I must stop here: but may we not assume, as a general principle, that
the true importance and real dignity of woman is every where, in savage
and civilised communities, regulated by her capacity of being useful;
or, in other words, that her condition is decided by the share she takes
in providing for her own subsistence and the well being of society as a
productive labourer? Where she is idle and useless by privilege of sex,
a divinity and an idol, a victim or a toy, is not her position quite as
lamentable, as false, as injurious to herself and all social progress,
as where she is the drudge, slave, and possession of the man?
* * * * *