they will prove that they have leſs mind than man.
I may be accuſed of arrogance; ſtill I muſt declare, what I firmly believe, that all the writers who have written on the ſubject of female education and manners, from Rouſſeau to Dr. Gregory, have contributed to render women more artificial, weak characters, than they would otherwiſe have been; and, conſequently, more uſeleſs members of ſociety, I might have expreſſed this conviction in a lower key; but I am afraid it would have been the whine of affectation, and not the faithful expreſſion of my feelings; of the clear reſult, which experience and reflection have led me to draw. When I come to that diviſion of the ſubject, I ſhall advert to the paſſages that I more particularly diſapprove of, in the works of the authors I have juſt alluded to; but it is firſt neceſſary to obſerve, that my objection extends to the whole purport of thoſe books, which tend, in my opinion, to degrade one half of the human ſpecies, and render women pleaſing at the expenſe of every ſolid virtue.
Though, to reaſon on Rouſſeau's ground, if man did attain a degree of perfection of mind when his body arrived at maturity, it might be proper, in order to make a man and his wife one, that ſhe ſhould rely entirely on his underſtanding; and the graceful ivy, claſping the oak that ſupported it, would form a whole in which ſtrength and beauty would be equally conſpicuous. But, alas! huſbands, as well as their helpmates, are often only overgrown children; nay,
