or, only be ſo far admitted as it proves that man, from the remoteſt antiquity, found it convenient to exert his ſtrength to ſubjugate his companion, and his invention to ſhew that ſhe ought to have her neck bent under the yoke; becauſe ſhe, as well as the brute creation, was created to do his pleaſure.
Let it not be concluded that I wiſh to invert the order of things; I have already granted, that, from the conſtitution of their bodies, men ſeem to be deſigned by Providence to attain a greater degree of virtue. I ſpeak collectively of the whole ſex; but I ſee not the ſhadow of a reaſon to conclude that their virtues ſhould differ in reſpect to their nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal ſtandard? I muſt therefore, if I reaſon conſequentially, as ſtrenuouſly maintain that they have the ſame ſimple direction, as that there is a God.
It follows then that cunning ſhould not be oppoſed to wiſdom, little cares to great exertions, nor inſipid ſoftneſs, varniſhed over with the name of gentleneſs, to that fortitude which grand views alone can inſpire.
I ſhall be told that woman would then loſe many of her peculiar graces, and the opinion of a well known poet might be quoted to refute my unqualified aſſertion. For Pope has ſaid, in the name of the whole male ſex,
'Yet ne'er ſo ſure our paſſion to create,
As when ſhe touch'd the brink, of all we hate.'
In what light this ſally places men and women, I ſhall leave to the judicious to determine;
