and without influence; read much and have few ideas-even Miss Martineau cannot explain this enigma.

SECTION III.

JUDGMENT OF ENGLISH TRAVELLERS IN AMERICA-WOMANBLUE LAWS-PURITAN AUSTERITY-JUDICIARY ANECDOTES.

The condition of woman is, in every country, the certain sign of the degree of civilization to which that country has arrived. Woman is nothing to the savage; a slave at the outset of civilization, she acquires her rights and her value, as she passes the successive degrees, which efface the tyranny of physical force and give supremacy to the intellectual. Not to crush the feebler being; to give her her share of the sunlight, to recognize her privileges and assign her an influence, is the symptom of a highly-perfected society which recognizes that the law of the body is the law of the brute. There comes a moment when civilization is ruined by excess, degrades itself by over-refinement, till one is not content to protect the feeble creature, but teaches her to make up for her feebleness by voluptuousness. This epoch of gallantry and decadence attains, at last, the same result as the savage life, to wit, degradation of woman, promiscuous mingling of the sexes, and confusion of duties. The beautiful time, the sane and glorious epoch, is when, according to the condition of each society, everything takes its natural place; when the woman is no more a mere nurse or slave, or faithful guardian

of the house; when she is not yet transformed into the arbiter of temporary folly, or distributor of the world's favor. In our day she has wanted more; she has asked for her feeble hands the plough, the sword, the axe, the helm of the vessel, the port-folio of the minister, and the painful government of society.

That powerful sketch of civilization, which is called North America, gives to woman an intermediate position. There she tries vainly to imitate the aristocratic manners of Europe, to acquire the elegance, the recherché, the bon ton, to which old society is accustomed-unsuccessful imitation! A young and mercantile society has only the time to dispose of its bales of cotton, and to clear its forests.*

America must wait. When she has time, she will create a literature and arts, and the woman of the world, exquisite and singular production of an extreme civilization, will at last appear. Men have a great deal to say against the lazy, the unproductive, the men of leisure. Without this leisure, without this laziness, there can be no poetry, nor style, nor art, nor elegance, nor even meditation and thought. These flowers blow only in perfect abstraction from material cares.

I may affirm, that the grand artistic beauty of Greek civilization, developed itself with so much force and éclat, with such fertile and easy splendor, only because of the leisure of Epaminondas, and Socrates and Plato, and Praxiteles-they were gentlemen. All the material and inferior part of life was for their slaves to take care of; they were to grind or weave; the business of the masters was to become great men, brilliant writers, sublime artists. In spite of the law of Polytheism, which made the woman the first slave, one saw Aspasia and Sappho appear in the bosom of this singular

* See last chapter in this work.

civilization of which we have no idea, and share the crown of Pindar, of Anacreon, of Tyrtous.

Present America, born of the Christian element, has reached a much higher pitch of civilization; but comparatively speaking, she is not nearly so far advanced as antique Greece. Miss Martineau, philosophical woman, who hoped to find in America the paradise of philosophy, and republican independence, was very much astonished to see in how narrow a circle the Americans embark and enclose feminine force and intellect.

The anglo-American colonies had not the chivalric Catholic spirit to start from, a spirit favorable to woman; but the Calvinistic spirit, profoundedly rigid, and governed by the terror of the dogma of predestination. The honoring of the Virgin Mary was renounced; separation of the sexes became a law. This inhuman rigidity of the Calvinistic belief has not yet lost all its influence-it has left profound traces in Connecticut. Theatres are not tolerated there. In 1840, an equestrian troupe were obliged to halt on the borders of the State, after having played in the neighboring provinces. The Government of Connecticut sent them the useful and frank notice, not to hazard themselves within the limits of the State, if they would not expose themselves to the confiscation of their horses. The neighboring inhabitants do not lose the opportunity of saying, that the severity of Connecticut is pure hypocrisy, and that its people are secretly addicted to the most odious vices.

The fundamental and creative spirit of the United States, modified since its commencement by the more tolerant philosophy of Locke, is only to be found in that old Puritan code called the blue laws, but which should have been named the black laws. "If," says the 13th chapter of this Draconian code, a child, or children above the age of sixteen, and pos

sessing intelligence, strike, or curse their father or mother, they shall be put to death, according to Exodus xxi. 17, and Levit. xx." "If," says chapter xiv., "there be a son rebellious and stubborn, of competent age and intelligence, who harkeneth not to the voice of his mother, his parents shall lay hands upon him, carry him before the judge, proving that he is stiffnecked, stubborn, and rebellious, and yieldeth not to their voice, nor to their chastisements, but liveth in sinthen that son shall be put to death."

Lying is punished with stripes, blasphemy with the pillory; and the use of tobacco is rigidly prohibited. "No man shall use tobacco, without having exhibited to the magistrate, a certificate signed by a physician, setting forth that the use of tobacco is necessary for him. Then he shall receive a license

and may smoke. It is forbidden to all inhabitants of this colony to use tobacco upon the highways, etc., etc." Extracts from the judicial records, at the period when the blue laws, were in vogue, offer more comical details, and are of so indecent a prudery that our pen refuses to reproduce more than an idea of these incredible details.

In 1660, during the brilliant reign of Louis XIV., and the debauched reign of Charles II., was registered

thus:

"May 1st, 1660,-Jacob Macmurline and Sarah Tuttle were called before the court for the following reasons: On the marriage day of John Potter, Sarah Tuttle visited Mrs. Macmurline to ask for some thread. Mrs. M., sent her into the room of her daughters, where she found John Potter and his wife, both of whom were lame, and in speaking to them she made use of very improper expressions. Then came in Jacob Potter, brother of John Potter, and Sarah Tuttle having let fall her gloves, Jacob picked them up. Sarah asking for them, he refused unless she would give him a kiss,

whereupon both sate down, Sarah Tuttle with her arm on Jacob's shoulder, and his about her waist; they remained thus nearly half-an-hour, before Mary Ann and Susan, who testify also that Jacob did give a kiss unto Sarah." Here comes in the testimony as to where were the arms, foreheads, lips, analyzing that kiss with a vigor beyond all criticism, and filling three pages with more astonishing, prudish, immodest, severe, and in a word licentious writing, than can be found in any novel. Jacob and Sarah are both admonished and fined, the court declaring "that is a singular and ever to be deplored thing that young people should have such ideas and should thus mutually corrupt each other." Sarah is of unjustifiable corruption in word and speech, and Jacob's conduct and manner are "uncivil, immodest, corrupt, blasphemous, and devilish," he must go to prison and pay a fine.

For getting tipsy, poor Isaiah, servant of Captain Turner, pays £5, which may be something like Fcs. 300 to-day. The servant Ruth Acie, is whipped for lying and for having received a visit from William Harding, the Don Juan of the Colony. Martha Malbon, has the same chastisement for having supped with this bandit of a Harding. Goodman Hunt is banished for having baked a pie for the said Harding, and his wife both whipped and banished for giving or receiving a kiss.

All these executions, which relate to pies and kisses, date from January, 1643. Our Don Juan Harding pursues his career until 1631; in December of which year we find him—but he has exhausted the indulgence of all. He is condemned to pay £5 to Mr. Malbon; £5 to Mr. Andrews, to quit the colony and to be very severely whipped. Poor Don Juan!

Such was the Puritan legislation which civilized and prepared the United States. Several articles of the Blue Laws