Men have submitted
to superior strength to enjoy with impunity the pleasure of the
moment- women have only done the same, and therefore till it is proved
that the courtier, who servilely resigns the birthright of a man, is
not a moral agent, it cannot be demonstrated that woman is essentially
inferior to man because she has always been subjugated.
Brutal force has hitherto governed the world, and that the science
of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philosophers
scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man that determinate
distinction.
I shall not pursue this argument any further than to establish an
obvious inference, that as sound politics diffuse liberty, mankind,
including woman, will become more wise and virtuous.
Chap. III.
The Same Subject Continued.
Bodily strength from being the distinction of heroes is now sunk
into such unmerited contempt that men, as well as women, seem to think
it unnecessary: the latter, as it takes from their feminine graces,
and from that lovely weakness the source of their undue power; and the
former, because it appears inimical to the character of a gentleman.
That they have both by departing from one extreme run into
another, may easily be proved; but first it may be proper to
observe, that a vulgar error has obtained a degree of credit, which
has given force to a false conclusion, in which an effect has been
mistaken for a cause.
People of genius have, very frequently, impaired their constitutions
by study or careless inattention to their health, and the violence
of their passions bearing a proportion to the vigour of their
intellects, the sword's destroying the scabbard has become almost
proverbial, and superficial observers have inferred from thence,
that men of genius have commonly weak, or, to use a more fashionable
phrase, delicate constitutions.
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