![]() Only “absolute in loveliness,” the portion of rationality granted to woman is, indeed, very scanty for, denying her genius and judgment, it is scarcely possible to divine what remains to characterize intellect. With respect to the culture of the heart, it is unanimously allowed that sex is out of the question but the line of subordination in the mental powers is never to be passed over. ![]() Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same propensity to enjoy the present moment and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain. ![]() Men, they further observe, submit every where to oppression, when they have only to lift up their heads to throw off the yoke yet, instead of asserting their birthright, they quietly lick the dust, and say, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. But this position I shall simply contrast with a conclusion, which I have frequently heard fall from sensible men in favour of an aristocracy: that the mass of mankind cannot be any thing, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow themselves to be penned up, would feel their own consequence, and spurn their chains. ![]() That woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances is, I think, clear. OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF DEGRADATION TO WHICH WOMAN IS REDUCED BY VARIOUS CAUSES. ![]() \)įigure 16.1 Painting of Mary Wollestonecraft. ![]()
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