Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1782 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAP. IX. The fame Subject continued.: HixP' these impersect sketches, which we o v DEGREESo A have given of the rank and condition of women, we are sorry to fay, that it was long before we found them getting into possession of the common rights of mankind; that at present, in more than one quarter of the globe, they are the most abject slaves; and in much more than another, perpetual prisoners: while it is only in that little corner of it, called Europe, that they possess the consequence to which they seem entitled by nature, in the scale of intelligent beings. It is, therefore, with pleasure we now arrive at that part of our history, which leads us to consider their condition in polished and civil society; a condition almost in every particular, directly the reverse of v what we have depicted in the last chapter. Treatment But though the fair sex are, in Europe, in Europe, commonly treated with an-afFection and indulgence, which in other countries they are either quite strangers to, or only enjoy on c *j * p* particular occasions; yet, as all Europe is unro not equally cultivated in manners, the condition of women is not in every part of it equally eligible. Russia, which we consider as an Euro- Pisodvnpean nation, though comprehending in its the RUsdominions a part of Asia, has only begun a sian sew years ago to assume the polish of the Europeans; and is as yet far from having attained that gentleness and elegance of manners, which must distinguish every people before they can treat, with propriety, a sex, whose acute seelings, both of body and of mind, demand lenity and indulgence. The condition of women in Russia is, therefore, much less desirable than it is in England, France, or Italy. A late empress of Russia, as a..
