or this office. "A man," says Diderot, "never sat on the sacred tripod;
a woman alone, could deliver the Pythian oracle; alone could raise her
mind to such a pitch as seriously to imagine the approach of a god, and
panting with emotion, to cry, 'I perceive him, I perceive him; there!
there! the god!'" The same zeal which was displayed in devotion to a
false faith, is seen in Christian lands, sustaining the morals and piety
of eternal life.

Woman is more susceptible than man of sudden and strong impressions. Her
impulses are quick and prompt, but this trait unless counterbalanced by
others, would expose her to irresistible evil. She would fall an easy
prey to lawless emotions. God has kindly averted this calamity, by
inspiring her with a constancy and devotedness seldom witnessed in man.
Let her place her affections on any object, and they will cling to it
through every trial and change. What love so strong as woman's? What
moral power can compare with hers, when principle, duty, devotion, once
engage the full energies of her soul?

2. What we have learned from this glance at the constitution of your
sex, is verified by the Sacred Scriptures. In the book of Genesis we are
told that God "took one of the ribs of Adam, as he slept, and closed up
the flesh instead thereof." Some commentators translate this passage
thus: "he took one out of his side, and put flesh in its place;" and
they thence infer that Adam and Eve were created at once, and joined by
the side to each other; that God afterward sent a deep sleep upon Adam,
and then separated the woman from him. They were thus on a perfect
equality till the period of the fall. After that melancholy event, the
sentence was pronounced on woman, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee." And through all the subsequent history of
woman, as found in the Bible, it is said, her inferiority to man is
constantly implied.--Among the woes predicted by the prophet Isaiah, as
awaiting Jerusalem and Judah, this is included, "Women shall rule over
them."

Let the original relative capacities of woman have been as they might,
one fact is clearly apparent, that the general condition of women among
the ancient Jews, and in contemporary nations, was one of degradation and
servitude. She was the slave of man. The Essenes, a Jewish sect not
unlike the modern Shakers, treated this sex with little respect, often
with contempt. The system of polygamy, of old almost univers