The education of women has, of late, been more attended to than formerly; yet they are ſtill reckoned a frivolous ſex, and ridiculed or pitied by the writers who endeavor by ſatire or inſtruction to improve them. It is acknowledged that they ſpend many of the firſt years of their lives in acquiring a ſmattering of accompliſhments: meanwhile ſtrength of body and mind are ſacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the deſire of eſtabliſhing themſelves,—the only way women can riſe in the world,—by marriage. And this deſire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as ſuch children may be expected to act:—they dreſs; they paint, and nickname God's creatures.—Surely theſe weak beings are only fit for a ſeraglio!—Can they govern a family, or take care of the poor babes whom they bring into the world?
If then it can be fairly deduced from the preſent conduct of the ſex, from the prevalent fondneſs for pleaſure which takes place of ambition and thoſe nobler paſſions that open and enlarge the ſoul; that the inſtruction which women have received has only tended, with the conſtitution of civil ſociety, to render them inſignificant objects of deſire—mere propagators of fools!—if it can be proved that in aiming to
