Women, I allow, may have different duties to fulfil; but they are human duties, and the principles that ſhould regulate the diſcharge of them, I ſturdily maintain, muſt be the ſame.
To become reſpectable, the exerciſe of their underſtanding is neceſſary, there is no other foundation for independence of character; I mean explicitly to ſay that they muſt only bow to the authority of reaſon, inſtead of being the modeſt ſlaves of opinion.
In the ſuperiour ranks of life how ſeldom do we meet with a man of ſuperior abilities, or even common acquirements? The reaſon appears to me clear, the ſtate they are born in was an unnatural one. The human character has ever been formed by the employments the individual, or claſs, purſues; and if the faculties are not ſharpened by neceſſity, they muſt remain obtuſe. The argument may fairly be extended to women; for, ſeldom occupied by ſerious buſineſs, the purſuit of pleaſure gives that inſignificancy to their character which renders the ſociety of the great ſo inſipid. The ſame want of firmneſs, produced by a ſimilar cauſe, forces them both to fly from themſelves to noiſy pleaſures, and artificial paſſions, till vanity takes place of every ſocial affection, and the characteriſtics of humanity can ſcarcely be diſcerned. Such are the bleſſings of civil governments, as they are at preſent organized, that wealth and female ſoftneſs equally tend to debaſe mankind, and are produced by the ſame cauſe; but allowing women to be rational creatures, they ſhould be incited to acquire virtues which they may call their own, for how can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?
