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"...she
has always been either
a slave or a despot... each of these situations
equally retards the progress of reason..."
A VINDICATION OF
THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN
by Mary Wollstonecraft
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 tomorrow 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. [1] Only "absolute in loveliness,"
the portion of rationality 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 is the perfectibility of human 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, every difficulty
in morals that escapes from human discussion, and equally baffles the investigation
of profound thinking, and the lightning glance of genius, is an argument
on which I build my belief of the immortality of the soul. Reason is, consequentially,
the simple power of improvement; 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 the nature of reason must be the same in all, if it be an emanation
of divinity, the tie that connects the creature with the Creator; for,
can that soul be stamped with the heavenly image, that is not perfected
by the exercise of its own reason? [2]
Yet outwardly ornamented with
elaborate care, and so adorned to delight man, "that with honour he
may love," [3] 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 education in a false light; not considering it as the
first step to form a being advancing gradually towards perfection; [4]
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. [5]
Thus understanding, strictly speaking, 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 generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive
conclusions from individual observations, is the only acquirement, for
an immortal being, that really deserves the name of knowledge. Merely to
observe, without endeavouring to account for anything, may (in a very incomplete
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 generalizing ideas, to any great extent, is not very common amongst
men or women. But this exercise is the true 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 generalizing
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 has always
been either a slave or a despot, and to remark that each of these situations
equally retards the progress of reason.
The grand source of female folly and vice has ever
appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind; and the very constitution
of civil governments has put almost insuperable 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 becoming 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 present modification of society; and while it continues to be so,
little can be expected from such weak beings.
Inheriting 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 men who pride themselves upon paying this arbitrary
insolent respect to the sex, with the most scrupulous exactness) are most
inclined to tyrannise over, and despise the very weakness they cherish.
Often do they repeat Mr. Hume's sentiments, when,
comparing the French and Athenian character, he alludes to women -
"But what is more singular 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 civilisation authorise between man and man?
And why do 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 mankind, 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 affections, 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 indisputable. They will smile - yes, they will smile,
though told that:
In 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 anticipated.
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 flattered by a puerile attention
to the whole sex, obtained in his reign that prince-like distinction so
fatal to reason and virtue.
A king is always a king, and
a woman always a woman. [6] 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
conquest when the heart is out of the question.
This desire is not confined to women. "I
have endeavoured," 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
advantage 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 receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to
the sex, when in fact, they are insultingly supporting their own superiority.
It is not condescension to bow to an inferior.
So ludicrous, in fact, do these ceremonies appear
to me that I scarcely am able to govern my muscles when I see a man with
eager and serious solicitude to lift a handkerchief or shut a door, 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, 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
distinction is, I am firmly persuaded, the foundation of the weakness of
character ascribed to woman; is the cause why the understanding is neglected,
whilst accomplishments 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 exerting 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 advantages which they seek."
True! my male readers will probably exclaim;
but let them, before they draw any conclusion, recollect that this was
not written originally as descriptive 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 argument 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 passions. Solitude and reflection are necessary to give to wishes
the force of passions, and to enable the imagination to enlarge 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 seem to imagine that to them, as to other men, it must be the purchase
either of sweat or of blood?
"By what important 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
according to his own pleasure; and in this he is seldom disappointed. 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 reputation? 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, however, 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 presence, 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 knowledge 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 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 flights 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 education, which they receive from
society, the love of pleasure may be said to govern them all; but does
this prove that there is 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 occurrences, 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, women, in general, as well as the rich
of both sexes, have acquired all the follies and vices of civilisation,
and 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,
consequently 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
emotion 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 contradictory 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 distinction should be made between inflaming and
strengthening them. The passions thus pampered, whilst the judgment is
left unformed, what can be expected to ensue ? Undoubtedly, 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.
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 acquiring 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 condition 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 meannesses, 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 amiable 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 danger 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 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 insisted 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 argument, they have laboured to prove,
with chivalrous generosity, 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 material; intellect dwells not there; nor will fire ever
make lead gold!
I come round to my old argument: if woman be allowed
to have an immortal soul, she must have, as the employment of life, an
understanding to improve. And when, to render the present state more complete,
though everything proves it to be but a fraction of a mighty sum, she is
incited by present gratification to forget her grand destination, nature
is counteracted, or she was born only to procreate and rot.
Or, granting brutes of every description 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 society is not built on extraordinary
exertions; and were it more reasonably organised, there 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 dictated by a gross appetite, which satiety had rendered fastidious,
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 fulfill the duties of a mother and mistress of a family, I
should cautiously 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 understanding 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, [7]
I may be allowed to infer that reason is absolutely
necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly, and I must again
repeat, that sensibility is not 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 enervating 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 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. [8]
Yet, 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 exercised 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
reprobated; and that coquetry more frequently proceeds from vanity than
from that inconstancy which overstrained sensibility naturally produces.
Another argument that has had great weight with
me must, I think, have some force with every considerate benevolent 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
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 understanding - is jealous
of the little kindness which her husband 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 of her husband, led him to violate
prior duties.
She would wish not to 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
education, they are either made fine ladies, brimful of sensibility, 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 prudence, 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 acquaintance 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. 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 sa 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 accomplishments that rise a degree above sense;
for even corporeal accomplishments cannot be acquired with any degree of
precision unless the understanding has been strengthened by exercise.
Without a foundation of principles taste is superficial;
grace must arise from something deeper than imitation. 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
artless, 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 fellowship 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 submit to
man, her equal - a being who, like her, was sent into the world to acquire
virtue?
Can she consent to be occupied 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 knowledge?
Yet if love be the supreme good, let woman be only
educated to inspire it, and let every charm be polished to intoxicate the
senses; but if they be moral beings, let them have a chance 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 compassion.
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 questionable
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 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 approbation 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 comprehension 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 understanding; for, unless there be
a ballast of understanding, they will never become either virtuous or free:
an aristocracy, 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.
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, [9]
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.
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 prejudice, 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 physionomic, 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 spring tide
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 character, the only fastener of the affections. [10]
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, hut 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 every 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, 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 phenomenon, 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
left-handed 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 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!
A woman who has lost her honour imagines that she
cannot 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 quickly depraved by circumstances over which the poor 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 systematically
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 respectable 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 [11]
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 strictness I have heard vindicated
as a salutary error. I shall answer in the words of have more 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
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 solely 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 pretend 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 applicable 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 convenience. 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, instead
of transferring her fondness 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 lasciviousness when the exercise of a duty is sacrificed to
its indulgence.
Personal attachment is a very happy foundation
for friendship; 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 imaginations
that have sketched such dangerous pictures. Dangerous, because they not
only afford a plausible excuse to the voluptuary, who disguises sheer sensuality
under a sentimental veil; but as they spread affectation, and take from
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 constitution 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 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 everyone shapes
to his own fancy, proclaims man the lord of this lower world, and to be
an intelligential 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
away 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 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 exercised their own minds. Gardening, experimental
philosophy, and literature, would afford them subjects to think of and
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,
etc., etc.; 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, it will be found that the
employment of the thoughts shapes the character both generally and individually.
The thoughts of women ever hover 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 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 [12] 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? [13]
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 determine; for I shall not lay any great stress on the example
of a few women [14] 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.
NOTES
[1] Into what inconsistencies do men fall when thy 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? 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. RETURN TO TEXT
[2] "The brutes,"
says Lord Monboddo, "remain in the states in
which nature has placed them, except in so far as their natural instinct
is improved by the culture we bestow upon them." RETURN TO TEXT
[3] Vide Milton. RETURN TO TEXT
[4] This word is not stricly just, but I cannot
find a better. RETURN TO TEXT
[5]
"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
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 loftiers forms are rougher tasks assign'd;
The sheltering oak resists the stromy 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 and delights alone.
Gay without toil, and lovely without art,
They spring to cheer the sense, and glad the heart.
Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these;
Your best, you 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. RETURN TO TEXT
[6] 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. RETURN TO TEXT
[7] The mass of mankind are rather the slaves
of their appetites than of their passions. RETURN TO TEXT
[8] Men of these descriptions pour sensibility
into their compositions, to amalgamate the gross materials; and moulding
them with passion, give to the inert body a soul; but in woman's imagination,
love alone concentrates these ethereal beams. RETURN TO TEXT
[9] Many other names might be added. RETURN TO TEXT
[10] 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. RETURN TO TEXT
[11] Dr. Young supports the same opinion, in
his plays, when he talks of the misfortune that shunned the light of day.
RETURN TO TEXT
[12] "I take her
body," says Ranger. RETURN TO TEXT
[13] "Supposing that
women are voluntary slaves - slavery of any kind is unfavourable to human
happiness and improvement."
-- Knox's Essays. RETURN TO TEXT
[14] Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs. Macauly, the Empress
of Russia, Madame d'Eon, etc. 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. RETURN TO TEXT
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