Thus,
In Every Country, Mankind Are Fond Of Being Tyrants, And The Poorest
Indian, Who Knows No Wants But Those
Which his existence requires, has
already learnt to enslave his weaker help-mate, in order to save
himself the trouble
Of supplying their wants, and cruelly exacts an
obedience from her, which has been continued among savages as a curse
upon the sex. Considering these humiliations and cruel oppressions of
the sex, we have sometimes the greatest reason to admire, that the
human race has perpetuated itself, and that the Creator has wisely
planted a motive in the female breast, which stands the test of every
outrage, which makes them patient to suffer, and prevents their
withdrawing from the power of their tyrants." This indeed is one of
the most striking and important instances that can be adduced, of what
has been called final causes, the determinate choice of an end, and
the skilful adaptation of means to the accomplishment of it. A nation
of women, we may confidently say, is as much a chimera, as a nation of
two-headed men; and that individual has little acquaintance with
herself that knows not, there is an insuperable objection to so
anomalous an occurrence. With whatever abuses of authority, therefore,
the other sex may be chargeable, it is not to be denied, that they
assert their superiority on the ground of natural constitution, and
that they cannot be considered as usurpers. Admitting this, it is
important to enquire, what is the principle common to both, on which
their mutual welfare depends, and which is as certainly violated by
unfeeling rigour on one side, as by peevish rebellion on the other.
Several principles might be mentioned, claiming in part this
distinction, but none will answer all the conditions, except a right
sense of their entire and common dependence on the source of their
being and judge of their conduct, which is indeed the essence of
religion and morality. It is vain, in fact, to determine almost any
thing respecting such a creature as man, but by reasons of an eternal
nature, and referring to the laws of an invisible world. Every system
of an inferior kind, will be found inadequate in its application, and
unsatisfactory in its sanctions - calculated, it may be, to amuse the
philosopher in his closet, and attract the admiration of young and
inexperienced minds, but too weak to sustain the shock of human
passions, and too circumscribed to reach the heights of human hopes
and fears. The condition of women improves, undoubtedly, as a people
advances towards civilization; but there is a period in the process,
at which voluptuousness, more cruel than indifference, and often
maddened by jealousy, subjects her to greater degradation than her
original insignificance, and destroys all hope of her amelioration in
the tyranny of her own licentiousness. It is only where the principle
alluded to, is publicly recognised in the civil institutions of a
country, and conscientiously reverenced by the piety of its citizens,
that she attains the true dignity of her destiny in an equal
subordination, and vindicates the benevolence of the Deity in her
creation, by the increase of happiness she confers on her consort.
This cannot be looked for in a state of nature.
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