Character of the Female Sex. By Mr. Ledyard, a celebrated traveller.

I have always remarked that women, in all countries, are civil, obliging, tender, and humane; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest : and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, not arrogant, not supercilious, they are full of courtesy, and fond of society ; more liable in general to err than man, but in general also more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With men it has been otherwise.

In wandering over the barren plains of inhos- pitable Denmark, through honest Sweden and fro- zen Lapland, rude, and churlish Finland, unprin- cipled Russia, and the widespread regions of the wandering Tartar ; if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the women have ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so ; and to add to this virtue (so worthy the appellation of benevolence) these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry I eat the coarse morsel with a double relish.

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Citation: Glasgow Advertiser (Glasgow, United Kingdom), 12 July 1790, available at the Scissors and Paste Database, http://www.scissorsandpaste.net/67.