140 Education. [Chap. XXV. 



What, then, is the conclusion of the matter? 

 It is, that women, as well as men, are rational 

 beings ; that they are made not to be the servants 

 but the companions of men ; that for this purpose, 

 where it is practicable, their minds should be 

 cultivated with care, liberally imbued with know- 

 ledge, and so strengthened and polished as to fit 

 them to shine, not only in the routine of domestic 

 employments, but also in the social circle, and 

 in literary conversation. Every man who under- 

 stands the true interests of society will desire to 



slder how things may be prettily said ; men, how they may be 

 properly said. Women speak, to shine or please ; men, to con- 

 vince, on confute. Women admire what is brilliant; men, what 

 is solid. Women prefer a sparkling effusion of fancy to the most 

 laborious investigation of facts. In literary composition, women 

 are pleased with antithesis ; men, with observation and a just 

 deduction of effects from their causes. In Romance and Novel- 

 writing women cannot be excelled. To amuse, rather than to 

 instruct, or to ilistruct indirectly, by short inferences drawn 

 from a long concatenation of circumstances, is at once the busi- 

 ness of this sort of composition, and one of the characteristics 

 of fenriale genius. In short, it appears, that the mind, in each 

 vsex, has some natural kind of bias, which constitutes a distinc- 

 tion of character ; and that the happiness of both depends, in a 

 great measure, on the preservation and observance of this di- 

 stinction." — Essay, p. 9 — 13. In the sentiment here expressed, 

 I cannot altogether agree with this excellent and illustrious wo- 

 man. That there is some such difference as she has stated be- 

 tween the sexes, I am ready to allow ; but this appears to me to 

 arise not so much from any original inferiority in the structure of 

 the female mind, as from a difference of education a»d employ- 

 ment; from a difference in the circumstances in which women 

 are placed in society, with respect to inducements to action, the 

 nature of their amusements, b;c. ; a difference which is neces- 

 ssiy and proper, and which to set aside, would be to derange 

 the order, and destroy the happiness of society. 



