others. Thus degraded, her reaſon, her miſty reaſon! is employed rather to burniſh than to ſnap her chains.
Indignantly have I heard women argue in the ſame track as men, and adopt the ſentiments that brutalize them, with all the pertinacity of ignorance.
I muſt illuſtrate my aſſertion by a few examples. Mrs. Piozzi, who often repeated by rote, what ſhe did not underſtand, comes forward with Johnſonian periods.
'Seek not for happineſs in ſingularity; and dread a refinement of wiſdom as a deviation into folly.' Thus ſhe dogmatically addreſſes a new married man; and to elucidate this pompous exordium, ſhe adds, 'I ſaid that the perſon of your lady would not grow more pleaſing to you, but pray let her never ſuſpect that it grows leſs ſo: that a woman will pardon an affront to her underſtanding much ſooner than one to her perſon, is well known; nor will any of us contradict the aſſertion. All our attainments, all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart of man; and what mortification can exceed the diſappointment, if the end be not obtained? There is no reproof however pointed, no puniſhment however ſevere, that a woman of ſpirit will not prefer to neglect; and if ſhe can endure it without complaint, it only proves that ſhe means to make herſelf amends by the attention of others for the ſlights of her huſband!'
Theſe are truly maſculine ſentiments.—'All our arts are employed to gain and keep the heart of man:'—and what is the inference?–-
