Indignantly have I heard women argue in the same track as men, and
adopt the sentiments that brutalize them, with all the pertinacity
of ignorance.
I must illustrate my assertion by a few examples. Mrs. Piozzi, who
often repeated by rote, what she did not understand, comes forward
with Johnsonian periods.
'Seek not for happiness in singularity; and dread a refinement of
wisdom as a deviation into folly.' Thus she dogmatically addresses a
new married man; and to elucidate this pompous exordium, she adds,
'I said that the person of your lady would not grow more pleasing to
you, but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so: that a
woman will pardon an affront to her understanding much sooner than one
to her person, is well known; nor will any of us contradict the
assertion. All our attainments, all our arts, are employed to gain and
keep the heart of man; and what mortification can exceed the
disappointment, if the end be not obtained? There is no reproof
however pointed, no punishment however severe, that a woman of
spirit will not prefer to neglect; and if she can endure it without
complaint, it only proves that she means to make herself amends by the
attention of others for the slights of her husband!'
These are truly masculine sentiments.- 'All our arts are employed to
gain and keep the heart of man:'- and what is the inference?- if her
person, and was there ever a person, though formed with Medicean
Symmetry, that was not slighted? be neglected, she will make herself
amends by endeavouring to please other men.
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