ſon is unfolding; but when your mind arrives at maturity, you muſt only obey me, or rather reſpect my opinions, ſo far as they coincide with the light that is breaking in on your own mind.
A ſlaviſh bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind; and Mr. Locke very judiciouſly obſerves, that 'if the mind be curbed and humbled too much in children; if their ſpirits be abaſed and broken much by too ſtrict an hand over them; they loſe all their vigour and induſtry.' This ſtrict hand may in ſome degree account for the weakneſs of women; for girls, from various cauſes, are more kept down by their parents, in every ſenſe of the word, than boys. The duty expected from them is, like all the duties arbitrarily impoſed on women, more from a ſenſe of propriety, more out of reſpect for decorum than reaſon; and thus taught ſlaviſhly to ſubmit to their parents, they are prepared for the ſlavery of marriage. I may be told that a number of women are not ſlaves in the marriage ſtate. True, but they then become tyrants; for it is not rational freedom, but a lawleſs kind of power reſembling the authority exerciſed by the favourites of abſolute monarchs, which they obtain by debaſing means. I do not, likewiſe, dream of inſinuating that either boys or girls are always ſlaves, I only inſiſt that when they are obliged to ſubmit to authority blindly, their faculties are weakened, and their tempers rendered imperious or abject. I alſo lament that parents, indolently availing themſelves of a ſuppoſed privilege, damp the firſt faint glimmering of reaſon, rendering at the ſame time the duty, which they are ſo anx-
