Note 427 — Chapter XIII · CHARACTER.

In the first edition of the present work, I included, among these supposed causes, the degree of restraint imposed upon the women, and their seclusion from open intercourse with the other sex. This I did, not because confinement is said to have this effect in the West, where, being contrary to general custom, it is felt as an oppression, but because the assertion of the Egyptians, that the Eastern women in general are more licentiously disposed than the men, seemed to be an argument against the main principle of the constitution of Eastern society. I did not consider that this argument is at least counter-balanced by what I have before mentioned, that the women who are commonly considered the most licentious (namely, those of Egypt) are those who are said to have most licence.