MAN Superior to WOMAN
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The very great tenderness, I have always expressed and really felt for the fairsex,
would by no means suffer me now to exert my pen against that delicate part
of the creation which has hitherto engrossed my best wishes; if justice to my
own sex, a disinterested zeal for the prosperity of the other, and an invincible
love of truth, did not oblige me to render them service by opposing them.
Nature, ever reminding me that I was born of a woman, bids me respect that
endearing name: yet honour, not allowing me to forget by whom I was
begotten, forbids me to derogate from the dignity of man. However generosity
then may incline me to favour the women, by overlooking their real
imperfections, and putting an advantageous gloss on their little merits; it is an
act of justice I owe to my own sex to defend its prerogatives, when openly
attacked by the too daring ambition of the other.
From the beginning of the world till now, our sex has enjoyed an undisputed
sovereignty over the other, and their joint consent in all ages sufficiently proves
our possession not usurped. Hitherto, the women, conscious of their own
inabilities, have cheerfully acknowledged the authority which wisdom gives to
men over them, content with the soft dominion which love secures to them over
the men. In a word the little glimmering of reason, which Heaven bestowed on
them out of compassion to us, that they might be in some degree a sort of
rational amusement to us, was sufficient to convince them of the justness of
their subjection.
And so far from accusing Nature of partiality in making them
vassals to us, they were sensible that she had been but too bountiful in
bestowing on them the privilege of reigning in the hearts of their lords:
a privilege which we have hitherto been too generous to grudge them; having no
danger to apprehend from leaving our hearts in the keeping of women, while the
heads of the fair-keepers themselves were in due subjection to our own.
But the case must necessarily alter from the minute that sex forgets its
allegiance to us. Once the women presume to call in question the great duty of
vassalage to us, it must be time to withdraw our hearts from their power. They
can no longer be safe in the custody of such women as refuse to submit their
heads to our authority.
The joint industry of the fair of all times, in labouring to make themselves
agreeable to us, is a standing proof that that is the great business they were
created for, and that the acquiring our love and esteem is the highest end their
ambition ought to soar to; as the possession of both is the great and sole
happiness they are capable of enjoying in this life. But how can they hope ever
to reach either, without persevering in the use of those methods which alone can
render them worthy to obtain what they aim at.
How shall they appear any longer agreeable in our eyes, once they throw off that modesty and
subjection which alone can give even their native charms the force to please us?
What title will they have left to our favour and indulgence, from the moment they begin to
dispute our power and prerogative over them?
In a word, if, instead of making use of the little complaisances we have for
their weakness to redouble their obedience and fidelity to us, they aspire to become our
equals; ought we not, in justice to ourselves and for instruction to them, to show them that it
has been owing to our own generosity more than to any right they claim, that we have not
hitherto treated them only as our less useful slaves?
However one should be apt to imagine that women had their own interest more
at heart than to reduce us to this extremity.
Who could conceive that any one of that sex should be so much an enemy to
herself and the rest, as to risk the forfeiture of that liberty which the men
have so graciously raised them to, merely for the sake of grasping at a
libertinism which they are sure of never attaining to?
And yet, inconceivable as it is, our own times can show a very
recent instance of it in a Lady, who, perhaps, for the sake of becoming an
author, has taken abundance of pains to convince us that there is no excess of
extravagance which that sex cannot attempt; and no presumption in them which
merits our surprise.
Every one will be able to guess that I am speaking of SOPHIA, that enlightened
Lady, who, after a prescription which scarce any duration but that of eternity
can out-date, has surprisingly found out that man is not superior to woman in
any thing but what she pleases to call brutal strength. So extravagant an
assertion cannot but be attended with very fatal consequences to both sexes, if
listened to by the women: and what will not woman listen to which flatters her
vanity, ambition, curiosity or love of change?
For women have fantastic constitutions, Inconstant as their wishes,
ever wavering And never fixed. Ven. Pres.
. . . To show them how much I am their friend, and how sincerely I wish to
preserve them in that degree which the generosity of the men has lifted them to,
I shall here render them all the service their tender capacities will permit me to
do, by endeavouring to open their eyes to the discovery of the gay illusions of
this aspiring Lady;
that they may not become the dupes of her friendly but mistaken zeal for them, which might
otherwise do them more mischief than their greatest enemies
could wish done, or than their native charms could possibly repair.
CONTINUE...
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