that seeming
reluctance to enter into the married state, observable in polite
countries, is the work of art, and not of nature. The history of every
uncultivated people amply proves it. It tells us, that their women not
only speak with freedom the sentiments of their hearts, but even blush
not to have these sentiments made as public as possible."

In Formosa, however, they differ so much from the simplicity of the
Canadians, that it would be reckoned the greatest indecency in the man
to declare, or in the woman to hear, a declaration of the passion of
love. The lover is, therefore, obliged to depute his mother, sister, or
some female relation; and from any of these the soft tale may be heard
without the least offence to delicacy.

In Spain, the women had formerly no voice in disposing of themselves in
matrimony. But as the empire of common sense began to extend itself,
they began to claim a privilege, at least of being consulted in the
choice of the partners of their lives. Many fathers and guardians, hurt
by this female innovation, and puffed up with Spanish pride, still
insisted on forcing their daughters to marry according to their
pleasure, by means of duennas, locks, hunger, and even sometimes of
poison and daggers. But as nature will revolt against every species of
oppression and injustice, the ladies have for some time begun to assert
their own rights. The authority of fathers and guardians begins to
decline, and lovers find themselves obliged to apply to the affections
of the fair, as well as to the pride and avarice of their relations.

The nightly musical serenades of mistresses by their lovers are still in
use. The gallant composes some love sonnets, as expressive as he can,
not only of the situation of his heart, but of every particular
circumstance between him and the lady, not forgetting to lard them with
the most extravagant encomiums on her beauty and merit. These he sings
in the night below her window accompanied with his lute, or sometimes
with a whole band of music. The more piercingly cold the air, the more
the lady's heart is supposed to be thawed with the patient sufferance
of her lover, who, from night to night, frequently continues his
exercises for many hours, heaving the deepest sighs, and casting the
most piteous looks towards the window; at which if his goddess at last
deigns to appear, and drops him a curtsey, he is superlatively paid for
all his watching; but if she blesses him with a smi