In fact, the conduct of an accountable being must be regulated by
the operations of its own reason; or on what foundation rests the
throne of God?
It appears to me necessary to dwell on these obvious truths, because
females have been insulated, as it were; and, while they have been
stripped of the virtues that should clothe humanity, they have been
decked with artificial graces that enable them to exercise a
short-lived tyranny. Love, in their bosoms, taking place of every
nobler passion, their sole ambition is to be fair, to raise emotion
instead of inspiring respect; and this ignoble desire, like the
servility in absolute monarchies, destroys all strength of
character. Liberty is the mother of virtue, and if women be, by
their very constitution, slaves, and not allowed to breathe the
sharp invigorating air of freedom, they must ever languish like
exotics, and be reckoned beautiful flaws in nature.
As to the argument respecting the subjection in which the sex has
ever been held, it retorts on man. The many have always been
enthralled by the few; and monsters, who scarcely have shewn any
discernment of human excellence, have tyrannized over thousands of
their fellow-creatures. Why have men of superiour endowments submitted
to such degradation? For, is it not universally acknowledged that
kings, viewed collectively, have ever been inferior, in abilities
and virtue, to the same number of men taken from the common mass of
mankind- yet, have they not, and are they not still treated with a
degree of reverence that is an insult to reason? China is not the only
country where a living man has been made a God.
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