toujours des bons coeurs," is a
common expression in France, in speaking even of the lowest and most
degraded of the sex. In Paris, it is certainly much more difficult than
in London to find examples in any rank of the unsullied purity of the
female character; but neither is it commonly seen so utterly perverted
and degraded; one has not occasion to witness so frequently the painful
spectacle of youth and beauty brought by one rash step to shame and
misery; and to lament, that the fairest gifts of heaven should become
the bitterest of curses to so many of their possessors.

* * *

Having mentioned the French women, we think we may remark, without
hazarding our character as impartial observers, that most of the faults
which are so well known to prevail among them, may be easily traced to
the manner in which they are treated by the other sex. It is a very
common boast in France, that there is no other country in which women
are treated with so much respect; and you can hardly gratify any
Frenchman so much, as by calling France "le paradis des femmes." Yet,
from all that we could observe ourselves, or learn from others, there
appears to be no one of the boasts of Frenchmen which is in reality less
reasonable. They exclude women from society almost entirely in their
early years; they seldom allow them any vote in the choice of their
husbands: After they have brought them into society, they seem to think
that they confer a high favour on them, by giving them a great deal of
their company, and paying them a great deal of attention, and
encouraging them to separate themselves from the society of their
husbands. In return for these obligations, they often oblige them to
listen to conversation, which, heard as it is, from those for whom they
have most respect, cannot fail to corrupt their minds as well as their
manners; and they take care to let them see that they value them for the
qualities which render them agreeable companions for the moment; not for
the usefulness of their lives, for the purity of their conduct, or the
constancy of their affections. Surely the respect with which all women
who conduct themselves with propriety are treated in England, merely on
account of their sex; the delicacy and reserve with which in their
presence conversation is uniformly conducted by all who call themselves
gentlemen, are more honourable tokens of regard for the virtues of the
female character, than the unmeaning ceremonies and offici