Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by JOHN ALLEN & CO. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. HISTORY OF WOMEN. EUROPE. PLUTARCH speaks with disapprobation of the Persian manner of treating women; yet the Greeks themselves kept them under very strict discipline. They had distinct apartments, in the highest and most retired part of the house, and among the wealthier classes these rooms were often kept locked and guarded. Women belonging to the royal fami lies were not even allowed to go from one part of the house to the other without permission. When Antigone, in Euripides, obtains her mother's permission to go on the house-top to view the Argian army, her aged guardian insists upon first searching the passage, lest the profane eyes of a citizen should dishonor her by a glance. Young girls were more rigorously secluded than married women; yet it was considered highly indecorous for the latter to be seen beyond the door-step until they were old enough to assume the character of matrons. Menander says: "You go beyond the married woman's bounds, And stand before the hall, which is not fit; The laws do not permit a free-born bride Maidens were rarely allowed to appear in the presence of men; and never without veils. This covering was probably made of transparent stuff; for Iphigenia speaks of seeing her brother through "the veil's fine texture." Eustathius says, "Women should keep within doors, and there talk." Thucydides declared that "she was the best woman of whom the least was said, either of good or harm;" according to the Greek proverb it was considered extremely dishonorable to be governed by a female; and Plato rejoiced that he was not born a woman. In order to prevent assignations, Solon enacted that no wife, or matron, should go from home with more than three garments, or a basket longer than |