In the worst stages of human society, there will ever be seven thousand of Israel who do not bow the knee to Baal; and such a remnant existed in Rome. The graceful form of heathen mythology had some degree of protecting life within it, so long as it was sincerely reverenced; but the vital spark, that at best had glimmered but faintly, was now entirely extinguished, and the beautiful form was crumbling in corruption and decay. The heart, oppressed with a sense of weakness and destitution, called upon the understanding for aid, and received only the lonely echo of its own wants. At such a moment, Christianity was embraced with fervor; and the soul, enraptured with glimpses of its heavenly home, forgot that the narrow pathway lay amid worldly duties, and worldly temptations. The relation of the sexes to each other had become so gross in its manifested forms, that it was difficult to perceive the pure conservative principle in its inward essence. Hence, though marriage was sanctioned, and solemnized by the most sacred forms, it was regarded as a necessary concession to human weakness, and perpetual celibacy was considered a sublime virtue. This feeling gave rise to the retirement of the cloister, and to solitary hermitages in the midst of the desert. St. Jerome is perhaps the most eloquent advocate of this ideal purity. His writings are full of eulogiums upon Paula, her daughter Eustochium, and other Roman women, who embraced Christianity, and spent whole days and nights in the study of the Scriptures. Women were peculiarly susceptible to the influence of doctrines whose very essence is gentleness and love. Among the Jews, the number of believing women had been greater than converted men; the same was true of the Romans; and it is an undoubted fact that most nations were brought into Christianity by the influence of a believing queen. By such means the light of the Gospel gradually spread through France, England, part of Germany, Bavaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. * * * * * The northern nations bore a general resemblance to each other. War and hunting were considered the only honorable occupations for men, and all other employments were left to women and slaves. Even the Visigoths, on the coasts of Spain, left their fields and flocks to the care of women. They had annual meetings, in which those who had shown most skill and industry in agriculture, received public applause. They were bound by law not to give a wife more than the tenth part of their substance. The Scandinavian women often accompanied the men in plundering excursions, and had all the drudgery to perform. The wives of the ancient Franks were inseparable from their husbands. They lived with them in the camp, where the marriages of their daughters were celebrated by the soldiers, with Scythian, and other warlike dances. A man was allowed but one wife, and was rigorously punished if he left her to marry another.