Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/35

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RIGHTS OF WOMAN.
29

Going back to firſt principles, vice ſkulks, with all its native deformity, from cloſe inveſtigation; but a ſet of ſhallow reaſoners are always exclaiming that theſe arguments prove too much, and that a meaſure rotten at the core may be expedient. Thus expediency is continually contraſted with ſimple principles, till truth is loſt in a miſt of words, virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a ſounding nothing, by the ſpecious prejudices that aſſume its name.

That the ſociety is formed in the wiſeſt manner, whoſe conſtitution is founded on the nature of man, ſtrikes, in the abſtract, every thinking being ſo forcibly, that it looks like preſumption to endeavour to bring forward proofs; though proof muſt be brought, or the ſtrong hold of preſcription will never be forced by reaſon; yet to urge preſcription as an argument to juſtify the depriving men (or women) of their natural rights, is one of the abſurd ſophiſms which daily inſult common ſenſe.

The civilization of the bulk of the people of Europe is very partial; nay, it may be made a queſtion, whether they have acquired any virtues in exchange for innocence, equivalent to the miſery produced by the vices that have been plaſtered over unſightly ignorance, and the freedom which has been bartered for ſplendid ſlavery. The deſire of dazzling by riches, the moſt certain pre-eminence that man can obtain, the pleaſure of commanding flattering ſycophants, and many other complicated low calculations of doting ſelf-love, have all contributed to overwhelm the maſs of mankind, and make liberty a con-

venient