ate of warfare with them; but in other circumstances
they are frank and ingenuous. It is this ingenuousness alone that has
scandalised you respecting our women, who, hearing love constantly
spoken of, and surrounded by its seductions and examples, conceal not
their sentiments, and if it may be so expressed, give even, to gallantry
a character of innocence; besides, they have no ridicule to dread from
that society in which they live. Some of them are so ignorant that they
cannot write; this they publicly avow, and answer a billet by means of
their agent (_il paglietto_) in a formal style on official paper. But to
make amends for this, among those who are well educated, you will find
academy professors who give public lessons in a black scarf; and should
this excite a smile, you would be answered, 'Is there any harm in
knowing Greek? Is there any harm in earning one's living by one's own
exertions? Why should so simple a matter provoke your mirth?'

"But now my lord, allow me to touch upon a more delicate subject; allow
me to enquire the cause why our men display so little military ardour.
They expose their lives freely when impelled by love and hatred; and a
stab from a stiletto given or received in such a cause, excites neither
astonishment nor dread. They fear not death when natural passions bid
them brave its terrors; but often, it must be owned, they prefer life to
political interests, which seldom affect them because they possess no
national independence. Often too, that notion of honour which descends
to us from the age of chivalry, has little power in a nation where
opinion, and society by which opinion is formed, do not exist; it is a
natural consequence of this disorganisation of every public authority,
that women should attain that ascendancy which they here possess over
the men, perhaps in too high a degree to respect and admire them.
Nevertheless, the conduct of men towards women is full of delicacy and
attention. The domestic virtues in England constitute female glory and
happiness; but if there are countries where love exists outside the
sacred ties of marriage; that one among these countries where female
happiness excites the greatest attention and care, is Italy. Here men
have invented moral duties for relations outside the bounds of morality
itself; but at least in the division of these duties, they have been
both just and generous: they considered themselves more guilty than
women, when they broke the ti