section vi

It is not necessary to inform the sagacious reader, now I enter on my concluding reflections, that the discussion of this subject merely consists in opening a few simple principles, and clearing away the rubbish which obscured them. But, as all readers are not sagacious, I must be allowed to add some explanatory remarks to bring the subject home to reason – to that sluggish reason, which supinely takes opinions on trust, and obstinately supports them to spare itself the labour of thinking.

Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless virtue be nursed by liberty, it will never attain due strength – and what they say of man I extend to mankind, insisting that in all cases morals must be fixed on immutable principles; and, that the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that of reason.

To render women truly useful members of society, I argue that they should be led, by having their undertakings cultivated on a large scale, to acquire a rational affection for their country, founded on knowledge, because it is obvious that we are little interested about what we do not understand. And to render this general knowledge of due importance, I have endeavoured to shew that private duties are never properly fulfilled unless the understanding enlarges the heart; and that public virtue is only an aggregate of private. But, the distinctions established in society undermine both, by beating out the solid gold of virtue, till it becomes only the tinsel-covering of vice; for whilst wealth renders a man more respectable than virtue, wealth will be sought before virtue; and, whilst women’s persons are caressed, when a childish simper shews an absence of mind – the mind will lie fallow. Yet, true voluptuousness must proceed from the mind – for what can equal the sensations produced by mutual affection, supported by mutual respect? What are the cold, or feverish caresses of appetite, but sin embracing death, compared with the modest overflowings of a pure heart and exalted imagination? Yes, let me tell the libertine of fancy when he despises understanding in woman–that the mind, which he disregards, gives life to the enthusiastic affection from which rapture, short-lived as it is, alone can flow! And, that, without virtue, a sexual attachment must expire, like a tallow candle in the socket, creating intolerable disgust. To prove this, I need only observe, that men who have wasted great part of their lives with women, and with whom they have sought for pleasure with eager thirst, entertain the meanest opinion of the sex. – Virtue, true refiner of joy! – if foolish men were to fright thee from earth, in order to give loose to all their appetites without a check – some sensual wight of taste would scale the heavens to invite thee back, to give a zest to pleasure!

That women at present are by ignorance rendered foolish or vicious, is, I think, not to be disputed; and, that the most salutary effects tending to improve mankind might be expected from a revolution in female manners, appears, at least, with a face of probability, to rise out of the observation. For as marriage has been termed the parent of those endearing charities which draw man from the brutal herd, the corrupting intercourse that wealth, idleness, and folly, produce between the sexes, is more universally injurious to morality than all the other vices of mankind collectively considered. To adulterous lust the most sacred duties are sacrificed, because before marriage, men, by a promiscuous intimacy with women, learned to consider love as a selfish gratification – learned to separate it not only from esteem, but from the affection merely built on habit, which mixes a little humanity with it. Justice and friendship are also set at defiance, and that purity of taste is vitiated which would naturally lead a man to relish an artless display of affection rather than affected airs. But that noble simplicity of affection, which dares to appear unadorned, has few attractions for the libertine, though it be the charm, which by cementing the matrimonial tie, secures to the pledges of a warmer passion the necessary parental attention; for children will never be properly educated till friendship subsists between parents. Virtue flies from a house divided against itself – and a whole legion of devils take up their residence there.

The affection of husbands and wives cannot be pure when they have so few sentiments in common, and when so little confidence is established at home, as must be the case when their pursuits are so different. That intimacy from which tenderness should flow, will not, cannot subsist between the vicious.

Contending, therefore, that the sexual distinction which men have so warmly insisted upon, is arbitrary, I have dwelt on an observation, that several sensible men, with whom I have conversed on the subject, allowed to be well founded; and it is simply this, that the little chastity to be found amongst men, and consequent disregard of modesty, tend to degrade both sexes; and further, that the modesty of women, characterized as such, will often be only the artful veil of wantonness instead of being the natural reflection of purity, till modesty be universally respected.

From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the greater number of female follies proceed; and the cunning, which I allow makes at present a part of their character, I likewise have repeatedly endeavoured to prove, is produced by oppression.

Were not dissenters, for instance, a class of people, with strict truth, characterized as cunning? And may I not lay some stress on this fact to prove, that when any power but reason curbs the free spirit of man, dissimulation is practised, and the various shifts of art are naturally called forth? Great attention to decorum, which was carried to a degree of scrupulosity, and all that puerile bustle about trifles and consequential solemnity, which Butler’s caricature of a dissenter, brings before the imagination, shaped their persons as well as their minds in the mould of prim littleness.a I speak collectively, for I know how many ornaments to human nature have been enrolled amongst sectaries; yet, I assert, that the same narrow prejudice for their sect, which women have for their families, prevailed in the dissenting part of the community, however worthy in other respects, and also that the same timid prudence, or headstrong efforts, often disgraced the exertions of both. Oppression thus formed many of the features of their character perfectly to coincide with that of the oppressed half of mankind; for is it not notorious that dissenters were, like women, fond of deliberating together, and asking advice of each other, till by a complication of little contrivances, some little end was brought about? A similar attention to preserve their reputation was conspicuous in the dissenting and female world, and was produced by a similar cause.

Asserting the rights which women in common with men ought to contend for, I have not attempted to extenuate their faults; but to prove them to be the natural consequence of their education and station in society. If so, it is reasonable to suppose that they will change their character, and correct their vices and follies, when they are allowed to be free in a physical, moral, and civil sense.

Let woman share the rights and she will emulate the virtues of man, for she must grow more perfect when emancipated, or justify the authority that chains such a weak being to her duty. – If the latter, it will be expedient to open a fresh trade with Russia for whips;b a present which a father should always make to his son-in-law on his wedding day, that a husband may keep his whole family in order by the same means; and without any violation of justice reign, wielding this sceptre, sole master of his house, because he is the only being in it who has reason: – the divine, indefeasible earthly sovereignty breathed into man by the Master of the universe. Allowing this position, women have not any inherent rights to claim; and, by the same rule, their duties vanish, for rights and duties are inseparable.

Be just then, O ye men of understanding! and mark not more severely what women do amiss, than the vicious tricks of the horse or the ass for whom ye provide provender – and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to whom ye deny the rights of reason, or ye will be worse than Egyptian task-masters, expecting virtue where nature has not given understanding!

A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what business women turned of forty have to do in the world?

Contrary to the opinion of anatomists, who argue by analogy from the formation of the teeth, stomach, and intestines, Rousseau will not allow a man to be a carnivorous animal And, carried away from nature by a love of system, he disputes whether man be a gregarious animal, though the long and helpless state of infancy seems to point him out as particularly impelled to pair, the first step towards herdinga

What would you say to a mechanic whom you had desired to make a watch to point out the hour of the day, if, to shew his ingenuity, he added wheels to make it a repeater, etc that perplexed the simple mechanism; should he urge, to excuse himself–had you not touched a certain spring, you would have known nothing of the matter, and that he should have amused himself by making an experiment without doing you any harm would you not retort fairly upon him, by insisting that if he had not added those needless wheels and springs, the accident could not have happened?

Could there be a greater insult offered to the rights of man than the beds of justice in France, when an infant was made the organ of the detestable Dubois

Dr Pricea

Men of abilities scatter seeds that grow up and have a great influence on the forming opinion, and when once the public opinion preponderates, through the exertion of reason, the overthrow of arbitrary power is not very distant

Why should women be censured with petulant acrimony, because they seem to have a passion for a scarlet coat? Has not education placed them more on a level with soldiers than any other class of men?

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

For example, the herd of Novelists

Vide Rousseau, and Swedenborgb

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

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

‘But Selene’s education was regulated by different views, and conducted upon severer principles, if that can be called severity which opens the mind to a sense of moral and religious duties, and most effectually arms it against the inevitable evils of life’

Mr Day’s Sandford and Merton, Vol III’

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

‘In the union of the sexes, both pursue one common object, but none in the same manner From their diversity in this particular, arises the first determinate difference between the moral relations of each The one should be active and strong, the other passive and weak it is necessary the one should have both the power and the will, and that the other should make little resistance

‘This principle being established, it follows that woman is expressly formed to please the man if the obligation be reciprocal also, and the man ought to please in his turn, it is not so immediately necessary his great merit is in his power, and he pleases merely because he is strong This, I must confess, is not one of the refined maxims of love, it is, however, one of the laws of nature, prior to love itself

‘If woman be formed to please and be subjected to man, it is her place, doubtless, to render herself agreeable to him, instead of challenging his passion The violence of his desires depends on her charms, it is by means of these she should urge him to the exertion of those powers which nature hath given him The most successful method of exciting them, is, to render such exertion necessary by resistance, as, in that case, self-love is added to desire, and the one triumphs in the victory which the other obliged to acquire Hence arise the various modes of attack and defence between the sexes, the boldness of one sex and the timidity of the other, and, in a word, that bashfulness and modesty with which nature hath armed the weak, in order to subdue the strong’

Rousseau’s Emilius

I shall make no other comment on this ingenious passage, than just to observe, that it is the philosophy of lasciviousness

‘O how lovely,’ exclaims Rousseau, speaking of Sophia, ‘is her ignorance! Happy is he who is destined to instruct her! She will never pretend to be the tutor of her husband, but will be content to be his pupil Far from attempting to subject him to her taste, she will accommodate herself to his She will be more estimable to him, than if she was learned he will have a pleasure in instructing her’ Rousseau’s Emilius’

I shall content myself with simply asking, how friendship can subsist, when love expires, between the master and his pupil?

Into what inconsistencies do men fall when they argue without the compass of principles Women, weak women, are compared with angels, yet, a superiour 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

‘The brutes,’ says Lord Monboddo, ‘remain in the state in which nature has placed them, except in so far as their natural instinct is improved by the culture we bestow upon them’a

Vide Miltonb

This word is not strictly just, but I cannot find a better

After writing these lines, how could Mrs Barbauld write the following ignoble comparison?

To a Lady, with some painted flowers

So the men tell us, but virtue, says reason, must be acquired by rough toils, and useful struggles with worldly cares

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

The mass of mankind are rather the slaves of their appetites than of their passions

Men of these descriptions pour it 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

Many other names might be added

The strength of an affection is, generally, in the same proportion as the character of the species in the object beloved, is lost in that of the individual.

Dr Young supports the same opinion, in his plays, when he talks of the misfortune that shunned the light of dayc

‘I take her body,’ says Rangera

’supposing that women are voluntary slaves – slavery of any kind is unfavourable to human happiness and improvement’ Knox’s Essaysb

Sappho, Eloisa, Mrs Macaulay, 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

I have already inserted the passage, page 117

What nonsense’

What is to be the consequence, if the mother’s and husband’s opinion should chance not to agree? An ignorant person cannot be reasoned out of an error–and when persuaded to give up one prejudice for another the mind is unsettled Indeed, the husband may not have any religion to teach her, though in such a situation she will be in great want of a support to her virtue, independent of worldly considerations

Rousseau’s Emilius

Can you?–Can you? would be the most emphatical comment, were it drawled out in a whining voice

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

‘He is the free man, whom the truth makes free!’ Cowperc

I mean to use a word that comprehends more than chastity the sexual virtue

A person is not to act in this or that way, though convinced they are right in so doing, because some equivocal circumstances may lead the world to suspect that they acted from different motives.–This is sacrificing the substance for a shadow Let people but watch their own hearts, and act rightly, as far as they can judge, and they may patiently wait till the opinion of the world comes round It is best to be directed by a simple motive–for justice has too often been sacrificed to propriety,–another word for convenience

Coinciding in opinion with Mrs Macaulay relative to many branches of education, I refer to her valuable work, instead of quoting her sentiments to support my own

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

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 womena

‘I find that all is but lip-wisdom which wants experience,’ says Sidneyb

Vide Mr Burkea

‘One sees nothing when one is content to contemplate only, it is necessary to act oneself to be able to see how others act’ Rousseau

See an excellent essay on this subject by Mrs Barbauld, in Miscellaneous Pieces in Proseb

I have sometimes, when inclined to laugh at materialists,b asked whether, as the most powerful effects in nature are apparently produced by fluids, the magnetic, etc the passions might not be fine volatile fluids that embraced humanity, keeping the more refractory elementary parts together – or whether they were simply a liquid fire that pervaded the more sluggish materials, giving them life and heat?

I have frequently seen this exemplified in women whose beauty could no longer be repaired They have retired from the noisy scenes of dissipation, but, unless they became methodists, the solitude of the select society of their family connections or acquaintance, has presented only a fearful void, consequently, nervous complaints, and all the vapourish train of idleness, rendered them quite as useless, and far more unhappy, than when they joined the giddy throng

Modesty, is the graceful calm virtue of maturity, bashfulness, the charm of vivacious youth

I have conversed, as man with man, with medical men, on anatomical subjects, and compared the proportions of the human body with artists – yet such modesty did I meet with, that I was never reminded by word or look of my sex, of the absurd rules which make modesty a pharisaical cloak of weakness And I am persuaded that in the pursuit of knowledge women would never be insulted by sensible men, and rarely by men of any description, if they did not by mock modesty remind them that they were women actuated by the same spirit as the Portugueze ladies, who would think their charms insulted, if, when left alone with a man, he did not, at least, attempt to be grossly familiar with their persons Men are not always men in the company of women, nor would women always remember that they are women, if they were allowed to acquire more understanding

Male or female; for the world contains many modest men

The immodest behaviour of many married women, who are nevertheless faithful to their husbands’ beds, will illustrate this remark.

The poor moth fluttering round a candle, burns its wings

Children very early see cats with their kittens, birds with their young ones, etc Why then are they not to be told that their mothers carry and nourish them in the same way? As there would then be no appearance of mystery they would never think of the subject more Truth may always be told to children, if it be told gravely, but it is the immodesty of affected modesty, that does all the mischief, and this smoke heats the imagination by vainly endeavouring to obscure certain objects If, indeed, children could be kept entirely from improper company, we should never allude to any such subjects, but as this is impossible, it is best to tell them the truth, especially as such information, not interesting them, will make no impression on their imagination

Affection would rather make one choose to perform these offices, to spare the delicacy of a friend, by still keeping a veil over them, for the personal helplessness, produced by sickness, is of an humbling nature

I remember to have met with a sentence, in a book of education, that made me smile ‘It would be needless to caution you against putting your hand, by chance, under your neckhandkerchief, for a modest woman never did so’

The behaviour of many newly married women has often disgusted me They seem anxious never to let their husbands forget the privilege of marriage, and to find no pleasure in his society unless he is acting the lover Short, indeed, must be the reign of love, when the flame is thus constantly blown up, without its receiving any solid fewel

I allude to various biographical writings, but particularly to Boswell’s Life of Johnson

Smithd

L’amour propre L’amour de sot mêmec

Dr Johnson makes the same observationa

I myself heard a little girl once say to a servant, ‘My mamma has been scolding me finely this morning, because her hair was not dressed to please her’ Though this remark was pert, it was just And what respect could a girl acquire for such a parent without doing violence to reason?

I now particularly allude to the numerous academies in and about London, and to the behaviour of the trading part of this great city

I remember a circumstance that once came under my own observation, and raised my indignation I went to visit a little boy at a school where young children were prepared for a larger one The master took me into the school-room, etc but whilst I walked down a broad gravel walk, I could not help observing that the grass grew very luxuriantly on each side of me I immediately asked the child some questions, and found that the poor boys were not allowed to stir off the walk, and that the master sometimes permitted sheep to be turned in to crop the untrodden grass The tyrant of this domain used to sit by a window that overlooked the prison yard, and one nook turning from it, where the unfortunate babes could sport freely, he enclosed, and planted it with potatoes The wife likewise was equally anxious to keep the children in order, lest they should dirty or tear their clothes

France

Treating this part of the subject, I have borrowed some hints from a very sensible pamphlet, written by the late bishop of Autun on Public Education

The Bishop of Autun’s

I once lived in the neighbourhood of one of these men, a handsome man, and saw with surprise and indignation, women, whose appearance and attendance bespoke that rank in which females are supposed to receive a superiour education, flock to his door

I am not now alluding to that superiority of mind which leads to the creation of ideal beauty, when he, surveyed with a penetrating eye, appears a tragi-comedy, in which little can be seen to satisfy the heart without the help of fancy.

I had further enlarged on the advantages which might reasonably be expected to result from an improvement in female manners, towards the general reformation of society; but it appeared to me that such reflections would more properly close the last volumec