models of dignity and honor. Voltaire inscribes to ladies of high rank, who
doubtless regarded it as a great compliment, verses such as not even a poet
of the English "fleshly school" would now print at all. In "Poems by
Eminent Ladies,"--published in 1755 and reprinted in 1774,--there are one
or two poems as gross and disgusting as anything in Swift; yet their
authors were thought reputable women. Allan Ramsay's "Tea-Table
Miscellany"--a collection of English and Scottish songs--was first
published in 1724; and in his preface to the sixteenth edition the editor
attributes its great success, especially among the ladies, to the fact that
he has carefully excluded all grossness, "that the modest voice and ear of
the fair singer might meet with no affront;" and adds, "the chief bent of
all my studies being to attain their good graces." There is no doubt of the
great popularity enjoyed by the book in all circles; yet it contains a few
songs which the most licentious newspaper would not now publish. The
inference is irresistible, from this and many other similar facts, that the
whole tone of manners and decency has very greatly improved among the
European races within a century and a half.

I suspect the truth to be, that, besides the visible influence of race and
religion, there has been an insensible and almost unconscious improvement
in each sex, with respect to these matters, as time has passed on; and that
the mutual desire to please has enabled each sex to help the other,--the
sex which is naturally the more refined taking the lead. But I should lay
more stress on this mutual influence, and less on mere feminine
superiority, than would be laid by many. It is often claimed by teachers
that co-education helps not only boys, but also girls, to develop greater
propriety of manners. When the sexes are wholly separate, or associate on
terms of entire inequality, no such good influence occurs: the more equal
the association, the better for both parties. After all, the Divine model
is to be found in the family; and the best ingenuity cannot improve much