AMAZONS. experience or testimony have hitherto acquainted us; and, if it passes farther beyond the notions that we have been accustomed to form, it becomes at last incredible. We seldom consider that human knowledge is very narrow; that national manners are formed by chance; that uncommon conjunctures of causes produce rare effects; or, that what is impossible at one time or place may yet happen in another. It is always easier to deny than to inquire. To refuse credit confers for a moment an appearance of superiority which every little mind is tempted to assume, when it may be gained so cheaply as by withdrawing attention from evidence, and declining the fatigue of comparing probabilities. Many relations of travellers have been flattered as fabulous, till more frequent voyages have confirmed their veracity; and it may reasonably be imagined that many ancient historians are unjustly suspected of falsehood, because our own times afford nothing that resembles what they tell. Few narratives will, either to men or women, appear more incredible than the histories of the Amazons; of female nations, of whole constitution it was the essential 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 harvest, female partners danced together, and female wits diverted one another. Yet several pages of antiquity have transmitted accounts of the Amazons of Caucasus; and of the Amazons of America, who have given their name to the greatest river in the world, Condamine lately found such memorials as can be expected among erratic and unlettered nations, where events are recorded only by tradition, and new swarms settling in the country from time to time confuse and efface all traces of former times."
No author has taken so much pains upon this subject as Dr Petit. But, in the course of his work, he has given it as his opinion, that there is great difficulty in governing the women even at present, though they are unarmed and unpractised in the art of war. After all his elaborate inquiries and discussions, therefore, this learned writer might probably think, that it is not an evil of the first magnitude that the race of Amazons now ceases to exist.
Rousselau says, "The empire of the woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are carefree, 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 Johnson: "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 brandishing the battle-axe. Their power was maintained by cruelty, their courage was deformed by ferocity; and their example only shows, that men and women live best together."