Alexandria gazette & advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1822-1824, 1822-08-15
WOMEN.


sweetness Of sensibility; softness of
sentiment, and mellowness OF heart,
which adornpeculiarly the female char.
acter. With these qualities, to suffer.
il to triumph, and to be in tears is to
shine.
The history of mankind, true or fa-
BILIOUS, sacred or profane, has been e.
qualiy honorable to the female sex. l.
sis, the Goddess of Medicine in Egypt,
Ceres, the Parent of Agriculture in,
Greece, Arachne, the author of the art
of spinning, are but a thousandth part
of the catalogue of the fair benefactors
of mankind The muses. were ladies,
so were the Graces-and if the Furies
were women it was only to mitigate
their feroeity, and to impart something
amiable to the ir appearance. Women
have mingled in national councils with
advantage; they were formerly in our
Congress when it was an Indian con-
gress, and would not dishonour it, now
that 1t is not. Do you not think that
Poeahontas would shine at Washington
as much almost as her descendant RAN
dolph?
In the Scriptures, the amiable vir-
tues oflife are pourtrayed in the char.
acter and under the denomination Of fe-
males. Charity, the redeeming grace
ofthe earth, that which Christianity ad-
ded to the three iGraces of antiquity, is
personated as female. Even the charge
of Witchcrqft is complimentary to wo-
men, it being founded on the belief, that
the spirits of the other world prefer, as
they ought to do, intercourse with them
rather than with men.
But if we pursue the subject, we shall
inevitably wander from our present
view, which is to present to the read
ers of the Courier, q beautiful tribute
from an eloquent crater to the sweet
exertions of the ladies, who, in Eng
land as we'll as in America, have devo.
ted their arduous exertions to sooth the
sick, to relieve the wretched, to amend
the sinful, and to bring back to the
paths of happiness and innocence the
unfortunate wanderer from virtue and
duty. q. 49,.
No part of-Sir James Mackin.osh's
late speech on the reformation of the
Criminal Code, is more just and clio.
quent than the following extract.
ICharteston Courier,
The examples which have hitherto
been afforded of reformation, have
chiefly occurred in the cases of female
offenders. The attempt to produce
thatreformatio is. perhaps, the only
public service which females in this
country can pender to the state. They
are enabled to render it, not by the
slightest departure from the delicacy
and modesty of their sex, but a mere
pertinacious adherence to thatkind and
persevering benevolence which is one
ofthe most graceful and endearing quail
tiles of the female character. fhear,
hear) Sir, we have all heard a great
deal of the ,benevoience of communi-
ty of females in certain Catholic eoun-
tries, called by the affecting name Of
Sisters of Charity.-lt is their task
to visit hospitals, to attend the sick, and
to perform other Offices of charitable
and benevolent nature.
But those Catholic Sisters Of Chart.
.y are bound by certain vows they are
under the conrroul of peculiar religious
obligations they have previously re,
linquished all duties of social life
Our Protestant Sisters of Charity are
bound by no vows, they are not under
the controul of any peculiar religious
engagements; and, in discharging the
various duties of,social life, they afford
examples of all the domestic virtues,
and yet they go step further than their
itlustrious Catholic models. Not con-
tent with visiting hospitals-not con.
tent with administering to bodily dis.
ease and intirmity, we behold the pu-
rest and the most virtuous of their sex
voluntarily engaged in the daily con-
temptation of depravity and wickedness
In their most hideous form--tbat of a
profligate and abandoned woman. We
,.serve them coming in contact with
the lowest andsvilest of their species
We see them exerting themselves with
as much earnestness and ardour to res
cue and amend, as the williams by whom
probably, the objects of their generous
compassion have been betrayed, have