These are exactly the arguments that I have used to children; but
I have added, your reason is now gaining strength, and, till it
arrives at some degree of maturity, you must look up to me for advice-
then you ought to think, and only rely on God.

  Yet in the following lines Milton seems to coincide with me; when he
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 true delight?

        'Which must be mutual, in proportion due

        'Giv'n and receiv'd; 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-

  In treating, therefore, of the manners of women, let us,
disregarding sensual arguments, trace what we should endeavour to make
them in order to co-operate, if the expression be not too bold, with
the supreme Being.

  By individual education, I mean, for the sense of the word is not
precisely defined, such an attention to a child as will slowly sharpen
the senses, form the temper, regulate the passions as they begin to
ferment, and set the understanding to work before the body arrives
at maturity; so that the man may only have to proceed, not to begin,
the important task of learning to think and reason.

  To prevent any misconstruction, I must add, that I do not believe
that a private education can work the wonders which some sanguine
writers have attributed to it. Men and women must be educated, in a
great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.
In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has
carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to
the century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be
differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education. It
is, however, sufficient for my present purpose to assert, that,
whatever effect circumstances have on the abilities, every being may
become virtuous by the exercise of its own reason; for if but one
being was created with vicious inclinations, that is positively bad,
what can save us from atheism? or if we worship a God, is not that God
a devil?

  Consequently, the most perfect education, in my opinion, is such
an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen
the body and form the heart. Or, in other words, to enable the
individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it
independent. In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose
virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason. This was
Rousseau's opinion respecting men: I extend it to women, and
confidently assert that they have been drawn out of their sphere by
false refinement, and not by an endeavour to acquire masculine
qualities. Still the regal homage which they receive is so
intoxicating, that till the manners of the times are changed, and
formed on more reasonable principles, it may be impossible to convince
them that the illegitimate power, which they obtain, by degrading
themselves, is a curse, and that they must return to nature and
equality, if they wish to secure the placid satisfaction that
unsophisticated affections impart. But for this epoch we must wait-
wait, perhaps, till kings and nobles, enlightened by reason, and,
preferring the real dignity of man to childish state, throw off
their gaudy hereditary trappings: and if then women do not resign
the arbitrary power of beauty- they will prove that they have less
mind than man.

  I may be accused of arrogance; still I must declare what I firmly
believe, that all the writers who have written on the subject of
female education and manners from Rousseau to Dr. Gregory, have
contributed to render women more artificial, weak characters, than
they would otherwise have been; and, consequently, more useless
members of society. I might have expressed this conviction in a
lower key; but I am afraid it would have been the whine of
affectation, and not the faithful expression of my feelings, of the
clear result, which experience and reflection have led me to draw.
When I come to that division of the subject, I shall advert to the
passages that I more particularly disapprove of, in the works of the
authors I have just alluded to; but it is first necessary to
observe, that my objection extends to the whole purport of those
books, which tend, in my opinion, to degrade one half of the human
species, and render women pleasing at the expense of every solid
virtue.

  Though, to reason on Rousseau's ground, if man did attain a degree
of perfection of mind when his body arrived at maturity, it might be
proper, in order to make a man and his wife one, that she should