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Notes mutual convenience.—He must mark whether women are made absolutely the property of their
husbands, in mind and in estate; or whether the wife is treated more or less professedly as an
equal party in the agreement.—He must observe whether there is an excluded class, victims to
their own superstition or to a false social obligation, wandering about to disturb by their jealousy
or licentiousness those whose lot is happier.—He must observe whether there are domestic
arrangements for home enjoyments, or whether all is planned on the supposition of pleasure lying
abroad; whether the reliance is on books, gardens, and play with children, or on the opera, parties,
the ale-house, or dances on the green.—He must mark whether the ladies are occupied with their
household cares in the morning, and the society of their husbands in the evening, or with embroidery
and looking out of balconies; with receiving company all day, or gadding abroad; with the library
or the nursery; with lovers or with children.—In each country, called civilized, he will meet with
almost all these varieties: but in each there is such a prevailing character in the aspect of domestic
life, that intelligent observation will enable him to decide, without much danger of mistake, as to
whether marriage is merely an arrangement of convenience, in accordance with low morals, or a
sacred institution, commanding the reverence and affection of a virtuous people. No high degree
of this sanctity can be looked for till that moderation is attained which, during the prevalence of
asceticism and its opposite, is reached only by a few. That it yet exists nowhere as the characteristic
of any society,—that all the blessings of domestic life are not yet open to all, so as to preclude the
danger of any one encroaching on his neighbour,—is but too evident to the travelled observer. He
can only mark the degree of approximation to this state of high morals wherever he goes.
The traveller everywhere finds woman treated as the inferior party in a compact in which both
parties have an equal interest. Any agreement thus formed is imperfect, and is liable to disturbance;
and the danger is great in proportion to the degradation of the supposed weaker party. The
degree of the degradation of woman is as good a test as the moralist can adopt for ascertaining the
state of domestic morals in any country.
The Indian squaw carries the household burdens, trudging in the dust, while her husband on
horseback paces before her, unencumbered but by his own gay trappings. She carries the wallet
with food, the matting for the lodge, the merchandize (if they possess any), and her infant. There
is no exemption from labour for the squaw of the most vaunted chief. In other countries the wife
may be found drawing the plough, hewing wood and carrying water; the men of the family
standing idle to witness her toils. Here the observer may feel pretty sure of his case. From a
condition of slavery like this, women are found rising to the highest condition in which they are
at present seen, in France, England, and the United States,—where they are less than half-educated,
precluded from earning a subsistence, except in a very few ill-paid employments, and prohibited
from giving or withholding their assent to laws which they are yet bound by penalties to obey. In
France owing to the great destruction of men in the wars of Napoleon, women are engaged, and
successfully engaged, in a variety of occupations which have been elsewhere supposed unsuitable
to the sex. Yet there remains so large a number who cannot, by the most strenuous labour in
feminine employments, command the necessaries of life, while its luxuries may be earned by
infamy, that the morals of the society are naturally bad. Great attention has of late been given to
this subject in France: the social condition of women is matter of thought and discussion to a
degree which promises some considerable amelioration. Already, women can do more in France
than anywhere else; they can attempt more without ridicule or arbitrary hindrance: and the women
of France are probably destined to lead the way in the advance which the sex must hereafter make.
At present, society is undergoing a transition from a feudal state to one of mutual government;
and women, gaining in some ways, suffer in others during the process. They have, happily for
themselves, lost much of the peculiar kind of observance which was the most remarkable feature
of the chivalrous age; and it has been impossible to prevent their sharing in the benefits of the
improvement and diffusion of knowledge. All cultivation of their powers has secured to them the
use of new power; so that their condition is far superior to what it was in any former age. But new
difficulties about securing a maintenance have arisen. Marriage is less general; and the husbands

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