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 THE SCOTT LIBRARY. 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 
A Vindication of the Rights 
 of Woman. By Mary Woll- 
 stonecraft. wlth an intro- 
 DUCTION by Elizabeth Robins 
 Pennell 
 
 London : Walter Scott, 24 Warwick 
 Lane, Paternoster Row 
 
A 
 
 "A 
 
 

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 4/c 
 
 I ' ) 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 # : "i 
 
 f^. U*A> ^j 
 
 THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND 
 CONSIDERED - - - - - - - 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PREVAILING OPINION OF A SEXUAL CHARACTER 
 DISCUSSED ----_- 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 |ihe SAME SUBJECT — continued - 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO 
 WHICH WOMAN IS REDUCED BY VARIOUS CAUSES 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ANIMADVERSIONS ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO 
 HAVE RENDERED WOMEN OBJECTS OF PITY, 
 BORDERING ON CONTEMPT .... 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHE EFFECT WHICH AN EARLY ASSOCIATION OF 
 IDEAS HAS UPON THE CHARACTER - 
 
 23767 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii 
 xxv 
 xxxi 
 
 14 
 
 42 
 
 64 
 
 '°3 
 
 159 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MODESTY — COMPREHENSIVELY CONSIDERED, AND 
 
 NOT AS A SEXUAL VIRTUE - j68 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MORALITY' UNDERMINED BY SEXUAL NOTIONS OF 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD REPUTATION 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM 
 THE UNNATURAL DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN 
 SOCIETY - 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PARENTAL AFFECTION 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DUTY TO PARENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON NATIONAL EDUCATION - - . . 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SOME INSTANCES OF THE FOLLY WHICH THE IGNOR- 
 ANCE OF WOMAN GENERATES; WITH CONCLUD- 
 ING REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL IMPROVE- 
 MENT THAT A REVOLUTION IN FEMALE MANNERS 
 MIGHT NATURALLY BE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE - 
 
 184 
 
 I9S 
 
 2i i 
 
 " 
 
 22; 
 
 2 53 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 A HUNDRED years ago, women had not begun to 
 make the vindication of their rights the prominent 
 political and social problem it has become to-day. 
 People were still horrified by the doctrine that all men 
 had claims as human beings. Merely to write, even if 
 necessity forced a woman to a literary life, was to defy pub- 
 lic opinion — to step out of the bounds of female reserve, good 
 Mrs Barbauld feared. But boldly and openly to question 
 her social and moral position was to commit the unpardon- 
 able sin, and to be damned for indelicacy. Of both minor 
 offence and deadly crime Mary Wollstonecraft was guilty. 
 When she came to London, and made literature her profes- 
 sion, she was really the first of a new genus, as she wrote in 
 a 'letter to her sister Everina. After the publication of her 
 "Rights of Woman " she was denounced as a social outcast — 
 a'" hyena in petticoats," a " philosophising serpent," Horace 
 N^alpole politely called her. Had she worked, had her most 
 famous book appeared to-day, her reputation might not 
 have outlived her own generation. Her literary merits are 
 srhall, her teachings conservative compared to the more 
 advanced principles now advocated by women. But because 
 she saw the evils in the conception of woman's sphere and 
 duty then accepted even by her own sex, because she had the 
 courage to say what she thought and knew at a time when 
 ^omen were not expected to think or to know anything, she 
 / bust always be remembered and honoured. One need not 
 srree with her to appreciate her strength and independence. 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 For the gospel she preached the age was intellectually, if 
 not socially, prepared. That woman, as a human being, has 
 rights was but the inevitable conclusion of the then new 
 philosophical theory, that "man is born free," which, as 
 inevitably, had been developed from the premises estab- 
 lished by the Reformation. But if for her theory she was 
 indebted to the influence of the age, her immediate practi- 
 cal application of it was in a great measure due to the cir- 
 cumstances of her own life. Had she not seen for herself 
 the unspeakable misery caused by the intellectual and do- 
 mestic degradation of woman, she would not have been so 
 quick to discern the flaw in the reasoning of Rousseau and 
 his French and English disciples. Her book gains in force 
 when it is realised how entirely her arguments and doctrines 
 are based upon experience. Indeed, without this realisa- 
 tion, without a knowledge of her young life's sorrows and 
 responsibilities, it loses half its interest. 
 
 Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April 1750, 
 either in Hoxton or in Epping Forest. Her father was trie 
 son of a successful manufacturer in Spitalfields ; her grand- 
 father, on her mother's side, was a Mr Dixon of Bally- 
 shannon, whose social position was as assured as the wealth 
 of the older Mr Wollstonecraft. The latter left to his son ja 
 fortune of ten thousand pounds— no small sum for thoie 
 days. Mary had two sisters, Everina and Eliza, who never 
 ceased to be heavy drains upon her financial and emotional 
 resources, who were as ready to criticise her actions as to 
 receive her favours, and whose one good quality was the 
 care with which they preserved her letters. Of her three 
 brothers, the eldest, Edward, alone was fairly successful from 
 the first, though by his success she never profited : the 
 others, James and Charles, and more particularly the third 
 and youngest, too often relied upon her for the help which 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. [% 
 
 they, as men, should have afforded a sister in an age 
 when it was no light matter for a woman, more particu- 
 larly a gentlewoman, to gain her own livelihood. That Mr 
 Wollstonecraft, notwithstanding his ten thousand pounds, 
 did nothing for his children is easily explained. He was a 
 spendthrift, through whose fingers money slipped easily; he 
 was a drunkard, with all the drunkard's worst faults ; shift- 
 less and restless, it was impossible for him to stay long in 
 any one place. Mary's early years were spent in wandering 
 from Epping Forest to Barking, from Beverley to Hoxton, 
 from Pembroke to Walworth, picking up whatever crumbs of 
 education she might by the way, and ever) where learning 
 those cruel lessons of life upon which she was later to found 
 her moral creed. Mr Wollstonecraft's temper, ungovern- 
 able at the best of times, was aggravated a hundredfold 
 by drink. The terror and tyrant of his household, he did 
 not spare even his wife ; and many a time, while she was 
 -still a child, Mary had thrown herself between the two that 
 she might receive the blows meant for the mother she 
 lipved. Many a night she had passed crouched at the 
 threshold of her bedroom, on the alert to play, if needed, 
 her part as protector in the next scene of the family 
 tragedy. There was little in this household to impress her 
 with the sanctity of the marriage tie, or the blessings result- 
 ing from the subjection of women. And it seemed as if 
 each new development in her intellectual and social career 
 was destined to confirm her early impressions. 
 
 The first important event of her youth was her meeting 
 with Fanny Blood, the friend she loved with perhaps the 
 v£rongest passion of her life, and after whom, years later, 
 j,, 'en the latter had long since been dead, she named her 
 „|jdest daughter, the unfortunate Fanny Imlay, or Fanny 
 t ...odwin, as she is better known. Mary was about sixteen 
 
x PRE FA TOR Y NO TE. 
 
 when she first met Fanny Blood, who, though no older than 
 herself, was already contributing to the support of her 
 parents. Affairs with the Bloods were much the same as 
 with the Wollstonecrafts ; the father was a drunken brute, 
 the mother, weak and incompetent, and the children, in 
 consequence, were neglected and ill-treated. In this family 
 Mary was again confronted with the evils from which she 
 so keenly suffered in her own. But, though not without 
 its tragic side, the new friendship brought her her first real 
 happiness, and became a stimulus to her intellectual activity. 
 Her ambition was roused by Fanny's example, and, con- 
 scious that in the near future she must be wholly self- 
 dependent, she devoted herself to study with renewed 
 energy. 
 
 The time for action came quickly enough. At the age 
 of nineteen she went out into the world to seek her fortunes. 
 Her start in life was not brilliant. She became a lady's 
 companion, an occupation ill suited to her special talents. 
 But shortly afterwards, being called home by the death 
 of her mother, she exchanged this position for that of 
 governess, and during the next nine years she taught, either 
 in a school of her own, or in a private family, all the time 
 hoping that, eventually, literature might become her pro- 
 fession, all the time pursued by those cares from which she 
 was never free. Her sister Eliza, the " poor Bess " of the 
 voluminous Wollstonecraft correspondence, made an unfor- 
 tunate marriage, and it was Mary who had to watch her 
 during her temporary madness, who had to help her to 
 escape from a brutal husband in a wild flight to London. 
 
 Fanny Blood married a Mr Skeys, though he seems ^ 
 have been but a lukewarm lover, and went with him fe 
 live in Lisbon, where, however, her health rapidly failec^ 
 and again it was Mary who had to set sail for Portugal, ar. 
 
 ERE FA TORY NOTE. 
 
 XI 
 
 nurse her through her last fatal illness. Mr Wollstonecraft 
 was sinking lower and lower to the very depths of dissipa- 
 tion, so that his daughters could no longer live with him. 
 Whenever Everina and Eliza were in want of work to do, 
 they looked to Mary to find it for them. And it was to 
 her also that George Blood, Fanny's brother, and the two 
 younger Wollstonecrafts, James and Charles, turned in their 
 many hours of need. There was but little reason for her to 
 believe with Rousseau and Dr Gregory, that woman's sole 
 duty is to please, little reason to re-echo Mrs Barbauld's 
 amiable sentiment, that the highest aim for woman is to 
 attain knowledge enough to make herself an agreeable 
 companion to husband or brothers. Her duty hitherto 
 had been of a less passive nature, and, whatever a hus- 
 l| band might in his turn ask of her, certainly her brothers 
 I would have been the first to rebel, had she been content 
 \ to accept Mrs Barbauld's definition of feminine usefulness. 
 
 From girlhood she was forced to support, not only her- 
 self, but others; from girlhood, therefore, she could but 
 realise the inefficiency of a woman's early training, and 
 the many difficulties in her way, owing to the absurd and 
 
 i artificial sexual distinction set up between men and women. 
 
 Hc.w keenly she did feel these things she was soon to show 
 in her "Vindication." But before she wrote it, she lived 
 through one more experience which impressed her with the 
 equally cruel and false position of the woman who, after 
 the same demoralising training, had not even the incentive 
 of work to rouse her from her sexual degradation. 
 
 She was engaged as governess by Lady Kingsborough, an 
 Irishwoman of high rank and fashion, and remained with 
 
 \ her for a year. It was in Mitchelstown she had her first 
 
 glimpse into a society of which Lady Kingsborough was a 
 typical member, and there is no doubt that the latter is the 
 
 r »^ 
 
XII 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 " fine lady" who figures again and again in the "Vindication," 
 and in whom " the wife, mother, and human creature were 
 all swallowed up by the factitious character which an improper 
 education and the selfish vanity of beauty had produced," 
 but who " was quite feminine according to the masculine 
 acceptation of the word." Mary was as earnest a hater of 
 shams as Carlyle, and, of all, the most odious to her was the 
 woman of sensibility. How great a martyrdom her life at the 
 castle seemed, is shown by the warmth with which, so speedily- 
 after leaving it, she denounced the Lady Kingsboroughs of 
 society. However, there were occasional intervals when 
 she vied with the guests of the house in gaiety ; and, better 
 still, the children in her charge grew to love her. When 
 Margaret, the eldest, as Lady Mountcashel, long years after 
 in Pisa met Mary Shelley, her loving memory of her old 
 governess, the latter's mother, was still fresh. Indeed, it 
 was this affection which was indirectly the cause of Mary's 
 at last going to London to try her fortunes there. Lady 
 Kingsborough became jealous, and made some excuse to be 
 rid of the too clever and attractive teacher. 
 
 I have dwelt upon Mary's life during the years which 
 immediately preceded the publication of the work for 
 which she is remembered, because they had such a strong 
 and striking influence upon it. To know the few leading 
 facts, her own hard and bitter struggle, her heavy respon- 
 sibilities, the miserable or artificial existence of most of the 
 women with whom she came in contact, is to understand 
 the interesting personal significance of many of her most 
 vehement paragraphs, much of her most scathing rhetoric. 
 
 When she came to London in 1788, it was to do the 
 work and live the life for which she had always longed. 
 She had already made her maiden attempt in literature, 
 having written a short pamphlet called " Thoughts on the 
 
 i 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. xiii 
 
 Education of Daughters," and been paid ten guineas for 
 it. It had been issued by Mr Johnson, the well-known 
 and enterprising Fleet Street publisher, and moreover had 
 secured her his friendship. He had doubtless seen in it 
 signs of literary ability, for ever since he had been urging 
 her to give up teaching for literature, and now that she 
 followed his advice, he proved practically how sincere he 
 had been. He employed her as his reader, as a contributor 
 to the Analytical Revieze, though her articles being unsigned, 
 have been virtually lost, and as his translator. Lavater, 
 Salzmann, and Necker were among the foreign authors 
 whose works she translated for him. Perhaps it was because 
 of her first joy in her freedom from the restraints of Mitchels- 
 town Castle, perhaps because the ever increasing demands 
 of her family seriously taxed her income ; but, whatever 
 may have been the reason, in the beginning she seems 
 to have hidden herself in her rooms in George Street, 
 Biackfriars, and to have been utterly indifferent to ordinary 
 comfort or appearance. She warns her sisters in letters not 
 to give her address to any one, and whoever did discover her 
 lodgings, found both them and her shabby and mean — "a 
 philosophical sloven," she was afterwards described. There 
 is a delightful story told of Talleyrand's visit to her, when 
 they talked politics and sociology over their tea and wine, 
 which they drank from the same tea-cups, wine glasses 
 being an unknown luxury in George Street. This very visit 
 of Tallyrand's shows that she was not allowed for long to live 
 as a recluse. The fact is, she was a woman meant to shine 
 in society. She was handsome ; it was not so many years 
 later that Southey wrote to Cottle, "Of all the lions or 
 literati I have seen here [London], Mary Imlay's face is the 
 best, infinitely the best;" and Opie's portrait of her in the 
 National Gallery justifies his admiration. And she was a 
 
> 
 
 ! 
 
 
 xiv PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 clever talker, indeed too clever, Godwin thought when 
 they first met, and she monopolised the conversation, while 
 Paine, whom he had come to hear, sat silent. The one 
 house to which she went from her arrival in London was 
 Mr Johnson's, where all the literary men and women of the 
 day were to be found, and once known — to judge from the way 
 these matters are ordered at present — invitations must have 
 poured in upon her. Certainly, before very long, she was 
 forced from her solitude, and became the most talked-about 
 woman in England. Her profession made her notorious in 
 a day when writers like Hannah More and Mrs Barbauld 
 almost apologised for their work as if it were an indiscretion; 
 each book added to this notoriety, until finally she electrified 
 the European world by her " Vindication of the Rights of 
 Woman," published in 1792, and speedily translated into 
 French and German. 
 
 Before the public had ceased to talk about it, she left 
 London for Paris. This was in the same year, and the 
 French capital, maddened with blood, and in the first 
 ecstasy of liberty, was the dark background for the darkest, 
 saddest episode in all her sad life. It was here she met 
 Captain Gilbert Imlay, an American, apparently of means. 
 Because of her relation to him, even more than because of 
 that indecorous performance, the "Vindication," was hername 
 for years covered with scorn and obloquy. She loved him 
 with the intensity of her intense nature, and he, for a while, 
 seems to have loved her no less well. She was then thirty- 
 two, and, as far as we can be certain, the only strong passion 
 which had as yet come into her life was her friendship for 
 Fanny Blood. It is useless to speculate upon her attach- 
 ment to Fuseli, out of which Knowles, his biographer, 
 evolved a pretty scandal, and Browning, a fine poem. 
 Letters from her to Fuseli, which might explain, ar^ in 
 
 i ; 
 
 1 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 xv 
 
 existence, but those most interested object to their publi- 
 cation. If she did love him — which is not without the 
 realms of probability — it is far more likely that, instead of 
 pursuing him, as Knowles records, she really went to Paris to 
 try and forget the man who had already pledged himself 
 to another woman. This, at least, is Godwin's version of 
 the affair. She might not attach much importance to the 
 marriage ceremony, but for all that she respected the tie for 
 which a legal sanction was, according to her, unnecessary. 
 Had she wanted to, it would have been difficult in the then 
 troubled state of Paris to marry Imlay, whom, whatever 
 may have been her feelings for Fuseli, there can be no ques- 
 tion she loved sincerely. To marry him, she must have 
 declared herself a British subject, and that just then meant 
 to risk death or imprisonment. It was doubtful, too, 
 whether a ceremony performed in Paris would have been 
 considered legal in England. These are excellent reasons 
 for the steps she took. And yet I think they had little 
 weight with her, and that it was because she believed she 
 was doing what was right that she went to live with Imlay, 
 first in Paris, and then at Havre — as his mistress in the eyes 
 of the world, as his wife in her own. 
 
 Why tell again the story of her short-lived happiness and 
 his desertion, when she has told it, once and for all, in her 
 letters to him? These were published almost immediately 
 after her death by Godwin, and again, in a modern edition, 
 a few years ago, by Mr Kegan Paul. They reveal her love for 
 Imlay in all its stages,— from happy confidence, through un- 
 willingly admitted doubt, to final despair. For the sake 
 of their child, Fanny, she refused to give him up until it 
 wis simply impossible for her to bear, not only his indif- 
 ference, but his glaring infidelities. Twice in her misery did 
 she seek to kill herself; the world was too cruel. But both 
 
 — \ 
 
XVI 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 times she was saved, sorely against her will. I know of 
 nothing so tragic in fiction as her second attempt. She had 
 gone to Battersea Bridge — it was after her return from 
 France — intending to leap from it into the Thames, but 
 there being too many people about, she hired a boat and 
 rowed to Putney. It was a cold, stormy November even- 
 ing, and not until she had walked up and down, up and 
 down, on the bridge, that her clothes, drenched with rain, 
 might make her sink the more rapidly, did she throw herself 
 into the river, only to be rescued, and once more forced to 
 face life and all its bitterness. But this second failure seems 
 to have calmed her, and within a few weeks — two years 
 and six months after the first happy days in Havre — she 
 parted from Imlay for ever. 
 
 Mary went back to her old life. She had now an estab- 
 lished position as a literary woman ; many of her friends 
 remained true to her, and she made many new ones. As 
 for the sake of her child she still called herself by Imlay's 
 name, the scrupulous, who wished to retain her acquaint- 
 ance, and yet not sacrifice their moral principles, refused to 
 doubt that she was his legitimate wife. Her circumstances 
 were easier than they had ever been before, though the 
 Wollstonecraft sisters seemed as unwilling to spare her feel- 
 ings as they had ever been to spare her purse, and though 
 she was not one to throw off lightly her burden of sorrow. . 
 
 It was William Godwin, the defender of pure reason, who 
 first helped her to forget Imlay. He was forty, she three 
 years his junior, when they met again at the house of a 
 mutual friend, Miss Hayes. This time her cleverness 
 charmed instead of irritating him. Then, too, he was 
 much struck with her " Letters from Norway and Sweden," 
 published about the same period, in which he thought 
 she had got rid of the defects of style which had ais- 
 
 ; 
 
 1 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. xvii 
 
 pleased him in her earlier works. In his own words : — 
 " The partiality we conceived for each other . . . 
 grew with equal advances in the mind of each. It would 
 have been impossible for the most minute observer to have 
 said who was before, and who was after. One sex did not 
 take the priority which long-established custom has awarded 
 it, nor the other overstep the delicacy which is so severely- 
 imposed. . . . When, in the course of things, the dis- 
 closure came, there was nothing, in a manner, for either 
 party to disclose to the other." It would be interesting to 
 have Mary's version of their courtship. That she loved 
 Godwin with the passion she had given to Imlay is not 
 likely ; he was not a man to inspire it. But she probably 
 brought him that good friendship and intellectual com- 
 panionship which already, in the " Vindication," she had 
 declared to be of paramount importance in such a union. 
 At first they did not marry. Why should they have gone 
 through a ceremony in which neither believed ? They did 
 not even live together ; and perhaps it would be less often 
 ask:d if marriage is a failure, were people to follow their 
 exam-pie, man and wife occupying his and her separate 
 ap; rtments. Custom quickly stales the limited variety of 
 most human beings. The notes which passed between them 
 at this period — notes from Mary inviting Godwin to dinner, 
 or to pay her a visit, or asking him to lend her a book — are 
 charming in their originality, and in the proof they furnish of 
 the entire independence of each. 
 
 When Mary found that for the second time she was to 
 become a mother, then, for the child's sake, they went 
 through the form required by society. She felt keenly her 
 little Fanny's false position, and justly, as time showed ; for 
 the realisation of her illegitimacy was probably the cause of 
 the latter's suicide, years afterwards. Strange to say, while 
 
 Tr— <-»"".» 
 
 VA 
 
XVI11 
 
 PRE FA TOR V NOTE. 
 
 Mary's informal union with Godwin estranged none of her f 
 friends, she lost many by her marriage, — Mrs Siddons and 1 
 Mrs Inchbald among others. But the fact that she was free 
 to marry Godwin could leave no doubt as to the nature of 
 her previous relation to Imlay. However, not for long was 
 she to suffer from the cruelty of her friends. About twelve 
 months after her illegal marriage, five after the ceremony at 
 St Pancras Church, on the 30th of August 1797, she gave 
 ""? birth to Mary Godwin, destined to become famous as Mary 
 Shelley. On the 10th of September, after a painful illness, 
 during which Godwin nursed her tenderly, but reasoning 
 with her to the end, Mary Wollstonecraft died at the age of 
 thirty-eight. She was buried at Old St Pancras, and, in days 
 that followed, it was by her tomb, under its overshadowing 
 willows, that Mary Godwin and Shelley met and talked and 
 loved. Mary was in the fulness of her powers when she 
 died ; her greatest work seemed to lie before her. Eut at 
 least she escaped a second bitter disappointment that might 
 have awaited her. In those short twelve months she had 
 already grown restive under Godwin's philosophical methods 
 of love, so strangely like indifference. She was happier in 
 death perhaps than she would have been in life. 
 
 Though the " Vindication of the Rights of Woman " is the 
 one book by which she is known, Mary Wollstonecraft was 
 the author of many others. Before she met Imlay, she had 
 already published, not only her " Education of Daughters," 
 and her numerous translations and articles, but " Original 
 Stories from Real Life," somewhat in the " Sandford and 
 Merton" style, and now prized, in one edition at least, 
 because of the illustrations by Blake; "Mary," a novel, 
 most deservedly forgotten ; and a " Letter to Burke," in 
 answer to his " Reflections on the French Revolution." 
 After the sad Imlay episode she brought out the first 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. x j x 
 
 volume of " An Historical and Moral View of the Origin 
 and Progress of the French Revolution, and the Effect it 
 has produced in Europe," at which she had been working 
 while she was in France. This was followed by " Letters 
 Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, 
 and Denmark," to which countries she had gone on a 
 mission for Imlay. And when she died, she left unfinished 
 a novel called " Maria ; or, The Wrongs of Woman," which 
 Godwin included in his edition of her posthumous works. 
 But it would be useless here to give extracts from any of 
 these books. From the literary standpoint they are without 
 value, and from the philosophical they have but little more. 
 As Southey said, Mary Wollstonecraft was just beginning to 
 reason when she died. Her " French Revolution," indeed, 
 shows a marked advance in this respect, and is, on the whole, 
 her most finished and workmanlike production. The story 
 "Maria" has been enthusiastically compared to " Les Mise- 
 rables" by Miss Mathilde Blind, but though interesting 
 because unmistakably a record of her own experiences and 
 feelings, it is hysterical, grandiloquent, and melodramatic. -In 
 
 her stories her Johnsonian periods and " flowery diction " to 
 
 borrow one of her own phrases— are always most offensive. 
 But on the other hand, the " Vindication of the Rights of 
 Woman," with all its faults, is an epoch-making book, and 
 therefore, if reprinted at all, should be given without an 
 omission, without a correction, — in a word, without the least 
 editing, as it now is in this volume. The " Letters to Imlay," 
 never intended for publication, because of their genuine- 
 ness, their passion, their despair, and despite the somewhat 
 didactic strain which forced itself even into the familiar 
 correspondence of her days, are among the most beautiful 
 and pathetic love-letters ever given to the world. 
 
 The faults of the " Vindication " are too aggressive to need 
 
I 
 
 XX 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 XXI 
 
 I 
 
 pointing out : they assert themselves on almost every page. 
 That her turgid, bombastic style should have offended a 
 fastidious Godwin/even when her matter must have been so 
 to his taste, is not hard to understand. To the present 
 generation her flowers of rhetoric are still more offensive,— , 
 her exhortations to the Deity, her foolish flights of fancy, 
 still more unbearable. Again, though she was treating a 
 subject which was eminently one of reason and logic, her 
 whole book, as Mr Leslie Stephen has well said, is rhetorical 
 rather than speculative. It is without system, without 
 method. It is full of useless repetitions, and is for ever 
 neglecting the main argument for trifling side issues. It is 
 incoherent in places, sententious in others. Godwin records 
 that it was written in six weeks ; so hurried and careless is it 
 throughout that one could easily believe it to be the work of 
 
 as few days. 
 
 But with all its faults, perhaps because of them, it is a 
 book of unusual power. Its virtues far outweigh its defects. 
 Sincerity is stamped upon it; passion breathes through 
 eve/y sentence, and its very earnestness and intensity are 
 convincing, where the well-balanced arguments of the man 
 who knows, but does not feel, the injustice he exposes, fail 
 to carTy conviction with them. 
 r| In Mary's days, the social philosophy inaugurated by 
 /Rousseau, as well as the democratic example of the colonies, 
 /had turned men's thoughts more than ever to the problem 
 / of liberty. The new doctrine of the abstract rights of 
 [ Iranian beings was in every philosopher's mouth. There 
 \w P rTpjm^i ~Ind Godwins , there were French Revolutionists 
 •'to carry it to its extreme conclusion, as far as men were 
 concerned. But only the Abbe" Sieyes (not too eagerly, 
 however) and Condorcet in France, a few emancipated 
 thinkers, a woman among their number, in Hungary, and 
 
 Mary Wollstonecraft in England, had eyes to see that, if all 
 human b eings had abstra ct rights 1 then womrn, .as .human 
 bdn^J^ejyjthjnen equally. qualified to claim them. It 
 is only lately that Mr Karl D. Bulbring* has revived the 
 memory of the almost forgotten Mary Astell, and reminded 
 all interested in the matter, that it was she who first defended 
 woman's rights, who "took the first decided step out of 
 the narrow limits of tradition," one hundred years before 
 Mary Wollstonecraft's " Vindication" appeared. That Mary 
 Astell's writings are curious and valuable in their way. no 
 one can deny, nor that she really deserves the distinction he 
 upholds for her. One cannot but wonder if her books 
 were known to Mary Wollstonecraft, for many of the tatter's 
 educational suggestions resemble closely theories advocated 
 by the advanced woman of the earlier century. However, 
 Mary Astell's arguments are those of a woman of mind and 
 culture, who throughout her life suffered from the short- 
 comings of her early education, rather than of one whose 
 ideas. were_ based. upon principles of hum an~irBert}\ What 
 she objected to was, " that the other sex, by means of more 
 extensive education . . . have a vaster field for their 
 imaginations to rove in, and their capacities thereby en- 
 larged." She was not without a proper regard for the 
 naturally superior strength, mental and physical, of man, 
 whom woman should please and obey ; and only after her 
 chief work was done, did she seem to realise that there 
 were better reasons for the higher education of women, than 
 that they might thereby more gracefully subject themselves 
 to the other sex But then it would have been impossible 
 for the woman of the seventeenth century to approach the 
 
 / 
 
 - 
 
 Journal of Education, April and May numbers, 1S91. 
 
XX11 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 I 
 
 subject from the standpoint of the woman of th; ighteenth 
 who knew something of the intellectual move: t of her 
 own age, and, when all is considered, I think I.:.- Bulbring 
 is right in looking upon Mary Astell as the forerunner of 
 Mary VVollstonecraft and of Mill. As far as I know, Dr 
 Concha of Kolozsvar, in his book on the revolutionary ideas 
 of Hungary in 1790, has been the first to recall the fact 
 that there were advocates for the rights of women— men as 
 well as women— in his country, at very much the same 
 time that the doctrine was being proclaimed in England 
 and France. Hungarians, too, appreciated the truth that 
 women and men are " brethren," or equally human beings, 
 and that, therefore, the former should be educated, should 
 have the same rights as the latter, and should take office in 
 the administration. But the pamphlets then written were 
 lost sight of, until Dr Concha unearthed them from their 
 forgotten corner in the Museum of Budapest ; and the fact 
 remains, that the only works of genuine importance on the 
 woman question, dating back to the eighteenth century, are 
 those of the French philosopher and the half-educated 
 young Englishwoman. 
 
 The contrast between their respective treatment of the 
 subject is great. Condorcet argued with all the logic of the 
 thoughtful student, Mary Wollstonecraft with all the fire of 
 the impulsive woman. And yet, the Frenchman's essays, 
 though in them he was far the more revolutionary of the 
 two, are practically forgotten, while the Englishwoman's 
 volume still lives as the text-book of the new generation of 
 believers in women's rights. But too many of her followers, 
 unfortunately, have failed to grasp the true meaning of the 
 "Vindication." Mary, were she living to-day, probably would 
 be one of the first to join with Mr Frederick Harrison in 
 his outcry against women disordered by the " fever of a 
 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. xxiii 
 
 public mission." Her whole book is a protest against 
 shams, and she who was quick to discern the falseness of 
 the doll's life (the phrase was hers before Ibsenism was 
 invented) for the Noras of her time, could not have been 
 deceived by the sham ideals set up by the typical strong- 
 minded woman of the present. She thought women de- 
 graded when, because of their sex, men refused to look 
 upon them as human beings ; she could hardly have thought 
 them emancipated, if, in obtaining recognition as human 
 beings, they ignored their sex altogether. Let woman be her- 
 sdfj_that_w r as what she asked; a human being with certain 
 sexual functions and physical appetites which it was no 
 shame to possess, with certain mental abilities which it was 
 a duty to cultivate. The Sophias of her age were the shams 
 she struggled to suppress. Let woman be herself and not a 
 mere automaton, pretty to look at, with no other object in 
 existence save to gratify the whims and passions of man. 
 Once the absurd sexual barrier was broken down, she would 
 be as free as he was to live her own life, to follow her own 
 profession, whether this was solely domestic or no. Mary 
 agreed with Socrates, that women should take up that work 
 for which they are best qualified by nature. Her suggestion 
 that they are eminently fitted to be doctors, shows what a 
 keen appreciation she had of their special characteristics. 
 If they chose to concern themselves with politics and public 
 affairs, why not if they had the proper knowledge and talents, 
 and were not thereby disqualified as human beings and 
 women ? Once the woman question, as it presented itself 
 to her, was settled in honest straightforward fashion, she 
 believed that all other difficulties would disappear easily 
 and naturally. The main thing was to be done with shams 
 for evermore, not to substitute for the old sham sensibility 
 of puppetdom the new sham sexlessness of emancipation. 
 
 X 
 
xxiv 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 It is also worth while to note her excellent hints on the 
 subject of education. Her scheme for national schools, 
 which must have seemed so Socratic at the time, has been 
 very nearly realised in the United States ; her proposed 
 combination of work and play is an anticipation of Froebel. 
 She may have written from impulse ; she may often have 
 sacrificed logic to rhetoric, but sincere partisanship never 
 made her lose her common -sense. She was always an 
 enthusiast, never a fanatic, and this, in our age of sentimental 
 fanaticism, is not the least of her merits. 
 
 ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL. 
 
 Budapest, 25M October 1891. 
 
 I 
 
 I * 
 
 
 f 
 
 DEDICATION TO 
 M. TALLEYRAND-PERIGOR.D, 
 
 Late Bishop of Antun. 
 
 SIR, — Having read with great pleasure a pamphlet which 
 you have lately published, I dedicate this volume to 
 you, to induce you to reconsider the subject, and 
 maturely weigh what I have advanced respecting the rights 
 of woman and national education ; and I call with the firm 
 tone of humanity, for my arguments, sir, are dictated by a 
 disinterested spirit— I plead for my sex, not for myself. 
 1 Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing 
 of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will 
 ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live 
 Ion a barren heath. 
 
 It is then an affection for the whole human race that 
 , makes my pen dart rapidly along to support what I believe 
 A to be the cause of virtue ; and the same motive leads me 
 earnestly to wish to see woman placed in a station in which 
 she would advance, instead of retarding, the progress of 
 those glorious principles that give a substance to morality. 
 My opinion, indeed, respecting the rights and duties of 
 woman seems to flow so naturally from these simple prin- 
 ciples, that I think it scarcely possible but that some of the 
 enlarged minds who formed your admirable constitution will 
 coincide with me. 
 
 In France there is undoubtedly a more general diffusion 
 of knowledge than in any part of the European world, and 
 I attribute it, in a great measure, to the social intercourse 
 
 c 
 
XXVI 
 
 DEDICA TION. 
 
 It is true — 
 France the 
 
 which has long subsisted between the sexes. 
 I utter my sentiments with freedom— that in t ranee tne 
 very essence of sensuality has been extracted to regale the I 
 voluptuary, and a kind of sentimental lust has prevailed, . 
 which, together with the system of duplicity that the whole j 
 tenor of their political and civil government taught, have I 
 given a sinister sort of sagacity to the French character, ' 
 properly termed finesse, from which naturally flow a polish of 
 manners that injures the substance by hunting sincerity out 
 of society. And modesty, the fairest garb of virtue ! has 
 been more grossly insulted in France than even in England, 
 till their women have treated as prudish that attention to 
 decency which brutes instinctively observe. 
 
 Manners and morals are so nearly allied that they have 
 often been confounded ; but, though the former should only 
 be the natural reflection of the latter, yet, when various 
 causes have produced factitious and corrupt manners, which 
 are very early caught, morality becomes an empty name. 
 The personal reserve, and sacred respect for cleanliness 
 and delicacy in domestic life, which French women almost 
 despise, are the graceful pillars of modesty ; but, far from 
 despising them, if the pure flame of patriotism have reached 
 their bosoms, they should labour to improve the morals of 
 their fellow-citizens, by teaching men, not only to respect 
 modesty in women, but to acquire it themselves, as the only 
 wjy to merit their esteem. 
 
 Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument 
 lis built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared 
 [ by educatio n to become the companion of man, she will stop 
 the progress of knowledge and virtue ; for truth must be 
 mramon to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its 
 influence on general practice. And how can woman be 
 expected to co-operate unless she know why she ought to 
 
 DEDICA TION. xxvii 
 
 be virtuous? unless freedom strengthen her reason till she 
 i comprehend her duty, and see in what manner it is con-_ 
 I nected with her real good. If children are to be educated 
 to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother 
 must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an 
 orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by con- 
 sidering the moral and civil interest of mankind ; but the 
 ed ucat io n and situation of woman at present shuts her out 
 ' from such investigations. 
 
 In this work I have produced many arguments, which to 
 me were conclusive, to prove that the prevailing notion 
 respecting a sexual character was subversive of morality, and 
 I have contended, that to render the human body and mind 
 more perfect, chastity must more universally prevail, and 
 that chastity will never be respected in the male world till 
 the person of a woman is not, as it were, idolised, when 
 little virtue or sense embellish it with the grand traces of 
 mental beauty, or the interesting simplicity of affection. 
 
 Consider, sir, dispassionately these observations, for a 
 glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you 
 observed, "that to see oneJijil£li.Lthe .human race excluded 
 by the other from all participation of government was a politi- 
 cal phenomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was 
 impossible to explain." If so, on what does your constitution 
 rest ? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and 
 explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will 
 not shrink from the same test ; though a different opinion 
 prevails in this country, built on the very arguments which 
 you use to justify the oppression of woman — prescription. 
 
 Consider — I address you as a legislator — whether, when 
 men contend for theui freedom, and to be allowed to jud^e 
 for themselves respecting- their own happiness, it be not in- 
 consistent ar.d unjust to subjugate women, even though you 
 
 **v 
 
XX viii DEDICATION. 
 
 firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best cal- 
 culated to promote their happiness ? Who made man the 
 exclusive judge, if woman partake with him of the gift of 
 
 reason? 
 
 In this style argue tyrants of every denomination, from 
 the weak king to the weak father of a family ; they are all 
 eager to crush reason, yet always assert that they usurp its 
 throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part 
 when you force all women, by denying them civil and political 
 rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? 
 for surely, sir, you will not assert that a duty can be binding 
 which is not founded on reason ? If, indeed, this be their 
 destination, arguments may be drawn from reason; and thus 
 augustly supported, the more understanding women acquire, 
 the more they will be attached to their duty— comprehend- 
 ing it— for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be 
 fixed on the same immutable principle as those of man, no 
 authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner. 
 They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its 
 constant effect, degrading the master and the abject 
 dependent. 
 
 But if women are to be excluded, without having a voice, 
 from a participation of the natural rights of mankind, prove 
 first, to ward off the charge of injustice and inconsistency, 
 that they want reason, else this flaw in your new consti- 
 tution will ever show that man must, in some shape, act 
 like a tyrant, and tyranny, in whatever part of society it 
 rears its brazen front, will ever undermine morality. 
 
 I have repeatedly asserted, and produced what appeared 
 to me irrefragable arguments drawn from matters of fact to 
 prove my assertion, that women cannot by force be confined 
 to domestic concerns; for they will, however ignorant, 
 intermeddle with more weighty affairs, neglecting private 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 f 
 
 duties only to disturb, by cunning tricks, the orderly plans 
 of reason which rise above their comprehension. 
 ) Besides, whilst they are only made to acquire personal 
 accomplishments, men will seek for pleasure in variety, and 
 faithless husbands will make faithless wives ; such ignorant 
 beings, indeed, will be very excusable when, not taught to 
 respect public good, nor allowed any civil rights, they 
 attempt to do themselves justice by retaliation. 
 
 The box of mischief thus opened in society, what is to 
 preserve private virtue, the only security of public freedom 
 and universal happiness ? 
 
 Let there be then no coercion established in society, and 
 the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into 
 their proper places. And now that more equitable laws are 
 forming your citizens, marriage may become more sacred ; 
 your young men may choose wives from motives of affection, 
 and your maidens allow love to root out vanity. 
 
 The father of a family will not then weaken his constitution 
 and debase his sentiments by visiting the harlot, nor forget, 
 in obeying the call of appetite, the purpose for which it was 
 implanted. And the mother will not neglect her children 
 to practise the arts of coquetry, when sense and modesty 
 secure her the friendship of her husband. 
 
 But, till men become attentive to the duty of a father, it 
 
 is vain to expect women to spend that time in their nursery 
 
 which they, " wise in their generation," choose to spend at 
 
 their glass ; for this exertion of cunning is only an instinct 
 
 of nature to enable them to obtain indirectly a little of that 
 
 power of which they are unjustly denied a share ; for, if 
 
 \. women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they will 
 
 \ render both men and themselves vicious to obiain illicit 
 
 / privileges. 
 
 *r"-"] rncvish, sir, to set some investigations of this kind afloat 
 
 t 
 
xxx DEDICATION. 
 
 in France; and should they lead to a confirmation of my i 
 principles when your constitution is revised, the Rights of ^ 
 Woman may be respected, if it be fully proved that reason , 
 calls for this respect, and loudly demands justice for one- 
 half of the human race. 
 
 \ 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 M. W. 
 
 * 
 
 AFTER considering the historic page, and viewing the 
 living world with anxious solicitude, the most 
 melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have 
 depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to 
 confess that either nature has made a great difference 
 between man and man, or that the civilisation which has 
 hitherto taken place in the world has been very partial. I 
 have turned over various books written on the subject of 
 education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents 
 and the management of schools ; but what has been the 
 result ? — a profound conviction that the neglected education 
 of my fellow-creatures is the grand source of the misery I , 
 depTore7~arid~that women, in particular, are rendered weak 
 and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating 
 from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of 
 women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in 
 a healthy state ; for, like the flowers which are planted in 
 too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to 
 beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a 
 fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the 
 season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. One 
 cause of this'barren blooming I attribute to a false system 
 of_gdiicaiLQn, gathered from the books written on this sub- 
 ject by men who, considering females rather as women than 
 human creatures, have been more anxious to make them 
 alluring" mistresses" than affectionate wives and rational 
 mothers ; and the understanding of the sex has been so 
 
 .. . . ... ■ — i - 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilised women 
 of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only! 
 anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler 1 
 ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect. 
 
 In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the , 
 works which have been particularly written for their im- 
 provement must not be overlooked, especially when it is 
 asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are 
 enfeebled by false refinement ; that the books of instruction, 
 written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as 
 more frivolous productions ; and that, in the true style of 
 Mahometanism, they are treated as a kind of subordinate 
 beings, and not as a part of the human species, when im- 
 provable reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction 
 which raises men above the brute creation, and puts a 
 natural sceptre in a feeble hand. 
 
 Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readeis 
 to suppose that I mean violently to agitate the contested 
 question respecting the quality or inferiority of the sex ; but 
 as the subject lies in my way, and I cannot pass it over 
 without subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to 
 misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few- 
 words, my opinion. In the government of the physical 
 world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, 
 in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature ; 
 and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in 
 favour of woman. A degree of physical superiority cannot, 
 therefore, be denied, and it is a noble prerogative ! But 
 not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavour 
 to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for 
 a moment ; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which 
 men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not 
 seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become 
 
 > 
 
 & 
 
 INTRODUCTION xxxiii 
 
 the friends of the fellow-creatures who find amusement in 
 their society. 
 
 I am aware of an obvious inference. From every quarter 
 have I heard exclamations against masculine women, but 
 where are they to be found ? If by this appellation men 
 mean to inveigh against their ardour in hunting, shooting, 
 and gaming, I shall most cordially join in the cry ; but if it 
 be against the imitation of manly virtues, or, more properly- 
 speaking, the attainment of those talents and virtues, the 
 exercise of which ennobles the human character, and which 
 raises females in the scale of animal being, when they are 
 comprehensively termed mankind, all those who view them 
 with a philosophic eye must, I should think, wish with me, 
 that they may every day grow more and more masculine. 
 
 This discussion naturally divides the subject. I shall first 
 consider women in the grand light of human creatures, who, 
 in common with men, are placed on this earth to unfold 
 their faculties ; and afterwards I shall more particularly point 
 out their peculiar designation. 
 
 I wish also to steer clear of an error which many respect- 
 able writers have fallen into; for t he instruction wh ich .has 
 hitherto been addressed to women, has rather been applic- 
 able to ladies, if the little indirect advice that is scattered 
 through " Sandford and Merton " be excepted ; but, address- 
 ing my sex in a firmer tone, I pay particular attention to those 
 .in the middle class, because they appear to be in the most 
 natural state. Perhaps the seeds of false refinement, im- 
 morality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. 
 Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and 
 affections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner, 
 undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread cor- 
 ruption through the whole mass of society ! As a class of 
 niankind they have the strongest claim to pity ; the educa- 
 
XXXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 •" 
 
 tion of the rich tends to render them vain and helpless, and 
 the unfolding mind is not strengthened by the practice of 
 those duties which dignify the human character. They only 
 live to amuse themselves, and by the same law which in 
 nature invariably produces certain effects, they soon only 
 affo rd barren amusement. 
 
 But as I purpose taking a separate view of the different 
 ranks of society, and of the moral character of women in 
 each, this hint is for the present sufficient; and I have only 
 alluded to the subject because it appears to me to be the 
 very essence of an introduction to give a cursory account of 
 the contents of the work it introduces. 
 
 My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like 
 rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating 
 graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of 
 perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly 
 wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness 
 consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire 
 strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that 
 the soft phrases, susceptibility, of heart, delicacy of sentiment, 
 and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets 
 of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects 
 of pity, and that kind of love which, has been termed its 
 sister, will soon become objects of contempt. 
 
 Dismissing, then, those pretty feminine phrases, which the 
 men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, 
 
 d despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensi- 
 bility, and sweet docility of manners, supposed to be the 
 sexual characteristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show 
 that elegance is inferior to virtue,' that the first object of 
 laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being, 
 regardless of the distinction of sex, and that secondary views 
 should be brought to this simple touchstone. 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 This is a rough sketch of my plan ; and should I express 
 my conviction with the energetic emotions that I feel 
 whenever I think of the subject, the dictates of experi- 
 ence and reflection will be felt by some of my readers. 
 Animated by this important object, I shall disdain to cull my 
 phrases or polish my style. I aim at being useful, and sin- 
 cerity will render me unaffected ; for, wishing rather to per- 
 suade by the force of my arguments than dazzle by the 
 elegance of .my language, I shall not waste my time in round- 
 ing periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial 
 feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart. 
 I shall be employed about things, not words ! and, anxious 
 to render my sex more respectable members of society, I 
 shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has slided from 
 essays into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and 
 conversation. 
 
 These pretty superlatives, dropping glibly from the tongue, 
 vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that 
 turns away from simple unadorned truth ; and a deluge of 
 false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the 
 natural emotions of the heart, render the domestic pleasures 
 insipid, that ought to sweeten the exercise of those severe 
 duties, which educate a rational and immortal being for a 
 nobler field of action. 
 
 The educa tion of wome ji.has of late been more attended 
 to than formerly ; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, 
 and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavour by 
 satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged 
 that they spend many of the first years of their lives in 
 acquiring a smattering of accomplishments ; meanwhile 
 strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions 
 of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves— the only 
 way women can rise in the world— by marriage. And this 
 
x.i.\vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 desire miking mere animals of them, when they marry they 
 act as such children may be expected to act, — they dress, 
 they paint, and nickname God's creatures. Surely these 
 weak beings are only fit for a seraglio ! Can they be 
 expected to govern a family with judgment, or take care 
 of the poor babes whom they bring into the world ? 
 
 If, then, it can be fairly deduced from the present conduct 
 of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure which 
 tikes place of ambition and those nobler passions that open 
 /and enlarge the soul, that thejnstruetion which women have 
 hithertoj^eceived has only tended, with the constitution of 
 civil society, to render them insignificant objects _of desire 
 — merejjropagators i_of_fool_s !— if it can be proved that in 
 aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their under- 
 standings, they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and 
 made ridiculous and useless when the shortlived bloom of 
 beauty is over,* I presume that rational men will excuse me 
 for endeavouring to persuade them to become more mas- 
 
 (culine and respectable. 
 Indeed the wordjnasculine_is^ only a_bugbear ; there is 
 little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage 
 or fortitude, for their apparent inferiority with respect to 
 bodily strength must render them in some degree dependent 
 on men in the various relations of life ; but why should it 
 be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and 
 confound simple truths with sensual reveries? 
 
 Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken 
 notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a 
 paradox when I assert that this artificial weakness produces 
 a propensity to tyrannise, and gives birth to cunning, the 
 
 * A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what business 
 women turned of forty have to do in the world ? 
 
 it 
 
 w 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 nat ural opponen tof strength, w hich leads them to play off 
 those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem 
 even whilst they excite desire. TeT men become more 
 chaste and modest, and if women do not grow wiser in the 
 same ratio, it will be clear that they have weaker under- 
 standings. It seems scarcely necessary to say that I now 
 speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have more 
 sense than their male relatives ; and, as nothing preponder- 
 ates where there is a constant struggle for an equilibrium 
 without it has naturally more gravity, some women govern 
 their husbands without degrading themselves, because intel- 
 lect will always govern. 
 
 o 
 
i 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 VINDICATION 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 S- 
 
j 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 > 
 
 WHEN I began to write this work, I divided it into 
 three parts, supposing that "one volume would con- 
 tain a full discussion of the arguments which seemed to me 
 to rise naturally from a few simple principles ; but fresh 
 illustrations occurring as I advanced, I now present only the 
 first part to the public. 
 
 Many subjects, however, which I have cursorily alluded 
 to, call for particular investigation, especially the laws re- 
 lative to women, and the consideration of their peculiar 
 duties. These will furnish ample matter for a second 
 volume,* which in due time will be published, to elucidate 
 some of the sentiments, and complete many of the sketches 
 begun in the first. 
 
 • The second volume never appeared. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 s» 
 
 I 
 
 ►e 
 
 THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 N the present state of society it appears necessary to go 
 back to first principles in search of the most simple 
 truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice 
 every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed 
 to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably 
 appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is 
 built; though, when entangled with various motives of 
 action, they are formally contradicted, either by the words 
 or conduct of men. 
 
 In what does man's pre-eminence over the brute creation 
 consist ? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than 
 the whole ; in Reason. 
 
 What acquirement exalts one being above another? 
 Virtue; we spontaneously reply. 
 
 For what purpose were the passions implanted? That 
 
 man by struggling with them might attain a degree of 
 knowledge denied to the brutes ; whispers Experience. 
 
 Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability 
 of happiness, must be estimated by the degree of reason, 
 virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and 
 direct the .laws which bind society : and that from the 
 exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is 
 equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively. 
 
 The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems 
 almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear 
 
 \ 
 
4 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 so incontrovertible; yet such deeply rooted prejudices have 
 clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed 
 the name of virtues, that it is necessary to pursue the course 
 of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by 
 various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple 
 axiom with casual deviations. 
 
 Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify 
 prejudices, which they have imbibed, they can scarcely trace 
 how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be 
 strong that resolutely forms its own principles ; for a kind 
 of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men 
 shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the 
 imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very 
 plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on 
 just, though narrow, views. 
 
 Going back to first principles, vice skulks, with all its 
 native deformity, from close investigation ; but a set of 
 shallow reasoners are always exclaiming that these arguments 
 prove too much, and that a measure rotten at the core may 
 be expedient. Thus expediency is continually contrasted 
 with simple principles, till truth is lost in a mist of words, 
 virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a sounding nothing, 
 by the specious prejudices that assume its name. 
 
 That the society is formed in the wisest manner, whose 
 constitution is founded on the nature of man, strikes, in the 
 abstract, every thinking being so forcibly, that it looks like 
 presumption to endeavour to bring forward proofs; though 
 proof must be brought, or the strong hold of prescription 
 will never be forced by reason ; yet to urge prescription as 
 an argument to justify the depriving men (or women) of 
 their natural frights, is one of the absurd sophisms which 
 daily insult common-sense. 
 
 The civilisation of the bulk of the people of Europe i 
 
 I 
 
 i> 
 
 »-*- 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 5 
 
 very partial ; nay, it may be made a question, whether they 
 have acquired any virtues in exchange for innocence, equi- 
 valent to the misery produced by the vices that have been 
 plastered over unsightly ignorance, and the freedom which 
 has been bartered for splendid slavery. The desire of 
 dazzling by riches, the most certain pre-eminence that man 
 can obtain, the pleasure of commanding flattering syco- 
 phants, and many other complicated low calculations of 
 doting self-love, have all contributed to overwhelm the mass 
 of mankind, and make liberty a convenient handle for 
 mock patriotism. For whilst rank and titles are held of the 
 utmost importance, before which Genius " must hide its 
 diminished head," it is, with a few exceptions, very unfor- 
 tunate for a nation when a man of abilities, without rank or 
 property, pushes himself forward to notice. Alas! what 
 unheard-of misery have thousands suffered to purchase a 
 cardinal's hat for an intriguing obscure adventurer, who 
 longed to be ranked with princes, or lord it over them by 
 seizing the triple crown ! 
 
 Such, indeed, has been the wretchedness that has flowed 
 from hereditary honours, riches, and monarchy, that men 
 of lively sensibility have almost uttered blasphemy in order 
 to justify the dispensations of Providence. Man has been 
 held out as independent of His power who made him, or as 
 a lawless planet darting from its orbit to steal the celestial 
 fire of reason ; and the vengeance of Heaven, lurking in the 
 subtile flame, like Pandora's pent-up mischiefs, sufficiently 
 punished his temerity, by introducing evil into the world. 
 
 Impressed by this view of the misery and disorder which 
 pervaded society, and fatigued with jostling against artificial 
 fools, Rousseau became enamoured of solitude, and, being 
 at the same time an optimist, he labours with uncommon 
 eloquence to prove that man was naturally a solitary animal. 
 
 \ 
 
6 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 Misled by his respect for the goodness of God, who cer- 
 tainly — for what man of sense and feeling can doubt it ! — 
 gave life only to communicate happiness, he considers evil 
 as positive, and the work of man ; not aware that he was 
 exalting one attribute at the expense of another, equally 
 necessary to divine perfection. 
 
 Reared on a false hypothesis, his arguments in favour of 
 a state of nature are plausible, but unsound. I say unsound; 
 for to assert that a state of nature is preferable to civilisation, 
 in all its possible perfection, is, in other words, to arraign 
 supreme wisdom ; and the paradoxical exclamation, that 
 God has made all things right, and that error has been 
 introduced by the creature, whom He formed, knowing what 
 He formed, is as unphilosophical as impious. 
 
 When that wise Being who created us and placed us here, 
 saw the fair idea, He willed, by allowing it to be so, that 
 the passions should unfold our reason, because He could 
 see that present evil would produce future good. Could the 
 helpless creature whom He called from nothing break loose 
 from His providence, and boldly learn to know good by 
 practising evil, without His permission? No. How could 
 that energetic advocate for immortality argue so incon- 
 sistently ? Had mankind remained for ever in the brutal 
 state of nature, which even his magic pen cannot paint as 
 a state in which a single virtue took root, it would have 
 been clear, though not to the sensitive unreflecting wanderer, 
 that man was born to run the circle of life and death, and 
 adorn God's garden for some purpose which could not easily 
 be reconciled with His attributes. 
 
 But if, to crown the whole, there were to be rational 
 creatures produced, allowed to rise in excellence by the 
 exercise of powers implanted for that purpose ; if benignity 
 itself thought fit to call into existence a creature above the 
 
 V 
 
 
 r 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 7 
 
 brutes,* who could think and improve himself, why should 
 that inestimable gift, for a gift it was, if man was so created, 
 as to have a capacity to rise above the state in which sensa- 
 tion produced brutal ease, be called, in direct terms, a curse? 
 A curse it might be reckoned, if the whole of our existence 
 were bounded by our continuance in this world ; for why 
 should the gracious fountain of life give us passions, and 
 the power of reflecting, only to imbitter our days and inspire 
 us with mistaken notions of dignity? Why should He lead 
 us from love of ourselves to the sublime emotions which the 
 discovery of His wisdom and goodness excites, if these 
 feelings were not set in motion to improve our nature, of 
 which they make a part.t and render us capable of enjoying 
 a more godlike portion of happiness? Firmly persuaded 
 that no evil exists in the world that God did not design to 
 take place, I build my belief on the perfection of God. 
 Rousseau exerts himself to prove that all was right 
 
 * Contrary to the opinion of anatomists, who argue by analogy 
 from the formation of the teeth, stomach, and intestines, Rousseau will 
 not allow a man to be a carnivorous animal. And, carried away from 
 nature by a love of system, he disputes whether man be a gregarious 
 animal, though the long and helpless state of infancy seems to point 
 him out as particularly impelled to pair, the first step towards herding. 
 
 f What would you say to a mechanic whom you had desired to make a 
 watch to point out the hour of the day, if, to show his ingenuity, he added 
 wheels to make it a repeater, &c.,that perplexed the simple mechanism; 
 should he urge— to excuse himself— had you not touched a certain 
 spring, you would have known nothing of the matter, and that he 
 should have amused himself by making an experiment without doing 
 you any harm, would you not retort fairly upon him, by insisting that 
 if he had not added those needless wheels and springs, the accident 
 could not have happened ? 
 
 r 
 
s 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 & 
 
 MIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 originally : a crowd of authors that all if now right : and I, 
 that all will be right. 
 
 But, true to his first position, next to a state of nature, 
 Rousseau celebrates barbarism, and apostrophising the shade 
 of Fabricius, he forgets that, in conquering the world, the 
 Romans never dreamed of establishing their own liberty on 
 a firm basis, or of extending the reign of virtue. Eager to 
 support his system, he stigmatises, as vicious, every effort of 
 genius ; and, uttering the apotheosis of savage virtues, he 
 exalts those to demi-gods, who were scarcely human — the 
 brutal Spartans, who, in defiance of justice and gratitude, 
 sacrificed, in cold blood, the slaves who had shown them- 
 selves heroes to rescue their oppressors. 
 
 Disgusted with artificial manners and virtues, the citizen 
 of Geneva, instead of properly sifting the subject, threw 
 away the wheat with the chaff, without waiting to inquire 
 whether the evils which his ardent soul turned from in- 
 dignantly, were the consequence of civilisation or the 
 vestiges of barbarism. He saw vice trampling on virtue, and 
 the semblance of goodness taking the place of the reality ; 
 he saw talents bent by power to sinister purposes, and 
 never thought of tracing the gigantic mischief up to arbitrary 
 power, up to the hereditary distinctions that clash with the 
 mental superiority that naturally raises a man above his 
 fellows. He did not perceive that regal power, in a few 
 generations, introduces idiotism into the noble stem, and 
 holds out baits to render thousands idle and vicious. 
 
 Nothing can set the regal character in a more con- 
 temptible point of view, than the various crimes that have 
 elevated men to the supreme dignity. Vile intrigues, un- 
 natural crimes, and every vice that degrades our nature, 
 have been the steps to this distinguished eminence; yet 
 millions of men have supinely allowed the nerveless limbs 
 
 1 
 
 : 
 
 of the posterity of such rapacious prowlers to rest quietly 
 on their ensanguined thrones.* 
 
 What but a pestilential vapour can hover over society 
 when its chief director is only instructed in the invention of 
 crimes, or the stupid routine of childish ceremonies? Will 
 men never be wise ? — will they never cease to expect corn 
 from tares, and figs from thistles ? 
 
 It is impossible for any man, when the most favourable 
 circumstances concur, to acquire sufficient knowledge and 
 strength of mind to discharge the duties of a king, entrusted 
 with uncontrolled power ; how then must they be violated 
 when his very elevation is an insuperable bar to the attain- 
 ment of either wisdom or virtue, when all the feelings of 
 a man are stifled by flattery, and reflection shut out by 
 pleasure ! Sure it is madness to make the fate of thousands 
 depend on the caprice of a weak fellow-creature, whose 
 very station sinks him necessarily below the meanest of his 
 subjects ! But one power should not be thrown down to 
 exalt another — for all power inebriates weak man ; and its 
 abuse proves that the more equality there is established 
 among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign in 
 society. But this and any similar maxim deduced from 
 simple reason, raises an outcry — the Church or the State is 
 in danger, if faith in the wisdom of antiquity is not im- 
 plicit ; and they who, roused by the sight of human calamity, 
 dare to attack human authority, are reviled as despisers of 
 God, and enemies of man. These are bitter calumnies, yet 
 they reached one of the best of menf, whose ashes still preach 
 
 * Could there be a greater insult offered to the rights of man than 
 the beds of justice in France, when an infant was made the organ of the 
 detestable Dubois ? 
 
 + Dr Price. 
 
10 
 
 VINDICATION OF TFIE 
 
 o 
 
 peace, and whose memory demands a respectful pause, 
 when subjects are discussed that lay so near his heart. 
 
 After attacking the sacred majesty of kings, I shall 
 scarcely excite surprise by adding my firm persuasion that 
 every profession, in which great subordination of rank con- 
 stitutes its power, is highly injurious to morality. 
 
 A standing army, for instance, is incompatible with 
 freedom ; because subordination and rigour are the very 
 sinews of military discipline; and despotism is necessary to 
 give vigour to enterprises that one will directs. A spirit 
 inspired by romantic no tions of hnnnnr, n imp] n f moralit y 
 fcjunded on the Lukion of the a^e, can only be felt by a 
 few officers, whilst the main body must be moved by com- 
 mand, like the waves of the seaj for the strong wind of 
 authority pushes the crowd of subalterns forward, they 
 scarcely know or care why, with headlong fury. 
 ""Besides, nuilling'Tilm" be so prejudicial to the morals of 
 the inhabitants of country towns as the occasional residence 
 of a set of idle^super_ncial_young men, whose only occupa- 
 tion is gallantry, and whose polished manners render vice 
 more dangerous, by concealing its deformity under gay 
 ornamental drapery. An air of fashion, which is but a 
 badge of slavery, and proves that the soul has not a strong 
 individual character, awes simple country people into an 
 imitation of the vices, when they cannot catch the slippery 
 graces, of politeness. Every corps is a chain of despots, 
 who, submitting and tyrannising without exercising their 
 reason, become dead-weights of vice and folly on the com- 
 munity. A man of rank or fortune, sure of rising by interest, 
 has nothing to do but to pursue some extravagant freak ; 
 whilst the needy gentleman, who is to rise, as the phrase 
 turns, by his merit, becomes a servile parasite or vile pander. 
 
 Sailors, the naval gentlemen, come under the same 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 R /GUTS OF WOMAN. n 
 
 description, only their vices assume a different and a grosser 
 cast. They are more positively indolent, when not dis- 
 charging the ceremonials of their station ; whilst the insigni- 
 ficant fluttering of soldiers may be termed active idleness. 
 More confined to the society of men, the former acquire a 
 fondness for humour and mischievous tricks ; whilst the 
 latter, mixing frequently with well-bred women, catch a 
 sentimental cant. But mind is equally out of the question, 
 whether they indulge the horse-laugh, or polite simper. 
 
 May I be allowed to extend the comparison to a pro- 
 fession where more mind is certainly to be found, — for the 
 clergy have superior opportunities of improvement, though 
 subordination almost equally cramps their faculties ? The 
 blind submission imposed at college to forms of belief 
 serves as a novitiate to the curate, who must obsequiously 
 respect the opinion of his rector or patron, if he mean to 
 rise in his profession. Perhaps there cannot be a more 
 forcible contrast than between the servile dependent gait of 
 a poor curate and the courtly mien of a bishop. And the 
 respect and contempt they inspire, render the discharge of 
 their separate functions equally useless. 
 
 It is of great importance to observe that the character of 
 every man is, in some degree, formed by his profession. 
 A man of sense may only have a cast of countenance that 
 wears off as you trace his individuality, whilst the weak, 
 common man has scarcely ever any character, but what 
 belongs to the body ; at least, all his opinions have been so 
 steeped in the vat consecrated by authority, that the faint 
 spirit which the grape of his own vine yields, cannot be 
 distinguished. 
 
 Society, therefore, as it becomes more enlightened, should 
 be very careful not to establish bodies of men who must 
 necessarily be made foolish or vicious by the very constitu- 
 tion of their profession. 
 
1 2 VINDICA TION O F THE 
 
 In the infancy of society, when men were just emerging 
 out of barbarism, chiefs and priests, touching the most 
 powerful springs of savage conduct, hope and fear, must 
 have had unbounded sway. An aristrocracy, of course, is 
 naturally the first form of government. But, clashing in- 
 terests soon losing their equipoise, a monarchy and hierarchy 
 break out of the confusion of ambitious struggles, and the 
 foundation of both is secured by feudal tenures. This 
 appears to be the origin of monarchical and priestly power, 
 and the dawn of civilisation. But such combustible mate- 
 rials cannot long be pent up; and, getting vent in foreign 
 wars and intestine insurrections, the people acquire some 
 power in the tumult, which obliges their rulers to gloss over 
 their oppression with a show of right. Thus, as wars, agri- 
 culture, commerce, and literature, expand the mind, despots 
 are compelled to make covert corruption hold fast the power 
 which was formerly snatched by open force.* And this 
 baneful lurking gangrene is most quickly spread by luxury 
 and superstition, the sure dregs of ambition. The indolent 
 puppet of a court first becomes a luxurious monster, or 
 fastidious sensualist, and then makes the contagion which 
 his unnatural state spread, the instrument of tyranny. 
 
 It is the pestiferous purple which renders the progress of 
 civilisation a curse, and warps the understanding, till men 
 of sensibility doubt whether the expansion of intellect pro- 
 duces a greater portion of happiness or misery. But the 
 nature of the poison points out the antidote ; and had 
 Rousseau mounted one step higher in his investigation, or 
 
 * Men of abilities scatter seeds that grow up and have a great 
 influence on the forming opinion ; and when once the public opinion 
 preponderates, through the exertion of reason, the overthrow of 
 arbitrary power is not very distant. 
 
 o 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '3 
 
 could his eye have pierced through the foggy atmosphere, 
 which he almost disdained to breathe, his active mind 
 would have darted forward to contemplate the perfection of 
 man in the establishment of true civilisation, instead of 
 taking his ferocious flight back to the night of sensual 
 ignorance. 
 
 
i4 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PREVAILING OPINION OF A SEXUAL 
 CHARACTER DISCUSSED. 
 
 TO account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, many 
 ingenious arguments have been brought forward to 
 prove, that the two sexes, in the acquirement of 
 . virtue, ought to aim at attaining a very different character; 
 or, to speak explicitly, women are not allowed to have 
 sufficient strength of mind to acquire what really deserves 
 the name of virtue. Yet it should seem, allowing them to 
 have souls, that there is but one way appointed by Provi- 
 dence to lead mankind to either virtue or happiness. 
 
 If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, 
 why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious 
 name of innocence ? Men complain, and with reason, of 
 the follies and caprices of our sex, when they do not keenly 
 satirise our headstrong passions and grovelling vices. Be- 
 hold, I should answer, the natural effect of ignorance ! The 
 mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest 
 on, and the current will run with destructive fury when there 
 are no barriers to break its force. Women are told from 
 their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, 
 that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed 
 cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a 
 scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain 
 for them the protection of man ; and should they be beau- 
 tiful, everything else is needless, for at least twentyyears' 
 of their lives. 
 
 O 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 15 
 
 I 
 
 k 
 
 ~t. 
 
 Thus Milton describes our first frail mother ; though 
 when he tells us that women are formed for softness and 
 sweet attractive grace, I cannot comprehend his meaning, 
 unless, in the true Mahometan strain, he meant to deprive 
 us of souls, and insinuate that we were beings only designed 
 by sweet attractive grace, and docile blind obedience, to 
 gratify the senses of man when he can no longer soar on the 
 wing of contemplation. 
 
 How grossly do they insult us who thus advise us only to 
 render ourselves gentle, domestic brutes ! For instance, the 
 winning softness so warmly and frequently recommended, 
 that governs by obeying. What childish expressions, and 
 how insignificant is the being— can it be an immortal one?— 
 who will condescend to govern by such sinister methods ? 
 " Certainly," says Lord Bacon, " man is of kin to the beasts 
 by his body ; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, 
 he is a base and ignoble creature ! " Men, indeed, appear 
 to me to act in a very unphilosophical manner, when they try- 
 to secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep \ 
 them always in a state of childhood. Rousseau was more" v 
 consistent when he wished to stop the progress of reason in 
 both sexes, for if men eat of the tree of knowledge, women 
 will come in for a taste ; but, from the imperfect cultivation 
 which their understandings now receive, they only attain 
 knowledge of evil. 
 
 -Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the 
 epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term 
 for weakness. For if it be allowed that women were destined 
 by Providence to acquire human virtues, and, by the 
 exercise of their understandings, that stability of character 
 which is the firmest ground to rest our future hopes upon, 
 they must be permitted to turn tr>-U\ iO acqu.n.--j;.*.k>_.. 1 nH 
 not forced to s^cire regal homage which they receive is so 
 
 J B 
 
i6 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 4 
 
 satellite. Milton, I grant, was of a very different opinion ; 
 for he only bends to the indefeasible right of beauty, though 
 it would be difficult to render two passages which I now 
 mean to contrast, consistent. But into similar inconsisten- 
 cies are great men often led by thfjr senses : — 
 
 "To whom thus Eve with perfect beauty adorn'd. 
 My author and disposer, what thou bid'st 
 Unargued I obey ; so God ordains ; 
 God is thy law, thou mine : to know nd more 
 Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise." 
 
 These are exactly the arguments that I have used to 
 children ; but I have added, your reason is now gaining 
 strength, and, till it arrives at some degree of maturity, you 
 must look up to me for advice, — then you ought to think, 
 and only rely on God. 
 
 Yet in the following lines Milton seems to coincide with me, 
 when he makes Adam thus expostulate with his Maker :— 
 
 " Hast Thou not made me here Thy substitute, 
 And these inferior far beneath me set ? 
 Among umquals what society 
 Can sort, what harmony or true delight? 
 Which must be mutual, in proportion due 
 Given and received ; but in disparity 
 The one intense, the other still remiss 
 Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove 
 Tedious alike : of fellowship I speak 
 Such as I seek, fit to participate 
 All rational delight " 
 
 In treating therefore of the manners of women, let us, 
 disregarding sensual arguments, trace what "we should 
 •wda, everything else is rictla. order to co-operate, if the 
 of their lives. "^mor 
 
 EIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 i 
 
 17 
 
 By individual education, I mean, for the sense of the 
 word is not precisely defined, such an attention to a child as 
 will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the 
 passions as they begin to ferment, and set the understanding 
 to work before the body arrives at maturity ; so that the 
 man may only have to proceed, not to begin, the important 
 task of learning to think and reason. 
 
 To prevent any misconstruction, I must add, that I do 
 not believe that a private education can work the wonders 
 which some sanguine writers have attributed to it. Men and 
 women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions 
 and manners of the society they live in. In every age there 
 has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all 
 before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the 
 century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be 
 differently. constituted, much cannot be expected from edu- 
 cation. It is however, sufficient for my present purpose to 
 assert that, whatever effect circumstances have on the abili-- 
 ties, every being may become virtuous by the exercise of its 
 own reason ; for if but one being was created with vicious 
 inclinations, that is positively bad, what can save us from 
 atheism ? or if we worship a God, is not that God a devil ? 
 
 Consequently/the most perfect education, in my opinion, 
 is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated ' 
 to strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other 
 words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of 
 virtue as will render it independent. In fact, it is a farce to * 
 call.any being virtuous whose virtues do not re sult fromtb^e 
 exercise of its own reason. This was Rousseau's opinion 
 respecting men; I extend it to women, and confidently 
 awn- tW rhT» y fay a been drawn out of their sphere by false ^ 
 refinement, and not by an endeavour to acquire masculine 
 qualities. J Still the regal homage which they receive is so 
 
 -* B 
 
 M- 
 
 ■»' ' ■ » ; 
 
iS 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 intoxicating, that until the manners of the times are changed, 
 and formed on more reasonable principles, it may be impos- 
 sible to convince them that the illegitimate power which 
 they obtain by degrading themselves is a curse, and that 
 they must return to nature and equality if they wish to 
 secure the placid satisfaction that unsophisticated affections 
 impart. But for this epoch we must wait— wait perhaps till 
 kings and nobles, enlightened by reason, and, preferring the 
 real dignity of man to childish state, throw off their gaudy 
 hereditary trappings ; and if then women do not resign the 
 arbitrary power of beauty — they will prove that they have 
 less mind than man. 
 
 I may be accused of arrogance ; still I must declare what 
 | \ I firmly believe, that all the writers who have written on the 
 subject of female education and manners, from Rousseau to 
 Dr Gregory, have contributed to render women more artifi- 
 cial, weak characters, than they would otherwise have been ; 
 and consequently, more useless members of society.f I 
 l\ might have expressed this conviction in a lower key, but I 
 am afraid it would have been the whine of affectation, and 
 not the faithful expression of my feelings, of the clear result 
 which experience and reflection have led me to draw. When 
 I come to that division of the subject, I^hall advert to the 
 "S passages that I morej)articulaHy__disappr ove of , in the works 
 ' of tfielujthlirsThay e just allude d to ; but it is first necessary 
 to observe that my objection extends to the whole purport 
 of those books, which tend, in my opinion, to degrade one- 
 half of the human species, and render women pleasing at 
 the expense of every solid virtue. 
 
 Though, to reason on Rousseau's ground, if man did 
 attain a degree of perfection of mind when his body arrived 
 at maturity, it might be proper, in order to make a man and 
 his wife one, that she should rely entirely on his under- 
 
 / 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '9 
 
 4* 
 
 standing; and the graceful ivy, clasping the oak that sup- 
 ported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty 
 would be equally conspicuous. But, alas ! husbands, as 
 well as their helpmates, are often only overgrown children, 
 — nay, thanks to early debauchery, scarcely men in their 
 outward form, — and if the blind lead the blind, one need 
 not come from heaven to tell us the consequence. 
 
 Many are the causes that, in the present corrupt state of 
 society, contribute to enslave women by cramping their un- 
 derstandings and sharpening their senses. One, perhaps, 
 that silently does more mischief than all the rest, is their 
 disregard of order. 
 
 To do everything in an orderly manner is a most im- 
 portant precept, which women, who, generally speaking, 
 receive only a disorderly kind of education, seldom attend 
 to with that degree of exactness that men, who from their 
 infancy are broken into method, observe. This negligent 
 kind of guesswork — for what other epithet can be used to 
 point out the random exertions of a sort of instinctive 
 common-sense never brought to the test of reason ? — pre- 
 vents their generalising matters of fact ; so they do to-day 
 what they did yesterday, merely because they did it yes- 
 terday. 
 
 This contempt of the understanding in early life has more 
 baneful consequences than is commonly supposed ; for the 
 little knowledge which women of strong minds attain is, 
 from various circumstances, of a more desultory kind than 
 the knowledge of men, and it is acquired more by sheer 
 observations on real life than from comparing what has 
 been individually observed with the results of experience gene- 
 ralised by speculation. Led by their dependent situation 
 and domestic employments more into society, what they learn 
 is rather by snatches ; and as learning is with them in general 
 
 L 
 
20 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 only a secondary thing, they do not pursue any one branch 
 with that persevering ardour necessary to give vigour to the 
 I faculties and clearness to the judgment. In the present 
 1 state of society a little learning is required to support the 
 1 character of a gentleman, and boys are obliged to submit to 
 la few years of discipline. But i n the educ ation of women, 
 the cultivation of the understanding is always subordinate to 
 ^the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishment. Even 
 while enervated by confinement and false notions of 
 modesty, the body is prevented from attaining that grace 
 /■ and beauty which relaxed half-formed limbs never exhibit. 
 / Besides, in youth their faculties are not brought forward by 
 ( emulation ; and having no serious scientific study, if they 
 have natural sagacity, it is turned too soon on life and 
 manners. They dwell on effects and modifications, without 
 • tracing them back, to causes ; and complicated rules to 
 ^ adjust behaviour are a weak substitute for simple principles. 
 ^> f As a proof that education gives this appearance of weak- 
 ' ness to females, we may instance the example of military 
 ; men, who are, like them, sent into the world before their 
 minds have been stored with knowledge, or fortified by 
 principles. The consequences are similar ; soldiers acquire 
 a little superficial knowledge, snatched from the muddy 
 current of conversation, and from continually mixing with 
 society, they gain what is termed a knowledge of the world ; 
 and this acquaintance with manners and customs has fre- 
 quently been confounded with a knowledge of the human 
 heart. But can the crude fruit of casual observation, never 
 brought to the test of judgment, formed by comparing 
 speculation and experience, deserve such a distinction? 
 Soldiers, as well as women, practise the minor virtues with 
 punctilious politeness. Where is then the sexual difference, 
 when the education has been the same ? All the difference 
 
 <> 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 21 
 
 % 
 
 that I can discern arises from the superior advantage of 
 liberty which enables the former to see more of life. 
 
 It is wandering from my present subject, perhaps, to 
 make a political remark ; but as it was produced naturally 
 by the train of my reflections, I shall not pass it silently 
 over. 
 
 Standing armies can never consist of resolute robust men; 
 they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom 
 contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with 
 very vigorous faculties ; and as for any depth of under- 
 standing, I will venture to affirm that it is as rarely to be 
 found in the army as amongst women. And the cause, I 
 maintain, is the same. It may be further observed that 
 officers are also particularly attentive to their persons, fond 
 of dancing, crowded rooms, adventures, and ridicule.* Like 
 the fair sex, the business of their lives is gallantry ; they 
 were taught to please, and they only live to please. Yet 
 they do not lose their rank in the distinction of sexes, for 
 they are still reckoned superior to women, though in what 
 their superiority consists, beyond what I have just men- 
 tioned, it is difficult to discover. 
 
 The great misfortune is this, that they both acquire 
 manners before morals, and a knowledge of life before they 
 have from reflection any acquaintance with the grand ideal out- 
 line of human nature. The consequence is natural. Satisfied 
 with common nature, they become a prey to prejudices, and 
 taking all their opinions on credit, they blindly submit to 
 authority. So that if they have any sense, it is a kind of in- 
 
 * Why should women be censured with petulant acrimony because 
 they seem to have a passion for a scarlet coat ? Has not education 
 placed them more on a level with soldiers than any other class of 
 men? 
 
22 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 stinctive glance that catches proportions, and decides with 
 respect to manners, but fails when arguments are to be pur- 
 sued below the surface, or opinions analysed. 
 
 May not the same remark be applied to women? Nay, 
 the argument may be carried still further, for they are both 
 thrown out of a useful station by the unnatural distinctions 
 established in civilised life. Riches and hereditary honours 
 have made cyphers of women to give consequence to the 
 numerical figure ; and idleness has produced a mixture of 
 gallantry and despotism into society, which leads the very 
 men who are the slaves of their mistresses to tyrannise over 
 their sisters, wives, and daughters. This is only keeping 
 them in rank and file, it is true. Strengthen the female 
 mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind 
 obedience; but as blind obedience is ever sought for by 
 power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they 
 endeavour to keep women in the dark, because the former 
 only want slaves, and the latter a plaything. The sensualist, 
 indeed, has been the most dangerous of tyrants, and women 
 have been duped by their lovers, as princes by their minis- 
 ters, whilst dreaming that they reigned over them, 
 i I now principally allude to Rousseau, for his character of 
 
 > Sophia is undoubtedly a captivating one, though it appears 
 to me grossly unnatural. However, it is not the super- 
 structure, but the foundation of her character, the principles 
 ) on which her educatio n was built, that I mean to attack ; 
 nay, warmly as I admire the genius of that able writer, whose 
 opinions I shall often have occasion to cite, indignation 
 always takes place of admiration, and the rigid frown of 
 insulted virtue effaces the smile of complacency which his 
 eloquent periods are wont to raise when I read his voluptuous 
 reveries. Is this the man who, in his ardour for virtue, 
 would banish all the soft arts of peace, and almost carry us 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 2 3 
 
 fc 
 
 back to Spartan discipline? Is this the man who delights 
 to paint the useful struggles of passion, the triumphs of good 
 dispositions, and the heroic flights which carry the glowing 
 soul out of itself? How are these mighty sentiments lowered 
 when he describes the pretty foot and enticing airs of his 
 little favourite ! But for the present I waive the subject, 
 and instead of severely reprehending the transient effusions 
 of overweening sensibility, I shall only observe that whoever 
 has cast a benevolent eye on society must often have been 
 gratified by the sight of humble mutual love not dignified by 
 sentiment, or strengthened by a union in intellectual pursuits. 
 The domestic trifles of the day have afforded matters for 
 cheerful converse, and innocent caresses have softened toils 
 which did not require great exercise of mind or stretch of 
 thought ; yet has not the sight of this moderate felicity 
 excited more tendernsss than respect? — an emotion similar 
 to what we feel when children are playing, or animals sport- 
 ing ; * whilst the contemplation of the noble struggles of 
 suffering merit has raised admiration, and carried our 
 thoughts to that world where sensation will give place to 
 reason. 
 
 Women are therefore to be considered either as moral 
 beings, or so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the 
 superior faculties of men. 
 
 * Similar feelings has Milton's pleasing picture of paradisiacal happi- 
 ness ever raised in my mind ; yet, instead of envying the lovely pair, I 
 have with conscious dignity or satanic pride turned to hell for sublimer 
 objects. In the same style, when viewing some noble monument of 
 human art, I have traced the emanation of the Deity in the order I 
 admired, till, descending from that giddy height, I have caught myself 
 contemplating the grandest of all human sights ; for fancy quickly placed 
 in some solitary recess an outcast of fortune, rising superior to passion 
 and discontent. 
 
24 
 
 VI N DIC A TIOX OF THE 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Let us examine this question. Rousseau declares that a 
 woman should never for a moment feel herself independen t. 
 hat she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural 
 cunning, and made a coquettish slave in order to render her 
 a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to 
 iftan, whenever he chooses to relax himself. He carries the 
 arguments, which he pretends to draw from the indications 
 of nature, still further, and insinuates that truth and forti- 
 tude, the corner-stones of all human virtue, should be culti- 
 vated with certain restrictions, because, w ith respect to the 
 female character, obedience is the, grand Lesson which ought 
 to be impressed with unrelenting rigour. 
 
 What nonsense ! When will a great man arise with suffi- 
 cient strength of mind to puff away the fumes which pride 
 and sensuality have thus spread over the subject? If 
 women are by nature inferior to men, their virtues must be 
 the same in quality, if not in degree, or virtue is a relative 
 idea; consequently, their conduct should be founded on the 
 same principles, and have the same aim. 
 
 Connected with man as daughters, wives, and mothers, 
 their moral character may be estimated by their manner of 
 fulfilling those simple duties ; but the end, the grand end, of 
 their exertions should be to unfold their own faculties, and 
 acquire the dignity of conscious virtue. They may try to 
 render their road pleasant; but ought never to forget, in 
 common with man, that life yields not the felicity which can 
 atisfy 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 recom- 
 mend them, even while I assert, that they afford most satis- 
 ction when they are considered in their true sober light. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 25 
 
 Probably the prevailing opinion, that woman was Created 
 for man, may have taken its rise from Moses' poetical story ; 
 yet as very few, it is presumed, who have bestowed any serious 
 thought on the subject ever supposed that Eve was, literally- 
 speaking, one of Adam's ribs, the deduction must be allowed 
 to fall to the ground, or only be so far admitted as it proves 
 that man, from the remotest antiquity, found it convenient 
 to exert his strength to subjugate his companion, and his 
 invention to show that she ought to have her neck bent under 
 the yoke, because the whole creation was only created for his 
 
 V convenience or pleasure. 
 
 x Let it not be concluded that I wish to invert the order of 
 
 things. I have already granted that, from the constitution 
 - of their bodies, men seemed to be designed by Providence 
 to attain a greater degree of virtue. I speak collectively of 
 the whole sex ; but I see not the shadow of a reason to 
 conclude that their virtues should differ in respect to their 
 nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal 
 standard ? I must therefore, if I reason consequentially, as 
 strenuously maintain that they have the same simple direc- 
 tion as that there is a God. 
 
 £ It follows then that cunning should not be opposed to 
 
 wisdom, little cares to gTeat exertions, or insipid softness, 
 varnished over with the name of gentleness, to that fortitude 
 which grand views alone can inspire. 
 
 I shall be told that woman would then lose many of her 
 peculiar graces, and the opinion of a well-known poet 
 might be quoted to refute my unqualified assertion. For 
 Pope has said, iu the name of the whole male sex : — 
 
 " Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create, 
 As when she touch'd the brink of all we hate." 
 
 > In what light this sally places men and women I shall 
 
26 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 
 
 leave to the judicious to determine. Meanwhile, I shall 
 content myself with observing, that I cannot discover why, 
 unless they are mortal, females should always be degraded 
 by being made subservient to love or lust. 
 
 To speak disrespectfully of love is, I know, high treason 
 against sentiment and fine feelings ; but I wish to speak the 
 simple language of truth, and rather to address the head 
 than the heart. To endeavour to reason love out of the 
 world would be to out-Quixote Cervantes, and equally offend 
 against common-sense; but an endeavour to restrain this 
 tumultuous passion, and to prove that it should not be 
 allowed to dethrone superior powers, or to usurp the sceptre 
 which the understanding should ever coolly wield, appears 
 less wild. 
 
 Youth is the season for love in both sexes ; but in those 
 days of thoughtless enjoyment provision should be made for 
 the more important years of life, when reflection takes place 
 of sensation. But Rousseau, and most of the male writers 
 who have followed his steps, have warmly inculcated that 
 the whole tendency of female education ought to be directed 
 _to_pne point — to render them pleasing. 
 
 Let me reason with the supporters of this opinion who 
 have any knowledge of human nature. Do they imagine 
 that marriage can eradicate the habitude of life? The 
 woman who has only been taught to please will soon find 
 that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they cannot 
 have much effect on her husband's heart when they are seen 
 every day, when the summer is passed and gone. Will she 
 then have sufficient native energy to look into herself for 
 comfort, and cultivate her dormant faculties? or is it not 
 more rational to expect that she will try to please other 
 men, and, in the emotions raised by the expectation of 
 new conquests, endeavour to forget the mortification her 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 27 
 
 love or pride has received ? When the husband ceases to 
 be a lover, and the time will inevitably come, her desire of 
 pleasing will then grow languid, or become a spring of 
 bitterness; and love, perhaps, the most evanescent ol all 
 passions, gives place to jealousy or vanity. 
 
 I now speak of women who are restrained by principle or 
 prejudice. Such women, though they would shrink from 
 an intrigue with real abhorrence, yet, nevertheless, wish to 
 be convinced by the homage of gallantry that they are 
 cruelly neglected by their husbands ; or, days and weeks 
 are spent in dreaming of the happiness enjoyed by congenial 
 souls till their health is undermined and their spirits broken 
 by discontent. How then can the great art of pleasing be 
 such a necessary study ? it is only useful to a mistress. The 
 chaste wife and serious mother should only consider her 
 power to please as the polish of her virtues, and the affection 
 of her husband as one of the comforts that render her task 
 less difficult, and her life happier. But, whether she be 
 loved or neglected, her first wish should be to make herself 
 respectable, and not to rely for all her happiness on a being 
 subject to like infirmities with herself. v — 
 
 The worthy DrGiegory fell into a similar error. I respect 
 his heart, but entirely disapprove of his celebrated " Legacy 
 to his Daughters." , 
 
 He advises them to cultivate_ajbndness for dress, because 
 a fondness for dress, he asserts, is natural to them. I am 
 u^SBlitoMmprehend'^hareiffieniror Rousseau mean 
 when they frequently use this indefinite term. If they told 
 us that in a pre-existent state the soul was fond of dress, and 
 brought this inclination with it into a new body, I should 
 listen to them with a half-smile, as I often do when I hear 
 a rant about innate elegance. But if he only meant to say- 
 that the exercise of the faculties will produce this fondness, 
 
 . 
 
28 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 y 
 
 MGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 29 
 
 I deny it. It is not natural ; but arises, like false ambition 
 in men, from a love of power. 
 
 Dr Gregory goes much further ; he actually recommends 
 dissimulation, and advises an innocent girl to give the lie to 
 her feelings, and not dance with spirit, when gaiety of heart 
 would make her feet eloquent without making her gestures 
 immodest. In the name of truth and common-sense, why 
 should not one woman acknowledge that she can take more 
 exercise than another? or, in other words, that she has a 
 sound constitution ; and why, to damp innocent vivacity, is 
 she darkly to be told that men will draw conclusions which 
 she little thinks of? Let the libertine draw what inference 
 he pleases ; but, I hope, that no sensible mother will restrain 
 the natural frankness of youth by instilling such indecent 
 cautions. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaketh ; and a wiser than Solomon hath said that the 
 heart should be made clean, and not trivial ceremonies 
 observed, which it is not very difficult to fulfil with scrupu- 
 lous exactness when vice reigns in the heart. 
 
 Women ought to endeavour to purify their heart; but 
 can they do so when their uncultivated understandings 
 make them entirely dependent on their senses for employ- 
 ment and amusement, when no noble pursuits sets them, 
 above the little vanities of the day, or enables them to curb 
 the wild emotions that agitate a reed, over which every passing 
 breeze has power ? To gain the affections of a virtuous man, 
 is affection necessary ? Nature has given woman a weaker 
 frame than man; but, to ensure her husband's affections, 
 must a wife, who, by the exercise of her mind and body 
 whilst she was discharging the duties of a daughter, wife, and 
 mother, has allowed her constitution to retain its natural 
 strength, and her nerves a healthy tone, — is she, I say, to 
 condescend to use art, and feign a sickly delicacy, in order 
 
 * 
 
 to secure her husband's affection? Weakness may_£xcile 
 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 ! 
 
 ^TfTa seragTfo, T grant, that all these arts are necessary; 
 the epicure must have his palate tickled, or he will sink 
 into apathv ; but have women so little ambition as to be 
 satisfied with such a condition? Can they supinely dream 
 life away in the lap of pleasure, or the languor of weariness, 
 rather than assert their claim to pursue reasonable pleasures, 
 and render themselves conspicuous by practising the virtues 
 which dignify mankind? Surely she has not an immortal 
 soul who can loiter life away merely employed to adorn her 
 person, that she may amuse the languid hours, and soften 
 the cares of a fellow-creature who is willing to be enlivened 
 by her smiles and tricks, when the serious business of life is 
 
 over. 
 
 Besides, the woman who strengthens her body and exer- 
 cises her mind will, by managing her family and practising 
 various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble, 
 dependent of her husband ; and if she, by possessing such 
 substantial qualities, merit his regard, she will not find it 
 necessary to conceal her affection, nor to pretend to an 
 unnatural coldness of constitution to excite her husband's 
 passions. In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that 
 the women who have distinguished themselves have neither 
 been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex. 
 
 Nature, or, to speak with strict propriety, God, has made 
 all things right ; but man has sought him out many inven- 
 tions to mar the work. I now allude to that part of Dr 
 Gregory's treatise, where he advises a wife never to let her 
 husband know the extent of her sensibility or_ affection. 
 
 
3° 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Voluptuous precaution, and as ineffectual as absurd. Love, 
 from its very nature, must be transitory. To seek for a 
 secret that would render it constant, would be as wild a 
 search as for the philosopher's stone, or the grand panacea ; 
 and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather perni- 
 cious, to mankind. The most holy band of society is friend- 
 ship. It has been well said, by a shrewd satirist, " that rare 
 as true love is, true friendship is still rarer." 
 
 This is an obvious truth, and, the cause not lying deep, 
 will not elude a slight glance of inquiry. 
 
 Love, the common passion, in which chance and sensa- 
 tion take place of choice and reason, is, in some degree, 
 felt by the mass of mankind; for it is not necessary to 
 speak, at present, of the emotions that rise above or sink 
 below love.^ This passion, naturally increased by suspense 
 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 
 Che sensual emotions of fondness. 
 
 This is, must be, the course of nature. Friendship or 
 indifference inevitably succeeds love. And this constitution 
 seems perfectly to harmonise with the system of government 
 which prevails in the moral world. Passions are spurs to 
 action, and open the mind; but they sink into mere appe- 
 tites, become a personal and momentary gratification when 
 the object is gained, and the satisfied mind rests in enjoy- 
 ment The man who had some virtue whilst he was 
 struggling for a crown, often becomes a voluptuous tyrant 
 when it graces his brow ; and, when the lover is not lost in 
 the husband, the dotard, a prey to childish caprices and fond 
 
 r 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 jealousies, neglects the serious duties of life, and the caresses 
 which should excite confidence in his children are lavished 
 on the overgrown child, his wife. 
 
 In order. to fulfil the duties of life, and to be able to 
 pursue with vigour the various employments which form the 
 moral character, a master and mistress of a family ought not 
 to continue to love each other with passion. I mean to say 
 that they ought not to indulge those emotions which disturb 
 the order of society, and engross the thoughts that should 
 be otherwise employed. The mind that has never been 
 engrossed by one object wants vigour— if it can long be 
 
 so, it is weak. 
 
 A mistaken education, a narrow uncultivated mind, and 
 many sexual prejudices, tend" to make women more con- 
 stant than men ; but, for the present, I shall not touch op_J 
 this" branch of the subject. I will go still further, and 
 advance, without dreaming of a paradox, that an unhappy 
 marriage is often very advantageous to a family, and that 
 the neglected wife is, in general, the best mother. And this 
 would almost always be the consequence if the female mind 
 were more enlarged ; for, it seems to be the common dis- 
 pensation of Providence, that what we gain in present 
 enjoyment should be deducted from the treasure of life, 
 experience ; and that when, we are gathering the flowers of 
 the day, and revelling in pleasure, the solid fruit of toil and 
 wisdom should not be caught at the same time. The way 
 lies before us, we must turn to the right or left ; and he 
 who will pass life away in bounding from one pleasure to 
 another, must not complain if he acquire neither wisdom 
 nor respectability of character. 
 
 Supposing, for a moment, that the soul is not immortal, 
 and that man was only created for the present scene,— I 
 think we should have reason to complain that love, infantine 
 
32 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 33 
 
 fondness, ever grew insipid and palled upon the sense. 
 Let us eat, drink, and love, for to-morrow we die, would be, 
 in fact, the language of reason, the morality of life ; and 
 who but a fool would part with a reality for a fleeting 
 shadow? But, if awed by observing the improbable powers 
 of the mind, we disdain to confine our wishes or thoughts 
 to such a comparatively mean field of action, that only 
 appears grand and important, as it is connected with a 
 boundless prospect and sublime hopes, what necessity is 
 there for falsehood in conduct, and why must the sacred 
 majesty of truth be violated to detain a deceitful good that 
 saps the very foundation of virtue? Why must the female 
 mind be tainted by coquettish arts to gratify the sensualist, 
 and prevent love from subsiding into friendship, or com- 
 passionate tenderness, when there are not qualities on which 
 friendship can be built ? Let the honest heart show itself, 
 and reason teach passion to submit to necessity ; or, let the 
 dignified pursuit of virtue and knowledge raise the mind 
 above those emotions which rather embitter than sweeten 
 the cup of life, when they are not restrained within due 
 bounds. 
 
 I do not mean to allude to the romantic passion, which 
 is the concomitant of genius. Who can clip its wing? 
 But that grand passion not proportioned to the puny enjoy- 
 ments of life, is only true to the sentiment, and feeds on 
 itself.. The passions which have been celebrated for their 
 durability have always been unfortunate. They have ac- 
 quired strength by absence and constitutional melancholy. 
 The fancy has hovered round a form of beauty dimly seen ; 
 but familiarity might have turned admiration into disgust, 
 or, at least, into indifference, and allowed the imagination 
 leisure to start fresh game. With perfect propriety, accord- 
 ing to this view'of things, does Rousseau make the mistress 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
 of his soul, Eloifa, love St Preux, when life was fading before 
 her; but this is no proof of the immortality of the passion. 
 
 Of the same complexion is Dr Gregory's advice respecting 
 delicacy of sentiment, which he advises a woman not to 
 acquire, if she have determined to marry. This deter- 
 mination, however, perfectly consistent with his former 
 advice, he calls indelicate, and earnestly persuades his 
 daughters to conceal it, though it may govern their conduct, 
 as if it were indelicate to have the common appetites of 
 human nature. 
 
 Noble morality! and consistent with the cautious prud- 
 ence of a little soul that cannot extend its views beyond the 
 present minute division of existence. If all the faculties of 
 woman's mind are only to be cultivated as they respect her 
 dependence on man ; if, when a husband be obtained, she 
 have arrived at her goal, and meanly proud, rests satisfied 
 with such a paltry crown, let her grovel contentedly, scarcely 
 raised by her employments above the animal kingdom ; but, 
 if struggling for the prize of her high calling, she look 
 beyond the present scene, let her cultivate her understanding 
 without stopping to consider what character the husband 
 may have whom she is destined to marry. Let her only 
 determine, without being too anxious about present happi- 
 ness, to acquire the qualities that ennoble a rational being, 
 and a rough inelegant husband may shock her taste without 
 destroying her peace of mind. She will not model her soul to 
 suit the frailties of her companion, but to bear with them ; his 
 character may be a trial, but not an impediment to virtue. 
 
 If Dr Gregory confined his remark to romantic expecta- 
 tions of constant love and congenial feelings, he should 
 have recollected that experience will banish what advice can 
 never make us cease to wish for, when the imagination is 
 kept alive at the expense of reason. 
 
VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 a romantic unnatural delicacy o ^ ^ mth a 
 
 in imagining how happy they & fervid mcreasin g 
 
 husband who could love them might as well 
 
 affection every day, and all j. • be a jot more 
 
 pine married as single d longmg for a good one. 
 
 unhappy with a bad husband *™ ^ more prec ision, 
 
 That a proper education or to Pe ^ g 
 
 a well-stored mind would ^ble ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 single life with dignity I ram occas.onally 
 
 cultivating her taste, lest her hu sta ^ gay ^ 
 
 shock it, is quitting a substance ^ or a ^ rf 
 
 truth, I do not know of what us , UM { dent of the 
 
 the individual be f££^±>£**. only de- 
 casualties of hfe; if neW o S n ° prat ; ons f the mind, are not 
 pendent on the sohtary ope^o- ^^ 
 
 opened. People of W «m things that touch 
 
 tinction, will ever be <hsgus*d by n ^ ^ 
 
 n0 t less observing minds. O th ^ ^ of 
 
 must not be ^wed to hmg^. Jbu^ 
 enjoyment is taste to \ d ^'^cures most pain or 
 The question is, whetb r i P of Dr 
 
 pleasure? The answer wAl dec ic Lt „ 
 
 Gregory's advice, and show ho* a & w 
 
 L 8 to lay down a sy - j ^ 'than those deduced 
 . educate moral beings bj an othe 
 
 from pure reason, which appl ■? and long . su ffenng, 
 
 Gentleness of manners, ^aranc poetic 
 
 are such amiable ^^^Sh them; and, per- 
 strains the Deity has be "invested y ^^ 
 haps, no rep^itatwi^ __ 
 
 EIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 35 
 
 on the human affections as those that represent Him 
 abundant in mercy and willing to pardon. Gentleness, 
 considered in this point of view, bears on its front all the 
 characteristics of grandeur, combined with the winning 
 graces of condescension ; but what a different aspect it 
 assumes when it is the submissive demeanour of depend- 
 ence, the support of weakness that loves, because it wants 
 protection ; and is forbearing, because it must silently 
 endure injuries ; smiling under the lash at which it dare not 
 snarl. Abject as this picture appears, it is the portrait of 
 an accomplished woman, according to the received opinion 
 of female excellence, separated by specious reasoners from 
 human excellence. Or, they* kindly restore the rib, and 
 make one moral being of a man and woman; not forgetting 
 to give her all the "submissive charms." 
 
 How women are to exist in that state where there is neither 
 to be marrying nor giving in marriage, we are not told. 
 For though moralists have agreed that the tenor of life 
 seems to prove that man is prepared by various circum- 
 stances for a future state, they constantly concur in advising 
 woman only to provide for the present. Gentleness, docility, 
 and a spaniel-like affection are, on this ground, consistently 
 recommended as the cardinal virtues of the sex ; and, dis- 
 regarding the arbitrary economy of 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, 
 
 * Vide Rousseau and Swedenborg. 
 
36 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 it ceases to be a virtue ; and, however convenient it may be 
 found in a companion— that companion will ever be con- 
 sidered as an inferior, and only inspire a vapid tenderness, 
 which easily degenerates into contempt. Still, if advice 
 could really make a being gentle, whose natural disposition 
 admitted not of such a fine polish, something towards the 
 advancement of order would be attained ; but if, as might 
 quickly be demonstrated, only affectation be produced by 
 this indiscriminate counsel, which throws a stumbling-block 
 in the way of gradual improvement, and true melioration of 
 temper, the sex is not much benefited by sacrificing solid 
 virtues to the attainment of superficial graces, though for a 
 few years they may procure the individuals regal sway. 
 
 As a philosopher, I read with indignation the plausible 
 epithets which men use to soften their insults; and, as a 
 moralist, I ask what is meant by such heterogeneous asso- 
 ciations, as fair defects, amiable weaknesses, &c. ? If there 
 be but one critieron of morals, but one architype for man, 
 women appear to be suspended by destiny, according to the 
 vulgar tale of Mahomet's coffin ; they have neither the 
 unerring instinct of brutes, nor are allowed to fix the eye of 
 reason on a perfect model. They were made to be loved, 
 and must not aim at respec^ lest they should be Jiunted out 
 of society as masculine. 
 
 But to view the subject in another point of view. Do 
 passive indolent women make the best wives ? Confining 
 our discussion to the present moment of existence, let us see 
 how such weak creatures perform their part? Do the 
 women who, by the attainment of a few superficial accom- 
 plishments, have strengthened the prevailing prejudice, 
 merely contributed to the happiness of their husbands ? Do 
 they display their charms merely to amuse them ? And 
 have women who have early imbibed notions of passive 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 37 
 
 obedience, sufficient character to manage a family or educate 
 children ? So far from it, that, after surveying the history 
 of woman, I cannot help agreeing with the severest satirist, 
 considering the sex as the weakest as well as the most 
 oppressed half of the species. What does history disclose 
 but marks of inferiority, and how few women have emanci- 
 pated themselves from the galling yoke of sovereign man ? 
 So few that the exceptions remind me of an ingenious con- 
 jecture respecting Newton— that he was probably a being of 
 superior order accidentally caged in a human body. Fol- 
 lowing the same train of thinking, 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 compari- 
 son of the two sexes collectively, or frankly acknowledging 
 the inferiority of woman, according to the present appearance 
 of things, J 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^ K ■ 
 and their virtues to gain strength, and then determine where -^" 
 the whole sex must stand in the intellectual scale. Yet let 
 it be remembered, that for a small number of distinguished \ 
 women I do not ask a place. — ' 
 
 It is difficult for us purblind mortals to say to what height 
 human discoveries and improvements may arrive when the 
 gloom of despotism subsides, which makes us stumble at 
 every step ; but, when morality shall be settled on a more 
 solid basis, then, without being gifted with a prophetic 
 
3» 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 39 
 
 spirit, I will venture to predict that woman will be either 
 the friend or slave of man. We shall not, as at present, 
 doubt whether she is a moral agent, or the link which unites 
 man with brutes. But should it then appear that like the 
 brutes they were principally created for the use of man, he 
 will let them patiently bite the bridle, and not mock them 
 with empty praise ; or, should their rationality be proved, 
 he will not impede their improvement merely to gratify his 
 sensual appetites. He will not, with all the graces of 
 rhetoric, advise them to submit implicitly their understand- 
 ing to the guidance of man. He will not, when he treats of 
 the education of women, assert that they ought never to 
 have the free use of reason, nor would he recommend cun- 
 ning and dissimulation to beings who are acquiring, in like 
 manner as himself, the virtues of humanity. 
 
 Surely there can be but one rule of right, if morality has 
 an eternal foundation, and whoever sacrifices virtue, strictly 
 so called, to present convenience, or whose duty it is to act 
 in such a manner, lives only for the passing day, and cannot 
 be an accountable creature. 
 
 The poet then should have dropped his sneer when he 
 says — 
 
 " If weak women go astray, 
 The stars are more in fault than they." 
 
 For that they are bound by the adamantine chain of destiny 
 is most certain, if it be proved that they are never to exer- 
 cise their own reason, never to be independent, never to rise 
 above opinion, or to feel the dignity of a rational will that 
 only bows to God, and often forgets that the universe con- 
 tains any being but itself and the model of perfection to 
 which its ardent gaze is turned, to adore attributes that, 
 softened into virtues, may be imitated in kind, though the 
 degree overwhelms the enraptured mind. 
 
 If, I say, for I would not impress by declamation when 
 Reason offers her sober light, if they be really capable of 
 acting like rational creatures, let them not be treated like 
 slaves ; or, like the brutes who are dependent on the reason 
 of man, when they associate with him ; but cultivate their 
 minds, give them the salutary sublime curb of principle, 
 and let them attain conscious dignity by feeling themselves 
 only dependent on God. Teach them, in common with 
 man, to submit to necessity, instead of giving, to render 
 them more pleasing, a sex to morals. 
 
 Further, should experience prove that they cannot attain 
 the same degree of strength of mind, perseverance, and for- 
 titude, let their virtues be the same in kind, though they 
 may vainly struggle for the same degree ; and the superiority 
 of man will be equally clear, if not clearer ; and truth, as it 
 is a simple principle, which admits of no modification, 
 would be common to both. Nay the order of society, as it 
 is at present regulated, would not be inverted, for woman 
 would then only have the rank that reason assigned her, and 
 arts could not be practised to bring the balance even, much 
 less to turn it. 
 
 These may be termed Utopian dreams. Thanks to that 
 Being who impressed them on my soul, and gave me suffi- 
 cient strength of mind to dare to exert my own reason, till, 
 becoming dependent only on Him for the support of my 
 virtue, I view with indignation, the mistaken notions that 
 enslave my sex. 
 
 I love man as my fellow ; but his sceptre, real or usurped, 
 extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual 
 demands my homage ; and even then the submission is to 
 reason, and not to man. In fact, the conduct of an account- 
 able being must be regulated by the operations of its own 
 reason; or on what foundation rests the throne of God? 
 
4° 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 4i 
 
 It appears to me necessary to dwell on these obvious 
 truths, because females have been insulated, as it were ; and 
 while they have been stripped of the virtues that should 
 clothe humanity, they have been decked with artificial graces 
 that enable them to exercise a short-lived tyranny. Love, in 
 their bosoms, taking place of every nobler passion, their sole 
 ambition is to be fair, to raise emotion instead of inspiring 
 respect ; and this ignoble desire, like the servility in absolute 
 monarchies, destroys all strength of character. Liberty is 
 the mother of virtue, and if women be, by their very consti- 
 tution, slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigor- 
 ating air of freedom, they must ever languish like exotics, 
 and be reckoned beautiful flaws in nature. 
 
 As to the argument respecting the subjection in which the 
 sex has ever been held, it retorts on man. The many have 
 always been enthralled by the few ; and monsters, who 
 scarcely have shown any discernment of human excellence, 
 have tyrannisedover thousands of their fellow-creatures. Why 
 have men of^superiqr^endowments submitted to such degra- 
 dation ? For, is it not universaTTyacknowledged 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 ? 
 I — -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 
 
 r 
 
 science of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philo- 
 sophers scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man 
 that determinate distinction. 
 
 I shall not pursue this argument any further than to 
 establish an obvious inference, t hat as so und politics diffuse 
 liberty^jriankin d, including w o man, will becom e jnqre wise 
 and virtuous . ' 
 
 ■ iWwcv.- - *^._ .j. 4-, fit *..,,. ,) >ix. * 
 
 <■!' 
 
 .5 '.COi 
 
 •'— v 3 ' ! - • 
 
 > fee =V W. "VvS» <X. , Ufc '>,--<-. J 03U ■ - 
 
 xfe 
 
 J ^2/t 0^ — <£*■.« ' "•• ; '"*-■- I { • */V*\J»» 
 
 - ' <p . " 
 
42 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 •13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
 
 BODILY strength from being the distinction of heroes 
 is now sunk into such unmerited contempt that men, 
 as well as women, seem to think it unnecessary ; the 
 latter, as it takes from their feminine graces, and from that 
 lovely weakness, the source of their undue power ; and the 
 former, because it appears inimical to the character of a 
 gentleman. 
 
 That they have both, by departing from one extreme run 
 into another, may easily be proved; but first it may be 
 proper to observe that a vulgar error has obtained a degree 
 of credit, which has given force to a false conclusion, in which 
 an effect has been mistaken for a cause. 
 
 People of genius have very frequently impaired their 
 constitutions by study or careless inattention to their health, 
 and the violence of their passions bearing a proportion to 
 the vigour of their intellects, the sword's destroying the 
 scabbard has become almost proverbial, and superficial 
 observers have inferred from thence that men of genius have 
 commonly weak, or, to use a more fashionable phrase, deli- 
 cate constitutions. Yet the contrary, I believe, will appear 
 to be the fact ; for, on diligent inquiry, I find that strength 
 of mind has in most cases been accompanied by superior 
 strength of body, — natural soundness of constitution, — not 
 that robust tone of nerves and vigour of muscles, which 
 arise from bodily labour, when the mind is quiescent, or only 
 directs the hands. 
 
 t 
 
 1 
 
 Dr Priestley has remarked, in the preface to his biographi- 
 cal chart, that the majority of great men have lived beyond 
 forty-five. And considering the thoughtless manner in 
 which they have lavished their strength when investigating a 
 favourite science, they have wasted the lamp of life, forget- 
 ful of the midnight hour; or, when lost in poetic dreams, 
 fancy has peopled the scene, and the soul has been dis- 
 turbed, till it shook the constitution by the passions that 
 meditation had raised, — whose objects, the baseless fabric 
 of a vision, faded before the exhausted eye,— they must 
 have had iron frames. Shakespeare never grasped the airy 
 dagger with a nerveless hand, nor did Milton tremble when 
 he led Satan far from the confines of his dreary prison. 
 These were not the ravings of imbecility, the sickly effusions 
 of distempered brains, but the exuberance of fancy, that " in 
 a fine frenzy " wandering, was not continually reminded of 
 its material shackles. 
 
 I am aware that this argument would carry me further 
 than it may be supposed I wish to go ; but I follow truth, 
 and still adhering to my first position, I will aUow_thal 
 bodily strength seems to give man a na tural su periority o ver 
 w oman ; and this is the only solid bas i s on which th e 
 superiorit y of the sex c an be buil t. But I still insist that 
 not only the virtue but the knouledge 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 ot half bdng— one of Rousseau's wild chimeras.* 
 
 * " Researches into abstract and speculative truths, the principles and 
 axioms of sciences,— in short, everything which tends to generalise 
 our ideas, — is not the proper province of women ; their studies should 
 
44 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 But if strength of body be with some show of reason the 
 boast of men, why are women so infatuated as to be proud 
 of a defect ? Rousseau has furnished them with a plausible 
 excuse, which could only have occurred to a man whose 
 imagination had been allowed to run wild, and refine on the 
 impressions made by exquisite senses; that they might 
 
 be relative to points of practice ; it belongs to them to apply those 
 principles which men have discovered ; and it is their part to make 
 observations which direct men to the establishment of general princi- 
 ples. All the ideas of women, which have not the immediate tendency 
 to points of duty, should.be directeJ_tp_jhe_study_of men, and to the 
 attainment of those agreeable accomplishments which have taste for 
 their object ; for as to works of genius, they are beyond their capa- 
 \ city ; neither have they sufficient precision or power of attention to 
 succeed in sciences which require accuracy ; and as to physical know- 
 ledge, it belongs to those only who are most active, most inquisitive, 
 who comprehend the greatest variety of objects ; in short, it belongs 
 to those who have the strongest powers, and who exercise them most, 
 to judge of the relations between sensible beings and the laws of 
 nature. A woman who is naturally weak, and does not carry her ideas 
 to any great extent, knows how to judge and make a proper estimate 
 of those movements which she sets to work, in order to aid her weak- 
 ness ; and these movements are the passions of men. The mechanism 
 ) she employs is much more powerful than ours, for all her levers move 
 j 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 
 I necessary or agreeable to her ; therefore she ought to study the mind 
 of man thoroughly, not the mind of man in general, abstractedly, 
 but trle-Trispositions of those men to whom she is subjec t 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 aetions, their looks and gestures. She should also have the 
 art, by her own conversation, actions, looks, and gestures, to com- 
 municate those sentiments which are agreeable to them, without 
 seeming to intend it. Men will argue more philosophically about the 
 human heart ; but women will read the heart of man better than they. 
 It belongs to' women — if I may be allowed the expression — to form 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 t 
 t 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 45 
 
 forsooth have a pretext for yielding to a natural appetite 
 without violating a romantic species of modesty, which gra- 
 tifies the pride and libertinism of man. 
 
 Women, deluded by these sentiments, sometimes boast of 
 their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the 
 weakness of men ; and they may well glory in their illicit sway, 
 for, like Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than 
 their masters ; but virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifica- 
 tions, and the respectability of life to the triumph of an hour. 
 Women, as well as 'despots, have now perhaps more 
 power than they would have if the world, divided and sub- 
 divided into kingdoms and families, were governed by laws 
 deduced from the exercise of reason ; but in obtaining it, to 
 carry on the comparison, their character is degraded, and 
 licentiousness spread through the whole aggregate, of society. 
 The many become pedestal to the few. I, therefore, will 
 venture to assert that ti ll women are mor e rationally edu- 
 cated, the progress o f human v irtue a n d 2fop r0 J e _ m f nt . m 
 knowledge m ust recei ve continual "cKedcs. And n it be 
 granted that woman was not "cr'e'aTea" 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 
 
 7 
 
 an experimental morality, and to reduce the study of man to a sys- 
 tem Women have most wit, men have most genius ; women observe, 
 men reason. From the concurrence of both we derive the clearest 
 light and the most perfect knowledge which the human mmd 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."— Rocsseau"s Emilius. 
 
 I hope my readers still remember the comparison which I have 
 brought forward between women and officers. 
 
4 6 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 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 mis- 
 taken 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 a body and degree of vigour which is seldom 
 found in the female sex. As soon as she was sufficiently advanced in 
 strength to be capable of the lighter labours of husbandry and garden- 
 ing, I employed her as my constant companion. Selene— for that 
 was her name— soon acquired a dexterity in all these rustic employ- 
 ments which I considered with equal pleasure and admiration. If 
 women are in general feeble both in body and mind, it arises less 
 from nature than from education. We encourage a vicious indolence 
 and inactivity, which we falsely call delicacy. Instead of hardening 
 their minds by the severer principles of reason and philosophy, we 
 breed them to useless arts, which terminate in vanity and sensuality. 
 In most of the countries which I had visited they are taught nothing 
 of an higher nature than a few modulations of the voice, or useless 
 postures of the body ; their time is consumed in sloth or trifles, and 
 trifles become the only pursuits capable of interesting them. We seem 
 to forget that it is upon the qualities of the female sex that our own 
 domestic comforts and the education of our children must depend. 
 And what are the comforts or the education which a race of beings, 
 corrupted from their infancy, and unacquainted with all the duties of 
 life, are fitted to bestow? To touch a musical instrument with useless 
 skill, to exhibit their natural or affected graces to the eyes of indolent 
 arid debauched young men, to dissipate their husband's patrimony in 
 riotous and unnecessary expenses, these are the only arts cultivated by 
 
 ■: 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 47 
 
 But should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker 
 than man, whence does it follow that it is natural for her to 
 labour to become still weaker than nature intended her to 
 be? Arguments of this cast are an insult to common-sense, 
 and savour of passion. The divine right of husbands, like 
 the divine right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this 
 enlightened age, be contested without danger ; and though 
 conviction may not silence many boisterous disputants, yet, 
 when any prevailing prejudice is attacked, the wise will con- 
 sider, and leave the narrow-minded to rail with thoughtless 
 vehemence at innovation. 
 
 The mother who wishes to give true dignity of character 
 to her daughter must, regardless of the sneers of ignorance, 
 proceed on a plan diametrically opposite to that which 
 Rousseau has recommended with all the deluding charms 
 of eloquence and philosophical sophistry, for his eloquence 
 renders absurdities plausible, and his dogmatic conclusions 
 puzzle, without convincing, those who have not ability to 
 refute them. 
 
 Throughout the whole animal kingdom every young crea- 
 ture requires almost continual exercise, and the infancy of 
 children, conformable to this intimation, should be passed 
 in harmless gambols that exercise the feet and hands, with- 
 out requiring very minute direction from the head, or the 
 constant attention of a nurse. In fact, the care necessary 
 
 women in most of the polished nations I had seen. And the conse- 
 quences are uniformly such as may be expected to proceed from such 
 polluted sources — private misery and public servitude. 
 
 " But Selene's education was regulated by different views, and con- 
 ducted upon severer principles— if that can be called severity which 
 opens the mind to a sense of moral and religious duties, and most 
 effectually arms it against the inevitable evils of life.'" — Mr Day's 
 Sandford and Merlon, vol. iii. 
 
48 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 for self-preservation is the first natural exercise of the under- 
 standing as little inventions to amuse the present moment 
 unfold the imagination. But these wise designs of nature 
 are counteracted by mistaken fondness or blind zeal. The 
 child is not left a moment to its own direction — particularly 
 a girl — and thus rendered dependent. Dependence is called 
 natural. 
 
 To preserve personal beauty — woman's glory — the limbs 
 and faculties are cramped with worse than Chinese bands, 
 and the sedentary life which they are condemned to live, 
 whilst boys frolic in the open air, weakens the muscles and 
 relaxes the nerves. As for Rousseau's remarks, which have 
 since been echoed by several writers, that they have natu- 
 rally, that is, from their birth, independent of education, a 
 fondness for dolls, dressing, and talking, they are so puerile 
 as not to merit a serious refutation. That a girl, condemned 
 to sit for hours together listening to the idle chat of weak 
 nurses, or to attend at her mother's toilet, will endeavour to 
 join the conversation, is, indeed, very natural ; and that she 
 will imitate her mother or aunts, and amuse herself by 
 adorning her lifeless doll, as they do in dressing her, poor 
 innocent babe ! is undoubtedly a most natural consequence. 
 For men of the greatest abilities have seldom had sufficient 
 strength to rise above the surrounding atmosphere ; and if 
 the pages of genius have always been blurred by the pre- 
 judices of the age, some allowance should be made for a 
 sex, who, like kings, always see things through a false 
 medium. 
 
 Purposing these reflections, the fondness for dress, con- 
 spicuous in woman, may be easily accounted for, without 
 supposing it the result of a desire to please the sex on which 
 they are dependent. The absurdity, in short, of supposing 
 that a girl is naturally a coquette, and that a desire con- 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 49 
 
 nected with the impulse of nature to propagate the species, 
 should appear even before an improper education has, by 
 heating the imagination, called it forth prematurely, is so 
 unphilosophical, that such a sagacious observer as Rousseau 
 would not have adopted it, if he had not been accustomed 
 to make reason give way to his desire of singularity, and 
 truth to a favourite paradox. 
 
 Yet thus to give a sex to mind was not very consistent 
 with the principles of a man who argued so warmly, and so 
 well, for the immortality of the soul. But what a weak 
 barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis ! 
 Rousseau respected — almost adored virtue — and yet he 
 allowed himself to love with sensual fondness. His imagi- 
 nation constantly prepared inflammable fuel for his in- 
 flammable senses ; but, in order to reconcile his respect for 
 self-denial, fortitude, and those heroic virtues, which a 
 mind like his could not coolly admire, he labours to invert 
 the law of nature, and broaches a doctrine pregnant with mis- 
 chief, and derogatory to the character of supreme wisdom. 
 
 His ridiculous stories, which tend to prove that girls are 
 naturally attentive to their persons, without laying any 
 stress on daily example, are below contempt. And that 
 a little miss should have such a correct taste as to neglect 
 the pleasing amusement of making O's, merely because she 
 perceived that it was an ungraceful attitude, should be 
 selected with the anecdotes of the learned pig.* 
 
 * " I once knew a young 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 
 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 ; 
 
5° 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 i 
 
 I have, probably, had an opportunity of observing more 
 girls in their infancy than J. J. Rousseau. I can recollect 
 my own feelings, and I have looked steadily around me; 
 yet, so far from coinciding with him in opinion respecting 
 the first dawn of the female character, I will venture to 
 affirm, that a girl, whose spirits have not been damped by 
 inactivity, or innocence tainted by false shame, will always 
 be a romp, and the doll will never excite attention unless 
 confinement allows her no alternative. Girls and boys, in 
 short, would play harmlessly together, if the distinction of 
 sex was not inculcated long before nature makes any 
 difference. I will go further, and affirm, as an indisputable 
 fact, that most of the women, in the circle of my observation, 
 who have acted like rational creatures, or shown any vigour 
 of intellect, have accidentally been allowed to run wild, as 
 some of the elegant formers of the fair sex would insinuate. 
 
 The baneful consequences which flow from inattention 
 to health during infancy and youth, extend further than is 
 supposed — dependence of body naturally produces depend- 
 ence of mind ; and how can she be a good wife or mother, 
 the greater part of whose time is employed to guard against 
 or endure sickness ? Nor can it be expected that a woman 
 will resolutely endeavour to strengthen her constitution and 
 abstain from enervating indulgences, if artificial notions 
 of beauty, and false descriptions of sensibility, have been 
 early entangled with her motives of action. Most men are 
 
 when, taking a dislike to the constrained attitude in which she sat 
 while writing, she threw away her pen, like another Pallas, and de- 
 termined against making the O any more. Her brother was also 
 equally averse to writing; it was the confinement, however, and not 
 the constrained attitude, that most disgusted him." — Rousseau's 
 Emilius. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 5, 
 
 sometimes obliged to bear with bodily inconveniences, and 
 to endure, occasionally, the inclemency of the elements; 
 but genteel women are, literally speaking, slaves to their 
 bodies, and glory in their subjection. 
 
 I once knew a weak woman of fashion, who was more 
 than commonly proud of her delicacy and sensibility. She 
 thought a distinguishing taste and puny appetite the height 
 of all human perfection, and acted accordingly. I have 
 seen this weak sophisticated being neglect all the duties of 
 life, yet recline with self-complacency on a sofa, and boast 
 of her want of appetite as a proof of delicacy that extended 
 to, or, perhaps, arose from, her exquisite sensibility ; for it 
 is difficult to render intelligible such ridiculous jargon. 
 Yet, at the moment, I have seen her insult a worthy old 
 gentlewoman, whom unexpected misfortunes had made 
 dependent on her ostentatious bounty, and who, in better 
 days, had claims on her gratitude. Is it possible that a 
 human creature could have become such a weak and de- 
 praved being, if, like the Sybarites, dissolved in luxury, 
 everything like virtue had not been worn away, or never 
 impressed by precept, a poor substitute, it is true, for culti- 
 vation of mind, though it serves as a fence against vice? 
 
 Such a woman is not a more irrational monster than 
 some of the Roman emperors, who were depraved by law- 
 less power. Yet, since kings have been more under the 
 restraint of law, and the curb, however weak, of honour, 
 the records of history are not filled with such unnatural 
 instances of folly and cruelty, nor does the despotism that 
 kills virtue and genius in the bud, hover over Europe with 
 that destructive blast which desblates Turkey, and renders 
 the men, as well as the soil, unfruitful. 
 
 Women are everywhere in this deplorable state ; for, in 
 order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously 
 
5 2 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 termed, truth is hidden from them, and they are made to 
 assume an artificial character before their faculties have 
 acquired any strength. Taught from their infancy that beauty 
 is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and 
 roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adore its prison. 
 Men have various employments and pursuits which engage 
 their attention, and give a character to the opening mind ; 
 but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts 
 constantly directed to the most insignificant part of them- 
 selves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of 
 the hour. But were their understanding once emancipated 
 from the slavery to which the pride and sensuality of man 
 and their short-sighted desire, like that of dominion in 
 tyrants, of present sway, has subjected them, we should 
 probably read of their weaknesses with surprise. I must be 
 allowed to pursue the argument a little further. 
 
 Perhaps, if the existence of an evil being were allowed, 
 who, in the allegorical language of Scripture, went about 
 seeking whom he should devour, he could not more effec-" 
 tually degrade the human character, than by giving a- man 
 absolute power. 
 
 This argument branches into various ramifications. Birth, 
 riches, and every extrinsic advantage that exalt a man above 
 his fellows, without any mental exertion, sink him in reality 
 below them. In proportion to his weakness, he is played 
 upon by designing men, till the bloated monster has lost all 
 traces of humanity. And that tribes of men, like flocks of 
 sheep, should quietly follow such a leader, is a solecism 
 that only a desire of present enjoyment and narrowness of 
 understanding can solve. Educated in slavish dependence, 
 and enervated by luxury and sloth, where shall we find men 
 who will stand forth to assert the rights of man, or claim 
 the privilege of moral beings, who should have but one 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 53 
 
 road to excellence? Slavery to monarchs and ministers, 
 which the world will be long in freeing itself from, and 
 whose deadly grasp stops the progress of the human mind, 
 is not yet abolished. 
 
 Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same 
 arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have 
 used, and fallaciously assert that woman ought to be sub- 
 jected because she has always been so. But, when man, 
 governed by reasonable laws, enjoys his natural freedom, 
 let him despise woman, if she do not share it with him ; 
 and, till that glorious period arrives, in descanting on the 
 folly of the sex, let him not overlook his own. 
 
 Women, it is true, obtaining power by unjust means, by 
 practising or fostering vice, evidently lose the rank which 
 reason would assign them, and they become either abject 
 slaves or capricious tyrants. They lose all simplicity, all 
 dignity of mind, in acquiring power, and act as men are 
 observed to act when they have been exalted by the same 
 means. 
 
 It is time to effect a revolution in female manners — time 
 to restore to them their lost dignity— and make them, as a 
 part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves 
 to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable 
 morals from local manners. If men be demigods, why let 
 us serve them ! And if the dignity of the female soul be 
 a s disputa bl e as that o f animals — if their reason does not 
 afford su fficient light to direct their conduct whilst unerring 
 i nstinc t is denied — they are surely of all creatures the most 
 miserable ! and, bent beneath the iron hand of destiny, 
 must submit to be a fair defect in creation. But to justif y 
 the ways of Providence respecting them, by pointing out 
 some irrefragable reason for thus making such a large 
 portion of mankind accountable and not accountable, would 
 puzzle the subtilest casuist. 
 
54 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 -,^ 
 
 The only solid foundation for morality appears to be 
 the character of the Supreme Being ; the harmony of which 
 arises from a balance of attributes; — and, to speak with 
 reverence, one attribute seems to imply the necessity of 
 another. He must be just, because He is wise ; He must be 
 good, because He is omnipotent. For to exalt one attribute 
 at the expense of another equally noble and necessary, 
 bears the stamp of the warped reason of man — the homage 
 of passion. Man, accustomed to bow down to power in his 
 savage state, can seldom divest himself of this barbarous 
 prejudice, even when civilisation determines how much 
 superior mental is to bodily strength; and his reason is 
 clouded by these crude opinions, even when he thinks of 
 the Deity. His omnipotence is made to swallow up, or 
 preside over His other attributes, and those mortals are 
 supposed to limit His power irreverently, who think that it 
 must be regulated by His wisdom. 
 
 I disclaim that specious humility which, after investigat- 
 ing nature, stops at the Author. The High and Lofty One, 
 who inhabiteth eternity, doubtless possesses many attributes 
 of which we can form no conception ; but Reason tells me 
 that they cannot clash with those I adore — and I am 
 compelled to listen to her voice. 
 
 It seems natural for man to search for excellence, and 
 either to trace it in the object that he worships, or blindly 
 to invest it with perfection, as a garment. But what good 
 effect can the latter mode of worship have on the moral 
 conduct of a rational being ? He bends to power ; he 
 " adores a dark cloud, which may open a bright prospect to 
 him, to burst in angry, lawless fury, on his devoted head — 
 he knows not why. And, supposing that the Deity acts 
 from the vague impulse of an undirected will, man must 
 also follow his own, or act according to rules, deduced 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 35 
 
 from principles which he disclaims as irreverent. Into this 
 dilemma have both enthusiasts and cooler thinkers fallen, 
 when they laboured to free men from the wholesome 
 restraints which a just conception of the character of God 
 imposes. 
 
 It is not impious thus to scan the attributes of the 
 Almighty : in fact, who can avoid it that exercises his 
 faculties ? For to love God as the fountain of wisdom, 
 goodness, and power, appears to be the only worship useful 
 to a being who wishes to acquire either virtue or knowledge. 
 A blind unsettled affection may, like human passions, 
 occupy the mind and warm the heart, whilst, to do justice, 
 love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, is forgotten. 
 I shall pursue this subject still further, when I consider 
 religion in a light opposite to that recommended by Dr 
 Gregory, who treats it as a matter of sentiment or taste. 
 
 To return from this apparent digression. It were to be 
 wished that women would cherish an affection for their 
 husbands, founded on the same principle that devotion 
 ought to rest upon. No other firm base is there under 
 heaven — for let them beware of the fallacious light of 
 sentiment ; too often used as a softer phrase for sensuality. 
 It follows then, I think, that from their infancy women 
 should either be shut up like Eastern princes, or educated 
 in such a manner as to be able to think and act for 
 themselves. 
 
 Why do men halt between two opinions, and expect 
 impossibilities ? Why do they expect virtue from a slave, 
 from a being whom the constitution of civil society has 
 rendered weak, if not vicious? 
 
 Still I know that it will require a considerable length 
 of time to eradicate the firmly rooted prejudices which 
 sensualists have planted ; it will also require some time 
 
56 
 
 / 'fNDICA TION OF THE 
 
 to convince women that they act contrary- to their real 
 interest on an enlarged scale, when they cherish or affect 
 weakness under the name of delicacy, and to convince the 
 world that the poisoned source of female vices and follies, 
 if it be necessary, in compliance with custom, to use 
 synonymous terms in a lax sense, has been the sensual 
 homage paid to beauty :— to beauty of features ; for it has 
 been shrewdly observed by a German writer, that a pretty- 
 woman, as an object of desire, is generally allowed to be 
 so by men of all descriptions ; whilst a fine woman, who 
 inspires more sublime emotions by displaying intellectual 
 beauty, may be overlooked or observed with indifference, 
 by those men who find their happiness in their gratification 
 of their appetites. I foresee an obvious retort — whilst 
 man remains such an imperfect being as he appears hitherto 
 to have been, he will, more or less, be the slave of his 
 appetites ; and those women obtaining most power who 
 gratify a predominant one, the sex is degraded by a physical, 
 if not by a moral necessity. 
 
 This objection has, I grant, some force ; but while such 
 a sublime precept exists, as, "Be pure as your heavenly 
 Father is pure;" it would seem that the virtues of man are 
 not limited by the Being who alone could limit them ; and 
 that he may press forward without considering whether he 
 steps out of his sphere by indulging such a noble ambition. 
 To the wild billows it has been said, "Thus far shalt thou 
 go, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be 
 stayed." Vainly then do they beat and foam, restrained by 
 the power that confines the struggling planets in their 
 orbits, matter yields to the great governing Spirit. But 
 an immortal soul, not restrained by mechanical laws and 
 struggling to free itself from the shackles of matter, con- 
 tributes to, instead of disturbing, the order of creation, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 57 
 
 when, co-operating with the Father of spirits, it tries to 
 govern itself by the invariable rule that, in a degree, before 
 which our imagination faints, regulates the universe. 
 
 Besides, if women be educated for dependence, that is, 
 to act according to the will of another fallible being, and 
 submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop? 
 Are they to be considered as vicegerents allowed to reign 
 over a small domain, and answerable for their conduct to a 
 higher tribunal, liable to error? 
 
 It will not be difficult to prove that such delegates will 
 act like men subjected by fear, and make their children 
 and servants endure their tyrannical oppression. As they 
 submit without reason, they will, having no fixed rules to 
 square their conduct by, be kind, or cruel, just as the 
 whim of the moment directs ; and we ought not to wonder 
 if sometimes, galled by their heavy yoke, they take a 
 malignant pleasure in resting it on weaker shoulders. 
 
 But, supposing a woman, trained up to obedience, be 
 married to a sensible man, who directs her judgment with- 
 out making her feel the servility of her subjection, to act 
 with as much propriety by this reflected light as can be 
 expected when reason is taken at secondhand, yet she can- 
 not ensure the life of her protector ; he may die and leave 
 her with a large family. 
 
 A double duty devolves on her ; to educate them in the 
 character of both father and mother ; to form their principles 
 and secure their property. But, alas ! she has never thought, 
 much less acted for herself. She has only learned to please* 
 
 " In the union of the sexes, both pursue one common object, but 
 not in the same manner. From their diversity in this particular, arises 
 the first determinate difference between the moral relations of each. 
 The one should be active and strong, the other passive and weak ; it is 
 
58 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 men, to depend gracefully on them ; yet, encumbered with 
 children, how is she to obtain another protector — a husband 
 to supply the place of reason ? A rational man, for we are 
 not treading on romantic ground, though he may think her 
 a pleasing docile creature, will not choose to marry a family 
 for love, when the world contains many more pretty 
 creatures. What is then to become of her ? She either 
 falls an easy prey to some mean fortune-hunter, who 
 defrauds her children of their paternal inheritance, and 
 renders her miserable ; or becomes the victim of discontent 
 and blind indulgence. Unable to educate her sons, or 
 impress them with respect, — for it is not a play on words to 
 assert, that people are never respected, though filling an 
 
 necessary the one should have both the power and the will, and that the 
 other should make little resistance. 
 
 " This principle being established, it follows that woman is expressly 
 formed to please the man : if the obligation be reciprocal also, and the 
 man ought to please in his turn, it is not so immediately necessary : his 
 great merit is in his power, and he pleases merely because he is strong. 
 This, I must confess, is not one of the refined maxims of love ; it is, 
 however, one of the laws of nature, prior to love itself. 
 
 " If woman be formed to please and be subjected to man, it is her 
 place, doubtless, to render herselfa greeable to him, instead of challeng- 
 ing his passion. The violence of his desires depends on her charms ; 
 it is by means of these she should urge him to the exertion of those 
 powers which nature hath given him. The most successful method of 
 exciting them, is, to render such exertion necessary by resistance ; as, 
 in that case, self-love is added to desire, and the one triumphs in the 
 victory which the other is obliged to acquire. Hence arise the various 
 modes of attack and defence between the sexes ; the boldness of one 
 sex and the timidity of the other ; and, in a word, that bashfulness 
 and modesty with which nature hath armed the weak in order to sub- 
 due the strong." — Rousseau's Emilius. 
 
 I shall make no other comment on this ingenious passage than just to 
 observe, that it is the philosophy of lasciviousness. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 59 
 
 important station, who are not respectable,— she pines under 
 the anguish of unavailing impotent regret. The serpent's 
 tooth enters into her very soul, and the vices of licentious 
 youth bring her with sorrow, if not with poverty also, to the 
 grave. 
 
 This is not an overcharged picture ; on the contrary, it is 
 a very possible case, and something similar must have fallen 
 under every attentive eye. 
 
 I have, however, taken it for granted, that she was well 
 disposed, though experience shows, that the blind may as 
 easily be led into a ditch as along the beaten road. But 
 supposing, no very improbable conjecture, that a being only 
 taught to please must still find her happiness in pleasing; what 
 an example of folly, not to say vice, will she be to her inno- 
 cent daughters ! The mother will be lost in the coquette, 
 and, instead of making friends of her daughters, view them 
 with eyes askance, for they are rivals — rivals more cruel 
 than any other, because they invite a comparison, and drive 
 her from the throne of beauty, who has never thought of a 
 seat on the bench of reason. 
 
 It does not require a lively pencil, or the discriminating 
 outline of a caricature, to sketch the domestic miseries and 
 petty vices which such a mistress of a family diffuses. Still 
 she only acts as a woman ought to act, brought up according 
 to Rousseau's system. She can never be reproached for 
 being masculine, or turning out of her sphere ; nay, she may 
 observe another of his grand rules, and, cautiously preserving 
 her reputation free from spot, be reckoned a good kind of 
 woman. Yet in what respect can she be termed good? She 
 abstains, it is true, without any great struggle, from com- 
 mitting gross crimes ; but how does she fulfil her duties ? 
 Duties ! in truth she has enough to think of to adorn her 
 body and nurse a weak constitution. 
 
6o 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 With respect to religion, she never presumed to judge for 
 herself; but conformed, as a dependent creature should, to 
 the ceremonies of the Church which she was brought up in, 
 piously believing that wiser heads than her own have settled 
 that business ; and not to doubt is her point of perfection. 
 She therefore pays her tithe of mint and cumin — and thanks 
 her God that she is not as other women are. These are the 
 blessed effects of a good education ! These the virtues of 
 man's helpmate ! * 
 
 I must relieve myself by drawing a different picture. 
 
 Let fancy now present a woman with a tolerable under- 
 standing, for I do not wish to leave the line of mediocrity, 
 whose constitution, strengthened by exercise, has allowed 
 her body to acquire its full vigour ; her mind, at the same 
 time, gradually expanding itself to comprehend the moral 
 duties of life, and in what human virtue and dignity consist. 
 
 Formed thus by the discharge of the relative duties of 
 her station, she marries from affection, without losing sight 
 of prudence, and looking beyond matrimonial felicity, she 
 secures her husband's respect before it is necessary to exert 
 mean arts to please him and feed a dying flame, which 
 nature doomed to expire when the object became familiar, 
 when friendship and forbearance take place of a more 
 
 * " O how lovely." exclaims Rousseau, speaking of Sophia, " is her 
 ignorance ! Happy is he who is destined to instruct her ! She will 
 never pretend to be the tutor of her husband, but will be content to be 
 his pupil. Far from attempting to subject him to her taste, she will 
 accommodate herself to his. She will be more estimable to him, than 
 if she was learned ; he will have a pleasure in instructing her." — 
 Rousseau's Emilius. 
 
 I shall content myself with simply asking, how friendship can subsist, 
 when love expires, between the master and his pupil. 
 
 1 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 61 
 
 ardent affection. This is the natural death of love, and 
 domestic peace is not destroyed by struggles to prevent its 
 extinction. I also suppose the husband to be virtuous ; or 
 she is still more in want of independent principles. 
 
 Fate, however, breaks this tie. She is left a widow, 
 perhaps, without a sufficient provision ; but she is not 
 desolate ! The pang of nature is felt ; but after time has 
 softened sorrow into melancholy resignation, her heart turns 
 to her children with redoubled fondness, and anxious to 
 provide for them, affection gives a sacred heroic cast to her 
 maternal duties. She thinks that not only the eye sees her 
 virtuous efforts from whom all her comfort now must flow, 
 and whose approbation is life ; but her imagination, a little 
 abstracted and exalted by grief, dwells on the fond hope 
 that the eyes which her trembling hand closed, may still see 
 how she subdues every wayward passion to fulfil the double 
 duty of being the father as well as the mother of her child- 
 ren. Raised to heroism by misfortunes, she represses the 
 first faint dawning of a natural inclination, before it ripens 
 into love, and in the bloom of life forgets her sex — forgets 
 the pleasure of an awakening passion, which might again 
 have been inspired and returned. She no longer thinks of 
 pleasing, and conscious dignity prevents her from priding 
 herself on account of the praise which her conduct demands. 
 Her children have her love, and her brightest hopes are 
 beyond the grave, where her imagination often strays. 
 
 I think I see her surrounded by her children, reaping the 
 reward of her care. The intelligent eye meets hers, whilst 
 health and innocence smile on their chubby cheeks, and as 
 they grow up the cares of life are lessened by their grateful 
 attention. She lives to see the virtues which she endeav- 
 oured to plant on principles, fixed into habits, to see her 
 children attain a strength of character sufficient to enable 
 
62 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 them to endure adversity without forgetting their mother's 
 example. 
 
 The task of life thus fulfilled, she calmly waits for the 
 sleep of death, and rising from the grave, may say — " Behold, 
 Thou gavest me a talent, and here are five talents." 
 
 I wish to sum up what I have said in a few words, for I 
 here throw down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of 
 s exual virtues, not excepting m odesty. Forman and woman, 
 truth, if I understand the meaning of the word, must be the 
 same; yet the fanciful female character, so prettily drawn by 
 poets and novelists, demanding the sacrifice of truth and 
 sincerity, virtue becomes a relative idea, having no other 
 foundation than utility, and of that utility men pretend 
 arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own convenience. 
 
 Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfil ; but 
 they are human duties, and the principles that should 
 regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be 
 the same. 
 
 To become respectable, the exercise of their understanding 
 is necessary, there is no other foundation for independence 
 of character ; I mean explicitly to say that they must only 
 bow to the authority of reason, instead of being the modest 
 slaves of opinion. 
 
 In the superior ranks of life how seldom do we meet with 
 a man of superior abilities, or even common acquirements ? 
 The reason appears to me clear, the state they are born in 
 was an unnatural one. The human character has ever been 
 formed by the employments the individual, or class, pursues ; 
 and if the faculties are not sharpened by necessity, they 
 must remain obtuse. The argument may fairly be extended 
 to women; for, seldom occupied by serious business, the 
 pursuit of pleasure gives that insignificancy to their character 
 which renders the society of the great so insipid. The 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 63 
 
 same want of firmness, produced by a similar cause, forces 
 them both to fly from themselves to noisy pleasures, and 
 artificial passions, till vanity takes place of every social 
 affection, and the characteristics of humanity can scarcely 
 be discerned. Such are the blessings of civil governments, 
 as they are at present organised, that wealth and female 
 softness equally tend to debase mankind, and are produced 
 by the same cause ; but allowing women to be rational 
 creatures, t hey sho uld be incited to acquire virtues which 
 they may c all their own, for how can a rational being be 
 ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own 
 exertions ? 
 
64 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO WHICH 
 WOMAN IS REDUCED BY VARIOUS CAUSES. 
 
 THAT woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a 
 concurrence of circumstances, is, I think, clear. But 
 this position I shall simply contrast with a conclusion, 
 which I have frequently heard fall from sensible men in 
 favour of an aristocracy : that the mass of mankind cannot 
 be anything, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow 
 themselves to be driven forward, would feel their own 
 consequence^ and spurn their chains. Men, they further 
 observe, submit everywhere to oppression, when they have 
 only to lift up their heads to throw off the yoke; yet, 
 instead of asserting their birthright, they quietly lick the 
 dust, and say, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 
 Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same 
 propensity to enjoy the present moment, and at last 
 despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue 
 to struggle to attain. But I must be more explicit. 
 
 With respect to the culture of the heart, it is unanimously 
 allowed that sex is out of the question ; but the line of 
 subordination in the mental powers is never to be passed 
 over.* Only " absolute in loveliness," the portion of ration- 
 
 * Into what inconsistencies do men fall when they argue without the 
 compass of principles. Women, weak women, are compared with 
 angels ; yet, a superior order of beings should be supposed to possess 
 more intellect than man; or, in what does their superiority consist? 
 
 ality granted to woman is, indeed, very scanty ; for denying 
 her genius and judgment, it is scarcely possible to divine 
 what remains to characterise intellect. 
 
 The stamen of immortality, if I may be allowed the 
 phrase, i s the perfecti bility of huma n reason ; for, were man 
 created perfect, or did a flood of knowledge break in upon 
 him, when he arrived at maturity, that precluded error, I 
 should doubt whether his existence would be continued 
 after the dissolution of the body. But, in the present state of 
 things, ever y difficulty in mora ls t hat esca pes from human 
 dis cussion, and equally ba ffles the i nv estigation of profound 
 thinking, and th e lightning glance of genius, is an argumen t 
 on which I build my belief o f the immor tality of the sou l. 
 Reason is, consequentially, the simple power of improve- 
 ment ; or, more properly speaking, of discerning truth. 
 Every individual is in this respect a world in itself. More 
 or less may be conspicuous in one being than another ; but 
 th e natu r e of rea son must b e the same in all, if it be an 
 emanation of divinity, t he tie that co nnects the creature 
 w ith the Creator; for, can that soul be stamped with the 
 heavenly image, that is not perfected by the exercise of its 
 own reason?* Yet outwardly ornamented with elaborate 
 care, and so adorned to delight man, " that with honour he 
 
 In the same strain, to drop the sneer, they are allowed to possess more 
 goodness of heart, piety, and benevolence. I doubt the fact, though 
 it be courteously brought forward, unless ignorance be allowed to be 
 the mother of devotion ; for I am firmly persuaded that, on an average, 
 the proportion between virtue and knowledge, is more upon a par than 
 is commonly granted. 
 
 •"The brutes," says Lord Monboddo, "remain in the state in 
 which nature has placed them, except in so far as their natural instinct 
 is improved by the culture we bestow upon them." 
 

 66 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 may love," * the soul of woman is not allowed to have this 
 distinction, and man, ever placed between her and reason, she 
 is always represented as only created to see through a gross 
 medium, and to take things on trust. But dismissing these 
 fanciful theories, and considering woman as a whole, let it 
 be what it will, instead of a part of man, the inquiry is 
 whether she have reason or not. If she have, which, for a 
 moment, I will take for granted, she was not created merely 
 to be the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy 
 the human character. 
 
 Into this error men have, probably, been led by viewing 
 f education in a false light ; not considering it as the first 
 step to form a being advancing gradually towards perfec- 
 tion ;t but^only as a preparation for life. On this sensual 
 error, for I must call it so, has the false system of female 
 manners been reared, which robs the whole sex of its dignity, 
 and classes the brown and fair with the smiling flowers that 
 only adorn the land. This has ever been the language of 
 men, and the fear of departing from a supposed sexual 
 character, has made even women of superior sense adopt 
 the same sentiments.! Thus understanding, strictly speak- 
 
 * Vide Milton. 
 
 t This word is not strictly just, but I cannot find a better. 
 t" Pleasure's the portion of th' inferior kind ; 
 But glory, virtue, Heaven for man designed." 
 
 After writing these lines.how could Mrs Barbauld write the following 
 ignoble comparison ? 
 
 "To a Lady with some Painted Flowers. 
 " Flowers to the fair : to you these flowers I bring, 
 And strive to greet you with an earlier spring. 
 Flowers, SWEET, and gay, and DELICATE LIKE YOU ; 
 Emblems of innocence, and beauty too. 
 
 \ 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 67 
 
 ing, has been denied to woman ; and instinct, sublimated 
 into wit and cunning, for the purposes of life, has been 
 substituted in its stead. 
 
 The power of generalising ideas, of drawing compre- 
 hensive conclusions from individual observations, is the 
 only acquirement, for an immortal being, that really deserves 
 the name of knowledge. Merely to observe, without en- 
 deavouring to account for anything, may (in a very incom- 
 plete manner) serve as the common -sense of life; but 
 where is the store laid up that is to clothe the soul when it 
 leaves the body? 
 
 This power has not only been denied to women ; but 
 writers have insisted that it is inconsistent, with a few 
 exceptions, with their sexual character. Let men prove 
 this, and I shall grant that woman only exists for man. 
 I must, however, previously remark, that the power of 
 generalising ideas, to any great extent, is not very common 
 amongst men or women. But this exercise is the true 
 
 With flowers the Graces bind their yellow hair, 
 And flowery wreaths consenting lovers wear. 
 Flowers, the sole luxury which Nature knew, 
 In Eden's pure and guiltless garden grew. 
 To loftier forms are rougher tasks assigned ; 
 The sheltering oak resists the stormy wind, 
 The tougher yew repels invading foes, 
 And the tall pine for future navies grows ; 
 But this soft family, to cares unknown, 
 Were born for pleasure aud delight alone. 
 Gay without toil, and lovely without art, 
 They spring to CHEER the sense, and CLAD the heart. 
 Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these ; 
 Your BEST, your SWEETEST empire is— to please." 
 So the men tell us ; but virtue, says reason, must be acquired by rough 
 toils, and useful struggles with worldly cares. 
 
68 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 cultivation of the understanding ; and everything conspires 
 to render the cultivation of the understanding more difficult 
 in the female than the male world. 
 
 I am naturally led by this assertion to the main subject 
 of the present chapter, and shall now attempt to point 
 out some of the causes that degrade the sex, and prevent 
 women from generalising their observations. 
 
 I shall not go back to the remote annals of antiquity to 
 trace the history of woman ; it is sufficient to allow that she 
 h as always been either a slave or a despot; and to remark 
 thaXeach^fjheje_^ations_eg.ually retards, the progress of 
 -IgaSQiu. The grand source of female folly and vice has ever 
 t~~appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind ; and the 
 1 very constitution of civil governments has put almost m- 
 \ superable obstacles in the way to prevent the cultivation of 
 the female understanding ; yet virtue can be built on no other 
 foundation. The same obstacles are thrown in the way of 
 -the rich, and the same consequences ensue. 
 
 Necessity has been proverbially termed the mother of 
 invention ; the aphorism may be extended to virtue. It is 
 an acquirement, and an acquirement to which pleasure must 
 be sacrificed ; and who sacrifices pleasure when it is within 
 the grasp, whose mind has not been opened and strengthened 
 by adversity, or the pursuit of knowledge goaded on by 
 necessity ? Happy is it when people have the cares of life 
 to struggle with, for these struggles prevent their becom- 
 ing a prey to enervating vices, merely from idleness. But if 
 from their birth men and women be placed in a torrid zone, 
 with the meridian sun of pleasure darting directly upon them, 
 how can they sufficiently brace their minds to discharge the 
 duties of life, or even to relish the affections that carry them 
 out of themselves ? 
 
 Pleasure is the business of woman's life, according to the 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 69 
 
 present modification of society ; and while it continues to be 
 so, little can be expected from such weak beings. Inherit- 
 ing in a lineal descent from the first fair defect in nature — 
 the sovereignty of beauty — they have, to maintain their 
 power, resigned the natural rights which the exercise of 
 reason might have procured them, and chosen rather to be 
 short-lived queens than labour to obtain the sober pleasures 
 that arise from equality. Exalted by their inferiority (this 
 sounds like a contradiction), they constantly demand homage 
 as women, though experience should teach them that the 1 
 men who pr ide themsel ves upon paying this _ arbjtrarvjnso- <• 
 lent respect to the se x, with t he~liiosTTcrup ujou£exactness, < 
 are most incline dTto tyrannise over, and d espisethe very^ 
 Weakness th ey ch erish. Often do they repeat Mr Hume's 
 sentiments, when, comparing the French and Athenian 
 character, he alludes to women,—" But what is more singu- 
 lar in this whimsical nation, say I to the Athenians, is, that 
 a frolic of yours during the saturnalia, when the slaves are 
 served by their masters, is seriously continued by them 
 through the whole year, and through the whole course of 
 their lives, accompanied, too, with some circumstances, which 
 still further augment the absurdity and ridicule. Your sport 
 only elevates for a few days those whom fortune has thrown 
 down, and whom she too, in sport, may really elevate for 
 ever above you. But this nation gravely exalts those whom 
 nature has subjected to them, and whose inferiority and 
 infirmities are absolutely incurable. The women, though 
 without virtue, are their masters and sovereigns." 
 
 Ah ! why do women — I write with affectionate solicitude 
 — condescend to receive a degree of attention and respect 
 from strangers different from that reciprocation of civility 
 which the dictates of humanity and the politeness of civi- 
 lisation authorise between man and man? And why do 
 
7° 
 
 VI N DIC A TIOX OF THE 
 
 they not discover, when " in the noon of beauty's power," 
 that they are treated like queens only to be deluded by 
 hollow respect, till they are led to resign, or not assume, 
 their natural prerogatives? Confined, then, in cages like 
 the feathered race, they have nothing to do but to plume 
 themselves, and stalk with mock majesty from perch to 
 perch. It is true they are provided with food and raiment, 
 for which they neither toil nor spin ; but health, liberty, and 
 virtue are given in exchange. But where, amongst man- 
 kind, has been found sufficient strength of mind to enable a 
 being to resign these adventitious prerogatives — one who, 
 rising with the calm dignity of reason above opinion, dared 
 to be proud of the privileges inherent in man ? And it is 
 vain to expect it whilst hereditary power chokes the affec- 
 tions, and nips reason in the bud. 
 
 The passions of men have thus placed women on thrones, 
 and till mankind become more reasonable, it is to be feared 
 that women will avail themselves of the power which they 
 attain with the least exertion, and which is the most indisput- 
 able. They will smile— yes, they will smile, though told that— 
 
 " Id beauty's empire is no mean, 
 And woman, either slave or queen, 
 Is quickly scorned when not adored." 
 
 But the adoration comes first, and the scorn is not antici- 
 pated. 
 
 Louis XIV., in particular, spread factitious manners, and 
 caught, in a specious way, the whole nation in his toils ; 
 for, establishing an artful chain of despotism, he made it 
 the interest of the people at large individually to respect his 
 station, and support his power. And women, whom he flat- 
 tered by a puerile attention to the whole sex, obtained in his 
 reign that prince-like distinction so fatal to reason and virtue. 
 
 RIGHTS OF irOMAiV. 
 
 7< 
 
 A king is always a king, and a woman always a woman.* 
 His authority and her sex ever stand between them and 
 rational converse. With a lover, I grant, she should be so, 
 and her sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavour to 
 excite emotion, not to gratify her vanity, but her heart. 
 This I do not allow to be coquetry ; it is the artless impulse 
 of nature. I only exclaim against the sexual desire of con- 
 quest when the heart is out of the question. 
 
 This desire is not confined to women. " I have en- 
 deavoured," says Lord Chesterfield, " to gain the hearts of 
 twenty women, whose persons I would not have given a fig 
 for." The libertine who, in a gust of passion, takes advan- 
 tage of unsuspecting tenderness, is a saint when compared 
 with this cold-hearted rascal — for I like to use significant 
 words. Yet only taught to please, women are always on the 
 watch to please," and with true heroic ardour endeavour to 
 gain hearts merely to resign or spurn them when the victory 
 is decided and conspicuous. 
 
 I must descend to the minutiae of the subject. 
 
 I lament that women are systematically degraded by re- 
 ceiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to 
 pay to the sex, when, in fact, they are insultingly supporting 
 their own superiority. I t is not condescension to bow to an 
 inferio r. So ludicrous, in fact, do these ceremonies appear 
 to me that I scarcel y am ab le to govern my muscles when I 
 see a man st art with eager a nd serious ^solicitude to lift a 
 handlcerchief or s hut a d oor, when the lady could have done 
 it herself, had she only moved a pace or two. 
 
 A wild wish has just flown from my heart to my head, 
 
 * And a wit always a wit, might be added, for the vain fooleries of 
 wits and beauties to obtain attention, and make conquests, are much 
 upon a par. 
 
72 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 73 
 
 and I will not stifle it, though it may excite a horse-laugh. 
 I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded 
 in society, unless where love animates the behaviour. For 
 this di5tinction_is, I am firmly persuaded, the foundation of 
 the weakness of character ascribed to woman ; is the cause 
 why the understanding is neglected, whilst accomplish- 
 ments are acquired with sedulous care; and the same cause 
 accounts for their preferring the graceful before the heroic 
 virtues. 
 
 Mankind, including every description, wish to be loved 
 and respected by something, and the common herd will 
 always take the nearest road to the completion of their 
 wishes. The respect paid to wealth and beauty is the most 
 certain and unequivocal, and, of course, will always attract 
 the vulgar eye of common minds. Abilities and virtues are 
 absolutely necessary to raise men from the middle rank of 
 life into notice, and the natural consequence is notorious — 
 the middle rank contains most virtue and abilities. Men 
 have thus, in one station at least, an opportunity of exert- 
 ing themselves with dignity, and of rising by the exertions 
 which really improve a rational creature; but the whole 
 female sex are, till their character is formed, in the same 
 condition as the rich, for they are born — I now speak of 
 a state of civilisation — with certain sexual privileges ; and 
 whilst they are gratuitously granted them, few will ever think 
 of works of supererogation to obtain the esteem of a small 
 number of superior people. 
 
 When do we hear of women who, starting out of obscurity, 
 boldly claim respect on account of their great abilities or 
 daring virtues ? Where are they to be found ? " To be 
 observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with 
 sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the ad- 
 vantages which they seek." True! my male readers will 
 
 probably exclaim ; but let them, before they draw any con- 
 clusion, recollect that this was not written originally as de- 
 scriptive of women, but of the rich. In Dr Smith's 
 "Theory of Moral Sentiments" I have found a general 
 character of people of rank and fortune, that, in my opinion, 
 might with the greatest propriety be applied to the female 
 sex. I refer the sagacious reader to the whole comparison, 
 but must be allowed to quote a passage to enforce an argu- 
 ment that I mean to insist on, as the one most conclusive 
 against a sexual character. For if, excepting warriors, no 
 great men of any denomination have ever appeared amongst 
 the nobility, may it not be fairly inferred that their local 
 situation swallowed up the man, and produced a character 
 similar to that of women, who are localised — if I may be 
 allowed the word — by the rank they are placed in by 
 courtesy ? Women, commonly called ladies, are not to be 
 contradicted in company, are not allowed to exert any 
 manual strength ; and from them the negative virtues only- 
 are expected, when any virtues are expected — patience, 
 docility, good humour, and flexibility — virtues incompatible 
 with any vigorous exertion of intellect. Besides, by living 
 more with each other, and being seldom absolutely alone, 
 they are "more under the influence of sentiments than pas- 
 sions. Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes 
 the force of passions, and to enable the imagination to en- 
 large the object, and make it the most desirable. The same 
 may be said of the rich; they do not sufficiently deal in 
 general ideas, collected by impassioned thinking or calm 
 investigation, to acquire that strength of character on which 
 great resolves are built. But hear what an acute observer 
 says of the great : — 
 
 " Do the great seem insensible of the easy price at 
 which they may acquire the public admiration ; or do they 
 
RIGHTS OF WOMAN: 
 
 75 
 
 74 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 seem to imagine that to them, as to other men, it must be 
 the purchase either of sweat or of blood ? By what import- 
 ant accomplishments is the young nobleman instructed to 
 support the dignity of his rank, and to render himself 
 worthy of that superiority over his fellow-citizens, to which 
 the virtue of his ancestors had raised them? Is it by 
 knowledge, by industry, by patience, by self-denial, or by 
 virtue of any kind. As all his words, as all his motions 
 are attended to, he learns an habitual regard to every 
 circumstance of ordinary behaviour, and studies to perform 
 all those small duties with the most exact propriety. As 
 he is conscious how much he is observed, and how much 
 mankind are disposed to favour all his inclinations, he acts, 
 upon the most indifferent occasions, with that freedom and 
 elevation which the thought of this naturally inspires. His 
 air, his manner, his deportment, all mark that elegant and 
 graceful sense of his own superiority, which those who are 
 born to inferior station can hardly ever arrive at. These are 
 the arts by which he proposes to make mankind more easily 
 submit to his authority, and to govern their inclinations accord- 
 ing to his own pleasure ; and in this he is seldom disap- 
 pointed. These arts, supported by rank and pre-eminence, 
 are, upon ordinary occasions, sufficient to govern the world. 
 Louis XIV., during the greater part of his reign, was 
 regarded, not only in France, but over all Europe, as the 
 most perfect model of a great prince. But what were the 
 talents and virtues by which he acquired this great reputa- 
 tion? Was it by the scrupulous and inflexible justice of all 
 his undertakings, by the immense dangers and difficulties 
 with which they were attended, or by the unwearied and 
 unrelenting application with which he pursued them ? Was 
 it by his extensive knowledge, by his exquisite judgment, or 
 by his heroic valour ? It was by none of these qualities. 
 
 ' 
 
 But he was, first of all, the most powerful prince in Europe, 
 and consequently held the highest rank among kings ; and 
 then, says his historian, ' he surpassed all his courtiers in 
 the gracefulness of his shape, and the majestic beauty of his 
 features. The sound of his voice, noble and affecting, 
 gained those hearts which his presence intimidated. He 
 had a step and a deportment which could suit only him and 
 his rank, and which would have been ridiculous in any other 
 person. The embarrassment which he occasioned to those 
 who spoke to him, flattered that secret satisfaction with 
 which he felt his own superiority.' These frivolous 
 accomplishments, supported by his rank, and, no doubt too, 
 by a degree of other talents and virtues, which seems, how- 
 ever, not to have been much above mediocrity, established 
 this prince in the esteem of his own age, and have drawn, 
 even from posterity, a good deal of respect for his memory. 
 Compared with these, in his own times, and in his own pre- 
 sence, no other virtue, it seems, appeared to have any merit. 
 Knowledge, industry, valour, and beneficence trembled, 
 were abashed, and lost all dignity before them." 
 
 Woman also thus " in herself complete," by possessing all 
 these frivolous accomplishments, so changes the nature of 
 things — 
 
 " That what she wills to do or say 
 Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best ; 
 All higher knowledge in her presence falls 
 Degraded. Wisdom in discourse with her 
 Loses discountenanced, and, like folly shows : 
 Authority and reason on her wait." 
 
 And all this is built on her loveliness ! 
 
 In the middle rank of life, to continue the comparison, 
 men, in their youth, are prepared for professions, and 
 marriage is not considered as the grand feature in their 
 
76 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 77 
 
 lives ; whilst women, on the contrary, have no other scheme 
 
 to sharpen their faculties. It is not business, extensive 
 
 plans, or any of the excursive nights of ambition, that engross 
 
 their attention; no, their thoughts are not employed in 
 
 rearing such noble structures. To rise in the world, and 
 
 have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure, they 
 
 must marry advantageously, and to this object their time is 
 
 sacrificed, and their persons often legally prostituted. A 
 
 man when he enters any profession has his eye steadily fixed 
 
 on-some future advantage (and the mind gains great strength 
 
 by having all its efforts directed to one point), and, full of 
 
 his business, pleasure is considered as mere relaxation; 
 
 whilst women seek for pleasure as the main purpose of 
 
 existence. In fact, from the educat io n, whic h th ey rec eive 
 
 from__society, the love of pleasure may be said _to_govern 
 
 them all ; but does this prove tha t there _js_a sex in souls ? 
 
 It would be just as rational to declare that the courtiers in 
 
 France, when a destructive system of despotism had formed 
 
 their character, were not men, because liberty, virtue, and 
 
 humanity, were sacrificed to pleasure and vanity, Fatal 
 
 passions, which have ever domineered over the whole race ! 
 
 The same love of pleasure, fostered by the whole tendency 
 
 of their education, gives a trifling turn to the conduct of 
 
 women in most circumstances ; for instance, they are ever 
 
 anxious about secondary things ; and on the watch for 
 
 adventures, instead of being occupied by duties. 
 
 A man, when he undertakes a journey, has, in general, the 
 end in view ; a woman thinks more of the incidental occur- 
 rences, the strange things that may possibly occur on the 
 road; the impression that she may make on her fellow- 
 travellers ; and, above all, she is anxiously intent on the 
 care of the finery that she carries with her, which is more 
 than ever a part of herself, when going to figure on a new 
 
 scene ; when, to use an apt French turn of expression, she is 
 going to- produce a sensation. Can dignity of mind exist 
 with such trivial cares ? 
 
 In short^yojrien L jn_gejTer al, as well as the ric h of both 
 sexes, have ac quired all th e follies and vices of civilisation, 
 a nd missed the useful fruit. It is not necessary~for~ me 
 always to premise, that I speak of the condition of the whole 
 sex, leaving exceptions out of the question. Their senses 
 are inflamed, and their understandings neglected, conse- 
 quently they become the prey of their senses, delicately 
 termed sensibility, and are blown about by every momentary 
 gust of feeling. Civilised women are, therefore, so weakened 
 by false refinement, that, respecting morals, their condition 
 is much below what it would be were they left in a state 
 nearer to nature. Ever restless and anxious, their over- 
 exercised sensibility not only renders them uncomfortable 
 themselves, but troublesome, to use a soft phrase, to others. 
 All their thoughts turn on things calculated to excite emo- 
 tion y and feeling, when they should reason, their conduct is 
 unstable, and their opinions are wavering — not the wavering 
 produced by deliberation or progressive views, but by con- 
 tradictory emotions. By fits and starts they are warm in 
 many pursuits; yet this warmth, never concentrated into 
 perseverance, soon exhausts itself; exhaled by its own heat, 
 or meeting with some other fleeting passion, to which reason 
 has never given any specific gravity, neutrality ensues. 
 Miserable indeed, must be that being whose cultivation of 
 mind has only tended to inflame its passions ! A distinc- 
 tion should be made between inflaming and strengthening 
 them. The passions thus pampered, whilst the judgment 
 is left unformed, what can be expected to ensue? Un- 
 doubtedly, a mixture of madness and folly ! 
 
 This observation should not be confined to the fair sex ; 
 however, at present, I only mean to apply it to them. 
 
78 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 79 
 
 Novels, music, poetry, and gallantry, all tend to make 
 women the creatures of sensation, and their character is thus 
 formed in the mould of folly during the time they are acquir- 
 ing accomplishments, the only improvement they are excited, 
 by their station in society, to acquire. This overstretched 
 sensibility naturally relaxes the other powers of the mind, 
 and prevents intellect from attaining that sovereignty which 
 it ought to attain to render a rational creature useful to 
 others, and content with its own station ; for the exercise 
 of the understanding, as life advances, is the only method 
 pointed out by nature to calm the passions. 
 
 Satiety has a very different effect, and I have often been 
 forcibly struck by an emphatical description of damnation ; 
 when the spirit is represented as continually hovering with 
 abortive eagerness round the defiled body, unable to enjoy 
 anything without the organs of sense. Yet, to their senses, 
 are women made slaves, because it is by their sensibility 
 that they obtain present power. 
 
 And will moralists pretend to assert that this is the con- 
 dition in which one-half of the human race should be 
 encouraged to remain with listless inactivity and stupid 
 acquiescence ? Kind instructors ! what were we created 
 for? To remain, it may be said, innocent : they mean in a 
 state of childhood. We might as well never have been born, 
 unless it were necessary that we should be created to 
 enable man to acquire the noble privilege of reason, the 
 power of discerning good from evil, whilst we lie down in 
 the dust from whence we were taken, never to rise again. 
 
 It would be an endless task to trace the variety of mean- 
 nesses, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged 
 by the prevailing opinion, that they were created rather to 
 feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain must be 
 obtained by their charms and weakness — 
 
 " Fine by defect, and amiably weak ! " 
 
 » 
 
 And, made by this amiahle weakness entirely dependent, 
 excepting what they gain by illicit sway, on man, not only 
 for protection, but advice, is it surprising that, neglecting 
 the duties that reason alone points out, and shrinking 
 from trials calculated to strengthen their minds, they only 
 exert themselves to give their defects a graceful covering, 
 which may serve to heighten their charms in the eye of 
 the voluptuary, though it sink them below the scale of 
 moral excellence. 
 
 Fragile in every sense of the word, they are obliged to 
 look up to man for every comfort. In the most trifling 
 dangers they cling to their support, with parasitical tenacity, 
 piteously demanding succour ; and their natural protector 
 extends his arm, or lifts up his voice, to guard the lovely 
 trembler— from what? Perhaps the frown of an old cow, 
 or the jump of a mouse ; a rat would be a serious danger. 
 In the name of reason, and even common-sense, what can 
 save such beings from contempt ; even though they be soft 
 and fair. 
 
 These fears, when not affected, may produce some pretty 
 attitudes ; but they show a degree of imbecility which 
 degrades a rational creature in a way women are not aware 
 of — for love and esteem are very distinct things. 
 
 I am fully persuaded that we should hear of none of these 
 infantine airs, if girls were allowed to take sufficient 
 exercise, and not confined in close rooms till their muscles 
 are relaxed, and their powers of digestion destroyed. To 
 carry the remark still further, if fear in girls, instead of being 
 cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same 
 manner as cowardice in boys, we should quickly see women 
 with more dignified aspects. It is true, they could not 
 then with equal propriety be termed the sweet flowers that 
 smile in the walk of man ; but they would be more 
 
8o 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 respectable members of society, and discharge the important 
 duties of life by the light of their own reason. " Educate 
 women like men," says Rousseau, "and the more they 
 resemble our sex the less power will they have over us." 
 This is the very point I aim at. I do not wish them to 
 have power over men ; but over themselves. 
 
 In the same strain have I heard men argue against 
 instructing the poor ; for many are the forms that aristocracy 
 assumes. " Teach them to read and write," say they, " and 
 you take them out of the station assigned them by 
 .nature." An eloquent Frenchman has answered them, I 
 will borrow his sentiments. But they know not, when they 
 make man a brute, that they may expect every instant to see 
 him transformed into a ferocious beast. Without knowledge 
 there can be no morality ? 
 
 Ignorance is a frail base for virtue ! Yet, that it is the 
 condition for which woman was organised, has been in- 
 sisted upon by the writers who have most vehemently 
 argued in favour of the superiority of man ; a superiority 
 not in degree, but offence ; though, to soften the argu- 
 ment, they have laboured to prove, with chivalrous gener- 
 osity, that the sexes ought not to be compared ; man was 
 made to reason, woman to feel : and that together, flesh and 
 spirit, they make the most perfect whole, by blending happily 
 reason and sensibility into one character. 
 
 And what is sensibility? "Quickness of sensation, 
 quickness of perception, delicacy." Thus is it defined by 
 Dr Johnson ; and the definition gives me no other idea 
 than of the most exquisitely polished instinct I discern 
 not a trace of the image of God in either sensation or 
 matter. Refined seventy times seven they are still mate- 
 rial ; intellect dwells not there ; nor will fire ever make 
 lead gold ! 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 81 
 
 I 
 
 ,1 
 
 
 I come round to my old argument : if woman be allowed 
 to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employ- 
 ment of life, an understanding to improve. And when, to 
 render the present state more complete, though every- 
 thing proves it to be but a fraction of a mighty sum, she 
 is incited by present gratification to forget her grand des- 
 tination, nature is counteracted, or she was born only to 
 procreate and rot. Or, granting brutes of every descrip- 
 tion a soul, though not a reasonable one, the exercise of 
 instinct and sensibility may be the step which they are to 
 take, in this life, towards the attainment of reason in the 
 next ; so that through all eternity they will lag behind 
 man, who, why we cannot tell, had the power given him 
 of attaining reason in his first mode of existence. 
 
 When I treat of the peculiar duties of women, as I should 
 treat of the peculiar duties of a citizen or father, it will be 
 found that I do not mean to insinuate that they should be 
 taken out of their families, speaking of the majority. " He 
 that hath wife and children," says Lord Bacon, " hath given 
 hostages to fortune ; for they are impediments to great 
 enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best 
 works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded 
 from the unmarried or childless men." I say the same of 
 women. But the welfare of soci ety is not built on extraor- 
 dinary exert ions ; a nd were it more rea sonably organised, 
 th ere would be still less need of great abilities, or heroic 
 virtues. 
 
 In the regulation of a family, in the education of children, 
 understanding, in an unsophisticated sense, is particularly 
 required — strength both of body and mind ; yet the men 
 who, by their writings, have most earnestly laboured to 
 domesticate women, have endeavoured, by arguments dic- 
 tated by a gross appetite, which satiety had rendered fastidi- 
 
82 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 83 
 
 ous, to weaken their bodies and cramp their minds. But, if 
 even by these sinister methods they really persuaded women, 
 by working on their feelings, to stay at home, and fulfil the 
 duties of a mother and mistress of a family, I should cauti- 
 ously oppose opinions that led women to right conduct, by 
 prevailing on them to make the discharge of such important 
 duties the main business of life, though reason were insulted. 
 Yet, and I appeal to experience, if by neglecting the under- 
 standing they be as much, nay, more detached from these 
 domestic employments, than they could be by the most 
 serious intellectual pursuit, though it may be observed, that 
 the mass of mankind will never vigorously pursue an 
 intellectual object,* I may be allowed to infer that reason is 
 absolute ly nec es sary to enable a w oman tojgerform any duty 
 ^rr^erly^ar^d_I_jnuj^a^iri_re£eat J _that jensibihty is Jiot " 
 reason. 
 
 The comparison with the rich still occurs to me ; for, 
 when men neglect the duties of humanity, women will follow 
 their example ; a common stream hurries them both along 
 with thoughtless celerity. Riches and honours prevent a 
 man from enlarging his understanding, and enervate all his 
 powers by reversing the order of nature which has ever 
 made true pleasure the reward of labour. Pleasure — ener- 
 vating pleasure — is, likewise, within women's reach without 
 earning it. But, till hereditary possessions are spread 
 abroad, how can we expect men to be proud of virtue? 
 And, till they are, women will govern them by the most 
 direct means, neglecting their dull domestic duties to catch 
 the pleasure that sits lightly on the wing of time. 
 
 "The power of the woman," says some author, " is her 
 
 * The mass of mankind are rather the slaves of their appetites than 
 of their passions. 
 
 sensibility ; " and men, not aware of the consequence, do all 
 they can to make this power swallow up every other. Those 
 who constantly employ their sensibility will have most ; for 
 example, poets, painters, and composers.* Vet, when the 
 sensibility is thus increased at the expense of reason, and 
 even the imagination, why do philosophical men complain of 
 their fickleness ? The sexual attention of man particularly 
 acts on female sensibility, and this sympathy has been exer- 
 cised from their youth up. A husband cannot long pay 
 those attentions with the passion necessary to excite lively 
 emotions, and the heart, accustomed to lively emotions, 
 turns to a new lover, or pines in secret, the prey of virtue or 
 prudence. I mean when the heart has really been rendered 
 susceptible, and the taste formed ; for I am apt to conclude, 
 from what I have seen in fashionable life, that vanity is 
 oftener fostered than sensibility by the mode of education, 
 and the intercourse between the sexes, which I have repro- 
 bated; and that coquetry more frequently proceeds from 
 vanity than from that inconstancy which overstrained sensi- 
 bility naturally produces. 
 
 Another argument that has had great weight with me 
 must, I think, have some force with every considerate benevo- 
 lent heart. Girls who have been thus weakly educated are 
 often cruelly left by their parents without any provision, and, 
 of course, are dependent on not only the reason, but the 
 bounty of their brothers. These brothers are, to view the 
 fairest side of the question, good sort of men, and give as a 
 favour what children of the same parents had an equal right 
 
 Men of these descriptions pour it into their composilions, to amal- 
 gamate the gross materials ; and, moulding them with passion, give to 
 the inert body a soul ; but, in woman's imagination, love alone concen- 
 trates these ethereal beams. 
 
 , „ _ 
 
8 4 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 to. In this equivocal humiliating situation a docile female 
 may remain some time with a tolerable degree of comfort. 
 But when the brother marries— a probable circumstance— 
 from being considered as the mistress of the family, she is 
 viewed with averted looks as an intruder, an unnecessary 
 burden on the benevolence of the master of the house and 
 his new partner. 
 
 Who can recount the misery which many unfortunate 
 beings, whose minds and bodies are equally weak, suffer in 
 such°situations- unable to work, and ashamed to beg? The 
 wife, a cold-hearted, narrow-minded woman— and this is 
 not 'an unfair supposition, for the present mode of education 
 does not tend to enlarge the heart any more than the under- 
 standing—is jealous of the little kindness which her hus- 
 band shows to his relations ; and her sensibility not rising to 
 humanity, she is displeased at seeing the property of her 
 children lavished on an helpless sister. 
 
 These are matters of fact, which have come under my eye 
 again and again. The consequence is obvious ; the wife has 
 recourse to cunning to undermine the habitual affection 
 which she is afraid openly to oppose ; and neither tears nor 
 caresses are spared till the spy is worked out of her home, 
 and thrown on the world, unprepared for its difficulties ; or 
 sent, as a great effort of generosity, or from some regard to 
 propriety, with a small stipend, and an uncultivated mind, 
 into joyless solitude. 
 
 These two women may be much upon a par with respect 
 to reason and humanity, and, changing situations, might 
 have acted just the same selfish part ; but had they been 
 differently educated, the case would also have been very 
 different. The wife would not have had that sensibility, of 
 which self is the centre, and reason might have taught her 
 not to expect, and not even to be flattered by, the affection 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 8e 
 
 of her husband, if it led him to violate prior duties. She 
 would wish not to love him merely because he loved her, 
 but on account of his virtues ; and the sister might have 
 been able to struggle for herself instead of eating the bitter 
 bread of dependence. 
 
 I am, indeed, persuaded that the heart, as well as the 
 understanding, is opened by cultivation, and by — which 
 may not appear so clear — strengthening the organs. I am 
 not now talking of momentary flashes of sensibility, but of 
 affections. And, perhaps, in the education of both sexes, 
 the most difficult task is so to adjust instruction as not to 
 narrow the understanding, whilst the heart is warmed by 
 the generous juices of spring, just raised by the electric 
 fermentation of the season ; nor to dry up the feelings 
 by employing the mind in investigations remote from life. 
 
 With respect to women, when they receive a careful edu- 
 cation, they are either made fine ladies, brimful of sensi- 
 bility, and teeming with capricious fancies, or mere notable 
 women. The latter are often friendly, honest creatures, and 
 have a shrewd kind of good sense, joined with worldly pru- 
 dence, that often render them more useful members of 
 society than the fine sentimental lady, though they possess 
 neither greatness of mind nor taste. The intellectual world 
 is shut against them. Take them out of their family or 
 neighbourhood, and they stand still ; the mind finding no 
 employment, for literature affords a fund of amusement 
 which they have never sought to relish, but frequently to 
 despise. The sentiments and taste of more cultivated minds 
 appear ridiculous, even in those whom chance and family 
 connections have led them to love ; but in mere acquaint- 
 ance they think it all affectation. 
 
 A man of sense can only love such a woman on account 
 of her sex, and respect her because she is a trusty servant. 
 
 ■ 1 1 
 
86 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 87 
 
 He lets her, to preserve his own peace, scold the servants, 
 and go to church in clothes made of the very best materials. 
 A man of her own size of understanding would probably not 
 agree so well with her, for he might wish to encroach on her 
 prerogative, and manage some domestic concerns himself; 
 yet women, whose minds are not enlarged by cultivation, or 
 the natural selfishness of sensibility by reflection, are very 
 unfit to manage a family, for, by an undue stretch of power, 
 they are always tyrannising to support a superiority that only 
 rests on the arbitrary distinction of fortune. The evil is 
 sometimes more serious, and domestics are deprived of 
 innocent indulgences, and made to work beyond their 
 strength, in order to enable the notable woman to keep a 
 better table, and outshine her neighbours in finery and 
 parade. If' she attend to her children, it is in general to 
 dress them in a costly manner ; and whether this attention 
 arise from vanity or fondness, it is equally pernicious. 
 
 Besides, how many women of this description pass their 
 days, or at least their evenings, discontentedly. Their 
 husbands acknowledge that they are good managers and 
 chaste wives, but leave home to seek for more agreeable — 
 may I be allowed to use a significant French word — piquant 
 society ; and the patient drudge, who fulfils her task like a 
 blind horse in a mill, is defrauded of her just reward, for 
 the wages due to her are the caresses of her husband ; and 
 women who have so few resources in themselves, do not 
 very patiently bear this privation of a natural right. 
 
 A fine lady, on the contrary, has been taught to look 
 down with contempt on the vulgar employments of life, 
 though she has only been incited to acquire accomplish- 
 ments that rise a degree above sense ; for even corporeal 
 accomplishments cannot be acquired with any degree of pre- 
 cision unless the understanding has been strengthened by 
 
 exercise. Without a foundation of principles taste is'super- 
 ficial ; grace must arise from something deeper than imita- 
 tion. The imagination, however, is heated, and the feelings 
 rendered fastidious, if not sophisticated, or a counterpoise of 
 judgment is not acquired when the heart still remains art- 
 less, though it becomes too tender. 
 
 These women are often amiable, and their hearts are 
 really more sensible to general benevolence, more alive to 
 the sentiments that civilise life, than the square-elbowed 
 family drudge ; but, wanting a due proportion of reflection 
 and self-government, they only inspire love, and are the 
 mistresses of their husbands, whilst they have any hold on 
 their affections, and the Platonic friends of his male 
 acquaintance. These are the fair defects in nature ; the 
 women who appear to be created not to enjoy the fellow- 
 ship of man, but to save him from sinking into absolute 
 brutality, by rubbing off the rough angles of his character, 
 and by playful dalliance to give some dignity to the appetite 
 that draws him to them. Gracious Creator of the whole 
 human race ! hast Thou created such a being as woman, who 
 can trace Thy wisdom in Thy works, and feel that Thou 
 alone art by Thy nature exalted above her, for no better 
 purpose ? Can she believe that she was only made to sub- 
 mit to man, her equal — a being who, like her, was sent into 
 the world to acquire virtue ? Can she consent to be occu- 
 pied merely to please him— merely to adorn the earth — 
 when her soul is capable of rising to Thee? And can 
 she rest supinely dependent on man for. reason, when she 
 ought to mount with him the arduous steeps of know- 
 ledge ? 
 
 Yet if love be the supreme good, let woman be only edu- 
 cated to inspire it, and let every charm be polished to in- 
 toxicate the senses ; but if they be moral beings, let them 
 
88 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 89 
 
 have achance to become intelligent ; and let love to man 
 be only a part of that glowing flame of universal love, which, 
 after encircling humanity, mounts in grateful incense to God. 
 
 To fulfil domestic duties much resolution is necessary, 
 and a serious kind of perseverance that requires a more 
 firm support than emotions, however lively and true to 
 nature. To give an example of order, the soul of virtue, 
 some austerity of behaviour must be adopted, scarcely to be 
 expected from a being who, from its infancy, has been made 
 the weathercock of its own sensations. Whoever rationally 
 means to be useful must have a plan of conduct ; and in 
 the discharge of the simplest duty, we are often obliged to 
 act contrary to the present impulse of tenderness or com- 
 passion. Severity is frequently the most certain as well as 
 the most sublime proof of affection ; and the want of this 
 power over the feelings, and of that lofty, dignified affection 
 which makes a person prefer the future good of the beloved 
 object to a present gratification, is the reason why so many 
 fond mothers spoil their children, and has made it ques- 
 tionable whether negligence or indulgence be most hurtful ; 
 but I am inclined to think that the latter has done most 
 harm. 
 
 Mankind seem to agree that children should be left under 
 the management of women during their childhood. Now, 
 from all the observation that I have been able to make, 
 women of sensibility are the most unfit for this task, because 
 they will infallibly, carried away by their feelings, spoil a 
 child's temper. The management of the temper, the first, 
 and most important branch of education, requires the sober 
 steady eye of reason ; a plan of conduct equally distant from 
 tyranny and indulgence : yet these are the extremes that 
 people of sensibility alternately fall into ; always shooting 
 beyond the mark. I have followed this train of reasoning 
 
 r 
 
 much further, till I have concluded, that a person of genius 
 is the most improper person to be employed in education, 
 public or private. Minds of this rare species see things too 
 much in masses, and seldom, if ever, have a good temper. 
 That habitual cheerfulness, termed good-humour, is, perhaps, 
 as seldom united with great mental powers, as with strong 
 feelings. And those people who follow, with interest and 
 admiration, the flights of genius ; or, with cooler appro- 
 bation suck in the instruction which has been elaborately 
 prepared for them by the profound thinker, ought not to be 
 disgusted, if they find the former choleric, and the latter 
 morose ; because liveliness of fancy, and a tenacious com- 
 prehension of mind, are scarcely compatible with that pliant 
 urbanity which leads a man, at least, to bend to the opinions 
 and prejudices of others, instead of roughly confronting 
 them. 
 
 But, treating of education or manners, minds of a superior 
 class are not to be considered, they may be left to chance ; 
 it is the multitude, with moderate abilities, who call for 
 instruction, and catch the colour of the atmosphere they 
 breathe. This respectable concourse, I contend, men and 
 women, should not have their sensations heightened in the 
 hot-bed of luxurious indolence, at the expense of their under- 
 standing; for, unless there be a ballast of understanding, 
 they will never become either virtuous or free : an aristo- 
 cracy, founded on property or sterling talents, will ever 
 sweep before it the alternately timid and ferocious slaves 
 of feeling. 
 
 Numberless are the arguments, to take another view of 
 the subject, brought forward with a show of reason, because 
 supposed to be deduced from nature, that men have used 
 morally and physically, to degrade the sex. I must notice 
 a few. 
 
90 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 The female understanding has often been spoken of with 
 contempt, as arriving sooner at maturity than the male. I 
 shall not answer this argument by alluding to the early 
 proofs of reason, as well as genius, in Cowley, Milton, and 
 Pope,* but only appeal to experience to decide whether 
 young men, who are early introduced into company (and 
 examples now abound), do not acquire the same precocity. 
 So notorious is this fact, that the bare mentioning of it must 
 bring before people, who at all mix in the world, the idea of 
 a number of swaggering apes of men, whose understandings 
 are narrowed by being brought into the society of men 
 when they ought to have been spinning a top or twirling a 
 hoop. 
 
 fv -It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men 
 
 : do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty ; but 
 that women arrive at maturity by twenty. I apprehend that 
 they reason on false ground, led astray by the male pre- 
 i^judice, which deems beauty the perfection of woman — mere 
 beauty of features and complexion, the vulgar acceptation 
 of the word, whilst male beauty is allowed to have some 
 connection with the mind. Strength of body, and that 
 character of countenance which the French term a phy- 
 sionomie, women do not acquire before thirty, any more than 
 men. The little artless tricks of children, it is true, are 
 particularly pleasing and attractive ; yet, when the pretty 
 freshness of youth is worn off, these artless graces become 
 studied airs, and disgust every person of taste. In the 
 countenance of girls we only look for vivacity and bashful 
 modesty ; but, the springtide of life over, we look for soberer 
 sense in the face, and for traces of passion, instead of the 
 dimples of animal spirits; expecting to see individuality of 
 
 * Many other names might be added. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 9' 
 
 character, the only fastener of the affections.* We then wish 
 to converse, not to fondle ; to give scope to our imaginations 
 as well as to the sensations of our hearts. 
 
 At twenty the beauty of both sexes is equal ; but the 
 libertinism of man leads him to make the distinction, and 
 superannuated coquettes are commonly of the same opinion ; 
 for when they can no longer inspire love, they pay for the 
 vigour and vivacity of youth. The French, who admit 
 more of mind into their notions of beauty, give the preference 
 to women of thirty. I mean to say that they allow women 
 to be in their most perfect state, when vivacity gives place 
 to reason, and to that majestic seriousness of character, 
 which marks maturity ; or, the resting point. In youth, 
 till twenty, the body shoots out, till thirty, the solids are 
 attaining a degree of density; and the flexible muscles, 
 growing daily more rigid, give character to the countenance ; 
 that is, they trace the operations of the mind with the iron 
 pen of fate, and tell us not only what powers are within, 
 but how they have been employed. 
 
 It is proper to observe, that animals who arrive slowly at 
 maturity, are the longest lived, and of the noblest species. 
 Men cannot, however, claim any natural superiority from 
 the grandeur of longevity ; for in this respect nature has not 
 distinguished the male. 
 
 Polygamy is another physical degradation ; and a plausible 
 argument for a custom, that blasts e\ery domestic virtue, is 
 drawn ' from the well-attested fact, that in the countries 
 where it is established, more females are born than males. 
 This appears to be an indication of nature, and to nature, 
 
 • The strength of an affection is, generally, in the same proportion 
 as the character of the species in the object beloved, lost in that of the 
 individual. 
 
92 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 93 
 
 apparently reasonable speculations must yield. A further 
 conclusion obviously presented itself; if polygamy be 
 necessary, woman must be inferior to man, and made for 
 him. 
 
 With respect to the formation of the fetus in the womb, 
 we are very ignorant ; but it appears to me probable, that 
 an accidental physical cause may account for this pheno- 
 menon, and prove it not to be a law of nature. I have 
 met with some pertinent observations on the subject in 
 Foster's "Account of the Isles of the South-Sea," that will 
 explain my meaning. After observing that of the two sexes 
 amongst animals, the most vigorous and hottest constitution 
 always prevails, and produces its kind ; he adds, — " If this 
 be applied to the inhabitants of Africa, it is evident that the 
 men there, accustomed to polygamy, are enervated by the 
 use of so many women, and therefore less vigorous ; the 
 women, on the contrary, are of a hotter constitution, not 
 only on account of their more irritable nerves, more sensible 
 organisation, and more lively fancy; but likewise because 
 they are deprived in their matrimony of that share of 
 physical love which, in a monogamous condition, would all 
 be theirs ; and thus, for the above reasons, the generality 
 of the children are born females. 
 
 " In the greater part of Europe it has been proved by the 
 most accurate lists of mortality, that the proportion of men 
 to women is nearly equal, or, if any difference takes place, 
 the males born are more numerous, in the proportion of 
 105 to 100." 
 
 The necessity of polygamy, therefore, does not appear ; yet 
 when a man seduces a woman, it should, I think, be termed 
 a lefthanded marriage, and the man should be legally obliged 
 to maintain the woman and her children, unless adultery, 
 a natural divorcement, abrogated the law. And this law 
 
 I 
 
 should remain in force as long as the weakness of women 
 caused the word seduction to be used as an excuse for their 
 frailty and want of principle ; nay, while they depend on 
 man for a subsistence, instead of earning it by the exertion 
 of their own hands or heads. But these women should not, 
 in the full meaning of the relationship, be termed wives, or 
 the very purpose of marriage would be subverted, and all 
 those endearing charities that flow from personal fidelity, and 
 give a sanctity to the tie, when neither love nor friendship 
 unites the hearts, would melt into selfishness. The woman 
 who is faithful to the father of her children demands respect, 
 and should not be treated like a prostitute ; though I readily 
 grant that if it be necessary for a man and woman to live 
 together in order to bring up their offspring, nature never 
 intended that a man should have more than one wife. 
 
 Still, highly as I respect marriage, as the foundation of 
 almost every social virtue, I cannot avoid feeling the most 
 lively compassion for those unfortunate females who are 
 broken off from society, and by one error torn from all those 
 affections and relationships that improve the heart and 
 mind. It does not frequently even deserve the name of 
 error ; for many innocent girls become the dupes of a sincere, 
 affectionate heart, and still more are, as it may emphatically 
 be termed, ruined before they know the difference between 
 virtue and vice, and thus prepared by their education for 
 infamy, they become infamous. Asylums and Magdalens 
 are not the proper remedies for these abuses. It is justice, 
 
 not charity, that is wanting in the world ! v ^ 
 
 A woman who has lost her honour imagines that she can 
 not fall lower, and as for recovering her former station, it is 
 impossible ; no exertion can wash this stain away. Losing, 
 thus every spur, and having no other means of support, 
 prostitution becomes her only refuge, and the character is 
 
 - 
 
94 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 quickly depraved by circumstances over which the p. or 
 wretch has little power, unless she possesses an uncommon 
 portion of sense and loftiness of spirit. Necessity never 
 makes prostitution the business of men's lives ; though 
 numberless are the women who are thus rendered systema- 
 tically vicious. This, however, arises in a great degree from 
 the state of idleness in which women are educated, who are 
 always taught to look up to man for a maintenance, and to 
 consider their persons as the proper return for his exertions 
 to support them. Meretricious airs, and the whole science 
 of wantonness, have then a more powerful stimulus than 
 either appetite or vanity ; and this remark gives force to the 
 prevailing opinion, that with chastity all is lost that is respec- 
 table in woman. Her character depends on the observance 
 of one virtue, though the only passion fostered in her heart 
 is love. Nay, the honour of a woman is not made even to 
 depend on her will. 
 
 When Richardson * makes Clarissa tell Lovelace that he 
 had robbed her of her honour, he must have had strange 
 notions of honour and virtue. For, miserable beyond all 
 names of misery is the condition of a being, who could be 
 degraded without its own consent ! This excess of strict- 
 ness I have heard vindicated as a salutary error. I shall 
 answer in the words of Leibnitz — " Errors are often useful ; 
 but it is commonly to remedy other errors." 
 
 Most of the evils of life arise from a desire of present 
 enjoyment that outruns itself. The obedience required of 
 women in the marriage state comes under this description ; 
 the mind, naturally weakened by depending on authority, 
 never exerts its own powers, and the obedient wife is thus 
 
 * Dr Young supports the same opinion, in his plays, when he talks 
 of the misfortune that shunned the light of day. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 95 
 
 rendered a weak indolent mother. Or, supposing that this 
 is not always the consequence, a future state of existence is 
 scarcely taken into the reckoning when only negative virtues 
 are cultivated. For, in treating of morals, particularly when 
 women are alluded to, writers have too often considered 
 virtue in a very limited sense, and made the foundation of 
 it sotdy worldly utility ; nay, a still more fragile base has 
 been given to this stupendous fabric, and the wayward 
 fluctuating feelings of men have been made the standard of 
 virtue. Yes, virtue as well as religion has been subjected to 
 the decisions of taste. 
 
 It would almost provoke a smile of contempt, if the vain 
 absurdities of man did not strike us on all sides, to observe 
 how eager men are to degrade the sex from whom they pre- 
 tend to receive the chief pleasure of life ; and I have 
 frequently with full conviction retorted Pope's sarcasm on 
 them ; or, to speak explicitly, it has appeared to me applic- 
 able to the whole human race. A love of pleasure or sway- 
 seems to divide mankind, and the husband who lords it in 
 his little harem thinks only of his pleasure or his conveni- 
 ence. To such lengths, indeed, does an intemperate love of 
 pleasure carry some prudent men, or worn-out libertines, 
 who marry to have a safe bedfellow, that they seduce their 
 own wives. Hymen banishes modesty, and chaste love takes 
 its flight. 
 
 Love, considered as an animal appetite, cannot long feed 
 on itself without expiring. And this extinction in its own 
 flame may be termed the violent death of love. But the 
 wife, who has thus been rendered licentious, will probably 
 endeavour to fill the void left by the loss of her husband's 
 attentions ; for she cannot contentedly become merely an 
 upper servant after having been treated like a goddess. She 
 is still handsome, and, in-tead of transferring her fondness 
 
 *_ 
 
9 6 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 to her children, she only dreams of enjoying the sunshine of 
 life. Besides, there are many husbands so devoid of sense 
 and parental affection that, during the first effervescence of 
 voluptuous fondness, they refuse to let their wives suckle 
 their children. They are only to dress and live to please 
 them, and love, even innocent love, soon sinks into lascivi- 
 ousness when the exercise of a duty is sacrificed to its 
 indulgence. 
 
 Personal attachment is a very happy foundation for friend- 
 ship ; yet, when even two virtuous young people marry, it 
 would perhaps be happy if some circumstances checked 
 their passion ; if the recollection of some prior attachment, 
 or disappointed affection, made it on one side, at least, rather 
 a match founded on esteem. In that case they would look 
 beyond the present moment, and try to render the whole of 
 life respectable, by forming a plan to regulate a friendship 
 which only death ought to dissolve. 
 
 Friendship is a serious affection ; the most sublime of all 
 affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented 
 by time. The very reverse may be said of love. In a great 
 degree, love and friendship cannot subsist in the same 
 bosom ; even when inspired by different objects they weaken 
 or destroy each other, and for the same object can only be 
 felt in succession. The vain fears and fond jealousies, the 
 winds which fan the flame of love, when judiciously or 
 artfully tempered, are both incompatible with the tender 
 confidence and sincere respect of friendship. 
 
 Love, such as the glowing pen of genius has traced, exists 
 not on earth, or only resides in those exalted, fervid imagina- 
 tions that have sketched such dangerous pictures. Danger- 
 ous, because they not only afford a plausible excuse to the 
 voluptuary, who disguises sheer sensuality under a senti- 
 mental veil ; but as they spread affectation, and take from 
 
 " - 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 97 
 
 the dignity of virtue. Virtue, as the very word imports, 
 should have an appearance of seriousness, if not of austerity ; 
 and to endeavour to trick her out in the garb of pleasure, 
 because the epithet has been used as another name for 
 beauty, is to exalt her on a quicksand ; a most insidious 
 attempt to hasten her fall by apparent respect. Virtue and 
 pleasure are not, in fact, so nearly allied in this life as some 
 eloquent writers have laboured to prove. Pleasure prepares 
 the fading wreath, and mixes the intoxicating cup; but the 
 fruit which virtue gives is the recompense of toil, and, 
 gradually seen as it ripens, only affords calm satisfaction ; 
 nay, appearing to be the result of the natural tendency of 
 things, it is scarcely observed. Bread, the common food of 
 life, seldom thought of as a blessing, supports the constitu- 
 tion and preserves health ; still feasts delight the heart of 
 man, though disease and even death lurk in the cup or 
 dainty that elevates the spirits or tickles the palate. The 
 lively heated imagination likewise, to apply the comparison, 
 draws the picture of love, as it draws every other picture, 
 with those glowing colours, which the daring hand will steal 
 from the rainbow that is directed by a mind, condemned in 
 a world like this, to prove its noble origin by panting after 
 unattainable perfection, ever pursuing what it acknowledges 
 to be a fleeting dream. An imagination of this vigorous 
 cast can give existence to insubstantial forms, and stability 
 to the shadowy reveries which the mind naturally falls into 
 when realities are found vapid. It can then depict love 
 with celestial charms, and dote on the grand ideal object — 
 it can imagine a degree of mutual affection that shall refine 
 the soul, and not expire when it has served as a " scale to 
 heavenly " ; and, like devotion, make it absorb every meaner 
 affection and desire. In each other's arms, as in a temple, 
 with its summit lost in the clouds, the world is to be shut 
 
 G 
 
 -.._ 
 
93 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 99 
 
 out, and every thought and wish that do not nurture pure 
 affection and permanent virtue. Permanent virtue ! alas . 
 Rousseau, respectable visionary ! thy paradise would soon 
 be violated by the entrance of some unexpected guest. 
 Like Milton's it would only contain angels, or men sunk 
 below the dignity of rational creatures. Happiness is not 
 material, it cannot be seen or felt ! Yet the eager pursuit 
 of the good, which every one shapes to his own fancy, pro- 
 claims man the lord of this lower world, and to be amntelli- 
 gential creature, who is not to receive but acquire happiness. 
 They, therefore, who complain of the delusions of passion, 
 do not recollect that they are exclaiming against a strong 
 proof of the immortality of the soul. 
 
 But leaving superior minds to correct themselves, and 
 pay dearly for their experience, it is necessary to observe, 
 that it is not against strong, persevering passions; but 
 romantic wavering feelings that I wish to guard the female 
 heart by exercising the understanding : for these paradisiacal 
 reveries are oftener the effect of idleness than of a lively 
 
 fancy. 
 
 Women have seldom sufficient serious employment to 
 silence their feelings ; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits 
 frittering awav all strength of mind and organs, they become 
 naturally only objects of sense. In short, the whole tenor 
 of female education (the education of society) tends to 
 render the best disposed romantic and inconstant ; and the 
 remainder vain and mean. In the present state of society 
 this evil can scarcely be remedied, I am afraid, in the 
 slightest degree ; should a more laudable ambition ever 
 gain ground they may be brought nearer to nature and 
 reason, and become more virtuous and useful as they grow 
 more respectable. 
 
 But, I will venture to assert that their reason will never 
 
 i 
 
 acquire sufficient strength to enable it to regulate their 
 conduct, whilst the making an appearance in the world is 
 the first wish of the majority of mankind. To this weak 
 wish the natural affections, and the most useful virtues are 
 sacrificed. Girls marry merely to better themselves, to 
 borrow a significant vulgar phrase, and have such perfect 
 power over their hearts as not to permit themselves to fall 
 in love till a man with a superior fortune offers. On this 
 subject I mean to enlarge in a future chapter; it is only- 
 necessary to drop a hint at present, because women are so 
 often degraded by suffering the selfish prudence of age to 
 chill the ardour of youth. 
 
 From the same source flows an opinion that young girls 
 ought to dedicate great part of their time to needlework ; 
 yet, this employment contracts their faculties more than 
 any other that could have been chosen for them, by 
 confining their thoughts to their persons. Men order their 
 clothes to be made, and have done with the subject ; women 
 make their own clothes, necessary or ornamental, and are 
 continually talking about them ; and their thoughts follow 
 their hands. It is not indeed the making of necessaries 
 that weakens the mind; but the frippery of dress. For 
 when a woman in the lower rank of life makes her husband's 
 and children's clothes, she does her duty, this is her part 
 of the family business ; but when women work only to dress 
 better than they could otherwise afford, it is worse than 
 sheer loss of time. To render the poor virtuous they must 
 be employed, and women in the middle rank of life, did 
 they not ape the fashions of the nobility, without catching 
 their ease, might employ them, whilst they themselves 
 managed their families, instructed their children, and exer- 
 cised their own minds. Gardening, experimental philosophy, 
 and literature, would afford them subjects to think of and 
 
ioo VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 matter for conversation, that in some degree would exercise 
 their understandings. The conversation of Frenchwomen, 
 who are not so rigidly nailed to their chairs to twist lappets, 
 and knot ribands, is frequently superficial ; but, I contend, 
 that it is not half so insipid as that of those Englishwomen 
 whose time is spent in making caps, bonnets, and the 
 whole mischief of trimmings, not to mention shopping, 
 bargain-hunting, &c, &c. ; and it is the decent, prudent 
 women, who are most degraded by these practices ; for 
 their motive is simply vanity. The wanton who exercises 
 her taste to render her passion alluring, has something 
 more in view. 
 
 These observations all branch out of a general one, which 
 I have before made, and which cannot be too often insisted 
 upon, for, speaking of men, women, or professions, iiwilLbe 
 found that the ejnploymejnt_of_thejhoughts shap_es__the 
 c haracter bc^genTra lljLaildlndiyidually. The thoughts of 
 women ever loved round their persons, and is it surprising 
 that their persons are reckoned most valuable ? Yet some 
 degree of liberty of mind is necessary even to form the 
 person ; and this may be one reason why some gentle wives 
 have so few attractions beside that of sex. Add to this, 
 sedentary employments render the majority of women sickly 
 —and false notions of female excellence make them proud 
 of this delicacy, though it be another fetter, that by calling 
 the attention continually to the body, cramps the activity of 
 
 the mind. 
 
 Women of quality seldom do any of the manual part of 
 their dress, consequently only their taste is exercised, and 
 they acquire, by thinking less of the finery, when the 
 business of their toilet is over, that ease, which seldom 
 appears in the deportment of women, who dress merely for 
 the sake of dressing. In fact, the observation with respect 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 101 
 
 to the middle rank, the one in which talents thrive best, 
 extends not to women ; for those of the superior class, by 
 catching, at least, a smattering of literature, and conversing 
 more with men, on general topics, acquire more knowledge 
 than the women who ape their fashions and faults without 
 sharing their advantages. With respect to virtue, to use the 
 word in a comprehensive sense, I have seen most in low 
 life. Many poor women maintain their children by the 
 sweat of their brow, and keep together families that the 
 vices of the fathers would have scattered abroad ; but 
 gentlewomen are too indolent to be actively virtuous, and 
 are softened rather than refined by civilisation. Indeed, 
 the good sense which I have met with, among the poor 
 women who have had few advantages of education, and yet 
 have acted heroically, strongly confirmed me in the opinion 
 that trifling employments have rendered woman a trifler. 
 Man, taking her* body, the mind is left to rust; so that 
 while physical love enervates man, as being his favourite 
 recreation, he will endeavour to enslave woman : — and, 
 who can tell, how many generations may be necessary to 
 give vigour to the virtue and talents of the freed posterity of 
 abject slaves ? t 
 
 In tracing the causes that, in my opinion, have degraded 
 woman, I have confined my observations to such as 
 universally act upon the morals and manners of the whole 
 sex, and to me it appears clear that they all spring from 
 want of understanding. Whether this arise from a physical 
 or accidental weakness of faculties, time alone can deter- 
 
 * " I take her body," says Ranger. 
 
 + "Supposing that women are voluntary slaves — slavery of any kind 
 is unfavourable to human happiness and improvement." — Knox's 
 Essays. 
 
102 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 «°3 
 
 mine ; for I shall not lay any great stress on the example of 
 a few women * who, from having received a masculine 
 education, have acquired courage and resolution ; I only 
 contend that the men who have been placed in similar 
 situations, have acquired a similar character — I speak of 
 bodies of men, and that men of genius and talents have 
 started out of a class, in which women have never yet been 
 placed. 
 
 * Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs Macaulay, the Empress of Russia, Madame 
 d'Eon, &c. These, and many more, may be reckoned exceptions ; 
 and, are not all heroes, as well as heroines, exceptions to general rules ? 
 I wish to see women neither heroines nor brutes; but reasonable 
 creatures. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ANIMADVERSION'S ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO HAVE 
 RENDERED WOMEN OBJECTS OF PITS', BORDERING ON 
 CONTEMPT. 
 
 THE opinions speciously supported in some modern 
 publications on the female character and education, 
 which have given the tone to most of the observa- 
 tions made, in a more cursory manner, on the sex remain 
 now to be examined. 
 
 ' 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 I shall begin with Rousseau, and give a sketch of his 
 character of woman in his own words, interspersing com- 
 ments and reflections. My comments, it is true, will all 
 spring from a few simple principles, and might have been 
 deduced from what I have already said ; but the artificial 
 structure has been raised with so much ingenuity that it 
 seems necessary to attack it in a more circumstantial manner, 
 and make the application myself. ■ 
 
 Sophia, says Rousseau, should be as perfect a woman as 
 Emilius is a man, and to render her so it is necessary to 
 examine the character which nature has given to the sex. 
 
 He then proceeds to prove that woman ought to be weak 
 and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man ; 
 and hence infers that she was formed to please and to be 
 subject to him, and that it is her duty to render herself 
 agreeable to her master — this being the grand end of her 
 
104 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 existence.* Still, however, to give a little mock dignity to 
 lust, he insists that man should not exert his strength, but 
 depend on the will of the woman, when he seeks for 
 pleasure with her. 
 
 " Hence we deduce a third consequence from the diffe- 
 rent constitutions of the sexes, which is that the strongest 
 should be master in appearance, and be dependent, in fact, 
 on the weakest, and that not from any frivolous practice of 
 gallantry or vanity of protectorship, but from an invariable 
 law of nature, which, furnishing woman with a greater faci- 
 lity to excite desires than she has given man to satisfy them, 
 makes the latter dependent on the good pleasure of the 
 former, and compels him to endeavour to please in his turn, 
 in order to obtain her consent that he should be strongest.! 
 On these occasions the most delightful circumstance a man 
 finds in his victory is to doubt whether it was the woman's 
 weakness that yielded to his superior strength, or whether 
 her inclinations spoke in his favour; the females are also 
 generally artful enough to leave this matter in doubt. The 
 understanding of women answers in this respect perfectly 
 to their constitution. So far from being ashamed of their 
 weakness, they glory in it ; their tender muscles make no 
 resistance ; they affect to be incapable of lifting the smallest 
 burdens, and would blush to be thought robust and strong. 
 To what purpose is all this ? Not merely for the sake of 
 appearing delicate, but through an artful precaution. It is 
 thus they provide an excuse beforehand, and a right to be 
 feeble when they think it expedient." 
 
 I have quoted this passage lest my readers should suspect 
 
 * I have already inserted the passage, page 57. 
 + What nonsense ! 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 that I warped the author's reasoning to support my own 
 arguments. I have already asserted that in educating women 
 these fundamental principles lead to a system of cunning and 
 lasciviousness. 
 
 Supposing woman to have been formed only to please, 
 and be subject to man, the conclusion is just. She ought 
 to sacrifice every other consideration to render herself agree- 
 able to him, and let this brutal desire of self-preservation be 
 the grand spring of all her actions, when it is proved to be 
 the iron bed of fate, to fit which her character should be 
 stretched or contracted, regardless of all moral or physical 
 distinctions. But if, as I think, may be demonstrated, the 
 purposes of even this life, viewing the whole, be subverted 
 by practical rules built upon this ignoble base, I may be 
 allowed to doubt whether woman were created for man ; 
 and though the cry of irreligion, or even atheism, be raised 
 against me, I will simply declare that were an angel from 
 heaven to tell me that Moses' beautiful poetical cosmogony, 
 and the account of the fall of man, were literally true, I 
 could not believe what my reason told me was derogatory 
 to the character of the Supreme Being ; and, having no fear 
 of the devil before mine eyes, I venture to call this a sugges- 
 tion of reason, instead of resting my weakness on the broad 
 shoulders of the first seducer of my frail sex. 
 
 " It being once demonstrated," continues Rousseau, " that 
 man and woman are not, nor ought to be, constituted alike 
 in temperament and character, it follows, of course, that 
 they should not be educated in the same manner. In pur- 
 suing the directions of nature, they ought, indeed, to act in 
 concert, but they should not be engaged in the same em- 
 ployments ; the end of their pursuits should be the same, but 
 the means they should take to accomplish them, and, of con- 
 sequence, their tastes and inclinations, should be different. 
 
io6 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 107 
 
 "Whether I consider the peculiar destination of the sex, 
 observe their inclinations, or remark their duties, all things 
 equally concur to point out the peculiar method of educa- 
 tion best adapted to them. Woman and man were made 
 for each other, but their mutual dependence is not the 
 j iame. The men depend on the women only on account of 
 their desires ; the women on the men both on account of 
 
 L their desires and their necessities. We could subsist better 
 without them than they without us. 
 
 " For this reason the education of the women should be 
 
 always relative to the men. To please, to be useful to us, 
 
 ^\ to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when 
 
 young, and take care of us when grown up, to advise, to 
 
 console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable — these 
 
 Lare the duties of women at all times, and what they should 
 be taught in their infancy. So long as we fail to recur to 
 this principle, we run wide of the mark, and all the precepts 
 which are given them contribute neither to their happiness 
 nor our own. 
 
 " Girls are from their earliest infancy fond of dress. Not 
 content with being pretty, they are desirous of being 
 thought so. We see, by all their little airs, that this thought 
 engages their attention ; and they are hardly capable of un- 
 derstanding what is said to them, before they are to be 
 governed by talking to them of what people will think of 
 their behaviour. The same motive, however, indiscreetly 
 made use of with boys, has not the same effect. Provided 
 they are let pursue their amusements at pleasure, they care 
 very little what people think of them. Time and pains are 
 necessary to subject boys to this motive. 
 
 1 
 
 " Whencesoever girls derive this first lesson, it is a very 
 good one. As the body is born, in a manner, before the 
 soul, our first concern should be to cultivate the former; 
 this order is common to both sexes, but the object of that 
 cultivation is different. In the one sex it is the develop 
 ment of corporeal powers ; in the other, that of personal 
 charms. Not that either the quality of strength or beauty 
 ought to be confined exclusively to one sex, but only that 
 the order of the cultivation of both is in that respect re- 
 versed. Women certainly require as much strength as to 
 enable them to move and act gracefully, and men as much 
 address as to qualify them to act with ease. 
 
 " Children of both sexes have a great many amusements 
 in common ; and so they ought ; have they not also many 
 such when they are grown up ? Each sex has also its 
 peculiar taste to distinguish in this particular. Boys love 
 sports of noise and activity ; to beat the drum, to whip the 
 top, and to drag about their little carts : girls, on the other 
 hand, are fonder of things of show and ornament ; such as 
 mirrors, trinkets, and dolls : the doll is the peculiar amuse- 
 ment of the females ; from whence we see their taste plainly 
 adapted to their destination. The physical part of the 
 art of pleasing lies in dress ; and this is all which children 
 are capacitated to cultivate of that art. 
 
 " Here then we see a primary propensity firmly established, 
 which you need only to pursue and regulate. The little 
 creature will doubtless be very desirous to know how to 
 dress up her doll, to make its sleeve-knots, its flounces, its 
 head-dress, &c, she is obliged to have so much recourse to 
 the people about her, for their assistance in these articles, 
 that it would be much more agreeable to her to owe them 
 
io8 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 all to her own industry. Hence we have a good reason 
 for the first lessons that are usually taught these younn- 
 females : in which we do not appear to be setting them a 
 task, but obliging them, by instructing them in what is 
 immediately useful to themselves. ' And, in fact, almost all 
 of them learn with reluctance to read and write ; but very 
 readily apply themselves to the use of their needles. They 
 imagine themselves already grown up, and think with 
 pleasure that such qualifications will enable them to decorate 
 themselves." 
 
 This is certainly only an education of the body; but 
 Rousseau is not the only man who has indirectly said that 
 merely the person of a young woman, without any mind, 
 unless animal spirits come under that description, is very 
 pleasing. To render it weak, and what some may call 
 beautiful, the understanding is neglected, and girls forced 
 to sit still, play with dolls and listen to foolish conversa- 
 tions ;— the effect of habit is insisted upon as an undoubted 
 indication of nature. I know it was Rousseau's opinion 
 that the first years of youth should be employed to form the 
 body, though in educating Emilius he deviates from this 
 plan ; yet, the difference between strengthening the body, 
 on which strength of mind in a great measure depends, and 
 only giving it an easy motion, is very wide. 
 
 Rousseau's observations, it is proper to remark, were 
 made in a country where the art of pleasing was refined 
 only to extract the grossness of vice. He did not go back 
 to nature, or his ruling appetite disturbed the operations of 
 reason, else he would not have drawn these crude inferences. 
 In France boys and girls, particularly the latter, are only 
 educated to please, to manage their persons, and regulate 
 the exterior behaviour ; and their minds are corrupted, at a 
 very early age, by the worldly and pious cautions they 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 109 
 
 receive to guard them against immodesty. I speak of past 
 times. The very confessions which mere children were 
 obliged to make, and the questions asked by the holy men, 
 I assert these facts on good authority, were sufficient to 
 impress a sexual character; and the education of society 
 was a school of coquetry and art. At the age of ten or 
 eleven ; nay, often much sooner, girls began to coquet, and 
 talked, unreproved, of establishing themselves in the world 
 by marriage. 
 
 In short, they were treated like women, almost from their 
 very birth, and compliments were listened to instead of 
 instruction. These weakening the mind, Nature was 
 supposed to have acted like a step-mother, when she formed 
 this after-thought of creation. 
 
 Not allowing them understanding, however, it was but 
 consistent to subject them to authority independent of 
 reason ; and to prepare them for this subjection, he gives 
 the following advice : — 
 
 " Girls ought to be active and diligent ; nor is that all ; 
 they should also be early subjected to restraint. This mis- 
 fortune, if it really be one, is inseparable from their sex ; 
 nor do they ever throw it off but to suffer more cruel evils. 
 They must be subject, all their lives, to the most constant 
 and severe restraint, which is that of decorum : it is, there- 
 fore, necessary to accustom them early to such'confinement, 
 that it may not afterwards cost them too dear ; and to the 
 suppression of their caprices, that they may the more readily 
 submit to the will of others. If, indeed, they be fond of 
 being always at work, they should be sometimes compelled 
 to lay it aside. Dissipation, levity, and inconstancy, are 
 faults that readily spring up from their first propensities, 
 when corrupted or perverted by too much indulgence. To 
 prevent this abuse, we should teach them, above all things, 
 
VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 to lay a due restraint on themselves. The life of a modest 
 woman is reduced, by our absurd institutions, to a perpetual 
 conflict with herself: not.but it is just that this sex should 
 partake of the sufferings which arise from those evils it hath 
 caused us." 
 
 And why is the life of a modest woman a perpetual 
 conflict ? I should answer, that this very system of educa- 
 tion makes it so. Modesty, temperance, and self-denial, 
 are the sober offspring of reason ; but when sensibility is 
 nurtured at the expense of the understanding, such weak- 
 beings must be restrained by arbitrary means, and be 
 subjected to continual conflicts ; but give their activity of 
 mind a wider range, and nobler passions and motives will 
 govern their appetites and sentiments. 
 
 " The common attachment and regard of a mother, nay, 
 mere habit, will make her beloved by her children, if she do 
 nothing to incur their hate. Even the constraint she lays 
 them under, if well directed, will increase their affection, 
 instead of lessening it ; because a state of dependence being 
 natural to the sex, they perceive themselves formed for 
 obedience." 
 
 This is begging the question ; for servitude not only 
 
 debases the individual, but its effects seem to be transmitted 
 
 to posterity. Considering the length of time that women 
 
 have been dependent, is it surprising that some of them 
 
 hunger in chains, and fawn like the spaniel? "These 
 
 dogs," observes a naturalist, " at first kept their ears erect ; 
 
 but custom has superseded nature, and a token of fear is 
 
 become a beauty." 
 
 /y^ u For the same reason," adds Rousseau, " women have, 
 
 C or ought to have r iiuJLJiuleJib^riyjjhey_are_apt to indulge 
 
 \ themselves_excessivelyjn_^iatjs_anowed them. Addicted 
 
 * in everything to extremes, they are even more transported 
 
 'at their diversions than boys." 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 The answer to this is very simple. Slaves and mobs have 
 always indulged themselves in the same excesses, when once 
 they broke loose from authority. # The bent bow recoils with 
 violence, when the hand is suddenly relaxed that forcibly 
 held it ; and sensibility, the plaything of outward circum- 
 stances, must be subjected to authority, or moderated by 
 reason. 
 
 " There results," he continues, " from this habitual 
 restraint a tractableness which women have occasion for 
 during their whole lives, as they constantly remain either 
 under subjection to the men, or to the opinions of mankind; 
 and are never permitted to set themselves above those 
 opinions. The first and most important qualification in a 
 woman is good-nature or sweetness of temper : formed to 
 obey a being so imperfect as man, often full of vices, and 
 always full of faults, she ought to l earn betimes even to 
 suf fer inj ustice, and_to bear_ the insults of a hul barfcTTmflb'ut 
 com plaint ; it is not for his sake, but her own, that she 
 should be of a mild disposition. The perverseness and 
 ill-nature of the women only serve to aggravate their own 
 misfortunes, and the misconduct of their husbands ; they 
 might plainly perceive that such are not the arms by which 
 they gain the superiority." 
 
 Formed to live with such an imperfect being as man 
 they ought to learn from the exercise of their faculties the 
 necessity of forbearance : but all the sacred rights of 
 humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience; or, 
 the most sacred rights belong only to man. 
 
 The being who patiently endures injustice, and silently 
 bears insults, will soon become unjust, or unable to discern 
 right from wrong. Besides, I deny the fact, this is not the 
 true way to form or meliorate the temper ; for, as a sexy 
 men have better tempers than women, because they ar 
 
I- 
 
 112 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 occupied by pursuits that interest the head as well as the 
 heart'; and the steadiness of the head gives a healthy tem- 
 perature to the heart. People of sensibility have seldom 
 good tempers. The formation of the temper is the cool 
 work of reason, when, as life advances, she m.xes with 
 happy art, jarring elements. I never knew a weak or 
 ignorant p rson who had a good temper, though that con- 
 stitutional good humour, and that docility, wh.ch fear stamps 
 on the behaviour, often obtains the name. I say behaviour, 
 for genuine meekness never reached the heart or mind 
 unless as the effect of reflection; and that s.mple restraint 
 produces a number of peccant humours in domestic lie 
 many sensible men will allow, who find some of these gentle 
 irritable creatures, very troublesome companions. 
 
 "Each sex," he further argues, "should preserve its 
 peculiar tone and manner; a meek husband may make a 
 wife impertinent; but mildness of disposition on the woman s 
 side will always bring a man back to reason at least if he 
 be not absolutely a brute, and will sooner or later triumph 
 over him » Perhaps the mildness of reason might some- 
 . times have this effect; but abject fear always inspires 
 contempt; and tears are only eloquent when they flow- 
 down fair cheeks. 
 
 Of what materials can that heart be composed, which can 
 melt when insulted, and instead of revolting at injustice, 
 kiss the rod ? It is unfair to infer that her virtue is built on 
 narrow views and selfishness, who can caress a man, with 
 true feminine softness, the very moment when he treats her 
 tyrannically? Nature never dictated such insincerity ; and, 
 . though prudence of this sort be termed a virtue, morality 
 becomes vague when any part is supposed to rest on false- 
 hood. These are mere expedients, and expedients are only 
 useful for the moment. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 "3 
 
 Let the husband beware of trusting too implicitly to this 
 servile obedience ; for if his wife can with winning sweetness, 
 caress him when angry, and when she ought to be angry, 
 unless contempt had stifled a natural effervescence, she 
 may do the same after parting with a lover. These are all 
 preparations for adultery ; or, should the fear of the world, 
 or of hell, restrain her desire of pleasing other men, when 
 she can no longer please her husband, what substitute can 
 be found by a being who was only formed, by nature and 
 art, to please man? what can make her amends for this 
 privation, or where is she to seek for a fresh employment? 
 where find sufficient strength of mind to determine to begin 
 the search, when her habits are fixed, and vanity has long 
 ruled her chaotic mind? 
 
 But this partial moralist recommends cunning systema- 
 tically and plausibly. 
 
 "Daughters should be always submissive; their mothers, 
 however, should not be inexorable. To make a young 
 person tractable, she ought not to be made unhappy; to 
 make her modest she ought not to be rendered stupid. On 
 the contrary, I should not be displeased at her being per- 
 mitted to use some art, not to elude punishment in case of 
 disobedience, but to exempt herself from the necessity of 
 obeying. It is not necessary to make her dependence 
 burdensome, but only to let her feel it. Subtility is a 
 talent natural to the sex ; and, as I am persuaded, all our 
 natural inclinations are right and good in themselves, I am 
 of opinion this should be cultivated as well as the others : 
 it is requisite for us only to prevent its abuse." 
 
 "Whatever is, is right," he then proceeds triumphantly to 
 infer. Granted ; yet, perhaps, no aphorism ever contained 
 a more paradoxical assertion. It is a solemn truth with 
 respect to God. He, reverentially I speak, sees the whole 
 
U4 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 at once, and saw its just proportions in the womb of time ; 
 but man, who can only inspect disjointed parts, finds many 
 things wrong ; and it is a part of the system, and therefore, 
 right, that he should endeavour to alter what appears to 
 him to be so, even while he bows to the wisdom of his 
 Creator, and respects the darkness he labours to disperse. 
 
 The inference that follows is just, supposing the principle 
 to be sound. "The superiority of address, peculiar to the 
 female sex, is a very equitable indemnification for their 
 inferiority in point of strength : without this, woman would 
 not be the companion of man, but his slave ; it is by her 
 \ superior art and ingenuity that she__preser\es^ her equality, 
 anTgwemThrm while^she"^rie^trTo _ obey. Woman has 
 evei^ing^gainsT"rrer^s well ourTaults, as her own timidity 
 and weakness; she has nothing in her favour, but her 
 subtility and her beauty. It is not very reasonable, there- 
 fore, she should cultivate both?" Greatness of mind can 
 never dwell with cunning, or address ; for I shall not bogle 
 about words, when their direct signification is insincerity 
 and falsehood, but content myself with observing, that if 
 any class of mankind be so created that it must necessarily 
 I be educated by rules not strictly deducible from truth, 
 ! virtue' is an affair of convention. How could Rousseau 
 dare to assert, after giving this advice, that in the grand 
 end of existence the object of both sexes should be the 
 same, when he well knew knew that the mind, formed by 
 its pursuits, is expanded by great views swallowing up little 
 ones, or that it becomes itself little ? 
 
 Men have superior strength of body ; but were it not for 
 mistaken notions of beauty, women would acquire sufficient 
 to enable them to earn their own subsistence, the true de- 
 finition of independence ; and to bear those bodily incon- 
 veniences and exertions that are requisite to strengthen 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. u 5 
 
 the mind. Let us then, by being allowed to take the same 
 exercise as boys, not only during infancy, but youth, arrive 
 at perfection of body, that we may know how far the natural 
 superiority of man extends. For what reason or virtue can 
 be expected from a creature when the seed-time of life is 
 neglected? None; did not the winds of heaven casually 
 scatter many useful seeds in the fallow ground. 
 
 "Beauty cannot be acquired by dress, and coquetry is an 
 art not so early and speedily attained. While girls are yet 
 young, however, they are in a capacity to study agreeable 
 gesture, a pleasing modulation of voice, an easy carriage 
 and behaviour ; as well as to take the advantage of grace- 
 fully adapting their looks and attitudes to time, place, and 
 occasion. Their application, therefore, should not be solely 
 confined to the arts of industry and the needle, when they 
 come to display other talents, whose utility is already- 
 apparent. " 
 
 " For my part, I would have a young Englishwoman"" 
 cultivate her agreeable talents, in order to please her future 
 husband, with as much care and assiduity as a young Cir- 
 cassian cultivates hers, to fit her for the harem of an, 
 Eastern bashaw." 
 
 To render women completely insignificant, he adds,- 
 "The tongues of women are very voluble; they speak 
 earlier, more readily, and more agreeably, than the men ; 
 they are accused also of speaking much more : but so it 
 ought to be, and I should be very ready to convert this 
 reproach into a compliment ; their lips and eyes have the 
 same activity, and for the same reason. A man speaks of \ 
 what h e know s I _j^jTOman of what pleases her ; the one 
 requires knowledge,. .the otheTTaste TTthe principal object of 
 a~man's discourse should be what is useful, that of a woman's 
 what is agreeable. There ought to be nothing in common 
 between their different conversation but truth." — ' 
 
! , 6 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 "We ou-ht not, therefore, to restrain the prattle of girls, 
 in the same manner as we should that of boys, wrih that 
 severe question, To what purpose are you talking! but by 
 another, which is no less difficult to answer, How will your 
 discourse be received? In infancy, while they are as yet in- 
 capable to discern good from evil, they ought to observe it, 
 as a law never to say anything disagreeable to those whom 
 they are speaking to. What will render the practice of this 
 rule also the more difficult is, that it must ever be subor- 
 dinate to the former, of never speaking falsely or tell.ng an 
 untruth." To govern the tongue in this manner must 
 require great address indeed, and it is too much practised 
 both by men and women. Out of the abundance of the 
 heart how few speak ! So few that I, who love simplicity, 
 would gladly give up politeness for a quarter of the virtue 
 that has been sacrificed to an equivocal quality wh.ch at be.t 
 should only be the polish of virtue. 
 
 But, to complete the sketch. "It is easy to be con- 
 ceived that if male children be not in a capacity to form 
 any true notions of religion, those ideas must be greatly 
 above the conception of the females: it is for th.s very 
 reason, I would begin to speak to them the earlier on th.s 
 subject: for if we were to wait till they were m a capacity 
 to discuss methodically such profound questions, we should 
 run a risk of never speaking to them on this subject as long 
 as they lived. Reason in women is a practical re ason, 
 capacitating them artfully to discover the means of atta.nmg 
 a known end, but which would never enable them to d.s- 
 -xov"e7That~end itself. The social relations of the sexes are 
 indeed truly admirable : from their union there results a 
 moral person, of which woman may be termed the eyes and 
 man the hand, with this dependence on each other thai it 
 is from the man that the woman is to learn what she is >j 
 
 EIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 117 
 
 see, and it is of the woman that man is to learn what he 
 ought to do. If woman could recur to the first principles 
 of things as well as man, and man was capacitated to enter 
 into their minutiee as well as woman, always independent of 
 each other, they would live in perpetual discord, and their 
 union could not subsist. But in the present harmony which 
 naturally subsists between them, their different faculties 
 tend to one common end: it is difficult to say which of 
 them conduces the most to it : each follows the impulse of 
 the other ; each is obedient, and both are masters." 
 
 " As the conduct of a woman is subservient to the public 
 opinion, her faith in matters of religion should, for that ver 
 reason, be subject to authority. Every daughter ought to be 
 of the same religion as her mot fur, and every wife to be of the 
 same religion as her husband: for, though such religion should 
 be false, that docility which induces the mother and daughter j 
 to submit to the order of nature, takes away, in the sights 
 God, the criminality of their error* As they are not in a 
 capacity to judge for themselves, they ought to abide by the 
 decision of their fathers and husbands as confidently as by 
 that of the Church." 
 
 " As authority ought to regulate the religion of the women, 
 it is not so needful to explain to them the reasons for their 
 belief, as to lay down precisely the tenets they are to believe : 
 for the creed, which presents only obscure ideas to the mind, 
 is the source of fanaticism; and that which presents ab- 
 surdities, leads to infidelity." 
 
 * What is to be the consequence, if the mother's and husband's opinion 
 should chance not to agree ? An ignorant person cannot be reasoned 
 out of an error — and when persuaded to give up one prejudice for 
 another the mind is unsettled. Indeed, the husband may not have 
 any religion to teach her, though in such a situation she will be in gTeat 
 want of a support to her virtue, independent of worldly considerations. 
 
n8 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Absolute, uncontroverted authority, it seems, must sub- 
 sist somewhere: but is not this a direct and exclusive 
 appropriation of reason ? The ng/its of humanity have been 
 thus confined to the male line from Adam downwards. 
 
 Rousseau would carry his male aristocracy still further, for 
 he insinuates, that he should not blame those, who contend 
 for leaving woman in a stateofjhe-most^profound ignorance, 
 if it wer e not necessary i njjrder to preserve Her chastity and 
 | justify the man's choice, in the eyes of the world, to give 
 her a little knowledge of men, and the customs produced 
 by human passions ; else she might propagate at home 
 without being rendered less voluptuous and innocent by the 
 exercise of her understanding : excepting, indeed, during 
 the first year of marriage, when she might employ it to 
 dress like Sophia. " Her dress is extremely modest in 
 appearance, and yet very coquettish in fact : she does not 
 make a display of her charms, she conceals them ; but in 
 concealing them, she knows how to affect your imagination. 
 Every one who sees her will say, There is a modest and 
 discreet girl; but while you are near her, your eyes and 
 affections wander all over her person, so that you cannot 
 withdraw them ; and you would conclude, that every part 
 of her dress, simple as it seems, was only put in its proper 
 order to be taken to pieces by the imagination." Is this 
 modesty ? Is this a preparation for immortality ? Again, 
 What opinion are we to form of a system of education, 
 when the author says of his heroine, " that with her, doing 
 things well, is but a secondary concern ; her principal con- 
 cern is to do them neatly." 
 
 Secondary, in fact, are all her virtues and qualities, for, 
 respecting religion, he makes her parents thus address her, 
 accustomed to submission— "Your husband will instruct 
 you in good time." 
 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. ,, 9 
 
 After thus cramping a woman's mind, if, in order to keep 
 it fair, he have not made it quite a blank, he advises her to 
 reflect, that a reflecting man may not yawn in her company 
 when he is tired of caressing her. What has she to reflect 
 about who must obey ? and would it not be arefinementon 
 cruelty only to open her mind to make the darkness and 
 misery of her fate visible? Yet these are his sensible 
 remarks; how consistent with what I have already been 
 obliged to quote, to give a fair view of the subject, the reader 
 may determine. 
 
 "They who pass their whole lives in working for their 
 daily bread, have no ideas beyond their business or their 
 interest, and all their understanding seems to lie in their 
 fingers' ends. This ignorance is neither prejudicial to their 
 integrity nor their morals ; it is often of service to them. 
 Sometimes, by means of reflection, we are led to compound 
 with our duty, and we conclude by substituting a jargon of 
 words in the room of things. Our own conscience is the 
 most enlightened philosopher. There is no need to be 
 acquainted with Tulh/s offices, to make a man of probity ; 
 and perhaps the most virtuous woman in the world is 
 the least acquainted with the definition pf virtue. But it 
 is no less true, that an improved understanding only can 
 render society agreeable ; and it is a melancholy thing for a 
 father of a family, who is fond of home, to be obliged to 
 be always wrapped up in himself, and to have nobody about 
 him to whom he can impart his sentiments. 
 
 "Besides, how should a woman void of reflection be 
 capable of educating her children ? How should she discern 
 what is proper for them ? How should she incline them to 
 those virtues she is unacquainted with, or to that merit of 
 which she has no idea ? She can only soothe or chide them ; 
 render them insolent or timid ; she will make them formal 
 
120 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 coxcombs, or ignorant blockheads, but will never make them 
 sensible or amiable." How indeed should she, when her 
 husband is not always at hand to lend her his reason?— 
 when they both together make but one moral being. A 
 blind will, " eyes without hands," would go a very little way ; 
 and perchance his abstract reason, that should concentrate 
 the scattered beams of her practical reason, may be employed 
 in judging of the flavour of wine, descanting on the sauces 
 most proper for turtle ; or, more profoundly intent at a card- 
 table, he may be generalising his ideas as he bets away his 
 fortune, leaving all the minutia of education to his help- 
 mate, or to chance. 
 
 But, granting that woman ought to be beautiful, inno- 
 cent, and silly, to render her a more alluring and indulgent 
 companion ;— what is her understanding sacrificed for ? And 
 why is all this preparation necessary only, according to 
 Rousseau's own account, to make her the mistress of her 
 husband, a very short time ? For no man ever insisted more 
 on the transient nature of love. Thus speaks the philo- 
 sopher, " Sensual pleasures are transient. The habitual 
 state of the affections always loses by their gratification. 
 The imagination, which decks the object of our desires, is 
 lost in fruition. Excepting the Supreme Being, who is self- 
 existent, there is nothing beautiful but what is ideal." 
 
 But he returns to his unintelligible paradoxes again, when 
 he thus addresses Sophia—" Emilius, in becoming your 
 husband, is become your master, and claims your obedience. 
 Such is the order of nature. When a man is married, how- 
 ever, to such a wife as Sophia, it is proper he should be 
 directed by her. This is also agreeable to the order of 
 nature. It is, therefore, to give you as much authority over his 
 heart as his sex gives him over your person that I have made 
 you the arbiter of his pleasures. It may cost you, perhaps, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. , 2I 
 
 some disagreeable self-denial; but you will be certain of 
 maintaining your empire over him, if you can preserve it 
 over yourself. What I have already observed also shows me 
 that this difficult attempt does not surpass your courage. 
 
 " Would you have your husband constantly at your feet," 
 keep him at some distance from your person. You will 
 long maintain the authority in love, if you know but how to 
 render your favours rare and valuable. It is thus you may 
 employ even the arts of coquetry in the service of virtue, 
 and those of love in that of reason." 
 
 I shall close my extracts with a just description of a com- 
 fortable couple:— "And yet you must not imagine that 
 even such management will always suffice. Whatever pre- 
 caution be taken, enjoyment will by degrees take off the 
 edge of passion. But when love hath lasted as long as pos- 
 sible, a pleasing habitude supplies its place, and the attach- 
 ment of a mutual confidence succeeds to the transports of 
 passion. Children often form a more agreeable and perma- 
 nent connection between married people than even love 
 itself. When you cease to be the mistress of Emilius, you 
 will continue to be his wife and friend— you will be the 
 mother of his children." * 
 
 Children, he truly observes, form a much more permanent 
 connection between married people than love. Beauty, he 
 declares, will not be valued, or even seen, after a couple 
 have lived six months together ; artificial graces and coquetry- 
 will likewise pall on the senses. Why, then, does he say 
 that a girl should be educated for her husband with the same 
 care as for an Eastern harem ? 
 
 I now appeal from the reveries of fancy and refined licen- 
 tiousness to the good sense of mankind, whether, if the 
 
 Rousseau's Emilius. 
 
122 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 object of education be to prepare women to become chaste 
 wives and sensible mothers, the method so plausibly recom- 
 mended in the foregoing sketch be the one best calculated 
 to produce those ends? Will it be allowed that the surest 
 way to make a wife chaste is to teach her to pract.se the 
 wanton arts of a mistress, termed virtuous coquetry, by the 
 sensualist who can no longer relish the artless charms of 
 sincerity, or taste the pleasure arising from a tender inti- 
 macy, when confidence is unchecked by susp.cion, and ren- 
 dered interesting by sense? * 
 
 The man who can be contented to live with a pretty, 
 useful companion, without a mind, has lost in voluptuous 
 gratifications a taste for more refined enjoyments; he has 
 never felt the calm satisfaction that refreshes the parched 
 heart like the silent dew of heaven-of being beloved by 
 one who could understand him. In the society of his wife 
 he is still alone, unless when the man is sunk in the brute. 
 " The charm of life," says a grave philosophical reasoner, is 
 ■ sympathy ; nothing pleases us more than to observe in 
 other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own 
 
 breast." , ... 
 
 But according to the tenor of reasoning by which women 
 are kept from the tree of knowledge, the important years of 
 youth, the usefulness of age, and the rational hopes of 
 futurity, are all to be sacrificed to render women an object 
 of desire for a short time. Besides, how could Rousseau 
 expect them to be virtuous and constant when reason is 
 neither allowed to be the foundation of their virtue, nor 
 truth the object of their inquiries ? 
 
 But all Rousseau's errors in reasoning arose from sensi- 
 bility, and sensibility to their charms women are very ready to 
 forgive. When he should have reasoned he became impas- 
 sioned and reflection inflamed his imagination instead of 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 123 
 
 enlightening his understanding. Even his virtues also led 
 him farther astray ; for, born with a warm constitution and 
 lively fancy, nature carried him toward the other sex with 
 such eager fondness that he soon became lascivious. Had 
 he given way to these desires, the fire would have extin- 
 guished itself in a natural manner, but virtue, and a roman- 
 tic kind of delicacy, made him practise self-denial ; yet 
 when fear, delicacy, or virtue restrained him, he debauched 
 his imagination, and reflecting on the sensations to which 
 fancy gave force, he traced them in the most glowing colours, 
 and sunk them deep into his soul. 
 
 He then sought for solitude, not to sleep with the man of 
 nature, or calmly investigate the causes of things under the 
 shade where Sir Isaac Newton indulged contemplation, but 
 merely to indulge his feelings. And so warmly has he 
 painted what he forcibly felt, that interesting the heart and 
 inflaming the imagination of his readers, in proportion to 
 the strength of their fancy, they imagine that their under- 
 standing is convinced when they only sympathise with a 
 poetic writer, who skilfully exhibits the objects of sense 
 most voluptuously shadowed or gracefully veiled ; and thus 
 making us feel whilst dreaming that we reason, erroneous 
 conclusions are left in the mind. 
 
 Why was Rousseau's life divided between ecstasy and 
 misery? Can any other answer be given than this, that 
 the effervescence of his imagination produced both ; but 
 had his fancy been allowed to cool, it is possible that he 
 might have acquired more strength of mind. Still, if the 
 purpose of life be to educate the intellectual part of man, 
 all with respect to him was right ; yet had not death led to 
 a nobler scene of action, it is probable that he would have 
 enjoyed more equal happiness on earth, and have felt the 
 calm sensations of the man of nature, instead of being pre- 
 
I24 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 pared for another stage of existence by nourishing the pas- 
 sions which agitate the civilised man. 
 
 But peace to his manes ! I war not with his ashes, but 
 his opinions. I war only with the sensibility that led him 
 to degrade woman by making her the slave of love. 
 
 " Cursed vassalage, 
 
 First idolised till love's hot fire be o'er, 
 Then slaves to those who courted us before." 
 
 — Dryden. 
 
 The pernicious tendency of those books, in which the 
 writers insidiously degrade the sex whilst they are prostrate 
 before their personal charms, cannot be too often or too 
 severely exposed. 
 
 Let us, my dear contemporaries, arise above such narrow 
 prejudices. If wisdom be desirable on its own account, if 
 virtue, to deserve the name, must be founded on knowledge, 
 let us endeavour to strengthen our minds by reflection till 
 our heads become a balance for our hearts ; let us not con- 
 fine all our thoughts to the petty occurrences of the day, or 
 our knowledge to an acquaintance with our lovers' or hus- 
 bands' hearts, but let the practice of every duty be subordi- 
 nate to the grand one of i mproving our m inds, and prepar- 
 ing our affections for a more exalted state. 
 
 Beware, then, my friends, of suffering the heart to be 
 moved by every trivial incident ; the reed is shaken by a 
 breeze, and annually dies, but the oak stands firm, and 
 for ages braves the storm. 
 
 Were we, indeed, only created to flutter our hour out and 
 die—why let us then indulge sensibility, and laugh at the 
 severity of reason. Yet, alas! even then we should want 
 strength of body and mind, and life would be lost in 
 feverish pleasures or wearisome languor. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 125 
 
 But the system of Education, which I earnestly wish 
 to see exploded, seems to presuppose what ought never 
 to be taken for granted, that virtue shields us from the 
 casualties of life ; and that Fortune, slipping off her bandage, 
 will smile on a well-educated female, and bring in her hand 
 an Emilius or a Telemachus. Whilst, on the contrary, the 
 reward which Virtue promises to her votaries is confined, it 
 seems clear, to their own bosoms; and often must they 
 contend with the most vexatious worldly cares, and bear 
 with the vices and humours of relations for whom they can 
 never feel a friendship. 
 
 There have been many women in the world who, in- 
 stead of being supported by the reason and virtue of their 
 fathers and brothers, have strengthened their own minds by 
 struggling with their vices and follies ; yet have never met 
 with a hero, in the shape of a husband ; who, paying the 
 debt that mankind owed them, might chance to bring back 
 their reason to its natural dependent state, and restore the 
 usurped prerogative, of rising above opinion, to man. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 Dr Fordyce's sermons have long made ji part of a young 
 woman's library ; nay, girls at Tchool" are allowed to read 
 them ; but I should instantly dismiss them from my pupil's 
 if I wished to strengthen her understanding, by leading her 
 to form sound principles on a broad basis ; or, were I only 
 anxious to cultivate her taste, though they must be allowed 
 to contain many sensible observations. 
 
 Dr Fordyce may have had a very laudable end in view ; 
 but these discourses are written in such an affected style, 
 that were it only on that account, and had I nothing to 
 object against his mellifluous precepts, I should not allow 
 
126 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 girls to peruse them, unless I designed to hunt every spark 
 of nature out of their composition, melting every human 
 quality into female meekness and artificial grace. I say 
 artificial, for true grace arises from some kind of independ- 
 ence of mind. 
 
 Children, careless of pleasing, and only anxious to amuse 
 themselves, are often very graceful ; and the nobility who 
 have mostly lived with inferiors, and always had the 
 command of money, acquire a graceful ease of deportment, 
 which should rather be termed habitual grace of body, 
 than that superior gracefulness which is truly the expression 
 of the mind. This mental grace, not noticed by vulgar 
 eyes, often flashes across a rough countenance, and irradi- 
 ating every feature, shows simplicity and independence of 
 mind. It is then we read characters of immortality in the 
 eye, and see the soul in every gesture, though when at rest, 
 neither the face nor limbs may have much beauty to 
 recommend them ; or the behaviour, anything peculiar to 
 attract universal attention. The mass of mankind, however, 
 look for more tangible beauty; yet simplicity is, in general, 
 admired, when people do not consider what they admire ; 
 and can there be simplicity without sincerity? But, to 
 have done with remarks that are in some measure desultory, 
 though naturally excited by the subject — 
 
 In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins_outTtousseau's 
 
 eloquence ; and in most sentimental rant, details his 
 
 opinions respecting the female character, and the behaviour 
 
 which woman ought to assume to render her lovely. 
 
 - He shall speak for himself, for thus he makes Nature 
 
 address ma n. " Behold these smiling innocents, whom I 
 
 fhave graced with my fairest gifts, and committed to your 
 
 I protection ; behold them with love and respect ; treat them 
 
 \ with tenderness and honour. They are timid and want to 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 127 
 
 be defended. They are frail ; oh do not take advantage of 
 their weakness ! Let their fears and blushes endear them. 
 Let their confidence in you never be abused. But is it 
 possible, that any of you can be such barbarians, so 
 supremely wicked, as to abuse it ? Can you find in your 
 hearts* to despoil the gentle, trusting creatures of their 
 treasure, or do anything to strip them of their native robe 
 of virtue? Curst be the impious hand that would dare 
 to violate the unblemished form of chastity ! Thou 
 wretch ! thou ruffian ! forbear ; nor venture to provoke 
 Heaven's fiercest vengeance." I know not any comment 
 that can be made seriously on this curious passage, and I 
 could produce many similar ones ; and some, so very 
 sentimental, that I have heard rational men use the word 
 indecent, when they mentioned them with disgust. 
 
 Throughout there is a display of cold artificial feelings, 
 and that parade of sensibility which boys and girls should 
 be taught to despise as the sure mark of a little vain mind. 
 Florid appeals are made to Heaven, and to the beauteous 
 innocents, the fairest images of Heaven here below, whilst 
 sober sense is left far behind. This is not the language of 
 the heart, nor will 'it ever reach it, though- the ear may be 
 tickled. 
 
 I shall be told, perhaps, that the public have been pleased 
 with these volumes. True— and Hervey's Meditations are 
 still read, though he equally sinned against sense and taste. 
 
 I particularly object to the lover-like phrases of pumped 
 up passion, which are everywhere interspersed. If women 
 be ever allowed to walk without leading strings, why must 
 they be cajoled into virtue by artful flattery and sexual 
 
 * Can you ? — Can you ? would be the most emphatical comment, 
 were it drawled out in a whining voice. 
 
128 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 compliments? Speak to them the language of truth and 
 soberness, and away with the lullaby strains of condescend- 
 ing endearment ! Let them be taught to respect themselves 
 as rational creatures, and not led to have a passion for their 
 own insipid persons. It moves my gall to hear a preacher 
 descanting on dress and needlework ; and still more, to 
 hear him address the British fair, the fairest of the fair, 
 as if they had only feelings. 
 
 Even recommending piety he uses the following argument. 
 "Never, perhaps, does a fine woman strike more deeply, 
 than when, composed into pious recollection, and possessed 
 with the noblest considerations, .she assumes, without 
 knowing it, superior dignity and new graces ; so that the 
 beauties of holiness seem to radiate about her, and the 
 by-standers are almost induced to fancy her already wor- 
 shipping amongst her kindred angels!" Why are women 
 to be thus bred up with a desire of conquest? the very 
 word, used in this "sense, gives me a sickly qualm! Do 
 religion and virtue offer no stronger motives, no brighter 
 reward? Must they always be debased by being made to 
 consider the sex of their companions? Must they be 
 taught always to be pleasing? And when levelling their 
 small artillery at the heart of man, is it necessary to tell 
 them that a little sense is sufficient to render their attention 
 incredibly soothing? "As a small degree of knowledge 
 entertains in a woman, so from a woman, though for a 
 different reason, a small expression of kindness delights, 
 particularly if she have beauty ! " I should have supposed 
 for the same reason. 
 
 Why are girls to be told that they resemble angels ; 
 but to sink them below women ? Or, that a gentle innocent 
 female is an object that comes nearer to the idea which 
 we have formed of angels than any other. Yet they are 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 129 
 
 told, at the same time, that they are only like angels 
 when they are young and beautiful ; consequently, it is 
 their persons, not their virtues, that procure them this 
 homage. 
 
 Idle empty words ! What can such delusive flattery lead 
 to, but vanity and folly? The lover, it is true, has a 
 poetical licence to exalt his mistress; his reason is the 
 bubble of his passion, and he does not utter a falsehood 
 when he borrows the language of adoration. His imagina- 
 tion may raise the idol of his heart, unblamed, above 
 humanity ; and happy would it be for women, if they were 
 only flattered by the men who loved them ; I mean, who 
 love the individual, not the sex ; but should a grave preacher 
 interlard his discourses with such fooleries ? 
 
 In sermons or novels, however, voluptuousness is always 
 true to its text. Men are allowed by moralists to cultivate, 
 as Nature directs, different qualities, and assume the 
 different characters^that the same passions, modified almost 
 to infinity, give to each individual. A virtuous man may 
 have a choleric or a sanguine constitution, be gay or grave, 
 unreproved; be firm till he is almost overbearing, or, 
 weakly submissive, have no will or opinion of his own ; 
 but all women are to be levelled, by meekness and docility, 
 into one character of yielding softness and gentle compliance. 
 
 I will use the preacher's own words. " Let it be observed, 
 that in your sex manly exercises are never graceful ; that 
 in them a tone and figure, as well as an air and deportment, 
 I of the masculine kind, are always forbidding ; and that 
 men of sensibility desire in every woman soft features, 
 and a flowing voice, a form, not robust, and demeanour 
 delicate and gentle." 
 
 Is not the following portrait — the portrait of a house 
 slave? "I am astonished at the folly of many women, 
 
 L\ 
 
, 3 o VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 who are still reproaching their husbands for leaving them 
 alone, for preferring this or that company to theirs, for 
 Jeat ng them with this and the other mark of disregard 
 or indffference; when, to speak the truth they have thenv 
 selves in a great measure to blame. Not that would 
 justify the men in anything wrong on their part. But 
 tad you behaved to them with more respectful observance, 
 and a more e q ual tenderness; studying the* incurs, over- 
 looking their mistakes, submitting to their opinions in matters 
 indifferent, passing by little instances of unevennes , 
 caprice, or passion, giving soft answers to hastj words, 
 Tomplaining's seldom as possible, and making it your 
 daily care to relieve their anxieties and prevent their _ wishes 
 to enliven the hour of dulness, and call up the ideas o 
 felicity: had you pursued this conduct, I doubt not bu 
 you would have maintained and even increased their 
 esteem, so far as to have secured every degree of influence 
 that could conduce to their virtue, or your mutual satis- 
 faction; and your house, might at this day have been the 
 abode of domestic bliss." Such a woman ought to be an 
 angel-or she is an ass-for I discern not a trace of the 
 human character, neither reason nor passion in this domestic 
 drudge, whose being is absorbed in that of a tyrant s. 
 
 Still Dr Fordyce must have very little acquaintance with 
 the human heart, if he really supposed that such conduct 
 would bring back wandering love, instead of exciting 
 contempt. No, beauty, gentleness, &c, &c, may gain a 
 heart; but esteem, the only lasting affection, can alone be 
 obtained by virtue supported by reason. It is respect for 
 the understanding that keeps alive tenderness for the 
 
 ^"these volumes are so frequently put into the hands 
 of young people, I have taken more notice of them than, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '3 1 
 
 strictly speaking, they deserve ; but as they have contributed 
 to vitiate the taste, and enervate the understanding of many 
 of my fellow-creatures, I could not pass them silently over. 
 
 section in. 
 
 Such paternal solicitude pervades Dr Gregory's "Legacy 
 to his Daughters," that I enter on the task of criticism 
 with affectionate respect ; but as this little volume has many 
 attractions to recommend it to the notice of the most 
 respectable part of my sex, I cannot silently pass over argu- 
 ments that so speciously support opinions which, I think, 
 have had the most baneful effect on the moral* and manners 
 of the female world. 
 
 His easy familiar style is particularly suited to the tenor 
 of his advice, and the melancholy tenderness which his 
 respect for the memory of a beloved wife, diffuses through 
 the whole work, renders it very interesting ; yet there is 
 a degree of concise elegance conspicuous in many passages 
 that disturbs this sympathy ; and we pop on the author, 
 when we only expected to meet the — father. 
 
 Besides, having two objects in view, he seldom adhered 
 steadily to either ; for wishing to make his daughters amiable, 
 and fearing lest unhappiness should only be the conse- 
 quence, of instilling sentiments that might draw them out 
 of the track of common life without enabling them to act 
 with consonant independence and dignity, he checks the 
 natural flow of his thoughts, and neither advises one thing 
 nor the other. 
 
 In the preface he tells them a mournful truth, "that 
 they will hear, at least once in their lives, the genuine 
 sentiments of a man who has no interest in deceiving 
 them." 
 
, 32 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Hapless woman ! what can be expected from thee when 
 the beings on whom thou art said naturally to depend for 
 reason and support, have all an interest in deceiving thee! 
 This is the root of the evil that has shed a corroding mildew 
 on all thy virtues; and blighting in the bud thy opening 
 faculties, has rendered thee the weak thing thou art ! It is 
 this separate interest-this insidious state of warfare, that 
 undermines morality, and divides mankind ! 
 
 If love have made some women wretched, how many 
 more has the cold unmeaning intercourse of gallantry 
 rendered vain and useless! yet this heartless attention to 
 the sex is reckoned so manly, so polite that, till society is 
 very different^ organised, I fear, this vestige of gothic 
 manners will not be done away by a more reasonable and 
 affectionate mode of conduct. Besides, to strip it of its 
 imaginary dignity, I must observe, that in the most un- 
 civilised European states this lip-service prevails in a very 
 great degree, accompanied with extreme dissoluteness of 
 morals. In Portugal, the country that I particularly allude 
 to it takes place of the most serious moral obligations ! for 
 a man is seldom assassinated when in the company of a 
 woman. The savage hand of rapine is unnerved by this 
 chivalrous spirit; and, if the stroke of vengeance cannot be 
 stayed, the lady is entreated to pardon the rudeness and 
 depart in peace, though sprinkled, perhaps, with her hus- 
 band's or brother's blood. 
 
 I shall pass over his strictures on religion, because 1 
 mean to discuss that subject in a separate chapter. 
 
 The remarks relative to behaviour, though many of them 
 
 •very sensible, I entirely disapprove of, because it appears 
 
 to me to be beginning, as it were, at the wrong end. A 
 
 cultivated understanding, and an affectionate heart, will 
 
 never- want starched rules of decorum— something more 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '33 
 
 substantial than seemliness will be the result ; and, without 
 understanding the behaviour here recommended, would be 
 rank affectation. Decorum, indeed, is the one thing needful ! 
 — decorum is to supplant nature, and banish all simplicity 
 and variety of character out of the female world. Yet what 
 good end can all this superficial counsel produce? It is, 
 however, much easier to point out this or that mode of 
 behaviour, than to set the reason to work ; but, when 
 the mind has been stored with useful knowledge, and 
 strengthened by being employed, the regulation of the 
 behaviour may safely be left to its guidance. 
 
 Why, for instance, should the following caution be given 
 when art of every kind must contaminate the mind ; and 
 why entangle the grand motives of action, which reason and 
 religion equally combine to enforce, with pitiful worldly- 
 shifts and sleight-of-hand tricks to gain the applause off 
 gaping tasteless fools? "Be even cautious in displayi ng! 
 y our goo d_sense.* It will be thought you assume a 1 
 superiority over the rest of the company. But if you/ 
 happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret, ' 
 especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous ■ 
 and malignant eye on a woman of great parts, and aj ,! 
 cultivated understanding." If men of real merit, as he 
 afterwards observes, be superior to this meanness, where is 
 the necessity that the behaviour of the whole sex should be 
 modulated to please fools, or men, who having little claim 
 to respect as individuals, choose to keep close in their 
 phalanx. Men, indeed, who insist on their common supe- 
 riority, having only this sexual superiority, are certainly 
 very excusable. 
 
 Let women once acquire good sense— and if it deserve the name, 
 it will teach there ; or, of what use will it be ? how to employ it. 
 
 «s • 
 
134 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 There would be no end to rules for behaviour, if it be 
 proper always to adopt the tone of the company ; for thus, 
 for ever varying the key, a flat would often pass for a 
 natural note. 
 
 Surely it would have been wiser to have advised women 
 to improve themselves till they rose above the fumes of 
 vanity ; and then to let the public opinion come round — 
 for where are rules of accommodation to stop? The narrow 
 path of truth and virtue inclines neither to the right nor 
 left — it is a straightforward business, and they who are 
 earnestly pursuing their road, may bound over many de- 
 corous prejudices, without leaving modesty behind. Make 
 the heart clean, and give the head employment, and I will 
 venture to predict that there will be nothing offensive in 
 the behaviour. 
 
 The air of fashion, which many young people are so 
 eager to attain, always strikes me like the studied attitudes 
 of some modern pictures, copied with tasteless servility after 
 the antiques ; the soul is left out, and none of the parts are 
 tied together by what may properly be termed character. 
 This varnish of fashion, which seldom sticks very close to 
 sense, may dazzle the weak ; but leave nature to itself, and 
 it will seldom disgust the wise. Besides, when a woman 
 has sufficient sense not to pretend to anything which she 
 does not understand in some degree, there is no need of 
 determining to hide her talents under a bushel. Let things 
 take their natural course, and all will be well. 
 
 It is this system of dissimulation, throughout the volume, 
 that I despise. Women are always to seem to be this and 
 that — yet virtue might apostrophise them, in the words of 
 Hamlet — Seems ! I know not seems ! Have that within 
 that passeth show ! 
 
 Still the same tone occurs ; for in another place, after 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. , M 
 
 recommending, without sufficiently discriminating delicacy, 
 he adds,—" The men will complain of your reserve They 
 will assure you that a franker behaviour would make you 
 more amiable. But, trust me, they are not sincere when 
 they tell you so. I acknowledge that on some occasions it 
 might render you more agreeable as companions, but it 
 would make you less amiable as women : an important 
 distinction, which many of your sex are not aware of." 
 
 This desire of being always women, is the very con- 
 sciousness that degrades the sex. Excepting with a lover 
 I must repeat with emphasis, a former observation —it 
 would be well if they were only agreeable or rational com- 
 panions. But in this respect his advice is even inconsistent 
 with a passage which I mean to quote with the most marked 
 approbation. 
 
 " The sentiment,' that a woman may allow all innocent 
 freedoms, provided her virtue is secure, is both grossly 
 indelicate and dangerous, and has proved fatal to many of 
 your sex." With this opinion I perfectly coincide. A man, 
 or a woman, of any feeling, must always wish to convince a 
 beloved object that it is the caresses of the individual, not 
 the sex, that are received and returned with pleasure ; and 
 that the heart, rather than the senses, is moved. Without 
 this natural delicacy, love becomes a selfish personal grati- 
 fication that soon degrades the character. 
 
 I carry this sentiment still further. Affection, when love 
 is out of the question, authorises many personal endear- 
 ments, that naturally flowing from an innocent heart, give 
 life to the behaviour; but the personal intercourse of 
 appetite, gallantry, or vanity, is despicable. When a man 
 squeezes the hand of a pretty woman, handing her to a 
 carriage, whom he has never seen before, she will consider 
 such an impertinent freedom in the light of an insult, if 
 
136 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 she have any true delicacy, instead of being flattered by 
 this unmeaning homage to beauty. These are the privileges 
 of friendship, or the momentary homage which the heart 
 pays to virtue, when it flashes suddenly on the notice- 
 mere animal spirits have no claim to the kindnesses of 
 affection. 
 
 Wishing to feed the affections with what is now the food 
 of vanity, I would fain persuade my sex to act from simpler 
 principles. Let them merit love, and they will obtain it, 
 though they may never be told that — "The power of a fine 
 woman over the hearts of men, of men of the finest parts, 
 is even beyond what she conceives." 
 
 I have already noticed the narrow cautions with respect 
 to duplicity, female softness, delicacy of constitution ; for 
 these are the changes which he rings round without ceasing 
 — in a more decorous manner, it is true, than Rousseau ; 
 but it all comes home to the same point, and whoever is 
 at the trouble to analyse these sentiments, will find the 
 first principles not quite so delicate as the superstructure. 
 
 The subject of amusements is treated in too cursory a 
 manner ; but with the same spirit. 
 
 When I treat of friendship, love, and marriage, it will be 
 found that we materially differ in opinion ; I shall not then 
 forestall what I have to observe on these important subjects ; 
 but confine my remarks to the general tenor of them, to 
 that cautious family prudence, to those confined views of 
 partial unenlightened affection, which exclude pleasure and 
 improvement, by vainly wishing to ward off sorrow and 
 error, and by thus guarding the heart and mind, destroy- 
 also all their energy. It is far better to be often deceived 
 than never to trust ; to be disappointed in love than never 
 to love ; to lose a husband's fondness than forfeit his 
 esteem. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '37 
 
 Happy would it be for the world, and for individuals, of 
 course, if all this unavailing solicitude to attain worldly 
 happiness, on a confined plan, were turned into an anxious 
 desire to improve the understanding. " Wisdom is the 
 principal thing : therefore get wisdom ; and with all thy . 
 gettings get understanding." " How long, ye simple ones, 
 will ye love simplicity, and hate knowledge ? " saith Wisdom 
 to the daughters of men. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 I do not mean to allude to all the writers who have 
 written on the subject of female manners — it would, in fact, 
 be only beating over the old ground, for they have, in 
 general, written in the same strain ; but attacking the 
 boasted prerogative of man — the prerogative that may 
 emphatically be called the iron sceptre of tyranny, the 
 original sin of tyrants, I declare against all power built on 
 ^p_rejudices,jK>wever hoary. 
 
 If the submission demanded be founded on justice — 
 there is no appealing to a higher power — for God is justice 
 itself. Let us then, as children of the same parent, if not 
 bastardised by being the younger born, reason together, and 
 learn to submit to the authority of Reason — when her voice 
 is distinctly heard. But, if it proved, that this throne of 
 prerogative only rests on a chaotic mass of prejudices, that 
 have no inherent principle of order to keep them together, 
 or on an elephant, tortoise, or even the mighty shoulders of 
 a son of the earth, they may escape, who dare to brave the 
 consequence, without any breach of duty, without sinning 
 against the order of things. 
 
 Whilst reason raises man above the brutal herd, and 
 death is big with promises, they alone are subject to blind 
 
'38 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 authority who have no reliance on their own strength. They 
 are free — who will be free ! * — 
 
 The being who can govern itself has nothing to fear in 
 life ; but if anything be dearer than its own respect, the 
 price must be paid to the last farthing. Virtue, like every- 
 thing valuable, must be loved for herself alone ; or she 
 will not take up her abode with us. She will not impart 
 that peace, " which passeth understanding," when she is 
 merely made the stilts of reputation ; and respected, with 
 Pharisaical exactness, because " honesty is the best policy." 
 That the plan of life which enables us to carry some 
 knowledge and virtue into another world, is the one best 
 calculated to ensure content in this, cannot be denied ; 
 yet few people act according to this principle, though it be 
 universally allowed that it admits not of dispute. Present 
 pleasure, or present power, carry before it these sober 
 convictions ; and it is for the day, not for life, that man 
 bargains with happiness. How few ! — how very few ! have 
 sufficient foresight, or resolution, to endure a small evil 
 at the moment, to avoid a greater hereafter. 
 
 Woman in particular, whose virtue! is built on mutable 
 prejudices, seldom attains to this greatness of mind ; so 
 that, becoming the slave of her own feelings, she is easily 
 subjugated by those of others. Thus degraded, her reason, 
 her misty reason ! is employed rather to burnish than to 
 snap her chains. 
 
 Indignantly have I heard women argue in the same 
 track as men, and adopt the sentiments that brutalise them, 
 with all the pertinacity of ignorance. 
 
 * " He is the free man, whom the truth makes free ! " — Cowi'ER. 
 + I mean to use a word that comprehends more than chastity the 
 sexual virtue. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 139 
 
 I must illustrate my assertion by a few examples. Mrs 
 Piozzi, who often repeated by rote, what she did not 
 understand, comes forward with Johnsonian periods. 
 
 " Seek not for happiness in singularity ; and dread a 
 refinement of wisdom as a deviation into folly." Thus 
 she dogmatically addresses a new married man ; and to 
 elucidate this pompous exordium, she adds, "I said that 
 the person of your lady would not grow more pleasing to 
 you, but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so : 
 that a woman will pardon an affront to her understanding 
 much sooner than one to her person, is well known ; nor 
 will any of us contradict the assertion. All our attainments, 
 all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart of 
 man ; and what mortification can exceed the disappoint- 
 ment, if the end be not obtained? There is no reproof 
 however pointed, no punishment however severe, that a 
 woman of spirit will not prefer to neglect ; and if she can 
 endure it without complaint, it only proves that she means 
 to make herself amends by the attention of others for the 
 slights of her husband ! " 
 
 These are truly masculine sentiments. "All our arts 
 are employed to gain and keep the heart of man : "—and 
 what is the inference?— if her person, and was there ever a 
 person, though formed with Medicean symmetry, that was 
 not slighted ? be neglected, she will make herself amends 
 by endeavouring to please other men. Noble morality ! 
 But thus is the understanding of the whole sex affronted, 
 and their virtue deprived of the common basis of virtue. 
 A woman must know, that her person cannot be as pleasing 
 to her husband as it was to her lover, and if she be offended 
 with him for being a human creature, she may as well 
 whine about the loss of his heart as about any other 
 foolish thing. And this very want of discernment or un- 
 
 "■L 
 
M° 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 reasonable anger, proves that he could not change his 
 fondness for her person into affection for her virtues or 
 respect for her understanding. 
 
 Whilst women avow, and act up to such opinions, their 
 understandings, at least, deserve the contempt and obloquy 
 that men, who never insult their persons, have pointedly 
 levelled at the female mind. And it is the sentiments 
 of these polite men, who do not wish to be encumbered 
 with mind, that vain women thoughtlessly adopt. Yet 
 they should know, that insulted reason alone can spread 
 that sacred reserve about the person, which renders human 
 affections, for human affections have always some base 
 alloy, as permanent as is consistent with the grand end of 
 existence— the attainment of virtue. 
 
 The Baroness de Stael speaks the same language as the 
 lady just cited, with more enthusiasm. Her eulogium on 
 Rousseau was accidentally put into my hands, and her 
 sentiments, the sentiments of too many of my sex, may 
 serve as the text for a few comments. " Though Rousseau," 
 she observes, " has endeavoured to prevent women from 
 interfering in public affairs, and acting a brilliant part in the 
 theatre of politics ; yet in speaking of them, how much 
 has he done it to their satisfaction ! If he wished to 
 deprive them of some rights foreign to their sex, how 
 has he for ever restored to them all those to which it 
 has a claim ! And in attempting to diminish their influence 
 over the deliberations of men, how sacredly has he established 
 the empire they have over their happiness ! In aiding 
 them to descend from an usurped throne, he has firmly 
 seated them upon that to which they were destined by 
 nature ; and though he be full of indignation against them 
 when they endeavour to resemble men, yet when they 
 come before him with all the charms, weaknesses, virtues, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 141 
 
 and errors of their sex, his respect for their persons amounts 
 almost to adoration." True ! For never was there a 
 sensualist who paid more fervent adoration at the shrine 
 of beauty. So devout, indeed, was his respect for the 
 person, that excepting the virtue of chastity, for obvious 
 reasons, he only wished to see it embellished by charms, 
 weaknesses, and errors. He was afraid lest the austerity of 
 reason should disturb the soft playfulness of love. The 
 master wished to have a meretricious slave to fondle, 
 entirely dependent on his reason and bounty ; he did not 
 want a companion, whom he should be compelled to 
 esteem, or a friend to whom he could confine the care 
 of his children's education, should death deprive them 
 of their father, before he had fulfilled the sacred task. 
 He denies woman reason, shuts her out from knowledge, 
 and turns her aside from truth ; yet his pardon is granted, 
 because " he admits the passion of love." It would require 
 some ingenuity to show why women were to be under such 
 an obligation to him for thus admitting love ; when it is 
 clear that he admits it only for the relaxation of men, 
 and to perpetuate the species; but he talked with passion, 
 and that powerful spell worked on the sensibility of a young 
 encomiast. "What signifies it," pursues this rhapsodist, 
 " to women, that his reason disputes with them the empire, 
 when his heart is devotedly theirs." It is not empire, — 
 but equality, that they should contend for. Yet, if they 
 only wished to lengthen out their sway, they should not 
 entirely trust to their persons, for though beauty may gain 
 a heart, it cannot keep it, even while the beauty is in full 
 bloom, unless the mind lend, at least, some graces. 
 
 When women are once sufficiently enlightened to discover 
 their real interest, on a grand scale, they will, I am 
 persuaded, be very ready to resign all the prerogatives of 
 
i t- 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 love, that are not mutual, speaking of them as lasting 
 prerogatives, for the calm satisfaction of friendship, and 
 the tender confidence of habitual esteem. Before marriage 
 they will not assume any insolent airs, or afterwards abjectly 
 submit ; but endeavouring to act like reasonable creatures, 
 in both situations, they will not be tumbled from a throne 
 to a stool. 
 
 Madame Genlis has written several entertaining books 
 for children ; and her " Letters on Education " afford many 
 useful hints, that sensible parents will certainly avail them- 
 selves of; but her views are narrow, and her prejudices 
 as unreasonable as strong. 
 
 I shall pass over her vehement argument in favour of the 
 eternity of future punishments, because I blush to think 
 that a human being should ever argue vehemently in such a 
 cause, and only make a few remarks on her absurd manner 
 of making the parental authority supplant reason. For 
 everywhere does she inculcate not only blind submission to 
 parents, but to the opinion of the world.* 
 
 She tells a story of a young man engaged by his father's 
 express desire to a girl of fortune. Before the marriage 
 could take place she is deprived of her fortune, and thrown 
 friendless on the world. The father practises the most 
 infamous arts to separate his son from her, and when the 
 
 * A person is not to act in this or that way, though convinced 
 they are right in so doing, because some equivocal circumstances may 
 lead the world to suspect that they acted from different motives. This 
 is sacrificing the substance for a shadow. Let people but watcli their 
 own hearts, and act rightly, as far as they can judge, and they may 
 patiently wait till the opinion of the world comes round. It is best to 
 be directed by a simple motive, for justice has too often been sacrificed 
 to propriety — another word for convenience. 
 
 \ 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 •43 
 
 son detects his villainy, and, following the dictates of honour, 
 marries the girl, nothing but misery ensues, because, for- 
 sooth ! he married tvithout his father's consent. On what 
 ground can religion or morality rest when justice is thus set 
 at defiance ? With the same view she represents an accom- 
 plished young woman, as ready to marry anybody that her 
 mamma pleased to recommend ; and, as actually marrying 
 the young man of her own choice, without feeling any 
 emotions of passion, because that a well-educated girl had 
 not time to be in love. Is it possible to have much respect 
 for a system of education that thus insults reason and nature? 
 
 Many similar opinions occur in her writings, mixed with 
 sentiments that do honour to her head and heart. Yet so 
 much superstition is mixed with her religion, and so much 
 worldly wisdom with her morality, that I should, not let a 
 young person read her works, unless I could afterwards con- 
 verse on the subjects, and point out the contradictions. 
 
 Mrs Chapone's letters are written with such good sense 
 and unaffected humility, and contain so many useful obser- 
 vations, that I only mention them to pay the worthy writer 
 this tribute of respect. I cannot, it is true, always coincide 
 in opinion with her, but I always respect her. 
 
 The very word respect brings Mrs Macaulay to my 
 remembrance. The woman of the greatest abilities, un- 
 doubtedly, that this country has every " produced ; and yet 
 this woman has been suffered to die without sufficient respect 
 being paid to her memory. 
 
 Posterity, however, will be more just, and remember that 
 Catherine Macaulay was an example of intellectual acquire- 
 ments supposed to be incompatible with the weakness of 
 her sex. In her style of writing, indeed, no sex appears, for 
 it is like the sense it conveys, strong and clear. 
 
 I will not call hers a masculine understanding, because I 
 
 T 
 
 - ■■■■ .- i ■ ■■■■ 
 
144 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 admit not of such an arrogant assumption of reason ; but I 
 contend that it was a found one, and that her judgment, the 
 matured fruit of profound thinking, was a proof that a 
 woman can acquire judgment in the full extent of the word. 
 Possessing more penetration than sagacity, more under- 
 standing than fancy, she writes with sober energy and argu- 
 mentative closeness ; yet sympathy and benevolence give an 
 interest to her sentiments, and that vital heat to arguments, 
 which forces the reader to weigh them.* 
 
 When I first thought of writing these strictures I antici- 
 pated Mrs Macaulay's approbation, with a little of that 
 sanguine ardour which it has been the business of my life to 
 depress, but soon heard with the sickly qualm of disappointed 
 hope, and the still seriousness of regret — that she was no 
 more ! 
 
 section v. 
 
 Taking a view of the different works which have been 
 ^written on education, Lord Chesterfield's " Letters " must 
 -moT~r5e~silently passed over. Not that I mean to analyse his 
 unmanly, immoral system, or even to cull any of the useful, 
 shrewd remarks which occur in his epistles. No, I only 
 mean to make a few reflections on the avowed tendency of 
 them, the art of acquiring an early knowledge of the world — 
 an art, I will venture to assert, that preys secretly, like the 
 worm in the bud, on the expanding powers, and turns to 
 poison the generous juices which should mount with vigour 
 
 * Coinciding in opinion with Mrs Macaulay relative to many branches 
 of education, I refer to her valuable work, instead of quoting her senti- 
 ments to support my own. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 ■45 
 
 ■ i i ■ ■ 
 
 : 
 
 in the youthful frame, inspiring warm affections and great 
 resolves.* 
 
 For everything, saith the wise man, there is a season ; and 
 who would look for the fruits of autumn during the genial 
 months of spring ? But this is mere declamation, and I 
 mean to reason with those worldly-wise instructors, who, 
 instead of cultivating the judgment, instill prejudices, and 
 render hard the heart that gradual experience would only 
 have cooled. An early acquaintance with human infirmities ; 
 or, what is termed knowledge of the world, is the surest way, 
 in my opinion, to contract the heart and damp the natural 
 youthful ardour which produces not only great talents, but 
 great virtues. For the vain attempt to bring forth the 
 fruit of experience, before the sapling has out thrown its 
 leaves, only exhausts its strength, and prevents its assum- 
 ing a natural form ; just as the form and strength of sub- 
 siding metals are injured when the attraction of cohesion is 
 disturbed. 
 
 Tell me, ye who have studied the human mind, is it not 
 a strange way to fix principles by showing young people that 
 they are seldom stable ? And how can they be fortified by- 
 habits when they are proved to be fallacious by example ? 
 Why is the ardour of youth thus to be damped, and the 
 luxuriancy of fancy cut to the quick ? This dry caution 
 may, it is true, guard a character from worldly mischances, 
 but will infallibly preclude excellence in either virtue or 
 
 That children ought to be constantly guarded against the vices and 
 follies of the world appears to me a very mistaken opinion ; for in the 
 course of my experience, and my eyes have looked abroad, I never 
 knew a youth educated in this manner, who had early imbibed these 
 chilling suspicions, and repeated by rote the hesitating if of age, that 
 did not prove a selfish character. 
 
146 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 knowledge.* The stumbling-block thrown across every path 
 by suspicion will prevent any vigorous exertions of genius or 
 benevolence, and life will be stripped of its most alluring 
 charm long before its calm evening, when man should retire 
 to contemplation for comfort and support. 
 
 A young man who has been bred up with domestic friends, 
 and led to store his mind with as much speculative know- 
 ledge as can be acquired by reading and the natural reflec- 
 tions which youthful ebullitions of animal spirits and 
 instinctive feelings inspire, will enter the world with warm 
 and erroneous expectations. But this appears to be the 
 course of Nature ; and in morals, as well as in works of 
 taste, we should be observant of her sacred indications, and 
 not presume to lead when we ought obsequiously to follow. 
 In the world few act from principle ; present feelings and 
 early habits are the grand springs ; but how would the former 
 be deadened, and the latter rendered iron-corroding fetters, 
 if the world were shown to young people just as it is, when 
 no knowledge of mankind or their own hearts, slowly 
 obtained by experience, rendered them forbearing? Their 
 fellow-creatures would not then be viewed as frail beings 
 like themselves, condemned to struggle with human in- 
 firmities, and sometimes displaying the light, and sometimes 
 the dark, side of their character ; extorting alternate feelings 
 of love and disgust, but guarded against as beasts of prey, 
 till every enlarged social feeling— in a word, humanity— was 
 eradicated. . • 
 
 In life, on the contrary, as we gradually discover the im- 
 perfections of our nature, we discover virtues, and various 
 
 * I have already observed that an early knowledge of the world, 
 obtained in a natural way, by mixing in the world, has the same effect, 
 instancing officers and women. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 »47 
 
 circumstances attach us to our fellow-creatures, when we 
 mix with them and view the same objects, that are never 
 thought of in acquiring a hasty unnatural knowledge of the 
 world. We see a folly swell into a vice, by almost imper- 
 ceptible degrees, and pity while we blame ; but if the hideous 
 monster burst suddenly on our sight, fear and disgust, ren- 
 dering us more severe than man ought to be, might lead us 
 with blind zeal to usurp the character of omnipotence, and 
 denounce damnation on our fellow-mortals, forgetting that 
 we cannot read the heart, and that we have seeds of the 
 same vices lurking in our own. 
 
 I have already remarked that we expect more from 
 instruction than mere instruction can produce ; for instead 
 of preparing young people to encounter the evils of life with 
 dignity, and to acquire wisdom and virtue by the exercise of 
 their own faculties, precepts are heaped upon precepts, and 
 blind obedience required when conviction should be brought 
 home to reason. 
 
 Suppose, for instance, that a young person, in the first 
 ardour of friendship, deifies the beloved object, what harm 
 can arise from this mistaken enthusiastic attachment? 
 Perhaps it is necessary for virtue first to appear in a human 
 form to impress youthful hearts; the ideal model, which a 
 more matured and exalted mind looks up to, and shapes for 
 itself, would elude their sight. " He who loves not his 
 brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God?" asked 
 the wisest of men. 
 
 It is natural for youth to adorn the first object of its 
 affection with every good quality, and the emulation pro- 
 duced by ignorance, or, to speak with more propriety, by- 
 inexperience, brings forward the mind capable of forming 
 such an affection, and when, in the lapse of time, perfection 
 is found not to be within the reach of mortals, virtue, 
 
148 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 abstractedly, is thought beautiful, and wisdom sublime. 
 Admiration then gives place to friendship, properly so 
 called, because it is cemented by esteem ; and the being 
 walks alone only dependent on heaven for that emulous 
 panting after perfection which ever glows in a noble mind. 
 But this knowledge a man must gain by the exertion of 
 his own faculties ; and this is surely the blessed fruit of 
 disappointed hope ! for He who delighteth to diffuse happi- 
 ness and show mercy to the weak creatures, who are learn- 
 ing to know Him, never implanted a good propensity to be a 
 tormenting ignis fatuus. 
 
 Our trees are now allowed to spread with wild luxuriance, 
 nor do we expect by force to combine the majestic marks 
 of time with youthful graces ; but wait patiently till they 
 have struck deep their root, and braved many a storm. 
 Is the mind then, which, in proportion to its dignity, 
 advances more slowly towards perfection, to be treated 
 with less respect? To argue from analogy, everything 
 around us is in a progressive state ; and when an unwelcome 
 knowledge of life produces almost a satiety of life, and we 
 discover by the natural course of things that all that is done 
 under the sun is vanity, we are drawing near the awful 
 close of the drama. The days of activity and hope are 
 over, and the opportunities which the first stage of existence 
 has afforded of advancing in the scale of intelligence, must 
 soon be summed up. A knowledge at this period of the 
 futility of life, or earlier, if obtained by experience, is 
 very useful, because it is natural ; but when a frail being is 
 shown the follies and vices of man, that he may be taught 
 prudently to guard against the common casualties of life 
 by sacrificing his heart — surely it is not speaking harshly 
 to call it the wisdom of this world, contrasted with the 
 nobler fruit of piety and experience. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. t49 
 
 I will venture a paradox, and deliver my opinion without 
 reserve ; if men were only born to form a circle of life and 
 death, it would be wise to take every step that foresight 
 could suggest to render life happy. .Moderation in every 
 pursuit would then be supreme wisdom ; and the prudent 
 voluptuary might enjoy a degree of content, though he 
 neither cultivated his understanding nor kept his heart 
 pure. Prudence, supposing we were mortal, would be true 
 wisdom, or, to be more explicit, would procure the greatest 
 portion of happiness, considering the whole of life, but 
 knowledge beyond the conveniences of life would be a curse. 
 Why should we injure our health by close study? The 
 exalted pleasure which intellectual pursuits afford would 
 scarcely be equivalent to the. hours of languor that follow ; 
 especially, if it be necessary to take into the reckoning 
 the doubts and disappointments that cloud our researches. 
 Vanity and vexation close every inquiry : for the cause 
 which we particularly wished to discover flies like the 
 horizon before us as we advance. The ignorant, on the 
 contrary, resemble children, and suppose, that if they could 
 walk straight forward they should at last arrive where the 
 earth and clouds meet. Yet, disappointed as we are in our 
 researches, the mind gains strength by the exercise, sufficient, 
 perhaps, to comprehend the answers which, in another step 
 of existence, it may receive to the anxious questions it 
 asked, when the understanding with feeble wing was flutter- 
 ing round the visible effects to dive into the hidden cause. 
 
 The passions also, the winds of life, would be useless, 
 if not injurious, did the substance which composes our 
 thinking being, after we have thought in vain, only become 
 the support of vegetable life, and invigorate a cabbage, or 
 blush in a rose. The appetites would answer every earthly 
 purpose, and produce more moderate and permanent happi- 
 
'5° 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 ness. But the powers of the soul that are of little use 
 here, and, probably, disturb our animal enjoyments, even 
 while conscious dignity makes us glory in possessing them, 
 prove that life is merely an education, a state of infancy, to 
 which the only hopes worth cherishing should not be 
 sacrificed. I mean, therefore, to infer, that we ought to 
 have a precise idea of what we wish to attain by education, 
 for the immortality of the soul is contradicted by the actions 
 of many people who firmly profess the belief. 
 
 If you mean to secure ease and prosperity on earth as 
 the first consideration, and leave futurity to provide for 
 itself; you act prudently in giving your child an early 
 insight into the weaknesses of his nature. You may not, 
 it is true, make an Inkle of him ; but do not imagine that 
 he will stick to more than the letter of the law, who has 
 very early imbibed a mean opinion of human nature ; nor 
 will he think it necessary to rise much above the common 
 standard. He may avoid gross vices, because honesty is the 
 best policy ; but he will never aim at attaining great virtues. 
 The example of writers and artists will illustrate this remark. 
 I must therefore venture to doubt whether what has been 
 thought an axiom in morals may not have been a dogmatical 
 assertion made by men who have coolly seen mankind 
 through the medium of books, and say, in direct contradic- 
 tion to them, that the regulation of the passions is not, 
 always, wisdom. On the contrary, it should seem, that one 
 reason why men have superior judgment, and more fortitude 
 than women, is undoubtedly this, that they give a freer 
 scope to the grand passions, and by more frequently going 
 astray enlarge their minds. If then by the exercise of their 
 own* reason they fix on some stable principle, they have 
 
 * " I find that all is but lip-wisdom which wants experience," says 
 Sidney. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '5i 
 
 probably to thank the force of their passions, nourished by 
 false views of life, and permitted to overleap the boundary 
 that secures content. But if, in the dawn of life, we could 
 soberly survey the scenes before as in perspective, and 
 see everything in its true colours, how could the passions 
 gain sufficient strength to unfold the faculties? 
 
 Let me now as from an eminence survey the world 
 stripped of all its false delusive charms. The clear atmo- 
 sphere enables me to see each object in its true point of 
 view, while my heart is still. I am calm as the prospect 
 in a morning when the mists, slowly dispersing, silently 
 unveil the beauties of nature, refreshed by rest. 
 
 In what light will the world now appear? I rub my 
 eyes, and think, perchance, that I am just awaking from a 
 lively dream. 
 
 I see the sons and daughters of men pursuing shadows, 
 and anxiously wasting their powers to feed passions which 
 have no adequate object. If the very excess of these blind 
 impulses, pampered by that lying, yet constantly trusted 
 guide, the imagination, did not, by preparing them for some 
 other state, render short-sighted mortals wiser without 
 their own concurrence, or, what comes to the same thing, 
 when they were pursuing some imaginary present good. 
 
 After viewing objects in this light, it would not be very 
 fanciful to imagine that this world was a stage on which a 
 pantomime is daily performed for the amusement of superior 
 beings. How would they be diverted to see the ambitious 
 man consuming himself by running after a phantom, and 
 " pursuing the bubble fame in the cannon's mouth " that 
 was to blow him to nothing; for when consciousness is lost, 
 it matters not whether we mount in a whirlwind, or descend 
 in rain. And should they compassionately invigorate his 
 sight, and show him the thorny path which led to eminence, 
 
15 = 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 that, like a quicksand, sinks as he ascends, disappointing 
 his hopes when almost within his grasp, would he not leave 
 to others the honour of amusing them, and labour to secure 
 the present moment, though, from the constitution of his 
 nature, he would not find it very easy to catch the flying 
 stream ? Such slaves are we to hope and fear ! 
 
 But vain as the ambitous man's pursuits would be, he is 
 often striving for something more substantial than fame. 
 That, indeed, would be the veriest meteor, the wildest fire 
 that could lure a man to ruin. What ! renounce the most 
 trifling gratification to be applauded when he should be no 
 more ! Wherefore this struggle, whether man be mortal or 
 immortal, if that noble passion did not really raise the 
 being above his fellows? 
 
 And love ! What diverting scenes would it produce ; 
 pantaloon's tricks must yield to more egregious folly. To 
 see a mortal adorn an object with imaginary charms, and 
 then fall down and worship the idol which he had himself 
 set up — how ridiculous ! But what serious consequences 
 ensue to rob man of that portion of happiness which the 
 Deity by calling him into existence has (or on what can His 
 attributes rest ?) indubitably promised. Would not all the 
 purposes of life have been much better fulfilled if he had 
 only felt what has been termed physical love ? And would 
 not the sight of the object, not seen through the medium of 
 the imagination, soon reduce the passion to an appetite if 
 reflection, the noble distinction of man, did not give it 
 force, and make it an instrument to raise him above this 
 earthly dross, by teaching him to love the centre of all per- 
 , fection, whose wisdom appears clearer and clearer in the 
 works of nature in proportion as reason is illuminated and 
 exalted by contemplation, and by acquiring that love of 
 order which the struggles of passion produce? 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '53 
 
 The habit of reflection, and the knowledge attained by 
 fostering any passion, might be shown to be equally use- 
 ful, though the object be proved equally fallacious ; for they 
 would all appear in the same light if they were not magni- 
 fied by the governing passion implanted in us by the Author 
 of all good to call forth and strengthen the faculties of 
 each individual, and enable it to attain all the experience 
 that an infant can obtain who does certain things, it cannot 
 tell why. 
 
 I descend from my height, and mixing with my fellow- 
 creatures, feel myself hurried along the common stream. 
 Ambition, love, hope, and fear, exert their wonted power, 
 though we be convinced by reason that their present and 
 most attractive promises are only lying dreams; but had the 
 cold hand of circumspection damped each generous feeling 
 before it had left any permanent character, or fixed some 
 habit, what could be expected but selfish prudence and 
 reason just rising above instinct? Who that has read Dean 
 Swift's disgusting description of the Yahoos, and insipid one 
 of Houyhnhnm with a philosophical eye, can avoid seeing 
 the futility of degrading the passions, or making man rest 
 in contentment? 
 
 The youth should act, for had he the experience of a 
 grey head he would be fitter for death than life, though his 
 virtues, rather residing in his head than his heart, could 
 produce nothing great, and his understanding, prepared for 
 this world, would not, by its noble flights, prove that it had 
 a title to a better. 
 
 Besides, it is not possible to give a young person a just 
 view of life ; he must have struggled with his own passions 
 before he can estimate the force of the temptation which 
 betrayed his brother into vice. Those who are entering life, 
 and those who are departing, see the world from such very 
 
1 5 4 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 different points of view that they can seldom think alike, 
 unless the unfledged reason of the former never attempted a 
 solitary flight. 
 
 When we hear of some daring crime, it comes full on us 
 in the deepest shade of turpitude, and raises indignation ; 
 but the eye that gradually saw the darkness thicken must 
 observe it with more compassionate forbearance. The world 
 cannot be seen by an unmoved spectator; we must mix in 
 the throng, and feel as men feel, before we can judge of 
 their feelings. If we mean, in short, to live in the world, to 
 grow wiser and better, and not merely to enjoy the good 
 things of life, we must attain a knowledge of others at the 
 same time that we become acquainted with ourselves. 
 Knowledge acquired any other way only hardens the heart, 
 and perplexes the understanding. 
 
 I may be told that the knowledge thus acquired is some- 
 times purchased at too dear a rate. I can only answer that 
 I very much doubt whether any knowledge can be attained 
 without labour and sorrow ; and those who wish to spare 
 their children both should not complain if they are neither 
 wise nor virtuous. They only aimed at making them 
 prudent, and prudence early in life is but the cautious craft 
 of ignorant self-love. 
 
 I have observed that young people, to whose education 
 particular attention has been paid, have in general been 
 very superficial and conceited, and far from pleasing in any 
 respect, because they had neither the unsuspecting warmth 
 of youth, nor the cool depth of age. I cannot help imput- 
 ing this unnatural appearance principally to that hasty pre- 
 mature instruction which leads them presumptuously to 
 repeat all the crude notions they have taken upon trust, so 
 that the careful education which they received, makes them 
 all their lives the slaves of prejudices. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 »55 
 
 Mental as well as bodily exertion is at first irksome ; so 
 much so, that the many would fain let others both work 
 and think for them. An observation which I have often 
 made will illustrate my meaning. When in a circle of 
 strangers or acquaintances a person of moderate abilities 
 asserts an opinion with heat, I will venture to affirm— for I 
 have traced this fact home — very often that it is a preju- 
 dice. These echoes have a high respect for the under- 
 standing of some relation or friend, and without fully compre- 
 hending the opinions which they are so eager to retail, they 
 maintain them with a degree of obstinacy that would surprise 
 even the person who concocted them. 
 
 I know that a kind of fashion now prevails of respecting 
 prejudices ; and when any one dares to face them, though 
 actuated by humanity and armed by reason, he is super- 
 ciliously asked whether his ancestors were fools. No, I 
 should reply. Opinions at first of every description were all 
 probably considered, and therefore were founded on some 
 reason; yet not unfrequently, of course, it was rather a local 
 expedient than a fundamental principle that would be rea- 
 sonable at all times. But moss-covered opinions assume 
 the disproportioned form of prejudices when they are in- 
 dolently adopted only because age has given tnem a vener- 
 rable aspect, though the reason on which they were built 
 ceases to be a reason, or cannot be traced. Why are we to 
 love prejudices merely because they are prejudices ? * A 
 prejudice is a fond obstinate persuasion for which we can 
 give no reason ; for the moment a reason can be given for 
 an opinion, it ceases to be a prejudice, though it may be an 
 error in judgment ; and are we then advised to cherish 
 opinions only to set reason at defiance? This mode of 
 
 * Vide Mr Burke. 
 
 I 
 
'56 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 arguing, if arguing it may be called, reminds me of what is 
 vulgarly termed a woman's reason ; for women sometimes 
 declare that they love, or believe certain things, because they 
 love or believe them. 
 
 It is impossible to converse with people to any purpose 
 who only use affirmatives and negatives. Before you can 
 bring them to a point to start fairly from, you must go back 
 to the simple principles that were antecedent to the preju- 
 dices broached by power ; and it is ten to one but you are 
 stopped by the philosophical assertion that certain principles 
 are as practically false as they are abstractly true. * Nay, it 
 may be inferred that reason has whispered some doubts, for 
 it generally happens that people assert their opinions with 
 the greatest heat when they begin to waver ; striving to drive 
 out their own doubts by convincing their opponent, they 
 grow angry when those gnawing doubts are thrown back to 
 prey on themselves. 
 
 The fact is, that men expect from education, what 
 education cannot give. A sagacious parent or tutor may 
 strengthen the body and sharpen the instruments by which 
 the child is to gather knowledge ; but the honey must be 
 the reward of the individual's own industry. It is almost 
 as absurd to attempt to make a youth wise by the experience 
 of another, as to expect the body to grow strong by the 
 exercise which is only talked of, or seen.t Many of those 
 children whose conduct has been most narrowly watched, 
 become the weakest men, because their instructors only 
 
 * " Convince a man against his will, 
 He's of the same opinion still." 
 
 + " One sees nothing when one is content to contemplate only: it is 
 necessary to act oneself to be able to see how others act." — 
 Rousseau. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '57 
 
 instil certain notions into their minds, that have no other 
 foundation than their authority ; and if they be loved or 
 respected, the mind is cramped in its exertions and wavering 
 in its advances. The business of education in this case, is 
 only to conduct the shooting tendrils to a proper pole; yet 
 after laying precept upon precept, without allowing a child 
 to acquire judgment itself, parents expect them to act in 
 the same manner by this borrowed fallacious light, as if 
 they had illuminated it themselves ; and be, when they 
 enter life, what their parents are at the close. They do 
 not consider that the tree, and even the human body, 
 does not strengthen its fibres till it has reached its full 
 growth. 
 
 There appears to be something analogous in the mind. 
 The senses and the imagination give a form to the character, 
 during childhood and youth ; and the understanding, as 
 life advances, gives firmness to the first fair purposes of 
 sensibility, till virtue, arising rather from the clear con- 
 viction of reason than the impulse of the heart, morality is 
 made to rest on a rock against which the storms of passion 
 vainly beat. 
 
 I hope I shall not be misunderstood when I say, that 
 religion will not have this condensing energy, unless it be 
 founded on reason. If it be merely the refuge of weakness 
 or wild fanaticism, and not a governing principle of conduct, 
 drawn from self-knowledge, and a rational opinion respecting 
 the attributes of God, what can it be expected to produce ? 
 The religion which consists in warming the affections, and 
 exalting the imagination, is only the poetical part, and may 
 afford the individual pleasure without rendering it a more 
 moral being. It may be a substitute for worldly pursuits ; 
 yet narrow, instead of enlarging the heart : but virtue must 
 be loved as in itself sublime and excellent, and not for the 
 
 
158 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 advantages it procures or the evils it averts, if any great 
 degree of excellence be expected. Men will not become 
 moral when they only build airy castles in a future world 
 to compensate for the disappointments which they meet 
 with in this ; if they turn their thoughts from relative duties 
 to religious reveries. 
 
 Most prospects in life are marred by the shuffling worldly 
 wisdom of men, who, forgetting that they cannot serve God 
 and mammon, endeavour to blend contradictory things. 
 If you wish to make your son rich, pursue one course — if 
 you are only anxious to make him virtuous, you must take 
 another ; but do not imagine that you can bound from one 
 road to the other without losing your way.* 
 
 * See an excellent essay on this subject by Mrs Barbaukl, in Mis- 
 cellaneous Pieces in Prose. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '59 
 
 % 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE EFFECT WHICH AN EARLY ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS 
 HAS UPON THE CHARACTER. 
 
 Ej*DUCATED in the enervating style recommended by 
 ^ the writers on whom I have been animadverting; 
 and not having a chance, from their subordinate 
 state in society, to recover their lost ground, is it surprising 
 that woman everywhere appears a defect in nature ? Is it sur- 
 prising, when we consider what a determinate effect an 
 early association of ideas has on the character, that they 
 neglect their understandings, and turn all their attention to 
 their persons ? 
 
 The great advantages which naturally result from storing 
 the mind with knowledge, are obvious from the following 
 considerations. The association of our ideas is either 
 habitual or instantaneous ; and the latter mode seems rather 
 to depend on the original temperature of the mind than on 
 the will. When the ideas, and matters of fact, are once 
 taken in, they lie by for use, till some fortuitous circum- 
 stance makes the information dart into the mind with 
 illustrative force, that has been received at very different 
 periods of our lives. Like the lightning's flash are many 
 recollections ; one idea assimilating and explaining another, 
 with astonishing rapidity. I do not now allude to that 
 quick perception of truth, which is so intuitive that it baffles 
 research, and makes us at a loss to determine whether it is 
 reminiscence or ratiocination, lost sight of in irs celerity, 
 

 i6o 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 that opens the dark cloud. Over those instantaneous 
 associations we have little power; for when the mind Cs 
 
 
 once enlarged by excursive flights, or profound reflection, 
 the raw materials will, in some degree, arrange themselves. 
 The understanding, it is true, may keep us from going out 
 of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe 
 from the imagination the warm sketches of fancy ; but the 
 animal spirits, the individual character, give the colouring. 
 Over this subtile electric fluid,* how little power do we 
 possess, and over it how little power can reason obtain. \ 
 These fine intractable spirits appear to be the essence of 
 genius, and beaming in its eagle eye, produce in the most 
 eminent degree the happy energy of associating thoughts 
 that surprise, delight, and instruct. These are the glowing 
 minds that concentrate pictures for their fellow-creatures; 
 forcing them to view with interest the objects reflected from 
 the impassioned imagination, which they passed over in 
 nature. 
 
 I must be allowed to explain myself. The generality of 
 people cannot see or feel poetically, they want fancy, and 
 therefore fly from solitude in search of sensible objects ; 
 but when an author lends them his eyes they can see as he 
 saw, and be amused by images they could not select, though 
 lying before them. 
 
 Education thus only supplies the man of genius with 
 knowledge to give variety and contrast to his associations ; 
 
 * I have sometimes, when inclined to laugh at materialists, asked 
 whether, as the most powerful effects in nature are apparently produced 
 by fluids, the magnetic, Sec, the passions might not be fine volatile 
 fluids that embraced humanity, keeping the more refractory elementary 
 parts together — or whether they were simply a liquid fire that pervaded 
 the more sluggish materials, giving them life and heat ? 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 A 
 
 EIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 I'M 
 
 but there is an habitual association of ideas, that grows 
 "with our growth," which has a great effect on the moral 
 character of mankind , and by which a turn is given to the 
 mind that commonly remains throughout life. So ductile 
 is the understanding, and yet so stubborn, that the as- 
 sociations which depend on adventitious circumstances, 
 during the period that the body takes to arrive at maturity, 
 can seldom be disentangled by reason. One idea calls up 
 another, its old associate, and memory, faithful to the first 
 impressions, particularly when the intellectual powers are 
 not employed to cool our sensations, retraces them with 
 mechanical exactness. 
 
 This habitual slavery, to first impressions, has a more 
 baneful effect on the female than the male character, because 
 business and other dry employments of the understanding, 
 tend to deaden the feelings and break associations that do 
 violence to reason. But females, who are made women of 
 when they are mere children, and brought back to child- 
 hood when they ought to leave the go-cart for ever, have 
 not sufficient strength of mind to efface the superinductions 
 of art that have smothered nature. 
 
 Everything that they see or hear serves to fix impressions, 
 call forth emotions, and associate ideas, that give a sexual 
 character to the mind. False notions of beauty and 
 delicacy stop the growth of their limbs and produce a 
 sickly soreness, rather than delicacy of organs ; and thus 
 weakened by being employed in unfolding instead of 
 examining the first associations, forced on them by every 
 surrounding object, how can they attain the vigour necessary 
 to enable them to throw off their factitious character? — 
 where find strength to recur to reason and rise superior to a 
 system of oppression, that blasts the fair promises of spring? 
 This cruel association of ideas, which everything conspires 
 
162 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 to twist into all their habits of thinking, or, to speak with 
 more precision, of feeling, receives new force when they 
 begin to act a little for themselves ; for they then perceive 
 that it is only through their address to excite emotions in 
 men, that pleasure and power are to be obtained. Besides, 
 the books professedly written for their instruction, which 
 make the first impression on their minds, all inculcate 
 the same opinions. Educated then in worse than Egyptian 
 bondage, it is unreasonable, as well as cruel, to upbraid 
 them with faults that can scarcely be avoided, unless a 
 degree of native vigour be supposed, that falls to the 
 lot of very few amongst mankind. 
 
 For instance, the severest sarcasms have been levelled 
 against the sex, and they have been ridiculed for repeating 
 "a set of phrases learnt by rote," when nothing could 
 be more natural, considering the education they receive, 
 and that their "highest praise is to obey, unargued"— 
 the will of man. If they be not allowed to have reason 
 sufficient to govern their own conduct — why, all they learn 
 must be learned by rote ! And when all their ingenuity 
 is called forth to adjust their dress, "a passion for a 
 scarlet coat," is so natural, that it never surprised me; 
 and, allowing Pope's summary of their character to be 
 just, " that every woman is at heart a rake," why should 
 they be bitterly censured for seeking a congenial mind, 
 and preferring a rake to a man of sense ? 
 
 Rakes know how to work on their sensibility, whilst 
 the modest merit of reasonable men has, of course, less 
 effect on their feelings, and they cannot reach the heart 
 by the way of the understanding, because they have few- 
 sentiments in common. 
 
 It seems a little absurd to expect women to be more 
 reasonable than men in their likings, and still to deny 
 
 ) 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 163 
 
 them the uncontrolled use of reason. When do men 
 Jail in love with sense ? When do they, with their superior 
 powers and advantages, turn from the person to the mind ? 
 And how can they then expect women, who are only 
 taught to observe behaviour, and acquire manners rather 
 than morals, to despise what they have been all their 
 lives labouring to attain ? Where are they suddenly to 
 find judgment enough to weigh patiently the sense of an 
 awkward virtuous man, when his manners, of which they 
 are made critical judges, are rebuffing, and his conversa- 
 tion cold and dull, because it does not consist of pretty 
 repartees, or well-turned compliments? In order to admire 
 or esteem anything for a continuance, we must, at least, 
 have our curiosity excited by knowing, in some degree, 
 what we admire ; for we are unable to estimate the value of 
 qualities and virtues above our comprehension. Such a 
 respect, when it is felt, may be very sublime ; and the 
 confused consciousness of humility may render the dependent 
 creature an interesting object, in some points of view ; 
 but human love must have grosser ingredients ; and the 
 person very naturally will come in for its share — and, an 
 ample share it mostly has ! 
 
 I,ove is, in a great degree, an arbitrary passion, and 
 will reign, like some other stalking mischiefs, by its own 
 authority, without deigning to reason ; and it may also 
 be easily distinguished from esteem, the foundation of 
 friendship, because it is often excited by evanescent beauties 
 and graces, though, to give an energy to the sentiment, 
 something more solid must deepen their impression and 
 set the imagination to work, to make the most fair— the 
 first good. 
 
 Common passions are excited by common qualities. 
 Men look for beauty and the simper of good-humoured 
 
164 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 docility : women are captivated by easy manners ; a 
 gentleman-like man seldom fails to please them, and their 
 thirsty ears eagerly drink the insinuating nothings of polite- 
 ness, whilst they turn from the unintelligible sounds of the 
 charmer — reason, charm he never so wisely. With respect 
 to superficial accomplishments, the rake certainly has the 
 advantage ; and of these females can form an opinion, 
 for it is their own ground. Rendered gay and giddy by 
 the whole tenor of their lives, the very aspect of wisdom, 
 or the severe graces of virtue, must have a lugubrious 
 appearance to them ; and produce a kind of restraint from 
 which they and love, sportive child, naturally revolt. With- 
 out taste, excepting of the lighter kind, for taste is the 
 offspring of judgment, how can they discover that true 
 beauty and grace must arise from the play of the mind? 
 and how can they be expected to relish in a lover what 
 they do not, or very imperfectly, possess themselves? The 
 sympathy that unites hearts, and invites to confidence, in 
 them is so very faint, that it cannot take fire, and thus 
 mount to passion. No, I repeat it, the love cherished by 
 such minds, must have grosser fuel ! 
 
 The inference is obvious ; till women are led to exercise 
 their understandings, they should not be satirised for their 
 attachment to rakes ; or even for being rakes at heart, 
 when it appears to be the inevitable consequence of their 
 education. They who live to please — must find their 
 enjoyments, their happiness, in pleasure ! It is a trite, yet 
 true remark, that we never do anything well, unless we 
 love it for its own sake. 
 
 Supposing, however, for a moment, that women were, in 
 some future revolution of time, to become, what I sincerely 
 wish them to be, even love would acquire more serious 
 dignity, and be purified in its own fires ; and virtue giving 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 16; 
 
 true delicacy to their affections, they would turn with 
 disgust from a rake. Reasoning then, as well as feeling, 
 the only province of woman, at present, they might easily 
 guard against exterior graces, and quickly learn to despise 
 the sensibility that had been excited and hackneyed in 
 the ways of women, whose trade was vice ; and allurements, 
 wanton airs. They would recollect that the flame, one 
 must use appropriated expressions, which they wished to 
 light up, had been exhausted by lust, and that the sated 
 appetite, losing all relish for pure and simple pleasures, 
 could only be roused by licentious arts or variety. What 
 satisfaction could a woman of delicacy promise herself in a 
 union with such a man, when the very artlessness of her 
 affection might appear insipid? Thus does Dryden 
 describe the situation, 
 
 "Where love is duty, on the female side, 
 On theirs mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride." 
 
 But one grand truth women have yet to learn, though 
 much it imports them to act accordingly. In the choice of 
 a husband, they should not be led astray by the qualities of 
 a lover — for a lover the husband, even supposing him to be 
 wise and virtuous, cannot long remain. 
 
 Were women more rationally educated, could they take a 
 more comprehensive view of things, they would be con- 
 tented to love but once in their lives ; and after marriage 
 calmly let passion subside into friendship — into that tender 
 intimacy, which is the best refuge from care ; yet is built 
 on such pure, still affections, that idle jealousies would not 
 be allowed to disturb the discharge of the sober duties of 
 life, or to engross the thoughts that ought to be otherwise 
 employed. This is a state in which many men live ; but 
 few, very few, women. And the difference may easily be 
 
 ._ — .. -—, — 
 
i66 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 accounted for, without recurring to a sexual character. 
 Men, for whom we are told women were made, have too 
 much occupied the thoughts of women ; and this association 
 has so entangled love with all their motives of action ; and, 
 to harp a little on an old string, having been solely em- 
 ployed either to prepare themselves to excite love, or 
 actually putting their lessons in practice, they cannot live 
 without love. But, when a sense of duty, or fear of shame, 
 obliges them to restrain this pampered desire of pleasing 
 beyond certain lengths, too far for delicacy, it is true, 
 though far from criminality, they obstinately determine to 
 love, I speak of the passion, their husbands to the end of 
 the chapter — and then acting the part which they foolishly 
 exacted from their lovers, they become abject wooers and 
 fond slaves. 
 
 Men of wit and fancy are often rakes ; and fancy is the 
 food of love. Such men will inspire passion. Half the sex, 
 in its present infantine state, would pine for a Lovelace ; a 
 man so witty, so graceful, and so valiant : and can they 
 deseri'e blame for acting according to principles so constantly 
 inculcated ? They want a lover, and protector ; and behold 
 him kneeling before them — bravery prostrate to beauty ! 
 The virtues of a husband are thus thrown by love into the 
 background, and gay hopes, or lively emotions, banish 
 reflection till the day of reckoning come ; and come it 
 surely will, to turn the sprightly lover into a surly suspicious 
 tyrant, who contemptuously insults the very weakness he 
 fostered. Or, supposing the rake reformed, he cannot 
 quickly get rid of old habits. When a man of abilities is 
 first carried away by his passions, it is necessary that senti- 
 ment and taste varnish the enormities of vice, and give a 
 zest to brutal indulgences ; but when the gloss of novelty is 
 worn off, and pleasure palls upon the sense, lasciviousness 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 167 
 
 becomes barefaced, and enjoyment only the desperate 
 effort of weakness flying from reflection as from a legion of 
 devils. Oh ! virtue, thou art not an empty name ! All 
 that life can give — thou givest ! 
 
 If much comfort cannot be expected from the friendship 
 of a reformed rake of superior abilities, what is the con- 
 sequence when he lacketh sense, as well as principles ? 
 Verily misery, in its most hideous shape. When the habits 
 of weak people are consolidated by time, a reformation is 
 barely possible ; and actually makes the beings miserable 
 who have not sufficient mind to be amused by innocent 
 pleasure ; like the tradesman who retires from the hurry of 
 business, nature presents to them only a universal blank ; 
 and the restless thoughts prey on the damped spirits.* 
 The reformation, as well as his retirement, actually makes 
 them wretched, because it deprives them of all employment, 
 by quenching the hopes and fears that set in motion their 
 sluggish minds. 
 
 If such be the force of habit ; if such be the bondage of 
 folly, how carefully ought we to guard the mind from storing 
 up vicious associations ; and equally careful should we be 
 to cultivate the understanding, to save the poor wight from 
 the weak dependent state of even harmless ignorance. For 
 it is the right use of reason alone which make us inde- 
 pendent of everything — excepting the unclouded reason — 
 "Whose service is perfect freedom." 
 
 * I have frequently seen this exemplified in women whose beauty 
 could no longer be repaired. They have retired from the noisy- 
 scenes of dissipation ; but, unless they became Methodists, the solitude 
 of the select society of their family connections or acquaintance, has 
 presented only a fearful void ; consequently, nervous complaints, and 
 all the vapourish train of idleness, rendered them quite as useless, and 
 far more unhappy, than when they joined the giddy throng. 
 
 r * 
 
1 63 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MODESTY — COMPREHENSIVELY CONSIDERED, AND NOT 
 AS A SEXUAL VIRTUE. 
 
 MODESTY ! sacred offspring of sensibility and reason ! 
 — true delicacy of mind ! — may I unblamed pre- 
 sume to investigate thy nature, and trace to its 
 covert the mild charm, that mellowing each harsh feature of 
 a character, renders what would otherwise only inspire cold 
 admiration — lovely ! Thou that smoothest the wrinkles of 
 wisdom, and softenest the tone of the sublimest virtues till 
 they all melt into humanity ; thou that spreadest the ethe- 
 real cloud that, surrounding love, heightens every beauty, it 
 half shades, breathing those coy sweets that steal into the 
 heart, and charm the senses — modulate for me the language 
 of persuasive reason, till I rouse my sex from the flowery 
 bed, on which they supinely sleep life away ! 
 
 In speaking of the association of our ideas, I have noticed 
 two distinct modes ; and in defining modesty, it appears to 
 me equally proper to discriminate that purity of mind, which 
 is the effect of chastity, from a simplicity of character that 
 leads us to form a just opinion of ourselves, equally distant 
 from vanity or presumption, though by no means incom- 
 patible with a lofty consciousness of our own dignity. 
 Modesty, in the latter signification of the term, is that sober- 
 ness of mind which teaches a man not to think more highly 
 of himself than he ought to think, and should be distin- 
 guished from humility, because humility is a kind of self- 
 abasement. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 169 
 
 rX 
 
 A modest man often conceives a great plan, and tena- 
 ciously adheres to it, conscious of his own strength, till 
 success gives it a sanction that determines its character. 
 Milton was not arrogant when he suffered a suggestion of 
 judgment to escape him that proved a prophecy ; nor was 
 General Washington when he accepted of the command of 
 the American forces. The latter has always been charac- 
 terised as a modest man ; but had he been merely humble, 
 he would probably have shrunk back irresolute, afraid of 
 trusting to himself the direction of an enterprise, on which 
 so much depended. 
 
 A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain 
 one presumptuous : this is the judgment, which the obser- 
 vation of many characters, has led me to form. Jesus Christ 
 was modest, Moses was humble, and Peter vain. 
 
 Thus, discriminating modesty from humility in one case, 
 I do not mean to confound it with bashfulness in the other. 
 Bashfulness, in fact, is so distinct from modesty, that the 
 most bashful lass or raw country lout, often become the 
 most impudent ; for their bashfulness being merely the 
 instinctive timidity of ignorance, custom soon changes it into 
 assurance.* 
 
 The shameless behaviour of the prostitutes, who infest 
 
 * "Such is the country maiden's fright, 
 When first a redcoat is in sight, 
 Behind the door she hides her face ; 
 ■ Next time at distance eyes the lace ; 
 She now can all his terrors stand, 
 Nor from his squeeze withdraws her hand, 
 She plays familiar in his arms, 
 And every soldier hath his charms ; 
 From tent to tent she spreads her flame ; 
 For custom conquers fear and shame." — Gay. 
 
 (\ 
 
170 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 \ 
 
 the streets of this metropolis, raising alternate emotions of 
 pity and disgust, may serve to illustrate this remark. They 
 trample on virgin bashfulness with a sort of bravado, and 
 glorifying in their shame, become more audaciously lewd 
 than men, however depraved, to whom this sexual quality 
 has not been gratuitously granted, ever appear to be. But 
 these poor ignorant wretches never had any modesty to lose, 
 when they consigned themselves to infamy ; for modesty is 
 a virtue, not a quality. No, they were only bashful, shame- 
 faced innocents ; and losing their innocence, their shame- 
 facedness was rudely brushed off : a virtue would have left 
 some vestiges in the mind, had it been sacrificed to passion, 
 tCLmake us respect the grand ruin, 
 r^ Purity of mind, or that genuine delicacy, which is the 
 \ only virtuous support of chastity, is near akin to that refine- 
 \ ment of humanity, which never resides in any but cultivated 
 I minds. It is something nobler than innocence, it is the 
 /--delicacy of reflection, and not the coyness of ignorance. 
 The reserve of reason, which, like habitual cleanliness, is 
 seldom seen in any great degree, unless the soul is active, may 
 easily be distinguished from rustic shyness or wanton skit- 
 tishness ; and, so far from being incompatible with know- 
 ledge, it is its fairest fruit. What a gross idea of modesty 
 had the writer of the following remark ! — "The lady who 
 asked the question whether women may be instructed in the 
 modern system of botany, consistently with female delicacy? 
 was accused of ridiculous prudery ; nevertheless, if she had 
 proposed to the question to me, I should certainly have 
 answered — they cannot." Thus is the fair book of knowledge 
 to be shut with an everlasting seal ! On reading similar 
 passages I have reverentially lifted up my eyes and heart to 
 Him who liveth for ever and ever, and said, " O, my 
 Father, hast Thou, by the very constitution of her nature 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 171 
 
 forbid Thy child to seek Thee in the fair forms of truth? 
 And can her soul be sullied by the knowledge that awfully 
 calls her to Thee ? " 
 
 I have then philosophically pursued these reflections till 
 I inferred that those women who have most improved their 
 reason must have the most modesty, though a dignified 
 sedateness of deportment may have succeeded the playful, 
 bewitching bashfulness of youth.* 
 
 And thus have I argued. To render chastity the virtue 
 from which unsophisticated modesty will naturally flow, the 
 attention should be called away from employments which 
 only exercise the sensibility, and the heart made to beat 
 time to humanity rather than to throb with love. The 
 woman who has dedicated a considerable portion of her 
 time to pursuits purely intellectual, and whose affections 
 have been exercised by humane plans of usefulness, must 
 have more purity of mind, as a natural consequence, than 
 the ignorant beings whose time and thoughts have been 
 occupied by gay pleasures, or schemes to conquer hearts, t 
 
 • Modesty is the graceful calm virtue of maturity ; bashfulness the 
 charm of vivacious youth. 
 
 * I have conversed, as man with man, with medical men on anatomi- 
 cal subjects, and compared the proportions of the human body with 
 artists, yet such modesty did I meet with, that I was never reminded 
 by word or look of my sex of the absurd rules which make modesty 
 a Pharisaical cloak of weakness. And I am persuaded that in the 
 pursuit of knowledge women would never be insulted by sensible men, 
 and rarely by men of any description, if they did not by mock modesty 
 remind them that they were women -actuated by the same spirit as the 
 Portuguese ladies, who would think their charms insulted if, when left 
 alone with a man, he did not at least attempt to be grossly familiar with 
 their persons. Men are not always men in the company of women, nor 
 would women always remember that they are women, if they were 
 allowed to acquire more understanding. 
 
172 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 The regulation of the behaviour is not modesty, though 
 those who study rules of decorum are in general termed 
 modest women. Make the heart clean ; let it expand and 
 feel for all that is human, instead of being narrowed by 
 selfish passions; and let the mind frequently contemplate 
 subjects that exercise the understanding, without heating the 
 imagination, and artless modesty will give the finishing 
 touches to the picture. 
 
 She who can discern the dawn of immortality in the 
 streaks that shoot athwart the misty night of ignorance, pro- 
 mising a clearer day, will respect, as a sacred temple, the 
 body that enshrines such an improvable soul. True love 
 likewise spreads this kind of mysterious sanctity round the 
 beloved object, making the lover most modest when in her 
 presence.* So reserved is affection that, receiving or re- 
 turning personal endearments, it wishes not only to shun 
 the human eye, as a kind of profanation, but to diffuse an 
 encircling cloudy obscurity to shut out even the saucy 
 sparkling sunbeams. Yet that affection does not deserve 
 the epithet of chaste which does not receive a sublime 
 gloom of tender melancholy, that allows the mind for a 
 moment to stand still and enjoy the present satisfaction, 
 when a consciousness of the Divine presence is felt — for this 
 must ever be the food of joy. 
 
 As I have always been fond of tracing to its source in 
 nature any prevailing custom, I have frequently thought that 
 it was a sentiment of affection for whatever had touched the 
 person of an absent or lost friend, which gave birth to that 
 respect for relics, so much abused by selfish priests. Devo- 
 tion or love may be allowed to hallow the garments as well 
 
 Male or female, for the world contains many modest men. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 173 
 
 as the person, for the lover must want fancy who has not a 
 sort of sacred respect for the glove or slipper of his mistress. 
 He could not confound them with vulgar things of the 
 same kind. This fine sentiment perhaps would not bear to 
 be analysed by the experimental philosopher. But of such 
 stuff is human rapture m3de up. A shadowy phantom 
 glides before us, obscuring every other object ; yet when the 
 soft cloud is grasped, the form melts into common air, leav- 
 ing a solitary void, or sweet perfume, stolen from the violet, 
 that memory long holds dear. But I have tripped unawares 
 on fairy ground, feeling the balmy gale of spring stealing on 
 me, though November frowns. 
 
 As a sex, women are more chaste than men ; and as 
 modesty is the effect of chastity, they may deserve to have 
 this virtue ascribed to them in rather an appropriated sense. 
 Yet I must be allowed to add an hesitating if, for I doubt 
 whether chastity will produce modesty, though it may pro- 
 priety of conduct, when it is merely a respect for the opinion 
 of the world,* and when coquetry and the lovelorn tales of 
 novelists employ the thoughts. Nay, from experience and 
 reason, I should be led to expect to meet with more modesty 
 amongst men than women, simply because men exercise 
 their understandings more than women. 
 
 But with respect to propriety of behaviour, excepting 
 one class of females, women have evidently the advantage. 
 What can be more disgusting than that impudent dross of 
 gallantry thought so manly, which makes many men stare 
 insultingly at every female they meet? Can it be termed 
 respect for the sex ? No, this loose behaviour shows such 
 
 ' * The immodest behaviour of many married women, who are 
 nevertheless faithful to their husbands' beds, will illustrate this 
 remark. 
 
1 7 4 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 habitual depravity, such weakness of mind, that it is vain to 
 expect much public or private virtue till both men and 
 women grow more modest— till men, curbing a sensual 
 fondness for the sex, or an affectation of manly assurance- 
 more properly speaking, impudence— treat each other with 
 respect, unless appetite or passion give the tone, peculiar to 
 it, to their behaviour. I mean every personal respect— the 
 modest respect of humanity and fellow-feeling— not the 
 libidinous mockery of gallantry, nor the insolent condescen- 
 sion of protectorship. 
 
 To carry the observation still further, modesty must 
 heartily disclaim, and refuse to dwell with that debauchery 
 of mind, which leads a man coolly to bring forward, without 
 a blush, indecent allusions, or obscene witticisms, in the 
 presence of a fellow-creature ; women are now out of the 
 question, for then it is brutality. Respect for man, as 
 man, is the foundation of every noble sentiment. How 
 much more modest is the libertine who obeys the call of 
 appetite or fancy than the lewd joker who sets the table 
 
 in a roar ! 
 
 This is one of the many instances in which the sexual dis- 
 tinction respecting modesty has proved fatal to virtue and 
 happiness. It is, however, carried still further, and woman 
 —weak woman— made by her education the slave of sensi- 
 bility, is required, on the most trying occasions, to resist 
 that sensibility. "Can anything," says Knox, "be more 
 absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and 
 yet so vehemently to insist on their resisting temptation?" 
 Thus when virtue or honour make it proper to check a 
 passion, the burden is thrown on the weaker shoulders, con- 
 trary to reason and true modesty, which at least should 
 render the self-denial mutual, to say nothing of the gene- 
 rosity of bravery, supposed to be a manly virtue. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 •75 
 
 In the same strain runs Rousseau's and Dr Gregory's 
 advice respecting modesty, strangely miscalled ! for they 
 both desire a wife to leave it in doubt whether sensibility or 
 weakness led her to her husband's arms. The woman is 
 immodest who can let the shadow of such a doubt remain in 
 her husband's mind a moment. 
 
 But, to state the subject in a different light, the want of 
 modesty, which I principally deplore as subversive of 
 morality, arises from the state of warfare so strenuously 
 supported by voluptuous men as the very essence of mo- 
 desty, though, in fact, its bane, because it is a refinement on 
 lust that men fall into who have not sufficient virtue to 
 relish the innocent pleasures of love. A man of delicacy- 
 carries his notions of modesty still further, for neither weak- 
 ness nor sensibility will gratify him — he looks for affection. 
 
 Again. Men boast of their triumphs over women. What 
 do they boast of? Truly the creature of sensibility was 
 surprised by her sensibility into folly — into vice;* and the 
 dreadful reckoning falls heavily on her own weak head, 
 when reason wakes. For where art thou to find comfort, 
 forlorn and disconsolate one? He who ought to have 
 directed thy reason, and supported thy weakness, has be- 
 trayed thee. In a dream of passion thou consented to 
 wander through flowery lawns, and heedlessly stepping over 
 the precipice to which they guide, instead of guarding, lured 
 thee ; thou startest from thy dream only to face a sneering, 
 frowning world, and to find thyself alone in a waste, for he 
 that triumphed in thy weakness is now pursuing new con- 
 quests. But for thee there is no redemption on this side the 
 grave ! And what resource hast thou in an enervated mind 
 to raise a sinking heart ? 
 
 * The poor moth fluttering round a candle, burns its wings. 
 
 I 
 i 
 
i 7 6 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 But if the sexes be really to live in a state of warfare, if 
 nature have pointed it out, let them act nobly, or let pride 
 whisper to them that the victory is mean when they merely 
 vanquish sensibility. The real conquest is that over affec- 
 tion not taken by surprise, when, like Heloisa. a woman gives 
 up all the world deliberately for love. I do not now con- 
 sider the wisdom or virtue of such a sacrifice, I only contend 
 that it was a sacrifice to affection, and not merely to sensi- 
 bility, though she had her share. And I must be allowed 
 to call her a modest woman, before I dismiss this part of 
 the subject, by saying, that till men are more chaste women 
 will be immodest. Where, indeed, could modest women 
 find husbands from whom they would not continually turn 
 with disgust? Modesty must be equally cultivated by both 
 sexes, or it will ever remain a sickly hot-house plant, whilst 
 the affectation of it, the fig leaf borrowed by wantonness, 
 may give a zest to voluptuous enjoyments. 
 
 Men will probably still insist that woman ought to have 
 more modesty than man; but it is not dispassionate 
 reasoners who will most earnestly oppose my opinion. No, 
 they are the men of fancy, the favourites of the sex, who 
 outwardly respect and inwardly despise the weak creatures 
 whom they thus sport with. They cannot submit to resign 
 the highest sensual gratification, nor even to relish the 
 epicurism of virtue — self-denial. 
 
 To take another view of the subject, confining my remarks 
 to women. 
 
 The ridiculous falsities* which are told to children, from 
 
 * Children very early see cats with their kittens, birds with their 
 young ones, Sic. Why then are they not to be told that their mothers 
 carry and nourish them in the same way ? As there would then be no 
 appearance of mystery, they would never think of the subject more. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 «77 
 
 h 
 
 mistaken notions of modesty, tend very early to inflame 
 their imaginations and set their little minds to work, respect- 
 ing subjects which nature never intended they should think 
 of till the body arrived at some degree of maturity ; then 
 the passions naturally begin to take the place of the senses, 
 as instruments to unfold the understanding, and form the 
 moral character. 
 
 In nurseries and boarding-schools, I fear, girls are first 
 spoiled, particularly in the latter. A number of girls sleep 
 in the same room, and wash together. And though I should 
 be sorry to contaminate an innocent creature's mind by in- 
 stilling false delicacy, or those indecent prudish notions 
 which early cautions respecting the other sex naturally 
 engender, I should be very anxious to prevent their 
 acquiring nasty or immodest habits ; and as many 
 girls have learned very nasty tricks from ignorant servants, 
 the mixing them thus indiscriminately together, is very 
 improper. 
 
 To say the truth, women are in general too familiar with 
 each other, which leads to that gross degree of familiarity 
 that so frequently renders the marriage state unhappy. Why 
 in the name of decency are sisters, female intimates, or 
 ladies and their waiting-women, to be so grossly familiar as 
 to forget the respect which one human creature owes to 
 another ? That squeamish delicacy which shrinks from the 
 
 Truth may always be told to children, if it be told gravely ; but it is the 
 modesty of affected modesty that does all the mischief; and this smoke 
 heats the imagination by vainly endeavouring to obscure certain objects. 
 If, indeed, children could be kept entirely from improper company, we 
 should never allude to any such subjects ; "but as this is impossible, it is 
 best to tell them the truth, especially as such information, not interest- 
 ing them, will make no impression on their imagination. 
 
 M 
 
 — i. 
 
i 7 8 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 most disgusting offices when affection* or humanity lead us 
 to watch at a sick pillow is despicable. But why women in 
 health should be more familiar with each other than men 
 are, when they boast of their superior delicacy, is a solecism 
 in manners which I could never solve. 
 
 In order to preserve health and beauty, I should earnestly 
 recommend frequent ablutions, to dignify my advice that it 
 may not offend the fastidious ear ; and by example, girls 
 ou^ht to be taught to wash and dress alone, without any 
 distinction of rank ; and if custom should make them require 
 some little assistance, let them not require it till that part of 
 the business is over which ought never to be done before a 
 fellow-creature, because it is an insult to the majesty of 
 human nature. Not on the score of modesty, but decency ; 
 for the care which some modest women take, making at the 
 same time a display of that care not to let their legs be seen 
 is as childish as immodest. t 
 
 I could proceed still further, till I animadverted on some 
 still more nasty customs, which men never fall into. Secrets 
 are told where silence ought to reign ; and that regard to 
 cleanliness, which some religious sects have perhaps carried 
 too far, especially the Essenes, amongst the' Jews, by making 
 that an insult to God which is only an insult to humanity, is 
 violated in a beastly manner. How can delicate women 
 obtrude on notice that part of the animal economy, which 
 
 * Affection would rather make one choose to perform these offices, 
 to spare the delicacy of a friend, by still keeping a veil over them, for 
 the personal helplessness, produced by sickness, is of an humbling 
 
 nature. 
 
 + I remember to have met with a sentence, in a book of education, 
 that made me smile:— "It would be needless to caution you against 
 putting your hand by chance under your neck-handkerchief, for a 
 modest woman never did so !■" 
 
 k 
 
 , 
 
 ') 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. , 79 
 
 is so very disgusting ? And is it not very rational to conclude, 
 that the women who have not been taught to respect the 
 human nature of their own sex in these particulars, will not 
 long respect the mere difference of sex in their husbands ? 
 After their maidenish bashfulness is once lost, I, in fact, 
 have generally observed that women fall into old habits, and 
 treat their husbands as they did their sisters or female 
 acquaintance. 
 
 Besides, women from necessity, because their minds are 
 not cultivated, have recourse very often to what I familiarly 
 term bodily wit, and their intimacies are of the same kind. 
 In short, with respect to both mind and body, they are too 
 intimate. That decent personal reserve, which is the 
 foundation of dignity of character, must be kept up between 
 woman and woman, or their minds will never gain strength 
 or modesty. 
 
 On this account also, I object to many females being shut 
 up together in nurseries, schools, or convents. I cannot 
 recollect, without indignation, the jokes and hoyden tricks 
 which knots of young women indulge themselves in, when 
 in my youth accident threw me, an awkward rustic, in their 
 way. They were almost on a par with the double meanings 
 which shake the convivial table when the glass has circulated 
 freely. But it is vain to attempt to keep the heart pure 
 unless the head is furnished with ideas, and set to work to 
 compare them, in order to acquire judgment, by generalising 
 simple ones ; and modesty, by making the understanding 
 damp the sensibility. 
 
 It may be thought that I lay too great a stress on personal 
 reserve, but it is ever the handmaid of modesty ; so that 
 were I to name the graces that ought to adorn beauty, I 
 should instantly exclaim, cleanliness, neatness, and personal 
 reserve. It is obvious, I suppose, that the reserve I mean 
 
 - 
 
180 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 has nothing sexual in it, and that I think it equally necessary 
 in both sexes. So necessary, indeed, is that reserve and 
 cleanliness which indolent women too often neglect, that I 
 will venture to affirm that, when two or three women live in 
 the same house, the one will be most respected by the male 
 part of the family who reside with them, leaving love entirely 
 out of the question, who pays this kind of habitual respect 
 to her person. 
 
 When domestic friends meet in a morning, there will 
 naturally prevail an affectionate seriousness, especially if 
 each look forward to the discharge of daily duties ; and it 
 may be reckoned fanciful, but this sentiment has frequently- 
 risen spontaneously in my mind, I have been pleased, after 
 breathing the sweet bracing morning air, to see the same kind 
 of freshness in the countenances I particularly loved ; I was 
 glad to see them braced, as it were, for the day, and ready 
 to run their course with the sun. The greetings of affection 
 in the morning are by these means more respectful than the 
 familiar tenderness which frequently prolongs the evening 
 talk. Nay, I have often felt hurt, not to say disgusted, 
 when a friend has appeared, whom I parted with full dressed 
 the evening before, with her clothes huddled on, because 
 she chose to indulge herself in bed till the last moment. 
 
 Domestic affection can only be kept alive by these 
 neglected attentions ; yet if men and women took half as 
 much pains to dress habitually neat, as they do to ornament, 
 or rather to disfigure, their persons, much would be done 
 towards the attainment of purity of mind. But women only 
 dress to gratify men of gallantry ; for the lover is always best 
 pleased with the simple garb that fits close to the shape. 
 There is an impertinence in ornaments that rebuffs affection, 
 because love always clings round the idea of home. 
 
 As a sex, women are habitually indolent ; and everything 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 181 
 
 tends to make them so. I do not forget the spurts of 
 activity which sensibility produces ; but as these flights of 
 feelings only increase the evil, they are not to be confounded 
 with the slow, orderly walk of reason. So great in reality 
 is their mental and bodily indolence, that till their body be 
 strengthened and their understanding enlarged by active 
 exertions, there is little reason to expect that modesty 
 will take place of bashfulness. They may find it prudent 
 to assume its semblance; but the fair veil will only be 
 worn on gala days. 
 
 Perhaps, there is not a virtue that mixes so kindly with 
 every other as modesty. It is the pale moonbeam that 
 renders more interesting every virtue it softens, giving mild 
 grandeur to the contracted horizon. Nothing can be more 
 beautiful than the poetical fiction, which makes Diana 
 with her silver crescent, the goddess of chastity. I have 
 sometimes thought, that wandering with sedate step in 
 some lonely recess, a modest dame of antiquity must have 
 felt a glow of conscious dignity when, after contemplating 
 the soft shadowy landscape, she has invited with placid 
 fervour the mild reflection of her sister's beams to turn 
 to her chaste bosom. 
 
 A Christian has still nobler motives to incite her to 
 preserve her chastity and acquire modesty, for her body 
 has been called the temple of the living God; of that 
 God who requires more than modesty of mien. His eye 
 searcheth the heart ; and let her remember, that if she 
 hope to find favour in the sight of purity itself, her chastity 
 must be founded on modesty, and not on worldly prudence ; 
 or verily a good reputation will be her only reward ; for 
 that awful intercourse, that sacred communication, which 
 virtue establishes between man and his Maker, must give 
 rise to the wish of being pure as He is pure ! 
 
 mmm l 
 
182 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 After the foregoing remarks, it is almost superfluous to 
 add, that I consider all those feminine airs of maturity, 
 which succeed bashfulness, to which truth is sacrificed, to 
 secure the heart of a husband, or, rather to force him to be 
 still a lover when nature would, had she not been interrupted 
 in her operations, have made love give place to friendship, 
 as immodest. The tenderness which a man will feel for 
 the mother of his children is an excellent substitute for the 
 ardour of unsatisfied passion ; but to prolong that ardour 
 it is indelicate, not to say immodest, for women to feign an 
 unnatural coldness of constitution. Women as well as men 
 ought to have the common appetites and passions of their 
 nature, they are only brutal when unchecked by reason : 
 but the obligation to check them is the duty of mankind, 
 not a sexual duty. Nature, in these respects, may safely be 
 left to herself; let women only acquire knowledge and 
 humanity, and love will teach them modesty.* There is 
 no need of falsehoods, disgusting as futile, for studied 
 rules of behaviour only impose on shallow observers ; a 
 man of sense soon sees through, and despises the affectation. 
 
 The behaviour of young people, to each other, as men 
 and women, is the last thing that should be thought of in 
 education. In fact, behaviour in most circumstances is 
 now so much thought of, that simplicity of character is 
 rarely to be seen : yet, if men were only anxious to cultivate 
 each virtue, and let it take root firmly in the mind, the 
 grace resulting from it, its natural exterior mark, would 
 
 * The behaviour of many newly married women has often disgusted 
 me. They seem anxious never to let their husbands forget the privilege 
 of marriage ; and to find no pleasure in his society unless he is acting 
 the lover. Short, indeed, must be the reign of love, when the flame is 
 thus constantly blown up, without its receiving any solid fuel ! 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 ■»3 
 
 soon strip affectation of its flaunting plumes; because, 
 fallacious as unstable, is the conduct that is not founded 
 upon truth ! 
 
 Would ye, my sisters, really possess modesty, ye must 
 remember that the possession of virtue, of any denomina- 
 tion, is incompatible with ignorance and vanity ! ye must 
 acquire that soberness of mind, which the exercise of 
 duties, and the pursuit of knowledge, alone inspire, or 
 ye will still remain in a doubtful dependent situation, and 
 only be loved whilst ye are fair ! The downcast eye, the 
 rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season ; 
 but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist 
 with the sensibility that is not tempered by reflection. 
 Besides, when love, even innocent love, is the whole employ 
 of your lives, your hearts will be too soft to afford modesty 
 that tranquil retreat, where she delights to dwell, in close 
 union with humanity. 
 
.8 4 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MORALITY UNDERMINED BV SEXUAL NOTIONS OF THE 
 IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD REPUTATION. 
 
 IT has long since occurred to me that advice respecting 
 behaviour, and all the various modes of preserving 
 a good reputation, which have been so strenuously 
 inculcated on the female world, were specious poisons, 
 that encrusting morality eat away the substance. And, 
 that this measuring of shadows produced a false calculation, 
 because their length depends so much on the height of 
 the sun, and other adventitious circumstances. 
 
 Whence arises the easy fallacious behaviour of a courtier? 
 From his situation, undoubtedly : for standing in need of 
 dependents, he is obliged to learn the art of denying without 
 giving offence, and, of evasively feeding hope with the 
 chameleon's food : thus does politeness sport with truth, 
 and eating away the sincerity and humanity native to man, 
 produce the fine gentleman. 
 
 Women likewise acquire, from a supposed necessity, an 
 equally artificial mode of behaviour. Yet truth is not 
 with impunity to be sported with, for the practised dis- 
 sembler, at last become the dupe of his own arts, loses 
 that sagacity, which has been justly termed common-sense ; 
 namely a quick perception of common truths : which are 
 constantly received as such by the unsophisticated mind, 
 though it might not have had sufficient energy to discover 
 themselves, when obscured by local prejudices. The greater 
 
 TV- 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 1 8; 
 
 number of people take their opinions on trust to avoid the 
 trouble of exercising their own minds, and these indolent 
 beings naturally adhere to the letter, rather than the spirit 
 of a law, divine or human. "Women," says some author, 
 I cannot recollect who, " mind not what only Heaven sees." 
 Why, indeed, should they? it is the eye of man that they 
 have been taught to dread — and if they can lull their Argus 
 to sleep, they seldom think of Heaven or themselves, because 
 their reputation is safe ; and it is reputation, not chastity and 
 all its fair train, that they are employed to keep free from spot, 
 not as a virtue, but to preserve their station in the world. 
 
 To prove the truth of this remark, I need not advert to 
 the intrigues of married women, particularly in high life, and 
 in countries where women are suitably married, according 
 to their respective ranks, by their parents. If an innocent 
 girl become a prey to love, she is degraded for ever, though 
 her mind was not polluted by the arts which married women, 
 under the convenient cloak of marriage, practise ; nor has 
 she violated any duty — but the duty of respecting herself. 
 The married woman, on the contrary, breaks a most sacred 
 engagement, and becomes a cruel mother when she is a 
 false and faithless wife. If her husband have still an 
 affection for her, the arts which she must practise to deceive 
 him, will render her the most contemptible of human beings ; 
 and, at any rate, the contrivances necessary to preserve 
 appearances, will keep her mind in that childish, or vicious, 
 tumult, which destroys all its energy. Besides, in time, 
 like those people who habitually take cordials to raise their 
 spirits, she will want an intrigue to give life to her thoughts, 
 having lost all relish for pleasures that are not highly 
 seasoned by hope or fear. 
 
 Sometimes married women act still more' audaciously. I 
 will mention an instance. 
 
i86 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 A woman of quality, notorious for her gallantries, though 
 as she still lived with her husband, nobody chose to place 
 her in the class where she ought to have been placed, made 
 a point of treating with the most insulting contempt a poor 
 timid creature, abashed by a sense of her former weakness, 
 whom a neighbouring gentleman had seduced and afterwards 
 married. The woman had actually confounded virtue with 
 reputation ; and, I do believe, valued herself on the pro- 
 priety of her behaviour before marriage, though when once 
 settled to the satisfaction of her family, she and her lord 
 were equally faithless, so that the half-alive heir to an 
 immense estate came from Heaven knows where ! 
 
 To view this subject in another light. 
 
 I have known a number of women who, if they did not 
 love their husbands, loved nobody else, give themselves 
 entirely up to vanity and dissipation, neglecting every 
 domestic duty ; nay, even squandering away all the money 
 which should have been saved for their helpless younger 
 children, yet have plumed themselves on their unsullied 
 reputation, as if the whole compass of their duty as wives 
 and mothers was only to preserve it. Whilst other indolent 
 women, neglecting every personal duty, have thought that 
 they deserved their husband's affection, because, forsooth, 
 they acted in this respect with propriety. 
 
 Weak minds are always fond of resting in the ceremonials 
 of duty, but morality offers much simpler motives ; and it 
 were to be wished that superficial moralists had said less 
 respecting behaviour, and outward observances, for unless 
 virtue, of any kind, be built on knowledge, it will only pro- 
 duce a kind of insipid decency. Respect for the opinion of 
 the world, has, however, been termed the principal duty of 
 woman in the most express words, for Rousseau declares, 
 "that reputation is no less indispensable than chastity." 
 
 EIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 187 
 
 " A man," adds he, " secure in his own good conduct, 
 depends only on himself, and may brave the public opinion ; 
 but a woman, in behaving well, performs but half her duty ; 
 as what is thought of her, is as important to her as what 
 she really is. It follows hence, that the system of a woman's 
 education should; in this respect, be directly contrary to 
 that of ours. Opinion is the grave of virtue among the 
 men ; but its throne among women." It is strictly logical 
 to infer that the virtue that rests on opinion is merely 
 worldly, and that it is the virtue of a being to whom reason 
 has been denied. But, even with respect to the opinion of 
 the world, I am convinced that this class of reasoners are 
 mistaken. 
 
 This regard for reputation, independent of its being one 
 of the natural rewards of virtue, however, took its rise from 
 a cause that I have already deplored as the grand source of 
 female depravity, the impossibility of regaining respectability 
 by a return to virtue, though men preserve theirs during 
 the indulgence of vice. It was natural for women then to 
 endeavour to preserve what once lost — was lost for ev'er, 
 till this care swallowing up every other care, reputation for 
 chastity, became the one thing needful to the sex. But 
 vain is the scrupulosity of ignorance, for neither religion nor 
 virtue, when they reside in the heart, require such a puerile 
 attention to mere ceremonies, because the behaviour must, 
 upon the whole, be proper, when the motive is pure. 
 
 To support my opinion I can produce very respectable 
 authority ; and the authority of a cool reasoner ought to 
 have weight to enforce consideration, though not to establish 
 a sentiment. Speaking of the general laws of morality, 
 Dr Smith observes, — "That by some very extraordinary 
 and unlucky circumstance, a good man may come to be 
 suspected of a crime of which he was altogether incapable, 
 
1 88 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 and upon that account be most unjustly exposed for the 
 remaining part of his life to the horror and aversion of 
 mankind. By an accident of this kind he may be said to 
 lose his all, notwithstanding his integrity and justice, in the 
 same manner as a cautious man, notwithstanding his utmost 
 circumspection, may be ruined by an earthquake or an 
 inundation. Accidents of the first kind, however, are per- 
 haps still more rare, and still more contrary to the common 
 course of things than those of the second ; and it still 
 remains true, that the practice of truth, justice, and humanity, 
 is a certain and almost infallible method of acquiring what 
 those virtues chiefly aim at, the confidence and love of those 
 we live with. A person may be easily misrepresented with 
 regard to a particular action ; but it is scarce possible that 
 he should be so with regard to the general tenor of his 
 conduct. An innocent man may be believed to have done 
 wrong : this, however, will rarely happen. On the contrary, 
 the established opinion of the innocence of his manners will 
 often lead us to absolve him where he has really been in 
 the fault, notwithstanding very strong presumptions." 
 
 I perfectly coincide in opinion with this writer, for I 
 verily believe that few of either sex were ever despised for 
 certain vices without deserving to be despised. I speak not 
 of the calumny of the moment, which hovers over a char- 
 acter, like one of the dense morning fogs of November, over 
 this metropolis, till it gradually subsides before the common 
 light of day, I only contend that the daily conduct of the 
 majority prevails to stamp their character with the im- 
 pression of truth. Quietly does the clear light, shining 
 day after day, refute the ignorant surmise, or malicious tale, 
 which has thrown dirt on a pure character. A false light 
 distorted, for a short time, its shadow — reputation ; but it 
 seldom fails to become just when the cloud is dispersed 
 that produced the mistake in vision. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 189 
 
 Many people, undoubtedly, in several respects obtain a 
 better reputation than, strictly speaking, they deserve ; for 
 unremitting industry will mostly reach its goal in all races. 
 They who only strive for this paltry prize, like the Pharisees, 
 who prayed at the corners of streets, to be seen of men, 
 verily obtain the reward they seek ; for the heart of man 
 cannot be read by man ! Still the fair fame that is naturally 
 reflected by good actions, when the man is only employed 
 to direct his steps aright, regardless of the lookers-on, is, 
 in general, not only more true, but more sure. 
 
 There are, it is true, trials when the good man must 
 appeal to God from the injustice of man ; and amidst the, 
 whining candour or hissings of envy, erect a pavilion in his 
 own mind to retire to till the rumour be overpast ; nay, the 
 darts of undeserved censure may pierce an innocent tender 
 bosom through with many sorrows ; but these are all excep- 
 tions to general rules. And' it is according to common 
 laws that human behaviour ought to -be regulated. The 
 eccentric orbit of the comet never influences astronomical 
 calculations respecting the invariable order established in 
 the motion of the principal bodies of the solar system. 
 
 I will then venture to affirm, that after a man is arrived at 
 maturity, the general outline of his character in the world 
 is just, allowing for the before-mentioned exceptions to the 
 rule. I do not say that a prudent, worldly-wise man, with 
 only negative virtues and qualities, may not sometimes 
 obtain a smoother reputation than a wiser or a better man. 
 So far from it, that I am apt to conclude from experience, 
 that where the virtue of two people is nearly equal, the 
 most negative character will be liked best by the world at 
 large, whilst the other may have more friends in private 
 life. But the hills and dales, clouds and sunshine, con- 
 spicuous in the virtues of great men, set off each other ; 
 
190 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 and though they afford envious weakness a fairer mark to 
 shoot at, the real character will still work its way to light, 
 though bespattered by weak affection, or ingenious 
 malice.* 
 
 With respect to that anxiety to preserve a reputation 
 hardly earned, which leads sagacious people to analyse it, I 
 shall not make the obvious comment ; but I am afraid that 
 morality is very insidiously undermined, in the female world, 
 by the attention being turned to the show instead of the 
 substance. A simple thing is thus made strangely com- 
 plicated; nay, sometimes virtue and its shadow are set at 
 variance. We should never, perhaps, have heard of Lucretia, 
 had she died to preserve her chastity instead of her reputa- 
 tion. If we really deserve our own good opinion we shall 
 commonly be respected in the world ; but if we pant after 
 higher improvement and higher attainments, it is not 
 sufficient to view ourselves as we suppose that we are 
 viewed by others, though this has been ingeniously argued, 
 as the foundation of our moral sentiments.! Because each 
 by-stander may have his own prejudices, beside the prejudices 
 of his age or country. We should rather endeavour to view ' 
 ourselves as we suppose that Being views us who seeth each 
 thought ripen into action, and whose judgment never 
 swerves from the eternal rule of right. Righteous are all 
 His judgments — just as merciful ! 
 
 "The humble mind that seeketh to find favour in His 
 sight, and calmly examines its conduct when only His pre- 
 sence is felt, will seldom form a very erroneous opinion of 
 its own virtues. During the still hour of self-collection the 
 
 * I allude to various biographical writings, but particularly to Boswell's 
 Life of Johnson. 
 t Smith. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 191 
 
 angry brow of offended justice will be fearfully deprecated, 
 or the tie which draws man to the Deity will be recognised 
 in the pure sentiment of reverential adoration, that swells 
 the heart without exciting any tumultuous emotions. In 
 these solemn moments man discovers the germ of those 
 vices, which, like the Java tree, shed a pestiferous vapour 
 around— death is in the shade ! and he perceives them 
 without abhorrence, because he feels himself drawn by some 
 cord of love to all his fellow-creatures, for whose follies he 
 is anxious to find every extenuation in their nature — in 
 himself. If I, he may thus argue, who exercise my own 
 mind, and have been refined by tribulation, find the serpent's 
 egg in some fold of my heart, and crush it with difficulty, 
 shall I not pity those who have stamped with less vigour, 
 or who have heedlessly nurtured the insidious reptile till it 
 poisoned the vital stream it sucked? Can I, conscious of 
 my secret sins, throw off my fellow-creatures, and calmly 
 see them drop into the chasm of perdition, that yawns to 
 receive them. No, no ! The agonised heart will cry with 
 suffocating impatience — I, too, am a man ! and have vices, 
 hid perhaps, from human eye, that bend me to the dust 
 before God, and loudly tell me, when all is mute, that we 
 are formed of the same earth, and breathe the same element. 
 Humanity thus rises naturally out of humility, and twists 
 the cords of love that in various convolutions entangle the 
 heart 
 
 This sympathy extends still further, till a man well 
 pleased observes force in arguments that do not carry con- 
 viction to his own bosom, and he gladly places in the fairest 
 light, to himself, the shows of reason that have led others 
 astray, rejoiced to find some reason in all the errors of man ; 
 though before convinced that He who rules the day, makes 
 His sun to shine on all. Yet, shaking hands thus as it 
 
192 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 were with corruption, one foot on earth, the other with bold 
 stride mounts to heaven, and claims kindred with superior 
 natures. Virtues, unobserved by man, drop their balmy 
 fragrance at this cool hour, and the thirsty land, refreshed 
 by the pure streams of comfort that suddenly gush out, 
 is crowned with smiling verdure ; this is the living green on 
 which that eye may look with complacency that is too pure 
 to behold iniquity ! 
 
 But my spirits flag; and I must silently indulge the 
 reverie these reflections lead to, unable to describe the 
 sentiments, that have calmed my soul, when watching the 
 rising sun, a soft shower drizzling through the leaves of 
 neighbouring trees, seemed to fall on my languid, yet 
 tranquil spirits, to cool the heart that had been heated 
 by the passions which reason laboured to tame. 
 
 The leading principles which run through all my dis- 
 quisitions, would render it unnecessary to enlarge on this 
 subject, if a constant attention to keep the varnish of the 
 character fresh, and in good condition, were not often 
 inculcated as the sum total of female duty; if rules to 
 regulate the behaviour, and to preserve the reputation, 
 did not too frequently supersede moral obligations. But, 
 with respect to reputation,- the attention is confined to a 
 single virtue — chastity. If the honour of a woman, as it is 
 absurdly called, be safe, she may neglect every social duty ; 
 nay, ruin her family by gaming and extravagance; yet 
 still present a shameless front— for truly she is an honourable 
 woman ! 
 ( "Mrs Macaulay has justly observed, that "there is but 
 ( one fault which a woman of honour may not commit with 
 \ impunity." She then justly and humanely adds— "This 
 \ has given rise to the trite and foolish observation, that the 
 first fault against chastity in woman has a radical power 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '93 
 
 to deprave the character. But no such frail beings come 
 out of the hands of nature. The human mind is built of 
 nobler materials than to be easily corrupted ; and with all 
 their disadvantages of situation and education, women 
 seldom become entirely abandoned till they are thrown into 
 a state of desperation, by the venomous rancour of their 
 own sex." 
 
 But, in proportion as this regard for the reputation of 
 chastity is prized by women, it is despised by men : and the 
 two extremes are equally destructive to morality. 
 
 Men are certainly more under the influence of their 
 appetites than women ; and their appetites are more 
 depraved by unbridled indulgence and the fastidious 
 contrivances of satiety. Luxury has introduced a refinement 
 in eating, that destroys the constitution ;' and, a degree of 
 gluttony which is so beastly, that a perception of seemliness 
 of behaviour must be worn out before one being could eat 
 immoderately in the presence of another, and afterwards 
 complain of the oppression that his intemperance naturally- 
 produced. Some women, particularly French women, have 
 also lost a sense of decency in this respect ; for they will 
 talk very calmly of an indigestion. It were to be wished 
 that idleness was not allowed to generate, on the rank 
 soil of wealth, those swarms of summer insects that feed 
 on putrefaction, we should not then be disgusted by the 
 sight of such brutal excesses. 
 
 There is one rule relative to behaviour that, I think, 
 ought to regulate every other; and it is simply to cherish 
 such an habitual respect for mankind as may prevent us 
 from disgusting a fellow-creature for the sake of a present 
 indulgence. The shameful indolence of many married 
 women, and others a little advanced in life, frequently 
 leads them to sin against delicacy. For, though convinced 
 
 N 
 
 
VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 that the person is the band of union between the sexes, yet, 
 how often do they from sheer indolence, or, to enjoy some 
 trifling indulgence, disgust? 
 
 The depravity of the appetite which brings the sexes 
 together, has had a still more fatal effect. Nature must 
 ever be the standard of taste, the gauge of appetite— yet 
 how grossly is nature insulted by the voluptuary. Leaving 
 the refinements of love out of the question; nature, by 
 making the gratification of an appetite, in this respect, as 
 well as every other, a natural and imperious law to preserve 
 the species, exalts the appetite, and mixes a little mind 
 and affection with a sensual gust. The feelings of a parent 
 mingling with an instinct merely animal, give it dignity ; 
 and the man and woman often meeting on account of 
 the child, a mutual interest and affection is excited by 
 the exercise of a common sympathy. Women then having 
 some necessary duty to fulfil, more noble than to adorn 
 their persons, would not contentedly be the slaves of casual 
 lust; which is now the situation of a very considerable 
 number who are, literally speaking, standing dishes to 
 which every glutton may have access. 
 
 I may be told that great as this enormity is, it only 
 affects a devoted part of the sex — devoted for the salvation 
 of the rest. But, false as every assertion might easily 
 be proved, that recommends the sanctioning a small evil to 
 produce a greater good ; the mischief does not stop here, 
 for the moral character, and peace of mind, of the chaster 
 part of the sex, is undermined by the conduct of the very 
 women to whom they allow no refuge from guilt : whom 
 they inexorably consign to the exercise of arts that lure 
 their husbands from them, debauch their sons, and force 
 them, let not modest women start, to assume, in some 
 degree, the same character themselves. For I will venture 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 '95 
 
 to assert, that all the causes of female weakness, as well as 
 depravity, which I have already enlarged on, branch out of 
 one grand cause — want of chastity in men. 
 
 This intemperance, so prevalent, depraves the appetite to 
 such a degree, that a wanton stimulus is necessary to rouse 
 it ; but the parental design of nature is forgotten, and the 
 mere person, and that for a moment, alone engrosses the 
 thoughts. So voluptuous, indeed, often grows the lustful 
 prowler, that he refines on female softness. Something 
 more soft than women is then sought for ; till, in Italy and 
 Portugal, men attend the levees of equivocal beings, to 
 sigh for more than female languor. 
 
 To satisfy this genus of men, women are made systema- 
 tically voluptuous, and though they may not all carry their 
 libertinism to the same height, yet this heartless intercourse 
 with the sex, which they allow themselves, depraves both 
 sexes, because the taste of men is vitiated ; and women, 
 of all classes, naturally square their behaviour to gratify 
 the taste by which they obtain pleasure and power. Women 
 becoming, consequently, weaker, in mind and body, than 
 they ought to be, were one of the grand ends of their 
 being taken into the account, that of bearing and nursing 
 children, have not sufficient strength to discharge the first 
 duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the 
 parental affection, that ennobles instinct, either destroy the 
 embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature in 
 everything demands respect, and those who violate her 
 laws seldom violate them with impunity. The weak 
 enervated women who particularly catch the attention of 
 libertines, are unfit to be mothers, though they may con- 
 ceive ; so that the rich sensualist, who has rioted among 
 women, spreading depravity and misery, when he wishes to 
 perpetuate his name, receives from his wife only an half- 
 
196 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 formed being that inherits both its father's and mother's 
 weakness. 
 
 Constrasting the humanity of the present age with the 
 barbarism of antiquity, great stress has been laid ort the 
 savage custom of exposing the children whom their parents 
 could not maintain ; whilst the man of sensibility, who thus, 
 perhaps, complains, by his promiscuous amours produces a 
 most destructive barrenness and contagious flagitiousness of 
 manners. Surely nature never intended that women, by 
 satisfying an appetite, should frustrate the very purpose 
 for which it was implanted ? 
 
 I have before observed, that men ought to maintain 
 the women whom they have seduced; this would be one 
 means of reforming female manners, and stopping an abuse 
 that has an equally fatal effect on population and morals. 
 Another, no less obvious, would be to turn the attention of 
 woman to the real virtue of chastity; for to little respect 
 has that woman a claim, on the score of modesty, though 
 her reputation may be white as the driven snow, who 
 smiles on the libertine whilst she spurns the victims of 
 his lawless appetites and their own folly. 
 
 Besides, she has a taint of the same folly, pure as she 
 esteems herself, when she studiously adorns her person 
 only to be seen by men, to excite respectful sighs, and 
 all the idle homage of what is called innocent gallantry. 
 Did women really respect virtue for its own sake, they 
 would not seek for a compensation in vanity, for the 
 self-denial which they are obliged to practise to preserve 
 ' their reputation, nor would they associate with men who set 
 . reputation at defiance. 
 
 The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each other. 
 This I believe to be an indisputable truth, extending it 
 to every virtue. Chastity, modesty, public spirit, and all 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 i97 
 
 the noble train of virtues, on which social virtue and 
 happiness are built, should be understood and cultivated 
 by all mankind, or they will be cultivated to little effect. 
 And, instead of furnishing the vicious or idle with a 
 pretext for violating some sacred duty, by terming it a 
 sexual one, it would be wiser to show that nature has 
 not made any difference, for that the unchaste man doubly 
 defeats the purpose of nature, by rendering women barren, 
 and destroying his own constitution, though he avoids 
 the shame that pursues the crime in the other sex. These 
 are the physical consequences, the moral are still more 
 alarming ; for virtue is only a nominal distinction when 
 the duties of citizens, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and 
 directors of families, become merely the selfish ties of 
 convenience. 
 
 Why then do philosophers look for public spirit ? Public 
 spirit must be nurtured by private virtue, or it will resemble 
 the factitious sentiment which makes women careful to 
 preserve their reputation, and men their honour. A senti- 
 ment that often exists unsupported by virtue, unsupported 
 by that sublime morality which makes the habitual breach 
 of one duty a breach of the whole moral law. 
 
 - 
 
198 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM THE 
 UNNATURAL DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN SOCIETY. 
 
 FROM the respect paid to property flow, as from a 
 poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which 
 render this world such a dreary scene to the contem- 
 plative mind. For it is in the most polished society that 
 noisome reptiles and venomous serpents lurk under the rank 
 herbage; and there is voluptuousness pampered by the still 
 sultry air, which relaxes every good disposition before it 
 ripens into virtue. 
 
 One class presses on another, for all are aiming to pro- 
 cure respect on account of their property ; and property 
 once gained will procure the respect due only to talents and 
 virtue. Men neglect the duties incumbent on man, yet are 
 treated like demigods. Religion is also separated from 
 morality by a ceremonial veil, yet men wonder that the 
 world is almost, literally speaking, a den .of sharpers or 
 oppressors. 
 
 There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd truth, 
 that whoever the devil finds idle he will employ. And what 
 but habitual idleness' can hereditary wealth and titles pro- 
 duce ? For man is so constituted that he can only attain a 
 proper use of his faculties by exercising them, and will not 
 exercise them unless necessity of some kind first set the 
 wheels in motion. Virtue likewise can only be acquired by 
 the discharge of relative duties; but the importance of 
 these sacred duties will scarcely be felt by the being who is " 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 199 
 
 cajoled out of his humanity by the flattery of sycophants. 
 There must be more equality established in society, or 
 morality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equality 
 will not rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one- 
 half of mankind be chained to its bottom by fate, for 
 they will be continually undermining it through ignorance 
 or pride. 
 
 } It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in 
 some degree independent of men ; nay, it is vain to expect 
 that strength of natural affection which would make them 
 good wives and mothers. Whilst they are absolutely de- 
 pendent on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and 
 selfish ; and the men who can be gratified by the fawning 
 fondness of spaniel-like affection have not much delicacy, 
 for love is not to be bought ; in any sense of the words, its 
 silken wings are instantly shrivelled up when anything 
 beside a return in kind is sought. Yet whilst wealth ener- 
 vates men, and women live, as it were, by their, personal 
 charms, how can we expect them to discharge those ennob- 
 ling duties which equally require exertion and self-denial? 
 Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfor- 
 tunate victims to it — if I may so express myself— swathed 
 from their birth, seldom exert the locomotive faculty of 
 body or mind, and thus viewing everything through one 
 medium, and that a false one, they are unable to discern in 
 what true merit and happiness consist. False, indeed, must 
 be the light when the drapery of situation hides the man, 
 and makes him stalk in masquerade, dragging from one 
 scene of dissipation to another the nerveless limbs that 
 hang with stupid listlessness, and rolling round the vacant 
 eye, which plainly tells us that there is no mind at home. 
 
 I mean therefore to infer that the society js not properly 
 organised which does not compel men and women to dis- 
 
2O0 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 charge their respective duties by making it the only way to 
 acquire that countenance from their fellow-creatures, which 
 every human being wishes some way to attain. The respect 
 consequently which is paid to wealth and mere personal 
 charms is a true north-east blast that blights the tender blos- 
 soms of affection and virtue. Nature has wisely attached 
 affections to duties to sweeten toil, and to give that vigour 
 to the exertions of reason which only the heart can give. 
 But the affection which is put on merely because it is the 
 appropriated insignia of a certain character, when its duties 
 are not fulfilled, is one of the empty compliments which 
 vice and folly are obliged to pay to virtue and the real nature 
 of things. 
 
 To illustrate my opinion, I need only observe that when a 
 woman is admired for her beauty, and suffers herself to be 
 so far intoxicated by the admiration she receives as to 
 neglect to discharge the indispensable duty of a mother, she 
 sins against herself by neglecting to cultivate an affection 
 that would equally tend to make her useful and happy. 
 True happiness — I mean all the contentment and virtuous 
 satisfaction that can be snatched in this imperfect state — 
 must arise from well-regulated affections, and an affection 
 includes a duty. Men are not aware of the misery they 
 cause, and the vicious weakness they cherish, by only incit- 
 ing women to render themselves pleasing; they do not con- 
 sider that they thus make natural and artificial duties clash 
 by sacrificing the comfort and respectability of a woman's 
 life to voluptuous notions of beauty, when in nature they all 
 harmonise. 
 
 Cold would be the heart of a husband, were he not ren- 
 dered unnatural by early debauchery, who did not feel more 
 delight at seeing his child suckled by its mother than the 
 most artful wanton tricks could ever raise, yet this natural 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 20I 
 
 way of cementing the matrimonial tie, and twisting esteem 
 with fonder recollections, wealth leads women to spurn. 
 To preserve their beauty, and wear the flowery crown of the 
 day, which gives them a kind of right to reign for a short 
 time over the sex, they neglect to stamp impressions on 
 their husbands' hearts that would be remembered with more 
 tenderness when the snow on the head began to chill the 
 bosom than even their virgin charms. The maternal solici- 
 tude of a reasonable affectionate woman is very interesting, 
 and the chastened dignity with which a mother returns the 
 caresses that she and her child receive from a father who 
 has been fulfilling the serious duties of his station is not 
 only a respectable, but a beautiful sight. So singular, 
 indeed, are my feelings — and I have endeavoured not to catch 
 factitious ones — that after having been fatigued with the sight 
 of insipid grandeur and the* slavish ceremonies that with 
 cumbrous pomp supplied the place of domestic affections, I 
 have turned to some other scene to relieve my eye by resting 
 it on the refreshing green everywhere scattered by nature. I 
 have then viewed with pleasure a woman nursing her chil- 
 dren, and discharging the duties of her station with perhaps 
 merely a servant-maid to take off her hands the servile part 
 of the household business. I have seen her prepare herself 
 and children, with only the luxury of cleanliness, to receive 
 her husband, who, returning weary home in the evening, 
 found smiling babes and a clean hearth. My heart has 
 loitered in the midst of the group, and has even throbbed 
 with sympathetic emotion when the scraping of the well- 
 known foot has raised a pleasing tumult. 
 
 Whilst my benevolence has been gratified by contem- 
 plating this artless picture, I have thought that a couple of 
 this description, equally necessary and independent of each 
 other, because each fulfilled the respective duties of their 
 
 
202 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 station, possessed all that life could give. Raised suffi- 
 ciently above abject poverty not to be obliged to weigh the 
 consequence of every farthing they spend, and having suffi- 
 cient to prevent their attending to a frigid system of 
 economy which narrows both heart and mind, I declare, so 
 vulgar are my conceptions, that I know not what is wanted 
 to render this the happiest as well as the most respectable 
 situation in the world, but a taste for literature, to throw a 
 little variety and interest into social converse, and some 
 superfluous money to give to the needy and to buy books. 
 For it is not pleasant when the heart is opened by compas- 
 sion, and the head active in arranging plans of usefulness, 
 to have a prim urchin continually twitching back the elbow 
 to prevent the hand from drawing out an almost empty 
 purse, whispering at the same time some prudential maxim 
 about the priority of justice. 
 
 Destructive, however, as riches and inherited honours are 
 to the human character, women are more debased and 
 cramped, if possible, by them than men, because men may 
 still in some degree unfold their faculties by becoming 
 soldiers and statesmen. 
 
 As soldiers, I grant they can now only gather for the most 
 part vain-glorious laurels, whilst they adjust to a hair the 
 European balance, taking especial care that no bleak 
 northern nook or sound incline the beam. But the days of 
 true heroism are over, when a citizen fought for his country 
 like a Fabricius or a Washington, and then returned to his 
 farm to let his virtuous fervour run in a more placid, but not 
 a less salutary, stream. No, our British heroes are oftener 
 sent from the gaming-table than from the plough ; and their 
 passions have been rather inflamed by hanging with dumb 
 suspense on the turn of a die, than sublimated by panting 
 after the adventurous march of virtue in the historic page. 
 
 1 ■ — - — «•" 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 2CX 
 
 The statesman, it is true, might with more propriety quit 
 the faro bank, or card-table, to guide the helm, for he has 
 still but to shuffle and trick— the whole system of British 
 politics, if system it may courteously be called, consisting in 
 multiplying dependents and contriving taxes which grind the 
 poor to pamper the rich. Thus a war, or any wild goose 
 chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of 
 patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of 
 keeping himself in place. It is not necessary then that he 
 should have bowels for the poor, so he can secure for his 
 family the odd trick. Or should some show of respect, for 
 what is termed with ignorant ostentation an Englishman's 
 birthright, be expedient to bubble the gruff mastiff that he 
 has to lead by the nose, he can make an empty show, very 
 safely, by giving his single voice, and suffering his light 
 squadron to file off to the other side. And when a question 
 of humanity is agitated, he may dip a sop in the milk of 
 human kindness to silence Cerberus, and talk of the interest 
 which his heart takes in an attempt to make the earth no 
 longer cry for vengeance as it sucks in its children W oved 
 though his cold hand may at the very moi u ° n * thlnk rt 
 chains, by sanctioning the abominable trr .-asonableness of 
 is no longer a minister, than while he ■ ' d heroes - l do 
 which he is determined to carry. Yet r Really ; because, 
 that a minister should feel like a man, lb,tlon as the first 
 mig'at shake his seat , a ^ us t be torn 
 
 But, to have done with these episodical observations,"^ 
 me return to the more specious slavery which chains the very 
 soul of woman, keeping her for ever under the bondage of 
 ignorance. 
 
 The preposterous distinctions 'of rank, which render 
 civilisation a curse, by dividing the world between volup- 
 tuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, 
 
204 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 almost equally, every class of people, because respectability 
 is not attached to the discharge of the relative duties of life, 
 but to the station, and when the duties are not fulfilled the 
 affections cannot gain sufficient strength to fortify the virtue 
 of which they are the natural reward. Still there are some 
 loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think 
 and act for himself; but for a woman it is an herculean task, 
 because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome, 
 which require almost superhuman powers. 
 
 A truly benevolent legislator always endeavours to make 
 it the interest of each indi%idual to be virtuous ; and thus 
 private virtue becoming the cement of public happiness, an 
 orderly whole is consolidated by the tendency of all the parts 
 towards a common centre. But the private or public virtue 
 of woman is very problematical, for Rousseau, and a nume- 
 rous list of male writers, insist that she should all her life be 
 subjected to a severe restraint, that of propriety. Why sub- 
 ject her to propriety— blind propriety— if she be capable of 
 acting from a nobler spring, if she be an heir of immortality ? 
 still irrr always to be produced by vital blood ? Is one half 
 soldiers and staspecies, like the poor African slaves, to be 
 As soldiers, I idices that brutalise them, when principles 
 part vain-glorious guard, only to sweeten the cup of man ? 
 European balanclily to deny woman reason ? for a gift is a 
 northern nook or unfit for use. 
 
 true heroism. e, in common with men, rendered weak and 
 luxurious by the relaxing pleasures which wealth procure..- • 
 but added to this they are made slaves to their persons, and 
 must render them alluring that man may lend them his 
 reason to guide their tottering steps aright. Or should they 
 be ambitious, they must govern their tyrants by sinister 
 tricks, for without rights there cannot be any incumbent 
 duties. The laws respecting woman, which I mean to dis- 
 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 20; 
 
 cuss in a future part, make an absurd unit of a man and his 
 wife ; and then, by the easy transition of only considering 
 him as responsible, she is reduced to a mere cypher. 
 
 The being who discharges the duties of its station is 
 independent ; and, speaking of women at large, their first 
 duty is to themselves as rational creatures, and the next, in 
 point of importance, as citizens, is that, which includes so 
 many, of a mother. The rank in life which dispenses with 
 their fulfilling this duty, necessarily degrades them by making 
 them mere dolls. Or should they turn to something more 
 important than merely fitting drapery upon a smooth block, 
 their minds are only occupied by some soft platonic attach- 
 ment ; or the actual management of an intrigue may keep 
 their thoughts in motion ; for when they neglect domestic 
 duties, they have it not in their power to take the field and 
 march and counter-march like soldiers, or wrangle in the 
 senate to keep their faculties from rusting. 
 
 I know that, as a proof of the inferiority of the sex, Rousseau 
 has exultingly exclaimed, How can they leave the nursery for 
 the camp ! And the camp has by some moralists been proved 
 the school of the most heoric virtues ; though I think it 
 would puzzle a keen casuist to prove the reasonableness of 
 the greater number of wars that have dubbed heroes. I do 
 not mean to consider this question critically ; because, 
 having frequently viewed these freaks of ambition as the first 
 natural mode of civilisation, when tre ground must be torn 
 up, and the woods cleared by fire and sword, I do not 
 choose to call them pests ; but surely the present system of 
 war has little connection with virtue of any denomination, 
 being rather the school of finesse and effeminacy than of 
 fortitude. 
 
 Yet, if defensive war, the only justifiable war, in the 
 present advanced state of society, where virtue can show its 
 
 — 
 
206 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 face and ripen amidst the rigours which purify the air on the 
 mountain's top, were alone to be adopted as just and glori- 
 ous, the true heroism of antiquity might again animate female 
 bosoms. But fair and softly, gentle reader, male or female, 
 do not alarm thyself, for though I have compared the 
 character of a modern soldier with that of a civilised woman, 
 I am not going to advise them to turn their distaff into a 
 musket, though I sincerely wish to see the bayonet converted 
 into a pruning-hook. I only re-created an imagination, 
 fatigued by contemplating the vices and follies which all pro- 
 ceed from a feculent stream of wealth that has muddied the 
 pure rills of natural affection, by supposing that society will 
 some time or other be so constituted, that man must neces- 
 sarily fulfil the duties of a citizen, or be despised, and that 
 while he was employed in any of the departments of civil 
 life, his wife, also an active citizen, should be equally intent 
 to manage her family, educate her children, and assist her 
 neigfibours. 
 ^^fcjt to render her really virtuous and useful, she must not, 
 \u she discharge her civil duties, want individually the pro- 
 tection of civil laws ; she must not be dependent on her 
 husband's bounty for her subsistence during his life, or sup- 
 port after his death ; for how can a being be generous who 
 I has nothing of its own ? or virtuous who is not free ? The 
 I wife, in the present state of things, who is faithful to her 
 husband, and neither suckles nor educates her children, 
 scarcely deserves the name of a wife, and has no right to 
 that of a citizen. But take away natural rights, and duties 
 '"—"become null. 
 
 Women then must be considered as only the wanton 
 solace of men, when they become so weak in mind and 
 body, that they cannot exert themselves unless to pursue 
 some frothy pleasure, or to invent some frivolous fashion. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 207 
 
 What can be a more melancholy sight to a thinking mind, 
 than to look into the numerous carriages that drive helter- 
 skelter about this metropolis in a morning full of pale-faced 
 creatures who are flying from themselves ! I have often 
 wished, with Dr Johnson, to place some of them in a little 
 shop with half-a-dozen children looking up to their languid 
 countenances for support. I am much mistaken, if some 
 latent vigour would not soon give health and spirit to their 
 eyes, and some lines drawn by the exercise of reason on the 
 blank cheeks, which before were only undulated by dimples, 
 might restore lost dignity to the character, or rather enable 
 it to attain the true dignity of its nature. Virtue is not to 
 be acquired even by speculation, much less by the negative 
 supineness that wealth naturally generates. 
 
 Besides, when poverty is more disgraceful than even vice, 
 is not morality cut to the quick ? Still to avoid miscon- 
 struction, though I consider that women in the common 
 walks of life are called to fulfil the duties of wives and 
 mothers, by religion and reason, I cannot help lamenting 
 that women of a superior cast have not a road open by 
 which they can pursue more extensive plans of usefulness 
 and independence. I may excite laughter, by dropping an 
 hint, which I mean to pursue, some future time, for I really 
 think that women ought to have representatives, instead of 
 being arbitrarily governed without having any direct share'" 
 allowed them in the deliberations of government. 
 
 But, as the whole system of representation is now, in this 
 country, only a convenient handle for despotism, they need 
 not complain, for they are as well represented as a numerous 
 class of hard-working mechanics, who pay for the support of 
 royalty when they can scarcely stop their children's mouths 
 with bread. How are they represented whose very sweat 
 supports the splendid stud of an heir-apparent, or varnishes 
 
208 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 the chariot of some female favourite who looks down on 
 shame ? Taxes on the very necessaries of life, enable an 
 endless tribe of idle princes and princesses to pass with 
 stupid pomp before a gaping crowd, who almost worship the 
 very parade which costs them so dear. This is mere gothic 
 grandeur, something like the barbarous useless parade of 
 having sentinels on horseback at Whitehall, which I could 
 never view without a mixture of contempt and indignation. 
 
 How strangely must the mind be sophisticated when this 
 sort of state impresses it ! But, till these monuments of 
 folly are levelled by virtue, similar follies will leaven the 
 whole mass. For the same character, in some degree, will 
 prevail in the aggregate of society ; and the refinements of 
 luxury, or the vicious repinings of envious poverty, will 
 equally banish virtue from society, considered as the char- 
 acteristic of that society, or only allow it to appear as one 
 of the stripes of the harlequin coat, worn .by the civilised man. 
 In the superior ranks of life, every duty is done by depu- 
 ties, as if duties could ever be waived, and the vain pleasures 
 which consequent idleness forces the rich to pursue, appear 
 so enticing to the next rank, that the numerous scramblers 
 for wealth sacrifice everything to tread on their heels. The 
 most sacred trusts are then considered as sinecures, because 
 they were procured by interest, and only sought to enable a 
 man to keep good company. Women, in particular, all want 
 to be ladies. Which is simply to have nothing to do, but 
 listlessly to go they scarcely care where, for they cannot tell 
 what. • 
 
 But what have women to do in society ? I may be asked, 
 but to loiter with easy grace ; surely you would not condemn 
 them all to suckle fools and chronicle small beer ! No. 
 Women might certainly study the art of healing, and be 
 physicians as well as nurses. And midwifery, decency 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 209 
 
 seems to allot to them, though I am afraid, the word mid- 
 wife, in our dictionaries, will soon give place to accoucheur, 
 and one proof of the former delicacy of the sex be effaced 
 from the language. 
 
 They might also study politics, and settle their benevol- 
 ence on the broadest basis ; for the reading of history will 
 scarcely be more useful than the perusal of romances, if read 
 as mere biography ; if the character of the times, the politi- 
 cal improvements, arts, &c, be not observed. In short, if 
 it be not considered as the history of man ; and not of par- 
 ticular men, who filled a niche in the temple of fame, and 
 dropped into the black rolling stream of time, that silently 
 sweeps all before it, into the shapeless void called — eternity. 
 — For shape, can it be called, " that shape hath none " ? 
 
 Business of various kinds, they might likewise pursue, if 
 they were educated in a more orderly manner, which might 
 save many from common and legal prostitution. Women 
 would not then marry for a support, as men accept of places 
 under Government, and neglect the implied duties ; nor 
 would an attempt to earn their own subsistence, a most 
 laudable one ! sink them almost to the level of those poor 
 abandoned creatures who live by prostitution. For are not 
 milliners and mantuamakers reckoned the next class ? The 
 few employments open to women, so far, from being libenrij-r 
 are menial ; and when a superior education enables them to I 
 take charge of the education of children as governesses, \ 
 they are not treated like the tutors of sons, though even^ 
 clerical tutors are not always treated in a manner calculated 
 to render them respectable in the eyes of their pupils, to say- 
 nothing of the private comfort of the individual. But as 
 women educated like gentlewomen, are never designed for 
 the humiliating situation which necessity sometimes forces 
 them to fill ; these situations are considered in the light of 
 
 — ' — \ 
 
 
210 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 a degradation ; and they know little of the human heart, 
 who need to be told, that nothing so painfully sharpens 
 sensibility as such a fall in life. 
 
 Some of these women might be restrained from marrjfng 
 by a proper spirit or delicacy, and others may not have had 
 it in their power to escape in this pitiful way from servitude ; 
 is not that Government then very defective, and ■ very 
 unmindful of the happiness of one-half of its members, that 
 does not provide for honest, independent women, by encour- 
 aging them to fill respectable stations? But in order to 
 render their private virtue a public benefit, they must have a 
 civil existence in the State, married or single ; else we shall 
 continually see some worthy woman, whose sensibility has 
 been rendered painfully acute by undeserved contempt, droop 
 like "the lily broken down by a plowshare." 
 
 It is a melancholy truth ; yet such is the blessed effect of 
 civilisation ! the most respectable women are the most 
 oppressed ; and, unless they have understandings far supe- 
 rior to the common run of understandings, taking in both 
 sexes, they must, from being treated like contemptible beings, 
 become contemptible. How many women thus waste life 
 away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as 
 physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood 
 erect, supported by their own industry, instead of hanging 
 their heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility, that con- 
 sumes the beauty to which it at first gave lustre ; nay, I 
 doubt whether pity and love are so near akin as poets feign* 
 for I have seldom seen much compassion excited by the 
 helplessness of females, unless they were fair ; then, perhaps, 
 pity was the soft handmaid of love, or the aarbinger of lust. 
 
 How much more respectable is the woman who earns her 
 own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished 
 beauty !— beauty did I say ! — so sensible am I of the beauty 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 211 
 
 of moral loveliness, or the harmonious propriety that attunes 
 the passions of a well-regulated mind, that I blush at making 
 the comparison ; yet I sigh to think how few women aim at 
 attaining this respectability by withdrawing from the giddy 
 whirl of pleasure, or the indolent calm that stupefies the 
 good sort of women it sucks in. 
 
 Proud of their weakness, however, they must always be 
 protected, guarded from care, and all the rough toils that 
 dignify the mind. If this be the fiat of fate, if they will 
 make themselves insignificant and contemptible, sweetly to 
 waste " life away," let them not expect to be valued when 
 their beauty fades, for it is the fate of the fairest flowers to 
 be admired and pulled to pieces by the careless hand that 
 plucked them. In how many ways do I wish, from the 
 purest benevolence, to impress this truth on my sex ; yet I 
 fear that they will not listen to a truth that dear bought 
 experience has brought home to many an agitated bosom, 
 nor willingly resign the privileges of rank and sex for the 
 privileges of humanity, to which those have no claim who 
 do not discharge its duties. 
 
 Those writers are particularly useful, in my opinion, who 
 make man feel for man, independent of the station he fills, 
 or the drapery of factitious sentiments. I then would fain 
 convince reasonable men of the importance of some of my 
 remarks ; and prevail on them to weigh dispassionately the 
 whole tenor of my observations. I appeal to their under- 
 standings ; and, as a fellow-creature, claim, in the name of 
 my sex, some interest in their hearts. I entreat them to 
 assist to emancipate their companion, to make her a help 
 meet for them. 
 
 Would men but generously snap our chains, and be 
 content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, 
 they would find us more observant daughters, more affec- 
 
 — 
 
2 1 2 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 tionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers 
 — in a word, better citizens. We should then love them 
 with true affection, because we should learn to respect 
 ourselves; and the peace of mind of a worthy man would 
 not be interrupted by the idle vanity of his wife, nor the 
 babes sent to nesrle in a strange bosom, having never found 
 a home in their mother's. 
 
 RJfrHTS OF 
 
 WOMAN. 
 
 213 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PARENTAL AFFECTION. 
 
 PARENTAL affection is, perhaps, the blindest modi- 
 fication of perverse self-love ; for we have not, like 
 the French,* two terms to distinguish the pursuit of 
 a natural and reasonable desire, from the ignorant calcula- 
 tions of weakness. Parents often love their children in the 
 most brutal manner, and sacrifice every relative duty to 
 promote their advancement in the world. To promote, 
 such is the perversity of unprincipled prejudices, the future 
 welfare of the very beings whose present existence they 
 embitter by the most despotic stretch of power. Power, in 
 fact, is ever true to its vital principle, for in every shape it 
 would reign without control or inquiry. Its throne is built 
 across a dark abyss, which no eye must dare to explore, 
 lest the baseless fabric should totter under investigation. 
 Obedience, unconditional obedience, is the catchword of 
 tyrants of every description, and to render "assurance 
 doubly sure," one kind of despotism supports another. 
 Tyrants would have cause to tremble if reason were to 
 become the rule of duty in any of the relations of life, for 
 the light might spread till perfect day appeared. And 
 when it did appear, how would men smile at the sight of 
 the bugbears at which they started during the night of 
 ignorance, or the twilight of timid inquiry. 
 
 * V amour propre. V amour de soi mime. 
 
 ~ - "■ 
 
214 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but a pretext 
 to tyrannise where it can be done with impunity, for only 
 good and wise men are content with the respect that will 
 bear discussion. Convinced that they have a right to what 
 they insist on, they do not fear reason, or dread the sisting 
 of subjects that recur to natural justice : because they firmly 
 believe that the more enlightened the human mind be- 
 comes the deeper root will just and simple principles take. 
 They do not rest in expedients, or grant that what is 
 metaphysically true can be practically false ; but dis- 
 daining the shifts of themoment they calmly wait till time, 
 sanctioning innovation, silences the hiss of selfishness or 
 envy. 
 
 If the power of reflecting on the past, and darting the 
 keen eye of contemplation into futurity, be the grand 
 privilege of man, it must be granted that some people enjoy 
 this prerogative in a very limited degree. Everything new 
 appears to them wrong ; and not able to distinguish the 
 possible from the monstrous, they fear where no fear should 
 find a place, running from the light of reason, as if it were 
 a firebrand; yet the limits of the possible have never been 
 defined to stop the sturdy innovator's hand. 
 
 Woman, however, a slave in every situation to prejudice, 
 seldom exerts enlightened maternal affection ; for she either 
 neglects her children, or spoils them by improper indulgence. 
 The affection of some women for their children is, as I 
 have before termed it, frequently very brutish : for it eradi- 
 cates every spark of humanity. Justice, truth, everything is 
 sacrificed by these Rebekahs, and for the sake of their own 
 children they violate the most sacred duties, forgetting the 
 common relationship that binds the whole family on earth 
 together. Yet, reason seems to say, that they who suffer 
 one duty, or affection, to swallow up the rest, have not 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 2'5 
 
 sufficient heart or mind to fulfil that one conscientiously. 
 It then loses the venerable aspect of a duty, and assumes 
 the fantastic form of a whim. 
 
 As the care of children in their infancy is one of the 
 grand duties annexed to the female character by nature, 
 this duty would afford many forcible arguments for 
 strengthening the female understanding, if it were properly 
 considered. 
 
 The formation of the mind must be begun very early, 
 and the temper, in particular, requires the most judicious 
 attention— an attention which woman cannot pay who only 
 love their children because they are their children, and seek 
 no further for the foundation of their duty, than in the 
 feelings of the moment. It is this want of reason in their 
 affections which makes women so often run into extremes, 
 and either be tHe most fond or most careless and unnatural 
 mothers. 
 
 To be a good mother, a woman must have sense, and 
 that independence of mind which few women possess who 
 are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek 
 wives are, in general, foolish mothers ; wanting their children 
 to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the 
 father, who is held up as a scarecrow. When chastisement 
 is necessary, though they have offended the mother, the 
 father must inflict the punishment ; he must be the judge 
 in all disputes ; but I shall more fully discuss this subject 
 when I treat of private education. I now only mean to 
 insist, that unless the understanding of woman be enlarged, 
 and her character rendered more firm, by being allowed to 
 govern her own conduct, she will never have sufficient 
 sense or command of temper to manage her children pro- 
 perly. Her parental affection, indeed, scarcely deserves 
 the name, when it does not lead her to suckle her children, 
 
 ■i* ■ ■ - ' ■ ' ■-■ 
 
 
 
2l6 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 because the discharge of this duty is equally calculated to 
 inspire maternal and filial affection : and it is the indis- 
 pensable duty of men and women to fulfil the duties which 
 give birth to affections that are the surest preservatives 
 against vice. Natural affection, as it is termed, I believe 
 to be a very faint tie, affections must grow out of the 
 habitual exercise of a mutual sympathy ; and what sympathy- 
 does a mother exercise who sends her babe to a nurse, and 
 only takes it from a nurse to send it to a school ? 
 
 In the exercise of their maternal feelings Providence has 
 furnished women with a natural substitute for love, when 
 the lover becomes only a friend, and mutual confidence takes 
 place of overstrained admiration — a child then gently twists 
 the relaxing cord, and a mutual care produces a new mutual 
 sympathy. But a child, though a pledge of affection, will 
 not enliven it, if both father and mother be content to 
 transfer the charge to hirelings; for they who do their duty 
 by proxy should not murmur if they miss the reward of 
 duty— parental affection produces filial duty. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 217 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DUTY TO PARENTS. 
 
 
 THERE seems to be an indolent propensity in man to 
 make prescription always take place of reason, and to 
 place every duty on an arbitrary foundation. The 
 rights of kings are deduced in a direct line from the King of 
 kings, and that of parents from our first parent. 
 
 Why do we thus go back for principles that should always 
 rest on the same base, and have the same weight to-day 
 that they had a thousand years ago — and not a jot more ? 
 If parents discharge their duty they have a strong hold and 
 sacred claim on the gratitude of their children, but few- 
 parents are willing to receive the respectful affection of their 
 offspring on such terms. They demand blind obedience, 
 because they do not merit a reasonable service : and to 
 render these demands of weakness and ignorance more 
 binding, a mysterious sanctity is spread round the most 
 arbitrary principle ; for what other name can be given to the 
 blind duty of obeying vicious or weak beings merely because 
 they obeyed a powerful instinct ? 
 
 The simple definition of the reciprocal duty which natu- 
 rally subsists between parent and child may be given in a 
 few words. The parent who pays proper attention to help- 
 less infancy has a right to require the same attention when 
 the feebleness of age comes upon him. But to subjugate a 
 rational being to the mere will of another, after he is of 
 age to answer to society for his own conduct, is a most 
 
 " • 1 ■ - hi ■ ii ■ 
 
 T 
 
 
218 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 cruel and undue stretch of power, and perhaps as injurious 
 to morality as those religious systems which do not allow 
 right and wrong to have any existence, but in the Divine 
 will. 
 
 I never knew a parent who had paid more than common 
 attention to his children disregarded.* On the contrary, 
 the early habit of relying almost implicitly on the opinion 
 of a respected parent is not easily shook, even when ma- 
 tured reason convinces the child that his father is not the 
 wisest man in the world. This weakness — for a weakness it 
 is, though the epithet amiable may be tacked to it — a rea- 
 sonable man must steel himself against ; for the absurd 
 duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on 
 account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and 
 prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but 
 reason. 
 
 I distinguish between the natural and accidental duty due 
 to parents. 
 
 The parent who sedulously endeavours to form the heart, 
 and enlarge the understanding of his child, has given that 
 dignity to the discharge of a duty, common to the whole 
 animal world, that only reason can give. This is the 
 parental affection of humanity, and leaves instinctive natural 
 affection far behind. Such a parent acquires all the rights 
 of the most sacred friendship, and his advice, even when 
 his child is advanced in life, demands serious consideration. 
 
 With respect to marriage, though after one-and-twenty a 
 parent seems to have no right to withhold his consent on 
 any account, yet twenty years of solicitude call for a return, 
 and the son ought at least to promise not to marry for two 
 
 * Dr Johnson makes the same observation. 
 
 -.,.,,,. , . , . . . , 
 
 — _ — 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 219 
 
 or three years, should the object of his choice not entirely 
 meet with the approbation of his first friend. 
 
 But respect for parents is, generally speaking, a much 
 more debasing principle; it is only a selfish respect for 
 property. The father who is blindly obeyed is obeyed from 
 sheer weakness, or from motives that degrade the human 
 character. 
 
 A great proportion of the misery that wanders in hideous 
 forms around the world is allowed to rise from the negli- 
 gence of parents ; and still these are the people who are 
 most tenacious of what they term a natural right, though it 
 be subversive of the birthright of man, the right of acting 
 according to the direction of his own reason. 
 
 I have already very frequently had occasion to observe 
 that vicious or indolent people are always eager to profit by 
 enforcing arbitrary privileges, and generally in the same 
 proportion as they neglect the discharge of the duties which 
 alone render the privileges reasonable. This is at the 
 bottom a dictate of common-sense, or the instinct of self- 
 defence, peculiar to ignorant weakness, resembling that 
 instinct which makes a fish muddy the water it swims in to 
 elude its enemy, instead of boldly facing it in the clear 
 stream. 
 
 From the clear stream of argument indeed the supporters 
 of prescription of every denomination fly; and taking 
 refuge in the darkness, which, in the language of sublime 
 poetry, has been supposed to surround the throne of Omni- 
 potence, they dare to demand that implicit respect which is 
 only due to His unsearchable ways. But let me not be 
 thought presumptuous ; the darkness which hides our God 
 from us only respects speculative truths. It never obscures 
 moral ones ; they shine clearly, for God is light, and never, 
 by the constitution of our nature, requires the discharge of 
 
220 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 a duty, the reasonableness of which does not beam on us 
 when we open our eyes. 
 
 The indolent parent of high rank may, it is true, extort a 
 show of respect from his child, and females on the Conti- 
 nent are particularly subject to the views of their families, 
 who never think of consulting their inclination, or provid- 
 ing for the comfort of the poor victims of their pride. The 
 consequence is notorious : these dutiful daughters become 
 adulteresses, and neglect the education of their children, 
 from whom they, in their turn, exact the same kind of 
 obedience. 
 
 Females, it is true, in all countries are too much under 
 the dominion of their parents ; and few parents think of 
 addressing their children in the following manner, though it 
 is in this reasonable way that Heaven seems to command 
 the whole human race :— It is your interest to obey me till 
 you can judge for yourself; and the Almighty Father of all 
 has implanted an affection in me to serve as a guard to you 
 whilst your reason is unfolding ; but when your mind arrives 
 at maturity, you must only obey me, or rather respect my 
 opinions, so far as they coincide with the light that is 
 breaking in on your own mind. 
 
 A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the 
 mind ; and Mr Locke very judiciously observes, that " if the 
 mind be curbed and humbled too much in children ; if their 
 spirits be abased and broken much by too strict an hand 
 over them, they lose all their vigour and industry." This 
 strict hand may in some degree account for the weakness of 
 women ; for girls, from various causes, are more kept down 
 by their parents, in every sense of the word, than boys. 
 The duty expected from them is, like all the duties arbi- 
 trarily imposed on women, more from a sense of propriety, 
 more out of respect for decorum, than reason ; and thus 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 221 
 
 taught slavishly to submit to their parents, they are prepared 
 for the slavery of marriage. I may be told that a number 
 of women are not slaves in the marriage state. True, but 
 they then become tyrants ; for it is not rational freedom, 
 but a lawless kind of power, resembling the authority exer- 
 cised by the favourites of absolute monarchs, which they 
 obtain by debasing means. I do not likewise dream of in- 
 sinuating that either boys or girls are always slaves. I only 
 insist that when they are obliged to submit to authority 
 blindly their faculties are weakened, and their tempers ren- 
 dered imperious or abject. I also lament that parents, 
 indolently availing themselves of a supposed privilege, damp 
 the first faint glimmering of reason, rendering at the same 
 time the duty, which they are so anxious to enforce, an 
 empty name ; because they will not let it rest on the only 
 basis on which a duty can rest securely ; for unless it be 
 founded on knowledge, it cannot gain sufficient strength to 
 resist the squalls of passion, or the silent sapping of self- 
 love. But it is not the parents who have given the surest 
 proof of their affection for their children, or, to speak more 
 properly, who, by fulfilling their duty, have allowed a natu- 
 ral parental affection to take root in their hearts, the child 
 of exercised sympathy and reason, and not the overweening 
 offspring of selfish pride, who most vehemently insist on 
 their children submitting to their will merely because it is 
 their will. On the contrary, the parent who sets a good 
 example, patiently lets that example work, and it seldom fails 
 to produce its natural effect — filial reverence. 
 
 Children cannot be taught too early to submit to reason 
 — the true definition of that necessity which Rousseau in- 
 sisted on, without defining it; for to submit to reason is to 
 submit to the nature of things, and to that God who formed 
 them so, to promote our real interest. 
 
 ■ - - 
 
r, 
 
 222 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Why should the minds of children be warped as they 
 just begin to expand, only to favour the indolence of 
 parents, who insist on a privilege without being willing to 
 pay the price fixed by nature? I have before had occasion 
 to observe that a right always includes a duty, and I think 
 it may likewise fairly be inferred that they forfeit the right 
 who do not fulfil the duty. 
 
 It is easier, I grant, to command than reason ; but it 
 does not follow from hence that children cannot comprehend 
 the reason why they are made to do certain things habitually : 
 for, from a steady adherence to a few simple principles of 
 conduct flows that salutary power which a judicious parent 
 gradually gains over a child's mind. And this power 
 becomes strong indeed, if tempered by an even display 
 of affection brought home to the child's heart. For, I 
 believe, as a general r,ule, it must be allowed that the 
 affection which we inspire always resembles that we cultivate ; 
 so that natural affections, which have been supposed almost 
 distinct from reason, may be found more nearly connected 
 with judgment than is commonly allowed. Nay, as another 
 proof of the necessity of cultivating the female understand- 
 ing, it is but just to observe, that the affections seem to 
 have a kind of animal capriciousness when they merely 
 reside in the heart. 
 
 It is the irregular exercise of parental authority that 
 first injures the mind, and to these irregularities girls 
 are more subject than boys. The will of those who never 
 allow their will to be disputed, unless they happen to be in 
 a good humour, when they relax proportionally, is almost 
 always unreasonable. To elude this arbitrary authority 
 girls very early learn the lessons which they afterwards 
 practise on their husbands ; for I have frequently seen a 
 little sharp-faced miss rule a whole family, excepting that 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 223 
 
 i 
 
 now and then mamma's anger will burst out of some 
 accidental cloud; — either her hair was ill dressed,* or 
 she had lost more money at cards, the night before, than 
 she was willing to own to her husband ; or some such 
 moral cause of anger. 
 
 After observing sallies of this kind, I have been led into a 
 melancholy train of reflection respecting females, concluding 
 that when their first affection must lead them astray, or 
 make their duties clash till they rest on mere whims and 
 customs, little can be expected from them as they advance 
 in life. How indeed can an instructor remedy this evil ? 
 for to teach them virtue on any solid principle is to teach 
 them to despise their parents. Children cannot, ought 
 not, to be taught to make allowance for the faults of 
 their parents, because every such allowance weakens the 
 force of reason in their minds, and makes them still more 
 indulgent to their own. It is one of the most sublime 
 virtues of maturity that leads us to be severe with respect 
 to ourselves, and forbearing to others ; but children should 
 only be taught the simple virtues, for if they begin too 
 early to make allowance for human passions and manners, 
 they wear off the fine edge of the criterion by which they 
 should regulate their own, and become unjust in the same 
 proportion as they grow indulgent. 
 
 The affections of children, and weak people, are always 
 selfish ; they love their relatives, because they are beloved 
 by them, and not on account of their virtues. Yet, till 
 
 * I myself heard a little girl once say to a servant, " My mamma 
 has been scolding me finely this morning, because her hair was not 
 dressed to please her." Though this remark was pert, it was just. 
 And what respect could a girl acquire for such a parent without doing 
 violence to reason ? 
 
 q " 
 
224 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 esteem and love are blended together in the first affection, 
 and reason made the foundation of the first duty, morality 
 will stumble at the threshold. But, till society is very 
 differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on 
 being obeyed, because they will be obeyed, and constantly 
 endeavour to settle that power on a Divine right which 
 will not bear the investigation of reason. 
 
 i 
 
 > 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 22 = 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 THE good effects resulting from attention to private 
 education will ever be very confined, (and the parent 
 who really puts his own hand to the plough, will 
 always, in some degree, be disappointed^ till education 
 becomes a grand national concern. A man cannot retire 
 into a desert with his child, and if he did he could not 
 bring himself back to childhood, and become the proper 
 friend and playfellow of an infant or youth. And when 
 children are confined to the society of men and women, 
 they very soon acquire that kind of premature manhood 
 which stops the growth of every vigorous power of min d or 
 body. In order to open their faculties they should be ~\ 
 excited to think for themselves; and this can only be 
 done by mixing a number of children together, and making 
 them jointly pursue the same objects. 
 
 A child very soon contracts a benumbing indolence of 
 mind, which he has seldom sufficient vigour afterwards 
 to shake off, when he only asks a question instead of 
 seeking for information, and then relies implicitly on the 
 answer he receives. With his equals in age this could 
 never be the case; and the subjects of inquiry, though 
 they might be influenced, would not be entirely under 
 the direction of men, who frequently damp, if not destroy, 
 abilities, by bringing them forward too hastily : and too 
 hastily they will infallibly be brought forward, if the child 
 
 
226 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 227 
 
 be confined to the society of a man, however sagacious that 
 man may be. 
 
 Besides, in youth the seeds of every affection should be 
 sown, and the respectful regard, which is felt for a parent, is' 
 very different from the social affections that are to constitute 
 the happiness of life as it advances. Of these equality is 
 the basis, and an intercourse of sentiments unclogged by 
 that observant seriousness which prevents disputation, 
 though it may not enforce submission. Let a child have 
 ever such an affection for his parent, he will always languish 
 to play and prattle with children ; and the very respect he 
 feels, for filial esteem always has a dash of fear mixed 
 with it, will, if it do not teach him cunning, at least 
 prevent him from pouring out the little secrets which first 
 open the heart to friendship and confidence, gradually 
 leading to more expansive benevolence. Added to this, 
 he will never acquire that frank ingenuousness of behaviour, 
 which young people can only attain by being frequently in 
 society where they dare to speak what they think ; neither 
 afraid of being reproved for their presumption, nor laughed 
 at for their folly. 
 
 Forcibly impressed by the reflections which the sight 
 of schools, as they are at present conducted, naturally- 
 suggested, I have formerly delivered my opinion rather 
 warmly in favour of a private education ; but further 
 experience has led me to view the subject in a different 
 light. I still, however, think schools, as they are now 
 regulated, the hot-beds of vice and folly, and the knowledge 
 of human nature, supposed to be attained there, merely- 
 cunning selfishness. 
 
 At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead 
 of cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the 
 libertinism which destroys the constitution before it is 
 
 formed ; hardening the heart as it weakens the understand- 
 ing. 
 
 I should, in fact, be averse to boarding-schools, if it 
 were for no other reason than the unsettled state of mind 
 which the expectation of the vacations produces. On these 
 the children's thoughts are fixed with eager anticipating 
 hopes, for, at least, to speak with moderation, half of the 
 time, and when they arrive they are spent in total dissipa- 
 tion and beastly indulgence. " 
 
 But, on the contrary, when they are brought up at 
 home, though they may pursue a plan of study in a more 
 orderly manner than can be adopted when near a fourth 
 part of the year is actually spent in idleness, and as much 
 more in regret and anticipation ; yet they there acquire 
 too high an opinion of their own importance, from birth, 
 allowed to tyrannise over servants, and from the anxiety 
 expressed by most mothers, on the score of manners, who, 
 eager to teach the accomplishments of a gentleman, stifle, 
 in their birth, the virtues of a man. Thus brought into 
 company when they ought to be seriously employed, and 
 treated like men when they are still boys, they become 
 vain and effeminate. 
 
 The only way to avoid two extremes equally injurious to 
 morality, would be to contrive some way of combining a 
 public and private education. Thus to make men citizens 
 two natural steps might be taken, which seem directly 
 to lead to the desired point ; for the domestic affections, 
 that first open the heart to the various modifications of 
 humanity, would be cultivated, whilst the children were 
 nevertheless allowed to spend great part of their time, 
 on terms of equality, with other children. 
 
 I still recollect, with pleasure, the country day-school ; 
 where a boy trudged in the morning, wet or dry, carrying 
 
 ^ 
 
228 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 his books, and his dinner, if it were at a considerable 
 distance ; a servant did not then lead master by the hand, 
 for, when he had once put on coat and breeches, he was 
 allowed to shift for himself, and return alone in the evening 
 to recount the feats of the day close at the parental knee. 
 His father's house was his home, and was ever after fondly 
 remembered ; nay, I appeal to many superior men, who 
 were educated in this manner, whether the recollection 
 of some shady lane where they conned their lesson ; or, of 
 some stile, where they sat making a kite, or mending a bat, 
 has not endeared their country to them ? 
 
 But, what boy ever recollected with pleasure the years he 
 spent in close confinement, at an academy near London ? 
 unless, indeed, he should, by chance, remember the poor 
 scarecrow of an usher, whom he tormented ; or, the 
 tartman, from whom he caught a cake, to devour it with 
 a cattish appetite of selfishness. At boarding-schools of 
 every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is mis- 
 chief; and of the senior, vice. Besides, in great schools, 
 what can be more prejudicial to the moral character than 
 the system of tyranny and abject slavery which is established 
 amongst the boys, to say nothing of the slavery to forms, 
 which makes religion worse than a farce ? For what good 
 can be expected from the youth who receives the sacrament 
 of the Lord's supper, to avoid forfeiting half a guinea, 
 which he probably afterwards spends in some sensual 
 manner ? Half the employment of the youths is to elude 
 the necessity of attending public worship ; and well they 
 may, for such a constant repetition of the same thing 
 must be a very irksome restraint on their natural vivacity. 
 As these ceremonies have the most fatal effect on their 
 morals, and as a ritual performed by the lips, when the 
 heart and mind are far away, is not now stored up by our 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 229 
 
 church as a bank to draw on for the fees of the poor souls 
 in purgatory, why should they not be abolished ? 
 
 But the fear of innovation, in this country, extends to 
 everything. This is only a covert fear, the apprehensive 
 timidity of indolent slugs, who guard, by sliming it over, 
 the snug place, which they consider in the light of an 
 hereditary estate ; and eat, drink, and enjoy themselves, 
 instead of fulfilling the duties, excepting a few empty forms, 
 for which it was endowed. These are the people who 
 most strenuously insist on the will of the founder being 
 observed, crying out against all reformation, as if it were a 
 violation of justice. I am now alluding particularly to the 
 relics of Popery retained in our colleges, when the Protestant 
 members seem to be such sticklers for the established 
 church; but their zeal never makes them lose sight of 
 the spoil of ignorance, which rapacious priests of super- 
 stitious memory have scraped together. No, wise in their 
 generation, they venerate the prescriptive right of possession, 
 as a stronghold, and still let the sluggish bell tinkle to 
 prayers, as during the days when the elevation of the 
 host was supposed to atone for the sins of the people, 
 lest one reformation should lead to another, and the spirit 
 kill the letter. These Romish customs have the most 
 baneful effect on the morals of our clergy ; for the idle 
 vermin who two or three times a day perform in the most 
 slovenly manner a service which they think useless, but call 
 their duty, soon lose a sense of duty. At college, forced to 
 attend or evade public worship, they acquire an habitual 
 contempt for the very service, the performance of which is 
 to enable them to live in idleness. It is mumbled over as 
 an affair of business, as a stupid boy repeats his talk, 
 and frequently the college cant escapes from the preacher 
 the moment after he has left the pulpit, and even whilst he 
 
230 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 is eating the dinner which he earned in such a dishonest 
 manner. 
 
 Nothing, indeed, can be more irreverent than the 
 cathedral service as it is now performed in this country, 
 neither does it contain a set of weaker men than those who 
 are the slaves of this childish routine. A disgusting skeleton 
 of the former state is still exhibited ; but all the solemnity 
 that interested the imagination, if it did not purify the 
 heart, is stripped off. The performance of high mass 
 on the Continent must impress every mind, where a spark of 
 fancy glows, with that awful melancholy, that sublime 
 tenderness, so near akin to devotion. I do not say that 
 these devotional feelings are of more use, in a moral sense, 
 than any other emotion of taste ; but I contend that the 
 theatrical pomp which gratifies our senses, is to be preferred 
 to the cold parade that insults the understanding without 
 reaching the heart. 
 
 Amongst remarks on national education, such observa 
 tions cannot be misplaced, especially as the supporters of 
 these establishments, degenerated into puerilities, affect to 
 be the champions of religion. Religion, pure source of 
 comfort in this vale of tears ! how has thy clear stream 
 been muddied by the dabblers, who have presumptuously 
 endeavoured to confine in one narrow channel, the living 
 waters that ever flow towards God — the sublime ocean of 
 existence ! What would life be without that peace which 
 the love of God, when built on humanity, alone can impart ? 
 Every earthly affection turns back, at intervals, to prey 
 upon the heart that feeds it ; and the purest effusions of 
 benevolence, often rudely damped by man, must mount 
 as a free-will offering to Him who gave them birth, whose 
 bright image they faintly reflect. 
 
 In public schools, however, religion, confounded with 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 231 
 
 irksome ceremonies and unreasonable restraints, assumes 
 the most .ungracious aspect : not the sober austere one 
 that commands respect whilst it inspires fear ; but a 
 ludicrous cast, that serves to point a pun. For, in fact, 
 most of the good stories and smart things which enliven the 
 spirits that have been concentrated at whist, are manu- 
 factured out of the incidents to which the very men labour 
 to give a droll turn who countenance the abuse to live on 
 the spoil. 
 
 There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical, 
 or luxurious set of men, than the pedantic tyrants who 
 reside in colleges and preside at public schools. The 
 vacations are equally injurious to the morals of the masters 
 and pupils, and the intercourse, which the former keep up 
 with the nobility, introduces the same vanity and extra- 
 vagance into their families, which banish domestic duties 
 and comforts from the lordly mansion, whose state is 
 awkwardly aped. The boys, who live at a great expense 
 with the masters and assistants, are never domesticated, 
 though placed there for that purpose ; for, after a silent 
 dinner, they swallow a hasty glass of wine, and retire to 
 plan some mischievous trick, or to ridicule the person 
 or manners of the very people they have just been cringing 
 to, and whom they ought to consider as the representatives 
 of their parents. 
 
 Can it then be a matter of surprise that boys become 
 selfish and vicious who are thus 'shut out from social 
 converse ? or that a mitre often graces the brow of one 
 of these diligent pastors ? 
 
 The desire of living in the same style, as the rank 
 just ahove them, infects each individual and every class 
 of people, and meanness is the concomitant of this ignoble 
 ambition ; but those professions are most debasing whose 
 
 - 
 
*32 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 ladder is patronage ; yet, out of one of these professions the 
 tutors of youth are, in general, chosen. But, can they be 
 expected to inspire independent sentiments, whose conduct 
 must be regulated by the cautious prudence that is ever on 
 the watch for preferment ? 
 
 So far, however, from thinking of the morals of boys, 
 I have heard several masters of schools argue, that they 
 only undertook to teach Latin and Greek ; and that they 
 had fulfilled their duty, by sending some good scholars to 
 college. 
 
 A few good scholars, I grant, may have been formed by 
 emulation and discipline ; but, to bring forward these 
 clever boys, the health and morals of a number have been 
 sacrificed. The sons of our gentry and wealthy commoners 
 are mostly educated at these seminaries, and will any 
 one pretend to assert that the majority, making every 
 allowance, come under the description of tolerable scholars ? 
 
 It is not for the benefit of society that a few brilliant men 
 should be brought forward at the expense of the multitude. 
 It is true, that great men seem to start up, as gTeat 
 revolutions occur, at proper intervals, to restore order, and 
 to blow aside the clouds that thicken over the face of truth; 
 but let more reason and virtue prevail in society, and 
 these strong winds would not be necessary. Public educa- 
 tion, of every denomination, should be directed to form 
 -citizens; but if you wish to make good citizens, you must 
 first exercise the affections of a son and a brother. This is 
 the only way to expand the heart ; for public affections, as 
 well as public virtues, must ever grow out of the private 
 character, or they are merely meteors that shoot athwart a 
 dark sky, and disappear as they are gazed at and admired. 
 
 Few, I believe, have had much affection for mankind, 
 who did not first love their parents, their brothers, sisters, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 233 
 
 and even the domestic brutes, whom they first played 
 with. The exercise of youthful sympathies forms the moral 
 temperature ; and it is the recollection of these first affec- 
 tions and pursuits that gives life to those that are afterwards 
 more under the direction of reason. In youth, the fondest 
 friendships are formed, the genial juices mounting at the 
 same time, kindly mix ; or, rather the heart, tempered for 
 the reception of friendship, is accustomed to seek for 
 pleasure in something more noble than the churlish grati- 
 fication of appetite. 
 
 In order then to inspire a love of home and domestic 
 pleasures, children ought to be educated at home, for 
 riotous holidays only make them fond of home for their 
 own sakes. Yet, the vacations, which do not foster 
 domestic affections, continually disturb the course of study, 
 and render any plan of improvement abortive which includes 
 temperance ; still, were they abolished, children would be 
 entirely separated from their parents, and I question 
 whether they would become better citizens by sacrificing 
 the preparatory affections, by destroying the force of relation- 
 ships that render the marriage state as necessary as respect- 
 able. But, if a private education produce self-importance, 
 or insulate a man in his family, the evil is only shifted, not 
 remedied. 
 
 This train of reasoning brings me back to a subject, 
 on which I mean to dwell, the necessity of establishing 
 proper day-schools. 
 
 But, these should be national establishments, for whilst 
 schoolmasters are dependent on the caprice of parents, 
 little exertion can be expected from them, more than is 
 necessary to please ignorant people. Indeed, the necessity 
 of a master's giving the parents some sample of the boy's 
 abilities, which during the vacation is shown to every 
 
 """■* " 
 
234 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 visitor,* is productive of more mischief than would at 
 first be supposed. * For it is seldom done entirely, to 
 speak with moderation, by the child itself; thus the master 
 countenances falsehood, or winds the poor machine up 
 to some extraordinary exertion, that injures the wheels, and 
 stops the progress of gradual improvement. The memory 
 is loaded with unintelligible words, to make a show of, 
 without the understanding's acquiring any distinct ideas : 
 but only that education deserves emphatically to be termed 
 cultivation of mind, which teaches young people how to 
 begin to think. The imagination should not be allowed to 
 debauch the understanding before it gained strength, or 
 vanity will become the forerunner of vice : for every way of 
 exhibiting the acquirements of a child is injurious to its 
 moral character. 
 
 How much time is lost in teaching them to recite what 
 they do not understand? whilst, seated on benches, all 
 in their best array, the mammas listen with astonishment to 
 the parrot-like prattle, uttered in solemn cadences, with 
 all the pomp of ignorance and folly. Such exhibitions 
 only serve to strike the spreading fibres of vanity through 
 the whole mind ; for they neither teach children to speak 
 fluently, nor behave gracefully. So far from it, that these 
 frivolous pursuits might comprehensively be termed the 
 study of affectation ; for we now rarely see a simple, 
 bashful boy, though few people of taste were ever disgusted 
 by that awkward sheepishness so natural to the age, which 
 schools and an early introduction into society, have changed 
 into impudence and apish grimace. 
 
 Yet, how can these things be remedied whilst school- 
 
 * I now particularly allude to the numerous academies in and about 
 London, and to the behaviour of the trading part of this great city. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 235 
 
 masters depend entirely on parents for a subsistence ; 
 and, when so many rival schools hang out their lures, 
 to catch the attention of vain fathers and mothers, whose 
 parental affection only leads them to wish that their children 
 should outshine those of their neighbours ? 
 
 Without great good luck, a sensible, conscientious man, 
 would starve before he could raise a school, if he disdained 
 to bubble weak parents by practising the secret tricks of the 
 craft. 
 
 In the best regulated schools, however, where swarms are 
 not crammed together, many bad habits must be acquired ; 
 but, at common schools, the body, heart, and understanding, 
 are equally stunted, for parents are often only in quest 
 of the cheapest school, and the master could not live, 
 if he did not take a much greater number than he could 
 manage himself; nor will the scanty pittance, allowed for 
 each child, permit him to hire ushers sufficient to assist 
 in the discharge of the mechanical part of the business. 
 Besides, whatever appearance the house and garden may- 
 make, the children do not enjoy the comfort of either, 
 for they are continually reminded by irksome restrictions 
 that they are not at home, and the state-rooms, garden, 
 &c, must be kept in order for the recreation of the 
 parents; who, of a Sunday, visit the school, and are 
 impressed by the very parade that renders the situation 
 of their children uncomfortable. 
 
 With what disgust have I heard sensible women, for 
 girls are more restrained and cowed than boys, speak 
 of the wearisome confinement, which they endured at 
 school. Not allowed, perhaps, to step out of one broad 
 walk in a superb garden, and obliged to pace with steady 
 deportment stupidly backwards and forwards, holding up 
 their heads and turning out their toes, with shoulders 
 
 ~T~, 
 
236 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 braced back, instead of bounding, as nature directs to 
 complete her own design, in the various attitudes so 
 conducive to health.* The pure animal spirits, which 
 make both mind and body shoot out, and unfold the 
 tender blossoms of hope, are turned sour, and vented in 
 vain wishes or pert repinings, that contract the faculties 
 and spoil the temper ; else they mount to the brain, and 
 sharpening the understanding before it gains proportionable 
 strength, produce that pitiful cunning which disgracefully 
 characterises the female mind— and I fear will ever charac- 
 terise it whilst women remain the slaves of power ! 
 
 The little respect paid to chastity in the male world 
 is, I am persuaded, the grand source of many of the 
 physical and moral evils that torment mankind, as well as 
 of the vices and follies that degrade and destroy women ; 
 yet, at school, boys infallibly lose that decent bashfulness' 
 which might have ripened into modesty, at home. 
 
 And what nasty indecent tricks do they not also learn 
 from each other, when a number of them pig together 
 m the same bedchamber, not to speak of the vices, which 
 render the body weak, whilst they effectually prevent the 
 
 * I remember a circumstance that once came under my own observa- 
 Uon, and raised my indignation. I went to visit a little boy at a school 
 where young children were prepared for a large one. The master took 
 me into the schoolroom, &c, but whilst I walked down a broad gravel 
 walk, I could not help observing that the grass grew very luxuriantly 
 on each side of me. I immediately asked the child some questions 
 and found that the poor boys were not allowed to stir off the walk and 
 that the master sometimes permitted sheep to be turned in to crop the 
 untrodden grass. The tyrant of this domain used to sit by a window 
 that overlooked the prison yard, and one nook turning from it where 
 the unfortunate babes could sport freely, he enclosed, and planted it 
 with potatoes. The wife likewise was equally anxious to keep the 
 children in order, lest they should dirty or tear their clothes 
 
 ■-■ ' Pi 
 
 EIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 237 
 
 acquisition of any delicacy of mind. The little attention 
 paid to the cultivation of modesty, amongst men, produces 
 great depravity in all the relationships of society ; for, 
 not only love— love that ought to purify the heart, and 
 first call forth all the youthful powers, to prepare the 
 man to discharge the benevolent duties of life, is sacrificed 
 to premature lust ; but, all the social affections are deadened 
 by the selfish gratifications, which very early pollute the mind, 
 and dry up the generous juices of the heart. In what an 
 unnatural manner is innocence often violated ; and what 
 serious consequences ensue to render private vices a public 
 pest. Besides, an habit of personal order, which has more 
 effect on the moral character, than is, in general, supposed, 
 can only be acquired at home, where that respectable 
 reserve is kept up which checks the familiarity, that sinking 
 into beastliness, undermines the affection it insults. 
 
 I have already animadverted on the bad habits which 
 females acquire when they are shut up together ; and, 
 I think, that the observation may fairly be extended to 
 the other sex, till the natural inference is drawn which 
 I have had in view throughout — tli at to improve both 
 sexes_they_ought, no^only_in jirivate^amilies^ but in public, 
 s chools, to be educated together. If marriage be the 
 cement of society, mankind should all be educated after 
 the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will 
 never deserve the name of fellowship, nor will women 
 ever fulfil the peculiar duties of their sex, till they 
 become enlightened citizens, till they become free by- 
 being enabled to earn thjyr_j>wn subsistence, independent 
 of^ men ; in the same manner, I mean, to prevent mis- 
 constructi on, as one man i s independent of another. 
 Nay, marriage will never be' held sacred till women, by 
 being brought up with men, are prepared to be their 
 
238 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 230 
 
 
 companions rather than their mistresses ; for the mean 
 doublings of cunning will ever render them contemptible, 
 whilst oppression renders them timid. So convinced am 
 I of this truth, that I will venture to predict that virtue 
 will never prevail in society till the virtues of both sexes are 
 founded on reason ; and, till the affections common to 
 both are allowed to gain their due strength by the discharge 
 
 f mutual duties. 
 Were boys and girls permitted to pursue the same studies 
 together, those graceful decenries~might eafty'be incuTcated 
 which produce modesty without those sexual distinctions 
 that taint the mind. Lessons of politeness, and that formu- 
 
 ry of decorum, which treads on the heels of falsehood, 
 would be rendered useless by habitual propriety of behaviour. 
 Not indeed put on for visitors, like the courtly robe of 
 politeness, but the sober effect of cleanliness of mind. 
 Would not this simple elegance of sincerity be a chaste 
 homage paid to domestic affections, far surpassing the 
 meretricious compliments that shine with false lustre in the 
 heartless intercourse of fashionable life? But till more 
 understanding preponderates in society, there will ever be a 
 want of heart and taste, and the harlot's rouge will supply 
 the place of that celestial suffusion which only virtuous 
 affections can give to the face. Gallantry, and what is called 
 love, may subsist without simplicity of character ; but the 
 main pillars of friendship are respect and confidence — 
 esteem is never founded on it cannot tell what ! 
 
 A taste for the fine arts requires great cultivation, but not 
 more than a taste for the virtuous affections, and both sup- 
 pose that enlargement of mind which opens so many 
 sources of mental pleasure. Why do people hurry to noisy 
 scenes and crowded circles ? I should answer, because they 
 want activity of mind, because they have not cherished the 
 
 virtues of the heart. They only therefore see and feel in 
 the gross, and continually pine after variety, finding every- 
 thing that is simple insipid. 
 
 This argument may be carried further than philosophers 
 are aware of, for if nature destined woman, in particular, 
 for the discharge of domestic duties, she made her sus- 
 ceptible of the attached affections in a great degree. Now 
 women are notoriously fond of pleasure, and naturally must 
 be so according to my definition, because they cannot enter 
 into the minutiae of domestic taste, lacking judgment, the 
 foundation of all taste ; for the understanding, in spite of 
 sensual cavillers, reserves to itself the privilege of conveying 
 pure joy to the heart. 
 
 With what a languid yawn have I seen an admirable poem 
 thrown down that a man of true taste returns to again and 
 again with rapture ; and whilst melody has almost suspended 
 respiration, a lady has asked me where I bought my gown. 
 I have seen also an eye glanced coldly over a most exqui- 
 site picture rest, sparkling with pleasure, on a caricature 
 rudely sketched ; and whilst some terrific feature in nature 
 has spread a sublime stillness through my soul, I have been 
 desired to observe the pretty tricks of a lap-dog that my 
 perverse fate forced me to travel with. Is it surprising that 
 such a tasteless being should rather caress this dog than her 
 children ? Or that she should prefer the rant of flattery to 
 the simple accents of sincerity? 
 
 To' illustrate this remark I must be allowed to observe 
 that men of the first genius and most cultivated minds have 
 appeared to have the highest relish for the simple beauties of 
 nature ; and they must have forcibly felt, what they have so 
 well described, the charm which natural affections and un- 
 sophisticated feelings spread round the human character. 
 It is this power of looking into the heart, and respon- 
 
 
 "1 
 
 
240 
 
 VINDICATION- OF THE 
 
 sively vibrating with each emotion, that enables the poet to 
 personify each passion, and the painter to sketch with a 
 pencil of fire. 
 
 . True taste is ever the work of the understanding em- 
 ployed in observing natural effects ; and till women have 
 more understanding, it is vain to expect them to possess 
 domestic taste. Their lively senses will ever be at work to 
 harden their hearts, and the emotions struck out of them will 
 continue to be vivid and transitory, unless a proper educa- 
 tion store their mind with knowledge. 
 
 It is the want of domestic taste, and not the acquirement 
 of knowledge, that takes women out of their families, and 
 tears the smiling babe from the breast that ought to afford 
 it nourishment. Women have been allowed to remain in 
 ignorance and slavish dependence many, very many, years, 
 and still we hear of nothing but their fondness of pleasure 
 and sway, their preference of rakes and soldiers, their child- 
 ish attachment to toys, and the vanity that makes them value 
 accomplishments more than virtues. 
 
 History brings forward a fearful catalogue of the crimes 
 which their cunning has produced, when the weak slaves 
 have had sufficient address to overreach their masters. In 
 France, and in how many other countries, have men been 
 the luxurious despots, and women the crafty ministers? 
 Does this prove that ignorance and dependence domesticate 
 them ? Is not their folly the byword of the libertines, who 
 relax in their society? and do not men of sense continually 
 lament that an immoderate fondness for dress and dissipa- 
 tion carries the mother of a family for ever from home? 
 Their Jiearts have not been debauched by knowledge, or 
 their minds led away by scientific pursuits, yet they do not 
 fulfil the peculiar duties which, as women, they are called 
 upon by nature to fulfil. On the contrary, the state of war- 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 241 
 
 fare which subsists between the sexes makes them employ 
 those wiles that often frustrate the more open designs of force. 
 
 When therefore I call women slaves, I mean in a poli- 
 tical and civil sense; for indirectly they obtain too much 
 power, and are debased by their exertions to obtain illicit^ 
 sway. 
 
 Let an enlightened nation * then try what effect reason 
 would have to bring teSfi A fja~ck to nature, and their duty , 
 -*w allowing them to share the advantages of education and 
 government with man, see whether they will become better, 
 as they grow wiser and become free. They cannot be 
 injured by the experiment, for it is not in the power of 
 man to render them more insignificant than they are at„ 
 present. m 
 
 To render this practicable, day schools for particular ages 
 should be established by Government, in which boys and 
 girls might be educated together. The school for the 
 younger children, from five to nine years of age, ought to 
 be absolutely free and open to all classes.! A sufficient 
 number of masters should also be chosen by a select com- 
 mittee in each parish, to whom any complaint of negligence, 
 &c, might be made, if signed by six of the children's 
 parents. 
 
 Ushers would then be unnecessary ; for I believe expe- 
 rience will ever prove that this kind of subordinate authority 
 is particularly injurious to the morals of youth. What, 
 indeed, can tend to deprave the character more than out- 
 ward submission and inward contempt ? Yet how can boys 
 
 * France. 
 
 t Treating this part of the subject, I have borrowed some hints 
 from a very sensible pamphlet, written by the late Bishop of Autun, on 
 " Public Education." 
 
242 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 be expected to treat an usher with respect, when the master 
 seems to consider him in the light of a servant, and almost 
 to countenance the ridicule which becomes the chief amuse- 
 ment of the boys during the play hours? 
 
 But nothing of this kind could occur in an elementary- 
 day school, where boys and girls, the rich and poor, should 
 meet together. And to prevent any of the distinctions of 
 vanity, they should be dressed alike, and all obliged to sub- 
 mit to the same discipline, or leave the school. The school- 
 room ought to be surrounded by a large piece of ground, in 
 which the children might be usefully exercised, for at this 
 age they should not be confined to any sedentary employ- 
 ment for more than an hour at a time. But these relaxa- 
 tions might all be rendered a part of elementary education, 
 for many things improve and amuse the senses, when intro- 
 duced as a kind of show, to the principles of which, dryly 
 laid down, children would turn a deaf ear. For instance, 
 botany, mechanics, and astronomy ; reading, writing, arith- 
 metic, natural history, and some simple experiments in 
 natural philosophy, might fill up the day; but these pur- 
 suits should never encroach on gymnastic plays in the open 
 air. The elements of religion, history, the history of man, 
 and politics, might also be taught by conversations in the 
 Socratic form. 
 
 _ After the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domes- 
 tic employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be removed 
 to other schools, and receive instruction in some measure 
 appropriated to the destination of each individual, the two 
 sexes being still together in the morning; but in the 
 afternoon the girls should attend a school, where plain 
 work, mantua-making, millinery, &c, would be their em- 
 ployment. 
 
 The young people of superior abilities, or fortune, might 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 2 43 
 
 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 youn^ 
 people, might not perfectly agree with the views of the 
 parents, for it will be a long time, I fear, before the world 
 will be so far enlightened that parents, only anxious to 
 render their children virtuous, shall allow them to choose 
 companions for life themselves. , 
 
 Besides, this would be a sure way to promote early mar- 
 riages, and from early marriages the most salutary physical j> 
 and moral effects naturally flow. What a different character *" 
 does a married citizen assume from the selfish coxcomb, who 
 lives but for himself, and who is often afraid to marry lest he 
 should not be able to live in a certain style. Great emer- 
 gencies excepted, which would rarely occur in a society of 
 which equality was the basis, a man can only be prepared 
 to discharge the duties of public life, by the habitual practice 
 of those inferior ones which form the man. 
 
 In this plan of education the constitution of boys would 
 not be ruined by the early debaucheries, which now make 
 men so selfish, or girls rendered weak and vain, by indolence, 
 and frivolous pursuits. But, I presuppose, that such a 
 degree of equality should be established between the sexes 
 as would shut out gallantry and coquetry, yet allow friend- 
 ship and love to temper the heart for the discharge of higher 
 duties. 
 
 These would be schools of morality — and the happiness 
 of man, allowed to flow from the pure springs of duty and 
 
244 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 affection, what advances might not the human mind make ? 
 Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is 
 virtuous ; but the present distinctions, established in society, 
 corrode all private, and blast all public virtue. 
 
 I have already inveighed against the custom of confining 
 girls to their needle, and shutting them out from all political 
 and civil employments ; for by thus narrowing their minds 
 they are rendered unfit to fulfil the peculiar duties which 
 nature has assigned them. 
 
 Only employed about the little incidents of the day, they 
 necessarilygrow up cunning. My very soul has often sickened 
 at observing the sly tricks practised by women to gain some 
 foolish thing on which their silly hearts were set. Not 
 allowed to dispose of money, or call anything their own, 
 they learn to turn the market penny ; or, should a husband 
 offend, by staying from home, or give rise to some emotions 
 of jealousy— a new gown, or any pretty bauble, smooths 
 Juno's angry brow. 
 
 But these littlenesses would not degrade their character, if 
 
 women were led to respect themselves, if political and moral 
 
 subjects were opened to them ; and, I will venture to affirm, 
 
 that this is the only way to make them properly attentive to 
 
 their domestic duties. An active mind embraces the whole 
 
 VNyrcle of its duties, and finds time enough for all. It is not, 
 
 I I assert, a bold attempt to emulate masculine virtues ; it is 
 
 I not the enchantment of literary pursuits, or the steady 
 
 / investigation of scientific subjects, that leads women astray 
 
 L fcnm duty. No, it is indolence and vanity — the love of 
 
 pleasure and the love of sway, that will reign paramount in 
 
 an empty mind. I say empty emphatically, because the 
 
 education which women now receive scarcely deserves the 
 
 name. For the little knowledge that they are led to acquire, 
 
 during the important years of youth, is merely relative to 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 2 45 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 — i , — 
 
 - - 
 
 accomplishments ; and accomplishments without a bottom, 
 for unless the understanding be cultivated, superficial and 
 monotonous is every grace. Like the charms of a made-up 
 face, they only strike the senses in a crowd ; but at home, 
 wanting mind, they want variety. The consequence is 
 obvious ; in gay scenes of dissipation we meet the artificial 
 mind and face, for those who fly from solitude dread, next 
 to solitude, the domestic circle ; not having it in their power 
 to amuse or interest, they feel their own insignificance, or 
 find nothing to amuse or interest themselves. 
 
 Besides, what can be more indelicate than a girl's coming 
 out in the fashionable world? Which, in other words, is to 
 bring to market a marriageable miss, whose person is taken 
 from one public place to another, richly caparisoned. Yet, 
 mixing in the giddy circle under restraint, these butterflies 
 long to flutter at large, for the first affection of their souls is 
 their own persons, to which their attention has been called 
 with the most sedulous care whilst they were preparing for 
 the period that decides their fate for life. Instead of pur- 
 suing this idle routine, fighting for tasteless show, and heart- 
 less state, with what dignity would the youths of both sexes 
 form attachments in the schools that I have cursorily pointed 
 out ; in which, as life advanced, dancing, music, and draw- 
 ing, might be admitted as relaxations, for at these schools 
 young people of fortune ought to remain, more or less, till 
 they were of age. Those who were designed for particular 
 professions might attend, three or four mornings in the week, 
 the schools appropriated for their immediate instruction. 
 
 I only drop these observations at present, as hints ; rather, 
 indeed, as an outline of the plan I mean, than a digested 
 one ; but I must add, that I highly approve of one regulation 
 mentioned in the pamphlet * already alluded to, that of 
 
 * The Bishop of Autun's. 
 
 ~\. 
 
246 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 making the children and youths independent of the masters 
 respecting punishments. They should be tried by their 
 peers, which would be an admirable method of fixing sound 
 principles of justice in the mind, and might have the 
 happiest effect on the temper, which is very early soured or 
 irritated by tyranny, till it becomes peevishly cunning, or 
 ferociously overbearing. 
 
 My imagination darts forward with benevolent fervour to 
 greet these amiable and respectable groups, in spite of the 
 sneering of cold hearts, who are at liberty to utter, with 
 frigid self-importance, the damning epithet — romantic ; the 
 force of which I shall endeavour to blunt by repeating the 
 words of an eloquent moralist. " I know not whether the 
 allusions of a truly humane heart, whose zeal renders every- 
 thing easy, be not preferable to that rough and repulsing 
 reason, which always finds an indifference for the public 
 good, the first obstacle to whatever would promote it." 
 
 I know that libertines will also exclaim, that woman 
 would be unsexed by acquiring strength of body and mind, 
 and that beauty, soft betwitching beauty ! would no longer 
 adorn the daughters of men. I am of a very different 
 opinion, for I think that, on the contrary, we should then 
 see dignified beauty and true grace ; to produce which, 
 many powerful physical and moral causes would concur. 
 Not relaxed beauty, it is true, or the graces of helplessness ; 
 but such as appears to make us respect the human body as 
 a majestic pile fit to receive a noble inhabitant, in the relics 
 of antiquity. 
 
 I do not forget the popular opinion that the Grecian 
 statues were not modelled after nature. I mean, not accord- 
 ing to the proportions of a particular man ; but that beauti- 
 ful limbs and features were selected from various bodies to 
 form an harmonious whole. This might, in some .degree, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 247 
 
 be true. The fine ideal picture of an exalted imagination 
 might be superior to the materials which the statuary found 
 in nature, and thus it might with propriety be termed rather 
 the model of mankind than of a man. It was not, how- 
 ever, the mechanical selection of limbs and features ; but 
 the ebullition of an heated fancy that burst forth, and the 
 fine senses and enlarged understanding of the artist selected 
 the solid matter, which he drew into this glowing focus. 
 
 I observed that it was not mechanical, because a whole 
 was produced— a model of that grand simplicity, of those 
 concurring energies, which arrest our attention and command 
 our reverence. For only insipid lifeless beauty is produced 
 by a servile copy of even beautiful nature. Yet, independent 
 of these observations, I believe that the human form must 
 have been far more beautiful than it is at present, because 
 extreme indolence, barbarous ligatures, and many causes, 
 which forcibly act on it, in our luxurious state of society, 
 did not retard its expansion, or render it deformed. 
 Exercise and cleanliness appear to be not only the 
 surest means of preserving health, but of promoting 
 beauty, the physical causes only considered; yet this 
 is not sufficient, moral ones must concur, or beauty will 
 be merely of that rustic kind which blooms on the innocent, 
 wholesome countenances of some country people, whose 
 minds have not been exercised. To render the person 
 perfect, physical and moral beauty ought to be attained at 
 the same time ; each lending and receiving force by the 
 combination. Judgment must reside on the brow, affection 
 and fancy beam in the eye, and humanity curve the cheek, 
 or vain is the sparkling of the finest eye or the elegantly 
 turned finish of the fairest features ; whilst in every motion 
 that displays the active limbs and well-knit joints, grace and 
 modesty should appear. But this fair assemblage is not to 
 
 
248 
 
 VIXDICA TIOX OF THE 
 
 be brought together by chance ; it is the reward of exertions 
 calculated to support each other ; for judgment can only be 
 acquired by reflection, affection by the discharge of duties, 
 and humanity by the exercise of compassion to every living 
 creature. 
 
 Humanity to animals should be particularly inculcated as 
 a part of national education, >r it is not at present one of 
 our national virtues. Tend less for their humble dumb 
 domestics, amongst the lowe class, is oftener to be found 
 in a savage than a civilised state. For civilisation prevents 
 that intercourse which creates affection in the rude hut, or 
 mud hovel, and leads uncultivated minds who are only 
 depraved by the refinements which prevail in the society, 
 where they are trodden under oot by the rich, to domineer 
 over them to revenge the insults that they are obliged to 
 bear from their superiors. 
 
 This habitual cruelty is first caught at school, where it is 
 one of the rare sports of the boys to torment the miserable 
 brutes that fall in their way. The transition, as they grow 
 up, from barbarity to brutes to domestic tyranny over wives, 
 children, and servants, is very easy. Justice, or even bene- . 
 volence, will not be a powerful spring of action unless it 
 extend to the whole creation ; nay, I believe that it may 
 be delivered as an axiom, that those who can see pain, 
 unmoved, will soon learn to inflict it. 
 
 The vulgar are swayed by present feelings, and the habits 
 which they have accidentally acquired ; but on partial feel- 
 ings much dependence cannot be placed, though they be 
 just ; for, when they are not invigorated by reflection, 
 custom weakens them, till they are scarcely perceptible. 
 The sympathies of our nature are strengthened by ponder- 
 ing cogitations, and deadened by thoughtless use. Macbeth's 
 heart smote him more for one murder, the first, than for 
 
 RIGHTS OF WO MAX. 
 
 249 
 
 a hundred subsequent ones, which were necessary to 
 back it. 
 
 But, when I used the epithet vulgar, I did not mean to 
 confine my remark to the poor, for partial humanity, founded 
 on present sensations, or whim, is quite as conspicuous, if 
 not more so, amongst the rich. 
 
 The lady who sheds tears for the bird starved in a snare, 
 and execrates the devils in the shape of men, who goad to 
 madness the poor ox, or whip the patient ass, tottering under 
 a burden above its strength, will nevertheless keep her 
 coachman and horses whole hours waiting for her, when the 
 sharp frost bites, or the rain beats against the well-closed 
 windows which do not admit a breath of air to tell her how 
 roughly the wind blows without. And she who takes her 
 dogs to bed, and nurses them with a parade of sensibility, 
 when sick, will suffer her babes to grow up crooked in a 
 nursery. This illustration of my argument is drawn from a 
 matter of fact. The woman whom I allude to was hand- 
 some, reckoned very handsome, by those who do not miss 
 the mind when the face is plump and fair ; but her under- 
 standing, had n ot been, led from^female duties by literature. 
 nor her innocence debauched by knowledge. No, she was 
 quite feminine, according to the masculine acceptation of 
 the word ; and, so far from loving these spoiled brutes that 
 filled the place which her children ought to have occupied, 
 she only lisped out a pretty mixture of French and English 
 nonsense, to please the men who flocked round her. The 
 wife, mother, and human creature, were all swallowed up by 
 the factitious character which an improper education and 
 the selfish vanity of beauty had produced. 
 
 I do not like to make a distinction without a difference, 
 and I own that I have been as much disgusted by the fine 
 lady who took her lapdog to her bosom instead of her child ; 
 
 c 
 
 
VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 as by the ferocity of a man, who, beating his horse, declared, 
 that he knew as well when he did wrong, as a Christian. 
 
 This brood of folly shows how mistaken they are who, if 
 they allow women to leave their harems, do not cultivate 
 their understandings, in order to plant virtues in their 
 hearts. For had they sense, they might acquire that do- 
 mestic taste which would lead them to love with reasonable 
 subordination their whole family, from their husband to the 
 house dog ; nor would they ever insult humanity in the 
 person of the most menial servant by paying more attention 
 to the comfort of a brute, than to that of a fellow-creature. 
 
 My observations on national education are obviously 
 hints ; but I principally wish to enforce the necessity of 
 educating the sexes together to perfect both, and of making 
 children sleep at home that they may learn to love home ; 
 yet to make private support, instead of smothering, public 
 affections, they should be sent to school to mix with a num- 
 ber of equals, for only by the jostlings of equality can we 
 form a just opinion of ourselves. 
 
 To render mankind more virtuous, and happierof course, 
 both sexes must act from the same principle ; but how can 
 that be expected when only one is allowed to see the 
 reasonableness of it ? To render also the social compact 
 truly equitable, and in order to spread those enlightening 
 principles, which alone can ameliorate the fate of man, 
 women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge, 
 which is scarcely possible unless. they be educated by the 
 same pursuits as men. For they are now made so inferior 
 by ignorance and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked 
 with them ; or, by the serpentine wrigglings of cunning, 
 they mount the tree of knowledge, and only acquire suffi- 
 cient to lead men astray. 
 
 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 of great enter- 
 prises, though the narrowness of their minds often make 
 them mar, what they are unable to comprehend. 
 
 The libertinism, and even the virtues of superior men, 
 will always give women, of some description, great power 
 over them ; and these weak women, under the influence of 
 childish passions and selfish vanity, will throw a false light 
 over the objects which the very men view with their eyes, 
 who ought to enlighten their judgment. Men of fancy, and 
 those sanguine characters who mostly hold the helm of 
 human affairs, in general, relax in the society of women ; 
 and surely I need not cite to the most superficial reader of 
 history the numerous examples of vice and oppression 
 which the private intrigues of female favourites have pro- 
 duced ; not to dwell on the mischief that naturally arises 
 from the blundering interposition of well-meaning folly. 
 For in the transactions of business it is much better to have 
 to deal with a knave than a fool, because a knave adheres 
 to some plan ; and any plan of reason may be seen through 
 much sooner than a sudden flight of folly. The power 
 which vile and foolish women have had over wise men, who 
 possessed sensibility, is notorious ; I shall only mention one 
 instance. 
 
 Whoever drew a more exalted female character than 
 Rousseau ? though in the lump he constantly endeavoured 
 to degrade the sex. And why was he thus anxious? Truly 
 to justify to himself the affection which weakness and virtue 
 had made him cherish for that fool Theresa. He could not 
 raise her to the common level of her sex ; and therefore he 
 
 ■■-,.,.. . I. » 
 
252 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 laboured to bring woman down to hers. He found her a 
 convenient humble companion, and pride made him deter- 
 mine to find some superior virtues in the being whom he 
 chose to live with ; but did not her conduct during his 
 life, and after his death, clearly show how grossly he was 
 mistaken who called her a celestial innocent? Nay, in the 
 bitterness of his heart, he himself laments that when his 
 bodily infirmities made him no longer treat her like a 
 woman, she ceased to have an affection for him. And it 
 was very natural that she should, for having so few senti- 
 ments in common, when the sexual tie was broken, what 
 was to hold her ? To hold her affection whose sensibility 
 was confined to one sex, nay, to one man, it requires sense 
 to turn sensibility into the broad channel of humanity. 
 Many women have not mind enough to have an affection 
 for a woman, or a friendship for a man. But the sexual 
 weakness that makes woman depend on man for a subsist- 
 ence, produces a kind of cattish affection, which leads a 
 wife to purr about her husband as she would about any man 
 who fed and caressed her. 
 
 Men are, however, often gratified by this kind of fond- 
 ness, which is confined in a beastly manner to themselves; 
 but should they ever become more virtuous, they will wish 
 to converse at their fireside with a friend after they cease to 
 play with a mistress. 
 
 Besides, understanding is necessary to give variety and 
 interest to sensual enjoyments, for low indeed in the intel- 
 lectual scale is the mind that can continue to love when 
 neither virtue nor sense give a human appearance to an 
 animal appetite. But sense will always preponderate ; and 
 if women be not, in general, brought more on a level with 
 men, some superior women, like the Greek courtesans, will 
 assemble the men of abilities around them, and draw from 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 253 
 
 their families many citizens, who would have stayed at home 
 had their wives had more sense, or the graces which result 
 from the exercise of the understanding and fancy, the legiti- 
 mate parents of taste. A woman of talents, if she be not 
 absolutely ugly, will always obtain great power— raised by 
 the weakness of her sex ; and in proportion as men acquire 
 virtue and delicacy, by the exertion of reason, they will look 
 for both in women, but they can only acquire them in the 
 same way that men do. 
 
 In France or Italy, have the women confined themselves 
 to domestic life? Though they have not hitherto had a 
 political existence, yet have they not illicitly had great 
 sway, corrupting themselves and the men with whose pas- 
 sions they played. In short, in whatever light I view_the 
 subject, reason and experience convince me that the onTy" 
 method of leading women to fulfil their peculiar duties is to 
 free them from all restraint by allowing them to participate 
 the inherent rights of mankind. " 
 
 Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and 
 virtuous, as men become more so, for the improvement must 
 be mutual, or the injustice which one-half of the human race 
 are obliged to submit to retorting on their oppressors, the 
 virtue of man will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he 
 keeps under his feet. 
 
 Let men take their choice. Man and woman were 
 made for each other, though not to become one being ; 
 and if they will not improve women, they will deprave 
 
 them. 
 
 I speak of the improvement and emancipation of the 
 whole sex, for I know that the behaviour of a few women, 
 who, by accident, or following a strong bent of nature, have 
 acquired a portion of knowledge superior to that of the rest 
 of their sex, has often been .overbearing; but there have 
 
 '-■■•'• ' 
 
2 54 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 255 
 
 been instances of women who, attaining knowledge, have 
 not discarded modesty, nor have they always pedantically 
 appeared to despise the ignorance which they laboured to 
 disperse in their own minds. The exclamations then which 
 any advice respecting female learning commonly produces, 
 especially from pretty women, often arise from envy. When 
 they chance to see that even the lustre of their eyes, and 
 the flippant sportiveness of refined coquetry, will not always 
 secure them attention during a whole evening, should a 
 woman of a more cultivated understanding endeavour to 
 give a rational turn to the conversation, the common 
 source of consolation is that such women seldom get hus- 
 bands. What arts have I not seen silly women use to inter- 
 rupt hy flirtation— a very significant word to describe such 
 a manoeuvre— a rational conversation, which made the men 
 forget that they were pretty women. 
 
 But, allowing what is very natural to man, that the pos- 
 session of rare abilities is really calculated to excite over- 
 weening pride, disgusting in both men and women, in what 
 a state of inferiority must the female faculties have rusted 
 when such a small portion of knowledge as those women 
 attained, who have sneeringly been termed learned women 
 could be singular? -sufficiently so to puff up the possessor' 
 and excite envy in her contemporaries, and some of the 
 other sex. Nay, has not a little rationality exposed many 
 women to the severest censure? I advert to well-known 
 facts, for I have frequently heard women ridiculed, and 
 every little weakness exposed, only because they adopted 
 the advice of some medical men, and deviated from the 
 beaten track in their mode of treating their infants I have 
 actually heard this barbarous aversion to innovation carried 
 still further, and a sensible woman stigmatised as an unnatu- 
 ral mother, who has thus been wisely solicitous to preserve 
 
 — — , _ , — .. 
 
 f 
 
 the health of her children, when in the midst of her care she 
 has lost one by some of the casualties of infancy, which no 
 prudence can ward off. Her acquaintance have observed 
 that this was the consequence of new-fangled notions — the 
 new-fangled notions of ease and cleanliness. And those 
 who pretending to experience, though they have long 
 adhered to prejudices that have, according to the opinion 
 of the most sagacious physicians, thinned the human race, 
 almost rejoiced at the disaster that gave a kind of sanction 
 to prescription. 
 
 Indeed, if it were only on this account, the national edu- 
 cation of women is of the utmost consequence, for what a 
 number of human sacrifices are made to that Moloch preju- 
 dice ! And in how many ways are children destroyed by 
 the lasciviousness of man ? The want of natural affection 
 in many women, who are drawn from their duty by the 
 admiration of men, and the ignorance of others, render the 
 infancy of man a much more perilous state than that of 
 brutes ; yet men are unwilling to place women in situations 
 proper to enable them to acquire sufficient understanding to 
 know how even to nurse their babes. 
 
 So forcibly does this truth strike me that I would rest the 
 whole tendency of my reasoning upon it, for whatever tends 
 to incapacitate the maternal character, takes woman out of 
 her sphere. 
 
 But it is vain to expect the present race of weak mothers 
 either to take that reasonable care of a child's body, which 
 is necessary to lay the foundation of a good constitution, 
 supposing that it do not suffer for the sins of its fathers ; 
 or to manage its temper so judiciously that the child will 
 not have, as it grows up, to throw off all that its mother, its 
 first instructor, directly or indirectly taught; and unless the 
 mind have uncommon vigour, womanish follies will stick to 
 
 1 
 
 — T. 
 
*5« 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 the character throughout life. The weakness of the mother 
 will be visited on the children. And whilst women are 
 educated to rely on their husbands for judgment, this must 
 ever be the consequence, for there is no improving an un- 
 derstanding by halves, nor can any being act wisely from 
 imitation, because in every circumstance of life there is a 
 kind of individuality, which requires an exertion of judg- 
 ment to modify general rules. The being who can think 
 justly in one track will soon extend its intellectual empire ; 
 and she who has sufficient judgment to manage her chil- 
 dren will not submit, right or wrong, to her husband, or 
 patiently to the social laws which make a nonentity of a 
 wife. 
 
 In public schools women, to guard against the errors of 
 ignorance, should be taught the elements of anatomy and 
 medicine, not only to enable them to take proper care 
 of their own health, but to make them rational nurses 
 of their infants, parents, and husbands ; for the bills of 
 mortality are swelled by the blunders of self-willed old 
 women, who give nostrums of their own without knowing 
 anything of the human frame. It is likewise proper, only in 
 a domestic view, to make women acquainted with the ana- 
 tomy of the mind, by allowing the sexes to associate together 
 in every pursuit, and by leading them to observe the pro- 
 gress of the human understanding in the improvement of 
 the sciences and arts — never forgetting the science of 
 morality, or the study of the political history of mankind. 
 
 A man has been termed a microcosm, and every family 
 might also be called a state. States, it is true, have mostly 
 been governed by arts that disgrace the character of man, 
 and the want of a just constitution and equal laws have so 
 perplexed the notions of the worldly wise, that they more 
 than question the reasonableness of contending for the 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 257 
 
 rights of humanity. Thus morality, polluted in the national 
 reservoir, sends off streams of vice to corrupt the constituent 
 parts of the body politic ; but should more noble, or rather 
 more just, principles regulate the laws, which ought to be the 
 government of society, and not those who execute them, duty 
 might become the rule of private conduct. 
 
 Besides, by the exercise of their bodies and minds women 
 would acquire that mental activity so necessary in the ma- 
 ternal character, united with the fortitude that distinguishes 
 steadiness of conduct from the obstinate perverseness of 
 weakness. For it is dangerous to advise the indolent to be 
 steady, because they instantly become rigorous, and to save 
 themselves trouble, punish with severity faults that the 
 patient fortitude of reason might have prevented. 
 
 But fortitude presupposes strength of mind, and is 
 strength of mind to be acquired by indolent acquiescence? 
 by asking advice instead of exerting the judgment ? by 
 obeying through fear, instead of practising the forbearance 
 which we all stand in need of 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 par- 
 ticularly relative to the female world, because I think the 
 female world oppressed ; yet the gangrene, which the vices 
 engendered by oppression have produced, is not confined to 
 the morbid part, but pervades society at large; so that when 
 I wish to see my sex become more like moral agents,' my 
 heart bounds with the anticipation of the general diffusion 
 of that sublime contentment which only morality can diffuse. 
 
 R 
 
 , 
 
 '■ • 
 
2 5 8 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SOME INSTANCES OF THE FOLLY WHICH THE IGNORANCE OF 
 WOMEN GENERATES ; WITH CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 
 ON THE MORAL IMPROVEMENT THAT A REVOLUTION IN 
 FEMALE MANNERS MIGHT NATURALLY BE EXPECTED TO 
 PRODUCE. 
 
 THERE are many follies in some degree peculiar to 
 women — sins against reason of commission as well 
 as of omission — but all flowing from ignorance or prejudice. 
 I shall only point out such as appear' to be particularly 
 injurious to their moral character. And in animadverting 
 on them, I wish especially to prove that the weakness 
 of mind and body, which men have endeavoured, impelled 
 by various motives, to perpetuate, prevents their discharg- 
 ing the peculiar duty of their sex ; for when weakness 
 of body will not permit them to suckle their children, and 
 weakness of mind makes them spoil their tempers, is woman 
 in a natural state ? 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 One glaring instance of the weakness which proceeds 
 from ignorance first claims attention, and calls for severe 
 reproof. 
 
 In this metropolis a number of lurking leeches infamously 
 gain a subsistence by practising on the credulity of women, 
 pretending to cast nativities, to use the technical phrase ; 
 and many females who, proud of their rank and fortune, 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 259 
 
 look down on the vulgar with sovereign contempt, show by 
 this credulity that the distinction is arbitrary, and that they 
 have not sufficiently cultivated their minds to rise above 
 vulgar prejudices. Women, because they have not been led 
 to consider the knowledge of their duty as the one thing 
 necesssary to know, or to live in the present moment by the 
 discharge of it, are very anxious to peep into futurity to learn 
 what they have to expect to render life interesting, and to 
 break the vacuum of ignorance. 
 
 I must be allowed to expostulate seriously with the ladies 
 who follow these idle inventions ; for ladies, mistresses oi 
 families, are not ashamed to drive in their own carriages to 
 the door of the cunning man.* And if any of them should 
 peruse this work, I entreat them to answer to their own 
 hearts the following questions, not forgetting that they are in 
 the presence of God : — 
 
 Do you believe that there is but 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 cognisance 
 of your senses, in the same perfect harmony, to fulfil His 
 designs? 
 
 Do you acknowledge that the power of looking into 
 futurity, and seeing things that are not, as if they were, is an 
 attribute of the Creator? And should He, by an impres- 
 
 * I once lived in the neighbourhood ol one of these men, a hand- 
 some man, and saw with surprise and indignation women, whose 
 appearance and attendance bespoke that rank in which females are 
 supposed to receive a superior education, flock to his door. 
 
 , 
 
260 
 
 VINDICA TION OF THE 
 
 sion on the minds of His creatures, think fit to impart to 
 them some event hid in the shades of time yet unborn, 
 to whom would the secret be revealed by immediate in- 
 spiration? The opinion of ages will answer this question 
 — to reverend old men, to people distinguished for eminent 
 piety. 
 
 The oracles of old were thus delivered by priests dedi- 
 cated to the service of the God who was supposed to in- 
 spire them. The glare of worldly pomp which surrounded 
 these impostors, and the respect paid to them by artful poli- 
 ticians, who knew how to avail themselves of this useful 
 engine to bend the necks of the strong under the dominion 
 of the cunning, spread a sacred mysterious veil of sanctity 
 over their lies and abominations. Impressed by such 
 solemn devotional parade, a Greek or Roman lady might 
 be excused, if she inquired of the oracle, when she was 
 anxious to pry into futurity, or inquire about some dubious 
 event, and her inquiries, however contrary to reason, could 
 not be reckoned impious. But can the professors of 
 Christianity ward off that imputation? Can a Christian 
 suppose that the favourites of the Most High, the highly- 
 favoured, would be obliged to lurk in disguise, and practise 
 the most dishonest tricks to cheat silly women out of the 
 money, which the poor cry for in vain ? 
 
 Say not that such questions are an insult to common- 
 sense, for it is your own conduct, O ye foolish women ! 
 which throws an odium on your sex. And these reflections 
 should make you shudder at your thoughtlessness and irra- 
 tional devotion. For I do not suppose that all of you laid 
 aside your religion, such as it is, when you entered those 
 mysterious dwellings. Yet, as I have throughout supposed 
 myself talking to ignorant women — for ignorant ye are in 
 the most emphatical sense of the word — it would be absurd 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 261 
 
 to reason with you on the egregious folly of desiring to 
 know what the Supreme Wisdom has concealed. 
 
 Probably you would not understand me were I to attempt 
 to show you that it would be absolutely inconsistent with 
 the grand purpose of life, that of rendering human crea- 
 tures wise and virtuous ; and that, were it sanctioned by 
 God, it would disturb the order established in creation ; 
 and if it be not sanctioned by God, do you expect to hear 
 truth ? Can events be foretold, events which have not yet 
 assumed a body to become subject to mortal inspection, can 
 they be foreseen by a vicious worldling, who pampers his 
 appetites by preying on the foolish ones? 
 
 Perhaps, however, you devoutly believe in the deviT, 
 and imagine, to shift the question, that he may assist his 
 votaries ; but, if really respecting the power of such a being, 
 an enemy to goodness and to God, can you go to church 
 after having been under such an obligation to him ? 
 
 From these delusions to those still more fashionable 
 deceptions, practised by the whole tribe of magnetisers, the 
 transition is very natural. With respect to them, it is 
 equally proper to ask women a few questions. 
 
 Do you know anything of the construction of the human 
 frame? if not, it is proper that you should be told what 
 every child ought !o know, that when its admirable economy 
 has been disturbed by intemperance or indolence, I speak 
 not of violent disorders, but of chronical diseases, it must 
 be brought into a healthy state again, by slow degrees, and 
 if the functions of life have not been materially injured, 
 regimen, another word for temperance, air, exercise, and a 
 few medicines, prescribed by persons who have studied the 
 human body, are the only human means, yet discovered, 
 of recovering that inestimable blessing health, that will bear 
 investigation. 
 
 ~T 
 
262 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Do you then believe that these magnetisers, who, by 
 hocus pocus tricks, pretend to work a miracle, are delegated 
 by God, or assisted by the solver of all these kind of 
 difficulties — the devil? 
 
 Do they, when they put to flight, as it is said, disorders 
 that have baffled the powers of medicine, work in con- 
 formity to the light of reason ? or, do they effect these 
 wonderful cures by supernatural aid ? 
 
 By a communication, an adept may answer, with the 
 world of spirits. A noble privilege, it must be allowed. 
 Some of the ancients mention familiar demons, who guarded 
 them from danger by kindly intimating, we cannot guess 
 in what manner, when any danger was nigh ; or, pointed 
 out what they ought to undertake. Yet the men who laid 
 claim to this privilege, out of the order of nature, insisted 
 that it was the reward, or consequence, of superior temper- 
 ance and piety. But the present workers of wonders are 
 not raised above their fellows by superior temperance 
 or sanctity. They do not cure for the love of God, but 
 money. These are the priests of quackery, though it is 
 true they have not the convenient expedient of selling 
 masses for souls in purgatory, or churches where they 
 can display crutches, and models of limbs made sout.d 
 by a touch or a word. 
 
 I am not conversant with the technical terms, or initiated 
 into the arcana, therefore I may speak improperly ; but 
 it is clear that men who will not conform to the law of 
 reason, and earn a subsistence in an honest way, by degrees, 
 are very fortunate in becoming acquainted with such 
 obliging spirits. We cannot, indeed, give them credit for 
 either great sagacity or goodness, else they would have 
 chosen more noble instruments, when they wished to show 
 themselves the benevolent friends of man. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 263 
 
 It is, however, little short of blasphemy to pretend to 
 such powers ! 
 
 From the whole tenor of the dispensations of Providence, 
 it appears evident to sober reason, that certain vices 
 produce certain effects ; and can any one so grossly insult 
 the wisdom of God, as to suppose that a miracle will be 
 allowed to disturb His general laws, to restore to health 
 the intemperate and vicious, merely to enable them to 
 pursue the same course with impunity? Be whole, and 
 sin no more, said Jesus. And, are greater miracles to be 
 performed by those who do not follow His footsteps, who 
 healed the body to reach the mind ? 
 
 The mentioning of the name of Christ, after such vile 
 impostors, may displease some of my readers — I respect 
 their warmth ; but let them not forget that the followers 
 of these delusions bear His name, and profess to be the 
 disciples of Him, who said, by their works we should 
 know who were the children of God or the servants of sin. 
 I allow that it is easier to touch the body of a saint, or to 
 be magnetised, than to restrain our appetites or govern 
 our passions ; but health of body or mind can only be 
 recovered by these means, or we make the Supreme Judge 
 partial and revengeful. 
 
 Is He a man that He should change, or punish out of 
 resentment? He — the common father, wounds but to heal, 
 says reason, and our irregularities producing certain conse- 
 quences, we are forcibly shown the nature of vice : that 
 thus learning to know good from evil, by experience, we 
 may hate one and love the other, in proportion to the 
 wisdom which we attain. The poison contains the antidote ; 
 and we either reform our evil habits and cease to sin 
 against our own bodies, to use the forcible language of 
 Scripture, or a premature death, the punishment of sin, 
 snaps the thread of life. 
 
 — 
 
264 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 Here an awful stop is put to our inquiries. But, why 
 should I conceal my sentiments ? Considering the attributes 
 of God, I believe that whatever punishment may follow, 
 will tend, like the anguish o disease, to show the malignity 
 of vice, for the purpose of reformation. Positive punish- 
 ment appears so contrary to the nature of God, discoverable 
 in all His works, and in our own reason, that I could 
 sooner believe that the Deity paid no attention to the 
 conduct of men, than that He punished without the bene- 
 volent design of reforming. 
 
 To suppose only that an all-wise and powerful Being, as 
 good as He is great, should create a being foreseeing, that 
 after fifty or sixty years of feverish existence, it would be 
 plunged into never-ending woe— is blasphemy. On what 
 will the worm feed that is never to die? On folly, on 
 ignorance, say ye — I should blush indignantly at drawing 
 the natural conclusion could I insert it, and wish to withdraw 
 myself from the wing of my God ! On such a supposition, 
 I speak with reverence, He would be a consuming fire. 
 We should wish, though vainly, to fly from His presence 
 when fear absorbed love, and darkness involved all His 
 counsels ! 
 
 I know that many devout people boast of submitting 
 to the will of God blindly, as to an arbitrary sceptre or rod, 
 on the same principle as the Indians worship the devil: 
 In other words, like people in the common concerns of 
 life, they do homage to power, and cringe under the foot 
 that can crush them. Rational religion, on the contrary, 
 is a submission to the will of a being so perfectly wise, that 
 all he wills must be directed by the proper motive — 
 must be reasonable. 
 
 And, if thus we respect God, can we give credit to the 
 mysterious insinuations, which insult His laws? can we 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 26: 
 
 believe, though it should stare us in the face, that He would 
 work a miracle to authorise confusion by sanctioning an 
 error ? Yet we must either allow these impious conclusions, 
 or treat with contempt every promise to restore health to a 
 diseased body by supernatural means, or to foretell the 
 incidents that can only be foreseen by God. 
 
 section 11. 
 
 Another instance of that feminine weakness of character, 
 often produced by a confined education, is a romantic 
 twist of the mind, which has been very properly termed 
 sentimental. 
 
 Women subjected by ignorance to their sensations, and 
 only taught to look for happiness in love, refine on sensual 
 ' feelings, and adopt metaphysical notions respecting that 
 passion, which lead them shamefully to neglect the duties 
 of life, and frequently in the midst of these sublime 
 refinements they plump into actual vice. 
 
 These are the women who are amused by the reveries of 
 the stupid novelists, who, knowing little of human nature, 
 work up stale tales, and describe meretricious scenes, all 
 retailed in a sentimental jargon, which equally tend to 
 corrupt the taste, and draw the heart aside from its 
 daily duties. I do not mention the understanding, because 
 never having been exercised, its slumbering energies rest 
 inactive, like the lurking particles of fire which are supposed 
 universally to pervade matter. 
 
 Females, in fact, denied all political privileges, and not 
 allowed, as married women, excepting in criminal cases, a 
 civil existence, have their attention naturally drawn from 
 the interest of the whole community to that of the minute 
 parts, though the private duty of any member of society 
 
266 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 must be very imperfectly performed when not connected 
 with the general good. The mighty business of female 
 life is to please, and restrained from entering into more 
 important concerns by political and civil oppression, senti- 
 ments become events, and reflection deepens what it 
 should, and would have effaced, if the understanding had 
 been allowed to take a wider range. 
 
 But, confined to trifling employments, they naturally 
 imbibe opinions which the only kind of reading calculated 
 to interest an innocent frivolous mind inspires. Unable to 
 grasp anything great, is it surprising that they find the 
 reading of history a very dry task, and disquisitions addressed 
 to the understanding intolerably tedious, and almost un- 
 intelligible? Thus are they necessarily dependent on the 
 novelist for amusement. Yet, when I exclaim against 
 novels, I mean when contrasted with those works which 
 exercise the understanding and regulate the imagination. 
 For any kind of reading I think better than leaving a blank 
 still a blank, because the mind must receive a degree 
 of enlargement and obtain a little strength by a slight 
 exertion of its thinking powers ; besides, even the produc- 
 tions that are only addressed to the imagination, raise 
 the reader a little above the gross gratification of appetites, 
 to which the mind has not given a shade of delicacy. 
 
 This observation is the result of experience ; for I have 
 known several notable women, and one in particular, who 
 was a very good woman — as good as such a narrow mind 
 would allow her to be, who took care that her daughters 
 (three in number) should never see a novel. As she was a 
 woman of fortune and fashion, they had various masters to 
 attend them, and a sort of menial governess to watch their 
 footsteps. From their masters they learned how tables, 
 chairs, &c, were called in French and Italian ; but as the 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 267 
 
 few books thrown in their way were far above their capa- 
 cities, or devotional, they neither acquired ideas nor senti- 
 ments, and passed their time, when not compelled to repeat 
 words, in dressing, quarrelling with each other, or conversing 
 with their maids by stealth, till they were brought into com- 
 pany as marriageable. 
 
 Their mother, a widow, was busy in the meantime in 
 keeping up her connections, as she termed a numerous 
 acquaintance, lest her girls should want a proper intro- 
 duction into the great world. And these young ladies, with 
 minds vulgar in every sense of the word, and spoiled tempers, 
 entered life puffed up with notions of their own consequence, 
 and looking down with contempt on those who could not vie 
 with them in dress and parade. 
 
 With respect to love, nature, or their nurses, had taken 
 care to teach them the physical meaning of the word ; and, 
 as they had few topics of conversation, and fewer refinements 
 of sentiment, they expressed their gross wishes not in very 
 delicate phrases, when they spoke freely, talking of matrimony. 
 Could these girls have been injured by the perusal of 
 novels ? I almost forgot a shade in the character of one of 
 them ; she affected a simplicity bordering on folly, and with 
 a simper would utter the most immodest remarks and ques- 
 tions, the full meaning of which she had learned whilst 
 secluded from the world, and afraid to speak in her mother's 
 presence, who governed with a high hand ; they were all 
 educated, as she prided herself, in a most exemplary manner, 
 and read their chapters before breakfast, never touching a 
 
 silly novel. 
 
 This is only one instance; but I recollect many other 
 women who, not led by degrees to proper studies, and not 
 permitted to choose for themselves, have indeed been 
 overgrown children ; or have obtained, by mixing in the 
 
< i < *% ' V '■', ,"• , W . ^ '. ' 
 
 268 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 world, a little of what is termed common-sense; that is, a 
 distinct manner of seeing common occurrences, as they 
 stand detached ; but what deserves the name of intellect, 
 the power of gaining general or abstract ideas, or even inter- 
 mediate ones, was out of the question. Their minds were 
 quiescent, and when they were not roused by sensible objects 
 and employments of that kind, they were low-spirited, would 
 cry, or go to sleep. 
 
 When, therefore, I advise my sex not to read such flimsy 
 works, it is to induce them to read something superior : for 
 I coincide in opinion with a sagacious man, who, having a 
 daughter and niece under his care, pursued a very different 
 plan with each. 
 
 The niece, who had considerable abilities, had, before she 
 was left to his guardianship, been indulged in desultory 
 reading. Her he endeavoured to lead, and did lead to 
 history and moral essays ; but his daughter, whom a fond 
 weak mother had indulged, and who consequently was averse 
 to everything like application, he allowed to read novels ; and 
 used to justify his conduct by saying, that if she ever attained 
 a relish for reading them, he should have some foundation to 
 work upon ; and that erroneous opinions were better than 
 none at all. 
 
 In fact, the female mind has been so totally neglected, 
 that knowledge was only to be acquired from this muddy 
 source, till from reading novels some women of superior 
 talents learned to despise them. 
 
 The best method, I believe, that can be adopted to 
 correct a fondness for novels is to ridicule them : not 
 indiscriminately, for then it would have little effect; but, if 
 a judicious person, with some turn for humour, would 
 read several to a young girl, and point out both by tones, 
 and apt comparisons with pathetic incidents and heroic f 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 269 
 
 characters in history, how foolishly and ridiculously they 
 caricatured human nature, just opinions might be substituted 
 instead of romantic sentiments. 
 
 In one respect, however, the majority of both sexes 
 resemble, and equally show a want of taste and modesty. 
 Ignorant women, forced to be chaste to preserve their 
 reputation, allow their imagination to revel in the unnatural 
 and meretricious scenes sketched by the novel writers of 
 the day, slighting as insipid the sober dignity, and matron 
 graces of history,* whilst men carry the same vitiated taste 
 into fife, and fly for amusement to the wanton, from the 
 unsophisticated charms of virtue, and the grave respectability 
 
 of sense. 
 
 Besides, the reading of novels makes women, and 
 particularly ladies of fashion, very fond of using strong 
 expressions and superlatives in conversation ; and, though 
 the dissipated artificial life which they lead prevents their 
 cherishing any strong legitimate passion, the language of 
 passion in affected tones slips for ever from their glib 
 tongues, and every trifle produces those phosphoric bursts 
 which only mimic in the dark the flame of passion. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Ignorance and the mistaken cunning that nature sharpens 
 in weak heads as a principle of self-preservatio n, render 
 women very fond of dress, and produce alTThe vanity which 
 such a fondness may naturally be expected to generate, to 
 the exclusion of emulation and magnanimity. 
 
 • I am not now alluding to that superiority of mind which leads to 
 the creation of ideal beauty, when he, surveyed with a penetrating eye, 
 appears a trap-comedy, in which little can be seen to satisfy the heart 
 without the help of fancy. 
 
270 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 
 I agree with Rousseau that the physical part of the art of 
 pleasing consists in ornaments, and for that very reason 
 I should guard girls against the contagious fondness for 
 dress so common to weak women, that they may not rest 
 in the physical part. Yet, weak are the women who 
 imagine that they can long please without the aid of the 
 mind, or, in other words, without the moral art of pleasing. 
 But the moral art, if it be not a profanation to use the word 
 art, when alluding to the grace which is an effect of virtue, 
 and not the motive of action, is never to be found with 
 ignorance ; the sportiveness of innocence, so pleasing to 
 refined libertines of both sexes, is widely different in its 
 essence from this superior gracefulness. 
 
 A strong inclination for external ornaments ever appears 
 in barbarous states, only the men not the women adorn 
 themselves ; for where women are allowed to be so far on a 
 level with men, society has advanced, at least, one step in 
 civilization. 
 
 The attention to dress, therefore, which has been thought 
 a sexual propensity, I think natural to mankind. But I 
 ought to express myself with more precision. When the 
 mind is not sufficiently opened to take pleasure in reflection, 
 the body will be adorned with sedulous care ; and ambition 
 will appear in tattooing or painting it. 
 
 So far is this first inclination carried, that even the 
 hellish yoke of slavery cannot stifle the savage desire of 
 admiration which the black heroes inherit from both their 
 parents, for all the hardly earned savings of a slave are 
 commonly expended in a little tawdry finery. And I have 
 seldom known a good male or female servant that was not 
 particularly fond of dress. Their clothes were th eir riches^ , 
 and, I argue from analogy, thaFTHe fondness for dress, so 
 extravagant in females, arises from the same cause — want of 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 27' 
 
 cultivation of mind. When men meet they converse about 
 business, politics, or literature ; but, says Swift, " how 
 naturally do women apply their hands to each other's lappets 
 and ruffles." And very natural is it — for they have not any 
 business to interest them, have not a taste for literature, and 
 they find politics dry, because they have not acquired a love 
 for mankind by turning their thoughts to the grand pursuits 
 that exalt the human race, and promote general happiness. 
 
 Besides, various are the paths to power and fame which 
 by accident or choice men pursue, and though they jostle 
 against each other, for men of the same "profession are 
 seldom friends, yet there is a much greater number of their 
 fellow-creatures with whom they never clash. But women 
 are very differently situated with respect to each other — 
 for they are all rivals. 
 
 Before marriage it is their business to please men ; and 
 after, with a few exceptions, they follow the same scene 
 with all the persevering pertinacity of instinct. Even 
 virtuous women never forget their sex in company, for 
 they are for ever trying to make themselves agreeable. A 
 female beauty, and a male wit, appear to be equally anxious 
 to draw the attention of the company to themselves ; and 
 the animosity of contemporary wits is proverbial. 
 
 Is it then surprising that when the sole ambition of 
 woman centres in beauty, and interest gives vanity additional 
 force, perpetual rivalships should ensue? They are all 
 running the same race, and would rise above the virtue of 
 mortals, if they did not view each other with a suspicious 
 and even envious eye. 
 
 An immoderate fondness for dress, for pleasure, and for 
 sway, are the passions of savages ; the passions that occupy 
 those uncivilised beings who have not yet extended the ( 
 dominion of the mind, or even learned to think with the _ 
 
272 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 energy necessary to concatenate that abstract train of 
 thought which produces principles. And that women from 
 their education and the present state of civilized life, are 
 in the same condition, cannot, I think, be controverted. 
 To laugh at them then, or satirise the follies of a being who 
 is never to be allowed to act freely from the light of her 
 own reason, is as absurd as cruel ; for, that they who are 
 taught blindly to obey authority, will endeavour cunningly 
 to elude it, is most natural and certain. 
 
 Yet let it be proved that they ought to obey man 
 implicitly, and I shall immediately agree that it is woman's 
 duty to cultivate a fondness for dress, in order to please, 
 and a propensity to cunning for her own preservation. 
 
 The virtues, however, which are supported by ignorance 
 must ever be wavering — the house built on sand could 
 not endure a storm. It is almost unnecessary to draw 
 the inference. If women are to be made virtuous by 
 authority, which is a contradiction in terms, let them be 
 immured in seraglios and watched with a jealous eye. 
 Fear not that the iron will enter into their souls — for the 
 souls that can bear such treatment are made of yielding 
 materials, just animated enough to give life to the body. 
 
 " Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear, 
 And best distinguish'd by black, brown, or fair.'' 
 
 The most, cruel wounds will of course soon heal, and they 
 may still people the world, and dress to please man — all 
 the purposes which certain celebrated writers have allowed 
 that they were created to fulfil. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Women are supposed to possess more sensibility, and 
 even humanity, than men, and their strong attachments 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 273 
 
 and instantaneous emotions of compassion are given as 
 proofs ; but the clinging affection of ignorance has seldom 
 anything noble in it, and may mostly be resolved into 
 selfishness, as well as the affection of children and brutes. 
 I have known many weak women whose sensibility was 
 entirely engrossed by their husbands ; and as for their 
 humanity, it was very faint indeed, or rather it was only a 
 transient emotion of compassion. Humanity does not 
 consist "in a squeamish ear," says an eminent orator. 
 " It belongs to the mind as well as the nerves." 
 
 But this kind of exclusive affection, though it degrades 
 the individual, should not be brought forward as a proof of 
 the inferiority of the sex, because it is the natural conse- 
 quence of confined views; for even women of superior 
 sense, having their attention turned to little employments, 
 and private plans, rarely rise to heroism, unless when 
 spurred on by love ! and love, as an heroic passion, like 
 genius, appears but once in an age. I therefore agree 
 with the moralist who asserts, " that women have seldom so 
 much generosity as men ;" and that their narrow affections, 
 to which justice and humanity are often sacrificed, render 
 the sex apparently inferior, especially, as they are commonly 
 inspired by men; but I contend that the heart would 
 expand as the understanding gained strength, if women 
 we're not depressed from their cradles. 
 
 I know that a little sensibility, and great weakness, will 
 produce a strong sexual attachment, and that reason must 
 cement friendship ; consequently, I allow that more friend- 
 ship is to be found in the male than the female world, 
 and that men have a higher sense of justice. The exclusive 
 affections of women seem indeed to resemble Cato's most 
 unjust love for his country. He wished to crush Carthage, 
 not to save Rome, but to promote its vain-glory ; and, in 
 
 s 
 
274 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 general, it is to similar principles that humanity is sacrificed, 
 for genuine duties support each other. 
 
 Besides, how can women be just or generous, when they 
 are the slaves of injustice ? , 
 
 SECTION v. 
 
 As the rearing of children, that is, the laying a foundation 
 of sound health both of body and mind in the rising 
 generation, has justly been insisted on as the peculiar 
 destination of woman, the ignorance that incapacitates 
 them must be contrary to the order of things. And I 
 contend that their minds can take in much more, and 
 ought to do so, or they will never become sensible mothers. 
 Many men attend to the breeding of horses, and overlook 
 the management of the stable, who would, strange want of 
 sense and feeling ! think themselves degraded by paying 
 any attention to the nursery; yet, how many children are 
 absolutely murdered by the ignorance of women ! But 
 when they escape, and are destroyed neither by unnatural 
 negligence nor blind fondness, how few are managed 
 properly with respect to the infant mind ! So that to break 
 the spirit, allowed to become vicious at home, a child is sent 
 to school ; and the methods taken there, which must be taken 
 to keep a number of children in order, scatter the seeds of 
 almost every vice in the soil thus forcibly torn up. 
 
 I have sometimes compared the struggles of these poor 
 children, who ought never to have felt restraint, nor would, 
 had they been always held in with an even hand, to the 
 despairing plunges of a spirited filly, which I have seen 
 breaking on a strand : its feet sinking deeper and deeper 
 in the sand every time it endeavoured to throw its rider, 
 till at last it sullenly submitted. 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 275 
 
 I have always found horses, animals I am attached to, 
 very tractable when treated with humanity and steadiness, 
 so that I doubt whether the violent methods taken to 
 break them, do not essentially injure them ; I am, however, 
 certain that a child should never be thus forcibly tamed 
 after it has injudiciously been allowed to run wild : for 
 every violation of justice and reason, in the treatment of 
 children, weakens their reason. And, so early do they 
 catch a character, that the base of the moral character, 
 experience leads me to infer, is fixed before their seventh 
 year, the period during which women are allowed the sole 
 management of children. Afterwards it too often happens 
 that half the business of education is to correct, and very 
 imperfectly is it done, if done hastily, the faults, which they 
 would never have acquired if their mothers had had more 
 understanding. 
 
 One striking instance of the folly of women must not be 
 omitted. The manner in which they treat servants in the 
 presence of children, permitting them to suppose that they 
 ought to wait on them, and bear their humours. A child 
 should always be made to receive assistance from a man 
 or woman as a favour ; and, as the first lesson of independ- 
 ence, they should practically be taught, by the example of 
 their mother, not to require that personal attendance, which 
 it is an insult to humanity to require, when in health ; 
 and instead of being led to assume airs of consequence, 
 a sense of their own weakness should first make them 
 feel the natural equality of man. Yet, how frequently have 
 I indignantly heard servants imperiously called to put 
 children to bed, and sent away again and again, because 
 master or miss hung_ about mamma, to stay a little longer. 
 Thus made slavishly to attend the little idol, all those most 
 disgusting humours were exhibited which characterise a 
 spoiled child. 
 
 ■ ■ - ■ — — *- 
 
 H 
 
276 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 277 
 
 In short, speaking ot" the majority of mothers, they leave 
 their children entirely to the care of servants; or, because 
 they are their children, treat them as if they were little 
 demi-gods, though I have always observed, that the women 
 who thus idolise their children, seldom show common 
 humanity to servants, or feel the least tenderness for any 
 children but their own. 
 
 It is, however, these exclusive affections, and an individual 
 manner of seeing things, produced by ignorance, which 
 keep women for ever at a stand, with respect to improve- 
 ment, and make many of them dedicate their lives to their 
 children only to weaken their bodies and spoil their tempers, 
 frustrating also any plan of education that a more rational 
 father may adopt ; for unless a mother concur, the father 
 who restrains will ever be considered as a tyrant. 
 
 But, fulfilling the duties of a mother, a woman with a 
 sound constitution, may still keep her person scrupulously 
 neat, and assist to maintain her family, if necessary, or by 
 reading and conversation with both sexes, indiscriminately, 
 improve her mind. For nature has so wisely ordered 
 things, that did women suckle their children, they would 
 preserve their own health, and there would be such an 
 interval between the birth of each child, that we should 
 seldom see a houseful of babes. And did they pursue a 
 plan of conduct, and not waste their time in following the 
 fashionable vagaries of dress, the management of their 
 household and children need not shut them out from 
 literature, or prevent their attaching themselves to a science, 
 with that steady eye which strengthens the mind, or practis- 
 ing one of the fine arts that cultivate the taste. 
 
 But, visiting to display finery, card-playing, and balls, 
 not to mention the idle bustle of morning trifling, draw 
 women from their duty to render them insignificant, to 
 
 i 
 
 render them pleasing, according to the present acceptation 
 of the word, to every man, but their husband. For a round 
 of pleasures in which the affections are not exercised, 
 cannot be said to improve the understanding, thou«h 
 it be erroneously called seeing the world ; yet the heart is 
 rendered cold and averse to duty, by such a senseless 
 intercourse, which becomes necessary from habit even when 
 it has ceased to amuse. 
 
 But, we shall not see women affectionate till more 
 equality be established in society, till ranks are confounded 
 and women freed, neither shall we see that dignified 
 domestic happiness, the simple grandeur of which cannot 
 be relished -by ignorant or vitiated minds; nor will the 
 important task of education ever be properly begun till the 
 person of a woman is no longer preferred to her mind. For 
 it would be as wise to expect corn from tares, or figs from 
 thistles, as that a foolish ignorant woman should be a good 
 mother. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 It is not necessary to inform the sagacious reader, now 
 I enter on my concluding reflections, that the discussion 
 of this subject merely consists in opening a few simple 
 principles, and clearing away the rubbish which obscured 
 them. But, as all readers are not sagacious, I must be 
 allowed to add some explanatory remarks to bring the 
 subject home to reason — to that sluggish reason, which 
 supinely takes opinions on trust, and obstinately supports 
 them to spare itself the labour of thinking. 
 
 Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless virtue be 
 nursed by liberty, it will never attain due strength — and 
 what they say of man I extend to mankind, insisting that 
 in all cases morals must be fixed on immutable principles ; 
 
27 8 
 
 VINDICATION' OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN 
 
 279 
 
 and, that the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, 
 
 /ho obeys any authority, but that of reason. 
 To render women truly useful members of society, I 
 argue that they should be led, by having their understand- 
 ings cultivated on a large scale, to acquire a rational 
 affection for their country, founded on knowledge, because 
 it is obvious that we are little interested about what we do 
 not understand. And to render this general knowledge of 
 due importance, I have endeavoured to show that private 
 duties are never properly fulfilled unless the understanding 
 entarges the heart ; and that public virtue is only an 
 aggregate of private. But, the distinctions established in 
 society undermine both, by beating out the solid gold of 
 virtue, till it becomes only the tinsel-covering of vice; 
 for whilst wealth renders a man more respectable than 
 virtue, wealth will be sought before virtue ; and, whilst 
 women's persons are caressed, when a childish simper 
 shows an absence of mind — the mind will lie fallow. Yet, 
 true voluptuousness must proceed from the mind — for what 
 can equal the sensations produced by mutual affection, 
 supported by mutual respect? What are the cold, or 
 feverish caresses of appetite, but sin embracing death, 
 compared with the modest overflowings of a pure heart 
 and exalted imagination? Yes, let me tell the libertine of 
 fancy when he despises understanding in woman — that the 
 mind, which he disregards, gives life to the enthusiastic 
 affection from which rapture, short-lived as it is, alone can 
 flow ! And, that, without virtue, a sexual attachment must 
 expire, like a tallow candle in the socket, creating intolerable 
 disgust. To prove this, I need only observe, that men 
 who have wasted great part of their lives with women, and 
 with whom they have sought for pleasure with eager thirst, 
 entertain the meanest opinion of the sex. Virtue, true 
 
 ' 
 
 '• 
 
 refiner of joy ! — if foolish men were to fright thee from 
 earth, in order to give loose to all their appetites without a 
 check — some sensual wight of taste would scale the heavens 
 to invite thee back, to give a zest to pleasure ! 
 
 That women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish 
 or vicious, is, I think, not to be disputed ; and, that the 
 most salutary effects tending to improve mankind might be 
 expected from a k evolution in female manners, appears, at 
 least, with a face of probability, to rise out of the observa- 
 tion. For as marriage has been termed the parent of 
 those endearing charities which draw man from the brutal 
 herd, the corrupting intercourse that wealth, idleness, and 
 folly, produce between the sexes, is more universally 
 injurious to morality than all the other vices of mankind 
 collectively considered. To adulterous lust the most sacred 
 duties are sacrificed, because before marriage, men, by a 
 promiscuous intimacy with women, learned to consider love 
 as a selfish gratification — learned to separate it not only 
 from esteem, but from the affection merely built on habit, 
 which mixes a little humanity with it. Justice and friend- 
 ship are also set at defiance, and that purity of taste is 
 vitiated which would naturally lead a man to relish an 
 artless display of affection rather than affected airs. But 
 that noble simplicity of affection, which dares to appear 
 unadorned, has few attractions for the libertine, though it 
 be the charm, which by cementing the matrimonial tie, 
 secures to the pledges of a warmer passion the necessary 
 parental attention ; for children will never be properly 
 educated till friendship subsists between parents. Virtue 
 flies from a house divided against itself— and a whole legion 
 of devils take up their residence there. 
 
 The affection of husbands and wives cannot be pure 
 when they have so few sentiments in common, and when so 
 
2So 
 
 VINDICATION OF THE 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 281 
 
 little confidence is established at home, as must be the case 
 when their pursuits are so different. That intimacy from 
 which tenderness shonld flow, will not, cannot subsist 
 between the vicious. 
 
 Contending, therefore, that the sexual distinction which 
 men have so warmly insisted upon, is arbitrary, I have 
 dwelt on an observation, that several sensible men, with 
 whom I have conversed on the subject, allowed to be 
 well founded ; and it is simply this, that the little chastity 
 to be found amongst men, and consequent disregard of 
 modesty, tend to degrade both sexes; and further, that 
 the modesty of women, characterised as such, will often be 
 only the artful veil of wantonness instead of being the 
 natural reflection of purity, till modesty be universally 
 respected. 
 
 From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the greater 
 number of female follies proceed ; and the cunning, which 
 I allow makes at present a part of their character, I likewise 
 have repeatedly endeavoured to prove, is produced by 
 oppression. 
 
 Were not dissenters, for instance, a class of people, with 
 strict truth, characterised as cunning ? And may I not lay 
 some stress on this fact to prove, that when any power 
 but reason curbs the free spirit of man, dissimulation is 
 practised, and the various shifts of art are naturally called 
 forth? Great attention to decorum, which was carried to a 
 degree of scrupulosity, and all that puerile bustle about 
 trifles and consequential solemnity, which Butler's carica- 
 ture of a dissenter brings before the imagination, shaped 
 their persons as well as their minds in the mould of prim 
 littleness. I speak collectively, for I know how many 
 ornaments in human nature have been enrolled amongst 
 sectaries; yet, I assert, that the same narrow prejudice 
 
 \ 
 
 for their sect, which women have for their families, prevailed 
 in the dissenting part of the community, however worthy in 
 other respects ; and also that the same timid prudence, 
 or headstrong efforts, often disgraced the exertions of both. 
 Oppression thus formed many of the features of their 
 character perfectly to coincidence with that of the oppressed 
 half of mankind; for is it not notorious that dissenters 
 were, like women, fond of deliberating together, and asking 
 advice of each other, till by a complication of little con- 
 trivances, some little end was brought about ? A similar 
 attention to preserve their reputation was conspicuous in 
 the dissenting and fe'male world, and was produced by a 
 similar cause. 
 
 Asserting the rights which women in common with men 
 ought to contend for, I have not attempted to extenuate 
 their faults ; but to prove them to be the natural conse- 
 quence of their education and station in society. If so, 
 it is reasonable to suppose that they will change their 
 character, and correct their vices and follies, when they are 
 allowed to be free in a physical, moral, and civil sense.* 
 
 Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate the 
 virtues of man ; for she must grow more perfect when 
 emancipated, or justify the authority that chains such a 
 weak being to her duty. If the latter, it will be expedient 
 to open a fresh trade with Russia for whips : a present 
 which a father should always make to his son-in-law on his 
 wedding day, that a husband may keep his whole family in 
 order by the same means ; and without any violation of 
 
 * I had further enlarged on the advantages which might reasonably 
 be expected to result from an improvement in female manners, towards 
 the general reformation of society ; but it appeared to me that such 
 reflections would more properly close the last volume. 
 
282 
 
 RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 
 
 \ 
 
 justice reign, wielding this sceptre, sole master of his house, 
 because he is the only being in it who has reason : — the 
 divine, indefeasible earthly sovereignty breathed into man 
 by the Master of the universe. Allowing this position, 
 women have not any inherent rights to claim ; and, by 
 the same rule, their duties vanish, for rights and duties are 
 inseparable. 
 
 Be just then, O ye men of understanding : and mark not 
 more severely what women do amiss than the vicious tricks 
 of the horse or the ass for whom ye provide provender— 
 and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to whom ye deny 
 the rights of reason, or ye will be worse than Egyptian 
 task-masters, expecting virtue where nature has not given 
 understanding. 
 
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