Convinced that they have a right to what they insist on, they do not
fear reason, or dread the sifting of subjects that recur to natural
justice: because they firmly believe that the more enlightened the
human mind becomes the deeper root will just and simple principles
take. They do not rest in expedients, or grant that what is
metaphysically true can be practically false; but disdaining the
shifts of the moment they calmly wait till time, sanctioning
innovation, silences the hiss of selfishness or envy.
If the power of reflecting on the past, and darting the keen eye
of contemplation into futurity, be the grand privilege of man, it must
be granted that some people enjoy this prerogative in a very limited
degree. Every thing new appears to them wrong; and not able to
distinguish the possible from the monstrous, they fear where no fear
should find a place, running from the light of reason, as if it were a
firebrand; yet the limits of the possible have never been defined to
stop the sturdy innovator's hand.
Woman, however, a slave in every situation to prejudice, seldom
exerts enlightened maternal affection; for she either neglects her
children, or spoils them by improper indulgence. Besides, the
affection of some women for their children is, as I have before termed
it, frequently very brutish: for it eradicates every spark of
humanity. Justice, truth, every thing is sacrificed by these
Rebekah's, and for the sake of their own children they violate the
most sacred duties, forgetting the common relationship that binds
the whole family on earth together.
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