VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN by Mary Wollstonecraft

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* France.

  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 committee, in each parish, to whom any complaint of negligence,
&c. might be made, if signed by six of the children's parents.

  * 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  In this plan of education the constitution of boys would not be
ruined by the early debaucheries, which now 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 friendship and love to temper the heart for the
discharge of higher duties.

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

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

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

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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 accomplishments; and accomplishments without a bottom, for
unless the understanding be cultivated, superficial and monotonous
is every grace. Like the charms of a made up face, they only strike
the senses in a crowd; but at home, wanting mind, they want variety.
The consequence is obvious; in gay scenes of dissipation we meet the
artificial mind and face, for those who fly from solitude dread,
next to solitude, the domestic circle; not having it in their power to
amuse or interest, they feel their own insignificance, or find nothing
to amuse or interest themselves.

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

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

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* The Bishop of Autun's.

  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 in indifference for the public good, the
first obstacle to whatever would promote it.'

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

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

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I observed that it was not mechanical, because a whole was produced-
a model of that grand simplicity, of those concurring energies,
which arrest our attention and command our reverence. For only insipid
lifeless beauty is produced by a servile copy of even beautiful
nature. Yet, independent of these observations, I believe that the
human form must have been far more beautiful than it is at present,
because extreme indolence, barbarous ligatures, and many causes, which
forcibly act on it, in our luxurious state of society, did not
retard its expansion, or render it deformed. Exercise and
cleanliness appear to be not only the surest means of preserving
health, but of promoting beauty, the physical causes only
considered; yet, this is not sufficient, moral ones must concur, or
beauty will be merely of that rustic kind which blooms on the
innocent, wholesome, countenances of some country people, whose
minds have not been exercised. To render the person perfect,
physical and moral beauty ought to be attained at the same time;
each lending and receiving force by the combination. Judgment must
reside on the brow, affection and fancy beam in the eye, and
humanity curve the cheek, or vain is the sparkling of the finest eye
or the elegantly turned finish of the fairest features: whilst in
every motion that displays the active limbs and well-knit joints,
grace and modesty should appear. But this fair assemblage is not to be
brought together by chance; it is the reward of exertions 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 civilized state.
For civilization 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
superiours.

  This habitual cruelty is first caught at school, where it is one
of the rare sports of the boys to torment the miserable brutes that
fall in their way. The transition, as they grow up, from barbarity
to brutes to domestic tyranny over wives, children, and servants, is
very easy. Justice, or even benevolence, will not be a powerful spring
of action unless it 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 feelings much dependence
cannot be placed, though they be just; for, when they are not
invigorated by reflection, custom weakens them, till they are scarcely
perceptible. The sympathies of our nature are strengthened by
pondering cogitations, and deadened by thoughtless use. Macbeth's
heart smote him more for one murder, the first, than for a hundred
subsequent ones, which were necessary to back it. But, when I used the
epithet vulgar, I did not mean to confine my remark to the poor, for
partial humanity, founded on present sensations, or whim, is quite
as conspicuous, if not more so, amongst the rich.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  In public schools women, to guard against the errors of ignorance,
should be taught the elements of anatomy and medicine, not only to
enable them to take proper care of their own health, but to make
them rational nurses of their infants, parents, and husbands; for
the bills of mortality are swelled by the blunders of self-willed
old women, who give nostrums of them own without knowing any thing
of the human frame. It is likewise proper only in a domestic view,
to make women acquainted with the anatomy of the mind, by allowing the
sexes to associate together in every pursuit; and by leading them to
observe the progress of the human understanding in the improvement
of the sciences and arts; never forgetting the science of morality, 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 humanity. Thus morality, polluted in
the national reservoir, sends off streams of vice to corrupt the
constituent parts of the body politic; but should more noble, or
rather, more just principles regulate the laws, which ought to be
the government of society, and not those who execute them, duty
might become the rule of private conduct.

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

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

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

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Chap. XIII.

     Some Instances of the Folly Which the Ignorance of Women

   Generates; with Concluding Reflections on the Moral Improvement

     That a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally Be

                    Expected to Produce.

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

                        SECT. I.

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

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

  I must be allowed to expostulate seriously with the ladies who
follow these idle inventions; for ladies, mistresses of families,
are not ashamed to drive in their own carriages to the door of the
cunning man.* 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.

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

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

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

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

[Callisto]

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

  The oracles of old were thus delivered by priests dedicated to the
service of the God who was supposed to inspire them. The glare of
worldly pomp which surrounded these impostors, and the respect paid to
them by artful politicians, who knew how to avail themselves of this
useful engine to bend the necks of the strong under the dominion of
the cunning, spread a sacred mysterious veil of sanctity over their
lies and abominations. Impressed by such solemn devotional parade, a
Greek, or Roman lady might be excused, if she 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 irrational devotion.- For I do not suppose that
all of you laid aside your religion, such as it is, when you entered
those mysterious dwellings. Yet, as I have throughout supposed
myself talking to ignorant women, for ignorant ye are in the most
emphatical sense of the word, it would be absurd to reason with you on
the egregious folly of desiring to know what the Supreme Wisdom has
concealed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  By a communication, an adept may answer, with the world of
spirits. A noble privilege, it must be allowed. Some of the ancients
mention familiar daemons, who guarded them from danger by kindly
intimating, we cannot guess in what manner, when any danger was
nigh; or, pointed out what they ought to undertake. Yet the men who
laid claim to this privilege, out of the order of nature, insisted
that it was the reward, or consequence, of superiour temperance and
piety. But the present workers of wonders are not raised above their
fellows by superiour temperance or sanctity. They do not cure for
the love of God, but money. These are the priests of quackery,
though it 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.

[Callisto]

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

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

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

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

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

  Here an awful stop is put to our 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 shew the malignity of vice, for the purpose of
reformation. Positive punishment appears so contrary to the nature
of God, discoverable in all his works, and in our own reason, that I
could sooner believe that the Deity paid no attention to the conduct
of men, than that he punished without the benevolent design of
reforming.

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

  I know that many devout people boast of submitting to the Will of
God blindly, as to an arbitrary sceptre or rod, on the same
principle as the Indians worship the devil. In other words, like
people in the common concerns of life, they 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 believe, though it
should stare us in the face, that he would work a miracle to authorize
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.

[Callisto]

 SECT. II.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Callisto]

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

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

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

  The niece, who had considerable abilities, had, before she 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 every thing like application, he allowed to read novels:
and used to justify his conduct by saying, that if she ever attained a
relish for reading them, he should have some foundation to work
upon; and that erroneous opinions were better than none at all.

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

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

  In one respect, however, the majority of both sexes resemble, and
equally shew a want of taste and modesty. Ignorant women, forced to be
chaste to preserve their reputation, allow their imagination to
revel in the unnatural and meretricious scenes sketched by the novel
writers of the day, slighting as insipid the sober dignity and
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.

  * 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 tragicomedy, in which little can be seen to satisfy the
heart without the help of fancy.

  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 mimick in the dark the flame of passion.

[Callisto]

SECT. III.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after,
with a few exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the
persevering pertinacity of instinct. Even virtuous women never
forget their sex in company, for they are 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.

[Callisto]

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

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

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

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

        'Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,

        'And best distinguish'd by black, brown, or fair.'

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

                        SECT. IV.

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

  But this kind of exclusive affection, though it degrades the
individual, should not be brought forward as a proof of the
inferiority of the sex, because it is the natural consequence of
confined views: for even women of 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 friendship is to be found in the
male than the female world, and that men have a higher sense of
justice. The exclusive affections of women seem indeed to resemble
Cato's most unjust love for his country. He wished to crush
Carthage, not to save Rome, but to promote its vain-glory; and, in
general, it is to similar principles that humanity is sacrificed,
for genuine duties support each other.

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