VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN by Mary Wollstonecraft

[Callisto]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Callisto]

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

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

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

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

  In what light this sally places men and women, I shall leave to
the judicious to determine; meanwhile I shall content myself with
observing, that I cannot discover why, unless they are mortal, females
should always be degraded by being made subservient to love or lust.

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

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

  Let me reason with the supporters of this opinion who have any
knowledge of human nature, do they imagine that marriage can eradicate
the habitude of life? The woman who has only been taught to please
will soon find that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they
cannot have much effect on her husband's heart when they are seen
every day, when the summer is passed and gone. Will she then have
sufficient native energy to look into herself for comfort, and
cultivate her dormant faculties? or, is it not more rational to expect
that she will try to please other men; and, in the emotions raised
by the expectation of new conquests, endeavour to forget the
mortification her love or pride has received? When the husband
ceases to be a lover- and the time will inevitably come, her desire of
pleasing will then grow languid, or become a spring of bitterness; and
love, perhaps, the most evanescent of all passions, gives place to
jealousy or vanity.

[Callisto]

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

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

  He advises them to cultivate a fondness for dress, because a
fondness for dress, he asserts, is natural to them. I am unable to
comprehend what either he or Rousseau mean, when they frequently use
this indefinite term. If they told us that in a pre-existent state the
soul was fond of dress, and brought this inclination with it into a
new body, I should listen to them with a half smile, as I often do
when I hear a rant about innate elegance.- But if he only meant to say
that the exercise of the faculties will produce this fondness- I
deny it.- It is not natural; but arises, like false ambition in men,
from a love of power.

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

  Women ought to endeavour to purify their heart; but can they do so
when their uncultivated understandings make them entirely dependent on
their senses for employment and amusement, when no noble pursuit
sets them above the little vanities of the day, or enables them to
curb the wild emotions that agitate a reed over which every passing
breeze has power? To gain the affections of a virtuous man is
affectation necessary? Nature has given woman a weaker frame than man;
but, to ensure her husband's affections, must a wife, who by the
exercise of her mind and body whilst she was discharging the duties of
a daughter, wife, and mother, has allowed her constitution to retain
its natural strength, and her nerves a healthy tone, is she, I say, to
condescend to use art and feign a sickly delicacy in order to secure
her husband's affection? Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify
the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will
not gratify a noble mind that pants for, and deserves to be respected.
Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship!

[Callisto]

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

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

  Nature, or, to speak with strict propriety, God, has made all things
right; but man has sought him out many inventions to mar the work. I
now allude to that part of Dr. Gregory's treatise, where he advises
a wife never to let her husband know the extent of her sensibility
or affection. Voluptuous precaution, and as ineffectual as absurd.-
Love, from its very nature, must be transitory. To seek for a secret
that would render it constant, would be as wild a search as for the
philosopher's stone, or the grand panacea: and the discovery would
be equally useless, or rather pernicious to mankind. The most holy
band of society is friendship. It has been well said, by a shrewd
satirist, "that rare as true love is, true friendship is still rarer."

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

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

  This is, must be, the course of nature.- Friendship or
indifference inevitably succeeds love.- And this constitution seems
perfectly to harmonize with the system of government which prevails in
the moral world. Passions are spurs to action, and open the mind;
but they sink into mere appetites, become a personal and momentary
gratification, when the object is gained, and the satisfied mind rests
in enjoyment. The man who had some virtue whilst he was struggling for
a crown, often becomes a voluptuous tyrant when it graces his brow;
and, when the lover is not lost in the husband, the dotard, a prey
to childish caprices, and fond jealousies, neglects the serious duties
of life, and the caresses which should excite confidence in his
children are lavished on the overgrown child, his wife.

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

[Callisto]

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

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

  I do not mean to allude to the romantic passion, which is the
concomitant of genius.- Who can clip its wing? But that grand
passion not proportioned to the puny enjoyments of life, is only
true to the sentiment, and feeds on itself. The passions which have
been celebrated for their durability have always been unfortunate.
They have acquired strength by absence and constitutional melancholy.-
The fancy has hovered round a form of beauty dimly seen- but
familiarity might have turned admiration into disgust; or, at least,
into indifference, and allowed the imagination leisure to start
fresh game. With perfect propriety, according to this view of
things, does Rousseau make the mistress of his soul, Eloisa, love
St. Preux, when life was fading before her; but this is no proof of
the immortality of the passion.

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

[Callisto]

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

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

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

  * For example, the herd of Novelists.

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

  Gentleness of manners, forbearance and long-suffering, are such
amiable Godlike qualities, that in sublime poetic strains the Deity
has been invested with them; and, perhaps, no representation of his
goodness so strongly fastens on the human affections as those that
represent him abundant in mercy and willing to pardon. Gentleness,
considered in this point of view, bears on its front all the
characteristics of grandeur, combined with the winning graces of
condescension; but what a different aspect it assumes when it is the
submissive demeanour of dependence, the support of weakness that
loves, because it wants protection; and is forbearing, because it must
silently endure injuries; smiling under the lash at which it dare
not snarl. Abject as this picture appears, it is the portrait of an
accomplished woman, according to the received opinion of female
excellence, separated by specious reasoners from human excellence. Or,
they* kindly restore the rib, and make one moral being of a man and
woman; not forgetting to give her all the 'submissive charms.'

  * Vide Rousseau, and Swedenborg.

[Callisto]

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

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

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

  But to view the subject in another point of view. Do passive
indolent women make the best wives? Confining our discussion to the
present moment of existence, let us see how such weak creatures
perform their part? Do the women who, by the attainment of a few
superficial accomplishments, have strengthened the prevailing
prejudice, merely contribute to the happiness of their husbands? Do
they display their charms merely to amuse them? And have women, who
have early imbibed notions of passive obedience, sufficient
character to manage a family or educate children? So far from it,
that, after surveying the history of woman, I cannot help, agreeing
with the severest satirist, considering the sex as the weakest as well
as the most oppressed half of the species. What does history
disclose but marks of inferiority, and how few women have
emancipated themselves from the galling yoke of sovereign man?- So
few, that the exceptions remind me of an ingenious conjecture
respecting Newton: that he was probably a being of a superior order,
accidentally caged in a human body. Following the same train of
thinking, I have been led to imagine that the few extraordinary
women who have rushed in eccentrical directions out of the orbit
prescribed to their sex, were male spirits, confined by mistake in
female frames. But if it be not philosophical to think of sex when the
soul is mentioned, the inferiority must depend on the organs; or the
heavenly fire, which is to ferment the clay, is not given in equal
portions.

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

[Callisto]

It is difficult for us purblind mortals to say to what height
human discoveries and improvements may arrive when the gloom of
despotism subsides, which makes us stumble at every step; but, when
morality shall be settled on a more solid basis, then, without being
gifted with a prophetic spirit, I will venture to predict that woman
will be either the friend or slave of man. We shall not, as at
present, doubt whether she is a moral agent, or the link which
unites man with brutes. But, should it then appear, that like the
brutes they were principally created for the use of man, he will let
them patiently bite the bridle, and not mock them with empty praise;
or, should their rationality be proved, he will not impede their
improvement merely to gratify his sensual appetites. He will not, with
all the graces of rhetoric, advise them to submit implicitly their
understanding to the guidance of man. He will not, when he treats of
the education of women, assert that they ought never to have the
free use of reason, nor would he recommend cunning and dissimulation
to beings who are acquiring, in like manner as himself, the virtues of
humanity.

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

  The poet then should have dropped his sneer when he says,

        'If weak women go astray,

        'The stars are more in fault than they.'

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

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

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

[Callisto]

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

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

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

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

  Brutal force has hitherto governed the world, and that the science
of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philosophers
scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man that determinate
distinction.

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

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 Chap. III.

               The Same Subject Continued.

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

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

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

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

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

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* 'Researches into abstract and speculative truths, the principles
and axioms of sciences, in short, every thing which tends to
generalize our ideas, is not the proper province of women; their
studies should be relative to points of practice; it belongs to them
to apply those principles which men have discovered; and it is their
part to make observations, which direct men to the establishment of
general principles. All the ideas of women, which have not the
immediate tendency to points of duty, should be directed to the
study of men, and to the attainment of those agreeable accomplishments
which have taste for their object; for as to works of genius, they are
beyond their capacity; neither have they sufficient precision or power
of attention to succeed in sciences which require accuracy: and as
to physical knowledge, it belongs to those only who are most active,
most inquisitive; who comprehend the greatest variety of objects: in
short, it belongs to those who have the strongest powers, and who
exercise them most, to judge of the relations between sensible
beings and the laws of nature. A woman who is naturally weak, and does
not carry her ideas to any great extent, knows how to judge and make a
proper estimate of those movements which she sets to work, in order to
aid her weakness; and these movements are the passions of men. The
mechanism she employs is much more powerful than ours; for all her
levers move the human heart. She must have the skill to incline us
to do every thing which her sex will not enable her to do herself, and
which is necessary or agreeable to her; therefore she ought to study
the mind of man thoroughly, not the mind of man in general,
abstractedly, but the dispositions of those men to whom she is
subject, either by the laws of her country or by the force of opinion.
She should learn to penetrate into their real sentiments from their
conversation, their actions, their looks, and gestures. She should
also have the art, by her own conversation, actions, looks, and
gestures, to communicate those sentiments which are agreeable to them,
without seeming to intend it. Men will argue more philosophically
about the human heart; but women will read the heart of man better
than they. It belongs to women, if I may be allowed the expression, to
form an experimental morality, and to reduce the study of man to a
system. Women have most wit, men have most genius; women observe,
men reason: from the concurrence of both we derive the clearest
light and the most perfect knowledge, which the human mind is, of
itself, capable of attaining. In one word, from hence we acquire the
most intimate acquaintance, both with ourselves and others, of which
our nature is capable; and it is thus that art has a constant tendency
to perfect those endowments which nature has bestowed,- The world is
the book of women.'- Rousseau's Emilius.

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

  But, if strength of body be, with some shew of reason, the boast
of men, why are women so infatuated as to be proud of a defect?
Rousseau has furnished them with a plausible excuse, which could
only have occurred to a man, whose imagination had been allowed to run
wild, and refine on the impressions made by exquisite senses;- that
they might, forsooth, have a pretext for yielding to a natural
appetite without violating a romantic species of modesty, which
gratifies the pride and libertinism of man.

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

  Women, as well as despots, have now, perhaps, more power than they
would have if the world, divided and subdivided into kingdoms and
families, were governed by laws deduced from the exercise of reason;
but in obtaining it, to carry on the comparison, their character is
degraded, and licentiousness spread through the whole aggregate of
society. The many become pedestal to the few. I, therefore, will
venture to assert, that till women are more rationally educated, the
progress of human virtue and improvement in knowledge must receive
continual checks. And if it be granted that woman was not created
merely to gratify the appetite of man, or to be the upper servant, who
provides his meals and takes care of his linen, it must follow, that
the first care of those mothers or fathers, who really attend to the
education of females, should be, if not to strengthen the body, at
least, not to destroy the constitution by mistaken notions of beauty
and female excellence; nor should girls ever be allowed to imbibe
the pernicious notion that a defect can, by any chemical process of
reasoning, become an excellence. In this respect, I am happy to
find, that the author of one of the most instructive books, that our
country has produced for children, coincides with me in opinion; I
shall quote his pertinent remarks to give the force of his respectable
authority to reason.*

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

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'"But Selene's education was regulated by different views, and
conducted upon severer principles; if that can be called severity
which opens the mind to a sense of moral and religious duties, and
most effectually arms it against the inevitable evils of life."' Mr.
Day's Sandford and Merton, Vol. III.

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

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

  Throughout the whole animal kingdom every young creature requires
almost continual exercise, and the infancy of children, conformable to
this intimation, should be passed in harmless gambols, that exercise
the feet and hands, without requiring very minute direction from the
head, or the constant attention of a nurse. In fact, the care
necessary for self-preservation is the first natural exercise of the
understanding, as little inventions to amuse the present moment unfold
the imagination. But these wise designs of nature are counteracted
by mistaken fondness or blind zeal. The child is not left a moment
to its own direction, particularly a girl, and thus rendered
dependent- dependence is called natural.

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

[Callisto]

Pursuing these reflections, the fondness for dress, conspicuous in
women, may be easily accounted for, without supposing it the result of
a desire to please the sex on which they are dependent. The absurdity,
in short, of supposing that a girl is naturally a coquette, and that a
desire connected with the impulse of nature to propagate the
species, should appear even before an improper education has, by
heating the imagination, called it forth prematurely, is so
unphilosophical, that such a sagacious observer as Rousseau would
not have adopted it, if he had not been accustomed to make reason give
way to his desire of singularity, and truth to a favourite paradox.

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

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

  * 'I once knew a young person who learned to write before she
learned to read, and began to write with her needle before she could
use a pen. At first, indeed, she took it into her head to make no
other letter than the O: this letter she was constantly making of
all sizes, and always the wrong way. Unluckily, one day, as she was
intent on this employment, she happened to see herself in the
looking-glass; when, taking a dislike to the constrained attitude in
which she sat while writing, she threw away her pen, like another
Pallas, and determined against making the O any more. Her brother
was also equally adverse to writing: it was the confinement,
however, and not the constrained attitude, that most disgusted
him.'- Rousseau's Emilius.

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

  The baneful consequences which flow from inattention to health
during infancy, and youth, extend further than is supposed- dependence
of body naturally produces dependence of mind; and how can she be a
good wife or mother, the greater part of whose time is employed to
guard against or endure sickness? Nor can it be expected that a
woman will resolutely endeavour to strengthen her constitution and
abstain from enervating indulgencies, if artificial notions of beauty,
and false descriptions of sensibility, have been early entangled
with her motives of action. Most men are sometimes obliged to bear
with bodily inconveniencies, and to endure, occasionally, the
inclemency of the elements; but genteel women are, literally speaking,
slaves to their bodies, and glory in their subjection.

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

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