it was to his faithful female followers that he first revealed himself; and, as a concluding remark, permit me to observe, that if, as we are assured unequivocally, women are equal inheritors of the skies, it ill befits us to refuse them their rights on earth. No, sir, depend upon it, when men cannot support themselves, except by asserting that power which the laws have conferred upon them, they are _hard run_, and the edifice is tottering when it requires a buttress. The nobler animals are all _quiescent_. The lion reposes in his strength, and knowing how much he can command, is slow at making exhibition of his force; but "man, proud man!" "Dressed in a little brief authority, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As make the angels weep." "I remember, sir," said I, "to have seen once, in the library of a gentleman, who, by the bye, was a most complete domestic despot, an odd sort of a book, entitled "Rights of Women." "Are you acquainted with, and an approver of that work?"--"No, young gentleman, that is a book which has long ago found its resting-place amid dust and cobwebs. When new, it was a wretched thing, and is now forgotten; but you found it, as the mineralogists express themselves, _in situ_, when you discovered a stray copy on the shelves of a tyrant. The brawlers about liberty are generally fond of keeping it all to themselves. The French revolution, which was before your time, set many heads distracted, and loosened the whole frame-work of our morals; but we are sobered, and have consigned to oblivion the grosser absurbities of that disjointed period. "Women have real and substantial rights, natural as well as civil, which no one attempts to dispute; and they are fools when they part with them, unless to secure a greater good than they relinquish; but marriage is the rock upon which multitudes make shipwreck, because from the present constitution of things, that solemn act of life is performed with less consideration than people commonly employ in the purchase of a field. Men, after a career of folly, begin to look about them, and think it wise to _settle_, before time has thinned their locks and scattered silver over the flowing honours of youth. Women sigh for what are called establishments; and happiness slides out of a scheme in which no provision has been made for its entertainment. Take an old man's advice, Mr. Howard, be as deliberate in your selection as you please, and I hope that you will not marry till you know your own mind; but when you _do_ become a Benedick, let your Beatrice be the friend of your bosom, the companion of your life, and a partner in all your pains, pleasures, and pursuits."