Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Chapters III-IV



CHAPTER III. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

BODILY strength from being the distinction of heroes is now sunk into such 
unmerited contempt, that men, as well as women, seem to think it 
unnecessary: the latter, as it takes from their feminine graces, and from 
that lovely weakness, the source of their undue power; and the former, 
because it appears inimical to the character of a gentleman.

That they have both, by departing from one extreme run into another, may 
easily be proved; but first it may be proper to observe, that a vulgar 
error has obtained a degree of credit, which has given force to a false 
conclusion, in which an effect has been mistaken for a cause.

People of genius have, very frequently impaired their constitutions by 
study or careless inattention to their health, and the violence of their 
passions bearing a proportion to the vigour of their intellects, the 
sword's destroying the scabbard has become almost proverbial, and 
superficial observers have inferred from thence, that men of genius have 
commonly weak, or, to use a more fashionable phrase, delicate 
constitutions. Yet the contrary, I believe, will appear to be the fact; 
for, on diligent inquiry, I find that strength of mind has, in most cases, 
been accompanied by superior strength of body, -- natural soundness of 
constitution, -- not that robust tone of nerves and vigour of muscles, 
which arise from bodily labour, when the mind is quiescent, or only 
directs the hands.

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 have 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.(1)

But, if strength of body be, with some shew 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.(2)

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 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 he 
allowed himself to love with sensual fondness. His imagination constantly 
prepared inflammable fewel 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.(3)

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 harmlessly 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 shewn 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 
indulgencies, 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 could 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 
Turky, 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 adore 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 extrinsic 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 stop 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 subtilest 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 specious 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, 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 in 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 vicegerents 
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 please4 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 shews, 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 help-mate!(5)

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 discharge of 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 hers, 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?

(1. 'Researches into abstract and speculative truths, the principles and 
axioms of sciences, in short, every thing which tends to generalize our 
ideas, is not the proper province of women; their studies should be 
relative to point of practice; it belongs to them to apply those 
principles which men have discovered; and it is their part to make 
observations, which direct men to the establishment of general principles. 
All the ideas of women, which have not the immediate tendency to points of 
duty, should be directed to the study of men, and to the attainment of 
those agreeable accomplishments which have taste for their object; for as 
to works of genius, they are beyond their capacity; neither have they 
sufficient precision or power of attention to succeed in sciences which 
require accuracy: and as to physical knowledge, it belongs to those only 
who are most active, most inquisitive; who comprehend the greatest variety 
of objects: in short, it belongs to those who have the strongest powers, 
and who exercise them most, to judge of the relations between sensible 
beings and the laws of nature. A woman who is naturally weak, and does not 
carry her ideas to any great extent, knows how to judge and make a proper 
estimate of those movements which she sets to work, in order to aid her 
weakness; and these movements are the passions of men. The mechanism she 
employs is much more powerful than ours; for all her levers move the human 
heart. She must have the skill to incline us to do every thing which her 
sex will not enable her to do of herself, and which is necessary or 
agreeable to her; therefore she ought to study the mind of man thoroughly, 
not the mind of man in general, abstracted, but the dispositions of those 
men to whom she is subject, either by the laws of her country or by the 
force of opinion. She should learn to penetrate into their real sentiments 
from their conversation, their actions, their looks, and gestures. She 
should also have the art, by her own conversation, actions, looks, and 
gestures, to communicate those sentiments which are agreeable to them, 
without seeming to intend it. Men will argue more philosophically about 
the human heart; but women will read the heart of man better than they. It 
belongs to women, if I may be allowed the expression, to form an 
experimental morality, and to reduce the study of man to a system. Women 
have most wit, men have most genius; women observe, men reason: from the 
concurrence of both we derive the clearest light and the most perfect 
knowledge, which the human mind is, of itself, capable of attaining. In 
one word, from hence we acquire the most intimate acquaintance, both with 
ourselves and others, of which our nature is capable; and it is thus that 
art has a constant tendency to perfect those endowments which nature has 
bestowed. -- The world is the book of women.' -- Rousseau's Emilius. I 
hope my readers still remember the comparison, which I have brought 
forward, between women and officers.)

(2. 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, to dissipate their husband's 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 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 Sanford and Merton, 
Vol. III.)

(3. '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.)

(4. 'In the union of the sexes, both pursue one common object, but not in 
the same manner. From their diversity in this particular, arises the first 
determinate difference between the moral relations of each. The one should 
be active and strong, the other passive and weak: it is necessary the one 
should have both the power and the will, and that the other should make 
little resistance.
'This principle being established, it follows that woman is expressly 
formed to please the man: if the obligation be reciprocal also, and the 
man ought to please in his turn, it is not so immediately necessary: his 
great merit is in his power, and he pleases merely because he is strong. 
This, I must confess, is not one of the refined maxims of love; it is, 
however, one of the laws of nature, prior to love itself.
'If woman be formed to please and be subjected to man it is her place, 
doubtless, to render herself agreeable to him, instead of challenging his 
passion. The violence of his desires depends on her charms; it is by means 
of these she should urge him to the exertion of those powers which nature 
hath given him. The most successful method of exciting them, is, to render 
such exertion necessary by their resistance; as, in that case, self-love 
is added to desire, and the one triumphs in the victory which the other 
obliged to acquire. Hence arise the various modes of attack and defence 
between the sexes; the boldness of one sex and the timidity of the other; 
and, in a word, that bashfulness and modesty with which nature hath armed 
the weak, in order to subdue the strong.' -- Rousseau's Emilius.
I shall make no other comment on this ingenius passage, than just to 
observe, that it is the philosophy of lasciviousness.)

(5. 'O how lovely,' exclaims Rousseau, speaking of Sophia, 'is her 
ignorance! Happy is he who is destined to instruct her! She will never 
pretend to be the tutor of her husband, but will be content to be his 
pupil. Far from attempting to subject him to her taste, she will 
accommodate herself to his. She will be more estimable to him, than if she 
was learned: he will have a pleasure in instructing her.'
-- Rousseau's Emilius.

I shall content myself with simply asking, how friendship can subsist, 
when love expires, between the master and his pupil?)



CHAPTER IV. 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.(1) 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 another; 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?(2) Yet outwardly 
ornamented with elaborate care, and so adorned to delight man, 'that with 
honour he may love,'(3) 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 towards perfection;(4) 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 adorns 
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.(5) 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 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 the natural rights, which the exercise of 
reason might have procured them, and chosen rather to be short-lived 
queens than labour to obtain 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 frolick 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 for ever 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:(6) 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 minutiæ 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 inferiour. 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, 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 superiour 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 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 to 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 impassioned 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 publick 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 to 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 inferiour 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, trembled, 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 danger 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 infantile 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, was 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 effence; 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 die. 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 
detached 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,(7) 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 women'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 the woman,' 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.(8) 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 shews 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 connections 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 woman 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 be 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 expense 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 shew 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,(9) 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 word, whilst male beauty is allowed to have some connection 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.(10) 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 presented itself; if polygamy be necessary, woman must be 
inferiour 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 
fiery 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 warmer 
constitution, not only on account of their more irritable nerves, more 
sensible 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 exertion 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(11) 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 haram 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 bed-fellow, 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 
circumstances 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 others 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 
intelligent creature, who is not to receive, but to 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 superiour 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 tenour 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 superiour 
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 a 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 
ribbons, 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, &c. &c. 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 round 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 superiour 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 
gentle-women 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 woman a trifler. Men, taking her(12) 
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?(13)

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 arise from a physical or 
accidental weakness of faculties, time alone can determine; for I shall 
not lay any great stress on the example of a few women(14) 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.

(1. Into what inconsistencies do men fall when they argue without the 
compass of principles. Women, weak women, are compared with angels; yet, a 
superiour order of beings should be supposed to possess more intellect 
than man; or, in what does their superiority consist? In the same style, 
to drop the sneer, they are allowed to possess more goodness of heart, 
piety, and benevolence. -- I doubt the fact, though it be courteously 
brought forward, unless ignorance be allowed to be the mother of devotion; 
for I am firmly persuaded that, on an average, the proportion between 
virtue and knowledge, is more upon a par than is commonly granted.)

(2. 'The brutes,' says Lord Monboddo, 'remain in the state in which nature 
has placed them, except in so far as their natural instinct is improved by 
the culture we bestow upon them.')

(3. Vide Milton.)

(4. This word is not strictly just, but I cannot find a better.)

(5. 'Pleasure's the portion of th' inferiour kind;
But glory, virtue, Heaven for man design'd.'

After writing these lines, how could Mrs. Barbauld write the following 
ignoble comparison?

'To a Lady, with some painted flowers.'

'Flowers to the fair: to you these flowers I bring,
And strive to greet you with an earlier spring.
Flowers, SWEET, and gay, and DELICATE LIKE YOU;
Emblems of innocence, and beauty too.
With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair,
And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear.
Flowers, the sole luxury which nature knew,
In Eden's pure and guiltless garden grew.
To loftier forms are rougher tasks assign'd;
The sheltering oak resists the stormy wind,
The tougher yew repels invading foes,
And the tall pine for future navies grows;
But this soft family, to cares unknown,
Were born for pleasure and delight ALONE.
Gay without toil, and lovely without art,
They spring to CHEER the sense, and GLAD the heart,
Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these;
Your BEST, your SWEETEST empire is -- to PLEASE.'

So the men tell us; but virtue must be acquired by rough toils, and useful 
struggles with worldly cares.)

(6. 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.)

(7. The mass of mankind are rather the slaves of their appetites than of 
their passions.)

(8. Men of these descriptions pour it into their compositions, to 
amalgamate the gross materials; and, moulding them with passion, give to 
the inert body a soul; but, in woman's imagination, love alone 
concentrates these etherial beams.)

(9. Many other names might be added.)

(10. The strength of an affection is, generally, in the same proportion as 
the character of the species in the object beloved, is lost in that of the 
individual.)

(11. Dr. Young supports the same opinion, in his plays, when he talks of 
the misfortune that shunned the light of day.)

(12. 'I take her body,' says Ranger.)

(13. 'Supposing that women are voluntary slaves -- slavery of any kind is 
unfavourable to human happiness and improvement.' -- Knox's Essays.)

(14. Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs. Macauley, the Empress of Russia, Madame d'Eon, 
&c. 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.)