This misfortune, if
it really be one, is inseparable from their sex; nor do they ever
throw it off but to suffer more cruel evils. They must be subject,
all their lives, to the most constant and severe restraint, which
is that of decorum: it is, therefore, necessary to accustom them
early to such confinement, that it may not afterward cost them too
dear; and to the suppression of their caprices, that they may the
more readily submit to the will of others. If, indeed, they are
fond of being always at work, they should be sometimes compelled to
lay it aside. Dissipation, levity, and inconstancy, are faults
that readily spring up from their first propensities, when
corrupted or perverted by too much indulgence. To prevent this
abuse, we should learn them, above all things, to lay a due
restraint on themselves. The life of a modest woman is reduced, by
our absurd institutions, to a perpetual conflict with herself: not
but it is just that this sex should partake of the sufferings which
arise from those evils it hath caused us."
And why is the life of a modest woman a perpetual conflict? I
should answer, that this very system of education makes it so.
Modesty, temperance, and self-denial, are the sober offspring of
reason; but when sensibility is nurtured at the expense of the
understanding, such weak beings must be restrained by arbitrary
means, and be subjected to continual conflicts; but give their
activity of mind a wider range, and nobler passions and motives
will govern their appetites and sentiments.
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