The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1825-09-21

he constantly dressed up before his i'm
agiSation 10 blue-stocking costume; and
having thus aIrayed them, he disliked
them still more than he despised the
thoughtless and the dissipated. 10 short,
he looked upon women, for the most
part, as mere toys and trifes, instead of
regarding them as beings endued with
the same faculties as men, subjects of
the same moral probation, and fastening
TO the same issues of final happiness or
misery. Meanwhile, he forgot to in
spect his own side of the account, and
never appears to have duly considered
the reciprocal influence Of the two sex
es, in forming that specific character,
whatever it be, by which each is chiefly
distinguished, in any particular age or
country.
1t may be remarked, in coDnexion with
this topic, that the satirical sport of po-
cts, novelists, and dramatists, on the VIC
es and folies of the gcntier sex, has
probably done more, upon the whole,
TO check their improvement than to pro-
mote it. AS the object of such writer's
has been 10 produce rather strong,
than natural effect, they have usually
coloured their pictures too highly
They have sometimes. also, given US an
individual for species, forgetting that
moral and intellectual character admits
Of, and exhibits, as many gradations and
varieties as form and colour. Their
careless and not very good-natured mer-
riment has been productive of mischief
in two ways. 1t has irritated women,
instead of reforming them; and it has
tended TO confirm the gay and dissipated
of our own sex, in that contempt for the
other which any unhappy examples
within their own knowledge might have
originally led them to entertain. | am
far from meaning to include all satirists
under this reproach. Cowper is asplen-
did exception, and perhaps Young is
another; but this charge applies TO some
names of the highest celebrity. How
frequently do we find Pope diverting
himself at the expense of the female
character Boileau, too, has an outra-
geous satire upon women, which, like
his other satire upon human nature in
general, for which he was censured by
Addison, is never likely 10 answer one
useful purpose. In fact, it is calculated
to do much harm; as it is neither more
nor less than satire upon wives, and a
dissuasive from marriage. 1t may well
be doubted, whether single French la
i dy has BECOME better wife. in conse-
tqueuUe OF rnIo vcEurared lnvectiVe,
though composed upwards Of century
ago. All such undistinguishing severity
is no less absurd than the opposite ex-
IRENE of unmeasured compliment and
chlvalrous homage. Both are unworthy
OF the male sex and both tend TO the
degradation of the female, though in diff
ferent ways. The Establishments of the
fatterer blind aud corrupt the weak, and
the unsparing lash of the satirist fails Of
reforming the wicked while the truly
modest, sensible, and viTtuous portion of
the female world regard both the one
and the other as equally insulting and in
furious.
| How admirably do the doctrines and
precepts of Scripture, particularly those
OF the New Testament, guard us against
extremes upon this SUBJECT There we
do not find one Of the sexes exalted at
the expense of the other. In the coniu-
gal union, indeed, it seems absolutely
necessary, for preventing the conflicts
and contentious of never-ceasing rival
ry, that pre-. eminence should be given
to one of the parties; and that pre-emi-
nence Scripture has conferred upon the
man, as due TO his priority of creation,
and 10 his general superiority of corpo-
real and intellectual power. But his
moral dignity, apart from which his 9th
er advantages are worthless, must al
ways depend on his care to keep within
the well-dehned circle of his duty. To
each sex the Bible has allotted specific
and appropriate obligations and in the
due discharge of those obligations it
makes the whole honour and happiness
of each to consist. It assumes that there
is moral reciprocation established be-
tween them, in consequence of which,
the characters of both are, in great de-
gree, formed by the example Of each
continually acting and re-acting upon the
other. Were all this properly consid-
cred, we should no longer hear of ety.
rant man" cruelty adding contempt to
injury, and proudly despising the weak
ness of which he is often too ready to
take advantage. Did he make any ac-
count of moral strength, he would per-
ceive that the charge of weakness may
be retorted upon himself, and that he
degrades himself, TO a far lower level
than that upon which stands the object
of his unfeeliug merriment, and perhaps
the victim Of his arts.
-0oe-