VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN by Mary Wollstonecraft

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Chap. X.

                    Parental Affection.

  Parental affection is, perhaps, the blindest modification 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 calculations of weakness. Parents often love their children
in the most brutal manner, and sacrifice every relative duty to
promote their advancement in the world.- To promote, such is the
perversity of unprincipled prejudices, the future welfare of the
very beings whose present existence they imbitter by the most despotic
stretch of power. Power, in fact, is ever true to its vital principle,
for in every shape it would reign without controul or inquiry. Its
throne is built across a dark abyss, which no eye must dare to
explore, lest the baseless fabric should totter under investigation.
Obedience, unconditional obedience, is the catch-word of tyrants of
every description, and to render 'assurance doubly sure,' one kind
of despotism supports another. Tyrants would have cause to tremble
if reason were to become the rule of duty in any of the relations of
life, for the light might spread till perfect day appeared. And when
it did appear, how would men smile at the sight of the bugbears at
which they started during the night of ignorance, or the twilight of
timid inquiry.

  * L'amour propre. L'amour de soi meme.

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

  If the power of reflecting on the past, and darting the keen eye
of contemplation into futurity, be the grand privilege of man, it must
be granted that some people enjoy this prerogative in a very limited
degree. Every thing 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. Besides, the
affection of some women for their children is, as I have before termed
it, frequently very brutish: for it eradicates every spark of
humanity. Justice, truth, every thing is sacrificed by these
Rebekah's, and for the sake of their own children they violate the
most sacred duties, forgetting the common relationship that binds
the whole family on earth together. Yet, reason seems to say, that
they who suffer one duty, or affection, to swallow up the rest, have
not sufficient heart or mind to fulfil that one conscientiously. It
then loses the venerable aspect of a duty, and assumes the fantastic
form of a whim.

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

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

  To be a good mother- a woman must have sense, and that
independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to
depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish
mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their
part, in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow.
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
properly. Her parental affection, indeed, scarcely deserves the
name, when it does not lead her to suckle her children, because the
discharge of this duty is equally calculated to inspire maternal and
filial affection: and it is the indispensable duty of men and women to
fulfil the duties which give birth to affections that are the surest
preservatives against vice. Natural affection, as it is termed, I
believe to be a very faint tie, affections must grow out of the
habitual exercise of a mutual sympathy; and what sympathy does a
mother exercise who sends her babe to a nurse, and only takes it
from a nurse to send it to a school?

  In the exercise of their maternal feelings providence has
furnished women with a natural substitute for love, when the lover
becomes only a friend, and mutual confidence takes place of
overstrained admiration- a child then gently twists the relaxing cord,
and a mutual care produces a new mutual sympathy.- But a child, though
a pledge of affection, will not enliven it, if both father and
mother 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.

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Chap. XI.

                     Duty to Parents.

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

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

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

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

  * Dr. Johnson makes the same observation.

  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.

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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 or three years, should the object of
his choice not entirely meet with the approbation of his first friend.

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

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

  I have already very frequently had occasion to observe, that vicious
or indolent people are always eager to profit by enforcing arbitrary
privileges; and, generally, in the same proportion as they neglect the
discharge of the duties which alone render the privileges
reasonable. This is at the bottom a dictate of common sense, or the
instinct of self-defence, peculiar to ignorant weakness; resembling
that instinct, which makes a fish muddy the water it swims in to 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 Omnipotence, they dare to demand
that implicit respect which is only due to His unsearchable ways. But,
let me not be thought presumptuous, the darkness which bides our God
from us, only respects speculative truths- it never obscures moral
ones, they shine clearly, for God is light, and never, by the
constitution of our nature, requires the discharge of a duty, the
reasonableness of which does not beam on us when we open our eyes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  It is the irregular exercise of parental authority that first
injures the mind, and to these irregularities girls are more subject
than boys. The will of those who never allow their will to be
disputed, unless they happen to be in a good humour, when they relax
proportionally, is almost always unreasonable. To elude this arbitrary
authority girls very early learn the lessons which they afterwards
practise on their husbands; for I have frequently seen a little
sharp-faced miss rule a whole family, excepting that now and then
mamma's angry 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.

  * I myself heard a little girl once say to a servant, 'My mama 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?

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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 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 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.

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Chap. XII.

                  On National Education.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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 of high mass on the
continent must impress every mind, where a spark of fancy glows,
with that awful melancholy, that sublime tenderness, so near akin to
devotion. I do not say that these devotional feelings are of more use,
in a moral sense, than any other emotion of taste; but I contend
that the theatrical pomp which gratifies our senses, is to be
preferred to the cold parade that insults the understanding without
reaching the heart.

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

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

  There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical, or
luxurious set of men, than the pedantic tyrants who reside in colleges
and preside at public schools. The vacations are equally injurious
to the morals of the masters and pupils, and the intercourse, which
the former keep up with the nobility, introduces the same vanity and
extravagance into their families, which banish domestic duties and
comforts from the lordly mansion, whose state is awkwardly aped. The
boys, who live at a great expence 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Callisto]

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 boys abilities, which during the vacation is shewn to
every 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
shew of, without the understanding's acquiring any distinct ideas; but
only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation
of mind, which teaches young people how to begin to think. The
imagination should not be allowed to debauch the understanding
before it gained strength, or vanity will become the forerunner of
vice: for every way of exhibiting the acquirements of a child is
injurious to its moral character.

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

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

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

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

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

[Callisto]

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

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

  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 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,
to purify the heart, and first call forth all the youthful powers,
to prepare the man to discharge the benevolent duties of life, is
sacrificed to premature lust; but, all the social affections are
deadened by the selfish gratifications, which very early pollute the
mind, and dry up the generous juices of the heart. In what an
unnatural manner is innocence often violated; and what serious
consequences ensue to render private vices a public pest. Besides,
an habit of personal order, which has more effect on the moral
character, than is, in general, supposed, can only be acquired at
home, where that respectable reserve is kept up which checks the
familiarity, that sinking into beastliness, undermines the affection
it insults.

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

[Callisto]

Were boys and girls permitted to pursue the same studies together,
those graceful decencies might early be inculcated which produce
modesty without those sexual distinctions that taint the mind. Lessons
of politeness, and that formulary of decorum, which treads on the
heels of falsehood, would be rendered useless by habitual propriety of
behaviour. Not, indeed, put on for visitors like the courtly robe of
politeness, but the sober effect of cleanliness of mind. Would not
this simple elegance of sincerity be a chaste homage paid to
domestic affections, far surpassing the meretricious compliments
that shine with false lustre in the heartless intercourse of
fashionable life? But, till more understanding 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 suppose that
enlargement of mind which opens so many sources of mental pleasure.
Why do people hurry to noisy scenes, and crowded circles? I should
answer, because they want activity of mind, because they have not
cherished the virtues of the heart. They only, therefore, see and feel
in the gross, and continually pine after variety, finding every
thing that is simple insipid.

  This argument may be carried further than philosophers are aware of,
for if nature destined woman, in particular, for the discharge of
domestic duties, she made her susceptible of the attached affections
in a great degree. Now women are notoriously fond of pleasure; and,
naturally must be so according to my definition, because they cannot
enter into the 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 exquisite picture, rest, sparkling with pleasure,
on a caricature rudely sketched; and whilst some terrific feature in
nature has spread a sublime stillness through my soul, I have been
desired to observe the pretty tricks of a lap-dog, that my perverse
fate forced me to travel with. Is it surprising that such a
tasteless being should rather caress this dog than her children? Or,
that she should prefer the rant of flattery to the simple accents of
sincerity?

[Callisto]

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

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

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

  History brings forward a fearful catalogue of the crimes which their
cunning has produced, when the weak slaves have had sufficient address
to over-reach their masters. In France, and in how many other
countries, have men been the luxurious despots, and women the crafty
ministers?- Does this prove that ignorance and dependence
domesticate them? Is not their folly the by-word of the libertines,
who relax in their society; and do not men of sense continually lament
that an immoderate fondness for dress and dissipation carries the
mother of a family for ever from home? Their hearts have not been
debauched by knowledge, or their minds led astray by scientific
pursuits; yet, they do not fulfil the peculiar duties which as women
they are called upon by nature to fulfil. On the contrary, the state
of warfare which subsists between the sexes, makes them employ those
wiles, that often frustrate the more open designs of force.

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

  Let an enlightened nation* 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.