Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World.

SKETCHES OF THE FAIR SEX,

IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED RULES FOR DETERMINING THE PRECISE FIGURE, THE DEGREE OF BEAUTY, THE HABITS, AND THE AGE OF WOMEN,

NOTWITHSTANDING THE AIDS AND DISGUISE OF DRESS.

BOSTON: THEODORE ABBOT, 388 WASHINGTON ST.

1841.

Entered according to act of congress, in the year 1841, by

THEODORE ABBOT,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

In the following Pages,

It is our design to present a pleasing and interesting miscellany, which will serve to beguile the leisure hour, and will at the same time couple instruction with amusement. We have used but little method in the arrangement: Choosing rather to furnish the reader with a rich profusion of narratives and anecdotes, all tending to illustrate the

FEMALE CHARACTER,

to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle or sometimes heroic virtues, its amiable weaknesses, and strange defects--than to attempt an accurate analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted to master, viz--WOMAN.

It will be seen that we do not set down Woman as a cipher in the account of human beings. We accord to her her full share of importance in the world, and we have not attempted to relieve her from a sense of her responsibility as an accountable being. Above all, we have not failed to impress upon her the obligations she is under to CHRISTIANITY, whose benign influences have raised her to be the companion and bosom-friend of man, instead of his mere handmaid and dependant. It is religion that must form such a character as the following, which though applied by Pope to one of the most accomplished women of his time, is that of a CHRISTIAN WIFE in every age and station,--

"Oh! blest with temper whose unclouded ray Can make tomorrow cheerful as to-day: She who can love a sister's charms, or hear Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear; She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules; Charms by accepting--by submitting sways, Yet has her humor most, when she obeys."

By causing the character of woman to be more thoroughly discussed and better understood;--by making it more frequently the theme of rational meditation to the young and ardent, who, from the force of defective education, are apt to regard all "the sex," beyond a very limited circle, as mere accessaries to animal enjoyment,--whose peace they may wound without compunction, and whose happiness they may peril without reflection,--we feel that we shall do both sexes a good service, and one for which as they advance in life, and in their turn become husbands, wives and parents, they will thank our little book, as having helped them to know themselves and each other.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

African Women, 43 Adultery, punishment of 155 Bathing at Rome, 31 Betrothing and Marriage, 104 Chinese Women, 40 Chinese Bridegroom, 41 Caesar, Anecdote of 157 Celibacy of the Clergy, 160 Cleopatra, Death of, 199 Courts of Love, 172 Courtship, ancient Swedish 176 Courtship, Grecian 165 Courtship, Eastern 168 Condition of Women in the 8th Century, 52 Egyptian Women, Ancient 13 Egyptian Women, Modern 15 Euthira, desperate act of 162 Eastern Women, 37 English Women, 62 First Woman, 9 Female Friendship, 109 Female Delicacy, 30 French Women, 53 French Girls, 55 Female Simplicity, 71 Female Inferiority, idea of 67 Females during the age of Chivalry, 48 First Kiss of Love, 198 Grecian Women, 19 German Women, 99 Grecian Courtezans, 20 Greeks, religious festivals of 180 Grecian Ladies, luxurious dress of 164 Girls sold at Auction, 153 Husbands, on the choice of 114 Italian Women, 57 Influence of female society, 83 Immodesty at Babylon, 173 Indecency at Adrianople, 175 Lucretia and Virginia, 182 Ladies of Lapland and Greenland, 177 Matrimony, an essay on 203 Matrimony among the French 55 Matrimony in three different lights, 103 Magnanimity of Women, 77 Monastic Life, 89 Marriage Brokers at Genoa, 60 Marrying, power of 159 Noah's three sons, 43 Nuptial Ceremonies, 66 On looking at the picture of a beautiful female, 183 Persian Women, 17 Philtres and charms, power of 167 Roman Women, 24 Roman Oppian Law, 29 Russian Women, 65 Spanish Women, 60 St. Valentine's Day, 171 Sentimental Attachment, 92 Sale of a wife, 154 Saxons and Danes, long hair of 170 Venus de Medici, 194 Women, Art of determining the figure, beauty, habits, and the age of 185 Women in the Patriarchal ages, 10 Woman in Savage Life, 32 Woman in times of Chivalry, 45 Women in Asia and Africa, 79

"Sketches indeed, from that most passionate page, A woman's heart, of feelings, thoughts, that make The atmosphere in which her spirit moves; But like all other earthly elements, O'ercast with clouds; now dark, now touched with light, With rainbows, sunshine, showers, moonlight, stars, Chasing each other's change. I fain would trace Its brightness and its blackness."

SKETCHES OF "THE SEX."

THE FIRST WOMAN, AND HER ANTEDILUVIAN DESCENDANTS.

The great Creator, having formed man of the dust of the earth, "made a deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." Hence the fair sex, in the opinion of some authors, being formed of matter doubly refined, derive their superior beauty and excellence.

Not long after the creation, the first woman was tempted by the serpent to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, in the midst of the garden of Eden, with regard to which God had said, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

This deception, and the fatal consequences arising from it, furnish the most interesting story in the whole history of the sex.

On the offerings being brought, and that of Abel accepted, Cain's jealousy and resentment rose to such a pitch, that, as soon as they came down from the mount where they had been sacrificing, he fell upon his brother and slew him.

For this cruel and barbarous action, Cain and his posterity, being banished from the rest of the human race, indulged themselves in every species of wickedness. On this account, it is supposed, they were called the Sons and Daughters of Men. The posterity of Seth, on the other hand, became eminent for virtue, and a regard to the divine precepts. By their regular and amiable conduct, they acquired the appellation of Sons and Daughters of God.

After the deluge there is a chasm in the history of women, until the time of the patriarch Abraham. They then begin to be introduced into the sacred story. Several of their actions are recorded. The laws, customs, and usages, by which they were governed, are frequently exhibited.

WOMAN IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGES.

The condition of women among the ancient patriarchs, appears to have been but extremely indifferent. When Abraham entertained the angels, sent to denounce the destruction of Sodom, he seems to have treated his wife as a menial servant: "Make ready quickly," said he to her, "three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes on the hearth."