WOMAN. PART FOURTH. COURTSHIP. WE open now one of the most curious chapters in the history of woman. Love is the universal passion, pervading all life, forming all characters, and beautifying as well as producing all existence. Courtship is the proper prelude of this grand object and result of all existence; and its consideration naturally follows that of female education. Courtship is the process by which the existing passion of love, is made known to the object that inspires it. It is a period of high wrought excitement, which, though timid and anxious, is generally of so pleasurable a character, as to be considered one of the happiest epochs of human life. It is probable that, in a natural state of society, the trepidations and anxieties of courtship would be only such as would heighten its pleasures; but artificial obstacles to the success of love are often the causes of the most poignant affliction. Poverty, and interference of relatives, the pride of rank and social position, and the temptations of wealth, have produced miseries only to be measured by contrast with the happiness they destroy; and hearts are crushed and broken, just in proportion to their sensibility. That this agony in cultivated persons, is often exquisite, every one must have observed. Dying for love is so far from being an uncommon circumstance, that there is scarcely a physician of any considerable practice, who has not had cases under his observation. Courtship, while love is supported by hope, is a condition of the sweetest delirium of the soul. It is not easy to describe briefly what so many dramas and romances have been written to display; but there are some general cha racteristics, which may be noticed, before proceeding to historical examples. Though the declaration of a passion so gentle and beautiful as love, would seem to be too honorable a manifestation to be ashamed of, Nature appears to have implanted in both sexes a modesty and timidity, which makes them throw around it an air of caution and mystery. The first impulse of love is secresy. The lover hesitates and blushes to even speak the name of the object beloved. This modesty, belonging to both sexes, is shared most largely by the female; and this is not a matter of custom or education, since the same thing is observed in the lower orders of animals. It is always the male that makes advances-it is always the female that receives or rejects them; and there is scarcely an animal in the whole range of animated nature, that uses force in attaining the object of his desires, except that most elevated and most depraved of animals, man. The law of nature, then, is that the active part of courtship belongs to man, the passive to woman; who, on the one hand seldom exercises the privilege of solicitation, and, on the other hand, never ought to be deprived of the right of rejection. Yet there are whole quarters of the globe where this right of the sex, so necessary to female delicacy, honor, and true love, is ruthlessly violated-where women are bargained away by their parents, where they are never allowed to see the man selected as their husband until the fatal knot is tied, or where they are sold in the market to the highest bidder. What can we expect of the female character under such blighting influences? Travellers have asserted that there are savage nations in which women at all times enjoy the fabled privileges of Leap Year-where women and men indiscriminately take the initiative in affairs connected with the tender passion. Could such accounts be relied upon, it must be remembered that a savage life is often a strangely perverted one; nor is a general law of humanity, and of all animate nature, invalidated by a few isolated exceptions. Nor does it seem to us, as some have thought, that the general custom in this respect has arisen from the superior strength, vigor, or power of man. Were this the case, we should find the custom broken over and the rule reversed in those not unfrequent cases, in which the female is in these respects the superior. We may more naturally suppose the custom to have been the consequence of the general law that the passion is absolutely stronger in the male, though it may be relatively stronger in the female. Still, there is to observe in courtship, a beautiful reciprocity. The beauty of woman excites admiration in man; the ardent love of man excites an answering passion in woman; the delicate sentiments, inspired by such a feeling in woman, give to the passion of man new fervor and exaltation; and thus the affair goes on, in a delightful progression towards that ecstacy of rapture, which, as the novelists are pleased to inform us, is "better felt than expresed!" Further observations upon the refined and beautiful developments of the tender passion, which occur in a somewhat favorable social state, may be more properly reserved for the conclusion of this branch of our subject. We must now turn to the history of remote ages, for illustrations of courtship, as practised in various ages and nations. How naturally do we turn to the historical records of the Hebrew race, for our earliest examples! When Abraham sought a wife for his son Isaac, he sent a confidential servant to find him one, among his distant relatives. The servant made his selection at a public well, to which the maidens of the city came to draw water. After choosing the fittest, and it may be supposed the most beautiful, he applied, not to herself, but to her relatives, who gave their consent, that she should go in five days. But as Abraham's servant was anxious to go at once, Rebecca was consulted upon this point, and immediately consented. This fashion of courting by proxy, which existed in the days of Abraham, we shall find to be still the prevailing oriental custom, and too much followed in some parts of Europe. In the above case we read of no representations being made by the proxy, in regard to the personal or mental qualities of the young gentleman who was to be fitted with a wife; but his wealth and magnificence were carefully specified, and costly presents made to the lady and her relatives. On the other hand Isaac appears to have taken without the least question, the wife provided for him. In the next generation, however, matters were differently managed. Jacob conducted his courtship in person. His first meeting with Rachel varies somewhat from the etiquette of modern times. Lovers, in our days, are quite cheerful, or endeavor to appear so. We have, indeed, seen remarkably sentimental young gentlemen looking mournful and "sighing like a furnace:" but Jacob "drew near and kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept." It is dif ficult to say whether this feeling, so unequivocally displayed on his part, was reciprocal; but if it was, the passions of these young people were under the most exemplary subordination; since, on Jacob's applying to her father in form, it was found that he could not pay the price demanded, and he engaged to give, instead, seven years of labor. All this time, the couple waited in hope, only to be disappointed; for Jacob, on waking up the morning after his nuptials, found himself married to Rachel's elder, and by no means pretty sister. It was of no use complaining, and he had to. serve another seven years; when after this protracted courtship of fourteen years, this affectionate couple, who had fallen in love at first sight, were happily united. What sickness of heart from hope deferred, what agonies of jealousy, what weariness and disgust, may we not imagine to have been experienced by two lovers in such an interval, and under such circumstances! The general rule that the declaration of love is the right of the male, has also some exceptions growing out of peculiar customs and laws. Among the Hebrews, a widow had the right of demanding the brother or nearest kinsman of her deceased husband in marriage, and it was the right and duty of the eldest brother, or the nearest of kin, to marry such widow; but as in this case the privilege of asking was transferred to the female, the male had also power to refuse, but the exercise of this power was connected with some mortifying circumstances. It had to be done in public, before the elders of the people, and the woman thus slighted and insulted, had the right to spit in the face of the man hardy enough to refuse her hand. Even this was probably sometimes borne as the lesser evil. There was a custom similar to this, among the Hurons and Iroquois, applying to both sexes. When a man's wife died, he was obliged to marry her sister, or in her stead, any woman her family might choose for him; in the same way a widow married the brother of her deceased husband. It appears that among the Jews, whether the parties had become acquainted or not, it was always the custom for their parents to make the overtures and settle the conditions of marriage. Even Samson, gifted as he was with superhuman strength, and little scrupulous in the use of it, when he had fallen in love with the Philistine damsel Delilah, went to his parents, laid the case before them, and besought them to get her for him. They made objections, but, instead of proceeding to accomplish his own wishes, he still persisted in entreating them. This is to be accounted for by the custom of the country and the filial obedience imposed by the Mosaic law. In the early stages of civilization in Eastern nations, after the breaking up of patriarchial relations, and before society had settled into a state of security, we may imagine such a condition of violence and rapine to have existed, as made it necessary to protect and conceal young females, in the manner now customary in the East. Under these circumstances there could exist little of courtship. Girls were married at an early age, and even contracted for in infancy. Few were allowed a choice, and polygamy probably grew naturally out of the power to maintain and protect, enjoyed by comparatively few. It was only by accident that young people had the opportunity of forming an attachment-it was a still less likely chance that such an attachment should have a happy termination. But custom is a second nature," and women, educated to this slavery of the affections, can scarcely conceive of a condition of tolerable freedom. While women, in the East, were thus monopolized, in the strictest sense of the word; among the hardy and savage nations of the west, women, less concealed, were made the trophies of successful valor. As among the Greenlanders no young man can marry until he has shown his prowess and skill in capturing the monsters of the northern seas, and as among the North American savages a young man must have killed a grizly bear, or taken a scalp in battle before he can aspire to the favors of his chosen fair, so in |