Education. 289 



opinion, that throwing off reserve/ is the best 

 way to " lay the axe at the root of corruption/' 

 that uniform experience proves this course to be 

 the most mischievous and corrupting that can be 

 imagined. There is no way of avoiding this con- 

 sequence, but by maintaining, that many things 

 which Christianity, and those who take their stand- 

 ard or morality from it, pronounce vicious, are 

 really innocent, if not laudable. Accordingly, 

 Miss Wollstonecraft, and her disciples, seem 

 to believe, that the restraints which marriage im- 

 poses ought not to be submitted to; and if we may 

 consider the life of that remarkable woman as a 

 commentary on her doctrines, it is plain that the 

 destruction of chastity is the native fruit of her ad- 

 mired system.'" What could be the effect in soci- 

 ety, if every female were to imbibe the sentiments, 

 and act the part of this shameless advocate of lewd- 

 ness ? The essence of domestic bliss would be de- 

 stroyed; the reign of licentiousness would be uni- 

 versally established ; chastity would be banished 

 from the earth ; some of the strongest ties which 

 bind society together would be dissolved; and the 

 female sex degraded to the most abject condition. 



/ It is not forgotten that Miss Wollstonecraft speaks much of 

 the importance and efficacy of restive; but it is a reserve to be exercised 

 equally between persons of the same sex as between persons of different 

 sexes. And she, at the same time, inculcates doctrines which are utterly 

 inconsistent with that reserve which the virtuous part of mankind have 

 always considered as indispensably necessary to be maintained between the 

 sexes. 



m See Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft Gobwin, &c. by Wil- 

 liam Godwin. The author forbears to speak of this work in the man- 

 ner which he thinks it deserves. It is a most instructive commentary on 

 the principles held and published by the singular woman whose life, cha- 

 racter and end it exhibits. It is vain to apologize for her crimes and in- 

 famy by pleading that she was led astray by a set of delusive opinions, and 

 that she intended no hostility against society. The truth is, the person 

 who is immoral upon principle belongs to the m«st criminal class of offend- 

 ers. When a woman becomes a prostitute or adulteress, merely from the 

 strength of passion, and in opposition to her convictions, detestable as her 

 character is, she is less to be abhorred than she who deliberately numbers 

 these crimes among the rights of -woman, and considers them as belonging 

 to the proper dignity and independence of the female sex. 

 VOL. II. a P 



