playing your good ſenſe[1]. It will be thought you aſſume a ſuperiority over the reſt of the company—But if you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound ſecret, eſpecially from the men, who generally look with a jealous and malignant eye on a woman of great parts, and a cultivated underſtanding.' If men of real merit, as he afterwards obſerves, are ſuperiour to this meanneſs, where is the neceſſity that the behaviour of the whole ſex ſhould be modulated to pleaſe fools, or men, who having little claim to reſpect as individuals, chooſe to keep cloſe in their phalanx. Men, indeed, who inſiſt on their common ſuperiority, having only this ſexual ſuperiority, are certainly very excuſable.
There would be no end to rules for behaviour, if it be proper always to adopt the tone of the company; for thus, for ever varying the key, a flat would often paſs for a natural note.
Surely it would have been wiſer to have adviſed women to improve themſelves till they roſe above the fumes of vanity; and then to let the public opinion come round—for where are rules of accommodation to ſtop? The narrow path of truth and virtue inclines neither to the right nor left–it is a ſtraight-forward buſineſs, and they who are earneſtly purſuing their road, may bound over many decorous prejudices, without leaving modeſty behind. Make the heart clean, and give the head employment, and I will venture to predict that there will be nothing offenſive in the behaviour.
- ↑ Let women once acquire good ſenſe—and if it deſerve the name, it will teach them; or, of what uſe will it be? how to employ it.
