Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Chapters X-XII



CHAPTER X. PARENTAL AFFECTION.

PARENTAL affection is, perhaps, the blindest modification of perverse self-
love; for we have not, like the French,(1) two terms to distinguish the 
pursuit of a natural and reasonable desire, from the ignorant calculations 
of weakness. Parents often love their children in the most brutal manner, 
and sacrifice every relative duty to promote their advancement in the 
world. -- To promote, such is the perversity of unprincipled prejudices, 
the future welfare of the very beings whose present existence they 
embitter by the most despotic stretch of power. Power, in fact, is ever 
true to its vital principle, for in every shape it would reign without 
controul or inquiry. Its throne is built across a dark abyss, which no eye 
must dare to explore, lest the baseless fabric should totter under 
investigation. Obedience, unconditional obedience, is the catch-word of 
tyrants of every description, and to render 'assurance doubly sure,' one 
kind of despotism supports another. Tyrants would have cause to tremble if 
reason were to become the rule of duty in any of the relations of life, 
for the light might spread till perfect day appeared. And when it did 
appear, how would men smile at the sight of the bugbears at which they 
started during the night of ignorance, or the twilight of timid inquiry.

Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but a pretext to tyrannize 
where it can be done with impunity, for only good and wise men are content 
with the respect that will bear discussion. Convinced that they have a 
right to what they insist on, they do not fear reason, or dread the 
sifting of subjects that recur to natural justice: because they firmly 
believe that the more enlightened the human mind becomes the deeper root 
will just and simple principles take. They do not rest in expedients, or 
grant that what is metaphysically true can be practically false; but 
disdaining the shifts of the moment they calmly wait till time, 
sanctioning innovation, silences the hiss of selfishness or envy. 

If the power of reflecting on the past, and darting the keen eye of 
contemplation into futurity, be the grand privilege of man, it must be 
granted that some people enjoy this prerogative in a very limited degree. 
Every thing now appears to them wrong; and not able to distinguish the 
possible from the monstrous, they fear where no fear should find a place, 
running from the light of reason, as if it were a firebrand; yet the 
limits of the possible have never been defined to stop the sturdy 
innovator's hand.

Woman, however, a slave in every situation to prejudice, seldom exerts 
enlightened maternal affection; for she either neglects her children, or 
spoils them by improper indulgence. Besides, the affection of some women 
for their children is, as I have before termed it, frequently very 
brutish: for it eradicates every spark of humanity. Justice, truth, every 
thing is sacrificed by these Rebekah's, and for the sake of their own 
children they violate the most sacred duties, forgetting the common 
relationship that binds the whole family on earth together. Yet, reason 
seems to say, that they who suffer one duty, or affection, to swallow up 
the rest, have not sufficient heart or mind to fulfil that one 
conscientiously. It then loses the venerable aspect of a duty, and assumes 
the fantastic form of a whim.

As the care of children in their infancy is one of the grand duties 
annexed to the female character by nature, this duty would afford many 
forcible arguments for strengthening the female understanding, if it were 
properly considered.

The formation of the mind must be begun very early, and the temper, in 
particular, requires the most judicious attention -- an attention which 
women cannot pay who only love their children because they are their 
children, and seek no further for the foundation of their duty, than in 
the feelings of the moment. It is this want of reason in their affections 
which makes women so often run into extremes, and either be the most fond 
or most careless and unnatural mothers.

To be a good mother -- a woman must have sense, and that independence of 
mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their 
husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers; wanting their 
children to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the 
father, who is held up as a scarecrow. If they are to be punished, though 
they have offended the mother, the father must inflict the punishment; he 
must be the judge in all disputes: but I shall more fully discuss this 
subject when I treat of private education, I now only mean to insist, that 
unless the understanding of woman be enlarged, and her character rendered 
more firm, by being allowed to govern her own conduct, she will never have 
sufficient sense or command of temper to manage her children properly. Her 
parental affection, indeed, scarcely deserves the name, when it does not 
lead her to suckle her children, because the discharge of this duty is 
equally calculated to inspire maternal and filial affection: and it is the 
indispensable duty of men and women to fulfil the duties which give birth 
to affections that are the surest preservatives against vice. Natural 
affection, as it is termed, I believe to be a very faint tie, affections 
must grow out of the habitual exercise of a mutual sympathy; and what 
sympathy does a mother exercise who sends her babe to a nurse, and only 
takes it from a nurse to send it to a school?

In the exercise of their maternal feelings providence has furnished women 
with a natural substitute for love, when the lover becomes only a friend 
and mutual confidence takes place of overstrained admiration -- a child 
then gently twists the relaxing cord, and a mutual care produces a new 
mutual sympathy. -- But a child, though a pledge of affection, will not 
enliven it, if both father and mother are content to transfer the charge 
to hirelings; for they who do their duty by proxy should not murmur if 
they miss the reward of duty -- parental affection produces filial duty.

(1. L'amour propre. L'amour de soi meme.)



CHAPTER XI. DUTY TO PARENTS.

THERE seems to be an indolent propensity in man to make prescription 
always take place of reason, and to place every duty on an arbitrary 
foundation. The rights of kings are deduced in a direct line from the King 
of kings; and that of parents from our first parent.

Why do we thus go back for principles that should always rest on the same 
base, and have the same weight to-day that they had a thousand years 
ago -- and not a jot more? If parents discharge their duty they have a 
strong hold and sacred claim on the gratitude of their children; but few 
parents are willing to receive the respectful affection of their offspring 
on such terms. They demand blind obedience, because they do not merit a 
reasonable service: and to render these demands of weakness and ignorance 
more binding, a mysterious sanctity is spread round the most arbitrary 
principle; for what other name can be given to the blind duty of obeying 
vicious or weak beings merely because they obeyed a powerful instinct?

The simple definition of the reciprocal duty, which naturally subsists 
between parent and child, may be given in a few words: The parent who pays 
proper attention to helpless infancy has a right to require the same 
attention when the feebleness of age comes upon him. But to subjugate a 
rational being to the mere will of another, after he is of age to answer 
to society for his own conduct, is a most cruel and undue stretch of 
power; and, perhaps, as injurious to morality as those religious systems 
which do not allow right and wrong to have any existence, but in the 
Divine will.

I never knew a parent who had paid more than common attention to his 
children, disregarded;(1) on the contrary, the early habit of relying 
almost implicitly on the opinion of a respected parent is not easily 
shook, even when matured reason convinces the child that his father is not 
the wisest man in the world. This weakness -- for a weakness it is, though 
the epithet amiable may be tacked to it, a reasonable man must steel 
himself against; for the absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a 
parent only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and 
prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason.

I distinguish between the natural and accidental duty due to parents.

The parent who sedulously endeavours to form the heart and enlarge the 
understanding of his child, has given that dignity to the discharge of a 
duty, common to the whole animal world, that only reason can give. This is 
the parental affection of humanity, and leaves instinctive natural 
affection far behind. Such a parent acquires all the rights of the most 
sacred friendship, and his advice, even when his child is advanced in 
life, demands serious consideration.

With respect to marriage, though after one and twenty a parent seems to 
have no right to withhold his consent on any account; yet twenty years of 
solicitude call for a turn, and the son ought, at least, to promise not to 
marry for two or three years, should the object of his choice not entirely 
meet with the approbation of his first friend.

But, respect for parents is, generally speaking, a much more debasing 
principle; it is only a selfish respect for property. The father who is 
blindly obeyed, is obeyed from sheer weakness, or from motives that 
degrade the human character.

A great proportion of the misery that wanders, in hideous forms around the 
world, is allowed to rise from the negligence of parents; and still these 
are the people who are most tenacious of what they term a natural right, 
though it be subversive of the birth-right of man, the right of acting 
according to the direction of his own reason.

I have already very frequently had occasion to observe, that vicious or 
indolent people are always eager to profit by enforcing arbitrary 
privileges; and, generally, in the same proportion as they neglect the 
discharge of the duties which alone render the privileges reasonable. This 
is at the bottom a dictate of common sense, or the instinct of self-
defence, peculiar to ignorant weakness; resembling that instinct, which 
makes a fish muddy the water it swims in to allude its enemy, instead of 
boldly facing it in the clear stream.

From the clear stream of argument, indeed, the supporters of prescription, 
of every denomination, fly; and, taking refuge in the darkness, which, in 
the language of sublime poetry, has been supposed to surround the throne 
of Omnipotence, they dare to demand that implicit respect which is only 
due to His unsearchable ways. But, let me not be thought presumptuous, the 
darkness which hides our God from us, only respects speculative truths -- 
it never obscures moral ones, they shine clearly, for God is light, and 
never, by the constitution of our nature, requires the discharge of a 
duty, the reasonableness of which does not beam on us when we open our 
eyes.

The indolent parent of high rank may, it is true, extort a shew of respect 
from his child, and females on the continent are particularly subject to 
the views of their families, who never think of consulting their 
inclination, or providing for the comfort of the poor victims of their 
pride. The consequence is notorious; these dutiful daughters become 
adulteresses, and neglect the education of their children, from whom they, 
in their turn, exact the same kind of obedience.

Females, it is true, in all countries, are too much under the dominion of 
their parents; and few parents think of addressing their children in the 
following manner, though it is in this reasonable way that Heaven seems to 
command the whole human race. It is your interest to obey me till you can 
judge for yourself; and the Almighty Father of all has implanted an 
affection in me to serve as a guard to you whilst your reason is 
unfolding; but when your mind arrives at maturity, you must only obey me, 
or rather respect my opinions, so far as they coincide with the light that 
is breaking in on your own mind.

A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind; and Mr. 
Locke very judiciously observes, that 'if the mind be curbed and humbled 
too much in children; if their spirits be abased and broken much by too 
strict an hand over them; they lose all their vigour and industry.' This 
strict hand may in some degree account for the weakness of women; for 
girls, from various causes, are more kept down by their parents, in every 
sense of the word, than boys. The duty expected from them is, like all the 
duties arbitrarily imposed on women, more from a sense of propriety, more 
out of respect for decorum than reason; and thus taught slavishly to 
submit to their parents, they are prepared for the slavery of marriage. I 
may be told that a number of women are not slaves in the marriage state. 
True, but they then become tyrants; for it is not rational freedom, but a 
lawless kind of power resembling the authority exercised by the favourites 
of absolute monarchs, which they obtain by debasing means. I do not, 
likewise, dream of insinuating that either boys or girls are always 
slaves, I only insist that when they are obliged to submit to authority 
blindly, their faculties are weakened, and their tempers rendered 
imperious or abject. I also lament that parents, indolently availing 
themselves of a supposed privilege, damp the first faint glimmering of 
reason, rendering at the same time the duty, which they are so anxious to 
enforce, an empty name; because they will not let it rest on the only 
basis on which a duty can rest securely: for unless it be founded on 
knowledge, it cannot gain sufficient strength to resist the squalls of 
passion, or the silent sapping of self-love. But it is not the parents who 
have given the surest proof of their affection for their children, or, to 
speak more properly, who by fulfilling their duty, have allowed a natural 
parental affection to take root in their hearts, the child of excised 
sympathy and reason, and not the over-weening offspring of selfish pride, 
who most vehemently insist on their children submitting to their will 
merely because it is their will. On the contrary, the parent, who sets a 
good example, patiently lets that example work; and it seldom fails to 
produce its natural effect -- filial respect.

Children cannot be taught too early to submit to reason, the true 
definition of that necessity, which Rousseau insisted on, without defining 
it; for to submit to reason is to submit to the nature of things, and to 
that God, who formed them so, to promote our real interest.

Why should the minds of children be warped as they just begin to expand, 
only to favour the indolence of parents, who insist on a privilege without 
being willing to pay the price fixed by nature? I have before had occasion 
to observe, that a right always includes a duty, and I think it may, 
likewise, fairly be inferred, that they forfeit the right, who do not 
fulfil the duty. 

It is easier, I grant, to command than reason; but it does not follow from 
hence that children cannot comprehend the reason why they are made to do 
certain things habitually; for, from a steady adherence to a few simple 
principles of conduct flows that salutary power which a judicious parent 
gradually gains over a child's mind. And this power becomes strong indeed, 
if tempered by an even display of affection brought home to the child's 
heart. For I believe, as a general rule, it must be allowed that the 
affection which we inspire always resembles that we cultivate; so that 
natural affections, which have been supposed almost distinct from reason, 
may be found more nearly connected with judgment than is commonly allowed. 
Nay, as another proof of the necessity of cultivating the female 
understanding, it is but just to observe, that the affections seem to have 
a kind of animal capriciousness when they merely reside in the heart.

It is the irregular exercise of parental authority that first injures the 
mind, and to these irregularities girls are more subject than boys. The 
will of those who never allow their will to be disputed, unless they 
happen to be in a good humour, when they relax proportionally, is almost 
always unreasonable. To elude this arbitrary authority girls very early 
learn the lessons which they afterwards practise on their husbands; for I 
have frequently seen a little sharp-faced miss rule a whole family, 
excepting that now and then mamma's anger will burst out of some 
accidental cloud; either her hair was ill dressed,(2) or she had lost more 
money at cards, the night before, than she was willing to own to her 
husband; or some such moral cause of anger.

After observing sallies of this kind, I have been led into a melancholy 
train of reflection respecting females, concluding that when their first 
affection must lead them astray, or make their duties clash till they rest 
on mere whims and customs, little can be expected from them as they 
advance in life. How indeed can an instructor remedy this evil? for to 
teach them virtue on any solid principle is to teach them to despise their 
parents. Children cannot, ought not, to be taught to make allowance for 
the faults of their parents, because every such allowance weakens the 
force of reason in their minds, and makes them still more indulgent to 
their own. It is one of the most sublime virtues of maturity that leads us 
to be severe with respect to ourselves, and forbearing to others; but 
children should only be taught the simple virtues, for if they begin too 
early to make allowance for human passions and manners, they wear off the 
fine edge of the criterion by which they should regulate their own, and 
become unjust in the same proportion as they grow indulgent.

The affections of children, and weak people, are always selfish; they love 
others, because others loved them, and not on account of their virtues. 
Yet, till esteem and love are blended together in the first affection, and 
reason made the foundation of the first duty, morality will stumble at the 
threshold. But, till society is very differently constituted, parents, I 
fear, will still insist on being obeyed, because they will be obeyed, and 
constantly endeavour to settle that power on a Divine right which will not 
bear the investigation of reason.

(1. Dr. Johnson makes the same observation.)

(2. I myself heard a little girl once say to a servant, 'My mamma has been 
scolding me finely this morning, because her hair was not dressed to 
please her.' Though this remark was pert, it was just. And what respect 
could a girl acquire for such a parent without doing violence to reason?)



CHAPTER XII. ON NATIONAL EDUCATION.

THE good effects resulting from attention to private education will ever 
be very confined, and the parent who really puts his own hand to the plow, 
will always, in some degree, be disappointed, till education becomes a 
grand national concern. A man cannot retire into a desart with his child, 
and if he did he could not bring himself back to childhood, and become the 
proper friend and play-fellow of an infant or youth. And when children are 
confined to the society of men and women, they very soon acquire that kind 
of premature manhood which stops the growth of every vigorous power of 
mind or body. In order to open their faculties they should be excited to 
think for themselves; and this can only be done by mixing a number of 
children together, and making them jointly pursue the same objects. 

A child very soon contracts a benumbing indolence of mind, which he has 
seldom sufficient vigour afterwards to shake off, when he only asks a 
question instead of seeking for information, and then relies implicitly on 
the answer he receives. With his equals in age this could never be the 
case, and the subjects of inquiry, though they might be influenced, would 
not be entirely under the direction of men, who frequently damp, if not 
destroy, abilities, by bringing them forward too hastily: and too hastily 
they will infallibly be brought forward, if the child be confined to the 
society of a man, however sagacious that man may be.

Besides, in youth the seeds of every affection should be sown, and the 
respectful regard, which is felt for a parent, is very different from the 
social affections that are to constitute the happiness of life as it 
advances. Of these equality is the basis, and an intercourse of sentiments 
unclogged by that observant seriousness which prevents disputation, though 
it may not enforce submission. Let a child have ever such an affection for 
his parent, he will always languish to play and chat with children; and 
the very respect which he entertains, for filial esteem always has a dash 
of fear mixed with it, will, if it do not teach him cunning, at least 
prevent him from pouring out the little secrets which first open the heart 
to friendship and confidence, gradually leading to more expansive 
benevolence. Added to this, he will never acquire that frank ingenuousness 
of behaviour, which young people can only attain by being frequently in 
society where they dare to speak what they think; neither afraid of being 
reproved for their presumption, nor laughed at for their folly.

Forcibly impressed by the reflections which the sight of schools, as they 
are at present conducted, naturally suggested, I have formerly delivered 
my opinion rather warmly in favour of a private education; but further 
experience has led me to view the subject in a different light. I still, 
however, think schools, as they are now regulated, the hotbeds of vice and 
folly, and the knowledge of human nature, supposed to be attained there, 
merely cunning selfishness.

At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of cultivating 
domestic affections, very early rush into the libertinism which destroys 
the constitution before it is formed; hardening the heart as it weakens 
the understanding.

I should, in fact, be averse to boarding-schools, if it were for no other 
reason than the unsettled state of mind which the expectation of the 
vacations produce. On these the children's thoughts are fixed with eager 
anticipating hopes, for, at least, to speak with moderation, half of the 
time, and when they arrive they are spent in total dissipation and beastly 
indulgence.

But, on the contrary, when they are brought up at home, though they may 
pursue a plan of study in a more orderly manner than can be adopted when 
near a fourth part of the year is actually spent in idleness, and as much 
more in regret and anticipation; yet they there acquire too high an 
opinion of their own importance, from being allowed to tyrannize over 
servants, and from the anxiety expressed by most mothers, on the score of 
manners, who, eager to teach the accomplishments of a gentleman, stifle, 
in their birth, the virtues of a man. Thus brought into company when they 
ought to be seriously employed, and treated like men when they are still 
boys, they become vain and effeminate.

The only way to avoid two extremes equally injurious to morality, would be 
to contrive some way of combining a public and private education. Thus to 
make men citizens two natural steps might be taken, which seem directly to 
lead to the desired point; for the domestic affections, that first open 
the heart to the various modifications of humanity, would be cultivated, 
whilst the children were nevertheless allowed to spend great part of their 
time, on terms of equality, with other children.

I still recollect, with pleasure, the country day school; where a boy 
trudged in the morning, wet or dry, carrying his books, and his dinner, if 
it were at a considerable distance; a servant did not then lead master by 
the hand, for, when he had once put on coat and breeches, he was allowed 
to shift for himself, and return alone in the evening to recount the feats 
of the day close at the parental knee. His father's house was his home, 
and was ever after fondly remembered; nay, I appeal to many superiour men, 
who were educated in this manner, whether the recollection of some shady 
lane where they conned their lesson; or, of some stile, where they sat 
making a kite, or mending a bat, has not endeared their country to them?

But, what boy ever recollected with pleasure the years he spent in close 
confinement, at an academy near London? unless, indeed, he should, by 
chance, remember the poor scarecrow of an usher, whom he tormented; or, 
the tartman, from whom he caught a cake, to devour it with a cattish 
appetite of selfishness. At boarding-schools of every description, the 
relaxation of the junior boys is mischief; and of the senior, vice. 
Besides, in great schools, what can be more prejudicial to the moral 
character than the system of tyranny and abject slavery which is 
established amongst the boys, to say nothing of the slavery to forms, 
which makes religion worse than a farce? For what good can be expected 
from the youth who receives the sacrament of the Lord's supper, to avoid 
forfeiting half a guinea, which he probably afterwards spends in some 
sensual manner? Half the employment of the youths is to elude the 
necessity of attending public worship; and well they may, for such a 
constant repetition of the same thing must be a very irksome restraint on 
their natural vivacity. As these ceremonies have the most fatal effect on 
their morals, and as a ritual performed by the lips, when the heart and 
mind are far away, is not now stored up by our church as a bank to draw on 
for the fees of the poor souls in purgatory, why should they not be 
abolished?

But the fear of innovation, in this country, extends to every thing. -- 
This is only a covert fear, the apprehensive timidity of indolent slugs, 
who guard, by sliming it over, the snug place, which they consider in the 
light of an hereditary estate; and eat, drink, and enjoy themselves, 
instead of fulfilling the duties, excepting a few empty forms, for which 
it was endowed. These are the people who most strenuously insist on the 
will of the founder being observed, crying out against all reformation, as 
if it were a violation of justice. I am now alluding particularly to the 
relics of popery retained in our colleges, when the protestant members 
seem to be such sticklers for the established church; but their zeal never 
makes them lose sight of the spoil of ignorance, which rapacious priests 
of superstitious memory have scraped together. No, wise in their 
generation, they venerate the prescriptive right of possession, as a 
strong hold, and still let the sluggish bell tinkle to prayers, as during 
the days when the elevation of the host was supposed to atone for the sins 
of the people, lest one reformation should lead to another, and the spirit 
kill the letter. These Romish customs have the most baneful effect on the 
morals of our clergy; for the idle vermin who two or three times a day 
perform in the most slovenly manner a service which they think useless, 
but call their duty, soon lose a sense of duty. At college, forced to 
attend or evade public worship, they acquire an habitual contempt for the 
very service, the performance of which is to enable them to live in 
idleness. It is mumbled over as an affair of business, as a stupid boy 
repeats his talk, and frequently the college cant escapes from the 
preacher the moment after he has left the pulpit, and even whilst he is 
eating the dinner which he earned in such a dishonest manner.

Nothing, indeed, can be more irreverent than the cathedral service as it 
is now performed in this country, nor does it contain a set of weaker men 
than those who are the slaves of this childish routine. A disgusting 
skeleton of the former state is still exhibited; but all the solemnity 
that interested the imagination, if it did not purify the heart, is 
stripped off. The performance of high mass on the continent must impress 
every mind, where a spark of fancy glows, with that awful melancholy, that 
sublime tenderness, so near akin to devotion. I do not say that these 
devotional feelings are of more use, in a moral sense, than any other 
emotion of taste; but I contend that the theatrical pomp which gratifies 
our senses, is to be preferred to the cold parade that insults the 
understanding without reaching the heart.

Amongst remarks on national education, such observations cannot be 
misplaced, especially as the supporters of these establishments, 
degenerated into puerilities, affect to be the champions of religion. -- 
Religion, pure source of comfort in this vale of tears! how has thy clear 
stream been muddied by the dabblers, who have presumptuously endeavoured 
to confine in one narrow channel, the living waters that ever flow towards 
God -- the sublime ocean of existence! What would life be without that 
peace which the love of God, when built on humanity, alone can impart? 
Every earthly affection turns back, at intervals, to prey upon the heart 
that feeds it; and the purest effusions of benevolence, often rudely 
damped by man, must mount as a free-will offering to Him who gave them 
birth, whose bright image they faintly reflect.

In public schools, however, religion, confounded with irksome ceremonies 
and unreasonable restraints, assumes the most ungracious aspect: not the 
sober austere one that commands respect whilst it inspires fear; but a 
ludicrous cast, that serves to point a pun. For, in fact, most of the good 
stories and smart things will enliven the spirits that have been 
concentrated at whist, are manufactured out of the incidents to which the 
very men labour to give a droll turn who countenance the abuse to live on 
the spoil.

There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical, or luxurious set 
of men, than the pedantic tyrants who reside in colleges and preside at 
public schools. The vacations are equally injurious to the morals of the 
masters and pupils, and the intercourse, which the former keep up with the 
nobility, introduces the same vanity and extravagance into their families, 
which banish domestic duties and comforts from the lordly mansion, whose 
state is awkwardly aped on a smaller scale. The boys, who live at a great 
expense with the masters and assistants, are never domesticated, though 
placed there for that purpose; for, after a silent dinner, they swallow a 
hasty glass of wine, and retire to plan some mischievous trick, or to 
ridicule the person or manners of the very people they have just been 
cringing to, and whom they ought to consider as the representatives of 
their parents.

Can it then be a matter of surprise that boys become selfish and vicious 
who are thus shut out from social converse? or that a mitre often graces 
the brow of one of these diligent pastors?

The desire of living in the same style, as the rank just above them, 
infects each individual and every class of people, and meanness is the 
concomitant of this ignoble ambition; but those professions are most 
debasing whose ladder is patronage: yet, out of one of these professions 
the tutors of youth are, in general, chosen. But, can they be expected to 
inspire independent sentiments, whose conduct must be regulated by the 
cautious prudence that is ever on the watch for preferment?

So far, however, from thinking of the morals of boys, I have heard several 
masters of schools argue, that they only undertook to teach Latin and 
Greek; and that they had fulfilled their duty, by sending some good 
scholars to college.

A few good scholars, I grant, may have been formed by emulation and 
discipline; but to bring forward these clever boys, the health and morals 
of a number have been sacrificed. The sons of our gentry and wealthy 
commoners are mostly educated at these seminaries, and will any one 
pretend to assert that the majority, making every allowance, come under 
the description of tolerable scholars?

It is not for the benefit of society that a few brilliant men should be 
brought forward at the expense of the multitude. It is true, that great 
men seem to start up, as great revolutions occur, at proper intervals, to 
restore order, and to blow aside the clouds that thicken over the face of 
truth; but let more reason and virtue prevail in society, and these strong 
winds would not be necessary. Public education, of every denomination, 
should be directed to form citizens; but if you wish to make good 
citizens, you must first exercise the affections of a son and a brother. 
This is the only way to expand the heart; for public affections, as well 
as public virtues, must ever grow out of the private character, or they 
are merely meteors that shoot athwart a dark sky and disappear as they are 
gazed at and admired.

Few, I believe, have had much affection for mankind, who did not first 
love their parents, their brothers, sisters, and even the domestic brutes, 
whom they first played with. The exercise of youthful sympathies forms the 
moral temperature; and it is the recollection of these first affections 
and pursuits that gives life to those that are afterwards more under the 
direction of reason. In youth, the fondest friendships are formed, the 
genial juices mounting at the same time, kindly mix; or, rather the heart, 
tempered for the reception of friendship, is accustomed to seek for 
pleasure in something more noble than the churlish gratification of 
appetite.

In order then to inspire a love of home and domestic pleasures, children 
ought to be educated at home, for riotous holidays only make them fond of 
home for their own sakes. Yet, the vacations, which do not foster domestic 
affections, continually disturb the course of study, and render any plan 
of improvement abortive which includes temperance; still, were they 
abolished, children would be entirely separated from their parents, and I 
question whether they would become better citizens by sacrificing the 
preparatory affections, by destroying the force of relationships that 
render the marriage state as necessary as respectable. But, if a private 
education produces self-importance, or insulates a man in his family, the 
evil is only shifted, not remedied.

This train of reasoning brings me back to a subject, on which I mean to 
dwell, the necessity of establishing proper day-schools.

But, these should be national establishments, for whilst school-masters 
are dependent on the caprice of parents, little exertion can be expected 
from them, more than is necessary to please ignorant people. Indeed, the 
necessity of a master's giving the parents some sample of the boys 
abilities, which during the vacation is shewn to every visitor,(1) is 
productive of more mischief than would at first be supposed. For they are 
seldom done entirely, to speak with moderation, by the child itself; thus 
the master countenances falsehood, or winds the poor machine up to some 
extraordinary exertion, that injures the wheels, and stops the progress of 
gradual improvement. The memory is loaded with unintelligible words, to 
make a shew of, without the understanding's acquiring any distinct ideas: 
but only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of 
mind, which teaches young people how to begin to think. The imagination 
should not be allowed to debauch the understanding before it gained 
strength, or vanity will become the forerunner of vice: for every way of 
exhibiting the acquirements of a child is injurious to its moral character.

How much time is lost in teaching them to recite what they do not 
understand? whilst seated on benches, all in their best array, the mammas 
listen with astonishment to the parrot-like prattle, uttered in solemn 
cadences, with all the pomp of ignorance and folly. Such exhibitions only 
serve to strike the spreading fibres of vanity through the whole mind; for 
they neither teach children to speak fluently, nor behave gracefully. So 
far from it, that these frivolous pursuits might comprehensively be termed 
the study of affectation; for we now rarely see a simple, bashful boy, 
though few people of taste were ever disgusted by that awkward 
sheepishness so natural to the age, which schools and an early 
introduction into society, have changed into impudence and apish grimace.

Yet, how can these things be remedied whilst school-masters depend 
entirely on parents for a subsistence; and when so many rival schools hang 
out their lures, to catch the attention of vain fathers and mothers, whose 
parental affection only leads them to wish that their children should 
outshine those of their neighbours?

Without great good luck, a sensible, conscientious man, would starve 
before he could raise a school, if he disdained to bubble weak parents by 
practising the secret tricks of the craft.

In the best regulated schools, however, where swarms are not crammed 
together, many bad habits must be acquired; but, at common schools, the 
body, heart, and understanding, are equally stunted, for parents are often 
only in quest of the cheapest school, and the master could not live, if he 
did not take a much greater number than he could manage himself; nor will 
the scanty pittance, allowed for each child, permit him to hire ushers 
sufficient to assist in the discharge of the mechanical part of the 
business. Besides, whatever appearance the house and garden may make, the 
children do not enjoy the comfort of either, for they are continually 
reminded by irksome restrictions that they are not at home, and the state-
rooms, garden, &c. must be kept in order for the recreation of the 
parents; who, of a Sunday, visit the school, and are impressed by the very 
parade that renders the situation of their children uncomfortable.

With what disgust have I heard sensible women, for girls are more 
restrained and cowed than boys, speak of the wearisome confinement, which 
they endured at school. Not allowed, perhaps, to step out of one broad 
walk in a superb garden, and obliged to pace with steady deportment 
stupidly backwards and forwards, holding up their heads and turning out 
their toes, with shoulders braced back, instead of bounding, as nature 
directs to complete her own design, in the various attitudes so conducive 
to health.(2) The pure animal spirits, which make both mind and body shoot 
out, and unfold the tender blossoms of hope, are turned sour, and vented 
in vain wishes, or pert repinings, that contract the faculties and spoil 
the temper; else they mount to the brain, and sharpening the understanding 
before it gains proportionable strength, produce that pitiful cunning 
which disgracefully characterizes the female mind -- and I fear will ever 
characterize it whilst women remain the slaves of power!

The little respect which the male world pay to chastity is, I am 
persuaded, the grand source of many of the physical and moral evils that 
torment mankind, as well as of the vices and follies that degrade and 
destroy women; yet at school, boys infallibly lose that decent 
bashfulness, which might have ripened into modesty, at home.

And what nasty indecent tricks do they also learn from each other, when a 
number of them pig together in the same bedchamber, not to speak of the 
vices, which render the body weak whilst they effectually prevent the 
acquisition of any delicacy of mind. The little attention paid to the 
cultivation of modesty, amongst men, produces great depravity in all the 
relationships of society; for, not only love -- love that ought to purify 
the heart, and first call forth all the youthful powers, to prepare the 
man to discharge the benevolent duties of life, is sacrificed to premature 
lust; but, all the social affections are deadened by the selfish 
gratifications, which very early pollute the mind, and dry up the generous 
juices of the heart. In what an unnatural manner is innocence often 
violated; and what serious consequences ensue to render private vices a 
public pest. Besides, an habit of personal order, which has more effect on 
the moral character, than is, in general, supposed, can only be acquired 
at home, where that respectable reserve is kept up which checks the 
familiarity, that sinking into beastliness, undermines the affection it 
insults.

I have already animadverted on the bad habits which females acquire when 
they are shut up together; and, I think, that the observation may fairly 
be extended to the other sex, till the natural inference is drawn which I 
have had in view throughout -- that to improve both sexes they ought, not 
only in private families, but in public schools, to be educated together. 
If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated after 
the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the 
name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfil the peculiar duties of 
their sex, till they become enlightened citizens, till they become free by 
being enabled to earn their own subsistence, independent of men; in the 
same manner, I mean, to prevent misconstruction, as one man is independent 
of another. Nay, marriage will never be held sacred till women, by being 
brought up with men, are prepared to be their companions rather than their 
mistresses; for the mean doublings of cunning will ever render them 
contemptible, whilst oppression renders them timid. So convinced am I of 
this truth, that I will venture to predict that virtue will never prevail 
in society till the virtues of both sexes are founded on reason; and, till 
the affections common to both are allowed to gain their due strength by 
the discharge of mutual duties.

Were boys and girls permitted to pursue the same studies together, those 
graceful decencies might early be inculcated which produce modesty without 
those sexual distinctions that taint the mind. Lessons of politeness, and 
that formulary of decorum, which treads on the heels of falsehood, would 
be rendered useless by habitual propriety of behaviour. Not indeed, put on 
for visitors like the courtly robe of politeness, but the sober effect of 
cleanliness of mind. Would not this simple elegance of sincerity be a 
chaste homage paid to domestic affections, far surpassing the meretricious 
compliments that shine with false lustre in the heartless intercourse of 
fashionable life? But, till more understanding preponderate in society, 
there will ever be a want of heart and taste, and the harlot's rouge will 
supply the place of that celestial suffusion which only virtuous 
affections can give to the face. Gallantry, and what is called love, may 
subsist without simplicity of character; but the main pillars of 
friendship, are respect and confidence -- esteem is never founded on it 
cannot tell what!

A taste for the fine arts requires great cultivation; but not more than a 
taste for the virtuous affections; and both suppose that enlargement of 
mind which opens so many sources of mental pleasure. Why do people hurry 
to noisy scenes, and crowded circles? I should answer, because they want 
activity of mind, because they have not cherished the virtues of the 
heart. They only, therefore, see and feel in the gross, and continually 
pine after variety, finding every thing that is simple insipid.

This argument may be carried further than philosophers are aware of, for 
if nature destined woman, in particular, for the discharge of domestic 
duties, she made her susceptible of the attached affections in a great 
degree. Now women are notoriously fond of pleasure; and, naturally must be 
so according to my definition, because they cannot enter into the minuti? 
of domestic taste; lacking judgment, the foundation of all taste. For the 
understanding, in spite of sensual cavillers, reserves to itself the 
privilege of conveying pure joy to the heart.

With what a languid yawn have I seen an admirable poem thrown down, that a 
man of true taste returns to, again and again with rapture; and, whilst 
melody has almost suspended respiration, a lady has asked me where I 
bought my gown. I have seen also an eye glanced coldly over a most 
exquisite picture, rest, sparkling with pleasure, on a caricature rudely 
sketched; and whilst some terrific feature in nature has spread a sublime 
stillness through my soul, I have been desired to observe the pretty 
tricks of a lap-dog, that my perverse fate forced me to travel with. Is it 
surprising that such a tasteless being should rather caress this dog than 
her children? Or, that she should prefer the rant of flattery to the 
simple accents of sincerity?

To illustrate this remark I must be allowed to observe, that men of the 
first genius and most cultivated minds, have appeared to have the highest 
relish for the simple beauties of nature; and they must have forcibly 
felt, what they have so well described, the charm, which natural 
affections, and unsophisticated feelings spread round the human character. 
It is this power of looking into the heart, and responsively vibrating 
with each emotion, that enables the poet to personify each passion, and 
the painter to sketch with a pencil of fire.

True taste is ever the work of the understanding employed in observing 
natural effects; and till women have more understanding, it is vain to 
expect them to possess domestic taste. Their lively senses will ever be at 
work to harden their hearts, and the emotions struck out of them will 
continue to be vivid and transitory, unless a proper education store their 
mind with knowledge.

It is the want of domestic taste, and not the acquirement of knowledge, 
that takes women out of their families, and tears the smiling babe from 
the breast that ought to afford it nourishment. Women have been allowed to 
remain in ignorance, and slavish dependence, many, very many years, and 
still we hear of nothing but their fondness of pleasure and sway, their 
preference of rakes and soldiers, their childish attachment to toys, and 
the vanity that makes them value accomplishments more than virtues.

History brings forward a fearful catalogue of the crimes which their 
cunning has produced, when the weak slaves nave had sufficient address to 
overreach their masters. In France, and in how many other countries, have 
men been the luxurious despots, and women the crafty ministers? -- Does 
this prove that ignorance and dependence domesticate them? Is not their 
folly the by-word of the libertines, who relax in their society; and do 
not men of sense continually lament that an immoderate fondness for dress 
and dissipation carries the mother of a family for ever from home. Their 
hearts have not been debauched by knowledge, nor their minds led away by 
scientific pursuits; yet, they do not fulfil the peculiar duties which as 
women they are called upon by nature to fulfil. On the contrary, the state 
of warfare which subsists between the sexes, makes them employ those 
wiles, that frustrate the more open designs of force. 

When, therefore, I call women slaves, I mean in a political and civil 
sense; for indirectly they obtain too much power, and are debased by their 
exertions to obtain illicit sway.

Let an enlightened nation(3) then try what effect reason would have to 
bring them back to nature, and their duty; and allowing them to share the 
advantages of education and government with man, see whether they will 
become better, as they grow wiser and become free. They cannot be injured 
by the experiment; for it is not in the power of man to render them more 
insignificant than they are at present.

To render this practicable, day schools, for particular ages, should be 
established by government, in which boys and girls might be educated 
together. The school for the younger children, from five to nine years of 
age, ought to be absolutely free and open to all classes.(4) A sufficient 
number of masters should also be chosen by a select committee, in each 
parish, to whom any complaint of negligence, &c. might be made, if signed 
by six of the children's parents.

Ushers would then be unnecessary; for I believe experience will ever prove 
that this kind of subordinate authority is particularly injurious to the 
morals of youth. What, indeed, can tend to deprave the character more than 
outward submission and inward contempt? Yet how can boys be expected to 
treat an usher with respect, when the master seems to consider him in the 
light of a servant, and almost to countenance the ridicule which becomes 
the chief amusement of the boys during the play hours.

But nothing of this kind could occur in an elementary day school, where 
boys and girls, the rich and poor, should meet together. And to prevent 
any of the distinctions of vanity, they should be dressed alike, and all 
obliged to submit to the same discipline, or leave the school. The school-
room ought to be surrounded by a large piece of ground, in which the 
children might be usefully exercised, for at this age they should not be 
confined to any sedentary employment for more than an hour at a time. But 
these relaxations might all be rendered a part of elementary education, 
for many things improve and amuse the senses, when introduced as a kind of 
show, to the principles of which, dryly laid down, children would turn a 
deaf ear. For instance, botany, mechanics, and astronomy. Reading, 
writing, arithmetic, natural history, and some simple experiments in 
natural philosophy, might fill up the day; but these pursuits should never 
encroach on gymnastic plays in the open air. The elements of religion, 
history, the history of man, and politics, might also be taught, by 
conversations, in the socratic form.

After the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domestic employments, 
or mechanical trades, ought to be removed to other schools, and receive 
instruction, in some measure appropriated to the destination of each 
individual, the two sexes being still together in the morning; but in the 
afternoon, the girls should attend a school, where plain-work, mantua-
making, millinery, &c. would be their employment.

The young people of superiour abilities, or fortune, might now be taught, 
in another school, the dead and living languages, the elements of science, 
and continue the study of history and politics, on a more extensive scale, 
which would not exclude polite literature.

Girls and boys still together? I hear some readers ask: yes. And I should 
not fear any other consequence than that some early attachment might take 
place; which, whilst it had the best effect on the moral character of the 
young people, might not perfectly agree with the views of the parents, for 
it will be a long time, I fear, before the world is so far enlightened 
that parents, only anxious to render their children virtuous, will let 
them choose companions for life themselves.

Besides, this would be a sure way to promote early marriages, and from 
early marriages the most salutary physical and moral effects naturally 
flow. What a different character does a married citizen assume from the 
selfish coxcomb, who lives, but for himself, and who is often afraid to 
marry lest he should not be able to live in a certain style. Great 
emergencies excepted, which would rarely occur in a society of which 
equality was the basis, a man could only be prepared to discharge the 
duties of public life, by the habitual practice of those inferiour ones 
which form the man.

In this plan of education the constitution of boys would not be ruined by 
the early debaucheries, which now makes men so selfish, nor girls rendered 
weak and vain, by indolence, and frivolous pursuits. But, I presuppose, 
that such a degree of equality should be established between the sexes as 
would shut out gallantry and coquetry, yet allow friendship and love to 
temper the heart for the discharge of higher duties.

These would be schools of morality -- and the happiness of man, allowed to 
flow from the pure springs of duty and affection, what advances might not 
the human mind make? Society can only be happy and free in proportion as 
it is virtuous; but the present distinctions, established in society, 
corrode all private, and blast all public virtue.

I have already inveighed against the custom of confining girls to their 
needle, and shutting them out from all political and civil employments; 
for by thus narrowing their minds they are rendered unfit to fulfil the 
peculiar duties which nature has assigned them.

Only employed about the little incidents of the day, they necessarily grow 
up cunning. My very soul has often sickened at observing the sly tricks 
practised by women to gain some foolish thing on which their silly hearts 
were set. Not allowed to dispose of money, or call any thing their own, 
they learn to turn the market penny; or, should a husband offend, by 
staying from home, or give rise to some emotions of jealousy -- a new 
gown, or any pretty bauble, smooths Juno's angry brow.

But these littlenesses would not degrade their character, if women were 
led to respect themselves, if political and moral subjects were opened to 
them; and, I will venture to affirm, that this is the only way to make 
them properly attentive to their domestic duties. -- An active mind 
embraces the whole circle of its duties, and finds time enough for all. It 
is not, I assert, a bold attempt to emulate masculine virtues; it is not 
the enchantment of literary pursuits, or the steady investigation of 
scientific subjects, that lead women astray from duty. No, it is indolence 
and vanity -- the love of pleasure and the love of sway, that will rain 
paramount in an empty mind. I say empty emphatically, because the 
education which women now receive scarcely deserves the name. For the 
little knowledge that they are led to acquire, during the important years 
of youth, is merely relative to accomplishments; and accomplishments 
without a bottom, for unless the understanding be cultivated, superficial 
and monotonous is every grace. Like the charms of a made up face, they 
only strike the senses in a crowd; but at home, wanting mind, they want 
variety. The consequence is obvious; in gay scenes of dissipation we meet 
the artificial mind and face, for those who fly from solitude dread, next 
to solitude, the domestic circle; not having it in their power to amuse or 
interest, they feel their own insignificance, or find nothing to amuse or 
interest themselves.

Besides, what can be more indelicate than a girl's coming out in the 
fashionable world? Which, in other words, is to bring to market a 
marriageable miss, whose person is taken from one public place to another, 
richly caparisoned. Yet, mixing in the giddy circle under restraint, these 
butterflies long to flutter at large, for the first affection of their 
souls is their own persons, to which their attention has been called with 
the most sedulous care whilst they were preparing for the period that 
decides their fate for life. Instead of pursuing this idle routine, 
fighting for tasteless shew, and heartless state, with what dignity would 
the youths of both sexes form attachments in the schools that I have 
cursorily pointed out; in which, as life advanced, dancing, music, and 
drawing, might be admitted as relaxations, for at these schools young 
people of fortune ought to remain, more or less, till they were of age. 
Those, who were designed for particular professions, might attend, three 
or four mornings in the week, the schools appropriated for their immediate 
instruction.

I only drop these observations at present, as hints; rather, indeed, as an 
outline of the plan I mean, than a digested one; but I must add, that I 
highly approve of one regulation mentioned in the pamphlet(5) already 
alluded to, that of making the children and youths independent of the 
masters respecting punishments. They should be tried by their peers, which 
would be an admirable method of fixing sound principles of justice in the 
mind, and might have the happiest effect on the temper, which is very 
early soured or irritated by tyranny, till it becomes peevishly cunning, 
or ferociously overbearing.

My imagination darts forward with benevolent fervour to greet these 
amiable and respectable groups, in spite of the sneering of cold hearts, 
who are at liberty to utter, with frigid self-importance, the damning 
epithet -romantic; the force of which I shall endeavour to blunt by 
repeating the words of an eloquent moralist. -- 'I know not whether the 
allusions of a truly humane heart, whose zeal renders every thing easy, be 
not preferable to that rough and repulsing reason, which always finds an 
indifference for the public good, the first obstacle to whatever would 
promote it.'

I know that libertines will also exclaim, that woman would be unsexed by 
acquiring strength of body and mind, and that beauty, soft bewitching 
beauty! would no longer adorn the daughters of men! I am of a very 
different opinion, for I think that, on the contrary, we should then see 
dignified beauty, and true grace; to produce which, many powerful physical 
and moral causes would concur. -- Not relaxed beauty, it is true, or the 
graces of helplessness; but such as appears to make us respect the human 
body as a majestic pile fit to receive a noble inhabitant, in the relics 
of antiquity.

I do not forget the popular opinion that the Grecian statues were not 
modelled after nature. I mean, not according to the proportions of a 
particular man; but that beautiful limbs and features were selected from 
various bodies to form an harmonious whole. This might, in some degree, be 
true. The fine ideal picture of an exalted imagination might be superiour 
to the materials which the painter found in nature, and thus it might with 
propriety be termed rather the model of mankind than of a man. It was not, 
however, the mechanical selection of limbs and features; but the 
ebullition of an heated fancy that burst forth, and the fine senses and 
enlarged understanding of the artist selected the solid matter, which he 
drew into this glowing focus.

I observed that it was not mechanical, because a whole was produced -- a 
model of that grand simplicity, of those concurring energies, which arrest 
our attention and command our reverence. For only insipid lifeless beauty 
is produced by a servile copy of even beautiful nature. Yet, independent 
of these observations, I believe that the human form must have been far 
more beautiful than it is at present, because extreme indolence, barbarous 
ligatures, and many causes, which forcibly act on it, in our luxurious 
state of society, did not retard its expansion, or render it deformed. 
Exercise and cleanliness appear to be not only the surest means of 
preserving health, but of promoting beauty, the physical causes only 
considered; yet, this is not sufficient, moral ones must concur, or beauty 
will be merely of that rustic kind which blooms on the innocent, 
wholesome, countenances of some country people, whose minds have not been 
exercised.

To render the person perfect, physical and moral beauty ought to be 
attained at the same time; each lending and receiving force by the 
combination. Judgment must reside on the brow, affection and fancy beam in 
the eye, and humanity curve the cheek, or vain is the sparkling of the 
finest eye or the elegantly turned finish of the fairest features: whilst 
in every motion that displays the active limbs and well-knit joints, grace 
and modesty should appear. But this fair assemblage is not to be brought 
together by chance; it is the reward of exertions met to support each 
other; for judgment can only be acquired by reflection, affection by the 
discharge of duties, and humanity by the exercise of compassion to every 
living creature.

Humanity to animals should be particularly inculcated as a part of 
national education, for it is not at present one of our national virtues. 
Tenderness for their humble dumb domestics, amongst the lower class, is 
oftener to be found in a savage than a civilized state. For civilization 
prevents that intercourse which creates affection in the rude hut, or mud 
cabin, and leads uncultivated minds who are only depraved by the 
refinements which prevail in the society, where they are trodden under 
foot by the rich, to domineer over them to revenge the insults that they 
are obliged to bear from their superiours.

This habitual cruelty is first caught at school, where it is one of the 
rare sports of the boys to torment the miserable brutes that fall in their 
way. The transition, as they grow up, from barbarity to brutes to domestic 
tyranny over wives, children, and servants, is very easy. Justice, or even 
benevolence, will not be a powerful spring of action unless it be extended 
to the whole creation; nay, I believe that it may be delivered as an 
axiom, that those who can see pain, unmoved, will soon learn to inflict it.

The vulgar are swayed by present feelings, and the habits which they have 
accidentally acquired; but on partial feelings much dependence cannot be 
placed, though they be just; for, when they are not invigorated by 
reflection, custom weakens them, till they are scarcely felt. The 
sympathies of our nature are strengthened by pondering cogitations, and 
deadened by thoughtless use. Mackbeth's heart smote him more for one 
murder, the first, than for a hundred subsequent ones, which were 
necessary to back it. But, when I used the epithet vulgar, I did not mean 
to confine my remark to the poor, for partial humanity, founded on present 
sensations, or whim, is quite as conspicuous, if not more so, amongst the 
rich.

The lady who sheds tears for the bird starved in a snare, and execrates 
the devils in the shape of men, who goad to madness the poor ox, or whip 
the patient ass, tottering under a burden above its strength, will, 
nevertheless, keep her coachman and horses whole hours waiting for her, 
when the sharp frost bites, or the rain beats against the well-closed 
windows which do not admit a breath of air to tell her how roughly the 
wind blows without. And she who takes her dogs to bed, and nurses them, 
with a parade of sensibility, when sick, will suffer her babes to grow up 
crooked in a nursery. This illustration of my argument is drawn from a 
matter of fact. The woman whom I allude to was handsome, reckoned very 
handsome, by those who do not miss the mind when the face is plump and 
fair; but her understanding had not been led from female duties by 
literature, nor her innocence debauched by knowledge. No, she was quite 
feminine, according to the masculine acceptation of the word; and, so far 
from loving these spoiled brutes that filled the place which her children 
ought to have occupied, she only lisped out a pretty mixture of French and 
English nonsense, to please the men who flocked round her. The wife, 
mother, and human creature, were all swallowed up by the factitious 
character which an improper education and the selfish vanity of beauty had 
produced.

I do not like to make a distinction without a difference, and I own that I 
have been as much disgusted by the fine lady who took her lap-dog to her 
bosom instead of her child; as by the ferocity of a man, who, beating his 
horse, declared, that he knew as well when he did wrong, as a Christian.

This brood of folly shews how mistaken they are who, if they allow women 
to leave their harams, do not cultivate their understandings, in order to 
plant virtues in their hearts. For had they sense, they might acquire that 
domestic taste which would lead them to love with reasonable subordination 
their whole family, from their husband to the house-dog; nor would they 
ever insult humanity in the person of the most menial servant by paying 
more attention to the comfort of a brute, than to that of a fellow-
creature.

My observations on national education are obviously hints; but I 
principally wish to enforce the necessity of educating the sexes together 
to perfect both, and of making children sleep at home that they may learn 
to love home; yet to make private support, instead of smothering, public 
affections, they should be sent to school to mix with a number of equals, 
for only by the jostlings of equality can we form a just opinion of 
ourselves.

To render mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes must 
act from the same principle; but how can that be expected when only one is 
allowed to see the reasonableness of it? To render also the social compact 
truly equitable, and in order to spread those enlightening principles, 
which alone can meliorate the fate of man, women must be allowed to found 
their virtue on knowledge, which is scarcely possible unless they be 
educated by the same pursuits as men. For they are now made so inferiour 
by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them; 
or, by the serpentine wrigglings of cunning they mount the tree of 
knowledge, and only acquire sufficient to lead men astray.

It is plain from the history of all nations, that women cannot be confined 
to merely domestic pursuits, for they will not fulfil family duties, 
unless their minds take a wider range, and whilst they are kept in 
ignorance they become in the same proportion the slaves of pleasure as 
they are the slaves of man. Nor can they be shut out of great enterprises, 
though the narrowness of their minds often make them mar, what they are 
unable to comprehend.

The libertinism, and even the virtues of superiour men, will always give 
women, of some description, great power over them; and these weak women, 
under the influence of childish passions and selfish vanity, will throw a 
false light over the objects which the very men view with their eyes, who 
ought to enlighten their judgment. Men of fancy, and those sanguine 
characters who mostly hold the helm of human affairs, in general, relax in 
the society of women; and surely I need not cite to the most superficial 
reader of history the numerous examples of vice and oppression which the 
private intrigues of female favourites have produced; not to dwell on the 
mischief that naturally arises from the blundering interposition of well-
meaning folly. For in the transactions of business it is much better to 
have to deal with a knave than a fool, because a knave adheres to some 
plan; and any plan of reason may be seen through much sooner than a sudden 
flight of folly. The power which vile and foolish women have had over wise 
men, who possessed sensibility, is notorious; I shall only mention one 
instance.

Who ever drew a more exalted female character than Rousseau? though in the 
lump he constantly endeavoured to degrade the sex. And why was he thus 
anxious? Truly to justify to himself the affection which weakness and 
virtue had made him cherish for that fool Theresa. He could not raise her 
to the common level of her sex; and therefore he laboured to bring woman 
down to her's. He found her a convenient humble companion, and pride made 
him determine to find some superiour virtues in the being whom he chose to 
live with; but did not her conduct during his life, and after his death, 
clearly shew how grossly he was mistaken who called her a celestial 
innocent. Nay, in the bitterness of his heart, he himself laments, that 
when his bodily infirmities made him no longer treat her like a woman, she 
ceased to have an affection for him. And it was very natural that she 
should, for having so few sentiments in common, when the sexual tie was 
broken, what was to hold her? To hold her affection whose sensibility was 
confined to one sex, nay, to one man, it requires sense to turn 
sensibility into the broad channel of humanity; many women have not mind 
enough to have an affection for a woman, or a friendship for a man. But 
the sexual weakness that makes woman depend on a man for a subsistence, 
produces a kind of cattish affection, which leads a wife to purr about her 
husband as she would about any man who fed and caressed her.

Men are, however, often gratified by this kind of fondness, which is 
confined in a beastly manner to themselves; but should they ever become 
more virtuous, they will wish to converse at their fire-side with a 
friend, after they cease to play with a mistress.

Besides, understanding is necessary to give variety and interest to 
sensual enjoyments, for low, indeed, in the intellectual scale, is the 
mind that can continue to love when neither virtue nor sense give a human 
appearance to an animal appetite. But sense will always preponderate; and 
if women are not, in general, brought more on a level with men, some 
superiour women, like the Greek courtezans, will assemble the men of 
abilities around them, and draw from their families many citizens, who 
would have stayed at home had their wives had more sense, or the graces 
which result from the exercise of the understanding and fancy, the 
legitimate parents of taste. A woman of talents, if she be not absolutely 
ugly, will always obtain great power, raised by the weakness of her sex; 
and in proportion as men acquire virtue and delicacy, by the exertion of 
reason, they will look for both in women, but they can only acquire them 
in the same way that men do.

In France or Italy, have the women confined themselves to domestic life? 
though they have not hitherto had a political existence, yet, have they 
not illicitly had great sway? corrupting themselves and the men with whose 
passions they played. In short, in whatever light I view the subject, 
reason and experience convince me that the only method of leading women to 
fulfil their peculiar duties, is to free them from all restraint by 
allowing them to participate the inherent rights of mankind.

Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men 
become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which 
one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their 
oppressors, the virtue of man will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he 
keeps under his feet.

Let men take their choice, man and woman were made for each other, though 
not to become one being; and if they will not improve women, they will 
deprave them!

I speak of the improvement and emancipation of the whole sex, for I know 
that the behaviour of a few women, who, by accident, or following a strong 
bent of nature, have acquired a portion of knowledge superiour to that of 
the rest of their sex, has often been overbearing; but there have been 
instances of women who, attaining knowledge, have not discarded modesty, 
nor have they always pedantically appeared to despise the ignorance which 
they laboured to disperse in their own minds. The exclamations then which 
any advice respecting female learning, commonly produces, especially from 
pretty women, often arise from envy. When they chance to see that even the 
lustre of their eyes, and the flippant sportiveness of refined coquetry 
will not always secure them attention, during a whole evening, should a 
woman of a more cultivated understanding endeavour to give a rational turn 
to the conversation, the common source of consolation is, that such women 
seldom get husbands. What arts have I not seen silly women use to 
interrupt by flirtation, a very significant word to describe such a 
manoeuvre, a rational conversation, which made the men forget that they 
were pretty women.

But, allowing what is very natural to man, that the possession of rare 
abilities is really calculated to excite over-weening pride, disgusting in 
both men and women -- in what a state of inferiority must the female 
faculties have rusted when such a small portion of knowledge as those 
women attained, who have sneeringly been termed learned women, could be 
singular? -- Sufficiently so to puff up the possessor, and excite envy in 
her contemporaries, and some of the other sex. Nay, has not a little 
rationality exposed many women to the severest censure? I advert to well 
known facts, for I have frequently heard women ridiculed, and every little 
weakness exposed, only because they adopted the advice of some medical 
men, and deviated from the beaten track in their mode of treating their 
infants. I have actually heard this barbarous aversion to innovation 
carried still further, and a sensible woman stigmatized as an unnatural 
mother, who has thus been wisely solicitous to preserve the health of her 
children, when in the midst of her care she has lost one by some of the 
casualties of infancy, which no prudence can ward off. Her acquaintance 
have observed, that this was the consequence of new-fangled notions -- the 
new-fangled notions of ease and cleanliness. And those who pretending to 
experience, though they have long adhered to prejudices that have, 
according to the opinion of the most sagacious physicians, thinned the 
human race, almost rejoiced at the disaster that gave a kind of sanction 
to prescription.

Indeed, if it were only on this account, the national education of women 
is of the utmost consequence, for what a number of human sacrifices are 
made to that moloch prejudice! And in how many ways are children destroyed 
by the lasciviousness of man? The want of natural affection, in many 
women, who are drawn from their duty by the admiration of men, and the 
ignorance of others, render the infancy of man a much more perilous state 
than that of brutes; yet men are unwilling to place women in situations 
proper to enable them to acquire sufficient understanding to know how even 
to nurse their babes.

So forcibly does this truth strike me, that I would rest the whole 
tendency of my reasoning upon it, for whatever tends to incapacitate the 
maternal character, takes woman out of her sphere.

But it is vain to expect the present race of weak mothers either to take 
that reasonable care of a child's body, which is necessary to lay the 
foundation of a good constitution, supposing that it do not suffer for the 
sins of its fathers; or, to manage its temper so judiciously that the 
child will not have, as it grows up, to throw off all that its mother, its 
first instructor, directly or indirectly taught; and unless the mind have 
uncommon vigour, womanish follies will stick to the character throughout 
life. The weakness of the mother will be visited on the children! And 
whilst women are educated to rely on their husbands for judgment, this 
must ever be the consequence, for there is no improving an understanding 
by halves, nor can any being act wisely from imitation, because in every 
circumstance of life there is a kind of individuality, which requires an 
exertion of judgment to modify general rules. The being who can think 
justly in one track, will soon extend its intellectual empire; and she who 
has sufficient judgment to manage her children, will not submit, right or 
wrong, to her husband, or patiently to the social laws which make a 
nonentity of a wife.

In public schools women, to guard against the errors of ignorance, should 
be taught the elements of anatomy and medicine, not only to enable them to 
take proper care of their own health, but to make them rational nurses of 
their infants, parents, and husbands; for the bills of mortality are 
swelled by the blunders of self-willed old women, who give nostrums of 
their own without knowing any thing of the human frame. It is likewise 
proper, only in a domestic view, to make women acquainted with the anatomy 
of the mind, by allowing the sexes to associate together in every pursuit; 
and by leading them to observe the progress of the human understanding in 
the improvement of the sciences and arts; never forgetting the science of 
morality, nor the study of the political history of mankind.

A man has been termed a microcosm, and every family might also be called a 
state. States, it is true, have mostly been governed by arts that disgrace 
the character of man; and the want of a just constitution, and equal laws, 
have so perplexed the notions of the worldly wise, that they more than 
question the reasonableness of contending for the rights of humanity. Thus 
morality, polluted in the national reservoir, sends off streams of vice to 
corrupt the constituent parts of the body politic; but should more noble, 
or rather, more just principles regulate the laws, which ought to be the 
government of society, and not those who execute them, duty might become 
the rule of private conduct. 

Besides, by the exercise of their bodies and minds women would acquire 
that mental activity so necessary in the maternal character, united with 
the fortitude that distinguishes steadiness of conduct from the obstinate 
perverseness of weakness. For it is dangerous to advise the indolent to be 
steady, because they instantly become rigorous, and to save themselves 
trouble, punish with severity faults that the patient fortitude of reason 
might have prevented.

But fortitude presupposes strength of mind; and is strength of mind to be 
acquired by indolent acquiescence? by asking advice instead of exerting 
the judgment? by obeying through fear, instead of practising the 
forbearance, which we all stand in need of ourselves? -- The conclusion 
which I wish to draw, is obvious; make women rational creatures, and free 
citizens, and they will quickly become good wives, and mothers; that is -- 
if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.

Discussing the advantages which a public and private education combined, 
as I have sketched, might rationally be expected to produce, I have dwelt 
most on such as are particularly relative to the female world, because I 
think the female world oppressed; yet the gangrene, which the vices 
engendered by oppression have produced, is not confined to the morbid 
part, but pervades society at large: so that when I wish to see my sex 
become more like moral agents, my heart bounds with the anticipation of 
the general diffusion of that sublime contentment which only morality can 
diffuse.

(1. I now particularly allude to the numerous academies in, and about 
London, and to the behaviour of the trading part of this great city.)

(2. I remember a circumstance that once came under my own observation, and 
raised my indignation. I went to visit a little boy at a school where 
young children were prepared for a larger one. The master took me into the 
school-room, &c. but whilst I walked down a broad gravel walk, I could not 
help observing that the grass grew very luxuriantly on each side of me. I 
immediately asked the child some questions, and found that the poor boys 
were not allowed to stir off the walk, and that the master sometimes 
permitted sheep to be turned in to crop the untrodden grass. The tyrant of 
this domain used to sit by a window that overlooked the prison yard, and 
one nook turning from it, where the unfortunate babes could sport freely, 
he enclosed, and planted it with potatoes. The wife likewise was equally 
anxious to keep the children in order, lest they should dirty or tear 
their clothes.)

(3. France.)

(4. Treating this part of the subject, I have borrowed some hints from a 
very sensible pamphlet, written by the late bishop of Autun on Public 
Education.)

(5. The Bishop of Autun's.)