THIRD PERIOD. WOMEN OF ISRAEL, BETWEEN THE ESTABLISH- COMPRISING SKETCHES OF MIRIAM, DEBORAH, WIFE OF MANOAH, NAOMI, R THIRD PERIOD. CHAPTER I. MIRIAM. HAVING now considered the law of God under all its various bearings relative to woman, it only remains to prove, from the female characters of Scripture, in what manner that law was obeyed; and whether it be possible to discover any trace of statutes, which, in direct contradistinction to the changeless law of the Eternal, tend to degrade, instead of to elevate, the female character; or whether we cannot bring forward some sufficiently convincing arguments in favour of our deeply studied theory, that the law of the Eternal is explained, by its practical illustration, through the whole history of the Bible. To the oralist, or non-oralist, this consideration ought to be of equal weight. Keeping aloof entirely from the discussion which has of late too painfully agitated the whole Jewish nation, we would yet present to both parties the simple fact, that the supposed degradation of the women of Israel can have no existence whatever in the Oral Law, or we must find some trace of this abasement in this and the succeeding periods of our history. If both were given at the same time, the women of Israel whom we are about to bring forward, must have lived under the jurisdiction of both; and as their lives, feelings, and actions, are all in exact accordance with the |