Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this ſimple principle, that if ſhe be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, ſhe will ſtop the progreſs of knowledge, for truth muſt be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with reſpect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate unleſs ſhe know why ſhe ought to be virtuous? unleſs freedom ſtrengthen her reaſon till ſhe comprehend her duty, and ſee in what manner it is connected with her real good? If children are to be educated to underſtand the true principle of patriotiſm, their mother muſt be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues ſpring, can only be produced by conſidering the moral and civil intereſt of mankind; but the education and ſituation of woman, at preſent, ſhuts her out from ſuch inveſtigations.
In this work I have produced many arguments, which to me were concluſive, to prove that the prevailing notion reſpecting a ſexual character was ſubverſive of morality, and I have contended, that to render the human body and mind more perfect, chaſtity muſt more univerſally prevail, and that chaſtity will never be reſpected in the male world till the perſon of a woman is not, as it were, idolized, when little virtue or ſenſe
