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A VINDICATION OF
THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN by Mary Wollstonecraft (Sections II, III, IV, and V) | BACK TO CHAP. FIVE-I | CHAPTER V part 2 | GO TO CHAP. SIX | Dr. Fordyce's sermons have long made a part of a young woman's library; nay, girls at school 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 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 independence 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. In declamatory periods Dr. Fordyce spins out Rousseau'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 man.
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 read, though he equally sinned against sense and taste. I particularly object to the love-like phrases
of pumped up passion, which are everywhere interspersed. Even recommending piety he uses the following argument.
Why are women to be thus bred up with a desire
of conquest?
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.
Idle empty words! What can such delusive
flattery lead to, but vanity and folly? 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.
Is not the following portrait - the portrait of a house slave?
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. As these volumes are so frequently put into the hands of young people, I have taken more notice of them than, 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 III 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 arguments that so speciously support opinions which, I think, have had the most baneful effect on the morals 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 consequence, 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." 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! If love have made some women wretched, how many
more has the cold unmeaning intercourse of gallantry rendered vain and
useless! I shall pass over his strictures on religion, because I 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 substantial than seemliness will be the result; and, without
understanding the behaviour here recommended, would be rank affectation.
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 of gaping tasteless fools?
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.
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 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. 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 passeth show! Still the same tone occurs; for in another place, after recommending, without sufficiently discriminating delicacy, he adds:
This desire of being always women, is the very consciousness 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 companions. But in this respect his advice is even inconsistent with a passage which I mean to quote with the most marked approbation.
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 gratification that soon degrades the character. I carry this sentiment still further. Affection,
when love is out of the question, authorises many personal endearments,
that naturally flowing from an innocent heart, give life to the behaviour;
but the personal intercourse of appetite, gallantry, or vanity, is despicable.
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. 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.
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 prejudices, however 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. Whilst reason raises man above the brutal herd, and death is big with promises, they alone are subject to blind authority who have no reliance on their own strength. They are free - who will be free! [7] 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. 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. Woman in particular, whose virtue [8] 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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."
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 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 themselves 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. 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. 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 converse 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 observations, 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, undoubtedly, that this country has ever 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 acquirements 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 admit not of such an arrogant assumption of reason;
but I contend that it was a sound 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. When I first thought of writing these strictures I anticipated 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 not be 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 in the youthful frame, inspiring warm affections and great resolves. [11] 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. 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? A young man who has been bred up with domestic friends, and led to store his mind with as much speculative knowledge as can be acquired by reading and the natural reflections 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 infirmities, 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 imperfections of our nature, we discover virtues, and various 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. 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 [13] 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. It is natural for youth to adorn the first object
of its affection with every good quality, and the emulation produced 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,
abstractedly, is thought beautiful, and wisdom sublime. 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. 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. 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. 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 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 happiness.
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. 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 contradiction 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 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 atmosphere 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 pursuing some imaginary present good. After viewing objects in this light, it would not
be 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. But vain as the ambitious man's pursuits would
be, he is often striving for something more substantial than fame. 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. The habit of reflection, and the knowledge attained by fostering any passion, might be shown to be equally useful, though the object be proved equally fallacious; for they would all appear in the same light if they were not magnified 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? 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. 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. I may be told that the knowledge thus acquired
is sometimes purchased at too dear a rate. 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. 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. I know that a kind of fashion now prevails of respecting
prejudices; and when anyone dares to face them, though actuated by humanity
and armed by reason, he is superciliously 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 reasonable at all times. Why are we to love prejudices
merely because they are prejudices? [14] 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? It is impossible to converse
with people to any purpose who only use affirmatives and negatives.
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. Many of those children whose conduct has been
most narrowly watched, become the weakest men, because their instructors
only instill 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. 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 conviction 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? 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. [5] Can you? - Can you? would be the most emphatical comment, were it drawled out in a whining voice. RETURN TO TEXT [6] Let women once acquire good sense - and if it deserve the name, it will teach them; or, of what use will it be? how to employ it. RETURN TO TEXT [7] "He is the free
man, whom the truth makes free!" [8] I mean to use a word that comprehends more than chastity, the sexual virtue. RETURN TO TEXT [9] 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. [10] Coinciding in opinion with Mrs. Macauly relative to many branches of education, I refer to her valuable work, instead of quoting her sentiments to support my own. RETURN TO TEXT [11] 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. RETURN TO TEXT [12] 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. RETURN TO TEXT [13] "I find that all is but lip-wisdom which want experience," says Sidney. RETURN TO TEXT [14] Vide Mr. Burke. RETURN TO TEXT
[16] "One sees nothing
when one is content to contemplate only: it is necessary to act oneself
to be able to see how others act." [17] See an excellent essay on this subject by Mrs. Barbauld, in Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose. RETURN TO TEXT | BACK TO CHAP. FIVE-I | | RETURN TO TOP | | GO TO CHAP. SIX | |
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