prompt:
Chapter: Parental affection is, perhaps, the blindest modification of
perverse self-love; for we have not, like the French two terms
(L'amour propre, L'amour de soi meme) to distinguish the pursuit of
a natural and reasonable desire, from the ignorant calculations of
weakness.  Parents often love their children in the most brutal
manner, and sacrifice every relative duty to promote their
advancement in the world.  To promote, such is the perversity of
unprincipled prejudices, the future welfare of the very beings
whose present existence they imbitter by the most despotic stretch
of power.  Power, in fact, is ever true to its vital principle, for
in every shape it would reign without controul or inquiry.  Its
throne is built across a dark abyss, which no eye must dare to
explore, lest the baseless fabric should totter under
investigation.  Obedience, unconditional obedience, is the
catch-word of tyrants of every description, and to render
"assurance doubly sure," one kind of despotism supports another.
Tyrants would have cause to tremble if reason were to become the
rule of duty in any of the relations of life, for the light might
spread till perfect day appeared.  And when it did appear, how
would men smile at the sight of the bugbears at which they started
during the night of ignorance, or the twilight of timid inquiry.

Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but a pretext to
tyrannize where it can be done with impunity, for only good and
wise men are content with the respect that will bear discussion.
Convinced that they have a right to what they insist on, they do
not fear reason, or dread the sifting of subjects that recur to
natural justice:  because they firmly believe, that the more
enlightened the human mind becomes, the deeper root will just and
simple principles take.  They do not rest in expedients, or grant
that what is metaphysically true can be practically false; but
disdaining the shifts of the moment they calmly wait till time,
sanctioning innovation, silences the hiss of selfishness or envy.

If the power of reflecting on the past, and darting the keen eye of
contemplation into futurity, be the grand privilege of man, it must
be granted that some people enjoy this prerogative in a very
limited degree.  Every thing now appears to them wrong; and not
able to distinguish the possible from the monstrous, they fear
where no fear should find a place, running from the light of reason
as if it were a firebrand; yet the limits of the possible have
never been defined to stop the sturdy innovator's hand.

Woman, however, a slave in every situation to prejudice seldom
exerts enlightened maternal affection; for she either neglects her
children, or spoils them by improper indulgence.  Besides, the
affection of some women for their children is, as I have before
termed it, frequently very brutish; for it eradicates every spark
of humanity.  Justice, truth, every thing is sacrificed by these
Rebekahs, and for the sake of their own children they violate the
most sacred duties, forgetting the common relationship that binds
the whole family on earth together.  Yet, reason seems to say, that
they who suffer one duty, or affection to swallow up the rest, have
not sufficient heart or mind to fulfil that one conscientiously.
It then loses the venerable aspect of a duty, and assumes the
fantastic form of a whim.

As the care of children in their infancy is one of the grand duties
annexed to the female character by nature, this duty would afford
many forcible arguments for strengthening the female understanding,
if it were properly considered.

The formation of the mind must be begun very early, and the temper,
in particular, requires the most judicious attention--an attention
which women cannot pay who only love their children because they
are their children, and seek no further for the foundation of their
duty, than in the feelings of the moment.  It is this want of
reason in their affections which makes women so often run into
extremes, and either be the most fond, or most careless and
unnatural mothers.

To be a good mother--a woman must have sense, and that independence
of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely
on their husbands.  Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers;
wanting their children to love them best, and take their part, in
secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow.  If they
are to be punished, though they have offended the mother, the
father must inflict the punishment; he must be the judge in all
disputes:  but I shall more fully discuss this subject when I treat
of private education, I now only mean to insist, that unless the
understanding of woman be enlarged, and her character rendered more
firm, by being allowed to govern her own conduct, she will never
have sufficient sense or command of temper to manage her children
properly.  Her parental affection, indeed, scarcely deserves the
name, when it does not lead her to suckle her children, because the
discharge of this duty is equally calculated to inspire maternal
and filial affection; and it is the indispensable duty of men and
women to fulfil the duties which give birth to affections that are
the surest preservatives against vice.  Natural affection, as it is
termed, I believe to be a very weak tie, affections must grow out
of the habitual exercise of a mutual sympathy; and what sympathy
does a mother exercise who sends her babe to a nurse, and only
takes it from a nurse to send it to a school?

In the exercise of their natural feelings, providence has furnished
women with a natural substitute for love, when the lover becomes
only a friend and mutual confidence takes place of overstrained
admiration--a child then gently twists the relaxing cord, and a
mutual care produces a new mutual sympathy.  But a child, though a
pledge of affection, will not enliven it, if both father and mother
are content to transfer the charge to hirelings; for they who do
their duty by proxy should not murmur if they miss the reward of
duty--parental affection produces filial duty.

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: Wollstonecraft thinks that a parent's affection for their children is actually just a blind form of self-obsession. In other words, parents who think their kids are perfect are thinking, deep down, that they are perfect. Mary also refers back to her earlier argument about parents being like tyrants, demanding blind obedience without ever wanting to justify themselves. Wollstonecraft also thinks that parents are extremely selfish when it comes to their kids, because once they have kids, they don't care about anyone else in the world. Family actually breaks down community more than it supports it. The fact is that a good mother has to be able to think for herself and be somewhat self-aware of how she raises her kids. Otherwise she'll just become another overindulgent mother who raises her kids to think that they're the center of the universe. At the end of the day, there has to be a good relationship between parents if the children are going to learn how to properly treat others. And the bond between parents must be based on friendship and not just sexual attraction, because the second one will wither over time.


prompt:
Chapter: There seems to be an indolent propensity in man to make
prescription always take place of reason, and to place every duty
on an arbitrary foundation.  The rights of kings are deduced in a
direct line from the King of kings; and that of parents from our
first parent.

Why do we thus go back for principles that should always rest on
the same base, and have the same weight to-day that they had a
thousand years ago--and not a jot more?  If parents discharge their
duty they have a strong hold and sacred claim on the gratitude of
their children; but few parents are willing to receive the
respectful affection of their offspring on such terms.  They demand
blind obedience, because they do not merit a reasonable service:
and to render these demands of weakness and ignorance more binding,
a mysterious sanctity is spread round the most arbitrary principle;
for what other name can be given to the blind duty of obeying
vicious or weak beings, merely because they obeyed a powerful
instinct? The simple definition of the reciprocal duty, which
naturally subsists between parent and child, may be given in a few
words:  The parent who pays proper attention to helpless infancy
has a right to require the same attention when the feebleness of
age comes upon him.  But to subjugate a rational being to the mere
will of another, after he is of age to answer to society for his
own conduct, is a most cruel and undue stretch of power; and
perhaps as injurious to morality, as those religious systems which
do not allow right and wrong to have any existence, but in the
Divine will.

I never knew a parent who had paid more than common attention to
his children, disregarded (Dr. Johnson makes the same
observation.); on the contrary, the early habit of relying almost
implicitly on the opinion of a respected parent is not easily
shaken, even when matured reason convinces the child that his
father is not the wisest man in the world.  This weakness, for a
weakness it is, though the epithet AMIABLE may be tacked to it, a
reasonable man must steel himself against; for the absurd duty, too
often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being
a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish
submission to any power but reason.

I distinguish between the natural and accidental duty due to
parents.

The parent who sedulously endeavours to form the heart and enlarge
the understanding of his child, has given that dignity to the
discharge of a duty, common to the whole animal world, that only
reason can give.  This is the parental affection of humanity, and
leaves instinctive natural affection far behind.  Such a parent
acquires all the rights of the most sacred friendship, and his
advice, even when his child is advanced in life, demands serious
consideration.

With respect to marriage, though after one and twenty a parent
seems to have no right to withhold his consent on any account; yet
twenty years of solicitude call for a return, and the son ought, at
least, to promise not to marry for two or three years, should the
object of his choice not entirely meet with the approbation of his
first friend.

But, respect for parents is, generally speaking, a much more
debasing principle; it is only a selfish respect for property.  The
father who is blindly obeyed, is obeyed from sheer weakness, or
from motives that degrade the human character.

A great proportion of the misery that wanders, in hideous forms
around the world, is allowed to rise from the negligence of
parents; and still these are the people who are most tenacious of
what they term a natural right, though it be subversive of the
birth right of man, the right of acting according to the direction
of his own reason.

I have already very frequently had occasion to observe, that
vicious or indolent people are always eager to profit by enforcing
arbitrary privileges; and generally in the same proportion as they
neglect the discharge of the duties which alone render the
privileges reasonable.  This is at the bottom, a dictate of common
sense, or the instinct of self-defence, peculiar to ignorant
weakness; resembling that instinct, which makes a fish muddy the
water it swims in to elude its enemy, instead of boldly facing it
in the clear stream.

>From the clear stream of argument, indeed, the supporters of
prescription, of every denomination, fly:  and taking refuge in the
darkness, which, in the language of sublime poetry, has been
supposed to surround the throne of Omnipotence, they dare to demand
that implicit respect which is only due to His unsearchable ways.
But, let me not be thought presumptuous, the darkness which hides
our God from us, only respects speculative truths-- it never
obscures moral ones, they shine clearly, for God is light, and
never, by the constitution of our nature, requires the discharge of
a duty, the reasonableness of which does not beam on us when we
open our eyes.

The indolent parent of high rank may, it is true, extort a show of
respect from his child, and females on the continent are
particularly subject to the views of their families, who never
think of consulting their inclination, or providing for the comfort
of the poor victims of their pride.  The consequence is notorious;
these dutiful daughters become adulteresses, and neglect the
education of their children, from whom they, in their turn, exact
the same kind of obedience.

Females, it is true, in all countries, are too much under the
dominion of their parents; and few parents think of addressing
their children in the following manner, though it is in this
reasonable way that Heaven seems to command the whole human race.
It is your interest to obey me till you can judge for yourself; and
the Almighty Father of all has implanted an affection in me to
serve as a guard to you whilst your reason is unfolding; but when
your mind arrives at maturity, you must only obey me, or rather
respect my opinions, so far as they coincide with the light that is
breaking in on your own mind.

A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind; and
Mr. Locke very judiciously observes, that "if the mind be curbed
and humbled too much in children; if their spirits be abased and
broken much by too strict an hand over them; they lose all their
vigour and industry."  This strict hand may, in some degree,
account for the weakness of women; for girls, from various causes,
are more kept down by their parents, in every sense of the word,
than boys.  The duty expected from them is, like all the duties
arbitrarily imposed on women, more from a sense of propriety, more
out of respect for decorum, than reason; and thus taught slavishly
to submit to their parents, they are prepared for the slavery of
marriage.  I may be told that a number of women are not slaves in
the marriage state.  True, but they then become tyrants; for it is
not rational freedom, but a lawless kind of power, resembling the
authority exercised by the favourites of absolute monarchs, which
they obtain by debasing means.  I do not, likewise, dream of
insinuating that either boys or girls are always slaves, I only
insist, that when they are obliged to submit to authority blindly,
their faculties are weakened, and their tempers rendered imperious
or abject.  I also lament, that parents, indolently availing
themselves of a supposed privilege, damp the first faint glimmering
of reason rendering at the same time the duty, which they are so
anxious to enforce, an empty name; because they will not let it
rest on the only basis on which a duty can rest securely:  for,
unless it be founded on knowledge, it cannot gain sufficient
strength to resist the squalls of passion, or the silent sapping of
self-love.  But it is not the parents who have given the surest
proof of their affection for their children, (or, to speak more
properly, who by fulfilling their duty, have allowed a natural
parental affection to take root in their hearts, the child of
exercised sympathy and reason, and not the over-weening offspring
of selfish pride,) who most vehemently insist on their children
submitting to their will, merely because it is their will.  On the
contrary, the parent who sets a good example, patiently lets that
example work; and it seldom fails to produce its natural
effect--filial respect.

Children cannot be taught too early to submit to reason, the true
definition of that necessity, which Rousseau insisted on, without
defining it; for to submit to reason, is to submit to the nature of
things, and to that God who formed them so, to promote our real
interest.

Why should the minds of children be warped as they just begin to
expand, only to favour the indolence of parents, who insist on a
privilege without being willing to pay the price fixed by nature?
I have before had occasion to observe, that a right always includes
a duty, and I think it may, likewise fairly be inferred, that they
forfeit the right, who do not fulfil the duty.

It is easier, I grant, to command than reason; but it does not
follow from hence, that children cannot comprehend the reason why
they are made to do certain things habitually; for, from a steady
adherence to a few simple principles of conduct flows that salutary
power, which a judicious parent gradually gains over a child's
mind.  And this power becomes strong indeed, if tempered by an even
display of affection brought home to the child's heart.  For, I
believe, as a general rule, it must be allowed, that the affection
which we inspire always resembles that we cultivate; so that
natural affections, which have been supposed almost distinct from
reason, may be found more nearly connected with judgment than is
commonly allowed.  Nay, as another proof of the necessity of
cultivating the female understanding, it is but just to observe,
that the affections seem to have a kind of animal capriciousness
when they merely reside in the heart.

It is the irregular exercise of parental authority that first
injures the mind, and to these irregularities girls are more
subject than boys.  The will of those who never allow their will to
be disputed, unless they happen to be in a good humour, when they
relax proportionally, is almost always unreasonable.  To elude this
arbitrary authority, girls very early learn the lessons which they
afterwards practise on their husbands; for I have frequently seen a
little sharp-faced miss rule a whole family, excepting that now and
then mamma's anger will burst out of some accidental cloud-- either
her hair was ill-dressed,* or she had lost more money at cards, the
night before, than she was willing to own to her husband; or some
such moral cause of anger.

(*Footnote.  I myself heard a little girl once say to a servant,
"My mamma has been scolding me finely this morning, because her
hair was not dressed to please her."  Though this remark was pert,
it was just.  And what respect could a girl acquire for such a
parent, without doing violence to reason?)

After observing sallies of this kind, I have been led into a
melancholy train of reflection respecting females, concluding that
when their first affection must lead them astray, or make their
duties clash till they rest on mere whims and customs, little can
be expected from them as they advance in life.  How, indeed, can an
instructor remedy this evil? for to teach them virtue on any solid
principle is to teach them to despise their parents.  Children
cannot, ought not to be taught to make allowance for the faults of
their parents, because every such allowance weakens the force of
reason in their minds, and makes them still more indulgent to their
own.  It is one of the most sublime virtues of maturity that leads
us to be severe with respect to ourselves, and forbearing to
others; but children should only be taught the simple virtues, for
if they begin too early to make allowance for human passions and
manners, they wear off the fine edge of the criterion by which they
should regulate their own, and become unjust in the same proportion
as they grow indulgent.

The affections of children, and weak people, are always selfish;
they love others, because others love them, and not on account of
their virtues.  Yet, till esteem and love are blended together in
the first affection, and reason made the foundation of the first
duty, morality will stumble at the threshold.  But, till society is
very differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on
being obeyed, because they will be obeyed, and constantly endeavour
to settle that power on a Divine right, which will not bear the
investigation of reason.

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: For some reason, says Wollstonecraft, humanity is prone to laziness when it comes to thinking. No one likes to have to justify any decisions. They just want to act on habit, tradition, and authority so they won't have to think too much about anything. Many parents are not willing to earn their children's respect. They demand it, and this creates a model of tyrannical authority that will poison a child's thinking for the rest of its life. Wollstonecraft blames bad parents for a lot of bad that exists in the world. Wollstonecraft thinks that young girls suffer from parents' tyranny even more than boys do. But in a good world, parents would calmly sit their children down and explain to them why they should follow the parents' advice until they have the ability to judge for themselves. Everyone knows that it's easier to give a command than to give a reasoned argument for something. But then again, it's easier to eat pizza than broccoli, too. But the second is much better for you in the long run. Giving commands also teaches people the terrible habit of governing according to moods. In other words, parents are more likely to punish kids based on what mood they're in instead of handing out punishments that are rational and appropriate. Wollstonecraft angers a lot of her readers when she says that children should be taught to see and acknowledge their parents' shortcomings and insecurities. It's not until children and parents can speak to each other as rational beings, blending love and esteem, that future societies will be filled with better people.


prompt:
Chapter: The good effects resulting from attention to private education will
ever be very confined, and the parent who really puts his own hand
to the plow, will always, in some degree be disappointed, till
education becomes a grand national concern.  A man cannot retire
into a desert with his child, and if he did, he could not bring
himself back to childhood, and become the proper friend and
play-fellow of an infant or youth.  And when children are confined
to the society of men and women, they very soon acquire that kind
of premature manhood which stops the growth of every vigorous power
of mind or body.  In order to open their faculties they should be
excited to think for themselves; and this can only be done by
mixing a number of children together, and making them jointly
pursue the same objects.

A child very soon contracts a benumbing indolence of mind, which he
has seldom sufficient vigour to shake off, when he only asks a
question instead of seeking for information, and then relies
implicitly on the answer he receives.  With his equals in age this
could never be the case, and the subjects of inquiry, though they
might be influenced, would not be entirely under the direction of
men, who frequently damp, if not destroy abilities, by bringing
them forward too hastily:  and too hastily they will infallibly be
brought forward, if the child could be confined to the society of a
man, however sagacious that man may be.

Besides, in youth the seeds of every affection should be sown, and
the respectful regard, which is felt for a parent, is very
different from the social affections that are to constitute the
happiness of life as it advances.  Of these, equality is the basis,
and an intercourse of sentiments unclogged by that observant
seriousness which prevents disputation, though it may not inforce
submission.  Let a child have ever such an affection for his
parent, he will always languish to play and chat with children; and
the very respect he entertains, for filial esteem always has a dash
of fear mixed with it, will, if it do not teach him cunning, at
least prevent him from pouring out the little secrets which first
open the heart to friendship and confidence, gradually leading to
more expansive benevolence.  Added to this, he will never acquire
that frank ingenuousness of behaviour, which young people can only
attain by being frequently in society, where they dare to speak
what they think; neither afraid of being reproved for their
presumption, nor laughed at for their folly.

Forcibly impressed by the reflections which the sight of schools,
as they are at present conducted, naturally suggested, I have
formerly delivered my opinion rather warmly in favour of a private
education; but further experience has led me to view the subject in
a different light.  I still, however, think schools, as they are
now regulated, the hot-beds of vice and folly, and the knowledge of
human nature, supposed to be attained there, merely cunning
selfishness.

At school, boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of
cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the
libertinism which destroys the constitution before it is formed;
hardening the heart as it weakens the understanding.

I should, in fact, be averse to boarding-schools, if it were for no
other reason than the unsettled state of mind which the expectation
of the vacations produce.  On these the children's thoughts are
fixed with eager anticipating hopes, for, at least, to speak with
moderation, half of the time, and when they arrive they are spent
in total dissipation and beastly indulgence.

But, on the contrary, when they are brought up at home, though they
may pursue a plan of study in a more orderly manner than can be
adopted, when near a fourth part of the year is actually spent in
idleness, and as much more in regret and anticipation; yet they
there acquire too high an opinion of their own importance, from
being allowed to tyrannize over servants, and from the anxiety
expressed by most mothers, on the score of manners, who, eager to
teach the accomplishments of a gentleman, stifle, in their birth,
the virtues of a man.  Thus brought into company when they ought to
be seriously employed, and treated like men when they are still
boys, they become vain and effeminate.

The only way to avoid two extremes equally injurious to morality,
would be to contrive some way of combining a public and private
education.  Thus to make men citizens, two natural steps might be
taken, which seem directly to lead to the desired point; for the
domestic affections, that first open the heart to the various
modifications of humanity would be cultivated, whilst the children
were nevertheless allowed to spend great part of their time, on
terms of equality, with other children.

I still recollect, with pleasure, the country day school; where a
boy trudged in the morning, wet or dry, carrying his books, and his
dinner, if it were at a considerable distance; a servant did not
then lead master by the hand, for, when he had once put on coat and
breeches, he was allowed to shift for himself, and return alone in
the evening to recount the feats of the day close at the parental
knee.  His father's house was his home, and was ever after fondly
remembered; nay, I appeal to some superior men who were educated in
this manner, whether the recollection of some shady lane where they
conned their lesson; or, of some stile, where they sat making a
kite, or mending a bat, has not endeared their country to them?

But, what boy ever recollected with pleasure the years he spent in
close confinement, at an academy near London? unless indeed he
should by chance remember the poor scare-crow of an usher whom he
tormented; or, the tartman, from whom he caught a cake, to devour
it with the cattish appetite of selfishness.  At boarding schools
of every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is
mischief; and of the senior, vice.  Besides, in great schools what
can be more prejudicial to the moral character, than the system of
tyranny and abject slavery which is established amongst the boys,
to say nothing of the slavery to forms, which makes religion worse
than a farce?  For what good can be expected from the youth who
receives the sacrament of the Lord's supper, to avoid forfeiting
half-a-guinea, which he probably afterwards spends in some sensual
manner?  Half the employment of the youths is to elude the
necessity of attending public worship; and well they may, for such
a constant repetition of the same thing must be a very irksome
restraint on their natural vivacity.  As these ceremonies have the
most fatal effect on their morals, and as a ritual performed by the
lips, when the heart and mind are far away, is not now stored up by
our church as a bank to draw on for the fees of the poor souls in
purgatory, why should they not be abolished?

But the fear of innovation, in this country, extends to every
thing.  This is only a covert fear, the apprehensive timidity of
indolent slugs, who guard, by sliming it over, the snug place,
which they consider in the light of an hereditary estate; and eat,
drink, and enjoy themselves, instead of fulfilling the duties,
excepting a few empty forms, for which it was endowed.  These are
the people who most strenuously insist on the will of the founder
being observed, crying out against all reformation, as if it were a
violation of justice.  I am now alluding particularly to the
relicks of popery retained in our colleges, where the protestant
members seem to be such sticklers for the established church; but
their zeal never makes them lose sight of the spoil of ignorance,
which rapacious priests of superstitious memory have scraped
together.  No, wise in their generation, they venerate the
prescriptive right of possession, as a strong hold, and still let
the sluggish bell tingle to prayers, as during the days, when the
elevation of the host was supposed to atone for the sins of the
people, lest one reformation should lead to another, and the spirit
kill the letter.  These Romish customs have the most baneful effect
on the morals of our clergy; for the idle vermin who two or three
times a day perform, in the most slovenly manner a service which
they think useless, but call their duty, soon lose a sense of duty.
At college, forced to attend or evade public worship, they acquire
an habitual contempt for the very service, the performance of which
is to enable them to live in idleness.  It is mumbled over as an
affair of business, as a stupid boy repeats his task, and
frequently the college cant escapes from the preacher the moment
after he has left the pulpit, and even whilst he is eating the
dinner which he earned in such a dishonest manner.

Nothing, indeed, can be more irreverent than the cathedral service
as it is now performed in this country, neither does it contain a
set of weaker men than those who are the slaves of this childish
routine.  A disgusting skeleton of the former state is still
exhibited; but all the solemnity, that interested the imagination,
if it did not purify the heart, is stripped off.  The performance
of high mass on the continent must impress every mind, where a
spark of fancy glows, with that awful melancholy, that sublime
tenderness, so near a-kin to devotion.  I do not say, that these
devotional feelings are of more use, in a moral sense, than any
other emotion of taste; but I contend, that the theatrical pomp
which gratifies our senses, is to be preferred to the cold parade
that insults the understanding without reaching the heart.

Amongst remarks on national education, such observations cannot be
misplaced, especially as the supporters of these establishments,
degenerated into puerilities, affect to be the champions of
religion.  Religion, pure source of comfort in this vale of tears!
how has thy clear stream been muddied by the dabblers, who have
presumptuously endeavoured to confine in one narrow channel, the
living waters that ever flow toward God-- the sublime ocean of
existence!  What would life be without that peace which the love of
God, when built on humanity, alone can impart?  Every earthly
affection turns back, at intervals, to prey upon the heart that
feeds it; and the purest effusions of benevolence, often rudely
damped by men, must mount as a free-will offering to Him who gave
them birth, whose bright image they faintly reflect.

In public schools, however, religion, confounded with irksome
ceremonies and unreasonable restraints, assumes the most ungracious
aspect:  not the sober austere one that commands respect whilst it
inspires fear; but a ludicrous cast, that serves to point a pun.
For, in fact, most of the good stories and smart things which
enliven the spirits that have been concentrated at whist, are
manufactured out of the incidents to which the very men labour to
give a droll turn who countenance the abuse to live on the spoil.

There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical or
luxurious set of men, than the pedantic tyrants who reside in
colleges and preside at public schools.  The vacations are equally
injurious to the morals of the masters and pupils, and the
intercourse, which the former keep up with the nobility, introduces
the same vanity and extravagance into their families, which banish
domestic duties and comforts from the lordly mansion, whose state
is awkwardly aped on a smaller scale.  The boys, who live at a
great expence with the masters and assistants, are never
domesticated, though placed there for that purpose; for, after a
silent dinner, they swallow a hasty glass of wine, and retire to
plan some mischievous trick, or to ridicule the person or manners
of the very people they have just been cringing to, and whom they
ought to consider as the representatives of their parents.

Can it then be a matter of surprise, that boys become selfish and
vicious who are thus shut out from social converse? or that a mitre
often graces the brow of one of these diligent pastors? The desire
of living in the same style, as the rank just above them, infects
each individual and every class of people, and meanness is the
concomitant of this ignoble ambition; but those professions are
most debasing whose ladder is patronage; yet out of one of these
professions the tutors of youth are in general chosen.  But, can
they be expected to inspire independent sentiments, whose conduct
must be regulated by the cautious prudence that is ever on the
watch for preferment?

So far, however, from thinking of the morals of boys, I have heard
several masters of schools argue, that they only undertook to teach
Latin and Greek; and that they had fulfilled their duty, by sending
some good scholars to college.

A few good scholars, I grant, may have been formed by emulation and
discipline; but, to bring forward these clever boys, the health and
morals of a number have been sacrificed.

The sons of our gentry and wealthy commoners are mostly educated at
these seminaries, and will any one pretend to assert, that the
majority, making every allowance, come under the description of
tolerable scholars?

It is not for the benefit of society that a few brilliant men
should be brought forward at the expence of the multitude.  It is
true, that great men seem to start up, as great revolutions occur,
at proper intervals, to restore order, and to blow aside the clouds
that thicken over the face of truth; but let more reason and virtue
prevail in society, and these strong winds would not be necessary.
Public education, of every denomination, should be directed to form
citizens; but if you wish to make good citizens, you must first
exercise the affections of a son and a brother.  This is the only
way to expand the heart; for public affections, as well as public
virtues, must ever grow out of the private character, or they are
merely meteors that shoot athwart a dark sky, and disappear as they
are gazed at and admired.

Few, I believe, have had much affection for mankind, who did not
first love their parents, their brothers, sisters, and even the
domestic brutes, whom they first played with.  The exercise of
youthful sympathies forms the moral temperature; and it is the
recollection of these first affections and pursuits, that gives
life to those that are afterwards more under the direction of
reason.  In youth, the fondest friendships are formed, the genial
juices mounting at the same time, kindly mix; or, rather the heart,
tempered for the reception of friendship, is accustomed to seek for
pleasure in something more noble than the churlish gratification of
appetite.

In order then to inspire a love of home and domestic pleasures,
children ought to be educated at home, for riotous holidays only
make them fond of home for their own sakes.  Yet, the vacations,
which do not foster domestic affections, continually disturb the
course of study, and render any plan of improvement abortive which
includes temperance; still, were they abolished, children would be
entirely separated from their parents, and I question whether they
would become better citizens by sacrificing the preparatory
affections, by destroying the force of relationships that render
the marriage state as necessary as respectable.  But, if a private
education produce self-importance, or insulates a man in his
family, the evil is only shifted, not remedied.

This train of reasoning brings me back to a subject, on which I
mean to dwell, the necessity of establishing proper day-schools.

But these should be national establishments, for whilst
school-masters are dependent on the caprice of parents, little
exertion can be expected from them, more than is necessary to
please ignorant people.  Indeed, the necessity of a master's giving
the parents some sample of the boy's abilities, which during the
vacation, is shown to every visiter, is productive of more mischief
than would at first be supposed.  For they are seldom done
entirely, to speak with moderation, by the child itself; thus the
master countenances falsehoods, or winds the poor machine up to
some extraordinary exertion, that injures the wheels, and stops the
progress of gradual improvement.  The memory is loaded with
unintelligible words, to make a show of, without the
understanding's acquiring any distinct ideas: but only that
education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of mind,
which teaches young people how to begin to think.  The imagination
should not be allowed to debauch the understanding before it gained
strength, or vanity will become the forerunner of vice:  for every
way of exhibiting the acquirements of a child is injurious to its
moral character.

How much time is lost in teaching them to recite what they do not
understand! whilst, seated on benches, all in their best array, the
mammas listen with astonishment to the parrot-like prattle, uttered
in solemn cadences, with all the pomp of ignorance and folly.  Such
exhibitions only serve to strike the spreading fibres of vanity
through the whole mind; for they neither teach children to speak
fluently, nor behave gracefully.  So far from it, that these
frivolous pursuits might comprehensively be termed the study of
affectation: for we now rarely see a simple, bashful boy, though
few people of taste were ever disgusted by that awkward
sheepishness so natural to the age, which schools and an early
introduction into society, have changed into impudence and apish
grimace.

Yet, how can these things be remedied whilst schoolmasters depend
entirely on parents for a subsistence; and when so many rival
schools hang out their lures to catch the attention of vain fathers
and mothers, whose parental affection only leads them to wish, that
their children should outshine those of their neighbours?

Without great good luck, a sensible, conscientious man, would
starve before he could raise a school, if he disdained to bubble
weak parents, by practising the secret tricks of the craft.

In the best regulated schools, however, where swarms are not
crammed together many bad habits must be acquired; but, at common
schools, the body, heart, and understanding, are equally stunted,
for parents are often only in quest of the cheapest school, and the
master could not live, if he did not take a much greater number
than he could manage himself; nor will the scanty pittance, allowed
for each child, permit him to hire ushers sufficient to assist in
the discharge of the mechanical part of the business.  Besides,
whatever appearance the house and garden may make, the children do
not enjoy the comforts of either, for they are continually
reminded, by irksome restrictions, that they are not at home, and
the state-rooms, garden, etc. must be kept in order for the
recreation of the parents; who, of a Sunday, visit the school, and
are impressed by the very parade that renders the situation of
their children uncomfortable.

With what disgust have I heard sensible women, for girls are more
restrained and cowed than boys, speak of the wearisome confinement
which they endured at school.  Not allowed, perhaps, to step out of
one broad walk in a superb garden, and obliged to pace with steady
deportment stupidly backwards and forwards, holding up their heads,
and turning out their toes, with shoulders braced back, instead of
bounding, as nature directs to complete her own design, in the
various attitudes so conducive to health.  The pure animal spirits,
which make both mind and body shoot out, and unfold the tender
blossoms of hope are turned sour, and vented in vain wishes, or
pert repinings, that contract the faculties and spoil the temper;
else they mount to the brain and sharpening the understanding
before it gains proportionable strength, produce that pitiful
cunning which disgracefully characterizes the female mind--and I
fear will ever characterize it whilst women remain the slaves of
power!

The little respect which the male world pay to chastity is, I am
persuaded, the grand source of many of the physical and moral evils
that torment mankind, as well as of the vices and follies that
degrade and destroy women; yet at school, boys infallibly lose that
decent bashfulness, which might have ripened into modesty at home.

I have already animadverted on the bad habits which females acquire
when they are shut up together; and I think that the observation
may fairly be extended to the other sex, till the natural inference
is drawn which I have had in view throughout--that to improve both
sexes they ought, not only in private families, but in public
schools, to be educated together.  If marriage be the cement of
society, mankind should all be educated after the same model, or
the intercourse of the sexes will never deserve the name of
fellowship, nor will women ever fulfil the peculiar duties of their
sex, till they become enlightened citizens, till they become free,
by being enabled to earn their own subsistence, independent of men;
in the same manner, I mean, to prevent misconstruction, as one man
is independent of another.  Nay, marriage will never be held sacred
till women by being brought up with men, are prepared to be their
companions, rather than their mistresses; for the mean doublings of
cunning will ever render them contemptible, whilst oppression
renders them timid.  So convinced am I of this truth, that I will
venture to predict, that virtue will never prevail in society till
the virtues of both sexes are founded on reason; and, till the
affection common to both are allowed to gain their due strength by
the discharge of mutual duties.

Were boys and girls permitted to pursue the same studies together,
those graceful decencies might early be inculcated which produce
modesty, without those sexual distinctions that taint the mind.
Lessons of politeness, and that formulary of decorum, which treads
on the heels of falsehood, would be rendered useless by habitual
propriety of behaviour.  Not, indeed put on for visiters like the
courtly robe of politeness, but the sober effect of cleanliness of
mind.  Would not this simple elegance of sincerity be a chaste
homage paid to domestic affections, far surpassing the meretricious
compliments that shine with false lustre in the heartless
intercourse of fashionable life?  But, till more understanding
preponderate in society, there will ever be a want of heart and
taste, and the harlot's rouge will supply the place of that
celestial suffusion which only virtuous affections can give to the
face.  Gallantry, and what is called love, may subsist without
simplicity of character; but the main pillars of friendship, are
respect and confidence--esteem is never founded on it cannot tell
what.

A taste for the fine arts requires great cultivation; but not more
than a taste for the virtuous affections:  and both suppose that
enlargement of mind which opens so many sources of mental pleasure.
Why do people hurry to noisy scenes and crowded circles?  I should
answer, because they want activity of mind, because they have not
cherished the virtues of the heart.  They only, therefore, see and
feel in the gross, and continually pine after variety, finding
every thing that is simple, insipid.

This argument may be carried further than philosophers are aware
of, for if nature destined woman, in particular, for the discharge
of domestic duties, she made her susceptible of the attached
affections in a great degree.  Now women are notoriously fond of
pleasure; and naturally must be so, according to my definition,
because they cannot enter into the minutiae of domestic taste;
lacking judgment the foundation of all taste.  For the
understanding, in spite of sensual cavillers, reserves to itself
the privilege of conveying pure joy to the heart.

With what a languid yawn have I seen an admirable poem thrown down,
that a man of true taste returns to, again and again with rapture;
and, whilst melody has almost suspended respiration, a lady has
asked me where I bought my gown.  I have seen also an eye glanced
coldly over a most exquisite picture, rest, sparkling with
pleasure, on a caricature rudely sketched; and whilst some terrific
feature in nature has spread a sublime stillness through my soul, I
have been desired to observe the pretty tricks of a lap-dog, that
my perverse fate forced me to travel with.  Is it surprising, that
such a tasteless being should rather caress this dog than her
children?  Or, that she should prefer the rant of flattery to the
simple accents of sincerity?

To illustrate this remark I must be allowed to observe, that men of
the first genius, and most cultivated minds, have appeared to have
the highest relish for the simple beauties of nature; and they must
have forcibly felt, what they have so well described, the charm,
which natural affections, and unsophisticated feelings spread round
the human character.  It is this power of looking into the heart,
and responsively vibrating with each emotion, that enables the poet
to personify each passion, and the painter to sketch with a pencil
of fire.

True taste is ever the work of the understanding employed in
observing natural effects; and till women have more understanding,
it is vain to expect them to possess domestic taste.  Their lively
senses will ever be at work to harden their hearts, and the
emotions struck out of them will continue to be vivid and
transitory, unless a proper education stores their minds with
knowledge.

It is the want of domestic taste, and not the acquirement of
knowledge, that takes women out of their families, and tears the
smiling babe from the breast that ought to afford it nourishment.
Women have been allowed to remain in ignorance, and slavish
dependence, many, very many years, and still we hear of nothing but
their fondness of pleasure and sway, their preference of rakes and
soldiers, their childish attachment to toys, and the vanity that
makes them value accomplishments more than virtues.

History brings forward a fearful catalogue of the crimes which
their cunning has produced, when the weak slaves have had
sufficient address to over-reach their masters.  In France, and in
how many other countries have men been the luxurious despots, and
women the crafty ministers?  Does this prove that ignorance and
dependence domesticate them?  Is not their folly the by-word of the
libertines, who relax in their society; and do not men of sense
continually lament, that an immoderate fondness for dress and
dissipation carries the mother of a family for ever from home?
Their hearts have not been debauched by knowledge, nor their minds
led astray by scientific pursuits; yet, they do not fulfil the
peculiar duties, which as women they are called upon by nature to
fulfil.  On the contrary, the state of warfare which subsists
between the sexes, makes them employ those wiles, that frustrate
the more open designs of force.

When, therefore, I call women slaves, I mean in a political and
civil sense; for, indirectly they obtain too much power, and are
debased by their exertions to obtain illicit sway.

Let an enlightened nation then try what effect reason would have to
bring them back to nature, and their duty; and allowing them to
share the advantages of education and government with man, see
whether they will become better, as they grow wiser and become
free.  They cannot be injured by the experiment; for it is not in
the power of man to render them more insignificant than they are at
present.

To render this practicable, day schools for particular ages should
be established by government, in which boys and girls might be
educated together.  The school for the younger children, from five
to nine years of age, ought to be absolutely free and open to all
classes.*  A sufficient number of masters should also be chosen by
a select committee, in each parish, to whom any complaint of
negligence, etc. might be made, if signed by six of the children's
parents.

(*Footnote.  Treating this part of the subject, I have borrowed
some hints from a very sensible pamphlet written by the late bishop
of Autun on public Education.)

Ushers would then be unnecessary; for, I believe, experience will
ever prove, that this kind of subordinate authority is particularly
injurious to the morals of youth.  What, indeed, can tend to
deprave the character more than outward submission and inward
contempt?  Yet, how can boys be expected to treat an usher with
respect when the master seems to consider him in the light of a
servant, and almost to countenance the ridicule which becomes the
chief amusement of the boys during the play hours?

But nothing of this kind could occur in an elementary day-school,
where boys and girls, the rich and poor, should meet together.  And
to prevent any of the distinctions of vanity, they should be
dressed alike, and all obliged to submit to the same discipline, or
leave the school.  The school-room ought to be surrounded by a
large piece of ground, in which the children might be usefully
exercised, for at this age they should not be confined to any
sedentary employment for more than an hour at a time.  But these
relaxations might all be rendered a part of elementary education,
for many things improve and amuse the senses, when introduced as a
kind of show, to the principles of which dryly laid down, children
would turn a deaf ear.  For instance, botany, mechanics, and
astronomy.  Reading, writing, arithmetic, natural history, and some
simple experiments in natural philosophy, might fill up the day;
but these pursuits should never encroach on gymnastic plays in the
open air.  The elements of religion, history, the history of man,
and politics, might also be taught by conversations, in the
socratic form.

After the age of nine, girls and boys, intended for domestic
employments, or mechanical trades, ought to be removed to other
schools, and receive instruction, in some measure appropriated to
the destination of each individual, the two sexes being still
together in the morning; but in the afternoon, the girls should
attend a school, where plain work, mantua-making, millinery, etc.
would be their employment.

The young people of superior abilities, or fortune, might now be
taught, in another school, the dead and living languages, the
elements of science, and continue the study of history and
politics, on a more extensive scale, which would not exclude polite
literature.  Girls and boys still together? I hear some readers
ask:  yes.  And I should not fear any other consequence, than that
some early attachment might take place; which, whilst it had the
best effect on the moral character of the young people, might not
perfectly agree with the views of the parents, for it will be a
long time, I fear, before the world is so enlightened, that
parents, only anxious to render their children virtuous, will let
them choose companions for life themselves.

Besides, this would be a sure way to promote early marriages, and
from early marriages the most salutary physical and moral effects
naturally flow.  What a different character does a married citizen
assume from the selfish coxcomb, who lives but for himself, and who
is often afraid to marry lest he should not be able to live in a
certain style.  Great emergencies excepted, which would rarely
occur in a society of which equality was the basis, a man could
only be prepared to discharge the duties of public life, by the
habitual practice of those inferior ones which form the man.

In this plan of education, the constitution of boys would not be
ruined by the early debaucheries, which now make men so selfish,
nor girls rendered weak and vain, by indolence and frivolous
pursuits.  But, I presuppose, that such a degree of equality should
be established between the sexes as would shut out gallantry and
coquetry, yet allow friendship and love to temper the heart for the
discharge of higher duties.

These would be schools of morality--and the happiness of man,
allowed to flow from the pure springs of duty and affection, what
advances might not the human mind make?  Society can only be happy
and free in proportion as it is virtuous; but the present
distinctions, established in society, corrode all private, and
blast all public virtue.

I have already inveighed against the custom of confining girls to
their needle, and shutting them out from all political and civil
employments; for by thus narrowing their minds they are rendered
unfit to fulfil the peculiar duties which nature has assigned them.

Only employed about the little incidents of the day, they
necessarily grow up cunning.  My very soul has often sickened at
observing the sly tricks practised by women to gain some foolish
thing on which their silly hearts were set.  Not allowed to dispose
of money, or call any thing their own, they learn to turn the
market penny; or, should a husband offend, by staying from home, or
give rise to some emotions of jealousy--a new gown, or any pretty
bauble, smooths Juno's angry brow.

But these LITTLENESSES would not degrade their character, if women
were led to respect themselves, if political and moral subjects
were opened to them; and I will venture to affirm, that this is the
only way to make them properly attentive to their domestic duties.
An active mind embraces the whole circle of its duties, and finds
time enough for all.  It is not, I assert, a bold attempt to
emulate masculine virtues; it is not the enchantment of literary
pursuits, or the steady investigation of scientific subjects, that
lead women astray from duty.  No, it is indolence and vanity --the
love of pleasure and the love of sway, that will reign paramount in
an empty mind.  I say empty, emphatically, because the education
which women now receive scarcely deserves the name.  For the little
knowledge they are led to acquire during the important years of
youth, is merely relative to accomplishments; and accomplishments
without a bottom, for unless the understanding be cultivated,
superficial and monotonous is every grace.  Like the charms of a
made-up face, they only strike the senses in a crowd; but at home,
wanting mind, they want variety.  The consequence is obvious; in
gay scenes of dissipation we meet the artificial mind and face, for
those who fly from solitude dread next to solitude, the domestic
circle; not having it in their power to amuse or interest, they
feel their own insignificance, or find nothing to amuse or interest
themselves.

Besides, what can be more indelicate than a girl's coming out in
the fashionable world?  Which, in other words, is to bring to
market a marriageable miss, whose person is taken from one public
place to another, richly caparisoned.  Yet, mixing in the giddy
circle under restraint, these butterflies long to flutter at large,
for the first affection of their souls is their own persons, to
which their attention has been called with the most sedulous care,
whilst they were preparing for the period that decides their fate
for life.  Instead of pursuing this idle routine, sighing for
tasteless show, and heartless state, with what dignity would the
youths of both sexes form attachments in the schools that I have
cursorily pointed out; in which, as life advanced, dancing, music,
and drawing, might be admitted as relaxations, for at these schools
young people of fortune ought to remain, more or less, till they
were of age.  Those, who were designed for particular professions,
might attend, three or four mornings in the week, the schools
appropriated for their immediate instruction.

I only drop these observations at present, as hints; rather, indeed
as an outline of the plan I mean, than a digested one; but I must
add, that I highly approve of one regulation mentioned in the
pamphlet already alluded to (The Bishop of Autun), that of making
the children and youths independent of the masters respecting
punishments.  They should be tried by their peers, which would be
an admirable method of fixing sound principles of justice in the
mind, and might have the happiest effect on the temper, which is
very early soured or irritated by tyranny, till it becomes
peevishly cunning, or ferociously overbearing.

My imagination darts forward with benevolent fervour to greet these
amiable and respectable groups, in spite of the sneering of cold
hearts, who are at liberty to utter, with frigid self-importance,
the damning epithet-- romantic; the force of which I shall
endeavour to blunt by repeating the words of an eloquent moralist.
"I know not whether the allusions of a truly humane heart, whose
zeal renders every thing easy, is not preferable to that rough and
repulsing reason, which always finds in indifference for the public
good, the first obstacle to whatever would promote it."

I know that libertines will also exclaim, that woman would be
unsexed by acquiring strength of body and mind, and that beauty,
soft bewitching beauty! would no longer adorn the daughters of men.
I am of a very different opinion, for I think, that, on the
contrary, we should then see dignified beauty, and true grace; to
produce which, many powerful physical and moral causes would
concur.  Not relaxed beauty, it is true, nor the graces of
helplessness; but such as appears to make us respect the human body
as a majestic pile, fit to receive a noble inhabitant, in the
relics of antiquity.

I do not forget the popular opinion, that the Grecian statues were
not modelled after nature.  I mean, not according to the
proportions of a particular man; but that beautiful limbs and
features were selected from various bodies to form an harmonious
whole.  This might, in some degree, be true.  The fine ideal
picture of an exalted imagination might be superior to the
materials which the painter found in nature, and thus it might with
propriety be termed rather the model of mankind than of a man.  It
was not, however, the mechanical selection of limbs and features,
but the ebullition of an heated fancy that burst forth; and the
fine senses and enlarged understanding of the artist selected the
solid matter, which he drew into this glowing focus.

I observed that it was not mechanical, because a whole was
produced--a model of that grand simplicity, of those concurring
energies, which arrest our attention and command our reverence.
For only insipid lifeless beauty is produced by a servile copy of
even beautiful nature.  Yet, independent of these observations, I
believe, that the human form must have been far more beautiful than
it is at present, because extreme indolence, barbarous ligatures,
and many causes, which forcibly act on it, in our luxurious state
of society, did not retard its expansion, or render it deformed.
Exercise and cleanliness appear to be not only the surest means of
preserving health, but of promoting beauty, the physical causes
only considered; yet, this is not sufficient, moral ones must
concur, or beauty will be merely of that rustic kind which blooms
on the innocent, wholesome countenances of some country people,
whose minds have not been exercised.  To render the person perfect,
physical and moral beauty ought to be attained at the same time;
each lending and receiving force by the combination.  Judgment must
reside on the brow, affection and fancy beam in the eye, and
humanity curve the cheek, or vain is the sparkling of the finest
eye or the elegantly turned finish of the fairest features;  whilst
in every motion that displays the active limbs and well-knit
joints, grace and modesty should appear.  But this fair assemblage
is not to be brought together by chance; it is the reward of
exertions met to support each other; for judgment can only be
acquired by reflection, affection, by the discharge of duties, and
humanity by the exercise of compassion to every living creature.

Humanity to animals should be particularly inculcated as a part of
national education, for it is not at present one of our national
virtues.  Tenderness for their humble dumb domestics, amongst the
lower class, is oftener to be found in a savage than a civilized
state.  For civilization prevents that intercourse which creates
affection in the rude hut, or mud cabin, and leads uncultivated
minds who are only depraved by the refinements which prevail in the
society, where they are trodden under foot by the rich, to domineer
over them to revenge the insults that they are obliged to bear from
their superiours.

This habitual cruelty is first caught at school, where it is one of
the rare sports of the boys to torment the miserable brutes that
fall in their way.  The transition, as they grow up, from barbarity
to brutes to domestic tyranny over wives, children, and servants,
is very easy.  Justice, or even benevolence, will not be a powerful
spring of action, unless it extend to the whole creation; nay, I
believe that it may be delivered as an axiom, that those who can
see pain, unmoved, will soon learn to inflict it.

The vulgar are swayed by present feelings, and the habits which
they have accidentally acquired; but on partial feelings much
dependence cannot be placed, though they be just; for, when they
are not invigorated by reflection, custom weakens them, till they
are scarcely felt.  The sympathies of our nature are strengthened
by pondering cogitations, and deadened by thoughtless use.
Macbeth's heart smote him more for one murder, the first, than for
a hundred subsequent ones, which were necessary to back it.  But,
when I used the epithet vulgar, I did not mean to confine my remark
to the poor, for partial humanity, founded on present sensations or
whim, is quite as conspicuous, if not more so, amongst the rich.

The lady who sheds tears for the bird starved in a snare, and
execrates the devils in the shape of men, who goad to madness the
poor ox, or whip the patient ass, tottering under a burden above
its strength, will, nevertheless, keep her coachman and horses
whole hours waiting for her, when the sharp frost bites, or the
rain beats against the well-closed windows which do not admit a
breath of air to tell her how roughly the wind blows without.  And
she who takes her dogs to bed, and nurses them with a parade of
sensibility, when sick, will suffer her babes to grow up crooked in
a nursery.  This illustration of my argument is drawn from a matter
of fact.  The woman whom I allude to was handsome, reckoned very
handsome, by those who do not miss the mind when the face is plump
and fair; but her understanding had not been led from female duties
by literature, nor her innocence debauched by knowledge.  No, she
was quite feminine, according to the masculine acceptation of the
word; and, so far from loving these spoiled brutes that filled the
place which her children ought to have occupied, she only lisped
out a pretty mixture of French and English nonsense, to please the
men who flocked round her.  The wife, mother, and human creature,
were all swallowed up by the factitious character, which an
improper education, and the selfish vanity of beauty, had produced.

I do not like to make a distinction without a difference, and I own
that I have been as much disgusted by the fine lady who took her
lap-dog to her bosom, instead of her child; as by the ferocity of a
man, who, beating his horse, declared, that he knew as well when he
did wrong as a Christian.

This brood of folly shows how mistaken they are who, if they allow
women to leave their harams, do not cultivate their understanding,
in order to plant virtues in their hearts.  For had they sense,
they might acquire that domestic taste which would lead them to
love with reasonable subordination their whole family, from the
husband to the house-dog; nor would they ever insult humanity in
the person of the most menial servant, by paying more attention to
the comfort of a brute, than to that of a fellow-creature.

My observations on national education are obviously hints; but I
principally wish to enforce the necessity of educating the sexes
together to perfect both, and of making children sleep at home,
that they may learn to love home; yet to make private support
instead of smothering public affections, they should be sent to
school to mix with a number of equals, for only by the jostlings of
equality can we form a just opinion of ourselves.

To render mankind more virtuous, and happier of course, both sexes
must act from the same principle; but how can that be expected when
only one is allowed to see the reasonableness of it?  To render
also the social compact truly equitable, and in order to spread
those enlightening principles, which alone can meliorate the fate
of man, women must be allowed to found their virtue on knowledge,
which is scarcely possible unless they be educated by the same
pursuits as men.  For they are now made so inferiour by ignorance
and low desires, as not to deserve to be ranked with them; or, by
the serpentine wrigglings of cunning they mount the tree of
knowledge and only acquire sufficient to lead men astray.

It is plain from the history of all nations, that women cannot be
confined to merely domestic pursuits, for they will not fulfil
family duties, unless their minds take a wider range, and whilst
they are kept in ignorance, they become in the same proportion, the
slaves of pleasure as they are the slaves of man.  Nor can they be
shut out of great enterprises, though the narrowness of their minds
often make them mar what they are unable to comprehend.

The libertinism, and even the virtues of superior men, will always
give women, of some description, great power over them; and these
weak women, under the influence of childish passions and selfish
vanity, will throw a false light over the objects which the very
men view with their eyes, who ought to enlighten their judgment.
Men of fancy, and those sanguine characters who mostly hold the
helm of human affairs, in general, relax in the society of women;
and surely I need not cite to the most superficial reader of
history, the numerous examples of vice and oppression which the
private intrigues of female favourites have produced; not to dwell
on the mischief that naturally arises from the blundering
interposition of well-meaning folly.  For in the transactions of
business it is much better to have to deal with a knave than a
fool, because a knave adheres to some plan; and any plan of reason
may be seen through much sooner than a sudden flight of folly.  The
power which vile and foolish women have had over wise men, who
possessed sensibility, is notorious; I shall only mention one
instance.

Whoever drew a more exalted female character than Rousseau?  though
in the lump he constantly endeavoured to degrade the sex.  And why
was he thus anxious?  Truly to justify to himself the affection
which weakness and virtue had made him cherish for that fool
Theresa.  He could not raise her to the common level of her sex;
and therefore he laboured to bring woman down to her's.  He found
her a convenient humble companion, and pride made him determine to
find some superior virtues in the being whom he chose to live with;
but did not her conduct during his life, and after his death,
clearly show how grossly he was mistaken who called her a celestial
innocent.  Nay, in the bitterness of his heart, he himself laments,
that when his bodily infirmities made him no longer treat her like
a woman, she ceased to have an affection for him.  And it was very
natural that she should, for having so few sentiments in common,
when the sexual tie was broken, what was to hold her?  To hold her
affection whose sensibility was confined to one sex, nay, to one
man, it requires sense to turn sensibility into the broad channel
of humanity: many women have not mind enough to have an affection
for a woman, or a friendship for a man.  But the sexual weakness
that makes woman depend on man for a subsistence, produces a kind
of cattish affection, which leads a wife to purr about her husband,
as she would about any man who fed and caressed her.

Men, are however, often gratified by this kind of fondness which is
confined in a beastly manner to themselves, but should they ever
become more virtuous, they will wish to converse at their fire-side
with a friend, after they cease to play with a mistress.  Besides,
understanding is necessary to give variety and interest to sensual
enjoyments, for low, indeed, in the intellectual scale, is the mind
that can continue to love when neither virtue nor sense give a
human appearance to an animal appetite.  But sense will always
preponderate; and if women are not, in general, brought more on a
level with men, some superior women, like the Greek courtezans will
assemble the men of abilities around them, and draw from their
families many citizens, who would have stayed at home, had their
wives had more sense, or the graces which result from the exercise
of the understanding and fancy, the legitimate parents of taste.  A
woman of talents, if she be not absolutely ugly, will always obtain
great power, raised by the weakness of her sex; and in proportion
as men acquire virtue and delicacy: by the exertion of reason, they
will look for both in women, but they can only acquire them in the
same way that men do.

In France or Italy have the women confined themselves to domestic
life? though they have not hitherto had a political existence, yet,
have they not illicitly had great sway? corrupting themselves and
the men with whose passions they played?  In short, in whatever
light I view the subject, reason and experience convince me, that
the only method of leading women to fulfil their peculiar duties,
is to free them from all restraint by allowing them to participate
the inherent rights of mankind.

Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as
men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the
justice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to,
retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of man will be worm-eaten
by the insect whom he keeps under his feet.

Let men take their choice, man and woman were made for each other,
though not to become one being; and if they will not improve women,
they will deprave them!

I speak of the improvement and emancipation of the whole sex, for I
know that the behaviour of a few women, who by accident, or
following a strong bent of nature, have acquired a portion of
knowledge superior to that of the rest of their sex, has often been
over-bearing; but there have been instances of women who, attaining
knowledge, have not discarded modesty, nor have they always
pedantically appeared to despise the ignorance which they laboured
to disperse in their own minds.  The exclamations then which any
advice respecting female learning, commonly produces, especially
from pretty women, often arise from envy.  When they chance to see
that even the lustre of their eyes, and the flippant sportiveness
of refined coquetry will not always secure them attention, during a
whole evening, should a woman of a more cultivated understanding
endeavour to give a rational turn to the conversation, the common
source of consolation is, that such women seldom get husbands.
What arts have I not seen silly women use to interrupt by
FLIRTATION, (a very significant word to describe such a manoeuvre)
a rational conversation, which made the men forget that they were
pretty women.

But, allowing what is very natural to man--that the possession of
rare abilities is really calculated to excite over-weening pride,
disgusting in both men and women--in what a state of inferiority
must the female faculties have rusted when such a small portion of
knowledge as those women attained, who have sneeringly been termed
learned women, could be singular? Sufficiently so to puff up the
possessor, and excite envy in her contemporaries, and some of the
other sex.  Nay, has not a little rationality exposed many women to
the severest censure?  I advert to well known-facts, for I have
frequently heard women ridiculed, and every little weakness
exposed, only because they adopted the advice of some medical men,
and deviated from the beaten track in their mode of treating their
infants.  I have actually heard this barbarous aversion to
innovation carried still further, and a sensible woman stigmatized
as an unnatural mother, who has thus been wisely solicitous to
preserve the health of her children, when in the midst of her care
she has lost one by some of the casualties of infancy which no
prudence can ward off.  Her acquaintance have observed, that this
was the consequence of new-fangled notions--the new-fangled notions
of ease and cleanliness.  And those who, pretending to experience,
though they have long adhered to prejudices that have, according to
the opinion of the most sagacious physicians, thinned the human
race, almost rejoiced at the disaster that gave a kind of sanction
to prescription.

Indeed, if it were only on this account, the national education of
women is of the utmost consequence; for what a number of human
sacrifices are made to that moloch, prejudice!  And in how many
ways are children destroyed by the lasciviousness of man?  The want
of natural affection in many women, who are drawn from their duty
by the admiration of men, and the ignorance of others, render the
infancy of man a much more perilous state than that of brutes; yet
men are unwilling to place women in situations proper to enable
them to acquire sufficient understanding to know how even to nurse
their babes.

So forcibly does this truth strike me, that I would rest the whole
tendency of my reasoning upon it; for whatever tends to
incapacitate the maternal character, takes woman out of her sphere.

But it is vain to expect the present race of weak mothers either to
take that reasonable care of a child's body, which is necessary to
lay the foundation of a good constitution, supposing that it do not
suffer for the sins of its fathers; or to manage its temper so
judiciously that the child will not have, as it grows up, to throw
off all that its mother, its first instructor, directly or
indirectly taught, and unless the mind have uncommon vigour,
womanish follies will stick to the character throughout life.  The
weakness of the mother will be visited on the children!  And whilst
women are educated to rely on their husbands for judgment, this
must ever be the consequence, for there is no improving an
understanding by halves, nor can any being act wisely from
imitation, because in every circumstance of life there is a kind of
individuality, which requires an exertion of judgment to modify
general rules.  The being who can think justly in one track, will
soon extend its intellectual empire; and she who has sufficient
judgment to manage her children, will not submit right or wrong, to
her husband, or patiently to the social laws which makes a
nonentity of a wife.

In public schools women, to guard against the errors of ignorance,
should be taught the elements of anatomy and medicine, not only to
enable them to take proper care of their own health, but to make
them rational nurses of their infants, parents, and husbands; for
the bills of mortality are swelled by the blunders of self-willed
old women, who give nostrums of their own, without knowing any
thing of the human frame.  It is likewise proper, only in a
domestic view, to make women, acquainted with the anatomy of the
mind, by allowing the sexes to associate together in every pursuit;
and by leading them to observe the progress of the human
understanding in the improvement of the sciences and arts; never
forgetting the science of morality, nor the study of the political
history of mankind.

A man has been termed a microcosm; and every family might also be
called a state.  States, it is true, have mostly been governed by
arts that disgrace the character of man; and the want of a just
constitution, and equal laws, have so perplexed the notions of the
worldly wise, that they more than question the reasonableness of
contending for the rights of humanity.  Thus morality, polluted in
the national reservoir, sends off streams of vice to corrupt the
constituent parts of the body politic; but should more noble, or
rather more just principles regulate the laws, which ought to be
the government of society, and not those who execute them, duty
might become the rule of private conduct.

Besides, by the exercise of their bodies and minds, women would
acquire that mental activity so necessary in the maternal
character, united with the fortitude that distinguishes steadiness
of conduct from the obstinate perverseness of weakness.  For it is
dangerous to advise the indolent to be steady, because they
instantly become rigorous, and to save themselves trouble, punish
with severity faults that the patient fortitude of reason might
have prevented.

But fortitude presupposes strength of mind, and is strength of mind
to be acquired by indolent acquiescence?  By asking advice instead
of exerting the judgment?  By obeying through fear, instead of
practising the forbearance, which we all stand in need of
ourselves?  The conclusion which I wish to draw is obvious; make
women rational creatures and free citizens, and they will quickly
become good wives, and mothers; that is--if men do not neglect the
duties of husbands and fathers.

Discussing the advantages which a public and private education
combined, as I have sketched, might rationally be expected to
produce, I have dwelt most on such as are particularly relative to
the female world, because I think the female world oppressed; yet
the gangrene which the vices, engendered by oppression have
produced, is not confined to the morbid part, but pervades society
at large;  so that when I wish to see my sex become more like moral
agents, my heart bounds with the anticipation of the general
diffusion of that sublime contentment which only morality can
diffuse.

Q: Can you write an appropriate summary of the above paragraphs?
A:

completion: Wollstonecraft firmly believes that the government should create some sort of public school system where children from all walks of life come together and learn. She would turn out to be pretty right-on about this, because what she's describing here is a blueprint for our modern school system. Wollstonecraft doesn't approve of private schools because by their very nature, they teach children to think of themselves as different from the children who can't afford to go. She also doesn't approve of homeschooling, since the absence of other children leads the student to think that she or he is the most important person in the world. One thing that Wollstonecraft thinks is horrible for society is the fear of change and innovation. She constantly mourns the fact that schools still teach children to memorize and nothing else. What can we possibly expect of kids when school is nothing more than a contest where the prize goes to the best memorizer? Wollstonecraft takes an opportunity here to jab at Catholicism, saying that this religion is based completely on groundless authority . Protestantism, she says, is based on the idea that anyone can read the Bible and judge for themselves what it says. We live in a culture where everyone's goal is to rise one class above whatever class they're in. Many people might argue that social inequality is a good thing because it allows the most talented people to thrive. But Wollstonecraft is certain that there's no point in sacrificing the majority in order to produce a select group of brilliant people. Family life and early education isn't necessarily bad. It can be used to create compassionate and brilliant people. It just needs to have the right mix of independent thinking and social responsibility. How much time do we waste getting kids to recite formulas and historical events that they do not understand? A true public school system would focus on the how of knowing, not the what. Unfortunately, society is just filled with a bunch of parents who want their kids to get gold stars and to beat the other kids. Knowledge isn't the priority. By this point, it might seem as if Wollstonecraft has gone a bit off topic, considering that this book is supposed to be specifically about the rights of women. Now she brings us back by saying that all of the awful things about the current education system affect girls worse than boys. So here comes a really radical suggestion. Wollstonecraft thinks that boys and girls should attend the same schools. Gasp. The horror! Wollstonecraft is convinced that the only way to create equality and respect between men and women is to socialize them together from a young age. Educating women differently couldn't possibly have a bad effect on them, since in Wollstonecraft's mind, there's no possible way anyone could make them weaker than their current education already does. Wollstonecraft thinks that educating boys and girls together would also have the added benefit of creating early marriages. She tends to think that the earlier two people get married, the better. Above all else, women must learn self-respect, and they can only learn self-respect by learning to think for themselves. Then they won't spend their lives using seduction and other tricks to get men to give them what they want. And here's a funny idea. Wollstonecraft wants punishments in the school system to work the same way that punishment for adults does. Any time a student does something wrong, they will have to be put on trial in front of a jury made up of other students. Wollstonecraft wants stronger laws preventing cruelty to animals, because it's this same cruelty that leads many young people to become cruel adults, too. That said, she has known women who loved their dogs very much and barely paid attention to their children. In order to be good people, both genders have to act according to the same moral principles. There isn't one set for boys and one for girls. Not only does society need to educate women and help them become more rational, but it also needs to stop insulting women who do manage to show a little reason. Wollstonecraft herself got called a "hyena in petticoats" by a politician named Horace Walpole because he thought her style of argumentation was "unladylike." Even today, an opinionated and assertive woman might get called "bossy" for doing stuff that would get a man lauded as being "a leader."