CHAPTER 2.

by Mary Wollstonecraft

　　THE PREVAILING OPINION OF A SEXUAL CHARACTER DISCUSSED.To account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, many ingeniousarguments have been brought forward to prove, that the two sexes,in the acquirement of virtue, ought to aim at attaining a verydifferent character: or, to speak explicitly, women are notallowed to have sufficient strength of mind to acquire what reallydeserves the name of virtue. Yet it should seem, allowing them tohave souls, that there is but one way appointed by providence tolead MANKIND to either virtue or happiness.

　　If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, why shouldthey be kept in ignorance under the specious name of innocence?Men complain, and with reason, of the follies and caprices of oursex, when they do not keenly satirize our headstrong passions andgroveling vices. Behold, I should answer, the natural effect ofignorance! The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudicesto rest on, and the current will run with destructive fury whenthere are no barriers to break its force. Women are told fromtheir infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that alittle knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softnessof temper, OUTWARD obedience, and a scrupulous attention to apuerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection ofman; and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless,for at least twenty years of their lives.

　　Thus Milton describes our first frail mother; though when he tellsus that women are formed for softness and sweet attractive grace, Icannot comprehend his meaning, unless, in the true Mahometanstrain, he meant to deprive us of souls, and insinuate that we werebeings only designed by sweet attractive grace, and docile blindobedience, to gratify the senses of man when he can no longer soaron the wing of contemplation.

　　How grossly do they insult us, who thus advise us only to renderourselves gentle, domestic brutes! For instance, the winningsoftness, so warmly, and frequently recommended, that governs byobeying. What childish expressions, and how insignificant is thebeing—can it be an immortal one? who will condescend to govern bysuch sinister methods! "Certainly," says Lord Bacon, "man is ofkin to the beasts by his body: and if he be not of kin to God byhis spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature!" Men, indeed,appear to me to act in a very unphilosophical manner, when they tryto secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep themalways in a state of childhood. Rousseau was more consistent whenhe wished to stop the progress of reason in both sexes; for if meneat of the tree of knowledge, women will come in for a taste: but,from the imperfect cultivation which their understandings nowreceive, they only attain a knowledge of evil.

　　Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet isapplied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness. Forif it be allowed that women were destined by Providence to acquirehuman virtues, and by the exercise of their understandings, thatstability of character which is the firmest ground to rest ourfuture hopes upon, they must be permitted to turn to the fountainof light, and not forced to shape their course by the twinkling ofa mere satellite. Milton, I grant, was of a very differentopinion; for he only bends to the indefeasible right of beauty,though it would be difficult to render two passages, which I nowmean to contrast, consistent: but into similar inconsistencies aregreat men often led by their senses:—

　　"To whom thus Eve with perfect beauty adorned:

　　My author and disposer, what thou bidst

　　Unargued I obey; so God ordains;

　　God is thy law, thou mine; to know no more

　　Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise."

　　These are exactly the arguments that I have used to children; but Ihave added, "Your reason is now gaining strength, and, till itarrives at some degree of maturity, you must look up to me foradvice: then you ought to THINK, and only rely on God."

　　Yet, in the following lines, Milton seems to coincide with me, whenhe makes Adam thus expostulate with his Maker:—

　　"Hast thou not made me here thy substitute,

　　And these inferior far beneath me set?

　　Among unequals what society

　　Can sort, what harmony or delight?

　　Which must be mutual, in proportion due

　　Given and received; but in disparity

　　The one intense, the other still remiss

　　Cannot well suit with either, but soon prove

　　Tedious alike: of fellowship I speak

　　Such as I seek fit to participate

　　All rational delight."