Gay without toil, and lovely without art,
They spring to CHEER the sense, and GLAD the heart.
Nor blush, my fair, to own you copy these;
Your BEST, your SWEETEST empire is- TO PLEASE.'
So the men tell us; but virtue, says reason, must be acquired by
rough toils, and useful struggles with worldly cares.
The power of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive
conclusions from individual observations, is the only acquirement, for
an immortal being, that really deserves the name of knowledge.
Merely to observe, without endeavouring to account for any thing,
may (in a very incomplete manner) serve as the common sense of life;
but where is the store laid up that is to clothe the soul when it
leaves the body?
This power has not only been denied to women; but writers have
insisted that it is inconsistent, with a few exceptions, with their
sexual character. Let men prove this, and I shall grant that woman
only exists for man. I must, however, previously remark, that the
power of generalizing ideas, to any great extent, is not very common
amongst men or women. But this exercise is the true cultivation of the
understanding; and every thing conspires to render the cultivation
of the understanding more difficult in the female than the male world.
I am naturally led by this assertion to the main subject of the
present chapter, and shall now attempt to point out some of the causes
that degrade the sex, and prevent women from generalizing their
observations.
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