Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Chapter XIII



CHAPTER XIII. SOME INSTANCES OF THE FOLLY WHICH THE IGNORANCE OF WOMEN 
GENERATES; WITH CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL IMPROVEMENT THAT A 
REVOLUTION IN FEMALE MANNERS MIGHT NATURALLY BE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE.

THERE are many follies, in some degree, peculiar to women: sins against 
reason of commission as well as of omission; but all flowing from 
ignorance or prejudice, I shall only point out such as appear to be 
particularly injurious to their moral character. And in animadverting on 
them, I wish especially to prove, that the weakness of mind and body, 
which men have endeavoured, impelled by various motives, to perpetuate, 
prevents their discharging the peculiar duty of their sex: for when 
weakness of body will not permit them to suckle their children, and 
weakness of mind makes them spoil their tempers -- is woman in a natural 
state?

Sect. I.

ONE glaring instance of the weakness which proceeds from ignorance, first 
claims attention, and calls for severe reproof.

In this metropolis a number of lurking leeches infamously gain a 
subsistence by practising on the credulity of women, pretending to cast 
nativities, to use the technical word; and many females who, proud of 
their rank and fortune, look down on the vulgar with sovereign contempt, 
shew by this credulity, that the distinction is arbitrary, and that they 
have not sufficiently cultivated their minds to rise above vulgar 
prejudices. Women, because they have not been led to consider the 
knowledge of their duty as the one thing necessary to know, or, to live in 
the present moment by the discharge of it, are very anxious to peep into 
futurity, to learn what they have to expect to render life interesting, 
and to break the vacuum of ignorance.

I must be allowed to expostulate seriously with the ladies who follow 
these idle inventions; for ladies, mistresses of families, are not ashamed 
to drive in their own carriages to the door of the cunning man.(1) And if 
any of them should peruse this work, I entreat them to answer to their own 
hearts the following questions, not forgetting that they are in presence 
of God:

Do you believe that there is but one God, and that he is powerful, wise, 
and good?

Do you believe that all things were created by him, and that all beings 
are dependent on him?

Do you rely on his wisdom, so conspicuous in his works, and in your own 
frame, and are you convinced that he has ordered all things which do not 
come under the cognizance of your senses, in the same perfect harmony, to 
fulfil his designs?

Do you acknowledge that the power of looking into futurity, and seeing 
things that are not, as if they were, is an attribute of the Creator? And 
should he, by an impression on the minds of his creatures, think fit to 
impart to them some event hid in the shades of time yet unborn, to whom 
would the secret be revealed by immediate inspiration? The opinion of ages 
will answer this question -- to reverend old men, to people distinguished 
for eminent piety.

The oracles of old were thus delivered by priests dedicated to the service 
of the God who was supposed to inspire them. The glare of worldly pomp 
which surrounded these impostors, the respect paid to them by artful 
politicians, who knew how to avail themselves of this useful engine to 
bend the necks of the strong under the dominion of the cunning, spread a 
sacred mysterious veil of sanctity over their lies and abominations. 
Impressed by such solemn devotional parade, a Greek, or Roman lady might 
be excused, if she enquired of the oracle, when she was anxious to pry 
into futurity, or enquire about some dubious event: and her enquiries, 
however contrary to reason, could not be reckoned impious. -- But, can the 
professors of Christianity ward off that imputation? Can a Christian 
suppose that the favourites of the most High, the highly favoured, would 
be obliged to lurk in disguise, and practise the most dishonest tricks to 
cheat silly women out of the money -- which the poor cry for in vain?

Say not that such questions are an insult to common sense -- for it is 
your own conduct, O ye foolish women! which throws an odium on your sex! 
And these reflections should make you shudder at your thoughtlessness, and 
irrational devotion. -- For I do not suppose that all of you laid aside 
your religion, such as it is, when you entered those mysterious dwellings. 
Yet, as I have throughout supposed myself talking to ignorant women, for 
ignorant ye are in the most emphatical sense of the word, it would be 
absurd to reason with you on the egregious folly of desiring to know what 
the Supreme Wisdom has concealed.

Probably you would not understand me, were I to attempt to shew you that 
it would be absolutely inconsistent with the grand purpose of life, that 
of rendering human creatures wise and virtuous: and that, were it 
sanctioned by God, it would disturb the order established in creation; and 
if it be not sanctioned by God, do you expect to hear truth? Can events be 
foretold, events which have not yet assumed a body to become subject to 
mortal inspection, can they be foreseen by a vicious worldling, who 
pampers his appetites by preying on the foolish ones?

Perhaps, however, you devoutly believe in the devil, and imagine, to shift 
the question, that he may assist his votaries; but, if really respecting 
the power of such a being, an enemy to goodness and to God, can you go to 
church after having been under such an obligation to him?

From these delusions to those still more fashionable deceptions, practised 
by the whole tribe of magnetisers, the transition is very natural. With 
respect to them, it is equally proper to ask women a few questions.

Do you know any thing of the construction of the human frame? if not, it 
is proper that you should be told what every child ought to know, that 
when its admirable economy has been disturbed by intemperance or 
indolence, I speak not of violent disorders, but of chronical diseases, it 
must be brought into a healthy state again, by slow degrees, and if the 
functions of life have not been materially injured, regimen, another word 
for temperance, air, exercise, and a few medicines prescribed by persons 
who have studied the human body, are the only human means, yet discovered, 
of recovering that inestimable blessing, health, that will bear 
investigation.

Do you then believe that these magnetisers, who, by hocus pocus tricks, 
pretend to work a miracle, are delegated by God, or assisted by the solver 
of all these kind of difficulties -- the devil.

Do they, when they put to flight, as it is said, disorders that have 
baffled the powers of medicine, work in conformity to the light of reason? 
or, do they effect these wonderful cures by supernatural aid?

By a communication, an adept may answer, with the world of spirits. A 
noble privilege, it must be allowed. Some of the ancients mention familiar 
demons, who guarded them from danger by kindly intimating, we cannot guess 
in what manner, when any danger was nigh; or, pointed out what they ought 
to undertake. Yet the men who laid claim to this privilege, out of the 
order of nature, insisted that it was the reward, or consequence, of 
superiour temperance and piety. But the present workers of wonders are not 
raised above their fellows by superiour temperance or sanctity. They do 
not cure for the love of God, but money. These are the priests of 
quackery, though it be true they have not the convenient expedient of 
selling masses for souls in purgatory, nor churches where they can display 
crutches, and models of limbs made sound by a touch or a word.

I am not conversant with the technical terms, or initiated into the 
arcana, therefore, I may speak improperly; but it is clear that men who 
will not conform to the law of reason, and earn a subsistence in an honest 
way, by degrees, are very fortunate in becoming acquainted with such 
obliging spirits. We cannot, indeed, give them credit for either great 
sagacity or goodness, else they would have chosen more noble instruments, 
when they wished to shew themselves the benevolent friends of man.

It is, however, little short of blasphemy to pretend to such powers!

From the whole tenor of the dispensations of Providence, it appears 
evident to sober reason, that certain vices produce certain effects; and 
can any one so grossly insult the wisdom of God, as to suppose that a 
miracle will be allowed to disturb his general laws, to restore to health 
the intemperate and vicious, merely to enable them to pursue the same 
course with impunity? Be whole, and sin no more, said Jesus. And, are 
greater miracles to be performed by those who do not follow his footsteps, 
who healed the body to reach the mind?

The mentioning of the name of Christ, after such vile impostors, may 
displease some of my readers -- I respect their warmth; but let them not 
forget that the followers of these delusions bear his name, and profess to 
be the disciples of him, who said, by their works we should know who were 
the children of God or the servants of sin. I allow that it is easier to 
touch the body of a saint, or to be magnetised, than to restrain our 
appetites or govern our passions; but health of body or mind can only be 
recovered by these means, or we make the Supreme Judge partial and 
revengeful.

Is he a man that he should change, or punish out of resentment? He -- the 
common father, wounds but to heal, says reason, and our irregularities 
producing certain consequences, we are forcibly shewn the nature of vice; 
that thus learning to know good from evil, by experience, we may hate one 
and love the other, in proportion to the wisdom which we attain. The 
poison contains the antidote; and we either reform our evil habits and 
cease to sin against our own bodies, to use the forcible language of 
scripture, or a premature death, the punishment of sin, snaps the thread 
of life.

Here an awful stop is put to our enquiries. -- But, why should I conceal 
my sentiments? Considering the attributes of God, I believe that whatever 
punishment may follow, will tend, like the anguish of disease, to shew the 
malignity of vice, for the purpose of reformation. Positive punishment 
appears so contrary to the nature of God, discoverable in all his works, 
and in our own reason, that I could sooner believe that the Deity paid no 
attention to the conduct of men, than that he punished without the 
benevolent design of reforming.

To suppose only that an all-wise and powerful Being, as good as he is 
great, should create a being foreseeing, that after fifty or sixty years 
of feverish existence, it would be plunged into never ending woe -- is 
blasphemy. On what will the worm feed that is never to die? -- On folly, 
on ignorance, say ye -- I should blush indignantly at drawing the natural 
conclusion, could I insert it, and wish to withdraw myself from the wing 
of my God! -- On such a supposition, I speak with reverence, he would be a 
consuming fire. We should wish, though vainly, to fly from his presence 
when fear absorbed love, and darkness involved all his counsels!

I know that many devout people boast of submitting to the Will of God 
blindly, as to an arbitrary sceptre or rod, on the same principle as the 
Indians worship the devil. In other words, like people in the common 
concerns of life, they homage to power, and cringe under the foot that can 
crush them. Rational religion, on the contrary, is a submission to the 
will of a being so perfectly wise, that all he wills must be directed by 
the proper motive -- must be reasonable.

And, if thus we respect God, can we give credit to the mysterious 
insinuations, which insult his laws? can we believe, though it should 
stare us in the face, that he would work a miracle to authorise confusion 
by sanctioning an error? Yet we must either allow these impious 
conclusions, or treat with contempt every promise to restore health to a 
diseased body by supernatural means, or to foretell the incidents that can 
only be foreseen by God.

Sect. II.

ANOTHER instance of that feminine weakness of character, often produced by 
a confined education, is a romantic twist of the mind, which has been very 
properly termed sentimental.

Women subjected by ignorance to their sensations, and only taught to look 
for happiness in love, refine on sensual feelings, and adopt metaphysical 
notions respecting that passion, which lead them shamefully to neglect the 
duties of life, and frequently in the midst of these sublime refinements 
they plump into actual vice.

These are the women who are amused by the reveries of the stupid 
novelists, who, knowing little of human nature, work up stale tales, and 
describe meretricious scenes, all retailed in a sentimental jargon, which 
equally tend to corrupt the taste, and draw the heart aside from its daily 
duties. I do not mention the understanding, because never having been 
exercised, its slumbering energies rest inactive, like the lurking 
particles of fire which are supposed universally to pervade matter.

Females, in fact, denied all political privileges, and not allowed, as 
married women, excepting in criminal cases, a civil existence, have their 
attention naturally drawn from the interest of the whole community to that 
of the minute parts, though the private duty of any member of society must 
be very imperfectly performed when not connected with the general good. 
The mighty business of female life is to please, and restrained from 
entering into more important concerns by political and civil oppression, 
sentiments become events, and reflection deepens what it should, and would 
have effaced, if the understanding had been allowed to take a wider range.

But, confined to trifling employments, they naturally imbibe opinions 
which the only kind of reading calculated to interest an innocent 
frivolous mind, inspires. Unable to grasp any thing great, is it 
surprising that they find the reading of history a very dry task, and 
disquisitions addressed to the understanding intollerably tedious, and 
almost unintelligible? Thus are they necessarily dependent on the novelist 
for amusement. Yet, when I exclaim against novels, I mean when contrasted 
with those works which exercise the understanding and regulate the 
imagination. -- For any kind of reading I think better than leaving a 
blank still a blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement 
and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers; 
besides even the productions that are only addressed to the imagination, 
raise the reader a little above the gross gratification of appetites, to 
which the mind has not given a shade of delicacy.

This observation is the result of experience; for I have known several 
notable women, and one in particular, who was a very good woman -- as good 
as such a narrow mind would allow her to be, who took care that her 
daughters (three in number) should never see a novel. As she was a woman 
of fortune and fashion, they had various masters to attend them, and a 
sort of menial governess to watch their footsteps. From their masters they 
learned how tables, chairs, &c. were called in French and Italian; but as 
the few books thrown in their way were far above their capacities, or 
devotional, they neither acquired ideas nor sentiments, and passed their 
time when not compelled to repeat words, in dressing, quarrelling with 
each other, or conversing with their maids by stealth, till they were 
brought into company as marriageable. 

Their mother, a widow, was busy in the mean time in keeping up her 
connections, as she termed a numerous acquaintance, lest her girls should 
want a proper introduction into the great world. And these young ladies, 
with minds vulgar in every sense of the word, and spoiled tempers, entered 
life puffed up with notions of their own consequence, and looking down 
with contempt on those who could not vie with them in dress and parade.

With respect to love, nature, or their nurses, had taken care to teach 
them the physical meaning of the word; and, as they had few topics of 
conversation, and fewer refinements of sentiment, they expressed their 
gross wishes not in very delicate phrases, when they spoke freely, talking 
of matrimony.

Could these girls have been injured by the perusal of novels? I almost 
forgot a shade in the character of one of them; she affected a simplicity 
bordering on folly, and with a simper would utter the most immodest 
remarks and questions, the full meaning of which she had learned whilst 
secluded from the world, and afraid to speak in her mother's presence, who 
governed with a high hand: they were all educated, as she prided herself, 
in a most exemplary manner; and read their chapters and psalms before 
breakfast, never touching a silly novel.

This is only one instance; but I recollect many other women who, not led 
by degrees to proper studies, and not permitted to choose for themselves, 
have indeed been overgrown children; or have obtained, by mixing in the 
world, a little of what is termed common sense; that is a distinct manner 
of seeing common occurrences, as they stand detached: but what deserves 
the name of intellect, the power of gaining general or abstract ideas, or 
even intermediate ones, was out of the question. Their minds were 
quiescent, and when they were not roused by sensible objects and 
employments of that kind, they were low-spirited, would cry, or go to 
sleep.

When, therefore, I advise my sex not to read such flimsy works, it is to 
induce them to read something superiour; for I coincide in opinion with a 
sagacious man, who, having a daughter and niece under his care, pursued a 
very different plan with each.

The niece, who had considerable abilities, had, before she left to his 
guardianship, been indulged in desultory reading. Her he endeavoured to 
lead, and did lead to history and moral essays; but his daughter, whom a 
fond, weak mother had indulged, and who consequently was averse to every 
thing like application, he allowed to read novels: and used to justify his 
conduct by saying, that if she ever attained a relish for reading them, he 
should have some foundation to work upon; and that erroneous opinions were 
better than none at all.

In fact, the female mind has been so totally neglected, that knowledge was 
only to be acquired from this muddy source, till from reading novels some 
women of superiour talents learned to despise them.

The best method, I believe, that can be adopted to correct a fondness for 
novels is to ridicule them: not indiscriminately, for then it would have 
little effect; but, if a judicious person, with some turn for humour, 
would read several to a young girl, and point out both by tones, and apt 
comparisons with pathetic incidents and heroic characters in history, how 
foolishly and ridiculously they caricatured human nature, just opinions 
might be substituted instead of romantic sentiments.

In one respect, however, the majority of both sexes resemble, and equally 
shew a want of taste and modesty. Ignorant women, forced to be chaste to 
preserve their reputation, allow their imagination to revel in the 
unnatural and meretricious scenes sketched by the novel writers of the 
day, slighting as insipid the sober dignity and matronly graces of history,
(2) whilst men carry the same vitiated taste into life, and fly for 
amusement to the wanton, from the unsophisticated charms of virtue, and 
the grave respectability of sense.

Besides, the reading of novels makes women, and particularly ladies of 
fashion, very fond of using strong expressions and superlatives in 
conversation; and, though the dissipated artificial life which they lead 
prevents their cherishing any strong legitimate passion, the language of 
passion in affected tones slips forever from their glib tongues, and every 
trifle produces those phosphoric bursts which only mimick in the dark the 
flame of passion.

Sect. III.

IGNORANCE and the mistaken cunning that nature sharpens in weak heads as a 
principle of self-preservation, render women very fond of dress, and 
produce all the vanity which such a fondness may naturally be expected to 
generate, to the exclusion of emulation and magnanimity.

I agree with Rousseau that the physical part of the art of pleasing 
consists in ornaments, and for that very reason I should guard girls 
against the contagious fondness for dress so common to weak women, that 
they may not rest in the physical part. Yet, weak are the women who 
imagine that they can long please without the aid of the mind, or, in 
other words, without the moral art of pleasing. But the moral art, if it 
be not a profanation to use the word art, when alluding to the grace which 
is an effect of virtue, and not the motive of action, is never to be found 
with ignorance; the sportiveness of innocence, so pleasing to refined 
libertines of both sexes, is widely different in its essence from this 
superiour gracefulness.

A strong inclination for external ornaments ever appears in barbarous 
states, only the men not the women adorn themselves; for where women are 
allowed to be so far on a level with men, society has advanced, at least, 
one step in civilization.

The attention to dress, therefore, which has been thought a sexual 
propensity, I think natural to mankind. But I ought to express myself with 
more precision. When the mind is not sufficiently opened to take pleasure 
in reflection, the body will be adorned with sedulous care; and ambition 
will appear in tattooing or painting it.

So far is this first inclination carried, that even the hellish yoke of 
slavery cannot stifle the savage desire of admiration which the black 
heroes inherit from both their parents, for all the hardly earned savings 
of a slave are commonly expended in a little tawdry finery. And I have 
seldom known a good male or female servant that was not particularly fond 
of dress. Their clothes were their riches; and, I argue from analogy, that 
the fondness for dress, so extravagant in females, arises from the same 
cause -- want of cultivation of mind. When men meet they converse about 
business, politics, or literature; but, says Swift, 'how naturally do 
women apply their hands to each others lappets and ruffles.' And very 
natural is it -- for they have not any business to interest them, have not 
a taste for literature, and they find politics dry, because they have not 
acquired a love for mankind by turning their thoughts to the grand 
pursuits that exalt the human race, and promote general happiness.

Besides, various are the paths to power and fame which by accident or 
choice men pursue, and though they jostle against each other, for men of 
the same profession are seldom friends, yet there is a much greater number 
of their fellow-creatures with whom they never clash. But women are very 
differently situated with respect to each other -- for they are all rivals.

Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after, with a few 
exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the persevering 
pertinacity of instinct. Even virtuous women never forget their sex in 
company, for they are forever trying to make themselves agreeable. A 
female beauty, and a male wit appear to be equally anxious to draw the 
attention of the company to themselves; and the animosity of contemporary 
wits is proverbial.

Is it then surprising that when the sole ambition of woman centres in 
beauty, and interest gives vanity additional force, perpetual rivalships 
should ensue? They are all running the same race, and would rise above the 
virtue of mortals, if they did not view each other with a suspicious and 
even envious eye.

An immoderate fondness for dress, for pleasure, and for sway, are the 
passions of savages; the passions that occupy those uncivilized beings who 
have not yet extended the dominion of the mind, or even learned to think 
with the energy necessary to concatenate that abstract train of thought 
which produces principles. And that women from their education and the 
present state of civilized life, are in the same condition, cannot, I 
think, be controverted. To laugh at them then, or satirize the follies of 
a being who is never to be allowed to act freely from the light of her own 
reason, is as absurd as cruel; for, that they who are taught blindly to 
obey authority, will endeavour cunningly to elude it, is most natural and 
certain.

Yet let it be proved that they ought to obey man implicitly, and I shall 
immediately agree that it is woman's duty to cultivate a fondness for 
dress, and in order to please, and a propensity to cunning for her own 
preservation. 

The virtues, however, which are supported by ignorance, must ever be 
wavering -- the house built on sand could not endure a storm. It is almost 
unnecessary to draw the inference. -- If women are to be made virtuous by 
authority, which is a contradiction in terms, let them be immured in 
seraglios and watched with a jealous eye. -- Fear not that the iron will 
enter into their souls -- for the souls that can bear such treatment are 
made of yielding materials, just animated enough to give life to the body.

'Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,
 And best distinguish'd by black, brown, or fair.'

The most cruel wounds will of course soon heal, and they may still people 
the world, and dress to please man -- all the purposes which certain 
celebrated writers have allowed that they were created to fulfil.

Sect. IV.

WOMEN are supposed to possess more sensibility, and even humanity, than 
men, and their strong attachments and instantaneous emotions of compassion 
are given as proofs; but the clinging affection of ignorance has seldom 
any thing noble in it, and may mostly be resolved into selfishness, as 
well as the affection of children and brutes. I have known many weak women 
whose sensibility was entirely engrossed by their husbands; and as for 
their humanity, it was very faint indeed, or rather it was only a 
transient emotion of compassion. Humanity does not consist 'in a squeamish 
ear,' says an eminent orator. 'It belongs to the mind as well as the 
nerves.'

But this kind of exclusive affection, though it degrades the individual, 
should not be brought forward as a proof of the inferiority of the sex, 
because it is the natural consequence of confined views: for even women of 
superiour sense, having their attention turned to little employments, and 
private plans, rarely rise to heroism, unless when spurred on by love; and 
love, as an heroic passion, like genius, appears but once in an age. I 
therefore agree with the moralist who asserts, 'that women have seldom so 
much generosity as men;' and that their narrow affections, to which 
justice and humanity are often sacrificed, render the sex apparently 
inferiour, especially, as they are commonly inspired by men; but I contend 
that the heart would expand as the understanding gained strength, if women 
are not depressed from their cradles. 

I know that a little sensibility, and great weakness, will produce a 
strong sexual attachment, and that reason must cement friendship; 
consequently, I allow that more friendship is to be found in the male than 
the female world, and that men have a higher sense of justice. The 
exclusive affections of women seem indeed to resemble Cato's most unjust 
love for his country.

He wished to crush Carthage, not to save Rome, but to promote its vain-
glory; and, in general, it is to similar principles that humanity is 
sacrificed, for genuine duties support each other.

Besides, how can women be just or generous, when they are slaves of 
injustice?

Sect. V.

AS the rearing of children, that is, the laying a foundation of sound 
health both of body and mind in the rising generation, has justly been 
insisted on as the peculiar destination of woman, the ignorance that 
incapacitates them must be contrary to the order of things. And I contend 
that their minds can take in much more, and ought to do so, or they will 
never become sensible mothers. Many men attend to the breeding of horses, 
and overlook the management of the stable, who would, strange want of 
sense and feeling! think themselves degraded by paying attention to the 
nursery; yet, how many children are absolutely murdered by the ignorance 
of women! But when they escape, and are neither destroyed by unnatural 
negligence nor blind fondness, how few are managed properly with respect 
to the infant mind! So that to break the spirit, allowed to become vicious 
at home, a child is sent to school; and the methods taken there, which 
must be taken to keep a number of children in order, scatter the seeds of 
almost every vice in the soil thus forcibly torn up.

I have sometimes compared the struggles of these poor children who ought 
never to have felt restraint, nor would, had they been always held in with 
an even hand, to the despairing plunges of a spirited filly, which I have 
seen breaking on a strand: its feet sinking deeper and deeper in the sand 
every time it endeavoured to throw its rider, till at last it sullenly 
submitted.

I have always found horses, an animal I am attached to, very tractable 
when treated with humanity and steadiness, so that I doubt whether the 
violent methods taken to break them, do not essentially injure them; I am, 
however, certain that a child should never be thus forcibly tamed after it 
had injudiciously been allowed to run wild; for every violation of justice 
and reason, in the treatment of children, weakens their reason. And, so 
early do they catch a character, that the base of the moral character, 
experience leads me to infer, is fixed before their seventh year, the 
period during which women are allowed the sole management of children. 
Afterwards it too often happens that half the business of education is to 
correct, and very imperfectly is it done, if done hastily, the faults, 
which they would never have acquired if their mothers had had more 
understanding.

One striking instance of the folly of women must not be omitted. -- The 
manner in which they treat servants in the presence of children, 
permitting them to suppose that they ought to wait on them, and bear their 
humours. A child should always be made to receive assistance from a man or 
woman as a favour; and, as the first lesson of independence, they should 
practically be taught, by the example of their mother, not to require that 
personal attendance, which it is an insult to humanity to require, when in 
health; and instead of being led to assume airs of consequence, a sense of 
their own weakness should first make them feel the natural equality of 
man. Yet, how frequently have I indignantly heard servants imperiously 
called to put children to bed, and sent away again and again, because 
master or miss hung about mamma, to stay a little longer. Thus made 
slavishly to attend the little idol, all those most disgusting humours 
were exhibited which characterize a spoiled child.

In short, speaking of the majority of mothers, they leave their children 
entirely to the care of servants; or, because they are their children 
treat them as if they were little demi-gods, though I have always 
observed, that the women who thus idolize their children, seldom shew 
common humanity to servants, or feel the least tenderness for any children 
but their own.

It is, however, these exclusive affections, and an individual manner of 
seeing things produced by ignorance, which keep women for ever at a stand, 
with respect to improvement, and make many of them dedicate their lives to 
their children only to weaken their bodies and spoil their tempers, 
frustrating also any plan of education that a more rational father may 
adopt; for unless a mother concurs, the father who restrains will ever be 
considered as a tyrant. 

But, fulfilling the duties of a mother, a woman with a sound constitution, 
may still keep her person scrupulously neat, and assist to maintain her 
family, if necessary, or by reading and conversations with both sexes, 
indiscriminately, improve her mind. For nature has so wisely ordered 
things, that did women suckle their children, they would preserve their 
own health, and there would be such an interval between the birth of each 
child, that we should seldom see a houseful of babes. And did they pursue 
a plan of conduct, and not waste their time in following the fashionable 
vagaries of dress, the management of their household and children need not 
shut them out from literature, nor prevent their attaching themselves to a 
science with that steady eye which strengthens the mind, or practising one 
of the fine arts that cultivate the taste.

But, visiting to display finery, card-playing, and balls, not to mention 
the idle bustle of morning trifling, draw women from their duty to render 
them insignificant, to render them pleasing, according to the present 
acceptation of the word, to every man, but their husband. For a round of 
pleasures in which the affections are not exercised, cannot be said to 
improve the understanding, though it be erroneously called seeing the 
world; yet the heart is rendered cold and averse to duty, by such a 
senseless intercourse, which becomes necessary from habit even when it has 
ceased to amuse.

But, till more equality be established in society, till ranks are 
confounded and women freed, we shall not see that dignified domestic 
happiness, the simple grandeur of which cannot be relished by ignorant or 
vitiated minds; nor will the important task of education ever be properly 
begun till the person of a woman is no longer preferred to her mind. For 
it would be as wise to expect corn from tares, or figs from thistles, as 
that a foolish ignorant woman should be a good mother.

Sect. VI.

IT is not necessary to inform the sagacious reader, now I enter on my 
concluding reflections, that the discussion of this subject merely 
consists in opening a few simple principles, and clearing away the rubbish 
which obscured them. But, as all readers are not sagacious, I must be 
allowed to add some explanatory remarks to bring the subject home to 
reason -- to that sluggish reason, which supinely takes opinions on trust, 
and obstinately supports them to spare itself the labour of thinking.

Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless virtue be nursed by 
liberty, it will never attain due strength -- and what they say of man I 
extend to mankind, insisting that in all cases morals must be fixed on 
immutable principles; and, that the being cannot be termed rational or 
virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.

To render women truly useful members of society, I argue that they should 
be led, by having their understandings cultivated on a large scale, to 
acquire a rational affection for their country, founded on knowledge, 
because it is obvious that we are little interested about what we do not 
understand. And to render this general knowledge of due importance, I have 
endeavoured to shew that private duties are never properly fulfilled 
unless the understanding enlarges the heart; and that public virtue is 
only an aggregate of private. But, the distinctions established in society 
undermine both, by beating out the solid gold of virtue, till it becomes 
only the tinsel-covering of vice; for whilst wealth renders a man more 
respectable than virtue, wealth will be sought before virtue; and whilst 
women's persons are caressed, when a childish simper shews an absence of 
mind -- the mind will lie fallow. Yet, true voluptuousness must proceed 
from the mind -- for what can equal the sensations produced by mutual 
affection, supported by mutual respect? What are the cold, or feverish 
caresses of appetite, but sin embracing death, compared with the modest 
overflowings of a pure heart and exalted imagination? Yes, let me tell the 
libertine of fancy when he despises understanding in woman -- that the 
mind, which he disregards, gives life to the enthusiastic affection from 
which rapture, short-lived as it is, alone can flow! And, that, without 
virtue, a sexual attachment must expire; like a tallow candle in the 
socket, creating intolerable disgust.

To prove this, I need only observe, that men who have wasted great part of 
their lives with women, and with whom they have sought for pleasure with 
eager thirst, entertain the meanest opinion of the sex. -- Virtue, true 
refiner of joy! -- if foolish men were to fright thee from earth, in order 
to give loose to all their appetites without a check -- some sensual wight 
of taste would scale the heavens to invite thee back, to give a zest to 
pleasure!

That women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish or vicious, is, I 
think, not to be disputed; and, that the most salutary effects tending to 
improve mankind might be expected from a REVOLUTION in female manners, 
appears, at least, with a face of probability, to rise out of the 
observation. For as marriage has been termed the parent of those endearing 
charities which draw man from the brutal herd, the corrupting intercourse 
that wealth, idleness, and folly, produce between the sexes, is more 
universally injurious to morality than all the other vices of mankind 
collectively considered. To adulterous lust the most sacred duties are 
sacrificed, because before marriage, men, by a promiscuous intimacy with 
women, learned to consider love as a selfish gratification -- learned to 
separate it not only from esteem but from the affection merely built on 
habit, which mixes a little humanity with it. Justice and friendship are 
also set at defiance, and that purity of taste is vitiated which would 
naturally lead a man to relish an artless display of affection rather than 
affected airs. But that noble simplicity of affection, which dares to 
appear unadorned, has few attractions for the libertine, though it be the 
charm, which by cementing the matrimonial tie, secures to the pledges of a 
warmer passion the necessary parental attention; for children will never 
be properly educated till friendship subsists between parents. Virtue 
flies from a house divided against itself -- and a whole legion of devils 
take up their residence there.

The affection of husbands and wives cannot be pure when they have so few 
sentiments in common, and when so little confidence is established at 
home, as must be the case when their pursuits are so different. That 
intimacy from which tenderness should flow, will not, cannot subsist 
between the vicious.

Contending, therefore, that the sexual distinction which men have so 
warmly insisted upon, is arbitrary, I have dwelt on an observation, that 
several sensible men, with whom I have conversed on the subject, allowed 
to be well founded; and it is simply this, that the little chastity to be 
found amongst men, and consequent disregard of modesty, tend to degrade 
both sexes; and further, that the modesty of women, characterized as such, 
will often be only the artful veil of wantonness instead of being the 
natural reflection of purity, till modesty be universally respected.

From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the greater number of female 
follies proceed; and the cunning, which I allow makes at present a part of 
their character, I likewise have repeatedly endeavoured to prove, is 
produced by oppression.

Were not dissenters, for instance, a class of people, with strict truth 
characterized as cunning? And may I not lay some stress on this fact to 
prove, that when any power but reason curbs the free spirit of man, 
dissimulation is practised, and the various shifts of art are naturally 
called forth? Great attention to decorum, which was carried to a degree of 
scrupulosity, and all that puerile bustle about trifles and consequential 
solemnity, which Butler's caricature of a dissenter, brings before the 
imagination, shaped their persons as well as their minds in the mould of 
prim littleness. I speak collectively, for I know how many ornaments to 
human nature have been enrolled amongst sectaries; yet, I assert, that the 
same narrow prejudice for their sect, which women have for their families, 
prevailed in the dissenting part of the community, however worthy in other 
respects; and also that the same timid prudence, or headstrong efforts, 
often disgraced the exertions of both. Oppression thus formed many of the 
features of their character perfectly to coincide with that of the 
oppressed half of mankind; for is it not notorious that dissenters were, 
like women, fond of deliberating together, and asking advice of each 
other, till by a complication of little contrivances, some little end was 
brought about? A similar attention to preserve their reputation was 
conspicuous in the dissenting and female world, and was produced by a 
similar cause.

Asserting the rights which women in common with men ought to contend for, 
I have not attempted to extenuate their faults; but to prove them to be 
the natural consequence of their education and station in society. If so, 
it is reasonable to suppose that they will change their character, and 
correct their vices and follies, when they are allowed to be free in a 
physical, moral, and civil sense.(3)

Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man; for 
she must grow more perfect when emancipated, or justify the authority that 
chains such a weak being to her duty. -- If the latter, it will be 
expedient to open a fresh trade with Russia for whips; a present which a 
father should always make to his son-in-law on his wedding day, that a 
husband may keep his whole family in order by the same means; and without 
any violation of justice reign, wielding this sceptre, sole master of his 
house, because he is the only being in it who has reason: -- the divine, 
indefeasible earthly sovereignty breathed into man by the Master of the 
universe. Allowing this position, women have not any inherent rights to 
claim, and by the same rule, their duties vanish, for rights and duties 
are inseparable.

Be just then, O ye men of understanding! and mark not more severely what 
women do amiss, than the vicious tricks of the horse or the ass for whom 
ye provide provender -- and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to whom 
ye deny the rights of reason, or ye will be worse than Egyptian task-
masters, expecting virtue where nature has not given understanding!

(1. I once lived in the neighbourhood of one of these men, a handsome man, 
and saw with surprise and indignation, women, whose appearance and 
attendance bespoke that rank in which females are supposed to receive a 
superiour education, flock to his door.)

(2. I am not now alluding to that superiority of mind which leads to the 
creation of ideal beauty, when life, surveyed with a penetrating eye, 
appears a tragi-comedy, in which little can be seen to satisfy the heart 
without the help of fancy.)

(3. I had further enlarged on the advantages which might reasonably be 
expected to result from an improvement in female manners, towards the 
general reformation of society; but it appeared to me that such 
reflections would more properly close the last volume.)