'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 man; but his ſlave: it is by her ſuperiour art and ingenuity that ſhe preſerves her equality, and governs him while ſhe affects to obey. Woman has every thing againſt her, as well our faults, as her own timidity and weakneſs; ſhe has nothing in her favour, but her ſubtilty 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 differ about words, when their direct ſignification is inſincerity and falſehood; but content myſelf with obſerving, that if any claſs of mankind are to be educated by rules not ſtrictly deducible from truth, virtue is an affair of convention. How could Rouſſeau dare to aſſert, after giving
