176 ON FEMALE EDUCATION AND OCCUPATIONS. 



^ Letters on Education/ that ^ it ought to be the first 

 care of education to teach virtue on immutable princi- 

 ples, and to avoid that confusion which must arise 

 from confounding the laws and customs of society with 

 obligations, founded on correct principles of equity.' 

 ' First (she goes on to say) there is but one rule of 

 right for the conduct of all rational beings ; consequent- 

 ly, true virtue in one sex must be equally so in the 

 other, when a proper opportunity calls for the exertion ; 

 and vice versa, what is vice in one sex cannot have a 

 different property when found in the other. Secondly, 

 true wisdom, which is never found at variance with 

 rectitude, is equally useful to women as to men ; be- 

 cause it is necessary to the highest degree of happiness, 

 which can never exist with ignorance. Thirdly, that, 

 as on our first entrance into another world, our state of 

 happiness may possibly depend upon the degree of 

 perfection we have attained in this, we cannot justly 

 lessen, in either sex, the means by which perfection, 

 another word for wisdom, is acquired.' 



She goes on to observe, 'that the happiness and 

 perfection of the sexes are so reciprocally dependent 

 on each other, that, until both are refined, it is vain to 

 expect excellence in either.' — ' There can be but one 

 rule of moral perfection for beings made of the same 

 materials, organized after the same manner, and sub- 

 jected to similar laws of nature.' — 'There is no culti- 

 vation which yields so promising a harvest as the 

 cultivation of the understanding : a mind iiTadiated by 

 the clear light of wisdom must be equal to every task 

 which reason imposes upon it. The social characters 

 of daughter, wife, and mother, will be but ill-performed 

 by ignorance and levity ; and in the domestic converse 

 of husband and wife, the alternative of an enlightened 

 or an unenlightened companion, cannot be indifferent 

 to any man of knowledge.' — ' Let your children be 

 brought up together, their sports and studies the same ; 

 confine not the education of your daughters to what is 

 merely ornamental, nor deny the graces to your sons. 

 Suffer no prejudices to prevail on you to weaken na- 



