 In developing her arguments about practical morality she argues that the exercise of virtue is grounded in civil and religious liberty. “Freedom or Liberty of action”, she insists, is “the greatest endowment that a Created Being is capable of heeding”(Occasional Thoughts, pp. 68–78). Education is the key means to inculcate virtue. And virtue is to be learned not through precept but by developing a rational understanding of moral principles. Lack of education and poor education are destructive socially, morally and spiritually, a point which she develops into a feminist argument for the education of women. This centres on the traditional role of mothers in the moral education of their children. Highly critical of the limited and distorted education which girls receive, she argues that a mother cannot give her children a meaningful moral education if she herself is denied education.