In ftating what women are,' their fituation is faid to be against them in various points, more (P. 68.) particularly against that candor and honeft fimplicity of heart and manner, without which no character can be really and intrinfically valuable.'

It is then argued, (P. 69.) as an infallible truth, and a truth that few will attempt to deny; that any race of people, or I fhould rather fay any clafs of rational beings,though by no means inferior originally in intellectual endowments,may be held in a state of subjection and dependence from generation to generation, by another party, who, by a variety of circumftances, none of them depending on actual, original fuperiority of mind, may have established an authority over them. And it must be acknowledged a truth equally infallible, that any clafs fo held in a ftate of fubjection and dependence, will degenerate both in body and mind.

-can

We have for examples of this, only to contemplate the characters and conduct of the defcendants of the egyptians, the greeks, the romans, and other nations, living under the fame climates, and upon the very fame foil, where their renowned ancestors flourished in arts, and triumphed in arms; and to confider to what a state of degradation and humiliation they are now reduced! On thefe reflections, however, it is unneceffary here to enlarge; we have only to bring home the application to the ftate of woman in general, who, degraded and humiliated in fociety, and held in a conftant ftate of dependence, it be wondered, that they have loft even the idea of what they might have been, or what they ftill might be? For they are confined, not only within thofe bounds, which nature and reafon unite in prefcribing for the real happinefs and good of mankind; and in which every virtuous and well informed mind acquiefces, as much from choice as neceffity; but they are likewife bound by chains, of fuch enormous weight and complicated form, that the more they are confidered, the lefs hope remains of being able to unloofe them by perfeverance, or break through them by force. Or if fome impelled by an ardent love of liberty, by genius, or by defpair, "burft their bonds afunder, and caft their cords away"- -Alas! the confequences too often areRuin to the individual, without benefit to the whole.'

Refpecting the frivolous propenfities imputed to the fex, it is well remarked, (P. 78.) taking women on the footing they now are, and on which they will probably remain for fome time at least, the tide of their paffions muft wafte itfelf upon fomething; and thus being forced into wrong channels, there it flows; but for the honour of the fex I truft

"Still it murmurs as it flows,
Panting for its native home."

Thus many a good head is ftuffed with ribbons, gauze, fringes, flounces, and furbelows, that might have received and communicated, for other and more noble impreffions. And many a fine imagination has been exhausted upon thefe, which had they been turned to the study of nature, or initiated into the dignified embellishments of the fine arts, might have adorned, delighted, and improved fociety."

But even on trifles, it is alleged, (P. 88.) the iron hand of authority lies defperately heavy. And if it were not that the men, are often addicted to vanity, to fhew, and to all the fopperies of fashion as much

as

as the other fex; women would not be indulged even in these fo much. as they are.

The authority then of the men, is far from being merely nominal, as they would fometimes have it believed in their good-natured moments, and when they wish to be extremely condefcending; for women find to their coft, that it is pofitive, in the utmoft extent of the word. And though it is often alleged, that the public influence of the men, is balanced by the private influence of the women; yet if there is truth in this remark at all, it is that kind of back ftair influence, which is enjoyed rather by the unworthy, than the virtuous part of the fex.'

P. 103. It cannot be proved,' fays our author, that men are fitter to govern women, than women are to govern themfelves, in the unlimited fenfe that men afpire to; except comparative experiments had been fairly and repeatedly made. Or, except fuperiority of mind had from the beginning, been fo completely, fo'diftinctly, and fo uniformly marked; that it could bear no more difpute, that men fhould take the whole command into their own hands, than that mature age, fhould care for helpless infancy.

• Men however, having taken for granted, and endeavoured to eftablifh without proof, that they have fome degree of intellectual fuperiority over women; have the confequences of their government, been equal to their declarations of fuperior wifdom, or answerable to their wishes, or to their ideas, of the poffible perfection of the female fex, even in that fecondary view in which they chufe to confider them? I apprehend they will not fay fo. Or if they do, the fex will by no means join them. For chained and blindfolded as they moft certainly are, with refpect to their own rights;-they know,-they feel confcious-of capability of greater degrees of perfection, than they are permitted to arrive at. Yes they fee, there is not an individual among them, who does not at times fee,-and feel too with keenest anguish,that mind, as has been finely faid, is of no fex.'

P. 107. The defirable point in all cafes is that, as much freedom fhould be enjoyed as is required, to bring forth every degree of poffible perfection. And to this point in morals, fhould all. legiflation tend, whatever obftacles or prejudices may lie in the way.'

The following objection, in confidering what woman ought to be,' is well stated and answered:

It may be faid, (P. 108.) that fince ages have elapsed without woman having been in any country put upon the footing which I contend is their due; it amounts almoft to a decifive proof, that they will, and ought to remain, pretty nearly on the footing they have been and are; allowing for little alterations, in compliance with times and circumftances.

Now this reafoning I apprehend to be fully more in favor of women than against them; and it brings one of my strongest arguments home. Since, except the experiment had been fairly made, and they been allowed the fame advantages of education as men, and permitted to exert in their fullest extent those talents with which their Creator may have endowed them; who is entitled to fay, what might have been the confequences to the world? For my part I am fanguine enough to think, that from fuch an attention to improving the minds, and forming the characters of women, as I propofe; confequences of the higheft

importance

importance would enfue.-Perhaps it is not too bold to say, that to the erroneous ideas with regard to women which have been allowed from indulgence and want of oppofition, to take fo deep root among mankind, it may be partly imputed, that fociety has never been upon fo perfect a plan as it might have been. And perhaps it is not too daring to prophefy, that till these prejudices are exterminated and done away as if they had never been; fociety can never arrive at that state of perfection, of which it is really capable.'

P. 112. All I contend for is this,' adds our author, that as far as is practicable, or poffible, every prejudice ought to be laid afide in a purfuit fo important, as that of perfecting the human fpecies; every tumbling block removed out of the way; and no attempt that human fagacity can fuggeft left untried, through a blind attachment to certain favorite notions which men find convenient to entertain, and which women are forced to indulge them in; though at the expence of that finglenefs of heart and opennefs of character, for which they make a bad exchange, by obtaining any prefent and trifling advantages.'

She goes on to obferve. (P. 115.) Notwithstanding then that men have planned every thing their own way, I must repeat, that the confequences are not equal to their hopes or expectations; for they complain bitterly both in public and private, of the folly, the inconfiftency, the extravagance, and the general relaxation of manners amongst women. And they would be extremely well fatisfied, if, without changing an iota of their own fyftem and felf-indulgence; they could transform women in general into domeftic wives, tender mothers, and dutiful and affectionate daughters; characters upon which they expatiate with enthusiasm and delight, and no wonder. But when it is at any time argued and proved that to bring about reformation, the first ftep ought to be, the reformation of the moral conduct of the men themselves; and the next that of educating women on a more liberal and unprejudiced plan, and putting them on a more refpectable footing in fociety; then it is that the generality of men fly off, and are not afhamed to declare, that they would rather a thoufand times take women as they are;-weak, frail, dependent creatures. In comparifon of the frightful certainty of having women declared their equals, and as fuch their companions and friends, instead of their amusement, their dependents; and in plain and unvarnished terms their flaves; folly, vice, impertinence of every kind is delightful.'

P. 131. All opinions degrading to women,' it is afferted, are grounded on the rude ideas of favage nations, where ftrength of body is the only diftinguishing feature, and fuppofed to carry every other degree of fuperiority along with it. And that of confequence, all opinions degrading to women are founded in ignorance, fupported by the force of habit, by an authority once established, and by the tacit acquiefcence of the injured party.'

r. 133. Numberlefs parallels might be drawn to prove, that things in this world do not always go as they ought, nor even as they might, if every individual and every fociety exerted their utmost. Do not the myriads who groan under defpotic, nay tyrannical governments from generation to generation, and from age to age, afford undeniable and unequivocal proofs of the almoft unlimited power, which authority once affumed, gains over the human mind, and especially over uncultivated ones? We muft fuppofe, that all thofe people alluded

to,

to, in fome degree feel their chains; "for the mind, however degraded, unwillingly wears fetters of any kind." Yet what between the reafonable terrors of the confequences of civil wars, always dreadful in the mean time, and always uncertain in their iffue; the imbecility of minds unaccustomed to reafon and think for themselves, and totally incompe tent to judge among probable confequences, which is the most probable; and that inactivity of mind and body in which a great part of the fubject of defpotic governments must neceffarily be plunged, and which is the most fatal and univerfal enemy to all great and good actions, though the leaft feared and guarded againft-Thefe, I fay, and numberlefs other circumftances, combine to keep the multitude in fubjection to reputed fuperiors; who cannot, nor dare not, claim any actual, any inherent fuperiority, other than fuch as is cafual among the individuals of any clafs of men.'

P. 138. A little degree of reflection I think muft make men acknowledge, that their claims of fuperiority, and of courfe authority, are founded as all unreafonable claims of fuperiority and authority areon prefumption, pride of heart, and the love of unreftrained dominion and pleafure; to all of which it must be confeffed, that women would give fome little check, if allowed to occupy that place in fociety, to which perhaps it tray at lafl be found they are juftly entitled. And is not this check precifely what is fo much wanted, though not permitted nor wifhed for?

P. 149. You may talk to woman to eternity, of the fupreme felicity of pleafing you, though at her own expence, at the expence of her liberty, her property, her natural equality; at the expence of almost every gift with which God may have endowed her, and which you pretend to prune, to garble, or to extirpate at will; I fay, you may preach thus to eternity, but you will never convince,while that neverdying principle of which we have been fpeaking,-while the voice of nature pleads within us, and clearly intimates, that a greater degree, a greater proportion of happinefs might be the lot of women, if they were allowed as men are, fome vote, fome right of judgment in a matter which concerns them fo nearly, as that of the laws and opinions by which they are to be governed. And of which it is but reasonable to fuppofe that they themselves must be very competent judges, under proper reftrictions.'

But

P. 155. Much indeed, it is true, is due to the peace of fociety, nor fhall we attempt to deny it; and many and mortifying are the fubmiffions which prudent women would be inclined to make, to establish and confirm perfect harmony and good will between the fexes. ftill, generous minds turn indignant from a fyftem where it is expected, that women only, fhall heap the "altar of facrifices," while man,— the high priest of authority,-the felfish egotist,-ftands feverely by, and ftamps by his approbation, what he has inftituted by his power.

Such a fyftem however, we may be permitted to fay, is not founded on natural justice, and of courfe can never be fupported by reafon or by christianity. Unftable therefore in its very nature, it is always tottering to its bafe; and perhaps we would not rifque much by predicting its complete and final overthrow.'

P. 159. Upon what grounds it is, that men deny to women the privilege, of an education equally rational in itfelf, equally improving to the mind, and equally confequential to the happinefs of the indivi dual, as that which they think proper to bestow upon themselves?? D

VOL. XXVIII.

P: 161.

P. 161. The anfwer from the men, is but too ready, but too perfuafive; for fay they-Our judgment difclaims your pretenfions;we hold our judgment as fuperior to yours;-and we are invested with powers to compel, if we cannot perfuade.

• From fuch a tribunal then, is there no appeal?-Alas! none.'

P. 166. Knowledge, learning, and fcience,' it is contended, give a folidity to the mind, a turn for reflection, which must be highly favorable to the beft feelings of humanity, and confequently to the moft amiable of all the affections, the parental.'

P. 170. . Women who are not educated with fome degree of attention to mental and ufeful attainments, are too much occupied with fashionable gaieties, or other equally frivolous amufements, to make domeftic virtues and duties their concern; and while it is evident that their habits and purfuits are at eternal variance with thefe; it will hardly be denied upon the other hand, that the habits and pursuits of women of reading and reflection, are highly favorable, and affimilate, if I may fo exprefs myself, with every home enjoyment and focial delight.'

Women, it is contended, are found to poffefs fortitude, that first of mafculine virtues,' in a fuperior degree.-(P. 175.) I fpeak of that fortitude, which has enemies to encounter, against which mere animal courage can be of no avail; and this virtue, I again repeat it, women happily for themfelves poffefs in an eminent degree. For notwithftanding the natural delicacy of their frame, they are fubject to bodily pains, that, to ufe a figure of the fublime Dante, " Tanto è amara, che poco più è morte." And with the fame feelings and propenfities, do they not refrain from pleafures, and often from foli cited pleafures, to which man with all his boafted fuperiority falls alas! a willing and felf-devoted facrifice? Here indeed lies the teft of true fortitude, the touchftone of virtue. And here it is that with all

her disadvantages, woman fhines pre-eminent.

But as if a greater proportion of bodily pain-as if abstinence from pleasure were not fufficient for women to encounter; all that the mind of man is doomed to endure,-all" that flesh is heir to,"--all the "mournful miferies of life," are theirs likew ife in an exquifite degree.

It is but too juftly observed, P. 206, that the fentiments, and principles, by which the education and conduct of women are regudated, from the firft dawn of reafon-from the cradle to the graveis one continued tiffue of hypocrify and difguife. They are, indeed, in early youth, prohibited from telling lies; but they are at the fame time virtually encouraged in falfhood. The fex at all times, lively, acute, and penetrating, foon fee how matters are; and after nature and reafon, have, even at a very early age, made a few ftruggles for their joint and infeparable rights; they yield to prefent conveniency and hard neceffity, as they are but too often forced to do, upon too many occasions, on the prefent fyftem of things.'

Power is faid, P. 264, to be an engine of too dangerous, and of too ready execution, in domeftic life, to be trusted in the hands of man,fubject as all human beings more or lefs, are,to error, to paffion, and caprice. And to call much less than abfolute and unlimited Fower, that which men may, and often do, exercise over their wives; is only deceiving ourselves, and prevents us perhaps from fearching to the bottom an evil, which can never be remedied, till that is faithfully done.

• To