ON THE INJUSTICE OF MENTAL SUBORDINATION. WISH not to advise the sex against cultivating what modern writers term, the Graces*. I would have wo. man highly, eminently polished; fhe fhould dance, if her form be well proportioned; the fhould fing, if nature has endowed her with the power of conveying that harmony fo foothing to the fenfes. She should draw, paint, and perform fanciful tasks with her needle; particularly if her frame be delicate, her intellects feminine. But if nature has given her ftrong mental powers, half her hours of study should be devoted to more important acquirements. She fhould likewife, if Arong and active, be indulged in minor sports; fuch as fwimming, the ufe of the ball, and foot-racing, &c. We should then see British Atalantas, as well as female Nimrods. However fingular it may appear to a reflecting mind, hunting, certainly One of the moft barbarous of mafculine sports, is, in Europe, tolerated as an amufement for the fofter fex! There again, weakness is, by the humane ordinance of man, devoted to perfecution. The harmless ftag and timid hare are hunted to deftruction, even by women!-Why, in this fingle inftance, does man agree in the propriety of mafculine purfuits? Why does the hufband, without apprehenfion or difgult, permit the tender, weak, and delicate partner of his cares, to leap a quarry or a five-barred gate, at the fame time that he would deem it the excefs of arrogance, to offer an 9 opinion on any fubject which man confiders as exclufively adapted to his difcuffion? I can only conclude, that a wife has full permiffion to break. her neck; though fhe is forbid to. think or speak like a rational creaturet. Why are women excluded from the auditory part of the British fe nate? The welfare of their country cannot fail to intereft their feelings; and eloquence both exalts and refines the understanding‡. Man makes woman a frivolous creature, and then condemns her for the folly he inculcates. He tells her, that beauty is her firft and moft powerful attraction; her fecond, complacency of temper and foftness of manners. She therefore dedicates half her hours to the embellishment of her person, and the other half to the practice of soft, languifhing, fentimental infipidity. She difdains to be strong minded, because the fears being accounted masculine ; the trembles at every breeze, faints at every peril, and yields to every affailant, because it would be unwomanly to defend herself. She fees no resemblance of her own character in the Portias and Cornelias of antiquity; fhe is content to be the epitome of her celebrated archetype, the good woman of St Giles's! The embargo upon words, the enforcement of tacit fubmiffion, has been productive of confequences highly honourable to the women of the prefent age. Since the fex have been con *The mind of woman, in proportion as it is expanded by education, will become refined. Mental emulation would be the beft fafeguard against the vanity of fenfual conqueft. † A husband infers from this conduct, that he permits his wife to act like a madwoman, but he does not allow her to think like a quife one. Many of the American tribes admit women into their public councils, and allow them the privileges of giving their opinions, first, on every fubject of delibe ration. The ancient Britons allowed the female fex the fame right : but in modern Britain women are fcarcely allowed to exprefs any opinions at all! This elegant and eftimable female is reprefented headlefs;—and I believe almost the only female in the kingdom universally allowed to be a good aveman, Ed. Mag. July 1799. B condemned for exercising the powers of speech, they have fuccefsfully taken up the pen: and their writings exemplify both energy of mind, and capability of acquiring the most extenfive knowledge. The prefs will be the monuments from which the genius of British women will rife to immortal celebrity their works will, in proportion as their educations are liberal, from year to year, challenge an equal portion of fame, with the labours of their claffical male contemporaries. In proportion as women are acquainted with the languages they will become citizens of the world. The laws, cuftoms and inhabitants of different nations will be their kindred in the propinquity of nature. Prejudice will be palfied, if not receive its death-blow, by the expanfion of intellect; and woman being permitted to feel her own importance in the fcale of fociety, will be tenacious of maintaining it. She will know that she was created for fomething beyond the mere amufement of man; that he is capable of mental energies, and worthy of the moft unbounded confidence. Such a fyftem of mental equality, would, while it ftigmatized the trifling vain and pernicious race of high-fashioned Meffalinas, produce fuch British women, as would equal the Portias and Arrias of antiquity*, Had fortune enabled me, I would build an university for women; where they should be politely, and at the fame time claffically educated; the depth of their studies, fhould be proportioned to their mental powers; and those who were incompetent to the labours of knowledge, fhould be difmiffed after a fair trial of their capabilities, and allotted to the more humble paths of life; fuch as domeftic and useful occupations. The wealthy part of the community who neglected to educate their female offspring, at this feminary of learning, fhould pay a fine, which fhould be appropriated to the maintenance of the unportioned fcholars. In half a century there would be a fufficient number of learned women to fill all the departments of the university, and thofe who excelled in an eminent degree fhould receive honorary medals, which they fhould wear as an order of literary merit. O! my unenlightened countrywomen! read, and profit, by the admonition of Reafon. Shake off the trifling, glittering fhackles, which de. bafe you. Refift thofe fafcinating fpells which, like the petrifying torpedo, faften on your mental faculties. Be lefs the flaves of vanity, and more the converts of Reflection. Nature has endowed you with perfonal attractions: fhe has also given you the mind capable of expanfion. Seek not the vifionary triumph of univerfal conqueft; know yourfelves equal to greater, nobler acquirements: and by prudence, temperance, firmness, and reflection, fubdue that prejudice which has, for ages paft, been your inveterate enemy. Let your daughters be liberally, claffically, philofophically t, and usefully educated; let them fpeak and write their opinions freely; let them read and think like rational creatures; adapt their ftudies to their ftrength of intellect; expand their Pætus being commanded by the emperor Nero, to die by his own hands, his wife, an illuftrious Roman woman, was permitted to take leave of him. She felt the impoffibility of furviving him, and plunging the poniard into her bofom, exclaimed "Patus, it is not much," and inftantly expired. This anecdote I relate for the information of my unlearned readers. + By Philofophy, the writer of this Letter means rational wisdom; neither the fimfy cobwebs of pretended metaphyfical and logical myfteries, nor the unbridled liberty which would lead to the boldness of licentious ufurpation. A truly enlightened woman never will forget that confcious dignity of character which ennobies and fuftains, but never can debase her. their minds, and purify their hearts, by teaching them to feel their mental equality with their imperious rulers. By fuch laudable exertions, you will excite the nobleft emulation; you will explode the fuperftitious tenets of bigotry and fanaticifm; confirm the intuitive immortality of the foul, and give them that genuine glow of conscious virtue which will grace them to pofterity. There are men who affect to think lightly of the literary productions of women: and yet no works of the prefent day are fo univerfally read as theirs. The best novels that have been written, fince thofe of Smollet, Richardson, and Fielding, have been produced by women: and their pages have not only been embellished with the interefting events of domeftic life, pourtrayed with all the elegance of phrafeology, and all the refinement of fentiment, but with forcible and eloquent, political, theological, and philofophical reafoning. To the genius and labours of fome enlightened British women pofterity will also be indebted for the pureft and beft tranflations from the French and German languages. I need not mention Mrs Dobfon, Mrs Inchbald, Mifs Plump. tre, &c. &c. Of the more profound refearches in the dead languages, we have many female clafficks of the firft celebrity: Mrs Carter, Mrs Thomas, (late Mifs Parkhurit ;) Mrs Francis, the Hon. Mrs Damer, &c. &c. Of the Drama, the wreath of fame has crowned the brows of Mrs Cowley, Mrs Inchbald, Mifs Lee, Miss Hannah More, and others of lefs celebrity. Of Biography, Mrs Dobfon, Mrs Thicknefs, Mrs Piozzi, Mrą Montagu, Mifs Helen Williams, have given fpecimens highly honourable to their talents. Poetry has unquef. tionably risen high in British literature from the productions of female for pens many English women have produced fuch original and beautiful compofitions, that the firft critics and fcholars of the age have wondered, while they applauded. But in order to direct the attention of my fair and liberal country-women to the natural genius and mental acquirements of their illuftrious contemporaries, I conclude my Letter with a lift of names, which, while they filence the tongue of prejudice, will not fail to excite Emulation. Exeter, Nov. 7, 1798. Lift of British Female Literary Chas rafters living in the Eighteenth Cen tury. A. Anfpach, Margravine of Tour to the B. Brooke, Mrs.-Novels and Dramatic - Bennet, Mrs.-Novelift. Cowley, Dobfon, D. F. Hayes, Mifs.-Novels, Philofophical In order to efcape the imputation of partiality, the names are arranged alpha betically. motives of men, can make their worst actions concur to the general good. But that difpofition of mind which can alone ftimulate men to correct the evils we complain of, is the conftant recollection that we were not born for ourselves, but for the good of others. If this fentiment were more practically adopted, men of fortune, whatever their incomes, would confine their expenditures to reafonable limits, and be conftantly defirous of removing the diftreffes of thofe around them. The important obligations, however, which the Rich are fubject to, are not confined to the relief of corporeal wants the subordinate ranks of Society have propenfities to much evil, and capacities for much good: ought thefe minds to be left untutored, or to the improvements of chance? For the want of that moral inftruction which it was in the power of rich men to beftow, how many evils have arifen to the world, and do arife! How many of those men, who have been exiled or have forfeited their lives to the laws of their Country, would at this moment have been valuable members of Society, if the rich in their particular diftricts had complied with the duties of their ftation? but their attention to their Routs and their Dogs, and their Horfes and their Hunting, and a long catalogue of other trifles, too frequently preoccupy their minds, and leave them neither inclination or leisure to reftrain their paffions, or to confult their duties. The beft intentions of men are too frequently counteracted by a paffion for extravagance. It is impoffible to trace the effects of this vice without recurring to almost all the evils of life; it extends its ramifications in every direction; renders callous the heart; perverts the understanding, and even deprives us of that portion of happinefs which God created us to enjoy. Its approaches are flattering, and its progrefs is imperceptible. The paffion for finery and diftinction, incapacitates men of the largeft fortunes from doing good, and it is no uncommon thing to hear the moft opulent, when folicited by an acquaintance for a small charitable donation, to apologize, at the moment they are ftepping from a Chariot to a Palace, by faying, with much apparent concern," They really cannot afford it," and true it is, they cannot afford it, confiftent with their prefent conduct. Pride makes them extravagant, and extravagance keeps them poor. How far the crimes of the Thief, the Highwayman, or the Murderer, may be attributed to Rich men who have mifapplied their riches, a future day will determine; but it is poffible, that at that time the conduct of the apparent affaffin may be palliated, and the real murderer be found in the man, who, having it in his power, neglected to correct the difpofition which occafioned it. Men too often begin life without prescribing bounds to their wants; and if accident or common occupations beftow on them wealth, their immediate confideration is, not how beft to encourage the virtuous, inftruct the ignorant, or relieve the diftreffed; but, to determine what new appendage to add to their eftablishment; and an inflexible refolution to regard only their own imaginary wants, feems to proceed with an exact proportion to the increase of their riches. With fuch principles prevail. ing in the world, how can it be amend ed? When fuch selfishness abounds, where fhall the voice of Poverty be regarded? The generality of men require but very flender arguments to refuse their affiftance to the needy, and are easily perfuaded to expend their wealth in that channel which beft accords with their corrupt paffions: it is on this account that the affigned motive with many for not relieving the Poor, is, their |