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VINDICATION OF THE

and excluſive appropriation of reaſon? The rights of humanity have been thus confined to the male line from Adam downwards. Rouſſeau would carry his male ariſtocracy ſtill further, for he inſinuates, that he ſhould not blame thoſe, who contend for leaving woman in a ſtate of the moſt profound ignorance, if it were not neceſſary in order to preſerve her chaſtity and juſtify the man's choice, in the eyes of the world, to give her a little knowledge of men, and the cuſtoms produced by human paſſions; elſe ſhe might propagate at home without being rendered leſs voluptuous and innocent by the exerciſe of her underſtanding: excepting, indeed, during the firſt year of marriage, when ſhe might employ it to dreſs like Sophia. 'Her dreſs is extremely modeſt in appearance, and yet very coquettiſh in fact: ſhe does not make a diſplay of her charms, ſhe conceals them; but in concealing them, ſhe knows how to affect your imagination. Every one who ſees her, will ſay, There is a modeſt and diſcreet girl; but while you are near her, your eyes and affections wander all over her perſon, ſo that you cannot withdraw them; and you would conclude, that every part of her dreſs, ſimple as it ſeems, was only put in its proper order to be taken to pieces by the imagination.' Is this modeſty? Is this a preparation for immortality? Again.—What opinion are we to form of a ſyſtem of education, when the author ſays of his heroine, 'that with her, doing things well, is but a ſecondary concern; her principal concern is to do them neatly.'

Secondary,