able to ſuppoſe that they will change their character, and correct their vices and follies, when they are allowed to be free in a phyſical, moral, and civil ſenſe[1].
Let woman ſhare the rights, and ſhe will emulate the virtues of man; for ſhe muſt grow more perfect when emancipated, or juſtify the authority that chains ſuch a weak being to her duty.—If the latter, it will be expedient to open a freſh trade with Ruſſia for whips; a preſent which a father ſhould always make to his ſon-in-law on his wedding day, that a huſband may keep his whole family in order by the ſame means; and without any violation of juſtice reign, wielding this ſceptre, ſole maſter of his houſe, becauſe he is the only being in it who has reaſon:—the divine, indefeaſible earthly ſovereignty breathed into man by the Maſter of the univerſe. Allowing this poſition, women have not any inherent rights to claim, and by the ſame rule, their duties vaniſh, for rights and duties are inſeparable.
Be juſt then, O ye men of underſtanding! and mark not more ſeverely what women do amiſs, than the vicious tricks of the horſe or the aſs for whom ye provide provender—and allow her the privileges of ignorance, to whom ye deny the rights of reaſon, or ye will be worſe than Egyptian taſk-maſters, expecting virtue where nature has not given underſtanding!
- ↑ I had further enlarged on the advantages which might reaſonably be expected to reſult from an improvement in female manners, towards the general reformation of ſociety; but it appeared to me that ſuch reflections would more properly cloſe the laſt volume.
