tude to attain worldly happineſs, on a confined plan, were turned into an anxious deſire to improve the underſtanding.—'Wiſdom is the principal thing: therefore get wiſdom; and with all thy gettings get underſtanding.'—'How long, ye ſimple ones, will ye love ſimplicity, and hate knowledge?' ſaith Wiſdom to the daughters of men!
I do not mean to allude to all the writers who have written on the ſubject of female manners—it would, in fact, be only beating over the old ground, for they have in general, written in the ſame ſtrain; but attacking the boaſted prerogative of man—the prerogative that may emphatically be called the iron ſceptre of tyranny, the original ſin of tyrants, I declare againſt all power built on prejudices, however hoary.
If the ſubmiſſion demanded be founded on juſtice—there is no appealing to a higher power—for God is Juſtice itſelf. Let us then, as children of the ſame parent, if not baſtardized by being the younger born, reaſon together, and learn to ſubmit to the authority of reaſon—when her voice is diſtinctly heard. But, if it be proved, that this throne of prerogative only reſts on a chaotic maſs of prejudices, that have no inherent principle of order to keep them together, or on an elephant, tortoiſe, or even the mighty ſhoulders of a ſon of the earth, they may eſcape, who dare to brave the conſequence, without any breach of duty, without ſinning againſt the order of things.
