Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/79

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RIGHTS OF WOMAN.
73

ought to endeavour to acquire human virtues (or perfections) by the ſame means as men, inſtead of being educated like a fanciful kind of half being—one of Rouſſeau's wild chimeras[1].

But, 
  1. 'Reſearches into abſtract and ſpeculative truths, the principles and axioms of ſciences, in ſhort, every thing which lends to generalize our ideas, is not the proper province of women; their ſtudies ſhould be relative to point of practice; it belongs to them to apply thoſe principles which men have diſcovered; and it is their part to make obſervations, which direct men to the eſtabliſhment of general principles. All the ideas of women, which have not the immediate tendency to points of duty, ſhould be directed to the ſtudy of men, and to the attainment of thoſe agreeable accompliſhments which have taſte for their object; for as to works of genius, they are beyond their capacity; neither have they ſufficient preciſion or power of attention to ſucceed in ſciences which require accuracy: and as to phyſical knowledge, it belongs to thoſe only who are moſt active, moſt inquiſitive; who comprehend the greateſt variety of objects: in ſhort, it belongs to thoſe who have the ſtrongeſt powers, and who exerciſe them moſt, to judge of the relations between ſenſible beings and the laws of nature. A woman who is naturally weak, and does not carry her ideas to any great extent, knows how to judge and make a proper eſtimate of thoſe movements which ſhe ſets to work, in order to aid her weakneſs; and theſe movements are the paſſions of men. The mechaniſm ſhe employs is much more powerful than ours; for all her levers move the human heart. She muſt have the ſkill to incline us to do every thing which her ſex will not enable her to do of herſelf, and which is neceſſary or agreeable to her; therefore ſhe ought to ſtudy the mind of man thoroughly, not the mind of man in general, abſtracted, but the diſpoſitions of thoſe men to whom ſhe is ſubject, either by the laws of her country or by the force of opinion. She ſhould learn to penetrate into their real ſentiments from their converſation, their actions, their looks, and geſtures. She ſhould alſo have the art, by her own converſation, actions, looks, and geſtures, to communicate thoſe ſentiments which are agreeable to them, without ſeeming to intend it. Men will argue more philoſophically about the human heart; but women will read the heart of man better than they. It belongs to women, if I may be allowed the expreſſion, to form an experimental morality, and to reduce the ſtudy of man to a ſyſtem. Women have moſt wit, men have moſt genius; women obſerve, men reaſon: from the concurrence of both we derive the cleared light and the moſt perfect knowledge, which the human mind is, of itſelf, capable of attaining. In one word, from hence we acquire the moſt intimate acquaintance, both with ourſelves and others, of which our nature is capable; and it is thus that art has a conſtant tendency to perfect thoſe endowments which nature has beſtowed.—The world is the book of women.' Rouſſeau's Emilius. I hope my readers ſtill remember the compariſon, which I have brought forward, between women and officers.