Education thus only ſupplies the man of genius with knowledge to give variety and contraſt to his aſſociations; but there is an habitual aſſociation of ideas, that grows 'with our growth,' which has a great effect on the moral character of mankind; and by which a turn is given to the mind that commonly remains throughout life. So ductile is the underſtanding, and yet ſo ſtubborn, that the aſſociations which depend on adventitious circumſtances, during the period that the body takes to arrive at maturity, can ſeldom be diſentangled by reaſon. One idea calls up another, its old aſſociate, and memory, faithful to the firſt impreſſions, particularly when the intellectual powers are not employed to cool our ſenſations, retraces them with mechanical exactneſs.
This habitual ſlavery, to firſt impreſſions, has a more baneful effect on the female than the male character, becauſe buſineſs and other dry employments of the underſtanding, tend to deaden the feelings and break aſſociations that do violence to reaſon. But females, who are made women of when they are mere children, and brought back to childhood when they ought to leave the go-cart for ever, have not ſufficient ſtrength of mind to efface the ſuperinductions of art that have ſmothered nature.
Every thing that they ſee or hear ſerves to fix impreſſions, call forth emotions, and aſſociate ideas, that give a ſexual character to the mind. Falſe notions of beauty and delicacy ſtop the
growth of their limbs and produce a ſickly ſoreneſs, rather than delicacy of organs; and thus
