Note 55 — Chapter XV

Because we make it so. The feminidæ, like the females of the equidæ, show little corporeal inferiority to the males, and the best proof is, that amongst tribes living in the so-called State of Nature, women are generally the only labourers. We may etiolate them, as in New England, or we may expand them, by beef and beer, to grenadiers, as in olden England and in the north of Europe. To the present day, the woman of the Scotch fishing islands is the man of the family, who does not marry till she can support what she produces; and the times are not long passed since she was, amongst the Southrons, a barber, a mason, and a day labourer. It appears to me that in England there is a revival of the feminine industries; and when it is asked, “What shall we do with our old maids?” I would reply, that many might be enlisted. When Mr. Duncan was asked by the King of Dahome if the same number of English women would equal the Amazons, he, of course, answered no; we had no female soldiers in England, but we had women who, individually and voluntarily, had equally distinguished themselves. Such feminine troops would serve well in garrison, and eventually in the field. The Medea of Euripides preferred the risks of spear and shield amongst men to a single casualty after the manner of women. The warlike instinct, as the annals of the four quarters of the globe prove, is easily bred in the opposite sex. A sprinkling of youth and beauty amongst the European Amazons would make campaigning a pleasure to us; and the measure may be taken into consideration when our new-fangled rage for neutrality shall be succeeded by more honourable and less “respectable” sentiments; and when the model Englishman shall be something better than a warm man of business, with a good ledger, and “the dean’s daughter” to wife.