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would with Spartan resolution demand of his fellow-combatants, "Was his death caused by an honest wound?"

To the wrong education of the females may perhaps be ascribed much of the folly of the males. The literate associate, the ignorant herd together. A woman, whose whole attention is directed to dress and vanity, must be disgusted at any grave subject of conversation; and a young man, at whose age the desire of pleasing the other sex is naturally most ardent, must become frivolous to gain her approbation. Hence his most precious years are dedicated to trifling pursuits; whereas, should the women receive a proper education, the coxcomb would be passed over with neglect, and the man of sense would receive that deference which he deserves.

While such might be the employments of the females, a wider field of exertion would lie open to the talents and genius of the males. Lord Bacon observes that great characters have generally been bachelors. What a race of politicians, generals, and philosophers, might be expected from a nation, where every lofty soul were unimpeded, by the care of providing for its offspring, from following any grand object in contemplation. This consideration has detained the soldier from the field, has deadened the curiosity of the philosopher, and stopped the voice of the patriot. How oft have the lucubrations of a philosopher been interrupted by the scolding of a Xantippe * How many Hampdens would have opposed the injustice of a tyrant-how many a Sidney would have braved the scaffold, but for the fear of entailing on their helpless children the rancour of an offended court. If unimpeded by marriage, the lover of botany would search every distant forest, the mineralogist would inspect

Eloisa, in her letters, exerted all her eloquence to dissuade Abeillard from matrimony. "What credit should I acquire, (wrote she) in becoming your wife, since it would be an obstacle to your reputation? What maledictions should I not merit for depriving the world of such a luminary? What an injury should I not do to the church? What regrets should I not cause to the philosophers? What a disgrace, what a loss it would be, if you, whom nature created for the public good, should sacrifice yourself to a woman? Remember the words of Saint Paul," Art thou free from the yoke of matrimony, take no wife." But if the advice of this great apostle and the exhortations of the fathers of the church inspire you with no aversion to such a burthen, consider what the philosophers have said. Theophrastus has proved by so many reasons that a sage should never marry. Cicero, having repudiated Terentia, answered to Hircius, who proposed to him his sister in marriage, that he could not divide himself between the study of philosophy and the attentions due to a wife. Beside, what a confusion between servant girls and scholars, books and distaffs, pens and spinning-wheels! How, in the midst of theological and philosophical meditations, would you support the cries of a child, the rocking of a cradle, or the songs of a nursery-maid? Reflect on the conduct of the sages of antiquity, both Jews and Gentiles; and if both Pagans and laymen have preferred celibacy to marriage, remember that you have to support the character of a canon and the dignity of a philosophy ?"--Dictionnaire de Bayle.

every foreign mine, and the naturalist would quit his country to examine a new volcano. How many circumnavigators would aspire to rival the name of the immortal Cooke! How many travellers, ardent for glory like Bruce, would penetrate the bosom of unknown and uncultiɣated realms. What improvements would every art, every science receive! with what depth of thought would every speculative subject be examined! with what firmness would every government be directed! with what desperation would every battle be fought!-a nation of bachelors would be the sovereign of the world.

In 1792, when the arms of Austria and Prussia were combined against France, every unmarried Frenchman flew to the standard of the new republic, and whole villages were left destitute of every male inhabitant, except those whom infirmity or the cares of a family hindered from lending their assistance to their country. In order that they might direct their entire attention to the interests of the church, the policy of the Vatican forbade the Roman Catholic priests to marry. Even as a menial servant one -prefers an unmarried person.

If any are peculiarly happy, it is they who are fortunate in love. The earth is an Elysium to that pair who are mutually blessed in the arms of each other; but why should marriage bind them to a spot, the charms of which, like the garden of Eden, may vanish, and leave them the glebe-adscript cultivators of a desert? Love without marriage is so happy as love with marriage, but marriage without love is a state of indifference or vexation. The new-married lover may be compared to a hungry courser tethered in a rich pasture. At first how content are they both with the luxury of their situation. But one might with equal reason suppose that the animal's enjoyment proceeds from the rope which binds him to the spot, as that the lover's felicity proceeds from the marriage-yoke. Should the animal's appetite become appeased, or the lover's affection cool, both would feel the hardship of their confinement.

Could the lawgiver have devised a more effectual way of rendering constancy odious than by constituting it a duty? Constancy is a demonstration of content; an inconstant temper is a discontented temper, deserving pity, not blame. But, though constancy is itself no merit, it is probable that a constant couple are not destitute of merit. If an individual has acquired an object that suits him, he remains attached to it; if not, he abandons it. No one would oblige a tenant to inhabit the same house; but when he continues in it a length of time, one may congratulate him on having found a dwelling to his taste, and presume that the house itself must possess some recommendation. But for the interference of the lawgiver, no coxcomb would have prided himself on inconstancy; so long as constancy is considered a duty, infidelity will be fashionable.

Though an inclination to a kept mistress is seldom lasting, it would be unjust to conclude that every voluntary union would be short-lived. The connexion between a rake and a courtesan is only founded on his blind passion and her sordid interest. If disgust succeed not to his raptures, she will quit him so soon as his fortune is unable to satisfy her avarice or to support her extravagance. But though a gross impulse should not attach the debauchee to the illiterate, unaccomplished and depraved courtesan, constancy would unite lovers of a more amiable character. A woman may possess virtues and qualities which no marriage ring, no nuptial benediction can communicate. Could a man of feeling cease to love her? If a spontaneous constancy should not animate such a couple, would not a forced constancy be unnatural, and, if unnatural, detrimental and impolitic? The Spanish lady is permitted to choose and change her cicesbeo; yet this extraordinary connection, which being voluntary must exceed marriage in happiness, equals it in constancy; and the enamoured pair are usually torn asunder by death alone. Beside, if both parties were allowed to separate at pleasure, both would be reciprocally more attentive and obliging in their behaviour; whereas, at present, if a man and woman in company are particularly rude and indifferent to each other, one may conclude that they are man and wife.

Is not human life sufficiently beset with misfortunes? Are not the fondest hopes of mortals subject to disappointments? their existence embittered by the loss of whatever is dear to them, and their health the sport of a multiplicity of diseases? But must the lawgiver contribute to their misery? He should not measure out every indulgence with the severity of an Egyptian taskmaster, but should allow every gratification which is not attended by pernicious consequences.* Should his sagacity favor an institution which cramps the genius and vigor of the male, or his justice tolerate a ceremony which debases the female into a slave?

When bondage was abolished, the land-holders conceived themselves ruined; but their estates were cultivated by freemen, and they found themselves richer than before. In like manner men would profit by the liberty of women; for what man of generous sentiments would not prefer the affections of the spirited and accomplished Eloisa to the passive obedience which Sarah paid to her lord and master Abraham?

Mrs. Wolstonecraft proposes the foundation of public schools where both sexes might be educated together. During the ex

The North-American Indians laugh at the Europeans for having only one wife, and that for life; as they conceive the Good Spirit formed them to be happy, and not to continue together unless their tempers and dispositions be congenial.--- Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter, by J. Long.---1791.

In the course of this romance will be proved the possibility of educating

istence of marriage, and the present ideas on chastity, this project would be impossible; but under the Nair system nothing could be so advantageous. A union of two strangers would not have the same prospects of stability as one betiveen a couple who have had every opportunity of knowing each other. Would not friendship, habit, and the pleasing recollection of every event which occurred in the days of childhood and innocence, unite them without chains, and promise a perpetual constancy? What are so lasting as the friendships commenced at school or college? Such are the advantages of the Nair system. O ye, who boast of your benevolent feelings, whose humanity urges you to unshakle the captive African, or to unfurl on Sierra-Leona the white banner of liberty, why should ye fly so far from the polished world in quest of objects of pity? Rather rescue your sisters and manumit your wives from an oppressive yoke, and promote a system which merits the attention of the politician, because favorable to population; which claims the approbation of the aristocrat, because it would ensure to the nobility a birth incontestably genuine ; and demands the support of the philanthropist, because it would augment the happiness and liberty of man-kind.

the two sexes at the same school, without danger from any indulgence previous to the age determined by the law.

This continence among school-fellows must not be judged impracticable, when it is practised by bed-fellows; and not only in America, but in the heart of the British empire. The peasant in Wales is in the habit of going to bed to his sweetheart, to say soft things and talk to her of love; and she rises so unpolluted from the side of a vigorous swain as if she had been reposing in the arms of a primitive bishop, who wished, by mortifying the flesh, to gain a victory over the devil. It is at least so probable, that the Welch bride, after having had frequent parleys in the bed of courtship, will enter the bed of marriage a virgin, as the young lady e lucated in the convent, or the prude who, in crossing a stile, fears to show her legs to a man." The servant-maid of the family that I visited in Caernarvonshire," says Pratt in his Gleanings, was the object of a young peasant, who walked eleven long miles every Sunday morning, and regularly returned the same night through all weathers, to be ready for Monday's employment in the fields, being simply a day-labourer. He usually arrived in time for morning prayers, which he constantly attended; after which, he escorted his Dulcinea home to the house of her master, by whose permission they as constantly passed the succeeding hour in bed, according to the custom of the country. These tender sabbatical preliminaries continued near two years, when the treaty of alliance was solemnized.

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"My friend informed me, that, during thirty-six years residence in Wales, he had seen so few abuses of this mode of courtship, that he conceived it as innocent as any other. One proof of its being thought so by the parties, is the perfect ease and freedom with which it is done. No aukwardness or confusion appears on either side; the most well-behaved and decent young women give into it without a blush; and the Welch women are by no means deficient in modesty: Thus the force of habit is stronger than the force of passion."

Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet-street, where all Communications, post-paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left.

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The Lion.

No. 22. VOL. 2.] LONDON, Friday, Nov. 28, 1828. [PRICE 6d.

HANGING OF THE HOLY GHOST.

"Every Clergyman of the Established Church, is, at his ordination, declared to have received the Holy Ghost.

"The Reverend Peter Fenn, who, for forgery, is ordered for execution on Monday next, is an ordained Clergyman of the Established Church.

"The clerical or law-established inference is, that THE HOLY GHOST IS TO BE HANGED ON MONDAY NEXT!!!"

THE foregoing sentences form a placard in my shop window, at the bottom of which, I refer the reader to this number of THE LION. There is nothing now more clear, than that the religion of the country is such a mass of absurdity, that every man of common information is ashamed of its definitions and inferences. We have here a striking instance of the absurdity. A clergyman, or preacher of the Christian religion, is, in this country, declared to be called by the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God, to become a preacher of this God's revelation to mankind, or rather to the small portion of them who are Christians, and that he has no temporal motive, no view to profit, never thinks about a bishopric or a benefice, the call is purely spiritual, he receives and is filled with the Holy Ghost, and when once filled, no power on earth or in heaven can recall from him that Holy Ghost-once a priest a priest for ever. It is upon this recognized canonical principle, that Robert Taylor finds the title of reverend stick to him. He cannot get rid of the Holy Ghost. He cannot squeeze or blow it out of him. It is completely a part of his system, and he feels, that he must bear the spiritual inhalation to death. He is most distinctly sensible, that the same Holy

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62. Fleet Street. No. 22.-Vol. 2. 2 x

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