the graſp, whoſe mind has not been opened and ſtrengthened by adverſity, or the purſuit of knowledge goaded on by neceſſity?—Happy is it when people have the cares of life to ſtruggle with; for theſe ſtruggles prevent their becoming a prey to enervating vices, merely from idleneſs! But, if from their birth men and women are placed in a torrid zone, with the meridian ſun of pleaſure darting directly upon them, how can they ſufficiently brace their minds to diſcharge the duties of life, or even to reliſh the affections that carry them out of themſelves?
Pleaſure is the buſineſs of woman's life, according to the preſent modification of ſociety, and while it continues to be ſo, little can be expected from ſuch weak beings. Inheriting, in a lineal deſcent from the firſt fair defect in nature, the ſovereignty of beauty, they have, to maintain their power, reſigned the natural rights, which the exerciſe of reaſon might have procured them, and choſen rather to be ſhort-lived queens than labour to obtain the ſober pleaſures that ariſe from equality. Exalted by their inferiority (this ſounds like a contradiction) they conſtantly demand homage as women, though experience ſhould teach them that the men who pride themſelves upon paying this arbitrary inſolent reſpect to the ſex, with the moſt ſcrupulous exactness, are moſt inclined to tyrannize over, and deſpiſe, the very weakneſs they cheriſh. Often do they repeat Mr. Hume's ſentiments; when, comparing the French and Athenian character, he alludes to women. 'But what is more ſingular in this whimſical nation, ſay I to the Athenians,
