national importance--with so many advantages, how
is it that women are still exposed to so many sufferings, from
dependence, oppression, mortification, and contempt? why are
their opinions yet sneered at? why is their influence rather
deprecated than sought? Is it not that they have never learnt
even the selfish policy of connecting themselves with the spirit
of moral and intellectual advancement? Is it not because their
liberty, their privileges, their power, have proceeded in many
respects, less from a spirit of justice in the other sex, or a
sense of moral fitness, than from the love of pleasure and
luxury, of which women are the best promoters?"

In England, these evils are peculiarly great; for in England they are
without compensation. It is possible to imagine such brilliant
conversation, such varied wit, such graceful manners, such apparent
gentleness, that would stifle the complaints of the moralist, and cause
the half-uttered expostulation to die away upon his lips. So we can
conceive that Arnaud and Nicole may have listened to the enchanting
discourse of Madame de Sevigne, and under an influence so irresistible,
have forborne to scan with severity the faults, glaring as they were, of
the system to which she belonged. But with us the case is
different--compare the English lady in her country-house, hospitable to
her guests, benevolent to her dependents, as a wife spotless, as a mother
most devoted, caring for all around her, dispensing education, relieving
distress, encouraging merit, the guard of innocence, the shame of guilt,
active, contented, gracious, exemplary: and see the same person in
London--her frame worn out with fatigue, her mind ulcerated with petty
mortifications, her brow clouded, her look hardened, her eye averted from
unprofitable friends, her tone harsh, her demeanour restless, her whole
being changed: and were there no higher motive, were it a question of
advantage and convenience only, were dignity, and the good opinion of
others, and consideration in the world, alone at stake, can any one
hesitate as to which situation a wife or daughter should prefer? We
should, indeed, be sorry if our demeanour in those vast crowds where
English people flock together, rather, as it would seem, to assert a
right than to gratify an inclination, were to be taken as an index of our
national character--the want of all ease and simplicity, those essential
ingredients of