Female Scripture Biography Volume II Part 17
"This strange minister of justice (who is supposed to be either the husband himself, or some person instructed by him,) disguised in the dress that has been mentioned, and armed with the rod of public authority, announces his coming (whenever his services are required) by loud and dismal screams in the woods near the town. He begins the pantomime at the approach of night; and, as soon as it is dark, he enters the town, and proceeds to the Bentang, at which all the inhabitants immediately a.s.semble.
"It may easily be supposed, that this exhibition is not much relished by the women; for as the person in disguise is entirely unknown to them, every married female suspects that the visit may possibly be intended for herself: but they dare not refuse to appear, when they are summoned; and the ceremony commences with songs and dances, which continue till midnight, about which time Mumbo fixes on the offender. This unfortunate victim being thereupon immediately seized, is stripped naked, tied to a post, and severely scourged with Mumbo's rod, amidst the shouts and derision of the whole a.s.sembly; and it is remarkable, that the rest of the women are the loudest in their exclamations on this occasion against their unhappy sister. Daylight puts an end to this indecent and unmanly revel." [101]
"In the Mandingo countries," says Durand, "there is a mosque in every town, from the steeple of which the people are called to prayers, the same as in Turkey. Polygamy is practised in these regions in its utmost lat.i.tude. The women are frequently hostages for alliance and peace; and the chiefs of two tribes, who have been at war, cement their treaties by an exchange of their daughters: private individuals do the same; and this circ.u.mstance may be the reason why the chiefs, in particular, have such a great number of women. A girl is frequently betrothed to a man as soon as she is born. On the day agreed on for the marriage, the bridegroom places on the road which the bride has to pa.s.s, several of his people at different distances, with brandy and other refreshments; for if these articles be not furnished in abundance, the conductors of the bride will not advance a step further, though they may have got three parts of the way on their journey. On approaching the town, they stop, and are joined by the friends of the bridegroom, who testify their joy by shouting, drinking, and letting off their pieces." [102]
MOORS OF BENOROM, &c. "The education of the girls is neglected altogether: mental accomplishments are but little attended to by the women; nor is the want of them considered, by the men, as a defect in the female character.
They are regarded, I believe, as an inferior species of animals; and seem to be brought up for no other purpose, than that of administering to the sensual pleasures of their imperious masters. Voluptuousness is, therefore, considered as their chief accomplishment, and slavish submission as their indispensable duty." [103]
KAMALIA. "If a man takes a fancy to any one [of the young women,] it is not considered as absolutely necessary, that he should make an overture to the girl herself. The first object is to agree with the parents, concerning the recompense to be given them for the loss of the company and services of their daughter. The value of two slaves is a common price, unless the girl is thought very handsome; in which case, the parents will raise their demand very considerably. If the lover is rich enough and willing to give the sum demanded, he then communicates his wishes to the damsel; but her consent is, by no means, necessary to the match; for if the parents agree to it, and eat a few kolla-nuts, which are presented by the suiter as an earnest of the bargain, the young lady must either have the man of their choice, or continue unmarried, for she cannot after be given to another. If the parents should attempt it, the lover is then authorized, by the laws of the country, to seize upon the girl as his slave.
"The negroes, whether Mahomedan or Pagan, allow a plurality of wives. The Mahomedans alone are, by their religion, confined to four; and as the husband commonly pays a great price for each, he requires from all of them the utmost deference and submission, and beats them more like hired servants than companions." [104]
BANISERILE. "One of our slatus was a native of this place, from which he had been absent three years. This man invited me to go with him to his house; at the gate of which his friends met him with many expressions of joy, shaking hands with him, embracing him, and singing and dancing before him. As soon as he had seated himself upon a mat, by the threshold of his door, a young woman (his intended bride) brought a little water in a calabash, and kneeling down before him, desired him to wash his hands; when he had done this, the girl, with a tear of joy sparkling in her eyes, drank the water; this being considered as the greatest proof she could possibly give him of her fidelity and attachment." [105]
THE KAFFERS. The princ.i.p.al article of their trade with the Tambookie nation, is the exchange of cattle for their young women. Almost every chief has Tambookie wives, though they pay much dearer for them than for those of their own people. Polygamy is allowed in its fullest extent, and without any inconvenience resulting from the practice, as it is confined nearly to the chiefs. The circ.u.mstances of the common people will rarely allow them the indulgence of more than one wife, as women are not to be obtained without purchase. The females being considered as the property of their parents, are invariably disposed of by sale. The common price of a wife is an ox, or a couple of cows. Love with them is a very confined pa.s.sion, taking but little hold on the mind. When an offer is made for the purchase of a daughter, she feels little inclination to refuse; she considers herself as an article in the market, and is neither surprised, nor unhappy, nor interested, on being told that she is about to be disposed of. There is no previous courtship, no exchange of fine sentiments, no nice feelings, nor little kind attentions, which catch the affections and attach the heart. [106]
THE PEOPLE OF SNEUWBERG, GRAAFF REGNET, "The only grievance of which I ever heard them complain," says Mr. Barrow, "and which appears to be a real inconvenience to all who inhabit the remote parts of the colony, is a ridiculous and absurd law respecting marriage: and as it seems to have no foundation in reason, and little in policy, except, indeed, like the marriage-acts in other countries, it be intended as a check to population, it ought to be repealed. By this law, the parties are both obliged to be present at the Cape, in order to answer certain interrogatories, and pa.s.s the forms of office there, the chief intention of which seems to be that of preventing improper marriages from being contracted; as if the commissaries appointed to this office, at the distance of five or six hundred miles, should be better acquainted with the connexions and other circ.u.mstances regarding the parties; than the landrost, the clergyman, and the members of the council residing upon the spot. The expense of the journey to the young couple is greater than they can frequently well afford. For decency's sake they must set out in two wagons, though in the course of a month's journey across a desert country, it is said they generally make one serve the purpose; the consequence of which is, that nine times out of ten the consummation of the marriage precedes the ceremony. This naturally produces another bad effect. The poor girl, after the familiarities of a long journey, lies entirely at the mercy of the man, who, having satisfied his curiosity or his pa.s.sion, sometimes deserts her before their arrival at the altar; and it has sometimes happened, that the lady has repented of her choice in the course of the journey, and driven home again in her own wagon. Though, in our own country, a trip to Scotland be sometimes taken, when obstacles at a nearer distance could not safely be surmounted, yet it would be considered as a very ridiculous, as well as vexatious law, that should oblige the parties intending to marry, to proceed from the Laud's End to London to carry their purpose into execution. The inhabitants of Graaff Regnet must travel twice that distance, in order to be married." [107]
NEGRO NATIONS. "It is a practice equally, nay, perhaps still more common among the negroes than among the Americans, to offer their wives and daughters to Europeans." [108] "Parents sell their daughters not only to lovers, but to suiters of any kind, without doubting or even asking their consent. The negroes in general, receive for their daughters a few bottles of brandy, and at the furthest, a few articles of wearing apparel; and when these prices are paid, the fathers conduct their willing children to the huts of the purchasers." [109] "A negro may love his wife with all the affection that is possible for a negro to possess, but he never permits her to eat with him, because he would imagine himself contaminated, or his dignity lessened, by such a condescension; and at this degrading distance, the very negro-slaves in the West Indies keep their wives, though it might be presumed that the hardships of their common lot would have tended to unite them in the closest manner." [110] "The poorest and meanest negro, even though he be a slave, is generally waited upon by his wife as by a subordinate being, on her knees. On their knees the negro women are obliged to present to their husbands tobacco and drink; on their knees they salute them when they return from hunting, or any other expedition; lastly, on their knees, they drive away the flies from their lords and masters while they sleep." [111]
GAGERS. Various writers of credit and veracity report, that in the southern portion of Africa, many princes and chieftains keep great numbers of young girls, not merely to gratify their pa.s.sions, but to satiate their tigerlike appet.i.te for human flesh. In order to convince ourselves, that the fate of the black women of Africa is not less severe than the condition of the brown females of the American continent, it is sufficient to state, that among the negro-women, to whom Cavazzi administered baptism, some acknowledged with tears that they had killed five, others seven, and others again ten children, with their own hands.
Notwithstanding the despotic authority of the legislatrix of the Gagers, she was unable, even by the strictest prohibition, to restrain her warriors from regaling themselves with the flesh of women. Rich and powerful chieftains continued to keep whole flocks of young girls, as they would of lambs, calves, or any other animals, and had some of them daily slaughtered for the table; for the Gagers prefer human flesh to every other species of animal food, and among the different cla.s.ses of human kind, they hold that of young females in particular estimation. [112]
III. PATRIARCHAL TIMES, AND THE PERIOD OF THE JEWISH THEOCRACY, require a brief examination, as a necessary means of elucidating the general subject.
Having already, in the preceding inquiries, ascended to an early date, and traced the condition of women through a long series of historic record to the present age, it may seem an imperfection in the plan to conduct the reader back to a still more remote antiquity than has. .h.i.therto been noticed; but this arrangement will be allowed, perhaps, to be founded in propriety, upon observing that the design was first to exhibit a complete series of ill.u.s.trations, derived from a view of the circ.u.mstances of mankind as _dest.i.tute of the light of revelation_, and then to compare the condition of the female s.e.x under the influence of a precursory and imperfect system of the _true religion_, with their actual state, or with the privileges secured to them by the n.o.bler manifestations of CHRISTIANITY. By this mode of conducting the argument we trace the great epochs in the history of female melioration: the glory of woman appears at first eclipsed, as behind a dark cloud, which the pa.s.sions of a degenerate race had interposed to hide and debase her: she then emerges, though partially, to view, through the mists and obscurities of a temporary dispensation, adapting itself to the circ.u.mstances of mankind as they then existed, but unsuited to what they were destined to become--till at length, "fair as the moon," ascending to the noon of her glory, and tinging with the mildness of her beam every earthly object, woman attains her undisputed eminence, and diffuses her benignant influence in society.
Were we to attach entire credit to the pleasing descriptions of the muses, we must admit, that the earliest ages of the world deserved the epithet of "golden" as exhibiting man devoid of those artificial wants which refinement and luxury have superinduced, and divested of those violent prejudices, that selfishness and that arrogance, which have filled the cup of human wo to the brim: we should see him inhabiting a tent of the simplest construction, furnishing himself with necessary subsistence with his own hands, sharing with his companion the services of domestic life, breathing the very soul of hospitality, and adorned with the most attractive manners: we should even see princes and princesses devoting themselves to what we are accustomed to denominate the menial offices both of husbandry and house-keeping, but without any sense of degradation in the one s.e.x, or any tyrannical a.s.sumption in the other.
The authority of the sacred writings also upon this point is express and decisive. The most distinguished of the human race were, in patriarchal times, devoted to rural occupations and to plain habits; and it is not easy, nor is it altogether desirable, to divest oneself of those feelings of enchantment which the view of such scenes and manners naturally inspires. Who can remain unaffected at the recital of the story of an Abraham, running to the herd and fetching a young and tender calf to refresh his angelic visiters; or at the various memorable instances of simplicity that occur in the stories of Isaac, Jacob, and their contemporaries?
But the question is, whether the actual condition of women did or did not indicate the lordly views of their husbands, and a general state of slavish subordination? What can be said to the practices of polygamy and concubinage, which prevailed even in these golden times and in pious families? Do they evince any proper estimate of the character of women? or have they not an evident tendency to degrade them? Does not their very inst.i.tution a.s.sert the subserviency of the one s.e.x to the will and pleasure of the other? [113] The state of women may not only be inferred under such circ.u.mstances, but is clearly seen. Wives possessed no other advantages over concubines than the right of inheriting; and domestic unions were formed without any reference to the n.o.bler felicities of social intercourse. Hence infertility not only excited dislike, but was held to justify repudiation. In the earliest ages, marriage was not only very unceremonious with regaird to the mode in which it was conducted, but this important union was arranged without any previous agreement between the parties, and wives were often purchased. Men had the right of annulling all the oaths and engagements of their daughters and wives, if they had, not been present when they were contracted. "We can discover,"
says Segur, "in these first ages, nothing worthy of the t.i.tle of 'golden,'
which has been applied to them. Abraham and Isaac were continually afraid of being a.s.sa.s.sinated for their wives; and the oath which they enacted from their neighbours not to attempt their lives, savoured little of a _golden_ age."
Under the Jewish theocracy the Levitical law appointed a variety of regulations which evinced their imperfect emanc.i.p.ation from a state of inferiority. They were in particular subjected to the trial of the waters of jealousy, not only in cases of real departure from conjugal fidelity, but when a suspicion existed in the mind of the husband, even though it were without any foundation: and there were cases in which misconduct of a similar natute exposed them to be stoned to death. The doctrine of vows also, in the cases of daughters, wives, and widows, corroborates the general argument, by evincing the marked subordination of the woman to the man. "If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth; and her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds, wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered aught out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the Lord shall forgive her. But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.
And if she vowed in her husband's house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath; and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the Lord shall forgive her. Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them. But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity."
From the dark and deeply shaded back-ground of the picture of female degradation, formed by the facts which have now been adduced, and which might easily be corroborated by an immense acc.u.mulation of evidence, Christianity is brought forward with conspicuous prominence, and in all her gracefulness. The contrast is at once striking and affecting: the moral scene brightens upon the view as we contemplate this attractive figure combining majesty and mildness--fascination in her smiles and heaven in her eye.
The superiority which the religion of Jesus has secured to women above the state of barbaric degradation, Mahometan slavery, and Jewish subjection, proclaims the glory of that system, which has already meliorated society to its minutest subdivisions, and will eventually transform the moral desert of human being into a paradise of beauty and bliss. The argument, however, will be seen with more distinctness, by the following brief detail.
1. _The personal conduct of the divine Author of Christianity, tended to elevate the female s.e.x to a degree of consideration in society before unknown._ During the life of our Lord, women were admitted to a holy familiarity with him, attended his public labours, ministered to his wants, and adhered to him with heroic zeal, when their attachment exposed them to insult, danger and death.
Immediately after the marriage of Cana in Galilee, where he attended with his mother, he accompanied her with his brethren and disciples to Capernaum. That excellent spirit, for which he was remarkable from his earliest years, continued to influence his mind in maturer life, and taught him justly to appreciate and perfectly to exemplify the domestic and social duties. He did not scruple to converse with a Samaritan woman, who came to draw water at Jacob's well, though his disciples, in whose minds Jewish prejudices continued to prevail, expressed their astonishment at his condescension. Never was there so fine a specimen of patience, gentleness, and humility, blended with true dignity, as upon that remarkable occasion. He instructed her ignorance, endured her petulance, corrected her mistakes, awakened her conscience, converted her heart, and eventually honoured her as a messenger of mercy and salvation to her Samaritan friends. At another time, when the disciples rebuked those who brought their little children to him, that he might put his hands on them and pray, he kindly interposed; and evincing the most sympathetic tenderness towards the solicitudes which, on such an occasion, would necessarily pervade the maternal bosom, he said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven: and he laid his hands on them." On various occasions, when he performed some of his most ill.u.s.trious miracles, females were personally concerned, and shared his distinguished notice and condolence. Such particularly was the case when he met the funeral procession at Nain: it was that of a young man, represented in the simple and affecting language of the evangelist, as "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow."
The meeting was apparently casual; but Jesus was instantly and deeply impressed with the circ.u.mstances: he in particular felt compa.s.sion for the weeping parent--addressed her in kind and gentle terms--remanded the spirit from its eternal flight, to inhabit again for a season the body from which it had so lately departed, and delivered the reanimated youth to _his mother_. He blended his tears with those of Martha and Mary, at the sepulchre of their brother; and after instructing them upon the subject of the resurrection from the dead, restored him to their wishes and affections." Women "ministered unto Jesus of their substance,"--"the daughters of Jerusalem" bewailed him when he was led to crucifixion--and the "women that followed him from Galilee were deeply interested spectators of his sufferings, observed his sepulchre, and prepared spices and ointments. It was Mary Magdalene who enjoyed the honour and happiness of a first manifestation after Jesus was risen from the dead, and she was commissioned to go and inform the rest of his sorrowing disciples. "The frequent mention," says Doddridge "which is made in the evangelists of the generous and courageous zeal of some _pious women_ in the service of Christ, and especially of the faithful and resolute constancy with which they attended him in those last scenes of his suffering, might very possibly be intended to obviate that haughty and senseless contempt, which the pride of men, often irritated by those vexations to which their own irregular pa.s.sions have exposed them, has in all ages affected to throw on that s.e.x, which probably, in the sight of G.o.d, const.i.tute by far the better half of mankind; and to whose care and tenderness the wisest and best of men generally owe and ascribe much of the daily comfort and enjoyment of their lives."
2. _As the conduct of Christ naturally induced his disciples to imitate the example of their ill.u.s.trious Master, the subsequent admission of women to all the privileges of the Christian Church, tended exceedingly to confirm their elevation, and evince their importance in society_. When the primitive converts to the Christian faith wished publicly to avow their dereliction of heathen idolatry, and their emanc.i.p.ation from the bondage of Judaism, by being baptized in water, _both s.e.xes_ were admitted without distinction to this solemn rite. At a very early period of the primitive church, when the city of Samaria received the word of G.o.d by the preaching of Philip, which with its accompanying miracles, diffused an universal joy, "they were baptized, both MEN and WOMEN;" and the apostle Paul, in writing to the Galatians, expresses himself in this triumphant strain: "For ye are all the children of G.o.d by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither MALE nor FEMALE, for ye are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus."
Sentiments like these, combined with the practice of an inst.i.tution so expressive and so remarkable, tended to circulate among the primitive Christians those feelings of respect and affection for women, which, by elevating them to their proper rank in society, must necessarily purify the public morals, meliorate individual character, and enn.o.ble the intercourse of life. Admitted to an equal partic.i.p.ation of the privileges of G.o.d's house, where every minor distinction is annihilated by the predominance of a diffusive charity, and feeling that their present joys and future destinies were blended with those of the "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling;" the female part of the community rose into importance as rational, but especially as immortal beings.
After the ascension of Christ, the historian of the Acts of the Apostles informs us, that "the WOMEN, and Mary, the mother of Jesus," a.s.sembled with the apostles to worship in the upper room at Jerusalem; being equally interested in the great events which had recently occurred, and in the devotional services in which they now engaged. Paul directs Timothy to treat "the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity." He also desires him to "honour widows that are widows indeed,"
and to afford them all proper relief by charitable contributions, a practice for which the first Christians were highly distinguished. Women are represented by an apostle himself as _fellow-labourers_ in the Gospel, a.s.sisting them, not only by their example, to which he willingly pointed the attention of the churches, but by their prayers, their visits of mercy, and other similar methods of co-operatiug in the propagation of the truth, and the promotion of individual happiness.
As the _immediate_ effects of original transgression upon the woman were most obvious and most deplorable, and as her debas.e.m.e.nt from the eminence a.s.signed her by the Creator has been _completed_ by the misrule of pa.s.sion, and the gradual advancement of human degeneracy: so the _direct_ operation of Christianity is apparent, according to the degree of its prevalence, in elevating her to a state which was known before only in the garden of Eden--a state in which she again a.s.sumes a rank, which regenerated man cheerfully concedes, wherein she regains the lost paradise of love and tenderness; while the more _remote_ influence of this system is discernible in the recognition of her rights, wherever its benign dominion extends. Now she ascends to the glory of an intelligent creature, gladdens by her presence the solitary hours of existence, beguiles by her converse and sympathy the rough and tedious paths of life, and not only acquires personal dignity and importance, but in some measure new modifies, purifies, and exalts the character of man. If we cannot but weep over the affecting representation of the departure of Adam and Eve from the scene of innocence and of celestial manifestation, when
"The brandish'd sword of G.o.d before them blaz'd Fierce as a comet: which with torrid heat And vapours, as the Libyan air adust, Begun to parch that temperate clime; whereat In either hand the hast'ning angel caught Our ling'ring parents, and to the eastern gate Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast To the subjected plain----"
and when, taking a hasty retrospect of their lost felicity, in consequence of transgression, and cherishing gloomy forebodings of that melancholy futurity, which seemed already to pour from its dark clouds the deluging rain of grief and misery--
"Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide; They, hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow Through Eden took their solitary way;----"
--if we must mourn over so sad a scene, Christianity a wakens sympathies of an opposite description, by exhibiting a goodly number of their descendants as inhabitants of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH--the grand repository of heavenly blessings, and the dwelling-place of peace--at whose holy altar of truth souls are wedded, and at whose sacramental board they celebrate an everlasting union. Nothing can present a scene more worthy the attention of mankind, or more attractive to the eyes of witnessing angels, than this a.s.sociation of persons in pious fellowship, without distinction of birth or country, age or s.e.x; partic.i.p.ators in equal proportions of the same happiness, children of one common parent, and heirs of one rich inheritance!
3. _The, great principles a.s.serted by the religion of Jesus, secure to women, as an unquestionable right, that exaltation in society, which his conduct, and that of his followers conferred_. These principles may he traced in the New Testament, either as necessarily comprehending, by their generality, a proper treatment of the female s.e.x, or as developing themselves in particular regulations and enactments.
Christianity breathes a spirit of the most diffusive charity and good will: and wherever its "power" is felt, it moulds the character into the image of benevolence. Love is the beauty and the strength of this "spiritual building;" a love, at once comprehensive in its range, and minute in its ramifications: adjusting the diversified claims of society and religion with perfect exactness, and directing the exercise of all the social affections. The fountain being purified, the streams become pure; the heart, which is the centre mid spring of moral action, being renewed, the conduct will be distinguished by a corresponding degree of virtue, goodness, and sanct.i.ty. But as Christianity produces a general transformation of character, by subduing the ferocious and brutal propensities of man; clearing away the rank and noxious weeds that overspread human nature, and sowing the seeds of moral excellence, the effect must be discernible in the whole intercourse of life. Immorality trembles, domestic tyranny retires abashed before the majesty of religion, and peace pervades that dwelling where power was law, and woman a slave.
In fact, every precept of the Gospel that inculcates kindness, sympathy, gentleness, meekness, courtesy, and all the other graces that bloom in the garden of the Lord--indirectly, and by no unintelligible or forced application, provides for the honour and glory of the female s.e.x. If the most effectual method of degrading woman be to barbarize man, the certain means of dignifying _her_ is to christianize _him_.
It is to be noticed also, that there is no s.e.x in conscience, and that for the discharge of the duties of piety, each is equally capacitated, and therefore equally responsible. If men were to give an account at the tribunal of heaven, not only for their personal actions and principles, but for those of women, to whom they are related by the ties of consanguinity, or with whom they are connected by circ.u.mstances, there would be some reason in a.s.suming a jurisdiction over their faith, and disputing their claims to rationality and to respectful treatment; but not to insist upon the moral const.i.tution of the female s.e.x, and the whole drift of divine revelation, the very terms of the initiatory ordinance of the Christian church, to which they are equally ent.i.tled, ill.u.s.trates and secures their prerogatives--for it is "the answer of a good conscience towards G.o.d." When men impose fetters upon other men, condemning, imprisoning, fining, scourging, burning, and anathematizing them, merely because they dare to think for themselves in matters which can only concern G.o.d and their own souls, and will not have their faith decreed by arbitrary power and exasperated ignorance, it need not excite surprise, that they should a.s.sume the right of behaving to the weaker s.e.x with all the capriciousness of despotism; and no authority but that of Scripture, which maintains the privileges of _all thinking beings_, can effectually restrain the wickedness of man's UNMANLY usurpation.
The precepts of Christianity bespeak its characteristic regard to the reciprocal duties and respective rank of the s.e.xes, adjusting their claims with a nicety that precludes disputation, and an authority that commands a.s.sent. They are not arbitrary enactments; but being founded in the highest reason, and connected with individual felicity, approve themselves to every well-regulated mind. In our behaviour to others, we are not only prohibited from indulging the vindictive and malignant pa.s.sions, but exhorted to do them good by the employment of our pecuniary resources, social opportunities, and moral means, to advance both their temporal and eternal interests. While these principles necessarily comprise the discharge of all relative duties, these are besides specifically enumerated and enforced. Husbands, in whose hands barbarism had placed a tyrannic sceptre, are required by the religion of Jesus to renounce their unjust domination, and to descend to the regulated and affectionate intercourse of the domestic hearth. It is expressly enjoined upon them to "love their wives," and not to be "bitter against them." "Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself: so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies."--"Ye husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life." "Let one of you in particular so love his wife as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
Christianity also expressly abolishes, at least by necessary implication, polygamy and the power of divorce, as they existed among barbarous nations, perpetuating the degradation of women, and spreading confusion in society. "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery." "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law.) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as be liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband." And, "Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." Paley remarks, "The manners of different countries have varied in nothing more than in their domestic const.i.tutions. Less polished and more luxurious nations have either not perceived the bad effects of polygamy, or, if they did perceive them, they who in such countries possessed the power of reforming the laws, have been unwilling to resign their own gratifications. Polygamy is retained at this day among the Turks, and throughout every part of Asia in which Christianity is not professed. In Christian countries it is universally prohibited. In Sweden it is punished with death. In England, besides the nullity of the second marriage, it subjects the offender to transportation, or imprisonment and branding, for the first offence, and to capital punishment for the second. And whatever may be said in behalf of polygamy when it is authorized by the law of the land, the marriage of a second wife during the lifetime of the first, in countries where such a second marriage is void, must be ranked with the most dangerous and cruel of those frauds by which a woman is cheated out of her fortune, her person, and her happiness.
"The ancient Medes compelled their citizens, in one canton, to take seven wives; in another, each woman to receive five husbands; according as war had made, in one quarter of their country, an extraordinary havoc among the men, or the women had been carried away by an enemy from another. This regulation, so far as it was adapted to the proportion which subsisted between the number of males and females, was founded in the reason upon which the most improved nations of Europe proceed at present.
"Caesar found among the inhabitants of this island a species of polygamy, if it may be so called, which was perfectly singular. _Uxores_, says he, _habent deni duodenique inter se communes; et maxime fratres c.u.m fratribus, parentesque c.u.m liberis: sed si qui sint ex his nati, corum habentur liberi, quo primum virgo quaque deducta est_."
The same perspicuous writer adds, upon the subject of divorce, "The Scriptures seem to have drawn the obligation tighter than the law of nature left it. 'Whosoever,' saith Christ, 'shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery.'
The law of Moses, for reasons of local expediency, permitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife; but whether for every cause, or for what causes, appears to have been controverted amongst the interpreters of those times. Christ, the precepts of whose religion were calculated for more general use and observation, revokes this permission, (as given to the Jews 'for the hardness of their hearts,') and promulges a law which was thenceforward to confine divorces to the single cause of adultery in the wife. And I see no sufficient reason to depart from the plain and strict meaning of Christ's words. The rule was new. It both surprised and offended his disciples, yet Christ added nothing to relax or explain it.
"Inferior causes may justify the separation of husband and wife, although they will not authorize such a dissolution of the marriage contract as would leave either party at liberty to marry again; for it is that liberty, in which the danger and mischief of divorces princ.i.p.ally consist.
If the care of children does not require that they should live together, and it is become, in the serious judgment of both, necessary for their mutual happiness that they should separate, let them separate by consent.
Nevertheless, this necessity can hardly exist, without guilt and misconduct on one side or on both. Moreover, cruelty, ill usage, extreme violence, or moroseness of temper, or other great and continual provocations, make it lawful for the party aggrieved to withdraw from the society of the offender, without his or her consent. The law which imposes the marriage vow, whereby the parties promise to 'keep to each other,' or in other words to live together, must be understood to impose it with a silent reservation of these cases; because the same law has const.i.tuted a judicial relief from the tyranny of her husband, by the divorce _a mensa et toro_, and by the provision which it makes for the separate maintenance of the injured wife. St. Paul, likewise, distinguishes between a wife merely separating herself from the family of her husband, and her marrying again: 'Let not the wife depart from her husband; but, and if she do depart, let her remain unmarried.'" [114]
Notwithstanding the survey we have taken of the general degradation of the female s.e.x, where the benign influences of Christianity have been unfelt, the argument may be confronted by a formidable array of plausible objections. It may be said, that amidst the barbarity of the SCANDINAVIAN NATIONS, they treated their women with extraordinary respect. The Scythians exempted the daughter from the punishment in which the son was obliged to partake with the father, and the German women even inherited the throne. Some of the laws, among the Goths, respecting illicit intercourse, were highly reasonable and just, and our remote ancestors may be cited as examples of treating women with the utmost veneration. It may seem indicative also of the prevalence of similar sentiments, that the ancient mythologies abound in female divinities: the Phoenicians worshipped the G.o.ddess _Astarte_, the Scythians, _Appia,_ the Scandinavians, _Friggia_, the wife of Odin. It may be further urged, with regard to the GREEKS and ROMANS, that though the melancholy picture we have already drawn of their conduct be true, yet their history presents some remarkable evidences of the elevated condition of their women, and the honourable regard which they obtained. Among the former, indeed, few instances can be adduced, in addition to that of Areta, the daughter of Aristippus, who fixed upon her son the surname of ??t??d?da?t??, or _disciple of his mother_, in consequence of her having been his instructer in the sciences and philosophy. The Romans, at some periods of their history, paid extraordinary respect to their women; the inst.i.tution of the vestals is a memorial of the estimation in which female virtue was held, and the emperor Heliogabalus was desirous that his wife should have a voice in the senate. They allowed their women to celebrate an annual feast, to commemorate the reconciliation between them and the Sabines, by means of their wives; and they erected an equestrian statue to Cloelia, and a temple to Fortune, in honour of the s.e.x; because the mother and wife of Coriola.n.u.s had caused that hero to retire weeping from his native country, when he was irresistible by arms. [115] But the most plausible objection to the general argument seems derivable from the history of CHIVALRY, under whose influence it is alleged that women were not only not degraded, but were actually advanced to the highest condition, and possessed the most commanding influence. The knights, at their installation, took solemn vows of self-devotement to the cause of female honour; and ladies were constantly engaged as umpires at tournaments, took off the armour of the conquerors, and irivested them with magnificent robes. The middle ages witnessed the extraordinary sight of knight-errants wandering over distant countries, with their sword and lance in hand, to contest the point of the beauty and virtue of their ladies, with all who ventured to intimate the slightest doubt or suspicion on the subject.
Their expeditions were usually made in consequence of some requisition on the part of their mistresses, or to fulfil a vow voluntarily incurred in a moment of intoxication and excitement.
The reply to these general objections has been in part antic.i.p.ated.
Christianity a.s.signs to women their proper place in society, neither admitting of their being tyrannized over by despotic authority, nor impiously honoured by a ridiculous adulation. They are to be viewed as help meets, not, as slaves; to be respected and loved, but not deified.
While the religion of Jesus raises them to great consideration in the scale of society, it imposes a salutary restraint upon human pa.s.sions, and checks every approach to the a.s.sumption of an unnatural superiority. It bestows a rank which secures them from contempt or disregard, while it equally prevents a senseless adoration: so that its principles disallow the barbaric treatment of uncivilized nations and the follies of the chivalrous ages.
In the different periods and places to which the objection refers, the conduct of mankind was marked with inconsistency. Greece and Rome exhibit ample specimens of this nature; and the time of chivalry afford ill.u.s.trations equally remarkable. The knights of the order were not distinguished by fidelity to their wives, or by a concern for the education of their daughters: their devotion to the female s.e.x was, in fact, without principle and without love; they fought, from vanity and fashion, for persons whom they had basely dishonoured and secretly despised; and while their flattery and folly were sufficiently discreditable to their own understandings and hearts, they tended in a deplorable degree to corrupt the principles of those whom they professed to value.
It is further obvious, that in the very best periods of Greek and Roman history there existed no security against a change in the treatment of women, arising from the general recognition of any of those great principles of moral conduct which const.i.tute the basis of good government and of well-regulated society. Pa.s.sion predominated above reason, and received its impulse solely from casual circ.u.mstances. It was, in fact, accidental, whether it should operate amiably or malignantly; and the felicity of one half of the human species depended upon the precarious and ever vacillating humour of the other. Virtue was scarcely seen upon the earth, except at occasional and often distant visitations, or as she shed a fitful and flickering light into the retreats of systematic philosophy.