istrates of Athens
had a wife of that name, who is supposed to have taken it into her head to
compel Greece to conclude a peace. She relates, how, during the war, the
women inquiring of their husbands the result of their counsels, and
whether they had not resolved to make peace with Sparta, received no
answers but imperious looks, and orders to mind their own business: that,
however, they perceived plainly to what a low condition the government was
declined: that they took the liberty to remonstrate mildly to their
husbands upon the sad consequences of their rash determinations, but that
their humble representations had no other effect than to offend and enrage
them: that, at length, being confirmed by the general opinion of all
Attica, that there were no longer any men in the state, nor heads for the
administration of affairs, their patience being quite exhausted, the women
had thought it proper and advisable to take the government upon
themselves, and preserve Greece, whether it would or no, from the folly
and madness of its resolves. "For her part, she declares, that she has
taken possession of the city and treasury, in order," says she, "to
prevent Pisander and his confederates, the four hundred administrators,
from exciting troubles, according to their custom, and from robbing the
public as usual." (Was ever any thing so bold?) She goes on to prove, that
the women only are capable of retrieving affairs by this burlesque
argument; that admitting things to be in such a state of perplexity and
confusion, the sex, accustomed to untangling their threads, were the only
persons to set them right again, as being best qualified with the
necessary address, patience, and moderation. The Athenian politics are
thus made inferior to those of the women, who are only represented in a
ridiculous light, to turn the derision upon their husbands, who were
engaged in the administration of the government.

These extracts from Aristophanes, taken almost word for word from father
Brumoi, seemed to me very proper to give an insight into that poet's
character, and the genius of the ancient comedy, which was, as we see, a
satire of the most poignant and severe kind, that had assumed to itself an
independency from respect to persons, and to which nothing was sacred. It
is no wonder that Cicero condemns so licentious and uncurbed a liberty. It
might, he says,(199) have been tolerable, had it attacked only bad
citizens, and seditious orators, wh