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