Volume 1

History of the female sex; comprising a view of the habits, manners, and influence of women, among all nations, from the earliest ages to the present time / Translated from the German of C. Meiners. By Frederic Shoberl.

  • Christoph Meiners
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the female sex; comprising a view of the habits, manners, and influence of women, among all nations, from the earliest ages to the present time / Translated from the German of C. Meiners. By Frederic Shoberl. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    woman is charged, as if by Divine com- mand, with the superintendence of the domestic coiicerns. The very timidity of the female is much more advantageous for the preservation of that which the strength and industry of the man has acquired. Temperance, frugalityj, and presence of mind, have been dispensed to both sexes, in nearly equal portions, by the bountiful hand of Nature, because both sexes have equa] occasion for these qualities; and if one or other of them be predominant or deficient in man or woman, the bonds of matrimony, by which the husband and the wife are alike united, tend to restore the equilibrium. The mistress of a family ought to resemble the queen of the bees. As she remains continually in the hive, to send out the labouring bees, to störe up the materials which they bring back, and to distribute them in due time; so a good housewife should attend to the interior of her habitation, dispatch those slaves that are to work abroad, assign tasks to such as she keeps at home, and take under her care the produce of their labours. It is farther her duty to distribute what is wanted for daily use, lest as much might be wasted in a month as would suffice for the consumption of a year. It is her pro-
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