AGA 
tally caged in a human body.—In 
the same style I have been led to 
imagine that the few extraordinary 
women who have rushed in eccen- 
trical directions out of the orbit 
prescribed to their sex, were male 
spirits, confined by mistake in a 
female frame. But if it be not phi- 
losophical 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 por- 
tions. 
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 deter- 
mine whether the whole sex must 
stand in the intellectual scale. Yet 
let it be remembered, that for a 
small number of distinguished wo- 
men I do not ask a place. 
It is difficult for us, purblind mor- 
tals, to say to what height human 
discoveries and improvements may 
arrive when the glocm of despotism 
subsides, which makes us stumble 
at every step; but, when morality 
shali be settled on a more solid basis, 
then, without being gifted with a 
prophetic spirit, I will ventare to 
predict, that woman will be either 
the friend or slave of man. We shall 
net, as at present, doubt whether 
she is a moral agent, or the link 
which unites man with brates. 
Bet, should it then appear that, 
like the brutes, they were principal- 
ly created for the use of man, he 
‘ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
will let them patiently bite the bri- 
‘dle, and not mock them with e 
praise ; or, ‘should their ‘rationality: 
be proved, be will not impede their 
improvement merely ‘to gratify his 
sensual appetites. He ‘will not, 
with all the graces of rhetoric, ad-’ 
vise them to submit implicitly their: 
understanding to ‘the guidance of: 
man. He will not, when he treats 
of the education of ‘women, ‘assert’ 
that they ought never to have the’ 
free use of reason, nor ‘would he 're- 
commended cunning and dissimula- 
tion to beings who are acquiring, in 
like manner as himself, the virtues 
of humanity. 
Surely there can be but one ‘rule 
of right, if morality has an eternal 
foundation; and whoever sacrifices 
virtue, strictly so called, to present” 
convenience, or whose duty it is to 
act in such a manner, lives only for 
the passing day, and cannot be an 
accountable creature. 
The poet theu should bave drop- 
ped his sneer when he says, 
“If weak women go astray, 
‘‘ Their stars are more in fault than they.”” 
For that they are bound by the ad- 
amantine chain of destiny is most 
certain, if it be proved that they are 
never to exercise their own reason, 
never to be independent, never to 
rise above opinion, or to feel the 
dignity of a rational will that only 
bows to God, and often forgets that 
the universe contains any being but 
itself and the model of perfection to 
which its ardent gaze is turned, to 
adore attributes that, softened into 
virtue, may be imitated in kind, 
although the degree overwhelms the 
enraptured mind. 
If, | say, for [ would not impress’ 
by declamation when Reason offers 
her sober light, if they are really ca- 
pable of acting like rational crea- 
tures, 
