True taſte is ever the work of the underſtanding employed in obſerving natural effects; and till women have more underſtanding, it is vain to expect them to poſſeſs domeſtic taſte. Their lively ſenſes will ever be at work to harden their hearts, and the emotions ſtruck out of them will continue to be vivid and tranſitory, unleſs a proper education ſtores their mind with knowledge.
It is the want of domeſtic taſte, and not the acquirement of knowledge, that takes women out of their families, and tears the ſmiling babe from the breaſt that ought to afford it nouriſhment. Women have been allowed to remain in ignorance, and ſlaviſh dependence, many, very many years, and ſtill we hear of nothing but their fondneſs of pleaſure and ſway, their preference of rakes and ſoldiers, their childiſh attachments to toys, and the vanity that makes them value accompliſhments more than virtues.
Hiſtory brings forward a fearful catalogue of the crimes which their cunning has produced, when the weak ſlaves have had ſufficient addreſs to overreach their maſters. In France, and in how many other countries, have men been the luxurious deſpots, and women the crafty miniſters?—Does this prove that ignorance and dependence domeſticate them? Is not their folly the by-word of the libertines, who relax in their ſociety; and do not men of ſenſe continually lament that an immoderate fondneſs for dreſs and diſſipation carries the mother of a family for ever from home. Their hearts have not been debauched by knowledge, nor their minds led aſtray by ſcientific purſuits; yet, they do not fulfil the pecu-
