a woman would be too easily led astray, and in this philosophical age, she must be above temptation; she must know in advance. what may be said of her, and what she ought to think of it.

Moreover, subject to the judgment of men, she ought to merit their esteem; she ought, above all, to secure the esteem of her husband; she ought not only to make him love her person, but make him approve her conduct; she ought to justify before the public the choice which he has made, and make her husband honored with the honor which is paid his wife. Now, how shall she go about all this if she is ignorant of our institutions, if she knows nothing of our usages and our social customs, if she knows neither the source of human judgments nor the passions which determine them? When she depends at once on her own conscience and the opinions of others, she must learn to compare these two rules, to reconcile them, and to prefer the first only when they are in opposition. She becomes the judge of her judges; she decides when she ought to submit to them and when she ought to challenge them. Before rejecting or admitting their prejudices she weighs them; she learns to ascend to their source, to anticipate them, and render them favorable to her; she is careful never to draw censure on herself when her duty permits her to avoid it. Nothing of all this can be done without cultivating her mind and her reason.

The search for abstract and speculative truths, principles, and scientific axioms, whatever tends to general ideas, does not fall within the compass of women; all their studies ought to have reference to the practical; it is for them to make the application of the principles which man has discovered, and to make the observations which lead man to the establishment of principles. All the reflections of women which are not immediately connected with their duties ought to be directed to the study of men and to that pleasure-giving knowledge which has only taste for its object; for as to works of genius, they are out of their reach, nor have they sufficient accuracy and attention to succeed in the exact sciences. Woman, who is weak, and who sees nothing external, appreciates and judges the motive powers which she can set to

work to offset her weakness, and these motive powers are the passions of men. Whatever her sex can do for itself, and which is necessary or agreeable to her, she must have the art of making us desire.1

42. THE INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT ON WOMAN'S CHARACTER 2

After considering the historic page . . . I have sighed when obliged to confess that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization 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 miserable 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. I attribute this to a false system

of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men who, considering females rather as women than as human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than rational wives; and the understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilized 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.

1 This seems to be the modern "indirect-influence" argument against the franchise for women put into a nutshell. — ED.

2 By Mary Wollstonecraft. Adapted from A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1st edition, pp. 1, 2, 32–33, 38–41, 87–91, 106–108, 330–335, 337-342. London, 1792. This book has become, with Mill's "Subjection of Women," one of the two classics of the woman movement in England. The extracts here given, in spite of occasional quaintness of style, are surprisingly modern in point of view.

THE PREVAILING OPINION OF SEXUAL CHARACTER DISCUSSED

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 Providence to lead mankind to either virtue or happiness.

If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious name of innocence?... 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 or 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 life. How grossly do they insult us who advise us to render ourselves gentle, domestic brutes!

I may be accused of arrogance; still I must declare, what I firmly believe, that all the writers on the subject of female education and manners, from Rousseau to Dr. Gregory,1 have contributed to render women more artificial, weak characters than they otherwise would have been, and consequently more useless members of society.

Many are the causes that, in the present corrupt state of society, contribute to enslave women by cramping their understandings 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

1 Legacy to his Daughters, 1796.

prevents

their generalizing 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 generalized 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 ardor necessary to give vigor 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 while 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.

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 in opinion respecting the first dawn of 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. Most of the women in the circle of my observation who have acted like rational creatures or shown any vigor of intellect, have

accidentally been allowed to run wild—as some of the elegant formers of the fair sex would insinuate.

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 scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming around its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn 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.

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, have very different duties to fulfill; 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 understanding is necessary; there is no other foundation for independence of character. I mean explicitly to say that they must only bow to the authority of reason, instead of being the modest slaves of opinion. . . . Allowing women to be rational creatures, they should be incited to acquire virtues of their own, for how can a rational being be ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own exertions? Women, obtaining power by unjust means, by practicing or fostering vice, 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.