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authority we exercise over them owes its existence to tyranny; they allow us to use it, because their disposition is milder than ours, and they, consequently, have more humanity and reason. These advantages, which ought to have given them the superiority, if we had been reasonable, have deprived them of it, because we are not so.

"Now, if it is true that our power over women is purely tyrannical, it is not less true that theirs over us is natural, having its source in beauty, which nothing can resist. Our power is not the same in every country; but that of beauty is universal. Why should we be specially privileged? Because we are the stronger; such a reason would be absolutely unjust. We use every possible means to depress their courage; if they were educated as we are, their intellectual capacity would be found fully equal to ours; test them by the gifts they have been allowed to cultivate, and then tell me which sex is the stronger."

It must be confessed, although such a thing is abhorrent to our customs, that, among the most refined nations, women have always had authority over their husbands. Such authority was established by law among the Egyptians in honor of Isis, and among the Babylonians in honor of Semiramis. It was said of the Romans that they commanded all nations, but obeyed their wives. I speak not of the Sauromates, who were actually the slaves of their wives, because they were too barbarous to be quoted as an example.

You see, my dear Ibben, how I accommodate myself to the argumentative methods of this country, where the most extraordinary opinions are zealously supported, and everything reduced to a paradox. The prophet has settled the question, and regulated the prerogatives of both sexes. "Wives," says

he, "should honor their husbands, husbands should honor their wives; but the former are a degree higher in the scale of creation."

PARIS, the 26th of the moon of Gemmadi 2, 1713.

USBEK TO RHEDI

AT VENICE.

I meet with people here who are constantly disputing about religion, and, at the same time, apparently contending as to who shall observe it least.

While these persons cannot be described as better Christians than others, they have no title to be called better citizens either. This latter defect has impressed me strongly; for, whatever a man's religion may be, the observance of the laws, love of mankind, and respect and affection for one's parents must be essential elements in it.

In fact, ought not the chief object of every religious man to be to please the Divine Power that has established the religion he professes? But the surest method of succeeding in this respect is undoubtedly to comply with the laws of society · and fulfill our duties towards humanity. For if we are persuaded of the truth of the religion in which we live, we must be equally persuaded that God loves men, since He has established a religion for the purpose of rendering them happy. Now if He loves men, we are sure of pleasing Him, if we love them also; and this love of ours will consist in the practice of all the duties of charity and humanity towards them, and in our avoidance of every breach of the law under which they live.

We are far likelier to please God in this way than by the observance of any particular ceremony; for ceremonies in themselves have no inherent goodness; they are only relatively good, and depend for their value on the supposition that God has ordained them. This is a subject that must give rise to endless discussion and to much self-deception as well; for the ceremonies of one religion must be selected from amongst those of two thousand.

NARGUM, PERSIAN ENVOY IN MUSCOVY,

TO USBEK AT PARIS.

The orders of the King of Kings have kept me for five years in this country, where I have terminated several important negotiations.

You know that the czar is the only Christian prince whose interests are connected with ours, because he is, like us, an enemy of the Turks.

His empire is more extensive than ours, for it is reckoned that the distance between Moscow and the last of his possessions on the Chinese frontiers is two thousand leagues.

He is the absolute master of the property and lives of his subjects, who are all slaves, with the exception of four families. The lieutenant of the prophets, the King of Kings, whose footstool is the heavens, does not exercise a more formidable sway.

Any one acquainted with the horrible climate of Muscovy would never imagine that to be exiled from it was a very severe penalty; still, whenever a great man is disgraced, he is banished to Siberia.

Just as the law of our prophet forbids us to drink wine, so the law of their prince forbids the Muscovites.

Their way of receiving their guests is not at all Persian. As soon as a stranger enters a house, the husband presents his wife to him; the stranger is expected to kiss her as a mark of courtesy to the husband.

Although fathers usually stipulate in the marriage contract that the husband shall not whip their daughters, yet you have no idea how fond the Muscovite women are of being beaten. They think they have lost the affection of their husband if he does not now and then give them a sound whipping; any other conduct would argue unpardonable indifference on his part. The following is a letter a woman wrote lately to her mother:

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MY DEAR MOTHER, I am the most unfortunate woman in the world. I do everything I can to win the love of my husband, but without success. On yesterday, although I had a thousand things to attend to in the house, I went outside and stayed away all day. I was sure he would give me a good thrashing on my return, but he never said a word. My sister is treated in quite a different manner: the life is nearly cudgeled out of her every day; if she looks at a man, her husband knocks her down on the spot; that tells you how fond they are of each other, and in what harmony they live.

So, naturally, she is as proud as a peacock; but she shall not look down upon me much longer; I am determined to make my husband love me, no matter what the consequences. I'll make him that mad that he'll have to show me some token of affection, whether he likes it or not. No one shall say that I am never beaten, and live in my own house without any one ever minding me: I will scream out in such a way, if he gives me the least little tap, that everybody will be sure things are as they ought to be, and if the neighbors come to my aid I will strangle them. I want you, my dear mother, to tell my husband how scandalously he is behaving to me. My father, who is a gentleman, never behaved so; in fact, I remember thinking, when I was a girl, that he loved you just a little too much. I embrace you, my dear mother.

The Muscovites are not allowed to leave their country, even to travel. Being thus separated from other nations by the laws of their own, they are the more firmly attached to all their

ancient customs, because they do not see how they can have any others.

But their present ruler [Peter the Great] has wished to change all this; he has had a lively quarrel with them on the subject of their beards; the monks and clergy, with whom he has also a dispute, have stood up for their ignorance valiantly.

He makes every effort to spread the arts among his subjects, and is trying to extend the fame of his people throughout Europe and Asia, -a people until now almost unknown to the world, and only conscious of its own existence.

Restless and excited, he wanders through his vast dominions, leaving everywhere the impress of his natural severity.

Then he abandons them, as if they were too small to contain him, and goes rambling through Europe in search of other provinces and kingdoms.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

BY SWIFT.

WITH a whirl of thought oppressed,

I sunk from reverie to rest.

A horrid vision seized my head,

I saw the graves give up their dead!

Jove, armed with terrors, bursts the skies,

And thunder roars and lightning flies!

Amazed, confused, its fate unknown,

The world stands trembling at his throne!
While each pale sinner hung his head,

Jove, nodding, shook the heavens, and said:
"Offending race of human kind,

By nature, reason, learning, blind;

You who through frailty stepped aside,
And you who never fell, from pride;
You who in different sects were shammed,
And come to see each other damned
(So some folk told you, but they knew
No more of Jove's designs than you);
The world's mad business now is o'er,
And I resent these pranks no more.
I to such blockheads set my wit!
I damn such fools! - Go, go, you're bit."

JAPANESE POEMS.

TRANSLATED BY BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN.

[BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN: An English writer on Japanese subjects; born in England. He entered the Japanese imperial naval service, and afterward became professor of the Japanese language and philology in the Imperial University at Tokio. He published: "The Classical Poetry of the Japanese" (1880), "A Simplified Grammar of the Japanese Language" (1886), "A Romanized Japanese Reader" (1886), "The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan, viewed in the Light of Aino Studies" (1887), "Aino Folk Tales" (1888); a series of Japanese fairy tales: "The Fisher Boy Urashima," "My Lord Bag-o'-Rice," "The Serpent with Eight Heads," and "The Silly Jellyfish" (1888); "Things Japanese" (1890); and “A Handbook for Travelers in Japan" (4th ed., 1894), with W. B. Mason.]

THE FISHER BOY URASHIMA.

"TIs Spring, and the mist comes stealing

O'er Suminoyè's shore,

And I stand by the seaside, musing

On the days that are no more.

I muse on the old-world story,
As the boats glide to and fro,
Of the fisher boy Urashima,

Who a-fishing loved to go.

How he came not back to the village
Though seven suns had risen and set,
But rowed on past the bounds of ocean,
And the Sea God's daughter met.

How they pledged their faith to each other,
And came to the Evergreen Land,

And entered the Sea God's palace
So lovingly hand in hand, -

To dwell for aye in that country,
The ocean maiden and he,

The country where youth and beauty
Abide eternally.

But the foolish boy said: "To-morrow

I'll come back with thee to dwell;

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