Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/63

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RIGHTS OF WOMAN.
57

ſhe has not an immortal ſoul who can loiter life away merely employed to adorn her perſon, that ſhe may amuſe the languid hours, and ſoften the cares of a fellow-creature who is willing to be enlivened by her ſmiles and tricks, when the ſerious buſineſs of life is over.

Beſides, the woman who ſtrengthens her body and exerciſes her mind will, by managing her family and practicing various virtues, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her huſband, and if ſhe deſerves his regard by poſſeſſing ſuch ſubſtantial qualities, ſhe will not find it neceſſary to conceal her affection, nor to pretend to an unnatural coldneſs of conſtitution to excite her huſband's paſſions. In fact, if we revert to hiſtory, we ſhall find that the women who have diſtinguiſhed themſelves have neither been the moſt beautiful nor the moſt gentle of their ſex.

Nature, or, to ſpeak with ſtrict propriety, God, has made all things right; but man has ſought him out many inventions to mar the work. I now allude to that part of Dr. Gregory's treatiſe, where he adviſes a wife never to let her huſband know the extent of her ſenſibility or affection. Voluptuous precaution, and as ineffectual as abſurd.—Love, from its very nature, muſt be tranſitory. To ſeek for a ſecret that would render it conſtant, would be as wild a ſearch as for the philoſopher's ſtone, or the grand panacea: and the diſcovery would be equally uſeleſs, or rather pernicious, to mankind. The moſt holy band of ſociety is friendſhip. It has been well ſaid, by a ſhrewd ſatiriſt, “that rare as true love is, true friendſhip is ſtill rarer.”

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