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Yet as we never were, or can be in a State of Nature, I don't preſume to contend for an Equality, but acknowledge that God has for very wiſe Reaſons inveſted Man with the Superiority; but without Recourſe to Revelation, I believe it would be a hard Talk to juſtify the carrying the Authority of the Huſband, higher than Mr. Wollaſton has done.
Bur I will for once, even with Mr. Hobbs, ſuppoſe we were in a State of Nature, and ſee what he ſays would be the Conſequence of it.
"[1] And thus in a State of Nature, every Woman that bears Children becomes at once both a Mother and a Lord. But what ſome ſay that in this Caſe, the Father by Reaſon of the Pre-eminence of Sex, and not the Mother, becomes Lord, ſignifies nothing. For both Reaſon ſhews the contrary, becauſe the Inequality of their natural Forces is not ſo great, as that the Man could get the Dominion without War; and Cuſtom alſo contradicts not, for Women, namely Amazons, have in former Times waged War with their Adverſaries, and diſpoſed of their Children
- ↑ Philoſophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society, Chap. ix. p. 136.
