Part 1

FEMALE AFFECTION.

BY BASIL MONTAGU.

LONDON: J. BOHN, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND. MDCCCXLV.

LONDON:

WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR.

TO HIS DEAR EDITH, FROM HER AFFECTIONATE GRANDFATHER.--B. M.

PREFACE.

There are certain properties of the female mind upon which doubt has existed, and may, possibly, long exist.

1. Women are said to be fond of ornament--an evil against which they were thus warned by St. Paul--“I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with embroidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness, with good works.”

2. Women are said to be fond of gaiety:

“Some men to business, some to pleasure take,”--

but the ruling passion of woman is not the love of business.

3. It is said that women act more from impulse than from foresight:

“Men have many faults, women have only two,--”

of which the want of foresight is one.

4. Women, it is said, are variable:

----“Varium et mutabile semper Fœmina.”

Women are fond of intellect, of courage, of virtue; and are capable of the most heroic acts.

Such are properties of the female mind, upon which doubt may be entertained; but there is one property upon which doubt cannot exist--it is the nature of woman to be affectionate.

B. M.

FEMALE AFFECTION.

THE PLEASURES OF AFFECTION.

The pleasures of the affections are Love, Friendship, Gratitude, and general Benevolence.

“For the pleasures of the affections,” says Lord Bacon, “we must resort to the poets, for there affection is on her throne, there we may find her painted forth to the life.”

Instead of referring us to the poets, he might, according to his own admonitions, have referred us to the certain mode of discovering truth, by observing facts around us, and particularly by observing the nature sought, where it is most conspicuous.

In searching, for any nature, observe it, he says, where it is most conspicuous; as, in inquiring into the nature of flame, observe the sudden ignition and expansion of gas--these are what he calls “glaring instances.”

The glaring instance of affection is Female Affection; there indeed she is on her throne, there we may find her painted forth to the life. It is the nature of woman to be affectionate.

§ I.