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THE SCOTT LIBRARY.

THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN.

A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS
OF WOMAN. BY MARY WOLL-
STONECRAFT. WlTH AN INTRO-
DUCTION BY ELIZABETH ROBINS
PENNELL

London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick
Lane, Paternoster Row

CONTENTS.

FACE

PREFATORY NOTE - vii

DEDICATION - XXV

INTRODUCTION XXxi

CHAPTER I.

THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND

CONSIDERED 3

CHAPTER II.

THE PREVAILING OPINION OF A SEXUAL CHARACTER

DISCUSSED 14

CHAPTER III.
THE SAME SUBJECT — continued 42

CHAPTER IV.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO

WHICH WOMAN IS REDUCED BY VARIOUS CAUSES 64

CHAPTER V.

ANIMADVERSIONS ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO
HAVE RENDERED WOMEN OBJECTS OF PITY,
BORDERING ON CONTEMPT 103

CHAPTER VI.

THE EFFECT WHICH AN EARLY ASSOCIATION OF

IDEAS HAS UPON THE CHARACTER - 159

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

PAGE

MODESTY COMPREHENSIVELY CONSIDERED, AND

NOT AS A SEXUAL VIRTUE - 1 68

CHAPTER VIII.

MORALITY UNDERMINED BY SEXUAL NOTIONS OF

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD REPUTATION 184

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM
THE UNNATURAL DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN
SOCIETY - . 198

CHAPTER X.

PARENTAL AFFECTION 213

CHAPTER XI.

DUTY TO PARENTS 217

CHAPTER XII.

ON NATIONAL EDUCATION - 225

CHAPTER XIII.

SOME INSTANCES OF THE FOLLY WHICH THE IGNOR-
ANCE OF WOMAN GENERATES ; WITH CONCLUD-
ING REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL IMPROVE-
MENT THAT A REVOLUTION IN FEMALE MANNERS
MIGHT NATURALLY BE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE - 258

PREFATORY NOTE.

A HUNDRED years ago, women had not begun to
make the vindication of their rights the prominent
political and social problem it has become to-day.
People were still horrified by the doctrine that all men
had claims as human beings. Merely to write, even if
necessity forced a woman to a literary life, was to defy pub-
lic opinion — to step out of the bounds of female reserve, good
Mrs Barbauld feared. But boldly and openly to question
her social and moral position was to commit the unpardon-
able sin, and to be damned for indelicacy. Of both minor
offence and deadly crime Mary Wollstonecraft was guilty.
When she came to London, and made literature her profes-
sion, she was really the first of a new genus, as she wrote in
a letter to her sister Everina. After the publication of her
" Rights of Woman " she was denounced as a social outcast —
a " hyena in petticoats," a " philosophising serpent," Horace
Walpole politely called her. Had she worked, had her most
famous book appeared to-day, her reputation might not
have outlived her own generation. Her literary merits are
small, her teachings conservative compared to the more
advanced principles now advocated by women. But because
she saw the evils in the conception of woman's sphere and
duty then accepted even by her own sex, because she had the
courage to say what she thought and knew at a time when
women were not expected to think or to know anything, she
must always be remembered and honoured. One need not
agree with her to appreciate her strength and independence.

viii PREFATORY NOTE.

For the gospel she preached the age was intellectually, if
not socially, prepared. That woman, as a human being, has
rights was but the inevitable conclusion of the then new
philosophical theory, that " man is born free," which, as
inevitably, had been developed from the premises estab-
lished by the Reformation. But if for her theory she was
indebted to the influence of the age, her immediate practi-
cal application of it was in a great measure due to the cir-
cumstances of her own life. Had she not seen for herself
the unspeakable misery caused by the intellectual and do-
mestic degradation of woman, she would not have been so
quick to discern the flaw in the reasoning of Rousseau and
his French and English disciples. Her book gains in force
when it is realised how entirely her arguments and doctrines
are based upon experience. Indeed, without this realisa-
tion, without a knowledge of her young life's sorrows and
responsibilities, it loses half its interest.

Mary \Vollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April 1759,
either in Hoxton or in Epping Forest. Her father was the
son of a successful manufacturer in Spitalfields ; her grand-
father, on her mother's side, was a Mr Dixon of Bally-
shannon, whose social position was as assured as the wealth
of the older Mr Wollstonecraft. The latter left to his son a
fortune of ten thousand pounds — no small sum for those
days. Mary had two sisters, Everina and Eliza, who never
ceased to be heavy drains upon her financial and emotional
resources, who were as ready to criticise her actions as to
receive her favours, and whose one good quality was the
care with which they preserved her letters. Of her three
brothers, the eldest, Edward, alone was fairly successful from
the first, though by his success she never profited: the
others, James and Charles, and more particularly the third
and youngest, too often relied upon her for the help which

PREFATORY NOTE. ix

they, as men, should have afforded a sister in an age
when it was no light matter for a woman, more particu-
larly a gentlewoman, to gain her own livelihood. That Mr
Wollstonecraft, notwithstanding his ten thousand pounds,
did nothing for his children is easily explained. He was a
spendthrift, through whose fingers money slipped easily ; he
was a drunkard, with all the drunkard's worst faults ; shift-
less and restless, it was impossible for him to stay long in
any one place. Mary's early years were spent in wandering
from Epping Forest to Barking, from Beverley to Hoxton,
from Pembroke to Walworth, picking up whatever crumbs of
education she might by the way, and everywhere learning
those cruel lessons of life upon which she was later to found
her moral creed. Mr Wollstonecraft's temper, ungovern-
able at the best of times, was aggravated a hundredfold
by drink. The terror and tyrant of his household, he did
not spare even his wife ; and many a time, while she was
still a child, Mary had thrown herself between the two that
she might receive the blows meant for the mother she
loved. Many a night she had passed crouched at the
threshold of her bedroom, on the alert to play, if needed,
her part as protector in the next scene of the family
tragedy. There was little in this household to impress her
with the sanctity of the marriage tie, or the blessings result-
ing from the subjection of women. And it seemed as if
each new development in her intellectual and social career
was destined to confirm her early impressions.

The first important event of her youth was her meeting
with Fanny Blood, the friend she loved with perhaps the
strongest passion of her life, and after whom, years later,
when the latter had long since been dead, she named her
eldest daughter, the unfortunate Fanny Imlay, or Fanny
Godwin, as she is better known. Mary was about sixteen

b

x PREFA TOR Y NOTE.

when she first met Fanny Blood, who, though no older than
herself, was already contributing to the support of her
parents. Affairs with the Bloods were much the same as
with the Wollstonecrafts ; the father was a drunken brute,
the mother, weak and incompetent, and the children, in
consequence, were neglected and ill-treated. In this family
Mary was again confronted with the evils from which she
so keenly suffered in her own. But, though not without
its tragic side, the new friendship brought her her first real
happiness, and became a stimulus to her intellectual activity.
Her ambition was roused by Fanny's example, and, con-
scious that in the near future she must be wholly self-
dependent, she devoted herself to study with renewed
energy.

The time for action came quickly enough. At the age
of nineteen she went out into the world to seek her fortunes.
Her start in life was not brilliant. She became a lady's
companion, an occupation ill suited to her special talents.
But shortly afterwards, being called home by the death
of her mother, she exchanged this position for that of
governess, and during the next nine years she taught, either
in a school of her own, or in a private family, all the time
hoping that, eventually, literature might become her pro-
fession, all the time pursued by those cares from which she
was never free. Her sister Eliza, the " poor Bess " of the
voluminous Wollstonecraft correspondence, made an unfor-
tunate marriage, and it was Mary who had to watch her
during her temporary madness, who had to help her to
escape from a brutal husband in a wild flight to London.

Fanny Blood married a Mr Skeys, though he seems to
have been but a lukewarm lover, and went with him to
live in Lisbon, where, however, her health rapidly failed
and again it was Mary who had to set sail for Portugal, and

PREFATORY NOTE. xi

nurse her through her last fatal illness. Mr Wollstonecraft
was sinking lower and lower to the very depths of dissipa-
tion, so that his daughters could no longer live with him.
Whenever Everina and Eliza were in want of work to do,
they looked to Mary to find it for them. And it was to
her also that George Blood, Fanny's brother, and the two
younger Wollstonecrafts, James and Charles, turned in their
many hours of need. There was but little reason for her to
believe with Rousseau and Dr Gregory, that woman's sole
duty is to please, little reason to re-echo Mrs Barbauld's
amiable sentiment, that the highest aim for woman is to
attain knowledge enough to make herself an agreeable
companion to husband or brothers. Her duty hitherto
had been of a less passive nature, and, whatever a hus-
band might in his turn ask of her, certainly her brothers
would have been the first to rebel, had she been content
to accept Mrs Barbauld's definition of feminine usefulness.
From girlhood she was forced to support, not only her-
self, but others ; from girlhood, therefore, she could but
realise the inefficiency of a woman's early training, and
the many difficulties in her way, owing to the absurd and
artificial sexual distinction set up between men and women.
How keenly she did feel these things she was soon to show
in her " Vindication." But before she wrote it, she lived
through one more experience which impressed her with the
equally cruel and false position of the woman who, after
the same demoralising training, had not even the incentive
of work to rouse her from her sexual degradation.

She was engaged as governess by Lady Kingsborough, an
Irishwoman of high rank and fashion, and remained with
her for a year. It was in Mitchelstown she had her first
glimpse into a society of which Lady Kingsborough was a
typical member, and there is no doubt that the latter is the

xii PREFA TOR Y NO TE.

" fine lady" who figures again and again in the "Vindication,"
and in whom " 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,"
but who " was quite feminine according to the masculine
acceptation of the word." Mary was as earnest a hater of
shams as Carlyle, and, of all, the most odious to her was the
woman of sensibility. How great a martyrdom her life at the
castle seemed, is shown by the warmth with which, so speedily
after leaving it, she denounced the Lady Kingsboroughs of
society. However, there were occasional intervals when
she vied with the guests of the house in gaiety ; and, better
still, the children in her charge grew to love her. When
Margaret, the eldest, as Lady Mountcashel, long years after
in Pisa met Mary Shelley, her loving memory of her old
governess, the latter's mother, was still fresh. Indeed, it
was this affection which was indirectly the cause of Mary's
at last going to London to try her fortunes there. Lady
Kingsborough became jealous, and made some excuse to be
rid of the too clever and attractive teacher.

I have dwelt upon Mary's life during the years which
immediately preceded the publication of the work for
which she is remembered, because they had such a strong
and striking influence upon it. To know the few leading
facts, her own hard and bitter struggle, her heavy respon-
sibilities, the miserable or artificial existence of most of the
women with whom she came in contact, is to understand
the interesting personal significance of many of her most
vehement paragraphs, much of her most scathing rhetoric.

When she came to London in 1788, it was to do the
work and live the life for which she had always longed.
She had already made her maiden attempt in literature,
having written a short pamphlet called " Thoughts on the

PREFATORY NOTE. xiii

Education of Daughters," and been paid ten guineas for
it. It had been issued by Mr Johnson, the well-known
and enterprising Fleet Street publisher, and moreover had
secured her his friendship. He had doubtless seen in it
signs of literary ability, for ever since he had been urging
her to give up teaching for literature, and now that she
followed his advice, he proved practically how sincere he
had been. He employed her as his reader, as a contributor
to the Analytical Rei'ieiv, though her articles being unsigned,
have been virtually lost, and as his translator. Lavater,
Salzmann, and Necker were among the foreign authors
whose works she translated for him. Perhaps it was because
of her first joy in her freedom from the restraints of Mitchels-
town Castle, perhaps because the ever increasing demands
of her family seriously taxed her income ; but, whatever
may have been the reason, in the beginning she seems
to have hidden herself in her rooms in George Street,
Blackfriars, and to have been utterly indifferent to ordinary
comfort or appearance. She warns her sisters in letters not
to give her address to any one, and whoever did discover her
lodgings, found both them and her shabby and mean — "a
philosophical sloven," she was afterwards described. There
is a delightful story told of Talleyrand's visit to her, when
they talked politics and sociology over their tea and wine,
which they drank from the same tea-cups, wine glasses
being an unknown luxury in George Street. This very visit
of Tallyrand's shows that she was not allowed for long to live
as a recluse. The fact is, she was a woman meant to shine
in society. She was handsome ; it was not so many years
later that Southey wrote to Cottle, "Of all the lions or
literati I have seen here [London], Mary Imlay's face is the
best, infinitely the best ; " and Opie's portrait of her in the
National Gallery justifies his admiration. And she was a

xiv PREFA TOR Y NOTE.

clever talker, indeed too clever, Godwin thought when
they first met, and she monopolised the conversation, while
Paine, whom he had come to hear, sat silent. The one
house to which she went from her arrival in London was
Mr Johnson's, where all the literary men and women of the
day were to be found, and once known — to judge from the way
these matters are ordered at present — invitations must have
poured in upon her. Certainly, before very long, she was
forced from her solitude, and became the most talked-about
woman in England. Her profession made her notorious in
a day when writers like Hannah More and Mrs Barbauld
almost apologised for their work as if it were an indiscretion;
each book added to this notoriety, until finally she electrified
the European world by her " Vindication of the Rights of
Woman," published in 1792, and speedily translated into
French and German.

Before the public had ceased to talk about it, she left
London for Paris. This was in the same year, and the
French capital, maddened with blood, and in the first
ecstasy of liberty, was the dark background for the darkest,
saddest episode in all her sad life. It was here she met
Captain Gilbert Imlay, an American, apparently of means.
Because of her relation to him, even more than because of
that indecorous performance, the "Vindication," washername
for years covered with scorn and obloquy. She loved him
with the intensity of her intense nature, and he, for a while,
seems to have loved her no less well. She was then thirty-
two, and, as far as we can be certain, the only strong passion
which had as yet come into her life was her friendship for
Fanny Blood. It is useless to speculate upon her attach-
ment to 1'useli, out of which Knowles, his biographer,
evolved a pretty scandal, and Browning, a fine poem.
Letters from her to Fuseli, which might explain, are in

PREFATORY NOTE. xv

existence, but those most interested object to their publi-
cation. If she did love him — which is not without the
realms of probability — it is far more likely that, instead of
pursuing him, as Knowles records, she really went to Paris to
try and forget the man who had already pledged himself
to another woman. This, at least, is Godwin's version of
the affair. She might not attach much importance to the
marriage ceremony, but for all that she respected the tie for
which a legal sanction was, according to her, unnecessary.
Had she wanted to, it would have been difficult in the then
troubled state of Paris to marry Imlay, whom, whatever
may have been her feelings for Fuseli, there can be no ques-
tion she loved sincerely. To marry him, she must have
declared herself a British subject, and that just then meant
to risk death or imprisonment. It was doubtful, too,
whether a ceremony performed in Paris would have been
considered legal in England. These are excellent reasons
for the steps she took. And yet I think they had little
weight with her, and that it was because she believed she
was doing what was right that she went to live with Imlay,
first in Paris, and then at Havre — as his mistress in the eyes
of the world, as his wife in her own.

Why tell again the story of her short-lived happiness and
his desertion, when she has told it, once and for all, in her
letters to him ? These were published almost immediately
after her death by Godwin, and again, in a modern edition,
a few years ago, by Mr Kegan Paul. They reveal her love for
Imlay in all its stages, — from happy confidence, through un-
willingly admitted doubt, to final despair. For the sake
of their child, Fanny, she refused to give him up until it
was simply impossible for her to bear, not only his indif-
ference, but his glaring infidelities. Twice in her misery did
she seek to kill herself; the world was too cruel. But both

xvi PREFATORY NOTE.

times she was saved, sorely against her will. I know of
nothing so tragic in fiction as her second attempt. She had
gone to Battersea Bridge — it was after her return from
France — intending to leap from it into the Thames, but
there being too many people about, she hired a boat and
rowed to Putney. It was a cold, stormy November even-
ing, and not until she had walked up and down, up and
down, on the bridge, that her clothes, drenched with rain,
might make her sink the more rapidly, did she throw herself
into the river, only to be rescued, and once more forced to
face life and all its bitterness. But this second failure seems
to have calmed her, and within a few weeks — two years
and six months after the first happy days in Havre — she
parted from Imlay for ever.

Mary went back to her old life. She had now an estab-
lished position as a literary woman ; many of her friends
remained true to her, and she made many new ones. As
for the sake of her child she still called herself by Imlay's
name, the scrupulous, who wished to retain her acquaint-
ance, and yet not sacrifice their moral principles, refused to
doubt that she was his legitimate wife. Her circumstances
were easier than they had ever been before, though the
Wollstonecraft sisters seemed as unwilling to spare her feel-
ings as they had ever been to spare her purse, and though
she was not one to throw off lightly her burden of sorrow.

It was William Godwin, the defender of pure reason, who
first helped her to forget Imlay. He was forty, she three
years his junior, when they met again at the house of a
mutual friend, Miss Hayes. This time her cleverness
charmed instead of irritating him. Then, too, he was
much struck with her " Letters from Norway and Sweden,"
published about the same period, in which he thought
she had got rid of the defects of style which had dis-

PREFATORY NOTE. xvii

pleased him in her earlier works. In his own words : —
" The partiality we conceived for each other . . .
grew with equal advances in the mind of each. It would
have been impossible for the most minute observer to have
said who was before, and who was after. One sex did not
take the priority which long-established custom has awarded
it, nor the other overstep the delicacy which is so severely
imposed. . . . When, in the course of things, the dis-
closure came, there was nothing, in a manner, for either
party to disclose to the other." It would be interesting to
have Mary's version of their courtship. That she loved
Godwin with the passion she had given to Imlay is not
likely ; he was not a man to inspire it. But she probably
brought him that good friendship and intellectual com-
panionship which already, in the "Vindication," she had
declared to be of paramount importance in such a union.
At first they did not marry. Why should they have gone
through a ceremony in which neither believed ? They did
not even live together ; and perhaps it would be less often
asked if marriage is a failure, were people to follow their
example, man and wife occupying his and her separate
apartments. Custom quickly stales the limited variety of
most human beings. The notes which passed between them
at this period — notes from Mary inviting Godwin to dinner,
or to pay her a visit, or asking him to lend her a book — are
charming in their originality, and in the proof they furnish of
the entire independence of each.

When Mary found that for the second time she was to
become a mother, then, for the child's sake, they went
through the form required by society. She felt keenly her
little Fanny's false position, and justly, as time showed ; for
the realisation of her illegitimacy was probably the cause of
the latter's suicide, years afterwards. Strange to say. while

xviii PREFATORY NOTE.

Mary's informal union with Godwin estranged none of her
friends, she lost many by her marriage, — Mrs Siddons and
Mrs Inchbald among others. But the fact that she was free
to marry Godwin could leave no doubt as to the nature of
her previous relation to Imlay. However, not for long was
she to suffer from the cruelty of her friends. About twelve
months after her illegal marriage, five after the ceremony at
St Pancras Church, on the 3oth of August 1797, she gave
birth to Mary Godwin, destined to become famous as Mary
Shelley. On the loth of September, after a painful illness,
during which Godwin nursed her tenderly, but reasoning
with her to the end, Mary Wollstonecraft died at the age of
thirty-eight. She was buried at Old St Pancras, and, in days
that followed, it was by her tomb, under its overshadowing
willows, that Mary Godwin and Shelley met and talked and
loved. Mary was in the fulness of her powers when she
died ; her greatest work seemed to lie before her. But at
least she escaped a second bitter disappointment that might
have awaited her. In those short twelve months she had
already grown restive under Godwin's philosophical methods
of love, so strangely like indifference. She was happier in
death perhaps than she would have been in life.

Though the " Vindication of the Rights of Woman " is the
one book by which she is known, Mary Wollstonecraft was
the author of many others. Before she met Imlay, she had
already published, not only her " Education of Daughters,"
and her numerous translations and articles, but " Original
Stories from Real Life," somewhat in the "Sandford and
Merton " style, and now prized, in one edition at least,
because of the illustrations by Blake; "Mary," a novel,
most deservedly forgotten ; and a " Letter to Burke," in
answer to his " Reflections on the French Revolution."
After the sad Imlay episode she brought out the first

PREFATORY ^7OTE. xix

volume of "An Historical and Moral View of the Origin
and Progress of the French Revolution, and the Effect it
has produced in Europe," at which she had been working
while she was in France. This was followed by " Letters
Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway,
and Denmark," to which countries she had gone on a
mission for Imlay. And when she died, she left unfinished
a novel called " Maria ; or, The Wrongs of Woman," which
Godwin included in his edition of her posthumous works.
But it would be useless here to give extracts from any of
these books. From the literary standpoint they are without
value, and from the philosophical they have but little more.
As Southey said, Mary Wollstonecraft was just beginning to
reason when she died. Her " French Revolution," indeed,
shows a marked advance in this respect, and is, on the whole,
her most finished and workmanlike production. The story
" Maria " has been enthusiastically compared to " Les Mise-
rables" by Miss Mathilde Blind, but though interesting
because unmistakably a record of her own experiences and
feelings, it is hysterical, grandiloquent, and melodramatic. In
her stories her Johnsonian periods and " flowery diction " — to
borrow one of her own phrases— are always most offensive.
But on the other hand, the "Vindication of the Rights of
Woman," with all its faults, is an epoch-making book, and
therefore, if reprinted at all, should be given without an
omission, without a correction, — in a word, without the least
editing, as it now is in this volume. The " Letters to Imlay,"
never intended for publication, because of their genuine-
ness, their passion, their despair, and despite the somewhat
didactic strain which forced itself even into the familiar
correspondence of her days, are among the most beautiful
and pathetic love-letters ever given to the world.

The faults of the " Vindication " are too aggressive to need

xx PREFATORY NOTE.

pointing out ; they assert themselves on almost every page.
That her turgid, bombastic style should have offended a
fastidious Godwin, even when her matter must have been so
to his taste, is not hard to understand. To the present
generation her flowers of rhetoric are still more offensive, —
her exhortations to the Deity, her foolish flights of fancy,
still more unbearable. Again, though she was treating a
subject 'which was eminently one of reason and logic, her
whole book, as Mr Leslie Stephen has well said, is rhetorical
rather than speculative. It is without system, without
method. It is full of useless repetitions, and is for ever
neglecting the main argument for trifling side issues. It is
incoherent in places, sententious in others. Godwin records
that it was written in six weeks ; so hurried and careless is it
throughout that one could easily believe it to be the work of
as few days.

But with all its faults, perhaps because of them, it is a
book of unusual power. Its virtues far outweigh its defects.
Sincerity is stamped upon it; passion breathes through
every sentence, and its very earnestness and intensity are
convincing, where the well-balanced arguments of the man
who knows, but does not feel, the injustice he exposes, fail
to carry conviction with them.

In Mary's days, the social philosophy inaugurated by
Rousseau, as well as the democratic example of the colonies,
had turned men's thoughts more than ever to the problem
of liberty. The new doctrine of the abstract rights of
human beings was in every philosopher's mouth. There
were Paines and Godwins, there were French Revolutionists
to carry it to its extreme conclusion, as far as men were
concerned. But only the Abbe Sieyes (not too eagerly,
however) and Condorcet in France, a few emancipated
thinkers, a woman among their number, in Hungary, and

PREFATORY NOTE. xxi

Mary Wollstonecraft in England, had eyes to see that, if all
human beings had abstract rights, then women, as human
beings, were with men equally qualified to claim them. It
is only lately that Mr Karl D. Bulbring* has revived the
memory of the almost forgotten Mary Astell, and reminded
all interested in the matter, that it was she who first defended
woman's rights, who "took the first decided step out of
the narrow limits of tradition," one hundred years before
Mary Wollstonecraft's " Vindication" appeared. That Mary
AstelPs writings are curious and valuable in their way, no
one can deny, nor that she really deserves the distinction he
upholds for her. One cannot but wonder if her books
were known to Mary Wollstonecraft, for many of the latter's
educational suggestions resemble closely theories advocated
by the advanced woman of the earlier century. However,
Mary Astell's arguments are those of a woman of mind and
culture, who throughout her life suffered from the short-
comings of her early education, rather than of one whose
ideas were based upon principles of human liberty. What
she objected to was, " that the other sex, by means of more
extensive education . . . have a vaster field for their
imaginations to rove in, and their capacities thereby en-
larged." She was not without a proper regard for the
naturally superior strength, mental and physical, of man,
whom woman should please and obey ; and only after her
chief work was done, did she seem to realise that there
were better reasons for the higher education of women, than
that they might thereby more gracefully subject themselves
to the other sex. But then it would have been impossible
for the woman of the seventeenth century to approach the

Journal of Education, April and May numbers, 1891.

xxii PREFATORY NOTE.

subject from the standpoint of the woman of the eighteenth
who knew something of the intellectual movement of her
own age, and, when all is considered, I think Mr Bulbring
is right in looking upon Mary Astell as the forerunner of
Mary Wollstonecraft and of Mill. As far as I know, Dr
Concha of Kolozsvar, in his book on the revolutionary ideas
of Hungary in 1790, has been the first to recall the fact
that there were advocates for the rights of women — men as
well as women — in his country, at very much the same
time that the doctrine was being proclaimed in England
and France. Hungarians, too, appreciated the truth that
women and men are " brethren," or equally human beings,
and that, therefore, the former should be educated, should
have the same rights as the latter, and should take office in
the administration. But the pamphlets then written were
lost sight of, until Dr Concha unearthed them from their
forgotten corner in the Museum of Budapest ; and the fact
remains, that the only works of genuine importance on the
woman question, dating back to the eighteenth century, are
those of the French philosopher and the half-educated
young Englishwoman.

The contrast between their respective treatment of the
subject is great. Condorcet argued with all the logic of the
thoughtful student, Mary Wollstonecraft with all the fire of
the impulsive woman. And yet, the Frenchman's essays,
though in them he was far the more revolutionary of the
two, are practically forgotten, while the Englishwoman's
volume still lives as the text-book of the new generation of
believers in women's rights. But too many of her followers,
unfortunately, have failed to grasp the true meaning of the
"Vindication." Mary, were she living to-day, probably would
be one of the first to join with Mr Frederick Harrison in
his outcry against women disordered by the " fever of a

PREFATORY NOTE. xxiii

public mission." Her whole book is a protest against
shams, and she who was quick to discern the falseness of
the doll's life (the phrase was hers before Ibsenism was
invented) for the Noras of her time, could not have been
deceived by the sham ideals set up by the typical strong-
minded woman of the present. She thought women de-
graded when, because of their sex, men refused to look
upon them as human beings ; she could hardly have thought
them emancipated, if, in obtaining recognition as human
beings, they ignored their sex altogether. Let woman be her-
self; that was what she asked ; a human being with certain
sexual functions and physical appetites which it was no
shame to possess, with certain mental abilities which it was
a duty to cultivate. The Sophias of her age were the shams
she struggled to suppress. Let woman be herself and not a
mere automaton, pretty to look at, with no other object in
existence save to gratify the whims and passions of man.
Once the absurd sexual barrier was broken down, she would
be as free as he was to live her own life, to follow her own
profession, whether this was solely domestic or no. Mary
agreed with Socrates, that women should take up that work
for which they are best qualified by nature. Her suggestion
that they are eminently fitted to be doctors, shows what a
keen appreciation she had of their special characteristics.
If they chose to concern themselves with politics and public
affairs, why not if they had the proper knowledge and talents,
and were not thereby disqualified as human beings and
women? Once the woman question, as it presented itself
to her, was settled in honest straightforward fashion, she
believed that all other difficulties would disappear easily
and naturally. The main thing was to be done with shams
for evermore, not to substitute for the old sham sensibility
of puppetdom the new sham sexlessness of emancipation.

xxiv PREFATORY NOTE.

It is also worth while to note her excellent hints on the
subject of education. Her scheme for national schools,
which must have seemed so Socratic at the time, has been
very nearly realised in the United States ; her proposed
combination of work and play is an anticipation of Froebel.
She may have written from impulse; she may often have
sacrificed logic to rhetoric, but sincere partisanship never
made her lose her common - sense. She was always an
enthusiast, never a fanatic, and this, in our age of sentimental
fanaticism, is not the least of her merits.

ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL.

BUDAPEST, zyh October 1891.

DEDICATION TO
M. TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD,

Late Bishop of Antun.

SIR, — Having read with great pleasure a pamphlet which
you have lately published, I dedicate this volume to
you, to induce you to reconsider the subject, and
maturely weigh what I have advanced respecting the rights
of woman and national education ; and I call with the firm
tone of humanity, for my arguments, sir, are dictated by a
disinterested spirit — I plead for my sex, not for myself.
Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing
of life, the basis of every virtue ; and independence I will
ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live
on a barren heath.

It is then an affection for the whole human race that
makes my pen dart rapidly along to support what I believe
to be the cause of virtue ; and the same motive leads me
earnestly to wish to see woman placed in a station in which
she would advance, instead of retarding, the progress of
those glorious principles that give a substance to morality.
My opinion, indeed, respecting the rights and duties of
woman seems to flow so naturally from these simple prin-
ciples, that I think it scarcely possible but that some of the
enlarged minds who formed your admirable constitution will
coincide with me.

In France there is undoubtedly a more general diffusion
of knowledge than in any part of the European world, and
I attribute it, in a great measure, to the social intercourse

c

xxvi DEDICATION.

which has long subsisted between the sexes. It is true —
I utter my sentiments with freedom — that in France the
very essence of sensuality has been extracted to regale the
voluptuary, and a kind of sentimental lust has prevailed,
which, together with the system of duplicity that the whole
tenor of their political and civil government taught, have
given a sinister sort of sagacity to the French character,
properly termed finesse, from which naturally flow a polish of
manners that injures the substance by hunting sincerity out
of society. And modesty, the fairest garb of virtue ! has
been more grossly insulted in France than even in England,
till their women have treated as prudish that attention to
decency which brutes instinctively observe.

Manners and morals are so nearly allied that they have
often been confounded ; but, though the former should only
be the natural reflection of the latter, yet, when various
causes have produced factitious and corrupt manners, which
are very early caught, morality becomes an empty name.
The personal reserve, and sacred respect for cleanliness
and delicacy in domestic life, which French women almost
despise, are the graceful pillars of modesty; but, far from
despising them, if the pure flame of patriotism have reached
their bosoms, they should labour to improve the morals of
their fellow-citizens, by teaching men, not only to respect
modesty in women, but to acquire it themselves, as the only
way to merit their esteem.

Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument
is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared
by education to become the companion of man, she will stop
the progress of knowledge and virtue ; for truth must be
common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its
influence on general practice. And how can woman be
expected to co-operate unless she know why she ought to

D ED 1C A TION. xxvi i

be virtuous ? unless freedom strengthen her reason till she
comprehend her duty, and see in what manner it is con-
nected with her real good. If children are to be educated
to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother
must be a patriot ; and the love of mankind, from which an
orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by con-
sidering the moral and civil interest of mankind ; but the
education and situation of woman at present shuts her out
from such investigations.

In this work I have produced many arguments, which to
me were conclusive, to prove that the prevailing notion
respecting a sexual character was subversive of morality, and
I have contended, that to render the human body and mind
more perfect, chastity must more universally prevail, and
that chastity will never be respected in the male world till
the person of a woman is not, as it were, idolised, when
little virtue or sense embellish it with the grand traces of
mental beauty, or the interesting simplicity of affection.

Consider, sir, dispassionately these observations, for a
glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you
observed, "that to see one-half of the human race excluded
by the other from all participation of government was a politi-
cal phenomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was
impossible to explain." If so, on what does your constitution
rest ? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and
explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will
not shrink from the same test ; though a different opinion
prevails in this country, built on the very arguments which
you use to justify the oppression of woman — prescription.

Consider — I address you as a legislator — whether, when
men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge
for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not in-
consistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you

xxviii DEDICATION.

firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best cal-
culated to promote their happiness ? Who made man the
exclusive judge, if woman partake with him of the gift of
reason ?

In this style argue tyrants of every denomination, from
the weak king to the weak father of a family ; they are all
eager to crush reason, yet always assert that they usurp its
throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part
when you/one all women, by denying them civil and political
rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark?
for surely, sir, you will not assert that a duty can be binding
which is not founded on reason? If, indeed, this be their
destination, arguments may be drawn from reason; and thus
augustly supported, the more understanding women acquire,
the more they will be attached to their duty — comprehend-
ing it — for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be
fixed on the same immutable principle as those of man, no
authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner.
They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its
constant effect, degrading the master and the abject
dependent.

But if women are to be excluded, without having a voice,
from a participation of the natural rights of mankind, prove
first, to ward off the charge of injustice and inconsistency,
that they want reason, else this flaw in your NEW CONSTI-
TUTION will ever show that man must, in some shape, act
like a tyrant, and tyranny, in whatever part of society it
rears its brazen front, will ever undermine morality.

I have repeatedly asserted, and produced what appeared
to me irrefragable arguments drawn from matters of fact to
prove my assertion, that women cannot by force be confined
to domestic concerns ; for they will, however ignorant,
intermeddle with more weighty affairs, neglecting private

DEDICATION. xxix

duties only to disturb, by cunning tricks, the orderly plans
of reason which rise above their comprehension.

Besides, whilst they are only made to acquire personal
accomplishments, men will seek for pleasure in variety, and
faithless husbands will make faithless wives ; such ignorant
beings, indeed, will be very excusable when, not taught to
respect public good, nor allowed any civil rights, they
attempt to do themselves justice by retaliation.

The box of mischief thus opened in society, what is to
preserve private virtue, the only security of public freedom
and universal happiness ?

Let there be then no coercion established in society, and
the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into
their proper places. And now that more equitable laws are
forming your citizens, marriage may become more sacred ;
your young men may choose wives from motives of affection,
and your maidens allow love to root out vanity.

The father of a family will not then weaken his constitution
and debase his sentiments by visiting the harlot, nor forget,
in obeying the call of appetite, the purpose for which it was
implanted. And the mother will not neglect her children
to practise the arts of coquetry, when sense and modesty
secure her the friendship of her husband.

But, till men become attentive to the duty of a father, it
is vain to expect women to spend that time in their nursery
which they, " wise in their generation," choose to spend at
their glass ; for this exertion of cunning is only an instinct
of nature to enable them to obtain indirectly a little of that
power of which they are unjustly denied a share ; for, if
women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they will
render both men and themselves vicious to obtain illicit
privileges.

I wish, sir, to set some investigations of this kind afloat

xxx DEDICATION.

in France ; and should they lead to a confirmation of my
principles when your constitution is revised, the Rights of
Woman may be respected, if it be fully proved that reason
calls for this respect, and loudly demands JUSTICE for one-
half of the human race.

I am, Sir,

Yours respectfully,

M. W.

INTRODUCTION.

AFTER considering the historic page, and viewing the
living world with anxious solicitude, the most
melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have
depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to
confess that either nature has made a great difference
between man and man, or that the civilisation which has
hitherto taken place in the world has been very partial. I
have turned over various books written on the subject of
education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents
and the management of schools ; but what has been the
result ? — a profound conviction that the neglected education
of my fellow-creatures is the grand source of the misery I
deplore, and that women, in particular, are rendered weak
and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating
from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of
women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in
a healthy state ; for, like the flowers which are planted in
too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to
beauty ; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a
fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the
season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. One
cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system
of education, gathered from the books written on this sub-
ject by men who, considering females rather as women than
human creatures, have been more anxious to make them
alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational
mothers ; and the understanding of the sex has been so

xxxii INTRODUCTION.

bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilised women
of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only
anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler
ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect.

In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the
works which have been particularly written for their im-
provement must not be overlooked, especially when it is
asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are
enfeebled by false refinement ; that the books of instruction,
written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as
more frivolous productions ; and that, in the true style of
Mahometanism, they are treated as a kind of subordinate
beings, and not as a part of the human species, when im-
provable reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction
which raises men above the brute creation, and puts a
natural sceptre in a feeble hand.

Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readeis
to suppose that I mean violently to agitate the contested
question respecting the quality or inferiority of the sex ; but
as the subject lies in my way, and I cannot pass it over
without subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to
misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few
words, my opinion. In the government of the physical
world it is observable that the female in point of strength is,
in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature ;
and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in
favour of woman. A degree of physical superiority cannot,
therefore, be denied, and it is a noble prerogative ! But
not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavour
to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for
a moment ; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which
men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not
seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become

INTRODUCTION. xxxiii

the friends of the fellow-creatures who find amusement in
their society.

I am aware of an obvious inference. From every quarter
have I heard exclamations against masculine women, but
where are they to be found ? If by this appellation men
mean to inveigh against their ardour in hunting, shooting,
and gaming, I shall most cordially join in the cry ; but if it
be against the imitation of manly virtues, or, more properly
speaking, the attainment of those talents and virtues, the
exercise of which ennobles the human character, and which
raises females in the scale of animal being, when they are
comprehensively termed mankind, all those who view them
with a philosophic eye must, I should think, wish with me,
that they may every day grow more and more masculine.

This discussion naturally divides the subject. I shall first
consider women in the grand light of human creatures, who,
in common with men, are placed on this earth to unfold
their faculties ; and afterwards I shall more particularly point
out their peculiar designation.

I wish also to steer clear of an error which many respect-
able writers have fallen into ; for the instruction which has
hitherto been addressed to women, has rather been applic-
able to ladies, if the little indirect advice that is scattered
through " Sandford and Merton " be excepted ; but, address-
ing my sex in a firmer tone, I pay particular attention to those
in the middle class, because they appear to be in the most
natural state. Perhaps the seeds of false refinement, im-
morality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great.
Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and
affections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner,
undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread cor-
ruption through the whole mass of society ! As a class of
mankind they have the strongest claim to pity ; the educa-

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.

tion of the rich tends to render them vain and helpless, and
the unfolding mind is not strengthened by the practice of
those duties which dignify the human character. They only
live to amuse themselves, and by the same law which in
nature invariably produces certain effects, they soon only
afford barren amusement.

But as I purpose taking a separate view of the different
ranks of society, and of the moral character of women in
each, this hint is for the present sufficient ; and I have only
alluded to the subject because it appears to me to be the
very essence of an introduction to give a cursory account of
the contents of the work it introduces.

My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like
rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating
graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of
perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly
wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness
consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire
strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that
the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment,
and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets
of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects
of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed its
sister, will soon become objects of contempt.

Dismissing, then, those pretty feminine phrases, which the
men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence,
and despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensi-
bility, and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the
sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show
that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of
laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being,
regardless of the distinction of sex, and that secondary views
should be brought to this simple touchstone.

INTR OD UCTION. xxxv

This is a rough sketch of my plan ; and should I express
my conviction with the energetic emotions that I feel
whenever I think of the subject, the dictates of experi-
ence and reflection will be felt by some of my readers.
Animated by this important object, I shall disdain to cull my
phrases or polish my style. I aim at being useful, and sin-
cerity will render me unaffected ; for, wishing rather to per-
suade by the force of my arguments than dazzle by the
elegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in round-
ing periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial
feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart.
I shall be employed about things, not words ! and, anxious
to render my sex more respectable members of society, I
shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has slided from
essays into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and
conversation.

These pretty superlatives, dropping glibly from the tongue,
vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that
turns away from simple unadorned truth ; and a deluge of
false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the
natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic pleasures
insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of those severe
duties, which educate a rational and immortal being for a
nobler field of action.

The education of women has of late been more attended
to than formerly ; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex,
and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavour by
satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged
that they spend many of the first years of their lives in
acquiring a smattering of accomplishments ; meanwhile
strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions
of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves — the only
way women can rise in the world — by marriage. And this

xxxvi INTRODUCTION.

desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they
act as such children may be expected to act, — they dress,
they paint, and nickname God's creatures. Surely these
weak beings are only fit for a seraglio ! Can they be
expected to govern a family with judgment, or take care
of the poor babes whom they bring into the world ?

If, then, it can be fairly deduced from the present conduct
of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure which
takes place of ambition and those nobler passions that open
and enlarge the soul, that the instruction which women have
hitherto received has only tended, with the constitution of
civil society, to render them insignificant objects of desire
— mere propagators of fools ! — if it can be proved that in
aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their under-
standings, they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and
made ridiculous and useless when the short-lived bloom of
beauty is over,* I presume that rational men will excuse me
for endeavouring to persuade them to become more mas-
culine and respectable.

Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear ; there is
little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage
or fortitude, for their apparent inferiority with respect to
bodily strength must render them in some degree dependent
on men in the various relations of life ; but why should it
be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and
confound simple truths with sensual reveries?

Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken
notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a
paradox when I assert that this artificial weakness produces
a propensity to tyrannise, and gives birth to cunning, the

* A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what business
women turned of forty have to do in the world ?

INTRODUCTION. xxxvii

natural opponent of strength, which leads them to play off
those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem
even whilst they excite desire. Let men become more
chaste and modest, and if women do not grow wiser in the
same ratio, it will be clear that they have weaker under-
standings. It seems scarcely necessary to say that I now
speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have more
sense than their male relatives ; and, as nothing preponder-
ates where there is a constant struggle for an equilibrium
without it has naturally more gravity, some women govern
their husbands without degrading themselves, because intel-
lect will always govern.

VINDICATION

OF THE

RIGHTS OF WOMAN.

NOTE.

WHEN I began to write this work, I divided it into
three parts, supposing that one volume would con-
tain a full discussion of the arguments which seemed to me
to rise naturally from a few simple principles ; but fresh
illustrations occurring as I advanced, I now present only the
first part to the public.

Many subjects, however, which I have cursorily alluded
to, call for particular investigation, especially the laws re-
lative to women, and the consideration of their peculiar
duties. These will furnish ample matter for a second
volume,* which in due time will be published, to elucidate
some of the sentiments, and complete many of the sketches
begun in the first.

* The second volume never appeared.

CHAPTER I.

THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND
CONSIDERED.

IN the present state of society it appears necessary to go
back to first principles in search of the most simple
truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice
every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed
to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably
appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is
built ; though, when entangled with various motives of
action, they are formally contradicted, either by the words
or conduct of men.

In what does man's pre-eminence overthebrute_.cxeation
cOjjjgjg^r1 The answer is as clear as that a half is less than
the whole : in Reason,

What acquirement exalts one being above another?
Virtue ; we spontaneously reply.

For what purpose were the passions implanted? That
man by struggling with them might attain a degree of
knowledge denied to the brutes ;' whispers Experience.

Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability
of happiness, must be estimated by the degree of reason,
virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and
direct the laws which bind society : and that from the
exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is
equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.

The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems
almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear

4 VINDICATION OF THE

so incontrovertible ; yet such deeply rooted prejudices have
clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed
the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course
of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by
various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple
axiom with casual deviations.

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify
prejudices, which they have imDioed, they can scarcely trace
how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be
strong that resolutely forms its own principles ; for a kind
of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men
shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the
imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very
plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on
just, though narrow, views.

Going back to first principles, vice skulks, with all its
native deformity, from close investigation ; but a set of
shallow reasoners are always exclaiming that these arguments
prove too much, and that a measure rotten at the core may
be expedient. Thus expediency is continually contrasted
with simple principles, till truth is lost in a mist of words,
virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a sounding nothing,
by the specious prejudices that assume its name.

That the society is formed in the wisest manner, whose
constitution is founded on the nature of man, strikes, in the
abstract, every thinking being so forcibly, that it looks like
presumption to endeavour to bring forward proofs; though
proof must be brought, or the strong hold of prescription
will never be forced by reason ; yet to urge prescription as
an argument to justify the depriving men (or women) of
their natural rights, is one of the absurd sophisms which
daily insult common-sense.

The civilisation of the bulk of the people of Europe i

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 5

very partial ; nay, it may be made a question, whether they
have acquired any virtues in exchange for innocence, equi-
valent to the misery produced by the vices that have been
plastered over unsightly ignorance, and the freedom which
has been bartered for splendid slavery. The desire of
dazzling by riches, the most certain pre-eminence that man
can obtain, the pleasure of commanding flattering syco-
phants, and many other complicated low calculations of
doting self-love, have all contributed to overwhelm the mass
of mankind, and make liberty a convenient handle for
mock patriotism. For whilst rank and titles are held of the
utmost importance, before which Genius " must hide its
diminished head," it is, with a few exceptions, very unfor-
tunate for a nation when a man of abilities, without rank or
property, pushes himself forward to notice. Alas! what
unheard-of misery have thousands suffered to purchase a
cardinal's hat for an intriguing obscure adventurer, who
longed to be ranked with princes, or lord it over them by
seizing the triple crown !

Such, indeed, has been the wretchedness that has flowed
from hereditary honours, riches, and monarchy, that men
of lively sensibility have almost uttered blasphemy in order
to justify the dispensations of Providence. Man has been
held out as independent of His power who made him, or as
a lawless planet darting from its orbit to steal the celestial
fire of reason ; and the vengeance of Heaven, lurking in the
subtile flame, like Pandora's pent-up mischiefs, sufficiently
punished his temerity, by introducing evil into the world.

Impressed by this view of the misery and disorder which
pervaded society, and fatigued with jostling against artificial
fools, Rousseau became enamoured of solitude, and, being
at the same time an optimist, he labours with uncommon
eloquence to prove that man was naturally a solitary animal.

6 VINDICATION OF THE

Misled by his respect for the goodness of God, who cer-
tainly— for what man of sense and feeling can doubt it ! —
gave life only to communicate happiness, he considers evil
as positive, and the work of man ; not aware that he was
exalting one attribute at the expense of another, equally
necessary to divine perfection.

Reared on a false hypothesis, his arguments in favour of
a state of nature are plausible, but unsound. I say unsound;
for to assert that a state of nature is preferable to civilisation,
in all its possible perfection, is, in other words, to arraign
supreme wisdom ; and the paradoxical exclamation, that
God has made all things right, and that error has been
introduced by the creature, whom He formed, knowing what
He formed, is as unphilosophical as impious.

When that wise Being who created us and placed us here,
saw the fair idea, He willed, by allowing it to be so, that
the passions should unfold our reason, because He could
see that present evil would produce future good. Could the
helpless creature whom He called from nothing break loose
from His providence, and boldly learn to know good by
practising evil, without His permission? No. How could
that energetic advocate for immortality argue so incon-
sistently ? Had mankind remained for ever in the brutal
state of nature, which even his magic pen cannot paint as
a state in which a single virtue took root, it would have
been clear, though not to the sensitive unreflecting wanderer,
that man was born to run the circle of life and death, and
adorn God's garden for some purpose which could not easily,
be reconciled with His attributes.

But if, to crown the whole, there were to be rational
creatures produced, allowed to rise in excellence by the
exercise of powers implanted for that purpose ; if benignity
itself thought fit to call into existence a creature above the

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. ^

brutes,* who could think and improve himself, why should
that inestimable gift, for a gift it was, if man was so created,
as to have a capacity to rise above the state in which sensa-
tion produced brutal ease, be called, in direct terms, a curse?
A curse it might be reckoned, if the whole of our existence
were bounded by our continuance in this world ; for why
should the gracious fountain of life give us passions, and
the power of reflecting, only to imbitter our days and inspire
us with mistaken notions of dignity ? Why should He lead
us from love of ourselves to the sublime emotions which the
discovery of His wisdom and goodness excites, if these
feelings were not set in motion to improve our nature, of
which they make a part,t and render us capable of enjoying
a more godlike portion of happiness? Firmly persuaded
that^no evil exists in the world that God did not design to
take place, I build my belief on the perfection of God.
Rousseau exerts himself to prove that all was right

* Contrary to the opinion of anatomists, who argue by analogy
from the formation of the teeth, stomach, and intestines, Rousseau will
not allow a man to be a carnivorous animal. And, carried away from
nature by a love of system, he disputes whether man be a gregarious
animal, though the long and helpless state of infancy seems to point
him out as particularly impelled to pair, the first step towards herding.

f What would you say to a mechanic whom you had desired to make a
watch to point out the hour of the day, if, to show his ingenuity, he added
wheels to make it a repeater, &c. , that perplexed the simple mechanism ;
should he urge — to excuse himself — had you not touched a certain
spring, you would have known nothing of the matter, and that he
should have amused himself by making an experiment without doing
you any harm, would you not retort fairly upon him, by insisting that
if he had not added those needless wheels and springs, the accident
could not have happened ?

8 VINDICATION OF THE

originally : a crowd of authors that all is now right : and I,
that all will be right.

But, true to his first position, next to a state of nature,
Rousseau celebrates barbarism, and apostrophising the shade
of Fabricius, he forgets that, in conquering the world, the
Romans never dreamed of establishing their own liberty on
a firm basis, or of extending the reign of virtue. Eager to
support his system, he stigmatises, as vicious, every effort of
genius ; and, uttering the apotheosis of savage virtues, he
exalts those to demi-gods, who were scarcely human — the
brutal Spartans, who, in defiance of justice and gratitude,
sacrificed, in cold blood, the slaves who had shown them-
selves heroes to rescue their oppressors.

Disgusted with artificial manners and virtues, the citizen
of Geneva, instead of properly sifting the subject, threw
away the wheat with the chaff, without waiting to inquire
whether the evils which his ardent soul turned from in-
dignantly, were the consequence of civilisation or the
vestiges of barbarism. He saw vice trampling on virtue, and
the semblance of goodness taking the place of the reality ;
he saw talents bent by power to sinister purposes, and
never thought of tracing the gigantic mischief up to arbitrary
power, up to the hereditary distinctions that clash with the
mental superiority that naturally raises a man above his
fellows. He did not perceive that regal power, in a few
generations, introduces idiotism into the noble stem, and
holds out baits to render thousands idle and vicious.

Nothing can set the regal character in a more con-
temptible point of view, than the various crimes that have
elevated men to the supreme dignity. Vile intrigues, un-
natural crimes, and every vice that degrades our nature,
have been the steps to this distinguished eminence ; yet
millions of men have supinely allowed the nerveless limbs

Q

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. g

of the posterity of such rapacious prowlers to rest quietly
on their ensanguined thrones.*

What but a pestilential vapour can hover over society
when its chief director is only instructed in the invention of
crimes, or t>:e stupid routine of childish ceremonies? Will
men never be wise ? — will they never cease to expect corn
from tares, and figs from thistles?

It is impossible for any man^ wh*»n. the rqnst favourable^
circumstances concur, to acquire sufficient knowledge and
strength of mind to discharge the duties of a king, entrusted
with uncontrolled power; how then must they be violated
when his very elevation is an insuperable bar to the attain-
ment of either wisdom or virtue, when all the feelings of
a man are stifled by flattery, and reflection shut out by
pleasure ! Sure it is madness to make the fate of thousands.
depend on trie" "caprice of a weak fellow-creature, whose
very station sinks him necessarily below the meanest of his
- subjects ! But one power should not be thrown down to
exalt another — for all power inebriates weak man ; and its
abuse proves that the more equality there is established
among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in
%^ society. But this and any similar maxim deduced from
simple reason, raises an outcry — the Church or the State is
in danger, if faith in the wisdom of antiquity is not im-
plicit ; and they who, roused by the sight of human calamity,
dare to attack human authority, are reviled as despisers of
God, and enemies of man. These are bitter calumnies, yet
they reached one of the best of menf, whose ashes still preach

* Could there be a greater insult offered to the rights of man than
the beds of justice in France, when an infant was made the organ of the
detestable Dubois ?

t Dr Price.

io VINDICATION OF THE

peace, and whose memory demands a respectful pause,
when subjects are discussed that lay so near his heart.

After attacking the sacred majesty of kings, _I shall
scarcely excite surprise by adding my firm persuasion that
e~very profession, in which great subordination of rank con-
stitutes its power, is highly injurious to morality.

A standing army, for instance, is incompatible with
freedom ; because subordination and rigour are the very
sinews of military discipline ; and despotism is necessary to
give vigour to enterprises that one will directs. A spirit
inspired by romantic notions of honour, a kind of morality
founded on the fashion of the age, can only be felt by a
few officers, whilst the main body must be moved by com-
mand, like the waves of the sea ; for the strong wind of
authority pushes the crowd of subalterns forward, they
scarcely know or care why, with headlong fury.

Besides, nothing can be so prejudicial to the morals of
the inhabitants of country towns as the occasional residence
of a set of idle superficial young men, whose only occupa-
tion is gallantry, and whose polished manners render vice
more dangerous, by concealing its deformity under gay
ornamental drapery. An air of fashion, which is but a
badge of slavery, and proves that the soul has not a strong
individual character, awes simple country people into an
imitation of the vices, when they cannot catch the slippery
graces, of politeness. Every corps is a chain of despots,
who, submitting and tyrannising without exercising their
reason, become dead-weights of vice and folly on the com-
munity. A man of rank or fortune, sure of rising by interest,
has nothing to do but to pursue some extravagant freak ;
whilst the needy gentleman, who is to rise, as the phrase
turns, by his merit, becomes a servile parasite or vile pander.

Sailors, the naval gentlemen, come under the same

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. n

description, only their vices assume a different and a grosser
cast. They are more positively indolent, when not dis-
charging the ceremonials of their station ; whilst the insigni-
ficant fluttering of soldiers may be termed active idleness.
More confined to the society of men, the former acquire a
fondness for humour and mischievous tricks ; whilst the
latter, mixing frequently with well-bred women, catch a
sentimental cant. But mind is equally out of the question,
whether they indulge the horse-laugh, or polite simper.

May I be allowed to extend the comparison to a pro-
fession where more mind is certainly to be found, — for the
clergy have superior opportunities of improvement, though
subordination almost equally cramps their faculties ? The
blind submission imposed at college to forms of belief
serves as a novitiate to the curate, who must obsequiously
respect the opinion of his rector or patron, if he mean to
rise in his profession. Perhaps there cannot be a more
forcible contrast than between the servile dependent gait of
a poor curate and the courtly mien of a bishop. And the
respect and contempt they inspire, render the discharge of
their separate functions equally useless.

It is of great importance to observe that the character of
every man is, in some degree, formed by his profession.
A man of sense may only have a cast of countenance that
wears off as you trace his individuality, whilst the weak,
common man has scarcely ever any character, but what
belongs to the body ; at least, all his opinions have been so
steeped in the vat consecrated by authority, that the faint
spirit which the grape of his own vine yields, cannot be
distinguished.

Society, therefore, as it becomes more enlightened, should
be very careful not to establish bodies of men who must
necessarily be made foolish or vicious by the very constitu-
tion of their profession.

In the infancy of society, when men were just emerging
out of barbarism, chiefs and priests, touching the most
powerful springs of savage conduct, hope and fear, must
have had unbounded sway. An aristrocracy, of course, is
naturally the first form of government. But, clashing in-
terests soon losing their equipoise, a monarchy and hierarchy
break out of the confusion of ambitious struggles, and the
foundation of both is secured by feudal tenures. This
appears to be the origin of monarchical and priestly power,
and the dawn of civilisation. But such combustible mate-
rials cannot long be pent up; and, getting vent in foreign
wars and intestine insurrections, the people acquire some
power in the tumult, which obliges their rulers to gloss over
their oppression with a show of right. Thus, as wars, agri-
culture, commerce, and literature, expand the mind, despots
are compelled to make covert corruption hold fast the power
which was formerly snatched by open force.* And this
baneful lurking gangrene is most quickly spread by luxury
and superstition, the sure dregs of ambition. The indolent
puppet of a court first becomes a luxurious monster, or
fastidious sensualist, and then makes the contagion which
his unnatural state spread, the instrument of tyranny.

It is the pestiferous purple which renders the progress of
civilisation a curse, and warps the understanding, till men
of sensibility doubt whether the expansion of intellect pro-
duces a greater portion of happiness or misery. But the
nature of the poison points out the antidote ; and had
Rousseau mounted one step higher in his investigation, or

* Men of abilities scatter seeds that grow up and have a great
influence on the forming opinion ; and when once the public opinion
preponderates, through the exertion of reason, the overthrow of
arbitrary power is not very distant.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN, 13

could his eye have pierced through the foggy atmosphere,
which he almost disdained to breathe, his active mind
would have darted forward to contemplate th ^perfection of
man in the establishment of true civilisation, instead of
taking his ferocious flight back to the night of sensual
ignorance.

14 VINDICATION OF THE

CHAPTER II.

THE PREVAILING OPINION OF A SEXUAL
CHARACTER DISCUSSED.

D account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, many
/ingenious arguments have bee'n brought forward to
"•tff^ prove, that the two sexes, in the acquirement of
virtue, ought to aim at attaining a very different character ;
or, to speak explicitly, w_omen are not allowed to have
sufficient strength nf minrl tn acquire what really deserves
the name of virtue,- Yet it should seem, allowing them to
have souls, that there is but one way appointed by Provi-
dence to lead mankind to either virtue or happiness.

ILthen women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflerst
why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious
name of innocence ? Men complain, and with reason, of
the follies and caprices of our sex, when they do not keenly
satirise our headstrong passions and grovelling vices. Be-
hold, I should answer, the natural effect of ignorance ! The
mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest
on, and the current will run with destructive fury when there
are no barriers to break its force. Women are told from
their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers,
that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed
cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a
scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain
for them the protection of man ; and should they be beau-
tiful, everything else is needless, for at least twenty years
of their lives.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 15

Thus Milton describes our first frail mother ; though
when he tells us that women are formed for softness and
sweet attractive grace, I cannot comprehend his meaning,
unless, in the true Mahometan strain, he meant to deprive
us of souls, and insinuate that we were beings only designed
by sweet attractive grace, and docile blind obedience, to
gratify thejsenses of man when he can no longer soar on the
wing of contemplation.

How grossly do they insult us who thus advise us only to
;ender ourselves gentle, domestic brutes ! For instance, the
winning softness so warmly and frequently recommended,
that governs by obeying. What childish expressions, and
how insignificant is the being — can it be an immortal one ? —
who will condescend to govern by such sinister methods ?
" Certainly," says Lord Bacon, " man is of kin to the beasts
by his body ; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit,
he is a base and ignoble creature ! " Men, indeed, appear
to me to act in a very unphilosophj[cal manner, whe^ frey try
^>to secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep
them always in a state of childhood. Rousseau was more
^-consistent when he wished to stop the progress of reason in
both sexes, for if men eat of the tree of knowledge, women
will come in for a taste ; but, from the imperfect cultivation
which their understandings now receive, they only attain a
knowledge of evil.

Children, I grant, should beg-runoceTrtv; <hut— when the
epitHet is applied to men, or women^jt is but a civil term

ior"weakness. For if it be allowed that women were destineH

by Providence to acquire human virtues, and, by the
exercise of their understandings, that stability of character
which is the firmest ground to rest our future hopes upon,
they must be permitted to turn tQ/the fountain of light, and
not forced-to shape their course by the twinkling of a mere

1 6 VINDICATION OF THE

satellite. Milton, I grant, was of a very different opinion ;
for he only bends to the indefeasible right of beauty, though
it would be difficult to render two passages which I now
mean to contrast, consistent. But into similar inconsisten-
cies are great men often led by their senses : —

"To whom thus Eve with perfect beauty adorn'd.
My author and disposer, what thou bid'st
Unargued I obey ; so God ordains ;
God is thy law, thou mine : to know no more
Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise."

These are exactly the arguments that I have used to
children ; but I have added, your reason is now gaining
strength, and, till it arrives at some degree of maturity, you
must look up to me for advice, — then you ought to think,
and only rely on God.

Yet in the following lines Milton seems to coincide with me,
when he makes Adam thus expostulate with his Maker : —

" Hast Thou not made me here Thy substitute,
And these inferior far beneath me set ?
Among untquals what society
Can sort, what harmony or true delight ?
Which must be mutual, in proportion due
Given and received ; but in disparity
The one intense, the other still remiss
Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove
Tedious alike : of fellowship I speak
Such as I seek, fit to participate
All rational delight "

In treating therefore of the manners of women, let us,
disregarding sensual arguments, trace what we should
endeavour to make them in order to co-operate, if the
expression be not too bold, with the Supreme Being.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 17

By individual education, I mean, for the sense of the
word is not precisely defined, such an attention to a child as
will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the
passions as they begin to ferment, and set the understanding
to work before the body arrives at maturity ; so that the
man may only have to proceed, not to begin, the important
task of learning to think and reason.

To prevent any misconstruction, I must add, that I do
not believe that a private education can work the wonders
which some sanguine writers have attributed to it. Menjmd-
he edll^tpr^ in n grpni- dpgrfigt fry the opinions^

and manners of the society they live in. In every age there
has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all
before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the
century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be
differently constituted, much cannot be expected from edu-
cation. It is however, sufficient for my present purpose to
assert that, whatever effect circumstances have on the abili-
ties, every being may become virtuous by the exercise of its
own reason ; for if but one being was created with vicious
inclinations, that is positively bad, what can save us from
atheism ? or if we worship a God, is not that God a devil ?

Consequently, the most perfect education, in my opinion,
is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated
to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other
words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of
virtue as will render it independent. In fact, it is a farce to
call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the
exercise of its own reason. This was Rousseau's opinion
respecting men ; I extend it to women, and confidently
assert that they have been drawn out of their sphere by false
refinement, and not by an endeavour to acquire masculine
qualities. Still the regal homage which they receive is so

B

iS VINDICATION OF THE

intoxicating, that until the manners of the times are changed,
and formed on more reasonable principles, it may be impos-
sible to c^nvmce_tlicm-that the-JJlegjtjrnate power which
they obtain by degrading themselves is a cur. se^ -and- that
they must return to nature and equality if they wish to
secure the placid satisfaction that unsophisticated affections
impart. .But for this epoch we must wait — wait perhaps till
kings and nobles, enlightened by reason, and, preferring the
real dignity of man to childish state, throw off their gaudy
hereditary trappings ; and if then women do not resign the
arbitrary power of beauty — they will prove that they have
/ess mind than man.

I may be accused of arrogance ; still I must declare what
I firmly believe, that all the writers who have written on the
subject ofjemale education amL manners, frorn^ Rousseau to
Dr Gregory, Jiaye_contrib-uted to rend^'' wnmpn more prtifL-
cial, weak characters, than they would otherwise have beeu;
and consequently, more useless member^ of society. I
might have expressed this conviction in a lower key, but I
am afraid it would have been the whine of affectation, and
not the faithful expression of my feelings, of the clear result
which experience and reflection have led me to draw. When
I come to that division of the subject, I shall advert to the
passages that I more particularly disapprove of, in the works
of the authors I have just alluded to ; but it is first necessary
to observe that my objection extends to the whole purport
of those books, which tend, in my opinion, to degrade one-
half of the human species, and render women pleasing at
the expense of every solid virtue.

Though, to reason on Rousseau's ground, if man did
attain a degree cf perfection of mind when his body arrived
at maturity, it might be proper, in order to make a man and
liis wife one, that she should rely entirely on his under-

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 19

standing ; and the graceful ivy, clasping the oak that sup-
ported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty
would be equally conspicuous. But, alas ! husbands, as
well as their helpmates, are often only overgrown children,
— nay, thanks to early debauchery, scarcely men in their
outward form, — and if the blind lead the blind, one need
not come from heaven to tell us the consequence.

Many are the causes that, in the present corrupt state of
society, contribute to enslave women by cramping their un-
derstandings and sharpening their senses. One, perhaps,
that silently does more mischief than all the rest, is their
disregard of order.

To do everything in an orderly manner is a most im-
portant precept, which women, who, generally speaking,
receive only a disorderly kind of education, seldom attend
to with that degree of exactness that men, who from their
infancy are broken into method, observe. This negligent
kind of guesswork — for what other epithet can be used to
point out the random exertions of a sort of instinctive
common-sense never brought to the test of reason? — pre-
vents their generalising matters of fact ; so they do to-day
what they did yesterday, merely because they did it yes-
terday.

This contempt of the understanding in early life has more
baneful consequences than is commonly supposed ; for the
little knowledge which women of strong minds attain is,
from various circumstances, of a more desultory kind than
the knowledge of men, and it is acquired more by sheer
observations on real life than from comparing what has
been individually observed with the results of experience gene-
ralised by speculation. Led by their dependent situation
and domestic employments more into society, what they learn
is rather by snatches ; and as learning is with them in general

20 VINDICATION OF THE

only a secondary thing, they do not pursue any one branch
with that persevering ardour necessary to give vigour to the
faculties and clearness to the judgment. In the present
state of society a little learning is required to support the
character of a gentleman, and boys are obliged to submit to
a few years of discipline. But in the education of women,
the cultivation of the understanding is always subordinate to
the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishment. Even
while enervated by confinement and false notions of
modesty, the body is prevented from attaining that grace
and beauty which relaxed half-formed limbs never exhibit.
Besides, in youth their faculties are not brought forward by
emulation ; and having no serious scientific study, if they
have natural sagacity, it is turned too soon on life and
manners. They dwell on effects and modifications, without
tracing them back to causes ; and complicated rules to
adjust behaviour are a weak substitute for simple principles.
As a proof that education gives this appearance of weak-
ness to females, we may instance the example of military
men, who are, like them, sent into the world before their
minds have been stored with knowledge, or fortified by
principles. The consequences are similar ; soldiers acquire
a little superficial knowledge, snatched from the muddy
current of conversation, and from continually mixing with
society, they gain what is termed a knowledge of the world ;
and this acquaintance with manners and customs has fre-
quently been confounded with a knowledge of the human
heart. But can the crude fruit of casual observation, never
brought to the test of judgment, formed by comparing
speculation and experience, deserve such a distinction?
Soldiers, as well as women, practise the minor virtues with
punctilious politeness. Where is then the sexual difference,
when the education has been the same ? All the difference

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 21

that I can discern arises from the superior advantage of
liberty which enables the former to see more of life.

It is wandering from my present subject, perhaps, to
make a political remark ; but as it was produced naturally
by the train of my reflections, I shall not pass it silently
over.

Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men;
they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom
contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with
very vigorous faculties ; and as for any depth of under-
standing, I will venture to affirm that it is as rarely to be
found in the army as amongst women. And the cause, I
maintain, is the same. It may be further observed that
officers are also particularly attentive to their persons, fond
of dancing, crowded rooms, adventures, and ridicule.* Like
the fair sex, the ^business of their lives is gallantry ; they
were taught to please, and they only live to please. Yet
they do not lose their rank in the distinction of sexes, for
they are still reckoned superior to women, though in what
their superiority consists, beyond what I have just men-
tioned, it is difficult to discover.

The great misfortune is this, that they both acquire
manners before morals, and a knowledge of life before they
have from reflection any acquaintance with the grand ideal out-
line of human nature. The consequence is natural. Satisfied
with common nature, they become a prey to prejudices, and
taking all their opinions on credit, they blindly submit to
authority. So that if they have any sense, it is a kind of in-

* Why should women be censured with petulant acrimony because
they seem to have a passion for a scarlet coat ? Has not education
placed them more on a level with soldiers than any other class of
men ?

22 VINDICATION OF THE

stinctive glance that catches proportions, and decides with
respect to manners, but fails when arguments are to be pur-
sued below the surface, or opinions analysed.

May not the same remark be applied to women? Nay,
the argument may be carried still further, for they are both
thrown out of a useful station by the unnatural distinctions
established in civilised life. Riches and hereditary honours
have made cyphers of women to give consequence to the
numerical figure ; and idleness has produced a mixture of
gallantry and despotism into society, which leads the very
men who are the slaves of their mistresses to tyrannise over
their sisters, wives, and daughters. This is only keeping
them in rank and file, it is true. Strengthen the female
mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind
oTSedience ; but as blind obedience is ever sought for by
power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they
endeavour to keep women in the dark, because the former
only want slaves, and the latter a plaything. " The sensualist,
indeed, has been the most dangerous of tyrants, and women
have been duped by their lovers, as princes by their minis-
ters, whilst dreaming that they reigned over them.

I now principally allude to Rousseau, for his character of
Sophia is undoubtedly a captivating one, though it appears
to me grossly unnatural. However, it is not the super-
structure, but the foundation of her character, the principles
on which her education was built, that I mean to attack ;
nay, warmly as I admire the genius of that able writer, whose
opinions I shall often have occasion to cite, indignation
always takes place of admiration, and the rigid frown of
insulted virtue effaces the smile of complacency which his
eloquent periods are wont to raise when I read his voluptuous
reveries. Is this the man who, in his ardour for virtue,
would banish all the soft arts of peace, and almost carry us

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 23

back to Spartan discipline? Is this the man who delights
to paint the useful struggles of passion, the triumphs of good
dispositions, and the heroic flights which carry the glowing
soul out of itself? How are these mighty sentiments lowered
when he describes the pretty foot and enticing airs of his
little favourite ! But for the present I waive the subject,
and instead of severely reprehending the transient effusions
of overweening sensibility, I shall only observe that whoever
has cast a benevolent eye on society must often have been
gratified by the sight of humble mutual love not dignified by
sentiment, or strengthened by a union in intellectual pursuits.
The domestic trifles of the day have afforded matters for
cheerful converse, and innocent caresses have softened toils
which did not require great exercise of mind or stretch of
thought ; yet has not the sight of this moderate felicity
excited more tendernsss than respect? — an emotion similar
to what we feel when children are playing, or animals sport-
ing ; * whilst the contemplation of the noble struggles of
suffering merit has raised admiration, and carried our
thoughts to that world where sensation will give place to
reason.

Women are therefore to be considered either as moral
beings, or so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the
superior faculties of men.

* Similar feelings has Milton's pleasing picture of paradisiacal happi-
ness ever raised in my mind ; yet, instead of envying the lovely pair, I
have with conscious dignity or satanic pride turned to hell for sublimer
objects. In the same style, when viewing some noble monument of
human art, I have traced the emanation of the Deity in the order I
admired, till, descending from that giddy height, I have caught myself
contemplating the grandest of all human sights ; for fancy quickly placed
in some solitary recess an outcast of fortune, rising superior to passion
and discontent.

24 VINDICATION OF THE

Let us examine this question. ^Rousseau declares that a
woman should never for a moment feel herself independent,
that she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural
cunning, and made a coquettish slave in order to render her
a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to
man, whenever he chooses to relax himself. ^ He carries the
arguments, which he pretends to draw from the indications
of nature, still further, and insinuates that truth and forti-
tude, the corner-stones of all human virtue, should be culti-
vated with certain restrictions, because, with respect to the
female character, obedience is the grand lesson which ought
to be impressed with unrelenting rigour.

What nonsense ! When will a great man arise with suffi-
cient strength of mind to puff away the fumes which pride
and sensuality have thus spread over the subject? If
women are by nature inferior to men, their virtues must be
the same in quality, if not in degree, or virtue is a relative
idea ; consequently, their conduct should be founded on the
same principles, and have the same aim.

Connected with man as daughters, wives, and mothers,
their moral character may be estimated by their manner of
fulfilling those simple duties ; but the end, the grand end, of
their exertions should be to unfold their own faculties, and
acquire the dignity of conscious virtue. 'They may try to
render their road pleasant ; but ought never to forget, in
common with man, that life yields not the felicity which can
satisfy an immortal soul. I do not mean to insinuate that
either sex should be so lost in abstract reflections or distant
views as to forget the affections "frnd duties that lie before
them, and are, in truth, the means appointed to produce
the fruit of life ; on the contrary, I would warmly recom-
mend them, even while I assert, that they afford most satis-
faction when they are considered in their true sober light.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 25

Probably the prevailing opinion, that woman was created
for man, may have taken its rise from Moses' poetical story ;
yet as very few, it is presumed, who have bestowed any serious
thought on the subject ever supposed that Eve was, literally
speaking, one of Adam's ribs, the deduction must be allowed
to fall to the ground, or only be so far admitted as it proves
that man, from the remotest antiquity, found it convenient
to exert his strength to subjugate his companion, and his
invention to show that she ought to have her neck bent under
the yoke, because the whole creation was only created for his
convenience or pleasure.

Let it not be concluded that I wish to invert the order of
things. I have already granted that, from the constitution
of their bodies, men seemed to be designed by Providence
to attain a greater degree of virtue. I speak collectively of
the whole sex ; but I see not the shadow of a reason to
conclude that their virtues should differ in respect to their
nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal
standard ? I must therefore, if I reason consequentially, as
strenuously maintain that they have the same simple direc-
tion as that there is a God.

It follows then that cunning should not be opposed to
wisdom, little cares to great exertions, or insipid softness,
varnished over with the name of gentleness, to that fortitude
which grand views alone can inspire.

I shall be told that woman would then lose many of her
peculiar graces, and the opinion of a well-known poet
might be quoted to refute my unqualified assertion. For
Pope has said, iu the name of the whole male sex : —

" Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create,

As when she touch'd the brink of all we hate."

In what light this sally places men and women I shall

26 VINDICATION OF THE

leave to the judicious to determine. Meanwhile, I shall
content myself with observing, that I cannot discover why,
unless they are mortal, females should always be degraded
by being made subservient to love or lust.

To speak disrespectfully of love is, I know, high treason
against sentiment and fine feelings ; but I wish to speak the
simple language of truth, and rather to address the head
than the heart. To endeavour to reason love out of the
world would be to out-Quixote Cervantes, and equally offend
against common-sense ; but an endeavour to restrain this
tumultuous passion, and to prove that it should not be
allowed to dethrone superior powers, or to usurp the sceptre
which the understanding should ever coolly wield, appears
less wild.

Youth is the season for love in both sexes ; but in those
days of thoughtless enjoyment provision should be made for
the more important years of life, when reflection takes place
of sensation. But Rousseau, and most of the male writers
vvho have followed his steps, have warmly inculcated that
the whole tendency of female education ought to be directed
to one point — to render them pleasing.

Let me reason with the supporters of this opinion who
have any knowledge of human nature. Do they imagine
that marriage can eradicate the habitude of life? The
woman who has only been taught to please will soon find
that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they cannot
have much effect on her husband's heart when they are seen
every day, when the summer is passed and gone. Will she
then have sufficient native energy to look into herself for
comfort, and cultivate her dormant faculties? or is it not
more rational to expect that she will try to please other
men, and, in the emotions raised by the expectation of
new conquests, endeavour to forget the mortification her

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 27

love or pride has received ? When the husband ceases to
be a lover, and the time will inevitably come, her desire of
pleasing will then grow languid, or become a spring of
bitterness; and love, perhaps, the most evanescent of all
passions, gives place to jealousy or vanity.

I now speak of women who are restrained by principle or
prejudice. Such women, though they would shrink from
an intrigue with real abhorrence, yet, nevertheless, wish to
be convinced by the homage of gallantry that they are
cruelly neglected by their husbands ; or, days and weeks
are spent in dreaming of the happiness enjoyed by congenial
souls, till their health is undermined and their spirits broken
by discontent. How then can the great art of pleasing be
such a necessary study ? it is only useful to a mistress. The
chaste wife and serious mother should only consider her
power to please as the polish of her virtues, and the affection
of her husband as one of the comforts that render her task
less difficult, and her life happier. But, whether she be
loved or neglected, her first wish should be to make herself
respectable, and not to rely for all her happiness on a being
subject to like infirmities with herself.

The worthy Dr Gregory fell into a similar error. I respect
his heart, but entirely disapprove of his celebrated " Legacy
to his Daughters."

He advises them to cultivate a fondness for dress, because
a fondness for dress, he asserts, is natural to them. I am
unable to comprehend what either he or Rousseau mean
when they frequently use this indefinite term. If they told
us that in a pre-existent state the soul was fond of dress, and
brought this inclination with it into a new body, I should
listen to them with a half-smile, as I often do when I hear
a rant about innate elegance. But if he only meant to say
that the exercise of the faculties will produce this fondness,

28 VINDICATION OF THE

I deny it. It is not natural ; but arises, like false ambition
in men, from a love of power.

Dr Gregory goes much further ; he actually recommends
dissimulation, and advises an innocent girl to give the lie to
her feelings, and not dance with spirit, when gaiety of heart
would make her feet eloquent without making her gestures
immodest. In the name of truth and common-sense, why
should not one woman acknowledge that she can take more
exercise than another? or, in other words, that she has a
sound constitution ; and why, to damp innocent vivacity, is
she darkly to be told that men will draw conclusions which
she little thinks of? Let the libertine draw what inference
he pleases ; but, I hope, that no sensible mother will restrain
the natural frankness of youth by instilling such indecent
cautions. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh ; and a wiser than Solomon hath said that the
heart should be made clean, and not trivial ceremonies
observed, which it is not very difficult to fulfil with scrupu-
lous exactness when vice reigns in the heart.

Women ought to endeavour to purify their heart ; but
can they do so when their uncultivated understandings
make them entirely dependent on their senses for employ-
ment and amusement, when no noble pursuits sets them
above the little vanities of the day, or enables them to curb
the wild emotions that agitate a reed, over which every passing
breeze has power ? To/gain the affections of a virtuous man,
is affection necessary ?' 'Nature has given woman a weaker
frame than man ; but, to ensure her husband's affections,
must a wife, who, by the exercise of her mind and body
whilst she was discharging the duties of a daughter, wife, and
mother, has allowed her constitution to retain its natural
strength, and her nerves a healthy tone, — is she, I sayy-to
condescend to use art, and feign a sickly delicacy, in order

ItlGHTS OF WOMAN. 29

to secure her husband's affection? Weakness may excite
tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man ; but the
lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind
that pants for and deserves to be respected./ Fondness is
a poor substitute for friendship ! //

In a seraglio, I grant, that all these arts are necessary ;
the epicure must have his palate tickled, or he will sink
into apathy ; but have women so little ambition as to be
satisfied with such a condition ? Can they supinely dream
life away in the lap of pleasure, or the languor of weariness,
rather than assert their claim to pursue reasonable pleasures,
and render themselves conspicuous by practising the virtues
which dignify mankind ? Surely she has not an immortal
soul who can loiter life away merely employed to adorn her
person, that she may amUse the languid hours, and soften
the cares of a fellow-creature who is willing to be enlivened
by her smiles and tricks, when the serious business of life is
over.

> Besides, the woman who strengthens her body and exer-
ses her mind will, by managing her family and practising
various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble
dependent of her husband /and if she, by possessing such
substantial qualities, merit his regard, she will not find it
necessary to conceal her affection, nor to pretend to an
unnatural coldness of constitution to excite her husband's
passions. In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that
the women who have distinguished themselves have neither
been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.

Nature, or, to speak with strict propriety, God, has made
all things right ; but man has sought him out many inven-
tions to mar the work. I now allude to that part of Dr
Gregory's treatise, where he advises a wife never to let her
husband know the extent of her sensibility or affection.

30 VINDICATION OF THE

Voluptuous precaution, and as ineffectual as absurd. Love,
from its very nature, must be transitory. To seek for a
secret that would render it constant, would be as wild a
search as for the philosopher's stone, or the grand panacea ;
and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather perni-
cious, to mankind. The most holy band of society is friend-
ship. It has been well said, by a shrewd satirist, " that rare
as true love is, true friendship is still rarer."

This is an obvious truth, and, the cause not lying deep,
will not elude a slight glance of inquiry.

Love, the common passion, in which chance and sensa-
tion take place of choice and reason, is, in some degree,
felt by the mass of mankind; for it is not necessary to
speak, at present, of the emotions that rise above or sink
below love. This passion, naturally increased by suspense
arid difficulties, draws the mind out of its accustomed state,
and exalts the affections ; but the security of marriage,
allowing the fever of love to subside, a healthy temperature
is thought insipid only by those who have not sufficient
intellect to substitute the calm tenderness of friendship,
the confidence of respect, instead of blind admiration, and
the sensual emotions of fondness.

This is, must be, the course of nature. Friendship or
indifference inevitably succeeds love. And this constitution
seems perfectly to harmonise with the system of government
which prevails in the moral world. Passions are spurs to
action, and open the mind; but they sink into mere appe-
tites, become a personal and momentary gratification when
the object is gained, and the satisfied mind rests in enjoy-
ment. The man who had some virtue whilst he was
struggling for a crown, often becomes a voluptuous tyrant
when it graces his brow ; and, when the lover is not lost in
the husband, the dotard, a prey to childish caprices and fond

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 31

jealousies, neglects the serious duties of life, and the caresses
which should excite confidence in his children are lavished
on the overgrown child, his wife.

In order to fulfil the duties of life, and to be able to
pursue with vigour the various employments which form the
moral character, a master and mistress of a family ought not
to continue to love each other with passion. I mean to say
that they ought not to indulge those emotions which disturb
the order of society, and engross the thoughts that should
be otherwise employed. The mind that has never been
engrossed by one object wants vigour, — if it can long be
so, it is weak.

A mistaken education, a narrow uncultivated mind, and
many sexual prejudices, tend to make women more con-
stant than men ; but, for the present, I shall not touch on
this branch of the subject. I will go still further, and
advance, without dreaming of a paradox, that an unhappy
marriage is often very advantageous to a family, and that
the neglected wife is, in general, the best mother. And this
would almost always be the consequence if the female mind
were more enlarged ; for, it seems to be the common dis-
pensation of Providence, that what we gain in present
enjoyment should be deducted from the treasure of life,
experience ; and that when we are gathering the flowers of
the day, and revelling in pleasure, the solid fruit of toil and
wisdom should not be caught at the same time. The way
lies before us, we must turn to the right or left ; and he
who will pass life away in bounding from one pleasure to
another, must not complain if he acquire neither wisdom
nor respectability of character.

Supposing, for a moment, that the soul is not immortal,
and that man was only created for the present scene, — I
think we should have reason to complain that love, infantine

32 VINDICATION OF THE

fondness, ever grew insipid and palled upon the sense.
Let us eat, drink, and love, for to-morrow we die, would be,
in fact, the language of reason, the morality of life ; and
who but a fool would part with a reality for a fleeting
shadow ? But, if awed by observing the improbable powers
of the mind, we disdain to confine our wishes or thoughts
to such a comparatively mean field of action, that only
appears grand and important, as it is connected with a
boundless prospect and sublime hopes, what necessity is
there for falsehood in conduct, and why must the sacred
majesty of truth be violated to detain a deceitful good that
saps the very foundation of virtue? Why must the female
mind be tainted by coquettish arts to gratify the sensualist,
and prevent love from subsiding into friendship, or com-
passionate tenderness, when there are not qualities on which
friendship can be built ? Let the honest heart show itself,
and reason teach passion to submit to necessity ; or, let the
dignified pursuit of virtue and knowledge raise the mind
above those emotions which rather embitter than sweeten
the cup of life, when they are not restrained within due
bounds.

I do not mean to allude to the romantic passion, which
is the concomitant of genius. Who can clip its wing?
But that grand passion not proportioned to the puny enjoy-
ments of life, is only true to the sentiment, and feeds on
itself. The passions which have been celebrated for their
durability have always been unfortunate. They have ac-
quired strength by absence and constitutional melancholy.
The fancy has hovered round a form of beauty dimly seen ;
but familiarity might have turned admiration into disgust,
or, at least, into indifference, and allowed the imagination
leisure to start fresh game. With perfect propriety, accord-
ing to this view of things, does Rousseau make the mistress

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 33

of his soul, Eloifa, love St Preux, when life was fading before
her ; but this is no proof of the immortality of the passion.

Of the same complexion is Dr Gregory's advice respecting
delicacy of sentiment, which he advises a woman not to
acquire, if she have determined to marry. This deter-
mination, however, perfectly consistent with his former
advice, he calls indelicate, and earnestly persuades his
daughters to conceal it, though it may govern their conduct,
as if it were indelicate to have the common appetites of
human nature.

Noble morality ! and consistent with the cautious prud-
ence of a little soul that cannot extend its views beyond the
present minute division of existence. If all the faculties of
woman's mind are only to be cultivated as they respect her
dependence on man ; if, when a husband be obtained, she
have arrived at her goal, and meanly proud, rests satisfied
with such a paltry crown, let her grovel contentedly, scarcely
raised by her employments above the animal kingdom ; but,
if struggling for the prize of her high calling, she look
beyond the present scene, let her cultivate her understanding
without stopping to consider what character the husband
may have whom she is destined to marry. Let her only
determine, without being too anxious about present happi-
ness, to acquire the qualities that ennoble a rational being,
and a rough inelegant husband may shock her taste without
destroying her peace of mind. She will not model her soul to
suit the frailties of her companion, but to bear with them ; his
character may be a trial, but not an impediment to virtue.

If Dr Gregory confined his remark to romantic expecta-
tions of constant love and congenial feelings, he should
have recollected that experience will banish what advice can
never make us cease to wish for, when the imagination is
kept alive at the expense of reason.

c

34 VINDICATION OF THE

I own it frequently happens, that women who have fostered
a romantic unnatural delicacy of feeling, waste their* lives
in imagining how happy they should have been with a
husband who could love them with a fervid increasing
affection every day, and all day. But they might as well
pine married as single, and would not be a jot more
unhappy with a bad husband than longing for a good one.
That a proper education, or, to speak with more precision,
a well-stored mind, would enable a woman to support a
single life with dignity, I grant ; but that she should avoid
cultivating her taste, lest her husband should occasionally
shock it, is quitting a substance for a shadow. To say the
truth, I do not know of what use is an improved taste, if
the individual be not rendered more independent of the
casualties of life ; if new sources of enjoyment, only de-
pendent on the solitary operations of the mind, are not
opened. People of taste, married or single, without dis-
tinction, will ever be disgusted by various things that touch
not less observing minds. On this conclusion the argument
must not be allowed to hinge; but in the whole sum of
enjoyment is taste to be denominated a blessing?

The question is, whether it procures most pain or
pleasure ? The answer will decide the propriety of Dr
Gregory's advice, and show how absurd and tyrannic it is
thus to lay down a system of slavery, or to attempt to
educate moral beings by any other rules than those deduced
from pure reason, which apply to the whole species.

Gentleness of manners, forbearance and long-suffering,
are such amiable Godlike qualities, that in sublime poetic
strains the Deity has been invested with them; and, per-
haps, no representation of His goodness so strongly fastens

* Fur example, the herd of Novelists.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 35

on the human affections as those that represent Him
abundant in mercy and willing to pardon. Gentleness,
considered in this point of view, bears on its front all the
characteristics of grandeur, combined with the winning
graces of condescension ; but what a different aspect it
assumes when it is the submissive demeanour of depend-
ence, the support of weakness that loves, because it wants
protection ; and is forbearing, because it must silently
endure injuries ; smiling under the lash at which it dare not
snarl. Abject as this picture appears, it is the portrait of
an accomplished woman, according to the received opinion
of female excellence, separated by specious reasoners from
human excellence. Or, they* kindly restore the rib, and
make one moral being of a man and woman ; not forgetting
to give her all the " submissive charms."

How women are to exist in that state where there is neither
to be marrying nor giving in marriage, we are not told.
For though moralists have agreed that the tenor of life
seems to prove that man is prepared by various circum-
stances for a future state, they constantly concur in advising
woman only to provide for the present. Gentleness, docility,
and a spaniel-like affection are, on this ground, consistently
recommended as the cardinal virtues of the sex ; and, dis-
regarding the arbitrary economy of natures/one writer has
declared that it is masculine for a woman to*be melancholy.
She was created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and it
must jingle in his ears, whenever, dismissing reason, he
chooses to be amused.^

To recommend gentleness, indeed, on a broad basis is
strictly philosophical. A frail being should labour to be
gentle. But when forbearance confounds right and wrong,

* Vide Rousseau and Swedenborg.

36 VINDICATION OF THE

it ceases to be a virtue ; and, however convenient it may be
found in a companion — that companion will ever be con-
sidered as an inferior, and only inspire a vapid tenderness,
which easily degenerates into contempt. Still, if advice
could really make a being gentle, whose natural disposition
admitted not of such a fine polish, something towards the
advancement of order would be attained ; but if, as might
quickly be demonstrated, only affectation be produced by
this indiscriminate counsel, which throws a stumbling-block
in the way of gradual improvement, and true melioration of
temper, the sex is not much benefited by sacrificing solid
virtues to the attainment of superficial graces, though for a
few years they may procure the individuals regal sway.

As a philosopher, I read with indignation the plausible
epithets which men use to soften their insults; and, as a
moralist, I ask what is meant by such heterogeneous asso-
ciations, as fair defects, amiable weaknesses, &c. ? If there
be but one critieron of morals, but one architype for man,
women appear to be suspended by destiny, according to the
vulgar tale of Mahomet's coffin ; they have neither the
unerring instinct of brutes, nor. are allowed to fix the eye of
reason on a perfect model. ^They were made to be loved,
and must not aim at respect, lest they should be hunted out
of society as masculine. \

But to view the subject in another point of view. Do
passive indolent women make the best wives ? Confining
our discussion to the present moment of existence, let us see
how such weak creatures perform their part? Do the
women who, by the attainment of a few superficial accom-
plishments, have strengthened the prevailing prejudice,
merely contributed to the happiness of their husbands ? Do
they display their charms merely to amuse them ? And
have women who have early imbibed notions of passive

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 37

obedience, sufficient character to manage a family or educate
children ? So far from it, that, after surveying the history
of woman, I cannot help agreeing with the severest satirist,
considering the sex as the weakest as well as the most
oppressed half of the species. What does history disclose
but marks of inferiority, and how few women have emanci-
pated themselves from the galling yoke of sovereign man ?
So few that the exceptions remind me of an ingenious con-
jecture respecting Newton — that he was probably a being of
superior order accidentally caged in a human body. Fol-
lowing the same train of thinking/W have been led to imagine
that the few extraordinary women who have rushed in
eccentrical directions out of the orbit prescribed to their sex,
were male spirits, confined by mistake in female fra
But if it be not philosophical to think of sex when the soul
is mentioned, the inferiority must depend on the organs ; or
the heavenly fire, which is to ferment the clay, is not given
in equal portions.

But avoiding, as I have hitherto done, any direct compari-
son of the two sexes collectively, or frankly acknowledging
the inferiority of woman, according to the present appearance
of things, I shall only insist that men have increased that
inferiority till women are almost sunk below the standard of
rational creatures. Let their faculties have room to unfold,
and their virtues to gain strength, and then determine where
the whole sex must stand in the intellectual scale. Yet let
it be remembered, that for a small number of distinguished
women I do not ask a place.

It is difficult for us purblind mortals to say to what height
human discoveries and improvements may arrive when the
gloom of despotism subsides, which makes us stumble at
every step ; but, when morality shall be settled on a more
solid basis, then, without being gifted with a prophetic

38 VINDICATION OF THE

spirit, I will venture to predict that woman will be either
the friend or slave of man. We shall not, as at present,
doubt whether she is a moral agent, or the link which unites
man with brutes. But should it then appear that like the
brutes they were principally created for the use of man, he
will let them patiently bite the bridle, and not mock them
with empty praise ; or, should their rationality be proved,
he will not impede their improvement merely to gratify his
sensual appetites. He will not, with all the graces of
rhetoric, advise them to submit implicitly their understand-
ing to the guidance of man. He will not, when he treats of
the education of women, assert that they ought never to
have the free use of reason, nor would he recommend cun-
ning and dissimulation to beings who are acquiring, in like
manner as himself, the virtues of humanity.

Surely there can be but one rule of right, if morality has
an eternal foundation, and whoever sacrifices virtue, strictly
so called, to present convenience, or whose duty it is to act
in such a manner, lives only for the passing day, and cannot
be an accountable creature.

The poet then should have dropped his sneer when he

says —

"If weak women go astray,
The stars are more in fault than they."

For that they are bound by the adamantine chain of destiny
is most certain, if it be proved that they are never to exer-
cise their own reason, never to be independent, never to rise
above opinion, or to feel the dignity of a rational will that
only bows to God, and often forgets that the universe con-
tains any being but itself and the model of perfection to
which its ardent gaze is turned, to adore attributes that,
softened into virtues, may be imitated in kind, though the
degree overwhelms the enraptured mind.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 39

If, I say, for I would not impress by declamation when
Reason offers her sober light, if they be really capable of
acting like rational creatures, let them not be treated like
slaves ; or, like the brutes who are dependent on the reason
of man, when they associate with him ; but cultivate their
minds, give them the salutary sublime curb of principle,
and let them attain conscious dignity by feeling themselves
only dependent on God. Teach them, in common with
man, to submit to necessity, instead of giving, to render
them more pleasing, a sex to morals.

Further, should experience prove that they cannot attain
the same degree of strength of mind, perseverance, and for-
titude, let their virtues be the same in kind, though they
may vainly struggle for the same degree ; and the superiority
of man will be equally clear, if not clearer ; and truth, as it
is a simple principle, which admits of no modification,
would be common to both. Nay the order of society, as it
is at present regulated, would not be inverted, for woman
would then only have the rank that reason assigned her, and
arts could not be practised to bring the balance even, much
less to turn it.

These may be termed Utopian dreams. Thanks to that
Being who impressed them on my soul, and gave me suffi-
cient strength of mind to dare to exert my own reason, till,
becoming dependent only on Him for the support of my
virtue, I view with indignation, the mistaken notions that
enslave my sex.

/ I love man as my fellow ; but his sceptre, real or usurped,
/extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual
\demands my homage ; and even then the submission is to
reason, and not to man. In fact, the conduct of an account-
able being must be regulated by the operations of its own
reason ; or on what foundation rests the throne of God ?

40 VINDICATION OF THE

It appears to me necessary to dwell on these obvious
truths, because females have been insulated, as it were ; and
while they have been stripped of the virtues that should
clothe humanity, they have been decked with artificial graces
that enable them to exercise a short-lived tyranny. Love, in
their bosoms, taking place of every nobler passion, their sole
ambition is to be fair, to raise emotion instead of inspiring
respect ; and this ignoble desire, like the servility in absolute
monarchies, destroys all strength of character. Liberty is
the mother of virtue, and if women be, by their very consti-
tution, slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigor-
ating air of freedom, they must ever languish like exotics,
and be reckoned beautiful flaws in nature.

As to the argument respecting the subjection in which the
sex has ever been held, it retorts on man. The many have
always been enthralled by the few ; and monsters, who
scarcely have shown any discernment of human excellence,
have tyrannisedover thousands of their fellow-creatures. Why
have men of superior endowments submitted to such degra-
dation ? For, is it not universally acknowledged that kings,
viewed collectively, have ever been inferior, in abilities and
virtue, to the same number of men taken from the common
mass of mankind — yet have they not, and are they not still
treated with a degree of reverence that is an insult to reason ?
China is not the only country where a living man has been
made a God. Men have submitted to superior strength to
enjoy with impunity the pleasure of the moment : women
have only done the same, and therefore till it is proved that
the courtier, who servilely resigns the birthright of a man, is
not a moral agent, it cannot be demonstrated that woman is
essentially inferior to man because she has always been
subjugated.

Brutal force has hitherto governed the world, and that the

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 41

science of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philo-
sophers scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man
that determinate distinction.

I shall not pursue this argument any further than to
establish an obvious inference, that as sound politics diffuse
liberty, mankind, including woman, will become more wise
and virtuous.

42 VINDICATION OF THE

CHAPTER III.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

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

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

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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 43

Dr Priestley has remarked, in the preface to his biographi-
cal chart, that the majority of great men have lived beyond
forty-five. And considering the thoughtless manner in
which they have lavished their strength when investigating a
favourite science, they have wasted the lamp of life, forget-
ful of the midnight hour ; or, when lost in poetic dreams,
fancy has peopled the scene, and the soul has been dis-
turbed, till it shook the constitution by the passions that
meditation had raised, — whose objects, the baseless fabric
of a vision, faded before the exhausted eye, — they must
have had iron frames. Shakespeare never grasped the airy
dagger with a nerveless hand, nor did Milton tremble when
he led Satan far from the confines of his dreary prison.
These were not the ravings of imbecility, the sickly effusions
of distempered brains, but the exuberance of fancy, that " in
a fine frenzy " wandering, was not continually reminded of
its material shackles.

I am aware that this argument would carry me further
than it may be supposed I wish to go ; but I follow truth,
and still adhering to my first position,/! will allow that
bodily strength seems to give man a natural superiority over
woman ; and this is the only solid hasis on which the
superiority of the sex can be built. /But I still insist that
not only the virtue but the knowledge of the two sexes
should be the same in nature, if not in degree, and that
women, considered not only as moral but rational creatures,
ought to endeavour to acquire human virtues (or perfections)
by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a
fanciful kind of half being — one of Rousseau's wild chimeras.*

* " Researches into abstract and speculative truths, the principles and
axioms of sciences, — in short, everything which tends to generalise
our ideas, — is not the proper province of women ; their studies should

44 VINDICATION OF THE

But if strength of body be with some show of reason the
boast of men, why are women so infatuated as to be proud
of a defect ? Rousseau has furnished them with a plausible
excuse, which could only have occurred to a man whose
imagination had been allowed to run wild, and refine on the
impressions made by exquisite senses ; that they might

be relative to points of practice ; it belongs to them to apply those
principles which men have discovered ; and it is their part to make
observations which direct men to the establishment of general princi-
ples. All the ideas of women, which have not the immediate tendency
to points of duty, should be directed to the study of men, and to the
attainment of those agreeable accomplishments which have taste for
their object ; for as to works of genius, they are beyond their capa-
city ; neither have they sufficient precision or power of attention to
succeed in sciences which require accuracy ; and as to physical know-
ledge, it belongs to those only who are most active, most inquisitive,
who comprehend the greatest variety of objects ; in short, it belongs
to those who have the strongest powers, and who exercise them most,
to judge of the relations between sensible beings and the laws of
nature. A woman who is naturally weak, and does not carry her ideas
to any great extent, knows how to judge and make a proper estimate
of those movements which she sets to work, in order to aid her weak-
ness ; and these movements are the passions of men. The mechanism
she employs is much more powerful than ours, for all her levers move
the human heart. She must have the skill to incline us to do every-
thing which her sex will not enable her to do herself, and which is
necessary or agreeable to her ; therefore she ought to study the mind
of man thoroughly, not the mind of man in general, abstractedly,
but the dispositions of those men to whom she is subject either by
the laws of her country or by the force of opinion. She should
learn to penetrate into their real sentiments from their conversation,
their actions, their looks and gestures. She should also have the
art, by her own conversation, actions, looks, and gestures, to com-
municate those sentiments which are agreeable to them, without
seeming to intend it. Men will argue more philosophically about the
human heart ; but women will read the heart of man better than they.
It belongs to women — if I may be allowed the expression — to form

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 45

forsooth have a pretext for yielding to a natural appetite
without violating a romantic species of modesty, which gra-
tifies the pride and libertinism of man.

Women, deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of
their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the
weakness of men ; and they may well glory in their illicit sway,
for, like Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than
their masters ; but virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifica-
tions, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour.

Women, as well as despots, have now perhaps more
power than they would have if the world, divided and sub-
divided into kingdoms and families, were governed by laws
deduced from the exercise of reason ; but in obtaining it, to
carry on the comparison, their character is degraded, and
licentiousness spread through the whole aggregate of society.
The many become pedestal to the few. I, therefore, will
venture to assert that till women are more rationally edu-
cated, the progress of human virtue and improvement in
knowledge must receive continual checks. And if it be
/granted that woman was not created merely to gratify the
'appetite of man, or to be the upper servant, who provides
his meals and takes care of his linen, it must follow that

an experimental morality, and to reduce the study of man to a sys-
tem. Women have most wit, men have most genius ; women observe,
men reason. From the concurrence of both we derive the clearest
light and the most perfect knowledge which the human mind is of
itself capable of attaining. In one word, from hence we acquire the
most intimate acquaintance, both with ourselves and others, of which
our nature is capable ; and it is thus that art has a constant tendency
to perfect those endowments which nature has bestowed. The world
is the book of women." — ROUSSEAU'S Einilius.

I hope my readers still remember the comparison which I have
brought forward between women and officers.

46 VINDICATION OF THE

/the

he first care of those mothers or fathers who really attend
to the education of females should be, if not to strengthen
the body, at least not to destroy the constitution by mis-
taken notions of beauty and female excellence ; nor should
girls ev^r-fee allowed to imbibe the pernicious notion that
a defect can, by, any chemical process of reasoning, become
an excellence,^/)! n this respect I am happy to find that the
author of one of the most instructive books that our country
has produced for children, coincides with me in opinion. I
shall quote his pertinent remarks to give the force of his
respectable authority to reason.*

* "A respectable old man gives the following sensible account of the
method he pursued when educating his daughter : — ' I endeavoured to
give both to her mind a body and degree of vigour which is seldom
found in the female sex. As soon as she was sufficiently advanced in
strength to be capable of the lighter labours of husbandry and garden-
ing, I employed her as my constant companion. Selene — for that
was her name — soon acquired a dexterity in all these rustic employ-
ments which I considered with equal pleasure and admiration. If
women are in general feeble both in body and mind, it arises less
from nature than from education. We encourage a vicious indolence
and inactivity, which we falsely call delicacy. Instead of hardening
their minds by the severer principles of reason and philosophy, we
breed them to useless arts, which terminate in vanity and sensuality.
In most of the countries which I had visited they are taught nothing
of an higher nature than a few modulations of the voice, or useless
postures of the body; their time is consumed in sloth or trifles, and
trifles become the only pursuits capable of interesting them. We seem
to forget that it is upon the qualities of the female sex that our own
domestic comforts and the education of our children must depend.
And what are the comforts or the education which a race of beings,
corrupted from their infancy, and unacquainted with all the duties of
life, are fitted to bestow ? To touch a musical instrument with useless
skill, to exhibit their natural or affected graces to the eyes of indolent
and debauched young men, to dissipate their husband's patrimony in
riotous and unnecessary expenses, these are the only arts cultivated by

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 47

But should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker
than man, whence does it follow that it is natural for her to
labour to become still weaker than nature intended her to
be ? Arguments of this cast are an insult to common-sense,
and savour of passion. The divine right of husbands, like
the divine right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this
enlightened age, be contested without danger ; and though
conviction may not silence many boisterous disputants, yet,
when any prevailing prejudice is attacked, the wise will con-
sider, and leave the narrow-minded to rail with thoughtless
vehemence at innovation.

The mother who wishes to give true dignity of character
to her daughter must, regardless of the sneers of ignorance,
proceed on a plan diametrically opposite to that which
Rousseau has recommended with all the deluding charms
of eloquence and philosophical sophistry, for his eloquence
renders absurdities plausible, and his dogmatic conclusions
puzzle, without convincing, those who have not ability to
refute them.

Throughout the whole animal kingdom every young crea-
ture requires almost continual exercise, and the infancy of
children, conformable to this intimation, should be passed
in harmless gambols that exercise the feet and hands, with-
out requiring very minute direction from the head, or the
constant attention of a nurse. In fact, the care necessary

women in most of the polished nations I had seen. And the conse-
quences are uniformly such as may be expected to proceed from such
polluted sources — private misery and public servitude.

" But Selene's education was regulated by different views, and con-
ducted upon severer principles — if that can be called severity which
opens the mind to a sense of moral and religious duties, and most
effectually arms it against the inevitable evils of life.'" — Mr DAY'S
Saiidford ami Merton, vol. iii.

48 VINDICATION OF THE

for self-preservation is the first natural exercise of the under-
standing as little inventions to amuse the present moment
unfold the imagination. But these wise designs of nature
are counteracted by mistaken fondness or blind zeal. The
child is not left a moment to its own direction — particularly
a girl — and thus rendered dependent. Dependence is called
natural.

To preserve personal beauty — woman's glory — the limbs
and faculties are cramped with worse than Chinese bands,
and the sedentary life which they are condemned to live,
whilst boys frolic in the open air, weakens the muscles and
relaxes the nerves. As for Rousseau's remarks, which have
since been echoed by several writers, that they have natu-
rally, that is, from their birth, independent of education, a
fondness for dolls, dressing, and talking, they are so puerile
as not to merit a serious refutation. That a girl, condemned
to sit for hours together listening to the idle chat of weak
nurses, or to attend at her mother's toilet, will endeavour to
join the conversation, is, indeed, very natural; and that she
will imitate her mother or aunts, and amuse herself by
adorning her lifeless doll, as they do in dressing her, poor
innocent babe ! is undoubtedly a most natural consequence.
For men of the greatest abilities have seldom had sufficient
strength to rise above the surrounding atmosphere ; and if
the pages of genius have always been blurred by the pre-
judices of the age, some allowance should be made for a
sex, who, like kings, always see things through a false
medium.

Purposing these reflections, the fondness for dress, con-
spicuous in woman, may be easily accounted for, without
supposing it the result of a desire to please the sex on which
they are dependent. The absurdity, in short, of supposing
that a girl is naturally a coquette, and that a desire con-

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 49

nected with the impulse of nature to propagate the species,
should appear even before an improper education has, by
heating the imagination, called it forth prematurely, is so
unphilosophical, that such a sagacious observer as Rousseau
would not have adopted it, if he had not been accustomed
to make reason give way to his desire of singularity, and
truth to a favourite paradox.

Yet thus to give a sex to mind was not very consistent
with the principles of a man who argued so warmly, and so
well, for the immortality of the soul. But what a weak
barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis !
Rousseau respected — almost adored virtue — and yet he
allowed himself to love with sensual fondness. His imagi-
nation constantly prepared inflammable fuel for his in-
flammable senses ; but, in order to reconcile his respect for
self-denial, fortitude, and those heroic virtues, which a
mind like his could not coolly admire, he labours to invert
the law of nature, and broaches a doctrine pregnant with mis-
chief, and derogatory to the character of supreme wisdom.

His ridiculous stories, which tend to prove that girls are
naturally attentive to their persons, without laying any
stress on daily example, are below contempt. And that
a little miss should have such a correct taste as to neglect
the pleasing amusement of making O's, merely because she
perceived that it was an ungraceful attitude, should be
selected with the anecdotes of the learned pig.*

* "I once knew a young person1 who learned to write before she
learned to read, and began to write with her needle before she could
use a pen. At first, indeed, she took it into her head to make no
letter than the O : this letter she was constantly making of all sizes,
and always the wrong way. Unluckily, one day, as she was intent on
this employment, she happened to see herself in the looking-glass ;

D

50 VINDICATION OF THE

I have, probably, had an opportunity of observing more
girls in their infancy than J. J. Rousseau. I can recollect
my own feelings, and I have looked steadily around me ;
yet, so far from coinciding with him in opinion respecting
the first dawn of the female character, I will venture to
affirm, that a girl, whose spirits have not been damped by
inactivity, or innocence tainted by false shame, will always
be a romp, and the doll will never excite attention unless
confinement allows her no alternative. Girls and boys, in
short, would play harmlessly together, if the distinction of
sex was not inculcated long before nature makes any
difference. I will go further, and affirm, as an indisputable
fact, that most of the women, in the circle of my observation,
who have acted like rational creatures, or shown any vigour
of intellect, have accidentally been allowed to run wild, as
some of the elegant formers of the fair sex would insinuate.

The baneful consequences which flow from inattention
to health during infancy and youth, extend further than is
supposed — dependence of body naturally produces depend-
ence of mind ; and how can she be a good wife or mother,
the greater part of whose time is employed to guard against
or endure sickness ? Nor can it be expected that a woman
will resolutely endeavour to strengthen her constitution and
abstain from enervating indulgences, if artificial notions
of beauty, and false descriptions of sensibility, have been
early entangled with her motives of action. Most men are

when, taking a dislike to the constrained attitude in which she sat
while writing, she threw away her pen, like another Pallas, and de-
termined against making the O any more. Her brother was also
equally averse to writing; it was the confinement, however, and not
the constrained attitude, that most disgusted him." — ROUSSEAU'S
Emilitts.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 51

sometimes obliged to bear with bodily inconveniences, and
to endure, occasionally, the inclemency of the elements ;
but genteel women are, literally speaking, slaves to their
bodies, and glory in their subjection.

• I once knew a weak woman of fashion, who was more
than commonly proud of her delicacy and sensibility. She
thought a distinguishing taste and puny appetite the height
of all human perfection, and acted accordingly. I have
seen this weak sophisticated being neglect all the duties of
life, yet recline with self-complacency on a sofa, and boast
of her want of appetite as a proof of delicacy that extended
to, or, perhaps, arose from, her exquisite sensibility ; for it
is difficult to render intelligible such ridiculous jargon.
Yet, at the moment, I have seen her insult a worthy old
gentlewoman, whom unexpected misfortunes had made
dependent on her ostentatious bounty, and who, in better
days, had claims on her gratitude. Is it possible that a
human creature could have become such a weak and de-
praved being, if, like the Sybarites, dissolved in luxury,
everything like virtue had not been worn away, or never
impressed by precept, a poor substitute, it is true, for culti-
vation of mind, though it serves as a fence against vice?

Such a woman is not a more irrational monster than
some of the Roman emperors, who were depraved by law-
less power. Yet, since kings have been more under the
restraint of law, and the curb, however weak, of honour,
the records of history are not filled with such unnatural
instances of folly and cruelty, nor does the despotism that
kills virtue and genius in the bud, hover over Europe with
that destructive blast which desolates Turkey, and renders
the men, as well as the soil, unfruitful.

Women are everywhere in this deplorable state : for, in
order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously

52 VINDICATION OF THE

termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to
assume an artificial character before their faculties have
acquired any strength. Taught from their infancy that beauty
is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and
roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adore its prison.
Men have various employments and pursuits which engage
their attention, and give a character to the opening mind ;
but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts
constantly directed to the most insignificant part of them-
selves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of
the hour. But were their understanding once emancipated
from the slavery to which the pride and sensuality of man
and their short-sighted desire, like that of dominion in
tyrants, of present sway, has subjected them, we should
probably read of their weaknesses with surprise. I must be
allowed to pursue the argument a little further.

Perhaps, if the existence of an evil being were allowed,
who, in the allegorical language of Scripture, went about
seeking whom he should devour, he could not more effec-
tually degrade the human character, than by giving a man
absolute power.

This argument branches into various ramifications. Birth,
riches, and every extrinsic advantage that exalt a man above
his fellows, without any mental exertion, sink him in reality
below them. In proportion to his weakness, he is played
upon by designing men, till the bloated monster has lost all
traces of humanity. And that tribes of men, like flocks of
sheep, should quietly follow such a leader, is a solecism
that only a desire of present enjoyment and narrowness of
understanding can solve. Educated in slavish dependence,
and enervated by luxury and sloth, where shall we find men
who will stand forth to assert the rights of man, or claim
the privilege of moral beings, who should have but one

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 53

road to excellence? Slavery to monarchs and ministers,
which the world will be long in freeing itself from, and
whose deadly grasp stops the progress of the human mind,
is not yet abolished.

Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same
arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have
used, and fallaciously assert that woman ought to be sub-
jected because she has always been so. But, when man,
governed by reasonable laws, enjoys his natural freedom,
let him despise woman, if she do not share it with him ;
and, till that glorious period arrives, in descanting on the
folly of the sex, let him not overlook his own.

Women, it is true, obtaining power by unjust means, by
practising or fostering vice, evidently lose the rank which
reason would assign them, and they become either abject
slaves or capricious tyrants. They lose all simplicity, all
dignity of mind, in acquiring power, and act as men are
observed to act when they have been exalted by the same
means.

^_.lMs time to effect a revolution in female manners — time
^to restore to them their lost dignity — and makfe them, as a
part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves
to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable
morals from local manners. If men be demi-gods, why let
us serve them ! And if the dignity of the female soul be
as disputable as that of animals — if their reason does not
afford sufficient light to direct their conduct whilst unerring
instinct is denied — they are surely of all creatures the most
miserable ! and, bent beneath the iron hand of destiny,
must submit to be a fair defect in creation. But to justify
the ways of Providence respecting them, by pointing out
some irrefragable reason for thus making such a large
portion of mankind accountable and not accountable, would
puzzle the subtilest casuist.

54 VINDICATION OF THE

The only solid foundation for morality appears to be
the character of the Supreme Being ; the harmony of which
arises from a balance of attributes ; — and, to speak with
reverence, one attribute seems to imply the necessity of
another. He must be just, because He is wise ; He must be
good, because He is omnipotent. For to exalt one attribute
at the expense of another equally noble and necessary,
bears the stamp of the warped reason of man — the homage
of passion. Man, accustomed to bow down to power in his
savage state, can seldom divest himself of this barbarous
prejudice, even when civilisation determines how much
superior mental is to bodily strength ; and his reason is
clouded by these crude opinions, even when he thinks of
the Deity. His omnipotence is made to swallow up, or
preside over His other attributes, and those mortals are
supposed to limit His power irreverently, who think that it
must be regulated by His wisdom.

I disclaim that specious humility which, after investigat-
ing nature, stops at the Author. The High and Lofty One,
who inhabiteth eternity, doubtless possesses many attributes
of which we can form no conception ; but Reason tells me
that they cannot clash with those I adore — and I am
compelled to listen to her voice.

It seems natural for man to search for excellence, and
either to trace it in the object that he worships, or blindly
to invest it with perfection, as a garment. But what good
effect can the latter mode of worship have on the moral
conduct of a rational being ? He bends to power ; he
adores a dark cloud, which may open a bright prospect to
him, to burst in angry, lawless fury, on his devoted head —
he knows not why. And, supposing that the Deity acts
from the vague impulse of an undirected will, man must
also follow his own, or act according to rules, deduced

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 55

from principles which he disclaims as irreverent. Into this
dilemma have both enthusiasts and cooler thinkers fallen,
when they laboured to free men from the wholesome
restraints which a just conception of the character of God
imposes.

It is not impious thus to scan the attributes of the
Almighty : in fact, who can avoid it that exercises his
faculties ? For to love God as the fountain of wisdom,
goodness, and power, appears to be the only worship useful
to a being who wishes to acquire either virtue or knowledge.
A blind unsettled affection may, like human passions,
occupy the mind and warm the heart, whilst, to do justice,
love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, is forgotten.
I shall pursue this subject still further, when I consider
religion in a light opposite to that recommended by Dr
Gregory, who treats it as a matter of sentiment or taste.

To return from this apparent digression. It were to be
wished that women would cherish an affection for their
husbands, founded on the same principle that devotion
ought to rest upon. No other firm base is there under
heaven — for let them beware of the fallacious light of
sentiment ; too often used as a softer phrase for sensuality.
It follows then, I think, that from their infancy women
should either be 'shut up like Eastern princes, or educated
in such a manner as to be able to think and act for
themselves. )/

Why do -tten halt between two opinions, and expect
impossibilities ? Why do they expect virtue from a slave,
from a being whom the constitution of civil society has
rendered weak, if not vicious ?

Still I know that it will require a considerable length
of time to eradicate the firmly rooted prejudices which
sensualists have planted ; it will also require some time

56 VINDICATION OF THE

to convince women that they act contrary to their real
interest on an enlarged scale, when they cherish or affect
weakness under the name of delicacy, and to convince the
world that the poisoned source of female vices and follies,
if it be necessary, in compliance with custom, to use
synonymous terms in a lax sense, has been the sensual
homage paid to beauty : — to beauty of features ; for it has
been shrewdly observed by a German writer, that a pretty
woman, as an object of desire, is generally allowed to be
so by men of all descriptions ; whilst a fine woman, who
inspires more sublime emotions by displaying intellectual
beauty, may be overlooked or observed with indifference,
by those men who find their happiness in their gratification
of their appetites. I foresee an obvious retort — whilst
man remains such an imper being as he appears hitherto
to have been, he will, nv or less, be the slave of his
appetites ; and those wo i obtaining most power who
gratify a predominant one, i.ie sex is degraded by a physical,
if not by a moral necessity.

This objection has, I grant, some force ; but while such
a sublime precept exists, as, "Be pure as your heavenly
Father is pure;" it would seem that the virtues of man are
not limited by the Being who alone could limit them ; and
that he may press forward without considering whether he
steps out of his sphere by indulging such a noble ambition.
To the wild billows it has been said, " Thus far shalt thou
go, and no farther ; and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed." Vainly then do they beat and foam, restrained by
the power that confines the struggling planets in their
orbits, matter yields to the great governing Spirit. But
an immortal soul, not restrained by mechanical laws and
struggling to free itself from the shackles of matter, con-
tributes to, instead of disturbing, the order of creation,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 57

when, co-operating with the Father of spirits, it tries to
govern itself by the invariable rule that, in a degree, before
which our imagination faints, regulates the universe.

Besides, if women be educated for dependence, that is,
to act according to the will of another fallible being, and
submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop?
Are they to be considered as vicegerents allowed to reign
over a small domain, and answerable for their conduct to a
higher tribunal, liable to error?

It will not be difficult to prove that such delegates will
act like men subjected by fear, and make their children
and servants endure their tyrannical oppression. As they
submit without reason, they will, having no fixed rules to
square their conduct by, be kind, or cruel, just as the
whim of the moment directs ; and we ought not to wonder
if sometimes, galled by their heavy yoke, they take a
malignant pleasure in resting it on weaker shoulders.

But, supposing a woman, trained up to obedience, be
married to a sensible man, who directs her judgment with-
out making her feel the servility of her subjection, to act
with as much propriety by this reflected light as can be
expected when reason is taken at secondhand, yet she can-
not ensure the life of her protector ; he may die and leave
her with a large family.

A double duty devolves on her ; to educate them in the
character of both father and mother ; to form their principles
and secure their property. But, alas ! she has never thought,
much less acted for herself. She has only learned to please*

* " In the union of the sexes, both pursue one common object, but
not in the same manner. From their diversity in this particular, arises
the first determinate difference between the moral relations of each.
The one should be active and strong, the other passive and weak ; it is

58 VINDICATION OF THE

men, to depend gracefully on them ; yet, encumbered with
children, how is she to obtain another protector — a husband
to supply the place of reason ? A rational man, for we are
not treading on romantic ground, though he may think her
a pleasing docile creature, will not choose to marry a family
for love, when the world contains many more pretty
creatures. What is then to become of her? She either
falls an easy prey to some mean fortune-hunter, who
defrauds her children of their paternal inheritance, and
renders her miserable ; or becomes the victim of discontent
and blind indulgence. Unable to educate her sons, or
impress them with respect, — for it is not a play on words to
assert, that people are never respected, though filling an

necessary the one should have both the power and the will, and that the
other should make little resistance.

" This principle being established, it follows that woman is expressly
formed to please the man : if the obligation be reciprocal also, and the
man ought to please in his turn, it is not so immediately necessary : his
great merit is in his power, and he pleases merely because he is strong.
This, I must confess, is not one of the refined maxims of love ; it is,
however, one of the laws of nature, prior to love itself.

" If woman be formed to please and be subjected to man, it is her
place, doubtless, to render herselfa greeable to him, instead of challeng-
ing his passion. The violence of his desires depends on her charms ;
it is by means of these she should urge him to the exertion of those
powers which nature hath given him. The most successful method of
exciting them, is, to render such exertion necessary by resistance ; as,
in that case, self-love is added to desire, and the one triumphs in the
victory which the other is obliged to acquire. Hence arise the various
modes of attack and defence between the sexes ; the boldness of one
sex and the timidity of the other ; and, in a word, that bashfulness
and modesty with which nature hath armed the weak in order to sub-
clue the strong." — ROUSSEAU'S Einilius.

I shall make no other comment on this ingenious passage than just to
observe, that it is the philosophy of lasciviousness.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 59

important station, who are not respectable, — she pines under
the anguish of unavailing impotent regret. The serpent's
tooth enters into her very soul, and the vices of licentious
youth bring her with sorrow, if not with poverty also, to the
grave.

This is not an overcharged picture ; on the contrary, it is
a very possible case, and something similar must have fallen
under every attentive eye.

I have, however, taken it for granted, that she was well
disposed, though experience shows, that the blind may as
easily be led into a ditch as along the beaten road. But
supposing, no very improbable conjecture, that a being only
taught to please must still find her happiness in pleasing; what
an example of folly, not to say vice, will she be to her inno-
cent daughters ! The mother will be lost in the coquette,
and, instead of making friends of her daughters, view them
with eyes askance, for they are rivals — rivals more cruel
than any other, because they invite a comparison, and drive
her from the throne of beauty, who has never thought of a
seat on the bench of reason.

It does not require a lively pencil, or the discriminating
outline of a caricature, to sketch the domestic miseries and
petty vices which such a mistress of a family diffuses. Still
she only acts as a woman ought to act, brought up according
to Rousseau's system. She can never be reproached for
being masculine, or turning out of her sphere ; nay, she may
observe another of his grand rules, and, cautiously preserving
her reputation free from spot, be reckoned a good kind of
woman. Yet in what respect can she be termed good? She
abstains, it is true, without any great struggle, from com-
mitting gross crimes ; but how does she fulfil her duties ?
Duties ! in truth she has enough to think of to adorn her
body and nurse a weak constitution.

60 VINDICATION OF THE

I With respect to religion, she never presumed to judge for
herself; but conformed, as a dependent creature should, to
the ceremonies of the Church which she was brought up in,
piously believing that wiser heads than her own have settled
that business^ and not to doubt is her point of perfection.
She therefore pays her tithe of mint and cumin — and thanks
her God that she is not as other women are. These are the
blessed effects of a good education ! These the virtues of
man's helpmate ! *

I must relieve myself by drawing a different picture.

Let fancy now present a woman with a tolerable under-
standing, for I do not wish to leave the line of mediocrity,
whose constitution, strengthened by exercise, has allowed
her body to acquire its full vigour ; her mind, at the same
time, gradually expanding itself to comprehend the moral
duties of life, and in what human virtue and dignity consist.

Formed thus by the discharge of the relative duties of
her station, she marries from affection, without losing sight
of prudence, and looking beyond matrimonial felicity, she
secures her husband's respect before it is necessary to exert
mean arts to please him and feed a dying flame, which
nature doomed to expire when the object became familiar,
when friendship and forbearance take place of a more

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

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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 61

ardent affection. This is the natural death of love, and
domestic peace is not destroyed by struggles to prevent its
extinction. I also suppose the husband to be virtuous ; or
she is still more in want of independent principles.

Fate, however, breaks this tie. She is left a widow,
perhaps, without a sufficient provision ; but she is not
desolate ! The pang of nature is felt ; but after time has
softened sorrow into melancholy resignation, her heart turns
to her children with redoubled fondness, and anxious to
provide for them, affection gives a sacred heroic cast to her
maternal duties. She thinks that not only the eye sees her
virtuous efforts from whom all her comfort now must flow,
and whose approbation is life ; but her imagination, a little
abstracted and exalted by grief, dwells on the fond hope
that the eyes which her trembling hand closed, may still see
how she subdues every wayward passion to fulfil the double
duty of being the father as well as the mother of her child-
ren. Raised to heroism by misfortunes, she represses the
first faint dawning of a natural inclination, before it ripens
into love, and in the bloom of life forgets her sex — forgets
the pleasure of an awakening passion, which might again
have been inspired and returned. She no longer thinks of
pleasing, and conscious dignity prevents her from priding
herself on account of the praise which her conduct demands.
Her children have her love, and her brightest hopes are
beyond the grave, where her imagination often strays.

I think I see her surrounded by her children, reaping the
reward of her care. The intelligent eye meets hers, whilst
health and innocence smile on their chubby cheeks, and as
they grow up the cares of life are lessened by their grateful
attention. She lives to see the virtues which she endeav-
oured to plant on principles, fixed into habits, to see her
children attain a strength of character sufficient to enable

62 VINDICATION OF THE

them to endure adversity without forgetting their mother's
example.

The task of life thus fulfilled, she calmly waits for the
sleep of death, and rising from the grave, may say — " Behold,
Thou gavest me a talent, and here are five talents."

I wish to sum up what I have said in a few words, for I
here throw down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of
sexual virtues, not excepting modesty. For man and woman,
truth, if I understand the meaning of the word, must be the
same ; yet the fanciful female character, so prettily drawn by
poets and novelists, demanding the sacrifice of truth and
sincerity, virtue becomes a relative idea, having no other
foundation than utility, and of that utility men pretend
arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own convenience.
f Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfil ; but
they are human duties, and the principles that should
regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be
the same/

To become respectable, the exercise of their understanding
is necessary, there is no other foundation for independence
of character ; & mean explicitly to say that they must only
bow to the authority of reason, instead of being the modest
slaves of opinion/

In the superior ranks of life how seldom do we meet with
a man of superior abilities, or even common acquirements ?
The reason appears to me clear, the state they are born in
was an unnatural one. The human character has ever been
formed by the employments the individual, or class, pursues ;
and if the faculties are not sharpened by necessity, they
must remain obtuse. The argument may fairly be extended
to women : for, seldom occupied by serious business, the
pursuit of pleasure gives that insignificancy to their character
which renders the society of the great so insipid. The

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 63

same want of firmness, produced by a similar cause, forces
them both to fly from themselves to noisy pleasures, and
artificial passions, till vanity takes place of every social
affection, and the characteristics of humanity can scarcely
be discerned. Such are the blessings of civil governments,
as they are at present organised, that wealth and female
softness equally tend to debase mankind, and are produced
by the same cause ; but allowing women to be rational
creatures, they should be incited to acquire virtues which
they may call their own, for how can a rational being be
ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its cnvn
exertions ?

64 VINDICATION OF THE

CHAPTER IV.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO WHICH
WOMAN IS REDUCED BY VARIOUS CAUSES.

THAT woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a
concurrence of circumstances, is, I think, clear. But
this position I shall simply contrast with a conclusion,
which I have frequently heard fall from sensible men in
favour of an aristocracy : that the mass of mankind cannot
be anything, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow
themselves to be driven forward, would feel their own
consequence, and spurn their chains. Men, they further
observe, submit everywhere to oppression, when they have
only to lift up their heads to throw off the yoke; yet,
instead of asserting their birthright, they quietly lick the
dust, and say, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."
Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same
propensity to enjoy the present moment, and at last
despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue
to struggle to attain. But I must be more explicit.

With respect to the culture of the heart, it is unanimously
allowed that sex is out of the question ; but the line of
subordination in the mental powers is never to be passed
over.* Only " absolute in loveliness," the portion of ration-

* Into what inconsistencies do men fall when they argue without the
compass of principles. Women, weak women, are compared with
angels ; yet, a superior order of beings should be supposed to possess
more intellect than man ; or, in what does their superiority consist ?

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 65

ality granted to woman is, indeed, very scanty ; for denying
her genius and judgment, it is scarcely possible to divine
what remains to characterise intellect.

The stamen of immortality, if I may be allowed the
phrase, is the perfectibility of human reason ; for, were man
created perfect, or did a flood of knowledge break in upon
him, when he arrived at maturity, that precluded error, I
should doubt whether his existence would be continued
after the dissolution of the body. But, in the present state of
things, every difficulty in morals that escapes from human
discussion, and equally baffles the investigation of profound
thinking, and the lightning glance of genius, is an argument
on which I build my belief of the immortality of the soul.
Reason is, consequentially, the simple power of improve-
ment ; or, more properly speaking, of discerning truth.
Every individual is in this respect a world in itself. More
or less may be conspicuous in one being than another ; but
the nature of reason must be the same in all, if it be an
emanation of divinity, the tie that connects the creature
with the Creator; for, can that soul be stamped with the
heavenly image, that is not perfected by the exercise of its
own reason?* Yet outwardly ornamented with elaborate
care, and so adorned to delight man, " that with honour he

In the same strain, to drop the sneer, they are allowed to possess more
goodness of heart, piety, and benevolence. I doubt the fact, though
it be courteously brought forward, unless ignorance be allowed to be
the mother of devotion ; for I am firmly persuaded that, on an average,
the proportion between virtue and knowledge, is more upon a par than
is commonly granted.

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

E

66 VINDICATION OF THE

may love," * the soul of woman is not allowed to have this
distinction, and man, ever placed between her and reason, she
is always represented as only created to see through a gross
medium, and to take things on trust. But dismissing these
fanciful theories, and considering woman as a whole, let it
be what it will, instead of a part of man, the inquiry is
whether she have reason or not. If she have, which, for a
moment, I will take for granted, she was not created merely
to be the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy
the human character.

Into this error men have, probably, been led by viewing
education in a false light ; not considering it as the first
step to form a being advancing gradually towards perfec-
tion ; f but only as a preparation for life. On this sensual
error, for I must call it so, has the false system of female
manners been reared, which robs the whole sex of its dignity,
and classes the brown and fair with the smiling flowers that
only adorn the land. This has ever been the language of
men, and the fear of departing from a supposed sexual
character, has made even women of superior sense adopt
the same sentiments. | Thus understanding, strictly speak-

* Vide Milton.

t This word is not strictly just, but I cannot find a better.

J " Pleasure's the portion of th' inferior kind ;

But glory, virtue, Heaven for man designed."

After writing these lines, how could Mrs Barbauld write the following

ignoble comparison ?

"To A LADY WITH SOME PAINTED FLOWERS.
" Flowers to the fair : to you these flowers I bring,
And strive to greet you with an earlier spring.
Flowers, SWEET, and gay, and DELICATE LIKE YOU ;

Emblems of innocence, and beauty too.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 67

ing, has been denied to woman ; and instinct, sublimated
into wit and cunning, for the purposes of life, has been
substituted in its stead.

The power of generalising ideas, of drawing compre-
hensive conclusions from individual observations, is the
only acquirement, for an immortal being, that really deserves
the name of knowledge. Merely to observe, without en-
deavouring to account for anything, may (in a very incom-
plete manner) serve as the common -sense of life; but
where is the store laid up that is to clothe the soul when it
leaves the body?

This power has not only been denied to women ; but
writers have insisted that it is inconsistent, with a few
exceptions, with their sexual character. Let men prove
this, and I shall grant that woman only exists for man.
I must, however, previously remark, that the power of
generalising ideas, to any great extent, is not very common
amongst men or women. But this exercise is the true

With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair,

And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear.

Flowers, the sole luxury which Nature knew,

In Eden's pure and guiltless garden grew.

To loftier forms are rougher tasks assigned ;

The sheltering oak resists the stormy wind.

The tougher yew repels invading foes,

And the tall pine for future navies grows ;

But this soft family, to cares unknown,

Were born for pleasure aud delight ALONE.

Gay without toil, and lovely without art,

They spring to CHEER the sense, and GLAD the heart.

Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these ;

Your BEST, your SWEETEST empire is — to PLEASE."

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

68 VINDICATION OF THE

cultivation of the understanding ; and everything conspires
to render the cultivation of the understanding more difficult
in the female than the male world.

I am naturally led by this assertion to the main subject
of the present chapter, and shall now attempt to point
out some of the causes that degrade the sex, and prevent
women from generalising their observations.

I shall not go back to the remote annals of antiquity to
trace the history of woman ; it is sufficient to allow that she
has always been either a slave or a despot, and to remark
that each of these situations equally retards the progress of
reason. The grand source of female folly and vice has ever
appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind ; and the
very constitution of civil governments has put almost in-
superable obstacles in the way to prevent the cultivation of
the female understanding ; yet virtue can be built on no other
foundation. The same obstacles are thrown in the way of
the rich, and the same consequences ensue.

Necessity has been proverbially termed the mother of
invention ; the aphorism may be extended to virtue. It is
an acquirement, and an acquirement to which pleasure must
be sacrificed ; and who sacrifices pleasure when it is within
the grasp, whose mind has not been opened and strengthened
by adversity, or the pursuit of knowledge goaded on by
necessity? Happy is it when people have the cares of life
to struggle with, for these struggles prevent their becom-
ing a prey to enervating vices, merely from idleness. But if
from their birth men and women be placed in a torrid zone,
with the meridian sun of pleasure darting directly upon them,
how can they sufficiently brace their minds to discharge the
duties of life, or even to relish the affections that carry them
out of themselves ?

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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 69

present modification of society ; and while it continues to be
so, little can be expected from such weak beings. Inherit-
ing in a lineal descent from the first fair defect in nature —
the sovereignty of beauty — they have, to maintain their
power, resigned the natural rights which the exercise of
reason might have procured them, and chosen rather to be
short-lived queens than labour to obtain the sober pleasures
that arise from equality. Exalted by their inferiority (this
sounds like a contradiction), they constantly demand homage
as women, though experience should teach them that the
men who pride themselves upon paying this arbitrary inso-
lent respect to the sex, with the most scrupulous exactness,
are most inclined to tyrannise over, and despise the very
weakness they cherish. Often do they repeat Mr Hume's
sentiments, when, comparing the French and Athenian
character, he alludes to women, — " But what is more singu-
lar in this whimsical nation, say I to the Athenians, is, that
a frolic of yours during the saturnalia, when the slaves are
served by their masters, is seriously continued by them
through the whole year, and through the whole course of.
their lives, accompanied, too, with some circumstances, which
still further augment the absurdity and ridicule. Your sport
only elevates for a few days those whom fortune has thrown
down, and whom she too, in sport, may really elevate for
ever above you. But this nation gravely exalts those whom
nature has subjected to them, and whose inferiority and
infirmities are absolutely incurable. The women, though
without virtue, are their masters and sovereigns."

Ah ! why do women — I write with affectionate solicitude
— condescend to receive a degree of attention and respect
from strangers different from that reciprocation of civility
which the dictates of humanity and the politeness of civi-
lisation authorise between man and man ? And why do

70 VINDICATION OF THE

they not discover, when "in the noon of beauty's power,"
that they are treated like queens only to be deluded by
hollow respect, till they are led to resign, or not assume,
their natural prerogatives? Confined, then, in cages like
the feathered race, they have nothing to do but to plume
themselves, and stalk with mock majesty from perch to
perch. It is true they are provided with food and raiment,
for which they neither toil nor spin ; but health, liberty, and
virtue are given in exchange. But where, amongst man-
kind, has been found sufficient strength of mind to enable a
being to resign these adventitious prerogatives — one who,
rising with the calm dignity of reason above opinion, dared
to be proud of the privileges inherent in man ? And it is
vain to expect it whilst hereditary power chokes the affec-
tions, and nips reason in the bud.

The passions of men have thus placed women on thrones,
and till mankind become more reasonable, it is to be feared
that women will avail themselves of the power which they
attain with the least exertion, and which is the most indisput-
able. They will smile — yes, they will smile, though told that —

" In beauty's empire is no mean,
And woman, either slave or queen,
Is quickly scorned when not adored."

But the adoration comes first, and the scorn is not antici-
pated.

Louis XIV., in particular, spread factitious manners, and
caught, in a specious way, the whole nation in his toils ;
for, establishing an artful chain of despotism, he made it
the interest of the people at large individually to respect his
station, and support his power. And women, whom he flat-
tered by a puerile attention to the whole sex, obtained in his
reign that prince-like distinction so fatal to reason and virtue.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 71

A king is always a king, and a woman always a woman.*
His authority and her sex ever stand between them and
rational converse. With a lover, I grant, she should be so,
and her sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavour to
excite emotion, not to gratify her vanity, but her heart.
This I do not allow to be coquetry ; it is the artless impulse
of nature. I only exclaim against the sexual desire of con-
quest when the heart is out of the question.

This desire is not confined to women. " I have en-
deavoured," says Lord Chesterfield, " to gain the hearts of
twenty women, whose persons I would not have given a fig
for." The libertine who, in a gust of passion, takes advan-
tage of unsuspecting tenderness, is a saint when compared
with this cold-hearted rascal — for I like to use significant
words. Yet only taught to please, women are always on the
watch to please, and with true heroic ardour endeavour to
gain hearts merely to resign or spurn them when the victory
is decided and conspicuous.

I must descend to the minutiae of the subject.
I lament that women are systematically degraded by re-
ceiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to
pay to the sex, when, in fact, they are insultingly supporting
their own superiority. It is not condescension to bow to an
inferior. So ludicrous, in fact, do these ceremonies appear
to me that I scarcely am able to govern my muscles when I
see a man start with eager and serious solicitude to lift a
handkerchief or shut a door, when the lady could have done
it herself, had she only moved a pace or two.

A wild wish has just flown from my heart to my head,

* And a wit always a wit, might be added, for the vain fooleries of
wits and beauties to obtain attention, and make conquests, are much
upon a par.

72 VJNDICATION OF THE

and I will not stifle it, though it may excite a horse-laugh.
I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded
in society, unless where love animates the behaviour. For
this distinction is, I am firmly persuaded, the foundation of
the weakness of character ascribed to woman ; is the cause
why the understanding is neglected, whilst accomplish-
ments are acquired with sedulous care ; and the same cause
accounts for their preferring the graceful before the heroic
virtues.

Mankind, including every description, wish to be loved
and respected by something, and the common herd will
always take the nearest road to the completion of their
wishes. The respect paid to wealth and beauty is the most
certain and unequivocal, and, of course, will always attract
the vulgar eye of common minds. Abilities and virtues are
absolutely necessary to raise men from the middle rank of
life into notice, and the natural consequence is notorious —
the middle rank contains most virtue and abilities. Men
have thus, in one station at least, an opportunity of exert-
ing themselves with dignity, and of rising by the exertions
which really improve a rational creature; but the whole
female sex are, till their character is formed, in the same
condition as the rich, for they are born — I now speak of
a state of civilisation — with certain sexual privileges ; and
whilst they are gratuitously granted them, few will ever think
of works of supererogation to obtain the esteem of a small
number of superior people.

When do we hear of women who, starting out of obscurity,
boldly claim respect on account of their great abilities or
daring virtues? Where are they to be found? "To be
observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with
sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the ad-
vantages which they seek." True ! my male readers will

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 73

probably exclaim ; but let them, before they draw any con-
clusion, recollect that this was not written originally as de-
scriptive of women, but of the rich. In Dr Smith's
" Theory of Moral Sentiments " I have found a general
character of people of rank and fortune, that, in my opinion,
might with the greatest propriety be applied to the female
sex. I refer the sagacious reader to the whole comparison,
but must be allowed to quote a passage to enforce an argu-
ment that I mean to insist on, as the one most conclusive
against a sexual character. For if, excepting warriors, no
great men of any denomination have ever appeared amongst
the nobility, may it not be fairly inferred that their local
situation swallowed up the man, and produced a character
similar to that of women, who are localised — if I may be
allowed the word — by the rank they are placed in by
courtesy ? Women, commonly called ladies, are not to be
contradicted in company, are not allowed to exert any
manual strength ; and from them the negative virtues only
are expected, when any virtues are expected — patience,
docility, good humour, and flexibility — virtues incompatible
with any vigorous exertion of intellect. Besides, by living
more with each other, and being seldom absolutely alone,
they are more under the influence of sentiments than pas-
sions. Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes
the force of passions, and to enable the imagination to en-
large the object, and make it the most desirable. The same
may be said of the rich ; they do not sufficiently deal in
general ideas, collected by impassioned thinking or calm
investigation, to acquire that strength of character on which
great resolves are built. But hear what an acute observer
says of the great : —

" Do the great seem insensible of the easy price at
which they may acquire the public admiration ; or do they

74 VINDICATION OF THE

seem to imagine that to them, as to other men, it must be
the purchase either of sweat or of blood ? By what import-
ant accomplishments is the young nobleman instructed to
support the dignity of his rank, and to render himself
worthy of that superiority over his fellow-citizens, to which
the virtue of his ancestors had raised them? Is it by
knowledge, by industry, by patience, by self-denial, or by
virtue of any kind. As all his words, as all his motions
are attended to, he learns an habitual regard to every
circumstance of ordinary behaviour, and studies to perform
all those small duties with the most exact propriety. As
he is conscious how much he is observed, and how much
mankind are disposed to favour all his inclinations, he acts,
upon the most indifferent occasions, with that freedom and
elevation which the thought of this naturally inspires. His
air, his manner, his deportment, all mark that elegant and
graceful sense of his own superiority, which those who are
born to inferior station can hardly ever arrive at. These are
the arts by which he proposes to make mankind more easily
submit to his authority, and to govern their inclinations accord-
ing to his own pleasure ; and in this he is seldom disap-
pointed. These arts, supported by rank and pre-eminence,
are, upon ordinary occasions, sufficient to govern the world.
Louis XIV., during the greater part of his reign, was
regarded, not only in France, but over all Europe, as the
most perfect model of a great prince. But what were the
talents and virtues by which he acquired this great reputa-
tion? Was it by the scrupulous and inflexible justice of all
his undertakings, by the immense dangers and difficulties
with which they were attended, or by the unwearied and
unrelenting application with which he pursued them ? Was
it by his extensive knowledge, by his exquisite judgment, or
by his heroic valour ? It was by none of these qualities.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 75

But he was, first of all, the most powerful prince in Europe,
and consequently held the highest rank among kings ; and
then, says his historian, ' he surpassed all his courtiers in
the gracefulness of his shape, and the majestic beauty of his
features. The sound of his voice, noble and affecting,
gained those hearts which his presence intimidated. He
had a step and a deportment which could suit only him and
his rank, and which would have been ridiculous in any other
person. The embarrassment which he occasioned to those
who spoke to him, flattered that secret satisfaction with
which he felt his own superiority.' These frivolous
accomplishments, supported by his rank, and, no doubt too,
by a degree of other talents and virtues, which seems, how-
ever, not to have been much above mediocrity, established
this prince in the esteem of his own age, and have drawn,
even from posterity, a good deal of respect for his memory.
Compared with these, in his own times, and in his own pre-
sence, no other virtue, it seems, appeared to have any merit.
Knowledge, industry, valour, and beneficence trembled,
were abashed, and lost all dignity before them."

Woman also thus " in herself complete," by possessing all
these frivolous accomplishments, so changes the nature of
things —

" That what she wills to do or say
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best ;
All higher knowledge in her presence falls
Degraded. Wisdom in discourse with her
Loses discountenanced, and, like folly shows :
Authority and reason on her wait."

And all this is built on her loveliness !

In the middle rank of life, to continue the comparison,
men, in their youth, are prepared for professions, and
marriage is not considered as the grand feature in their

76 VINDICATION OF THE

lives ; whilst women, on the contrary, have no other scheme
to sharpen their faculties. It is not business, extensive
plans, or any of the excursive flights of ambition, that engross
their attention ; no, their thoughts are not employed in
rearing such noble structures. To rise in the world, and
have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure, they
must marry advantageously, and to this object their time is
sacrificed, and their persons often legally prostituted. A
man when he enters any profession has his eye steadily fixed
on some future advantage (and the mind gains great strength
by having all its efforts directed to one point), and, full of
his business, pleasure is considered as mere relaxation ;
whilst women seek for pleasure as the main purpose of
existence. In fact, from the education, which they receive
from society, the love of pleasure may be said to govern
them all ; but does this prove that there is a sex in souls ?
It would be just as rational to declare that the courtiers in
France, when a destructive system of despotism had formed
their character, were not men, because liberty, virtue, and
humanity, were sacrificed to pleasure and vanity, Fatal
passions, which have ever domineered over the whole race !

The same love of pleasure, fostered by the whole tendency
of their education, gives a trifling turn to the conduct of
women in most circumstances ; for instance, they are ever
anxious about secondary things ; and on the watch for
adventures, instead of being occupied by duties.

A man, when he undertakes a journey, has, in general, the
end in view ; a woman thinks more of the incidental occur-
rences, the strange things that may possibly occur on the
road ; the impression that she may make on her fellow-
travellers ; and, above all, she is anxiously intent on the
care of the finery that she carries with her, which is more
than ever a part of herself, when going to figure on a new

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 77

scene ; when, to use an apt French turn of expression, she is
going to produce a sensation. Can dignity of mind exist
with such trivial cares ?

In short, women, in general, as well as the rich of both
sexes, have acquired all the follies and vices of civilisation,
and missed the useful fruit. It is not necessary for me
always to premise, that I speak of the condition of the whole
sex, leaving exceptions out of the question. Their senses
are inflamed, and their understandings neglected, conse-
quently they become the prey of their senses, delicately
termed sensibility, and are blown about by every momentary
gust of feeling. Civilised women are, therefore, so weakened
by false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition
is much below what it would be were they left in a state
nearer to nature. Ever restless and anxious, their over-
exercised sensibility not only renders them uncomfortable
themselves, but troublesome, to use a soft phrase, to others.
All their thoughts turn on things calculated to excite emo-
tion ; and feeling, when they should reason, their conduct is
unstable, and their opinions are wavering — not the wavering
produced by deliberation or progressive views, but by con-
tradictory emotions. By fits and starts they are warm in
many pursuits ; yet this warmth, never concentrated into
perseverance, soon exhausts itself; exhaled by its own heat,
or meeting with some other fleeting passion, to which reason
has never given any specific gravity, neutrality ensues.
Miserable indeed, must be that being whose cultivation of
mind has only tended to inflame its passions ! A distinc-
tion should be made between inflaming and strengthening
them. The passions thus pampered, whilst the judgment
is left unformed, what can be expected to ensue? Un-
doubtedly, a mixture of madness and folly !

This observation should not be confined to the fair sex ;
however, at present, I only mean to apply it to them.

78 VINDICATION OF THE

Novels, music, poetry, and gallantry, all tend to make
women the creatures of sensation, and their character is thus
formed in the mould of folly during the time they are acquir-
ing accomplishments, the only improvement they are excited,
by their station in society, to acquire. This overstretched
sensibility naturally relaxes the other powers of the mind.
and prevents intellect from attaining that sovereignty which
it ought to attain to render a rational creature useful to
others, and content with its own station ; for the exercise
of the understanding, as life advances, is the only method
pointed out by nature to calm the passions.

Satiety has a very different effect, and I have often been
forcibly struck by an emphatical description of damnation ;
when the spirit is represented as continually hovering with
abortive eagerness round the denied body, unable to enjoy
anything without the organs of sense. Yet, to their senses,
are women made slaves, because it is by their sensibility
that they obtain present power.

And will moralists pretend to assert that this is the con-
dition in which one-half of the human race should be
encouraged to remain with listless inactivity and stupid
acquiescence ? Kind instructors ! what were we created
for ? |ffo remain, it may be said, innocent : they mean in a
state of childhood. We might as well never have been born,
unless it were necessary that we should be created to
enable man to acquire the noble privilege of reason, the
power of discerning good from evil, whilst we lie down in
the dust from whence we were taken, never to rise again. Jt

It would be an endless task to trace the variety of mean-
nesses, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged
by the prevailing opinion, that they were

_

feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be
obtained by their charms and weakness— /

" Fine by defect, and amiably weak ! "

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 79

And, made by this amiable weakness entirely dependent,
excepting what they gain by illicit sway, on man, not only
for protection, but advice, is it surprising that, neglecting
the duties that reason alone points out, and shrinking
from trials calculated to strengthen their minds, they only
exert themselves to give their defects a graceful covering,
which may serve to heighten their charms in the eye of
the voluptuary, though it sink them below the scale of
moral excellence.

Fragile in every sense of the word, they are obliged to
look up to man for every comfort. In the most trifling
dangers they cling to their support, with parasitical tenacity,
piteously demanding succour ; and their natural protector
extends his arm, or lifts up his voice, to guard the lovely
trembler — from what? Perhaps the frown of an old cow,
or the jump of a mouse ; a rat would be a serious danger.
In the name of reason, and even common-sense, what can
save such beings from contempt ; even though they be soft
and fair.

These fears, when not affected, may produce some pretty
attitudes ; but they show a degree of imbecility which
degrades a rational creature in a way women are not aware
of — for love and esteem are very distinct things.

I am fully persuaded that we should hear of none of these
infantine airs, if girls were allowed to take sufficient
exercise, and not confined in close rooms till their muscles
are relaxed, and their powers of digestion destroyed. To
carry the remark still further^/f fear in girls, instead of being
cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same
manner as cowardice in boys, we should quickly see women
with more dignified aspects./^ It is true, they could not
then with equal propriety be termed the sweet flowers that
smile in the walk of man ; but they would be more

So VINDICATION OF THE

respectable members of society, and discharge the important
duties of life by the light of their own reason. " Educate
women like men," says Rousseau, " and the more they
resemble our sex the less power will they have over us."
This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish them to
have power over men ; but over themselves.

In the same strain have I heard men argue against
instructing the poor ; for many are the forms that aristocracy
assumes. " Teach them to read and write," say they, " and
you take them out of the station assigned them by
nature." An eloquent Frenchman has answered them, I
will borrow his sentiments. But they know not, when they
make man a brute, that they may expect every instant to see
him transformed into a ferocious beast. Without knowledge
there can be no morality ?

// Ignorance is a frail base for virtue ! Yet, that it is the
condition for which woman was organised/' has been in-
sisted upon by the writers who have most vehemently
argued in favour of the superiority of man ; a superiority
not in degree, but offence ; though, to soften the argu-
ment, they have laboured to prove, with chivalrous gener-
osity, that the sexes ought not to be compared /man was
made to reason, woman to feel ^and that together, flesh and
spirit, they make the most perfect whole, by blending happily
reason and sensibility into one character.^

And what is sensibility? "Quickness of sensation,
quickness of perception, delicacy." Thus is it defined by
Dr Johnson ; and the definition gives me no other idea
than of the most exquisitely polished instinct. I discern
not a trace of the image of God in either sensation or
matter. Refined seventy times seven they are still mate-
rial ; intellect dwells not there; nor will fire ever make
lead cold !

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 81

I come round to my old argument : if woman be allowed
to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employ-
ment of life, an understanding to improve. And when, to
render the present state more complete, though every-
thing proves it to be but a fraction of a mighty sum, she
is incited by present gratification to forget her grand des-
tination, nature is counteracted, or she was born only to
procreate and rot. Or, granting brutes of every descrip-
tion a soul, though not a reasonable one, the exercise of
instinct and sensibility may be the step which they are to
take, in this life, towards the attainment of reason in the
next ; so that through all eternity they will lag behind
man, who, why we cannot tell, had the power given him
of attaining reason in his first mode of existence.

When I treat of the peculiar duties of women, as I should
treat of the peculiar duties of a citizen or father, it will be
found that I do not mean to insinuate that they should be
taken out of their families, speaking of the majority. " He
that hath wife and children," says Lord Bacon, " hath given
hostages to fortune ; for they are impediments to great
enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best
works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded
from the unmarried or childless men." I say the same of
women. But the welfare of society is not built on extraor-
dinary exertions; and were it more reasonably organised,
there would be still less need of great abilities, or heroic
virtues.

In the regulation of a family, in the education of children,
understanding, in an unsophisticated sense, is particularly
required — strength both of body and mind ; yet the men
who, by their writings, have most earnestly laboured to
domesticate women, have endeavoured, by arguments dic-
tated by a gross appetite, which satiety had rendered fastidi-

F

82 INDICATION OF THE

ous, to weaken their bodies and cramp their minds. But, if
even by these sinister methods they really persuaded women,
by working on their feelings, to stay at home, and fulfil the
duties of a mother and mistress of a family, I should cauti-
ously oppose opinions that led women to right conduct, by
prevailing on them to make the discharge of such important
duties the main business of life, though reason were insulted.
Yet, and I appeal to experience, if by neglecting the under-
standing they be as much, nay, more detached from these
domestic employments, than they could be by the most
serious intellectual pursuit, though it may be observed, that
the mass of mankind will never vigorously pursue an
intellectual object,* I may be allowed to infer that reason is
absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty
properly, and I must again repeat, that sensibility is not
reason.

The comparison with the rich still occurs to me ; for,
when men neglect the duties of humanity, women will follow
their example ; a common stream hurries them both along
with thoughtless celerity. Riches and honours prevent a
man from enlarging his understanding, and enervate all his
powers by reversing the order of nature, which has ever
made true pleasure the reward of labour. Pleasure — ener-
vating pleasure — is, likewise, within women's reach without
earning it. But, till hereditary possessions are spread
abroad, how can we expect men to be proud of virtue ?
And, till they are, women will govern them by the most
direct means, neglecting their dull domestic duties to catch
the pleasure that sits lightly on the wing of time.

"The power of the woman," says some author, " is her

* The mass of mankind are rather the slaves of their appetites than
of their passions.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 83

sensibility ; " and men, not aware of the consequence, do all
they can to make this power swallow up every other. Those
who constantly employ their sensibility will have most ; for
example, poets, painters, and composers.* Yet, when the
sensibility is thus increased at the expense of reason, and
even the imagination, why do philosophical men complain of
their fickleness ? The sexual attention of man particularly
acts on female sensibility, and this sympathy has been exer-
cised from their youth up. A husband cannot long pay
those attentions with the passion necessary to excite lively
emotions, and the heart, accustomed to lively emotions,
turns to a new lover, or pines in secret, the prey of virtue or
prudence. I mean when the heart has really been rendered
susceptible, and the taste formed ; for I am apt to conclude,
from what I have seen in fashionable life, that vanity is
oftener fostered than sensibility by the mode of education,
and the intercourse between the sexes, which I have repro-
bated ; and that coquetry more frequently proceeds from
vanity than from that inconstancy which overstrained sensi-
bility naturally produces. '

Another argument that has had great weight with me
must, I think, have some force with every considerate benevo-
lent heart. Girls who have been thus weakly educated are
often cruelly left by their parents without any provision, and,
of course, are dependent on not only the reason, but the
bounty of their brothers. These brothers are, to view the
fairest side of the question, good sort of men, and give as a
favour what children of the same parents had an equal right

* Men of these descriptions pour it into their compositions, to amal-
gamate the gross materials ; and, moulding them with passion, give to
the inert body a soul ; but, in woman's imagination, love alone concen-
trates these ethereal beams.

84 VINDICATION OF THE

to. In this equivocal humiliating situation a docile female
may remain some time with a tolerable degree of comfort.
But when the brother marries — a probable circumstance —
from being considered as the mistress of the family, she is
viewed with averted looks as an intruder, an unnecessary
burden on the benevolence of the master of the house and
his new partner.

Who can recount the misery which many unfortunate
beings, whose minds and bodies are equally weak, suffer in
such situations — unable to work, and ashamed to beg? The
wife, a cold-hearted, narrow-minded woman — and this is
not an unfair supposition, for the present mode of education
does not tend to enlarge the heart any more than the under-
standing— is jealous of the little kindness which her hus-
band shows to his relations; and her sensibility not rising to
humanity, she is displeased at seeing the property of her
children lavished on an helpless sister.

These are matters of fact, which have come under my eye
again and again. The consequence is obvious ; the wife has
recourse to cunning to undermine the habitual affection
which she is afraid openly to oppose ; and neither tears nor
caresses are spared till the spy is worked out of her home,
and thrown on the world, unprepared for its difficulties ; or
sent, as a great effort of generosity, or from some regard to
propriety, with a small stipend, and an uncultivated mind,
into joyless solitude.

These two women may be much upon a par with respect
to reason and humanity, and, changing situations, might
have acted just the same selfish part ; but had they been
differently educated, the case would also have been very
different. The wife would not have had that sensibility, of
which self is the centre, and reason might have taught her
not to expect, and not even to be flattered by, the affection

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 85

of her husband, if it led him to violate prior duties. She
would wish not to love him merely because he loved her,
but on account of his virtues ; and the sister might have
been able to struggle for herself instead of eating the bitter
bread of dependence.

I am, indeed, persuaded that the heart, as well as the
understanding, is opened by cultivation, and by — which
may not appear so clear — strengthening the organs. I am
not now talking of momentary flashes of sensibility, but of
affections. And, perhaps, in the education of both sexes,
the most difficult task is so to adjust instruction as not to
narrow the understanding, whilst the heart is warmed by
the generous juices of spring, just raised by the electric
fermentation of the season ; nor to dry up the feelings
by employing the mind in investigations remote from life.

With respect to women, when they receive a careful edu-
cation, they are either made fine ladies, brimful of sensi-
bility, and teeming with capricious fancies, or mere notable
women. The latter are often friendly, honest creatures, and
have a shrewd kind of good sense, joined with worldly pru-
dence, that often render them more useful members of
society than the fine sentimental lady, though they possess
neither greatness of mind nor taste. The intellectual world
is shut against them. Take them out of their family or
neighbourhood, and they stand still ; the mind finding no
employment, for literature affords a fund of amusement
which they have never sought to relish, but frequently to
despise. The sentiments and taste of more cultivated minds
appear ridiculous, even in those whom chance and family
connections have led them to love ; but in mere acquaint-
ance they think it all affectation.

JA. man of sense can only love such a woman on account
of her sex, and respect her because she is a trusty servant.

''

86 VINDICATION OF THE

He lets her, to preserve his own peace, scold the servants,
and go to church in clothes made of the very best materials.
A man of her own size of understanding would probably not
agree so well with her, for he might wish to encroach on her
prerogative, and manage some domestic concerns himself;
yet women, whose minds are not enlarged by cultivation, or
the natural selfishness of sensibility by reflection, are very
unfit to manage a family, for, by an undue stretch of power,
they are always tyrannising to support a superiority that only
rests on the arbitrary distinction of fortune. The evil is
sometimes more serious, and domestics are deprived of
innocent indulgences, and made to work beyond their
strength, in order to enable the notable woman to keep a
better table, and outshine her neighbours in finery and
parade. If she attend to her children, it is in general to
dress them in a costly manner ; and whether this attention
arise from vanity or fondness, it is equally pernicious.

Besides, how many women of this description pass their
days, or at least their evenings, discontentedly. Their
husbands acknowledge that they are good managers and
chaste wives, but leave home to seek for more agreeable —
may I be allowed to use a significant French word — piquant
society ; and the patient drudge, who fulfils her task like a
blind horse in a mill, is defrauded of her just reward, for
the wages due to her are the caresses of her husband ; and
women who have so few resources in themselves, do not
very patiently bear this privation of a natural right.

A fine lady, on the contrary, has been taught to look
down with contempt on the vulgar employments of life,
though she has only been incited to acquire accomplish-
ments that rise a degree above sense ; for even corporeal
accomplishments cannot be acquired with any degree of pre-
cision unless the understanding has been strengthened by

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 87

exercise. Without a foundation of principles taste is super-
ficial ; grace must arise from something deeper than imita-
tion. The imagination, however, is heated, and the feelings
rendered fastidious, if not sophisticated, or a counterpoise of
judgment is not acquired when the heart still remains art-
less, though it becomes too tender.

These women are often amiable, and their hearts are
really more sensible to general benevolence, more alive to
the sentiments that civilise life, than the square-elbowed
family drudge ; but, wanting a due proportion of reflection
and self-government, they only inspire love, and are the
mistresses of their husbands, whilst they have any hold on
their affections, and the Platonic friends of his male
acquaintance. These are the fair defects in nature ; the
women who appear to be created not to enjoy the fellow-
ship of man, but to save him from sinking into absolute
brutality, by rubbing off the rough angles of his character,
and by playful dalliance to give some dignity to the appetite
that draws him to them. Gracious Creator of the whole
human race ! hast Thou created such a being as woman, who
can trace Thy wisdom in Thy works, and feel that Thou
alone art by Thy nature exalted above her, for no better
purpose ? Can she believe that she was only made to sub-
mit to man, her equal — a being who, like her, was sent into
the world to acquire virtue ? Can she consent to be occu-
pied merely to please him — merely to adorn the earth —
when her soul is capable of rising to Thee ? And can
she rest supinely dependent on man for reason, when she
ought to mount with him the arduous steeps of know-
ledge ?

Yet if love be the supreme good, let woman be only edu-
cated to inspire it, and let every charm be polished to in-
toxicate the senses ; but if they be moral beings, let them

88 VINDICATION OF THE

have a chance to become intelligent ; and let love to man
be only a part of that glowing flame of universal love, which,
after encircling humanity, mounts in grateful incense to God.

To fulfil domestic duties much resolution is necessary,
and a serious kind of perseverance that requires a more
firm support than emotions, however lively and true to
nature. To give an example of order, the soul of virtue,
some austerity of behaviour must be adopted, scarcely to be
expected from a being who, from its infancy, has been made
the weathercock of its own sensations. Whoever rationally
means to be useful must have a plan of conduct ; and in
the discharge of the simplest duty, we are often obliged to
act contrary to the present impulse of tenderness or com-
passion. Severity is frequently the most certain as well as
the most sublime proof of affection ; and the want of this
power over the feelings, and of that lofty, dignified affection
which makes a person prefer the future good of the beloved
object to a present gratification, is the reason why so many
fond mothers spoil their children, and has made it ques-
tionable whether negligence or indulgence be most hurtful ;
but I am inclined to think that the latter has done most
harm.

Mankind seem to agree that children should be left under
the management of women during their childhood. Now,
from all the observation that I have been able to make,
women of sensibility are the most unfit for this task, because
they will infallibly, carried away by their feelings, spoil a
child's temper. The management of the temper, the first,
and most important branch of education, requires the sober
steady eye of reason : a plan of conduct equally distant from
tyranny and indulgence : yet these are the extremes that
people of sensibility alternately fall into ; always shooting
beyond the mark. I have followed this train of reasoning

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 89

much further, till I have concluded, that a person of genius
is the most improper person to be employed in education,
public or private. Minds of this rare species see things too
much in masses, and seldom, if ever, have a good temper.
That habitual cheerfulness, termed good-humour, is, perhaps,
as seldom united with great mental powers, as with strong
feelings. And those people who follow, with interest and
admiration, the flights of genius ; or, with cooler appro-
bation suck in the instruction which has been elaborately
prepared for them by the profound thinker, ought not to be
disgusted, if they find the former choleric, and the latter
morose ; because liveliness of fancy, and a tenacious com-
prehension of mind, are scarcely compatible with that pliant
urbanity which leads a man, at least, to bend to the opinions
and prejudices of others, instead of roughly confronting
them.

But, treating of education or manners, minds of a superior
class are not to be considered, they may be left to chance ;
it is the multitude, with moderate abilities, who call for
instruction, and catch the colour of the atmosphere they
breathe. This respectable concourse, I contend, men and
women, should not have their sensations heightened in the
hot-bed of luxurious indolence, at the expense of their under-
standing; for, unless there be a ballast of understanding,
they will never become either virtuous or free : an aristo-
cracy, founded on property or sterling talents, will ever
sweep before it the alternately timid and ferocious slaves
of feeling.

Numberless are the arguments, to take another view of
the subject, brought forward with a show of reason, because
supposed to be deduced from nature, that men have used
morally and physically, to degrade the sex. I must notice
a few.

9o VINDICATION OF THE

The female understanding has often been spoken of with
contempt, as arriving sooner at maturity than the male. I
shall not answer this argument by alluding to the early
proofs of reason, as well as genius, in Cowley, Milton, and
Pope,* but only appeal to experience to decide whether
young men, who are early introduced into company (and
examples now abound), do not acquire the same precocity.
So notorious is this fact, that the bare mentioning of it must
bring before people, who at all mix in the world, the idea of
a number of swaggering apes of men, whose understandings
are narrowed by being brought into the society of men
when they ought to have been spinning a top or twirling a
hoop.

It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men
do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty ; but
that women arrive at maturity by twenty. I apprehend that
they reason on false ground, led astray by the male pre-
judice, which deems beauty the perfection of woman — mere
beauty of features and complexion, the vulgar acceptation
of the word, whilst male beauty is allowed to have some
connection with the mind. Strength of body, and that
character of countenance which the French term a phy-
sionomie, women do not acquire before thirty, any more than
men. The little artless tricks of children, it is true, are
particularly pleasing and attractive ; yet, when the pretty
freshness of youth is worn off, these artless graces become
studied airs, and disgust every person of taste. In the
countenance of girls we only look for vivacity and bashful
modesty ; but, the springtide of life over, we look for soberer
sense in the face, and for traces of passion, instead of the
dimples of animal spirits ; expecting to see individuality of

* Many other names might be added.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 91

character, the only fastener of the affections.* We then wish
to converse, not to fondle ; to give scope to our imaginations
as well as to the sensations of our hearts.

At twenty the beauty of both sexes is equal ; but the
libertinism of man leads him to make the distinction, and
superannuated coquettes are commonly of the same opinion ;
for when they can no longer inspire love, they pay for the
vigour and vivacity of youth. The French, who admit
more of mind into their notions of beauty, give the preference
to women of thirty. I mean to say that they allow women
to be in their most perfect state, when vivacity gives place
to reason, and to that majestic seriousness of character,
which marks maturity ; or, the resting point. In youth,
till twenty, the body shoots out, till thirty, the solids are
attaining a degree of density; and the flexible muscles,
growing daily more rigid, give character to the countenance ;
that is, they trace the operations of the mind with the iron
pen of fate, and tell us not only what powers are within,
but how they have been employed.

It is proper to observe, that animals who arrive slowly at
maturity, are the longest lived, and of the noblest species.
Men cannot, however, claim any natural superiority from
the grandeur of longevity ; for in this respect nature has not
distinguished the male.

Polygamy is another physical degradation ; and a plausible
argument for a custom, that blasts every domestic virtue, is
drawn from the well-attested fact, that in the countries
where it is established, more females are born than males.
This appears to be an indication of nature, and to nature,

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

92 VINDICATION OF THE

apparently reasonable speculations must yield. A further
conclusion obviously presented itself; if polygamy be
necessary, woman must be inferior to man, and made for
him.

With respect to the formation of the fetus in the womb,
we are very ignorant ; but it appears to me probable, that
an accidental physical cause may account for this pheno-
menon, and prove it not to be a law of nature. I have
met with some pertinent observations on the subject in
Foster's "Account of the Isles of the South-Sea," that will
explain my meaning. After observing that of the two sexes
amongst animals, the most vigorous and hottest constitution
always prevails, and produces its kind ; he adds, — " If this
be applied to the inhabitants of Africa, it is evident that the
men there, accustomed to polygamy, are enervated by the
use of so many women, and therefore less vigorous ; the
women, on the contrary, are of a hotter constitution, not
only on account of their more irritable nerves, more sensible
organisation, and more lively fancy; but likewise because
they are deprived in their matrimony of that share of
physical love which, in a monogamous condition, would all
be theirs ; and thus, for the above reasons, the generality
of the children are born females.

" In the greater part of Europe it has been proved by the
most accurate lists of mortality, that the proportion of men
to women is nearly equal, or, if any difference takes place,
the males born are more numerous, in the proportion of
105 to 100."

The necessity of polygamy, therefore, does not appear ; yet
when a man seduces a woman, it should, I think, be termed
a left/landed marriage, and the man should be legally obliged
to maintain the woman and her children, unless adultery,
a natural divorcement, abrogated the law. And this law

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 93

should remain in force as long as the weakness of women
caused the word seduction to be used as an excuse for their
frailty and want of principle ; nay, while they depend on
man for a subsistence, instead of earning it by the exertion
of their own hands or heads. But these women should not,
in the full meaning of the relationship, be termed wives, or
the very purpose of marriage would be subverted, and all
those endearing charities that flow from personal fidelity, and
give a sanctity to the tie, when neither love nor friendship
unites the hearts, would melt into selfishness. The woman
who is faithful to the father of her children demands respect,
and should not be treated like a prostitute ; though I readily
grant that if it be necessary for a man and woman to live
together in order to bring up their offspring, nature never
intended that a man should have more than one wife.

Still, highly as I respect marriage, as the foundation of
almost every social virtue, I cannot avoid feeling the most
lively compassion for those unfortunate females who are
broken off from society, and by one error torn from all those
affections and relationships that improve the heart and
mind. It does not frequently even deserve the name of
error ; for many innocent girls become the dupes of a sincere,
affectionate heart, and still more are, as it may emphatically
be termed, ruined before they know the difference between
virtue and vice, and thus prepared by their education for
infamy, they become infamous. Asylums and Magdalens
are not the proper remedies for these abuses. It is justice,
not charity, that is wanting in the world !

A woman who has lost her honour imagines that she can-
not fall lower, and as for recovering her former station, it is
impossible ; no exertion can wash this stain away. Losing
thus every spur, and having no other means of support,
prostitution becomes her only refuge, and the character is

94 VINDICATION OF THE

quickly depraved by circumstances over which the poor
wretch has little power, unless she possesses an uncommon
portion of sense and loftiness of spirit. Necessity never
makes prostitution the business of men's lives ; though
numberless are the women who are thus rendered systema-
tically vicious. This, however, arises in a great degree from
the state of idleness in which women are educated, who are
always taught to look up to man for a maintenance, and to
consider their persons as the proper return for his exertions
to support them. Meretricious airs, and the whole science
of wantonness, have then a more powerful stimulus than
either appetite or vanity ; and this remark gives force to the
prevailing opinion, that with chastity all is lost that is respec-
table in woman. Her character depends on the observance
of one virtue, though the only passion fostered in her heart
is love. Nay, the honour of a woman is not made even to
depend on her will.

When Richardson * makes Clarissa tell Lovelace that he
had robbed her of her honour, he must have had strange
notions of honour and virtue. For, miserable beyond all
names of misery is the condition of a being, who could be
degraded without its own consent ! This excess of strict-
ness I have heard vindicated as a salutary error. I shall
answer in the words of Leibnitz — " Errors are often useful ;
but it is commonly to remedy other errors."

Most of the evils of life arise from a desire of present
enjoyment that outruns itself. The obedience required of
women in the marriage state conies under this description ;
the mind, naturally weakened by depending on authority,
never exerts its own powers, and the obedient wife is thus

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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 95

rendered a weak indolent mother. Or, supposing that this
is not always the consequence, a future state of existence is
scarcely taken into the reckoning when only negative virtues
are cultivated. For, in treating of morals, particularly when
women are alluded to, writers have too often considered
virtue in a very limited sense, and made the foundation of
it solely worldly utility ; nay, a still more fragile base has
been given to this stupendous fabric, and the wayward
fluctuating feelings of men have been made the standard of
virtue. Yes, virtue as well as religion has been subjected to
the decisions of taste.

It would almost provoke a smile of contempt, if the vain
absurdities of man did not strike us on all sides, to observe
how eager men are to degrade the sex from whom they pre-
tend to receive the chief pleasure of life ; and I have
frequently with full conviction retorted Pope's sarcasm on
them ; or, to speak explicitly, it has appeared to me applic-
able to the whole human race. A love of pleasure or sway
seems to divide mankind, and the husband who lords it in
his little harem thinks only of his pleasure or his conveni-
ence. To such lengths, indeed, does an intemperate love of
pleasure carry some prudent men, or worn-out libertines,
who marry to have a safe bedfellow, that they seduce their
own wives. Hymen banishes modesty, and chaste love takes
its flight.

Love, considered as an animal appetite, cannot long feed
on itself without expiring. And this extinction in its own
flame may be termed the violent death of love. But the
wife, who has thus been rendered licentious, will probably
endeavour to fill the void left by the loss of her husband's
attentions ; for she cannot contentedly become merely an
upper servant after having been treated like a goddess. She
is still handsome, and, instead of transferring her fondness

96 VINDICATION OF THE

to her children, she only dreams of enjoying the sunshine of
life. Besides, there are many husbands so devoid of sense
and parental affection that, during the first effervescence of
voluptuous fondness, they refuse to let their wives suckle
their children. They are only to dress and live to please
them, and love, even innocent love, soon sinks into lascivi-
ousness when the exercise of a duty is sacrificed to its
indulgence.

Personal attachment is a very happy foundation for friend-
ship ; yet, when even two virtuous young people marry, it
would perhaps be happy if some circumstances checked
their passion ; if the recollection of some prior attachment,
or disappointed affection, made it on one side, at least, rather
a match founded on esteem. In that case they would look
beyond the present moment, and try to render the whole of
life respectable, by forming a plan to regulate a friendship
which only death ought to dissolve.

Friendship is a serious affection ; the most sublime of all
affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented
by time. The very reverse may be said of love. In a great
degree, love and friendship cannot subsist in the same
bosom ; even when inspired by different objects they weaken
or destroy each other, and for the same object can only be
felt in succession. The vain fears and fond jealousies, the
winds which fan the flame of love, when judiciously or
artfully tempered, are both incompatible with the tender
confidence and sincere respect of friendship.

Love, such as the glowing pen of genius has traced, exists
not on earth, or only resides in those exalted, fervid imagina-
tions that have sketched such dangerous pictures. Danger-
ous, because they not only afford a plausible excuse to the
voluptuary, who disguises sheer sensuality under a senti-
mental veil ; but as they spread affectation, and take from

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 97

the dignity of virtue. Virtue, as the very word imports,
should have an appearance of seriousness, if not of austerity ;
and to endeavour to trick her out in the garb of pleasure,
because the epithet has been used as another name for
beauty, is to exalt her- on a quicksand ; a most insidious
attempt to hasten her fall by apparent respect. Virtue and
pleasure are not, in fact, so nearly allied in this life as some
eloquent writers have laboured to prove. Pleasure prepares
the fading wreath, and mixes the intoxicating cup ; but the
fruit which virtue gives is the recompense of toil, and,
gradually seen as it ripens, only affords calm satisfaction ;
nay, appearing to be the result of the natural tendency of
things, it is scarcely observed. Bread, the common food of
life, seldom thought of as a blessing, supports the constitu-
tion and preserves health ; still feasts delight the heart of
man, though disease and even death lurk in the cup or
dainty that elevates the spirits or tickles the palate. The
lively heated imagination likewise, to apply the comparison,
draws the picture of love, as it draws every other picture,
with those glowing colours, which the daring hand will steal
from the rainbow that is directed by a mind, condemned in
a world like this, to prove its noble origin by panting after
unattainable perfection, ever pursuing what it acknowledges
to be a fleeting dream. An imagination of this vigorous
cast can give existence to insubstantial forms, and stability
to the shadowy reveries which the mind naturally falls into
when realities are found vapid. It can then depict love
with celestial charms, and dote on the grand ideal object —
it can imagine a degree of mutual affection that shall refine
the soul, and not expire when it has served as a " scale to
heavenly " ; and, like devotion, make it absorb every meaner
affection and desire. In each other's arms, as in a temple,
with its summit lost in the clouds, the world is to be shut

G

98 VINDICATION OF THE

out, and every thought and wish that do not nurture pure
affection and permanent virtue. Permanent virtue ! alas !
Rousseau, respectable visionary ! thy paradise would soon
be violated by the entrance of some unexpected guest.
Like Milton's it would only contain angels, or men sunk
below the dignity of rational creatures. Happiness is not
material, it cannot be seen or felt ! Yet the eager pursuit
of the good, which every one shapes to his own fancy, pro-
claims man the lord of this lower world, and to be an intelli-
gential creature, who is not to receive but acquire happiness.
They, therefore, who complain of the delusions of passion,
do not recollect that they are exclaiming against a strong
proof of the immortality of the soul.

But leaving superior minds to correct themselves, and
pay dearly for their experience, it is necessary to observe,
that it is not against strong, persevering passions ; but
romantic wavering feelings that I wish to guard the female
heart by exercising the understanding : for these paradisiacal
reveries are oftener the effect of idleness than of a lively
fancy.

Women have seldom sufficient serious employment to
silence their feelings ; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits
frittering away all strength of mind and organs, they become
naturally only objects of sense. In short, the whole tenor
of female education (the education of society) tends to
render the best disposed romantic and inconstant ; and the
remainder vain and mean. In the present state of society
this evil can scarcely be remedied, I am afraid, in the
slightest degree ; should a more laudable ambition ever
gain ground they may be brought nearer to nature and
reason, and become more virtuous and useful as they grow
more respectable.

But, I will venture to assert that their reason will never

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 99

acquire sufficient strength to enable it to regulate their
conduct, whilst the making an appearance in the world is
the Jirst wish of the majority of mankind. To this weak
wish the natural affections, and the most useful virtues are
sacrificed. -/Girls marry merely to better themselves, to
borrow a significant vulgar phrase, and have such perfect
power over their hearts as not to permit themselves to fall
in love till a man with a superior fortune offers^ On this
subject I mean to enlarge in a future chapter; it is only
necessary to drop a hint at present, because women are so
often degraded by suffering the selfish prudence of age to
chill the ardour of youth.

From the same source flows an opinion that young girls
ought to dedicate great part of their time to needlework ;
yet, this employment contracts their faculties more than
any other that could have been chosen for them, by
confining their thoughts to their persons. Men order their
clothes to be made, and have done with the subject ; women
make their own clothes, necessary or ornamental, and are
continually talking about them ; and their thoughts follow
their hands. It is not indeed the making of necessaries
that weakens the mind; but the frippery of dress. For
when a woman in the lower rank of life makes her husband's
and children's clothes, she does her duty, this is her part
of the family business; but when women work only to dress
better than they could otherwise afford, it is worse than
sheer loss of time. To render the poor virtuous they must
be employed, and women in the middle rank of life, did
they not ape the fashions of the nobility, without catching
their ease, might employ them, whilst they themselves
managed their families, instructed their children, and exer-
cised their own minds. Gardening, experimental philosophy,
and literature, would afford them subjects to think of and

ioo VINDICATION OF THE

matter for conversation, that in some degree would exercise
their understandings. The conversation of Frenchwomen,
who are not so rigidly nailed to their chairs to twist lappets,
and knot ribands, is frequently superficial ; but, I contend,
that it is not half so insipid as that of those Englishwomen
whose time is spent in making caps, bonnets, and the
whole mischief of trimmings, not to mention shopping,
bargain-hunting, &c., &c. ; and it is the decent, prudent
women, who are most degraded by these practices ; for
their motive is simply vanity. The wanton who exercises
her taste to render her passion alluring, has something
more in view.

These observations all branch out of a general one, which
I have before made, and which cannot be too often insisted
upon, for, speaking of men, women, or professions, it will be
found that the employment of the thoughts shapes the
character both generally and individually. The thoughts of
women ever loved round their persons, and is it surprising
that their persons are reckoned most valuable ? Yet some
degree of liberty of mind is necessary even to form the
person ; and this may be one reason why some gentle wives
have so few attractions beside that of sex. Add to this,
sedentary employments render the majority of women sickly
— and false notions of female excellence make them proud
of this delicacy, though it be another fetter, that by calling
the attention continually to the body, cramps the activity of
the mind.

Women of quality seldom do any of the manual part of
their dress, consequently only their taste is exercised, and
they acquire, by thinking less of the finery, when the
business of their toilet is over, that ease, which seldom
appears in the deportment of women, who dress merely for
the sake of dressing. In fact, the observation with respect

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 101

to the middle rank, the one in which talents thrive best,
extends not to women ; for those of the superior class, by
catching, at least, a smattering of literature, and conversing
more with men, on general topics, acquire more knowledge
than the women who ape their fashions and faults without
sharing their advantages. With respect to virtue, to use the
word in a comprehensive sense, I have seen most in low
life. Many poor women maintain their children by the
sweat of their brow, and keep together families that the
vices of the fathers would have scattered abroad ; but
gentlewomen are too indolent to be actively virtuous, and
are softened rather than refined by civilisation. Indeed,
the good sense which I have met with, among the poor
women who have had few advantages of education, and yet
have acted heroically, strongly confirmed me in the opinion
that trifling employments have rendered woman a trifler.
lan, taking her* body, the mind is left to rust ; so that
while physical love enervates man, as being his favourite
recreation, he will endeavour to enslave woman^ — and,
who can tell, how many generations may be necessary to.
give vigour to the virtue and talents of the freed posterity of
abject slaves ? f

In tracing the causes that, in my opinion, have degraded
woman, I have confined my observations to such as
universally act upon the morals and manners of the whole
sex, and to me it appears clear that they all spring from
want of understanding. Whether this arise from a physical
or accidental weakness of faculties, time alone can deter-

* " I take her body," says Ranger.

f " Supposing that women are voluntary slaves — slavery of any kind
is unfavourable to human happiness and improvement." — KNOX'S
Essays.

102 VINDICATION OF THE

mine ; for I shall not lay any great stress on the example of
a few women * who, from having received a masculine
education, have acquired courage and resolution ; I only
contend that the men who have been placed in similar
situations, have acquired a similar character — I speak of
bodies of men, and that men of genius and talents have
started out of a class, in which women have never yet been
placed.

* Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs Macaulay, the Empress of Russia, Madame
d'Eon, &c. These, and many more, may be reckoned exceptions ;
and, are not all heroes, as well as heroines, exceptions to general rules ?
I wish to see women neither heroines nor brutes ; but reasonable
creatures.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 103

CHAPTER V.

ANIMADVERSIONS ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO HAVE
RENDERED WOMEN OBJECTS OF PITY, BORDERING ON
CONTEMPT.

THE opinions speciously supported in some modern
publications on the female character and education,
which have given the tone to most of the observa-
tions made, in a more cursory manner, on the sex remain
now to be examined.

SECTION I.

I shall begin with Rousseau, and give a sketch of his
character of woman in his own words, interspersing com-
ments and reflections. My comments, it is true, will all
spring from a few simple principles, and might have been
deduced from what I have already said ; but the artificial
structure has been raised with so much ingenuity that it
seems necessary to attack it in a more circumstantial manner,
and make the application myself.

Sophia, says Rousseau, should be as perfect a woman as
Emilius is a man, and to render her so it is necessary to
examine the character which nature has given to the sex.
\, He then proceeds to prove that woman ought to be weak
and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man ;
and hence infers that she was formed to please and to be
subject to him, and that it is her duty to render herself
agreeable to her master — this being the grand end of her

io4 VINDICATION OF THE

existence.*!) Still, however, to give a little mock dignity to
lust, he insists that man should not exert his strength, but
depend on the will of the woman, when he seeks for
pleasure with her.

" Hence we deduce a third consequence from the diffe-
rent constitutions of the sexes, which is that the strongest
should be master in appearance, and be dependent, in fact,
on the weakest, and that not from any frivolous practice of
gallantry or vanity of protectorship, but from an invariable
law of nature, which, furnishing woman with a greater faci-
lity to excite desires than she has given man to satisfy them,
makes the latter dependent on the good pleasure of the
former, and compels him to endeavour to please in his turn,
in order to obtain her consent that he should be strongest.!
On these occasions the most delightful circumstance a man
finds in his victory is to doubt whether it was the woman's
weakness that yielded to his superior strength, or whether
her inclinations spoke in his favour; the females are also
generally artful enough to leave this matter in doubt. The
understanding of women answers in this respect perfectly
to their constitution. So far from being ashamed of their
weakness, they glory in it ; their tender muscles make no
resistance ; they affect to be incapable of lifting the smallest
burdens, and would blush to be thought robust and strong.
To what purpose is all this ? Not merely for the sake of
appearing delicate, but through an artful precaution. It is
thus they provide an excuse beforehand, and a right to be
feeble when they think it expedient."

I have quoted this passage lest my readers should suspect

I have already inserted the passage, page 57.
What nonsense !

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 105

that I warped the author's reasoning to support my own
arguments. I have already asserted that in educating women
these fundamental principles lead to a system of cunning and
lasciviousness.

Supposing woman to have been formed only to please,
and be subject to man, the conclusion is just. She ought
to sacrifice every other consideration to render herself agree-
able to him, and let this brutal desire of self-preservation be
the grand spring of all her actions, when it is proved to be
the iron bed of fate, to fit which her character should be
stretched or contracted, regardless of all moral or physical
distinctions. But if, as I think, may be demonstrated, the
purposes of even this life, viewing the whole, be subverted
by practical rules built upon this ignoble base, I may be
allowed to doubt whether woman were created for man ;
and though the cry of irreligion, or even atheism, be raised
against me, I will simply declare that were an angel from
heaven to tell me that Moses' beautiful poetical cosmogony,
and the account of the fall of man, were literally true, I
could not believe what my reason told me was derogatory
to the character of the Supreme Being ; and, having no fear
of the devil before mine eyes, I venture to call this a sugges-
tion of reason, instead of resting my weakness on the broad
shoulders of the first seducer of my frail sex.

" It being once demonstrated," continues Rousseau, " that
man and woman are not, nor ought to be, constituted alike
in temperament and character, it follows, of course, that
they should not be educated in the same manner. In pur-
suing the directions of nature, they ought, indeed, to act in
concert, but they should not be engaged in the same em-
ployments ; the end of their pursuits should be the same, but
the means they should take to accomplish them, and, of con-
sequence, their tastes and inclinations, should be different.

io6 VINDICATION OF THE

" Whether I consider the peculiar destination of the sex,
observe their inclinations, or remark their duties, all things
equally concur to point out the peculiar method of educa-
tion best adapted to them. Woman and man were made
for each other, but their mutual dependence is not the
same. The men depend on the women only on account of
their desires ; the women on the men both on account of
their desires and their necessities. We could subsist better
without them than they without us.

/ ' ' ' • r . •

r" For this reason the education of the women should be
always relative to the men. [To please, to be useful to us,
to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when
young, and take care of us when grown up, to advise, to
console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable — these
are the duties of women at all times, and what they should
be taught in their infancy/ So long as we fail to recur to
this principle, we run wide of the mark, and all the precepts
which are given them contribute neither to their happiness
nor our own.

" Girls are from their earliest infancy fond of dress. Not
content with being pretty, they are desirous of being
thought so. We see, by all their little airs, that this thought
engages their attention ; and they are hardly capable of un-
derstanding what is said to them, before they are to be
governed by talking to them of what people will think of
their behaviour. The same motive, however, indiscreetly
made use of with boys, has not the same effect. Provided
they are let pursue their amusements at pleasure, they care
very little what people think of them. Time and pains are
necessary to subject boys to this motive.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 107

" Whencesoever girls derive this first lesson, it is a very
good one. As the body is born, in a manner, before the
soul, our first concern should be to cultivate the former;
this order is common to both sexes, but the object of that
cultivation is different. In the one sex it is the develop
ment of corporeal powers ; in the other, that of personal
charms. Not that either the quality of strength or beauty
ought to be confined exclusively to one sex, but only that
the order of the cultivation of both is in that respect re-
versed. Women certainly require as much strength as to
enable them to move and act gracefully, and men as much
address as to qualify them to act with ease.

" Children of both sexes have a great many amusements
in common ; and so they ought ; have they not also many
such when they are grown up ? Each sex has also its
peculiar taste to distinguish in this particular. Boys love
sports of noise and activity ; to beat the drum, to whip the
top, and to drag about their little carts : girls, on the other
hand, are fonder of things of show and ornament ; such as
mirrors, trinkets, and dolls : the doll is the peculiar amuse-
ment of the females ; from whence we see their taste plainly
adapted to their destination. The physical part of the
art of pleasing lies in dress ; and this is all which children
are capacitated to cultivate of that art.

" Here then we see a primary propensity firmly established,
which you need only to pursue and regulate. The little
creature will doubtless be very desirous to know how to
dress up her doll, to make its sleeve-knots, its flounces, its
head-dress, &c., she is obliged to have so much recourse to
the people about her, for their assistance in these articles,
that it would be much more agreeable to her to owe them

io8 VINDICATION OF THE

all to her own industry. Hence we have a good reason
for the first lessons that are usually taught these young
females : in which we do not appear to be setting them a
task, but obliging them, by instructing them in what is
immediately useful to themselves. And, in fact, almost all
of them learn with reluctance to read and write ; but very
readily apply themselves to the use of their needles. They
imagine themselves already grown up, and think with
pleasure that such qualifications will enable them to decorate
themselves."

This is certainly only an education of the body ; but
Rousseau is not the only man who has indirectly said that
merely the person of a young woman, without any mind,
unless animal spirits come under that description, is very
pleasing. To render it weak, and what some may call
beautiful, the understanding is neglected, and girls forced
to sit still, play with dolls and listen to foolish conversa-
tions ; — the effect of habit is insisted upon as an undoubted
indication of nature. I know it was Rousseau's opinion
that the first years of youth should be employed to form the
body, though in educating Emilius he deviates from this
plan ; yet, the difference between strengthening the body,
on which strength of mind in a great measure depends, and
only giving it an easy motion, is very wide.

Rousseau's observations, it is proper to remark, were
made in a country where the art of pleasing was refined
only to extract the grossness of vice. He did not go back
to nature, or his ruling appetite disturbed the operations of
reason, else he would not have drawn these crude inferences.

In France boys and girls, particularly the latter, are only
educated to please, to manage their persons, and regulate
the exterior behaviour ; and their minds are corrupted, at a
very early age, by the worldly and pious cautions they

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 109

receive to guard them against immodesty. I speak of past
times. The very confessions which mere children were
obliged to make, and the questions asked by the holy men,
I assert these facts on good authority, were sufficient to
impress a sexual character; and the education of society
was a school of coquetry and art. At the age of ten or
eleven ; nay, often much sooner, girls began to coquet, and
talked, unreproved, of establishing themselves in the world
by marriage.

In short, they were treated like women, almost from their
very birth, and compliments were listened to instead of
instruction. These weakening the mind, Nature was
supposed to have acted like a step-mother, when she formed
this after-thought of creation.

Not allowing them understanding, however, it was but
consistent to subject them to authority independent of
reason ; and to prepare them for this subjection, he gives
the following advice : —

" Girls ought to be active and diligent ; nor is that all ;
they should also be early subjected to restraint. This mis-
fortune, if it really be one, is inseparable from their sex ;
nor do they ever throw it off but to suffer more cruel evils.
They must be subject, all their lives, to the most constant
and severe restraint, which is that of decorum : it is, there-
fore, necessary to accustom them early to such confinement,
that it may not afterwards cost them too dear ; and to the
suppression of their caprices, that they may the more readily
submit to the will of others. If, indeed, they be fond of
being always at work, they should be sometimes compelled
to lay it aside. Dissipation, levity, and inconstancy, are
faults that readily spring up from their first propensities,
when corrupted or perverted by too much indulgence. To
prevent this abuse, we should teach them, above all things,

no VINDICATION OF THE

to lay a due restraint on themselves. The life of a modest
woman is reduced, by our absurd institutions, to a perpetual
conflict with herself: not but it is just that this sex should
partake of the sufferings which arise from those evils it hath
caused us."

And why is the life of a modest woman a perpetual
conflict ? I should answer, that this very system of educa-
tion makes it so. Modesty, temperance, and self-denial,
are the sober offspring of reason ; but when sensibility is
nurtured at the expense of the understanding, such weak
beings must be restrained by arbitrary means, and be
subjected to continual conflicts ; but give their activity of
mind a wider range, and nobler passions and motives will
govern their appetites and sentiments.

"The common attachment and regard of a mother, nay,
mere habit, will make her beloved by her children, if she do
nothing to incur their hate. Even the constraint she lays
them under, if well directed, will increase their affection,
instead of lessening it ; because a state of dependence being
natural to the sex, they perceive themselves formed for
obedience."

This is begging the question ; for servitude not only
debases the individual, but its effects seem to be transmitted
to posterity. Considering the length of time that women
have been dependent, is it surprising that some of them
hunger in chains, and fawn like the spaniel ? " These
dogs," observes a naturalist, "at first kept their ears erect;
but custom has superseded nature, and a token of fear is
become a beauty."

" For the same reason," adds Rousseau, " women have,
or ought to have, but little liberty; they are apt to indulge
themselves excessively in what is allowed them. Addicted
in everything to extremes, they are even more transported
at their diversions than boys."

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. in

The answer to this is very simple. Slaves and mobs have
always indulged themselves in the same excesses, when once
they broke loose from authority. The bent bow recoils with
violence, when the hand is suddenly relaxed that forcibly
held it ; and sensibility, the plaything of outward circum-
stances, must be subjected to authority, or moderated by
reason.

" There results," he continues, " from this habitual
restraint a tractableness which women have occasion for
during their whole lives, as they constantly remain either
under subjection to the men, or to the opinions of mankind ;
and are never permitted to set themselves above those
opinions. The first and most important qualification in a
woman is good-nature or sweetness of temper : formed to
obey a being so imperfect as man, often full of vices, and
always full of faults, she ought to learn betimes even to
suffer injustice, and to bear the insults of a husband without
complaint ; it is not for his sake, but her own, that she
should be of a mild disposition. The perverseness and
ill-nature of the women only serve to aggravate their owa
misfortunes, and the misconduct of their husbands ; they
might plainly perceive that such are not the arms by which
they gain the superiority."

Formed to live with such an imperfect being as man
they ought to learn from the exercise of their faculties the
necessity of forbearance : but all the sacred rights of
humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience ; or,
the most sacred rights belong only to man.

The being who patiently endures injustice, and silently
bears insults, will soon become unjust, or unable to discern
right from wrong. Besides, I deny the fact, this is not the
true way to form or meliorate the temper; for, as a sex,
men have better tempers than women, because they are

ii2 VINDICATION OF THE

occupied by pursuits that interest the head as well as the
heart ; and the steadiness of the head gives a healthy tem-
perature to the heart. People of sensibility have seldom
good tempers. The formation of the temper is the cool
work of reason, when, as life advances, she mixes with
happy art, jarring elements. I never knew a weak or
ignorant person who had a good temper, though that con-
stitutional good humour, and that docility, which fear stamps
on the behaviour, often obtains the name. I say behaviour,
for genuine meekness never reached the heart or mind,
unless as the effect of reflection ; and that simple restraint
produces a number of peccant humours in domestic life,
many sensible men will allow, who find some of these gentle
irritable creatures, very troublesome companions.

" Each sex," he further argues, " should preserve its
peculiar tone and manner ; a meek husband may make a
wife impertinent; but mildness of disposition on the woman's
side will always bring a man back to reason, at least if he
be not absolutely a brute, and will sooner or later triumph
over him." Perhaps the mildness of reason might some-
times have this effect ; but abject fear always inspires
contempt ; and tears are only eloquent when they flow
down fair cheeks.

Of what materials can that heart be composed, which can
melt when insulted, and instead of revolting at injustice,
kiss the rod ? It is unfair to infer that her virtue is built on
narrow views and selfishness, who can caress a man, with
true feminine softness, the very moment when he treats her
tyrannically? Nature never dictated such insincerity; and,
though prudence of this sort be termed a virtue, morality
becomes vague when any part is supposed to rest on false-
hood. These are mere expedients, and expedients are only
useful for the moment.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN.' n3

Let the husband beware of trusting too implicitly to this
servile obedience ; for if his wife can with winning sweetness,
caress him when angry, and when she ought to be angry,
unless contempt had stifled a natural effervescence, she
may do the same after parting with a lover. These are all
preparations for adultery ; or, should the fear of the world,
or of hell, restrain her desire of pleasing other men, when
she can no longer please her husband, what substitute can
be found by a being who was only formed, by nature and
art, to please man? what can make her amends for this
privation, or where is she to seek for a fresh employment ?
where find sufficient strength of mind to determine to begin
the search, when her habits are fixed, and vanity has long
ruled her chaotic mind ?

But this partial moralist recommends cunning systema-
tically and plausibly.

fl" Daughters should be always submissive; their mothers,
nowever, should not be inexorable. To make a young
person tractable, she ought not to be made unhappy ; to
make her modest she ought not to be rendered stupid.^ On
the contrary, I should not be displeased at her being per-
mitted to use some art, not to elude punishment in case of
disobedience, but to exempt herself from the necessity of
obeying. It is not necessary to make her dependence
burdensome, but only to let her feel it. Subtility is a
talent natural to the sex ; and, as I am persuaded, all our
natural inclinations are right and good in themselves, I am
of opinion this should be cultivated as well as the others :
it is requisite for us only to prevent its abuse."

" Whatever is, is right," he then proceeds triumphantly to
infer. Granted ; yet, perhaps, no aphorism ever contained
a more paradoxical assertion. It is a solemn truth with
respect to God. He, reverentially I speak, sees the whole

H

n4 VINDICATION OF THE

at once, and saw its just proportions in the womb of time ;
but man, who can only inspect disjointed parts, finds many
things wrong ; and it is a part of the system, and therefore,
right, that he should endeavour to alter what appears to
him to be so, even while he bows to the wisdom of his
Creator, and respects the darkness he labours to disperse.

The inference that follows is just, supposing the principle
to be sound. "The superiority of address, peculiar to the
female sex, is a very equitable indemnification for their
inferiority in point of strength : without this, woman would
not be the companion of man, but his slave ; it is by her
superior art and ingenuity that she preserves her equality,
and governs him while she affects to obey. Woman has
everything against her, as well our faults, as her own timidity
and weakness ; she has nothing in her favour, but her
subtility and her beauty. It is not very reasonable, there-
fore, she should cultivate both?" Greatness of mind can
never dwell with cunning, or address ; for I shall not bogle
about words, when their direct signification is insincerity
and falsehood, but content myself with observing, that if
any class of mankind be so created that it must necessarily
be educated by rules not strictly deducible from truth,
virtue is an affair of convention. How could Rousseau
dare to assert, after giving this advice, that in the grand
end of existence the object of both sexes should be the
same, when he well knew knew that the mind, formed by
its pursuits, is expanded by great views swallowing up little
ones, or that it becomes itself little ?

Men have superior strength of body ; but were it not for
mistaken notions of beauty, women would acquire sufficient
to enable them to earn their own subsistence, the true de-
finition of independence ; and to bear those bodily incon-
veniences and exertions that are requisite to strengthen

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 115

the mind, j Let us then, by being allowed to take the same
exercise as boys, not only during infancy, but youth, arrive
at perfection of body, that we may know how far the natural
superiority of man extends.^ For what reason or virtue can
be expected from a creature when the seed-time of life is
neglected? None; did not the winds of heaven casually
scatter many useful seeds in the fallow ground.

" Beauty cannot be acquired by dress, and coquetry is an
art not so early and speedily attained. While girls are yet
young, however, they are in a capacity to study agreeable
gesture, a pleasing modulation of voice, an easy carriage
and behaviour ; as well as to take the advantage of grace-
fully adapting their looks and attitudes to time, place, and
occasion. Their application, therefore, should not be solely
confined to the arts of industry and the needle, when they
come to display other talents, whose utility is already
apparent."

" For my part, I would have a young Englishwoman
cultivate her agreeable talents, in order to please her future
husband, with as much care and assiduity as a young Cir-
cassian cultivates hers, to fit her for the harem of an
Eastern bashaw."

To render women completely insignificant, he adds, —
" The tongues of women are very voluble ; they speak
earlier, more readily, and more agreeably, than the men ;
they are accused also of speaking much more : but so it
ought to be, and I should be very ready to convert this
reproach into a compliment ; their lips and eyes have the
same activity, and for the same reason. A man speaks of
what he knows, a woman of what pleases her ; the one
requires knowledge, the other taste ; the principal object of
"a man's discourse should be what is useful, that of a woman's
what is agreeable. There ought to be nothing in common
between their different conversation but truth."

1 1 6 VINDICA TION OF THE

11 We ought not, therefore, to restrain the prattle of girls,
in the same manner as we should that of boys, with that
severe question, To what purpose are you talking ? but by
another, which is no less difficult to answer, How will your
discourse be received ? In infancy, while they are as yet in-
capable to discern good from evil, they ought to observe it,
as a law never to say anything disagreeable to those whom
they are speaking to. What will render the practice of this
rule also the more difficult is, that it must ever be subor-
dinate to the former, of never speaking falsely or telling an
untruth." To govern the tongue in this manner must
require great address indeed, and it is too much practised
both by men and women. Out of the abundance of the
heart how few speak ! So few that I, who love simplicity,
would gladly give up politeness for a quarter of the virtue
that has been sacrificed to an equivocal quality which at best
should only be the polish of virtue.

But, to complete the sketch. " It is easy to be con-
ceived, that if male children be not in a capacity to form
any true notions of religion, those ideas must be greatly
above the conception of the females : it is for this very
reason, I would begin to speak to them the earlier on this
subject; for if we were to wait till they were in a capacity
to discuss methodically such profound questions, we should
run a risk of never speaking to them on this subject as long
as they lived. Reason in women is a practical reason,
capacitating them artfully to discover the means of attaining
a known end, but which would never enable them to dis-
cover that end itself. The social relations of the sexes are
indeed . truly admirable : from their union there results a
moral person, of which woman may be termed the eyes, and
man the hand, with this dependence on each other, that it
is from the man that the woman is to learn what she is to

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 117

see, and it is of the woman that man is to learn what he
ought to do. If woman could recur to. the first principles
of things as well as man, and man was capacitated to enter
into their minutice as well as woman, always independent of
each other, they would live in perpetual discord, and their
union could not subsist. But in the present harmony which
naturally subsists between them, their different faculties
tend to one common end : it is difficult to say which of
them conduces the most to it : each follows the impulse of
the other ; each is obedient, and both are masters."
£ /" As the conduct of a woman is subservient to the public
opinion, her faith in matters of religion should, for that very
reason, be subject to authority. Every daughter ought to be
of the same religion as her mother, and every wife to be of the
same religion as her husband : for, though such religion should
be false, that docility which induces the mother and daughter
to submit to the order of nature, takes away, in the sight of
God, the criminality of their error. *^As they are not in a
capacity to judge for themselves, they ought to abide by the
decision of their fathers and husbands as confidently as by
that of the Church."

" As authority ought to regulate the religion of the women,
it is not so needful to explain to them the reasons for their
belief, as to lay down precisely the tenets they are to believe :
for the creed, which presents only obscure ideas to the mind,
is the source of fanaticism ; and that which presents ab-
surdities, leads to infidelity."

* What is to be the consequence, if the mother's and husband's opinion
should chance not to agree ? An ignorant person cannot be reasoned
out of an error — and when persuaded to give up one prejudice for
another the mind is unsettled. Indeed, the husband may not have
any religion to teach her, though in such a situation she will be in great
want of a support to her virtue, independent of worldly considerations.

1 1 8 V1NDICA TION OF THE

Absolute, uncontroverted authority, it seems, must sub-
sist somewhere : but is not this a direct and exclusive
appropriation of reason ? The rights of humanity have been
thus confined to the male line from Adam downwards.

Rousseau would carry his male aristocracy still further, for
he insinuates, that he should not blame those, who contend
for leaving woman in a state of the most profound ignorance,
if it were not necessary in order to preserve her chastity and
justify the man's choice, in the eyes of the world, to give
her a little knowledge of men, and the customs produced
by human passions ; else she might propagate at home
without being rendered less voluptuous and innocent by the
exercise of her understanding : excepting, indeed, during
the first year of marriage, when she might employ it to
dress like Sophia. " Her dress is extremely modest in
appearance, and yet very coquettish in fact : she does not
make a display of her charms, she conceals them ; but in
concealing them, she knows how to affect your imagination.
Every one who sees her will say, There is a modest and
discreet girl ; but while you are near her, your eyes and
affections wander all over her person, so that you cannot
withdraw them ; and you would conclude, that every part
of her dress, simple as it seems, was only put in its proper
order to be taken to pieces by the imagination." Is this
modesty ? Is this a preparation for immortality ? Again,
What opinion are we to form of a system of education,
when the author says of his heroine, " that with her, doing
things well, is but a secondary concern ; her principal con-
cern is to do them neatly."

Secondary, in fact, are all her virtues and qualities, for,
respecting religion, he makes her parents thus address her,
accustomed to submission — "Your husband will instruct
you in good time."

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 119

After thus cramping a woman's mind, if, in order to keep
it fair, he have not made it quite a blank, he advises her to
reflect, that a reflecting man may not yawn in her company,
when he is tired of caressing her. What has she to reflect
about who must obey ? and would it not be a refinement on
cruelty only to open her mind to make the darkness and
misery of her fate visible I Yet these are his sensible
remarks; how consistent with what I have already been
obliged to quote, to give a fair view of the subject, the reader
may determine.

" They who pass their whole lives in working for their
daily bread, have no ideas beyond their business or their
interest, and all their understanding seems to lie in their
fingers' ends. This ignorance is neither prejudicial to their
integrity nor their morals ; it is often of service to them.
Sometimes, by means of reflection, we are led to compound
with our duty, and we conclude by substituting a jargon of
words in the room of things. Our own conscience is the
most enlightened philosopher. There is no need to be
acquainted with Tully's offices, to make a man of probity ;
and perhaps the most virtuous woman in the world is
the least acquainted with the definition of virtue But it
is no less true, that an improved understanding only can
render society agreeable ; and it is a melancholy thing for a
father of a family, who is fond of home, to be obliged to
be always wrapped up in himself, and to have nobody about
him to whom he can impart his sentiments.

"Besides, how should a woman void of reflection be
capable of educating her children ? How should she discern
what is proper for them ? How should she incline them to
those virtues she is unacquainted with, or to that merit of
which she has no idea ? She can only soothe or chide them ;
render diem insolent or timid ; she will make them formal

T2o VINDICATION OF THE

coxcombs, or ignorant blockheads, but will never make them
sensible or amiable." How indeed should she, when her
husband is not always at hand to lend her his reason ? —
when they both together make but one moral being. A
blind will, " eyes without hands," would go a very little way ;
and perchance his abstract reason, that should concentrate
the scattered beams of her practical reason, may be employed
in judging of the flavour of wine, descanting on the sauces
most proper for turtle ; or, more profoundly intent at a card-
table, he may be generalising his ideas as he bets away his
fortune, leaving all the minutia of education to his help-
mate, or to chance.

But, granting that woman ought to be beautiful, inno-
cent, and silly, to render her a more alluring and indulgent
companion ; — what is her understanding sacrificed for ? And
why is all this preparation necessary only, according to
Rousseau's own account, to make her the mistress of her
husband, a very short time ? For no man ever insisted more
on the transient nature of love. Thus speaks the philo-
sopher, " Sensual pleasures are transient. The habitual
state of the affections always loses by their gratification.
The imagination, which decks the object of our desires, is
lost in fruition. Excepting the Supreme Being, who is self-
existent, there is nothing beautiful but what is ideal."

But he returns to his unintelligible paradoxes again, when
he thus addresses Sophia — " Emilius, in becoming your
husband, is become your master, and claims your obedience. -
Such is the order of nature. When a man is married, how-
ever, to such a wife as Sophia, it is proper he should be
directed by her. This is also agreeable to the order of
nature. It is, therefore, to give you as much authority over his
heart as his sex gives him over your person that I have made
you the arbiter of his pleasures. It may cost you, perhaps,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 121

some disagreeable self-denial ; but you will be certain of
maintaining your empire over him, if you can preserve it
over yourself. What I have already observed also shows me
that this difficult attempt does not surpass your courage.

" Would you have your husband constantly at your feet,
keep him at some distance from your person. You will
long maintain the authority in love, if you know but how to
render your favours rare and valuable. It is thus you may
employ even the arts of coquetry in the service of virtue,
and those of love in that of reason."

I shall close my extracts with a just description of a com-
fortable couple : — " And yet you must not imagine that
even such management will always suffice. Whatever pre-
caution be taken, enjoyment will by degrees take off the
edge of passion. But when love hath lasted as long as pos-
sible, a pleasing habitude supplies its place, and the attach-
ment of a mutual confidence succeeds to the transports of
passion. Children often form a more agreeable and perma-
nent connection between married people than even love
itself. When you cease to be the mistress of Emilius, you
will continue to be his wife and friend — you will be the
mother of his children." *

Children, he truly observes, form a much more permanent
connection between married people than love. Beauty, he
declares, will not be valued, or even seen, after a couple
have lived six months together ; artificial graces and coquetry
will likewise pall on the senses. Why, then, does he say
that a girl should be educated for her husband with the same
care as for an Eastern harem ?

I now appeal from the reveries of fancy and refined licen-
tiousness to the good sense of mankind, whether, if the

* Rousseau's Emilius.

122 VINDICATION OF THE

object of education be to prepare women to become chaste
wives and sensible mothers, the method so plausibly recom-
mended in the foregoing sketch be the one best calculated
to produce those ends ? Will it be allowed that the surest
way to make a wife chaste is to teach her to practise the
wanton arts of a mistress, termed virtuous coquetry, by the
sensualist who can no longer relish the artless charms of
sincerity, or taste the pleasure arising from a tender inti-
macy, when confidence is unchecked by suspicion, and ren-
dered interesting by sense?

The man who can be contented to live with a pretty,
useful companion, without a mind, has lost in voluptuous
gratifications a taste for more refined enjoyments; he has
never felt the calm satisfaction that refreshes the parched
heart like the silent dew of heaven — of being beloved by
one who could understand him. In the society of his wife
he is still alone, unless when the man is sunk in the brute.
" The charm of life," says a grave philosophical reasoner, is
" sympathy ; nothing pleases us more than to observe in
other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own
breast."

But according to the tenor of reasoning by which women
are kept from the tree of knowledge, the important years of
youth, the usefulness of age, and the rational hopes of
futurity, are all to be sacrificed to render women an object
of desire for a short time. Besides, how could Rousseau
expect them to be virtuous and constant when reason is
neither allowed to be the foundation of their virtue, nor
truth the object of their inquiries?

But all Rousseau's errors in reasoning arose from sensi-
bility, and sensibility to their charms women are very ready to
forgive, ^"hen he should have reasoned he became impas-
sioned, and reflection inflamed his imagination instead of

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 123

enlightening his understanding. Even his virtues also led
him farther astray ; for, born with a warm constitution and
lively fancy, nature carried him toward the other sex with
such eager fondness that he soon became lascivious. Had
he given way to these desires, the fire would have extin-
guished itself in a natural manner, but virtue, and a roman-
tic kind of delicacy, made him practise self-denial ; yet
when fear, delicacy, or virtue restrained him, he debauched
his imagination, and reflecting on the sensations to which
fancy gave force, he traced them in the most glowing colours,
and sunk them deep into his soul.

He then sought for solitude, not to sleep with the man of
nature, or calmly investigate the causes of things under the
shade where Sir Isaac Newton indulged contemplation, but
merely to indulge his feelings. And so warmly has he
painted what he forcibly felt, that interesting the heart and
inflaming the imagination of his readers, in proportion to
the strength of their fancy, they imagine that their under-
standing is convinced when they only sympathise with a
poetic writer, who skilfully exhibits the objects of sense
most voluptuously shadowed or gracefully veiled ; and thus
making us feel whilst dreaming that we reason, erroneous
conclusions are left in the mind.

Why was Rousseau's life divided between ecstasy and
misery? Can any other answer be given than this, that
the effervescence of his imagination produced both ; but
had his fancy been allowed to cool, it is possible that he
might have acquired more strength of mind. Still, if the
purpose of life be to educate the intellectual part of man,
all with respect to him was right ; yet had not death led to
a nobler scene of action, it is probable that he would have
enjoyed more equal happiness on earth, and have felt the
calm sensations of the man of nature, instead of being pre-

i24 VINDICATION OF THE

pared for another stage of existence by nourishing the pas-
sions which agitate the civilised man.

But peace to his manes ! I war not with his ashes, but
his opinions. I war only with the sensibility that led him
to degrade woman by making her the slave of love.

" Cursed vassalage,

First idolised till love's hot fire be o'er,
Then slaves to those who courted us before."

— DRYDEN.

The pernicious tendency of those books, in which the
writers insidiously degrade the sex whilst they are prostrate
before their personal charms, cannot be too often or too
severely exposed.

Let us, mvydear contemporaries, arise above such narrow
prejudices. Xrlf wisdom be desirable on its own account, if
virtue, to deserve the name, must be founded on knowledge,
let us endeavour to strengthen our minds by reflection till
our heads become a balance for our hearts ; let us not con-
fine all our thoughts to the petty occurrences of the day, or
our knowledge to an acquaintance with our lovers' or hus-
bands' hearts, but let the practice of every duty be subordi-
nate to the grand one of improving our minds, and prepar-
ing our affections for a more exalted state^/

Beware, then, my friends, of suffering the heart to be
moved by every trivial incident ; the reed is shaken by a
breeze, and annually dies, but the oak stands firm, and
for ages braves the storm.

Were we, indeed, only created to flutter our hour out and
die — why let us then indulge sensibility, and laugh at the
severity of reason. Yet, alas! even then we should want
strength of body and mind, and life would be lost in
feverish pleasures or wearisome languor.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 125

But the system of Education, which I earnestly wish
to see exploded, seems to presuppose what ought never
to be taken for granted, that virtue shields us from the
casualties of life ; and that Fortune, slipping off her bandage,
will smile on a well-educated female, and bring in her hand
an Emilius or a Telemachus. Whilst, on the contrary, the
reward which Virtue promises to her votaries is confined, it
seems clear, to their own bosoms; and often must they
contend with the most vexatious worldly cares, and bear
with the vices and humours of relations for whom they can
never feel a friendship.

There have been many women in the world who, in-
stead of being supported by the reason and virtue of their
fathers and brothers, have strengthened their own minds by
struggling with their vices and follies ; yet have never met
with a hero, in the shape of a husband ; who, paying the
debt that mankind owed them, might chance to bring back
their reason to its natural dependent state, and restore the
usurped prerogative, of rising above opinion, to man.

SECTION II.

Dr Fordyce's sermons have long made a part of a young
woman's library ; nay, girls at school are allowed to read
them ; but I should instantly dismiss them from my pupil's
if I wished to strengthen her understanding, by leading her
to form sound principles on a broad basis ; or, were I only
anxious to cultivate her taste, though they must be allowed
to contain many sensible observations.

Dr Fordyce may have had a very laudable end in view ;
but these discourses are written in such an affected style,
that were it only on that account, and had I nothing to
object against his mellifluous precepts, I should not allow

126 VINDICATION OF THE

girls to peruse them, unless I designed to hunt every spark
of nature out of their composition, melting every human
quality into female meekness and artificial grace. I say
artificial, for true grace arises from some kind of independ-
ence of mind.

Children, careless of pleasing, and only anxious to amuse
themselves, are often very graceful ; and the nobility who
have mostly lived with inferiors, and always had the
command of money, acquire a graceful ease of deportment,
which should rather be termed habitual grace of body,
than that superior gracefulness which is truly the expression
of the mind. This mental grace, not noticed by vulgar
eyes, often flashes across a rough countenance, and irradi-
ating every feature, shows simplicity and independence of
mind. It is then we read characters of immortality in the
eye, and see the soul in every gesture, though when at rest,
neither the face nor limbs may have much beauty to
recommend them ; or the behaviour, anything peculiar to
attract universal attention. The mass of mankind, however,
look for more tangible beauty ; yet simplicity is, in general,
admired, when people do not consider what they admire ;
and can there be simplicity without sincerity? But, to
have done with remarks that are in some measure desultory,
though naturally excited by the subject —

In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins out Rousseau's
eloquence ; and in most sentimental rant, details his
opinions respecting the female character, and the behaviour
which woman ought to assume to render her lovely.

He shall speak for himself, for thus he makes Nature
address man. " Behold these smiling innocents, whom I
have graced with my fairest gifts, and committed to your
protection ; behold them with love and respect ; treat them
with tenderness and honour. They are timid and want to

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 127

be defended. They are frail ; oh do not take advantage of
their weakness ! Let their fears and blushes endear them.
Let their confidence in you never be abused. But is it
possible, that any of you can be such barbarians, so
supremely wicked, as to abuse it ? Can you find in your
hearts* to despoil the gentle, trusting creatures of their
treasure, or do anything to strip them of their native robe
of virtue? Curst be the impious hand that would dare
to violate the unblemished form of chastity ! Thou
wretch ! thou ruffian ! forbear ; nor venture to provoke
Heaven's fiercest vengeance." I know not any comment
that can be made seriously on this curious passage, and J
could produce many similar ones ; and some, so very
sentimental, that I have heard rational men use the word
indecent, when they mentioned them with disgust.

Throughout there is a display of cold artificial feelings,
and that parade of sensibility which boys and girls should
be taught to despise as the sure mark of a little vain mind.
Florid appeals are made to Heaven, and to the beauteous
innocents, the fairest images of Heaven here below, whilst
sober sense is left far behind. This is not the language of
the heart, nor will it ever reach it, though the ear may be
tickled.

I shall be told, perhaps, that the public have been pleased
with these volumes. True — and Hervey's Meditations are
still read, though he equally sinned against sense and taste.

I particularly object to the lover-like phrases of pumped
up passion, which are everywhere interspersed. If women
be ever allowed to walk without leading-strings, why must
they be cajoled into virtue by artful flattery and sexual

* Can you ? — Can you ? would be the most emphatical comment,
were it drawled out in a whining voice.

i28 VTNDICATION OF THE

compliments? Speak to them the language of truth and
soberness, and away with the lullaby strains of condescend-
ing endearment ! Let them be taught to respect themselves
as rational creatures, and not led to have a passion for their
own insipid persons. It moves my gall to hear a preacher
descanting on dress and needlework ; and still more, to
hear him address the British fair, the fairest of the fair,
as if they had only feelings.

Even recommending piety he uses the following argument.
"Never, perhaps, does a fine woman strike more deeply,
than when, composed into pious recollection, and possessed
with the noblest considerations, she assumes, without
knowing it, superior dignity and new graces ; so that the
beauties of holiness seem to radiate about her, and the
by-standers are almost induced to fancy her already wor-
shipping amongst her kindred angels ! " Why are women
to be thus bred up with a desire of conquest? the very
word, used in this sense, gives me a sickly qualm ! Do
religion and virtue offer no stronger motives, no brighter
reward ? Must they always be debased by being made to
consider the sex of their companions? Must they be
taught always to be pleasing? And when levelling their
small artillery at the heart of man, is it necessary to tell
them that a little sense is sufficient to render their attention
incredibly soothing ? " As a small degree of knowledge
entertains in a woman, so from a woman, though for a
different reason, a small expression of kindness delights,
particularly if she have beauty ! " I should have supposed
for the same reason.

Why are girls to be told that they resemble angels;
but to sink them below women ? Or, that a gentle innocent
female is an object that comes nearer to the idea which
we have formed of angels than any other. Yet they are

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 129

told, at the same time, that they are only like angels
when they are young and beautiful ; consequently, it is
their persons, not their virtues, that procure them this
homage.

Idle empty words ! What can such delusive flattery lead
to, but vanity and folly? The lover, it is true, has a
poetical licence to exalt his mistress ; his reason is the
bubble of his passion, and he does not utter a falsehood
when he borrows the language of adoration. His imagina-
tion may raise the idol of his heart, unblamed, above
humanity ; and happy would it be for women, if they were
only flattered by the men who loved them ; I mean, who
love the individual, not the sex ; but should a grave preacher
interlard his discourses with such fooleries ?

In sermons or novels, however, voluptuousness is always
true to its text. Men are allowed by moralists to cultivate,,
as Nature directs, different qualities, and assume the
different characters, that the same passions, modified almost
to infinity, give to each individual. A virtuous man may
have a choleric or a sanguine constitution, be gay or grave,
unreproved; be firm till he is almost overbearing, or,
weakly submissive, have no will or opinion of his own ;
but all women are to be levelled, by meekness and docility,
into one character of yielding softness and gentle compliance.

I will use the preacher's own words. " Let it be observed,
that in your sex manly exercises are never graceful ; that
in them a tone and figure, as well as an air and deportment,
of the masculine kind, are always forbidding ; and that
men of sensibility desire in every woman soft features,
and a flowing voice, a form, not robust, and demeanour
delicate and gentle."

Is not the following portrait — the portrait of a house
slave? "I am astonished at the folly of many women,

i

130 VINDICATION OF THE

who are still reproaching their husbands for leaving them
alone, for preferring this or that company to theirs, for
treating them with this and the other mark of disregard
or indifference ; when, to speak the truth, they have them-
selves in a great measure to blame. Not that I would
justify the men in anything wrong on their part. But
had you behaved to them with more respectful observance,
and a more equal tenderness ; studying their humours, over-
looking their mistakes, submitting to their opinions in matters
indifferent, passing by little instances of unevenness,
caprice, or passion, giving soft answers to hasty words,
complaining as seldom as possible, and making it your
daily care to relieve their anxieties and prevent their wishes,
to enliven the hour of dulness, and call up the ideas of
felicity : had you pursued this conduct, I doubt not but
you would have maintained and even increased their
esteem, so far as to have secured every degree of influence
that could conduce to their virtue, or your mutual satis-
faction ; and your house might at this day have been the
abode of domestic bliss." Such a woman ought to be an
angel — or she is an ass — for I discern not a trace of the
human character, neither reason nor passion in this domestic
drudge, whose being is absorbed in that of a tyrant's.

Still Dr Fordyce must have very little acquaintance with
the human heart, if he really supposed that such conduct
would bring back wandering love, instead of exciting
contempt. No, beauty, gentleness, &c., &c., may gain a
heart ; but esteem, the only lasting affection, can alone be
obtained by virtue supported by reason. It is respect for
the understanding that keeps alive tenderness for the
person.

As these volumes are so frequently put into the hands
of young people, I have taken more notice of them than,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 131

strictly speaking, they deserve ; but as they have contributed
to vitiate the taste, and enervate the understanding of many
of my fellow-creatures, I could not pass them silently over.

SECTION III.

Such paternal solicitude pervades Dr Gregory's "Legacy
to his Daughters," that I enter on the task of criticism
with affectionate respect ; but as this little volume has many
attractions to recommend it to the notice of the most
respectable part of my sex, I cannot silently pass over argu-
ments that so speciously support opinions which, I think,
have had the most baneful effect on the morals and manners
of the female world.

His easy familiar style is particularly suited to the tenor
of his advice, and the melancholy tenderness which his
respect for the memory of a beloved wife, diffuses through
the whole work, renders it very interesting; yet there is
a degree of concise elegance conspicuous in many passages
that disturbs this sympathy ; and we pop on the author,
when we only expected to meet the — father.

Besides, having two objects in view, he seldom adhered
steadily to either ; for wishing to make his daughters amiable,
and fearing lest unhappiness should only be the conse-
quence, of instilling sentiments that might draw them out
of the track of common life without enabling them to act
with consonant independence and dignity, he checks the
natural flow of his thoughts, and neither advises one thing
nor the other.

In the preface he tells them a mournful truth, "that
they will hear, at least once in their lives, the genuine
sentiments of a man who has no interest in deceiving
them."

1 32 VINDICATION OF THE

Hapless woman ! what can be expected from thee when
the beings on whom thou art said naturally to depend for
reason and support, have all an interest in deceiving thee !
This is the root of the evil that has shed a corroding mildew
on all thy virtues ; and blighting in the bud thy opening
faculties, has rendered thee the weak thing thou art ! It is
this separate interest — this insidious state of warfare, that
undermines morality, and divides mankind !

If love have made some women wretched, how many
more has the cold unmeaning intercourse of gallantry
rendered vain and useless ! yet this heartless attention to
the sex is reckoned so manly, so polite that, till society is
very differently organised, I fear, this vestige of gothic
manners will not be done away by a more reasonable and
affectionate mode of conduct. Besides, to strip it of its
imaginary dignity, I must observe, that in the most un-
civilised European states this lip-service prevails in a very
great degree, accompanied with extreme dissoluteness of
morals. In Portugal, the country that I particularly allude
to, it takes place of the most serious moral obligations ! for
a man is seldom assassinated when in the company of a
woman. The savage hand of rapine is unnerved by this
chivalrous spirit ; and, if the stroke of vengeance cannot be
stayed, the lady is entreated to pardon the rudeness and
depart in peace, though sprinkled, perhaps, with her hus-
band's or brother's blood.

I shall pass over his strictures on religion, because I
mean to discuss that subject in a separate chapter.

The remarks relative to behaviour, though many of them
very sensible, I entirely disapprove of, because it appears
to me to be beginning, as it were, at the wrong end. A
cultivated understanding, and an affectionate heart, will
never want starched rules of decorum — something more

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 133

substantial than seemliness will be the result ; and, without
understanding the behaviour here recommended, would be
rank affectation. Decorum, indeed, is the one thing needful !
— decorum is to supplant nature, and banish all simplicity
and variety of character out of the female world. Yet what
good end can all this superficial counsel produce? It is,
however, much easier to point out this or that mode of
behaviour, than to set the reason to work ; but, when
the mind has been stored with useful knowledge, and
strengthened by being employed, the regulation of the
behaviour may safely be left to its guidance.

Why, for instance, should the following caution be given
when art of every kind must contaminate the mind ; and
why entangle the grand motives of action, which reason and
religion equally combine to enforce, with pitiful worldly
shifts and sleight-of-hand tricks to gain the applause of
gaping tasteless fools^ " Be even cautious in displaying
your good sense.* /It will be thought you assume a
superiority over the rest of the company. But if you
happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret,
especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous
and malignant eye on a woman of great parts, and a
cultivated understanding." J If men of real merit, as he
afterwards observes, be superior to this meanness, where is
the necessity that the behaviour of the whole sex should be
modulated to please fools, or men, who having little claim
to respect as individuals, choose to keep close in their
phalanx. Men, indeed, who insist on their common supe-
riority, having only this sexual superiority, are certainly
very excusable.

* Let women once acquire good sense — and if it deserve the name,
it will teach them ; or, of what use will it be ? how to employ it.

134 VINDICATION OF THE

There would be no end to rules for behaviour, if it be
proper always to adopt the tone of the company ; for thus,
for ever varying the key, a flat would often pass for a
natural note.

Surely it would have been wiser to have advised women
to improve themselves till they rose above the fumes of
vanity ; and then to let the public opinion come round —
for where are rules of accommodation to stop ? The narrow
path of truth and virtue inclines neither to the right nor
left — it is a straightforward business, and they who are
earnestly pursuing their road, may bound over many de-
corous prejudices, without leaving modesty behind. Make
the heart clean, and give the head employment, and I will
venture to predict that there will be nothing offensive in
the behaviour.

The air of fashion, which many young people are so
eager to attain, always strikes me like the studied attitudes
of some modern pictures, copied with tasteless servility after
the antiques ; the soul is left out, and none of the parts are
tied together by what may properly be termed character.
This varnish of fashion, which seldom sticks very close to
sense, may dazzle the weak ; but leave nature to itself, and
it will seldom disgust the wise. Besides, when a woman
has sufficient sense not to pretend to anything which she
does not understand in some degree, there is no need of
determining to hide her talents under a bushel. Let things
take their natural course, and all will be well.

It is this system of dissimulation, throughout the volume,
that I despise. Women are always to seem to be this and
that — yet virtue might apostrophise them, in the words of
Hamlet — Seems ! I know not seems ! Have that within
that passeth show !

Still the same tone occurs ; for in another place, after

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 135

recommending, without sufficiently discriminating delicacy,
he adds, — " The men will complain of your reserve. They
will assure you that a franker behaviour would make you
more amiable. But, trust me, they are not sincere when
they tell you so. I acknowledge that on some occasions it
might render you more agreeable as companions, but it
would make you less amiable as women : an important
distinction, which many of your sex are not aware of."

This desire of being always women, is the very con-
sciousness that degrades the sex. Excepting with a lover,
I must repeat with emphasis, a former observation, — it
would be well if they were only agreeable or rational com-
panions. But in this respect his advice is even inconsistent
with a passage which I mean to quote with the most marked
approbation.

" The sentiment, that a woman may allow all innocent
freedoms, provided her virtue is secure, is both grossly
indelicate and dangerous, and has proved fatal to many of
your sex." With this opinion I perfectly coincide. A man,
or a woman, of any feeling, must always wish to convince a
beloved object that it is the caresses of the individual, not
the sex, that are received and returned with pleasure ; and,
that the heart, rather than the senses, is moved. Without
this natural delicacy, love becomes a selfish personal grati-
fication that soon degrades the character.

I carry this sentiment still further. Affection, when love
is out of the question, authorises many personal endear-
ments, that naturally flowing from an innocent heart, give
life to the behaviour; but the personal intercourse of
appetite, gallantry, or vanity, is despicable. When a man
squeezes the hand of a pretty woman, handing her to a
carriage, whom he has never seen before, she will consider
such an impertinent freedom in the light of an insult, if

136 VINDICATION OF THE

she have any true delicacy, instead of being flattered by
this unmeaning homage to beauty. These are the privileges
of friendship, or the momentary homage which the heart
pays to virtue, when it flashes suddenly on the notice —
mere animal spirits have no claim to the kindnesses of
affection.

Wishing to feed the affections with what is now the food
of vanity, I would fain persuade my sex to act from simpler
principles. Let them merit love, and they will obtain it,
though they may never be told that — "The power of a fine
woman over the hearts of men, of men of the finest parts,
is even beyond what she conceives."

I have already noticed the narrow cautions with respect
to duplicity, female softness, delicacy of constitution ; for
these are the changes which he rings round without ceasing
— in a more decorous manner, it is true, than Rousseau ;
but it all comes home to the same point, and whoever is
at the trouble to analyse these sentiments, will find the
first principles not quite so delicate as the superstructure.

The subject of amusements is treated in too cursory a
manner ; but with the same spirit.

When I treat of friendship, love, and marriage, it will be
found that we materially differ in opinion ; I shall not then
forestall what I have to observe on these important subjects ;
but confine my remarks to the general tenor of them, to
that cautious family prudence, to those confined views of
partial unenlightened affection, which exclude pleasure and
improvement, by vainly wishing to ward off sorrow and
error, and by thus guarding the heart and mind, destroy
also all their energy. It is far better to be often deceived
than never to trust ; to be disappointed in love than never
to love ; to lose a husband's fondness than forfeit his
esteem.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 137

Happy would it be for the world, and for individuals, of
course, if all this unavailing solicitude to attain worldly
happiness, on a confined plan, were turned into an anxious
desire to improve the understanding. "Wisdom is the
principal thing : therefore get wisdom ; and with all thy
gettings get understanding." " How long, ye simple ones,
will ye love simplicity, and hate knowledge ? " saith Wisdom
to the daughters of men.

SECTION IV.

I do not mean to allude to all the writers who have
written on the subject of female manners— it would, in fact,
be only beating over the old ground, for they have, in
general, written in the same strain ; but attacking the
boasted prerogative of man — the prerogative that may
emphatically be called the iron sceptre of tyranny, the
original sin of tyrants, I declare against all power built on
prejudices, however hoary.

If the submission demanded be founded on justice —
there is no appealing to a higher power — for God is justice
itself. Let us then, as children of the same parent, if not
bastardised by being the younger born, reason together, and
learn to submit to the authority of Reason-^— when her voice
is distinctly heard. But, if it proved, that this throne of
prerogative only rests on a chaotic mass of prejudices, that
have no inherent principle of order to keep them together,
or on an elephant, tortoise, or even the mighty shoulders of
a son of the earth, they may escape, who dare to brave the
consequence, without any breach of duty, without sinning
against the order of things.

Whilst reason raises man above the brutal herd, and
death is big with promises, they alone are subject to blind

r38 VINDICATION OF THE

authority who have no reliance on their own strength. They
are free — who will be free ! * —

The being who can govern itself has nothing to fear in
life ; but if anything be dearer than its own respect, the
price must be paid to the last farthing. Virtue, like every-
thing valuable, must be loved for herself alone ; or she
will not take up her abode with us. She will not impart
that peace, " which passeth understanding," when she is
merely made the stilts of reputation ; and respected, with
pharisaical exactness, because " honesty is the best policy."

That the plan of life which enables us to carry some
knowledge and virtue into another world, is the one best
calculated to ensure content in this, cannot be denied ;
yet few people act according to this principle, though it be
universally allowed that it admits not of dispute. Present
pleasure, or present power, carry before it these sober
convictions ; and it is for the day, not for life, that man
bargains with happiness. How few ! — how very few ! have
sufficient foresight, or resolution, to endure a small evil
at the moment, to avoid a greater hereafter.

Woman in particular, whose virtue! is built on mutable
prejudices, seldom attains to this greatness of mind; so
that, becoming the slave of her own feelings, she is easily
subjugated by those of others. Thus degraded, her reason,
her misty reason ! is employed rather to burnish than to
snap her chains.

Indignantly have I heard women argue in the same
track as men, and adopt the sentiments that brutalise them,
with all the pertinacity of ignorance.

* " lie is the free man, whom the truth makes free ! " — COWPF.R.
t I mean to use a word that comprehends more than chastity the
sexual virtue.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 139

I must illustrate my assertion by a few examples. Mrs
Piozzi, who often repeated by rote, what she did not
understand, comes forward with Johnsonian periods.

" Seek not for happiness in singularity ; and dread a
refinement of wisdom as a deviation into folly." Thus
she dogmatically addresses a new married man; and to
elucidate this pompous exordium, she adds, "I said that
the person of your lady would not grow more pleasing to
you, but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so :
that a woman will pardon an affront to her understanding
much sooner than one to her person, is well known ; nor
will any of us contradict the assertion. All our attainments,
all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart of
man ; and what mortification can exceed the disappoint-
ment, if the end be not obtained? There is no reproof
however pointed, no punishment however severe, that a
woman of spirit will not prefer to neglect ; and if she can
endure it without complaint, it only proves that she means
to make herself amends by the attention of others for the
slights of her husband ! "

These are truly masculine sentiments. "All our arts
are employed to gain and keep the heart of man : " — and
what is the inference? — if her person, and was there ever a
person, though formed with Medicean symmetry, that was
not slighted? be neglected, she will make herself amends
by endeavouring to please other men. Noble morality !
But thus is the understanding of the whole sex affronted,
and their virtue deprived of the common basis of virtue.
A woman must know, that her person cannot be as pleasing
to her husband as it was to her lover, and if she be offended
with him for being a human creature, she may as well
whine about the loss of his heart as about any other
foolish thing. And this very want of discernment or un-

1 40 VINDICATION OF THE

reasonable anger, proves that he could not change his
fondness for her person into affection for her virtues or
respect for her understanding.

Whilst women avow, and act up to such opinions, their
understandings, at least, deserve the contempt and obloquy
that men, who never insult their persons, have pointedly
levelled at the female mind. And it is the sentiments
of these polite men, who do not wish to be encumbered
with mind, that vain women thoughtlessly adopt. Yet
they should know, that insulted reason alone can spread
that sacred reserve about the person, which renders human
affections, for human affections have always some base
alloy, as permanent as is consistent with the grand end of
existence — the attainment of virtue.

The Baroness de Stael speaks the same language as the
lady just cited, with more enthusiasm. Her eulogium on
Rousseau was accidentally put into my hands, and her
sentiments, the sentiments of too many of my sex, may
serve as the text for a few comments. " Though Rousseau,"
she observes, " has endeavoured to prevent women from
interfering in public affairs, and acting a brilliant part in the
theatre of politics ; yet in speaking of them, how much
has he done it to their satisfaction ! If he wished to
deprive them of some rights foreign to their sex, how
has he for ever restored to them all those to which it
has a claim ! And in attempting to diminish their influence
over the deliberations of men, how sacredly has he established
the empire they have over their happiness ! In aiding
them to descend from an usurped throne, he has firmly
seated them upon that to which they were destined by
nature ; and though he be full of indignation against them
when they endeavour to resemble men, yet when they
come before him with all the charms, weaknesses, virtues,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 141

and errors of their sex, his respect for their persons amounts
almost to adoration." True ! For never was there a
sensualist who paid more fervent adoration at the shrine
of beauty. So devout, indeed, was his respect for the
person, that excepting the virtue of chastity, for obvious
reasons, he only wished to see it embellished by charms,
weaknesses, and errors. He was afraid lest the austerity of
reason should disturb the soft playfulness of love. The
master wished to have a meretricious slave to fondle,
entirely dependent on his reason and bounty ; he did not
want a companion, whom he should be compelled to
esteem, or a friend to whom he could confine the care
of his children's education, should death deprive them
of their father, before he had fulfilled the sacred task.
He denies woman reason, shuts her out from knowledge,
and turns her aside from truth ; yet his pardon is granted,
because " he admits the passion of love." It would require
some ingenuity to show why women were to be under such
an obligation to him for thus admitting love ; when it is
clear that he admits it only for the relaxation of men,
and to perpetuate the species ; but he talked with passion,
and that powerful spell worked on the sensibility of a young
encomiast. " What signifies it," pursues this rhapsodist,
" to women, that his reason disputes with them the empire,
when his heart is devotedly theirs." It is not empire, —
but equality, that they should contend for. Yet, if they
only wished to lengthen out their sway, they should not
entirely trust to their persons, for though beauty may gain
a heart, it cannot keep it, even while the beauty is in full
bloom, unless the mind lend, at least, some graces.

When women are once sufficiently enlightened to discover
their real interest, on a grand scale, they will, I am
persuaded, be very ready to resign all the prerogatives of

142

love, that are not mutual, speaking of them as lasting
prerogatives, for the calm satisfaction of friendship, and
the tender confidence of habitual esteem. Before marriage
they will not assume any insolent airs, or afterwards abjectly
submit ; but endeavouring to act like reasonable creatures,
in both situations, they will not be tumbled from a throne
to a stool.

Madame Genlis has written several entertaining books
for children ; and her " Letters on Education " afford many
useful hints, that sensible parents will certainly avail them-
selves of; but her views are narrow, and her prejudices
as unreasonable as strong.

I shall pass over her vehement argument in favour of the
eternity of future punishments, because I blush to think
that a human being should ever argue vehemently in such a
cause, and only make a few remarks on her absurd manner
of making the parental authority supplant reason. For
everywhere does she inculcate not only blind submission to
parents, but to the opinion of the world.*

She tells a story of a young man engaged by his father's
express desire to a girl of fortune. Before the marriage
could take place she is deprived of her fortune, and thrown
friendless on the world. The father practises the most
infamous arts to separate his son from her, and when the

* A person is not to act in this or that way, though convinced
they are right in so doing, because some equivocal circumstances may
lead the world to suspect that they acted from different motives. This
is sacrificing the substance for a shadow. Let people but watch their
own hearts, and act rightly, as far as they can judge, and they may
patiently wait till the opinion of the world conies round. It is best to
be directed by a simple motive, for justice has too often been sacrificed
to propriety — another word for convenience.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 143

son detects his villainy, and, following the dictates of honour,
marries the girl, nothing but misery ensues, because, for-
sooth ! he married without his father's consent. On what
ground can religion or morality rest when justice is thus set
at defiance ? With the same view she represents an accom-
plished young woman, as ready to marry anybody that her
mamma pleased to recommend ; and, as actually marrying
the young man of her own choice, without feeling any
emotions of passion, because that a well-educated girl had
not time to be in love. Is it possible to have much respect
for a system of education that thus insults reason and nature?

Many similar opinions occur in her writings, mixed with
sentiments that do honour to her head and heart. Yet so
much superstition is mixed with her religion, and so much
worldly wisdom with her morality, that I should not let a
young person read her works, unless I could afterwards con-
verse on the subjects, and point out the contradictions.

Mrs Chapone's letters are written with such good sense
and unaffected humility, and contain so many useful obser-
vations, that I only mention them to pay the worthy writer
this tribute of respect. I cannot, it is true, always coincide
in opinion with her, but I always respect her.

The very word respect brings Mrs Macaulay to my
remembrance. The woman of the greatest abilities, un-
doubtedly, that this country has every produced ; and yet
this woman has been suffered to die without sufficient respect
being paid to her memory.

Posterity, however, will be more just, and remember that
Catherine Macaulay was an example of intellectual acquire-
ments supposed to be incompatible with the weakness of
her sex. In her style of writing, indeed, no sex appears, for
it is like the sense it conveys, strong and clear.

I will not call hers a masculine understanding, because I

144 VINDICATION OF THE

admit not of such an arrogant assumption of reason ; but I
contend that it was a found one, and that her judgment, the
matured fruit of profound thinking, was a proof that a
woman can acquire judgment in the full extent of the word.
Possessing more penetration than sagacity, more under-
standing than fancy, she writes with sober energy and argu-
mentative closeness ; yet sympathy and benevolence give an
interest to her sentiments, and that vital heat to arguments,
which forces the reader to weigh them.*

When I first thought of writing these strictures I antici-
pated Mrs Macaulay's approbation, with a little of that
sanguine ardour which it has been the business of my life to
depress, but soon heard with the sickly qualm of disappointed
hope, and the still seriousness of regret — that she was no
more !

SECTION v.

Taking a view of the different works which have been
written on education, Lord Chesterfield's " Letters " must
not be silently passed over. Not that I mean to analyse his
unmanly, immoral system, or even to cull any of the useful,
shrewd remarks which occur in his epistles. No, I only
mean to make a few reflections on the avowed tendency of
them, the art of acquiring an early knowledge of the world —
an art, I will venture to assert, that preys secretly, like the
worm in the bud, on the expanding powers, and turns to
poison the generous juices which should mount with vigour

* Coinciding in opinion with Mrs Macaulay relative to many branches
of education, I refer to her valuable work, instead of quoting her senti-
ments to support my own.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 145

irrthe youthful frame, inspiring warm affections and great
resolves.*

For everything, saith the wise man, there is a season ; and
who would look for the fruits of autumn during the genial
months of spring? But this is mere declamation, and I
mean to reason with those worldly-wise instructors, who,
instead of cultivating the judgment, instill prejudices, and
render hard the heart that gradual experience would only
have cooled. An early acquaintance with human infirmities ;
or, what is termed knowledge of the world, is the surest way,
in my opinion, to contract the heart and damp the natural
youthful ardour which produces not only great talents, but
great virtues. For the vain attempt to bring forth the
fruit of experience, before the sapling has out thrown its
leaves, only exhausts its strength, and prevents its assum-
ing a natural form ; just as the form and strength of sub-
siding metals are injured when the attraction of cohesion is
disturbed.

Tell me, ye who have studied the human mind, is it not
a strange way to fix principles by showing young people that
they are seldom stable ? And how can they be fortified by
habits when they are proved to be fallacious by example ?
Why is the ardour of youth thus to be damped, and the
luxuriancy of fancy cut to the quick ? This dry caution
may, it is true, guard a character from worldly mischances,
but will infallibly preclude excellence in either virtue or

* That children ought to be constantly guarded against the vices and
follies of the world appears to me a very mistaken opinion ; for in the
course of my experience, and my eyes have looked abroad, I never
knew a youth educated in this manner, who had early imbibed these
chilling suspicions, and repeated by rote the hesitating if of age. that
did not prove a selfish character.

K

146 VINDICATION OF THE

knowledge.* The stumbling-block thrown across every path
by suspicion will prevent any vigorous exertions of genius or
benevolence, and life will be stripped of its most alluring
charm long before its calm evening, when man should retire
to contemplation for comfort and support.

A young man who has been bred up with domestic friends,
and led to store his mind with as much speculative know-
ledge as can be acquired by reading and the natural reflec-
tions which youthful ebullitions of animal spirits and
instinctive feelings inspire, will enter the world with warm
and erroneous expectations. But this appears to be the
course of Nature ; and in morals, as well as in works of
taste, we should be observant of her sacred indications, and
not presume to lead when we ought obsequiously to follow.

In the world few act from principle ; present feelings and
early habits are the grand springs ; but how would the former
be deadened, and the latter rendered iron-corroding fetters,
if the world were shown to young people just as it is, when
no knowledge of mankind or their own hearts, slowly
obtained by experience, rendered them forbearing? Their
fellow-creatures would not then be viewed as frail beings
like themselves, condemned to struggle with human in-
firmities, and sometimes displaying the light, and sometimes
the dark, side of their character ; extorting alternate feelings
of love and disgust, but guarded against as beasts of prey,
till every enlarged social feeling — in a word, humanity — was
eradicated.

In life, on the contrary, as we gradually discover the im-
perfections of our nature, we discover virtues, and various

* I have already observed that an early knowledge of the world,
obtained in a natural way, by mixing in the world, has the same effect,

instancing officers and women.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 147

circumstances attach us to our fellow-creatures, when we
mix with them and view the same objects, that are never
thought of in acquiring a hasty unnatural knowledge of the
world. We see a folly swell into a vice, by almost imper-
ceptible degrees, and pity while we blame ; but if the hideous
monster burst suddenly on our sight, fear and disgust, ren-
dering us more severe than man ought to be, might lead us
with blind zeal to usurp the character of omnipotence, and
denounce damnation on our fellow-mortals, forgetting that
we cannot read the heart, and that we have seeds of the
same vices lurking in our own.

I have already remarked that we expect more from
instruction than mere instruction can produce ; for instead
of preparing young people to encounter the evils of life with
dignity, and to acquire wisdom and virtue by the exercise of
their own faculties, precepts are heaped upon precepts, and
blind obedience required when conviction should be brought
home to reason.

Suppose, for instance, that a young person, in the first
ardour of friendship, deifies the beloved object, what harm
can arise from this mistaken enthusiastic attachment?
Perhaps it is necessary for virtue first to appear in a human
form to impress youthful hearts ; the ideal model, which a
more matured and exalted mind looks up to, and shapes for
itself, would elude their sight. " He who loves not his
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God?" asked
the wisest of men.

It is natural for youth to adorn the first object of its
affection with every good quality, and the emulation pro-
duced by ignorance, or, to speak with more propriety, by
inexperience, brings forward the mind capable of forming
such an affection, and when, in the lapse of time, perfection
is found not to be within the reach of mortals, virtue,

148 VINDICATION OF THE

abstractedly, is thought beautiful, and wisdom sublime.
Admiration then gives place to friendship, properly so
called, because it is cemented by esteem ; and the being
walks alone only dependent on heaven for that emulous
panting after perfection which ever glows in a noble mind.
But this knowledge a man must gain by the exertion of
his own faculties ; and this is surely the blessed fruit of
disappointed hope ! for He who delighteth to diffuse happi-
ness and show mercy to the weak creatures, who are learn-
ing to know Him, never implanted a good propensity to be a
tormenting ignis fatuus.

Our trees are now allowed to spread with wild luxuriance,
nor do we expect by force to combine the majestic marks
of time with youthful graces ; but wait patiently till they
have struck deep their root, and braved many a storm.
Is the mind then, which, in proportion to its dignity,
advances more slowly towards perfection, to be treated
with less respect? To argue from analogy, everything
around us is in a progressive state ; and when an unwelcome
knowledge of life produces almost a satiety of life, and we
discover by the natural course of things that all that is done
under the sun is vanity, we are drawing near the awful
close of the drama. The days of activity and hope are
over, and the opportunities which the first stage of existence
has afforded of advancing in the scale of intelligence, must
soon be summed up. A knowledge at this period of the
futility of life, or earlier, if obtained by experience, is
very useful, because it is natural ; but when a frail being is
shown the follies and vices of man, that he may be taught
prudently to guard against the common casualties of life
by sacrificing his heart — surely it is not speaking harshly
to call it the wisdom of this world, contrasted with the
nobler fruit of piety and experience.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 149

I will venture a paradox, and deliver my opinion without
reserve ; if men were only born to form a circle of life and
death, it would be wise to take every step that foresight
could suggest to render life happy. Moderation in every
pursuit would then be supreme wisdom ; and the prudent
voluptuary might enjoy a degree of content, though he
neither cultivated his understanding nor kept his heart
pure. Prudence, supposing we were mortal, would be true
wisdom, or, to be more explicit, would procure the greatest
portion of happiness, considering the whole of life, but
knowledge beyond the conveniences of life would be a curse.
Why should we injure our health by close study? The
exalted pleasure which intellectual pursuits afford would
scarcely be equivalent to the hours of languor that follow ;
especially, if it be necessary to take into the reckoning
the doubts and disappointments that cloud our researches.
Vanity and vexation close every inquiry : for the cause
which we particularly wished to discover flies like the
horizon before us as we advance. The ignorant, on the
contrary, resemble children, and suppose, that if they could
walk straight forward they should at last arrive where the
earth and clouds meet. Yet, disappointed as we are in our
researches, the mind gains strength by the exercise, sufficient,
perhaps, to comprehend the answers which, in another step
of existence, it may receive to the anxious questions it
asked, when the understanding with feeble wing was flutter-
ing round the visible effects to dive into the hidden cause.

The passions also, the winds of life, would be useless,
if not injurious, did the substance which composes our
thinking being, after we have thought in vain, only become
the support of vegetable life, and invigorate a cabbage, or
blush in a rose. The appetites would answer every earthly
purpose, and produce more moderate and permanent happi-

1 5 o VINDICA TION OF THE

ness. But the powers of the soul that are of little use
here, and, probably, disturb our animal enjoyments, even
while conscious dignity makes us glory in possessing them,
prove that life is merely an education, a state of infancy, to
which the only hopes worth cherishing should not be
sacrificed. I mean, therefore, to infer, that we ought to
have a precise idea of what we wish to attain by education,
for the immortality of the soul is contradicted by the actions
of many people who firmly profess the belief.

If you mean to secure ease and prosperity on earth as
the first consideration, and leave futurity to provide for
itself; you act prudently in giving your child an early
insight into the weaknesses of his nature. You may not,
it is true, make an Inkle of him ; but do not imagine that
he will stick to more than the letter of the law, who has
very early imbibed a mean opinion of human nature ; nor
will he think it necessary to rise much above the common
standard. He may avoid gross vices, because honesty is the
best policy ; but he will never aim at attaining great virtues.
The example of writers and artists will illustrate this remark.

I must therefore venture to doubt whether what has been
thought an axiom in morals may not have been a dogmatical
assertion made by men who have coolly seen mankind
through the medium of books, and say, in direct contradic-
tion to them, that the regulation of the passions is not,
always, wisdom. On the contrary, it should seem, that one
reason why men have superior judgment, and more fortitude
than women, is undoubtedly this, that they give a freer
scope to the grand passions, and by more frequently going
astray enlarge their minds. If then by the exercise of their
own* reason they fix on some stable principle, they have

* " I find that all is but lip-wisdom which wants experience," says

Sidney.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 151

probably to thank the force of their passions, nourished by
false views of life, and permitted to overleap the boundary
that secures content. But if, in the dawn of life, we could
soberly survey the scenes before as in perspective, and
see everything in its true colours, how could the passions
gain sufficient strength to unfold the faculties ?

Let me now as from an eminence survey the world
stripped of all its false delusive charms. The clear atmo-
sphere enables me to see each object in its true point of
view, while my heart is still. I am calm as the prospect
in a morning when the mists, slowly dispersing, silently
unveil the beauties of nature, refreshed by rest.

In what light will the world now appear? I rub my
eyes, and think, perchance, that I am just awaking from a
lively dream.

I see the sons and daughters of men pursuing shadows,
and anxiously wasting theff powers to feed passions which
have no adequate object. If the very excess of these blind
impulses, pampered by that lying, yet constantly trusted
guide, the imagination, did not, by preparing them for some
other state, render short-sighted mortals wiser without
their own concurrence, or, what comes to the same thing,
when they were pursuing some imaginary present good.

After viewing objects in this light, it would not be very
fanciful to imagine that this world was a stage on which a
pantomime is daily performed for the amusement of superior
beings. How would they be diverted to see the ambitious
man consuming himself by running after a phantom, and
" pursuing the bubble fame in the cannon's mouth " that
was to blow him to nothing ; for when consciousness is lost,
it matters not whether we mount in a whirlwind, or descend
in rain. And should they compassionately invigorate his
sight, and show him the thorny path which led to eminence,

1 5 2 VINDICA TION OF THE

that, like a quicksand, sinks as he ascends, disappointing
his hopes when almost within his grasp, would he not leave
to others the honour of amusing them, and labour to secure*
the present moment, though, from the constitution of his
nature, he would not find it very easy to catch the flying
stream ? Such slaves are we to hope and fear !

But vain as the ambitous man's pursuits would be, he is
often striving for something more substantial than fame.
That, indeed, would be the veriest meteor, the wildest fire
that could lure a man to ruin. What ! renounce the most
trifling gratification to be applauded when he should be no
more ! Wherefore this struggle, whether man be mortal or
immortal, if that noble passion did not really raise the
being above his fellows?

And love ! What diverting scenes would it produce ;
pantaloon's tricks must yield to more egregious folly. To
see a mortal adorn an object with imaginary charms, and
then fall down and worship the idol which he had himself
set up— how ridiculous ! But what serious consequences
ensue to rob man of that portion of happiness which the
Deity by calling him into existence has (or on what can His
attributes rest ?) indubitably promised. Would not all the
purposes of life have been much better fulfilled if he had
only felt what has been termed physical love? And would
not the sight of the object, not seen through the medium of
the imagination, soon reduce the passion to an appetite if
reflection, the noble distinction of man, did not give it
force, and make it an instrument to raise him above this
earthly dross, by teaching him to love the centre of all per-
fection, whose wisdom appears clearer and clearer in the
works of nature in proportion as reason is illuminated and
exalted by contemplation, and by acquiring that love of
order which the struggles of passion produce ?

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 153

The habit of reflection, and the knowledge attained by
fostering any passion, might be shown to be equally use-
ful, though the object be proved equally fallacious ; for they
would all appear in the same light if they were not magni-
fied by the governing passion implanted in us by the Author
of all good to call forth and strengthen the faculties of
each individual, and enable it to attain all the experience
that an infant can obtain who does certain things, it cannot
tell why.

I descend from my height, and mixing with my fellow-
creatures, feel myself hurried along the common stream.
Ambition, love, hope, and fear, exert their wonted power,
though we be convinced by reason that their present and
most attractive promises are only lying dreams ; but had the
cold hand of circumspection damped each generous feeling
before it had left any permanent character, or fixed some
habit, what could be expected but selfish prudence and
reason just rising above instinct? Who that has read Dean
Swift's disgusting description of the Yahoos, and insipid one
of Houyhnhnm with a philosophical eye, can avoid seeing
the futility of degrading the passions, or making man rest-
in contentment ?

The youth should act, for had he the experience of a
grey head he would be fitter for death than life, though his
virtues, rather residing in his head than his heart, could
produce nothing great, and his understanding, prepared for
this world, would not, by its noble flights, prove that it had
a title to a better.

Besides, it is not possible to give a young person a just
view of life ; he must have struggled with his own passions
before he can estimate the force of the temptation which
betrayed his brother into vice. Those who are entering life,
and those who are departing, see the world from such very

154 VINDICATION OF THE

different points of view that they can seldom think alike,
unless the unfledged reason of the former never attempted a
solitary flight.

When we hear of some daring crime, it comes full on us
in the deepest shade of turpitude, and raises indignation ;
but the eye that gradually saw the darkness thicken must
observe it with more compassionate forbearance. The world
cannot be seen by an unmoved spectator ; we must mix in
the throng, and feel as men feel, before we can judge of
their feelings. If we mean, in short, to live in the world, to
grow wiser and better, and not merely to enjoy the good
things of life, we must attain a knowledge of others at the
same time that we become acquainted with ourselves.
Knowledge acquired any other way only hardens the heart,
and perplexes the understanding.

I may be told that the knowledge thus acquired is some-
times purchased at too dear a rate. I can only answer that
I very much doubt whether any knowledge can be attained
without labour and sorrow ; and those who wish to spare
their children both should not complain if they are neither
wise nor virtuous. They only aimed at making them
prudent, and prudence early in life is but the cautious craft
of ignorant self-love.

I have observed that young people, to whose education
particular attention has been paid, have in general been
very superficial and conceited, and far from pleasing in any
respect, because they had neither the unsuspecting warmth
of youth, nor the cool depth of age. I cannot help imput-
ing this unnatural appearance principally to that hasty pre-
mature instruction which leads them presumptuously to
repeat all the crude notions they have taken upon trust, so
that the careful education which they received, makes them
all their lives the slaves of prejudices.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 155

Mental as well as bodily exertion is at first irksome ; so
much so, that the many would fain let others both work
and think for them. An observation which I have often
made will illustrate n' _, meaning. When in a circle of
strangers or ac<^' .tances a person of moderate abilities
asserts an opinion with heat, I will venture to affirm — for I
have traced this fact home — very often that it is a preju-
dice. These echoes have a high respect for the under-
standing of some relation or friend, and without fully compre-
hending the opinions which they are so eager to retail, they
maintain them with a degree of obstinacy that would surprise
even the person who concocted them.

I know that a kind of fashion now prevails of respecting
prejudices ; and when any one dares to face them, though
actuated by humanity and armed by reason, he is super-
ciliously asked whether his ancestors were fools. No, I
should reply. Opinions at first of every description were all
probably considered, and therefore were founded on some
reason; yet not unfrequently, of course, it was rather a local
expedient than a fundamental principle that would be rea-
sonable at all times. But moss-covered opinions assume
the disproportioned form of prejudices when they are in-
dolently adopted only because age has given them a vener-
rable aspect, though the reason on which they were built
ceases to be a reason, or cannot be traced. Why are we to
love prejudices merely because they are prejudices ? * A
prejudice is a fond obstinate persuasion for which we can
give no reason ; for the moment a reason can be given for
an opinion, it ceases to be a prejudice, though it may be an
error in judgment ; and are we then advised to cherish
opinions only to set reason at defiance? This mode of

* Vide Mr Burke.

156 VINDICATION OF THE

arguing, if arguing it may be called, reminds me of what is
vulgarly termed a woman's reason; for women sometimes
declare that they love, or believe certain things, because they
love or believe them.

It is impossible to converse with people to any purpose
who only use affirmatives and negatives. Before you can
bring them to a point to start fairly from, you must go back
to the simple principles that were antecedent to the preju-
dices broached by power ; and it is ten to one but you are
stopped by the philosophical assertion that certain principles
are as practically false as they are abstractly true. * Nay, it
may be inferred that reason has whispered some doubts, for
it generally happens that people assert their opinions with
the greatest heat when they begin to waver ; striving to drive
out their own doubts by convincing their opponent, they
grow angry when those gnawing doubts are thrown back to
prey on themselves.

The fact is, that men expect from education, what
education cannot give. A sagacious parent or tutor may
strengthen the body and sharpen the instruments by which
the child is to gather knowledge ; but the honey must be
the reward of the individual's own industry. It is almost
as absurd to attempt to make a youth wise by the experience
of another, as to expect the body to grow strong by the
exercise which is only talked of, or seen.t Many of those
children whose conduct has been most narrowly watched,
become the weakest men, because their instructors only

* " Convince a man against his will,
He's of the same opinion still."

f " One sees nothing when one is content to contemplate only: it is
necessary to act oneself to be able to see how others act." —
ROUSSEAU.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 157

instil certain notions into their minds, that have no other
foundation than their authority ; and if they be loved or
respected, the mind is cramped in its exertions and wavering
in its advances. The business of education in this case, is
only to conduct the shooting tendrils to a proper pole ; yet
after laying precept upon precept, without allowing a child
to acquire judgment itself, parents expect them to act in
the same manner by this borrowed fallacious light, as if
they had illuminated it themselves ; and be, when they
enter life, what their parents are at the close. They do
"hot consider that the tree, and even the human body,
does not strengthen its fibres till it has reached its full
growth.

There appears to be something analogous in the mind.
The senses and the imagination give a form to the character,
during childhood and youth ; and the understanding, as
life advances, gives firmness to the first fair purposes of
sensibility, till virtue, arising rather from the clear con-
viction of reason than the impulse of the heart, morality is
made to rest on a rock against which the storms of passion
vainly beat.

I hope I shall not be misunderstood when I say, that
religion will not have this condensing energy, unless it be
founded on reason. If it be merely the refuge of weakness
or wild fanaticism, and not a governing principle of conduct,
drawn from self-knowledge, and a rational opinion respecting
the attributes of God, what can it be expected to produce ?
The religion which consists in warming the affections, and
exalting the imagination, is only the poetical part, and may
afford the individual pleasure without rendering it a more
moral being. It may be a substitute for worldly pursuits ;
yet narrow, instead of enlarging the heart : but virtue must
be loved as in itself sublime and excellent, and not for the

158 VINDICATION OF THE

advantages it procures or the evils it averts, if any great
degree of excellence be expected. Men will not become
moral when they only build airy castles in a future world
to compensate for the disappointments which they meet
with in this ; if they turn their thoughts from relative duties
to religious reveries.

Most prospects in life are marred by the shuffling worldly
wisdom of men, who, forgetting that they cannot serve God
and mammon, endeavour to blend contradictory things.
If you wish to make your son rich, pursue one course — if
you are only anxious to make him virtuous, you must take
another ; but do not imagine that you can bound from one
road to the other without losing your way.*

* See an excellent essay on this subject by Mrs Barbauld, in Mis-
cellaneous Pieces in Prose.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 159

CHAPTER VI.

THE EFFECT WHICH AN EARLY ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS
HAS UPON THE CHARACTER.

EDUCATED in the enervating style recommended by
, the writers on whom I have been animadverting;
and not having a chance, from their subordinate
state in society, to recover their lost ground, is it surprising
that woman everywhere appears a defect in nature ? Is it sur-
prising, when we consider what a determinate effect an
early association of ideas has on the character, that they
neglect their understandings, and turn all their attention to
their persons ?

The great advantages which naturally result from storing
the mind with knowledge, are obvious from the following
considerations. The association of our ideas is either
habitual or instantaneous ; and the latter mode seems rather
to depend on the original temperature of the mind than on
the will. When the ideas, and matters of fact, are once
taken in, they lie by for use, till some fortuitous circum-
stance makes the information dart into the mind with
illustrative force, that has been received at very different
periods of our lives. Like the lightning's flash are many
recollections ; one idea assimilating and explaining another,
with astonishing rapidity. I do not now allude to that
quick perception of truth, which is so intuitive that it baffles
research, and makes us at a loss to determine whether it is
reminiscence or ratiocination, lost sight of in its celerity,

160 VINDICATION OF THE

that opens the dark cloud. Over those instantaneous
associations we have little power; for when the mind is
once enlarged by excursive flights, or profound reflection,
the raw materials will, in some degree, arrange themselves.
The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out
of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe
from the imagination the warm sketches of fancy ; but the
animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring.
Over this subtile electric fluid,* how little power do we
possess, and over it how little power can reason obtain.
These fine intractable spirits appear to be the essence of
genius, and beaming in its eagle eye, produce in the most
eminent degree the happy energy of associating thoughts
that surprise, delight, and instruct. These are the glowing
minds that concentrate pictures for their fellow-creatures;
forcing them to view with interest the objects reflected from
the impassioned imagination, which they passed over in
nature.

I must be allowed to explain myself. The generality of
people cannot see or feel poetically, they want fancy, and
therefore fly from solitude in search of sensible objects ;
but when an author lends them his eyes they can see as he
saw, and be amused by images they could not select, though
lying before them.

Education thus only supplies the man of genius with
knowledge to give variety and contrast to his associations ;

* I have sometimes, when inclined to laugh at materialists, asked
whether, as the most powerful effects in nature are apparently produced
by fluids, the magnetic, &c. , the passions might not be fine volatile
fluids that embraced humanity, keeping the more refractory elementary
parts together — or whether they were simply a liquid fire that pervaded
the more sluggish materials, giving them life and heat ?

RIGHTS OF WOMAN, 161

but there is an habitual association of ideas, that grows
" with our growth," which has a great effect on the moral
character of mankind , and by which a turn is given to the
mind that commonly remains throughout life. So ductile
is the understanding, and yet so stubborn, that the as-
sociations which depend on adventitious circumstances,
during the period that the body takes to arrive at maturity,
can seldom be disentangled by reason. One idea calls up
another, its old associate, and memory, faithful to the first
impressions, particularly when the intellectual powers are
not employed to cool our sensations, retraces them with
mechanical exactness.

This habitual slavery, to first impressions, has a more
baneful effect on the female than the male character, because
business and other dry employments of the understanding,
tend to deaden the feelings and break associations that do
violence to reason. But females, who are made women of
when they are mere children, and brought back to child-
hood when they ought to leave the go-cart for ever, have
not sufficient strength of mind to efface the superinductions
of art that have smothered nature.

Everything that they see or hear serves to fix impressions,
call forth emotions, and associate ideas, that give a sexual
character to the mind. False notions of beauty and
delicacy stop the growth of their limbs and produce a
sickly soreness, rather than delicacy of organs; and thus
weakened by being employed in unfolding instead of
examining the first associations, forced on them by every
surrounding object, how can they attain the vigour necessary
to enable them to throw off their factitious character? —
where find strength to recur to reason and rise superior to a
system of oppression, that blasts the fair promises of spring?
This cruel association of ideas, which everything conspires

L

1 62 VINDICATION OF THE

to twist into all their habits of thinking, or, to speak with
more precision, of feeling, receives new force when they
begin to act a little for themselves ; for they then perceive
that it is only through their address to excite emotions in
men, that pleasure and power are to be obtained. Besides,
the books professedly written for their instruction, which
make the first impression on their minds, all inculcate
the same opinions. Educated then in worse than Egyptian
bondage, it is unreasonable, as well as cruel, to upbraid
them with faults that can scarcely be avoided, unless a
degree of native vigour be supposed, that falls to the
lot of very few amongst mankind.

For instance, the severest sarcasms have been levelled
against the sex, and they have been ridiculed for repeating
"a set of phrases learnt by rote," when nothing could
be more natural, considering the education they receive,
and that their " highest praise is to obey, unargued " —
the will of man. If they be not allowed to have reason
sufficient to govern their own conduct — why, all they learn
must be learned by rote ! And when all their ingenuity
is called forth to adjust their dress, "a passion for a
scarlet coat," is so natural, that it never surprised me ;
and, allowing Pope's summary of their character to be
just, " that every woman is at heart a rake," why should
they be bitterly censured for seeking a congenial mind,
and preferring a rake to a man of sense ?

Rakes know how to work on their sensibility, whilst
the modest merit of reasonable men has, of course, less
effect on their feelings, and they cannot reach the heart
by the way of the understanding, because they have few
sentiments in common.

It seems a little absurd to expect women to be more
reasonable than men in their likings, and still to deny

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 163

them the uncontrolled use of reason. When do men
Jail in love with sense ? When do they, with their superior
powers and advantages, turn from the person to the mind ?
And how can they then expect women, who are only
taught to observe behaviour, and acquire manners rather
than morals, to despise what they have been all their
lives labouring to attain? Where are they suddenly* to
find judgment enough to weigh patiently the sense of an
awkward virtuous man, when his manners, of which they
are made critical judges, are rebuffing, and his conversa-
tion cold and dull, because it does not consist of pretty
repartees, or well-turned compliments ? In order to admire
or esteem anything for a continuance, we must, at least,
have our curiosity excited by knowing, in some degree,
what we admire ; for we are unable to estimate the value of
qualities and virtues above our comprehension. Such a
respect, when it is felt, may be very sublime ; and the
confused consciousness of humility may render the dependent
creature an interesting object, in some points of view ;
but human love must have grosser ingredients; and the
person very naturally will come in for its share— and, an
ample share it mostly has !

Love is, in a great degree, an arbitrary passion, and
will reign, like some other stalking mischiefs, by its own
authority, without deigning to reason ; and it may also
be easily distinguished from esteem, the foundation of
friendship, because it is often excited by evanescent beauties
and graces, though, to give an energy to the sentiment,
something more solid must deepen their impression and
set the imagination to work, to make the most fair — the
first good.

Common passions are excited by common qualities.
Men look for beauty and the simper of good-humoured

164 VINDICATION OF THE

docility : women are captivated by easy manners ; a
gentleman-like man seldom fails to please them, and their
thirsty ears eagerly drink the insinuating nothings of polite-
ness, whilst they turn from the unintelligible sounds of the
charmer — reason, charm he never so wisely. With respect
to superficial accomplishments, the rake certainly has the
advantage ; and of these females can form an opinion,
for it is their own ground. Rendered gay and giddy by
the whole tenor of their lives, the very aspect of wisdom,
or the severe graces of virtue, must have a lugubrious
appearance to them ; and produce a kind of restraint from
which they and love, sportive child, naturally revolt. With-
out taste, excepting of the lighter kind, for taste is the
offspring of judgment, how can they discover that true
beauty and grace must arise from the play of the mind?
and how can they be expected to relish in a lover what
they do not, or very imperfectly, possess themselves? The
sympathy that unites hearts, and invites to confidence, in
them is so very faint, that it cannot take fire, and thus
mount to passion. No, I repeat it, the love cherished by
such minds, must have grosser fuel !

The inference is obvious ; till women are led to exercise
their understandings, they should not be satirised for their
attachment to rakes : or even for being rakes at heart,
when it appears to be the inevitable consequence of their
education. They who live to please — must find their
enjoyments, their happiness, in pleasure ! It is a trite, yet
true remark, that we never do anything well, unless we
love it for its own sake.

Supposing, however, for a moment, that women were, in
some future revolution of time, to become, what I sincerely
wish them to be, even love would acquire more serious
dignity, and be purified in its own fires ; and virtue giving

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 165

true delicacy to their affections, they would turn with
disgust from a rake. Reasoning then, as well as feeling,
the only province of woman, at present, they might easily
guard against exterior graces, and quickly learn to despise
the sensibility that had been excited and hackneyed in
the ways of women, whose trade was vice ; and allurements,
wanton airs. They would recollect that the flame, one
must use appropriated expressions, which they wished to
light up, had been exhausted by lust, and that the sated
appetite, losing all relish for pure and simple pleasures,
could only be roused by licentious arts or variety. What
satisfaction could a woman of delicacy promise herself in a
union with such a man, when the very artlessness of her
affection might appear insipid ? Thus does Dryden
describe the situation,

" Where love is duty, on the female side,
On theirs mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride."

But one grand truth women have yet to learn, though
much it imports them to act accordingly. In the choice of
a husband, they should not be led astray by the qualities of
a lover — for a lover the husband, even supposing him to be
wise and virtuous, cannot long remain.

Were women more rationally educated, could they take a
more comprehensive view of things, they would be con-
tented to love but once in their lives ; and after marriage
calmly let passion subside into friendship — into that tender
intimacy, which is the best refuge from care ; yet is built
on such pure, still affections, that idle jealousies would not
be allowed to disturb the discharge of the sober duties of
life, or to engross the thoughts that ought to be otherwise
employed. This is a state in which many men live ; but
few, very few, women. And the difference may easily be

1 66 VINDICATION OF THE

accounted for, without recurring to a sexual character.
Men, for whom we are told women were made, have too
much occupied the thoughts of women ; and this association
has so entangled love with all their motives of action ; and,
to harp a little on an old string, having been solely em-
ployed either to prepare themselves to excite love, or
actually putting their lessons in practice, they cannot live
without love. But, when a sense of duty, or fear of shame,
obliges them to restrain this pampered desire of pleasing
beyond certain lengths, too far for delicacy, it is true,
though far from criminality, they obstinately determine to
love, I speak of the passion, their husbands to the end of
the chapter— and then acting the part which they foolishly
exacted from their lovers, they become abject wooers and
fond slaves.

Men of wit and fancy are often rakes ; and fancy is the
food of love. Such men will inspire passion. Half the sex,
in its present infantine state, would pine for a Lovelace ; a
man so witty, so graceful, and so valiant : and can they
deserve blame for acting according to principles so constantly
inculcated ? They want a lover, and protector : and behold
him kneeling before them — bravery prostrate to beauty !
The virtues of a husband are thus thrown by love into the
background, and gay hopes, or lively emotions, banish
reflection till the day of reckoning come ; and come it
surely will, to turn the sprightly lover into a surly suspicious
tyrant, who contemptuously insults the very weakness he
fostered. Or, supposing the rake reformed, he cannot
quickly get rid of old habits. When a man of abilities is
first carried away by his passions, it is necessary that senti-
ment and taste varnish the enormities of vice, and give a
zest to brutal indulgences ; but when the gloss of novelty is
worn off, and pleasure palls upon the sense, lasciviousness

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 167

becomes barefaced, and enjoyment only the desperate
effort of weakness flying from reflection as from a legion of
devils. Oh ! virtue, thou art not an empty name ! All
that life can give — thou givest !

If much comfort cannot be expected from the friendship
of a reformed rake of superior abilities, what is the con-
sequence when he lacketh sense, as well as principles ?
Verily misery, in its most hideous shape. When the habits
of weak people are consolidated by time, a reformation is
barely possible ; and actually makes the beings miserable
who have not sufficient mind to be amused by innocent
pleasure ; like the tradesman who retires from the hurry of
business, nature presents to them only a universal blank ;
and the restless thoughts prey on the damped spirits.*
The reformation, as well as his retirement, actually makes
them wretched, because it deprives them of all employment,
by quenching the hopes and fears that set in motion their
sluggish minds.

If such be the force of habit ; if such be the bondage of
folly, how carefully ought we to guard the mind from storing
up vicious associations ; and equally careful should we be
to cultivate the understanding, to save the poor wight from
the weak dependent state of even harmless ignorance. For
it is the right use of reason alone which make us inde-
pendent of everything — excepting the unclouded reason —
" Whose service is perfect freedom."

* I have frequently seen this exemplified in women whose beauty
could no longer be repaired. They have retired from the noisy
scenes of dissipation ; but, unless they became Methodists, the solitude
of the select society of their family connections or acquaintance, has
presented only a fearful void ; consequently, nervous complaints, and
all the vapourish train of idleness, rendered them quite as useless, and
far more unhappy, than when they joined the giddy throng.

1 68 VINDICATION OF THE

CHAPTER VII.

MODESTY — COMPREHENSIVELY CONSIDERED, AND NOT
AS A SEXUAL VIRTUE.

MODESTY ! sacred offspring of sensibility and reason !
— true delicacy of mind ! — may I unblamed pre-
sume to investigate thy nature, and trace to its
covert the mild charm, that mellowing each harsh feature of
a character, renders what would otherwise only inspire cold
admiration — lovely ! Thou that smoothest the wrinkles of
wisdom, and softenest the tone of the sublimest virtues till
they all melt into humanity ; thou that spreadest the ethe-
real cloud that, surrounding love, heightens every beauty, it
half shades, breathing those coy sweets that steal into the
heart, and charm the senses — modulate for me the language
of persuasive reason, till I rouse my sex from the flowery
bed, on which they supinely sleep life away !

In speaking of the association of our ideas, I have noticed
two distinct modes ; and in defining modesty, it appears to
me equally proper to discriminate that purity of mind, which
is the effect of chastity, from a simplicity of character that
leads us to form a just opinion of ourselves, equally distant
from vanity or presumption, though by no means incom-
patible with a lofty consciousness of our own dignity.
Modesty, in the latter signification of the term, is that sober-
ness of mind which teaches a man not to think more highly
of himself than he ought to think, and should be distin-
guished from humility, because humility is a kind of self-
abasement.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 169

A modest man often conceives a great plan, and tena-
ciously adheres to it, conscious of his own strength, till
success gives it a sanction that determines its character.
Milton was not arrogant when he suffered a suggestion of
judgment to escape him that proved a prophecy ; nor was
General Washington when he accepted of the command of
the American forces. The latter has always been charac-
terised as a modest man ; but had he been merely humble,
he would probably have shrunk back irresolute, afraid of
trusting to himself the direction of an enterprise, on which
so much depended.

A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain
one presumptuous : this is the judgment, which the obser-
vation of many characters, has led me to form. Jesus Christ
was modest, Moses was humble, and Peter vain.

Thus, discriminating modesty from humility in one case,
I do not mean to confound it with bashfulness in the other.
Bashfulness, in fact, is so distinct from modesty, that the
most bashful lass or raw country lout, often become the
most impudent ; for their bashfulness being merely the
instinctive timidity of ignorance, custom soon changes it into
assurance.*

The shameless behaviour of the prostitutes, who infest

"Such is the country maiden's fright,
When first a redcoat is in sight,
Behind the door she hides her face ;
Next time at distance eyes the lace ;
She now can all his terrors stand,
Nor from his squeeze withdraws her hand,
She plays familiar in his arms,
And every soldier hath his charms ;
From tent to tent she spreads her flame ;
For custom conquers fear and shame." — GAY.

170 VINDICATION OF THE

the streets of this metropolis, raising alternate emotions of
pity and disgust, may serve to illustrate this remark. They
trample on virgin bashfulness with a sort of bravado, and
glorifying in their shame, become more audaciously lewd
than men, however depraved, to whom this sexual quality
has not been gratuitously granted, ever appear to be. But
these poor ignorant wretches never had any modesty to lose,
when they consigned themselves to infamy ; for modesty is
a virtue, not a quality. No, they were only bashful, shame-
faced innocents ; and losing their innocence, their shame-
facedness was rudely brushed off : a virtue would have left
some vestiges in the mind, had it been sacrificed to passion,
to make us respect the grand ruin.

Purity of mind, or that genuine delicacy, which is the
only virtuous support of chastity, is near akin to that refine-
ment of humanity, which never resides in any but cultivated
minds. It is something nobler than innocence, it is the
delicacy of reflection, and not the coyness of ignorance.
The reserve of reason, which, like habitual cleanliness, is
seldom seen in any great degree, unless the soul is active, may
easily be distinguished from rustic shyness or wanton skit-
tishness ; and, so far from being incompatible with know-
ledge, it is its fairest fruit. What a gross idea of modesty
had the writer of the following remark ! — "The lady who
asked the question whether women may be instructed in the
modern system of botany, consistently with female delicacy?
was accused of ridiculous prudery ; nevertheless, if she had
proposed to the question to me, I should certainly have
answered — they cannot." Thus is the fair book of knowledge
to be shut with an everlasting seal ! On reading similar
passages I have reverentially lifted up my eyes and heart to
Him who liveth for ever and ever, and said, " O, my
Father, hast Thou, by the very constitution of her nature

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 171

forbid Thy child to seek Thee in the fair forms of truth ?
And can her soul be sullied by the knowledge that awfully
calls her to Thee ? "

I have then philosophically pursued these reflections till
I inferred that those women who have most improved their
reason must have the most modesty, though a dignified
sedateness of deportment may have succeeded the playful,
bewitching bashfulness of youth.*

And thus have I argued. To render chastity the virtue
from which unsophisticated modesty will naturally flow, the
attention should be called away from employments which
only exercise the sensibility, and the heart made to beat
time to humanity rather than to throb with love. The
woman who has dedicated a considerable portion of her
time to pursuits purely intellectual, and whose affections
have been exercised by humane plans of usefulness, must
have more purity of mind, as a natural consequence, than
the ignorant beings whose time and thoughts have been
occupied by gay pleasures, or schemes to conquer hearts, f

* Modesty is the graceful calm virtue of maturity ; bashfulness the
charm of vivacious youth.

* I have conversed, as man with man, with medical men on anatomi-
cal subjects, and compared the proportions of the human body with
artists, yet such modesty did I meet with, that I was never reminded
by word or look of my sex of the absurd rules which make modesty
a Pharisaical cloak of weakness. And I am persuaded that in the
pursuit of knowledge women would never be insulted by sensible men,
and rarely by men of any description, if they did not by mock modesty
remind them that they were women — actuated by the same spirit as the
Portuguese ladies, who would think their charms insulted if, when left
alone with a man, he did not at least attempt to be grossly familiar with
their persons. Men are not always men in the company of women, nor
would women always remember that they are women, if they were
allowed to acquire more understanding.

1 7 2 VINDICA T2ON OF THE

The regulation of the behaviour is not modesty, though
those who study rules of decorum are in general termed
modest women. Make the heart clean ; let it expand and
feel for all that is human, instead of being narrowed by
selfish passions; and let the mind frequently contemplate
subjects that exercise the understanding, without heating the
imagination, and artless modesty will give the finishing
touches to the picture.

She who can discern the dawn of immortality in the
streaks that shoot athwart the misty night of ignorance, pro-
mising a clearer day, will respect, as a sacred temple, the
body that enshrines such an improvable soul. True love
likewise spreads this kind of mysterious sanctity round the
beloved object, making the lover most modest when in her
presence.* So reserved is affection that, receiving or re-
turning personal endearments, it wishes not only to shun
the human eye, as a kind of profanation, but to diffuse an
encircling cloudy obscurity to shut out even the saucy
sparkling sunbeams. Yet that affection does not deserve
the epithet of chaste which does not receive a sublime
gloom of tender melancholy, that allows the mind for a
moment to stand still and enjoy the present satisfaction,
when a consciousness of the Divine presence is felt — for this
must ever be the food of joy.

As I have always been fond of tracing to its source in
nature any prevailing custom, I have frequently thought that
it was a sentiment of affection for whatever had touched the
person of an absent or lost friend, which gave birth to that
respect for relics, so much abused by selfish priests. Devo-
tion or love may be allowed to hallow the garments as well

Male or female, for the world contains many modest men.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 173

as the person, for the lover must want fancy who has not a
sort of sacred respect for the glove or slipper of his mistress.
He could not confound them with vulgar things .of the
same kind. This fine sentiment perhaps would not bear to
be analysed by the experimental philosopher. But of such
stuff is human rapture made up. A shadowy phantom
glides before us, obscuring every other object ; yet when the
soft cloud is grasped, the form melts into common air, leav-
ing a solitary void, or sweet perfume, stolen from the violet,
that memory long holds dear. But I have tripped unawares
on fairy ground, feeling the balmy gale of spring stealing on
me, though November frowns.

As a sex, women are more chaste than men ; and as
modesty is the effect of chastity, they may deserve to have
this virtue ascribed to them in rather an appropriated sense.
Yet I must be allowed to add an hesitating if, for I doubt
whether chastity will produce modesty, though it may pro-
priety of conduct, when it is merely a respect for the opinion
of the world,* and when coquetry and the lovelorn tales of
novelists employ the thoughts. Nay, from experience and
reason, I should be led to expect to meet with more modesty
amongst men than women, simply because men exercise
their understandings more than women.

But with respect to propriety of behaviour, excepting
one class of females, women have evidently the advantage.
What can be more disgusting than that impudent dross of
gallantry thought so manly, which makes many men stare
insultingly at every female they meet? Can it be termed
respect for the sex ? No, this loose behaviour shows such

* The immodest behaviour of many married women, who are
nevertheless faithful to their husbands' beds, will illustrate this
remark.

174 VINDICATION OF THE

habitual depravity, such weakness of mind, that it is vain to
expect much public or private virtue till both men and
women grow more modest — till men, curbing a sensual
fondness for the sex, or an affectation of manly assurance —
more properly speaking, impudence — treat each other with
respect, unless appetite or passion give the tone, peculiar to
it, to their behaviour. I mean every personal respect — the
modest respect of humanity and fellow-feeling — not the
libidinous mockery of gallantry, nor the insolent condescen-
sion of protectorship.

To carry the observation still further, modesty must
heartily disclaim, and refuse to dwell with that debauchery
of mind, which leads a man coolly to bring forward, without
a blush, indecent allusions, or obscene witticisms, in the
presence of a fellow-creature ; women are now out of the
question, for then it is brutality. Respect for man, as
man, is the foundation of every noble sentiment. How
much more modest is the libertine who obeys the call of
appetite or fancy than the lewd joker who sets the table
in a roar !

This is one of the many instances in which the sexual dis-
tinction respecting modesty has proved fatal to virtue and
happiness. It is, however, carried still further, and woman
— weak woman — made by her education the slave of sensi-
bility, is required, on the most trying occasions, to resist
that sensibility. "Can anything," says Knox, "be more
absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and
yet so vehemently to insist on their resisting temptation ? "
Thus when virtue or honour make it proper to check a
passion, the burden is thrown on the weaker shoulders, con-
trary to reason and true modesty, which at least should
render the self-denial mutual, to say nothing of the gene-
rosity of bravery, supposed to be a manly virtue.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 175

In the same strain runs Rousseau's and Dr Gregory's
advice respecting modesty, strangely miscalled ! for they
both desire a wife to leave it in doubt whether sensibility or
weakness led her to her husband's arms. The woman is
immodest who can let the shadow of such a doubt remain in
her husband's mind a moment.

But, to state the subject in a different light, the want of
modesty, which I principally deplore as subversive of
morality, arises from the state of warfare so strenuously
supported by voluptuous men as the very essence of mo-
desty, though, in fact, its bane, because it is a refinement on
lust that men fall into who have not sufficient virtue to
relish the innocent pleasures of love. A man of delicacy
carries his notions of modesty still further, for neither weak-
ness nor sensibility will gratify him — he looks for affection.

Again. Men boast of their triumphs over women. What
do they boast of? Truly the creature of sensibility was
surprised by her sensibility into folly — into vice ; * and the
dreadful reckoning falls heavily on her own weak head,
when reason wakes. For where art thou to find comfort,
forlorn and disconsolate one? He who ought to have
directed thy reason, and supported thy weakness, has be-
trayed thee. In a dream of passion thou consented to
wander through flowery lawns, and heedlessly stepping over
the precipice to which they guide, instead of guarding, lured
thee ; thou startest from thy dream only to face a sneering,
frowning world, and to find thyself alone in a waste, for he
that triumphed in thy weakness is now pursuing new con-
quests. But for thee there is no redemption on this side the
grave ! And what resource hast thou in an enervated mind
to raise a sinking heart ?

f The poor moth fluttering round a candle, burns its wings.

176 VINDICATION OF THE

But if the sexes be really to live in a state of warfare, if
nature have pointed it out, let them act nobly, or let pride
whisper to them that the victory is mean when they merely
vanquish sensibility. The real conquest is that over affec-
tion not taken by surprise, when, like Heloisa. a woman gives
up all the world deliberately for love. I do not now con-
sider the wisdom or virtue of such a sacrifice, I only contend
that it was a sacrifice to affection, and not merely to sensi-
bility, though she had her share. And I must be allowed
to call her a modest woman, before I dismiss this part of
the subject, by saying, that till men are more chaste women
will be immodest. Where, indeed, could modest women
find husbands from whom they would not continually turn
with disgust ? Modesty must be equally cultivated by both
sexes, or it will ever remain a sickly hot-house plant, whilst
the affectation of it, the fig leaf borrowed by wantonness,
may give a zest to voluptuous enjoyments.

Men will probably still insist that woman ought to have
more modesty than man ; but it is not dispassionate
reasoners who will most earnestly oppose my opinion. No,
they are the men of fancy, the favourites of the sex, who
outwardly respect and inwardly despise the weak creatures
whom they thus sport with. They cannot submit to resign
the highest sensual gratification, nor even to relish the
epicurism of virtue — self-denial.

To take another view of the subject, confining my remarks
to women.

The ridiculous falsities* which are told to children, from

* Children very early see cats with their kittens, birds with their
young ones, &c. Why then are they not to be told that their mothers
carry and nourish them in the same way ? As there would then be no
appearance of mystery, they would never think of the subject more.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 177

mistaken notions of modesty, tend very early to inflame
their imaginations and set their little minds to work, respect-
ing subjects which nature never intended they should think
of till the body arrived at some degree of maturity ; then
the passions naturally begin to take the place of the senses,
as instruments to unfold the understanding, and form the
moral character.

In nurseries and boarding-schools, I fear, girls are first
spoiled, particularly in the latter. A number of girls sleep
in the same room, and wash together. And though I should
be sorry to contaminate an innocent creature's mind by in-
stilling false delicacy, or those indecent prudish notions
which early cautions respecting the other sex naturally
engender, I should be very anxious to prevent their
acquiring nasty or immodest habits ; and as many
girls have learned very nasty tricks from ignorant servants,
the mixing them thus indiscriminately together, is very
improper.

To say the truth, women are in general too familiar with
each other, which leads to that gross degree of familiarity
that so frequently renders the marriage state unhappy. Why
in the name of decency are sisters, female intimates, or
ladies and their waiting-women, to be so grossly familiar as
to forget the respect which one human creature owes to
another ? That squeamish delicacy which shrinks from the

Truth may always be told to children, if it be told gravely ; but it is the
modesty of affected modesty that does all the mischief ; and this smoke
heats the imagination by vainly endeavouring to obscure certain objects.
If, indeed, children could be kept entirely frorii improper company, we
should never allude to any such subjects.; but as this is impossible, it is
best to tell them the truth, especially as such information, not interest-
ing them, will make no impression on their imagination.

M

1 78 VINDICA TION OF THE

most disgusting offices when affection* or humanity lead us
to watch at a sick pillow is despicable. But why women in
health should be more familiar with each other than men
are, when they boast of their superior delicacy, is a solecism
in manners which I could never solve.

In order to preserve health and beauty, I should earnestly
recommend frequent ablutions, to dignify my advice that it
may not offend the fastidious ear ; and by example, girls
ought to be taught to wash and dress alone, without any
distinction of rank ; and if custom should make them require
some little assistance, let them not require it till that part of
the business is over which ought never to be done before^a
fellow-creature, because it is an insult to the majesty of
human nature. Not on the score of modesty, but decency ;
for the care which some modest women take, making at the
same time a display of that care not to let their legs be seen
is as childish as immodest. t

I could proceed still further, till I animadverted on some
still more nasty customs, which men never fall into. Secrets
are told where silence ought to reign ; and that regard to
cleanliness, which some religious sects have perhaps carried
too far, especially the Essenes, amongst the Jews, by making
that an insult to God which is only an insult to humanity, is
violated in a beastly manner. How can delicate women
obtrude on notice that part of the animal economy, which

* Affection would rather make one choose to perform these offices,
to spare the delicacy of a friend, by still keeping a veil over them, for
the personal helplessness, produced by sickness, is of an humbling
nature.

t I remember to have met with a sentence, in a book of education,
that made me smile: — "It wonld be needless to caution you against
putting your hand by chance under your neck-handkerchief, for a
modest woman never did so ! "

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 179

is so very disgusting ? And is it not very rational to conclude,
that the women who have not been taught to respect the
human nature of their own sex in these particulars, will not
long respect the mere difference of sex in their husbands ?
After their maidenish bashfulness is once lost, I, in fact,
have generally observed that women fall into old habits, and
treat their husbands as they did their sisters or female
acquaintance.

Besides, women from necessity, because their minds are
not cultivated, have recourse very often to what I familiarly
term bodily wit, and their intimacies are of the same kind.
In short, with respect to both mind and body, they are too
intimate. That decent personal reserve, which is the
foundation of dignity of character, must be kept up between
woman and woman, or their minds will never gain strength
or modesty.

On this account also, I object to many females being shut
up together in nurseries, schools, or convents. I cannot
recollect, without indignation, the jokes and hoyden tricks
which knots of young women indulge themselves in, when
in my youth accident threw me, an awkward rustic, in their
way. They were almost on a par with the double meanings
which shake the convivial table when the glass has circulated
freely. But it is vain to attempt to keep the heart pure
unless the head is furnished with ideas, and set to work to
compare them, in order to acquire judgment, by generalising
simple ones ; and modesty, by making the understanding
damp the sensibility.

It may be thought that I lay too great a stress on personal
reserve, but it is ever the handmaid of modesty ; so that
were I to name the graces that ought to adorn beauty, I
should instantly exclaim, cleanliness, neatness, and personal
reserve. It is obvious, I suppose, that the reserve I mean

i8o VINDICATION OF THE

has nothing sexual in it, and that I think it equally necessary
in both sexes. So necessary, indeed, is that reserve and
cleanliness which indolent women too often neglect, that I
will venture to affirm that, when two or three women live in
the same house, the one will be most respected by the male
part of the family who reside with them, leaving love entirely
out of the question, who pays this kind of habitual respect
to her person.

When domestic friends meet in a morning, there will
naturally prevail an affectionate seriousness, especially if
each look forward to the discharge of daily duties ; and it
may be reckoned fanciful, but this sentiment has frequently-
risen spontaneously in my mind, I have been pleased, after
breathing the sweet bracing morning air, to seethe same kind
of freshness in the countenances I particularly loved ; I was
glad to see them braced, as it were, for the day, and ready
to run their course with the sun. The greetings of affection
in the morning are by these means more respectful than the
familiar tenderness which frequently prolongs the evening
talk. Nay, I have often felt hurt, not to say disgusted,
when a friend has appeared, whom I parted with full dressed
the evening before, with her clothes huddled on, because
she chose to indulge herself in bed till the last moment.

Domestic affection can only be kept alive by these
neglected attentions ; yet if men and women took half as
much pains to dress habitually neat, as they do to ornament,
or rather to disfigure, their persons, much would be done
towards the attainment of purity of mind. But women only
dress to gratify men of gallantry ; for the lover is always best
pleased with the simple garb that fits close to the shape.
There is an impertinence in ornaments that rebuffs affection,
because love always clings round the idea of home.

As a sex, women are habitually indolent ; and everything

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 181

tends to make them so. I do not forget the spurts of
activity which sensibility produces ; but as these flights of
feelings only increase the evil, they are not to be confounded
with the slow, orderly walk of reason. So great in reality
is their mental and bodily indolence, that till their body be
strengthened and their understanding enlarged by active
exertions, there is little reason to expect that modesty
will take place of bashfulness. They may find it prudent
to assume its semblance ; but the fair veil will only be
worn on gala days.

Perhaps, there is not a virtue that mixes so kindly with
every other as modesty. It is the pale moonbeam that
renders more interesting every virtue it softens, giving mild
grandeur to the contracted horizon. Nothing can be more
beautiful than the poetical fiction, which makes Diana
with her silver crescent, the goddess of chastity. I have
sometimes thought, that wandering with sedate step in
some lonely recess, a modest dame of antiquity must have
felt a glow of conscious dignity when, after contemplating
the soft shadowy landscape, she has invited with placid
fervour the mild reflection of her sister's beams to turn
to her chaste bosom.

A Christian has still nobler motives to incite her to
preserve her chastity and acquire modesty, for her body
has been called the temple of the living God ; of that
God who requires more than modesty of mien. His eye
searcheth the heart ; and let her remember, that if she
hope to find favour in the sight of purity itself, her chastity
must be founded on modesty, and not on worldly prudence ;
or verily a good reputation will be her only reward ; for
that awful intercourse, that sacred communication, which
virtue establishes between man and his Maker, must give
rise to the wish of being pure as He is pure !

1 82 VINDICATION OF THE

After the foregoing remarks, it is almost superfluous to
add, that I consider all those feminine airs of maturity,
which succeed bashfulness, to which truth is sacrificed, to
secure the heart of a husband, or rather to force him to be
still a lover when nature would, had she not been interrupted
in her operations, have made love give place to friendship,
as immodest. The tenderness which a man will feel for
the mother of his children is an excellent substitute for the
ardour of unsatisfied passion ; but to prolong that ardour
it is indelicate, not to say immodest, for women to feign an
unnatural coldness of constitution. Women as well as men
ought to have the common appetites and passions of their
nature, they are only brutal when unchecked by reason :
but the obligation to check them is the duty of mankind,
not a sexual duty. Nature, in these respects, may safely be
left to herself; let women only acquire knowledge and
humanity, and love will teach them modesty.* There is
no need of falsehoods, disgusting as futile, for studied
rules of behaviour only impose on shallow observers ; a
man of sense soon sees through, and despises the affectation.

The behaviour of young people, to each other, as men
and women, is the last thing that should be thought of in
education. In fact, behaviour in most circumstances is
now so much thought of, that simplicity of character is
rarely to be seen : yet, if men were only anxious to cultivate
each virtue, and let it take root firmly in the mind, the
grace resulting from it, its natural exterior mark, would

* The behaviour of many newly married women has often disgusted
me. They seem anxious never to let their husbands forget the privilege
of marriage : and to find no pleasure in his society unless he is acting
the lover. Short, indeed, must be the reign of love, when the flame is
thus constantly blown up, without its receiving any solid fuel !

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 183

soon strip affectation of its flaunting plumes ; because,
fallacious as unstable, is the conduct that is not founded
upon truth !

Would ye, O my sisters, really possess modesty, ye must
remember that the possession of virtue, of any denomina-
tion, is incompatible with ignorance and vanity ! ye must
acquire that soberness of mind, which the exercise of
duties, and the pursuit of knowledge, alone inspire, or
ye will still remain in a doubtful dependent situation, and
only be loved whilst ye are fair ! The downcast eye, the
rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season ;
but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist
with the sensibility that is not tempered by reflection.
Besides, when love, even innocent love, is the whole employ
of your lives, your hearts will be too soft to afford modesty
that tranquil retreat, where she delights to dwell, in close
union with humanity.

184 VINDICATION OF THE

CHAPTER VIII.

MORALITY UNDERMINED BY SEXUAL NOTIONS OF THE
IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD REPUTATION.

IT has long since occurred to me that advice respecting
behaviour, and all the various modes of preserving
a good reputation, which have been so strenuously
inculcated on the female world, were specious poisons,
that encrusting morality eat away the substance. And,
that this measuring of shadows produced a false calculation,
because their length depends so much on the height of
the sun, and other adventitious circumstances.

Whence arises the easy fallacious behaviour of a courtier?
From his situation, undoubtedly : for standing in need of
dependents, he is obliged to learn the art of denying without
giving offence, and, of evasively feeding hope with the
chameleon's food : thus does politeness sport with truth,
and eating away the sincerity and humanity native to man,
produce the fine gentleman.

Women likewise acquire, from a supposed necessity, an
equally artificial mode of behaviour. Yet truth is not
with impunity to be sported with, for the practised dis-
sembler, at last become the dupe of his own arts, loses
that sagacity, which has been justly termed common-sense ;
namely a quick perception of common truths : which are
constantly received as such by the unsophisticated mind,
though it might not have had sufficient energy to discover
themselves, when obscured by local prejudices. The greater

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 185

number of people take their opinions on trust to avoid the
trouble of exercising their own minds, and these indolent
beings naturally adhere to the letter, rather than the spirit
of a law, divine or human. "Women," says some author,
I cannot recollect who, " mind not what only Heaven sees."
Why, indeed, should they ? it is the eye of man that they
have been taught to dread — and if they can lull their Argus
to sleep, they seldom think of Heaven or themselves, because
their reputation is safe ; and it is reputation, not chastity and
all its fair train, that they are employed to keep free from spot,
not as a virtue, but to preserve their station in the world.

To prove the truth of this remark, I need not advert to
the intrigues of married women, particularly in high life, and
in countries where women are suitably married, according
to their respective ranks, by their parents. If an innocent
girl become a prey to love, she is degraded for ever, though
her mind was not polluted by the arts which married women,
under the convenient cloak of marriage, practise ; nor has
she violated any duty — -but the duty of respecting herself.
The married woman, on the contrary, breaks a most sacred
engagement, and becomes a cruel mother when she is a
false and faithless wife. If her husband have still an
affection for her, the arts which she must practise to deceive
him, will render her the most contemptible of human beings ;
and, at any rate, the contrivances necessary to preserve
appearances, will keep her mind in that childish, or vicious,
tumult, which destroys all its energy. Besides, in time,
like those people who habitually take cordials to raise their
spirits, she will want an intrigue to give life to her thoughts,
having lost all relish for pleasures that are not highly
seasoned by hope or fear.

Sometimes married women act still more audaciously. I
will mention an instance.

1 86 VINDICATION OF THE

A woman of quality, notorious for her gallantries, though
as she still lived with her husband, nobody chose to place
her in the class where she ought to have been placed, made
a point of treating with the most insulting contempt a poor
timid creature, abashed by a sense of her former weakness,
whom a neighbouring gentleman had seduced and afterwards
married. The woman had actually confounded virtue with
reputation ; and, I do believe, valued herself on the pro-
priety of her behaviour before marriage, though when once
settled to the satisfaction of her family, she and her lord
were equally faithless, so that the half-alive heir to an
immense estate came from Heaven knows where !

To view this subject in another light.

I have known a number of women who, if they did not
love their husbands, loved nobody else, give themselves
entirely up to vanity and dissipation, neglecting every
domestic duty ; nay, even squandering away all the money
which should have been saved for their helpless younger
children, yet have plumed themselves on their unsullied
reputation, as if the whole compass of their duty as wives
and mothers was only to preserve it. Whilst other indolent
women, neglecting every personal duty, have thought that
they deserved their husband's affection, because, forsooth,
they acted in this respect with propriety.

Weak minds are always fond of resting in the ceremonials
of duty, but morality offers much simpler motives ; and it
were to be wished that superficial moralists had said less
respecting behaviour, and outward observances, for unless
virtue, of any kind, be built on knowledge, it will only pro-
duce a kind of insipid decency. Respect for the opinion of
the world, has, however, been termed the principal duty of
woman in the most express words, for Rousseau declares,
"that reputation is no less indispensable than chastity."

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 187

" A man," adds he, " secure in his own good conduct,
depends only on himself, and may brave the public opinion ;
but a woman, in behaving well, performs but half her duty ;
as what is thought of her, is as important to her as what
she really is. It follows hence, that the system of a woman's
education should; in this respect, be directly contrary to
that of ours. Opinion is the grave of virtue among the
men ; but its throne among women." It is strictly logical
to infer that the virtue that rests on opinion is merely
worldly, and that it is the virtue of a being to whom reason
has been denied. But, even with respect to the opinion of
the world, I am convinced that this class of reasoners are
mistaken.

This regard for reputation, independent of its being one
of the natural rewards of virtue, however, took its rise from
a cause that I have already deplored as the grand source of
female depravity, the impossibility of regaining respectability
by a return to virtue, though men preserve theirs during
the indulgence of vice. It was natural for women then to
endeavour to preserve what once lost — was lost for ever,
till this care swallowing up every other care, reputation for
chastity, became the one thing needful to the sex. But
vain is the scrupulosity of ignorance, for neither religion nor
virtue, when they reside in the heart, require such a puerile
attention to mere ceremonies, because the behaviour must,
upon the whole, be proper, when the motive is pure.

To support my opinion I can produce very respectable
authority ; and the authority of a cool reasoner ought to
have weight to enforce consideration, though not to establish
a sentiment. Speaking of the general laws of morality,
Dr Smith observes, — "That by some very extraordinary
and unlucky circumstance, a good man may come to be
suspected of a crime of which he was altogether incapable,

1 88 VINDICATION OF THE

and upon that account be most unjustly exposed for the
remaining part of his life to the horror and aversion of
mankind. By an accident of this kind he may be said to
lose his all, notwithstanding his integrity and justice, in the
same manner as a cautious man, notwithstanding his utmost
circumspection, may be ruined by an earthquake or an
inundation. Accidents of the first kind, however, are per-
haps still more rare, and still more contrary to the common
course of things than those of the second ; and it still
remains true, that the practice of truth, justice, and humanity,
is a certain and almost infallible method of acquiring what
those virtues chiefly aim at, the confidence and love of those
we live with. A person may be easily misrepresented with
regard to a particular action ; but it is scarce possible that
he should be so with regard to the general tenor of his
conduct. An innocent man may be believed to have done
wrong : this, however, will rarely happen. On the contrary,
the established opinion of the innocence of his manners will
often lead us to absolve him where he has really been in
the fault, notwithstanding very strong presumptions."

I perfectly coincide in opinion with this writer, for I
verily believe that few of either sex were ever despised for
certain vices without deserving to be despised. I speak not
of the calumny of the moment, which hovers over a char-
acter, like one of the dense morning fogs of November, over
this metropolis, till it gradually subsides before the common
light of day, I only contend that the daily conduct of the
majority prevails to stamp their character with the im-
pression of truth. Quietly does the clear light, shining
day after day, refute the ignorant surmise, or malicious tale,
which has thrown dirt on a pure character. A false light
distorted, for a short time, its shadow — reputation ; but it
seldom fails to become just when the cloud is dispersed
that produced the mistake in vision.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 189

Many people, undoubtedly, in several respects obtain a
better reputation than, strictly speaking, they deserve ; for
unremitting industry will mostly reach its goal in all races.
They who only strive for this paltry prize, like the Pharisees,
who prayed at the corners of streets, to be seen of men,
verily obtain the reward they seek ; for the heart of man
cannot be read by man ! Still the fair fame that is naturally
reflected by good actions, when the man is only employed
to direct his steps aright, regardless of the lookers-on, is,
in general, not only more true, but more sure.

There are, it is true, trials when the good man must
appeal to God from the injustice of man ; and amidst the
whining candour or hissings of envy, erect a pavilion in his
own mind to retire to till the rumour be overpast ; nay, the
darts of undeserved censure may pierce an innocent tender
bosom through with many sorrows ; but these are all excep-
tions to general rules. And it is according to common
laws that human behaviour ought to be regulated. The
eccentric orbit of the comet never influences astronomical
calculations respecting the invariable order established in
the motion of the principal bodies of the solar system.

I will then venture to affirm, that after a man is arrived at
maturity, the general outline of his character in the world
is just, allowing for the before-mentioned exceptions to the
rule. I do not say that a prudent, worldly-wise man, with
only negative virtues and qualities, may not sometimes
obtain a smoother reputation than a wiser or a better man.
So far from it, that I am apt to conclude from experience,
that where the virtue of two people is nearly equal, the
most negative character will be liked best by the world at
large, whilst the other may have more friends in private
life. But the hills and dales, clouds and sunshine, con-
spicuous in the virtues of great men, set off each other ;

1 90 VINDICATION OF THE

and though they afford envious weakness a fairer mark to
shoot at, the real character will still work its way to light,
though bespattered by weak affection, or ingenious
malice.*

With respect to that anxiety to preserve a reputation
hardly earned, which leads sagacious people to analyse it, I
shall not make the obvious comment ; but I am afraid that
morality is very insidiously undermined, in the female world,
by the attention being turned to the show instead of the
substance. A simple thing is thus made strangely com-
plicated ; nay, sometimes virtue and its shadow are set at
variance. We should never, perhaps, have heard of Lucretia,
had she died to preserve her chastity instead of her reputa-
tion. If we really deserve our own good opinion we shall
commonly be respected in the world ; but if we pant after
higher improvement and higher attainments, it is not
sufficient to view ourselves as we suppose that we are
viewed by others, though this has been ingeniously argued,
as the foundation of our moral sentiments.! Because each
by-stander may have his own prejudices, beside the prejudices
of his age or country. We should rather endeavour to view
ourselves as we suppose that Being views us who seeth each
thought ripen into action, and whose judgment never
swerves from the eternal rule of right. Righteous are all
His judgments — just as merciful !

The humble mind that seeketh to find favour in His
sight, and calmly examines its conduct when only His pre-
sence is felt, will seldom form a very erroneous opinion of
its own virtues. During the still hour of self-collection the

* I allude to various biographical writings, but particularly to Boswell's
Life of Johnson,
t Smith.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 191

angry brow of offended justice will be fearfully deprecated,
or the tie which draws man to the Deity will be recognised
in the pure sentiment of reverential adoration, that swells
the heart without exciting any tumultuous emotions. In
these solemn moments man discovers the germ of those
vices, which, like the Java tree, shed a pestiferous vapour
around — death is in the shade ! and he perceives them
without abhorrence, because he feels himself drawn by some
cord of love to all his fellow-creatures, for whose follies he
is anxious to find every extenuation in their nature — in
himself. If I, he may thus argue, who exercise my own
mind, and have been refined by tribulation, find the serpent's
egg in some fold of my heart, and crush it with difficulty,
shall I not pity those who have stamped with less vigour,
or who have heedlessly nurtured the insidious reptile till it
poisoned the vital stream it sucked ? Can I, conscious of
my secret sins, throw off my fellow-creatures, and calmly
see them drop into the chasm of perdition, that yawns to
receive them. No, no ! The agonised heart will cry with
suffocating impatience — I, too, am a man ! and have vices,
hid perhaps, from human eye, that bend me to the dust
before God, and loudly tell me, when all is mute, that we
are formed of the same earth, and breathe the same element.
Humanity thus rises naturally out of humility, and twists
the cords of love tftat in various convolutions entangle the
heart.

This sympathy extends still further, till a man well
pleased observes force in arguments that do not carry con-
viction to his own bosom, and he gladly places in the fairest
light, to himself, the shows of reason that have led others
astray, rejoiced to find some reason in all the errors of man ;
though before convinced that He who rules the day, makes
His sun to shine on all. Yet, shaking hands thus as it

192 VINDICATION OF THE

were with corruption, one foot on earth, the other with bold
stride mounts to heaven, and claims kindred with superior
natures. Virtues, unobserved by man, drop their balmy
fragrance at this cool hour, and the thirsty land, refreshed
by the pure streams of comfort that suddenly gush out,
is crowned with smiling verdure ; this is the living green on
which that eye may look with complacency that is too pure
to behold iniquity !

But my spirits flag; and I must silently indulge the
reverie these reflections lead to, unable to describe the
sentiments, that have calmed my soul, when watching the
rising sun, a soft shower drizzling through the leaves of
neighbouring trees, seemed to fall on my languid, yet
tranquil spirits, to cool the heart that had been heated
by the passions which reason laboured to tame.

The leading principles which run through all my dis-
quisitions, would render it unnecessary to enlarge on this
subject, if a constant attention to keep the varnish of the
character fresh, and in good condition, were not often
inculcated as the sum total of female duty ; if rules to
regulate the behaviour, and to preserve the reputation,
did not too frequently supersede moral obligations. But,
with respect to reputation, the attention is confined to a
single virtue — chastity. If the honour of a woman, as it is
absurdly called, be safe, she may neglect every social duty ;
nay, ruin her family by gaming and extravagance; yet
still present a shameless front — for truly she is an honourable
woman !

Mrs Macaulay has justly observed, that " there is but
one fault which a woman of honour may not commit with
impunity." She then justly and humanely adds — "This
has given rise to the trite and foolish observation, that the
first fault against chastity in woman has a radical power

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 193

to deprave the character. But no such frail beings come
out of the hands of nature. The human mind is built of
nobler materials than to be easily corrupted ; and with all
their disadvantages of situation and education, women
seldom become entirely abandoned till they are thrown into
a state of desperation, by the venomous rancour of their
own sex."

But, in proportion as this regard for the reputation of
chastity is prized by women, it is despised by men : and the
two extremes are equally destructive to morality.

Men are certainly more under the influence of their
appetites than women ; and their appetites are more
depraved by unbridled indulgence and the fastidious
contrivances of satiety. Luxury has introduced a refinement
in eating, that destroys the constitution ; and, a degree of
gluttony which is so beastly, that a perception of seemliness
of behaviour must be worn out before one being could eat
immoderately in the presence of another, and afterwards
complain of the oppression that his intemperance naturally
produced. Some women, particularly French women, have
also lost a sense of decency in this respect ; for they will
talk very calmly of an indigestion. It were to be wished
that idleness was not allowed to generate, on the rank
soil of wealth, those swarms of summer insects that feed
on putrefaction, we should not then be disgusted by the
sight of such brutal excesses.

There is one rule relative to behaviour that, I think,
ought to regulate every other ; and it is simply to cherish
such an habitual respect for mankind as may prevent us
from disgusting a fellow-creature for the sake of a present
indulgence. The shameful indolence of many married
women, and others a little advanced in life, frequently
leads them to sin against delicacy. For, though convinced

N

i94 VINDICATION OF THE

that the person is the band of union between the sexes, yet,
how often do they from sheer indolence, or, to enjoy some
trifling indulgence, disgust ?

The depravity of the appetite which brings the sexes
together, has had a still more fatal effect. Nature must
ever be the standard of taste, the gauge of appetite — yet
how grossly is nature insulted by the voluptuary. Leaving
the refinements of love out of the question ; nature, by
making the gratification of an appetite, in this respect, as
well as every other, a natural and imperious law to preserve
the species, exalts the appetite, and mixes a little mind
and affection with a sensual gust. The feelings of a parent
mingling with an instinct merely animal, give it dignity ;
and the man and woman often meeting on account of
the child, a mutual interest and affection is excited by
the exercise of a common sympathy. Women then having
some necessary duty to fulfil, more noble than to adorn
their persons, would not contentedly be the slaves of casual
lust ; which is now the situation of a very considerable
number who are, literally speaking, standing dishes to
which every glutton may have access.

I may be told that great as this enormity is, it only
affects a devoted part of the sex — devoted for the salvation
of the rest. But, false as every assertion might easily
be proved, that recommends the sanctioning a small evil to
produce a greater good ; the mischief does not stop here,
for the moral character, and peace of mind, of the chaster
part of the sex, is undermined by the conduct of the very
women to whom they allow no refuge from guilt : whom
they inexorably consign to the exercise of arts that lure
their husbands from them, debauch their sons, and force
them, let not modest women start, to assume, in some
degree, the same character themselves. For I will venture

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 195

to assert, that all the causes of female weakness, as well as
depravity, which I have already enlarged on, branch out of
one grand cause — want of chastity in men.

This intemperance, so prevalent, depraves the appetite to
such a degree, that a wanton stimulus is necessary to rouse
it ; but the parental design of nature is forgotten, and the
mere person, and that for a moment, alone engrosses the
thoughts. So voluptuous, indeed, often grows the lustful
prowler, that he refines on female softness. Something
more soft than women is then sought for ; till, in Italy and
Portugal, men attend the levees of equivocal beings, to
sigh for more than female languor.

To satisfy this genus of men, women are made systema-
tically voluptuous, and though they may not all carry their
libertinism to the same height, yet this heartless intercourse
with the sex, which they allow themselves, depraves both
sexes, because the taste of men is vitiated ; and women,
of all classes, naturally square their behaviour to gratify
the taste by which they obtain pleasure and power. Women
becoming, consequently, weaker, in mind and body, than
they ought to be, were one of the grand ends of their
being taken into the account, that of bearing and nursing
children, have not sufficient strength to discharge the first
duty of a mother ; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the
parental affection, that ennobles instinct, either destroy the
embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature in
everything demands respect, and those who violate her
laws seldom violate them with impunity. The weak
enervated women who particularly catch the attention of
libertines, are unfit to be mothers, though they may con-
ceive ; so that the rich sensualist, who has rioted among
women, spreading depravity and misery, when he wishes to
perpetuate his name, receives from his wife only an half-

196 VINDICATION OF THE

formed being that inherits both its father's and mother's
weakness.

Constrasting the humanity of the present age with the
barbarism of antiquity, great stress has been laid on the
savage custom of exposing the children whom their parents
could not maintain ; whilst the man of sensibility, who thus,
perhaps, complains, by his promiscuous amours produces a
most destructive barrenness and contagious flagitiousness of
manners. Surely nature never intended that women, by
satisfying an appetite, should frustrate the very purpose
for which it was implanted ?

I have before observed, that men ought to maintain
the women whom they have seduced; this would be one
means of reforming female manners, and stopping an abuse
that has an equally fatal effect on population and morals.
Another, no less obvious, would be to turn the attention of
woman to the real virtue of chastity; for to little respect
has that woman a claim, on the score of modesty, though
her reputation may be white as the driven snow, who
smiles on the libertine whilst she spurns the victims of
his lawless appetites and their own folly.

Besides, she has a taint of the same folly, pure as she
esteems herself, when she studiously adorns her person
only to be seen by men, to excite respectful sighs, and
all the idle homage of what is called innocent gallantry.
Did women really respect virtue for its own sake, they
would not seek for a compensation in vanity, for the
self-denial which they are obliged to practise to preserve
their reputation, nor would they associate with men who set
reputation at defiance.

The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each other.
This I believe to be an indisputable truth, extending it
to every virtue. Chastity, modesty, public spirit, and all

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 197

the noble train of virtues, on which social virtue and
happiness are built, should be understood and cultivated
by all mankind, or they will be cultivated to little effect.
And, instead of furnishing the vicious or idle with a
pretext for violating some sacred duty, by terming it a
sexual one, it would be wiser to show that nature has
not made any difference, for that the unchaste man doubly
defeats the purpose of nature, by rendering women barren,
and destroying his own constitution, though he avoids
the shame that pursues the crime in the other sex. These
are the physical consequences, the moral are still more
alarming ; for virtue is only a nominal distinction when
the duties of citizens, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and
directors of families, become merely the selfish ties of
convenience.

Why then do philosophers look for public spirit ? Public
spirit must be nurtured by private virtue, or it will resemble
the factitious sentiment which makes women careful to
preserve their reputation, and men their honour. A senti-
ment that often exists unsupported by virtue, unsupported
by that sublime morality which makes the habitual breach
of one duty a breach of the whole moral law.

VINDICATION OF THE

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM THE
UNNATURAL DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN SOCIETY.

FROM the respect paid to property flow, as from a
poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which
render this world such a dreary scene to the contem-
plative mind. For it is in the most polished society that
noisome reptiles and venomous serpents lurk under the rank
herbage ; and there is voluptuousness pampered by the still
sultry air, which relaxes every good disposition before it
ripens into virtue.

One class presses on another, for all are aiming to pro-
cure respect on account of their property; and property
once gained will procure the respect due only to talents and
virtue. Men neglect the duties incumbent on man, yet are
treated like demi-gods. Religion is also separated from
morality by a ceremonial veil, yet men wonder that the
world is almost, literally speaking, a den of sharpers or
oppressors.

There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd truth,
that whoever the devil finds idle he will employ. And what
but habitual idleness can hereditary wealth and titles pro-
duce ? For man is so constituted that he can only attain a
proper use of his faculties by exercising them, and will not
exercise them unless necessity of some kind first set the
wheels in motion. Virtue likewise can only be acquired by
the discharge of relative duties ; but the importance of
these sacred duties will scarcely be felt by the being who is

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 199

cajoled out of his humanity by the flattery of sycophants.
There must be more equality established in society, or
morality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equality
will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one-
half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for
they will be continually undermining it through ignorance N*.
or pride. ^

j It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in
some degree independent of men ; nay, it is vain to expect
that strength of natural affection which would make them
good wives and mothers.^ Whilst they are absolutely de-
pendent on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and
selfish ; and the men who can be gratified by the fawning
fondness of spaniel-like affection have not much delicacy,
for love is not to be bought ; in any sense of the words, its
silken wings are instantly shrivelled up when anything
beside a return in kind is sought.^ Yet whilst wealth ener-
vates men, and women live, as it were, by their personal
charms, how can we expect them to discharge those ennob-
ling duties which equally require exertion and self-denial ?
Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfor-
tunate victims to it — if I may so express myself — swathed
from their birth, seldom exert the locomotive faculty of
body or mind, and thus viewing everything through one
medium, and that a false one, they are unable to discern in
what true merit and happiness consist. False, indeed, must
be the light when the drapery of situation hides the man,
and makes him stalk in masquerade, dragging from one
scene of dissipation to another the nerveless limbs that
hang with stupid listlessness, and rolling round the vacant
eye, which plainly tells us that there is no mind at home.

I mean therefore to infer that the society is not properly
organised which does not compel men and women to dis-

200 VINDICATION OF THE

charge their respective duties by making it the only way to
acquire that countenance from their fellow-creatures, which
every human being wishes some way to attain. The respect
consequently which is paid to wealth and mere personal
charms is a true north-east blast that blights the tender blos-
soms of affection and virtue. Nature has wisely attached
affections to duties to sweeten toil, and to give that vigour
to the exertions of reason which only the heart can give.
But the affection which is put on merely because it is the
appropriated insignia of a certain character, when its duties
are not fulfilled, is one of the empty compliments which
vice and folly are obliged to pay to virtue and the real nature
of things.

To illustrate my opinion, I need only observe that when a
woman is admired for her beauty, and surfers herself to be
so far intoxicated by the admiration she receives as to
neglect to discharge the indispensable duty of a mother, she
sins against herself by neglecting to cultivate an affection
that would equally tend to make her useful and happy.
True happiness — I mean all the contentment and virtuous
satisfaction that can be snatched in this imperfect state —
must arise from well-regulated affections, and an affection
includes a duty. Men are not aware of the misery they
cause, and the vicious weakness they cherish, by only incit-
ing women to render themselves pleasing ; they do not con-
sider that they thus make natural and artificial duties clash
by sacrificing the comfort and respectability of a woman's
life to voluptuous notions of beauty, when in nature they all
harmonise.

Cold would be the heart of a husband, were he not ren-
dered unnatural by early debauchery, who did not feel more
delight at seeing his child suckled by its mother than the
most artful wanton tricks could ever raise, yet this natural

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 201

way of cementing the matrimonial tie, and twisting esteem
with fonder recollections, wealth leads women to spurn.
To preserve their beauty, and wear the flowery crown of the
day, which gives them a kind of right to reign for a short
time over the sex, they neglect to stamp impressions on
their husbands' hearts that would be remembered with more
tenderness when the snow on the head began to chill the
bosom than even their virgin charms. The maternal solici-
tude of a reasonable affectionate woman is very interesting,
and the chastened dignity with which a mother returns the
caresses that she and her child receive from a father who
has been fulfilling the serious duties of his station is not
only a respectable, but a beautiful sight. So singular,
indeed, are my feelings — and I have endeavoured not to catch
factitious ones — that after having been fatigued with the sight
of insipid grandeur and the slavish ceremonies that with
cumbrous pomp supplied the place of domestic affections, I
have turned to some other scene to relieve my eye by resting
it on the refreshing green everywhere scattered by nature. I
have then viewed with pleasure a woman nursing her chil-
dren, and discharging the duties of her station with perhaps
merely a servant-maid to take off her hands the servile part
of the household business. I have seen her prepare herself
and children, with only the luxury of cleanliness, to receive
her husband, who, returning weary home in the evening,
found smiling babes and a clean hearth. My heart has
loitered in the midst of the group, and has even throbbed
with sympathetic emotion when the scraping of the well-
known foot has raised a pleasing tumult.

Whilst my benevolence has been gratified by contem-
plating this artless picture, I have thought that a couple of
this description, equally necessary and independent of each
other, because each fulfilled the respective duties of their

202 VINDICATION OF THE

station, possessed all that life could give. Raised suffi-
ciently above abject poverty not to be obliged to weigh the
consequence of every farthing they spend, and having suffi-
cient to prevent their attending to a frigid system of
economy which narrows both heart and mind, I declare, so
vulgar are my conceptions, that I know not what is wanted
to render this the happiest as well as the most respectable
situation in the world, but a taste for literature, to throw a
little variety and interest into social converse, and some
superfluous money to give to the needy and to buy books.
For it is not pleasant when the heart is opened by compas-
sion, and the head active in arranging plans of usefulness,
to have a prim urchin continually twitching back the elbow
to prevent the hand from drawing out an almost empty
purse, whispering at the same time some prudential maxim
about the priority of justice.

Destructive, however, as riches and inherited honours are
to the human character, women are more debased and
cramped, if possible, by them than men, because men may
still in some degree unfold their faculties by becoming
soldiers and statesmen.

As soldiers, I grant they can now only gather for the most
part vain-glorious laurels, whilst they adjust to a hair the
European balance, taking especial care that no bleak
northern nook or sound incline the beam. But the days of
true heroism are over, when a citizen fought for his country
like a Fabricius or a Washington, and then returned to his
farm to let his virtuous fervour run in a more placid, but not
a less salutary, stream. No, our British heroes are oftener
sent from the gaming-table than from the plough ; and their
passions have been rather inflamed by hanging with dumb
suspense on the turn of a die, than sublimated by panting
after the adventurous march of virtue in the historic page.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 203

The statesman, it is true, might with more propriety quit
the faro bank, or card-table, to guide the helm, for he has
still but to shuffle and trick — the whole system of British
politics, if system it may courteously be called, consisting in
multiplying dependents and contriving taxes which grind the
poor to pamper the rich. Thus a war, or any wild goose
chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of
patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of
keeping himself in place. It is not necessary then that he
should have bowels for the poor, so he can secure for his
family the odd trick. Or should some show of respect, for
what is termed with ignorant ostentation an Englishman's
birthright, be expedient to bubble the gruff mastiff that he
has to lead by the nose, he can make an empty show, very
safely, by giving his single voice, and suffering his light
squadron to file off to the other side. And when a question
of humanity is agitated, he may dip a sop in the milk of
human kindness to silence Cerberus, and talk of the interest
which his heart takes in an attempt to make the earth no
longer cry for vengeance as it sucks in its children's blood,
though his cold hand may at the very moment rivet their
chains, by sanctioning the abominable traffic. A minister
is no longer a minister, than while he can carry a point,
which he is determined to carry. Yet it is not necessary
that a minister should feel like a man, when a bold push
might shake his seat.

But, to have done with these episodical observations, let
me return to the more specious slavery which chains the very
soul of woman, keeping her for ever under the bondage of
ignorance.

The preposterous distinctions of rank, which render
civilisation a curse, by dividing the world between volup-
tuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt,

204 VINDICATION OF THE

almost equally, every class of people, because respectability
is not attached to the discharge of the relative duties of life,
but to the station, and when the duties are not fulfilled the
affections cannot gain sufficient strength to fortify the virtue
of which they are the natural reward. Still there are some
loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think
and act for himself; but for a woman it is an herculean task,
because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome,
which require almost superhuman powers.

A truly benevolent legislator always endeavours to make
it the interest of each individual to be virtuous ; and thus
private virtue becoming the cement of public happiness, an
orderly whole is consolidated by the tendency of all the parts
towards a common centre. But the private or public virtue
of woman is very problematical, for Rousseau, and a nume-
rous list of male writers, insist that she should all her life be
subjected to a severe restraint, that of propriety. Why sub-
ject her to propriety — blind propriety — if she be capable of
acting from a nobler spring, if she be an heir of immortality ?
Is sugar always to be produced by vital blood ? Is one half
of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be
subject to prejudices that brutalise them, when principles
would be a surer guard, only to sweeten the cup of man ?
Is not this indirectly to deny woman reason ? for a gift is a
mockery, if it be unfit for use.

Women are, in common with men, rendered weak and
luxurious by the relaxing pleasures which wealth procures ;
but added to this they are made slaves to their persons, and
must render them alluring that man may lend them his
reason to guide their tottering steps aright. Or should they
be ambitious, they must govern their tyrants by sinister
tricks, for without rights there cannot be any incumbent
duties. The laws respecting woman, which I mean to dis-

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 205

cuss in a future part, make an absurd unit of a man and his
wife ; and then, by the easy transition of only considering
him as responsible, she is reduced to a mere cypher.

The being who discharges the duties of its station is
independent ; and, speaking of women at large, their first
duty is to themselves as rational creatures, and the next, in
point of importance, as citizens, is that, which includes so
many, of a mother. The rank in life which dispenses with
their fulfilling this duty, necessarily degrades them by making
them mere dolls. Or should they turn to something more
important than merely fitting drapery upon a smooth block,
their minds are only occupied by some soft platonic attach-
ment ; or the actual management of an intrigue may keep
their thoughts in motion ; for when they neglect domestic
duties, they have it not in their power to take the field and
march and counter-march like soldiers, or wrangle in the
senate to keep their faculties from rusting.

I knowthat, as a proof of the inferiority of the sex, Rousseau
has exultingly exclaimed, How can they leave the nursery for
the camp ! And the camp has by some moralists been proved
the school of the most heoric virtues ; though I think it
would puzzle a keen casuist to prove the reasonableness of
the greater number of wars that have dubbed heroes. I do
not mean to consider this question critically ; because,
having frequently viewed these freaks of ambition as the first
natural mode of civilisation, when the ground must be torn
up, and the woods cleared by fire and sword, I do not
choose to call them pests ; but surely the present system of
war has little connection with virtue of any denomination,
being rather the school of finesse and effeminacy than of
fortitude.

Yet, if defensive war, the only justifiable war, in the
present advanced state of society, where virtue can show its

206 VINDICATION OF THE

face and ripen amidst the rigours which purify the air on the
mountain's top, were alone to be adopted as just and glori-
ous, the true heroism of antiquity might again animate female
bosoms. But fair and softly, gentle reader, male or female,
do not alarm thyself, for though I have compared the
character of a modern soldier with that of a civilised woman,
I am not going to advise them to turn their distaff into a
musket, though I sincerely wish to see the bayonet converted
into a pruning-hook. I only re-created an imagination,
fatigued by contemplating the vices and follies which all pro-
ceed from a feculent stream of wealth that has muddied the
pure rills of natural affection, by supposing that society will
some time or other be so constituted, that man must neces-
sarily fulfil the duties of a citizen, or be despised, and that
while he was employed in any of the departments of civil
life, his wife, also an active citizen, should be equally intent
to manage her family, educate her children, and assist her
neighbours.

But to render her really virtuous and useful, she must not,
if she discharge her civil duties, want individually the pro-
tection of civil laws ; she must not be dependent on her
husband's bounty for her subsistence during his life, or sup-
port after his death ; for how can a being be generous who
has nothing of its own ? or virtuous who is not free ? The
wife, in the present state of things, who is faithful to her
husband, and neither suckles nor educates her children,
scarcely deserves the name of a wife, and has no right to
that of a citizen. But take away natural rights, and duties
become null.

Women then must be considered as only the wanton
solace of men, when they become so weak in mind and
body that they cannot exert themselves unless to pursue
some frothy pleasure, or to invent some frivolous fashion.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 207

What can be a more melancholy sight to a thinking mind,
than to look into the numerous carriages that drive helter-
skelter about this metropolis in a morning full of pale-faced
creatures who are flying from themselves ! I have often
wished, with Dr Johnson, to place some of them in a little
shop with half-a-dozen children looking up to their languid
countenances for support. I am much mistaken, if some
latent vigour would not soon give health and spirit to their
eyes, and some lines drawn by the exercise of reason on the
blank cheeks, which before were only undulated by dimples,
might restore lost dignity to the character, or rather enable
it to attain the true dignity of its nature. Virtue is not to
be acquired even by speculation, much less by the negative
supineness that wealth naturally generates.

Besides, when poverty is more disgraceful than even vice,
is not morality cut to the quick ? Still to avoid miscon-
struction, though I consider that women in the common
walks of life are called to fulfil the duties of wives and
mothers, by religion and reason, I cannot help lamenting
that women of a superior cast have not a road open by
which they can pursue more extensive plans of usefulness
and independence. I may excite laughter, by dropping an
hint, which I mean to pursue, some future time, fowl really
think that women ought to have representatives, instead of
being arbitrarily governed without having any direct share
allowed them in the deliberations of government. Ji

But, as the whole system of representation is now, in this
country, only a convenient handle for despotism, they need
not complain, for they are as well represented as a numerous
class of hard-working mechanics, who pay for the support of
royalty when they can scarcely stop their children's mouths
with bread. How are they represented whose very sweat
supports the splendid stud of an heir-apparent, or varnishes

208 VINDICATION OF THE

the chariot of some female favourite who looks down on
shame ? Taxes on the very necessaries of life, enable an
endless tribe of idle princes and princesses to pass with
stupid pomp before a gaping crowd, who almost worship the
very parade which costs them so dear. This is mere gothic
grandeur, something like the barbarous useless parade of
having sentinels on horseback at Whitehall, which I could
never view without a mixture of contempt and indignation.

How strangely must the mind be sophisticated when this
sort of state impresses it ! But, till these monuments of
folly are levelled by virtue, similar follies will leaven the
whole mass. For the same character, in some degree, will
prevail in the aggregate of society ; and the refinements of
luxury, or the vicious repinings of envious poverty, will
equally banish virtue from society, considered as the char-
acteristic of that society, or only allow it to appear as one
of the stripes of the harlequin coat, worn by the civilised man.

"In the superior ranks of life, every duty is done by depu-
ties, as if duties could ever be waived, and the vain pleasures
which consequent idleness forces the rich to pursue, appear
so enticing to the next rank, that the numerous scramblers
for wealth sacrifice everything to tread on their heels. The
most sacred trusts are then considered as sinecures, because
they were procured by interest, and only sought to enable a
man to keep good company. Women, in particular, all want
to be ladies. Which is simply to have nothing to do, but
listlessly to go they scarcely care where, for they cannot tell
what.

f But what have women to do in society? I may be asked,
but to loiter with easy grace ; surely you would not condemn
them all to suckle fools and chronicle small beer ! No.
Women might certainly stud^the art of healing, and be
physicians as well as (^nurses, j) And midwifery, decency

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 209

seems to allot to them, though I am afraid, the word mid-
wife, in our dictionaries, will soon give place to accoucheur,
and one proof of the former delicacy of the sex be effaced
from the language.

/^They might also studtf politics, \nd settle their benevol-
ence on the broadest basis ; for-me reading of history will
scarcely be more useful than the perusal of romances, if read
as mere biography ; if the character of the times, the politi-
cal improvements, arts, &c., be not observed. In short, if
it be not considered as the history of man ; and not of par-
ticular men, who filled a niche in the temple of fame, and
dropped into the black rolling stream of time, that silently
sweeps all before it, into the shapeless void called — eternity.
—For shape, can it be called, " that shape hath none "?
,/^fcusiness of various kjprhj they r»-"'gk<- ijlpwisp pnrfinp-, if
uiey were educated in a more orderly manner, which might
save many from common and legal prostitution. ^

would not then marry for a support, as men accept of places
under Government, and neglect the implied duties ; norj
would an attempt to earn their own subsistence, a most
laudable one ! sink them almost to the level of those poor
abandoned creatures who live by prostitution. For are not
milliners and mantuamakers reckoned the next class ? The
few employments open to women, so far, from being liberal,
are menial ; and when a superior education enables them to
take charge of the education of children as governesses,
they are not treated like the tutors of sons, though even
clerical tutors are not always treated in a manner calculated
to render them respectable in the eyes of their pupils, to say
nothing of the private comfort of the individual. But as
women educated like gentlewomen, are never designed for
the humiliating situation which necessity sometimes forces
them to fill ; these situations are considered in the light of

o

2 1 o VINDICA TION OF THE

a degradation ; and they know little of the human heart,
who need to be told, that nothing so painfully sharpens
sensibility as such a fall in life.

Some of these women might be restrained from marrying
by a proper spirit or delicacy, and others may not have had
it in their power to escape in this pitiful way from servitude ;
is not that Government then very defective, and very
unmindful of the happiness of one-half of its members, that
does not provide for honest, independent women, by encour-
aging them to fill respectable stations ? But in order to
render their private virtue a public benefit, they must have a
civil existence in the State, married or single ; else we shall
continually see some worthy woman, whose sensibility has
been rendered painfully acute by undeserved contempt, droop
like " the lily broken down by a plowshare."

It is a melancholy truth ; yet such is the blessed effect of
civilisation I/the most respectable women are the most
oppressed^ and, unless they have understandings far supe-
rior to the common run of understandings, taking in both
sexes, they must, from being treated like contemptible beings,
become contemptible. How many women thus waste life
away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as
physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood
erect, supported by their own industry, instead of hanging
their heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility, that con-
sumes the beauty to which it at first gave lustre^hay, I
doubt whether pity and love are so near akin as poets feign,
for I have seldom seen much compassion excited by the
helplessness of females, unless they were fair ; then, perhaps,
pity was the soft handmaid of love, or the harbinger of lust.

How much more respectable is the woman who earns her
own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished
beauty ! — beauty did I say ! — so sensible am I of the beauty

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 211

of moral loveliness, or the harmonious propriety that attunes
the passions of a well-regulated mind, that I blush at making
the comparison ; yefc/I sigh to think how few women aim at
attaining this respectability by withdrawing from the giddy
whirl of pleasure, or the indolent calm that stupefies the
good sort of women it sucks in.f

^Proud of their weakness, however, they must always be
protected, guarded from care, and all the rough toils that
dignify the mind*/ If this be the fiat of fate, if they will
make themselves insignificant and contemptible, sweetly to
waste " life away," let them not expect to be valued when
their beauty fades, for it is the fate of the fairest flowers to
be admired and pulled to pieces by the careless hand that
plucked them. In how many ways do I wish, from the
purest benevolence, to impress this truth on my sex ; yet I
fear that they will not listen to a truth that dear bought
experience has brought home to many an agitated bosom,
nor willingly resign the privileges of rank and sex for the
privileges of humanity, to which those have no claim who
do not discharge its duties.

Those writers are particularly useful, in my opinion, who
make man feel for man, independent of the station he fills,
or the drapery of factitious sentiments. I then would fain
convince reasonable men of the importance of some of my
remarks ; and prevail on them to weigh dispassionately the
whole tenor of my observations. I appeal to their under-
standings ; and, as a fellow-creature, claim, in the name of
my sex, some interest in their hearts. I entreat them to
assist to emancipate their companion, to make her a help
meetfor them.

^frould men but generously snap our chains, and be

Content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience,

they would find us more observant daughters, more affec-

2 1 2 FIND 1C A TION OF THE

tionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers
— in a word, better citizens. We should then love them
with true affection, because we should learn to respect
ourselves ; and the peace of mind of a worthy man would
not be interrupted by the idle vanity of his wife, nor the
babes sent to nestle in a strange bosom, having never
a home in their mother's.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 213

CHAPTER X.

PARENTAL AFFECTION.

PARENTAL affection is, perhaps, the blindest modi-
fication of perverse self-love ; for we have not, like
the French,* two "terms to distinguish the pursuit of
a natural and reasonable desire, from the ignorant calcula-
tions 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 control 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 catchword 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.

* L?amo^lr propre. L'at/iour de soi wtme.

2 1 4 VINDICA TION OF THE

Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but a pretext
to tyrannise 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 sisting
of subjects that recur to natural justice : because they firmly
believe that the more enlightened the human mind be-
comes 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 dis-
daining 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. Everything new
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.
The affection of some women for their children is, as I
have before termed it, frequently very brutish : for it eradi-
cates every spark of humanity. Justice, truth, everything is
sacrificed by these Rebekahs, and for the sake of their (mm
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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 215

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 woman 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. When chastisement
is necessary, 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 pro-
perly. Her parental affection, indeed, scarcely deserves
the name, when it does not lead her to suckle her children,

216 VINDICATION OF THE

because the discharge of this duty is equally calculated to
inspire maternal and filial affection : and it is the indis-
pensable 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 be 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.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 217

CHAPTER XL

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 natu-
rally subsists between parent and child may be given in a
few words. The parent who pays proper attention to help-
less 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

218 VINDICATION OF THE

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.* On the contrary,
the early habit of relying almost implicitly on the opinion
of a respected parent is not easily shook, even when ma-
tured 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 rea-
sonable 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 return,
and the son ought at least to promise not to marry for two

Dr Tohnson makes the same observation.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 219

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 negli-
gence 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 birthright 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
elude 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 Omni-
potence, 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

220 VINDICATION OF THE

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
show of respect from his child, and females on the Conti-
nent are particularly subject to the views of their families,
who never think of consulting their inclination, or provid-
ing 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 bpndage to parents cramps every faculty of the
mind ; and^fllr 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 arbi-
trarily imposed on women, more from a sense of propriety,
more out of respect for decorum, than reason ; and thus

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 221

/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 exer-
cised by the favourites of absolute monarchs, which they
obtain by debasing means. I do not likewise dream of in-
sinuating 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 ren-
dered 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 natu-
ral parental affection to take root in their hearts, the child
of exercised sympathy and reason, and not the overweening
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 reverence.

Children cannot be taught too early to submit to reason
— the true definition of that necessity which Rousseau in-
sisted 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.

222 VINDICATION OF THE

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 understand-
ing, 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 223

now and then mamma's anger will burst out of some
accidental cloud; — either her hair was ill dressed,* 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 their relatives, because they are beloved
by them, and not on account of their virtues. Yet, till

* 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 ?

224 VINDICATION OF THE

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.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 225

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 plough, will
always, in some degree, be disappointed, till education
becomes a grand national concern. A man cannot retire
into a desert with his child, and if he did he could not
bring himself back to childhood, and become the proper
friend and playfellow 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

226 VINDICATION OF THE

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 prattle with children ; and the very respect he
feels, 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 hot-beds 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 227

formed ; hardening the heart as it weakens the understand-
ing.

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 produces. 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 dissipa-
tion 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 birth,
allowed to tyrannise 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

228 VINDICATION OF THE

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 superior 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 mis-
chief; 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 229

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
everything. 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 super-
stitious memory have scraped together. No, wise in their
generation, they venerate the prescriptive right of possession,
as a stronghold, 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

2 3o VINDICATION OF THE

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,
neither 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 ef 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 observa-
tions 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 231

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 which enliven the
spirits that have been concentrated at whist, are manu-
factured 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 extra-
vagance into their families, which banish domestic duties
and comforts from the lordly mansion, whose state is
awkwardly aped. 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

232 VINDICATION OF THE

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 educa-
tion, 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,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 233

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 affec-
tions 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 grati-
fication 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 relation-
ships that render the marriage state as necessary as respect-
able. But, if a private education produce self-importance,
or insulate 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
schoolmasters 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 boy's
abilities, which during the vacation is shown to every

234 VINDICATION OF THE

visitor,* is productive of more mischief than would at
first be supposed. For it is 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 show 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-

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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 235

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

236 VINDICATION OF THE

braced back, instead of bounding, as nature directs to
complete her own design, in the various attitudes so
conducive to health.* 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
characterises the female mind — and I fear will ever charac-
terise it whilst women remain the slaves of power !

The little respect paid to chastity in the male world
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 not 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

* I remember a circumstance that once came under my own observa-
tion, and raised my indignation. I went to visit a little boy at a school
where young children were prepared for a large one. The master took
me into the schoolroom, &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.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 237

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, x^lf 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 mis-
construction, 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

238 VINDICATION OF THE

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 nHitual duties.

^Vere 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 formu-
lary 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 preponderates 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 sup-
pose 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 239

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 sus-
ceptible 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 minutiae 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 exqui-
site 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 un-
sophisticated feelings spread round the human character.
It is this power of looking into the heart, and respon-

2 40 VINDICATION OF THE

sively 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 em-
ployed 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 educa-
tion 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 child-
ish 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
have 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 byword of the libertines, who
relax in their society? and do not men of sense continually
lament that an immoderate fondness for dress and dissipa-
tion carries the mother of a family for ever from home ?
Their hearts have not been debauched by knowledge, or
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 war-

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 241

fare which subsists between the sexes makes them employ
those wiles that often frustrate the more open designs offeree.

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

Let an enlightened nation * 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.! A sufficient
number of masters should also be chosen by a select com-
mittee 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 expe-
rience 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 out-
ward submission and inward contempt ? Yet how can boys

* France.

t 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."

Q

242 VINDICATION OF THE

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 amuse-
ment 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 sub-
mit 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 employ-
ment for more than an hour at a time. But these relaxa-
tions might all be rendered a part of elementary education,
for many things improve and amuse the senses, when intro-
duced 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, arith-
metic, natural history, and some simple experiments in
natural philosophy, might fill up the day; but these pur-
suits 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 domes-
tic 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 em-
ployment.

The young people of superior abilities, or fortune, might

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 243

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
will be so far enlightened that parents, only anxious to
render their children virtuous, shall allow them to choose
companions for life themselves.

Besides, this would be a sure way to promote early mar-
riages, 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 emer-
gencies excepted, which would rarely occur in a society of
which equality was the basis, a man can only be prepared
to discharge the duties of public life, by the habitual practice
of those inferior ones which form the man.
¥ In this plan of education the constitution of boys would
not be ruined by the early debaucheries, which now make
men so selfish, or 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 friend-
ship 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

244 VINDICATION OF THE

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
necessarilygrow 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 anything 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 leads women astray
from duty. No, it is indolence and vanity — the love of
pleasure and the love of sway, that will reign 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 245

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 pur-
suing this idle routine, fighting for tasteless show, and heart-
less 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 draw-
ing, 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 * already alluded to, that of

* The Bishop of Autun's.

246 VINDICATION OF THE

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 betwitching 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 accord-
ing to the proportions of a particular man > but that beauti-
ful limbs and features were selected from various bodies to
form an harmonious whole. This might, in some degree,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 247

be true. The fine ideal picture of an exalted imagination
might be superior to the materials which the statuary found
in nature, and thus it might with propriety be termed rather
the model of mankind than of a man. It was not, how-
ever, 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

248 VINDICATION OF THE

be brought together by chance ; it is the reward of exertions
calculated 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 civilised state. For civilisation prevents
that intercourse which creates affection in the rude hut, or
mud hovel, 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 superiors.

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 bene-
volence, will not be a powerful spring of action unless it
extend 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 feel-
ings much dependence cannot be placed, though they be
just ; for, when they are not invigorated by reflection,
custom weakens them, till they are scarcely perceptible.
The sympathies of our nature are strengthened by ponder-
ing cogitations, and deadened by thoughtless use. Macbeth's
heart smote him more for one murder, the first, than for

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 249

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 hand-
some, reckoned very handsome, by those who do not miss
the mind when the face is plump and fair ; but her under-
standing 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 lapdog to her bosom instead of her child ;

250 VINDICATION OF THE

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 shows how mistaken they are who, if
they allow women to leave their harems, do not cultivate
their understandings, in order to plant virtues in their
hearts. For had they sense, they might acquire that do-
mestic 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 num-
ber 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 ameliorate 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 inferior
by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to he ranked
with them ; or, by the serpentine wrigglings of cunning,
they mount the tree of knowledge, and only acquire suffi-
cient to lead men astray.
4lt is plain from the history of all nations, that women

RIGHTS OP WOMAN. 251

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 enter-
prises, though the narrowness of their minds often make
them mar, what they are unable to comprehend.

The libertinism, and even the virtues of superior 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 pro-
duced ; 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.

Whoever 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

252 VINDICATION OF THE

laboured to bring woman down to hers. He found her a
convenient humble companion, and pride made him deter-
mine to find some superior virtues in the being whom he
chose to live with ; but did not her conduct during his
life, and after his death, clearly show 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 senti-
ments 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 man for a subsist-
ence, 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 fond-
ness, which is confined in a beastly manner to themselves;
but should they ever become more virtuous, they will wish
to converse at their fireside 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 intel-
lectual 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 be not, in general, brought more on a level with
men, some superior women, like the Greek courtesans, will
assemble the men of abilities around them, and draw from

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 253

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 legiti-
mate 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 pas-
sions 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.

X'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. j>

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 superior to that of the rest
of their sex, has often been overbearing; but there have

254 VINDICATION OF THE

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 hus-
bands. What arts have I not seen silly women use to inter-
rupt 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 pos-
session 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 stigmatised as an unnatu-
ral mother, who has thus been wisely solicitous to preserve

RIGHTS OF WOMAN, 255

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 edu-
cation of women is of the utmost consequence, for what a
number of human sacrifices are made to that Moloch preju-
dice ! 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

256 VINDICATION OF THE

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 un-
derstanding 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 judg-
ment 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 chil-
dren 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
anything of the human frame. It is likewise proper, only in
a domestic view, to make women acquainted with the ana-
tomy oflhe mind, by allowing the sexes to associate together
in every pursuit, and by leading them to observe the pro-
gress of the human understanding in the improvement of
the sciences and arts — never forgetting the science of
morality, or 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 WOMAN. 257

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 ma-
ternal 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 ourseh^es ? 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 par-
ticularly 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.

258 VINDICATION OF THE

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 discharg-
ing 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 ?

SECTION 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 phrase ;
and many females who, proud of their rank and fortune,

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 259

look down on the vulgar with sovereign contempt, show 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
necesssary 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.* 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
the presence of God :—

Do you believe that there is but pne 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 cognisance
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 impres-

* I once lived in the neighbourhood of one of these men, a hand-
some man, and saw with surprise and indignation women, whose
appearance and attendance bespoke that rank in which females are
supposed to receive a superior education, flock to his door.

260 VINDICATION OF THE

sion 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 in-
spiration ? 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 dedi-
cated to the service of the God who was supposed to in-
spire them. The glare of worldly pomp which surrounded
these impostors, and the respect paid to them by artful poli-
ticians, 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 inquired of the oracle, when she was
anxious to pry into futurity, or inquire about some dubious
event, and her inquiries, 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 irra-
tional 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 261

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 show you that it would be absolutely inconsistent with
the grand purpose of life, that of rendering human crea-
tures 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 anything 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.

262 VINDICATION OF THE

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 con-
formity 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 superior temper-
ance and piety. But the present workers of wonders are
not raised above their fellows by superior temperance
or sanctity. They do not cure for the love of God, but
money. These are the priests of quackery, though it is
true they have not the convenient expedient of selling
masses for souls in purgatory, or 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 show
themselves the benevolent friends of man.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 263

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 conse-
quences, we are forcibly shown 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.

264 VINDICATION OF THE

Here an awful stop is put to our inquiries. 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 show the malignity
of vice, for the purpose of reformation. Positive punish-
ment 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 bene-
volent 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 do 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 265

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.

SECTION 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

266 VINDICATION OF THE

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, senti-
ments 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 anything great, is it surprising that they find the
reading of history a very dry task, and disquisitions addressed
to the understanding intolerably tedious, and almost un-
intelligible? 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 produc-
tions that are only addressed s 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 267

few books thrown in their way were far above their capa-
cities, or devotional, they neither acquired ideas nor senti-
ments, 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 com-
pany as marriageable.

Their mother, a . widow, was busy in the meantime in
keeping up her connections, as she termed a numerous
acquaintance, lest her girls should want a proper intro-
duction 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 ques-
tions, 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 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

268 VINDICATION OF 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 inter-,
mediate 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 superior : 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
was 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 everything 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 superior
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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 269

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 show 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 matron
graces of history,* 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 for ever from their glib
tongues, and every trifle produces those phosphoric bursts
which only mimic in the dark the flame of passion.

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

270 VINDICATION OF THE

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 superior 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 27 r

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 other's 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 scene
with all the persevering pertinacity of instinct. Even
virtuous women never forget their sex in company, for
they are for ever 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 uncivilised beings who have not yet extended the
dominion of the mind, or even learned to think with the

272 VINDICATION OF 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 satirise 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, 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.

SECTION IV.

Women are supposed to possess more sensibility, and
even humanity, than men, and their strong attachments

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 273

and instantaneous emotions of compassion are given as
proofs ; but the clinging affection of ignorance has seldom
anything 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 conse-
quence of confined views; for even women of superior
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 inferior, especially, as they are commonly
inspired by men ; but I contend that the heart would
expand as the understanding gained strength, if women
were 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 friend-
ship 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

s

274 VINDICATION OF THE

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 the slaves of injustice ?

SECTION 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
any attention to the nursery ; yet, how many children are
absolutely murdered by the ignorance of women ! But
when they escape, and are destroyed neither 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.

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 275

I have always found horses, animals 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 has 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 independ-
ence, 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 characterise a
spoiled child.

276 VINDICATION OF THE

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 idolise their children, seldom show 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 improve-
ment, 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 concur, 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 conversation 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, or prevent their attaching themselves to a science,
with that steady eye which strengthens the mind, or practis-
ing 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 277

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
ithas ceased to amuse.

p~But, we shall not see women affectionate till more
equality be established in society/till-ranks arc confounded
and women freed, neither shall we see that dignified
domestic happiness, the simple grandeur of which cannot
be relished by ignorant -ot^-yitiated minds j/<for 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. . /
^

SECTION 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 ;

278 VINDICATION OF THE

and, that the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous,
who/obeys any authority, but that of reason.

XTo render women truly useful members of society, I
argue that they should be led, by having their understand-
ings 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 show 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
shows 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

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 279

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 ! Q/

iyThat women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish
or vicious, is, I think, not to be disputed^jfend, 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 observa-
tion, ^or 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 friend-
ship 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

28o VINDICATION OF THE

little confidence is established at home, as must be the case
when their pursuits are so different. That intimacy from
which tenderness shonld 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, characterised 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, characterised 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 carica-
ture 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 in human nature have been enrolled amongst
sectaries : yet, I assert, that the same narrow prejudice

RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 281

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 coincidence 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 con-
trivances, 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 conse-
quence 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.*
4> Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate the
virtues of man Jf 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

* 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.

282 RIGHTS OF WOMAN.

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.

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LIFE OF CONGREVE. By Edmund Gosse.

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LIFE OF BUNYAN. By Canon Venables.

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LIFE OF CRABBE. By T. E Kebbel.

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LIFE OF HEINE. By William Sharp.

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LIFE OF MILL. By W. L. Courtney.

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LIFE OF SCHILLER. By Henry W. Nevinson.

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LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARRY AT. By David Hannay.

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LIFE OF LESSING. By T. W. Rolleston.

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LIFE OF BALZAC. By Frederick Wedmore.
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LIFE OF HAWTHORNE. By Moncure Conway.
LIFE OF SCHOPENHAUER. By Professor Wallace.
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Library Edition of " Great Writers" Demy 8vo, 2S. &/.
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IBSEN'S PROSE DRAMAS

EDI'lED BY WILLIAM ARCHER.
IN FIVE VOLUMES.

CROWN 8vo, CLOTH, PRICE 3s. 6d. PER VOLUME.

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"A DOLL'S HOUSE," "THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH,"
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VOL. 1L

"GHOSTS," "AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE," and
"THE WILD DUCK."

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"LADY INGER OF OSTRAT," "THE VIKINGS AT
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" EMPEROR AND GALILEAN." With an Introductory
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VOL. V.

"ROSMERSHOLM"; "THE LADY FROM THE SEA";
11 HEDDA GABLER." Translated by WILLIAM ARCHER.

London : WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. •

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HERBERT. Edited by E. Rhys.
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CONTENTS : — Account of Shorter Hours Movement in England,
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By HAVELOCK ELLIS.

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ROSMERSHOLM.

A DRAMA IN FOUR ACTS. BY HENRIK IBSEN.
Translated by CHARLES ARCHER.

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A RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR.

THE COSSACKS.

IVAN ILYITCH, AND OTHER STORIES.

THE INVADERS, AND OTHER STORIES.

MY RELIGION.

LIFE.

MY CONFESSION.
CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, YOUTH.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WAR.
ANNA KARENINA. (2 VOLS.)

WHAT TO DO?

WAR AND PEACE. (4 VOLS.)

THE LONG EXILE, AND OTHER STORIES FOR CHILDREN.

SEVASTOPOL.

THE KREUTZER SONATA, AND FAMILY
HAPPINESS.

Uniform with the above.

IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA.

BY DR. GEORG BR ANDES.

London •- WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row.

Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 23. 6d.

THE

QUINTESSENCE

OF

IBSENISM.

BY G. BERNARD SHAW.

The object of this book is to show that a new social theory,
which the author expounds at length, is implicit in Ibsen's
dramas. Ibsen's critics are dealt with, and Mr. Shaw gives a
descriptive analysis of each of Ibsen's better known plays, with
a view to supporting his theory of them. The volume conclude
with an enquiry into the practical stage qualities of the dramas.

Price is., Crown 8vo.

ROSMERSHOLM.

A DRAMA IN FOUR ACTS. BY HENRI K IBSEN.
Translated by CHARLES ARCHER.

IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIAl

BY DR. GEORG BRANDES.

(With Portrait of the Author.) 353 Pages, Crown 8vo, 25. 6\
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usic this book makes a charming anthology. Three sonnets by
'r. Theodore Watts, on the "Fausts" of Berlioz, Schumann,
nd Gounod, have been written specially for this volume. It is
ustrated with designs of various musical instruments, etc.;
utographs of Rubenstein, Dvorak, Greig, Mackenzie, Villiers
tanford, etc., etc.

"To musical amateurs this will certainly prove the most
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London : WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row.

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