A blind will, 'eyes without hands,' would go a very
little way; and perchance his abstract reason, that should concentrate
the scattered beams of her practical reason, may be employed in
judging of the flavour of wine, descanting on the sauces most proper
for turtle; or, more profoundly intent at a card-table, he may be
generalizing his ideas as he bets away his fortune, leaving all the
minutae of education to his helpmate, or to chance.
But, granting that woman ought to be beautiful, innocent, and silly,
to render her a more alluring and indulgent companion;- what is her
understanding sacrificed for? And why is all this preparation
necessary only, according to Rousseau's own account, to make her the
mistress of her husband, a very short time? For no man ever insisted
more on the transient nature of love. Thus speaks the philosopher.
'Sensual pleasures are transient. The habitual state of the affections
always loses by their gratification. The imagination, which decks
the object of our desires, is lost in fruition. Excepting the
Supreme Being, who is self-existent, there is nothing beautiful but
what is ideal.'
But he returns to his unintelligible paradoxes again, when he thus
addresses Sophia. 'Emilius, in becoming your husband, is become your
master; and claims your obedience. Such is the order of nature. When a
man is married, however, to such a wife as Sophia, it is proper he
should be directed by her: this is also agreeable to the order of
nature: it is, therefore, to give you as much authority over his heart
as his sex gives him over your person, that I have made you the
arbiter of his pleasures.
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