of inferiority, and how few women have emancipated themſelves from the galling yoke of ſovereign man?—So few, that the exceptions remind me of an ingenious conjecture reſpecting Newton: that he was probably a being of a ſuperior order, accidentally caged in a human body. In the ſame ſtyle I have been led to imagine that the few extraordinary women who have ruſhed in eccentrical directions out of the orbit preſcribed to their ſex, were male ſpirited, confined by miſtake in a female frame. But if it be not philoſophical to think of ſex when the ſoul is mentioned, the inferiority muſt depend on the organs; or the heavenly fire, which is to ferment the clay, is not given in equal portions.
But avoiding, as I have hitherto done, any direct compariſon of the two ſexes collectively, or frankly acknowledging the inferiority of woman, according to the preſent appearance of things, I ſhall only inſiſt that men have increaſed that inferiority till women are almoſt ſunk below the ſtandard of rational creatures. Let their faculties have room to unfold, and their virtues to gain ſtrength, and then determine where the whole ſex muſt ſtand in the intellectual ſcale. Yet let it be remembered, that for a ſmall number of diſtinguiſhed women I do not aſk a place.
It is difficult for us purblind mortals to ſay to what height human diſcoveries and improvements may arrive when the gloom of deſpotiſm ſubſides, which makes us ſtumble at every ſtep; but, when morality ſhall be ſettled on a more ſolid baſis, then, without being gifted with a prophetic ſpirit, I will venture to predict that woman will
