On Learning and the Aris. 451 
To her this generous acknowledgment is due, that 
she smooths the asperities of life, veils the de- 
formities of selfish vice, and gives to ingenuous 
virtue and goodness its highest lustre. 
I donot mean however in this part of my essay 
to be the advocate of politeness, but to prove, 
that learning is perfectly innocent of its birth, in 
modern as well as antient times, and let its pre- 
sent character be what it will, tofix the filiation 
upon its proper parents, Ifit be true, that the po. 
liteness of modern Europe derives itself from the 
restoration of woman to her proper rank in 
society, and that woman is the legislator of po- 
liteness; there is a circumstance in the character 
of woman, which demonstratively proves the 
folly of Rousseau in ascribing to learning either 
the blessings or'the curses of politeness, In no 
day, not even in the present day, has woman been 
eminently distinguished for learning ; and there- 
fore the empire of politeness, sovereign as 
Rousseau supposes it to be, neither derives itself 
from, nor is maintained by learning. 
I return to the direct subject of the essay. 
Having rescued learning from the imputation of 
politeness; I wish also to rescue politeness from 
the more odious charge of insincerity and dissi- 
mulation, as if they were her necessary and ap- | 
propriate character. Dissimulation and artifice 
may and often do assume the attractive form of 
