Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences between the Sexes, and Woman's Position and Influence in Society, No. II [pp. 621-632]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
them, rather than allow them to hang lig in my window."
"You are an impertinent varlet, and I trust will be
chastised as you deserve."
I should have said more; but Nichols hurried me
away, lest my hot temper should get me into some
awkward scrape —and we walked to Fenella's lodgings.
What happened there and afterwards, must be deferred to another chapter, when the reader shall be introduced into the watchhouse, and his curiosity gratified
in regard to my sojourn there.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.
DISSERTATION'
On the Characteristic Differences between the Sexes.
NO. II.
Religious Differences.
In no respect do we find the characteristical differences between the sexes more marked than in regard to
religion; and certainly, we see woman in no attitude
more engaging, more interesting or useful, than in the
quiet, but graceful performance of her duties to her
Maker.
The belief in the providence of some superior being
or beings, has ever been a source of obligation to mankind in all ages and countries. Man may be pronounced to be emphatically a religious being. Every
where, whether savage or civilized, do we behold him
looking to the god or gods of nature, and dreading their
punishment, not only in the world to come, but even in
this. It is this spirit of devotion which "calls forth the
hymn of the infant bard, as well as the anthem of the
poet of classic times. It prompts the nursery tale of
superstition, as well as the demonstration of the school
of philosophy." "If you search the world," says Plutarch, "you may find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without money; but no one ever
saw a city without a deity, without a temple, or without some form oi worship;" and Maximus Tyrius,
another of the ancients, declares that, "in such a contest, and tumult, and disagreement of opinions on other
subjects, you may see this one law and speech acknowledged by common accord, that there is one God, the
king and father of all, and many gods, the children of
God, and ruling together with him. This the Greek
says, and this the Barbarian says; and the inhabitant
of the continent, and the islander, and the wise and the
unwise."
This universal consent in the operation of a superintending and controlling providence, is one of the most
luminous and important facts of our nature. It rests
the evidence of natural religion not upon the unsteady
basis of argument or reason-not upon the sophisms of
philosophers, or the edicts of monarchs, or popes, or
councils; but upon the immoveable basis of natureupon instinct itself. "There is no era," says Mr. Allison, "; so barbarous, in which man has existed, in which
traces are not to be seen of the alliance which he has
felt between earth and heaven; and amid the wildest
as amid the most genial scenes of an uncultivated world,
the rude altar of the barbarian every where marks the
emotions that swelled in his bosom, when he erected it
to the awful or beneficent deities whose imaginary presence it records."
VOL. I.-79
But although there be that within us which leads
directly to the contemplation of divinity, and of the
retribution which awaits us in another world, yet we
are not to conclude that this belief is not strengthened and confirmed by reason and experience. On
the contrary, the argument in favor of a God and
rewards and punishments hereafter, gains strength,
with the increasing age, experience and knowledge of
the world. Religion, in the midst of ignorance and
barbarism, degenerates into gross superstition and revolting idolatry. By means of reason and knowledge,
we are the better enabled to overleap the vast chasm
interposed between us and the divine nature; to contemrlate, in the detail and in the aggregate, both the
minute and the great throughout the universe; to observe their beautiful arrangement and harmony, and
the wondrous unity of design in all the parts: a unity
which at once prostrates all the absurdities and contradictions of the far famed polytheistical religion of the
Greek and the Roman-the fanciful idolatry and star
gazing worship of the Chaldean Shepherd, and the
Magi of Babylon-or the more fearful, more mnyste..
rious, and yet more ridiculous superstition of the Egyptian priests of old, who at a period far back, when
time was yet young, and the history of other nations
was scarce begun, officiated in those mighty temples
upon the banks of the Nile, whose awful ruins, now
scattered through the land of Egypt, tell us of the
mighty of the earth, who have lived, and strutted, and
bustled for a season, but at the appointed hour, have
been cut down like the flower of the field. It is this
great, this beautiful unity of design, which we see manifested throughout the works of creation, which proclaims the existence of the one indivisible God, "Who
hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the
mountains in a scale, and the hills in a balance." It is
this same unity of design, proclaimed by philosophy
and comprehended by reason alone, which so powerfully supports the monotheistic religion of the christian, and sustains that beautiful, humane and generous
scheme of salvation foretold by the Jewish prophets of
old, and consummated by the sacrifice on Mount Calvary, of the meek and humble Saviour of the world.
Again, when we look abroad to animated creation,
and see that man alone has placed within him a principle which guides and directs him, independently of
instinct-a principle which, in spite of all the arts of
sophistry and self-delusion, tells him in language which
cannot be mistaken, that he is responsible for his acts;
and when we further see the immense amount of vice
and wickedness in this world which does not meet with
its deserved punishment here, and virtue failing to receive its reward;-when we behold all this, and reflect,
as we cannot fail to do, that the Creator of the world is
a God of justice and impartiality, we are at once driven
into the belief that there must be a hereafter, where all
these things will be equalized. It is when we see the
wicked son, the unnatural father, and the fiendish mother —when w e peruse the histories of such monsters
as Nero, Caligula, Commodus, Louis XI of France, or
Richard III of England —of the Tullias, the Messalinas
and the Macbeths, that we are forced to acknowledge
that there must be a Tartarus. Again, we meet with
f
t
t
621