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?
Chap. IV.
Observations on the State of Degradation to Which Woman
Is Reduced by Various Causes.
That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of
circumstances, is, I think, clear. But this position I shall simply
contrast with a conclusion, which I have frequently heard fall from
sensible men in favour of an aristocracy: that the mass of mankind
cannot be anything, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow
themselves to be driven forward, would feel their own consequence, and
spurn their chains. Men, they further observe, submit every where to
oppression, when they have only to lift up their heads to throw off
the yoke; yet, instead of asserting their birthright, they quietly
lick the dust, and say, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same propensity to
enjoy the present moment; and, at last, despise the freedom which they
have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.
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