Inheriting, in a lineal descent
from the first fair defect in nature, the sovereignty of beauty,
they have, to maintain their power, resigned the natural rights, which
the exercise of reason might have procured them, and chosen rather
to be short-lived queens than labour to obtain the sober pleasures
that arise from equality. Exalted by their inferiority (this sounds
like a contradiction), they constantly demand homage as women,
though experience should teach them that the men who pride
themselves upon paying this arbitrary insolent respect to the sex,
with the most scrupulous exactness, are most inclined to tyrannize
over, and despise, the very weakness they cherish. Often do they
repeat Mr. Hume's sentiments; when, comparing the French and
Athenian character, he alludes to women. 'But what is more singular in
this whimsical nation, say I to the Athenians, is, that a frolick of
yours during the Saturnalia, when the slaves are served by their
masters, is seriously continued by them through the whole year, and
through the whole course and through the whole course of their
lives; accompanied too with some circumstances, which still further
augment the absurdity and ridicule. Your sport only elevates for a few
days those whom fortune has thrown down, and whom she too, in sport,
may really elevate for ever above you. But this nation gravely
exalts those, whom nature has subjected to them, and whose inferiority
and infirmities are absolutely incurable. The women, though without
virtue, are their masters and sovereigns.
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