character than by giving a man abſolute power.
This argument branches into various ramifications.—Birth, riches, and every extrinſic advantage that exalt a man above his fellows, without any mental exertion, ſink him in reality below them. In proportion to his weakneſs, he is played upon by deſigning men, till the bloated monſter has loſt all traces of humanity. And that tribes of men, like flocks of ſheep, ſhould quietly follow ſuch a leader, is a ſoleciſm that only a deſire of preſent enjoyment and narrowneſs of underſtanding can ſolve. Educated in ſlaviſh dependence, and enervated by luxury and ſloth, where ſhall we find men who will ſtand forth to aſſert the rights of man;—or claim the privilege of moral beings, who ſhould have but one road to excellence? Slavery to monarchs and miniſters, which the world will be long in freeing itſelf from, and whoſe deadly graſp ſtop the progreſs of the human mind, is not yet aboliſhed.
Let not men then in the pride of power, uſe the ſame arguments that tyrannic kings and venal miniſters have uſed, and fallaciouſly aſſert that woman ought to be ſubjected becauſe ſhe has always been ſo.—But, when man, governed by reaſonable laws, enjoys his natural freedom, let him deſpiſe woman, if ſhe do not ſhare it with him; and till that glorious period arrives, in deſcanting on the folly of the ſex, let him not overlook his own.
Women, it is true, obtaining power by unjuſt means, by practiſing or foſtering vice, evidently loſe the rank which reaſon would aſſign them, and they
