Dr. Priestley has remarked, in the preface to his biographical

chart, that the majority of great men have lived beyond forty-five.

And, considering the thoughtless manner in which they lavished

their strength, when investigating a favourite science, they have

wasted the lamp of life, forgetful of the midnight hour; or, when,

lost in poetic dreams, fancy has peopled the scene, and the soul

has been disturbed, till it shook the constitution, by the passions

that meditation had raised; whose objects, the baseless fabric of a

vision, faded before the exhausted eye, they must have had iron

frames. Shakespeare never grasped the airy dagger with a nerveless

hand, nor did Milton tremble when he led Satan far from the

confines of his dreary prison. These were not the ravings of

imbecility, the sickly effusions of distempered brains; but the

exuberance of fancy, that "in a fine phrenzy" wandering, was not

continually reminded of its material shackles.

I am aware, that this argument would carry me further than it may

be supposed I wish to go; but I follow truth, and still adhering to

my first position, I will allow that bodily strength seems to give

man a natural superiority over woman; and this is the only solid

basis on which the superiority of the sex can be built. But I

still insist, that not only the virtue, but the KNOWLEDGE of the

two sexes should be the same in nature, if not in degree, and that

women, considered not only as moral, but rational creatures, ought

to endeavour to acquire human virtues (or perfections) by the SAME

means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of

HALF being, one of Rousseau's wild chimeras.

But, if strength of body be, with some show of reason, the boast of

men, why are women so infatuated as to be proud of a defect?

Rousseau has furnished them with a plausible excuse, which could

only have occurred to a man, whose imagination had been allowed to

run wild, and refine on the impressions made by exquisite senses,

that they might, forsooth have a pretext for yielding to a natural

appetite without violating a romantic species of modesty, which

gratifies the pride and libertinism of man.

Women deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of their

weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the WEAKNESS of

men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway, for, like

Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than their masters: but

virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the

respectability of life to the triumph of an hour.

Women, as well as despots, have now, perhaps, more power than they

would have, if the world, divided and subdivided into kingdoms and

families, was governed by laws deduced from the exercise of reason;

but in obtaining it, to carry on the comparison, their character is

degraded, and licentiousness spread through the whole aggregate of

society. The many become pedestal to the few. I, therefore will

venture to assert, that till women are more rationally educated,

the progress of human virtue and improvement in knowledge must

receive continual checks. And if it be granted, that woman was not

created merely to gratify the appetite of man, nor to be the upper

servant, who provides his meals and takes care of his linen, it

must follow, that the first care of those mothers or fathers, who

really attend to the education of females, should be, if not to

strengthen the body, at least, not to destroy the constitution by

mistaken notions of beauty and female excellence; nor should girls

ever be allowed to imbibe the pernicious notion that a defect can,

by any chemical process of reasoning become an excellence. In this

respect, I am happy to find, that the author of one of the most

instructive books, that our country has produced for children,

coincides with me in opinion; I shall quote his pertinent remarks

to give the force of his respectable authority to reason.*

(*Footnote. A respectable old man gives the following sensible

account of the method he pursued when educating his daughter. "I

endeavoured to give both to her mind and body a degree of vigour,

which is seldom found in the female sex. As soon as she was

sufficiently advanced in strength to be capable of the lighter

labours of husbandry and gardening, I employed her as my constant

companion. Selene, for that was her name, soon acquired a

dexterity in all these rustic employments which I considered with

equal pleasure and admiration. If women are in general feeble both

in body and mind, it arises less from nature than from education.

We encourage a vicious indolence and inactivity, which we falsely

call delicacy; instead of hardening their minds by the severer

principles of reason and philosophy, we breed them to useless arts,

which terminate in vanity and sensuality. In most of the countries

which I had visited, they are taught nothing of an higher nature

than a few modulations of the voice, or useless postures of the

body; their time is consumed in sloth or trifles, and trifles

become the only pursuits capable of interesting them. We seem to

forget, that it is upon the qualities of the female sex, that our

own domestic comforts and the education of our children must

depend. And what are the comforts or the education which a race of

beings corrupted from their infancy, and unacquainted with all the

duties of life, are fitted to bestow? To touch a musical

instrument with useless skill, to exhibit their natural or affected

graces, to the eyes of indolent and debauched young men, who

dissipate their husbands' patrimony in riotous and unnecessary

expenses: these are the only arts cultivated by women in most of

the polished nations I had seen. And the consequences are

uniformly such as may be expected to proceed from such polluted

sources, private misery, and public servitude.

"But, Selene's education was regulated by different views, and

conducted upon severer principles; if that can be called severity

which opens the mind to a sense of moral and religious duties, and

most effectually arms it against the inevitable evils of

life."--Mr. Day's "Sandford and Merton," Volume 3.)

But should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker than man,

from whence does it follow that it is natural for her to labour to

become still weaker than nature intended her to be? Arguments of

this cast are an insult to common sense, and savour of passion.

The DIVINE RIGHT of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may,

it is to be hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without

danger, and though conviction may not silence many boisterous

disputants, yet, when any prevailing prejudice is attacked, the

wise will consider, and leave the narrow-minded to rail with

thoughtless vehemence at innovation.

The mother, who wishes to give true dignity of character to her

daughter, must, regardless of the sneers of ignorance, proceed on a

plan diametrically opposite to that which Rousseau has recommended

with all the deluding charms of eloquence and philosophical

sophistry: for his eloquence renders absurdities plausible, and

his dogmatic conclusions puzzle, without convincing those who have

not ability to refute them.

Throughout the whole animal kingdom every young creature requires

almost continual exercise, and the infancy of children, conformable

to this intimation, should be passed in harmless gambols, that

exercise the feet and hands, without requiring very minute

direction from the head, or the constant attention of a nurse. In

fact, the care necessary for self-preservation is the first natural

exercise of the understanding, as little inventions to amuse the

present moment unfold the imagination. But these wise designs of

nature are counteracted by mistaken fondness or blind zeal. The

child is not left a moment to its own direction, particularly a

girl, and thus rendered dependent--dependence is called natural.

To preserve personal beauty, woman's glory! the limbs and faculties

are cramped with worse than Chinese bands, and the sedentary life

which they are condemned to live, whilst boys frolic in the open

air, weakens the muscles and relaxes the nerves. As for Rousseau's

remarks, which have since been echoed by several writers, that they

have naturally, that is from their birth, independent of education,

a fondness for dolls, dressing, and talking, they are so puerile as

not to merit a serious refutation. That a girl, condemned to sit

for hours together listening to the idle chat of weak nurses or to

attend at her mother's toilet, will endeavour to join the

conversation, is, indeed very natural; and that she will imitate

her mother or aunts, and amuse herself by adorning her lifeless

doll, as they do in dressing her, poor innocent babe! is

undoubtedly a most natural consequence. For men of the greatest

abilities have seldom had sufficient strength to rise above the

surrounding atmosphere; and, if the page of genius has always been

blurred by the prejudices of the age, some allowance should be made

for a sex, who, like kings, always see things through a false

medium.

In this manner may the fondness for dress, conspicuous in women, be

easily accounted for, without supposing it the result of a desire

to please the sex on which they are dependent. The absurdity, in

short, of supposing that a girl is naturally a coquette, and that a

desire connected with the impulse of nature to propagate the

species, should appear even before an improper education has, by

heating the imagination, called it forth prematurely, is so

unphilosophical, that such a sagacious observer as Rousseau would

not have adopted it, if he had not been accustomed to make reason

give way to his desire of singularity, and truth to a favourite

paradox.

Yet thus to give a sex to mind was not very consistent with the

principles of a man who argued so warmly, and so well, for the

immortality of the soul. But what a weak barrier is truth when it

stands in the way of an hypothesis! Rousseau respected--almost

adored virtue--and yet allowed himself to love with sensual

fondness. His imagination constantly prepared inflammable fuel for

his inflammable senses; but, in order to reconcile his respect for

self-denial, fortitude and those heroic virtues, which a mind like

his could not coolly admire, he labours to invert the law of

nature, and broaches a doctrine pregnant with mischief, and

derogatory to the character of supreme wisdom.

His ridiculous stories, which tend to prove that girls are

NATURALLY attentive to their persons, without laying any stress on

daily example, are below contempt. And that a little miss should

have such a correct taste as to neglect the pleasing amusement of

making O's, merely because she perceived that it was an ungraceful

attitude, should be selected with the anecdotes of the learned

pig.*

(*Footnote. "I once knew a young person who learned to write

before she learned to read, and began to write with her needle

before she could use a pen. At first indeed, she took it into her

head to make no other letter than the O: this letter she was

constantly making of all sizes, and always the wrong way.

Unluckily one day, as she was intent on this employment, she

happened to see herself in the looking glass; when, taking a

dislike to the constrained attitude in which she sat while writing,

she threw away her pen, like another Pallas, and determined against

making the O any more. Her brother was also equally averse to

writing: it was the confinement, however, and not the constrained

attitude, that most disgusted him."

Rousseau's "Emilius.")

I have, probably, had an opportunity of observing more girls in

their infancy than J. J. Rousseau. I can recollect my own

feelings, and I have looked steadily around me; yet, so far from

coinciding with him in opinion respecting the first dawn of the

female character, I will venture to affirm, that a girl, whose

spirits have not been damped by inactivity, or innocence tainted by

false shame, will always be a romp, and the doll will never excite

attention unless confinement allows her no alternative. Girls and

boys, in short, would play harmless together, if the distinction of

sex was not inculcated long before nature makes any difference. I

will, go further, and affirm, as an indisputable fact, that most of

the women, in the circle of my observation, who have acted like

rational creatures, or shown any vigour of intellect, have

accidentally been allowed to run wild, as some of the elegant

formers of the fair sex would insinuate.

The baneful consequences which flow from inattention to health

during infancy, and youth, extend further than is supposed,

dependence of body naturally produces dependence of mind; and how

can she be a good wife or mother, the greater part of whose time is

employed to guard against or endure sickness; nor can it be

expected, that a woman will resolutely endeavour to strengthen her

constitution and abstain from enervating indulgences, if artificial

notions of beauty, and false descriptions of sensibility, have been

early entangled with her motives of action. Most men are sometimes

obliged to bear with bodily inconveniences, and to endure,

occasionally, the inclemency of the elements; but genteel women

are, literally speaking, slaves to their bodies, and glory in their

subjection.

I once knew a weak woman of fashion, who was more than commonly

proud of her delicacy and sensibility. She thought a

distinguishing taste and puny appetite the height of all human

perfection, and acted accordingly. I have seen this weak

sophisticated being neglect all the duties of life, yet recline

with self-complacency on a sofa, and boast of her want of appetite

as a proof of delicacy that extended to, or, perhaps, arose from,

her exquisite sensibility: for it is difficult to render

intelligible such ridiculous jargon. Yet, at the moment, I have

seen her insult a worthy old gentlewoman, whom unexpected

misfortunes had made dependent on her ostentatious bounty, and who,

in better days, had claims on her gratitude. Is it possible that a

human creature should have become such a weak and depraved being,

if, like the Sybarites, dissolved in luxury, every thing like

virtue had not been worn away, or never impressed by precept, a

poor substitute it is true, for cultivation of mind, though it

serves as a fence against vice?

Such a woman is not a more irrational monster than some of the

Roman emperors, who were depraved by lawless power. Yet, since

kings have been more under the restraint of law, and the curb,

however weak, of honour, the records of history are not filled with

such unnatural instances of folly and cruelty, nor does the

despotism that kills virtue and genius in the bud, hover over

Europe with that destructive blast which desolates Turkey, and

renders the men, as well as the soil unfruitful.

Women are every where in this deplorable state; for, in order to

preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth

is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial

character before their faculties have acquired any strength.

Taught from their infancy, that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind

shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only

seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and

pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the

opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts

constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves,

seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour. But was

their understanding once emancipated from the slavery to which the

pride and sensuality of man and their short sighted desire, like

that of dominion in tyrants, of present sway, has subjected them,

we should probably read of their weaknesses with surprise. I must

be allowed to pursue the argument a little farther.

Perhaps, if the existence of an evil being was allowed, who, in the

allegorical language of scripture, went about seeking whom he

should devour, he could not more effectually degrade the human

character than by giving a man absolute power.

This argument branches into various ramifications. Birth, riches,

and every intrinsic advantage that exalt a man above his fellows,

without any mental exertion, sink him in reality below them. In

proportion to his weakness, he is played upon by designing men,

till the bloated monster has lost all traces of humanity. And that

tribes of men, like flocks of sheep, should quietly follow such a

leader, is a solecism that only a desire of present enjoyment and

narrowness of understanding can solve. Educated in slavish

dependence, and enervated by luxury and sloth, where shall we find

men who will stand forth to assert the rights of man; or claim the

privilege of moral beings, who should have but one road to

excellence? Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will

be long in freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the

progress of the human mind, is not yet abolished.

Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that

tyrannic kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously

assert, that woman ought to be subjected because she has always

been so. But, when man, governed by reasonable laws, enjoys his

natural freedom, let him despise woman, if she do not share it with

him; and, till that glorious period arrives, in descanting on the

folly of the sex, let him not overlook his own.

Women, it is true, obtaining power by unjust means, by practising

or fostering vice, evidently lose the rank which reason would

assign them, and they become either abject slaves or capricious

tyrants. They lose all simplicity, all dignity of mind, in

acquiring power, and act as men are observed to act when they have

been exalted by the same means.

It is time to effect a revolution in female manners, time to

restore to them their lost dignity, and make them, as a part of the

human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world.

It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners. If

men be demi-gods, why let us serve them! And if the dignity of the

female soul be as disputable as that of animals, if their reason

does not afford sufficient light to direct their conduct whilst

unerring instinct is denied, they are surely of all creatures the

most miserable and, bent beneath the iron hand of destiny, must

submit to be a FAIR DEFECT in creation. But to justify the ways of

providence respecting them, by pointing out some irrefragable

reason for thus making such a large portion of mankind accountable

and not accountable, would puzzle the subtlest casuist.

The only solid foundation for morality appears to be the character

of the Supreme Being; the harmony of which arises from a balance of

attributes; and, to speak with reverence, one attribute seems to

imply the NECESSITY of another. He must be just, because he is

wise, he must be good, because he is omnipotent. For, to exalt one

attribute at the expense of another equally noble and necessary,

bears the stamp of the warped reason of man, the homage of passion.

Man, accustomed to bow down to power in his savage state, can

seldom divest himself of this barbarous prejudice even when

civilization determines how much superior mental is to bodily

strength; and his reason is clouded by these crude opinions, even

when he thinks of the Deity. His omnipotence is made to swallow

up, or preside over his other attributes, and those mortals are

supposed to limit his power irreverently, who think that it must be

regulated by his wisdom.

I disclaim that species of humility which, after investigating

nature, stops at the author. The high and lofty One, who

inhabiteth eternity, doubtless possesses many attributes of which

we can form no conception; but reason tells me that they cannot

clash with those I adore, and I am compelled to listen to her

voice.

It seems natural for man to search for excellence, and either to

trace it in the object that he worships, or blindly to invest it

with perfection as a garment. But what good effect can the latter

mode of worship have on the moral conduct of a rational being? He

bends to power; he adores a dark cloud, which may open a bright

prospect to him, or burst in angry, lawless fury on his devoted

head, he knows not why. And, supposing that the Deity acts from

the vague impulse of an undirected will, man must also follow his

own, or act according to rules, deduced from principles which he

disclaims as irreverent. Into this dilemma have both enthusiasts

and cooler thinkers fallen, when they laboured to free men from the

wholesome restraints which a just conception of the character of

God imposes.

It is not impious thus to scan the attributes of the Almighty: in

fact, who can avoid it that exercises his faculties? for to love

God as the fountain of wisdom, goodness, and power, appears to be

the only worship useful to a being who wishes to acquire either

virtue or knowledge. A blind unsettled affection may, like human

passions, occupy the mind and warm the heart, whilst, to do

justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, is forgotten. I

shall pursue this subject still further, when I consider religion

in a light opposite to that recommended by Dr. Gregory, who treats

it as a matter of sentiment or taste.

To return from this apparent digression. It were to be wished,

that women would cherish an affection for their husbands, founded

on the same principle that devotion ought to rest upon. No other

firm base is there under heaven, for let them beware of the

fallacious light of sentiment; too often used as a softer phrase

for sensuality. It follows then, I think, that from their infancy

women should either be shut up like eastern princes, or educated in

such a manner as to be able to think and act for themselves.

Why do men halt between two opinions, and expect impossibilities?

Why do they expect virtue from a slave, or from a being whom the

constitution of civil society has rendered weak, if not vicious?

Still I know that it will require a considerable length of time to

eradicate the firmly rooted prejudices which sensualists have

planted; it will also require some time to convince women that they

act contrary to their real interest on an enlarged scale, when they

cherish or affect weakness under the name of delicacy, and to

convince the world that the poisoned source of female vices and

follies, if it be necessary, in compliance with custom, to use

synonymous terms in a lax sense, has been the sensual homage paid

to beauty: to beauty of features; for it has been shrewdly

observed by a German writer, that a pretty woman, as an object of

desire, is generally allowed to be so by men of all descriptions;

whilst a fine woman, who inspires more sublime emotions by

displaying intellectual beauty, may be overlooked or observed with

indifference, by those men who find their happiness in the

gratification of their appetites. I foresee an obvious retort;

whilst man remains such an imperfect being as he appears hitherto

to have been, he will, more or less, be the slave of his appetites;

and those women obtaining most power who gratify a predominant one,

the sex is degraded by a physical, if not by a moral necessity.

This objection has, I grant, some force; but while such a sublime

precept exists, as, "be pure as your heavenly father is pure;" it

would seem that the virtues of man are not limited by the Being who

alone could limit them; and that he may press forward without

considering whether he steps out of his sphere by indulging such a

noble ambition. To the wild billows it has been said, "thus far

shalt thou go, and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be

stayed." Vainly then do they beat and foam, restrained by the

power that confines the struggling planets within their orbits,

matter yields to the great governing Spirit. But an immortal soul,

not restrained by mechanical laws, and struggling to free itself

from the shackles of matter, contributes to, instead of disturbing,

the order of creation, when, co-operating with the Father of

spirits, it tries to govern itself by the invariable rule that, in

a degree, before which our imagination faints, the universe is

regulated.

Besides, if women are educated for dependence, that is, to act

according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right

or wrong, to power, where are we to stop? Are they to be

considered as viceregents, allowed to reign over a small domain,

and answerable for their conduct to a higher tribunal, liable to

error?

It will not be difficult to prove, that such delegates will act

like men subjected by fear, and make their children and servants

endure their tyrannical oppression. As they submit without reason,

they will, having no fixed rules to square their conduct by, be

kind or cruel, just as the whim of the moment directs; and we ought

not to wonder if sometimes, galled by their heavy yoke, they take a

malignant pleasure in resting it on weaker shoulders.

But, supposing a woman, trained up to obedience, be married to a

sensible man, who directs her judgment, without making her feel the

servility of her subjection, to act with as much propriety by this

reflected light as can be expected when reason is taken at second

hand, yet she cannot ensure the life of her protector; he may die

and leave her with a large family.

A double duty devolves on her; to educate them in the character of

both father and mother; to form their principles and secure their

property. But, alas! she has never thought, much less acted for

herself. She has only learned to please men, to depend gracefully

on them; yet, encumbered with children, how is she to obtain

another protector; a husband to supply the place of reason? A

rational man, for we are not treading on romantic ground, though he

may think her a pleasing docile creature, will not choose to marry

a FAMILY for love, when the world contains many more pretty

creatures. What is then to become of her? She either falls an

easy prey to some mean fortune hunter, who defrauds her children of

their paternal inheritance, and renders her miserable; or becomes

the victim of discontent and blind indulgence. Unable to educate

her sons, or impress them with respect; for it is not a play on

words to assert, that people are never respected, though filling an

important station, who are not respectable; she pines under the

anguish of unavailing impotent regret. The serpent's tooth enters

into her very soul, and the vices of licentious youth bring her

with sorrow, if not with poverty also, to the grave.

This is not an overcharged picture; on the contrary, it is a very

possible case, and something similar must have fallen under every

attentive eye.

I have, however, taken it for granted, that she was well disposed,

though experience shows, that the blind may as easily be led into a

ditch as along the beaten road. But supposing, no very improbable

conjecture, that a being only taught to please must still find her

happiness in pleasing; what an example of folly, not to say vice,

will she be to her innocent daughters! The mother will be lost in

the coquette, and, instead of making friends of her daughters, view

them with eyes askance, for they are rivals--rivals more cruel than

any other, because they invite a comparison, and drive her from the

throne of beauty, who has never thought of a seat on the bench of

reason.

It does not require a lively pencil, or the discriminating outline

of a caricature, to sketch the domestic miseries and petty vices

which such a mistress of a family diffuses. Still she only acts as

a woman ought to act, brought up according to Rousseau's system.

She can never be reproached for being masculine, or turning out of

her sphere; nay, she may observe another of his grand rules, and,

cautiously preserving her reputation free from spot, be reckoned a

good kind of woman. Yet in what respect can she be termed good?

She abstains, it is true, without any great struggle, from

committing gross crimes; but how does she fulfil her duties?

Duties!--in truth she has enough to think of to adorn her body and

nurse a weak constitution.

With respect to religion, she never presumed to judge for herself;

but conformed, as a dependent creature should, to the ceremonies of

the church which she was brought up in, piously believing, that

wiser heads than her own have settled that business: and not to

doubt is her point of perfection. She therefore pays her tythe of

mint and cummin, and thanks her God that she is not as other women

are. These are the blessed effects of a good education! these the

virtues of man's helpmate. I must relieve myself by drawing a

different picture.

Let fancy now present a woman with a tolerable understanding, for I

do not wish to leave the line of mediocrity, whose constitution,

strengthened by exercise, has allowed her body to acquire its full

vigour; her mind, at the same time, gradually expanding itself to

comprehend the moral duties of life, and in what human virtue and

dignity consist. Formed thus by the relative duties of her

station, she marries from affection, without losing sight of

prudence, and looking beyond matrimonial felicity, she secures her

husband's respect before it is necessary to exert mean arts to

please him, and feed a dying flame, which nature doomed to expire

when the object became familiar, when friendship and forbearance

take place of a more ardent affection. This is the natural death

of love, and domestic peace is not destroyed by struggles to

prevent its extinction. I also suppose the husband to be virtuous;

or she is still more in want of independent principles.

Fate, however, breaks this tie. She is left a widow, perhaps,

without a sufficient provision: but she is not desolate! The pang

of nature is felt; but after time has softened sorrow into

melancholy resignation, her heart turns to her children with

redoubled fondness, and anxious to provide for them, affection

gives a sacred heroic cast to her maternal duties. She thinks that

not only the eye sees her virtuous efforts, from whom all her

comfort now must flow, and whose approbation is life; but her

imagination, a little abstracted and exalted by grief, dwells on

the fond hope, that the eyes which her trembling hand closed, may

still see how she subdues every wayward passion to fulfil the

double duty of being the father as well as the mother of her

children. Raised to heroism by misfortunes, she represses the

first faint dawning of a natural inclination, before it ripens into

love, and in the bloom of life forgets her sex--forgets the

pleasure of an awakening passion, which might again have been

inspired and returned. She no longer thinks of pleasing, and

conscious dignity prevents her from priding herself on account of

the praise which her conduct demands. Her children have her love,

and her brightest hopes are beyond the grave, where her imagination

often strays.

I think I see her surrounded by her children, reaping the reward of

her care. The intelligent eye meets her's, whilst health and

innocence smile on their chubby cheeks, and as they grow up the

cares of life are lessened by their grateful attention. She lives

to see the virtues which she endeavoured to plant on principles,

fixed into habits, to see her children attain a strength of

character sufficient to enable them to endure adversity without

forgetting their mother's example.

The task of life thus fulfilled, she calmly waits for the sleep of

death, and rising from the grave may say, behold, thou gavest me a

talent, and here are five talents.

I wish to sum up what I have said in a few words, for I here throw

down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of sexual virtues, not

excepting modesty. For man and woman, truth, if I understand the

meaning of the word, must be the same; yet the fanciful female

character, so prettily drawn by poets and novelists, demanding the

sacrifice of truth and sincerity, virtue becomes a relative idea,

having no other foundation than utility, and of that utility men

pretend arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own convenience.

Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfil; but they are

HUMAN duties, and the principles that should regulate the discharge

of them, I sturdily maintain, must be the same.

To become respectable, the exercise of their understanding is

necessary, there is no other foundation for independence of

character; I mean explicitly to say, that they must only bow to the

authority of reason, instead of being the MODEST slaves of opinion.

In the superior ranks of life how seldom do we meet with a man of

superior abilities, or even common acquirements? The reason

appears to me clear; the state they are born in was an unnatural

one. The human character has ever been formed by the employments

the individual, or class pursues; and if the faculties are not

sharpened by necessity, they must remain obtuse. The argument may

fairly be extended to women; for seldom occupied by serious

business, the pursuit of pleasure gives that insignificancy to

their character which renders the society of the GREAT so insipid.

The same want of firmness, produced by a similar cause, forces them

both to fly from themselves to noisy pleasures, and artificial

passions, till vanity takes place of every social affection, and

the characteristics of humanity can scarcely be discerned. Such

are the blessings of civil governments, as they are at present

organized, that wealth and female softness equally tend to debase

mankind, and are produced by the same cause; but allowing women to

be rational creatures they should be incited to acquire virtues

which they may call their own, for how can a rational being be

ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its OWN exertions?

CHAPTER 4.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO WHICH WOMAN IS REDUCED

BY VARIOUS CAUSES.

That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of

circumstances is, I think, clear. But this position I shall simply

contrast with a conclusion, which I have frequently heard fall from

sensible men in favour of an aristocracy: that the mass of mankind

cannot be any thing, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow

themselves to be penned up, would feel their own consequence, and

spurn their chains. Men, they further observe, submit every where

to oppression, when they have only to lift up their heads to throw

off the yoke; yet, instead of asserting their birthright, they

quietly lick the dust, and say, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow

we die. Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same

propensity to enjoy the present moment; and, at last, despise the

freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to

attain. But I must be more explicit.

With respect to the culture of the heart, it is unanimously allowed

that sex is out of the question; but the line of subordination in

the mental powers is never to be passed over. Only "absolute in

loveliness," the portion of rationality granted to woman is,

indeed, very scanty; for, denying her genius and judgment, it is

scarcely possible to divine what remains to characterize intellect.

The stamina of immortality, if I may be allowed the phrase, is the

perfectibility of human reason; for, was man created perfect, or

did a flood of knowledge break in upon him, when he arrived at

maturity, that precluded error, I should doubt whether his

existence would be continued after the dissolution of the body.

But in the present state of things, every difficulty in morals,

that escapes from human discussion, and equally baffles the

investigation of profound thinking, and the lightning glance of

genius, is an argument on which I build my belief of the

immortality of the soul. Reason is, consequentially, the simple

power of improvement; or, more properly speaking, of discerning

truth. Every individual is in this respect a world in itself.

More or less may be conspicuous in one being than other; but the

nature of reason must be the same in all, if it be an emanation of

divinity, the tie that connects the creature with the Creator; for,

can that soul be stamped with the heavenly image, that is not

perfected by the exercise of its own reason? Yet outwardly

ornamented with elaborate care, and so adorned to delight man,

"that with honour he may love," (Vide Milton) the soul of woman is

not allowed to have this distinction, and man, ever placed between

her and reason, she is always represented as only created to see

through a gross medium, and to take things on trust. But,

dismissing these fanciful theories, and considering woman as a

whole, let it be what it will, instead of a part of man, the

inquiry is, whether she has reason or not. If she has, which, for

a moment, I will take for granted, she was not created merely to be

the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy the human

character.

Into this error men have, probably, been led by viewing education

in a false light; not considering it as the first step to form a

being advancing gradually toward perfection; (This word is not

strictly just, but I cannot find a better.) but only as a

preparation for life. On this sensual error, for I must call it

so, has the false system of female manners been reared, which robs

the whole sex of its dignity, and classes the brown and fair with

the smiling flowers that only adorn the land. This has ever been

the language of men, and the fear of departing from a supposed

sexual character, has made even women of superior sense adopt the

same sentiments. Thus understanding, strictly speaking, has been

denied to woman; and instinct, sublimated into wit and cunning, for

the purposes of life, has been substituted in its stead.

The power of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive

conclusions from individual observations, is the only acquirement

for an immortal being, that really deserves the name of knowledge.

Merely to observe, without endeavouring to account for any thing,

may, (in a very incomplete manner) serve as the common sense of

life; but where is the store laid up that is to clothe the soul

when it leaves the body?

This power has not only been denied to women; but writers have

insisted that it is inconsistent, with a few exceptions, with their

sexual character. Let men prove this, and I shall grant that woman

only exists for man. I must, however, previously remark, that the

power of generalizing ideas, to any great extent, is not very

common amongst men or women. But this exercise is the true

cultivation of the understanding; and every thing conspires to

render the cultivation of the understanding more difficult in the

female than the male world.

I am naturally led by this assertion to the main subject of the

present chapter, and shall now attempt to point out some of the

causes that degrade the sex, and prevent women from generalizing

their observations.

I shall not go back to the remote annals of antiquity to trace the

history of woman; it is sufficient to allow, that she has always

been either a slave or a despot, and to remark, that each of these

situations equally retards the progress of reason. The grand

source of female folly and vice has ever appeared to me to arise

from narrowness of mind; and the very constitution of civil

governments has put almost insuperable obstacles in the way to

prevent the cultivation of the female understanding: yet virtue

can be built on no other foundation! The same obstacles are thrown

in the way of the rich, and the same consequences ensue.

Necessity has been proverbially termed the mother of invention; the

aphorism may be extended to virtue. It is an acquirement, and an

acquirement to which pleasure must be sacrificed, and who

sacrifices pleasure when it is within the grasp, whose mind has not

been opened and strengthened by adversity, or the pursuit of

knowledge goaded on by necessity? Happy is it when people have the

cares of life to struggle with; for these struggles prevent their

becoming a prey to enervating vices, merely from idleness! But, if

from their birth men and women are placed in a torrid zone, with

the meridian sun of pleasure darting directly upon them, how can

they sufficiently brace their minds to discharge the duties of

life, or even to relish the affections that carry them out of

themselves?

Pleasure is the business of a woman's life, according to the

present modification of society, and while it continues to be so,

little can be expected from such weak beings. Inheriting, in a

lineal descent from the first fair defect in nature, the

sovereignty of beauty, they have, to maintain their power, resigned

their natural rights, which the exercise of reason, might have

procured them, and chosen rather to be short-lived queens than

labour to attain the sober pleasures that arise from equality.

Exalted by their inferiority (this sounds like a contradiction)

they constantly demand homage as women, though experience should

teach them that the men who pride themselves upon paying this

arbitrary insolent respect to the sex, with the most scrupulous

exactness, are most inclined to tyrannize over, and despise the

very weakness they cherish. Often do they repeat Mr. Hume's

sentiments; when comparing the French and Athenian character, he

alludes to women. "But what is more singular in this whimsical

nation, say I to the Athenians, is, that a frolic of yours during

the Saturnalia, when the slaves are served by their masters, is

seriously continued by them through the whole year, and through the

whole course of their lives; accompanied too with some

circumstances, which still further augment the absurdity and

ridicule. Your sport only elevates for a few days, those whom

fortune has thrown down, and whom she too, in sport, may really

elevate forever above you. But this nation gravely exalts those,

whom nature has subjected to them, and whose inferiority and

infirmities are absolutely incurable. The women, though without

virtue, are their masters and sovereigns."

Ah! why do women, I write with affectionate solicitude, condescend

to receive a degree of attention and respect from strangers,

different from that reciprocation of civility which the dictates of

humanity, and the politeness of civilization authorise between man

and man? And why do they not discover, when "in the noon of

beauty's power," that they are treated like queens only to be

deluded by hollow respect, till they are led to resign, or not

assume, their natural prerogatives? Confined then in cages, like

the feathered race, they have nothing to do but to plume

themselves, and stalk with mock-majesty from perch to perch. It is

true, they are provided with food and raiment, for which they

neither toil nor spin; but health, liberty, and virtue are given in

exchange. But, where, amongst mankind has been found sufficient

strength of mind to enable a being to resign these adventitious

prerogatives; one who rising with the calm dignity of reason above

opinion, dared to be proud of the privileges inherent in man? and

it is vain to expect it whilst hereditary power chokes the

affections, and nips reason in the bud.

The passions of men have thus placed women on thrones; and, till

mankind become more reasonable, it is to be feared that women will

avail themselves of the power which they attain with the least

exertion, and which is the most indisputable. They will smile,

yes, they will smile, though told that--

"In beauty's empire is no mean,

And woman either slave or queen,

Is quickly scorn'd when not ador'd."

But the adoration comes first, and the scorn is not anticipated.

Lewis the XIVth, in particular, spread factitious manners, and

caught in a specious way, the whole nation in his toils; for

establishing an artful chain of despotism, he made it the interest

of the people at large, individually to respect his station, and

support his power. And women, whom he flattered by a puerile

attention to the whole sex, obtained in his reign that prince-like

distinction so fatal to reason and virtue.

A king is always a king, and a woman always a woman: (And a wit,

always a wit, might be added; for the vain fooleries of wits and

beauties to obtain attention, and make conquests, are much upon a

par.) his authority and her sex, ever stand between them and

rational converse. With a lover, I grant she should be so, and her

sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavour to excite emotion,

not to gratify her vanity but her heart. This I do not allow to be

coquetry, it is the artless impulse of nature, I only exclaim

against the sexual desire of conquest, when the heart is out of the

question.

This desire is not confined to women; "I have endeavoured," says

Lord Chesterfield, "to gain the hearts of twenty women, whose

persons I would not have given a fig for." The libertine who in a

gust of passion, takes advantage of unsuspecting tenderness, is a

saint when compared with this cold-hearted rascal; for I like to

use significant words. Yet only taught to please, women are always

on the watch to please, and with true heroic ardour endeavour to

gain hearts merely to resign, or spurn them, when the victory is

decided, and conspicuous.

I must descend to the minutiae of the subject.

I lament that women are systematically degraded by receiving the

trivial attentions, which men think it manly to pay to the sex,

when, in fact, they are insultingly supporting their own

superiority. It is not condescension to bow to an inferior. So

ludicrous, in fact, do these ceremonies appear to me, that I

scarcely am able to govern my muscles, when I see a man start with

eager, and serious solicitude to lift a handkerchief, or shut a

door, when the LADY could have done it herself, had she only moved

a pace or two.

A wild wish has just flown from my heart to my head, and I will not

stifle it though it may excite a horse laugh. I do earnestly wish

to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where

love animates the behaviour. For this distinction is, I am firmly

persuaded, the foundation of the weakness of character ascribed to

woman; is the cause why the understanding is neglected, whilst

accomplishments are acquired with sedulous care: and the same

cause accounts for their preferring the graceful before the heroic

virtues.

Mankind, including every description, wish to be loved and

respected for SOMETHING; and the common herd will always take the

nearest road to the completion of their wishes. The respect paid

to wealth and beauty is the most certain and unequivocal; and of

course, will always attract the vulgar eye of common minds.

Abilities and virtues are absolutely necessary to raise men from

the middle rank of life into notice; and the natural consequence is

notorious, the middle rank contains most virtue and abilities. Men

have thus, in one station, at least, an opportunity of exerting

themselves with dignity, and of rising by the exertions which

really improve a rational creature; but the whole female sex are,

till their character is formed, in the same condition as the rich:

for they are born, I now speak of a state of civilization, with

certain sexual privileges, and whilst they are gratuitously granted

them, few will ever think of works of supererogation, to obtain the

esteem of a small number of superior people.

When do we hear of women, who starting out of obscurity, boldly

claim respect on account of their great abilities or daring

virtues? Where are they to be found? "To be observed, to be

attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and

approbation, are all the advantages which they seek." True! my

male readers will probably exclaim; but let them, before they draw

any conclusion, recollect, that this was not written originally as

descriptive of women, but of the rich. In Dr. Smith's Theory of

Moral Sentiments, I have found a general character of people of

rank and fortune, that in my opinion, might with the greatest

propriety be applied to the female sex. I refer the sagacious

reader to the whole comparison; but must be allowed to quote a

passage to enforce an argument that I mean to insist on, as the one

most conclusive against a sexual character. For if, excepting

warriors, no great men of any denomination, have ever appeared

amongst the nobility, may it not be fairly inferred, that their

local situation swallowed up the man, and produced a character

similar to that of women, who are LOCALIZED, if I may be allowed

the word, by the rank they are placed in, by COURTESY? Women,

commonly called Ladies, are not to be contradicted in company, are

not allowed to exert any manual strength; and from them the

negative virtues only are expected, when any virtues are expected,

patience, docility, good-humour, and flexibility; virtues

incompatible with any vigorous exertion of intellect. Besides by

living more with each other, and to being seldom absolutely alone,

they are more under the influence of sentiments than passions.

Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes the force

of passions, and enable the imagination to enlarge the object and

make it the most desirable. The same may be said of the rich; they

do not sufficiently deal in general ideas, collected by

impassionate thinking, or calm investigation, to acquire that

strength of character, on which great resolves are built. But hear

what an acute observer says of the great.

"Do the great seem insensible of the easy price at which they may

acquire the public admiration? or do they seem to imagine, that to

them, as to other men, it must be the purchase either of sweat or

of blood? By what important accomplishments is the young nobleman

instructed to support the dignity of his rank, and to render

himself worthy of that superiority over his fellow citizens, to

which the virtue of his ancestors had raised them? Is it by

knowledge, by industry, by patience, by self-denial, or by virtue

of any kind? As all his words, as all his motions are attended to,

he learns an habitual regard for every circumstance of ordinary

behaviour, and studies to perform all those small duties with the

most exact propriety. As he is conscious how much he is observed,

and how much mankind are disposed to favour all his inclinations,

he acts, upon the most indifferent occasions, with that freedom and

elevation which the thought of this naturally inspires. His air,

his manner, his deportment all mark that elegant and graceful sense

of his own superiority, which those who are born to an inferior

station can hardly ever arrive at. These are the arts by which he

proposes to make mankind more easily submit to his authority, and

to govern their inclinations according to his own pleasure: and in

this he is seldom disappointed. These arts, supported by rank and

pre-eminence, are, upon ordinary occasions, sufficient to govern

the world. Lewis XIV. during the greater part of his reign, was

regarded, not only in France, but over all Europe, as the most

perfect model of a great prince. But what were the talents and

virtues, by which he acquired this great reputation? Was it by the

scrupulous and inflexible justice of all his undertakings, by the

immense dangers and difficulties with which they were attended, or

by the unwearied and unrelenting application with which he pursued

them? Was it by his extensive knowledge, by his exquisite

judgment, or by his heroic valour? It was by none of these

qualities. But he was, first of all, the most powerful prince in

Europe, and consequently held the highest rank among kings; and

then, says his historian, 'he surpassed all his courtiers in the

gracefulness of his shape, and the majestic beauty of his features.

The sound of his voice noble and affecting, gained those hearts

which his presence intimidated. He had a step and a deportment,

which could suit only him and his rank, and which would have been

ridiculous in any other person. The embarrassment which he

occasioned to those who spoke to him, flattered that secret

satisfaction with which he felt his own superiority.' These

frivolous accomplishments, supported by his rank, and, no doubt,

too, by a degree of other talents and virtues, which seems,

however, not to have been much above mediocrity, established this

prince in the esteem of his own age, and have drawn even from

posterity, a good deal of respect for his memory. Compared with

these, in his own times, and in his own presence, no other virtue,

it seems, appeared to have any merit. Knowledge, industry, valour,

and beneficence, trembling, were abashed, and lost all dignity

before them."

Woman, also, thus "in herself complete," by possessing all these

FRIVOLOUS accomplishments, so changes the nature of things,

--"That what she wills to do or say

Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best;

All higher knowledge in HER PRESENCE falls

Degraded. Wisdom in discourse with her

Loses discountenanc'd, and like folly shows;

Authority and reason on her wait."--

And all this is built on her loveliness!

In the middle rank of life, to continue the comparison, men, in

their youth, are prepared for professions, and marriage is not

considered as the grand feature in their lives; whilst women, on

the contrary, have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties. It

is not business, extensive plans, or any of the excursive flights

of ambition, that engross their attention; no, their thoughts are

not employed in rearing such noble structures. To rise in the

world, and have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure,

they must marry advantageously, and to this object their time is

sacrificed, and their persons often legally prostituted. A man,

when he enters any profession, has his eye steadily fixed on some

future advantage (and the mind gains great strength by having all

its efforts directed to one point) and, full of his business,

pleasure is considered as mere relaxation; whilst women seek for

pleasure as the main purpose of existence. In fact, from the

education which they receive from society, the love of pleasure may

be said to govern them all; but does this prove that there is a sex

in souls? It would be just as rational to declare, that the

courtiers in France, when a destructive system of despotism had

formed their character, were not men, because liberty, virtue, and

humanity, were sacrificed to pleasure and vanity. Fatal passions,

which have ever domineered over the WHOLE race!

The same love of pleasure, fostered by the whole tendency of their

education, gives a trifling turn to the conduct of women in most

circumstances: for instance, they are ever anxious about secondary

things; and on the watch for adventures, instead of being occupied

by duties.

A man, when he undertakes a journey, has, in general the end in

view; a woman thinks more of the incidental occurrences, the

strange things that may possibly occur on the road; the impression

that she may make on her fellow travellers; and, above all, she is

anxiously intent on the care of the finery that she carries with

her, which is more than ever a part of herself, when going to

figure on a new scene; when, to use an apt French turn of

expression, she is going to produce a sensation. Can dignity of

mind exist with such trivial cares?

In short, women, in general, as well as the rich of both sexes,

have acquired all the follies and vices of civilization, and missed

the useful fruit. It is not necessary for me always to premise,

that I speak of the condition of the whole sex, leaving exceptions

out of the question. Their senses are inflamed, and their

understandings neglected; consequently they become the prey of

their senses, delicately termed sensibility, and are blown about by

every momentary gust of feeling. They are, therefore, in a much

worse condition than they would be in, were they in a state nearer

to nature. Ever restless and anxious, their over exercised

sensibility not only renders them uncomfortable themselves, but

troublesome, to use a soft phrase, to others. All their thoughts

turn on things calculated to excite emotion; and, feeling, when

they should reason, their conduct is unstable, and their opinions

are wavering, not the wavering produced by deliberation or

progressive views, but by contradictory emotions. By fits and

starts they are warm in many pursuits; yet this warmth, never

concentrated into perseverance, soon exhausts itself; exhaled by

its own heat, or meeting with some other fleeting passion, to which

reason has never given any specific gravity, neutrality ensues.

Miserable, indeed, must be that being whose cultivation of mind has

only tended to inflame its passions! A distinction should be made

between inflaming and strengthening them. The passions thus

pampered, whilst the judgment is left unformed, what can be

expected to ensue? Undoubtedly, a mixture of madness and folly!

This observation should not be confined to the FAIR sex; however,

at present, I only mean to apply it to them.

Novels, music, poetry and gallantry, all tend to make women the

creatures of sensation, and their character is thus formed during

the time they are acquiring accomplishments, the only improvement

they are excited, by their station in society, to acquire. This

overstretched sensibility naturally relaxes the other powers of the

mind, and prevents intellect from attaining that sovereignty which

it ought to attain, to render a rational creature useful to others,

and content with its own station; for the exercise of the

understanding, as life advances, is the only method pointed out by

nature to calm the passions.

Satiety has a very different effect, and I have often been forcibly

struck by an emphatical description of damnation, when the spirit

is represented as continually hovering with abortive eagerness

round the defiled body, unable to enjoy any thing without the

organs of sense. Yet, to their senses, are women made slaves,

because it is by their sensibility that they obtain present power.

And will moralists pretend to assert, that this is the condition in

which one half of the human race should be encouraged to remain

with listless inactivity and stupid acquiescence? Kind

instructors! what were we created for? To remain, it may be said,

innocent; they mean in a state of childhood. We might as well

never have been born, unless it were necessary that we should be

created to enable man to acquire the noble privilege of reason, the

power of discerning good from evil, whilst we lie down in the dust

from whence we were taken, never to rise again.

It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses,

cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing

opinion, that they were created rather to feel than reason, and

that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms

and weakness;

"Fine by defect, and amiably weak!"

And, made by this amiable weakness entirely dependent, excepting

what they gain by illicit sway, on man, not only for protection,

but advice, is it surprising that, neglecting the duties that

reason alone points out, and shrinking from trials calculated to

strengthen their minds, they only exert themselves to give their

defects a graceful covering, which may serve to heighten their

charms in the eye of the voluptuary, though it sink them below the

scale of moral excellence?

Fragile in every sense of the word, they are obliged to look up to

man for every comfort. In the most trifling dangers they cling to

their support, with parasitical tenacity, piteously demanding

succour; and their NATURAL protector extends his arm, or lifts up

his voice, to guard the lovely trembler--from what? Perhaps the

frown of an old cow, or the jump of a mouse; a rat, would be a

serious danger. In the name of reason, and even common sense, what

can save such beings from contempt; even though they be soft and

fair?

These fears, when not affected, may be very pretty; but they shew a

degree of imbecility, that degrades a rational creature in a way

women are not aware of--for love and esteem are very distinct

things.

I am fully persuaded, that we should hear of none of these

infantine airs, if girls were allowed to take sufficient exercise

and not confined in close rooms till their muscles are relaxed and

their powers of digestion destroyed. To carry the remark still

further, if fear in girls, instead of being cherished, perhaps,

created, were treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys, we

should quickly see women with more dignified aspects. It is true,

they could not then with equal propriety be termed the sweet

flowers that smile in the walk of man; but they would be more

respectable members of society, and discharge the important duties

of life by the light of their own reason. "Educate women like

men," says Rousseau, "and the more they resemble our sex the less

power will they have over us." This is the very point I aim at. I

do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.

In the same strain have I heard men argue against instructing the

poor; for many are the forms that aristocracy assumes. "Teach them

to read and write," say they, "and you take them out of the station

assigned them by nature." An eloquent Frenchman, has answered

them; I will borrow his sentiments. But they know not, when they

make man a brute, that they may expect every instant to see him

transformed into a ferocious beast. Without knowledge there can be

no morality!

Ignorance is a frail base for virtue! Yet, that it is the

condition for which woman was organized, has been insisted upon by

the writers who have most vehemently argued in favour of the

superiority of man; a superiority not in degree, but essence;

though, to soften the argument, they have laboured to prove, with

chivalrous generosity, that the sexes ought not to be compared; man

was made to reason, woman to feel: and that together, flesh and

spirit, they make the most perfect whole, by blending happily

reason and sensibility into one character.

And what is sensibility? "Quickness of sensation; quickness of

perception; delicacy." Thus is it defined by Dr. Johnson; and the

definition gives me no other idea than of the most exquisitely

polished instinct. I discern not a trace of the image of God in

either sensation or matter. Refined seventy times seven, they are

still material; intellect dwells not there; nor will fire ever make

lead gold!

I come round to my old argument; if woman be allowed to have an

immortal soul, she must have as the employment of life, an

understanding to improve. And when, to render the present state

more complete, though every thing proves it to be but a fraction of

a mighty sum, she is incited by present gratification to forget her

grand destination. Nature is counteracted, or she was born only to

procreate and rot. Or, granting brutes, of every description, a

soul, though not a reasonable one, the exercise of instinct and

sensibility may be the step, which they are to take, in this life,

towards the attainment of reason in the next; so that through all

eternity they will lag behind man, who, why we cannot tell, had the

power given him of attaining reason in his first mode of existence.

When I treat of the peculiar duties of women, as I should treat of

the peculiar duties of a citizen or father, it will be found that I

do not mean to insinuate, that they should be taken out of their

families, speaking of the majority. "He that hath wife and

children," says Lord Bacon, "hath given hostages to fortune; for

they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or

mischief. Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the

public, have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men." I say

the same of women. But, the welfare of society is not built on

extraordinary exertions; and were it more reasonably organized,

there would be still less need of great abilities, or heroic

virtues. In the regulation of a family, in the education of

children, understanding, in an unsophisticated sense, is

particularly required: strength both of body and mind; yet the men

who, by their writings, have most earnestly laboured to domesticate

women, have endeavoured by arguments dictated by a gross appetite,

that satiety had rendered fastidious, to weaken their bodies and

cramp their minds. But, if even by these sinister methods they

really PERSUADED women, by working on their feelings, to stay at

home, and fulfil the duties of a mother and mistress of a family, I

should cautiously oppose opinions that led women to right conduct,

by prevailing on them to make the discharge of a duty the business

of life, though reason were insulted. Yet, and I appeal to

experience, if by neglecting the understanding they are as much,

nay, more attached from these domestic duties, than they could be

by the most serious intellectual pursuit, though it may be

observed, that the mass of mankind will never vigorously pursue an

intellectual object, I may be allowed to infer, that reason is

absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty

properly, and I must again repeat, that sensibility is not reason.

The comparison with the rich still occurs to me; for, when men

neglect the duties of humanity, women will do the same; a common

stream hurries them both along with thoughtless celerity. Riches

and honours prevent a man from enlarging his understanding, and

enervate all his powers, by reversing the order of nature, which

has ever made true pleasure the reward of labour.

Pleasure--enervating pleasure is, likewise, within woman's reach

without earning it. But, till hereditary possessions are spread

abroad, how can we expect men to be proud of virtue? And, till

they are, women will govern them by the most direct means,

neglecting their dull domestic duties, to catch the pleasure that

is on the wing of time.

"The power of women," says some author, "is her sensibility;" and

men not aware of the consequence, do all they can to make this

power swallow up every other. Those who constantly employ their

sensibility will have most: for example; poets, painters, and

composers. Yet, when the sensibility is thus increased at the

expense of reason, and even the imagination, why do philosophical

men complain of their fickleness? The sexual attention of man

particularly acts on female sensibility, and this sympathy has been

exercised from their youth up. A husband cannot long pay those

attentions with the passion necessary to excite lively emotions,

and the heart, accustomed to lively emotions, turns to a new lover,

or pines in secret, the prey of virtue or prudence. I mean when

the heart has really been rendered susceptible, and the taste

formed; for I am apt to conclude, from what I have seen in

fashionable life, that vanity is oftener fostered than sensibility

by the mode of education, and the intercourse between the sexes,

which I have reprobated; and that coquetry more frequently proceeds

from vanity than from that inconstancy, which overstrained

sensibility naturally produces.

Another argument that has had a great weight with me, must, I

think, have some force with every considerate benevolent heart.

Girls, who have been thus weakly educated, are often cruelly left

by their parents without any provision; and, of course, are

dependent on, not only the reason, but the bounty of their

brothers. These brothers are, to view the fairest side of the

question, good sort of men, and give as a favour, what children of

the same parents had an equal right to. In this equivocal

humiliating situation, a docile female may remain some time, with a

tolerable degree of comfort. But, when the brother marries, a

probable circumstance, from being considered as the mistress of the

family, she is viewed with averted looks as an intruder, an

unnecessary burden on the benevolence of the master of the house,

and his new partner.

Who can recount the misery, which many unfortunate beings, whose

minds and bodies are equally weak, suffer in such

situations--unable to work and ashamed to beg? The wife, a

cold-hearted, narrow-minded woman, and this is not an unfair

supposition; for the present mode of education does not tend to

enlarge the heart any more than the understanding, is jealous of

the little kindness which her husband shows to his relations; and

her sensibility not rising to humanity, she is displeased at seeing

the property of HER children lavished on an helpless sister.

These are matters of fact, which have come under my eye again and

again. The consequence is obvious, the wife has recourse to

cunning to undermine the habitual affection, which she is afraid

openly to oppose; and neither tears nor caresses are spared till

the spy is worked out of her home, and thrown on the world,

unprepared for its difficulties; or sent, as a great effort of

generosity, or from some regard to propriety, with a small stipend,

and an uncultivated mind into joyless solitude.

These two women may be much upon a par, with respect to reason and

humanity; and changing situations, might have acted just the same

selfish part; but had they been differently educated, the case

would also have been very different. The wife would not have had

that sensibility, of which self is the centre, and reason might

have taught her not to expect, and not even to be flattered by the

affection of her husband, if it led him to violate prior duties.

She would wish not to love him, merely because he loved her, but on

account of his virtues; and the sister might have been able to

struggle for herself, instead of eating the bitter bread of

dependence.

I am, indeed, persuaded that the heart, as well as the

understanding, is opened by cultivation; and by, which may not

appear so clear, strengthening the organs; I am not now talking of

momentary flashes of sensibility, but of affections. And, perhaps,

in the education of both sexes, the most difficult task is so to

adjust instruction as not to narrow the understanding, whilst the

heart is warmed by the generous juices of spring, just raised by

the electric fermentation of the season; nor to dry up the feelings

by employing the mind in investigations remote from life.

With respect to women, when they receive a careful education, they

are either made fine ladies, brimful of sensibility, and teeming

with capricious fancies; or mere notable women. The latter are

often friendly, honest creatures, and have a shrewd kind of good

sense joined with worldly prudence, that often render them more

useful members of society than the fine sentimental lady, though

they possess neither greatness of mind nor taste. The intellectual

world is shut against them; take them out of their family or

neighbourhood, and they stand still; the mind finding no

employment, for literature affords a fund of amusement, which they

have never sought to relish, but frequently to despise. The

sentiments and taste of more cultivated minds appear ridiculous,

even in those whom chance and family connexions have led them to

love; but in mere acquaintance they think it all affectation.

A man of sense can only love such a woman on account of her sex,

and respect her, because she is a trusty servant. He lets her, to

preserve his own peace, scold the servants, and go to church in

clothes made of the very best materials. A man of her own size of

understanding would, probably, not agree so well with her; for he

might wish to encroach on her prerogative, and manage some domestic

concerns himself. Yet women, whose minds are not enlarged by

cultivation, or the natural selfishness of sensibility expanded by

reflection, are very unfit to manage a family; for by an undue

stretch of power, they are always tyrannizing to support a

superiority that only rests on the arbitrary distinction of

fortune. The evil is sometimes more serious, and domestics are

deprived of innocent indulgences, and made to work beyond their

strength, in order to enable the notable woman to keep a better

table, and outshine her neighbours in finery and parade. If she

attend to her children, it is, in general, to dress them in a

costly manner--and, whether, this attention arises from vanity or

fondness, it is equally pernicious.

Besides, how many women of this description pass their days, or, at

least their evenings, discontentedly. Their husbands acknowledge

that they are good managers, and chaste wives; but leave home to

seek for more agreeable, may I be allowed to use a significant

French word, piquant society; and the patient drudge, who fulfils

her task, like a blind horse in a mill, is defrauded of her just

reward; for the wages due to her are the caresses of her husband;

and women who have so few resources in themselves, do not very

patiently bear this privation of a natural right.

A fine lady, on the contrary, has been taught to look down with

contempt on the vulgar employments of life; though she has only

been incited to acquire accomplishments that rise a degree above

sense; for even corporeal accomplishments cannot be acquired with

any degree of precision, unless the understanding has been

strengthened by exercise. Without a foundation of principles taste

is superficial; and grace must arise from something deeper than

imitation. The imagination, however, is heated, and the feelings

rendered fastidious, if not sophisticated; or, a counterpoise of

judgment is not acquired, when the heart still remains artless,

though it becomes too tender.

These women are often amiable; and their hearts are really more

sensible to general benevolence, more alive to the sentiments that

civilize life, than the square elbowed family drudge; but, wanting

a due proportion of reflection and self-government, they only

inspire love; and are the mistresses of their husbands, whilst they

have any hold on their affections; and the platonic friends of his

male acquaintance. These are the fair defects in nature; the women

who appear to be created not to enjoy the fellowship of man, but to

save him from sinking into absolute brutality, by rubbing off the

rough angles of his character; and by playful dalliance to give

some dignity to the appetite that draws him to them. Gracious

Creator of the whole human race! hast thou created such a being as

woman, who can trace thy wisdom in thy works, and feel that thou

alone art by thy nature, exalted above her--for no better purpose?

Can she believe that she was only made to submit to man her equal;

a being, who, like her, was sent into the world to acquire virtue?

Can she consent to be occupied merely to please him; merely to

adorn the earth, when her soul is capable of rising to thee? And

can she rest supinely dependent on man for reason, when she ought

to mount with him the arduous steeps of knowledge?

Yet, if love be the supreme good, let women be only educated to

inspire it, and let every charm be polished to intoxicate the

senses; but, if they are moral beings, let them have a chance to

become intelligent; and let love to man be only a part of that

glowing flame of universal love, which, after encircling humanity,

mounts in grateful incense to God.

To fulfil domestic duties much resolution is necessary, and a

serious kind of perseverance that requires a more firm support than

emotions, however lively and true to nature. To give an example of

order, the soul of virtue, some austerity of behaviour must be

adopted, scarcely to be expected from a being who, from its

infancy, has been made the weathercock of its own sensations.

Whoever rationally means to be useful, must have a plan of conduct;

and, in the discharge of the simplest duty, we are often obliged to

act contrary to the present impulse of tenderness or compassion.

Severity is frequently the most certain, as well as the most

sublime proof of affection; and the want of this power over the

feelings, and of that lofty, dignified affection, which makes a

person prefer the future good of the beloved object to a present

gratification, is the reason why so many fond mothers spoil their

children, and has made it questionable, whether negligence or

indulgence is most hurtful: but I am inclined to think, that the

latter has done most harm.

Mankind seem to agree, that children should be left under the

management of women during their childhood. Now, from all the

observation that I have been able to make, women of sensibility are

the most unfit for this task, because they will infallibly, carried

away by their feelings, spoil a child's temper. The management of

the temper, the first and most important branch of education,

requires the sober steady eye of reason; a plan of conduct equally

distant from tyranny and indulgence; yet these are the extremes

that people of sensibility alternately fall into; always shooting

beyond the mark. I have followed this train of reasoning much

further, till I have concluded, that a person of genius is the most

improper person to be employed in education, public or private.

Minds of this rare species see things too much in masses, and

seldom, if ever, have a good temper. That habitual cheerfulness,

termed good humour, is, perhaps, as seldom united with great mental

powers, as with strong feelings. And those people who follow, with

interest and admiration, the flights of genius; or, with cooler

approbation suck in the instruction, which has been elaborately

prepared for them by the profound thinker, ought not to be

disgusted, if they find the former choleric, and the latter morose;

because liveliness of fancy, and a tenacious comprehension of mind,

are scarcely compatible with that pliant urbanity which leads a

man, at least to bend to the opinions and prejudices of others,

instead of roughly confronting them.

But, treating of education or manners, minds of a superior class

are not to be considered, they may be left to chance; it is the

multitude, with moderate abilities, who call for instruction, and

catch the colour of the atmosphere they breathe. This respectable

concourse, I contend, men and women, should not have their

sensations heightened in the hot-bed of luxurious indolence, at the

expence of their understanding; for, unless there be a ballast of

understanding, they will never become either virtuous or free: an

aristocracy, founded on property, or sterling talents, will ever

sweep before it, the alternately timid and ferocious slaves of

feeling.

Numberless are the arguments, to take another view of the subject,

brought forward with a show of reason; because supposed to be

deduced from nature, that men have used morally and physically to

degrade the sex. I must notice a few.

The female understanding has often been spoken of with contempt, as

arriving sooner at maturity than the male. I shall not answer this

argument by alluding to the early proofs of reason, as well as

genius, in Cowley, Milton, and Pope, (Many other names might be

added.) but only appeal to experience to decide whether young men,

who are early introduced into company (and examples now abound) do

not acquire the same precocity. So notorious is this fact, that

the bare mentioning of it must bring before people, who at all mix

in the world, the idea of a number of swaggering apes of men whose

understandings are narrowed by being brought into the society of

men when they ought to have been spinning a top or twirling a hoop.

It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men do not

attain their full growth and strength till thirty; but that women

arrive at maturity by twenty. I apprehend that they reason on

false ground, led astray by the male prejudice, which deems beauty

the perfection of woman--mere beauty of features and complexion,

the vulgar acceptation of the world, whilst male beauty is allowed

to have some connexion with the mind. Strength of body, and that

character of countenance, which the French term a physionomie,

women do not acquire before thirty, any more than men. The little

artless tricks of children, it is true, are particularly pleasing

and attractive; yet, when the pretty freshness of youth is worn

off, these artless graces become studied airs, and disgust every

person of taste. In the countenance of girls we only look for

vivacity and bashful modesty; but, the springtide of life over, we

look for soberer sense in the face, and for traces of passion,

instead of the dimples of animal spirits; expecting to see

individuality of character, the only fastener of the affections.

We then wish to converse, not to fondle; to give scope to our

imaginations, as well as to the sensations of our hearts.

At twenty the beauty of both sexes is equal; but the libertinism of

man leads him to make the distinction, and superannuated coquettes

are commonly of the same opinion; for when they can no longer

inspire love, they pay for the vigour and vivacity of youth. The

French who admit more of mind into their notions of beauty, give

the preference to women of thirty. I mean to say, that they allow

women to be in their most perfect state, when vivacity gives place

to reason, and to that majestic seriousness of character, which

marks maturity; or, the resting point. In youth, till twenty the

body shoots out; till thirty the solids are attaining a degree of

density; and the flexible muscles, growing daily more rigid, give

character to the countenance; that is, they trace the operations of

the mind with the iron pen of fate, and tell us not only what

powers are within, but how they have been employed.

It is proper to observe, that animals who arrive slowly at

maturity, are the longest lived, and of the noblest species. Men

cannot, however, claim any natural superiority from the grandeur of

longevity; for in this respect nature has not distinguished the

male.

Polygamy is another physical degradation; and a plausible argument

for a custom, that blasts every domestic virtue, is drawn from the

well-attested fact, that in the countries where it is established,

more females are born than males. This appears to be an indication

of nature, and to nature apparently reasonable speculations must

yield. A further conclusion obviously presents itself; if polygamy

be necessary, woman must be inferior to man, and made for him.

With respect to the formation of the foetus in the womb, we are

very ignorant; but it appears to me probable, that an accidental

physical cause may account for this phenomenon, and prove it not to

be a law of nature. I have met with some pertinent observations on

the subject in Forster's Account of the Isles of the South Sea,

that will explain my meaning. After observing that of the two

sexes amongst animals, the most vigorous and hottest constitution

always prevails, and produces its kind; he adds,--"If this be

applied to the inhabitants of Africa, it is evident that the men

there, accustomed to polygamy, are enervated by the use of so many

women, and therefore less vigorous; the women on the contrary, are

of a hotter constitution, not only on account of their more

irritable nerves, more sensitive organization, and more lively

fancy; but likewise because they are deprived in their matrimony of

that share of physical love which in a monogamous condition, would

all be theirs; and thus for the above reasons, the generality of

children are born females."

"In the greater part of Europe it has been proved by the most

accurate lists of mortality, that the proportion of men to women is

nearly equal, or, if any difference takes place, the males born are

more numerous, in the proportion of 105 to 100."

The necessity of polygamy, therefore, does not appear; yet when a

man seduces a woman, it should I think, be termed a LEFT-HANDED

marriage, and the man should be LEGALLY obliged to maintain the

woman and her children, unless adultery, a natural divorcement,

abrogated the law. And this law should remain in force as long as

the weakness of women caused the word seduction to be used as an

excuse for their frailty and want of principle; nay, while they

depend on man for a subsistence, instead of earning it by the

exercise of their own hands or heads. But these women should not

in the full meaning of the relationship, be termed wives, or the

very purpose of marriage would be subverted, and all those

endearing charities that flow from personal fidelity, and give a

sanctity to the tie, when neither love nor friendship unites the

hearts, would melt into selfishness. The woman who is faithful to

the father of her children demands respect, and should not be

treated like a prostitute; though I readily grant, that if it be

necessary for a man and woman to live together in order to bring up

their offspring, nature never intended that a man should have more

than one wife.

Still, highly as I respect marriage, as the foundation of almost

every social virtue, I cannot avoid feeling the most lively

compassion for those unfortunate females who are broken off from

society, and by one error torn from all those affections and

relationships that improve the heart and mind. It does not

frequently even deserve the name of error; for many innocent girls

become the dupes of a sincere affectionate heart, and still more

are, as it may emphatically be termed, RUINED before they know the

difference between virtue and vice: and thus prepared by their

education for infamy, they become infamous. Asylums and Magdalens

are not the proper remedies for these abuses. It is justice, not

charity, that is wanting in the world!

A woman who has lost her honour, imagines that she cannot fall

lower, and as for recovering her former station, it is impossible;

no exertion can wash this stain away. Losing thus every spur, and

having no other means of support, prostitution becomes her only

refuge, and the character is quickly depraved by circumstances over

which the poor wretch has little power, unless she possesses an

uncommon portion of sense and loftiness of spirit. Necessity never

makes prostitution the business of men's lives; though numberless

are the women who are thus rendered systematically vicious. This,

however, arises, in a great degree, from the state of idleness in

which women are educated, who are always taught to look up to man

for a maintenance, and to consider their persons as the proper

return for his exertions to support them. Meretricious airs, and

the whole science of wantonness, has then a more powerful stimulus

than either appetite or vanity; and this remark gives force to the

prevailing opinion, that with chastity all is lost that is

respectable in woman. Her character depends on the observance of

one virtue, though the only passion fostered in her heart--is love.

Nay the honour of a woman is not made even to depend on her will.

When Richardson makes Clarissa tell Lovelace that he had robbed her

of her honour, he must have had strange notions of honour and

virtue. For, miserable beyond all names of misery is the condition

of a being, who could be degraded without its own consent! This

excess of strictness I have heard vindicated as a salutary error.

I shall answer in the words of Leibnitz--"Errors are often useful;

but it is commonly to remedy other errors."

Most of the evils of life arise from a desire of present enjoyment

that outruns itself. The obedience required of women in the

marriage state, comes under this description; the mind, naturally

weakened by depending on authority, never exerts its own powers,

and the obedient wife is thus rendered a weak indolent mother. Or,

supposing that this is not always the consequence, a future state

of existence is scarcely taken into the reckoning when only

negative virtues are cultivated. For in treating of morals,

particularly when women are alluded to, writers have too often

considered virtue in a very limited sense, and made the foundation

of it SOLELY worldly utility; nay, a still more fragile base has

been given to this stupendous fabric, and the wayward fluctuating

feelings of men have been made the standard of virtue. Yes, virtue

as well as religion, has been subjected to the decisions of taste.

It would almost provoke a smile of contempt, if the vain

absurdities of man did not strike us on all sides, to observe, how

eager men are to degrade the sex from whom they pretend to receive

the chief pleasure of life; and I have frequently, with full

conviction, retorted Pope's sarcasm on them; or, to speak

explicitly, it has appeared to me applicable to the whole human

race. A love of pleasure or sway seems to divide mankind, and the

husband who lords it in his little harem, thinks only of his

pleasure or his convenience. To such lengths, indeed, does an

intemperate love of pleasure carry some prudent men, or worn out

libertines, who marry to have a safe companion, that they seduce

their own wives. Hymen banishes modesty, and chaste love takes its

flight.

Love, considered as an animal appetite, cannot long feed on itself

without expiring. And this extinction, in its own flame, may be

termed the violent death of love. But the wife who has thus been

rendered licentious, will probably endeavour to fill the void left

by the loss of her husband's attentions; for she cannot contentedly

become merely an upper servant after having been treated like a

goddess. She is still handsome, and, instead of transferring her

fondness to her children, she only dreams of enjoying the sunshine

of life. Besides, there are many husbands so devoid of sense and

parental affection, that during the first effervescence of

voluptuous fondness, they refuse to let their wives suckle their

children. They are only to dress and live to please them: and

love, even innocent love, soon sinks into lasciviousness when the

exercise of a duty is sacrificed to its indulgence.

Personal attachment is a very happy foundation for friendship; yet,

when even two virtuous young people marry, it would, perhaps, be

happy if some circumstance checked their passion; if the

recollection of some prior attachment, or disappointed affection,

made it on one side, at least, rather a match founded on esteem.

In that case they would look beyond the present moment, and try to

render the whole of life respectable, by forming a plan to regulate

a friendship which only death ought to dissolve.

Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all

affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by

time. The very reverse may be said of love. In a great degree,

love and friendship cannot subsist in the same bosom; even when

inspired by different objects they weaken or destroy each other,

and for the same object can only be felt in succession. The vain

fears and fond jealousies, the winds which fan the flame of love,

when judiciously or artfully tempered, are both incompatible with

the tender confidence and sincere respect of friendship.

Love, such as the glowing pen of genius has traced, exists not on

earth, or only resides in those exalted, fervid imaginations that

have sketched such dangerous pictures. Dangerous, because they not

only afford a plausible excuse to the voluptuary, who disguises

sheer sensuality under a sentimental veil; but as they spread

affectation, and take from the dignity of virtue. Virtue, as the

very word imports, should have an appearance of seriousness, if not

austerity; and to endeavour to trick her out in the garb of

pleasure, because the epithet has been used as another name for

beauty, is to exalt her on a quicksand; a most insidious attempt to

hasten her fall by apparent respect. Virtue, and pleasure are not,

in fact, so nearly allied in this life as some eloquent writers

have laboured to prove. Pleasure prepares the fading wreath, and

mixes the intoxicating cup; but the fruit which virtue gives, is

the recompence of toil: and, gradually seen as it ripens, only

affords calm satisfaction; nay, appearing to be the result of the

natural tendency of things, it is scarcely observed. Bread, the

common food of life, seldom thought of as a blessing, supports the

constitution, and preserves health; still feasts delight the heart

of man, though disease and even death lurk in the cup or dainty

that elevates the spirits or tickles the palate. The lively heated

imagination in the same style, draws the picture of love, as it

draws every other picture, with those glowing colours, which the

daring hand will steal from the rainbow that is directed by a mind,

condemned, in a world like this, to prove its noble origin, by

panting after unattainable perfection; ever pursuing what it

acknowledges to be a fleeting dream. An imagination of this

vigorous cast can give existence to insubstantial forms, and

stability to the shadowy reveries which the mind naturally falls

into when realities are found vapid. It can then depict love with

celestial charms, and dote on the grand ideal object; it can

imagine a degree of mutual affection that shall refine the soul,

and not expire when it has served as a "scale to heavenly;" and,

like devotion, make it absorb every meaner affection and desire.

In each other's arms, as in a temple, with its summit lost in the

clouds, the world is to be shut out, and every thought and wish,

that do not nurture pure affection and permanent virtue. Permanent

virtue! alas! Rousseau, respectable visionary! thy paradise would

soon be violated by the entrance of some unexpected guest. Like

Milton's, it would only contain angels, or men sunk below the

dignity of rational creatures. Happiness is not material, it

cannot be seen or felt! Yet the eager pursuit of the good which

every one shapes to his own fancy, proclaims man the lord of this

lower world, and to be an intelligential creature, who is not to

receive, but acquire happiness. They, therefore, who complain of

the delusions of passion, do not recollect that they are exclaiming

against a strong proof of the immortality of the soul.

But, leaving superior minds to correct themselves, and pay dearly

for their experience, it is necessary to observe, that it is not

against strong, persevering passions; but romantic, wavering

feelings, that I wish to guard the female heart by exercising the

understanding; for these paradisiacal reveries are oftener the

effect of idleness than of a lively fancy.

Women have seldom sufficient serious employment to silence their

feelings; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits, frittering

away all strength of mind and organs, they become naturally only

objects of sense. In short, the whole tenor of female education

(the education of society) tends to render the best disposed,

romantic and inconstant; and the remainder vain and mean. In the

present state of society, this evil can scarcely be remedied, I am

afraid, in the slightest degree; should a more laudable ambition

ever gain ground, they may be brought nearer to nature and reason,

and become more virtuous and useful as they grow more respectable.

But I will venture to assert, that their reason will never acquire

sufficient strength to enable it to regulate their conduct, whilst

the making an appearance in the world is the first wish of the

majority of mankind. To this weak wish the natural affections and

the most useful virtues are sacrificed. Girls marry merely to

BETTER THEMSELVES, to borrow a significant vulgar phrase, and have

such perfect power over their hearts as not to permit themselves to

FALL IN LOVE till a man with a superior fortune offers. On this

subject I mean to enlarge in a future chapter; it is only necessary

to drop a hint at present, because women are so often degraded by

suffering the selfish prudence of age to chill the ardour of youth.

>From the same source flows an opinion that young girls ought to

dedicate great part of their time to needle work; yet, this

employment contracts their faculties more than any other that could

have been chosen for them, by confining their thoughts to their

persons. Men order their clothes to be made, and have done with

the subject; women make their own clothes, necessary or ornamental,

and are continually talking about them; and their thoughts follow

their hands. It is not indeed the making of necessaries that

weakens the mind; but the frippery of dress. For when a woman in

the lower rank of life makes her husband's and children's clothes,

she does her duty, this is part of her business; but when women

work only to dress better than they could otherwise afford, it is

worse than sheer loss of time. To render the poor virtuous, they

must be employed, and women in the middle rank of life did they not

ape the fashions of the nobility, without catching their ease,

might employ them, whilst they themselves managed their families,

instructed their children, and exercised their own minds.

Gardening, experimental philosophy, and literature, would afford

them subjects to think of, and matter for conversation, that in

some degree would exercise their understandings. The conversation

of French women, who are not so rigidly nailed to their chairs, to

twist lappets, and knot ribbands, is frequently superficial; but, I

contend, that it is not half so insipid as that of those English

women, whose time is spent in making caps, bonnets, and the whole

mischief of trimmings, not to mention shopping, bargain-hunting,

etc. etc.: and it is the decent, prudent women, who are most

degraded by these practices; for their motive is simply vanity.

The wanton, who exercises her taste to render her person alluring,

has something more in view.

These observations all branch out of a general one, which I have

before made, and which cannot be too often insisted upon, for,

speaking of men, women, or professions, it will be found, that the

employment of the thoughts shapes the character both generally and

individually. The thoughts of women ever hover around their

persons, and is it surprising that their persons are reckoned most

valuable? Yet some degree of liberty of mind is necessary even to

form the person; and this may be one reason why some gentle wives

have so few attractions beside that of sex. Add to this, sedentary

employments render the majority of women sickly, and false notions

of female excellence make them proud of this delicacy, though it be

another fetter, that by calling the attention continually to the

body, cramps the activity of the mind.

Women of quality seldom do any of the manual part of their dress,

consequently only their taste is exercised, and they acquire, by

thinking less of the finery, when the business of their toilet is

over, that ease, which seldom appears in the deportment of women,

who dress merely for the sake of dressing. In fact, the

observation with respect to the middle rank, the one in which

talents thrive best, extends not to women; for those of the

superior class, by catching, at least a smattering of literature,

and conversing more with men, on general topics, acquire more

knowledge than the women who ape their fashions and faults without

sharing their advantages. With respect to virtue, to use the word

in a comprehensive sense, I have seen most in low life. Many poor

women maintain their children by the sweat of their brow, and keep

together families that the vices of the fathers would have

scattered abroad; but gentlewomen are too indolent to be actively

virtuous, and are softened rather than refined by civilization.

Indeed the good sense which I have met with among the poor women

who have had few advantages of education, and yet have acted

heroically, strongly confirmed me in the opinion, that trifling

employments have rendered women a trifler. Men, taking her ('I

take her body,' says Ranger.) body, the mind is left to rust; so

that while physical love enervates man, as being his favourite

recreation, he will endeavour to enslave woman: and who can tell

how many generations may be necessary to give vigour to the virtue

and talents of the freed posterity of abject slaves? ('Supposing

that women are voluntary slaves--slavery of any kind is

unfavourable to human happiness and improvement.'--'Knox's

Essays'.)

In tracing the causes that in my opinion, have degraded woman, I

have confined my observations to such as universally act upon the

morals and manners of the whole sex, and to me it appears clear,

that they all spring from want of understanding. Whether this

arises from a physical or accidental weakness of faculties, time

alone can determine; for I shall not lay any great stress upon the

example of a few women (Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs. Macaulay, the Empress

of Russia, Madame d'Eon, etc. These, and many more, may be

reckoned exceptions; and, are not all heroes, as well as heroines,

exceptions to general rules? I wish to see women neither heroines

nor brutes; but reasonable creatures.) who, from having received a

masculine education, have acquired courage and resolution; I only

contend that the men who have been placed in similar situations

have acquired a similar character, I speak of bodies of men, and

that men of genius and talents have started out of a class, in

which women have never yet been placed.

CHAPTER 5.

ANIMADVERSIONS ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO HAVE RENDERED WOMEN

OBJECTS OF PITY, BORDERING ON CONTEMPT.

The opinions speciously supported, in some modern publications on

the female character, and education, which have given the tone to

most of the observations made, in a more cursory manner, on the

sex, remain now to be examined.

SECTION 5.1.

I shall begin with Rousseau, and give a sketch of the character of

women in his own words, interspersing comments and reflections. My

comments, it is true, will all spring from a few simple principles,

and might have been deduced from what I have already said; but the

artificial structure has been raised with so much ingenuity, that

it seems necessary to attack it in a more circumstantial manner,

and make the application myself.

Sophia, says Rousseau, should be as perfect a woman as Emilius is a

man, and to render her so, it is necessary to examine the character

which nature has given to the sex.

He then proceeds to prove, that women ought to be weak and passive,

because she has less bodily strength than man; and from hence

infers, that she was formed to please and to be subject to him; and

that it is her duty to render herself AGREEABLE to her master--this

being the grand end of her existence.

Supposing women to have been formed only to please, and be subject

to man, the conclusion is just, she ought to sacrifice every other

consideration to render herself agreeable to him: and let this

brutal desire of self-preservation be the grand spring of all her

actions, when it is proved to be the iron bed of fate, to fit

which, her character should be stretched or contracted, regardless

of all moral or physical distinctions. But if, as I think may be

demonstrated, the purposes of even this life, viewing the whole,

are subverted by practical rules built upon this ignoble base, I

may be allowed to doubt whether woman was created for man: and

though the cry of irreligion, or even atheism be raised against me,

I will simply declare, that were an angel from heaven to tell me

that Moses's beautiful, poetical cosmogony, and the account of the

fall of man, were literally true, I could not believe what my

reason told me was derogatory to the character of the Supreme

Being: and, having no fear of the devil before mine eyes, I

venture to call this a suggestion of reason, instead of resting my

weakness on the broad shoulders of the first seducer of my frail

sex.

"It being once demonstrated," continues Rousseau, "that man and

woman are not, nor ought to be, constituted alike in temperament

and character, it follows of course, that they should not be

educated in the same manner. In pursuing the directions of nature,

they ought indeed to act in concert, but they should not be engaged

in the same employments: the end of their pursuits should be the

same, but the means they should take to accomplish them, and, of

consequence, their tastes and inclinations should be different."

(Rousseau's 'Emilius', Volume 3 page 176.)