a few men that remained in the country; but finding at length that they could ftand their ground, and aggrandize themselves, without them, they killed all those whom flight or chance had faved from the fury of the Sarmatians, and for ever renounced marriage, which they now confidered as an infupportable flavery. But, as they could only fecure the duration of their new kingdom by propagation, they made a law to go every year to the frontiers, to invite the men to come to them; to deliver themfelves up to their embraces, without choice on their part, or the leaft attachment; and to leave them as foon as they were pregnant. All thofe whom age rendered fit for propagation, and were willing to ferve the ftate by breeding girls, did not go at the fame time in fearch of men : for, in order to obtain a right to promote the multiplication of the fpecies, they must first have contributed to its destruction; nor was any thought worthy of giving birth to children till the had killed three men.

If from this commerce they brought forth girls, they educated them; but, with refpect to the boys, if we may be lieve Justin, they ftrangled them at the moment of their birth: according to Diodorus Siculus, they twifted their legs and arms, fo as to render them unfit for military exercifes; but Quintus Curtius, Philoftratus, and Jardarus, fay, that the lefs favage fent them to their fathers. It is probable, that at firft, when their fury against the men was carried to the greatest height, they killed the boys; that when this fury abated, and most of the mothers were filled with horror at depriving the little creatures of their lives they had just received from them, they fulfilled the firft duties of a mother; but, to prevent their causing a revolution in the state, maimed them in fuch a manner as to render them incapable of war, and employed them in the mean offices which thefe warlike women thought beneath them. In fhort, that, when their conquefts had confirmed their power, their ferocity fubfiding, they entered into political engagements with their neighbours; and, the number of the males they had preserved becoming burdenfome, they, at the defire of those who

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rendered them pregnant, fent them the boys, and continued till to keep the girls.

As foon as the age of the girls permitted, they took away the right breaft, that they might draw the bow with the greater force. The common opinion is, that they burnt that breaft, by applying to it, at eight years of age, a hot brazen inftrument, which infenfibly dried up the fibres and glands; fome think that they did not make ufe of fo much ceremony, but that when the part was formed they got rid of it by amputation: fome again, with much greater probability, affert, that they employed no violent measures; but, by a continual compreffion of that part from infancy, prevented its growth, at leaft fo far as to hinder its ever being incommodious in war.

Plutarch gives fome account of a battle which had been fought be tween the Athenians and the Amazons at Athens; and he relates fome particulars of this battle which had been recorded by a very ancient writer named Clidemus. He fays, "That the left wing of the Amazons moved towards the place which is yet called Amazonium, and the right to a place called Pryx, near Chryfa; upon which the Athenians, iffuing from behind the temple of the mufes, fell upon them; and that this is true, the graves of thofe that were flain, to be feen in the treets that lead to the gate Piraica, by the temple of the hero Chalcodue, are a fufficient proof. And here it was that the Athenians were routed, and fhamefully turned their backs to women, as far as to the temple of the furies. But fresh fupplies, coming in from Paladium, Ardettus, and Ly. ceum, charged their right wing, and beat them back into their very tents; in which action a great number of the Amazons were flain." In another place he fays, "It appears that the paffage of the Amazons through Thef faly was not without oppofition; for there are yet to be feen many of their fepulchres near Scotufæa and Cynocephale." And in his life of Pompey, fpeaking of the Amazons, Plutarch fays, "They inhabit thofe parts of mount Caucafus that look towards the Hyrcanian fea (not bordering upon the Albanians,

2

Albanians, for the territories of the Geta and the Leges lie betwixt): and with these people do they yearly, for two months only, accompany and cohabit, bed and board, near the river Thermodoon. After that they retire to their own habitations, and live alone all the rest of the year."

Quintus Curtius fays, "The nation of the Amazons is fituated upon the borders of Hyrcania, near the river Thermodoon. Their queen was named Thaleftris, and the had under her fubjection all the country that lies between mount Caucafus and the river Phatis. This queen came out of her dominions, in confequence of an ardent defire the had conceived to fee Alexander; and, being advanced near the place where he was, the previously fent messengers to acquaint him, that the queen was come to have the fatisfaction of feeing and converfing with him. Having obtained permiftion to vifit him, the advanced with 300 of her Amazons, leaving the rest of her troops behind. As foon as he came within fight of the king, the leaped from her horfe, holding two javelins in her right hand. The apparel of the Amazons does not cover all the body; for their left fide is naked down to the ftomach; nor do the skirts of their garments, which they tie up in a knot, reach below their knees. They preferve their left breaft entire, that they may be able to suckle their female offspring; and they cut off and fear their right, that they may draw their bows, and caft their darts, with the greater eafe. Thaleftris looked at the king with an undaunted counte. nance, and narrowly examined his perJon; which did not, according to her ideas, come up to the fame of his great exploits: for the barbarians have a great veneration for a majestic perfon, ef. teeming thofe only to be capable of performing great actions on whom nature has conferred a dignified appear. ance. The king having afked her whether fhe had any thing to defire of him, The replied, without fcruple or hefitation, that he was come with a view to have children by him, the being worthy to bring him heirs to his domimons. The offspring, if of the female fex, fhe would retain to herfelf; and, if of the male fex, it should be deli

her own kingdom.

Juftin alfo repeatedly mentions this vilt to Alexander; and in one place he fays, that the made a march of 25 days, in order to obtain this meeting with him. The interview between Alexander and Thaleftris is likewife mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. The learned Goropius, as he is quoted by Dr. Petit, laments in very pathetic terms, the hard fate of Thaleftris, who was obliged to travel fo many miles, and to encounter fo many hardships, in order to procure this interview with the Macedonian prince; and, from the circumftances, is led to confider the whole account as incredible. But Dr. Petit, with equal erudition, with equal eloquence, and with fuperior force of realoning, at length determines, that that her journey was not founded upon irrational principles, and that full credit is due to thofe grave and venerable hiftorians by whom this tranfaction has been recorded.

The Amazons are reprefented as being armed with bows and arrows, with javelins, and alfo with an axe of a particular conftruction, which was denominated the axe of the Amazons. AcCording to the elder Pliny, this axe was invented by Penthifilea, one of their queens. On many ancient medals are reprefentations of the Amazons, arnied with thefe axes. They are alfo faid to have had bucklers in the fhape of a half-moon.

Yet that there fhould have been women, who, without the affiftance of men, built cities and governed them, raised armies and commanded them, administered public affairs, and extended their dominion by arms, is undoubtedly to contrary to all that we have seen and known of human affairs, as to appear in a very great degree incredible; but, that women may have exifted fufficiently robust, and sufficiently coura

geous

geous, to have engaged in warlike enterprises, and even to have been fuccesful in them, is certainly not impoffible, however contrary to the ufual Course of things. In fupport of this fide of the question, it may be urged, that women who have been early trained to warlike exercises, to hunting, and to an hard and laborious mode of living, may be rendered more strong, and capable of more vigorous exertions, than men who have led indolent, delicate, and luxurious, lives, and who have feldom been expofed even to the inclemencies of the weather. The limbs of women, as well as of men, are trengthened and rendered more robult by frequent and laborious exercife. A nation of women, therefore, brought up and difciplined as the ancient Amazons are reprefented to have been, would be fuperior to an equal number of effeminate men; though they might be much inferior to an equal number of hardy men, trained up and difciplined in the fame manner.

Inftances of heroism in women have occafionally occurred in modern times, fomewhat refembling that of the ancient Amazons. The times and the manners of chivalry in particular, by bringing great enterprifes, bold adventures, and extravagant heroifin, into fashion, infpired the wowen with the fame taste. The women, in confequence of the prevailing paffion, were now feen in the middle of camps and of armies. They quitted the foft and tender inclinations, and the delicate of fices, of their own fex, for the toils and the toilfome occupations of ours. During the crufades, animated by the double enthusiasm of religion and of valour, they often performed the most romantic exploits; obtained indulgen-' ces on the field of battle, and died with arms in their hands, by the tide of their lovers or of their huíbands.

In Europe, the women attacked and defended fortifications; princeffes commanded their armies, and obtained victories. Such was the celebrated Joan de Montfort, difputing for her duchy of Bretagne, and fighting herself. Such was that still more celebrated Margaret of Anjou, that active and intrepid general and foldier, whofe genius fupported a long time a feeble husband;

which taught him to conquer; which replaced him upon the throne; which twice relieved him from prison; and, oppreffed by fortune and by rebels, which did not bend till after she had decided in perfon twelve battles.

The warlike spirit among the women, confiftent with ages of barbarism, when every thing is impetuous because nothing is fixed, and when all excess is the excefs of force, continued in Europe upwards of 400 years, fhowing itfelf from time to time, and always in the middle of convulfions, or on the eve of great revolutions. But there were eras and countries in which that fpirit appeared with particular luftre. Such were the displays it made in the 15th and 16th centuries in Hungary, and in the islands of the Archipelago and the Mediterranean, when they were invaded by the Turks.

Among the ftriking inftances of Amazonian conduct in modern ladies, may be mentioned that of Jane of Belleville, widow of Monf. de Cliffon, who was beheaded at Paris in the year 1343, on a fufpicion of carrying on a correfpondence with England and the Count de Montfort. This lady, filled with grief for the death of her late husband, and exafperated at the ill treatment which the confidered him as having received, fent off her fon fecretly to London; and, when her apprehenfions were removed with refpect to him, fhe fold her jewels, fitted out three hips, and put to fea, to revenge the death of her late husband upon all the French she should meet. new corfair made several descents upon Normandy, where the stormed castles; and the inhabitants of that province were fpectators more than once, whilft their villages were all in a blaze, of one of the finest women in Europe, with a fword in one hand and a torch in the other, urging the carnage, and eyeing with pleasure all the horrors of war.

This

We read in Mezeray, under the article of the Croifade preached by St. Bernard in the year 1147, "That many women did not content themselves with taking the crofs, but that they alfo took up arms to defend it, and compofed fquadrons of females, which rendered credible all that has been faid of the prowefs of the Amazons.”

In the year 1590, the League party obtained fome troops from the king of Spain. Upon the news of their being disembarked, Barri de St. Aunez, Henry IV's governor at Leucate, fet out to communicate a fcheme to the Duke de Montmorenci, commander in that province. He was taken in his way by fome of the troops of the League, who were alfo upon their march with the Spaniards towards Leucate. They were perfuaded, that by thus having the governor in their hands, the gates of that place would be immediately opened to them, or at least would not hold out long. But Conftantia de Cecelli, his wife, after having affembled the garrifon, put herself to refolutely at their head, pike in hand, that the infpired the weakest with courage; and the befiegers were repulfed where-ever they prefented themfelves. Shame and their great lofs, having rendered them defperate, they fent a meffage to this courageous woman, acquainting her, that, if the continued to defend herself, they would hang her husband. She replied, with tears in her eyes, I have riches in abundance: I have offered them, and I do fill offer them, for his ranfom; but I would not ignominiously purchafe a life which he would reproach me with, and which he would be afhamed to enjoy. I will not difhonour him by treafon against my king and country. The beliegers, having made a fresh attack without fuccefs, put her hushand to death, and raised the siege. Henry IV. afterwards fent to this lady the brevet of governefs of Leucate, with the reverfion for her fon.

The Abbé Arnaud, in his Memoirs, fpeaks of a Countefs of St Balmont, who used to take the field with her hufband, and fight by his fide. She fent feveral Spanish prifoners of her taking to Marfhal Feuquiers; and, what is not a little extraordinary, this Amazon at home was all affability and fweetnefs, and gave herself up to reading and acts of piety.

Dr. Johnfon feems to have given credit to the accounts which have been tranfinitted down to us concerning the ancient Amazons; and he has endeavoured to fhow that we ought not haf-, tily to reject ancient hiftorical narra

tions because they contain fome facts repugnant to modern manners, and ex hibit fcenes to which nothing now occurring bears a resemblance. "Of what we know not (fays he), we can only judge by what we know. Every novelty appears more wonderful as it is more remote from any thing with which experience or teftimony have hitherto acquainted us; and if it paffes farther, beyond the notions that we have been accustomed to form, it becomes at last incredible.. We feldom confider, that human knowledge is very narrow; that national manners are formed by chance; that uncommon conjunctures of caufes produce rare effects; or that what is impoflible at one time or place may yet happen in another. It is always easier to deny than to inquire. To refufe credit confers for a moment an appearance of fuperiority which every little mind is tempted to affume, when it may be gained fo cheaply as by withdrawing attention from evidence, and declining the fatigue of comparing probabilities. Many relations of travellers have been flighted as fabulous, till more frequent voyages have confirmed their veracity; and it may reasonably be imagined, that many ancient hiftorians are unjustly fufpected of falfehood, because our own times afford nothing that refembles what they tell. Few narratives will either to men or women appear more incredible than the histories of the Amazons; of female nations, of whofe conftitution it was the effential and fundamental law to exclude men from all participation, either of public affairs or domestic business; where female armies marched under female captains, female farmers gathered the harveft, female partners danced together, and female wits diverted one another. Yet feveral ages of antiquity have tranfmitted accounts of the Amazons of Caucafus ; and of the Amazons of America, who have given their name to the greatest river in the world. Condamine lately found fuch memorials as can be expected among erratic and unlettered nations, where events are recorded only by tradition, and new fwarms fettling in the country from. time to time confufe and efface all traces of former times."

No

No author has taken so much pains upon this fubject as Dr. Petit. But, in the courfe of his work, he has given it as his opinion, that there is great difficulty in governing the women even at prefent, though they are unarmed and unpractised in the art of war. After all his elaborate inquiries and discuffions, therefore, this learned writer might probably think, that it is not an evil of the firft magnitude that the race of Amazons now ceafes to exist.

Rouffeau fays, "The empire of the woman is an empire of foftnefs, of addrefs, of complacency. Her commands

are careffes, her menaces are tears,” But the empire of the Amazons was certainly an empire of a very different kind. Upon the whole, we may conclude with Dr. Johnfon: "The character of the ancient Amazons was rather terrible than lovely. The hand could not be very delicate that was only employed in drawing the bow and brandifhing the battle-axe. Their power was maintained by cruelty, their courage was deformed by ferocity; and their example only fhows, that men and women live beft together."

for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. SHAKESPEARE.

In many inftances, fatiety and difguft are the confequences of reiteration; again, though cuftom blunts the edge of diftrefs and of pain; yet the want of any thing to which we have been long accustomed is a fort of torture. A clue to guide us through all the intricacies of this labyrinth would be an invaluable present.

Whatever be the caufe, it is certain that we are much influenced by custom; it hath an effect upon our pleasures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts and fentiments. Habit makes no figure during the vivacity of youth in middle-age it gains ground; and in old age governs without controul. In that period of life, generally speaking, we eat at a certain hour, take exercise at a certain hour, go to reft at a certain hour, all by the direction of habit: nay, a particular seat, table, bed, comes to be effential; and a habit in

any of thefe cannot be controuled without uneasiness.

Any flight or moderate pleasure, frequently reiterated for a long time, forms a peculiar connection between us and the thing that caufes the pleafure. This connection, termed habit, has the effect to awaken our defire or appetite for that thing when it returns not as ufual. During the course of enjoyment, the pleafure rifes infentibly higher and higher till a habit be eftablifhed; at which time the pleasure is at its height. It continues not, how ever, ftationary: the fame customary reiteration which carried it to its height, brings it down again by insenfible degrees, even lower than it was at first, but of that circumstance afterwards. What at present we have in view, is to prove by experiments, that thofe things which at firft are but moderately agreeable, are the aptest to become habitual. Spiritous liquors, at firft fcarce agreeable, readily produce an habitual appetite: and custom prevails fo far, as even to make us fond of things originally difagreeable, fuch as coffee, affa foetida, and tobacco.

A walk upon the quarter-deck, tho' intolerably confined, becomes however fo agreeable by cuftom, that a failor in his walk on-fhore confines himself.commonly within the fame bounds. The author knew a man who had relinquithed the fea for a country life; in the corner of his garden, he reared an artificial mount with a level fummit, refembling most accurately a quarter

deck,