by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
After considering the historic page, and viewing
the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of
sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged
to confess that either Nature has made a great difference between man and man,
or that the civilisation which has hitherto taken
place in the world has been very partial. I have turned over various books
written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of
parents and the management of schools; but what has been the result?--a
profound conviction that the neglected education of my fellow-creatures is the
grand source of the misery I deplore, and that women, in particular, are
rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from
one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently
prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers which
are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to
beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade,
disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have
arrived at maturity. One cause of this barren blooming I attri-
bute to a false system of education, gathered from
the books written on this subject by men who, considering females rather as
women than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring
mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers; and the understanding
of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilised women of the present century, with a few
exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a
nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect.
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and
manners, the works which have been particularly written for their improve- ment must not be overlooked, especially when it is
asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled by false
refinement; that the books of instruction, written by men of genius, have had
the same tendency as more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of
Mahometanism, they are treated as a kind of
subordinate beings, and not as a part of the human species, when improvable
reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction which raises men above the
brute creation, and puts a natural sceptre in a
feeble hand.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my
readers to suppose that I mean violently to agitate the contested question
respecting the quality or inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies in my
way, and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the main tendency of my
reasoning to misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few words,
my opinion. In the government of the physical world it is observable that the
female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the
law of Nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. A degree of physical superiority cannot,
therefore, be denied, and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with this
natural preeminence, men endeavour to sink us still
lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women,
intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses,
pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to
become the friends of the fellow-creatures who find amusement in their society.
I am aware of an obvious inference. From every
quarter have I heard exclamations against masculine women, but where are they
to be found? If by this appellation men mean to inveigh against, their ardour in hunting, shooting, and gaming, I shall most
cordially join in the cry; but if it be against the imitation of manly virtues,
or, more properly speaking, the attainment of those talents and virtues, the
exercise of which ennobles the human character, and which raises females in the
scale of animal being, when they are comprehensively termed mankind, all those
who view them with a philosophic eye must, I should think, wish with me, that
they may every day grow more and more masculine.
This discussion naturally divides the subject. I
shall first consider women in the gland light of human creatures, who in common
with men, are placed on this earth to unfold their faculties; and afterwards I
shall more particularly point out their peculiar designation.
I wish also to steer clear of an error which many
respectable writers have fallen into; for the instruction which has hitherto
been addressed to women, has rather been applicable to ladies, if the little
indirect advice that is scattered through "Sandford
and Merton" be excepted; but, addressing my sex in a firmer tone, I pay
particular attention to those in the middle class, because they appear to be in
the most natural state. Perhaps the seeds of false refinement, immorality, and
vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and affections of their race,
in a premature unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and
spread corruption through the whole mass of society! As a class of mankind they
have the strongest claim to pity; the education of the rich tends to render
them vain and helpless, and the unfolding mind is not strengthened by the
practice of those duties which dignify the human character. They only live to
amuse themselves, and by the same law which in Nature invariably produces
certain effects, they soon only afford barren amusement.
But as I purpose taking a separate view of the
different ranks of society, and of the moral character of women in each, this
hint is for the present sufficient; and I have only alluded to the subject
because it appears to me to be the very essence of an introduction to give a
cursory account of the contents of the work it introduces.
My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat
them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces,
and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to
stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human
happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavour
to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft
phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of
taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings
who are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed
its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.
Dismissing, then, those pretty feminine phrases,
which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence, and
despising that weak elegancy of mind, exquisite sensibility, and sweet docility
of manners, supposed to be the sexual charac- teristics of the weaker vessel, I wish to show that
elegance is inferior to virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is
to obtain a character as a hurnan being, regardless
of the distinction of sex, and that secondary views should be brought to this
simple touchstone.
This is a rough sketch of my plan; and should I
express my conviction with the energetic emotions that I feel whenever I think
of the subject, the dictates of experience and reflection will be felt by some
of my readers. Animated by this important object, I shall disdain to cull my
phrases or polish my style. I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me
unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments than
dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in rounding
periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial feelings, which,
coming from the head, never reach the heart. I shall be employed about things,
not words! and, anxious to render my sex more
respectable members of society, I shall try to avoid that flowery diction which
has slided from essays into novels, and from novels
into familiar letters and conversation.
These pretty superlatives, dropping glibly from
the tongue, vitiate the taste, and create a kind of sickly delicacy that tums away from simple unadorned truth; and a deluge of
false sentiments and overstretched feelings, stifling the natural emotions of
the heart, render the domestic pleasures insipid, that ought to sweeten the
exercise of those severe duties, which educate a rational and immortal being
for a nobler field of action.
The education of women has of late been more
attended to than formerly; yet they are still reckoned a frivolous sex, and
ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavour by
satire or instruction to improve them. It is acknowledged that they spend many
of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments;
meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of
beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves--the only way women can nse in the world--by marriage. And
this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such
children may be expected to act,--they dress, they paint, and nickname God's
creatures. Surely these weak beings are only fit for a seraglio! Can they be
expected to govern a family with judgment, or take care of the poor babes whom
they bring into the world?
If, then, it can be fairly deduced from the
present conduct of the sex, from the prevalent fondness for pleasure which takes
place of ambition and those nobler passions that open and enlarge the soul,
that the instruction which women have hitherto received has only tended, with
the constituion of civil society, to render them
insignificant objects of desire--mere propagators of fools!--if it can be
proved that in aiming to accomplish them, without cultivating their
understandings, they are taken out of their sphere of duties, and made
ridiculous and useless when the short-lived bloom of beauty is over,[1] I
presume that rational men will excuse me for endeavouring
to persuade them to become more masculine and respectable.
Indeed the word masculine is only a bugbear;
there is little reason to fear that women will acquire too much courage or
fortitude, for their apparent inferiority with respect to bodily strength must
render them in some degree dependent on men in the various relations of life;
but why should it be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and
confound simple truths with sensual reveries?
Women are, in fact, so much degraded by mistaken
notions of female excellence, that I do not mean to add a paradox when I assert
that this artificial weakness produces a propensity to tyrannise,
and gives birth to cunning, the natural opponent of strength, which leads them
to play off those contemptible infantine airs that undermine esteem even whilst
they excite desire. Let men become more chaste and modest, and if women do not
grow wiser in the same ratio, it will be clear that they have weaker
understandings. It seems scarcely necessary to say that I now speak of the sex
in general. Many individuals have more sense than their male relatives; and, as
nothing preponderates where there is a constant struggle for an
equilibrium without it has naturally more gravity, some women govern
their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always
govern.
[1] A lively writer (I cannot recollect his name)
asks what business women turned of forty have to do in the world?
SIR,--Having read with great pleasure a pamphlet
which you have lately published, I dedicate this volume to you--the first
dedication that I have ever written, to induce you to read it with attention;
and, because I think that you will understand me, which I do not suppose many
pert witlings will, who may ridicule the arguments they are unable to answer.
But, sir I carry my respect for your understanding still farther; so far that I
am confident you will not throw my work aside, and hastily conclude that I am
in the wrong, because you did not view the subject in the same light yourself.
And, pardon my frankness, but I must observe, that you treated it in too
cursory a manner, contented to consider it as it had been considered formerly,
when the rights of man, not to advert to woman, were trampled on as
chimerical--I call upon you, therefore, now to weigh what I have advanced
respecting the rights of woman and national education; and I call with the firm
tone of humanity, for my arguments, sir, are dictated by a disinterested
spirit--I plead for my sex, not for myself.
It is then an affection for the whole human race
that makes my pen dart rapidly along to support what I believe to be the cause
of virtue; and the same motive leads me earnestly to wish to see woman placed
in a station in which she would advance, instead of retarding, the progress of
those glorious principles that give a substance to morality. My opinion,
indeed, respecting the rights and duties of woman seems to flow so naturally
from these simple principles, that I think it scarcely possible but that some
of the enlarged minds who formed your admirable constitution will coincide with
me.
In
Manners and morals are so nearly allied that they
have often been confounded; but, though the former should only be the natural
reflection of the latter, yet, when various causes have produced factitious and
corrupt manners, which are very early caught, morality becomes an empty name.
The personal reserve, and sacred respect for cleanliness and delicacy in
domestic life, which French women almost despise, are the graceful pillars of
modesty; but, far from despising them, if the pure flame of patriotism have
reached their bosoms, they should labour to improve
the morals of their fellow-citizens, by teaching men, not only to respect
modesty in women, but to acquire it themselves, as the only way to merit their
esteem.
Contending for the rights of woman, my main
argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by
education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of
knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be
inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can
woman be expected to co-operate unless she knows why
she ought to be virtuous? unless freedom strengthens
her reason till she comprehends her duty, and see in what manner it is
connected with her real good. If children are to be educated to understand the
true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of
mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by
considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and
situation of woman at present shuts her out from such investigations.
In this work I have produced many arguments,
which to me were conclusive, to prove that the prevailing notion respecting a
sexual character was subversive of morality, and I have contended, that to
render the human body and mind more perfect, chastity must more universally
prevail, and that chastity will never be respected in the male world till the
person of a woman is not, as it were, idolised, when
little virtue or sense embellish it with the grand traces of mental beauty, or
the interesting simplicity of affection.
Consider, sir, dispassionately these
observations, for a glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you
observed, "that to see one-half of the human race excluded by the other
from all participation of government was a political phenomenon that, according
to abstract principles, it was impossible to explain." If so, on what does
your constitution rest? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and
explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the
same test; though a different opinion prevails in this country, built on the
very arguments which you use to justify the oppression of woman--prescription.
Consider--I address you as a legislator--whether,
when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves
respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate
women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best
calculated to promote their happiness ? Who made man the exclusive judge, if
woman partake with him of the gift of reason?
In this style argue tyrants of every
denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all
eager to crush reason, yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be
useful. Do you not act a similar part when you force all women, by denying them
civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the
dark? for surely, sir, you will not assert that a duty
can be binding which is not founded on reason? If, indeed, this be their destination, arguments may be drawn from reason;
and thus augustly supported, the more understanding women acquire, the more
they will be attached to their duty--comprehending it--for unless they
comprehend it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principle as
those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner.
They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect,
degrading the master and the abject dependent.
But if women are to be excluded, without having a
voice, from participation of the natural
rights of mankind, prove first, to ward off the charge of injustice and
inconsistency, that they want reason, else this flaw in your NEW CONSTITUTION
will ever show that man must, in some shape, act like a tyrant, and tyranny, in
whatever part of society it rears its brazen front, will ever undermine
morality.
I have repeatedly asserted, and produced what
appeared to me irrefragable arguments drawn from matters of fact to prove my
assertion, that women cannot by force be confined to domestic concerns; for
they will, however ignorant, inter- meddle with more weighty affairs,
neglecting private duties only to disturb, by cunning tricks, the orderly plans
of reason which rise above their comprehension.
Besides, whilst they are only made to acquire
personal accomplishments, men will seek for pleasure in variety, and faithless
husbands will make faithless wives; such ignorant beings, indeed, will be very
excusable when, not taught to respect public good, nor allowed any civil
rights, they attempt to do themselves justice by retaliation.
The box of mischief thus opened in society, what
is to preserve private virtue, the only security of public freedom and
universal happiness?
Let there be then no coercion established in
society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into
their proper places. And now that more equitable laws are forming your
citizens, marriage may become more sacred; your young men may choose wives from
motives of affection, and your maidens allow love to root out vanity.
The father of a family will not then weaken his
constitution and debase his sentiments by visiting the harlot, nor forget, in
obeying the call of appetite, the purpose for which it was implanted. And the
mother will not neglect her children to practise the
arts of coquetry, when sense and modesty secure her the friendship of her
husband.
But, till men become attentive to the duty of a
father, it is vain to expect women to spend that time in their nursery which
they, " wise in their generation," choose to spend at their glass;
for this exertion of cunning is only an instinct of nature to enable them to
obtain indirectly a little of that power of which they are unjustly denied a
share; for, if women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they will
render both men and themselves vicious to obtain illicit privileges.
I wish, sir, to set some investigations of this
kind afloat in France; and should they lead to a confirmation of my principles
when your constitution is revised, the Rights of Woman may be respected, if it
be fully proved that reason calls for this respect, and loudly demands JUSTICE
for one-half of the human race.
I am, Sir, Yours respectfully,
When I began to write this work, I divided it
into three parts, supposing that one volume would contain a full discussion of
the arguments which seemed to me to rise naturally from a few simple
principles; but fresh illustrations occurring as I advanced, I now present only
the first part to the public.
Many subjects, however, which I have cursorily
alluded to, call for particular investigation, especially the laws relative to
women, and the consideration of their peculiar duties. These will furnish ample
matter for a second volume, which in due time will be published, to elucidate
some of the sentiments and complete many of the sketches begun in the first.
In the present state of society it appears
necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most
simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch
of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and
the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which
reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they
are formally contradicted, either by the words or conduct of men.
In what does man's pre-eminence over the brute
creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole,
in Reason.
What acquirement exalts one being above another?
Virtue, we spontaneously reply.
For what purpose were the passions implanted?
That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to
the brutes, whispers Experience.
Consequently the perfection of our nature and
capability of happiness must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and direct the
laws which bind society: and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and
virtue naturally flow, is equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.
The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it
seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so
incontrovertible; yet such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded reason, and
such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary
to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error,
by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual
deviations.
Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to
justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they can scarcely trace how,
rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its
own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many
men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect
conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are built
on partial experience, on just, though narrow, views.
Going back to first principles, vice skulks, with
all its native deformity, from close investigation; but a set of shallow reasoners are always exclaiming that these arguments prove
too much, and that a measure rotten at the core may be expedient. Thus
expediency is continually contrasted with simple principles, till truth is lost
in a mist of words, virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a sounding
nothing, by the specious prejudices that assume its name.
That the society is formed in the wisest manner,
whose constitution is founded on the nature of man, strikes, in the abstract,
every thinking being so forcibly, that it looks like presumption to endeavour to bring forward proofs; though proof must be
brought, or the strong hold of prescription will never be forced by reason; yet
to urge prescription as an argument to justify the depriving men (or women) of
their natural rights, is one of the absurd sophisms which daily insult common
sense.
The civilisation of the
bulk of the people of
Such, indeed, has been the wretchedness that has
flowed from hereditary honours, riches, and monarchy,
that men of lively sensibility have almost uttered blasphemy in order to
justify the dispensations of
Impressed by this view of the misery and disorder
which pervaded society, and fatigued with jostling against artificial fools,
Rousseau became enamoured of solitude, and, being at
the same time an optimist, he labours with uncommon
eloquence to prove that man was naturally a solitary animal. Misled by his
respect for the goodness of God, who certainly--for what man of sense and
feeling can doubt it !--gave life only to communicate happiness, he considers
evil as positive, and the work of man; not aware that he was exalting one at-
tribute at the expense of another, equally necessary to divine perfection.
Reared on a false hypothesis, his arguments in favour of a state of nature are plausible, but unsound. I
say unsound; for to assert that B state of nature is preferable to civilisation, in all its possible perfection, is, in other
words, to arraign supreme wisdom; and the paradoxical exclamation, that God has
made all things right, and that error has been introduced by the creature, whom
He formed, knowing what He formed, is as unphilosophical
as impious.
When that wise Being who created us and placed us
here, saw the fair idea, He willed, by allowing it to be so, that the passions
should unfold our reason, because He could see that present evil would produce
future good. Could the helpless creature whom He called from nothing break
loose from His providence, and boldly learn to know good by practising
evil, without His permission ? No. How could that
energetic advocate for immortality argue so inconsistently ?
Had mankind remained for ever in the brutal state of nature, which even his
magic pen cannot paint as a state in which a single virtue took root, it would
have been clear, though not to the sensitive unreflecting wanderer, that man
was born to run the circle of life and death, and adorn God's garden for some
purpose which could not easily be reconciled with His attributes.
But if, to crown the whole, there were to be
rational creatures produced, allowed to rise in excellence by the exercise of
powers implanted for that purpose; if benignity itself thought fit to call into
existence a creature above the brutes,[1] who could think and improve himself,
why should that inestimable gift, for a gift it was, if man was so created, as
to have a capacity to rise above the state in which sensation produced brutal
ease, be called, in direct terms, a curse? A curse it might be reckoned, if the
whole of our existence were bounded by our continuance in this world; for why
should the gracious fountain of life give us passions, and the power of
reflecting, only to imbitter our days and inspire us
with mistaken notions of dignity? Why should He lead us from love of ourselves
to the sublime emotions which the discovery of His wisdom and goodness excites,
if these feelings were not set in motion to improve our nature, of which they
make a part,[2] and render us capable of enjoying a
more godlike portion of happiness? Firmly persuaded that no evil exists in the
world that God did not design to take place, I build my belief on the
perfection of God.
Rousseau exerts himself to prove that all was
right originally: a crowd of authors that all is now right: and I, that all
will be right.
But, true to his first position, next to a state
of nature, Rousseau celebrates barbarism, and apostrophising
the shade of Fabricius, he forgets that, in
conquering the world, the Romans never dreamed of establishing their own
liberty on a firm basis, or of extending the reign of virtue. Eager to support
his system, he stigmatises, as vicious, every effort
of genius; and, uttering the apotheosis of savage virtues, he exalts those to demi-gods, who were scarcely human--the brutal Spartans,
who, in defiance of justice and gratitude, sacrificed, in cold blood, the
slaves who had shown themselves heroes to rescue their oppressors.
Disgusted with artificial manners and virtues,
the citizen of
Nothing can set the regal character in a more
contemptible point of view, than the various crimes that have elevated men to
the supreme dignity. Vile intrigues, unnatural crimes, and every vice that
degrades our nature, have been the steps to this distinguished eminence; yet
millions of men have supinely allowed the nerveless limbs of the posterity of
such rapacious prowlers to rest quietly on their ensanguined thrones.[3]
What but a pestilential vapour
can hover over society when its chief director is only instructed in the
invention of crimes, or the stupid routine of childish ceremonies? Will men
never be wise?--will they never cease to expect corn from tares, and figs from
thistles?
It is impossible for any man, when the most favourable circumstances concur, to acquire sufficient
knowledge and strength of mind to discharge the duties of a king, entrusted
with uncontrolled power; how then must they be violated when his very elevation
is an insuperable bar to the attainment of either wisdom or virtue, when all
the feelings of a man are stifled by flattery, and reflection shut out by
pleasure! Sure it is madness to make the fate of thousands depend on the
caprice of a weak fellow-creature, whose very station sinks him necessarily
below the meanest of his subjects ! But one power
should not be thrown down to exalt another--for all power inebriates weak man;
and its abuse proves that the more equality there is established among men, the
more virtue and happiness will reign in society. But this and any similar maxim
deduced from simple reason, raises an outcry--the Church or the State is in
danger, if faith in the wisdom of antiquity is not implicit; and they who,
roused by the sight of human calamity, dare to attack human authority, are
reviled as despisers of God, and enemies of man. These are bitter calumnies,
yet they reached one of the best of men,[4] whose ashes still preach peace, and
whose memory demands a respectful pause, when subjects are discussed that lay
so near his heart.
After attacking the sacred majesty of kings, I
shall scarcely excite surprise by adding my firm persuasion that every
profession, in which great subordination of rank constitutes its power, is
highly injurious to morality.
A standing army, for instance, is incompatible
with freedom; because subordination and rigour are
the very sinews of military discipline; and despotism is necessary to give vigour to enterprises that one will
directs. A spirit inspired by romantic notions of honour,
a kind of morality founded on the fashion of the age, can only be felt by a few
officers, whilst the main body must be moved by command, like the waves of the
sea; for the strong wind of authority pushes the crowd of subalterns forward,
they scarcely know or care why, with headlong fury.
Besides, nothing can be so prejudicial to the
morals of the inhabitants of country towns as the occasional residence of a set
of idle superficial young men, whose only occupation is gallantry, and whose
polished manners render vice more dangerous, by concealing its deformity under
gay ornamental drapery. An air of fashion, which is but a badge of slavery, and
proves that the soul has not a strong individual character, awes simple country
people into an imitation of the vices, when they cannot catch the slippery
graces, of politeness. Every corps is a chair; of despots, who, submitting and tyrannising without exercising their reason, become
dead-weights of vice and folly on the community. A man of rank or fortune, sure
of rising by interest, has nothing to do but to pursue some extravagant freak;
whilst the needy gentleman, who is to rise, as the phrase turns, by his merit,
becomes a servile parasite or vile pander.
Sailors, the naval gentlemen, come under the same
description, only their vices assume a different and a grosser cast. They are
more positively indolent, when not discharging the ceremonials of their
station; whilst the insignificant fluttering of soldiers may be termed active
idleness. More confined to the society of men, the former acquire a fondness
for humour and mischievous tricks; whilst the latter,
mixing frequently with well-bred women, catch a sentimental cant. But mind is
equally out of the question, whether they indulge the horse- laugh, or polite
simper.
May I be allowed to extend the comparison to a
profession where more mind is certainly to be found,--for the clergy have
superior opportunities of improvement, though subordination almost equally
cramps their faculties? The blind submission imposed at college to forms of
belief serves as a novitiate to the curate, who must obsequiously respect the
opinion of his rector or patron, if he mean to rise in
his profession. Perhaps there cannot be a more forcible contrast than between
the servile dependent gait of a poor curate and the courtly mien of a bishop.
And the respect and contempt they inspire, render the
discharge of their separate functions equally useless.
It is of great importance to observe that the
character of every man is, in some degree, formed by his profession. A man of
sense may only have a cast of countenance that wears off as you trace his
individuality, whilst the weak, common man has scarcely ever any character, but
what belongs to the body; at least, all his opinions have been so steeped in
the vat consecrated by authority, that the faint spirit which the grape of his
own vine yields, cannot be distinguished.
Society, therefore, as it becomes more
enlightened, should be very careful not to establish bodies of men who must
necessarily be made foolish or vicious by the very constitution of their
profession.
In the infancy of society, when men were just
emerging out of barbarism, chiefs and priests, touching the most powerful
springs of savage conduct, hope and fear, must have had unbounded sway. An
aristocracy, of course, is naturally the first form of government. But,
clashing interests soon losing their equipoise, a monarchy and hierarchy break
out of the confusion of ambitious struggles, and the foundation of both is
secured by feudal tenures. This appears to be the origin of monarchical and
priestly power, and the dawn of civilisation. But
such combustible materials cannot long be pent up; and, getting vent in foreign
wars and intestine insurrections, the people acquire some power in the tumult,
which obliges their rulers to gloss over their oppression with a show of right.
Thus, as wars, agriculture, commerce, and literature, expand the mind, despots
are compelled to make covert corruption hold fast the power which was formerly
snatched by open force.[5] And this baneful lurking
gangrene is most quickly spread by luxury and superstition, the sure dregs of
ambition. The indolent puppet of a court first becomes a luxurious monster, or
fastidious sensualist, and then makes the contagion which his unnatural state
spread, the instrument of tyranny.
It is the pestiferous purple which renders the
progress of civilisation a curse, and warps the
understanding, till men of sensibility doubt whether the expansion of intellect
produces a greater portion of happiness or misery. But the nature of the poison
points out the antidote; and had Rousseau mounted one step higher in his
investigation, or could his eye have pierced through the foggy atmosphere,
which he almost disdained to breathe, his active mind would have darted forward
to contemplate the perfection of man in the establishment of true civilisation, instead of taking his ferocious flight back
to the night of sensual ignorance.
[1] Contrary to the opinion of the anatomists,
who argye by analogy from the formation of the teeth,
stomach, and intestines, Rousseau will not allow a man to be a carniverous animal. And, carried away from nature by a love
of system, he disputes whether man be a gregarious animal, though the long and
helpless state of infancy seems to point him out as particularly impelled to
pair, the first step towards herding.
[2] What would you say to a mechanic whom you had
desired to make a watch to point out the hour of the day, if, to show his
ingenuity, he added wheels to make it a repeater, 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, bu insisting that if
he had not added those needless wheels and springs, the accident could not have
happened?
[3] Could there be a greater insult offered to
the rights of man than the beds of justice in
[4] Dr. Price.
[5] 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.
To account for, and excuse the tyranny of man,
many ingenious arguments have been brought forward to prove, that the two
sexes, in the acquirement of virtue, ought to aim at attaining a very different
character; or, to speak explicitly, women are not
allowed to have sufficient strength of mind to acquire what really deserves the
name of virtue. Yet it should seem, allowing them to have souls, that there is
but one way appointed by
If then women are not a swarm
of ephemeron triflers, why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious
name of innocence? Men complain, and with reason, of the follies and
caprices of our sex, when they do not keenly satirise
our headstrong passions and grovelling vices. Behold,
I should answer, the natural effect of ignorance ! The
mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on, and the current
will run with destructive fury when there are no barriers to break its force.
Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers,
that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of
temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of
propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be
beautiful, everything else is needless, for at least twenty years of their
lives.
Thus Milton describes our first frail mother;
though when he tells us that women are formed for softness and sweet attractive
grace, I cannot comprehend his meaning, unless, in the true Mahometan
strain, he meant to deprive us of souls, and insinuate that we were beings only
designed by sweet attractive grace, and docile blind obedience, to gratify the
senses of man when he can no longer soar on the wing of contemplation.
How grossly do they insult us who thus advise us
only to render ourselves gentle, domestic brutes ! For
instance, the winning softness so warmly and frequently recommended, that
governs by obeying. What childish expressions, and how insignificant is the
being--can it be an immortal one?--who will condescend to govern by such
sinister methods? "Certainly," says Lord Bacon, "man is of kin
to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is
a base and ignoble creature!" Men, indeed, appear to me to act in a very unphilosophical manner, when they try to secure the good
con- duct of women by attempting to keep them always in a state of childhood.
Rousseau was more consistent when he wished to stop the progress of reason in
both sexes, for if men eat of the tree of knowledge, women will come in for a
taste; but, from the imperfect cultivation which their understandings now
receive, they only attain a knowledge of evil.
Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men,
or women, it is but a civil term for weakness. For if it be allowed that women
were destined by Providence to acquire human virtues, and, by the exercise of
their understandings, that stability of character which is the firmest ground
to rest our future hopes upon, they must be permitted to turn to the fountain
of light, and not forced to shape their course by the twinkling of a mere satellite.
To whom thus Eve with perfect beauty adorn'd My author and disposer,
what thou bid'st Unargued I
obey; so God ordains. God is thy law thou mine: to know no more Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise.
These are exactly the arguments that I have used
to children; but I have added, your reason is now gaining strength, and, till
it arrives at some degree of maturity, you must look up to me for advice,--then
you ought to think, and only rely on God. Yet in the following lines
Hast Thou not made me here Thy substitute, And
these inferior far beneath me set ? Among equals what
society Can sort, what harmony or true delight ? Which
must be mutual, in proportion due Given and received;
but in disparity The one intense, the other still remiss Cannot well suit with
either, but soon prove Tedious alike: of fellowship I speak Such as I seek fit
to participate All rational delight--
In treating therefore of the manners of women,
let us, disregarding sensual arguments, trace what we should endeavour to make them in order to co-operate, if the
expression be not too bold, with the Supreme Being. By individual education, I
mean, for the sense of the word is not precisely defined, such an attention to
a child as will slowly sharpen the senses, form the temper, regulate the
passions as they begin to ferment, and set the understanding to work before the
body arrives at maturity; so that the man may only have to proceed, not to
begin, the important task of learning to think and reason.
To prevent any misconstruction, I must add, that
I do not believe that a private education can work the wonders which some
sanguine writers have attributed to it. Men and women must be educated, in a
great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every
age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it,
and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then fairly be
inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be
expected from education. It is, however, sufficient for my present purpose to
assert that, whatever effect circumstances have on the abilities, every being
may become virtuous by the exercise of its own reason; for if but one being was
created with vicious inclinations, that is positively bad, what can save us
from atheism? or if we worship a God, is not that God
a devil?
Consequently, the most perfect education, in my
opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to
strengthen the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the
individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent. In
fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from
the exercise of its own reason. This was Rousseau's opinion respecting men; I
extend it to women, and confidently assert that they have been drawn out of
their sphere by false refinement, and not by an endeavour
to acquire masculine qualities. Still the regal homage which they receive is so
intoxicating, that until the manners of the times are changed, and formed on
more reasonable principles, it may be impossible to convince them that the
illegitimate power which they obtain by degrading themselves is a curse, and
that they must return to nature and equality if they wish to secure the placid
satisfaction that unsophisticated affections impart. But for this epoch we must
wait--wait perhaps till kings and nobles, enlightened by reason, and,
preferring the real dignity of man to childish state, throw off their gaudy
hereditary trappings; and if then women do not resign the arbitrary power of
beauty--they will prove that they have less mind than man. XXXXX I may be
accused of arrogance; still I must declare what I firmly believe, that all the
writers who have written on the subject of female education and manners, from
Rousseau to Dr. Gregory, have contributed to render women more artificial, weak
characters, than they would otherwise have been; and consequently, more useless
members of society. I might have expressed this conviction in a lower key, but
I am afraid it would have been the whine of affectation, and not the faithful
expression of my feelings, of the clear result which experience and reflection
have led me to draw. When I come to that division of the subject, I shall
advert to the passages that I more particularly disapprove of, in the works of
the authors I have just alluded to; but it is first necessary to observe that my
objection extends to the whole purport of those books, which tend, in my
opinion, to degrade one-half of the human species, and render women pleasing at
the expense of every solid virtue.
Though, to reason on Rousseau's ground, if man
did attain a degree of perfection of mind when his body arrived at maturity, it
might be proper, in order to make a man and his wife one, that she should rely
entirely on his understanding; and the graceful ivy, clasping the oak that
supported it, would form a whole in which strength and beauty would be equally
conspicuous. But, alas ! husbands,
as well as their helpmates, are often only overgrown children,--nay, thanks to
early debauchery, scarcely men in their outward form,--and if the blind lead
the blind, one need not come from heaven to tell us the consequence.
Many are the causes that, in the present corrupt
state of society, contribute to enslave women by cramping their under-
standings and sharpening their senses. One, perhaps, that silently does more
mischief than all the rest, is their disregard of order.
To do everything in an orderly manner is a most
important precept, which women, who, generally speaking, receive only a
disorderly kind of education, seldom attend to with that degree of exactness
that men, who from their infancy are broken into method, observe. This
negligent kind of guesswork--for what other epithet can be used to point out
the random exertions of a sort of instinctive common sense never brought to the
test of reason?--prevents their generalising matters
of fact; so they do to-day what they did yesterday, merely because they did it
yesterday.
This contempt of the understanding in early life
has more baneful consequences than is commonly supposed; for the little
knowledge which women of strong minds attain is, from various circumstances, of
a more desultory kind than the knowledge of men, and it is acquired more by
sheer observations on real life than from comparing what has been individually
observed with the results of experience generalised
by speculation. Led by their dependent situation and domestic employments more
into society, what they learn is rather by snatches; and as learning is with
them in general only a secondary thing, they do not pursue any one branch with
that persevering ardour necessary to give vigour to the faculties and clearness to the judgment. In
the present state of society a little learning is required to support the
character of a gentleman, and boys are obliged to submit to a few years of
discipline. But in the education of women, the cultivation of the understanding
is always subordinate to the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishment. Even
when enervated by confinement and false notions of modesty, the body is
prevented from attaining that grace and beauty which relaxed half-formed limbs
never exhibit. Besides, in youth their faculties are not brought forward by
emulation; and having no serious scientific study, if they have natural
sagacity, it is turned too soon on life and manners. They dwell on effects and
modifications, without tracing them back to causes; and complicated rules to
adjust behaviour are a weak substitute for simple
principles.
As a proof that education gives this appearance
of weakness to females, we may instance the example of military men, who are,
like them, sent into the world before their minds have been stored with
knowledge, or fortified by principles. The consequences are similar; soldiers
acquire a little superficial knowledge, snatched from the muddy current of
conversation, and from continually mixing with society, they gain what is
termed a knowledge of the world; and this acquaintance
with manners and customs has frequently been confounded with a knowledge of the
human heart. But can the crude fruit of casual observation, never brought to the
test of judgment, formed by comparing speculation and experience, deserve such
a distinction ? Soldiers, as well as women, practise the minor virtues with punctilious politeness.
Where is then the sexual difference, when the education has been the same? All
the difference that I can discern arises from the superior advantage of liberty
which enables the former to see more of life.
It is wandering from my present subject, perhaps,
to make a political remark; but as it was produced naturally by the train of my
reflections, I shall not pass it silently over.
Standing armies can never consist of resolute
robust men; they may be well-disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain
men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties;
and as for any depth of understanding, I will venture to affirm that it is as
rarely to be found in the army as amongst women. And the cause, I maintain, is
the same. It may be further observed that officers are also particularly
attentive to their persons, fond of dancing, crowded rooms, adventures, and
ridicule.[1] Like the fair sex, the business of their
lives is gallantry; they were taught to please, and they only live to please.
Yet they do not lose their rank in the distinction of sexes, for they are still
reckoned superior to women, though in what their superiority consists, beyond
what I have just mentioned, it is difficult to discover.
The great misfortune is this, that they both
acquire manners before morals, and a knowledge of life
before they have from reflection any acquaintance with the grand ideal outline
of human nature. The consequence is natural. Satisfied with common nature, they
become a prey to prejudices, and taking all their opinions on credit, they
blindly submit to authority. So that if they have any sense, it is a kind of
instinctive glance that catches proportions, and decides with respect to
manners, but fails when arguments are to be pursued below the surface, or
opinions analysed.
May not the same remark be applied to women? Nay,
the argument may be carried still further, for they are both thrown out of a
useful station by the unnatural distinctions established in civilised
life. Riches and hereditary honours have made cyphers of women to give consequence to the numerical
figure; and idleness has produced a mixture of gallantry and despotism into
society, which leads the very men who are the slaves of their mistresses to tyrannise over their sisters, wives, and daughters. This is
only keeping them in rank and file, it is true. Strengthen the female mind by
enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience; but as blind
obedience is ever sought for by power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right
endeavour to keep woman in the dark, because only
want slaves, and the latter a plaything. The sensualist, indeed, has been the
most dangerous of tyrants, and women have been duped by their lovers, as
princes by their ministers, whilst dreaming that they reigned over them.
I now principally allude to Rousseau, for his
character of Sophia is undoubtedly a captivating one, though it appears to me
grossly unnatural. However, it is not the superstructure, but the foundation of
her character, the principles on which her education was built, that I mean to
attack; nay, warmly as I admire the genius of that able writer, whose opinions
I shall often have occasion to cite, indignation always takes place of
admiration, and the rigid frown of insulted virtue effaces the smile of
complacency which his eloquent periods are wont to raise when I read his
voluptuous reveries. Is this the man who, in his ardour
for virtue, would banish all the soft arts of peace, and almost carry us back
to Spartan discipline? Is this the man who delights to paint the useful
struggles of passion, the triumphs of good dispositions, and the heroic flights
which carry the glowing soul out of itself? How are these mighty sentiments
lowered when he describes the pretty foot and enticing airs of his little favourite !
But for the present I waive the subject, and instead of severely reprehending
the transient effusions of overweening sensibility, I shall only observe that
whoever has cast a benevolent eye on society must often have been gratified by
the sight of humble mutual love not dignified by sentiment, or strengthened by
a union in intellectual pursuits. The domestic trifles of the day have afforded
matters for cheerful converse, and innocent caresses have softened toils which
did not require great exercise of mind or stretch of thought; yet has not the
sight of this moderate felicity excited more tenderness than respect ?--an
emotion similar to what we feel when children are playing or animals sporting;[2]
whilst the contemplation of the noble struggles of suffering merit has raised
admiration, and carried our thoughts to that world where sensation will give place
to reason.
Women are therefore to be considered either as
moral beings, or so weak that they must be entirely subjected to the superior
faculties of men.
Let us examine this question. Rousseau declares
that a woman should never for a moment feel herself independent, that she
should be governed by fear to exercise her natural cunning, and made a
coquettish slave in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a
sweeter companion to man, whenever he chooses to relax himself. He carries the
arguments, which he pretends to draw from the indications of nature, still
further, and insinuates that truth and fortitude, the corner-stones of all
human virtue, should be cultivated with certain restrictions, because, with
respect to the female character, obedience is the grand lesson which ought to
be impressed with unrelenting rigour.
What nonsense ! When
will a great man arise with sufficient strength of mind to puff away the fumes
which pride and sensuality have thus spread over the subject? If women are by
nature inferior to men, their virtues must be the same in quality, if not in
degree, or virtue is a relative idea; consequently their conduct should be
founded on the same principles, and have the same aim.
Connected with man as daughters, wives, and
mothers, their moral character may be estimated by their manner of fulfilling
those simple duties; but the end, the grand end, of their exertions should be
to unfold their own faculties, and acquire the dignity of conscious virtue.
They may try to render their road pleasant; but ought never to forget, in
common with man, that life yields not the felicity which can satisfy an
immortal soul. I do not mean to insinuate that either sex should be so lost in
abstract reflections or distant views as to forget the affections and duties
that lie before them, and are, in truth, the means appointed to produce the
fruit of life; on the contrary, I would warmly recommend them, even while I
assert, that they afford most satisfaction when they are considered in their
true sober light.
Probably the prevailing opinion that woman was
created for man, may have taken its rise from Moses' poetical story; yet as
very few, it is presumed, who have bestowed any serious thought on the subject
ever supposed that Eve was, literally speaking, one of Adam's ribs, the
deduction must be allowed to fall to the ground, or only be so far admitted as
it proves that man, from the remotest antiquity, found it convenient to exert
his strength to subjugate his companion, and his invention to show that she
ought to have her neck bent under the yoke, because the whole creation was only
created for his convenience or pleasure.
Let it not be concluded that I wish to invert the
order of things. I have already granted that, from the constitution of their
bodies, men seemed to be designed by
It follows then that cunning should not be
opposed to wisdom, little cares to great exertions, or insipid softness,
varnished over with the name of gentleness, to that fortitude which grand views
alone can inspire.
I shall be told that woman would then lose many
of her peculiar graces, and the opinion of a well-known poet might be quoted to
refute my unqualified assertion. For Pope has said in the name of the whole
male sex:
Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create, As when she touch'd the brink of
all we hate.
In what light this sally places men and women I
shall leave to the judicious to determine. Meanwhile, I shall content myself
with observing, that I cannot discover why, unless they are mortal, females
should always be degraded by being made subservient to love or lust.
To speak disrespectfully of love is, I know, high
treason against sentiment and fine feelings; but I wish to speak the simple
language of truth, and rather to address the head than the heart. To endeavour to reason love out of the world would be to
out-Quixote Cervantes, and equally offend against common sense; but an endeavour to restrain this tumultuous passion, and to prove
that it should not be allowed to dethrone superior powers, or to usurp the sceptre which the understanding should very coolly wield,
appears less wild.
Youth is the season for love in both sexes; but
in those days of thoughtless enjoyment provision should be made for the more
important years of life, when reflection takes place of sensation. But
Rousseau, and most of the male writers who have followed his steps, have warmly
inculcated that the whole tendency of female education ought to be directed to
one point--to render them pleasing.
Let me reason with the supporters of this opinion
who have any knowledge of human nature. Do they imagine that marriage can
eradicate the habitude of life? The woman who has only been taught to please
will soon find that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they cannot have
much effect on her husband's heart when they are seen every day, when the
summer is passed and gone. Will she then have sufficient native energy to look
into herself for comfort, and cultivate her dormant faculties? or is it not more rational to expect that she will try to
please other men, and, in the emotions raised by the expectation of new
conquests, endeavour to forget the mortification her
love or pride has received? When the husband ceases to be a lover, and the time
will inevitably come, her desire of pleasing will then grow languid, or become
a spring of bitterness; and love, perhaps, the most evanescent of all passions,
gives place to jealousy or vanity.
I now speak of women who are restrained by
principle or prejudice. Such women, though they would shrink from an intrigue
with real abhorrence, yet, nevertheless, wish to be convinced by the homage of
gallantry that they are cruelly neglected by their husbands; or, days and weeks
are spent in dreaming of the happiness enjoyed by congenial souls, till their
health is undermined and their spirits broken by discontent. How then can the
great art of pleasing be such a necessary study? it is
only useful to a mistress. The chaste wife and serious mother should only
consider her power to please as the polish of her virtues, and the affection of
her husband as one of the comforts that render her task less difficult, and her
life happier. But, whether she be loved or neglected,
her first wish should be to make herself respectable, and not to rely for all
her happiness on a being subject to like infirmities with herself.
The worthy Dr. Gregory fell into a similar error.
I respect his heart, but entirely disapprove of his celebrated Legacy to his
Daughters.
He advises them to cultivate a fondness for
dress, because a fondness for dress, he asserts, is natural to them. I am
unable to comprehend what either he or Rousseau mean when they frequently use
this indefinite term. If they told us that in a pre-existent state the soul was
fond of dress, and brought this inclination with it into a new body, I should
listen to them with a half-smile, as I often do when I hear a rant about innate
elegance. But if he only meant to say that the exercise of the faculties will
produce this fondness, I deny it. It is not natural; but arises, like false
ambition in men, from a love of power.
Dr. Gregory goes much further; he actually
recommends dissimulation, and advises an innocent girl to give the lie to her
feelings, and not dance with spirit, when gaiety of heart would make her feet
eloquent without making her gestures immodest. In the name of truth and common
sense, why should not one woman acknowledge that she can take more exercise
than another? or, in other words, that she has a sound
constitution; and why, to damp innocent vivacity, is she darkly to be told that
men will draw conclusions which she little thinks of? Let the libertine draw
what inference he pleases; but, I hope, that no sensible mother will restrain
the natural frankness of youth by instilling such indecent cautions. out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; and a
wiser than Solomon hath said that the heart should be made clean, and not
trivial ceremonies observed, which it is not very difficult to fulfil with scrupulous exactness when vice reigns in the
heart.
Women ought to endeavour
to purify their heart; but can they do so when their uncultivated understandings make them entirely dependent on their senses for
employment and amusement, when no noble pursuits set them above the little
vanities of the day, or enables them to curb the wild emotions that
agitate a reed, over which every passing breeze has power? To gain the
affections of a virtuous man, is affectation
necessary? Nature has given woman a weaker frame than man; but, to ensure her
husband's affections, must a wife, who, by the exercise of her mind and body
whilst she was discharging the duties of a daughter, wife, and mother, has
allowed her constitution to retain its natural strength, and her nerves a
healthy tone,--is she, I say, to condescend to use art, and feign a sickly
delicacy, in order to secure her husband's affection? Weakness may excite tenderness,
and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector
will not gratify a noble mind that pants for and deserves to be respected.
Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship!
In a seraglio, I grant, that all these arts are
necessary; the epicure must have his palate tickled, or he will sink into
apathy; but have women so little ambition as to be satisfied with such a
condition? Can they supinely dream life away in the lap of pleasure, or the
languor of weariness, rather than assert their claim to pursue reasonable
pleasures, and render themselves conspicuous by practising
the virtues which dignify mankind? Surely she- has not an immortal soul who can
loiter life away merely employed to adorn her person,
that she may amuse the languid hours, and soften the cares of a fellow-creature
who is willing to be enlivened by her smiles and tricks, when the serious
business of life is over.
Besides, the woman who strengthens her body and
exercises her mind will, by managing her family and practising
various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her
husband; and if she, by possessing such substantial qualities, merit his
regard, she will not find it necessary to conceal her affection, nor to pretend
to an unnatural coldness of constitution to excite her husband's passions. In
fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have
distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.
Nature, or, to speak with strict propriety, God,
has made all things right; but man has sought him out many inventions to mar
the work. I now allude to that part of Dr. Gregory's treatise, where he advises
a wife never to let her husband know the extent of her sensibility or affection.
Voluptuous precaution, and as ineffectual as absurd.
Love, from its very nature, must be transitory. To seek for a secret that would
render it constant, would be as wild a search as for the philosopher's stone,
or the grand panacea; and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather
pernicious, to mankind. The most holy band of society is friendship. It has
been well said, by a shrewd satirist, "that rare as true love is true
friendship is still rarer."
This is an obvious truth, and, the cause not lying
deep, will not elude a slight glance of inquiry.
Love, the common passion, in which chance and
sensation take place of choice and reason, is, in some degree, felt by the mass
of mankind; for it is not necessary to speak, at present, of the emotions that
rise above or sink below love. This passion, naturally increased by suspense
and difficulties, draws the mind out of its accustomed state, and exalts the
affections; but the security of marriage, allowing the fever of love to
subside, a healthy temperature is thought insipid only by those who have not
sufficient intellect to substitute the calm tenderness of friendship, the
confidence of respect, instead of blind admiration, and the sensual emotions of
fondness.
This is, must be, the course of nature.
Friendship or indifference inevitably succeeds love. And this constitution
seems perfectly to harmonise with the system of
government which prevails in the moral world. Passions are spurs to action, and
open the mind; but they sink into mere appetites, become a personal and
momentary gratification when the object is gained, and the satisfied mind rests
in enjoyment. The man who had some virtue whilst he was struggling for a crown,
often becomes a voluptuous tyrant when it graces his brow; and, when the lover
is not lost in the husband, the dotard, a prey to childish caprices and fond
jealousies, neglects the serious duties of life, and the caresses which should
excite confidence in his children are lavished on the overgrown child, his
wife.
In order to fulfil the
duties of life, and to be able to pursue with vigour
the various employments which form the moral character, a master and mistress
of a family ought not to continue to love each other with passion. I mean to
say that they ought not to indulge those emotions which disturb the order of
society, and engross the thoughts that should be otherwise employed. The mind
that has never been engrossed by one object wants vigour,--if
it can long be so, it is weak.
A mistaken education, a narrow uncultivated mind,
and many sexual prejudices, tend to make women more constant than men; but, for
the present, I shall not .ouch on this branch of the subject. I will go still
further, and advance, without dreaming of a paradox, that an unhappy marriage
is often very advantageous to a family, and that the neglected wife is, in
general, the best mother. And this would almost always be the consequence if
the female mind were more enlarged; for, it seems to be the common dispensation
of Providence, that what we gain in present enjoyment should be deducted from
the treasure of life, experience; and that when we are gathering the flowers of
the day, and revelling in pleasure, the solid fruit
of toil and wisdom should not be caught at the same time. The way lies before
us, we must turn to the right or left; and he who will pass life away in
bounding from one pleasure to another, must not complain if he acquire neither
wisdom nor respectability of character.
Supposing, for a moment, that the soul is not
immortal, and that man was only created for the present scene,--I think we
should have reason to complain that love, infantine fondness, ever grew insipid
and palled upon the sense. Let us eat, drink, and love, for to-morrow we die,
would be, in fact, the language of reason, the morality of life; and who but a
fool would part with a reality for a fleeting shadow ?
But, if awed by observing the improbable powers of the mind, we disdain to
confine our wishes or thoughts to such a comparatively mean field of action,
that only appears grand and important, as it is connected with a boundless
prospect and sublime hopes, what necessity is there for falsehood in conduct,
and why must the sacred majesty of truth be violated to detain a deceitful good
that saps the very foundation of virtue? Why must the female mind be tainted by
coquettish arts to gratify the sensualist, and prevent love from subsiding into
friendship, or compassionate tenderness, when there are not qualities on which
friendship can be built? Let the honest heart show itself, and reason teach
passion to submit to necessity; or, let the dignified pursuit of virtue and
knowledge raise the mind above those emotions which rather embitter than
sweeten the cup of life, when they are not restrained within due bounds.
I do not mean to allude to the romantic passion,
which is the concomitant of genius. Who can clip its wing? But that grand
passion not proportioned to the puny enjoyments of life, is only true to the
sentiment, and feeds on itself. The passions which have been celebrated for
their durability have always been unfortunate. They have acquired strength by
absence and constitutional melancholy. The fancy has hovered round a form of
beauty dimly seen; but familiarity might have turned admiration into disgust,
or, at least, into indifference, and allowed the imagination leisure to start
fresh game. With perfect propriety, according to this view of things, does
Rousseau make the mistress of his soul, Eloisa, love St. Preux,
when life was fading before her; but this is no proof of the immortality of the
passion.
Of the same complexion is Dr. Gregory's advice
respecting delicacy of sentiment, which he advises a woman not to acquire, if
she have determined to marry. This determination, however, perfectly consistent
with his former advice, he calls indelicate, and earnestly persuades his
daughters to conceal it, though it may govern their conduct, as if it were
indelicate to have the common appetites of human nature.
Noble morality! and
consistent with the cautious prudence of a little soul that cannot extend its
views beyond the present minute division of existence. If all the faculties of
woman's mind are only to be cultivated as they respect her dependence on man; if,
when a husband be obtained, she have arrived at her goal, and meanly proud,
rests satisfied with such a paltry crown, let her grovel contentedly, scarcely
raised by her employments above the animal kingdom; but, if struggling for the
prize of her high calling, she look beyond the present scene, let her cultivate
her understanding without stopping to consider what character the husband may
have whom she is destined to marry. Let her only determine, without being too
anxious about present happiness, to acquire the qualities that ennoble a
rational being, and a rough inelegant husband may shock her taste without
destroying her peace of mind. She will not model her soul to suit the frailties
of her companion, but to bear with them; his character may be a trial, but not
an impediment to virtue.
If Dr. Gregory confined his remark to romantic.expectations of constant love and congenial
feelings, he should have recollected that experience will banish what advice
can never make us cease to wish for, when the imagination is kept alive at the
expense of reason.
I own it frequently happens, that women who have
fostered a romantic unnatural delicacy of feeling, waste their [3] lives in
imagining how happy they should have been with a husband who could love them
with a fervid increasing affection every day, and all day. But they might as
well pine married as single, and would not be a jot more
unhappy with a bad husband than longing for a good one. That a proper
education, or, to speak with more precision, a well-stored mind, would enable a
woman to support a single life with dignity, I grant; but that she should avoid
cultivating her taste, lest her husband should occasionally shock it, is
quitting a substance for a shadow. To say the truth, I do not know of what use
is an improved taste, if the individual be not rendered more independent of the
casualties of life; if new sources of enjoyment, only dependent on the solitary
operations of the mind, are not opened. People of taste, married or single,
without distinction, will ever be disgusted by various things that touch not
less observing minds. On this conclusion the argument must not be allowed to
hinge; but in the whole sum of enjoyment is taste to be denominated a blessing?
The question is, whether it procures most pain or
pleasure? The answer will decide the propriety of Dr. Gregory's advice, and
show how absurd and tyrannic it is thus to lay down a
system of slavery, or to attempt to educate moral beings by any other rules
than those deduced from pure reason, which apply to the whole species.
Gentleness of manners, forbearance and
long-suffering, are such amiable Godlike qualities, that in sublime poetic
strains the Deity has been invested with them; and, perhaps, no representation
of His goodness so strongly fastens on the human affections as those that
represent Him abundant in mercy and willing to pardon. Gentleness, considered
in this point of view, bears on its front all the characteristics of grandeur,
combined with the winning graces of condescension; but what a different aspect
it assumes when it is the submissive demeanour of
dependence, the support of weakness that loves, because it wants protection;
and is forbearing, because it must silently endure injuries; smiling under the
lash at which it dare not snarl. Abject as this picture appears, it is the
portrait of an accomplished woman, according to the received opinion of female
excellence, separated by specious reasoners from
human excellence. Or, they [4] kindly restore the rib, and make one moral being
of a man and woman; not forgetting to give her all the "submissive
charms."
How women are to exist in that state where there
is neither to be marrying nor giving in marriage, we are not told. For though
moralists have agreed that the tenor of life seems to prove that man is
prepared by various circumstances for a future state, they constantly concur in
advising woman only to provide for the present. Gentleness, docility, and a
spaniel like affection are, on this ground, consistently recommended as the
cardinal virtues of the sex; and, disregarding the arbitrary economy of nature,
one writer has declared that it is masculine for a woman to be melancholy. She
was created to be the toy of man, his rattle, and it must jingle in his ears
whenever, dismissing reason, he chooses to be amused.
To recommend gentleness, indeed, on a broad basis
is strictly philosophical. A frail being should labour
to be gentle. But when forbearance confounds right and wrong, it ceases to be a
virtue; and, however convenient it may be found in a companion--that companion
will ever be considered as an inferior, and only inspire a vapid tenderness,
which easily degenerates into contempt. Still, if advice could really make a
being gentle, whose natural disposition admitted not of such a fine polish,
something towards the advancement of order would be attained; but if, as might
quickly be demonstrated, only affectation be produced by this indiscriminate
counsel, which throws a stumbling-block in the way of gradual improvement, and
true melioration of temper, the sex is not much benefited by sacrificing solid
virtues to the attainment of superficial graces, though for a few years they
may procure the individuals regal sway.
As a philosopher, I read with indignation the
plausible epithets which men use to soften their insults; and, as a moralist, I
ask what is meant by such heterogeneous associations, as fair defects, amiable
weaknesses, etc. ? If there be but one criterion of
morals, but one architype for man, women appear to be
suspended by destiny, according to the vulgar tale of Mahomet's coffin; they
have neither the unerring instinct of brutes, nor are allowed to fix the eye of
reason on a perfect model. They were made to be loved, and must not aim at
respect, lest they should be hunted out of society as masculine.
But to view the subject in
another point of view. Do passive indolent women make the best wives?
Confining our discussion to the present moment of existence, let us see how
such weak creatures perform their part ? Do the women
who, by the attainment of a few superficial accomplishments, have strengthened
the prevailing prejudice, merely contribute to the happiness of their husbands?
Do they display their charms merely to amuse them ?
And have women who have early imbibed notions of passive obedience, sufficient
character to manage a family or educate children? So far from it, that, after
surveying the history of woman, I cannot help agreeing with the severest
satirist, considering the sex as the weakest as well as the most oppressed half
of the species. What does history disclose but marks of inferiority, and how
few women have emancipated themselves from the galling yoke of sovereign man?
So few that the exceptions remind me of an ingenious conjecture respecting
Newton-- that he was probably a being of superior order accidentally caged in a
human body. Following the same train of thinking, I have been led to imagine
that the few extraordinary women who have rushed in eccentrical directions out of the orbit prescribed to their
sex, were male spirits, confined by mistake in female frames. But if it be not
philosophical to think of sex when the soul is mentioned, the inferiority must
depend on the organs; or the heavenly fire, which is to ferment the clay, is
not given in equal portions.
But avoiding, as I have hitherto done, any direct
comparison of the two sexes collectively, or frankly acknowledging the
inferiority of woman, according to the present appearance of things, I shall
only insist that men have increased that inferiority till women are almost sunk
below the standard of rational creatures. Let their faculties have room to
unfold, and their virtues to gain strength, and then determine where the whole
sex must stand in the intellectual scale. Yet let it be remembered, that for a
small number of distinguished women I do not ask a place.
It is difficult for us purblind mortals to say to
what height human discoveries and improvements may arrive when the gloom of
despotism subsides, which makes us stumble at every step; but, when morality
shall be settled on a more solid basis, then, without being gifted with a
prophetic spirit, I will venture to predict that woman will be either the
friend or slave of man. We shall not, as at present, doubt whether she is a
moral agent, or the link which unites man with brutes. But should it then appear
that like the brutes they were principally created for the use of man, he will
let them patiently bite the bridle, and not mock them with empty praise; or,
should their rationality be proved, he will not impede their improvement merely
to gratify his sensual appetites. He will not, with all the graces of rhetoric,
advise them to submit implicitly their understanding to the guidance of man. He
will not, when he treats of the education of women, assert that they ought
never to have the free use of reason, nor would he recommend cunning and
dissimulation to beings who are acquiring, in like manner as himself, the
virtues of humanity.
Surely there can be but one rule of right, if
morality has an eternal foundation, and whoever sacrifices virtue, strictly so
called, to present convenience, or whose duty it is to act in such a manner,
lives only for the passing day, and cannot be an accountable
creature.
The poet then should have dropped his sneer when
he says:
If weak women go astray, The
stars are more ill fault than they
For that they are bound by the adamantine chain
of destiny is most certain, if it be proved that they are never to exercise
their own reason, never to be independent, never to rise above opinion, or to
feel the dignity of a rational will that only bows to God, and often forgets
that the universe contains any being but itself and the model of perfection to
which its ardent gaze is turned, to adore attributes that, softened into
virtues, may be imitated in kind, though the degree overwhelms the enraptured
mind.
If, I say, for I would not impress by declamation
when Reason offers her sober light, if they be really capable of acting like
rational creatures, let them not be treated like slaves; or, like the brutes
who are dependent on the reason of man, when they associate with him; but
cultivate their minds, give them the salutary sublime curb of principle, and
let them attain conscious dignity by feeling themselves only dependent on God.
Teach them, in common with man, to submit to necessity, instead of giving, to
render them more pleasing, a sex to morals.
Further, should experience prove that they cannot
attain the same degree of strength of mind, perseverance, and fortitude, let
their virtues be the same in kind, though they may vainly struggle for the same
degree; and the superiority of man will be equally clear, if not clearer; and
truth, as it is a simple principle, which admits of no modification, would be
common to both. Nay the order of society, as it is at present regulated, would
not be inverted, for woman would then only have the rank that reason assigned
her, and arts could not be practised to bring the
balance even, much less to turn it.
These may be termed Utopian dreams. Thanks to
that Being who impressed them on my soul, and gave me sufficient strength of
mind to dare to exert my own reason, till, becoming dependent only on Him for
the support of my virtue, I view, with indignation, the mistaken notions that
enslave my sex.
I love man as my fellow; but his sceptre, real or usurped, extends not to me, unless the
reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to
reason, and not to man. In fact, the conduct of an accountable being must be
regulated by the operations of its own reason; or on what foundation rests the
throne of God?
It appears to me necessary to dwell on these
obvious truths, because females have been insulated, as it were; and while they
have been stripped of the virtues that should clothe humanity, they have been
decked with artificial graces that enable them to exercise a short-lived
tyranny. Love, in their bosoms, taking place of every nobler passion, their
sole ambition is to be fair, to raise emotion instead of inspiring respect; and
this ignoble desire, like the servility in absolute monarchies, destroys all
strength of character.
As to the argument respecting the subjection in
which the sex has ever been held, it retorts on man. The many have always been
enthralled by the few; and monsters, who scarcely have
shown any discernment of human excellence, have tyrannised
over thousands of their fellow-creatures. Why have men of superior endowments
submitted to such degradation? For, is it not universally acknowledged that
kings, viewed collectively, have ever been inferior, in abilities and virtue,
to the same number of men taken from the common mass of mankind-- yet have they
not, and are they not still treated with a degree of reverence that is an
insult to reason?
Brutal force has hitherto governed the world, and
that the science of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philosophers
scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man that determinate
distinction.
I shall not pursue this argument any further than
to establish an obvious inference, that as sound
politics diffuse liberty, mankind, including woman, will become more wise and
virtuous.
[1] Why should women be censured with petulant
acrimony because they seem to have a passion for a scarlet coat? Has not an
education placed them more on a level with soldiers than any other class of
men?
[2] Similar feelings has Milton's
pleasing picture of paradisiacal happiness ever raised in my; yet, instead of
envying the lovely pair, I have with concious dignity
or satanic pride turned to hell for sublimer objects.
In the same style, when viewing some noble monument of human art, I have traced
the emanation of the Deity in the order I admired, till, descending from that
giddy height, I have caught myself contemplating the grandest of all human
sights; for fancy quickly placed in some solitary recess an outcast of fortune,
rising superior to passion and discontent.
[3] For example, the herd of Novelists.
[4] Vide Rousseau and Swedenborg.
Bodily strength from being the distinction of
heroes is now sunk into such unmerited contempt that men, as well as women,
seem to think it unnecessary; the latter, as it takes from their feminine
graces, and from that lovely weakness, the source of their undue power; and the
former, because it appears inimical to the character of a gentleman.
That they have both, by departing from one
extreme run into another, may easily be proved; but first it may be proper to
observe that a vulgar error has obtained a degree of credit, which has given
force to a false conclusion, in which an effect has been mistaken for a cause.
People of genius have very frequently impaired
their constitutions by study or careless inattention to their health, and the
violence of their passions bearing a proportion to the vigour
of their intellects, the sword's destroying the scabbard has become almost
proverbial, and superficial observers have inferred from thence that men of
genius have commonly weak, or, to use a more fashionable phrase, delicate
constitutions. Yet the contrary, I believe, will appear to be the fact; for, on
diligent inquiry, I find that strength of mind has in most cases been
accompanied by superior strength of body,--natural soundness of
constitution,--not that robust tone of nerves and vigour
of muscles, which arise from bodily labour, when the
mind is quiescent, or only directs the hands.
Dr. Priestley has remarked, in the preface to his
biographical chart, that the majority of great men
have lived beyond fortyfive. And considering the
thoughtless manner in which they have lavished their strength when
investigating a favourite science, they have wasted
the lamp of life, forgetful of the midnight hour; or, when lost in poetic
dreams, fancy has peopled the scene, and the soul has been disturbed, till it
shook the constitution by the passions that meditation had raised,--whose
objects, the baseless fabric of a vision, faded before the exhausted eye,--they
must have had iron frames. Shakespeare never grasped the airy danger with a
nerveless hand, nor did
I am aware that this argument would carry me
further than it may be supposed I wish to go; but I follow truth, and still
adhering to my first position, I will allow that bodily strength seems to give
man a natural superiority over woman; and this is the only solid basis on which
the superiority of the sex can be built. But I still insist that not only the
virtue but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature, if not
in degree, and that women, considered not only as moral but rational creatures,
ought to endeavour to acquire human virtues (or
perfections) by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a
fanciful kind of half being--one of Rousseau's wild chimeras.[1]
But if strength of body be with some show of
reason the boast of men, why are women so infatuated as to be proud of a defect ? Rousseau has furnished them with a plausible
excuse, which could only have occurred to a man whose imagination had been
allowed to run wild, and refine on the impressions made by exquisite senses;
that they might forsooth have a pretext for yielding to a natural appetite
without violating a romantic species of modesty, which gratifies the pride and
libertinism of man.
Women, deluded by these sentiments, sometimes
boast of their weakness, cunningly obtaining power by playing on the weakness
of men; and they may well glory in their illicit sway, for, like Turkish bashaws, they have more real power than their masters; but
virtue is sacrificed to temporary gratifications, and the respectability of
life to the triumph of an hour.
Women, as well as despots, have now perhaps more
power than they would have if the world, divided and subdivided into kingdoms
and families, were governed by laws deduced from the exercise of reason; but in
obtaining it, to carry on the comparison, their character is degraded, and
licentiousness spread through the whole aggregate of society. The many become
pedestal to the few. I, therefore, will venture to assert that till women are
more rationally educated, the progress of human virtue and improvement in
knowledge must receive continual checks. And if it be granted that woman was
not created merely to gratify the appetite of man, or to be the upper servant
who provides his meals and takes care of his linen, it must follow that the
first care of those mothers or fathers who really attend to the education of
females should be, if not to strengthen the body, at least not to destroy the
constitution by mistaken notions of beauty and female excellence; nor should
girls ever be allowed to imbibe the pernicious notion that a defect can, by any
chemical process of reasoning, become an excellence. In this respect I am happy
to find that the author of one of the most instructive books that our country
has produced for children, coincides with me in
opinion. I shall quote his pertinent remarks to give the force of his respectable
authority to reason.[2]
But should it be proved that woman is naturally
weaker than man, whence does it follow that it is natural for her to labour to become still weaker than nature intended her to
be? Arguments of this cast are an insult to common sense, and savour of passion. The divine right of husbands, like the
divine right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this enlightened age, be
contested without danger; and though conviction may not silence many boisterous
disputants, yet, when any prevailing prejudice is attacked, the wise will
consider, and leave the narrow-minded to rail with thoughtless vehemence at
innovation.
The mother who wishes to give true dignity of
character to her daughter must, regardless of the sneers of ignorance, proceed
on a plan diametrically opposite to that which Rousseau has recommended with
all the deluding charms of eloquence and philosophical sophistry, for his eloquence
renders absurdities plausible, and his dogmatic conclusions puzzle, without
convincing, those who have not ability to refute them.
Throughout the whole animal kingdom every young
creature requires almost continual exercise, and the infancy of children,
conformable to this intimation, should be passed in harmless gambols that
exercise the feet and hands, without requiring very minute direction from the
head, or the constant attention of a nurse. In fact, the care necessary for
self-preservation is the first natural exercise of the understanding as little
inventions to amuse the present moment unfold the imagination. But these wise
designs of nature are counteracted by mistaken fondness or blind zeal. The
child is not left a moment to its own direction--particularly a girl and thus
rendered dependent. Dependence is called natural.
To preserve personal beauty--woman's glory--the
limbs and faculties are cramped with worse than Chinese bands, and the
sedentary life which they are condemned to live, whilst boys frolic in the open
air, weakens the muscles and relaxes the nerves. As for Rousseau's remarks,
which have since been echoed by several writers, that they have naturally, that
is, from their birth, independent of education, a fondness for dolls, dressing,
and talking, they are so puerile as not to merit a serious refutation. That a
girl, condemned to sit for hours together listening to the idle chat of weak
nurses, or to attend at her mother's toilet, will endeavour
to join the conversation, is, indeed, very natural; and that she will imitate
her mother or aunts, and amuse herself by adorning her lifeless doll, as they
do in dressing her, poor innocent babe! is undoubtedly
a most natural consequence. For men of the greatest abilities have seldom had
sufficient strength to rise above the surrounding atmosphere; and if the pages
of genius have always been blurred by the prejudices of the age, some allowance
should be made for a sex, who, like kings, always see
things through a false medium.
Purposing these reflections, the fondness for
dress, conspicuous in woman, may be easily accounted for, without supposing it
the result of a desire to please the sex on which they are dependent. The
absurdity, in short, of supposing that a girl is naturally a coquette, and that
a desire connected with the impulse of nature to propagate the species, should
appear even before an improper education has, by heating the imagination,
called it forth prematurely, is so unphilosophical,
that such a sagacious observer as Rousseau would not have adopted it, if he had
not been accustomed to make reason give way to his desire of singularity, and
truth to a favourite paradox. Yet thus to give a sex
to mind was not very consistent with the principles of a man who argued so
warmly, and so well, for the immortality of the soul. But what a weak barrier
is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis !
Rousseau respected --almost adored virtue--and yet he allowed himself to love
with sensual fondness. His imagination constantly prepared inflammable fuel for
his inflammable senses; but, in order to reconcile his respect for self-denial,
fortitude, and those heroic virtues, which a mind like his could not coolly
admire, he labours to invert the law of nature, and
broaches a doctrine pregnant with mischief, and derogatory to the character of
supreme wisdom.
His ridiculous stories, which tend to prove that
girls are naturally attentive to their persons, without laying any stress on
daily example, are below contempt. And that a little miss should have such a
correct taste as to neglect the pleasing amusement of making O's, merely
because she perceived that it was an ungraceful attitude, should be selected
with the anecdotes of the learned pig.[3]
I have, probably, had an opportunity of observing
more girls in their infancy than J. J. Rousseau. I can recollect my own
feelings, and I have looked steadily around me; yet, so far from coinciding with
him in opinion respecting the first dawn of the female character, I will
venture to affirm, that a girl, whose spirits have not been damped by
inactivity, or innocence tainted by false shame, will always be a romp, and the
doll will never excite attention unless confinement allows her no alternative.
Girls and boys, in short, would play, harmlessly together, if the distinction
of sex was not inculcated long before nature makes any difference. I will go
further, and affirm, as an indisputable fact, that most of the women, in the
circle of my observation, who have acted like rational creatures, or shown any vigour of intellect, have accidentally been allowed to run
wild, as some of the elegant formers of the fair sex would insinuate.
The baneful consequences which flow from
inattention to health during infancy and youth, extend
further than is supposed-- dependence of body naturally produces dependence of
mind; and how can she be a good wife or mother, the greater part of whose time
is employed to guard against or endure sickness? Nor can it be expected that
& woman will resolutely endeavour to strengthen
her constitution and abstain from enervating indulgences, if artificial notions
of beauty, and false descriptions of sensibility, have been early entangled with
her motives of action. Most men are sometimes obliged to bear with bodily
inconveniences, and to endure, occasionally, the inclemency of the elements;
but genteel women are, literally speaking, slaves to their bodies, and glory in
their subjection.
I once knew a weak woman of fashion, who was more
than commonly proud of her delicacy and sensibility. She thought a
distinguishing taste and puny appetite the height of all human perfection, and
acted accordingly. I have seen this weak sophisticated being neglect all the
duties of life, yet recline with self-complacency on a sofa, and boast of her
want of appetite as a proof of delicacy that extended to, or, perhaps, arose
from, her exquisite sensibility; for it is difficult to render intelligible
such ridiculous jargon. Yet, at the moment, I have seen her insult a worthy old
gentlewoman, whom unexpected misfortunes had made dependent on her ostentatious
bounty, and who, in better days, had claims on her gratitude. Is it possible
that a human creature could have become such a weak and depraved being, if,
like the Sybarites, dissolved in luxury, everything like virtue had not been
worn pressed by precept, a poor substitute, it is of mind, though it serves as
a fence against vice?
Such a woman is not a more irrational monster
than some of the Roman emperors, who were depraved by lawless power. Yet, since
kings have been more under the restraint of law, and the curb, however weak, of
honour, the records of history are not filled with
such unnatural instances of folly and cruelty, nor does the despotism that
kills virtue and genius in the bud, hover over Europe with that destructive
blast which desolates Turkey, and renders the men, as well as the soil,
unfruitful.
Women are everywhere in this deplorable state; for,
in order to preserve their innocence, as ignorance is courteously termed, truth
is hidden from them, and they are made to assume an artificial character before
their faculties have acquired any strength. Taught from their infancy that
beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to
the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adore its prison. Men
have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a
character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their
thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves,
seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour. But were their
understanding once emancipated from the slavery to which the pride and
sensuality of man and their short-sighted desire, like that of dominion in
tyrants, of present sway, has subjected them, we
should probably read of their weaknesses with surprise. I must be allowed to
pursue the argument a little further.
Perhaps, if the existence of an evil being were
allowed, who, in the allegorical language of Scripture, went about seeking whom
he should devour, he could not more effectually degrade the human character,
than by giving a man absolute power.
This argument branches into various
ramifications. Birth, riches, and every extrinsic advantage that exalt a man
above his fellows, without any mental exertion, sink him in reality below them.
In proportion to his weakness, he is played upon by designing men, till the
bloated monster has lost all traces of humanity. And that tribes
of-men, like flocks of sheep, should quietly follow such a leader, is a
solecism that only a desire of present enjoyment and narrowness of
understanding can solve. Educated in slavish dependence, and enervated by
luxury and sloth, where shall we find men who will stand forth to assert the
rights of man, or claim the privilege of moral beings, who should have but one
road to excellence? Slavery to monarchs and ministers, which the world will be
long in freeing itself from, and whose deadly grasp stops the progress of the
human mind, is not yet abolished.
Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that tyrannic
kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously assert that woman ought
to be subjected because she has always been so. But, when man, governed by
reasonable laws, enjoys his natural freedom, let him despise woman, if she do
not share it with him; and, till that glorious period arrives, in descanting on
the folly of the sex, let him not overlook his own.
Women, it is true, obtaining power by unjust
means, by practising or fostering vice, evidently
lose the rank which reason would assign them, and they become either abject
slaves or capricious tyrants. They lose all simplicity, all dignity of mind, in
acquiring power, and act as men are observed to act when they have been exalted
by the same means.
It is time to effect a
revolution in female manners--time to restore to them their lost dignity--and
make them, as a part of the human species, labour by
reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable
morals from local manners. If men be demi-gods, why
let us serve them! And if the dignity of the female soul be as disputable as
that of animals--if their reason does not afford sufficient light to direct
their conduct whilst unerring instinct is denied--they are surely of all
creatures the most miserable ! and, bent beneath the
iron hand of destiny, must submit to be a fair defect in creation. But to
justify the ways of
The only solid foundation for morality appears to
be the character of the Supreme Being; the harmony of which arises from a
balance of attributes,--and, to speak with reverence, one attribute seems to
imply the necessity of another. He must be just, because He is wise; He must be
good, because He is omnipotent. For to exalt one attribute at the expense of
another equally noble and necessary, bears the stamp of the warped reason of
man--the homage of passion. Man, accustomed to bow down to power in his savage
state, can seldom divest himself of this barbarous prejudice, even when civilisation determines how much superior mental is to
bodily strength; and his reason is clouded by these crude opinions, even when
he thinks of the Deity. His omnipotence is made to swallow up, or preside over
His other attributes, and those morals are supposed to limit His power
irreverently, who think that it must be regulated by His wisdom.
I disclaim that specious humility which, after
investigating nature, stops at the Author. The High and Lofty one, who inhabiteth eternity, doubtless possesses many attributes of
which we can form no conception; but Reason tells me that they cannot dash with
those I adore--and I am compelled to listen to her voice.
It seems natural for man to search for
excellence, and either to trace it in the object that he worships, or blindly
to invest it with perfection, as a garment. But what good effect can the latter
mode of worship have on the moral conduct of a rational being? He bends to
power; he adores a dark cloud, which may open a bright prospect to him, to
burst in angry, lawless fury, on his devoted head--he knows not why. And,
supposing that the Deity acts from the vague impulse of an undirected will, man
must also follow his own, or act according to rules, deduced from principles
which he disclaims as irreverent. Into this dilemma have both enthusiasts and
cooler thinkers fallen, when they laboured to free
men from the wholesome restraints which a just conception of the character of
God imposes.
It is not impious thus to scan the attributes of
the Almighty: in fact, who can avoid it that exercises his faculties? For to love God as the fountain of wisdom, goodness, and power,
appears to be the only worship useful to a being who wishes to acquire either
virtue or knowledge. A blind unsettled affection may, like human
passions, occupy the mind and warm the heart, whilst, to do justice, love
mercy, and walk humbly with our God, is forgotten. I shall pursue this subject
still further, when I consider religion in a light opposite to that recommended
by Dr. Gregory, who treats it as a matter of sentiment or taste.
To return from this apparent
digression. It were to be wished that women
would cherish an affection for their husbands, founded on the same principle
that devotion ought to rest upon. No other firm base is there under heaven--for
let them beware of the fallacious light of sentiment; too often used as a
softer phrase for sensuality. It follows then, I think, that from their infancy
women should either be shut up like Eastern princes, or educated in such a
manner as to be able to think and act for themselves.
Why do men halt between two opinions, and expect
impossibilities? Why do they expect virtue from a slave, from a being whom the
constitution of civil society has rendered weak, if not vicious?
Still I know that it will require a considerable
length of time to eradicate the firmly rooted prejudices which sensualists have
planted; it will also require some time to convince women that they act
contrary to their real interest on an enlarged scale, when they cherish or
affect weakness under the name of delicacy, and to convince the world that the
poisoned source of female vices and follies, if it be necessary, in compliance
with custom, to use synonymous terms in a lax sense, has been the sensual
homage paid to beauty:--to beauty of features; for it has been shrewdly
observed by a German writer, that a pretty woman, as an object of desire, is
generally allowed to be so by men of all descriptions; whilst a fine woman, who
inspires more sublime emotions by displaying intellectual beauty, may be
overlooked or observed with indifference, by those men who find their happiness
in their gratification of their appetites. I foresee an obvious retort--whilst
man remains such an imperfect being as he appears hitherto to have been, he
will, more or less, be the slave of his appetites; and those women obtaining
most power who gratify a predominant one, the sex is degraded by a physical, if
not by a moral necessity.
This objection has, I grant, some force; but
while such a sublime precept exists, as, "Be pure as your heavenly Father
is pure"; it would seem that the virtues of man are not limited by the
Being who alone could limit them; and that he may press forward without
considering whether he steps out of his sphere by indulging such a noble
ambition. To the wild billows it has been said, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther; and here shall thy proud
waves be stayed." Vainly then do they beat and foam, restrained by the
power that confines the struggling planets in their orbits, matter yields to
the great governing Spirit. But an immortal soul, not restrained by mechanical
laws and struggling to free itself from the shackles of matter, contributes to,
instead of disturbing, the order of creation, when, co-operating with the Father
of spirits, it tries to govern itself by the invariable rule that, in a degree,
before which our imagination faints, regulates the universe.
Besides, if women be educated for dependence,
that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit,
right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop? Are they to be considered as
vicegerents allowed to reign over a small domain, and answerable for their
conduct to a higher tribunal, liable to error? It will not be difficult to
prove that such delegates will act like men subjected by fear, and make their
children and servants endure their tyrannical oppression. As they submit
without reason, they will, having no fixed rules to square their conduct by, be
kind, or cruel, just as the whim of the moment directs; and we ought not to
wonder if sometimes, galled by their heavy yoke, they take a malignant pleasure
in resting it on weaker shoulders.
But, supposing a woman, trained up to obedience,
be married to a sensible man, who directs her judgment without making her feel
the servility of her subjection, to act with as much propriety by this
reflected light as can be expected when reason is taken at secondhand, yet she
cannot ensure the life of her protector; he may die and leave her with a large
family.
A double duty devolves on her; to educate them in
the character of both father and mother; to form their principles and secure
their property. But, alas! she has never thought, much
less acted for herself. She has only learned to please [4] men, to depend
gracefully on them; yet, encumbered with children, how is she to obtain another
protector--a husband to supply the place of reason? A rational man, for we are
not treading on romantic ground, though he may think her a pleasing docile
creature, will not choose to marry a family for love, when the world contains
many more pretty creatures. What is then to become of her? She either falls an easy prey to some mean fortune-hunter, who defrauds
her children of their paternal inheritance, and renders her miserable; or
becomes the victim of discontent and blind indulgence. Unable to educate her
sons, or impress them with respect,--for it is not a play on words to assert,
that people are never respected, though filling an important station, who are
not respectable,--she pines under the anguish of unavailing impotent regret.
The serpent's tooth enters into her very soul, and the vices of licentious
youth bring her with sorrow, if not with poverty also, to the grave.
This is not an overcharged picture; on the
contrary, it is a very possible case, and something similar must have fallen
under every attentive eye.
I have, however, taken it for granted, that she
was well disposed, though experience shows, that the blind may as easily be led
into a ditch as along the beaten road. But supposing, no very improbable
conjecture, that a being only taught to please must still find her happiness in
pleasing; what an example of folly, not to say vice, will she be to her
innocent daughters! The mother will be lost in the coquette, and, instead of
making friends of her daughters, view them with eyes askance, for they are
rivals--rivals more cruel than any other, because they invite a comparison, and
drive her from the throne of beauty, who has never thought of a seat on the
bench of reason.
It does not require a lively pencil, or the
discriminating outline of a caricature, to sketch the domestic miseries and
petty vices which such a mistress of a family diffuses. Still she only acts as
a woman ought to act, brought up according to Rousseau's system. She can never
be reproached for being masculine, or turning out of her sphere; nay, she may
observe another of his grand rules, and, cautiously preserving her reputation
free from spot, be reckoned a good kind of woman. Yet in what respect can she
be termed good? She abstains, it is true, without any great struggle, from
committing gross crimes; but how does she fulfil her
duties? Duties! in truth she has enough to think of to
adorn her body and nurse a weak constitution.
With respect to religion, she never presumed to
judge for herself; but conformed, as a dependent creature should, to the
effects of a good education ! These the virtues of
man's helpmate ![5]
I must relieve myself by drawing a different
picture.
Let fancy now present a woman with a tolerable
understanding, for I do not wish to leave the line of mediocrity, whose
constitution, strengthened by exercise, has allowed her body to acquire its
full vigour; her mind, at the same time, gradually
expanding itself to comprehend the moral duties of life, and in what human
virtue and dignity consist.
Formed thus by the discharge of the relative
duties of her station, she marries from affection, without losing sight of
prudence, and looking beyond matrimonial felicity, she secures her husband's
respect before it is necessary to exert mean arts to please him and feed a
dying flame, which nature doomed to expire when the object became familiar,
when friendship and forbearance take place of a more ardent affection. This is
the natural death of love, and domestic peace is not destroyed by struggles to
prevent its extinction. I also suppose the husband to be virtuous; or she is
still more in want of independent principles.
Fate, however, breaks this tie. She is left a
widow, perhaps without a sufficient provision; but she is not desolate! The
pang of nature is felt; but after time has softened sorrow into melancholy
resignation, her heart turns to her children with redoubled fondness, and
anxious to provide for them, affection gives a sacred heroic cast to her
maternal duties. She thinks that not only the eye sees her virtuous efforts
from whom all her comfort now must flow, and whose approbation is life; but her
imagination, a little abstracted and exalted by grief, dwells on the fond hope
that the eyes which her trembling hand closed, may still see how she subdues
every wayward passion to fulfil the double duty of
being the father as well as the mother of her children. Raised to heroism by
misfortunes, she represses the first faint dawning of a natural inclination,
before it ripens into love, and in the bloom of life forgets her sex--forgets
the pleasure of an awakening passion, which might again have been inspired and
returned. She no longer thinks of pleasing, and conscious dignity prevents her
from priding herself on account of the praise which her conduct demands. Her
children have her love, and her brightest hopes are beyond the grave, where her
imagination often strays.
I think I see her surrounded by her children,
reaping the reward of her care. The intelligent eye meets hers, whilst health
and innocence smile on their chubby cheeks, and as they grow up the cares of
life are lessened by their grateful attention. She lives to see the virtues
which she endeavoured to plant on principles, fixed
into habits, to see her children attain a strength of
character sufficient to enable them to endure adversity without forgetting
their mother's example.
The task of life thus fulfilled, she calmly waits
for the sleep of death, and rising from the grave, may say--"Behold, Thou gavest me a talent, and here are five talents."
I wish to sum up what I have said in a few words,
for I here throw down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of sexual virtues,
not excepting modesty. For man and woman, truth, if I understand the meaning of
the word, must be the same; yet the fanciful female character, so prettily
drawn by poets and novelists, demanding the sacrifice of truth and sincerity,
virtue becomes a relative idea, having no other foundation than utility, and of
that utility men pretend arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own
convenience.
Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfil; but they are human duties, and the principles that
should regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be the same.
To become respectable, the exercise of their of their understanding is necessary, there is of
character; I mean bow to the authority slaves of opinion.
In the superior ranks of life how seldom do we
meet with a man of superior abilities, or even common acquirements? The reason
appears to me clear, the state they are born in was an
unnatural one. The human character has ever been formed by the employments the
individual, or class, pursues; and if the faculties are not sharpened by
necessity, they must remain obtuse. The argument may fairly be extended to
women; for, seldom occupied by serious business, the pursuit of pleasure gives
that insignificancy to their character which renders the society of the great
so insipid. The same want of firmness, produced by a similar cause, forces them
both to fly from themselves to noisy pleasures, and artificial passions, till
vanity takes place of every social affection, and the
characteristics of humanity can scarcely be discerned. Such are the blessings
of civil governments, as they are at present organised,
that wealth and female softness equally tend to debase mankind, and are
produced by the same cause; but allowing women to be rational creatures, they
should be incited to acquire virtues which they may call their own, for how can
a rational being be ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own
exertions?
[1] "Researches into abstract and
speculative truths the principles and axioms of sciences,--in short, everything
which tends to generalise our ideas,--is not the
proper province of women, their studies should 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 everything 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 men 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 Emilius.
I hope my readers still remember the comparison
which I have brought forward between women and officers.
[2] "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 ill
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 art 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 tribulations become the only pursuit
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 being
corrupted from their infancy and unacquainted with all the duties of life are
fitted to bestow? To touch a musical instrument with useless skill to exhibit
their cultural or affected graces to the eyes of indolent and debauched young
men, to dissipate their husband's patrimony in riotous and unnecessary expenses
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 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 it arms it against the
inevitable evils of life.'" --Mr. Day's Sandford and Merton, vol. iii.
[3] "I once knew a young person who learned
to write before she learned to read, and began to write with her needle before
she could use a pen. At first, indeed she took it into her head to make no
letter than the O: this letter she was constantly making of all sizes and
always the wrong way. Unluckily one day as she was intent on this employment,
she happened to see herself in the looking-glass; 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 Emililus.
[4] "In the union of the sexes, both pursue
one common object, but not in the same manner. From their diversity in this
particular, arises the first determinate difference between the moral relations
of each. The one should be active and strong the other passive and weak; it is
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 is by means of these she should urge him to the exertion of those
powers which nature hath given him. The most successful method of exciting them, is, to render such exertion necessary by resistance;
as in that case self-love is added to desire and the one triumphs in the
victory which the other is obliged to acquire. Hence arise the various modes of
attack and defence between the sexes the boldness of one sex and the timidity
of the other- and in a word that bashfulness and modesty with which nature hath
armed the weak in order to 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.
[5] "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 her self 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.
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
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 P 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 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
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 fulfil
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
"In the greater part of
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
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
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.
[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.
[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."
[3] Vide
[4] This word is not stricly
just, but I cannot find a better.
[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
So the men tell us; but virtue, says reason, must
be acquired by rough toils, and useful struggles with worldly cares.
[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.
[7] The mass of mankind are rather the slaves of
their appetites than of their passions.
[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.
[9] Many other names might be added.
[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.
[11] Dr. Young supports the same opinion, in his
plays, when he talks of the misfortune that shunned the light of day.
[12] "I take her body," says Ranger.
[13] "Supposing that women are voluntary
slaves--slavery of any kind is unfavourable to human
happiness and improvement." --Knox's Essays.
[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.
The opinions speciously supported in some modern
publications on the female character and education, which have given the tone
to most of the observations made, in a more cursory manner, on the sex, remain
now to be examined.
I shall begin with Rousseau, and give a sketch of
his character of woman in his own words, interspersing comments and
reflections. My comments, it is true, will all spring from a few simple
principles, and might have been deduced from what I have already said; but the
artificial structure has been raised with so much ingenuity that it seems
necessary to attack it in a more circumstantial manner, and make the
application myself.
Sophia, says Rousseau, should be as perfect a
woman as Emilius is a man, and to render her so it is
necessary to examine the character which nature has given to the sex.
He then proceeds to prove that woman ought to be
weak and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man; and hence
infers that she was formed to please and to be subject to him, and that it is
her duty to render herself agreeable to her master-- this being the grand end
of her existence.[1] Still, however, to give a little mock dignity to lust, he
insists that man should not exert his strength, but depend on the will of the
woman, when he seeks for pleasure with her.
"Hence we deduce a third consequence from
the different constitutions of the sexes, which is that the strongest should be
master in appearance, and be dependent, in fact, on the weakest, and that not
from any frivolous practice of gallantry or vanity of protectorship,
but from an invariable law of nature, which, furnishing woman with a greater
facility to excite desires than she has given man to satisfy them, makes the
latter dependent on the good pleasure of the former, and compels him to endeavour to please in his turn, in order to obtain her
consent that he should be strongest.[2] On these occasions the most delightful
circumstance a man finds in his victory is to doubt whether it was the woman's
weakness that yielded to his superior strength, or whether her inclinations
spoke in his favour; the females are also generally
artful enough to leave this matter in doubt. The understanding of women answers
in this respect perfectly to their constitution. So far from being ashamed of
their weakness, they glory in it; their tender muscles make no resistance; they
affect to be incapable of lifting the smallest burdens, and would blush to be
thought robust and strong. To what purpose is all this? Not merely for the sake
of appearing delicate, but through an artful precaution. It is thus they
provide an excuse beforehand, and a right to be feeble when they think it
expedient."
I have quoted this passage lest my readers should
suspect that I warped the author's reasoning to support my own arguments. I
have already asserted that in educating women these fundamental principles lead
to a system of cunning and lasciviousness.
Supposing woman to have been formed only to
please, and be subject to man, the conclusion is just. She ought to sacrifice
every other consideration to render herself agreeable
to him, and let this brutal desire of self-preservation be the grand spring of
all her actions, when it is proved to be the iron bed of fate, to fit which her
character should be stretched or contracted, regardless of all moral or
physical distinctions. But if, as I think, may be demonstrated, the purposes of
even this life, viewing the whole, be subverted by practical rules built upon
this ignoble base, I may be allowed to doubt whether woman were created for
man; and though the cry of irreligion, or even atheism, be raised against me, I
will simply declare that were an angel from Heaven to tell me that Moses'
beautiful poetical cosmogony, and the account of the fall of man, were
literally true, I could not believe what my reason told me was derogatory to
the character of the Supreme Being; and, having no fear of the devil before
mine eyes, I venture to call this a suggestion of reason, instead of resting my
weakness on the broad shoulders of the first seducer of my frail sex.
"It being once demonstrated," continues
Rousseau, "that man and woman are not, nor ought to be, constituted alike
in temperament and character, it follows, of course, that they should not be
educated in the same manner. In pursuing the directions of nature, they ought,
indeed, to act in concert, but they should not be engaged in the same
employments; the end of their pursuits should be the same, but the means they
should take to accomplish them, and, of consequence, their tastes and
inclinations, should be different
. . . . .
"Whether I consider the peculiar destination
of the sex, observe their inclinations, or remark their duties, all things
equally concur to point out the peculiar method of education best adapted to
them. Woman and man were made for each other, but their mutual dependence is
not the same. The men depend on the women only on account of their desires; the
women on the men both on account of their desires and their necessities. We
could subsist better without them than they without us.
. . . . .
"For this reason the education of the women
should be always relative to the men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us
love and esteem them, to educate us when young, and take care of us when grown
up, to advise, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable--these are
the duties of women at all times, and what they should be taught in their
infancy. So long as we fail to recur to this principle, we run wide of the
mark, and all the precepts which are given them contribute neither to their
happiness nor our own. . . . . .
"Girls are from their earliest infancy fond
of dress. Not content with being pretty, they are desirous of being thought so.
We see, by all their little airs, that this thought
engages their attention; and they are hardly capable of understanding what is
said to them, before they are to be governed by talking to them of what people
will think of their behaviour. The same motive,
however, indiscreetly made use of with boys, has not the same effect. Provided
they are let pursue their amusements at pleasure, they care very little what
people think of them. Time and pains are necessary to subject boys to this
motive.
"Whencesoever
girls derive this first lesson, it is a very good one. As the body is born, in
a manner, before the soul, our first concern should be to cultivate the former;
this order is common to both sexes, but the object of that cultivation is
different. In the one sex it is the development of corporeal powers; in the
other, that of personal charms. Not that either the quality of strength or
beauty ought to be confined exclusively to one sex, but only that the order of
the cultivation of both is in that respect reversed. Women certainly require as
much strength as to enable them to move and act gracefully, and men as much
address as to qualify them to act with ease. . . . . .
"Children of both sexes
have a great many amusements in common; and so they ought; have they not
also many such when they are grown up? Each sex has also its peculiar taste to
distinguish in this particular. Boys love sports of noise and activity; to beat
the drum, to whip the top, and to drag about their little carts: girls, on the
other hand, are fonder of things of show and ornament; such as mirrors,
trinkets, and dolls: the doll is the peculiar amusement of the females; from
whence we see their taste plainly adapted to their destination. The physical
part of the art of pleasing lies in dress; and this is all which children are
capacitated to cultivate of that art. . . . . .
"Here then we see a primary propensity
firmly established, which you need only to pursue and regulate. The little
creature will doubtless be very desirous to know how to dress up her doll, to
make its sleeve-knots, its flounces, its head-dress, etc., she is obliged to
have so much recourse to the people about her, for their assistance in these
articles, that it would be much more agreeable to her to owe them all to her
own industry. Hence we have a good reason for the first lessons that are
usually taught these young females: in which we do not appear to be setting
them a task, but obliging them, by instructing them in what is immediately
useful to themselves. And, in fact, almost all of them learn with reluctance to
read and write; but very readily apply themselves to the use of their needles.
They imagine themselves already grown up, and think with pleasure that such
qualifications will enable them to decorate themselves." This is certainly
only an education of the body; but Rousseau is not the only man who has
indirectly said that merely the person of a young woman, without any mind,
unless animal spirits come under that description, is very pleasing. To render
it weak, and what some may call beautiful, the under- standing is neglected,
and girls forced to sit still, play with dolls and listen to foolish
conversations;--the effect of habit is insisted upon as an undoubted indication
of nature. I know it was Rousseau's opinion that the first years of youth
should be employed to form the body, though in educating Emilius
he deviates from this plan; yet, the difference between strengthening the body,
on which strength of mind in a great measure depends, and only giving it an
easy motion, is very wide.
Rousseau's observations, it is proper to remark,
were made in a country where the art of pleasing was refined only to extract
the grossness of vice. He did not go back to nature, or his ruling appetite
disturbed the operations of reason, else he would not have drawn these crude
inferences.
In
In short, they were treated like women, almost
from their very birth, and compliments were listened to instead of instruction.
These weakening the mind, Nature was supposed to have
acted like a step-mother, when she formed this afterthought of creation.
Not allowing them understanding, however, it was
but consistent to subject them to authority independent of reason; and to
prepare them for this subjection, he gives the following advice:
"Girls ought to be
active and diligent; nor is that all; they should also be early subjected to
restraint. This misfortune, if it really be one, is
inseparable from their sex; nor do they ever throw it off but to suffer
more cruel evils. They must be subject, all their lives, to the most constant
and severe restraint, which is that of decorum: it is, therefore, necessary to
accustom them early to such confinement, that it may not afterwards cost them
too dear; and to the suppression of their caprices, that they may the more
readily submit to the will of others. If, indeed, they be fond of being always
at work, they should be sometimes compelled to lay it aside. Dissipation,
levity, and inconstancy, are faults that readily spring up from their first
propensities, when corrupted or perverted by too much indulgence. To prevent
this abuse, we should teach them, above all things, to lay a due restraint on themselves. The life of a modest woman is reduced, by our
absurd institutions, to a perpetual conflict with herself: not but it is just
that this sex should partake of the sufferings which arise from those evils it
hath caused us."
And why is the life of a modest woman a perpetual
conflict? I should answer, that this very system of education makes it so.
Modesty, temperance, and self-denial, are the sober offspring of reason; but
when sensibility is nurtured at the expense of the understanding, such weak
beings must be restrained by arbitrary means, and be subjected to continual conflicts;
but give their activity of mind a wider range, and nobler passions and motives
will govern their appetites and sentiments.
"The common attachment and regard of a
mother, nay, mere habit, will make her beloved by her children, if she do
nothing to incur their hate. Even the constraint she lays them under, if well
directed, will increase their affection, instead of lessening it; because a
state of dependence being natural to the sex, they perceive themselves formed
for obedience."
This is begging the question; for servitude not
only debases the individual, but its effects seem to be transmitted to
posterity. Considering the length of time that women have been dependent, is it
surprising that some of them hunger in chains, and fawn like the spaniel ? " These dogs," observes a naturalist, " at
first kept their ears erect; but custom has superseded nature, and a token of
fear is become a beauty."
"For the same reason," adds Rousseau,
"women have, or ought to have, but little liberty; they are apt to indulge
themselves excessively in what is allowed them. Addicted in everything to
extremes, they are even more transported at their diversions than boys."
The answer to this is very simple. Slaves and
mobs have always indulged themselves in the same excesses, when once they broke
loose from authority. The bent bow recoils with violence, when the hand is
suddenly relaxed that forcibly held it; and sensibility, the plaything of
outward circumstances, must be subjected to authority, or moderated by reason.
"There results," he continues,
"from this habitual restraint a tractableness
which women have occasion for during their whole lives, as they constantly
remain either under subjection to the men, or to the opinions of mankind; and
are never permitted to set themselves above those opinions. The first and most
important qualification in a woman is good nature or sweetness of temper:
formed to obey a being so imperfect as man, often full of vices, and always
full of faults, she ought to learn betimes even to suffer injustice, and to
bear the insults of a husband without complaint; it is not for his sake, but
her own, that she should be of a mild disposition. The perverseness and
ill-nature of the women only serve to aggravate their own misfortunes, and the
misconduct of their husbands; they might plainly perceive that such are not the
arms by which they gain the superiority."
Formed to live with such an imperfect being as
man they ought to learn from the exercise of their faculties the necessity of
forbearance: but all the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on
blind obedience; or, the most sacred rights belong only to man.
The being who patiently
endures injustice, and silently bears insults, will soon become unjust, or
unable to discern right from wrong. Besides, I deny the fact, this is not the
true way to form or meliorate the temper; for, as a sex, men have better
tempers than women, because they are occupied by pursuits that interest the
head as well as the heart; and the steadiness of the head gives a healthy
temperature to the heart. People of sensibility have seldom good tempers. The
formation of the temper is the cool work of reason, when, as life advances, she
mixes with happy art, jarring elements. I never knew a weak or ignorant person
who had a good temper, though that constitutional good humour,
and that docility, which fear stamps on the behaviour, often obtains the name. I say behaviour, for genuine meekness never reached the heart or
mind, unless as the effect of reflection; and that simple restraint produces a
number of peccant humours
in domestic life, many sensible men will allow, who find some of these gentle
irritable creatures, very troublesome companions.
"Each sex," he further argues,
"should preserve its peculiar tone and manner; a meek husband may make a
wife impertinent; but mildness of disposition on the woman's side will always
bring a man back to reason, at least if he be not absolutely a brute, and will
sooner or later triumph over him."
Perhaps the mildness of reason might sometimes
have this defect. but abject fear always inspires
contempt; and tears are only eloquent when they flow down fair cheeks.
Of what materials can that heart be composed,
which can mdt when insulted,
and instead of revolting at injustice, kiss the rod? It is unfair to infer that
her virtue is built on narrow views and selfishness, who
can caress a man, with true feminine softness, the very moment when he treats
her tyrannically. Nature never dictated such insincerity; and, though prudence
of this sort be termed a virtue, morality becomes
vague when any part is supposed to rest on falsehood. These are mere
expedients, and expedients are only useful for the moment.
Let the husband beware of trusting too implicitly
to this i servile obedience; for if his wife can with
winning sweetness, caress him when angry, and when she ought to be angry,
unless contempt has stifled a natural effervescence, she may do the same after
parting with a lover. These are all preparations for adultery; or, should the
fear of the world, or of hell, restrain her desire of pleasing other men, when
she can no longer please her husband, what substitute can be found by a being
who was only formed, by nature and art, to please man? what
can make her amends for this privation, or where is she to seek for a fresh
employment? where find sufficient strength of mind to
determine to begin the search, when her habits are fixed, and vanity has long
ruled her chaotic mind?
But this partial moralist recommends cunning
systematically and plausibly.
"Daughters should be always submissive;
their mothers, however, should not be inexorable. To make a young person
tractable, she ought not to be made unhappy; to make her modest she ought not
to be rendered stupid. on the contrary, I should not
be displeased at her being permitted to use some art, not to elude punishment
in case of disobedience, but to exempt herself from the necessity of obeying.
It is not necessary to make her dependence burdensome, but only to let her feel
it. Subtility is a talent natural to the sex; and, as
I am persuaded, all our natural inclinations are right and good in themselves,
I am of opinion this should be cultivated as well as the others: it is
requisite for us only to prevent its abuse."
"Whatever is, is
right," he then proceeds triumphantly to infer. Granted; yet, perhaps, no
aphorism ever contained a more paradoxical assertion. It is a solemn truth with
respect to God. He, reverentially I speak, sees the whole at once, and saw its
just proportions in the womb of time; but man, who can only inspect disjointed
parts, finds many things wrong; and it is a part of the system, and therefore,
right, that he should endeavour to alter what appears
to him to be so, even while he bows to the wisdom of his Creator, and respects the
darkness he labours to disperse.
The inference that follows is just, supposing the
principle to be sound. "The superiority of address, peculiar to the female
sex, is a very equitable indemnification for their inferiority in point of
strength: without this, woman would not be the companion of marriage, but his
slave; it is by her superior art and ingenuity that she preserves her equality,
and governs him while she affects to obey. Woman has everything against her, as
well our faults, as her own timidity and weakness; she has nothing in her favour, but her subtility and her
beauty. Is it not very reasonable, therefore, she should cultivate both?"
Greatness of mind can never dwell with cunning, or address; for I shall not
boggle about words, when their direct signification is insincerity and
falsehood, but content myself with observing, that if any class of mankind be
so created that it must necessarily be educated by rules not strictly deducible
from truth, virtue is an affair of convention. How could Rousseau dare to
assert, after giving this advice, that in the grand end of existence the object
of both sexes should be the same, when he well knew that the mind, formed by
its pursuits, is expanded by great views swallowing up little ones, or that it
becomes itself little?
Men have superior strength of body; but were it
not for mistaken notions of beauty, women would acquire sufficient to enable
them to earn their own subsistence, the true definition of independence; and to
bear those bodily inconveniences and exertions that are requisite to strengthen
the mind. Let us then, by being allowed to take the same exercise as boys, not
only during infancy, but youth, arrive at perfection of body, that we may know
how far the natural superiority of man extends. For what reason or virtue can
be expected from a creature when the seed-time of life is neglected? None; did
not the winds of heaven casually scatter many useful seeds in fallow
ground."
Beauty cannot be acquired by dress, and coquetry
is an art not so early and speedily attained. While girls are yet young,
however, they are in a capacity to study agreeable gesture, a pleasing
modulation of voice, an easy carriage and behaviour;
as well as to take the advantage of gracefully looks and attitudes to time,
place, and occasion. Their application, therefore, should not be solely
confined to the arts of industry and the needle, when they come to display
other talents, whose utility is already apparent.
"For my part, I would have a young
Englishwoman cultivate her agreeable talents, in order to please her future
husband, with as much care and assiduity as a young Circassian
cultivates hers, to fit her for the harem of an Eastern bashaw.
To render women completely insignificant, he
adds: "The tongues of women are very voluble; they speak earlier, more
readily, and more agreeably, than the men; they are accused also of speaking
much more: but so it ought to be, and I should be very ready to convert this
reproach into a compliment; their lips and eyes have the same activity, and for
the same reason. A man speaks of what he knows, a woman of what pleases her;
the one requires knowledge, the other taste; the principal object of a man's
discourse should be what is useful, that of a woman's what is agreeable. There
ought to be nothing in common between their different conversation but truth.
"We ought not, therefore, to restrain the
prattle of girls, in the same manner as we should that of boys, with that
severe question, To what purpose are you talking? but by another, which is no less difficult to answer, How
will your discourse be received? In infancy, while they are as yet incapable to
discern good from evil, they ought to observe it, as a law never to say
anything disagreeable to those whom they are speaking to. What will render the
practice of this rule also the more difficult is, that
it must ever be subordinate to the former, of never speaking falsely or telling
an untruth." To govern the tongue in this manner must require great
address indeed, and it is too much practised both by
men and women. out of the abundance ;)f the heart how
few speak ! So few that I, who love simplicity, would gladly give up politeness
for a quarter of the virtue that has been sacrificed to an equivocal quality
which at best should only be the polish of virtue.
But, to complete the sketch.
"It is easy to be conceived, that if male children be not in a capacity to
form any true notions of religion, those ideas must be greatly above the
conception of the females: it is for this very reason, I would begin to speak
to them the earlier on this subject; for if we were to wait till they were in a
capacity to discuss methodically such profound questions, we should run a risk
of never speaking to them on this subject as long as they lived. Reason in women
is a practical reason, capacitating them artfully to discover the means of
attaining a known end, but which would never enable them to discover that end
itself. The social relations of the sexes are indeed truly admirable: from
their union there results a moral person, of which woman may be termed the
eyes, and man the hand, with this dependence on each other, that it is from the
man that the woman is to learn what she is to see, and it is of the woman that
man is to learn what he ought to do. If woman could recur to the first
principles of things as well as man, and man was capacitated to enter into
their minutiae as well as woman, always independent of each other, they would
live in perpetual discord, and their union could not subsist. But in the present
harmony which naturally subsists between them, their different faculties tend
to one common end: it is difficult to say which of them conduces
the most to it: each follows the impulse of the other; each is obedient, and
both are masters.
"As the conduct of a woman is subservient to
the public opinion, her faith in matters of religion should, for that very
reason, be subject to authority. Every daughter ought to be of the same
religion as her mother, and every wife to be of the same religion as her husband:
for, though such religion should be false, that docility which induces the
mother and daughter to submit to the order of nature, takes away, in the sight
of God, the criminality of their error.[3] As they are not in a capacity to
judge for themselves, they ought to abide by the decision of their fathers and
husbands as confidently as by that of the Church.
"As authority ought to regulate the religion
of the women, it is not so needful to explain to them the reasons for their
belief, as to lay down precisely the tenets they are to believe: for the creed,
which presents only obscure ideas to the mind, is the source of fanaticism; and
that which presents absurdities, leads to infidelity."
Absolute, uncontroverted
authority, it seems, must subsist somewhere: but is not this a direct and
exclusive appropriation of reason? The rights of humanity have been thus
confined to the male line from Adam downwards.
Rousseau would carry his male aristocracy still
further, he insinuates, that he should not blame those, who contend _ leaving
woman in a state of the most profound ignorance, if it were not necessary in
order to preserve her chastity and justify the man's choice, in the eyes of the
world, to give her a little knowledge of men, and the customs produced by human
passions; else she might propagate at home without being rendered less
voluptuous and innocent by the exercise of her understanding: excepting, indeed,
during the first year of marriage, when she might employ it to dress like
Sophia. "Her dress is extremely modest in appearance, and yet very
coquettish in fact: she does not make a display of her charms, she conceals
them; but in concealing them, she knows how to affect your imagination.
Everyone who sees her will say, There is a modest and discreet girl; but while
you are near her, your eyes and affections wander all over her person, so that
you cannot withdraw them; and you would conclude, that every part of her dress,
simple as it seems, was only put in its proper order to be taken to pieces by
the imagination." Is this modesty? Is this a preparation for immortality?
Again, What opinion are we to form of a system of
education, when the author says of his heroine, "that with her, doing
things well, is but a secondary concern; her principal concern is to do them
neatly."
Secondary, in fact, are all her respecting
religion, he makes her accustomed to submission--"Your husband will
instruct you in good time."
After thus cramping a woman's mind, if, in order
to keep it fair, he have not made it quite reflect,
that a reflecting man may when he is tired of caressing her. What has she to
reflect about who must obey? and would it not be a
refinement on cruelty only to open her mind to make the darkness and misery of
her fate visible? Yet these are his sensible remarks; how consistent with what
I have already been obliged to quote, to give a fair view of the subject, the
reader may determine.
"They who pass their
whole lives in working for their daily bread, have no ideas beyond their
business or their interest, and all their understanding seems to lie in their
fingers' ends. This ignorance is neither prejudicial to their integrity nor
their morals; it is often of service to them. Sometimes, by means of
reflection, we are led to compound with our duty, and we conclude by
substituting a jargon of words in the room of things. our
own conscience is the most enlightened philosopher. There is no need to be
acquainted with Tully's offices, to make a man of probity; and perhaps the most
virtuous woman in the world is the least acquainted with the definition of
virtue. But it is no less true, that an improved understanding only can render
society agreeable; and it is a melancholy thing for a father of a family, who
is fond of home, to be obliged to be always wrapped up in himself,
and to have nobody about him to whom he can impart his sentiments.
"Besides, how should a woman void of
reflection be capable of educating her children? How should she discern what is
proper for them? How should she incline them to those virtues she is
unacquainted with, or to that merit of which she has no idea? She can only
soothe or chide them; render them insolent or timid; she will make them formal
coxcombs, or ignorant blockheads, but will never make these sensible or
amiable." How indeed should she, when her husband is not always at hand to
lend her his reason?--when they both together make but one moral being. A blind
will, " eyes without hands," would go a very little way; and
perchance his abstract reason, that should concentrate the scattered beams of
her practical reason, may be employed in judging of the flavour
of wine, descanting on the sauces most proper for turtle; or, more profoundly
intent at a card-table, he may be generalising his
ideas as he bets away his fortune, leaving all the minutiae of education to his
helpmate, or to chance.
But, granting that woman ought to be beautiful,
innocent, and silly, to render her a more alluring and indulgent companion;
--what is her understanding sacrificed for? And why is all this preparation
necessary only, according to Rousseau's own account, to make her the mistress
of her husband, a very short time? For no man ever insisted more on the transient
nature of love. Thus speaks the philosopher, "Sensual pleasures are
transient. The habitual state of the affections always loses by their
gratification. The imagination, which decks the object of our desires, is lost
in fruition. Excepting the Supreme Being, who is self-existent, there is
nothing beautiful but what is ideal."
But he returns to his unintelligible paradoxes
again, when he thus addresses Sophia--"Emilius,
in becoming your husband, is become your master, and claims your obedience.
Such is the order of nature. When a man is married, however, to such a wife as
Sophia, it is proper he should be directed by her. This is also agreeable to
the order of nature. It is, therefore, to give you as much authority over his
heart as his sex gives him over your person that I have made you the arbiter of
his pleasures. It may cost you, perhaps, some disagreeable self-denial; but you
will be certain of maintaining your empire over him, if you can preserve it
over shows me that this difficult attempt does not surpass your courage.
"Would you have your husband constantly at
your feet, keep him at some distance from your person. You will long maintain
the authority in love, if you know but how to render your favours
rare and valuable. It is thus you may employ even the arts of coquetry in the
service of virtue, and those of love in that of reason." I shall close my
extracts with a just description of a comfortable couple: "
And yet you must not imagine that even such management will always
suffice. Whatever precaution be taken, enjoyment will by degrees take off the
edge of passion. But when love hath lasted as long as possible, a pleasing
habitude supplies its place, and the attachment of a mutual confidence succeeds
to the transports of passion. Children often form a more agreeable and
permanent connection between married people then even love
itself. When you cease to be the mistress of Emilius,
you will continue to be his wife and friend--you will be the mother of his
children."[4]
Children, he truly observes, form a much more
permanent connection between married people than love. Beauty, he declares,
will not be valued, or even seen, after a couple have
lived six months together; artificial graces and coquetry will likewise pall on
the senses. Why, then, does he say that a girl should be educated for her
husband with the same care as for an Eastern harem?
I now appeal from the reveries of fancy and
refined licentiousness to the good sense of mankind, whether, if the object of
education be to prepare women to become chaste wives and sensible mothers, the
method so plausibly recommended in the foregoing sketch be the one best
calculated to produce those ends? Will it be allowed that the surest way to
make a wife chaste is to teach her to practise the
wanton arts of a mistress, termed virtuous coquetry, by the sensualist who can
no longer relish the artless charms of sincerity, or taste the pleasure arising
from a tender intimacy, when confidence is unchecked by suspicion, and rendered
interesting by sense?
The man who can be contented to live with a
pretty, useful companion, without a mind, has lost in voluptuous gratifications
a taste for more refined enjoyments; he has never felt the calm satisfaction
that refreshes the parched heart like the silent dew of heaven--of being
beloved by one who could understand him. In the society of his wife he is still
alone, unless when the man is sunk in the brute. "The charm of life,"
says a grave philosophical reasoner, is "sympathy; nothing pleases us more
than to observe in other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own
breast"
But according to the tenor of reasoning by which
women are kept from the tree of knowledge, the important years of youth, the
usefulness of age, and the rational hopes of futurity, are all to be sacrificed
to render women an object of desire for a short time. Besides, how could
Rousseau expect them to be virtuous and constant when reason is neither allowed
to be the foundation of their virtue, nor truth the object of their inquiries?
But all Rousseau's errors in reasoning arose from
sensibility, and sensibility to their charms women are very ready to forgive.
When he should have reasoned he became impassioned, and reflection inflamed his
imagination instead of enlightening his understanding. Even his virtues also
led him farther astray; for, born with a warm constitution and lively fancy,
nature carried him toward the other sex with such eager fondness that he soon
became lascivious. Had he given way to these desires, the fire would have
extinguished itself in a natural manner, but virtue, and a romantic kind of
delicacy, made him practise self-denial; yet when
fear, delicacy, or virtue restrained him, he debauched his imagination, and
reflecting on the sensations to which fancy gave force, he traced them in the
most glowing colours, and sunk them deep into his
soul.
He then sought for solitude, not to sleep with
the man of nature, or calmly investigate the causes of things under the shade
where Sir Isaac Newton indulged contemplation, but merely to indulge his
feelings. And so warmly has he painted what he forcibly felt, that interesting
the heart and inflaming the imagination of his readers, in proportion to the
strength of their fancy, they imagine that their understanding is convinced
when they only sympathise with a poetic writer, who skilfully exhibits the objects of sense most voluptuously
shadowed or gracefully veiled; and thus making us feel whilst dreaming that we
reason, erroneous conclusions are left in the mind.
Why was Rousseau's life divided between ecstasy
and misery? Can ny other answer be given than this,
that the effervescence of his imagination produced both; but had his fancy been
allowed to cool, it is possible that he might have acquired more strength of
mind. Still, if the purpose of life be to educate the intellectual part of man,
all-with respect to him was right; yet had not death led to a nobler scene of
action, it is probable that he would have enjoyed more equal happiness on
earth, and have felt the calm sensations of the man of nature, instead of being
prepared for another stage of existence by nourishing the passions which
agitate the civilised man.
But peace to his manes! I war not with his ashes,
but his opinions. I war only with the sensibility that led him to degrade woman
by making her the slave of love.
"--- Cursed vassalage, First
idolised till love's hot fire be o'er, Then slaves to
those who courted us before."--DRYDEN.
The pernicious tendency of those books, in which
the writers insidiously degrade the sex whilst they are prostrate before their
personal charms, cannot be too often or too severely exposed.
Let us, my dear contemporaries, arise above such
narrow pr judices. If wisdom be desirable on its own
account, if virtue, to deserve the name, must be founded on knowledge, let us endeavour to strengthen our minds by reflection till our
heads become a balance for our hearts; let us not confine all our thoughts to
the petty occurrences of the day, or our knowledge to an acquaintance with our
lovers' or husbands' hearts, but let the practice of every duty be subordinate
to the grand one of improving our minds, and preparing our affections for a
more exalted state.
Beware, then, my friends, of suffering the heart
to be moved by every trivial incident; the reed is shaken by a breeze, and
annually dies, but the oak stands firm, and for ages braves the storm.
Were we, indeed, only created to flutter our hour
out and die--why let us then indulge sensibility, and laugh at the severity of reason. Yet, alas ! even then we should want strength of body and mind, and life
would be lost in feverish pleasures or wearisome languor.
But the system of Education, which I earnestly
wish to see exploded, seems to presuppose what ought never to be taken for
granted, that virtue shields us from the casualties of life; and that Fortune,
slipping off her bandage, will smile on a well-educated female, and bring in
her hand an Emilius or a Telemachus.
Whilst, on the contrary, the reward which Virtue promises to her votaries is
confined, it seems clear, to their own bosoms; and often must they contend with
the most vexatious worldly cares, and bear with the vices and humours of relations for whom they can never feel a
friendship.
There have been many women in the world who,
instead of being supported by the reason and virtue of their fathers and
brothers, have strengthened their own minds by struggling with their vices and
follies; yet have never met with a hero, in the shape of a husband; who, paying
the debt that mankind owed them, might chance to bring back their reason to its
natural dependent state, and restore the usurped prerogative, of rising above
opinion, to man.
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. This
mental grace, not noticed by vulgar eyes, often flashes
across a rough countenance, and irradiating every feature, shows simplicity and
independence of mind. It is then we read characters of immortality in the eye,
and see the soul in every gesture, though when at rest, neither the face nor
limbs may have much beauty to recommend them; or the behaviour,
anything peculiar to attract universal attention. The mass of mankind, however,
look for more tangible beauty; yet simplicity is, in general, admired, when
people do not consider what they admire ? and can there be simplicity without sincerity? But, to have done with remarks that are in some measure desultory,
though naturally excited by the subject.
In declamatory periods Dr. Fordyce spins 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. "Behold these smiling innocents, whom I have graced
with my fairest gifts, and committed to your protection; behold them with love
and respect; treat them with tenderness and honour.
They are timid and want to be defended. They are frail; oh do not take
advantage of their weakness! Let their fears and blushes endear them. Let their
confidence in you never be abused. But is it possible, that any of you can be
such barbarians, so supremely wicked, as to abuse it? Can you find in your hearts[5] to despoil the gentle, trusting creatures of their
treasure, or do anything to strip them of their native robe of virtue? Curst be
the impious hand that would dare to violate the unblemished form of chastity!
Thou wretch! thou ruffian ! forbear;
nor venture to provoke Heaven's fiercest vengeance." I know not any
comment that can be made seriously on this curious passage, and I could produce
many similar ones; and some, so very sentimental, that I have heard rational
men use the word indecent, when they mentioned them with disgust.
Throughout there is a display of cold artificial
feelings, and that parade of sensibility which boys and girls should be taught
to despise as the sure mark of a little vain mind. Florid appeals are made to
Heaven, and to the beauteous innocents, the fairest images of Heaven here
below, whilst sober sense is left far behind. This is not the language of the
heart, nor will it ever reach it, though the ear may be tickled.
I shall be told, perhaps, that the public have
been pleased with these volumes. True--and Hervey's
Meditations are :_ 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. If women be ever allowed
to walk without leading-strings, why must they be cajoled into virtue by artful
flattery and sexual compliments? Speak to them the language of truth and
soberness, and away with the lullaby strains of condescending endearment ! Let them be taught to respect themselves as
rational creatures, and not led to have a passion for their own insipid
persons. It moves my gall to hear a preacher descanting on dress and
needlework; and still more, to hear him address the British fair, the fairest
of the fair, as if they had only feelings.
Even recommending piety he uses the following
argument. "Never, perhaps, does a fine woman strike more deeply, than
when, composed into pious recollection, and possessed with the noblest
considerations, she assumes, without knowing it, superior dignity and new
graces; so that the beauties of holiness seem to radiate about her, and the
bystanders are almost reduced to fancy her already worshipping amongst her
kindred angels!" Why are women to be thus bred up with a desire\of
conquest? the very word, used in this sense, gives me
a sickly qualm! Do religion and virtue offer no stronger motives, no brighter reward ? Must they always be debased by being made to
consider the sex of their companions? Must they be taught always to be pleasing ? And when levelling
their small artillery at the heart of man, is it necessary to tell them that a
little sense is sufficient to render their attention incredibly soothing?
"As a small degree of knowledge entertains in a woman, so from a woman,
though for a different reason, a small expression of kindness delights,
particularly if she have beauty!" I should have
supposed for the same reason.
Why are girls to be told that they resemble
angels; but to sink them below women? Or, that a gentle innocent female is an
object that comes nearer to the idea which we have formed of angels than any
other. Yet they are told, at the same time, that they are only like angels when
they are young and beautiful; consequently, it is their persons, not their virtues, that procure them this homage.
Idle empty words ! What
can such delusive flattery lead to, but vanity and folly? The lover, it is
true, has a poetical licence to exalt his mistress;
his reason is the bubble of his passion, and he does not utter a falsehood when
he borrows the language of adoration. His imagination may raise the idol of his
heart, unblamed, above humanity; and happy would it
be for women, if they were only flattered by the men who loved them; I mean,
who love the individual, not the sex; but should a grave preacher interlard his
discourses with such fooleries?
In sermons or novels, however, voluptuousness is
always true to its text. Men are allowed by moralists to cultivate, as Nature
directs, different qualities, and assume the different characters,
that the same passions, modified almost to infinity, give to each
individual. A virtuous man may have a choleric or a sanguine constitution, be
gay or grave, unreproved; be firm till he is almost
overbearing, or, weakly submissive, have no will or opinion of his own; but all
women are to be levelled, by meekness and docility,
into one character of yielding softness and gentle compliance.
I will use the preacher's own words. "Let it
be observed, that in your sex manly exercises are never graceful; that in them
a tone and figure, as well as an air and deportment, of the masculine kind, are
always forbidding; and that men of sensibility desire in every woman soft
features, and a flowing voice, a form, not robust, and demeanour
delicate and gentle."
Is not the following portrait--the portrait of a
house slave? "I am astonished at the folly of many women, who are still
reproaching their husbands for leaving them alone, for preferring this or that
company to theirs, for treating them with this and the other mark of disregard
or indifference; when, to speak the truth, they have themselves in a great
measure to blame. Not that I would justify the men in anything wrong on their
part. But had you behaved to them with more respectful observance, and a more
equal tenderness; studying their humours, overlooking
their mistakes, submitting to their opinions in matters indifferent, passing by
little instances of unevenness, caprice, or passion, giving soft answers to
hasty words, complaining as seldom as possible, and making it your daily care
to relieve their anxieties and prevent their wishes, to enliven the hour of
dullness, and call up the ideas of felicity: had you pursued this conduct, I
doubt not but you would have maintained and even increased their esteem, so far
as to have secured every degree of influence that could conduce to their
virtue, or your mutual satisfaction; and your house might at this day have been
the abode of domestic bliss " Such a woman ought to be an angel--or she is
an ass-- for I discern not a trace of the human character, neither reason nor
passion in this domestic drudge, whose being is absorbed in that of a tyrant's.
Still Dr. Fordyce must have very little
acquaintance with the human heart, if he really supposed that such conduct
would bring back wandering love, instead of exciting contempt. No, beauty,
gentleness, etc., etc., may gain a heart; but esteem,
the only lasting affection, can alone be obtained by virtue supported by
reason. It is respect for the understanding that keeps alive tenderness for the
person.
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.
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! It is this separate interest--this insidious state of warfare, that undermines morality, and divides mankind!
If love have made some women wretched, how many
more has the cold unmeaning intercourse of gallantry rendered vain and useless ! yet this heartless attention to the sex is
reckoned so manly, so polite that, till society is very differently organised, I fear, this vestige of gothic manners will not
be done away by a more reasonable and affectionate mode of conduct. Besides, to
strip it of its imaginary dignity, I must observe, that in the most uncivilised European states this lip-service prevails in a
very great degree, accompanied with extreme dissoluteness of morals. In
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. Decorum, indeed, is the one thing needful
!--decorum is to supplant nature, and banish all simplicity and variety
of character out of the female world. Yet what good end can all this
superficial counsel produce ? It is, however, much
easier to point out this or that mode of behaviour,
than to set the reason to work; but, when the mind has been stored with useful
knowledge, and strengthened by being employed, the regulation of the behaviour may safely be left to its guidance.
Why, for instance, should the following caution
be given when art of every kind must contaminate the mind; and why entangle the
grand motives of action, which reason and religion equally combine to enforce,
with pitiful worldly shifts and sleight-of-hand tricks to gain the applause of
gaping tasteless fools? "Be even cautious in displaying your good sense.[6] It will be thought you assume a superiority over the
rest of the company. But if you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound
secret, especially from the men, who generally look with a jealous and
malignant eye on a woman of great parts, and a cultivated understanding."
If men of real merit, as he afterwards observes, be superior to this meanness,
where is the necessity that the behaviour of the
whole sex should be modulated to please fools, or men, who having little claim
to respect as individuals, choose to keep close in their phalanx. Men, indeed,
who insist on their common superiority, having only this sexual superiority,
are certainly very excusable.
There would be no end to rules for behaviour, if it be proper always to adopt the tone of the
company; for thus, for ever varying the key, a flat would often pass for a
natural note.
Surely it would have been wiser to have advised
women to improve themselves till they rose above the fumes of vanity; and then
to let the public opinion come round--for where are rules of accommodation to
stop? The narrow path of truth and virtue inclines neither to the right nor
left--it is a straightforward business, and they who are earnestly pursuing
their road, may bound over many decorous prejudices,
without leaving modesty behind. Make the heart clean, and give the head
employment, and I will venture to predict that there will be nothing offensive
in the behaviour.
The air of fashion, which many young people are
so eager to attain, always strikes me like the studied attitudes of some modern
pictures, copied with tasteless servility after the antiques; the soul is left
out, and none of the parts are tied together by what may properly be termed
character. This varnish of fashion, which seldom sticks very close to sense,
may dazzle the weak; but leave nature to itself, and it will seldom disgust the
wise. Besides, when a woman has sufficient sense not to pretend to anything
which she does not understand in some degree, there is no need of determining
to hide her talents under a bushel. Let things take their natural course, and
all will be well.
It is this system of dissimulation, throughout
the volume, that I despise. Women are always to seem to be this and that--yet
virtue might apostrophise them, in the words of
Hamlet--Seems! I know not seems! Have that within passeth
show!
Still the same tone occurs; for in another place,
after recommending, without sufficiently discriminating delicacy, he adds,-- "The men will complain of your reserve. They will
assure you that a franker behaviour would make you
more amiable. But, trust me, they are not sincere when
they tell you so. I acknowledge that on some occasions it might render you more
agreeable as companions, but it would make you less amiable as women: an
important distinction, which many of your sex are not aware of."
This desire of being always women,
is the very 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.
"The sentiment, that a woman may allow all
innocent freedoms, provided her virtue is secure, is both grossly indelicate
and dangerous, and has proved fatal to many of your sex." With this
opinion I perfectly coincide. A man, or a woman, of any feeling, must always
wish to convince a beloved object that it is the caresses of the individual,
not the sex, that are received and returned with pleasure; and, that the heart,
rather than the senses, is moved. Without this natural delicacy, love becomes a
selfish personal 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. When a man squeezes the hand of
a pretty woman, handing her to a carriage, whom he has never seen before, she
will consider such an impertinent freedom in the light of an insult, if she have any true delicacy, instead of being flattered by this
unmeaning homage to beauty. These are the privileges of friendship, or the
momentary homage which the heart pays to virtue, when it flashes suddenly on
the notice--mere animal spirits have no claim to the kindnesses of affection.
Wishing to feed the affections with what is now
the food of vanity, I would fain persuade my sex to act from simpler
principles. Let them merit love, and they will obtain it, though they may never
be told that--"The power of a fine woman over the hearts of men, of men of
the finest parts, is even beyond what she conceives."
I have already noticed the narrow cautions with
respect to duplicity, female softness, delicacy of constitution; for these are
the changes which he rings round without ceasing--in a more decorous manner, it
is true, than Rousseau; but it all comes home to the same point, and whoever is
at the trouble to analyse these sentiments, will find
the first principles not quite so delicate as the superstructure.
The subject of amusements is treated in too
cursory a manner; but with the same spirit.
When I treat of friendship, love, and marriage,
it will be found that we materially differ in opinion; I shall not then
forestall what I have to observe on these important subjects; but confine my
remarks to the general tenor of them, to that cautious family prudence, to
those confined views of partial unenlightened affection, which exclude pleasure
and improvement, by vainly wishing to ward off sorrow and error, and by thus
guarding the heart and mind, destroy also all their energy. It is far better to
be often deceived than never to trust; to be disappointed in love than never to
love; to lose a husband's fondness than forfeit his esteem.
Happy would it be for the world, and for
individuals, of course, if all this unavailing solicitude to attain worldly
happiness, on a confined plan, were turned into an anxious desire to improve
the understanding. "Wisdom is the principal thing: Therefore get wisdom;
and with all thy gettings get understanding."
"How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and hate
knowledge?" saith Wisdom to the daughters of
men.
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. But, if it proved,
that this throne of prerogative only rests on a chaotic mass of prejudices,
that have no inherent principle of order to keep them together, or on an
elephant, tortoise, or even the mighty shoulders of a son of the earth, they
may escape, who dare to brave the consequence, without any breach of duty,
without sinning against the order of things.
Whilst reason raises man above the brutal herd,
and death is big with promises, they alone are subject to blind 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. Virtue, like everything valuable, must be loved for herself alone; or she will not take up her abode with us.
She will not impart that peace, " which passeth understanding," when she is merely made the
stilts of reputation; and respected, with pharisaical exactness, because
"honesty is the best policy."
That the plan of life which enables us to carry
some knowledge and virtue into another world, is the one best calculated to
ensure content in this, cannot be denied; yet few people act according to this
principle, though it be universally allowed that it admits not of dispute.
Present pleasure, or present power, carry before it these sober convictions;
and it is for the day, not for life, that man bargains with happiness. How
few!--how very few! have sufficient foresight, or
resolution, to endure a small evil at the moment, to avoid a greater hereafter.
Woman in particular, whose virtue[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.
"Seek not for happiness in singularity; and
dread a refinement of wisdom as-a deviation into folly." Thus she
dogmatically addresses a new married man; and to elucidate this pompous
exordium, she adds, " I said that the person of your lady would not grow
more pleasing to you, but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so:
that a woman will pardon an affront to her understanding much sooner than one
to her person, is well known; nor will any of us contradict the assertion. All
our attainments, all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart of man;
and what mortification can exceed the disappointment, if the end be not obtained ? There is no reproof however pointed, no
punishment however severe, that a woman of spirit will not prefer to neglect;
and if she can endure it without complaint, it only proves that she means to
make herself amends by the attention of others for the slights of her husband !"
These are truly masculine sentiments. "All
our arts are employed to gain and keep the heart of man:"--and what is the
inference?--if her person, and was there ever a person, though formed with Medicean symmetry, that was not slighted
? be neglected, she will make herself amends by
endeavouring to please other men. Noble morality! But
thus is the understanding of the whole sex affronted, and their virtue deprived
of the common basis of virtue. A woman must know, that
her person cannot be as pleasing to her husband as it was to her lover, and if
she be offended with him for being a human creature, she may as well whine about
the loss of his heart as about any other foolish thing. And this very want of
discernment or unreasonable anger, proves that he could not change his fondness
for her person into affection for her virtues or respect for her understanding.
Whilst women avow, and act up to such opinions,
their understandings, at least, deserve the contempt and obloquy that men, who
never insult their persons, have pointedly levelled
at the female mind. And it is the sentiments of these polite men, who do not
wish to be encumbered with mind, that vain women
thoughtlessly adopt. Yet they should know, that
insulted reason alone can spread that sacred reserve about the person, which
renders human affections, for human affections have always some base alloy, as
permanent as is consistent with the grand end of existence--the attainment of
virtue.
The Baroness de Stael
speaks the same language as the lady just cited, with more enthusiasm. Her
eulogium on Rousseau was accidentally put into my hands and her sentiments, the
sentiments of too many of my sex, may serve as the text for a few comments.
"Though Rousseau," she observes, "has endeavoured
to prevent women from interfering in public affairs, and acting a brilliant
part in the theatre of politics; yet in speaking of them, how much has he done
it to their satisfaction ! If he wished to deprive
them of some rights foreign to their sex, how has he for ever restored to them
all those to which it has a claim! And in attempting to diminish their
influence over the deliberations of men, how sacredly has he established the
empire they have over their happiness! In aiding them to descend from an
usurped throne, he has firmly seated them upon that to which they were destined
by nature; and though he be full of indignation against them when they endeavour to resemble men, yet when they come before him
with all the charms, weaknesses, virtues, and errors of their sex, his respect
for their persons amounts almost to adoration." True! For never was there
a sensualist who paid more fervent adoration at the shrine of beauty. So
devout, indeed, was his respect for the person, that excepting the virtue of
chastity, for obvious reasons, he only wished to see it embellished by charms,
weaknesses, and errors. He was afraid lest the austerity of reason should
disturb the soft playfulness of love. The master wished to have a meretricious
slave to fondle, entirely dependent on his reason and bounty; he did not want a
companion, whom he should be compelled to esteem, or a friend to whom he could
confine the care of his children's education, should death deprive them of
their father, before he had fulfilled the sacred task. He denies woman reason,
shuts her out from knowledge, and turns her aside from truth; yet his pardon is
granted, because " he admits the passion of
love." It would require some ingenuity to show why women were to be under
such an obligation to him for thus admitting love; when it is clear that he
admits it only for the relaxation of men, and to perpetuate the species; but he
talked with passion, and that powerful spell worked on the sensibility of a
young encomiast. " What signifies it,"
pursues this rhapsodist, " to women, that his reason disputes with them
the empire, when his heart is devotedly theirs," It is not empire,--but
equality, that they should contend for. Yet, if they only wished to lengthen
out their sway, they should not entirely trust to their persons, for though
beauty may gain a heart, it cannot keep it, even while the beauty is in full
bloom, unless the mind lend, at least, some graces.
When women are once sufficiently enlightened to
discover their real interest, on a grand scale, they will, I am persuaded, be
very ready to resign all the prerogatives of 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. For everywhere does she inculcate not only blind
submission to parents, but to the opinion of the world.[9]
She tells a story of a young man engaged by his
father's express desire to a girl of fortune. Before the marriage could take
place she is deprived of her fortune, and thrown friendless on the world. The
father practises the most infamous arts to separate
his son from her, and when the son detects his villainy, and, following the
dictates of honour, marries the girl, nothing but
misery ensues, because, forsooth! he married without
his father's consent. On what ground can religion or morality rest when justice
is thus set at defiance? With the same view she represents an accomplished
young woman, as ready to marry anybody that her mamma pleased to recommend;
and, as actually marrying the young man of her own choice, without feeling any
emotions of passion, because that a well-educated girl had not time to be in
love. Is it possible to have much respect for a system of education that thus
insults reason and nature?
Many similar opinions occur in her writings,
mixed with sentiments that do honour to her head and
heart. Yet so much superstition is mixed with her religion, and so much worldly
wisdom with her morality, that I should not let a young person read her works,
unless I could afterwards 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. Possessing more penetration than sagacity, more understanding than
fancy, she writes with sober energy and argumentative closeness; yet sympathy and
benevolence give an interest to her sentiments, and that vital heat to
arguments, which forces the reader to weigh them.[10]
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!
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, instil prejudices, and render hard the
heart that gradual experience would only have cooled. An early acquaintance
with human infirmities; or, what is termed knowledge of the world, is the
surest way, in my opinion, to contract the heart and damp the natural youthful ardour which produces not only great talents, but great
virtues. For the vain attempt to bring forth the fruit of experience, before
the sapling has out thrown its leaves, only exhausts its strength, and prevents
its assuming a natural form; just as the form and strength of subsiding metals
are injured when the attraction of cohesion is disturbed.
Tell me, ye who have studied the human mind, is it not a strange way to fix principles by showing
young people that they are seldom stable? And how can they be fortified by
habits when they are proved to be fallacious by example? Why is the ardour of youth thus to be damped, and the luxuriancy of fancy cut to the quick? This dry caution may,
it is true, guard a character from worldly mischances,
but will infallibly preclude excellence in either virtue or knowledge.[12] The stumbling-block thrown across every path by suspicion
will prevent any vigorous exertions of genius or benevolence, and life will be
stripped of its most alluring charm long before its calm evening, when man
would retire to contemplation for comfort and support.
A young man who has been bred up with domestic
friends, and led to store his mind with as much speculative 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. We see a folly swell into a vice, by almost imperceptible
degrees, and pity while we blame; but if the hideous monster burst suddenly on
our sight, fear and disgust, rendering us more severe than man ought to be,
might lead us with blind zeal to usurp the character of omnipotence, and
denounce damnation on our fellow-mortals, forgetting that we cannot read the
heart, and that we have seeds of the same vices lurking in our own.
I have already remarked that we expect more from
instruction than mere instruction can produce; for instead of preparing young
people to encounter the evils of life with dignity, and to acquire wisdom and
virtue by the exercise of their own [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. "He who loves not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God?" asked
the wisest of men.
It is natural for youth to adorn the first object
of its affection with every good quality, and the emulation 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. Admiration then gives
place to friendship, properly so called, because it is cemented by esteem; and
the being walks alone only dependent on Heaven for that emulous panting after
perfection which ever glows in a noble mind. But this knowledge a man must gain
by the exertion of his own faculties; and this is surely the blessed fruit of
disappointed hope! for He who delighteth
to diffuse happiness and show mercy to the weak creatures, who are learning to
know Him, never implanted a good propensity to be a tormenting ignis fatuus.
Our trees are now
allowed to spread with wild luxuriance, nor do we expect by force to combine
the majestic marks of time with youthful graces; but wait patiently till they
have struck deep their root, and braved many a storm. Is the mind then, which,
in proportion to its dignity, advances more slowly towards perfection, to be
treated with less respect? To argue from analogy, everything around us is in a
progressive state; and when an unwelcome knowledge of life produces almost a satiety of life, and we discover by the natural course of
things that all that is done under the sun is vanity, we are drawing near the
awful close of the drama. The days of activity
and hope are over, and
the opportunities which the first stage of existence has afforded of advancing
in the scale of intelligence, must soon be summed up. A knowledge at this
period of the futility of life, or earlier, if obtained by experience, is very
useful, because it is natural; but when a frail being is shown the follies and
vices of man, that he may be taught prudently to guard against the common
casualties of life by sacrificing his heart--surely it is not speaking harshly
to call it the wisdom of this world, contrasted with the nobler fruit of piety
and experience.
I will venture a paradox, and deliver my opinion
without reserve; if men were only born to form a circle of life and death, it
would be wise to take every step that foresight could suggest to render life
happy. Moderation in every pursuit would then be supreme wisdom; and the
prudent voluptuary might enjoy a degree of content,
though he neither
cultivated his understanding nor kept his heart pure. Prudence, supposing we
were mortal, would be true wisdom, or, to be more explicit, would procure the
greatest portion of happiness, considering the whole of life, but knowledge
beyond the conveniences of life would be a curse.
Why should we injure our health by close study?
The exalted pleasure which intellectual pursuits afford would scarcely be
equivalent to the hours of languor that follow; especially, if it be necessary
to take into the reckoning the doubts and disappointments that cloud our
researches. Vanity and vexation close every inquiry: for the cause which we
particularly wished to discover flies like the horizon before us as we advance.
The ignorant, on the contrary, resemble children, and suppose, that if they
could walk straight forward they should at last arrive where the earth and
clouds meet. Yet, disappointed as we are in our researches, the mind gains
strength by the exercise, sufficient, perhaps, to comprehend the answers which,
in another step of existence, it may receive to the anxious questions it asked,
when the understanding with feeble wing was fluttering round the visible
effects to dive into the hidden cause.
The passions also, the winds of life, would be
useless, if not injurious, did the substance which composes our thinking being,
after we have thought in vain, only become the support of vegetable life, and
invigorate a cabbage, or blush in a rose. The appetites would answer every
earthly purpose, and produce more moderate and permanent happiness. But the
powers of the soul that are of little use here, and, probably, disturb our
animal enjoyments, even while conscious dignity makes us glory in possessing
them, prove that life is merely an education, a state of infancy, to which the
only hopes worth cherishing should not be sacrificed. I mean, therefore, to
infer, that we ought to have a precise idea of what we wish to attain by
education, for the immortality of the soul is contradicted by the actions of
many people who firmly profess the belief.
If you mean to secure ease and prosperity on
earth as the first consideration, and leave futurity to provide for itself; you
act prudently in giving your child an early insight into the weaknesses of his
nature. You may not, it is true, make an Inkle of him; but do not imagine that
he will stick to more than the letter of the law, who has very early imbibed a
mean opinion of human nature; nor will he think it necessary to rise much above
the common standard. He may avoid gross vices, because honesty is the best
policy; but he will never aim at attaining great virtues. The example of
writers and artists will illustrate this remark.
I must therefore venture to doubt whether what
has been thought an axiom in morals may not have been a dogmatical
assertion made by men who have coolly seen mankind through the medium of books,
and say, in direct 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. And should they compassionately invigorate
his sight, and show him the thorny path which led to eminence, that, like a
quicksand, sinks as he ascends, disappointing his hopes when almost within his
grasp, would he not leave to others the honour of
amusing them, and labour to secure the present
moment, though, from the constitution of his nature, he would not find it very
easy to catch the flying stream? Such slaves are we to hope and fear!
But vain as the ambitious man's pursuits would
be, he is often striving for something more substantial than fame. That,
indeed, would be the veriest meteor, the wildest fire
that could lure a man to ruin. What! renounce the most
trifling gratification to be applauded when he should be no more! Wherefore
this struggle, whether man be mortal or immortal, if that noble passion did not
really raise the being above his fellows?
And love! What diverting scenes would it produce;
pantaloon's tricks must yield to more egregious folly. To see a mortal adorn an
object with imaginary charms, and then fall down and worship the idol which he
had himself set up--how ridiculous But what serious consequences ensue to rob
man of that portion of happiness which the Deity by calling him into existence
has (or on what can His attributes rest?) indubitably promised. Would not all
the purposes of life have been much better fulfilled if he had only felt what
has been termed physical love? And would not the sight of the object, not seen
through the medium of the imagination, soon reduce the passion to an appetite
if reflection, the noble distinction of man, did not give it force, and make it
an instrument to raise him above this earthly dross, by teaching him to love
the centre of all perfection, whose wisdom appears clearer and clearer in the
works of nature in proportion as reason is illuminated and exalted by
contemplation, and by acquiring that love of order which the struggles of
passion produce?
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? Who that has read Dean Swift's
disgusting description of the Yahoos, and insipid one of Houyhnhnm
with a philosophical eye, can avoid seeing the futility of degrading the
passions, or making man rest in contentment?
The youth should act, for had he the experience
of a grey head he would be fitter for death than life, though his virtues,
rather residing in his head than his heart, could produce nothing great, and
his understanding, prepared for this world, would not, by its noble flights,
prove that it had a title to a better.
Besides, it is not possible to give a young
person a just view of life; he must have struggled with his own passions before
he can estimate the force of the temptation which betrayed his brother into
vice. Those who are entering life, and those who are departing, see the world
from such very different points of view that they can seldom think alike,
unless the unfledged reason of the former never attempted a solitary flight.
When we hear of some daring crime, it comes full
on us in the deepest shade of turpitude, and raises indignation; but the eye
that gradually saw the darkness thicken must observe it with more compassionate
forbearance. The world cannot be seen by an unmoved spectator; we must mix in
the throng, and feel as men feel, before we can judge of their feelings. If we
mean, in short, to live in the world, to grow wiser and better, and not merely
to enjoy the good things of life, we must attain a knowledge
of others at the same time that we become acquainted with ourselves. Knowledge
acquired any other way only hardens the heart, and perplexes the understanding.
I may be told that the knowledge thus acquired is
sometimes purchased at too dear a rate. I can only answer that I very much
doubt whether any knowledge can be attained without labour
and sorrow; and those who wish to spare their children both should not complain
if they are neither wise nor virtuous. They only aimed at making them prudent,
and prudence early in life is but the cautious craft of ignorant self-love.
I have observed that young people, to whose
education particular attention has been paid, have in general been very
superficial and conceited, and far from pleasing in any respect, because they
had neither the unsuspecting warmth of youth, nor the cool depth of age. I
cannot help imputing this unnatural appearance principally to that hasty
premature instruction which leads them presumptuously to repeat all the crude
notions they have taken upon trust, so that the careful education which they
received, makes them all their lives the slaves of prejudices.
Mental as well as bodily exertion is at first
irksome; so much so, that the many would fain let others both work and think
for them. An observation which I have often made will illustrate my meaning.
When in a circle of strangers or acquaintances a person of moderate abilities
asserts an opinion with heat, I will venture to affirm-- for I have traced this
fact home' --very often that it is a prejudice. These echoes have a high
respect for the understanding of some relation or friend, and without fully
comprehending the opinions which they are so eager to retail,
they maintain them with a degree of obstinacy that would surprise even the
person who concocted them.
I know that a kind of fashion now prevails of
respecting prejudices; and when 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. But
moss-covered opinions assume the disproportioned form of prejudices when they
are indolently adopted only because age has given them a venerable aspect,
though the reason on which they were built ceases to be a reason, or cannot be
traced. Why are we to love prejudices merely because they are prejudices?[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? This mode of
arguing, if arguing it may be called, reminds me of what is vulgarly termed a
woman's reason; for women sometimes declare that they love, or believe certain
things, because they love or believe them.
It is impossible to converse with people to any
purpose who only use affirmatives and negatives. Before you can bring them to a
point to start fairly from, you must go back to the simple principles that were
antecedent to the prejudices broached by power; and it is ten to one but you
are stopped by the philosophical assertion that certain principles are as
practically false as they are abstractly true.[15] Nay, it may be inferred that
reason has whispered some doubts, for it generally happens that people assert
their opinions with the greatest heat when they begin to waver; striving to
drive out their own doubts by convincing their opponent, they grow angry when
those gnawing doubts are thrown back to prey on themselves.
The fact is, that men expect from education, what
education cannot give. A sagacious parent or tutor may strengthen the body and
sharpen the instruments by which the child is to gather knowledge; but the
honey must be the reward of the individual's own industry. It is almost as
absurd to attempt to make a youth wise by the experience of another, as to
expect the body to grow strong by the exercise which is only talked of, or
seen.[16] Many of those children whose conduct has been most narrowly watched,
become the weakest men, because their instructors only instil
certain notions into their minds, that have no other foundation than their
authority; and if they be loved or respected, the mind is cramped in its
exertions and wavering in its advances. The business of education in this case,
is only to conduct the shooting tendrils to a proper pole; yet after laying
precept upon precept, without allowing a child to acquire judgment itself,
parents expect them to act in the same manner by this borrowed fallacious
light, as if they had illuminated it themselves; and be, when they enter life,
what their parents are at the close. They do not consider that the tree, and
even the human body, does not strengthen its fibres
till it has reached its full growth.
There appears to be something analogous in the
mind. The senses and the imagination give a form to the character, during
childhood and youth; and the understanding, as life advances, gives firmness to
the first fair purposes of sensibility, till virtue, arising rather from the
clear 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? The religion which consists in warming the affections, and
exalting the imagination, is only the poetical part, and may afford the
individual pleasure without rendering it a more moral being. It may be a substitute
for worldly pursuits; yet narrow, instead of enlarging the heart: but virtue
must be loved as in itself sublime and excellent, and not for the advantages it
procures or the evils. it averts, if any great degree
of excellence be expected. Men will not become moral when they only build airy
castles in a future world to compensate for the disappointments which they meet
with in this; if they turn their thoughts from relative duties to religious
reveries.
Most prospects in life are marred by the
shuffling worldly wisdom of men, who, forgetting that they cannot serve God and
mammon, endeavour to blend contradictory things. If
you wish to make your son rich, pursue one course if you are only anxious to
make him virtuous, you must not imagine that you can bound from one road to the
other without losing your way.[17]
[1] I have already inserted the passage, p.44.
[2] What nonsense!
[3] What is to 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.
[4] Rousseau's Emilius.
[5] Can you?--Can you? would
be the most emphatical comment, were it drawled out
in a whining voice.
[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.
[7] "He is the free man, whom the truth
makes free!"--Cowper.
[8] I mean to use a word that comprehends more
than chastity, the sexual virtue.
[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. This is sacrificing the substance for a shadow. Let people by 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.
[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.
[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
newer knew a youth educated in this manner, who had earlt
imbibed these chilling suspicions, and repeated by rote the hesitating if of
age, that did not prove a selfish character.
[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.
[13] "I find that all is but lip-wisdom
which want experience," says
[14] Vide Mr. Burke.
[15] "Convince a man against his will, He's
of the same opinion still."
[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."
Rousseau.
[17] see an excellent
essay on this subject by Mrs. Barbauld, in
Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose.
Educated in the enervating style recommended by
the writers on whom I have been animadverting; and not having a chance, from
their subordinate state in society, to recover their lost ground, is it
surprising that women everywhere appear a defect in nature? Is it surprising,
when we consider what a determinate effect an early association of ideas has on
the character, that they neglect their understandings, and turn all their
attention to their persons?
The great advantages which naturally result from
storing the mind with knowledge, are obvious from the
following considerations. The association of our ideas is either habitual or
instantaneous; and the latter mode seems rather to depend on the original
temperature of the mind than on the will. When the ideas, and matters of fact,
are once taken in, they lie by for use, till some fortuitous circumstance makes
the information dart into the mind with illustrative force,
that has been received at very different periods of our lives. Like the lightning's flash are many recollections; one idea
assimilating and explaining another, with astonishing rapidity. I do not now
allude to that quick perception of truth, which is so intuitive that it baffles
research, and makes us at a loss to determine whether it is reminiscence or
ratiocination, lost sight of in its celerity, that opens the dark cloud. Over
those instantaneous associations we have little power; for when the mind is
once enlarged by excursive flights, or profound reflection, the raw materials
will, in some degree, arrange themselves. The understanding, it is true, may
keep us from going out of drawing when we group our thoughts, or transcribe
from the imagination the warm sketches of fancy; but the animal spirits, the
individual character, give the colouring.
Over this subtile electric fluid,[1]
how little power do we possess, and over it how little power can reason obtain.
These fine intractable spirits appear to be the essence of genius, and beaming
in its eagle eye, produce in the most eminent degree the happy energy of
associating thoughts that surprise, delight, and instruct These are the glowing
minds that concentrate pictures for their fellow-creatures; forcing them to
view with interest the objects reflected from the impassioned imagination,
which they passed over in nature.
I must be allowed to explain myself. The
generality of people cannot see or feel poetically, they want fancy, and
therefore fly from solitude in search of sensible objects; but when an author
lends them his eyes they can see as he saw, and be amused by images they could
not select, though lying before them.
Education thus only supplies the man of genius
with knowledge to give variety and contrast to his associations; but there is an habitual association of ideas, that grows "with our
growth," which has a great effect on the moral character of mankind, and
by which a turn is given to the mind that commonly remains throughout life. So
ductile is the understanding, and yet so stubborn, that the associations which
depend on adventitious circumstances, during the period that the body takes to
arrive at maturity, can seldom be disentangled by reason. one
idea calls up another, its old associate, and memory, faithful to the first
impressions, particularly when the intellectual powers are not employed to cool
our sensations, retraces them with mechanical exactness.
This habitual slavery, to first impressions, has
a more baneful effect on the female than the male character, because business
and other dry employments of the understanding, tend
to deaden the feelings and break associations that do violence to reason. But
females, who are made women of when they are mere children, and brought back to
childhood when they ought to leave the go-cart for ever, have not sufficient
strength of mind to efface the superinductions of art
that have smothered nature.
Everything that they see or hear serves to fix
impressions, call forth emotions, and associate ideas, that give a sexual
character to the mind. False notions of beauty and delicacy stop the growth of
their limbs and produce a sickly soreness, rather than delicacy of organs; and
thus weakened by being employed in unfolding instead of examining the first
associations, forced on them by every surrounding object, how can they attain
the vigour necessary to enable them to throw off
their factitious character?--where find strength to recur to reason and rise
superior to a system of oppression, that blasts the fair promises of spring?
This cruel association of ideas, which everything conspires to twist into all
their habits of thinking, or, to speak with more precision, of feeling,
receives new force when they begin to act a little for themselves; for they
then perceive that it is only through their address to excite emotions in men, that pleasure and power are to be obtained. Besides,
the books professedly written for their instruction, which make the first
impression on their minds, all inculcate the same opinions. Educated then in
worse than Egyptian bondage, it is unreasonable, as well as cruel, to upbraid
them with faults that can scarcely be avoided, unless a degree of native vigour be supposed, that falls to the lot of very few amongst
mankind.
For instance, the severest sarcasms have been levelled against the sex, and they have been ridiculed for
repeating "a set of phrases learnt by rote," when nothing could be
more natural, considering the education they receive, and that their
"highest praise is to obey, unargued"--the
will of man. If they be not allowed to have reason sufficient to govern their
own conduct --why, all they learn must be learned by rote! And when all their
ingenuity is called forth to adjust their dress, "a passion for a scarlet
coat," is so natural, that it never surprised me; and, allowing Pope's
summary of their character to be just, "that every woman is at heart a
rake," why should they be bitterly censured for seeking a congenial mind,
and preferring a rake to a man of sense?
Rakes know how to work on their sensibility,
whilst the modest merit of reasonable men has, of course, less effect on their
feelings, and they cannot reach the heart by the way of the understanding,
because they have few sentiments in common.
It seems a little absurd to expect women to be
more reasonable than men in their likings, and still to deny them the
uncontrolled use of reason. When do men fall in love with sense? When do they,
with their superior powers and advantages, turn from the person to the mind?
And how can they then expect women, who are only taught to observe behaviour, and acquire manners rather than morals, to
despise what they have been all their lives labouring
to attain? Where are they suddenly to find judgment enough to weigh patiently
the sense of an awkward virtuous man, when his manners, of which they are made
critical judges, are rebuffing, and his conversation
cold and dull, because it does not consist of pretty repartees, or well-turned
compliments? In order to admire or esteem anything for a continuance, we must,
at least, have our curiosity excited by knowing, in some degree, what we
admire; for we are unable to estimate the value of qualities and virtues above
our comprehension. Such a respect, when it is felt, may be very sublime; and
the confused consciousness of humility may render the dependent creature an
interesting object, in some points of view; but human love must have grosser
ingredients; and the person very naturally will come in for its share--and, an
ample share it mostly has!
Love is, in a great degree, an arbitrary passion,
and will reign, like some other stalking mischiefs,
by its own authority, without deigning to reason; and it may also be easily
distinguished from esteem, the foundation of friendship, because it is o.'ten excited by evanescent beauties and graces, though,
to give an energy to the sentiment, son deepen their impression and set the
make the most fair--the first good.
Common passions are excited by look for beauty
and the simper of women are captivated by easy manners; a gentleman-like man
seldom fails to please them, and their thirsty ears eagerly drink the
insinuating nothings of politeness, whilst they turn from the unintelligible
sounds of the charmer--reason, charm he never so wisely. With respect to
superficial accomplishments, the rake certainly has the advantage; and of these
females can form an opinion, for it is their own ground. Rendered gay and giddy
by the whole tenor of their lives, the very aspect of wisdom, or the severe
graces of virtue, must have a lugubrious appearance to them; and produce a kind
of restraint from which they and love, sportive child, naturally revolt.
Without taste, excepting of the lighter kind, for taste is the offspring of
judgment, how can they discover that true beauty and grace must arise from the
play of the mind? and how can they be expected to
relish in a lover what they do not, or very imperfectly, possess themselves?
The sympathy that unites hearts, and invites to confidence, in them is so very
faint, that it cannot take fire, and thus mount to passion. No, I repeat it,
the love cherished by such minds, must have grosser fuel!
The inference is obvious; till women are led to
exercise their understandings, they should not be satirised
for their attachment to rakes; or even for being rakes at heart, when it
appears to be the inevitable consequence of their education. They who live to
please--must find their enjoyments, their happiness, in pleasure! It is a
trite, yet true remark, that we never do anything well, unless we love it for
its own sake.
Supposing, however, for a moment, that women
were, in some future revolution of time, to become, what I sincerely wish them
to be, even love would acquire more serious dignity, and be purified in its own
fires; and virtue giving true delicacy to their affections, they would turn
with disgust from a rake. Reasoning then, as well as feeling, the only province
of woman, at present, they might easily guard against exterior graces, and
quickly learn to despise the sensibility that had been ex- cited and hackneyed
in the ways of women, whose trade was vice; and allurements, wanton airs. They
would recollect that the flame, one must use appropriated expressions, which
they wished to light up, had been exhausted by lust, and that the sated
appetite, losing all relish for pure and simple pleasures, could only be roused
by licentious arts or variety. What satisfaction could a woman of delicacy
promise herself in a union with such a man, when the very artlessness of her
affection might appear insipid? Thus does Dryden describe the situation,
Where love is duty, on the female side, On theirs mere sensual gust, and sought with surly pride.
But one grand truth women have yet to learn,
though much it imports them to act accordingly. In the choice of a husband,
they should not be led astray by the qualities of a lover--for a lover the
husband, even supposing him to be wise and virtuous, cannot long remain.
Were women more rationally educated, could they
take a more comprehensive view of things, they would be contented to love but
once in their lives; and after marriage calmly let passion subside into
friendship--into that tender intimacy, which is the best refuge from care; yet
is built on such pure, still affections, that idle jealousies would not be
allowed to disturb the discharge of the sober duties of life, or to engross the
thoughts that ought to be otherwise employed. This is a state in which many men
live; but few, very few, women. And the difference may easily be accounted for,
without recurring to a sexual character. Men, for whom we are told women were
made, have too much occupied the thoughts of women; and this association has so
entangled love with all their motives of action; and, to harp a little on an
old string, having been solely employed either to prepare themselves to excite
love, or actually putting their lessons in practice, they cannot live without
love. But, when a sense of duty, or fear of shame, obliges them to restrain
this pampered desire of pleasing beyond certain lengths, too far for delicacy,
it is true, though far from criminality, they obstinately determine to love, I
speak of the passion, their husbands to the end of the chapter--and then acting
the part which they foolishly exacted from their lovers, they become abject
wooers and fond slaves.
Men of wit and fancy are often rakes; and fancy
is the food of love. Such men will inspire passion. Half the sex, in its
present infantine state, would pine for a Lovelace; a man so witty, so
graceful, and so valiant: and can they deserve blame for acting according to
principles so constantly inculcated? They want a lover, and protector; and
behold him kneeling before them--bravery prostrate to beauty! The virtues of a
husband are thus thrown by love into the background, and gay hopes, or lively
emotions, banish reflection till the day of reckoning come; and come it surely
will, to turn the sprightly lover into a surly suspicious tyrant, who
contemptuously insults the very weakness he fostered. or,
supposing the rake reformed, he cannot quickly get rid of old habits. When a
man of abilities is first carried away by his passions, it is necessary that
sentiment and taste varnish the enormities of vice, and give a zest to brutal
indulgences; but when the gloss of novelty is worn off, and pleasure palls upon
the sense, lasciviousness becomes barefaced, and enjoyment only the desperate
effort of weakness flying from reflection as from a legion of devils. Oh! virtue, thou art not an empty name! All that life can
give--thou givest!
If much comfort cannot be expected from the
friendship of a reformed rake of superior abilities, what is the consequence
when he lacketh sense, as well as principles? Verily misery, in its most hideous shape. When the habits of
weak people are consolidated by time, a reformation is barely possible; and
actually makes the beings miserable who have not sufficient mind to be amused
by innocent pleasure; like the tradesman who retires from the hurry of
business, Nature presents to them only a universal blank; and the restless
thoughts prey on the damped spirits.[2] The reformation, as well as his retirement,
actually makes them wretched, because it deprives them of all employment, by
quenching the hopes and fears that set in motion their sluggish minds.
If such be the force of habit; if such be the
bondage of folly, how carefully ought we to guard the mind from storing up
vicious associations; and equally careful should we be to cultivate the
understanding, to save the poor wight from the weak
dependent state of even harmless ignorance. For it is the right use of reason alone which make us independent of
everything--excepting the unclouded reason--"Whose service is perfect
freedom."
[1] I have sometimes, when inclined to laugh at
materialists, asked whether, as the most powerful effects in nature are
apparently produced by fluids, the magnetic, 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?
[2] 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! sacred offspring of sensibility and
reason!--true delicacy of mind!--may I unblamed
presume to investigate thy nature, and trace to its covert the mild charm, that
mellowing each harsh feature of a character, renders what would otherwise only
inspire cold admiration--lovely! Thou that smoothest the wrinkles of wisdom,
and softenest the tone of the sublimest
virtues till they all melt into humanity; thou that spreadest
the ethereal cloud that, surrounding love, heightens every beauty, it half
shades, breathing those coy sweets that steal into the heart, and charm the
senses-- modulate for me the language of persuasive reason, till I rouse my sex
from the flowery bed, on which they supinely sleep life away!
In speaking of the association of our ideas, I
have noticed two distinct modes; and in defining modesty, it appears to me
equally proper to discriminate that purity of mind, which is the effect of
chastity, from a simplicity of character that leads us to form a just opinion
of ourselves, equally distant from vanity or presumption, though by no means
incompatible with a lofty consciousness of our own dignity. Modesty, in the
latter signification of the term, is that soberness of mind which teaches a man
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, and should be distinguished
from humility, because humility is a kind of self-abasement.
A modest man often conceives a great plan, and
tenaciously adheres to it, conscious of his own strength, till success gives it
a sanction that determines its character.
A modest man is steady, an
humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous: this is the judgment, which the
observation of many characters, has led me to form. Jesus Christ was modest,
Moses was humble, and Peter vain.
Thus, discriminating modesty from humility in one
case, I do not mean to confound it with bashfulness in the other. Bashfulness,
in fact, is so distinct from modesty, that the most bashful lass or raw country
lout, often become the most impudent; for their bashfulness being merely the
instinctive timidity of ignorance, custom soon changes it into assurance.[1]
The shameless behaviour
of the prostitutes, who infest the streets of this metropolis, raising
alternate emotions of pity and disgust, may serve to illustrate this remark.
They trample on virgin bashfulness with a sort of bravado, and glorifying in
their shame, become more audaciously lewd than men, however depraved, to whom
this sexual quality has not been gratuitously granted, ever appear to be. But
these poor ignorant wretches never had any modesty to lose, when they consigned
themselves to infamy; for modesty is a virtue, not a quality. No, they were
only bashful, shamefaced innocents; and losing their innocence, their
shamefacedness was rudely brushed off: a virtue would have left some vestiges in
the mind, had it been sacrificed to passion, to make us respect the grand ruin.
Purity of mind, or that genuine delicacy, which
is the only virtuous support of chastity, is near akin to that refinement of
humanity, which never resides in any but cultivated minds. It is something
nobler than innocence, it is the delicacy of
reflection, and not the coyness of ignorance. The reserve of reason, which,
like habitual cleanliness, is seldom seen in any great degree, unless the soul
is active, may easily be distinguished from rustic shyness or wanton
skittishness; and, so far from being incompatible with knowledge, it is its
fairest fruit. What a gross idea of modesty had the writer of the following
remark!--"The lady who asked the question whether women may be instructed
in the modern system of botany consistently with female delicacy? was accused of ridiculous prudery; nevertheless, if she had
proposed the question to me, I should certainly have answered--they
cannot." Thus is the fair book of knowledge to be shut with an everlasting
seal! on reading similar passages I have reverentially
lifted up my eyes and heart to Him who liveth for
ever and ever, and said, "O, my Father, hast Thou, by the very
constitution of her nature forbid Thy child to seek Thee in the fair forms of
truth? And can her soul be sullied by the knowledge that awfully calls her to
Thee?"
I have then philosophically pursued these
reflections till I inferred that those women who have most improved their
reason must have the most modesty, though a dignified sedateness of deportment
may have succeeded the playful, bewitching bashfulness of youth.[2]
And thus have I argued. To render chastity the
virtue from which unsophisticated modesty will naturally flow, the attention
should be called away from employments which only exercise the sensibility, and
the heart made to beat time to humanity rather than to throb with love. The
woman who has dedicated a considerable portion of her time to pursuits purely
intellectual, and whose affections have been exercised by humane plans of
usefulness, must have more purity of mind, as a natural consequence, than the
ignorant beings whose time and thoughts have been occupied by gay pleasures, or
schemes to conquer hearts.[3] The regulation of the behaviour is not modesty, though those who study rules of
decorum are in general termed modest women. Make the heart clean; let it expand
and feel for all that is human, instead of being narrowed by selfish passions;
and let the mind frequently contemplate subjects that exercise the
understanding, without heating the imagination, and artless modesty will give
the finishing touches to the picture.
She who can discern the
dawn of immortality in the streaks that shoot athwart the misty night of
ignorance, promising a clearer day, will respect, as a sacred temple, the body
that enshrines such an improvable soul. True love likewise spreads this kind of
mysterious sanctity round the beloved object, making the lover most modest when
in her presence.[4] So reserved is affection that,
receiving or returning personal endearments, it wishes not only to shun the
human eye, as a kind of profanation, but to diffuse an encircling cloudy
obscurity to shut out even the saucy sparkling sunbeams. Yet that affection
does not deserve the epithet of chaste which docs not receive a sublime gloom
of tender melancholy, that allows the mind for a
moment to stand still and enjoy the present satisfaction, when a consciousness
of the Divine presence is felt--for this must ever be the food of joy.
As I have always been fond of tracing to its
source in nature any prevailing custom, I have frequently thought that it was a
sentiment of affection for whatever had touched the person of an absent or lost
friend, which gave birth to that respect for relics, so much abused by selfish
priests. Devotion or love may be allowed to hallow the garments as well as the
person, for the lover must want fancy who has not a
sort of sacred respect for the glove or slipper of his mistress. He could not
confound them with vulgar things of the same kind. This fine sentiment perhaps
would not bear to be analysed by the experimental
philosopher. But of such stuff is human rapture made up. A shadowy phantom
glides before us, obscuring every other object; yet when the soft cloud is
grasped, the form melts into common air, leaving a solitary void, or sweet
perfume, stolen from the violet, that memory long holds dear. But I have
tripped unawares on fairy ground, feeling the balmy gale of spring stealing on
me, though November frowns.
As a sex, women are more chaste
than men; and as modesty is the effect of chastity, they may deserve to have
this virtue ascribed to them in rather an appropriated sense. Yet I must be
allowed to add an hesitating if, for I doubt whether chastity will produce
modesty, though it may propriety of conduct, when it is merely a respect for
the opinion of the world,[5] and when coquetry and the
lovelorn tales of novelists employ the thoughts. Nay, from experience and
reason, I should be led to expect to meet with more modesty amongst men than
women, simply because men exercise their understandings more than women.
But with respect to propriety of behaviour, excepting one class of females, women have
evidently the advantage. What can be more disgusting than that impudent dross
of gallantry thought so manly, which makes many men stare insultingly at every
female they meet? Can it be termed respect for the sex? No, this loose behaviour shows such habitual depravity, such weakness of
mind, that it is vain to expect much public or private virtue till both men and
women grow more modest--till men, curbing a sensual fondness for the sex, or an
affectation of manly assurance--more properly speaking, impudence--treat each
other with respect, unless appetite or passion give the tone, peculiar to it,
to their behaviour. I mean every personal
respect--the modest respect of humanity and fellow-feeling--not the libidinous
mockery of gallantry, nor the insolent condescension of protectorship.
To carry the observation still further, modesty
must heartily disclaim, and refuse to dwell with that debauchery of mind, which
leads a man coolly to bring forward, without a blush, indecent allusions, or
obscene witticisms, in the presence of a fellow-creature; women are now out of
the question, for then it is brutality. Respect for
man, as man, is the foundation of every noble sentiment. How much more modest
is the libertine who obeys the call of appetite or fancy than the lewd joker
who sets the table in a roar!
This is one of the many instances in which the
sexual distinction respecting modesty has proved fatal to virtue and happiness
It is, however, carried still further, and woman--weak woman--made by her
education the slave of sensibility, is required, on the most trying occasions,
to resist that sensibility. "Can anything," says Knox, "be more
absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and yet so vehemently to
insist on their resisting temptation?" Thus when virtue or honour make it proper to check a passion, the burden is
thrown on the weaker shoulders, contrary to reason and true modesty, which at
least should render the self-denial mutual, to say nothing of the generosity of
bravery, supposed to be a manly virtue.
In the same strain runs Rousseau's and Dr.
Gregory's advice respecting modesty, strangely miscalled! for
they both desire a wife to leave it in doubt whether sensibility or weakness
led her to her husband's arms. The woman is immodest who can let the shadow of
such a doubt remain in her husband's mind a moment.
But, to state the subject in a different light,
the want of modesty, which I principally deplore as subversive of morality,
arises from the state of warfare so strenuously supported by voluptuous men as
the very essence of modesty, though, in fact, its bane, because it is a
refinement on lust that men fall into who have not sufficient virtue to relish
the innocent pleasures of love. A man of delicacy carries his notions of
modesty still further, for neither weakness nor sensibility will gratify
him--he looks for affection.
Again. Men boast of
their triumphs over women. What do they boast of? Truly the creature of
sensibility was surprised by her sensibility into folly--into vice;[6] and the dreadful reckoning falls heavily on her own
weak head, when reason wakes. For where art thou to find comfort, forlorn and
disconsolate one? He who ought to have directed thy
reason, and supported thy weakness, has betrayed thee. In a dream of passion
thou consented to wander through flowery lawns, and heedlessly stepping over
the precipice to which they guide, instead of guarding, lured thee; thou startest from thy dream only to face a sneering, frowning
world, and to find thyself alone in a waste, for he that triumphed in thy
weakness is now pursuing new conquests. But for thee there is no redemption on
this side the grave! And what resource hast thou in an enervated mind to raise
a sinking heart?
But if the sexes be really to live in a state of
warfare, if Nature have pointed it out, let them act nobly, or let pride
whisper to them that the victory is mean when they merely vanquish sensibility.
The real conquest is that over affection not taken by surprise, when, like Heloisa, a woman gives up all the
world deliberately for love. I do not now consider the wisdom or virtue of such
a sacrifice, I only contend that it was a sacrifice to
affection, and not merely to sensibility, though she had her share. And I must
be allowed to call her a modest woman, before I dismiss this part of the
subject, by saying, that till men are more chaste,
women will be immodest. Where, indeed, could modest women find husbands from
whom they would not continually turn with disgust? Modesty must be equally
cultivated by both sexes, or it will ever remain a sickly hot-house plant,
whilst the affectation of it, the fig leaf borrowed by wantonness, may give a
zest to voluptuous enjoyments.
Men will probably still insist that woman ought
to have more modesty than man; but it is not dispassionate reasoners
who will most earnestly oppose my opinion. No, they are the men of fancy, the favourites of the sex, who outwardly respect and inwardly
despise the weak creatures whom they thus sport with.
They cannot submit to resign the highest sensual gratification, nor even to relish the epicurism
of virtue--self-denial.
To take another view of the
subject, confining my remarks to women.
The ridiculous falsities[7]
which are told to children, from mistaken notions of modesty, tend very early
to inflame their imaginations and set their little minds to work, respecting
subjects which Nature never intended they should think of till the body arrived
at some degree of maturity; then the passions naturally begin to take the place
of the senses, as instruments to unfold the understanding, and form the moral
character.
In nurseries and boarding-schools, I fear, girls
are first spoiled, particularly in the latter. A number of girls sleep in the
same room, and wash together. And though I should be sorry to contaminate an
innocent creature's mind by instilling false delicacy, or those indecent
prudish notions which early cautions respecting the other sex naturally
engender, I should be very anxious to prevent their acquiring nasty or immodest
habits; and as many girls have learned very nasty tricks from ignorant
servants, the mixing them thus indiscriminately together, is very improper.
To say the truth, women are in general too
familiar with each other, which leads to that gross
degree of familiarity that so frequently renders the marriage state unhappy.
Why in the name of decency are sisters, female intimates, or ladies and their
waiting-women, to be so grossly familiar as to forget the respect which one
human creature owes to another? That squeamish delicacy which shrinks from the
most disgusting offices when affection [8] or humanity lead
us to watch at a sick pillow is despicable. But why women in health should be
more familiar with each other than men are, when they boast of their superior
delicacy, is a solecism in manners which I could never solve.
In order to preserve health and beauty, I should
earnestly recommend frequent ablutions, to dignify my advice that it may not
offend the fastidious ear; and by example, girls ought to be taught to wash and
dress alone, without any distinction of rank; and if custom should make them
require some little assistance, let them not require it till that part of the
business is over which ought never to be done before a fellow-creature, because
it is an insult to the majesty of human nature. Not on the score of modesty,
but decency; for the care which some modest women take, making at the same time
a display of that care not to let their legs be seen, is as childish as
immodest.[9]
I could proceed still further, till I
animadverted on still more nasty customs, which men never fall into. Secrets
are told where silence ought to reign; and that regard to cleanliness, which
some religious sects have perhaps carried too far especially the Essenes, amongst the Jews, by making that an insult to God
which is only an insult to humanity, is violated in a beastly manner. How can
delicate women obtrude notice that part of the animal economy, which is so very
disgusting? And is it not very rational to conclude, that women who have not
been taught to respect the human nature of their own sex in these particulars,
will not long respect the mere difference of sex in their husbands? After their
maidenish bashfulness is once lost, I, in fact, have
generally observed that women fall into old habits, and treat their husbands as
they did their sisters or female acquaintance.
Besides, women from necessity, because their
minds are not cultivated, have recourse very often to what I familiarly term
bodily wit, and their intimacies are of the same kind. In with respect to both
mind and body, they are too intimate. That decent personal reserve, which is
the foundation of dignity of character, must be kept up between woman, or their minds will never gain strength or modesty.
On this account also, I object to
many females being shut up together in nurseries, schools, or convents. I
cannot recollect, without indignation, the jokes and hoyden tricks which knots
of young women indulged themselves in, when in my
youth accident threw me, an awkward rustic, in their way. They were almost on a
par with the double meanings which shake the convivial table when the glass has
circulated freely. But it is vain to attempt to keep the heart pure unless the
head is furnished with ideas, and set to work to compare them, in order to
acquire judgment, by generalising simple ones; and
modesty, by making the understanding damp the sensibility.
It may be thought that I lay too great a stress
on personal reserve, but it is ever the handmaid of modesty; so that were I to
name the graces that ought to adorn beauty, I should instantly exclaim,
cleanliness, neatness, and personal reserve. It is obvious,
I suppose, that the reserve I mean has nothing sexual in it, and that I think
it equally necessary in both sexes. So necessary, indeed, is that reserve and cleanliness
which indolent women too often neglect, that I will venture to affirm that,
when two or three women live in the same house, the one will be most respected
by the male part of the family who reside with them, leaving love entirely out
of the question, who pays this kind of habitual respect to her person.
When domestic friends meet in a morning, there
will naturally prevail an affectionate seriousness, especially if each look
forward to the discharge of daily duties; and it may be reckoned fanciful, but
this sentiment has frequently risen spontaneously in my mind, I have been
pleased, after breathing the sweet bracing morning air, to see the same kind of
freshness in the countenances I particularly loved; I was glad to see them
braced, as it were, for the day, and ready to run their course with the sun.
The greetings of affection in the morning are by these means more respectful
than the familiar tenderness which frequently prolongs the evening talk. Nay, I
have often felt hurt, not to say disgusted, when a friend has appeared, whom I
parted with full dressed the evening before, with her clothes huddled on,
because she chose to indulge herself in bed till the last moment.
Domestic affection can only be kept alive by
these neglected attentions; yet if men and women took half as much pains to
dress habitually neat, as they do to ornament, or rather to disfigure, their
persons, much would be done towards the attainment of purity of mind. But women
only dress to gratify men of gallantry; for the lover is always best pleased
with the simple garb that fits close to the shape. There is an impertinence in
ornaments that rebuffs affection, because love always clings round the idea of
home.
As a sex, women are habitually indolent; and
everything tends to make them so. I do not forget the spurts of activity which
sensibility produces; but as these flights of feelings only increase the evil,
they are not to be confounded with the slow, orderly walk of reason. So great
in reality is their mental and bodily indolence, that till their body be
strengthened and their understanding enlarged by active exertions, there is
little reason to expect that modesty will take place of bashfulness. They may
find it prudent to assume its semblance; but the fair veil will only be worn on
gala days.
Perhaps, there is not a virtue that mixes so
kindly with every other as modesty. It is the pale moonbeam that renders more
interesting every virtue it softens, giving mild grandeur to the contracted
horizon. Nothing can be more beautiful than the poetical fiction, which makes
Diana with her silver crescent, the goddess of chastity. I have sometimes
thought, that wandering with sedate step in some lonely recess, a modest dame
of antiquity must have felt a glow of conscious dignity when, after contemplating
the soft shadowy landscaper she has invited with placid fervour
the mild reflection of her sister's beams to turn to her chaste bosom.
A Christian has still nobler motives to incite
her to preserve her chastity and acquire modesty, for her body has been called
the temple of the living God; of that God who requires more than modesty of
mien. His eye searcheth the heart; and let her
remember, that if she hope to find favour in the
sight of purity itself, her chastity must be founded on modesty, and not on
worldly prudence; or verily a good reputation will be her only reward; for that
awful intercourse, that sacred communication, which virtue establishes between
man and his Maker, must give rise to the wish of being pure as He is pure!
After the foregoing remarks, it is almost
superfluous to add, that I consider all those feminine airs of maturity, which
succeed bashfulness, to which truth is sacrificed, to secure the heart of a
husband, or rather to force him to be still a lover when Nature would, had she
not been interrupted in her operations, have made love give place to
friendship, as immodest. The tenderness which a man will feel for the mother of
his children is an excellent substitute for the ardour
of unsatisfied passion; but to prolong that ardour it
is indelicate, not to say immodest, for women to feign an unnatural coldness of
constitution. Women as well as men ought to have the common appetites and
passions of their nature, they are only brutal when
unchecked by reason: but the obligation to check them is the duty of mankind,
not a sexual duty. Nature, in these respects, may safely be left to herself; let women only acquire knowledge and humanity, and
love will teach them modesty.[10] There is no need of falsehoods, disgusting as
futile, for studied rules of behaviour only impose on
shallow observers; a man of sense soon sees through, and despises the
affectation.
The behaviour of young
people, to each other, as men and women, is the last thing that should be
thought of in education. In fact, behaviour in most
circumstances is now so much thought of, that simplicity of character is rarely
to be seen: yet, if men were only anxious to cultivate each virtue and let it
take root firmly in the mind, the grace resulting from it, its natural exterior
mark, would soon strip affectation of its flaunting plumes; because, fallacious
as unstable, is the conduct that is not founded upon truth!
Would ye, o my sisters, really possess modesty,
ye must remember that the possession of virtue, of any denomination, is
incompatible with ignorance and vanity! ye must
acquire that soberness of mind, which the exercise of duties, and the pursuit
of knowledge, alone inspire, or ye will still remain in a doubtful dependent
situation, and only be loved whilst ye are fair! The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in
their season; but modesty being the child of reason, cannot long exist with the
sensibility that is not tempered by reflection. Besides, when love, even
innocent love, is the whole employ of your lives, your hearts will be too soft
to afford modesty that tranquil retreat, where she delights to dwell, in close
union with humanity.
[1] "Such is the country maiden's fright,
When first a redcoat is in sight, Behind the door she hides her face; Next time
at distance eyes the lace; She now can all his terrors stand, Nor from his
squeeze withdraws her hand, She plays familiar in his arms, And every soldier
hath his charms; From tent to tent she spreads her flame; For custom conquers
fear and shame."--GAY
[2] Modesty is the graceful calm virtue of
maturity; bashfulness the charm of vivacious youth.
[3] 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 me, and rarely by men of any description,
if they did not by mock modesty remind them that they were women--actuated by
the same spirit as the Portuguese ladies, who would think their charms insulted
if, when left alone with a man, he did not at least attempt to be grossly
familiar with their persons. Men are not always men in the company of women,
nor would women always remember that they are women, if they were allowed to
acquire more understanding.
[4] Male or female, for the world contains many
modest men.
[5] The immodest behaviour
of many married women, who are nevertheless faithful to their husbands' beds,
will illustrate this remark.
[6] The poor moth fluttering round a candle, burns its wings.
[7] 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 modesty of
affected modesty that does all the mischief; and this smoke heats the
imagination by vainly endeavouring to obscure certain
objects. If, indeed, children could be kept entirely from improper company, we
should never allude to any such subjects; but as this is impossible, it is best
to tell them the truth, especially as such information, not interesting them,
will make no impression on their imagination.
[8] 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.
[9] 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 you
neck-handkerchief, for a modest woman never did so!"
[10] The behaviour of
many newly married women has often disgusted me. They seem anxious never to let
their husbands forget the privilege of marriage; and to find no pleasure in his
society unless he is acting the lover. Short, indeed, must be the reign of
love, when the flame is thus constantly blown up, without its receiving any
solid fuel!
It has long since occurred to me that advice
respecting behaviour, and all the various modes of
preserving a good reputation, which have been so strenuously inculcated on the
female world, were specious poisons, that encrusting morality eat away the substance. And, that this measuring of shadows
produced a false calculation, because their length depends so much on the
height of the sun, and other adventitious circumstances.
Whence arises the easy
fallacious behaviour of a courtier? From his
situation, undoubtedly: for standing in need of dependents, he is obliged to
learn the art of denying without giving offence, and, of evasively feeding hope
with the chameleon's food: thus does politeness sport with truth, and eating
away the sincerity and humanity native to man, produce the fine gentleman.
Women likewise acquire, from a supposed
necessity, an equally artificial mode of behaviour.
Yet truth is not with impunity to be sported with, for the practised
dissembler, at last become the dupe of his own arts, loses that sagacity, which
has been justly termed common sense; namely a quick perception of common
truths: which are constantly.received as such by the
unsophisticated mind, though it might not have had sufficient energy to
discover themselves, when obscured by local prejudices. The greater number of people take their opinions on trust to avoid the
trouble of exercising their own minds, and these indolent beings naturally
adhere to the letter, rather than the spirit of a law, divine or human.
"Women," says some author, I cannot recollect who, "
mind not what only Heaven sees." Why, indeed, should they? it is
the eye of man that they have been taught to dread--and if they can lull their
Argus to sleep, they seldom think of Heaven or themselves, because their
reputation is safe; and it is reputation, not chastity and all its fair train,
that they are employed to keep free from spot, not as a virtue, but to preserve
their station in the world.
To prove the truth of this remark, I need not
advert to the intrigues of married women, particularly in high life, and in
countries where women are suitably married, according to their respective
ranks, by their parents. If an innocent girl become a prey to love, she is
degraded for ever, though her mind was not polluted by the arts which married
women, under the convenient cloak of marriage, practise;
nor has she violated any duty--but the duty of respecting herself. The married
woman, on the contrary, breaks a most sacred engagement, and becomes a cruel
mother when she is a false and faithless wife. If her husband have still an
affection for her, the arts which she must practise
to deceive him, will render her the most contemptible of human beings; and, at
any rate, the contrivances necessary to preserve appearances, will keep her
mind in that childish, or vicious, tumult, which destroys all its energy.
Besides, in time, like those people who habitually take cordials to raise their
spirits, she will want an intrigue to give life to her thoughts, having lost
all relish for pleasures that are not highly seasoned by hope or fear.
Sometimes married women act still more
audaciously. I will mention an instance.
A woman of quality, notorious for her
gallantries, though as she still lived with her husband, nobody chose to place
her in the class where she ought to have been placed, made a point of treating with
the most insulting contempt a poor timid creature, abashed by a sense of her
former weakness, whom a neighbouring gentleman had
seduced and afterwards married. The woman had actually confounded virtue with
reputation; and, I do believe, valued herself on the propriety of her behaviour before marriage, though when once settled to the
satisfaction of her family, she and her lord were equally faithless, so that
the half-alive heir to an immense estate came from Heaven knows where!
To view this subject in another
light.
I have known a number of women who, if they did
not love their husbands, loved nobody else, give themselves entirely up to
vanity and dissipation, neglecting every domestic duty; nay even squandering
away all the money which should have been saved for their helpless younger
children, yet have plumed themselves on their unsullied reputation, as if the
whole compass of their duty as wives and mothers was only to preserve it.
Whilst other indolent women, neglecting every personal duty have thought that
they deserved their husbands' affection, because, forsooth, they acted in this
respect with propriety.
Weak minds are always fond of resting in the
ceremonials of duty, but morality offers much simpler motives; and it were to
be wished that superficial moralists had said less respecting behaviour, and outward observances, for unless virtue, of
any kind, be built on knowledge, it will only produce a kind of insipid
decency. Respect for the opinion of the world, has, however, been termed the
principal duty of woman in the most express words, for Rousseau declares,
"that reputation is no less indispensable than chastity." "A
man," adds he, "secure in his own good conduct, depends only on
himself, and may brave the public opinion; but a woman, in behaving well,
performs but half her duty; as what is thought of her, is as important to her
as what she really is. It follows hence, that the system of a woman's education
should in this respect, be directly contrary to that of ours. opinion is the grave of virtue among the men; but its throne
among women." It is strictly logical to infer that the virtue that rests
on opinion is merely worldly, and that it is the virtue of a being to whom reason has been denied. But, even with respect to the
opinion of the world, I am convinced that this class of reasoners are mistaken.
This regard for reputation, independent of its
being one of the natural rewards of virtue, however, took its rise from a cause
that I have already deplored as the grand source of female depravity, the
impossibility of regaining respectability by a return to virtue, though men
preserve theirs during the indulgence of vice. It was natural for women then to
endeavour to preserve what once lost--was lost for
ever, till this care swallowing up every other care, reputation for chastity,
became the one thing needful to the sex. But vain is the scrupulosity of
ignorance, for neither religion nor virtue, when they reside in the heart, require such a puerile attention to mere ceremonies, because
the behaviour must, upon the whole, be proper, when
the motive is pure.
To support my opinion I can produce very
respectable authority; and the authority of a cool reasoner ought to have
weight to enforce consideration, though not to establish a sentiment. Speaking
of the general laws of morality, Dr. Smith observes,--"That by some very
extraordinary and unlucky circumstance, a good man may come to be suspected of
a crime of which he was altogether incapable, and upon that account be most
unjustly exposed for the remaining part of his life to the horror and aversion
of mankind. By an accident of this kind he may be said to lose his all,
notwithstanding his integrity and justice, in the same manner as a cautious
man, notwithstanding his utmost circumspection, may be ruined by an earthquake
or an inundation. Accidents of the first kind, however, are perhaps still more
rare, and still more contrary to the common course of things than those of the
second; and it still remains true, that the practice of truth, justice, and
humanity, is a certain and almost infallible method of acquiring what those
virtues chiefly aim at, the confidence and love of those we live with. A person
may be easily misrepresented with regard to a particular action; but it is
scarce possible that he should be so with regard to the general tenor of his
conduct. An innocent man may be believed to have done wrong: this, however,
will rarely happen. On the contrary, the established opinion of the innocence
of his manners will often lead us to absolve him where he has really been in
the fault, notwithstanding very strong presumptions."
I perfectly coincide in opinion with this writer,
for I verily believe that few of either sex were ever despised for certain
vices without deserving to be despised. I speak not of the calumny of the
moment, which hovers over a character, like one of the dense morning fogs of
November, over this metropolis, till it gradually subsides before the common
light of day, I only contend that the daily conduct of the majority prevails to
stamp their character with the impression of truth. Quietly does the clear
light, shining day after day, refute the ignorant surmise, or malicious tale,
which has thrown dirt on a pure character. A false
light distorted, for a short time, its shadow--reputation; but it seldom fails
to become just when the cloud is dispersed that produced the mistake in vision.
Many people, undoubtedly, in several respects
obtain a better reputation than, strictly speaking, they deserve; for
unremitting industry will mostly reach its goal in all races. They who only
strive for this paltry prize, like the Pharisees, who prayed at the corners of
streets, to be seen of men, verily obtain the reward they seek; for the heart
of man cannot be read by man! Still the fair fame that is naturally reflected
by good actions, when the man is only employed to direct his steps aright,
regardless of the lookers-on, is, in general, not only more true, but more
sure.
There are, it is true, trials when the good man
must appeal to God from the injustice of man; and amidst the whining candour or hissings of envy, erect a pavilion in his own
mind to retire to till the rumour be overpast; nay, the darts of undeserved censure may pierce
an innocent tender bosom through with many sorrows; but these are all
exceptions to general rules. And it is according to common laws that human behaviour ought to be regulated. The eccentric orbit of the
comet-never influences astronomical calculations respecting the invariable
order established in the motion of the principal bodies of the solar system.
I will then venture to affirm, that after a man
is arrived at maturity, the general outline of his
character in the world is just, allowing for the before-mentioned exceptions to
the rule. I do not say that a prudent, worldly-wise man, with only negative
virtues and qualities, may not sometimes obtain a smoother reputation than a
wiser or a better man. So far from it, that I am apt to conclude from
experience, that where the virtue of two people is nearly equal, the most
negative character will be liked best by the world at large, whilst the other
may have more friends in private life. But the hills and dales, clouds and
sunshine, conspicuous in the virtues of great men, set off each other; and
though they afford envious weakness a fairer mark to shoot at, the real
character will still work its way to light, though bespattered by weak
affection, or ingenious malice.[1]
With respect to that anxiety to preserve a
reputation hardly earned, which leads sagacious people to analyse
it, I shall not make the obvious comment; but I am afraid that morality is very
insidiously undermined, in the female world, by the attention being turned to
the show instead of the substance. A simple thing is thus made strangely
complicated; nay, sometimes virtue and its shadow are set at variance. We
should never, perhaps, have heard of Lucretia, had
she died to preserve her chastity instead of her reputation. If we really
deserve our own good opinion we shall commonly be respected in the world; but
if we pant after higher improvement and higher attainments, it is not
sufficient to view ourselves as we suppose that we are viewed by others, though
this has been ingeniously argued, as the foundation of our moral sentiments.[2] Because each bystander may have his own prejudices,
beside the prejudices of his age or country. We should rather endeavour to view ourselves as we suppose that Being views us who seeth each
thought ripen into action, and whose judgment never swerves from the eternal
rule of right. Righteous are all His judgments--just as merciful!
The humble mind that seeketh
to find favour in His sight, and calmly examines its
conduct when only His presence is felt, will seldom form a very erroneous
opinion of its own virtues. During the still hour of self-collection the angry
brow of offended justice will be fearfully deprecated,
or the tie which draws man to the Deity will be recognised
in the pure sentiment of reverential adoration, that swells the heart without
exciting any tumultuous emotions. In these solemn moments man discovers the
germ of those vices, which, like the Java tree, shed a pestiferous vapour around--death is in the
shade! and he perceives them without abhorrence,
because he feels himself drawn by some cord of love to all his
fellow-creatures, for whose follies he is anxious to find every extenuation in
their nature--in himself. If I, he may thus argue, who exercise my own mind,
and have been refined by tribulation, find the serpent's egg in some fold of my
heart, and crush it with difficulty, shall I not pity those who have stamped
with less vigour, or who have heedlessly nurtured the
insidious reptile till it poisoned the vital stream it sucked? Can I, conscious
of my secret sins, throw off my fellow-creatures, and calmly see them drop into
the chasm of perdition, that yawns to receive them. No, no! The agonised heart will cry with suffocating impatience--I,
too, am a man! and have
vices, hid perhaps, from human eye, that bend me to the dust before God, and
loudly tell me, when all is mute, that we are formed of the same earth, and
breathe the same element. Humanity thus rises naturally out of humility and
twists the cords of love that in various convolutions entangle the heart.
This sympathy extends still further, till a man
well pleased observes force in arguments that do not carry conviction to his
own bosom, and he gladly places in the fairest light, to himself, the shows of
reason that have led others astray, rejoiced to find some reason in all the
errors of man, though before convinced that He who rules the day, makes His sun
to shine on all. Yet, shaking hands thus as it were with corruption, one foot
on earth, the other with bold stride mounts to Heaven and claims kindred with
superior natures. Virtues, unobserved by man, drop their balmy fragrance at
this cool hour, and the thirsty land, refreshed by the pure streams of comfort
that suddenly rush out, is crowned with smiling verdure; this is the living
green on which that eye may look with complacency that is too pure to behold
iniquity!
But my spirits flag; and I must silently indulge
the reverie these reflections lead to, unable to describe the sentiments, that
have calmed my soul, when watching the rising sun, a soft shower drizzling
through the leaves of neighbouring trees, seemed to
fall on my languid, yet tranquil spirits, to cool the heart that had been
heated by the passions which reason laboured to tame.
The leading principles which run through all my
disquisitions, would render it unnecessary to enlarge on this subject, if a
constant attention to keep the varnish of the character fresh, and in good
condition, were not often inculcated as the sum total of female duty; if rules
to regulate the behaviour, and to preserve the
reputation, did not too frequently supersede moral obligations. But, with
respect to reputation, the attention is confined to a single virtue of
chastity. If the honour of a woman, as it is absurdly
called, be safe, she may neglect every social duty; nay, ruin her family by
gaming and extravagance; yet still present a shameless front--for truly she is
an honourable woman!
Mrs. Macaulay has justly observed, that
"there is but one fault which a woman of honour
may not commit with impunity." She then justly and humanely
adds--"This has given rise to the trite and foolish observation, that the first
fault against chastity in woman has a radical power to deprave the character.
But no such frail beings come out of the hands of Nature. The human mind is
built of nobler materials than to he easily corrupted; and with all their
disadvantages of situation and education, women seldom become entirely
abandoned till they are thrown into a state of desperation, by the venomous rancour of their own sex."
But, in proportion as this regard for the
reputation of chastity is prized by women, it is despised by men: and the two
extremes are equally destructive to morality.
Men are certainly more under the influence of
their appetites than women; and their appetites are more depraved by unbridled
indulgence and the fastidious contrivances of satiety. Luxury has introduced a
refinement in eating, that destroys the constitution;
and, a degree of gluttony which is so beastly, that a perception of seemliness
of behaviour must be worn out before one being could
eat immoderately in the presence of another, and afterwards complain of the
oppression that his intemperance naturally produced. Some women, particularly
French women, have also lost a sense of decency in this respect; for they will
talk very calmly of an indigestion. It were to be
wished that idleness was not allowed to generate, on the rank soil of wealth,
those swarms of summer insects that feed on putrefaction, we should not then be
disgusted by the sight of such brutal excesses.
There is one rule relative to behaviour
that, I think, ought to regulate every other; and it is simply to cherish such an habitual respect for mankind as may prevent us from
disgusting a fellow-creature for the sake of a present indulgence. The shameful
indolence of many married women and others a little advanced in life,
frequently leads them to sin against delicacy. For, though convinced that the
person is the band of union between the sexes, yet, how often
do they from sheer indolence, or, to enjoy some trifling indulgence,
disgust?
The depravity of the appetite which brings the sexes
together, has had a still more fatal effect. Nature
must ever be the standard of taste, the gauge of appetite--yet how grossly is
nature insulted by the voluptuary. Leaving the refinements of love out of the
question; nature, by making the gratification of an appetite, in this respect,
as well as every other, a natural and imperious law to preserve the species,
exalts the appetite, and mixes a little mind and affection with a sensual gust.
The feelings of a parent mingling with an instinct merely animal, give it
dignity; and the man and woman often meeting on account of the child, a mutual
interest and affection is excited by the exercise of a common sympathy. Women
then having some necessary duty to fulfil, more noble than to adorn their persons, would not
contentedly be the slaves of casual lust; which is now the situation of a very
considerable number who are, literally speaking, standing dishes to which every
glutton may have access.
I may be told that great as this enormity is it
only affects a devoted part of the sex--devoted for the salvation of the rest.
But, false as every assertion might easily be proved, that recommends the
sanctioning a small evil to produce a greater good; the mischief does not stop
here, for the moral character, and peace of mind, of the chaster
part of the sex, is undermined by the conduct of the very women to whom they
allow no refuge from guilt: whom they inexorably consign to the arts that lure
their husbands from them, debauch and force them, let not modest women start, to
no refuge exercise of their sons, assume, in some degree, the same character
themselves. For I will venture to assert, that all the causes of female
weakness, as well as depravity, which I have already enlarged on, branch out of
one grand cause--want of chastity in men.
This intemperance, so prevalent, depraves the
appetite to such a degree, that a wanton stimulus is necessary to rouse it; but
the parental design of Nature is forgotten, and the mere person, and that for a
moment, alone engrosses the thoughts. So voluptuous, indeed, often grows the
lustful prowler, that he refines on female softness. Something more soft than women is then sought for; till, in
To satisfy this genus of men, women are made
systematically voluptuous, and though they may not all carry their libertinism
to the same height, yet this heartless intercourse with the sex, which they
allow themselves, depraves both sexes, because the taste of men is vitiated;
and women, of all classes, naturally square their behaviour
to gratify the taste by which they obtain pleasure and power. Women becoming,
consequently, weaker, in mind and body, than they ought to be, were one of the
grand ends of their being taken into the account, that of bearing and nursing
children, have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother;
and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection, that ennobles
instinct, either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born.
Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom
violate them with impunity. The weak enervated women who particularly catch the
attention of libertines, are unfit to be mothers, though they may conceive; so
that the rich sensualist, who has rioted among women, spreading depravity and
misery, when he wishes to perpetuate his name, receives from his wife only an
half-formed being that inherits both its father's and mother's weakness.
Contrasting the humanity of the present age with
the barbarism of antiquity, great stress has been laid on the savage custom of
exposing the children whom their parents could not maintain; whilst the man of
sensibility, who thus, perhaps, complains, by his promiscuous amours produces a
most destructive barrenness and contagious flagitiousness of manners. Surely
nature never intended that women, by satisfying an appetite, should frustrate
the very purpose for which it was implanted?
I have before observed,
that men ought to maintain the women whom they have seduced; this would be one
means of reforming female manners, and stopping an abuse that has an equally
fatal effect on population and morals. Another, no less obvious, would be to
turn the attention of woman to the real virtue of chastity; for to little
respect has that woman a claim, on the score of modesty, though her reputation
may be white as the driven snow, who smiles on the libertine whilst she spurns
the victims of his lawless appetites and their own folly.
Besides, she has a taint of the same folly, pure
as she esteems herself, when she studiously adorns her person only to be seen
by men, to excite respectful sighs, and all the idle homage of what is called
innocent gallantry. Did women really respect virtue for its own sake, they
would not seek for a compensation in vanity, for the
self-denial which they are obliged to practise to
preserve their reputation, nor would they associate with men who set reputation
at defiance.
The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each
other. This I believe to be an indisputable truth, extending it to every
virtue. Chastity, modesty, public spirit, and all the noble train of virtues,
on which social virtue and happiness are built, should be understood and
cultivated by all mankind, or they will be cultivated to little effect. And,
instead of furnishing the vicious or idle with a pretext for violating some
sacred duty, by terming it a sexual one, it would be wiser to show that Nature
has not made any difference, for that the unchaste man doubly defeats the
purpose of Nature, by rendering women barren, and destroying his own
constitution, though he avoids the shame that pursues the crime in the other
sex. These are the physical consequences, the moral are still more alarming;
for virtue is only a nominal distinction when the duties of citizens, husbands,
wives, fathers, mothers, and directors of families, become merely the selfish
ties of convenience.
Why then do philosophers look for public spirit?
Public spirit must be nurtured by private virtue, or it will resemble the
factitious sentiment which makes women careful to preserve their reputation, and men their honour. A sentiment that often exists unsupported by virtue, unsupported by
that sublime morality which makes the habitual breach of one duty a breach of
the whole moral law.
[1] I allude to various biographical writings,
but particularly to Boswell's Life of Johnson.
[2] Smith.
OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM THE
UNNATURAL DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN SOCIETY
From the respect paid to
property flow, as from a poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which
render this world such a dreary scene to the contemplative mind. For it
is in the most polished society that noisome reptiles and venomous serpents
lurk under the rank herbage; and there is voluptuousness pampered by the still
sultry air, which relaxes every good disposition before it ripens into virtue.
One class presses on another, for all are aiming
to procure respect on account of their property; and property once gained will
procure the respect due only to talents and virtue. Men neglect the duties
incumbent on man, yet are treated like demigods. Religion is also separated
from morality by a ceremonial veil, yet men wonder that the world is almost,
literally speaking, a den of sharpers
or oppressors.
There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd
truth, that whoever the devil finds idle he will employ. And what but habitual
idleness can hereditary wealth and titles produce? For
man is so constituted that he can only attain a proper use of his faculties by
exercising them, and will not exercise them unless necessity of some kind first
set the wheels in motion. Virtue likewise can only be acquired by the discharge
of relative duties; but the importance of these sacred duties will scarcely be
felt by the being who is cajoled out of his humanity by the flattery of
sycophants. There must be more equality established in society, or morality
will never gain ground, and this virtuous equality will not rest firmly even
when founded on a rock, if one-half of mankind be chained to its bottom by
fate, for they will be continually undermining it through ignorance or pride.
It is vain to expect virtue from women till they
are in some degree independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength
of natural affection which would make them good wives and mothers. Whilst they
are absolutely dependent on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and
selfish; and the men who can be gratified by the fawning fondness of spaniel-like
affection have not much delicacy, for love is not to be bought; in any sense of
the words, its silken wings are instantly shrivelled
up when anything beside a return in kind is sought. Yet whilst wealth enervates
men, and women live, as it were, by their personal charms, how can we expect
them to discharge those ennobling duties which equally require exertion and
self-denial? Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfortunate
victims to it--if I may so express myself--swathed from their birth, seldom
exert the locomotive faculty of body or mind, and thus viewing everything
through one medium, and that a false one, they are unable to discern in what
true merit and happiness consist. False, indeed, must be the light when the
drapery of situation hides the man, and makes him stalk in masquerade, dragging
from one scene of dissipation to another the nerveless limbs that hang with
stupid listlessness, and rolling round the vacant eye, which plainly tells us
that there is no mind at home.
I mean therefore to infer that the society is not
properly organised which does not compel men and
women to discharge their respective duties by making it the only way to acquire
that countenance from their fellow-creatures, which every human being wishes
some way to attain. The respect consequently which is paid to wealth and mere
personal charms is a true north-east blast that blights the tender blossoms of
affection and virtue. Nature has wisely attached affections to duties to
sweeten toil, and to give that vigour to the
exertions of reason which only the heart can give. But the affections which is put on merely because it is the appropriated insignia of
a certain character, when its duties are not fulfilled, is one of the empty
compliments which vice and folly are obliged to pay to virtue and the real
nature of things.
To illustrate my opinion, I need only observe
that when a woman is admired for her beauty, and suffers herself to be so far
intoxicated by the admiration she receives as to neglect to discharge the indispensable
duty of a mother, she sins against herself by neglecting to cultivate an
affection that would equally tend to make her useful and happy. True
happiness--I mean all the contentment and virtuous satisfaction that can be
snatched in this imperfect state--must arise from well-regulated affections,
and an affection includes a duty. Men are not aware of
the misery they cause, and the vicious weakness they cherish, by only inciting
women to render themselves pleasing; they do not consider that they thus make
natural and artificial duties clash by sacrificing the comfort and
respectability of a woman's life to voluptuous notions of beauty, when in
nature they all harmonise.
Cold would be the heart of a husband, were he not
rendered unnatural by early debauchery, who did not feel more delight at seeing
his child suckled by its mother than the most artful wanton tricks could ever
raise, yet this natural way of cementing the matrimonial tie, and twisting
esteem with fonder recollections, wealth leads women to spurn. To preserve
their beauty, and wear the flowery crown of the day, which gives them a kind of
right to reign for a short time over the sex, they neglect to stamp impressions
on their husbands' hearts that would be remembered with more tenderness when
the snow on the head began to chill the bosom than even their virgin charms.
The maternal solicitude of a reasonable affectionate woman is very interesting,
and the chastened dignity with which a mother returns the caresses that she and
her child receive from a father who has been fulfilling the serious duties of
his station is not only a respectable, but a beautiful sight. So singular,
indeed, are my feelings--and I have endeavoured not
to catch factitious ones--that after having been fatigued with the sight of
insipid grandeur and the slavish ceremonies that with cumbrous pomp supplied
the place of domestic affections, I have turned to some other scene to relieve
my eye by resting it on the refreshing green everywhere scattered by Nature. I
have then viewed with pleasure a woman nursing her children, and discharging
the duties of her station with perhaps merely a servant-maid to take off her
hands the servile part of the household business. I have seen her prepare
herself and children, with only the luxury of cleanliness, to receive her
husband, who, returning weary home in the evening, found smiling babes and a
clean hearth. My heart has loitered in the midst of the group, and has even
throbbed with sympathetic emotion when the scraping of the well-known foot has
raised a pleasing tumult.
Whilst my benevolence has been gratified by
contemplating this artless picture, I have thought that a couple of this
description, equally necessary and independent of each other, because each
fulfilled the respective duties of their station, possessed all that life could
give. Raised sufficiently above abject poverty not to be obliged to weigh the
consequence of every farthing they spend, and having sufficient to prevent
their attending to a frigid system of economy which narrows both mind, I
declare, so vulgar are my conceptions, that I know not what is wanted to render
this the happiest as well as the most respectable situation in the world, but a
taste for literature, to throw a little variety and interest into social
converse, and some superfluous money to give to the needy and to buy books. For
it is not pleasant when the heart is opened by compassion, and the head active
in arranging plans of usefulness, to have a prim urchin continually twitching
back the elbow to prevent the hand from drawing out an almost empty purse,
whispering at the same time some prudential maxim about the priority of
justice.
Destructive, however, as riches and inherited honours are to the human character, women are more debased
and cramped, if possible, by them than men, because men may still in some
degree unfold their faculties by becoming soldiers and statesmen. As soldiers,
I grant they can now only gather for the most part vain-glorious laurels,
whilst they adjust to a hair the European balance, taking especial care that no
bleak northern nook or sound incline the beam. But the days of true heroism are
over, when a citizen fought for his country like a Fabricius
or a Washington, and then returned to his farm to let his virtuous fervour run in a more placid, but not a less salutary,
stream. No, our British heroes are oftener sent from the gaming-table than from
the plough; and their passions have been rather inflamed by hanging with dumb
suspense on the turn of a die, than sublimated by panting after the adventurous
march of virtue in the historic page.
The statesman, it is true, might with more
propriety quit the faro bank, or card-table, to guide the helm, for he has
still but to shuffle and trick--the whole system of British politics, if system
it may courteously be called, consisting in multiplying dependents and
contriving taxes which grind the poor to pamper the rich. Thus a war, or any
wild-goose chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of
patronage for the minister. whose chief merit is the
art of keeping himself in place. It is not necessary then that he should have
bowels for the poor, so he can secure for his family the odd trick. or should some show of respect, for what is termed with
ignorant ostentation an Englishman's birthright, be expedient to bubble the
gruff mastiff that he has to lead by the nose, he can make an empty show, very
safely, by giving his single voice, and suffering his light squadron to file
off to the other side. And when a question of humanity is agitated, he may dip
a sop in the milk of human kindness to silence Cerberus, and talk of the
interest which his heart takes in an attempt to make the earth no longer cry
for vengeance as it sucks in its children's blood, though his cold hand may at the
very moment rivet their chains, by sanctioning the abominable traffic. A
minister is no longer a minister, than while he can carry a point, which he is
determined to carry. Yet it is not necessary that a minister should feel like a
man, when a bold push might shake his seat.
But, to have done with these episodical
observations, let me return to the more specious slavery which chains the very
soul of woman, keeping her for ever under the bondage of ignorance.
The preposterous distinctions of rank, which
render civilisation a curse, by dividing the world
between voluptuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost
equally, every class of people, because respectability is not attached to the
discharge of the relative duties of life, but to the station, and when the
duties are not fulfilled the affections cannot gain sufficient strength to
fortify the virtue of which they are the natural reward. Still there are some
loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think and act for himself;
but for a woman it is an herculean
task, because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome, which
require almost superhuman powers.
A truly benevolent legislator always endeavours to make it the interest of each individual to be
virtuous; and thus private virtue becoming the cement of public happiness, an
orderly whole is consolidated by the tendency of all the parts towards a common
centre. But the private or public virtue of woman is very problematical, for
Rousseau, and a numerous list of male writers, insist that she should all her
life be subjected to a severe restraint, that of propriety. Why subject her to
propriety--blind propriety--if she be capable of acting from a nobler spring,
if she be an heir of immortality? Is sugar always to be produced by vital
blood? Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be
subject to prejudices that brutalise them, when
principles would be a surer guard, only to sweeten the cup of man? Is not this
indirectly to deny woman reason? for a gift is a
mockery, if it be unfit for use.
Women are, in common with men, rendered weak and
luxurious by the relaxing pleasures which wealth procures; g but added to this
they are made slaves to their persons, and must render them alluring that man may
lend them his reason to guide their tottering steps aright. or
should they be ambitious, they must govern their tyrants by sinister tricks,
for without rights there cannot be any incumbent duties. The laws respecting
woman, which I mean to discuss in a future part, make an absurd unit of a man
and his wife; and then by the easy transition of only considering him as
responsible, she is reduced to a mere cipher.
The being who discharges the duties of its
station is independent; and, speaking of women at large, their first duty is to
themselves as rational creatures, and the next, in point of importance, as
citizens, is that, which includes so many, of a mother. The rank in life which
dispenses with their fulfilling this duty, necessarily
degrades them by making them mere dolls. or should they turn to something more
important than merely fitting drapery upon a smooth block, their minds are only
occupied by some soft platonic attachment; or the actual management of an
intrigue may keep their thoughts in motion; for when they neglect domestic
duties, they have it not in their power to take the field and march and
counter-march like soldiers, or wrangle in the senate to keep their faculties
from rusting.
I know that, as a proof of the inferiority of the
sex, Rousseau has exultingly exclaimed, How can they
leave the nursery for the camp! And the camp has by some moralists been proved
the school of the most heroic virtues; though I think it would puzzle a keen
casuist to prove the reasonableness of the greater number of wars that have
dubbed heroes. I do not mean to consider this question critically; because,
having frequently viewed these freaks of ambition as the first natural mode of civilisation, when the ground must be torn up, and the
woods cleared by fire and sword, I do not choose to call them pests; but surely
the present system of war has little connection with virtue of any
denomination, being rather the school of finesse and effeminacy than of
fortitude.
Yet, if defensive war, the only justifiable war,
in the present advanced state of society, where virtue can show its face and
ripen amidst the rigours which purify the air on the
mountain's top, were alone to be adopted as just and glorious, the true heroism
of antiquity might again animate female bosoms. But fair and softly, gentle
reader, male or female, do not alarm thyself, for though I have compared the
character of a modern soldier with that of a civilised
woman, I am not going to advise them to turn their distaff into a musket,
though I sincerely wish to see the bayonet concerted into a pruning-hook. I
only re-created an imagination, fatigued by contemplating the vices and follies
which all proceed from a feculent stream of wealth that has muddied the pure
rills of natural affection, by supposing that society will some time or other
be so constituted, that man must necessarily fulfil
the duties of a citizen, or be despised, and that while he was employed in any
of the departments of civil life, his wife, also an active citizen, should be
equally intent to manage her family, educate her children, and assist her neighbours.
But to render her really virtuous and useful, she
must not, if she discharge her civil duties, want
individually the protection of civil laws; she must not be dependent on her
husband's bounty for her subsistence during his life, or support after his
death; for how can a being be generous who has nothing of its own? or virtuous who is not free? The wife, in the present state
of things, who is faithful to her husband, and neither suckles nor educates her
children, scarcely deserves the name of a wife, and has no right to that of a
citizen. But take away natural rights, and duties become null.
Women then must be considered as only the wanton
solace of men, when they become so weak in mind and body that they cannot exert
themselves unless to pursue some frothy pleasure, or to invent some frivolous
fashion. What can be a more melancholy sight to a thinking mind, than to look
into the numerous carriages that drive helter-skelter about this metropolis in
a morning full of pale-faced creatures who are flying
from themselves! I have often wished, with Dr. Johnson, to place some of them
in a little shop with half a dozen children looking up to their languid
countenances for support. I am much mistaken, if some latent vigour would not soon give health and spirit to their eyes,
and some lines drawn by the exercise of reason on the blank cheeks, which
before were only undulated by dimples, might restore lost dignity to the
character, or rather enable it to attain the true
dignity of its nature. Virtue is not to be acquired even by speculation, much
less by the negative supineness that wealth naturally
generates.
Besides, when poverty is more disgraceful than
even vice, is not morality cut to the quick? Still to avoid misconstruction,
though I consider that women in the common walks of life are called to fulfil the duties of wives and mothers, by religion and
reason, I cannot help lamenting that women of a superior cast have not a road
open by which they can pursue more extensive plans of usefulness and
independence. I may excite laughter, by dropping an
hint, which I mean to pursue, some future time, for I really think that women
ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without
having any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.
But, as the whole system of representation is
now, in this country, only a convenient handle for despotism, they need not
complain, for they are as well represented as a numerous class of hard-working
mechanics, who pay for the support of royalty when they can scarcely stop their
children's mouths with bread. How are they represented whose very sweat
supports the splendid stud of an heir-apparent, or varnishes the chariot of
some female favourite who looks down on shame? Taxes
on the very necessaries of life, enable an endless
tribe of idle princes and princesses to pass with stupid pomp before a gaping
crowd, who almost worship the very parade which costs them so dear. This is
mere gothic grandeur, something like the barbarous useless parade of having
sentinels on horseback at
How strangely must the mind be sophisticated when
this sort of state impresses it! But, till these monuments of folly are levelled by virtue, similar follies will leaven the whole
mass. For the same character, in some degree, will prevail in the aggregate of
society; and the refinements of luxury, or the vicious repinings
of envious poverty, will equally banish virtue from society, considered as the
characteristic of that society, or only allow it to appear as one of the
stripes of the harlequin coat, worn by the civilised
man.
In the superior ranks of life, every duty is done
by deputies, as if duties could ever be waived, and the vain pleasures which
consequent idleness forces the rich to pursue, appear so enticing to the next
rank, that the numerous scramblers for wealth sacrifice everything to tread on
their heels. The most sacred trusts are then considered as sinecures, because
they were procured by interest, and only sought to enable a man to keep good
company. Women, in particular, all want to be ladies. Which
is simply to have nothing to do, but listlessly to go they scarcely care where,
for they cannot tell what.
But what have women to do in society? I may be
asked, but to loiter with easy grace; surely you would not condemn them all to
suckle fools and chronicle small beer! No. Women might certainly study the art
of healing, and be physicians as well as nurses. And midwifery, decency seems
to allot to them, though I am afraid, the word midwife, in our dictionaries,
will soon give p]ace to accoucheur,
and one proof of the former delicacy of the sex be effaced from the language.
They might also study politics, and settle their
benevolence on the broadest basis; for the reading of history will scarcely be
more useful than the perusal of romances, if read as mere biography; if the
character of the times, the political improvements, arts, etc., be not
observed. In short, if it be not considered as the history of man; and not of
particular men, who filled a niche in the temple of fame, and dropped into the
black rolling stream of time, that silently sweeps all before it into the
shapeless void called--eternity.--For shape, can it be called, "that shape
hath none"?
Business of various kinds, they might likewise
pursue, if they were educated in a more orderly manner, which might save many
from common and legal prostitution. Women would not then marry for a support,
as men accept of places under Government, and neglect the implied duties; nor
would an attempt to earn their own subsistence, a most laudable one! sink them almost to the level of those poor abandoned
creatures who live by prostitution. For are not milliners and mantua-makers reckoned the next class? The few employments
open to women, so far. from being liberal, are menial; and when a superior
education enables them to take charge of the education of children as
governesses, they are not treated like the tutors of sons, though even clerical
tutors are not always treated in a manner calculated to render them respectable
in the eyes of their pupils, to say nothing of the private comfort of the
individual. But as women educated like gentlewomen, are never designed for the
humiliating situation which necessity sometimes forces them to fill; these
situations are considered in the light of a degradation; and they know little of
the human heart, who need to be told, that nothing so painfully sharpens
sensibility as such a fall in life.
Some of these women might be restrained from
marrying by a proper spirit of delicacy, and others may not have had it in
their power to escape in this pitiful way from servitude; is not that
Government then very defective, and very unmindful of the happiness of one-half
of is members, that does not provide for honest, independent women, by
encouraging them to fill respectable stations? But in order to render their
private virtue a public benefit, they must have a civil existence in the State,
married or single; else we shall continually see some worthy woman, whose
sensibility has been rendered painfully acute by undeserved contempt, droop
like "the lily broken down by a plowshare."
It is a melancholy truth; yet such is the blessed
effect of civilisation! the
most respectable women are the most oppressed; and, unless they have
understandings far superior to the common run of understandings, taking in both
sexes, they must, from being treated like contemptible beings, become
contemptible. How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who
might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm,
managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry, instead of
hanging their heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility, that consumes the
beauty to which it at first gave lustre; nay, I doubt
whether pity and love are so near akin as poets feign, for I have seldom seen
much compassion excited by the helplessness of females, unless they were fair;
then, perhaps, pity was the soft handmaid of love, or the harbinger of lust.
How much more respectable is the woman who earns
her own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished beauty!--beauty
did I say!--so sensible am I of the beauty of moral-loveliness, or the
harmonious propriety that attunes the passions of a well-regulated mind, that I
blush at making the comparison; yet I sigh to think how few women aim at
attaining this respectability by withdrawing from the giddy whirl of pleasure,
or the indolent calm that stupefies the good sort of women it sucks in.
Proud of their weakness, however, they must
always be protected, guarded from care, and all the rough toils that dignify the
mind. If this be the fiat of fate, if they will make themselves insignificant
and contemptible, sweetly to waste "life away," let them not expect
to be valued when their beauty fades, for it is the fate of the fairest flowers
to be admired and pulled to pieces by the careless hand that plucked them. In
how many ways do I wish, from the purest benevolence, to impress this truth on
my sex; yet I fear that they will not listen to a truth that dear bought
experience has brought home to many an agitated bosom, nor willingly resign the
privileges of rank and sex for the privileges of humanity, to which those have
no claim who do not discharge its duties.
Those writers are particularly useful, in my
opinion, who make man feel for man, independent of the
station he fills, or the drapery of factitious sentiments. I then would fain
convince reasonable men of the importance of some of my remarks; and prevail on
them to weigh dispassionately the whole tenor of my observations. I appeal to
their understandings; and, as a fellow-creature, claim, in the name of my sex,
some interest in their hearts. I entreat them to assist to emancipate their
companion, to make her a helpmeet for them.
Would men but generously snap our chains, and be
content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find
us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives,
more reasonable mothers--in a word, better citizens. We should then love them
with true affection, because we should learn to respect ourselves; and the
peace of mind of a worthy man would not be interrupted by the idle vanity of
his wife, nor the babes sent to nestle in a strange bosom, having never found a
home in their mother's.
Parental affection is, perhaps, the blindest
modification of perverse self-love; for we have not, like the French,[1] two terms to distinguish the pursuit of a natural and
reasonable desire, from the ignorant calculations of weakness. Parents often
love their children in the most brutal manner, and sacrifice every relative
duty to promote their advancement in the world. To promote, such is the
perversity of unprincipled prejudices, the future welfare of the very beings
whose present existence they embitter by the most despotic stretch of power.
Power, in fact, is ever true to its vital principle, for in every shape it
should reign without control or inquiry. Its throne is
built across a dark abyss, which no eye must dare to explore, lest the baseless
fabric should totter under investigation. obedience,
unconditional obedience, is the catchword of tyrants of every description, and
to render "assurance doubly sure," one kind of despotism supports
another. Tyrants would have cause to tremble if reason were to become the rule
of duty in any of the relations of life, for the light might spread till
perfect day appeared. And when it did appear, how would men smile at the sight
of the bugbears at which they started during the night of ignorance, or the
twilight of timid inquiry.
Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but
a pretext to tyrannise where it can be done with
impunity, for only good and wise men are content with the respect that will
bear discussion. Convinced that they have a right to what they insist on, they
do not fear reason, or dread the sifting of subjects that recur to natural
justice: because they firmly believe that the more enlightened the human mind
becomes the deeper root will just and simple principles take. They do not rest
in expedients, or grant that what is metaphysically true can be practically
false; but disdaining the shifts of the moment they calmly wait till time,
sanctioning innovation, silences the hiss of selfishness or envy.
If the power of reflecting on the past, and darting the keen shall more eye of contemplation
into futurity, be the grand privilege of man, it must be granted that some
people enjoy this prerogative in a very limited degree. Everything new appears
to them wrong; and not able to distinguish the possible from the monstrous,
they fear where no fear should find a place, running from the light of reason,
as if it were a firebrand; yet the limits of the possible have never been
defined to stop the sturdy innovator's hand.
Woman, however, a slave in every situation to
prejudice, seldom exerts enlightened maternal affection; for she either
neglects her children, or spoils them by improper indulgence. The affection of
some women for their children is, as I have before termed it, frequently very
brutish: for it eradicates every spark of humanity. Justice, truth, everything
is sacrificed by these Rebekahs, and for the sake of
their own children they violate the most sacred duties, forgetting the common
relationship that binds the whole family on earth together. Yet, reason seems
to say, that they who suffer one duty, or affection, to swallow up the rest,
have not sufficient heart or mind to fulfil that one
conscientiously. It then loses the venerable aspect of a duty, and assumes the
fantastic form of a whim.
As the care of children in their infancy is one
of the grand duties annexed to the female character by nature, this duty would
afford many forcible arguments for strengthening the female understanding, if
it were properly considered.
The formation of the mind must be begun very
early, and the temper, in particular, requires the most judicious attention--an
attention which woman cannot pay who only love their children because they are
their children, and seek no further for the foundation of their duty, than in
the feelings of the moment. It is this want of reason in their affections which
makes women so often run into extremes, and either be the most
fond or most careless and unnatural mothers.
To be a good mother, a woman must have sense, and
that independence of mind which few women possess who
are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general,
foolish mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their part,
in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow. When chastisement
is necessary, though they have offended the mother, the father must inflict the
punishment; he must be the judge in all disputes; but fully discuss this
subject when I treat of private education. I now only mean to insist, that
unless the understanding of woman be enlarged, and her character rendered more
firm, by being allowed to govern her own conduct, she will never have
sufficient sense or command of temper to manage her children properly. Her
parental affection, indeed, scarcely deserves the name, when it does not lead
her to suckle her children, because the discharge of this duty is equally
calculated to inspire maternal and filial affection: and it is the indispensable
duty of men and women to fulfil the duties which give
birth to affections that are the surest preservatives against vice. Natural
affection, as it is termed, I believe to be a very faint tie, affections must
grow out of the habitual exercise of a mutual sympathy; and what sympathy does
a mother exercise who sends her babe to a nurse, and only takes it from a nurse
to send it to a school?
In the exercise of their maternal feelings
[1] L'amour propre. L'amour de soi meme.
There seems to be an indolent
propensity in man to make prescription always take place of reason, and
to place every duty on an arbitrary foundation. The rights of kings are deduced
in a direct line from the King of kings, and that of parents from our first
parent.
Why do we thus go back for principles that should
always rest on the same base, and have the same weight to-day that they had a
thousand years ago--and not a jot more ? If parents
discharge their duty they have a strong hold and sacred claim on the gratitude
of their children, but few parents are willing to receive the respectful
affection of their offspring on such terms. They demand blind obedience,
because they do not merit a reasonable service: and to render these demands of
weakness and ignorance more binding, a mysterious sanctity is spread round the
most arbitrary principle; for what other name can be given to the blind duty of
obeying vicious or weak beings merely because they obeyed a powerful instinct?
The simple definition of the reciprocal duty
which naturally subsists between parent and child may be given in a few words.
The parent who pays proper attention to helpless infancy has a right to require
the same attention when the feebleness of age comes upon him. But to subjugate
a rational being to the mere will of another, after he is of age to answer to
society for his own conduct, is a most cruel and undue stretch of- power, and
perhaps as injurious to morality as those religious systems which do not allow
right and wrong to have any existence, but in the Divine will.
I never knew a parent who had paid more than
common attention to his children disregarded.[1] on the contrary, the early
habit of relying almost implicitly on the opinion of a respected parent is not
easily shook, even when matured reason convinces the child that his father is
not the wisest man in the world. This weakness--for a weakness it is, though
the epithet amiable may be tacked to it--a reasonable man must steel himself
against; for the absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on
account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish
submission to any power but reason.
I distinguish between the natural and accidental
duty due to parents.
The parent who
sedulously endeavours to form the heart, and enlarge
the understanding of his child, has given that dignity to the discharge of a
duty, common to the whole animal world, that only reason can give. This is the
parental affection of humanity, and leaves instinctive natural affection far
behind. Such a parent acquires all the rights of the most sacred friendship,
and his advice, even when his child is advanced in life, demands serious
consideration.
With respect to marriage, though after
one-and-twenty a parent seems to have no right to withhold his consent on any
account, yet twenty years of solicitude call for a return, and the son ought at
least to promise not to marry for two or three years, should the object of his
choice not entirely meet with the approbation of his first friend.
But respect for parents is, generally speaking, a
much more debasing principle; it is only a selfish respect for property. The
father who is blindly obeyed is obeyed from sheer weakness, or from motives
that degrade the human character.
A great proportion of the misery that wanders in
hideous forms around the world is allowed to rise from the negligence of
parents; and still these are the people who are most tenacious of what they
term a natural right, though it be subversive of the birthright of man, the
right of acting according to the direction of his own reason.
I have already very frequently had occasion to
observe that vicious or indolent people are always eager to profit by enforcing
arbitrary privileges, and generally in the same proportion as they neglect the
discharge of the duties which alone render the privileges reasonable. This is
at the bottom a dictate of common sense, or the instinct of self-defence,
peculiar to ignorant weakness, resembling that instinct which makes a fish
muddy the water it swims in to elude its enemy, instead of boldly facing it in
the clear stream.
From the clear stream of argument indeed the
supporters of prescription of every denomination fly; and taking refuge in the
darkness, which, in the language of sublime poetry, has been supposed to
surround the throne of omnipotence, they dare to demand that implicit respect
which is only due to His unsearchable ways. But let
me not be thought presumptuous; the darkness which hides our God from us only
respects speculative truths. It never obscures moral ones; they shine clearly,
for God is light, and never, by the constitution of our nature, requires the
discharge of a duty, the reasonableness of which does not beam on us when we
open our eyes.
The indolent parent of high rank may, it is true,
extort a show of respect from his child, and females on the Continent are
particularly subject to the views of their families, who never think of
consulting their inclination, or providing for the comfort of the poor victims
of their pride. The consequence is notorious: these dutiful daughters become
adulteresses, and neglect the education of their children, from whom they, in
their turn, exact the same kind of obedience.
Females, it is true, in all countries are too
much under the dominion of their parents; and few parents think of addressing
their children in the following manner, though it is in this reasonable way
that Heaven seems to command the whole human race:--It is your interest to obey
me till you can judge for yourself; and the Almighty Father of all has
implanted an affection in me to serve as a guard to you whilst your reason is
unfolding; but when your mind arrives at maturity, you must only obey me, or
rather respect my opinions, so far as they coincide with the light that is
breaking in on your own mind.
A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty
of the mind; and Mr. Locke very judiciously observes, that "if the mind be
curbed and humbled too much in children; if their spirits be abased and broken
much by too strict an hand over them, they lose all
their vigour and industry." This strict hand may
in some degree account for the weakness of women; for girls, from various
causes, are more kept down by their parents, in every sense of the word, than
boys. The duty expected from them is, like all the duties arbitrarily imposed
on women, more from a sense of propriety, more out of respect for decorum, than
reason; and thus taught slavishly to submit to their parents, they are prepared
for the slavery of marriage. I may be told that a number of women are not slaves
in the marriage state. True, but they then become tyrants; for it is not
rational freedom, but a lawless kind of power, resembling the authority
exercised by the favourites of absolute monarchs,
which they obtain by debasing means. I do not likewise dream of insinuating
that either boys or girls are always slaves. I only insist that when they are
obliged to submit to authority blindly their faculties are weakened, and their
tempers rendered imperious or abject. I also lament that parents, indolently
availing themselves of a supposed privilege, damp the first faint glimmering of
reason, rendering at the same time the duty, which they are so anxious to
enforce, an empty name; because they will not let it rest on the only basis on
which a duty can rest securely; for unless it be founded on knowledge, it
cannot gain sufficient strength to resist the squalls of passion, or the silent
sapping of self-love. But it is not the parents who have given the surest proof
of their affection for their children, or, to speak more properly. who, by fulfilling their duty, have allowed a natural
parental affection to take root in their hearts, the child of exercised
sympathy and reason, and not the overweening offspring of selfish pride, who
most vehemently insist on their children submitting to their will merely
because it is their will. On the contrary, the parent who sets a good example, patiently lets that example work, and it seldom
fails to produce its natural effect--filial reverence.
Children cannot be taught too early to submit to
reason-- the true definition of that necessity which Rousseau insisted on,
without defining it; for to submit to reason is to submit to the nature of
things, and to that God who formed them so, to promote our real interest.
Why should the minds of children be warped as
they just begin to expand, only to favour the
indolence of parents who insist on a privilege without being willing to pay the
price fixed by Nature? I have before had occasion to observe that a right
always includes a duty, and I think it may likewise fairly be inferred that
they forfeit the right who do not fulfil the duty.
It is easier, I grant, to command than reason;
but it does not follow from hence that children cannot comprehend the reason
why they are made to do certain things habitually: for from a steady adherence
to a few simple principles of conduct flows that salutary power which a
judicious parent gradually gains over a child's mind. And this power becomes
strong indeed, if tempered by an even display of affection brought home to the
child's heart. For, I believe, as a general rule, It must be allowed that the
affection which we inspire always resembles that we cultivate; so that natural
affections, which have been supposed almost distinct from reason, may be found more
nearly connected with judgment than is commonly allowed. Nay, as another proof
of the necessity of cultivating the female understanding, it is but just to
observe, that the affections seem to have a kind of animal capriciousness when
they merely reside in the heart.
It is the irregular exercise of parental
authority that first injures the mind, and to these irregularities girls are
more subject than boys. The will of those who never allow their will to be
disputed, unless they happen to be in a good humour,
when they relax proportionally, is almost always unreasonable. To elude this
arbitrary authority girls very early learn the lessons which they afterwards practise on their husbands; for I have frequently seen a
little sharp-faced miss rule a whole family, excepting that now and then
mamma's anger will burst out of some accidental cloud;--either her hair was
ill-dressed,[2] or she had lost more money at cards,
the night before, than she was willing to own to her husband; or some such
moral cause of anger.
After observing sallies of this kind, I have been
led into a melancholy train of reflection respecting females, concluding that
when their first affection must lead them astray, or make their duties clash
till they rest on mere whims and customs, little can be expected from them as
they advance in life. How, indeed, can an instructor remedy this evil? for to teach them virtue on any solid principle is to teach
them to despise their parents. Children cannot, ought
not, to be taught to make allowance for the faults of their parents, because
every such allowance weakens the force of reason in their minds, and makes them
still more indulgent to their own. It is one of the most sublime virtues of
maturity that leads us to be severe with respect to ourselves, and forbearing
to others; but children should only be taught the simple virtues, for if they
begin too early to make allowance for human passions and manners, they wear off
the fine edge of the criterion by which they should regulate their own, and
become unjust in the same proportion as they grow indulgent.
The affections of children, and weak people, are
always selfish; they love their relatives, because they are beloved by them,
not on account of their virtues. Yet, till esteem and love are blended together
in the first affection, and reason made the foundation of the first duty,
morality will stumble at the threshold. But, till society is very differently
constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on being obeyed, because they
will be obeyed, and constantly endeavour to settle
that power on a Divine right which will not bear the investigation of reason.
[1] Dr. Johnson makes the same observation.
[2] 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?
The good effects resulting from attention to
private education will ever be very confined, and the parent
who really puts his own hand to the plough, will always, in some degree, be
disappointed, till education becomes a grand national concern. A man cannot
retire into a desert with his child, and if he did he could not bring himself
back to childhood, and become the proper friend and playfellow of an infant or
youth. And when children are confined to the society of men and women, they
very soon acquire that kind of premature manhood which stops the growth of
every vigorous power of mind or body. In order to open their faculties they
should be excited to think for themselves; and this can only be done by mixing
a number of children together, and making them jointly pursue the same objects.
A child very soon contracts a benumbing indolence
of mind, which he has seldom sufficient vigour
afterwards to shake off, when he only asks a question instead of seeking for
information, and then relies implicitly on the answer he receives. With his
equals in age this could never be the case, and the subjects of inquiry, though
they might be influenced, would not be entirely under the direction of men, who
frequently damp, if not destroy, abilities, by bringing them forward too
hastily: and too hastily they will infallibly be brought forward, if the child
be confined to the society of a man, however sagacious that man may be.
Besides, in you the seeds of
every affection should be sown, and the respectful regard, which is felt
for a parent, is very different from the social affections that arc to
constitute the happiness of life as it advances. Of these equality is the
basis, and an intercourse of sentiments unclogged by that observant seriousness
which prevents disputation, though it may not enforce submission. Let a child
have ever such an affection for his parent, he will always languish to play and
prattle with children; and the very respect he feels, for filial esteem always
has a dash of fear mixed with it, will, if it do not teach him cunning, at
least prevent him from pouring out the little secrets which first open the
heart to friendship and confidence, gradually leading to more expansive
benevolence. Added to this, he will never acquire that frank ingenuousness of behaviour, which young people can only attain by being
frequently in society where they dare to speak what they think; neither afraid
of being reproved for their presumption, nor laughed at for their folly.
Forcibly impressed by the reflections which the
sight of schools, as they are at present conducted, naturally suggested, I have
formerly delivered my opinion rather warmly in favour
of a private education; but further experience has led me to view the subject
in a different light. I still, however, think schools, as they are now
regulated, the hot-beds of vice and folly, and the knowledge of human nature,
supposed to be attained there, merely cunning selfishness.
At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of cultivating domestic affections,
very early rush into the libertinism which destroys the constitution before it
is formed; hardening the heart as it weakens the understanding.
I should, in fact, be averse to boarding-schools,
if it were for no other reason than the unsettled state of mind which the
expectation of the vacations produces. on these the
children's thoughts are fixed with eager anticipating hopes, for, at least, to
speak with moderation, half of the time, and when they arrive they are spent in
total dissipation and beastly indulgence.
But, on the contrary, when they are brought up at
home, though they may pursue a plan of study in a more orderly manner than can
be adopted when near a fourth part of the year is actually spent in idleness,
and as much more in regret and anticipation; yet they there acquire too high an
opinion of their own importance, from birth, allowed to tyrannise
over servants, and from the anxiety expressed by most mothers, on the score of
manners, who, eager to teach the accomplishments of a gentleman, stifle, in
their birth, the virtues of a man. Thus brought into company when they ought to
be seriously employed, and treated like men when they are still boys, they
become vain and effeminate.
The only way to avoid two extremes equally
injurious to morality would be to contrive some way of combining a public and
private education. Thus to make men citizens two natural steps might be taken,
which seem directly to lead to the desired point; for the domestic affections,
that first open the heart to the various modifications of humanity, would be
cultivated, whilst the children were nevertheless allowed to spend great part
of their time, on terms of equality, with other children.
I still recollect, with pleasure, the country
day-school; where a boy trudged in the morning, wet or dry, carrying his books,
and his dinner, if it were at a considerable distance; a servant did not then
lead master by the hand, for, when he had once put on coat and breeches, he was
allowed to shift for himself, and return alone in the evening to recount the
feats of the day close at the parental knee. His father's house was his home,
and was ever after fondly remembered; nay, I appeal to many superior men, who
were educated in this manner, whether the recollection of some shady lane where
they conned their lesson; or, of some stile, where they sat making a kite, or
mending a bat, has not endeared their country to them?
But, what boy ever recollected with pleasure the
years he spent in close confinement, at an academy near
But the fear of innovation, in this country,
extends to everything. This is only a covert fear, the apprehensive timidity of
indolent slugs, who guard, by sliming it over, the
snug place, which they consider in the light of an hereditary estate; and eat,
drink, and enjoy themselves, instead of fulfilling the duties, excepting a few
empty forms, for which it was endowed. These are the people who most
strenuously insist on the will of the founder being observed, crying out
against all reformation, as ;f it were a violation of
justice. I am now alluding particularly to the relics of Popery retained in our
colleges, when the Protestant members seem to be such sticklers for the
Established Church; but their zeal never makes them lose sight of the spoil of
ignorance, which rapacious priests of superstitious memory have scraped
together. No, wise in their generation, they venerate the prescriptive right of
possession, as a stronghold, and still let the sluggish bell tinkle to prayers,
as during the days when the elevation of the host was supposed to atone for the
sins of the people, lest one reformation should lead to another, and the spirit
kill the letter. These Romish customs have the most
baneful effect on the morals of our clergy; for the idle vermin who two or
three times a day perform in the most slovenly manner a service which they
think useless, but call their duty, soon lose a sense of duty. At college,
forced to attend or evade public worship, they acquire an
habitual contempt for the very service, the performance of which is to enable
them to live in idleness. It is mumbled over as an affair of business, as a
stupid boy repeats his talk, and frequently the college cant escapes from the
preacher the moment after he has left the pulpit, and even whilst he is eating
the dinner which he earned in such a dishonest manner.
Nothing, indeed, can be more irreverent than the
cathedral service as it is now performed in this country, neither does it
contain a set of weaker men than those who are the slaves of this childish
routine. A disgusting skeleton of the former state is still exhibited; but all
the solemnity that interested the imagination, if it did not purify the heart,
is stripped off. The performance of high mass on the Continent must impress
every mind, where a spark of fancy glows, with that awful melancholy, that
sublime tenderness, so near akin to devotion. I do not say that these
devotional feelings are of more use, in a moral sense, than any other emotion
of taste; but I contend that the theatrical pomp which gratifies our senses, is to be preferred to the cold parade that insults
the understanding without reaching the heart.
Amongst remarks on national education, such
observations cannot be misplaced, especially as the supporters of these
establishments, degenerated into puerilities, affect to be the champions of
religion. Religion, pure source of comfort in this vale of tears! how has thy
clear stream been muddied by the dabblers, who have presumptuously endeavoured to confine in one narrow channel, the living
waters that ever flow towards God--the sublime ocean of existence! What would
life be without that peace which the love of God, when built on humanity, alone
can impart? Every earthly affection turns back, at intervals, to prey upon the
heart that feeds it; and the purest effusions of benevolence, often rudely
damped by man, must mount as a free-will offering to
Him who gave them birth, whose bright image they faintly reflect.
In public schools, however, religion, confounded
with irk- some ceremonies and unreasonable restraints, assumes the most
ungracious aspect: not the sober austere one that commands respect whilst it
inspires fear; but a ludicrous cast, that serves to point a pun. For, in fact,
most of the good stories and smart things will enliven the spirits that have
been concentrated at whist, are manufactured out of the incidents to which the
very men labour to give a droll
turn who countenance the abuse to live on the spoil.
There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical, or luxurious set of men, than the pedantic
tyrants who reside in colleges and preside at public schools. The vacations are
equally injurious to the morals of the masters and pupils, and the intercourse,
which the former keep up with the nobility, introduces the same vanity and
extravagance into their families, which banish domestic duties and comforts
from the lordly mansion, whose state is awkwardly aped. The boys, who live at a
great expense with the masters and assistants, are never domesticated, though
placed there for that purpose; for, after a silent dinner, they swallow a hasty
glass of wine, and retire to plan some mischievous trick, or to ridicule the
person or manners of the very people they have just been cringing to, and. whom
they ought to consider as the representatives of their parents.
Can it then be a matter of surprise that boys
become selfish and vicious who are thus shut out from social converse? or that a mitre often graces the
brow of one of these diligent pastors?
The desire of living in the same style, as the
rank just above them, infects each individual and every class of people, and
meanness is the concomitant of this ignoble ambition; but those professions are
most debasing whose ladder is patronage; yet, out of one of these professions
the tutors of youth are, in general, chosen. But, can they be expected to
inspire independent sentiments, whose conduct must be regulated by the cautious
prudence that is ever on the watch for preferment?
So far, however, from thinking of the morals of
boys, I have heard several masters of schools argue, that they only undertook
to teach Latin and Greek; and that they had fulfilled their duty, by sending
some good scholars to college.
A few good scholars, I grant, may have been
formed by emulation and discipline; but, to bring forward these clever boys,
the health and morals of a number have been sacrificed. The sons of our gentry
and wealthy commoners are mostly educated at these seminaries, and will anyone
pretend to assert that the majority, making every allowance, come under the
description of tolerable scholars?
It is not for the benefit of society that a few
brilliant men should be brought forward at the expense of the multitude. It is
true, that great men seem to start up, as great revolutions occur, at proper
intervals, to restore order, and to blow aside the clouds that thicken over the
face of truth; but let more reason and virtue prevail in society, and these
strong winds would not be necessary. Public education, of every denomination,
should be directed to form citizens; but if you wish to make good citizens, you
must first exercise the affections of a son and a brother. This is the only way
to expand the heart; for public affections, as well as public virtues, must
ever grow out of the private character, or they are merely meteors that shoot
athwart a dark sky, and disappear as they are gazed at and admired.
Few, I believe, have had much affection for
mankind, who did not first love their parents, their brothers, sisters, and
even the domestic brutes, whom they first played with.
The exercise of youthful sympathies forms the moral temperature; and it is the
recollection of these first affections and pursuits that gives life to those
that are afterwards more under the direction of reason. In youth, the fondest
friendships are formed, the genial juices mounting at the same time, kindly
mix; or, rather the heart, tempered for the reception of friendship, is
accustomed to seek for pleasure in something more noble
than the churlish ratification of appetite.
In order then to inspire a love of home and
domestic pleasures, children ought to be educated at home for riotous holidays
only make them fond of home for their own sakes. Yet, the vacations, which do
not foster domestic affections, continually disturb the course of study, and
render any plan of improvement abortive which includes temperance; still, were
they abolished, children would be entirely separated from their parents, and I
question whether they would become better citizens by sacrificing the
preparatory affections, by destroying the force of relationships that render
the marriage state as necessary as respectable. But, if a private education
produce self-importance, or insulate a man in his family, the evil is only
shifted, not remedied.
This train of reasoning brings me back to a
subject, on which mean to dwell, the necessity of establishing proper
day-schools.
But, these should be national establishments, for
whilst schoolmasters are dependent on the caprice of parents, little exertion
can be expected from them, more than is necessary to please ignorant people.
Indeed, the necessity of a master's giving the parents some sample of the boy's
abilities, which during the vacation is shown to every visitor,[1] is productive of more mischief than would at first be
supposed. For it is seldom done entirely, to speak with moderation, by the
child itself; thus the master countenances falsehood, or winds the poor machine
up to some extraordinary exertion, that injures the wheels, and stops the
progress of gradual improvement. The memory is loaded with unintelligible
words, to make a show of, without the understanding's acquiring any distinct
ideas: but only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation
of mind, which teaches young people how to begin to
think. The imagination should not be allowed to debauch the understanding
before it gained strength, or vanity will become the forerunner of vice: for
every way of exhibiting the acquirements of a child is injurious to its moral
character.
How much time is lost in teaching them to recite
what they do not understand? whilst, seated on
benches, all in their best array, the mammas listen with astonishment to the
parrot like prattle, uttered in solemn cadences, with all the pomp of ignorance
and folly. Such exhibitions only serve to strike the spreading fibres of vanity through the whole mind; for they neither
teach children to speak fluently, nor behave gracefully. So far from it, that
these frivolous pursuits might comprehensively be termed the study of
affectation; for we now rarely see a simple, bashful boy, though few people of
taste were ever disgusted by that awkward sheepishness so natural to the age
which schools and an early introduction into society, have changed into
impudence and apish grimace.
Yet, how can these things be remedied whilst
schoolmaster depend entirely on parents for a subsistence; and, when so many
rival schools hang out their lures, to catch the attention of vain fathers and
mothers, whose parental affection only leads them to wish that their children
should outshine those of their neighbours?
Without great good luck, a sensible,
conscientious man, would starve before he could raise a school, if he disdained
to bubble weak parents by practising the secret
tricks of the craft.
In the best regulated schools, however, where
swarms are not crammed together, many bad habits must be acquired; but, at
common schools, the body, heart, and understanding, are equally stunted, for
parents are often only in quest of the cheapest school, and the master could
not live, if he did not take a much greater number than he could manage
himself; nor will the scanty pittance, allowed for each child, permit him to
hire ushers sufficient to assist in the discharge of the mechanical part of the
business. Besides, whatever appearance the house and garden may make, the
children do not enjoy the comfort of either, for they are continually reminded
by irksome restrictions that they are not at home, and the state-rooms, garden,
etc., must be kept in order for the recreation of the parents; who, of a
Sunday, visit the school, and are impressed by the very parade that renders the
situation of their children uncomfortable.
With what disgust have I heard sensible women,
for girls are more restrained and cowed than boys,
speak of the wearisome confinement, which they endured at school. Not allowed,
perhaps, to step out of one broad walk in a superb garden, and obliged to pace
with steady deportment stupidly backwards and forwards, holding up their heads
and turning out their toes, with shoulders braced back, instead of bounding, as
nature directs to complete her own design, in the various attitudes so
conducive to health.[2] The pure animal spirits, which make both mind and body
shoot out, and unfold the tender blossoms of hope, are turned sour, and vented
in vain wishes or pert repinings, that contract the
faculties and spoil the temper; else they mount to the brain, and sharpening
the understanding before it gains proportionable
strength, produce that pitiful cunning which disgracefully characterises
the female mind-- and I fear will ever characterise
it whilst women remain the slaves of power!
The little respect paid to chastity in the male
world is, I am persuaded, the grand source of many of the physical and moral
evils that torment mankind, as well as of the vices and follies that degrade
and destroy women; yet, at school, boys infallibly lose that decent
bashfulness, which might have ripened into modesty, at home.
And what nasty indecent tricks do they not also
learn from each other, when a number of them pig together in the same
bedchamber, not to speak of the vices, which render the body weak, whilst they
effectually prevent the acquisition of any delicacy of mind. The little
attention paid to the cultivation of modesty, amongst men, produces great
depravity in all the relationships of society; for, not only love--love that
ought to purify the heart, and first call forth all the youthful powers, to
prepare the man to discharge the benevolent duties of life, is sacrificed to
premature lust; but, all the social affections are deadened by the selfish
gratifications, which very early pollute the mind, and dry up the generous
juices of the heart. In what an unnatural manner is innocence often violated;
and what serious consequences ensue to render private vices a public pest.
Besides, an habit of personal order, which has more
effect on the moral character, than is, in general, supposed, can only be
acquired at home, where that respectable reserve is kept up which checks the
familiarity that, sinking into beastliness, undermines the affection it
insults.
I have already animadverted on the bad habits
which females acquire when they are shut up together; and, I think, that the
observation may fairly be extended to the other sex, till the natural inference
is drawn which I have had in view throughout--that to improve both sexes they
ought, not only in private families, but in public schools, to be educated
together. If marriage be the cement of society, mankind should all be educated
after the same model, or the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the
name of fellowship, nor will women ever fulfil the
peculiar duties of their sex, till they become enlightened citizens, till they
become free by being enabled to earn their own subsistence, independent of men;
in the same manner, I mean, to prevent misconstruction, as one man is
independent of another. Nay, marriage will never be held sacred till women, by
being brought up with men, are prepared to be their companions rather than
their mistresses; for the mean doublings of cunning will ever render them
contemptible, whilst oppression renders them timid. So convinced am I of this
truth, that I will venture to predict that virtue will never prevail in society
till the virtues of both sexes are founded on reason; and, till the affections
common to both are allowed to gain their due strength by the discharge of
mutual duties.
Were boys and girls permitted to pursue the same
studies together, those graceful decencies might early be inculcated which
produce modesty without those sexual distinctions that taint the mind. Lessons
of politeness, and that formulary of decorum, which treads on the heels of
falsehood, would be rendered useless by habitual propriety of behaviour. Not indeed put on for visitors, like the courtly
robe of politeness, but the sober effect of cleanliness of mind. Would not this
simple elegance of sincerity be a chaste homage paid to domestic affections,
far surpassing the meretricious compliments that shine with false lustre in the heartless intercourse of fashionable life?
But till more understanding preponderates in society, there will ever be a want
of heart and taste, and the harlot's rouge will supply the place of that
celestial suffusion which only virtuous affections can give to the face.
Gallantry, and what is called love, may subsist without simplicity of character
but the main pillars of friendship are respect and confidence--esteem is never
founded on it cannot tell what!
A taste for the fine arts requires great
cultivation, but not more than a taste for the virtuous affections, and both
suppose that enlargement of mind which opens so many sources of mental
pleasure. Why do people hurry to noisy scenes and crowded circles? I should
answer, because they want activity of mind, because they have not cherished the
virtues of the heart. They only therefore see and feel in the gross, and
continually pine after variety, finding everything that is simple insipid.
This argument may be carried further than
philosophers are rare of, for if nature destined woman, in particular, for the
discharge of domestic duties, she made her susceptible of the attached
affections in a great degree. Now women are notoriously fond of pleasure, and
naturally must be so according to my definition, because they cannot enter into
the minutia of domestic taste, lacking judgment, the foundation of all taste;
for the understanding, in spite of sensual cavillers,
reserves to itself the privilege of conveying pure joy to the heart.
With what a languid yawn have I seen an admirable
poem thrown down that a man of true taste returns to again and again with
rapture; and whilst melody has almost suspended respiration, a lady has asked
me where I bought my gown. I have seen also an eye
glanced coldly over a most exquisite picture rest, sparkling with pleasure, on
a caricature rudely sketched; and whilst some terrific feature in nature has
spread a sublime stillness through my soul, I have been desired to observe the
pretty tricks of a lap-dog that my perverse fate forced me to travel with. Is
it surprising that such a tasteless being should rather caress this dog than
her children? Or that she should prefer the rant of flattery to the simple
accents of sincerity?
To illustrate this remark I must be allowed to
observe that men of the first genius and most cultivated minds have appeared to
have the highest relish for the simple beauties of nature; and they must have
forcibly felt, what they have so well described, the charm which natural
affections and unsophisticated feelings spread round the human character. It is
this power of looking into the heart, and responsively vibrating with each
emotion, that enables the poet to personify each passion, and the painter to
sketch with a pencil of fire.
True taste is ever the work of the understanding
employed in observing natural effects; and till women have more understanding,
it is vain to expect them to possess domestic taste. Their lively senses will
ever be at work to harden their hearts, and the emotions struck out of them
will continue to be vivid and transitory, unless a proper education store their
mind with knowledge.
It is the want of domestic taste, and not the
acquirement of knowledge, that takes women out of their families, and tears the
smiling babe from the breast that ought to afford it nourishment. Women have
been allowed to remain in ignorance and slavish dependence many, very many,
years, and still we hear of nothing but their fondness of pleasure and sway,
their preference of rakes and soldiers, their childish attachment to toys, and
the vanity that makes them value accomplishments more than virtues.
History brings forward a fearful catalogue of the
crimes which their cunning has produced, when the weak slaves
nave had sufficient address to overreach their masters. In France, and in how
many other countries, have men been the luxurious despots, and women the crafty
ministers? Does this prove that ignorance and dependence domesticate them? Is
not their folly the byword of the libertines, who relax in their society? and do not men of sense continually lament that an
immoderate fondness for dress and dissipation carries the mother of a family
for ever from home? Their hearts have not been debauched by knowledge, or their
minds led away by scientific pursuits, yet they do not fulfil
the peculiar duties which, as women, they are called upon by Nature to fulfil. On the contrary, the state of warfare which
subsists between the sexes makes them employ those wiles that often frustrate
the more open designs of force.
When therefore I call women slaves, I mean in a
political and civil sense; for indirectly they obtain too much power, and are debased by their exertions to obtain illicit sway.
Let an enlightened nation [3] then try what
effect reason would have to bring them back to nature, and their duty; and
allowing them to share the advantages of education and government with man, see
whether they will become better, as they grow wiser and become free. They
cannot be injured by the experiment, for it is not in the power of man to
render them more insignificant than they are at present.
To render this practicable, day-schools for
particular ares should be established by Government,
in which boys and girls might be educated together. The school for the younger
children, from five to nine years of age, ought to be absolutely free and open
to all classes.[4] A sufficient number of masters
should also be chosen by a select committee in each parish, to whom any
complaint of negligence, etc., might be made, if signed by six of the
children's parents.
Ushers would then be unnecessary; for I believe
experience will ever prove that this kind of subordinate authority is
particularly injurious to the morals of youth. What, indeed, can tend to
deprave the character more than outward submission and inward contempt? Yet how
can boys be expected to treat an usher with respect,
when the master seems to consider him in the light of a servant, and almost to
countenance the ridicule which becomes the chief amusement of the boys during
the play hours?
But nothing of this kind could occur in an
elementary day school, where boys and girls, the rich and poor, should meet
together. And to prevent any of the distinctions of vanity, they should be
dressed alike, and all obliged to submit to the same discipline, or leave the
school. The schoolroom ought to be surrounded by a large piece of ground, in
which the children might be usefully exercised, for at this age they should not
be confined to any sedentary employment for more than an hour at a time. But
these relaxations might all be rendered a part of elementary education, for
many things improve and amuse the senses, when introduced as a kind of show, to
the principles of which, dryly laid down, children
would turn a deaf ear. For instance, botany, mechanics, and astronomy; reading,
writing, arithmetic, natural history, and some simple experiments in natural
philosophy, might fill up the day; but these pursuits should never encroach on
gymnastic plays in the open air. The elements of religion, history, the history
of man, and politics, might also be taught by conversations in the Socratic
form.
After the age of nine, girls and boys, intended
for domestic employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be removed to other
schools, and receive instruction in some measure appropriated to the
destination of each individual, the two sexes being still together in the
morning; but in the afternoon the girls should attend a school, where plain
work, mantua-making, millinery, etc., would be their
employment.
The young people of superior abilities, or
fortune, might now be taught, in another school, the dead and living languages,
the elements of science, and continue the study of history and politics, on a
more extensive scale, which would not exclude polite literature.
Girls and boys still together?
I hear some readers ask. Yes. And I should not fear any other consequence than
that some early attachment might take place; which, whilst it had the best
effect on the moral character of the young people, might not perfectly agree
with the views of the parents, for it will be a long time, I fear, before the
world will be so far enlightened that parents, only anxious to render their
children virtuous, shall allow them to choose companions for life themselves.
Besides, this would be a sure way to promote
early marriages, from early marriages the most salutary physical and moral
effects naturally flow. What a different character does a married citizen
assume from the selfish coxcomb, who lives but for himself, and who is often
afraid to marry lest he should not be able to live in a certain style. Great
emergencies excepted, which would rarely occur in a
society of which equality was the basis, a man can only be prepared to
discharge the duties of public life, by the habitual practice of those inferior
ones which form the man.
In this plan of education the constitution of
boys would not be ruined by the early debaucheries, which now make men so
selfish, or girls rendered weak and vain, by indolence, and frivolous pursuits.
But, I presuppose, that such a degree of equality should be established between
the sexes as would shut out gallantry and coquetry, yet allow friendship and
love to temper the heart for the discharge of higher duties.
These would be schools of morality--and the
happiness of man, allowed to flow from the pure
springs of duty and affection, what advances might not the human mind make?
Society can only be happy and free in proportion as it is virtuous; but the
present distinctions, established in society, corrode all private, and blast
all public virtue.
I have already inveighed against the custom of
confining girls to their needle, and shutting them out from all political and
civil employments; for by thus narrowing their minds they are rendered unfit to
fulfil the peculiar duties which Nature has assigned
them.
Only employed about the little incidents of the
day, they necessarily grow up cunning. My very soul has often sickened at
observing the sly tricks practised by women to gain
some foolish thing on which their silly hearts were set. Not allowed to dispose
of money, or call anything their own, they learn to
turn the market penny; or, should a husband offend, by staying from home, or
give rise to some emotions of jealousy--a new gown, or any pretty bauble, smooths Juno's angry brow.
But these littlenesses would not degrade their character, if women were led to respect themselves, if political and moral subjects were opened to them; and, I will venture to affirm, that this is the only way to make them properly attentive to their domestic duties. An active mind embraces the whole circle of its duties, and finds time enough for all. It is not, I assert, a bold attempt to emulate masculine virtues; it is not the enchantment of literary pursuits, or the steady investigation of scientific subjects, that leads women astray from duty. No, it is indolence and vanity--the love of pleasure and the love of sway, that will reign paramount in an empty mind. I say empty emphatically, because the education which women now receive scarcely deserves the name. For the little knowledge that they are led to acquire, during the important years of youth, is merely relative to accomplishments; and accomplishments without a bottom, for unless the understanding be cultivated, superficial and monotonous is every grace. Like the charms of a made-up face, they only st