A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
solid matter, which he drew into this glowing focus.
I observed that it was not mechanical, because a whole was
produced--a model of that grand simplicity, of those concurring
energies, which arrest our attention and command our reverence.
For only insipid lifeless beauty is produced by a servile copy of
even beautiful nature. Yet, independent of these observations, I
believe, that the human form must have been far more beautiful than
it is at present, because extreme indolence, barbarous ligatures,
and many causes, which forcibly act on it, in our luxurious state
of society, did not retard its expansion, or render it deformed.
Exercise and cleanliness appear to be not only the surest means of
preserving health, but of promoting beauty, the physical causes
only considered; yet, this is not sufficient, moral ones must
concur, or beauty will be merely of that rustic kind which blooms
on the innocent, wholesome countenances of some country people,
whose minds have not been exercised. To render the person perfect,
physical and moral beauty ought to be attained at the same time;
each lending and receiving force by the combination. Judgment must
reside on the brow, affection and fancy beam in the eye, and
humanity curve the cheek, or vain is the sparkling of the finest
eye or the elegantly turned finish of the fairest features; whilst
in every motion that displays the active limbs and well-knit
joints, grace and modesty should appear. But this fair assemblage
is not to be brought together by chance; it is the reward of
exertions met to support each other; for judgment can only be
acquired by reflection, affection, by the discharge of duties, and
humanity by the exercise of compassion to every living creature.
Humanity to animals should be particularly inculcated as a part of
national education, for it is not at present one of our national
virtues. Tenderness for their humble dumb domestics, amongst the
lower class, is oftener to be found in a savage than a civilized
state. For civilization prevents that intercourse which creates
affection in the rude hut, or mud cabin, and leads uncultivated
minds who are only depraved by the refinements which prevail in the
society, where they are trodden under foot by the rich, to domineer
over them to revenge the insults that they are obliged to bear from
their superiours.
This habitual cruelty is first caught at school, where it is one of
the rare sports of the boys to torment the miserable brutes that
fall in their way. The transition, as they grow up, from barbarity
to brutes to domestic tyranny over wives, children, and servants,
is very easy. Justice, or even benevolence, will not be a powerful
spring of action, unless it extend to the whole creation; nay, I
believe that it may be delivered as an axiom, that those who can
see pain, unmoved, will soon learn to inflict it.
The vulgar are swayed by present feelings, and the habits which
they have accidentally acquired; but on partial feelings much
dependence cannot be placed, though they be just; for, when they
are not invigorated by reflection, custom weakens them, till they
are scarcely felt. The sympathies of our nature are strengthened
by pondering cogitations, and deadened by thoughtless use.
Macbeth's heart smote him more for one murder, the first, than for
a hundred subsequent ones, which were necessary to back it. But,
when I used the epithet vulgar, I did not mean to confine my remark
to the poor, for partial humanity, founded on present sensations or
whim, is quite as conspicuous, if not more so, amongst the rich.
The lady who sheds tears for the bird starved in a snare, and
execrates the devils in the shape of men, who goad to madness the
poor ox, or whip the patient ass, tottering under a burden above
its strength, will, nevertheless, keep her coachman and horses
whole hours waiting for her, when the sharp frost bites, or the
rain beats against the well-closed windows which do not admit a
breath of air to tell her how roughly the wind blows without. And
she who takes her dogs to bed, and nurses them with a parade of
sensibility, when sick, will suffer her babes to grow up crooked in
a nursery. This illustration of my argument is drawn from a matter
of fact. The woman whom I allude to was handsome, reckoned very
handsome, by those who do not miss the mind when the face is plump
and fair; but her understanding had not been led from female duties
by literature, nor her innocence debauched by knowledge. No, she
was quite feminine, according to the masculine acceptation of the
word; and, so far from loving these spoiled brutes that filled the
place which her children ought to have occupied, she only lisped
out a pretty mixture of French and English nonsense, to please the
men who flocked round her. The wife, mother, and human creature,
were all swallowed up by the factitious character, which an
improper education, and the selfish vanity of beauty, had produced.
I do not like to make a distinction without a difference, and I own
that I have been as much disgusted by the fine lady who took her
lap-dog to her bosom, instead of her child; as by the ferocity of a
man, who, beating his horse, declared, that he knew as well when he
did wrong as a Christian.
This brood of folly shows how mistaken they are who, if they allow
women to leave their harams, do not cultivate their understanding,
in order to plant virtues in their hearts. For had they sense,
they might acquire that domestic taste which would lead them to
love with reasonable subordination their whole family, from the
husband to the house-dog; nor would they ever insult humanity in
the person of the most menial servant, by paying more attention to
the comfort of a brute, than to that of a fellow-creature.
My observations on national education are obviously hints; but I
principally wish to enforce the necessity of educating the sexes
together to perfect both, and of making children sleep at home,
that they may learn to love home; yet to make private support
instead of smothering public affections, they should be sent to
school to mix with a number of equals, for only by the jostlings of
equality can we form a just opinion of ourselves.
To render mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes
must act from the same principle; but how can that be expected when
only one is allowed to see the reasonableness of it? To render
also the social compact truly equitable, and in order to spread
those enlightening principles, which alone can meliorate the fate
of man, women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge,
which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same
pursuits as men. For they are now made so inferiour by ignorance
and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them; or, by
the serpentine wrigglings of cunning they mount the tree of
knowledge and only acquire sufficient to lead men astray.
It is plain from the history of all nations, that women cannot be
confined to merely domestic pursuits, for they will not fulfil
family duties, unless their minds take a wider range, and whilst
they are kept in ignorance, they become in the same proportion, the
slaves of pleasure as they are the slaves of man. Nor can they be
shut out of great enterprises, though the narrowness of their minds
often make them mar what they are unable to comprehend.
The libertinism, and even the virtues of superior men, will always
give women, of some description, great power over them; and these
weak women, under the influence of childish passions and selfish
vanity, will throw a false light over the objects which the very
men view with their eyes, who ought to enlighten their judgment.
Men of fancy, and those sanguine characters who mostly hold the
helm of human affairs, in general, relax in the society of women;
and surely I need not cite to the most superficial reader of
history, the numerous examples of vice and oppression which the
private intrigues of female favourites have produced; not to dwell
on the mischief that naturally arises from the blundering
interposition of well-meaning folly. For in the transactions of
business it is much better to have to deal with a knave than a
fool, because a knave adheres to some plan; and any plan of reason
may be seen through much sooner than a sudden flight of folly. The
power which vile and foolish women have had over wise men, who
possessed sensibility, is notorious; I shall only mention one
instance.
Whoever drew a more exalted female character than Rousseau? though
in the lump he constantly endeavoured to degrade the sex. And why
was he thus anxious? Truly to justify to himself the affection
which weakness and virtue had made him cherish for that fool
Theresa. He could not raise her to the common level of her sex;
and therefore he laboured to bring woman down to her's. He found
her a convenient humble companion, and pride made him determine to
find some superior virtues in the being whom he chose to live with;
but did not her conduct during his life, and after his death,
clearly show how grossly he was mistaken who called her a celestial
innocent. Nay, in the bitterness of his heart, he himself laments,
that when his bodily infirmities made him no longer treat her like
a woman, she ceased to have an affection for him. And it was very
natural that she should, for having so few sentiments in common,
when the sexual tie was broken, what was to hold her? To hold her
affection whose sensibility was confined to one sex, nay, to one
man, it requires sense to turn sensibility into the broad channel
of humanity: many women have not mind enough to have an affection
for a woman, or a friendship for a man. But the sexual weakness
that makes woman depend on man for a subsistence, produces a kind
of cattish affection, which leads a wife to purr about her husband,
as she would about any man who fed and caressed her.
Men, are however, often gratified by this kind of fondness which is
confined in a beastly manner to themselves, but should they ever
become more virtuous, they will wish to converse at their fire-side
with a friend, after they cease to play with a mistress. Besides,
understanding is necessary to give variety and interest to sensual
enjoyments, for low, indeed, in the intellectual scale, is the mind
that can continue to love when neither virtue nor sense give a
human appearance to an animal appetite. But sense will always
preponderate; and if women are not, in general, brought more on a
level with men, some superior women, like the Greek courtezans will
assemble the men of abilities around them, and draw from their
families many citizens, who would have stayed at home, had their
wives had more sense, or the graces which result from the exercise
of the understanding and fancy, the legitimate parents of taste. A
woman of talents, if she be not absolutely ugly, will always obtain
great power, raised by the weakness of her sex; and in proportion
as men acquire virtue and delicacy: by the exertion of reason, they
will look for both in women, but they can only acquire them in the
same way that men do.
In France or Italy have the women confined themselves to domestic
life? though they have not hitherto had a political existence, yet,
have they not illicitly had great sway? corrupting themselves and
the men with whose passions they played? In short, in whatever
light I view the subject, reason and experience convince me, that
the only method of leading women to fulfil their peculiar duties,
is to free them from all restraint by allowing them to participate
the inherent rights of mankind.
Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as
men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the