the hiftory of man, the reader, I am hopeful, will not be difgufted at the length of the argument. Many writers hold that women were originally common; that animal love was gratified as among horfes and horned cattle; and that matrimony was not known, known, till nations grew in fome degree to be orderly and refined. I felect Cicero as an author of authority: "Nam fuit "quoddam tempus, cum in agris homines paffim, beftiarum more, vagaban tur, et fibi victu ferino vitam propaga"bant: nec ratione animi quicquam fed "pleraque viribus corporis adminiftra"bant. Nondum divinae religionis non "humani officii ratio colebatur. Nemo "legitimas viderat nuptias, non certos quifquam infpexerat liberos* (a).”— Pliny, in fupport of that doctrine, informs us, that the Garamantes, an African nation, male and female lived promifcuoufly together, without any notion of matrimony. Among the Aufes, a people of Libya, as Herodotus fays, matrimony was not known, and men cohabited with women indifferently, like other "For there was a time, when men, like the "brutes, roamed abroad over the earth, and fed like "wild beafts upon other animals. Then reafon bore "no fway, but all was ruled by fuperior ftrength. "The ties of religion, and the obligations of mora"lity, were then unfelt. Lawful marriage was une known, and no father was certain of his offspring." ' (a) De Inventione, lib. 1. animals. animals. A boy educated by his mother was at a certain age admitted to an affembly of men, and the man he clung to was reputed his father. Juftin and other authors report, that before Cecrops, who reigned in Attica about 1600 years before Christ, marriage was not known in Greece; and that the burden of children lay upon the mother. Before entering directly into the matter, it is proper to remove, if poffible, the bias of these great names. The practice of the Garamantes and of the Aufes is mentioned by Pliny and Herodotus as fingular; and, were it even well vouched, it would avail very little against the practice of all other nations. Little weight can be laid upon Pliny's evidence in particular, confidering what he reports in the fame chapter of the Blemmyans, that they had no head, and that the mouth and eyes were in the breast. Pliny at the fame time, as well as Herodotus, being very deficient in natural knowledge, were grofsly credulous; and cannot be relied on with respect to any thing ftrange or uncommon. As to what is reported of ancient Greece, Cecrops poffibly prohibited polygamy, or introdu ced ced fome other matrimonial regulation, which by writers might be mistaken for a law appointing matrimony. However that be, one part of the report is undoubtedly erroneous; for it will be made. evident afterward, that in the hunter-state, or even in that of shepherds, it is impracticable for any woman, by her own induftry alone, to rear a numerous iffue. If this be at all poffible, it can only be in the torrid zone, where people live on fruits and roots, which are produced in plenty with very little labour. Upon that account, Diodorus Siculus is lefs blameable for listening to a report, that the inhabitants of Taprobana, fuppofed to be the island of Ceylon, never marry, but that women are used promifcuoufly. At the fame time, as there is no fuch custom at present in the Eaft Indies, there is no good ground to believe, that it ever was cuftomary; and the Eaft Indies were fo little known to the ancient Greeks, that their authors cannot be much relied on, in the accounts they give of that diftant region. The authority of Cicero, however respectable in other matters, will not be much regarded upon the prefent queftion, when the |