It was the offspring of reasoning and observation, not of instinctive sentiment and momentary impulse.

In the wild, poetical code of the old Gothic superstition was one axiom, closely and strangely approximating to an important theory in the Christian scheme--the watchfulness of an omnipotent Creator over a finite creature.

Every action of the body, every impulse of the mind, was the immediate result, in the system of worship among the Goths of the direct, though invisible interference of the divinities they adored.

When, therefore, they observed that women were more submitted in body to the mysterious laws of nature and temperament, and more swayed in mind by the native and universal instincts of humanity than themselves, they inferred as an inevitable conclusion, that the female sex was more incessantly regarded, and more constantly and remarkably influenced by the gods of their worship, than the male.

Acting under this persuasion, they committed the study of medicine, the interpretation of dreams, and in many instances, the mysteries of communication with the invisible world, to the care of their women.
The gentler sex became their counsellors in difficulty, and their physicians in sickness--their companions rather than their mistresses,--the objects of their veneration rather than the purveyors of their pleasures.