Goffredus, bysso retorta ad carnem induitur, &c. &c. Vide Seld. Tit. of Hon. Part II. chap. iii. sect. 24. and chap. v. sects. 33 and 45. Mr. Gibbon, describing the rise of chivalry, which he considers as having taken place between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades, remarks that superstition mingled at this period in every public and private action of life; " in the holy wars," says he, "it sanctified the profession of arms, and the order of chivalry was assimilated in its rights and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The bath and white garment of the novice, were an indecent copy of the regeneration of baptism: his sword, which he offered on the altar, was blessed by the minister of religion; his solemn reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a knight in the name of God, of St. George and of St. Michael the archangel.' Chap. lviii. We have dwelt so long on these volumes, that we must now take our leave of them, regretting that a more detailed account of the installation of the Knights of the Bath, of its rules and orders, &c. should not have been given, whilst many continental orders are enlarged on which are in comparison perfectly insignifi cant. ART. II. The principal historical and allusive Arms borne by Families of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with their Authorities, collected by an Antiquary; with a Representation of the Arms on Copper Plates. 4to. pp. 552. THE jewel of this book is the dedication. To the Ladies of the United Kingdom. "In contemplating the diversified ornaments of the creation, there are none which impress the mind with so much delight as the beautiful forms of our fair countrywomen. The most perfect symmetry, grace, and elegance, are comprised in their construction the delicately blended tints of their complexions, the animated and interesting expression of their features, the general combined effect of their persons, arrest our ad、 miration and regard. once "But when to these personal attractions are added soft and ingratiating manners, that flexibility of disposition, which at soothes and corrects the rugged and boisterous nature of man, that attendant sympathy which mitigates his sorrows, or heightens his enjoyments; and, above all, that seemingly innate tendency to piety, compassion and benevolence, so conspicuous in the far greater proportion of them; can they be considered otherwise than as the greatest boon of Providence? "It is natural therefore, that men should be candidates for the estimation and approval of those whom they so much venerate; and certain it is, that the applause and partiality shewn by the more amiable sex to the adventurous and intrepid, has been, if not a leading inducement, yet a concurrent one, to daring and heroic actions; and, as the following sheets chiefly consist of a detail of such actions, to whom can they be so aptly inscribed, as to those who have a powerful secret influence in producing them, By their devoted humble servant, THE EDITOR." We consider this as perfectly original, believing that no antiquary, however much he may have been the devoted humble servant of the ladies, ever ad dressed them so tenderly before, or presented so appropriate an offering to them as a quarto volume of heraldry. The design of the author is to collect the histories of all allusive arms. This he has executed with sufficient diligence, and sometimes with more than sufficient credulity, as when, upon the authority of family tradition, he believes that a Saxon landholder defeated a thousand Norman soldiers by mounting his men on bulls. The following verses, which are the te nure of the lands of Rawdon, he believes to have been written in William the Conqueror's reign. "I William, King, the thurd yere of my roigne, Give to thee, Paulyn, Raydon, Hope, and Wyth all the bounds both up and downe, This savours as little of the "antiquary" as his dedication. The engravings in this volume are the very worst that ever were published. The elephants trunks are shaped like trumpets. The lions look like lawyers; the eagles like owls, and the owls like antiquaries. The common birds are not like any in heaven above; the common beasts not like any in the common fish not waters under the earth. earth below, and spread eagles are like devils, and the hippopotamus resembles a Frenchman taking snuff. ART. III. The Decameron, or ten Days' Entertainment of Boccaccio, translated from the Italian. Second edition, corrected and improved. To which are prefixed, Remarks on the Life and Writings of Boccaccio, and an Advertisement. By the Author of Old Nick, &c. Svo. 2 vols. LITTLE need be said upon an old translation of a well-known work. The editor has corrected a few inaccuracies, and has chastised the manners, if not the morals of Boccaccio. The life of the author is very ably drawn up, and the remarks which he has prefixed, have been selected with sufficient care. It would have added considerable value to these volumes, if each tale had been prefaced with a reference to the original story, where it was known, and to those which have grown out of it, where it had been imitated. This would have given it an historical utility. Why is not the Teseide of Boccaccio reprinted? A sufficient sale would surely be found in England, for we have a national interest in the story, which has been made our own by Chaucer and Dryden, and by that play wherein Fletcher is said to have been assisted by Shakespeare. ART. IV. Women: their Condition and Influence in Society. By Jos. ALEX. SEGUR. Translated from the French. THE design of this amusing work, the author tells us in his preface, is "To demonstrate the equality of the two seves, different as they may be; and to prove that every thing is compensated between thein-that if the one scems to be endowed with peculiar qualities, not possessed by the other, we cannot deny the other advantages equally to be valued that where corporeal strength is wanting, strength of soul supplies the deficiency-that our domination over the female sex is but a continued usurpation; that they have dexterously availed themselves of every opportunity of re-establishing, at least for a time, the balance between us; --that in these moments of transient equaty, they have evinced an ability for every thing, equal to ours; and that, with the exception of inventive genius, their'intellectual faculties are not inferior to our own." With this view M. Segur has ransacked the historic annals of almost every age and country, and collected a large and curious body of facts, exhibiting the situation of women in different stages of society, their employments, their rank, &c. &c. We feel, however, that all the use is not made of these facts to which they might have been applied, and after having perused the pages before us, when we turned to those of professor Millar, where he treats on the same subject,* we were sensibly impressed with the superiority of our countryman, who traces in a more brief and philosophic manner, the general effect' which different de 12mo. 3 vols. pp. 1012. grecs of civilization in society produce on the condition of females, and the reaction, as it were, of female influence upon the state of society. Throughout the animal creation nature has made a distinction, obvious and unquestionable, between the physical powers of the male and the female. The human race forms no exception: man excels woman in strength, activity, that can be called courage which arises patience of fatigue, and courage-if from a consciousness of greater muscu larity and superior force. What then has she given to woman? BEAUTY. This beauty, however, which the elegant and refined voluptuary of Teos celebrated as so triumphant and resistless in the person of woman, may be ascribed without flattery to her mind; and although the soul, indeed, is destitute of sex, the distinction is scarcely less obvious and unquestionable between the mental, than the corporeal qualities of man and woman. Much has been said of late years by Mrs. Wolstonecraft, and her disciples, concerning the state of humiliation and bondage in which the female sex has been confined by us lords of the creation, "Observations concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society." Chap. i. who, in all ages, and all countries, are accused of having kept them in subjection, by keeping them in ignorance. How ever we may ridicule certain absurdities in the schemes and suggestions of these visionary reformers, some of their hints are worthy of attention, and have been attended to. Whether the female mind is capable of those eagle flights into the regions of philosophy and science, which a Bacon and a Newton took, is a question scarcely worth the trouble of debating; a thousand instances have already been adduced by various writers, to disprove the mental inferiority of females, and it is universally acknowledged, that their minds are capable of infinitely higher cultivation than it has usually been their lot to receive. The affections of the female are far stronger and more lively than those of our sex; the thousand instances of their heroic conduct during the French revolution, have settled this fact for ever. No personal fatigue could overcome them, no personal danger could for one instant deter them from seeking in the foulest dungeons, the father or the child, the husband, or the lover. Months after months have they been known to secrete from revolutionary vengeance, some object of their affection, when the discovery of the concealment would have been inevitable and immediate death. Were a friend arrested, their ingenuity never relaxed a moment in contrivances for his escape: were he naked, they clothed him; were he hungry, they fed him; were he sick, they visited him; and, when all efforts were unavailing for his deliverance, often did they infuse into his sinking soul, their own courage to meet death with fortitude, and even with cheerfulness. In infancy they nourish us, in old age they cherish and console us; and on the bed of sickness, the exquisite delicacy of their attentions, the watchings they will undergo without a murmur, the fretting querulousness they will bear with complacency, the offensive, the nauseous offices which they are at all times ready to perform, demand from us more than every return of attachment, kindness, and gratitude, which it is in our power to confer. These qualities are not the offspring of civilization; they are characteristic of the sex, and proudly distinguish it in every quarter of the globe. This is that excelling beauty which nature gives to woman, in ample recompense for infe rior deprivations; this is that beauty which indeed turns the edge of the sword, and makes the spear fall pointless. Every traveller through inhospitable wilds and pathless deserts, confirms the grateful testimony of Ledyard to the compassion, and sympathy, and tenderness of woman, and authorises us to esti mate the degree of civilization in any country, by the degree of respect and kindness which the female sex receives. M. Segur begins his work by considering the state of women in the age of the patriarchs, and illustrates the customs of these ancient shepherds, by the marriages of Jacob with the daughters of Laban. He then proceeds to their situation among the Egyptians and Chinese, the most early civilized people in the world: among the former, notwithstanding the climate, females were extricated from their bondage sooner than in the neighbouring countries; the customs of the Chinese are as immutable as the laws of the Medes and the Persians, and they are scarcely less jealous of their females at the present day than they were in the remotest antiquity." The Egyptians used great care in forming the minds of their daughters; the Chinese, on the contrary, have always left them in a state of ignorance, well adapted for that obscurity to which their excessive jealousy would confine them.— Idolaters of beauty, the Chinese are for ever at the feet of the beings whom they persecute." Authors, however, differ so much in their accounts, as to the situa tion of women in ancient Egypt, that it is not safe to draw any positive conclusions concerning them. Greece was broken into small republics, and the state of the women varied according to the precepts of moralists and the decrees of legislators: in Athens, while matrons were confined to domes tic offices, and were guarded from the eyes of men, moralists, legislators, and orators, alike bowed to the graces and accomplishments of an Aspasia. The severe laws of Lycurgus inured women to athletic exercises, and by exposing their beauties without the disguise of dress, he flattered himself that young men would resist the fascination to which they yielded, where concealment gave an edge to desire. Women obtained considerable deference in Rome, during the early ages of the republic; a Roman matron gives us, to this day, an idea of every thing that is chaste, dignified, and noble. Under the reign of the emperors they partook of the general corruption, and were involved in, if they did not absolutely contribute to, the dissoluteness of the age and the consequent fall of the empire. At length Christianity arose, and into whatever country its precepts have penetrated, women, by becoming more intrinsically respectable, have been more respected: the disorders of the passions have been corrected, and latent unsuspected virtues have been elicited. M. de Segur is of opinion that the barbarians of the north, who overran the Roman empire, brought with them the first germ of that gallantry which so long remained in Europe. "If, in the south, Asiatic manners rendered the women wretched; if these people, by turns slaves and tyrants, had for them a sensual love, but little esteem; if they passed all at once from worshipping to despise them, from an idolatrous regard, to the excess of an inhuman jealousy; in the north, on the contrary, the Scandinavians and the Celts regarded the women as their equals and their companions, and even sought to merit their approbation by efforts of courage and generous atchieveinents. These are the nations who contributed most to spread throughout Europe that spirit of equity, of moderation, and of politeness, which forms the distinctive character of our manners. We may, perhaps, assign one cause for this. Among the Scandinavians their fortunes were limited, and nearly equal; their manners were simple, and the passions only unfolded themselves late, and in unison with their reason. They were more restrained under a severe climate and if we revert to the religion of the Celts, we shall find that one of its most revered tenets was, that the Deity interfered even in the smallest things; and that every phenomenon which appeared was only a method whereby the divine spirit manifested his will. Thus visions, involuntary motions, sudden and unexpected desires, became the admonitions of heaven, and merited the respect of those who felt them, and served as the organ of the Deity. : "The women, who, for the greater part, seem less influenced by reflection than by the instinct of nature, appeared to this people, as I have observed, to be better adapted than the men for filling this honourable ministry; and on this idea rested the principal base of their influence. They carried them along with them in their expeditions, followed their counsels, and sought in their esteem motives to brave every danger; and, in their ill-success, they feared more their reproaches than the sword of the enemy. "We may perceive with the most superficial glance, in this simple and hasty sketch of the esteem in which women were held by the men of these barbarous countries, all the first ideas of chivalry, which the nations of the north diffused, when they inundated Europe. A taste for heroic adventures, and a desire of glory, had for a long while carried many Scandinavian warriors, to penetrate into countries the most remote, in order to render their names illustrious. A constant habit of rapine continually exposed the weak to sudden attack; and superinduced the necessity of defenders. Every young warrior, eager of renown, took upon himself the noble charge of protecting the fair sex, and followed his taste in pursuing an adventurous career. "The multitudes of Scandinavians, which established themselves in France, Spain, England, and Italy, carried with them the taste of chivalry; and this passion, since restrained within very just limits, produced the refined politeness which has for so long a time formed a part of our nanners. "This first impulse of chivalrous gallantry among the nations of the north, was far from possessing all that delicacy and fascination which it afterwards acquired in Europe, by the admixture of the tenderness of the Spaniards, the elegance of the French, and the splendid romanticity of the Moors.All the first notions were conceived without being developed respect for the sex, love, devotion, the enthusiasin of glory, and a constancy which vielded every thing to one sin gle object. These foundations were laid; but they were yet covered by a shade of coarseness and simplicity, which, even in the means of pleasing, announced a rude tenderness, and left more to be seen of the warrior than the lover." We next come to the condition of women in Asia. Wherever the religion of Mahomet prevails, there the domestic slavery of the female sex is confirmed. Mahomet, says our author, wishing to stifle all those passions which he thought sufficiently strong to counterbalance his own influence on the minds of his followers, felt that though he could restrain men from intoxication by prohibiting the use of wine, it would be in vain to attempt to triumph over love. M. de Segur does not seem to have dived into the policy of Mahomet; many texts of the Koran are calculated to check the uncontrouled indulgence of sexual gratification. Mahomet is the only lawgiver who enforced a positive and general interdiction of the use of wine; the climate of Arabia, it is probable, he thought would sufficiently inflame the blood, and required rather a moderating than a stimulating beverage. Mahomet certainly did not wish to " triumph over love:" no one was a more ardent votary of the sex than himself, and this very prohibition, perhaps, was intended to preserve his disciples, not merely from impairing the faculties of their minds, but the vigour of their bodies. The prophet, however, was jealous of their power, and succeeded in undermining that empire which beauty in a warm climate is so calculated to enjoy. It is curious enough that M. Segur, after having argued against the efficacy of seclusion and confinement in preserving the chastity of women, should, in the next page, regret the destruction of convents in France! those sacred retreats, as he calls them, where virtue rested in peace, where young females were preserved from snares, and where their education was promoted! The The devotion of one sex to the charms of the other was never so reverential and profound as during the age of chivalry: in this gallant period of history, the ladies took an ample vengeance. prostrate knight was proudly recompensed for his most perilous atchievements at the joust, the tournament, and the battle, by a smile from his fair one. As commerce extended, the arts and occupations of peace succeeded to these military amusements, and as chivalry declined, gallantry declined with it. M. Segur is disposed to believe that the women, alarmed at the feebleness of their sway, by a sort of tacit agreement and co-operation, produced by a sense of their interests, betook themselves to letters, as the means of resuming a firmer and more permanent influence. "The sciences were cultivated, but more especially literature. A general impulse directed the mind of all to the study of languages: : it was not possible to pass suddenly from an ignorant and military life to scientific meditation; men wished to know how the ancients thought, before they reflected themselves. This was the natural course of ideas. The knowledge of languages being diffused, the philosophy of the ancients came into vogue; but according to the character and temper of the minds: Aristotle and Plato produced several prophets; the Aristotelian philosophy occupied the universities and the cloisters; the Platonic enchanted the poets, the lovers, the sentimental philosophers, and the women. These had emulated the men in courage, during the flourishing æra of chivalry; they were now unwilling to yield to them with respect to the sciences, and they every where instructed themselves. One saw, says M. Thomas, religious poets, women of high rank taking part in controversies, harauguing the popes in latin, exhorting them, as well as kings, to declare war against the Turks. The Greek language, so magnificent in the poems of Homer, dazzled with renewed lustre. At that period, the verses mouth of a beautiful woman, excited enthuof this sublime bard, pronounced by the siasm in every soul, and kindled in every heart all the ardours of love. "The women, however, did not confine themselves to the dry study of languages and abstract theology, less satisfactory to their imaginations than poetry, which is subservient and consequent to it, occupying the mind with images and the soul with sentiments. They succeeded in it; and what at became to them a source of glory and success. first was resorted to merely for amusement, "But their self-love demanded still greater triumphs. only by the homage which they procure to In their eyes, talents are valuable them. Formerly the knights fought and died for them. This tender frenzy having subsided, they wished to be celebrated by the poet's song; they wished that he should negliterary works should have women for their lect his own glory to exalt theirs; that all theme, and that, in verse and prose, all Europe should resound with the praises of a sex that feeds upon incense. Their will was a command, and gallantry soon diffused itself throughout literature, as it had participated in the lustre of military achievements. "Boccaccio was the first, who, in a Latin work concerning illustrious women, set the example of this tender adulation. Whilst and war, the women shone in the exercises the men still devoted themselves to intrigue of intellect. The courts of Naples, Florence, Mantua, Milan, were schools of grace, instruction, and taste. To please, to love, to write, to expect, and to receive homage, these were the employments of women's lives." M. de Segur had stated that the object Notwithstanding that in his preface of his book was to demonstrate the equa lity of the sexes, there are many opinions delivered in it which convey but a very questionable compliment to the ladies. M. de Segur contends that that pure and steady friendship which is so often displayed in the other sex is little known among females: if a woman be the friend of another woman, says he, self-love, rivalship interpose between them, change their sentiments, or secretly apprise them that they are liable to change. Elsewhere he asserts that "every thing which is moderate is a torment to women; great movements and repose alternately please them, and without the powerful attraction of selflove, which induces them to endure every thing in order to obtain homage, and which causes them to submit to chains in the hope of one day imposing |