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 organized, 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, that 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 a duty the buſineſs of life, though reaſon were inſulted. Yet, and I appeal to experience, if by neglecting the underſtanding they are as much, nay, more detached from theſe domeſtic duties, than they could be by the moſt ſerious intellectual purſuit, though it may be obſerved that the maſs of mankind will never vigor-
