the fame fhade, but fometimes of large pines; we gradually defcending but making a large circuit round the town; and no park or garden was ever half fo tovelys for under the clofeft fhade were often little spots of corn, and fome vines, twined to the very tops of the chefnut trees. The path was often unpleasantly fleep, but might with eafe, and a trivial expence, have been made to wind more round the hills,and it did fo nearer the church; made fo, I fuppofe, by the good priefts, who probably were fenfible of the beauties of that place : and indeed no fituation, when once it. was afcended to, could I believe compare with it. We, on quitting the chefnut groves, which brought us within two miles and a half of this town, came through the vineyards, without the unpleafing impediment of fences; for, as I before told you, they run no risk of cattle breaking in here; in the town the hogs lie in the ftreets, at the doors, and in the entry at the bottom of the flairs of mol of the houfes, which you may imagine adds greatly to the cleanlinefs and delicacy of dwellers in fuch.

Yefterday evening I walked to the quinta of Don Juan Jofaios, de VinCelles, Confallos, Bittoncour; the richeft inhabitant of the ifland. His place was remarkable for, nothing but a longer berceau walk of grapes than ufual, the top frame of which wasfupported by fquare ftone pillars at every ten foot, with a wall on each fide waift high, and a heavy fummer houfe at the end, to prevent the fea terminating the berceau. There was ftone and lime enough to have built a tolerable dwelling; his house had large high rooms, but fill, as the reft, bare walls, no ceilings, floors compof. ed of irregular, disjointed, and unplaned boards. This I more wonder at, as he is lately returned from England, where he paffed near three years, had a house at: hmond hill and has an English joiner he brought over with him.

The majority of the inhabitants, even the rich, fit on matts on the Hoors. My friend, the botanist, or quondam gardener, has a correfpondence with the miffionaries in the

Brafils, who, at his defire, transmit to him, when opportunity offers, which is however, rare, any curious plants; fome of which he tells me he forwards to the Royal Society in London. And he boafts of having been the only perfon that has introduced theremany plants that I remember to be efteemed great curiofities, and some are only in the phy fic gardens.

Lefs pleafing, although not lefs curious than any thing I have yet defcribed, is a chapel here, whofe fides, and covered roof is intirely compofed of dead men's bones, in a Mofaic pattern; the skull forming the center, with various bones fuck in end ways round it, and the arm and leg bones, length ways, forming the bars, ftrongly infpiring the penferofe, and therefore well adapted to the place; yet could one forget the materials, the wonderful good effect they have would give pleasure, and be well worth imitation in any ruftic building.

One fingular fortunate circumfance in this climate I must not omit. Between nine and ten o'clock, a frong vapour, like a cloud, rifes and hangs about a mile perpendicuJarly high, fo as to fkreen you the remainder of the day from the rays of the fun, without in the leaft obAtructing the view, or rendering it lefs clear; but ferving as an umbrella, under which, freed from an inconvenient glare of funthine, you can with greater eafe and pleasure contemplate the objeЯs.

Of WOMEN.

(By Dr. Alexander.)

W.

fmall degree of probability,

HE human genius has, with no

been divided by naturalifts into feveral difiin& fpecies, each marked with corporeal differences, which could hardly arife from cuftom or from climate, and with intellectual powers fcarcely lefs indicative of this divifion than the marks of their bodies. Thefe fpecies, like those of moft other animals, are again divided into fexes, with different fentiments and faculties, adapted to the different purpo

fes

fes for which they were intended. So far the diftinctions are plain; but man has carried them farther, and arrogated to his fex a fuperiority of body and mind which he cannot prove himself poffeffed of; for al though we find in general through the whole of animated nature, the males of every fpecies endowed with a degree of bodily ftrength fuperior to the females, yet we have no plain indication of any fuperiority conferred upon there males in the powers and faculties of their minds. Among the brute animals we do not recollett that any one has been hardy enough to contend for this mile fuperiority; ainong human beings, however, it has been and is full fo ftrongly contended for, that we shall give a mort view of this contention, as the hiftory of one of the moft peculiar opinions that have been entertained concerning the fex.

Whether this fuppofed fuperiority is, in civil life, owing to any arrogance inherent in male nature; or o the pride of more numerous acquifi. tions, we fhall not at prefent examine. In favage life we may ac count for it upon another principle. Among uncivilized people bodily Arength was the only thing held in particular eflimation; and women having rather a lefs portion of this than men, were on that account never fo much efteen ed, nor rated at fo bigh a value. From the body it was easy to make a transition to the mind, and fuppofe it's powers lefs extensible, becaufe for want of op. portunities they were lefs extended; hence an inferiority, which arofe only from circumftances, was fuppofed to have arifen from nature, and the fex were accordingly treated as beings of an inferior order.

But let us take a nearer view of the matter, and we shall fee that this boafted pre-eminence of the men is at leaft as much the work of art as of nature; and that women in thofe Savage States, where both fexes are alike unadorned by culture; are, perhaps, not at all inferior in abilities of mind to the other fex, and even fcarcely inferior to them in frength of body. This fubject is, however, of the mof difficult nature, to invef

tigate with precision the powers and propenfities of women, it is necessary to be a woman; to inveftigate thofe of man, it is neceffary to be a man ; to compare them impartially, to be fomething different from either.

On comparing the aggregate of the corporeal and intellectual powers of the two fexes in favage life the difference will appear much less than it generally does on a fuperficial view. Though in the hunting, fishing, and warlike excurfions of the men, there appears a confiderable fhare of art and ingenuity, yet there are in a ftationary condition, and time immemorial have been taught by f2. thers to their fons, without their fons ever having deviated from the road chalked out by their fathers, or thinking of adding any improvements to what they perhaps confidered as already perfea. Though, in dying and making of trinkets, as pra:fed by the women, there is alfo an appearance of art, we have not the leaft doubt, that they are rather cuftomary operations, which have for many ages been performed without the malleft improvement or variation; this we the more readily believe, when we confider, that in many places the domeftic employments and economy of favages, are nearly the fame as in the patriarchat ages.

When, from favage life, we proceed to confider the Thare that each (ex has had in the progrefs of these improvements, which lead to civilization, it appears, that each, in its proper fphere, has contributed nearly, in an equal proportion to this great and valuable purpofe. The Egyptians afcribed the invention of many valuable medicines to Ifis, and confecrated her, goddefs of health. The art of fpinning, one of the most ufeful that ever was invented, is, by all antiquity, afcribed to women. The Jews gave it to Naamah, the daughter of Lamech the Egypti ans give the honour of it to Ifis; the Chinefe, to the confort of their Emperor Iao. This, and the art of few. ing, an art hardly lefs neceffary, the fables and traditions of almoff all nations afcribe to the fair fex. The Ledians afcribed them to Arachne;

the Greeks to Minerva; the ancient Peruvians to Mama-Oella; wife to Mancocapac, their first sovereign; and the Romans gave the invention not only of fpinning and fewing, but alfo of weaving, to their women. Such, and perhaps many others of a Gmilar nature, were the contributions of female genius towards the utility and convenience of life; contributions which at leaft equal, if not rival, whatever has been done by the boafted ingenuity of man.

The hiftory of every period, and of every people, prefents us with fome extraordinary women, who have fhone in all the different charafters, which render men eminent and confpicuous. Syria furnishes us with a Semiramis, Africa with a Zenobia; both famous for their he roifm and skill in government. Greece and Rome, with many who fet pub. lick examples of courage and forti. tude; Germany and England have exhibited Queens, whofe talents in the field, or in the cabinet, would have done honour to either fex ; but it was referved for Ruffia, in the perTon of the prefent Emprefs, to join both thefe illuftrious talents together, and to add to them, what is ftill more noble, an inclination to favour the fciences, and to reftore and fecure the natural rights of her fubjects; rights which almost every other fovereign has endeavoured to deftroy.

We know that it is a generally eftablished opinion, that in ftrength of mind, as well as of body, men are greatly fuperior to women; an opinion into which we have been led, by not duly confidering the proper propenfities, and paths chalked out to each by the author of their nature. We bend our thoughts to make life convenient. They turn theirs to make it easy and agreeable: would it be difficult for women to acquire the endowments allotted to us by nature? It would be as much fo for us to acquire those peculiarly allotted to them. Are we fuperior to them in what belongs to the male character? They are no lefs fo to us in what belongs to the female.

The idea of the inferiority of female nature, has drawn after it feveral others the most abfurd, unrea

fonable, and humiliating to the fex. Such is the pride of man, that whereever the doctrine of immortality has obtained footing, he has entirely confined that immortality to his own genus, and confidered it as a prerogative much too exalted for any other beings. And in fome countries, not flopping here, he has alfo confidered it as a diftinction too glorious for women. Thus degrading the fair partners of his nature, he places them on a level with the beafls that perish.

Whatever votaries this opinion may have had in the eaf, it has had but few in Europe; a few, however, have even here maintained it, and affigned various and fometimes laughable reasons for fo doing among thefe,a ftory we have heard of a Scots clergyman is not the leaft particular. This peaceable fon of Levi, whofe wife was a defcendant of the famous

Xantippe, in going through a course of lectures on the Revelations of St. John, from that abftrule writer imbibed an opinion, that the fex had no fouls, and were incapable of future rewards and punishment. It was no fooner known in the country that he maintained fuch a doctrine, than he was fummoned before a prefbytery of his brethren, to be dealt with according to his delinquency. When he appeared at their bar, they asked him, if he really held plainly that he did. On defiring to fo heretical an opinion? He told them be informed of his reafons for fo John the divine," faid he, "you will doing, "In the Revelations of St. find this paffage ;"" And there was filence in heaven for about the space of half an hour." "Now I appeal to all of you, whether that could poffi bly have happened had there been any women there? And fince there imagine that they are all in a worfe are none there, charity forbids us to place; therefore it follows, that they have no immortal part; and happy is it for them, as they are thereby exempted from being accountable

for all the noife and difturbance they have raifed in this world.

Some tribes of the Afiatic Tartars are of the fame opinion with this reverend gentleman.

(To be continued.)

From the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

Thoughts on the Rife and Progrejs of Civil Government; and on the General Canfes of National Imbecility, and of National Grandeur.

O the eye of a philofopher, the To Atructure of fociety affords the nobleft fpectacle upon earth. To affemble in a body a number of scattered individuals, to trip them of their natural liberty, in order to render them fubftantially more free to unite them by the very principles which would otherwife have kept them eternally afunder-to make them renounce their private interefts for the promotion of the general good, and to direct the general good to their own advantage individuallyto caufe their pallions,

and even their vices, to contribute to the advancement of wifdom and of virtue-thefe are circumftances that form one of the mol Aupendous phænomena in the political world, to which we feem to pay little artention; but of which, rightly confidered, we can never fufficiently exprefs our admiration. The reason of this-peg'ect is obvious. We have been habituated, from our cradles, to appear on a theatre that has been feifhed for ages a theatre on which every man infenfibly plays his part, without at all reflecting on the wonderful fy Rem of laws by which he is enabled to fill it.

It has been repeatedly affined--by writers of genius too affirmed, that, in the abfence of laws, mankind are governed by a fenfe of morality. But, unfortunately for this argument, morals are a confequence of laws; and experience thews, that to people who live perfed, and who are frangers to offer and government, little more

can be allowed than bare infine, Men utterly favage have been caught,,, literally caught, in the woods. Hardly, however, could they be faid to differ from the beafts with which they had affociated; and for this ob vious reafon, that, fo circumflanced, they had never been subjected to any. political regulation or form of go

vernment.

Animated by ideas equally fallaci.. ous, many politicians have racked their imaginations in order to prove, that in the formation of every plaa

ginally exified a preliminary convention between the people and their intended chief; in other words, a political body before aught like fyftem of politics had being.

of government there muft have ori

A focial compa& neceffarily implies anterior diftinctions. The two. contracting parties must be equally

informed in whatever relates to their

respective interefis; and, if other wife, the one must obtain an advantage over the other, and thus laya foundation for tyranny.

By the vifionaries in queftion it is gravely fuppofed, that when men be-f gan to form themfelves into communities, their understandings were enlightened; that in the compacts with their legiflators the conditions were equal; that they retained, in fine, as much for themfelves as they granted to the perfons who were to govern them. What a world of wisdom, ia men who were as yet without know. ledge!

That fyftem of politics which would refer to the firft principles of things, is itself in want of an actuating principle. There is, in fact, no hiftory of mankind, evident as it is that the chronology of the world has. been literally devoured by time. Writing and printing, which, while they fix ideas, perpetuate events, are new arts, when compared with the creation of man. The oldef annals hardly

The woods of Hanover, for ex-. ample; and they who remember the hißory of Peter the Wild Man require ao farther illuflration of this truth.

hardly go back farther than to the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Ro mans to the grand revolutions which had overturned the world be. fore the eftablishment of those empires we are perfect strangers.

Befide, this knowledge would be of little utility to us: it is of more confequence to know what men are, than to employ ourfelves in forming conjectures tending to afcertain what they were. The Chinese reap no advantage from deriving their origin fo many thousand years back; nor ale we injured because ours is fixed at a lefs ancient date. The paffions are in all ages the fame; and if we had before us the genealogy of our anceftors from the creation, we should derive no benefit from it but that of a chronological feries of our weakneffes and of our errors.

In order to the formation of a fo ciety, it is neceffary that the nature of the country should not preclude a general communication among the people who are to compofe it. The ancient inhabitants of Ruffia, for example, and, it may be added, the natives of North and South America, when those regions were firft explored by Europeans, were wanderers over vaft deferts, without having the fmalleft mutual correfpondence. It was the lot of both to inhabit diftries totally diftin& from, and unconnected with, each other. Thofe immenfe continents, though in each there was a number of different tribes, contained not (as has fince been clear ly ascertained by political calculation) one man for ten that were requifite to diffuse over the whole a degree of force adequate to their extent; and from this circumftance alone we may not only form an idea of their imbecility, but affign the cause of it.

Though it has long been remarked, that a large ftate is comparatively more weak than a small one, yet what the limits of its extent ought to be, in order tothe full enjoyment of its force, this is a point which as yet remains undetermined. A definition of it would, nevertheless, be one of the moft important acquifitions to modern politics. We fhould then, perhaps, have fewer wars; nor fhould we fee fo many Princes place their

ambition in making conquefts-an ambition, which, initead of augmenting their power, ferves only to diminifh their ftrength.

Were the force of a flate to be determined by the extent of its terri tory, the immenfe empire of Darius would have fubdued the comparatively diminutive army of Alexander; and, in modern times, we should not have feen two of the largest countries of the world enflaved by a few European veffels.

The power of a nation confifts in its force, whether naval or military, in its laws, in its maxims, in the wifdom of its government.

Sparta, Lacedemon, and Athens, were, in their infancy, fmall repub lics; and Rome, whom the whole world could not at length contain, was originally confined within her own walls.

The vaft empires of Afia have never flourished, and India and Perfia, Egypt and Turkey, have long remain. ed in a ftate of natural imbecility.

In all ages, and in every part of the world, thofe ftates, which the luft of dominion has carried beyond certain limits, have fallen victims to their immenfity.

Rome, after having been enlarged beyond the boundaries which her laws and her political eftablishment prefcribed to her, funk under the weight of her greatnefs. From the fame caufe Carthage fell. In days we may call our own alfo, Spain never felt herfelf fo weak as when she had added two large empires to her ancient territory; nor did Britain ever appear fo abject as during her impotent ftruggles to retain the dominion of one empire-an empire, however, which from a variety of circumftances almoft peculiar to it, promifes one day (if it be but poffible to keep it united within itfelf) to eclipfe the glory of Europe.

Much has been faid about the inAuence of climate, in the establishment of political governments; and a writer of very fuperior talents has endeavoured to prove, that every thing depends on this fingle circumftance. In this, however, with all deference to his revered abilities, he is deceived. Firft caufes fometimes