134 Education. [Chap. XXV. 



they possess. It may also \\'\\\\ truth be granted, 

 that the idea of an o^'zoZ/za/ difference between the 

 mental characters and powers of the two sexes 

 has been pushed greatly too far, and been made a 

 source of long-continued ancl essential injury to 

 women. Females, if it were practicable or proper 

 to give them, in all respects, the same education 

 as that bestowed on men, would probably discover 

 nearly equal talents, and exhibit little difference 

 in their intellectual structure and energies. But 

 is it possible, or consistent with the obvious in- 

 dications of nature, to give them precisdij the 

 same education as is given to the male part of our 

 species ? That this is neither practicable nor de- 

 sirable will appear from the following considera^ 

 lions. 



First. Women are obviously destined to dife- 

 rent employments and pursuits from men. This i^ 

 evident from various considerations. Among all 

 the classes of animals with which we are acquaint- 

 ed, the female is smaller, weaker, and usually more 

 timid than the male. This fact cannot be ascribed 

 to difference of education, to accident, or to per- 

 verted systems of living among the inferior ani- 

 mals; for it is uniform, and nearly, if not entirely, 

 universal, applying to all countries, climates, ant} 

 situations ; and if ever we may expect to find na- 

 ture pure and unperverted, it must be among the 

 brutal tribes. The same fact applies to the hu- 

 man species. The bodies of women in gene- 

 ral are smaller and feebler than those of men, 

 and they are commonly more timid. This is not 

 merely the case in the more polished states of 

 society, in which false refmcment, or injurious 



