d and servile vices seem
to have kept pace with the wildest licentiousness; and the dark
and stern persecutions in Scotland form a fearful contrast with
the bacchanalian revels of the court. The effects on the
character and estimation of the female sex, sustain all that has
been said upon the connexion of their interests with the
elevation of morals. It became the habit to satirize and despise
them, and on this they have never entirely recovered. The
demoralization which led to it was, indeed, too much opposed to
the temper of the English to be permanent; but women, for a long
time after, ceased to keep pace with their age. Notwithstanding
the numerous exceptions which must always have existed in a free
and populous country like England, where literature had made
progress, it is certain, that in the days of Pope and Addison, the
women, in general, were grossly ignorant.

"The tone of gallantry and deference which had arisen from
chivalry, still remained on the surface, but its language was
that of cold, unmeaning flattery; and, from being the arbiters of
honour, they became the mere ministers of amusement. They were
again consigned to that frivolity, into which they _relapse as
easily as men_ do into ferocity. The respect they inspired, was
felt individually or occasionally, but not for their sex. Any
thing serious addressed to them, was introduced with an apology,
or in the manner we now address children whom we desire to
flatter. They were treated and considered as grown children. In
the writings addressed to them expressly for their instruction in
morals, or the conduct of life, though with the sincerest desire
for their welfare, nothing is proposed to them that can either
exalt their sentiments, invigorate their judgment, or give them
any desire to leave the world better than they found it. They
inculcated little beyond the views and the duties of a decent
servant. Views and duties, indeed, very commendable as far as
they go, but lamentable when offered as the standard of morals
and thought for half the human species; that half too, on whom
chiefly depends the first, the often unalterable, bent given to
the character of the whole."

The dignity of character which rivets our attention on the "high dames and
gartered knights" of the days of Elizabeth, the simplicity and earnestn