l arrives
at the age of marriage, her emancipation from maternal control begins;
she has scarcely ceased to be a child when she already thinks for
herself, speaks with freedom, and acts on her own impulse. The great
scene of the world is constantly open to her view; far from seeking
concealment, it is every day disclosed to her more completely, and she
is taught to survey it with a firm and calm gaze. Thus the vices and
dangers of society are early revealed to her; as she sees them clearly,
she views them without illusions, and braves them without fear; for she
is full of reliance on her own strength, and her reliance seems to be
shared by all who are about her. An American girl scarcely ever displays
that virginal bloom in the midst of young desires, or that innocent
and ingenuous grace which usually attends the European woman in the
transition from girlhood to youth. It is rarely that an American woman
at any age displays childish timidity or ignorance. Like the young women
of Europe, she seeks to please, but she knows precisely the cost of
pleasing. If she does not abandon herself to evil, at least she knows
that it exists; and she is remarkable rather for purity of manners
than for chastity of mind. I have been frequently surprised, and almost
frightened, at the singular address and happy boldness with which young
women in America contrive to manage their thoughts and their language
amidst all the difficulties of stimulating conversation; a philosopher
would have stumbled at every step along the narrow path which they trod
without accidents and without effort. It is easy indeed to perceive
that, even amidst the independence of early youth, an American woman
is always mistress of herself; she indulges in all permitted pleasures,
without yielding herself up to any of them; and her reason never allows
the reins of self-guidance to drop, though it often seems to hold them
loosely.

In France, where remnants of every age are still so strangely mingled
in the opinions and tastes of the people, women commonly receive a
reserved, retired, and almost cloistral education, as they did in
aristocratic times; and then they are suddenly abandoned, without a
guide and without assistance, in the midst of all the irregularities
inseparable from democratic society. The Americans are more consistent.
They have found out that in a democracy the independence of individuals
cannot fail to be very great, youth premature, tastes ill-restra