A DECADE OF ITALIAN WOMEN.
VITTORIA COLONNA.
From an Original Painting in theColonna Gallery at Rome
A DECADE
OF
ITALIAN WOMEN.
BY
T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE,
AUTHOR OF "THE GIRLHOOD OF CATHERINE DE' MEDICI."
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1859.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
LONDON:
RADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
PREFACE.
The degree in which any social system has succeededin ascertaining woman's proper position, and inputting her into it, will be a very accurate test of theprogress it has made in civilisation. And the verygeneral and growing conviction, that our own socialarrangements, as they exist at present, have notattained any satisfactory measure of success in thisrespect, would seem, therefore, to indicate, thatEngland in her nineteenth century has not yet reachedyears of discretion after all.
But conscious deficiency is with nations at least, ifnot always with individuals, the sure precursor ofimprovement. The path before us towards the idealin this matter is a very long one; extends, indeed,further than eye can see. What path of progress doesnot? And our advance upon it will still be a sureconcomitant and proof of our advance in all civilisation.But the question of more immediate moment is,admitting that we are moving in this respect, are wemoving in the right direction? We have been movingfor a long time back. Have we missed the rightroad? Have we unfortunately retrograded instead ofprogressing?
There are persons who think so. And there are[Pg vi]not wanting, in the great storehouse of history, certainperiods, certain individuals, certain manifestations ofsocial life, to which such persons point as countenancingthe notion, that better things have been, asregards woman's position and possibilities, than arenow. There are, painted on the slides of Mnemosyne'smagic lanthorn, certain brilliant and captivating figures,which are apt to lead those who are disgusted with thesmoke and reek of the Phœnix-burning going on aroundthem, to suppose that the social conditions which producedsuch, must have been less far from the true paththan our present selves. Nay, more. There have beenconstellations of such stars, quite sufficiently numerousto justify the conclusion, that the circumstances of thetime at which they appeared were in their nature calculatedto produce them.
Of such times, the most striking in this respect, as inso many others, is that fascinating dawn time ofmodern life, that ever wonderful "rénaissance" season,when a fresh sap seemed to rush through the tissuesof the European social systems, as they passed fromtheir long winter