Divination seems heightened and raised to its highest power in woman, like mercury, the more sensitive to the breath of its atmosphere;--the most delicate metre of character, as if in the finest persons, the sex predominated to give the salient graces and gifts peculiar to woman. The difference appears to be of bias, not of positive power, of thought and feeling differently disposed, and where the extremes merge towards unity, not easily discriminated. Still, each preserves its distinctive traits under all differences, neither being mistaken for the other. A woman's thought is not taken for a man's, nor the contrary; though the outward expression were the same, each preserves its sexual tone and color. Any seeming exceptions are counterfeits, and confirm the law that sentiment is feminine, thought masculine, by whomsoever expressed; neither can blend fully and confound the other under any metamorphosis, sex being a constant factor individualizing the personality of souls. The ancient philosophers had so good an opinion of the sex, that they ascribed all sciences to the Muses, all sweetness and morality to the Graces, and prophetic inspiration to the Sibyls. Women have been subject alike to the admiration and contempt of men. It were handsomer to quote the poet's praises than blame, the Greek poets Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides especially. I like to enrich my pages with some of their fine lines, and not less for the new interest taken in the sex. _Æschylus._ "Wedlock is a state preordained of Destiny, and its Obligations are more binding than an oath." "Bite thy lips or ever thou speak words of impurity." "Can heaven's fair beams show a fond wife a sight More welcome than her husband from his wars Returned with glory, when she opes the gate And springs to welcome him." _Euripides._ "Men need not try where women fail." "To a father waxing old Nothing is dearer than a daughter; sons Have spirits of a higher pitch, but less inclined To sweet endearing tenderness." "Happy is it so to place A daughter; yet it pains a father's heart When he delivers to another's house A child, the object of his tender care." "A wise man in his house should find a wife Gentle and courteous, or no wife at all." "With silence of the tongue And cheerfulness of look I entertained My husband; where my province to command I knew, and where to yield obedience to him." "When the wife endures The ungentle converse of a husband rude In manners, in his person rude, to die Were rather to be wished." "If well accorded, the connubial state From all its strings speaks perfect harmony; If ill at home, abroad the harsh notes jar, And with rude discord wound the ear of peace."