7795. | pgs 
ganifed, are capable, in favourable cir- 
cumftances, of fimilar or equal attain- 
mients, is a propofition very diftinét from 
the wild notions which this effayift con- 
jures up for the glory cf difpelling by 
his magic wand. Are a man and an 
oyfter endowed with fimilar organs? 
Is an ideot commonly well organized ? 
Should it be granted, that beings of the 
fame {pecies come into the world with 
organs more or lefs exquifite, to what 
particular fyftem of organization are ta- 
_lents or genius appropriate, to the ro- 
buit, ‘orto the delicate?) We have no 
facts to guide us in this enquiry ; extra- 
ordinary mental energy has been mani- 
fefted, indifferently, in various periods, 
by men of oppofite conftitutions, figures, 
and temperaments, from the mufcular 
Johnfon or Handel, to the difeafed and 
feeble Pope. Admitting the connec- 
tion and dependance between corporeal 
and intelleétual powers, it would be dif- 
ficult te determine their original, or al- 
ternate, operation; to diftinguifh the 
caufe trom the effed. Moral circum- 
ftances may lay a foundation for fhy/ical 
differences, years, nay ages, previous to 
our birth. All that can be advanced re- 
{petting the diverfities which are pro- 
duced in the human mind, by the organs 
of the body (excepting thofe organs are 
in a difeafed and morbid ftate) is ovfcure, 
equivocal, and occult: whereas, moral 
caufes, in all general cafes, from infti- 
tution and fympathy, as under different 
forms of government, and amidft varj- 
ous profeiiions and callings, alfo in moft 
individual cafes, if examined attentively, 
gnay be traced with precifion. By mo- 
ral caufes, I. mean all circumfiances 
which are fitted towork on the mind as 
motives or reafons, and which render a 
peculiar fet of manners habitual to us. 
The human mind is of an smifative na- 
ture; nor is it pofiible for any fet of 
men to converle often together, without 
acquiring a fimilitude of manners, and 
communicating to each other their vices, 
as well as virtues. The propenfity to 
fociety is ftrong in al rational crea- 
tures; and the fame difpofition which 
gives us this propenfity, makes us 
enter deeply into cach other’s fenti- 
ments, and caufes like paflions and in- 
clinations to run, as it were by conta- 
gion, through the whole circle or knot 
ofscompanions. Whatever it be that 
_ forms the manners of one generation, the 
next imbibe a deeper tincture of the fame 
dye*; men being more futceptible of 
*% This muft be admitted with limitations. 
The Talents of Women, 
‘fhould differ, either in nature or degree. 
fliéted and corrupted fociety, have flowed. 
‘ea 
all impreffions during infaney, and re- 
taining thefe impreffions as long as they 
remain in the world. I affert, then, i 
that all national characters (a nation is ' 
nothing but a collegtion of individuals} | 
when they depend not on fixed moral | 

caufes, proceed from accidents, and that 
phyfical caufes have no di/cernible opera- 
tionon the human mind. Jtis amaxim | 
in all philofophy, that “‘caufes whichdo = 
not appear,, are to be confidered as not i 
exifting :”” [Hume's Effoy on Notional | 
Charadier.| Butte apply thefe general ; 
remarks to the fubjeét in queftion : i 
‘© The female frame being inferior in 
force to that of the male,’’ no more 
proves a correfpendent difference in in- 
telleét, than the fuperior ftrength of an 
Irifh chairman evinces the fuperiority 
of his fagacity to that of a Pope, a Vcl- 
taire, a Chefterfield, or a Gray. Such 
reafoning muft ever be fanciful and in- 
conclufive. A fmaller machine may per- 
form all its evolutions with equal pre-. 
cifion, and, in many cafes, more exqui- 
fite delicacy, than a larger one. Acute 
nervous fenfibility has been frequently 
fuppofed to indicate a correfpondent 
guicknefs of mental apprehenfion, and 
to be a concomitant of genius, and has 
ufually been attributed, perhaps erro- 
neoufly, to the more delicate bodily con 
formation. Analogical reafonings, though 
often ingenious, muft ever be liable to 
miftake and mifapprehenfion; refem- 
blances and comparifons are confiderably 
affected by faétitious circumftances. The 
various points of view from which an 
objet is beheld, and the different me- 
diums through which we contemplate it, 
will neceffarily give rife to very different 
judgments, and involve the difputants, 
like the knights in the fable, who quar- 
relled about the gold and filver fhield, in 
endlefs controverfy. ‘The various eccu- 
pations of the fexes, theugh it fhould he 
acmitted, afford no fufficient reafon why 
their moral and infellecival attainments 


‘Phere is, there can be, but one ftandard 
of truth and wrtuc, for every rational 
deg: from arbitrary diftinétions on 
thefe fubjeéts, as froma poifoned fource, 
the moit pernicious evils which have af. 
If the intereiting and affecting duties of 
the maternal character, by engaging a 
large fhare of the time and attention of 
waman, neceflarily detraét from her 
opportunities of acquiring knowledge, 
this is no argument for matural incapacity: 
heither ig.the man exempted from his [ji] 
fhare of gare and anxiety, in providing |), 
afub- i/@ 





