Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/27

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INTRODUCTION.
21

claſs, becauſe they appear to be in the moſt natural ſtate. Perhaps the ſeeds of falſe refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been ſhed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raiſed above the common wants and affections of their race, in a premature unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and ſpread corruption through the whole maſs of ſociety! As a claſs of mankind they have the ſtrongeſt claim to pity; the education of the rich tends to render them vain and helpleſs, and the unfolding mind is not ſtrengthened by the practice of thoſe duties which dignify the human character.—They only live to amuſe themſelves, and by the ſame law which in nature invariably produces certain effects, they ſoon only afford barren amuſement.

But as I purpoſe taking a ſeparate view of the different ranks of ſociety, and of the moral character of women, in each, this hint is, for the preſent, ſufficient; and I have only alluded to the ſubject, becauſe it appears to me to be the very eſſence of an introduction to give a curſory account of the contents of the work it introduces.

My own ſex, I hope, will excuſe me, if I treat them like rational creatures, inſtead of flat-

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