Besides, various are the paths to power and fame which by accident
or choice men pursue, and though they jostle against each other, for
men of the same profession are seldom friends, yet there is a much
greater number of their fellow-creatures with whom they never clash.
But women are very differently situated with respect to each other-
for they are all rivals.
Before marriage it is their business to please men; and after,
with a few exceptions, they follow the same scent with all the
persevering pertinacity of instinct. Even virtuous women never
forget their sex in company, for they are for ever trying to make
themselves agreeable. A female beauty, and a male wit, appear to be
equally anxious to draw the attention of the company to themselves;
and the animosity of contemporary wits is proverbial.
Is it then surprising that when the sole ambition of woman centres
in beauty, and interest gives vanity additional force, perpetual
rivalships should ensue? They are all running the same race, and would
rise above the virtue of mortals, if they did not view each other with
a suspicious and even envious eye.
An immoderate fondness for dress, for pleasure, and for sway, are
the passions of savages; the passions that occupy those uncivilized
beings who have not yet extended the dominion of the mind, or even
learned to think with the energy necessary to concatenate that
abstract train of thought which produces principles. And that women
from their education and the present state of civilized life, are in
the same condition, cannot, I think, be controverted.
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