ANIMADVERSIONS ON SOME OF THE WRITERS WHO HAVE RENDERED WOMEN OBJECTS OF PITY, BORDERING ON CONTEMPT.
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 the character of women, 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, from hence
