JB_161_287.xml

Title: [1818 Jan 3 Not Paul III. Doctrine]

Description: 1818 Jan 3

Not Paul

III. Doctrine

Ch. Asceticism

§. 2. Females slighted

Upon a closer inspection it will be seen that from the eccentric propensity the

influence of the female sex has more to gain than to lose.

Rival compared with rival much more formidable to the wedded female is a person of

her own sex than any person of the opposite sex can ever be. The space in the field

of life to which the eccentric propensity commonly applies itself is extremely

limited /narrow/. In the days of imperial Rome, when all matters of this sort were

settled by established custom, and where a seraglio /harem/ of the male sex formed an

ordinary part of the establishment of a man of rank and opulence, no sooner had a

member of such a fraternity /an establishment/ passed his twentieth year that he

passed into a particular class distinguished by a special appellative exoletus superannuated he was put upon the superannuated list.

Thus ephemeral were the attractions of the male in the eyes of the male: whereas in

these same eyes the duration of those of the female has as every one knows no bounds.

It is in the place of the venal female only and not in the place of her of whose

charms possession is not to be obtained on any other terms than those of a union made

permanent by law that those of the male venal or not venal were ever seen to

occupy.

JB_161_286.xml

Title: [1818 Jan 3 Not Paul III. Doctrine]

Description: 1818 Jan 3

Not Paul

III. Doctrine

Ch. Asceticism

§. 2. Females slighted

4. Female more powerful rival than [...?] to Female.

5. [...?] of Rome. Population near overflowing—Females sufficiently served.

2. In Italy though proscribed by the laws the eccentric propensity prevails to such

a degree as to be gratified not only without danger but without shame. Yet in that

same Italy the female sex governs with a degree of importance /ascendancy/ beyond any

thing /what/ exemplified in Britain where the propensity is so rare or even in

Ireland where it is scarce known. (a)

In France the eccentric propensity is much less rare than in Great Britain, and

where it has place is a subject not of horror but of joke /jest/. Yet in France the

ascendancy of the female sex is more conspicuous than in Britain or Ireland: the

worship much more zealous as well as conspicuous. Few political intrigues in which

females do not bear a part:

(a)

In the course of a conversation I had once with the late Abbé Fontana, he informed

me /I was informed by him/ that in all the hospitals he was acquainted with a part of

the population was commonly composed of male children in whose instance, by want of

proportions, laceration had been produced. This man /The Abbé, known by the public at

large by his experimental works in Chemistry and Pathology/ had been an eminent

Physician and was at that time Director General of the Museum at Florence.

JB_161_284.xml

Title: [1818 Jan y 3 Not Paul III.]

Description: 1818 Jan y 3

Not Paul

III. Doctrine

Ch. Asceticism

§. 2. Females slighted

II. Second of the abovementioned supposed or alledged mischiefs Deterioration of the

lot of the female part of the species.

Of any objection /charge/ capable of receiving expression from any such form of

words as the above, it should be remarked in the first place that it is but a charge

hanging in the air: to be landed on terra firma it will

require to be particularized by a designation of the pleasure in this or that

particular shape excluded, or pain in this or that particular shape introduced.

Be it what it may in other respects what it may, in respect of its ground

/foundation/ it stands upon the same hollow /extravagant/ and untenable ground as the

former supposition /charge/: viz. the general predominance of the desire /appetite/

in its eccentric shape over the same appetite in its ordinary shape: and not only the

existence of that predominance, but its existence /prevalence/ to an extent analogous

in its extravagance to that spoken of in the abovementioned /former/ instances.