diff options
Diffstat (limited to '59448-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 59448-0.txt | 8054 |
1 files changed, 8054 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/59448-0.txt b/59448-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81ccad5 --- /dev/null +++ b/59448-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8054 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59448 *** + + + + + + + + + ++-------------------------------------------------+ +|Transcriber's note: | +| | +|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | +| | ++-------------------------------------------------+ + + +MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT +AND THE BEGINNINGS OF +FEMALE EMANCIPATION +IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND + +[Illustration: Logo] + +J. BOUTEN + + +MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND +THE BEGINNINGS OF FEMALE +EMANCIPATION IN FRANCE +AND ENGLAND + + +ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT TER VERKRIJGING +VAN DEN GRAAD VAN DOCTOR +IN DE LETTEREN EN WIJSBEGEERTE AAN +DE UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM OP +GEZAG VAN DEN RECTOR-MAGNIFICUS +Dr P. ZEEMAN, HOOGLEERAAR IN DE +FACULTEIT DER WIS- EN NATUURKUNDE, +IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN IN +DE AULA DER UNIVERSITEIT OP VRIJDAG +17 NOV. 1922 DES NAMIDDAGS TE 4 UUR +DOOR + +JACOB BOUTEN, +GEBOREN TE DORDRECHT + + +H. J. PARIS +V H FIRMA A. H. KRUYT +AMSTERDAM + + +TO + +MY WIFE + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There is something particularly fascinating about the study of the +literature and philosophy of the eighteenth century, with its gradual +evolution of lofty social ideals which the Revolution failed to +realise. When the altered circumstances brought promotion within my +reach, it completely brought me under its sway, and ultimately came to +determine my choice of a subject for an inaugural dissertation. It was +while engaged upon tracing the influence of Rousseau's hopebringing +theories on his English disciple William Godwin, that the less boldly +assertive, but all the more humanly attractive personality of the +latter's first wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, attracted my attention. My +admiration of her husband's intellect paled before my sympathy for her +more modest, but at the same time more emotional character. Where the +indebtedness of Godwin to Rousseau and the Encyclopedians has been +manifested so clearly in different works, the absence of any direct +attempt to prove and determine the extent of the relations between +Mary Wollstonecraft and the early French philosophers struck me as an +omission for which I found it difficult to account, and made me turn +to a subject to which I am fully aware that a book of the size of the +present little volume does but scant justice. + +I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to thankfully acknowledge +the valuable help and friendly encouragement received from _Professor +Dr. A. E. H. Swaen_, of the University of Amsterdam, whose unceasing +kindness and ever-ready interest in the preparation of this treatise I +shall never forget. + +_Mr. K. R. Gallas_, Lecturer on French Literature in the same +University, has likewise a claim to my heartfelt gratitude for giving +me the benefit of his extensive knowledge in making various suggestions +with regard to the chapters dealing with the literature of France. + +My best thanks are also due to _Mr. M. G. van Neck_ and _Dr. P. +Fijn van Draat_ for guiding my reading for the B.-examination, and +particularly to my first teacher of English, _Mr. L. P. H. Eijkman_, +for giving me that interest in England and her language and literature +which has determined my subsequent career. + +_Amsterdam_, November 1922. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. PAGE + I. THE MAIN THEORIES REGARDING THE POSITION + OF WOMEN 1 + + II. THE BEGINNINGS OF A FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN + FRANCE 11 + +III. THE POSITION OF FRENCH WOMEN IN EIGHTEENTH + CENTURY SOCIETY 52 + + IV. FEMINIST AND ANTI-FEMINIST TENDENCIES AMONG + THE ENGLISH AUGUSTANS 73 + + V. QUALIFIED FEMINISM: THE BLUESTOCKINGS 98 + + VI. RADICAL FEMINISM: MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT 128 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. + +_The Main Theories regarding the Position of Women._ + + +The history of the Emancipation of Women is the long and varied record +of their slow and gradual liberation from that utter subjection to +Man in which various circumstances beyond their control--among which +the physical superiority of the latter, a form of male supremacy +which has seldom been called into question, was probably the most +prominent--had combined to place them. It relates how in the course of +centuries--either with the support of a certain portion of the opposite +sex or relying upon their own resources--they strove to cast off the +shackles which bound and degraded them, and to acquire that degree of +physical, intellectual and moral freedom to which they felt themselves +entitled. That the movement towards complete enfranchisement met with +a varied reception and was hampered and retarded by men and often by +women themselves was due chiefly to the fact that in the question of +female possibilities there was much diversity of opinions at different +times and among different nations. The worst enemies to evolution +of this kind were those women who, holding the Empire of Love and +Gallantry to be their exclusive domain, in which their sway was not +likely to be ever disputed, turned deliberately against those of their +own sex who in trying to wrench from the hands of men the sceptre of +social power, were willing to forego the privileges of sex. That women +were thus divided among themselves from the first, was the natural +outcome of those differences in personal attractions and in personal +intelligence which have always constituted the great danger of too +sweeping conclusions with regard to the inclinations and capabilities +of the female sex. Individual members of the same sex may yet be +radically different, and he who would prescribe for all will always +find himself confronted by the bewildering problem of the disparity of +individuals. + +The champions of the Cause of Woman have had to overcome a great deal +of stubborn opposition, nor can it be said that even at the present +moment the emancipation of women is complete. Even now that the +ideal of perfect equality in everything seems almost within reach, +and the domestic woman has largely given way to the social worker and +political agitator, it may be a matter of speculation whether the full +realisation of the long wished-for end, throwing open to women all +those occupations from which centuries of injustice rigorously excluded +them, would mean a blessing to society and to women in particular, or +a mixture of gain and loss. Those who regard women from the all-human +standpoint, holding the functions of sex to be only a passing incident +in the great scheme of life, will be inclined to take the former view; +those, on the other hand, who believe that a woman's life derives its +colour from considerations of sex which refuse to be ignored, may well +wonder where a rigorous application of perfect equality will land us in +the end. In one respect however, there has been great and undeniable +progress. The modern tendency to overlook sexual differences ensures to +individual women the necessary freedom to judge for themselves whether +a life of domestic or one of social duties will be more compatible with +their personal inclinations; and no woman whose hopes of domestic bliss +are rudely blunted, need--as was the case in former times--despair of +succeeding in life; any talents she may happen to possess, will find +full scope. If we contrast with this the truly pitiable condition +of unmarried women in earlier ages, who were too often treated +contemptuously for failing to perform what was considered the only +duty of womanhood--the propagation of the species--we cannot but feel +grateful to the champions of emancipation, whose restless ardour and +unceasing devotion has entailed such glorious results. + +The feminist programme includes a number of points, on some of which +something will have to be said. There is, in the first place, that +physical enfranchisement which makes the woman cease to be the willess, +and therefore irresponsible and soulless, slave to the caprices of +a brutal master. There is, in the second place, the intellectual +emancipation of women, admitting the female sex to the participation +of Reason and granting them that education of the mind which is to +place them on a par with the other half of humanity; and there is +that moral emancipation which recognises woman as a being endowed +with a soul, equal to that of man, with consequent moral duties and +responsibilities, partly dictated by considerations of sex. As a +direct consequence of these, there is finally, social emancipation, +constituting principles of perfect equality between the sexes, also in +matters of social and political interest. They are all of them largely +dependent on the growth of civilisation. It has even been said that the +degree of civilisation in a nation is determined by the position of its +women in the life of the community. + +In the early stages of history--in that savage state which some +authors persist in preferring to the social state of an imperfect +civilisation--only the physical condition of women was considered, +and, where even some of the most fervent advocates of the female +excellence are forced to acknowledge the physical inferiority of +the sex, it is but natural that the women of prehistoric times were +kept in utter subjection, being regarded exclusively as a means of +gratifying the animal instincts. But with the growth of civilisation +came the development of the mind, and it has always been one of +the bitterest grievances of feminists against man, that he, taking +advantage of his usurped authority, deliberately withheld from woman +the means of proving that the supposed inferiority only concerned +her physical capacities, and not those of the mind. Even as late as +the 18th century the complaint is repeatedly uttered (and this is +one of the points where two women of such widely different views as +Mary Wollstonecraft and Hannah More fully agree) that men keep from +women all opportunities of that cultivation of the understanding which +infallibly leads to virtue, and by a singular want of logic hold +them responsible for the moral deficiency which is the inevitable +consequence. In the introduction to her "_Strictures on the modern +system of female education_" Hannah More calls it "a singular injustice +which is often exercised towards women, first to give them a very +defective education and then to expect from them the most undeviating +purity of conduct; to train them in such a manner as shall lay them +open to the most dangerous faults and then to censure them for not +proving faultless"[1], and the argument seems indeed unanswerable. +Hence the cry for female education which Plato was among the first +to raise. The physical inequality between the sexes was apparent and +therefore remained, upon the whole, uncontested, but the problem of the +possibilities of the female understanding was less easy to solve and +admitted of different opinions; hence it was in the first stage of the +growth of the human mind that the great question was first broached the +solution of which was to occupy so many minds in so many successive +centuries. + +While making every possible allowance for deviations due to individual +opinion, which mostly had its roots either in a particular form of +creed or in some special system of philosophy, it may be stated that +there were throughout the centuries two directly opposing lines of +thought, each leading to certain clearly marked conclusions. + +Of these, the first and oldest is based upon considerations of practice +rather than theory, which makes it less rigid and more adaptable to the +exigencies of practical life. It was adopted on the whole by churchmen +and religious moralists rather than by abstract philosophers, and +had the full support of the unquestioned doctrines of Christianity, +of which support its adherents never failed to make the best use. It +determined the attitude of the early Christian Church towards women +in taking for granted the existence of a sexual character, from which +it draws inferences. The difference between the sexes is essential +and not restricted to physical differentiations. They were intended +for different functions and have widely different duties to fulfil. +Man's chief duty is the support of the family he has reared--for which +obviously his strength of muscle was intended,--his is the struggle for +life against a hostile society in which egoism reigns supreme and the +interests of individuals constantly clash. Woman's special province is +the home; hers is the difficult and important task of regulating the +domestic life and bringing up the children she has borne. So far this +theory receives support from observations of the animal world. But +that faculty which marks the essential difference between the human +and the animal kingdom became the apple of discord among many later +generations. For Reason was held to be the prerogative of Man only, in +which Woman had no share. His world is the world of the Intellect, the +world of Action, in which sex is only an episode; hers is the world of +Sentiment and of Contemplation, in which sex is the dominant factor. +To think is the prerogative of Man, to feel that of Woman. That there +is also an intellectual side to the quiet undisturbed contemplation +of confinement at home was demonstrated by Shakespeare when creating +the character of Lady Macbeth, nor was the monopoly of Thought greatly +abused by the mediaeval Lords of creation, the only scholars of that +period being those who had resigned their sex. But apart from those who +lived in convents and whose reading was exclusively religious, women +were self-taught or rather taught by experience, and the use of books +was confined to some monasteries. + +Starting from the above principle, any claim to intellectual equality +would have seemed an encroachment upon the male kingdom. Love and +maternity, and the daily routine of the household ought to be the only +considerations in a woman's existence and whatever is outside these +is the domain of Man. To Woman was allotted the task of managing the +home, to Man the more comprehensive one of managing society. That in +reality the former is quite as important as the latter, which must +always largely depend on it, since Woman is the mother of Man, and +the guide of his first steps, did not find full recognition until the +17th century, when Fénelon and some of his contemporaries made this +consideration a basis on which to build their demands for a female +education. + +Early Christianity, drawing the necessary conclusions from certain +Biblical allusions to the position of Woman and guided by St. Paul's +teachings, adopted the Hebraic notions of female inferiority and +dependence, which long met with no resistance whatever. The early +churchmen, in strict obedience to the teaching of their faith, tacitly +accepted the inferiority of women and their subjection to men. About +these little need be said here. They were partly responsible for the +misery of women in the early Middle Ages, the time of their greatest +debasement and degradation, and will be remembered only among the +adversaries of feminism. However, the fact must here be emphasized, +that even the full acceptance of a sexual character does not +necessitate, and in practice did not always lead to, insistence upon +the female inferiority. + +There are those who, while assigning to woman a place in society +differing essentially from that held by man, do not infer that woman +is necessarily inferior to man. They purposely refrain from comparing +that which by its very nature defies comparison: "for Woman is not +undeveloped Man, but diverse." They insist instead on the division of +functions which makes the sexes supplement each other. The majority are +moralists, churchmen of a later age, and to them the problem is that of +sexual duties, with the promise of eternity in the background, which +is intended for both sexes, female as well as male. The pursuit of +Christian virtue, which to them is the essential thing, is regardless +of sex and leads to self-abnegation which renders the sexual problem +of secondary importance. The very orthodoxy of her faith prevented +Hannah More from becoming a feminist in the full sense of the word, +and as Mary Wollstonecraft's feminism came to absorb her mind more +fully, her religious convictions retired into the background. To the +Christian moralist the place of woman in the social structure must of +necessity be an important one; but it is made so only by the domestic +duties which devolve upon her. She is expected to bring up her children +to be good Christians, good citizens, and good fathers and mothers, +in the moral interest of society, and this duty obviously involves +the necessity for women to receive the benefit of a moral education. +In this lies the gist of the moralist's arguments in favour of a +partial female emancipation. To be a good educator of the young it is +indispensable that the mother herself should be liberally instructed, +for what is to become of her influence, should her male offspring +come to regard her as intellectually inferior? In this argument the +feminist and the moralist join hands. Fénelon and his contemporaries +were philosophers and for the rigid, inflexible interpretation of +Scripture by the early churchmen they substituted the structure of +moral philosophy, which thus indirectly promoted the growth of feminist +ideas. In their eyes an education is the very first requisite to enable +a woman to discharge the duties imposed by motherhood. + +The second line of thought, in direct opposition to the assumption of a +sexual character, takes for its starting-point the theory of _equality_ +in everything except what is physical, arriving at the conclusion +that there is nothing which woman--if given the benefit of the same +education--is not capable of performing equally well as man. In view of +the impossibility of furnishing conclusive rational evidence--women are +not educated and therefore no opportunity is given them to vindicate +their powers--the adherents of this theory, who mostly belong to the +rational school of philosophy, point to the example of some individual +women, who in spite of a defective education obtained great results, +thereby laying themselves open to the criticism that what may apply +to certain individuals, need not hold good for the entire sex, which +argument they try to refute by insisting on the experiment being made. +This ultra-feminist way of thinking equally originated in France, +where Mlle de Gournay and François Poullain de la Barre built up their +theories more than a century before Mary Wollstonecraft voiced their +claims in the English language. + +Apart from certain physical differences which even she could not deny, +although she held with truth that they were often exaggerated, nay, +purposely augmented, woman possesses the same capabilities as man and +the existing difference in intellectual development may be entirely +removed by means of an education which does not regard sex. This +process of reasoning naturally leads to a denial of sexual character. +The mental inferiority of women is merely the consequence of ages +of neglect which urgently demands reparation. The soul, they agreed +with the moralists, has no sex--an assertion which some of the early +Christian leaders might have felt inclined to call into question--and +since the development of the moral sense depends largely upon the +condition of the mind, it is the _right_ of women to be educated. The +claim for education as a natural right was first made in its full +purport by Mary Wollstonecraft, to whom belongs the undivided honour +of having been the first woman in Europe to apply Rousseau's famous +theory of the Rights of Man to her own sex by taking her stand upon the +principle of equality of the sexes. + +The extreme adherents of equality among the philosophers of the +French Revolution founded their claims upon an absolute denial of all +innate character, holding the character of every individual to be the +resultant of different influences to which it has been exposed. Among +French philosophers Helvétius had been the first to profess this theory +in his "_Traité de l'Homme_." Diderot had written an energetic reply, +vindicating the theory of innateness and heredity, and the topic had +remained a theme of frequent dispute. The partisans of Helvétius, among +whom were both Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, continuing his line +of argument, were naturally led to the most optimistic forecasts for +a happy future. It only remained to find a way to perfect education +and to extend it from a few privileged ones to the multitude, and all +evil would of necessity disappear, and society would be rebuilt upon a +more solid foundation. The consequence was an overwhelming number of +educational treatises, mainly in the French language, most of which, +however, sadly overlooked the pressing needs of woman. + +It was again Mary Wollstonecraft who extended this implicit faith in +the perfectibility of humanity to the case of woman. All that women +needed was to be given a good education, and the rest would follow. +So convinced were these idealists of the incontestability of their +arguments that they refused to make any concessions, however slight, +to those who held different views. This very inflexibility became +the means of ruining their best intentions. They did not stop at +intellectual and moral enfranchisement, their daring schemes comprised +complete social and political emancipation. In the period with which we +shall be chiefly concerned, their efforts were doomed to failure by the +circumstance that their aims were physically incapable of realisation +while society remained in the state in which it found itself at the +time of the outbreak of the French Revolution. Those more or less +unconscious feminists, the Bluestockings, were responsible for far more +direct improvement through the very moderation of their suggestions +than Mary Wollstonecraft, whose lonely voice in the wilderness of +British conventionality heralded the great and successful movement of a +later century. When the inevitable reaction set in, the entire feminist +movement, which Mary had identified with the cause of liberty, as +advocated by the French, was regarded as anti-national and seditious, +and first ridiculed and reviled, to be soon after consigned to a +temporary oblivion. + +When called upon to decide which of the two lines of argument +referred to above deserves most sympathy, the unbiased onlooker may +find himself sadly perplexed. In choosing between the advocates of +dignified domesticity and those of perfect equality, one might be +inclined to decide in favour of the former; yet the fact remains that, +if especially the last decades have brought considerable progress, it +is chiefly the latter we have to thank for it. For the pathway of the +pioneer is rough and beset with difficulties, and she may seem "no +painful inch to gain", and yet the amount of progress, when measured +after the lapse of ages may be found to be considerable. But the +fatal tendencies to generalise and to exaggerate are everywhere, and +invariably spoil the best arguments. To the advocates of equality +_à outrance_ might be held up the warning example of the "masculine +woman", who has succeeded in getting herself abominated both by man +and by the wise members of her own sex; who has voluntarily, for the +prospect of mostly imaginary gains, unsexed herself, forgetful alike +of her task of propagation and education and of the fact that even +outside the home-circle there are the sick to be ministered to, and +the suffering to be comforted, occupations that demand the loving +gentleness and unselfish devotion of which the womanly woman is made +more capable by Nature than her brother Man. She scornfully resigns the +chivalrous worship of the opposite sex, mixing in political and other +debates with a want of moderation and often with a narrowness of views +which prove all too clearly that the average woman's qualities fit her +for the domestic rather than the social task. + +On the other hand, those moralists who exhort women to be content +to take their place in society as "wives and mothers", not inferior +to man, but different, forget to provide for those women, whom +circumstances beyond their control have destined for celibacy, +debarring them from the privileges of their own sex, while not +allowing them to share those of the male. For such women it was indeed +a blessed day when the word that was to deliver them from bondage +and to open to them paths of public usefulness was first spoken by +the pioneers of feminism, throwing open to the female sex the many +professions for which they are as fit, or even fitter--in spite of the +equality theory--than men! + +Whatever may be the absolute truth,--which probably no moralist or +feminist has ever held, although some may have held a considerable +portion of it,--both may be credited with a firm and unshakable belief +in the creative force of a good education for women, of whatever +description their chief duties in life may be. And, after all, the +question of perfect equality and of rivalry between the sexes leading +to a struggle for pre-eminence will chiefly attract women who, being +more gifted than their sisters, and filled with a laudable desire to +devote their talents to their cause, make the error of identifying +their own individual plight with that of their sex, imagining women +in general to be thwarted in their aims and ambitions, and ascribing +to them aspirations which the majority of women never cherished and +probably never will cherish. They turn their weapons against "man, +the usurper", goading him to opposition and forgetting Hannah More's +wise remark that "cooperation, and not competition is indeed the clear +principle we wish to see reciprocally adopted by those higher minds +in each sex which really approximate the nearest to each other"[2]. +This remark, however much it may hold good for the times in which we +live, would have elicited from Mary Wollstonecraft the reply that +between master and slave there can be no cooperation until the latter's +individuality has been fully recognised by emancipation. If, moreover, +we consider how she was always thinking of duties before considering +the question of female rights, claiming the latter only that with +their help women might be better enabled to perform the former, it is +difficult to withhold from either woman that sympathy to which the +purity of her motives and the extreme earnestness of her endeavour +justly entitles her. + +The history of female emancipation, therefore, is so closely bound +up with that of female education that it often becomes impossible to +separate them. Education, to follow the feminist line of rational +thought, forms the mind; and a well-formed mind shows a natural +inclination towards that perfect virtue which ought to be the ruling +power in the universe and the attainment of which is the sole aim of +humanity. The feminist problem will not be fully settled until all men +and women are equal partakers of the best education which it is in our +power to bestow. + +It is impossible to record the earliest beginnings of feminism in +England without first glancing at that country whence came the powerful +wave of philosophical thought which, stimulated by the fathers of +British philosophy, in its turn stung the latent feminist energy +of a Mary Wollstonecraft to life and was also--although in a less +degree--indirectly responsible for the more qualified feminism in the +tendencies of the Bluestocking circles and their literature, which it +will be our business to describe. After one or two abortive attempts of +a directly feminist nature a movement of indirect feminism, which was +fostered and nursed by the French _salons_ of the 17th century began +at a time when in England the condition of women was rapidly sinking +to the lowest ebb since the dark ages of mediaevalism. All through +the 17th and the greater portion of the 18th century female influence +and importance grew and intensified without calling forth anything +like a parallel movement in the great rival nation beyond the Channel. +Those who, like Mary Astell and Daniel Defoe, caught the spirit of +emancipation were indeed pioneers, and to them all English women owe a +never-to-be-forgotten debt. + +From the beginning of the religious revival in England in the early +part of the 18th century to the outbreak of the French Revolution a +strong and determined reaction against French manners was noticeable +in England. This reaction found its root in national prejudices, +which held whatever came from France to be tainted with the utter +corruption and depravity of French society and as a natural consequence +disqualified public opinion from appreciating the glorious edifice +of philosophical thought which was being erected at the same time. +It derived greater emphasis from the vicious excesses of the French +aristocracy and afterwards from the unparalleled horrors of the +Revolution. The English nation has never been remarkable for any +special love of imitation, and the menace of French revolutionism +turned Great Britain into the very bulwark of the most rigid +conservatism. So general did the feeling of hatred of the French +revolutionary spirit become, that even Mary Wollstonecraft's determined +attempt remained unsupported and was predoomed to failure merely +because it was identified with the hated principles of the French +Revolution. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Edition T. Cadell, Strand, 1830; p. IX. + +[2] _Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education_, p. 226. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +_The Beginnings of a Feminist Movement in France._ + + +The two main feminist tendencies of the preceding chapter may be found +illustrated among the Ancients by the respective theories of Plato and +Plutarch regarding women. + +The history of ancient Greece records the earliest traces of what might +be termed a feminist movement. There was a period when the position of +the women of Greece, who had long been kept in submission, excluded +from political influence and treated contemptuously in literature, +began to awaken some interest. The views of Plato were of an advancedly +feminist tendency. His _Republic_, of which the fifth Book deals with +the position of women in the ideal state, ascribed their inferior +power of reasoning to an education which was based upon the assumption +of a sexual character. Plato was the first to assert the moral and +intellectual equality of women and to claim for them an equal share in +the public duties. His writings foreshadow the constant alternative of +later centuries. The woman who is regarded as essentially a citizen +will find the consequent responsibilities crowding upon her, which +she will be expected to share with her male partners, a bar to the +exclusively feminine duties of motherhood and the education of her own +progeny. No theories and social movements of the past or of any future +time have altered or will alter the axiom that every individual woman +will sooner or later find herself at a parting of roads, one of which +will lead her to devote her energies to the progress of human society +at large, the other to the more exclusive happiness and welfare of +the domestic circle. So completely does Plato disregard the feminine +instinct, that the children in his commonwealth were to be entrusted to +professional nurses, and that the mothers were to be allowed only to +suckle the infants promiscuously and without even recognising them, out +of bare necessity. The maternal instinct in Plato's state was ignored, +and the existence of a sexual character emphatically denied. + +Another feminist among the Ancients, although his views differed widely +from Plato's, was Plutarch, whose ideas represent the opposite extreme +of the ideal set up for women. Woman's chief duty he held to be, not to +the state, but to her own family. She should try to be her husband's +associate not merely in material things, but also in the fulfilment +of more delicate tasks, prominent among which is that of educating +the young, for which purpose she herself requires to be instructed. +In direct opposition to Plato, Plutarch insists on the essentially +feminine qualities of tenderness, gentleness, grace and sensibility. +In preference to a national education, he wishes for a home-education, +based upon the natural affections between parent and child. + +The theories of Plato and Plutarch contain the germ of one of the main +points of dispute among later feminists and anti-feminists: that of a +sexual character. On the attitude taken by later writers on the Woman +Question towards this all-important problem depends the course into +which they are directed. Those who, like Plato, either deny or ignore +the existence of a specially feminine character and specially feminine +proclivities, are naturally driven to assert the equality of the sexes, +and to claim for the female sex an equal share in both the rights and +the responsibilities of social life. On the other hand, those who, +like Plutarch, lay stress on the domestic and educational duties of +womanhood, counterbalancing the public duties of man, duties which take +their origin in the innate propensities of the female character, may +yet become defenders of the cause of woman, but their demands will be +more qualified, and while including in their programme a liberal female +education to make women fitting companions to their husbands and wise +mothers to their children, will regard the political emancipation of +the sex as a hindrance to the discharge of more important duties, and +therefore as undesirable. + +Although the problem regarding the social status of women was a matter +of some speculation and discussion in the early days of antiquity, +no female writers arose to take part in them, and the position of +the female sex was exclusively determined by male opinion. This +circumstance in itself proves conclusively that the prevailing opinion +was that woman in her then state was an inferior creature. Women were +not even appealed to to make known their own wishes on a subject so +vitally concerning them. Their participation in the movement belongs +to later times. Upon the whole, the educationalists of Rome took +little notice of the problem of female education and instruction. +Quintilian, the chief among them, completely ignores the point, and +Roman literature affords no contribution of any real importance. + +The first statements of the cause thus remained without any direct +results. Such traces as had been left were completely swept up in the +years of turmoil that followed, causing early civilisation to fall +back into barbarism. The centuries that elapsed between the fall of +the Latin Empire and the Renaissance may be called the Dark Age of +feminism. Mr. Mc. Cabe in his "_Woman in Political Evolution_" states +that the decline of the comparative esteem in which women were held +among the Romans set in even before the great Empire began to totter +on its foundations, and was largely due to the Judaic spirit which +prevailed in the early days of Christianity, demanding the implicit +obedience of women to the stronger sex, a point of view which was +found endorsed in many places in both the old and the New Testament. +The earliest Christian leaders had been taught to regard woman as the +agent of man's downfall, and readily observed the law that rendered her +dependent. They were for the most part zealots, who did not believe in +any literature that was not devotional. Even the most enlightened among +them, St. Jerome, who had to answer the charge of occupying himself +preferably with the instruction of women--which accusation he met with +the complaint that the men were displaying an absolute indifference to +instruction of any kind--wanted to make narrow religious asceticism +the basis of his education of women. Being exempt from social and +political duties, they seemed naturally fitted for a life of devotion +and contempt of the world, directing their energies and hopes towards +a life to come. In the strict retirement of the cloisters they filled +their time with prayer and sacred literature. Thus, in the dark age, +the ideal of womanhood became the Virgin, who lived her life of +devotion far from the temptations of a wicked world with which she had +nothing in common. Those women--and they were the majority--who did not +pursue so lofty an ideal, sank lower and lower, and came to be regarded +as mere sexual instruments, without any claim to consideration, by men +whose only interest was war, and among whom learning was regarded with +contempt. + +Before the great Renaissance came with its revival of learning in which +some women had a share, bringing improvement to some privileged ones, +but leaving the bulk of them in the pool of ignorance and slavery +into which they had sunk, two minor renaissances call for mention. +The first, of the late eighth and early ninth century, centres round +the names of Charlemagne, Emperor of the Franks, and Alcuin. They +saw, indeed, the necessity for better instruction and founded a great +many schools, but in their scheme women as a class were unfortunately +overlooked. The second revival, that of Abélard, which took place in +the twelfth century, marks the beginning of a more rational education, +subjecting various theological problems to the test of reason and +logic. Unfortunately, this second revival soon degenerated, and gave +rise to a class of pedants who neither understood the aims, nor even +the principles of education and against whose severity and arrogance +the great reformers of the Renaissance as Rabelais, Montaigne and Roger +Ascham directed their shafts. Neither of these revivals, therefore, +exercised any considerable influence on the position of women. + +It was also in the twelfth century that the influence of the conquest +of England by the Normans began to make itself felt in Latin Europe. +The early traditions of England regarding women offer a striking +contrast to those which lived on the continent. When in the days of +Julius Caesar the Romans first set foot on British soil, they found +a well-balanced society, in which prevailed a state of comparative +equality between the sexes, and a correspondingly high code of +morality. The British women were consulted whenever an important +resolution had to be taken, and Tacitus, and in later days Selden, were +lavish in their praise of the dignity and bravery of Boadicea, whose +history has furnished even modern authors with a fitting subject. + +About the middle of the fifth century there began those invasions of +Anglo-Saxons which led to a partial blending of the two races. The +newcomers also reverenced their women; history even records the names +of some "Queens regnant" among them, and ladies of birth and quality +sat in their Witenagemot. The church boasted among its abbesses some +fine specimens of intellectual womanhood (St. Hilda, St. Modivenna), +and in general the position of women among the Anglo-Saxons points to a +spirit of generous chivalry. + +William the Conqueror and his men, who overran and subjected the +country in the eleventh century, came from a land where the principles +of the Salic law were recognised. Seen from a feminist point of view, +this invasion was a most fatal occurrence. Under Norman influence a +rapid decline set in. + +But if the Normans Latinised the manners and customs of the nations +subjected to their rule, the latter influenced their conquerors in +a more subtle way through their literature. It was especially the +literature of Celtic England that hit the taste of mediaeval France. +The Arthurian Cycle found its way to the Continent. It breathes a +spirit of chivalry, and depicts a blending of the sexes on terms +of homage to the fair and weaker which came like a revelation. +And although the chivalrous element soon degenerated--Mr. Mc. Cabe +deliberately leaves early romanticism out of account, calling it "a +cult of pretty faces and rounded limbs, leading to a general laxity in +morals"--yet it opened the eyes of the stronger sex to the possibility +of women playing some slight part in society. In this connection it +is rather amusing--and also enlightening as illustrating the general +estimate of women--to read about a proposal made by one Pierre du +Bois to king Edward the First to make Christian women marry Saracen +husbands, that they might have a chance of converting them. The first +social mission of women, if du Bois had been given his way, would thus +have been that of utilising their charms to make religious converts. +At the same time, he deemed it advisable to fit them for this task by +giving them a rather liberal education and instruction. + +There was, however, one important result of the new tendencies. The +education of girls in the early Middle Ages,--such as it was--was a +monastic one, practised within the walls of a convent. But in feudal +society it became more and more customary to have the daughters of +aristocratic families brought up at home, either by a tutor, or by some +member of the family whose parts fitted him for the task. This first +secularisation of female education among the higher classes was mainly +responsible for the awakening interest of some women in literature of +a secular kind. The traditions of the Church had demanded the teaching +of Latin long after it had fallen into disuse in the outside world. The +secular education, which comprised little actual instruction, next to +music and dancing, came to include a good deal of physical exercise. +Religion was not neglected, but relegated to a less commanding +position, and secular literature in the vernacular became a favourite +pastime, so much so, that (about 1400) Gerson thought it necessary to +protest against the reading of the _Roman de la Rose_ by young ladies, +from motives of delicacy. + +In spite of many backslidings, the position of women was now very +slowly beginning to improve, and in the argument between the partisans +and the opponents of female instruction the latter were beginning to +have the worst of it. In the fifteenth century one or two forerunners +of the renaissance-women swelled the ranks of the advocates of the +cause. + +There was in France Christine de Pisan, who in her "_Cité des Dames_" +protested against the conventional statement, that the spreading of +learning among women had had a disastrous influence upon their morals. +In illustration of her plea she quoted the example of Jehan Andry, +"solennel canoniste à Boulogne", who, when prevented by circumstances +from giving his lessons of divine wisdom, sent his daughter Novelle +in his place. In order that the beauty of her appearance might not +awaken illicit thoughts among her male scholars "elle avait une petite +courtine devant son visage." Christine de Pisan was one of the first +women who made a living by their pen, and is said to have lived a life +of irreproachable virtue, besides being possessed of great erudition. + +The country where the most considerable gain was recorded was Italy. +Not only did many Italian women share in the enthusiasm aroused by the +Renaissance, but their doings were no longer regarded as unworthy of +interest. In Boccaccio's writings, for instance, women occupy a very +prominent place, and Chaucer was among those who followed his example. +Although a great many writers of the period make the failings of women +the object of their satirical remarks, yet there is in their very +criticism the wish for something better and nobler, and better still, +the conviction that women are capable of improvement. + +The Renaissance, with its revival of ancient culture, contained a +strong educational element, which, although like the earlier revivals +it busied itself only very indirectly with the female half of society, +was not without importance to the movement of female emancipation. For +in the first place man was the usurper of all authority, and it was +only by educating him and widening his horizon that he could be made to +recognise the absurdity of the relations between the sexes; and in the +second place it was the philosophical spirit of the Renaissance that +built its educational speculations upon a solid foundation of thought +and method. The educationalists of the Renaissance were not churchmen, +but philosophers. The tendency among them--when at all interested in +women--is to condemn both the monastic education, which forms devotees +instead of mothers, and that secular education which creates literary +ladies instead of housewives, and to return to the ancient ideal of +womanhood in making them essentially wives and mothers, assuming +without discussion the female inferiority. + +The most striking exception to this rule was the German Cornelius +Agrippa, of Nettesheim, who was the first to state the cause and +pronounce upon it in a sense so favourable to female instruction that +it entitles him to the name of "father of feminism". His treatise "_De +nobilitate et praecellentia feminini sexus_" (first published in 1505), +though naturally crude and immature, and hesitatingly put forward, +has that enthusiasm of firm convictions which touches the reader's +heart. The rudiments of later contentions are to be found in his plea. +The tyranny of men, he says, has deprived woman of her birthright of +liberty. Iniquitous laws have prevented her from enjoying it, usage and +custom have neglected it, and finally an exclusively sexual education +has quite extinguished it. In her youth she is kept a close prisoner +at home, as though she were utterly incapable of any more dignified +occupation than the performance of domestic duties like a kind of +superior servant, and using the needle. Thus she is prepared for the +matrimonial yoke which is laid upon her the moment she has attained +maturity, that she may quickly serve her chief purpose of propagating +the species. She is then delivered up to the oppression of a husband +whose inordinate jealousy and fits of temper reduce her to a deplorable +condition. Or she is kept all her life in the even more rigorous +confinement of a convent, a retreat of so-called virgins and vestals, +where she is left to a thousand agonies, the worst among which is a +gnawing regret for lost happiness which finishes her. + +In a supplementary treatise Agrippa exhorts the husband to regard +and to treat his wife as a companion, and not as a servant. He seems +almost afraid of the consequences of his audacity when he tries to +weaken its effects by acknowledging the natural dominion of the male +sex. "However", he adds, "let their rule be all grace and reverence. +Although woman be inferior, let her be given a place by the husband's +side, that she may be his faithful helpmate and counsellor. Not a +slave, but the mistress of the house; not the first among the servants, +but the mother of the fine children who are to inherit her husband's +property, succeed to his business, and transmit his name to posterity." + +Erasmus in his _Dialogues_ depicts women as eager to rise out of +their conditions of servitude. However much he tempers the force of +his argument by continual jokes and pleasantries, yet he seems to +sympathise with the female complaint that woman herself has abandoned +her cause, leaving the husband to decide all matters of importance and +voluntarily resigning all liberty, consigning herself to a life of +religious devotion and household duties. The consequence is that men +regard them as mere playthings and even deny them the name of human +beings. The woman who voices this complaint enumerates the various +occupations for which her sex would be fit, and winds up by saying that +"there is nothing in what she has said which does not deserve serious +and mature consideration." + +In "_Abbates et Eruditiae_" Erasmus anticipates the problem of female +education as it would present itself in later ages. He foresees that +there will come a time when women, dissatisfied with the state of +bondage, will seek improvement by demanding an education. The innate +masculine egoism, however, will realise that learning will make women +less submissive to male authority, and they will resist any innovations +by which their supremacy may be endangered. The coming struggle is thus +foreshadowed by one of the most prominent among the philosophers of the +Renaissance, and his sympathies are, upon the whole, with the female +sex. He is the first to see the close connexion between the moral +worthlessness of females and their need of an education. To remedy the +frivolity of women he demanded that girls should be taught some useful +occupation, so as to keep them from idleness and its concomitant vices. +He also wished for a more liberal intellectual education to be supplied +in the family, and, should that be impossible, by the husband. + +In full accordance with the above is the main drift of the third of +the great humanist's works which show a tendency favourable to women: +his "_Christian Marriage_", which made its appearance in 1526. It +resolutely prefers the state of matrimony to that of religious celibacy +and makes the possibilities of conjugal happiness dependent on the +cultivation of the female soul. + +Works like the above could not fail to draw to the problem the +attention of the reading public, and to make it a favourite topic of +controversy. France especially proved an extremely fruitful soil, and +the French nation became interested in a regular "querelle des femmes" +which inspired a great many pens, and culminated in the third Book of +Rabelais' _Pantagruel_. The habit of reviling the female character +and satirising the female weaknesses was of mediaeval growth, and may +be found illustrated among many other examples in that portion of +the "_Roman de la Rose_" which is the work of Jean de Meung, in the +"_Lamentations de Matheolus_", of which the late professor van Hamel +issued a new edition in 1892, and in a great many "_fabliaux_". It also +prevailed in England with great persistence for several centuries.[3] +But the somewhat puerile invective became a controversy in France +when about the middle of the 15th century the female sex found some +staunch defenders among the male French authors. Martin le Franc's +"_Champion des Dames_", composed between 1440 and 1442, aroused a +great deal of hostile criticism, mostly in the prevailing satirical +form and culminating in the "_Grand Blason des Faulces Amours_" by +Guillaume-Alexis, and some sympathy, as in the "_Chevalier aux Dames_", +an allegorical poem; while some authors, like Robert de Herlin in +his "_Acort des mesdisans et biendisans_" tried to reconcile the two +parties. + +After 1500 the growth of the Renaissance spirit soon caused the +controversy to enter into a new phase. The interest it commanded +remained undiminished and towards the middle of the century it even +increased to immense proportions, without, however, leading to any +pronounced tangible results. The progress of learning caused the +argument to become intensified into a more serious, philosophical cast. +One of the champions of the female sex, at the time when the "quarrel" +had reached its acute stage, François du Billon, who also made use +of the allegorical device to level his threats at the heads of the +revilers of women in his "_Fort inexpugnable de l'honneur fëminin_", +narrates how three of the worst sinners are taken prisoner by the +gallant defenders of the fortress. They are Boccaccio, Gratien Dupont, +seigneur de Drusac, whose "_Controverses_", written in 1534, are full +of the fiercest invective against women, and Jean Nevizan, author of a +Latin treatise, published in 1521, of which the very lengthy title may +be advantageously condensed into "_Sylva nuptialis_". Nevizan's work +shows the Renaissance spirit of enquiry into the stores of antiquity +in its mention of a great many sources from Christ to Plato and itself +became a source of inspiration to Rabelais. + +In the years that followed the champions of feminism became identified +with the Platonic idealists who were bent upon spiritualising love[4], +whilst its adversaries tried to uphold the ancient "gaulois" traditions +with their lower estimate of womanhood. The publication (in 1542) +of Antoine Héroët's "_Parfaicte Amye_", with its Platonic notions, +heralded a new phase in the history of the "Querelle des Femmes". In +its metaphysical tendencies this brief treatise contains a delicate +analysis of the emotions attendant upon the pure passion, the chief +inspirer of virtue which brings us nearer to God. It ushered in the +acute stage, during which not one of the great authors remained silent +on a question which occupied so many minds. The different contributions +to the problem under discussion were soon combined in one volume under +the name of "_Opuscules d'Amour_". The poets and poetesses of the +"école lyonnaise", Maurice Scève, Pernette du Guillet, Louise Labé, +and others, ranged themselves among those who tried to introduce a +purified love-ideal and also Marguerite, Queen of Navarre[5] joined +the controversialists in her poetry. So general did the interest taken +in the issue become, that Rabelais interrupted the narrative of his +_Pantagruel_ to contribute his reflections on the subject in the Third +Book (about 1546). He took his cue from Nevizan's "_Sylva nuptialis_" +in introducing the problem as a consequence of speculations regarding +the marriage of Panurge. Rabelais proved himself on the whole an +anti-feminist, and we have du Billon's authority for the fact that the +name "Pantagruéliste" was considered equivalent to that of enemy to the +cause of woman.[6] + +If we except Christine de Pisan, Marie de Jars de Gournay, and "la +Belle Cordière," the Lyons poetess Louise Labé, the number of French +female authors was not greatly increased by the Renaissance movement. +But the number of women of the higher classes who took part in the +great intellectual movement grew all over Europe, particularly in +France, England and Spain. One of the most erudite Frenchwomen of the +time was Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, (1492-1549), sister to +Francis the First, who welcomed to her court the greatest scholars of +the day, and who was herself no mean poetess. It would not be difficult +to extend this list with more names of high-placed women who owed their +intellectual development to the instruction of special preceptors. +Education of this kind became the privilege of the female aristocracy. +The schools for the most part refused to admit women; in the convent +learning was discouraged because a spirit of free inquiry mostly led +to heresy, and for the women of the lower classes nothing at all was +done. Their more fortunate sisters learned to speak and write Latin, +Greek and Italian, and after 1600 also Spanish, and the abuse by women +of Italian words while pretending to speak their own language called +forth a strong reaction in 1579, the year which saw Euphues, and the +beginning of its influence at the Elizabethan court. + +The tendencies of the Reformation pointed in the same direction; they +encouraged a spirit of free inquiry and were directly opposed to +those of the monastic education. Under Luther's influence a number of +lay-schools for girls arose in Germany and the early Reformation thus +tried to fill up the gap in female education which the Renaissance +had left. Unfortunately the political condition of France in the late +16th century was most unfavourable to educational reform owing to +the violence of the religious wars, and it was not until after the +Edict of Nantes that a number of Huguenot schools arose. The outlook +in the opening years of the 17th century was far from bright; great +misery prevailed everywhere, in addition to which the internal wars +had brought about a general decay of morals which threatened to become +the country's ruin. It was at this critical stage in the history of +France that woman had become sufficiently confident of her powers to +claim a beneficial share in all matters of social importance.[7] For +the first time in history the Woman Question reached an acute stage. +The seventeenth century, which witnessed the deepest abasement of +English women, will always be remembered in the history of France as +the time of the first self-conscious vindication of female rights. +This vindication--except in one or two isolated instances--did not +take the form of a direct appeal; it adopted the persuasive method of +furnishing convincing evidence of woman's capacity to hold her own both +intellectually and morally and even to supply certain elements which +were lacking among the opposite sex, for the benefit of French society. + +We have seen that in the late sixteenth century the problem came to +be a much-discussed one in French literature, which it remained all +through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. M. Ascoli, in the +"_Revue de synthèse historique_" (Tome XIII) has published an extensive +bibliography of no fewer than ninety-seven works of a feminist or +anti-feminist tendency written between 1564 and 1773, which proves +conclusively that the intellectual condition of women remained a +subject of contemplation. The thirst for knowledge, as we have seen, +had imparted itself to a small category of women whose circumstances +enabled them to share the literary pursuits of their menfolks. But even +the boldest of these earliest champions in their wildest dreams did +not go beyond that enfranchisement of the mind which--however important +in itself--is only the indispensable first step in female emancipation. +Until quite late in the 16th century no women had entered the field +as the avowed champions of their sex against the arrogant assertions +of male supremacy. The alleged inferiority of women was a theme of +frequent discussion only in the works of male authors, who further +degraded the sex by the bantering, often insolently satirical tone of +their contentions. But no woman had come forward to test the evidence +on both sides, far less to enter into competition with men on behalf of +her sex. The growing taste for literature had done little or nothing +to improve the social position of women; it unfortunately limited +itself to a few privileged women, leaving the rest of womanhood in the +obscurity of hopeless ignorance. Thus matters stood when in the first +quarter of the seventeenth century two events of great importance in +the history of feminism took place, of which the first, abortive though +it was, and therefore predoomed to barrenness, represents a deliberate +attempt by a woman to constitute herself the champion of her sex; the +second being something in the nature of a social experiment, which, +without aiming definitely at the attainment of an exclusively feminist +ideal, did more to improve the condition of women than any more direct +endeavour. I refer to the work of Marie de Jars de Gournay, and to the +establishment of the first _salon_ by Catherine de Rambouillet. + +The former struck a bold and defiant note, resolutely claiming for +her sex equality with men. This audacious assertion stamps her as the +pioneer of modern feminism. The remarkable thing about her theories is +that without the help of anything like a clearly defined philosophy +she strikes the keynote of whatever claim was put forward on behalf +of women in later times as a consequence of more than a century +of philosophical speculation, the practice of which entailed the +all-absorbing consequences of the great Revolution of 1789. When the +cause of woman was taken up in England by Mary Wollstonecraft, and +grafted upon the larger cause of humanity as its logical consequence, +the arguments of her plea were directly derived from that philosophy +of liberty, equality and fraternity which may be traced to its origin +in Locke, Descartes and Bacon. Yet here was a lady, at a time when +Descartes was a mere boy, boldly asserting that nature is opposed to +all inequality. "La pluspart de ceux qui prennent la cause des femmes +contre cette orgueilleuse preferance que les hommes s'attribuent, leur +rendent le change entier: r'envoyans la preferance vers elles. Moy +qui fuys toutes extremitez, je me contente de les esgaler aux hommes: +la nature s'opposant pour ce regard autant à la supériorité qu'à +l'infériorité." She thus sets about vindicating the equality of her sex +in everything except physical strength, going beyond the most daring +speculation of any previous author, with the exception of those who, +blinded by hate, had put forth theories of female pre-eminence in which +in sober moments they themselves hardly believed. + +Marie de Gournay ascribed the state of inequality to the circumstance +that woman is purposely denied an education by man, who owes his +usurped authority to abuse of physical force, which she holds in utter +contempt. "Les forces corporelles sont vertus si basses, que la beste +en tient plus pardessus l'homme, que l'homme pardessus la femme." Woman +is man's inferior in bodily strength only "par la nécessité de port et +la nourriture des enfants", compensating her lack of brute force by +her delicate mission of propagation. But Mlle de Gournay emphatically +asserts the perfectibility of the female mind. + +To understand and partly justify the extreme vehemence of the lady's +attack upon the opposite sex, whose unmerited contempt of the feminine +intellect had deeply injured her feelings, it is necessary to take into +account the circumstances of her life, which explain her acerbity. She +was a studious woman,--a forerunner of the Hannah Mores and Elizabeth +Carters as well as of the Mary Astells and Mary Wollstonecrafts of a +later period--whom her exceptional intellectual gifts betrayed into +that error so common among the extreme female champions--that of +substituting herself for her sex and claiming for all what no one with +any discernment would think of refusing her personally. Her mother's +attempts to turn her away from literature only irritated her. She +had no personal beauty and her entire life was a protracted struggle +against indifference, opposition and ridicule, which embittered her +beyond measure against that sex which valued the gift of a pleasing +appearance above that of a comprehensive mind. Born in or about 1565, +she must have been a mere girl when first brought into contact with +Montaigne's _Essays_. She expressed her admiration of them in a letter +to the author, couched in terms so enthusiastic that the philosopher +came to see her, thus laying the foundation of a friendship which +was only disturbed by his death in 1592. She became his spiritual +daughter,--his "fille d'alliance"--and took an active part in the +publication of the later editions of the _Essays_. She rather +conceitedly accounted for the close affection which bound them together +as "the sympathy from genius to genius". When Montaigne died, his +"fille d'alliance" was in a fair way to become a prominent figure in +the literary world, having under his influence written some pedagogical +essays, which were favourably received. With the philosopher her chief +guide passed away, and subsequent experience seems to have soured her +and made her spiteful and old-maidish before her time. Those whose +object was to ridicule her represent her with three cats, following +her about wherever she went. She met with little sympathy beyond that +expressed from chiefly intellectual motives in the correspondence +of the learned Dutchwoman Anna Maria Schuurman, and of the renowned +Louvain professor Juste Lipse--whose praise of Montaigne's _Essays_ had +won her instant recognition. But she deserves respect for the courage +of her opinions, regardless of the prejudices of her contemporaries, +and for standing her ground firmly, often turning ridicule into esteem. + +Such was the pioneer whose ideas regarding the position of women are +embodied chiefly in a treatise entitled: "_De L'Egalité des Hommes et +des Femmes_" and in the "_Grief des Dames_", and further alluded to in +her preface to the 1595 edition of Montaigne's _Essays_ and in a prose +"_Apology_", intended to disarm her ridiculers, in which she protests +against being disregarded merely on account of her womanhood. Here, +indeed, we are confronted by a sense of personal injury. Concerning +"_De L'Egalité_" she says in one of her later writings: "Il faut le +soubmettre à la touche par ce que peuvent valoir ses raisons et ses +pensées, fortes ou feibles qu'elles soient, et puis apres, par la +consideration de son dessein. Sçavoir si ce nouveau biais qu'elle +prend, et qui la rend originale, est bon pour relever le lustre et pour +verifier les privileges des Dames, opprimez par la tyrannie des hommes." + +The treatise "_De L'Egalité_" consists of two parts. In the first, +the right of women to equal consideration with men is vindicated by +means of evidence derived from the writings of men; in the second the +authority of God himself as contained in the Bible is referred to and +expounded in a manner wholly favourable to the doctrine of equality. + +Regarding the first point, the author derives comfort from the +reflexion that the chief revilers of women are to be found among the +worst specimens of the male sex, who merely repeat the opinions of +others, "n'ayans pas appris que la première qualité d'un mal habill' +homme, c'est de cautionner les choses soubs la foy populaire et par +ouyr dire," in doing which, "d'une seule parolle ils desfont la moitié +du Monde." Their sole aim is to rise at the expense of the female sex. +But fortunately there is the testimony of truly great men to prove +the mental and moral capacity of women. Here follows a list of the +male partisans of some degree of feminism among the philosophers of +antiquity and of the renaissance: Plato, Socrates, Plutarch, Seneca, +Aristotle, Erasmus, Politian, Agrippa. Montaigne is introduced as +"le tiers chef du triumvirat de la sagesse humaine et morale" (with +Plutarch and Seneca), for having written that "il se trouve rarement +des femmes dignes de commander aux hommes," which she twists into an +implication that he holds woman to be the equal of man. + +To counterbalance the principles of the Salic law, constructed entirely +upon considerations of war, Tacitus' account of the position of women +among the Germanic tribes is quoted, together with the example of the +Spartans, who in the discussion of their public affairs consulted +female opinion. + +Marie de Gournay held that the two sexes have equal souls given them; +the institution of a sexual difference having been made exclusively +with regard to the propagation of the species. To illustrate which, the +author, whom nobody would dream of accusing of levity, bashfully craves +permission to quote a popular saying. "Et s'il est permis de rire en +passant, le quolibet ne sera pas hors de saison, nous apprenant: qu'il +n'est rien plus semblable au chat sur une fenestre, que la chatte." + +After passing in review the principal secular authorities with +feminist tendencies, Mlle de Gournay tries the more difficult task +of reconciling her feminist views to those of the early Christians, +taking what she calls "la route des tesmoignages saincts", quoting St. +Basil and St. Jerome, and finding herself for the first time somewhat +perplexed at the teachings of St. Paul, who forbids preaching by women +and enjoins silence, "not because he despises the female sex, but +merely lest their beauty and grace, displayed to advantage in a public +office, should become a source of temptation to men." + +That women have always excelled in religious devotion is demonstrated +by means of a reference to the championship of Judith and the martyrdom +of Joan of Arc. The mention of the former brings us to direct +Scriptural evidence, which the author finds an even harder subject to +tackle. Here, indeed she is sometimes led by her zeal into the most +palpable absurdities: "Et si les hommes se vantent, que Jesus-Christ +soit nay de leur sexe, on respond qu'il le falloit par nécessaire +biensceance, ne se pouvant pas sans scandale, mesler jeune et à toutes +les heures du jour et de la nuict parmy les presses, aux fins de +convertir, secourir et sauver le genre humain, s'il eust esté du sexe +des femmes: notamment en face de la malignité des Juifs." + +The entire treatise is mere theorising, and being produced at a +time when the public mind on the subject was one mass of inveterate +prejudice, brushing aside any speculations of the kind it contained +as ridiculous and "paradoxical", it is not astonishing that Marie de +Gournay spoke to the winds, and that the practical results of her +labour were nihil. + +One gets the impression that the author herself was fully convinced +of the hopelessness of even obtaining a hearing, and wrote chiefly +to relieve herself of the burden of her glowing indignation. To this +circumstance it may be attributed that she refrains from formulating +any practical claims, or drawing up a scheme of an ideal society in +which women were given their due. But her zeal and devotion to the +cause she believed to be just were above suspicion, and she has a claim +to the gratitude of her sex for having asserted the female equivalence. + +If Mlle de Gournay combined in her person some of the elements of the +social reformer, there certainly is nothing sensational about her +personality and way of expressing her views, and she must be described +as revolutionary in a limited sense. Apart from her extreme feminism, +her social and political views were quite conventional, and in her +preface to "_De l'Egalité_" she even seeks the patronage of Queen Anne, +as the most prominent and influential member of her sex. François +Poullain de la Barre, however, who half a century later became heir to +her spiritual legacy, was an out-and-out revolutionist, whose theories +of female equality proceeded from generally revolutionary tendencies. +Like Mlle de Gournay, he was a theorist, but he differed from her in +being above all a philosopher of the school of Descartes, and the +first to apply the doctrine of Cartesianism to social problems. This +consideration renders him important not merely as the direct advocate +of the cause of woman, in which capacity his efforts met with no +success whatever, but as the forerunner of J. J. Rousseau in his theory +of human rights, which in its turn became the basis of the feminist +movement in England in the last years of the next century, inaugurated +by Mary Wollstonecraft. As M. Piéron puts it, "le chemin réel ira de +Descartes au féminisme par la Révolution, et non de Descartes à la +révolution par le féminisme." + +M. Rousselot, in drawing attention to Poullain de la Barre, refers to +his works as "now almost forgotten."[8] The utter obscurity in which +this author remained buried for two centuries is probably due to his +life of retirement,--as M. Henri Grappin has pointed out in opposition +to M. Piéron's opinion, who, basing himself upon evidence of style +and language, adjudged him to be a frequent visitor to salons--to +his complete indifference to worldly fame, and to this freedom from +worldly ambitions. His work, like that of Mlle de Gournay, was received +with a mixture of scorn and ridicule, and soon forgotten. A century +later, some of the works of the Encyclopedians, which developed +the same social ideas--with a striking difference in the matter of +female education,--were burnt by the common hangman by order of the +authorities, who could not, however, prevent the new ideas from +taking root and bearing fruit. In striking contrast, Poullain, whose +revolutionism found few sympathisers and was consequently adjudged +harmless, was left at peace, and brought out his revolutionary +treatises "avec privilege du Roy", and "avec permission signée de la +Reynie", for which he paid with disregard and oblivion. Both Mary +Wollstonecraft and Poullain should have been born in the nineteenth +century, but whereas the former was the embodiment of that indomitable +spirit of rebellion which had taken almost a century to mature, +Poullain stands revealed to the modern reader, a living anachronism. +There is something in his "fanaticism of ideas" which anticipates +the intellectual "tours de force" of William Godwin, whose eccentric +genius, however, was made subservient to the larger cause of mankind. + +Born at Paris in 1647, it seems that Poullain chiefly studied theology +at the University of his native city, until the discontent which was +roused in him by the system of education followed there, made him +yield to the intellectual allurements of Cartesianism. Descartes had +been dead some dozen years when the great vogue of his philosophy +began. Poullain became a fervent Cartesian and after some years +turned Protestant, which religion he felt to be better suited to his +philosophical ideas. He lived mostly at Paris and at Geneva, and died +at the latter place in 1723. + +Although Poullain seems to shrink from openly confessing himself +influenced by Descartes, his works show the rationalist tendencies +of pronounced Cartesianism, to which we shall often have occasion to +refer in coming chapters. He may be called one of the forerunners of +the Encyclopedians, anticipating their imperturbable rationalism, their +contempt of tradition and custom,--which, by a somewhat sophistic turn +of reasoning, they call superstition and prejudice,--their habit of +referring to original principles, and above all their absolute faith in +the perfectibility of mankind through the education of the mind and in +the certainty of unlimited human progress. No theory had ever been put +forward which contained brighter promises for the future of the human +race, and the enthusiasm which it awakened was not damped by the fatal +experience of the failure of former experiments. To this circumstance +must be ascribed the boundless optimism of the partisans of the new +philosophy and their radicalism. + +The three feminist treatises, in the order of their publication, were: + +1. "_De L'Egalité des deux sexes, discours physique et moral ou l'on +voit l'importance de se défaire des préjugés._" (1673); + +2. "_De L'Education des Dames, pour la conduite de l'esprit dans les +sciences et dans les moeurs._" (1674); + +3. "_De l'Excellence des Hommes, contre l'Egalité des sexes, avec une +dissertation qui sert de réponse aux objections tirées de l'Ecriture +Sainte contre le sentiment de l'Egalité._" (1675). + +Of these, the second may be dismissed in a few words, as containing +nothing very striking beyond the author's dissatisfaction with the +spirit prevailing at the Universities. + +The first, on the other hand, contains the gist of Poullain's +contentions. We are exhorted to judge only from evidence, without +regarding the opinions of others, and are brought face to face with +what the author holds to be the unvarnished truth, unaffected by +that spirit of misplaced gallantry which he feels to be particularly +offensive. If, therefore, anybody is shocked at the crudeness of some +statements, he expects him to blame Truth, and not Poullain de la Barre. + +Conventionalism is what the author holds to be the chief source of the +prevailing inequality. In conformity with the tenets of the Christian +faith, people are taught to regard the submission of women as the +will of God, whereas Reason shows it to be merely the consequence +of inferior strength. To maintain this usurped supremacy men have +purposely kept women from being instructed. In many respects the +capabilities of women are superior to those of men: it is their special +province to study medecine and by its aid to restore health to the sick +and ailing. There is, in fact, nothing for which he pronounces women to +be unfit: "il faut reconnaître que les femmes sont propres à tout." He +would make them judges, preachers and even generals. + +The faults of women, which even this fanaticist of Reason cannot +overlook in the face of the distressing state of female manners and +morals, are due to the defective education which is given them. +They are taught to feel an interest only in balls, theatres and +the fashions, with the result that vanity is their predominant +characteristic. So far we might be listening to some English moralist +of the eighteenth century. Their only literature is of a devotional +kind, "avec ce qui est dans la cassette," Poullain meaningly adds. For +a girl to display any knowledge she may have acquired is thought a +shame, and makes her a "précieuse" in the eyes of everybody. + +The only state of dependence which finds favour in Poullain's eyes +is that of children on their parents. Here again, we have the purely +rational view which was also Mary Wollstonecraft's. The reason of a +child is undeveloped, and therefore requires the support of full-grown +reason. But this dependence naturally comes to an end as soon as that +age is reached when the faculty is sufficiently developed to enable the +child to judge for himself, when advice may take the place of command. + +Pierre Bayle informs us that Poullain fully expected to be taken to +task for this daring vindication of the right of woman to be educated. +However, as two years passed without bringing the looked-for refutation +of his arguments, he himself anticipated his opponents by writing the +third treatise. Its title is rather misleading. As a matter of fact, +the pamphlet itself presents the usual arguments in favour of the +theory of male excellence with which the arsenal of anti-feminists was +stocked, whilst the "remarques nécessaires" by which it is followed, +demonstrating the author's opinions, contain the entire feminist +theory. The spirit that was to conduct straight to the Revolution +breaks out when the author confidently states that as yet feminism is +only a matter of theoretical speculation, and not ripe for social or +political action. He next enters upon a diatribe against civilisation, +which has failed to bring humanity any nearer to absolute truth, and +extols the never-failing power of Reason. + +However interesting treatises like the above may be in the evidence +they contain of what was secretly going on, of the mental processes +which occupied individuals when conventionalism was at its height, +processes which contained in them the germs of the great upheaval of +a later century, yet it cannot be sufficiently insisted on that they +were only abortive eruptions, showing that the social volcano was very +far from being extinct; mere puffs of smoke which the slightest breath +of wind dispersed. Of far greater direct importance to the growth of +opinions was that social movement which began in the early seventeenth +century, of which woman was herself the originator, and by means of +which she almost leapt into the seat of social influence: the movement +of the _salons_. We have seen that it was in the sixteenth century +that woman made her triumphal entry into society and began to dominate +the world of conversation and of literature. The chivalrous worship of +earlier centuries had degenerated without doing anything permanent to +increase the esteem in which women stood. But in the sixteenth century +a new form of courtship was introduced from Italy and Spain, which was +utilised by clever women as a means of gaining the ascendancy over men. + +The love theory evolved by Plato, with its metaphysical conception +of the passion, which in the Greek philosopher's days had fallen on +deaf ears, was carried into practice two thousand years later under +the auspices of the great Renaissance. In accordance with the views +of Plato's circle, love came to be recognised as the chief inspirer +of virtue and of noble deeds. The platonic ideal thus was from the +beginning a refining influence, a corrective to coarseness and +materialism, and an incentive to the purest idealism. The theory of +spiritualised love recognised the love of physical beauty only as the +first step on the ladder of Beauty connecting Earth with Heaven; at +each new step, however, the ideal becomes transfigured and purified, +until everything earthly sinks into nothingness, the Soul becomes +paramount and everything else falls away. This view was adopted by the +intellectual leaders of the Italian Renaissance, Dante and Petrarch, +and also by the leading churchmen, in whose speculations the highest +and purest form of passion became the love of God. The spirit of +Platonism thus became mingled with that of religious mysticism, which +even surpassed Plato in its condemnation of that earthly love which +the latter had recognised. The Florentine Academy, however, adopted the +Platonic view, making human love one of the steps leading to the ideal +of eternal beauty; and refining upon it until it became the chaste +passion of the sacrifice of self to the loved object, of which the +passion of Michel Angelo and Vittoria Colonna furnishes an example. + +The Italian wars of the late fifteenth century had brought Lewis the +Twelfth and his retinue to Genoa. One of the highly-cultured ladies of +that city, Tommassina Spinola, made a deep impression upon the king. +She was married and virtuous, and so the royal lover had to control his +passion and to be content with that platonic friendship which made of +the lady "la dame de ses pensées", and entitled him to nothing beyond +the purest and most disinterested friendship. A great many parallel +cases occurred among the king's followers, and the women found their +influence upon their platonic lovers far greater and more lasting +than that exercised over the husband in matrimony. There was in this +new form of courtship,--which in literature often took a pastoral +form,--an element of idealism which placed the weaker sex on a pedestal +in putting the adored one far beyond the reach of the lover, who only +aspired the more faithfully for not having his passion gratified. In +this lay the dormant power of womanhood, which might be successfully +turned into a means of improving their position in society; and as soon +as women came to realise this they made the most of their opportunity. +The "Platonic friendship craze" spread to France, where the sentimental +passion of these "Jansenists of love" found a fruitful soil. Before +this new form of worship all class-distinctions fell away; not +unfrequently the lady was so high above the lover's reach as to exclude +all possibility of gratification, which only added an additional zest +to the adventure. + +Unfortunately the morals of the French court were not such as to +encourage the hope of a permanent improvement in the relations +between the sexes. The antithesis between the platonic ideals and the +brutal coarseness of sexual desire, ill-concealed under a varnish of +hypocritical gallantry, was indeed very marked. At the court of Francis +physical beauty was considered far above virtue. The years following +the introduction of the female element and the rise of female influence +at court witnessed a long and bitter struggle between the coarse +manners which the long years of warfare had engendered, regarding +women as the playthings of men, to be trifled with and to be lightly +thrown away when used, and the newly-introduced "galanterie" which +implied patient and disinterested worship of an object, superior in +the possession of that beauty of feature which was regarded as the +reflection of a beautiful soul. Women had become conscious of their +growing influence, and of the means of increasing it. This struggle +for recognition found expression in literature in the "_Contes de la +reine de Navarre_", written by Marguerite after her marriage, and +modelled upon Boccacio's _Decamerone_, the evident purpose of which +was to correct French manners and morals, and to glorify that form of +love which is a mixture of the worship of chivalry and the platonic +passion. The _Contes_ themselves show a certain looseness of morals +which is rather a concession to the general taste of the times, but +the prologues and epilogues are of a far more refined character, +and breathe a spirit of platonic idealism. In their celebration of +virtue and the pure, idealistic passion it inspires, the _Contes_ +are a precursor of Mlle de Scudéry's later romances. Instead of the +deceitful, hypocritical homage of feudal times, the demand was for +women to be respected and to be recognised as the social equals of men. + +The first serious attempt made by the ladies of the French court to +better their position ended disastrously. Their influence was more than +discounted by the demoralising effects of the wars and by the gross +libertinism of the male leaders of society. The more determined among +the women, finding the task of reforming the morals of a dissolute +court beyond their strength, resolved to cultivate in their own private +circles that refinement of manners and higher civilisation which +the court refused to adopt. Thus arose the famous _salons_ of the +seventeenth century, in which the struggle for the emancipation of the +female mind was combined with that for the improvement of contemporary +morals, the refinement of contemporary taste, and the purification of +the French language and literature. + +"Depuis le salon de Madame de Rambouillet jusqu'au salon de Madame +Récamier", says M. Ferdinand Brunetière, "l'histoire de la littérature +française pourrait se faire par l'histoire des salons." This statement +by an eminent critic implies a magnificent eulogy of women and +testifies to the magnitude of their literary influence during the whole +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the history of the +_salons_ is the history of indirect feminism. Nor was their influence +restricted to literature; in nearly every department of social life +French women rose to ascendancy; and this, too, at a time when the +subjugation of their sex in the other countries of Europe, and notably +in England, was most complete. After the great triumphs of the first +half-century of their existence, the _salons_ shared in the general +decline, to be revived with a fair amount of success,--although of a +somewhat different kind--in the eighteenth century. + +Woman thus became a social influence to be reckoned with. The +question may be put whether upon the whole this remarkable event was +favourable to the cause of feminism? For, however much the movement +of "preciosity" did to make women realise their independence, and +assert their individuality, its original tendencies were not towards +any appreciable increase of female instruction. The leaders of the +movement: Mme de Rambouillet and her daughters, and afterwards Mme +de Sévigné and Mme de la Fayette, detested the "femme savante" quite +as much as they hated ignorance. The only aim of the education they +recommended was to make women fit for the society in which they were +expected to move; manners, taste and wit were cultivated at the expense +of those qualities which are indispensable to rouse a spirit of pure +feminism. The "précieuses" were bent upon cultivating sentiment rather +than intellect, and--apart from the fact that sentiment is rather apt +to run riot and that many women have a natural surplus which does not +require cultivation--it is by a well-regulated intellect that the cause +of feminism will be best served. As it was, the essentially feminine +qualities were cultivated by the _salons_, and the sexual difference +emphasized. It must therefore be admitted that the _salons_ only very +indirectly furthered the feminist movement and that the interest +evinced by the "précieuses" in the equality problem and its levelling +tendencies was naturally slight. But it stands to their credit that +they compelled men to recognise the importance of sex in other matters +than those which are purely sexual. If the cause of feminism in the +days of the _salons_ had been in a more advanced state, the ladies who +frequented them might have turned anti-feminist in their horror of +social changes which threatened to rob them of the empire which their +essentially feminine qualities had so easily secured over men. + +The better "précieuse" was not an intellectual; she was expected +to conceal such knowledge as she might possess and to cherish that +"pudeur sur la science" which makes Mme de Lambert refer to her secret +"débauches d'esprit", and which became the prevailing sentiment also +among her Bluestocking sisters of the eighteenth century. + +The history of the French _salons_ and of the "précieuses" who peopled +them begins in the year 1613, when Catherine, marquise de Rambouillet +invited to her town residence all those who, like herself, felt +disgusted at the camp-manners prevailing at the court and at the +licentiousness of the language and literature practised there. The +Rambouillet-assemblies, in their original intention a reaction against +the "esprit gaulois", accomplished far more than they aimed at in +securing for women a prominent place in French society. They became +a powerful factor in that thorough reform of manners and of language +which became the glory of the century and which, whatever excesses may +have followed in its train, did away for good and all with coarseness +and brutality. Of the very questionable society at court it might +be said that "force prevailed, while grace was wanting"; the latter +essentially feminine quality was abundantly supplied at the Hôtel de +Rambouillet, where the feminine element found its way into literature; +and conversation, which hitherto had been masculine, became the means +of introducing a new language for new manners. + +In opposition to the scant respect with which women were treated in +court-circles, an ideal of love was set up which was more in accordance +with the platonic sentiment. Once again the virginal state became an +object of glorification. The state of matrimony, on account of its +coarser foundation, was relegated to an inferior position. To the +crude, almost offensive lovemaking of the courtier was opposed the +modest, unselfish worship of platonic love of a pastoral kind; and +the representative poetry of the period, some of which was the work +of women, exalted the platonic passion which was to revolutionize the +relations of the sexes. The warrior-lover of the feudal past, who was +only a tyrant under the mask of chivalrous adulation, gave way to the +"honnête homme", or knight without an armour, of whom it could be said +that he possessed "la justesse de l'esprit et l'équité du coeur", +safe-guarding him against error of judgment and excess of passion, +and making him the devoted and constant lover of his mistress. The +following enumeration is given of his duties: "aimer le monde, aimer +les lettres sans affectations; mais surtout être amoureux et rechercher +la conversation des femmes". Anybody wishing to be admitted to polite +society had to conform to these rules. The tone of conversation was +characterised by a spirit of "galanterie", a kind of chivalry of +words and actions, which was to inspire men to noble feelings and to +corresponding deeds. + +Mme de Rambouillet attracted to her salon not only men and women +of the aristocracy, but also a great many men-of-letters, who were +valued according to their literary merit, regardless of fortune and +importance. This close alliance between the female sex and the men +of culture was in some respects the best education the former could +have chosen. They were bent on proving once for all, as Fléchier puts +it, that "l'esprit est de tout sexe" and that nothing was wanting to +make women the intellectual equals of men, but the habit of being +instructed and the liberty of acquiring useful knowledge. Women became +the unchallenged arbitresses of morals, taste, language, literature and +wit, in all of which they themselves set the example. In a contemporary +work we find the earliest salon described as "l'école de Madame de +Rambouillet, qui a renouvelé en partie les moeurs, où l'on mettait sa +gloire dans une conduite irréprochable." Not only was the language +purified by removing its overgrowth of obscenity and indelicacy, but +it was divested of a number of superfluous and affected foreign words. +The female influence upon the literary taste was equally all-embracing. +A number of new words owed their existence to feminine initiative, +and although the writers of the very first class were on the whole +unfavourably disposed towards what came to be called "préciosité", and +were consequently inclined to satirise its excesses, a great deal of +respectable second class talent was lavished upon the frequenters of +the salons. + +The literature produced by the "habitués" of Mme de Rambouillet's +salon was mostly of an occasional nature, and composed in homage to +the female sex, comprising sonnets, madrigals, epistolary prose, and +plays. The literature of the Scudéry circle, besides the products of +a growing pedantry, also included many occasional pieces of a lighter +kind, among which were so-called sonnets-énigmes, vers-échos and the +like, which, if contributing to the enjoyment of an idle moment, had no +permanence whatever as literature. To this kind of poetry the ladies +themselves were important contributors. In M. Victor du Bled's "_La +société française_" we read about a "Journée des Madrigaux" at Mlle +de Scudéry's, occasioned by a present of a "cachet de cristal" made +to the hostess on one of her famous Saturdays, calling forth poetical +ebullitions from the most widely different authors. There were the +famous "Portrait" series, composed by the ladies of the Duchess of +Montpensier's circle; the written "Conversations",--those by Mlle de +Scudéry herself were judged by Mme de Maintenon to contain "useful +hints to young females" and therefore introduced at St. Cyr--and a very +extensive literature in the epistolary style, which was to become the +current form of the Richardsonian novel. + +The topics of the day also formed a subject of animated discussion +at the assemblies. Among them the social position of women and their +treatment by the male sex occasionally found a place. Dissertations on +literary subjects alternated with discussions of intellectual problems, +one of the themes at Mlle de Scudéry's being: "De quelle liberté les +femmes doivent-elles jouir dans la société?" Although the salons of +the seventeenth century were not so revolutionary in their tendencies +as some of the next, inasmuch as they were strictly private and did +not either directly or indirectly aim at subverting the existing +government or promoting seditious theories, yet political subjects +were not shunned, and even philosophy and science--the craze of the +salons of the early eighteenth century--found a number of devotees and +sympathisers. About the middle of the seventeenth century, Cartesianism +became the fashionable philosophy in spite of the opposition of the +universities. Mme de Sévigné's letters prove that many women were +interested in its propagation. The "précieuses" felt attracted by the +speculations of Descartes, to follow which the cultivation of a sound +sense of logic is more indispensable than any great erudition. The +consequence of the philosophical movement was a widening interest in +knowledge, an awakening curiosity about science, and a corresponding +contempt of tradition, resulting from that self-reliance which is the +natural outcome of the theory of human perfectibility. + +The two principal salons, those of the marquise de Rambouillet and of +Mlle de Scudéry, although of the same general tendencies, differed +somewhat in their particulars. The glory of the former and earlier was +never equalled by any subsequent one. The marquise herself was in every +respect an ornament of her sex. Born and bred in Italy, she married +the marquis de Rambouillet before she had reached the age of thirteen. +After some turbulent years at court she retired to the privacy of her +residence in the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre and became the centre of a +brilliant circle of aristocratic people and celebrated men-of-letters. +Although some of the greatest wits of the age frequented her +salon--Malherbe, and afterwards Corneille and Balzac were among her +occasional visitors--there never was question of a domination of +literary men: the hostess remained enthroned in full and undisputed +authority, receiving the verbal and written homage which they paid to +her virtues. + +The entire house was reconstructed after her own ideas, so as to afford +more room for the reception of guests. In one of the apartments which +opened into each other, the marquise was in the habit of keeping +her state, receiving her visitors while reclining upon a luxurious +couch. The Blue Room, which, by the way, changed its aspect with each +succeeding fashion, was a marvel of refined taste. Nor did the marquise +confine her receptions to her town-residence; assemblies were held at +Rambouillet in summer and garden-parties introduced plenty of variety. +Great praise has been lavished on her kindness of character, and rising +authors in particular found in her a warm-hearted patroness, always +ready to applaud and encourage. One of her daughters, Julie d'Angennes, +equalled her in popularity and had her beauty and virtue celebrated in +a collection of laudatory verse entitled "_La Guirlande de Julie_", to +which different poets made contributions, the principal being the young +marquis de Montausier, who afterwards became her husband. Among her +closest intimates were two men of a very much inferior social station: +Voiture, the chief poet and chronicler, and Chapelain, the chief oracle +and critic of the Hôtel de Rambouillet. She had made these two her own; +they basked in the serenity of her smile, shared in her joys as in her +troubles, and were the most perfect male satellites to female beauty +and brilliance. + +The years between 1630 and 1645 were the crowning years of glory in the +history of the Hôtel de Rambouillet. After Julie's marriage, however, +there came a decline. There were some sudden deaths, including that of +the marquise's only son, and the Fronde began, in which some of the +marquise's intimates followed the fortunes of the rebels, entailing +fresh partings. In 1652 she sustained a further loss through the death +of her husband. Bowed down with sorrow, she retired to Rambouillet to +seek comfort in the intimacy of Julie's family. + +The influence of the Hôtel de Rambouillet passed on to the circle +presided over by Madeleine de Scudéry, whose "Saturdays" were much +sought after. Her visitors were rather more given to affectations of +manners and speech than those of her aristocratic predecessor and the +transfer therefore marks the first step in the decadence which set in. +In her "ruelle" the Third Estate was largely represented; in fact, as +the "bourgeois" element gained in strength, the decadence became more +marked, for its representatives were more easily led into excesses +than the female members of the aristocracy. This explains how the name +of Mlle de Scudéry--rather unjustly--came to be identified with that +false preciosity which did the female cause such harm. And yet she +was herself an ardent feminist, not only in the qualified sense of +her predecessor, but in the full sense of the word. Her two principal +romances: "_Artamène, ou le grand Cyrus_" and "_Clélie_", derive an +interest--which their longwindedness greatly endangers--from their +marked feminist tendencies. In the former, Mlle de Scudéry, whose +views are expressed by Sapho, pleads for mental occupation as the only +means of promoting female virtue. She rebukes the vanity of ignorance +so common among those of her sex who imagine that "elles ne doivent +jamais rien savoir, si ce n'est qu'elles sont belles, et ne doivent +jamais rien apprendre qu'à se bien coiffer". She is also one of the +first to accuse the male sex of inconsistency, refusing their womenfolk +an education, yet finding fault with them for lacking those qualities +which are the fruit of education only. "Sérieusement, y a-t-il rien +de plus bizarre que de voir comment on agit pour l'ordinaire en +l'éducation des femmes? On ne veut pas qu'elles soient coquettes ni +galantes, et on leur permet pourtant d'apprendre soigneusement tout ce +qui est propre à la galanterie, sans leur permettre de savoir rien qui +puisse fortifier leur vertu, ni occuper leur esprit". But the "femme +savante" equally inspires her with profound disgust, and this some +of her critics have failed to recognize. The Damophile of the _Grand +Cyrus_ is an exact reproduction of the Philaminte of Molière's "_Femmes +Savantes_", pretending to an erudition which is only imaginary and +prevents her from attending to her household duties. There is nothing +more objectionable in Mlle de Scudéry's opinion than for a woman to +make parade of her knowledge, which may be useful chiefly in enabling +her to listen with appreciation when men were talking. The theory of +perfect equality, proposed about the same time by Poullain de la Barre, +did not find an adherent in Mlle de Scudéry. The "honnête homme" of her +dreams has more power of diverting and amusing than the most erudite +of her own sex. Of all the leading ladies of seventeenth century +French society there were none whose qualifications would have fitted +them so perfectly to be the rivals of Mrs. Montagu in presiding over +Bluestocking assemblies as Mlle de Scudéry! + +Her second great romance, "_Clélie_", marks the culminating point +of the usual seventeenth century feminism in expressing the rather +one-sided ideal to which the ladies of the salons aspired, that of +commanding the love of gallantry and of ruling the world through it. +The entire romance is nothing but an elaborate code of gallantry by +which all love is to be regulated. In some passages, however, the +social position of women becomes the theme, regardless of the rather +too obtrusive love-theories. After protesting indignantly against +female bondage, Mlle de Scudéry proves that the doctrine of gallantry +has not impaired her judgment. She demands that man shall be "neither +the tyrant nor the slave of woman", and that the rights and duties of +matrimony shall be equally shared between the two partners. Nor has the +glitter of the platonic love-arsenal blinded her to the blessings of +the virginal state. Far superior to matrimony she holds the condition +of the wise and (of course!) beautiful woman who, although much +courted, remains indifferent; who has many friends, but no lovers; who +lives and moves in a world which to her is without peril, unswayed by +the passions which rule others, always free and always virtuous--and, +we may add, always sublimely conscious of her own superiority--an ideal +embodied in the person of Plotine. + +The attempt at "regulating the passions", i. e. keeping the affections +under perfect control, no doubt led to a great deal of absurdity which +supplied the many antagonists with weapons against "la préciosité." +Some of the worst sinners in this respect were ladies of the Scudéry +circle. There was a certain Mlle Dupré, given to philosophy, and +surnamed "la Cartésienne" whose glory was to consider herself incapable +of tenderness; and, worse still, there was the example of her friend +Mlle de la Vigne, whose infatuation went so far as to make her reject +even the comforts of platonic worship. + +Mlle de Scudéry herself was more moderate in her ideas, and proved +capable of cherishing some "tendresse" for the poet Pellisson whom +she rescued from the Bastille. Her verdict that "la vraie mesure du +mérite doit se prendre sur la capacité qu'on a d'aimer" even suggests +that she was capable of undergoing the real passion. Gradually, +however, the excesses in false "préciosité" began to multiply. The +original signification of the term had been a taste for whatever is +refined and delicate; noble, grand and sublime. The affectation and +pedantry which came to be substituted for this, gave rise to the +worst excesses of language. In their admiration of the fine phrasing +of the literary masterpieces the "précieuses" took to substituting +their periphrases and metaphors for the simple mode of expression +which daily conversation requires[9], making themselves ridiculous and +objectionable in the eyes of soberminded people and calling forth some +malignant attacks even by people who could not be accused of misogynist +leanings. To make matters worse, some very inferior imitations of +the aristocratic salons had sprung up among the "bourgeoisie" both at +Paris and in the provinces, where prudery was substituted for purity, +affectation for elegance and pedantry for charm and taste. The moral +tone prevailing at these meetings also compared very unfavourably +with the atmosphere of culture and good breeding which had reigned +at the Hôtel de Rambouillet. Scandal became a favourite topic of +conversation, and literary men of a usurped reputation, to whom the +better circles remained closed, laid down the law and constituted +themselves the arbiters of literary taste. The decline, which had been +slow and partial in the salons of Mlle de Scudéry and afterwards of +Mme Deshoulières, became rapid and complete in those of the so-called +"bourgeoisie de qualité". + +M. Brunetière has pointed out that the "esprit précieux" of the salons, +aiming at polish and refinement--for which in later years it came to +substitute narrowness and affectation--was directly opposed to the +"esprit gaulois" which had the upper hand in court circles and whose +satire of the salons often degenerated into cynicism and coarseness. +The great authors found themselves occupying an intermediate position, +trying to reconcile what was recommendable in either and ridiculing +what was objectionable. The fact that they drew their inspiration +from Nature and from the lessons taught by antiquity brought them +into conflict with the précieuses who lived in an artificial present, +and eagerly welcomed whatever was new. In the Ancient and Modern +Controversy, which was started in the seventeenth century and +revived in the early eighteenth, the female element, with a very few +exceptions, unhesitatingly took the side of the Moderns. How powerful +a factor they had become in determining what was to be the public +opinion appears from the share they had in the ultimate victory of the +Moderns, and more still from the utter futility of the repeated efforts +made by men of the first genius to crush their power by means of +ridicule. Molière opened the campaign in his "_Précieuses Ridicules_" +(1659). Although very successful as a play, and warmly applauded by +the Rambouillet-circle, it missed its aim in utterly failing to crush +false "préciosité". When after Molière's death Boileau continued the +campaign, he met with no better success. No sooner had he retired from +the field than the monster he had set out to kill reared its head +again, enjoying undisputed possession until Mme de Lambert and her +friends made an endeavour to return to the old ideals; in doing which, +however, they did not forget to march with the times and to observe the +signs of impending change which were beginning to manifest themselves. + + +While the "précieuse" society of the salons in its anxiety to +strengthen the female element was occupying itself with the cultivation +of polished manners, taste and wit in the members of the sex, and +came to neglect female morals and instruction, the problem of a +moral education was introduced and discussed by a philosopher among +churchmen, the great Fénelon. The civil wars in France were followed +by a religious renaissance, representing a supreme effort made by +catholicism to recover the ground which had been lost to the combined +classical renaissance and reformation. The religious order of the +Jesuits, founded in the middle of the sixteenth century, saw in a +strictly religious education the means of strengthening the position of +the Roman Catholic church. Before the end of the century they had their +colleges in different parts of France and became the educators of the +Roman Catholic youth of that country. From the first their aim was the +attainment of political influence for the church by means of religious +propaganda. To this end they tried to suppress all spontaneity and +individuality in their pupils, a system which in that age of awakening +individualism and philosophical enquiry could not long remain without +protest. A reaction set in which aimed at combining a certain amount +of personal freedom and patriotic sense with religious sentiment, and +at reconciling the tenets of Catholicism with the theories of the new +philosophy. Such was the general character of the first great rival of +Jesuitism, the "Oratoire". + +Neither society, however, took any notice of female education. The +omission was repaired by the Jansenists, the implacable enemies of the +Jesuits, be it in a manner in which some sound common sense was mingled +with a good deal of narrow dogmatism. For a number of years they +maintained a somewhat precarious footing in France, during which time +they proved themselves zealous educators, to whom the moral interests +of their pupils, and not the worldly ones of their society, were +paramount. Their chief educational establishment at Port Royal, founded +in 1643, was in many ways superior to contemporary institutions, and +some of their methods have found imitation in France to this very day. + +It is true that the Jansenist system of education was, upon the whole, +a monastic one, and as such could not be a very great improvement. But +its practice was distinguished by a few characteristics which made it +superior to all parallel schemes of education. Nowhere do we find that +perfect purity of motives, that eagerness on the part of the educator +to keep his charges from temptation and evil. This circumstance found +its origin in the tenets of Jansenism, asserting that a tendency to sin +and evil is inherent in the infant soul. To the Jansenists, education +meant the unrelaxing struggle of the educator, aided by divine grace, +against this natural bias, for the purpose of saving the soul. That +this constant watchfulness on the teacher's part involved the total +disappearance of the last frail spark of liberty left to the child, +is only natural. On the other hand, it strengthened the affections. +The Jansenist "religieuses" were filled with a most laudable sense +of responsibility and loved their charges with the most unselfish +tenderness and devotion. Their individual kindness tempered the +severity of the rules laid down in Jacqueline Pascal's "_Règlement pour +les enfants_". (1657). + +The discipline was of the strictest, and the entire system directed +towards forming pious Christian women and docile wives, rich in virtue +rather than in knowledge. The final decision was left to the girls +themselves; they either became nuns or re-entered the world after +some years of close sequestration, "selon qu'il plaisait à Dieu d'en +disposer", but it is to be feared that some moral pressure was often +brought to bear upon them. The rules for daily observance implied +early rising, strict silence, very limited ablutions and the greatest +simplicity in dress; the hours of daylight being divided among prayers, +devotional literature, manual labour and the elements of practical +knowledge. + +The above will be sufficient to show that Port Royal was a convent +rather than a school and that its spirit was directly opposed to both +the Renaissance spirit and the philosophical spirit of the later +generations. In the annals of female education the "Petites Ecoles" of +Port Royal will therefore not be remembered as a milestone in the march +of Woman towards the ideal of perfect enfranchisement. They derive +their importance from the fact that they were among the very first +institutions in which great stress was laid on a moral education and in +which some attention was paid to psychology. + +The convents of other religious orders also participated in the +educational movement and tried to recover lost influence. The seclusion +of convent-life in those days was not nearly so strict as it had been +in the days of early christianity, and this concession gained for them +many pupils who had no intention of taking the veil, but were merely +obeying the increasing call for female instruction. Some of these +religious orders, as for instance the Ursulines, did good service, +although they aimed at the pursuit of the moral virtues rather than +intellectual accomplishments. What constitutes their chief merit, +however, is the fact that by the side of the existing boarding-schools +for paying resident pupils they established dayschools for the benefit +of the poorer classes, in which all instruction was gratuitous. The +number of secular schools for girls was so small, that we may safely +regard the above as a first attempt to bring education within the reach +of the untaught female multitude. Unfortunately, the convent-schools +became involved in the general decline which marks the latter half of +the century. All sorts of abuses found their way into them. A great +deal too much regard was paid to the social standing of pupils, the +nuns were often unfit for their educational task, for which they +lacked preparation, and many convents became havens of refuge to +worldly ladies with a damaged reputation, who paid well, but in return +introduced lazy morals and a loose conversational tone. Add to this the +intense and general misery which both the Fronde and the later foreign +wars had engendered, and it need not astonish anybody that the efforts +of the religious orders were of too partial and desultory a nature to +bring about a lasting improvement in female education. Although the +actual progress recorded was slight, yet something had been gained. The +necessity for some degree of female instruction--thanks largely to the +indirect influence of the salons--was now universally granted, although +opinions varied regarding the extent and the means to be employed. It +had to a certain extent become a topic in France, and as such began to +attract a good deal of notice among moral philosophers. There arose the +philosophy of education, making the subject a basis for philosophical +speculation and applying to the systems then in vogue the severe +test of Reason. In this way some glaring abuses were revealed which +urgently demanded correction. The entire monastic system, based upon +conventional grounds, was full of faults and the reverse of practical, +showing an utter disregard of the demands of life. Thus began the +gradual emancipation of education from the shackles of monasticism, the +urgent necessity of which was recognised even by some of the leading +churchmen, whose works breathe the more liberal spirit of the new +philosophy. The theorisings of Fénelon mark a new departure in moral +education, and his ideas became the prevailing ones of the eighteenth +century which he heralded. He did not fall into the error made by his +predecessors of overlooking the female half of society, but placed +himself on the standpoint that the education of women is as important +a social problem as that of men. At the time of the composition of +his treatise "_De l'Education des Filles_" (published in 1683) he was +director of the "Nouvelles Catholiques", a Parisian institution in +which female converts from Protestantism were educated. Its direct +claims on behalf of woman--apart from absolute insistence on the right +of a moral education--are rather modest, but its originality consists +in the introduction of the problems of feminine psychology, lifting the +subject into the sphere of moral philosophy. Unmoved by the passion +which swayed some of the later feminists--there is a wide gulf between +his ideal of morality and theirs of equality--the moderation of his +views and the soundness of his logic gained him a hearing and procured +him some staunch supporters among the better Précieuses, who justly +admired his insight into the female character. Madame de Maintenon was +very much taken with his ideas and even procured him an appointment +to the archbishopric of Cambrai. While insisting on the fundamental +difference between the male and the female character, Fénelon never +hesitates to put woman on the same level as man, without troubling +to decide the theoretical question of superiority. The all-important +promise of eternity he believed to apply with perfect equality to both +sexes, and as regards earthly life he held that man and woman are +too fundamentally different to allow of comparison in the sense of +competition. However, he recognised that while the chief duties of man +were concerned with social life, those of woman lay within a smaller +circle: that of the home, upon the management of which depend both the +happiness of every individual and the prosperity of the state; thus +granting to woman a sphere of interest and activity in no wise inferior +to, though different from, that of man, and exhorting her to fulfil +those sacred duties to the very best of her ability. The domestic +duties of womanhood are first regarded by Fénelon as an important +social function, for which the monastic education was the worst +preparation that could be imagined. There are not only children to be +educated, but servants to be managed. The more deeply we enter into the +spirit and full purport of Fénelon's contentions, the more it strikes +us how he anticipates all the points of discussion which were to keep +the philosophical moralists of the next century busy. A woman may +excel in the art of being served; she may show in her treatment of her +inferiors that she realises the great truth that all human beings in +their widely different social stations are equal before God, and that +any amount of authority involves an equal amount of responsibility. +Ideas like the above seem to belong to the eighteenth century rather +than to the seventeenth. Fénelon was in the full sense of the word: a +pioneer. + +We have said that the Jansenist educators held that "la composition +du coeur de l'homme est mauvaise dès son enfance", directing their +efforts towards reclamation from innate evil. Fénelon's views are more +optimistic. + +To him, there is no original tendency towards either good or evil. +Everything depends upon guidance; give a child a good education and all +its possibilities for good will be developed and bear fruit. The sole +aim of education is not social influence or intellectual culture, but +merely what he calls "l'amour de la vertu". And who can be fitter for +such a task than the girl's own mother? "A good mother", says Fénelon, +"is infinitely preferable to the best convent". Only she can prepare +her daughter for the domestic circle over which it will one day be her +task to preside, and only she has enough natural affection for her to +impress upon her receptive mind lessons of moral wisdom. Boys, who are +brought up to be citizens, require a public education, but for girls +there is no place of education like the home, watched over by a loving +mother. + +A few of the points introduced may here be passed in rapid review. +Great stress is laid on tenderness in education. Unless the pupil +feels real affection for the teacher, unless the task of learning +lessons is made a pleasant, and not a wearisome one, the results will +be disappointing. Gentle reasoning and persuasion ought therefore as +a rule to take the place of severity. Also in matters of religion an +appeal should be made to the child's budding reason. The religious +principles should be instilled in a subtle, slightly philosophical +manner, and cleverly arranged questions--often in the form of metaphors +or similes--should suggest to the pupil the expected replies. Here we +have an anticipation of that "mise en scène" which becomes a striking +feature in Rousseau. + +A close study of the characters of women implies an insight into the +essentially feminine failings, which may render them unfit for their +task, and therefore ought to be first exposed and then carefully +eradicated. Fénelon's list of female shortcomings and their remedies +proves that there was no great difference in the matter of inclinations +between the female youth of France and that of England. + +Their worst vices are said to proceed from the misdirection of two +characteristically feminine qualities: imagination and sensibility. +Want of purpose renders the former over-active and turns it towards +dangerous objects. A careful watch should be kept over the literature +put into the hands of young females, for of the amorous romances then +in vogue which were so eagerly devoured by the sex, the majority were +far too stimulating to an imagination which in the close seclusion +of home- or convent-life was but too apt to run riot. By living in +an imaginary society of "précieux et précieuses" the girls became +dissatisfied with everyday life and were made unfit for it. + +Another dangerous consequence of inoccupation is that thirst for +amusement which is the leading motive in female society. It creates +egoists, bent upon indulging every wanton caprice. This, coupled with +physical weakness, makes women resort to cunning and dissimulation +as a means of attaining their end, to the detriment of their moral +characters. + +Vanity, which is another inherent portion of the female character, is +responsible for that inordinate desire to please which in leading to +an all-absorbing passion for clothes and fashion threatens to ruin +domestic life and to deprave the female morals. + +Fénelon had no patience with the "précieuses" of the decline, who +tried to appear "savantes" without being even "instruites". To him, +the value of knowledge depends entirely on its practical use as a +means of edifying the mind and soul. Woman was not meant for science, +and what Fénelon has seen of the "femme savante" is not calculated to +make him enthusiastic. Girls should feel "une pudeur sur la science +presque aussi délicate que celle qu'inspire l'horreur du vice." His +programme of subjects of female study is correspondingly small. Reading +and writing, spelling, arithmetic and grammar are the principal. +In addition, music, painting, history, Latin and literature are +conditionally recommended, for the individual talents have to be taken +into consideration. + +Fénelon's picture of contemporary womanhood is far from alluring. Its +chief interest lies in the circumstance that it is the first instance +in French literature of a systematic estimate of female manners based +upon the feminine psychology, anticipating the current opinion among +the writers of the next century regarding the foibles of the sex. +Fénelon was among the first to realise--what Mary Wollstonecraft a +century later stated with that characteristic frankness which almost +entirely robbed her of female sympathy--that the worst enemy of female +emancipation is, and always has been, woman herself. As long as the +majority of women make considerations of sex the foundation of all +their actions, it will prove impossible for the champions of equality +to accomplish their full aims. Although a churchman and a moralist, +Fénelon was in open revolt against the spirit of monasticism which +regarded only eternity and failed to see its relation to everyday +life, with its many exigencies. The best preparation for eternity, +according to him, is a daily attention to the nearest duties of +life. Not science, but the domestic circle was the proper domain of +woman. More necessary than theoretical knowledge was that practical +instruction in the little household ways which turn a young woman into +a good housekeeper. What Fénelon did not sufficiently realise, was the +indispensable connection between a moral and an intellectual education. +The theory that perfect virtue arises out of the intellect and derives +its chief value from a rational source, was a further step in the same +direction which it was left to his successors to take. But he was +instrumental in preparing the enfranchisement of the female education +from the narrow principles of that church to which he belonged heart +and soul. + +His precepts were almost immediately put in practice. Making some +allowance for personal inclinations and circumstances which forbade +their full application, we may call Madame de Maintenon the foremost +pupil of Fénelon's school. This remarkable woman's educational views +present two entirely different aspects. She was a pietist of the Roman +Catholic faith, but with certain leanings towards liberalism which +smacked of heresy, the origin of which may be found in the influence +of the philosophical creeds with which her early career as a précieuse +had brought her into contact. On the other hand, her experience of +society--after her marriage to the poet Scarron she had for some years +kept a salon in Paris--had given her a taste for literature and made +her a believer in "l'art de dire et d'écrire" as one of the necessary +elements of female education. She thus combined in her person two of +the principal tendencies of the century: a strong religious spirit +and an intense interest in literature, and both became important +factors in her educational system, in which she aimed at reconciling +the exigencies of the world with the demands of piety in forming +society women who were devout Christians. She was a woman of practical +common sense, actuated by the most unselfish motives, and devoted to +the exercise of that Reason which she held ought to be the constant +regulator of Piety and the governing motive of all human actions. +Nothing could be more directly opposed to the monastic spirit. Her +principles therefore stamped her as a reactionary of Fénelon's school, +save for the fact that "the world was too much with her", which made +her always keep in view that polite society whose morals she had set +out to improve, and the allurements of which constantly clashed with +the rigidity of her religious devotion. At the same time the charms +of domesticity appealed to her as strongly as to Fénelon. Reason, she +argued, forbids the education of women to any station except that for +which Providence originally intended them, and Providence never meant +them to pass their lives in a convent, but rather in the domestic +circle as devoted wives and loving mothers. She felt the monastic +education to be a violation of the destination of womanhood, and her +educational writings were a plea for emancipation from the compulsion +of conventional religiosity with its disregard of practical life. + +The equality-claim has no place in her programme. The very spirit of +Christianity condemns it. "Dieu a soumis notre sexe au moment qu'il l'a +créé, la faiblesse de notre esprit et de notre corps a besoin d'être +conduite, soutenue et protégée; notre ignorance nous rend incapable +de décision, et nous ne pouvons dans l'ordre de Dieu, gouverner que +dépendamment des hommes." No further steps towards intellectual, +social or political enfranchisement are to be expected from Madame de +Maintenon. + +Although woman can only "govern dependently", yet her rule of the +home--and here again she fully agrees with Fénelon--is of the utmost +importance, not only to her own small circle, but to society, or rather +to that portion of it which alone had her full regard and affection: +the kingdom of France. Woman was meant for marriage and her education +should be relative to her position in society. Plutarch's line of +thought, which we had almost lost sight of, re-enters the stage with +the appearance of Fénelon and Madame de Maintenon. No motives of false +delicacy should withhold from young women such information as may +be useful to them in their struggle against the temptations of the +outside world. The right place to prepare them for their natural place +in society is not the convent, but the college, where the educational +taste is entrusted to capable teachers, of whom it may be said that +"le monde n'est étranger qu'à leur coeur". The optimistic faith in the +capability of her sex of being perfected, which links her to Helvétius +and the other Encyclopedians gave her the necessary courage to attempt +an experiment which she confidently trusted might lead to a general +reform in female morals. The words of Racine's _Esther_: + + + Ici, loin du tumulte, aux devoirs les plus saints + Tout un peuple naissant est formé par mes mains, + + +are a faithful reflection of her hope for the future. And so Madame +de Maintenon declared war against convention and tradition and went +the way she had marked out for herself. Her influence with the king +enabled her to carry out her scheme to the minutest details and became +the means of placing the vast establishment of St. Cyr at her disposal. +The time had come to realise her dream of education. Two hundred and +fifty girls of aristocratic families whom the endless wars had ruined, +were entrusted to the care of a headmistress, Mme de Brinon, and her +staff, under Madame de Maintenon's personal superintendance. It was her +wish that they should constitute a large family and that the relation +between teacher and pupil should be as nearly as possible that of +mother to child, so as to make the reality differ as little as possible +from what Fénelon's theory had considered the ideal form. The secular +character of the establishment--on which the king had also insisted, +holding that there were already more nuns than was strictly compatible +with the interests of his kingdom--appeared from the fact that the +teachers--"les dames de Saint Louis"--were called "madame" instead +of "soeur" and wore dresses which, although simple, were different +from those worn in the convent. They were not at first expected to +take the vow for life, but their patroness expressed a distinct wish +that they should always regard their pupils' interests before their +own and show the greatest possible devotion to this task. In respect +of this insistence upon the most absolute self-abnegation--involving +a most unyielding sternness in taking what seemed the right moral +course and a most complete subjection on the part of the pupil--Mme +de Maintenon's ideas came dangerously near those of the Jansenists +against whose severe methods she professed to be in revolt. The rules +of discipline at St. Cyr were in some respects as strict as those +practised at Port Royal and in both the motive was to shield the pupil +against contamination. Realising the danger of influence from abroad at +an age when the character was not sufficiently formed, and apt to take +impressions too easily, Mme de Maintenon determined that all parental +authority should cease. The girls were kept in the establishment +until they were well out of their teens, and supposed to be morally +strong enough to resist temptation and to exercise influence on their +surroundings instead of undergoing it. There were no holidays and the +"demoiselles" were allowed to see their parents only four times a year +for half an hour or so under the watchful eye of one of the mistresses. +Even their correspondence with them was limited, and the tone of the +letters had to be strictly formal, in fact they were mere exercises of +style. Apart from these restrictions, the girls were treated with great +kindness, if with little outward show of affection. Mme de Maintenon +was too much devoted to Reason to approve of such demonstrations, and +wished the emotions to be kept under strict control. On the other +hand, punishments were few, the teacher took a liberal share in all +recreations and amusements, and the necessary instruction was made as +attractive and imparted in as unobtrusive a manner as possible, in +accordance with Fénelon's precepts. + +The sudden change in Mme de Maintenon's system of discipline which +took place in the third year of St. Cyr and which narrowed down the +comparative liberty which had been a fundamental principle to the +absolute subjection described above, was a frank avowal of the failure +of her original methods and at the same time a proof of the sincerity +of her endeavour. It was due to a most unexpected development. + +In the first years of St. Cyr--the establishment was opened in +1686--the study of literature had occupied an important place among the +subjects of the curriculum. The girls were made to act little domestic +scenes written by the headmistress. At the patroness's instigation +an experiment was made with Racine's "_Andromaque_", which, in her +opinion, "succeeded too well", for the girls so entered into the +spirit of the play, and developed such histrionic talents, that their +monitress, realising the danger, asked Racine to write another play +specially for them. In accordance with this request the great dramatist +wrote "_Esther_", which was performed several times before the king +and a select audience with signal success, and results disastrous to +the spirit prevailing among the girls of St. Cyr. Never before had the +discipline of the institution been in greater jeopardy. The girls' +heads were turned, and their vanity and conceit knew no bounds. + +Mme de Maintenon saw that energetic measures were urgently called for, +and did not hesitate to adopt them. With an earnestness and resolution +greatly to her credit she undertook the necessary reform with the +effect of radically removing whatever was liberal and reactionary +in her system, and reducing St. Cyr to a slightly modified form of a +convent, thus granting to her opponents the satisfaction of a great +moral victory, which the latter deserved no more than Mme de Maintenon +deserved her defeat. + +One of the unfortunate consequences was that the instruction which +the girls received, and which had never been abundant, was reduced to +almost a minimum. "Il n'est point question de leur orner l'esprit", +said Mme de Maintenon. The horrors of exaggerated preciosity were ever +since before her eyes. Too much learning, she feared, might turn the +girls into précieuses, and manual labour was introduced as an effective +antidote. Fortunately the years tended to soften the severity which +had prevailed immediately after the catastrophe, and upon the whole +the institution, which enjoyed special protection and undiminished +popularity until its suppression by the Convention in 1793, could boast +excellent results, and turned out some real "ornaments of their sex". + +It seems a pity that in Mme de Maintenon's schemes so secondary a +place should have been given to that education of the mind which is so +essential to lasting improvement. She inevitably suffers by comparison +with her contemporary Mme de Sévigné, whose correspondence with her +daughter Mme de Grignan contains a most enlightened scheme for the +education of her granddaughter Pauline de Simiane. She recognises +that it is by literature that the mind is fed, and since to the +pure everything is pure, there is little to be feared even of the +otherwise pernicious reading of novels, for a sound mind will not +easily go astray. An optimistic view of education, taking its root in +considerations of philosophy, for Mme de Sévigné, like her daughter, +was a Cartesian. In comparing her contribution to the educational +problem with that of Mme de Maintenon, it should be remembered, +however, that an individual education within the family circle offers +better opportunities for freedom and less danger of contamination than +the collective system of St. Cyr. Mme de Sévigné's ideas, contained +in private correspondence, intended only for her daughter's use and +entirely without the militant spirit, exercised little influence and +were of little direct value to the cause of feminism. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Cf. the two articles in "_A Cambridge History of English +Literature_", by Prof. F. M. Padelford (Vol. 2 p. 384) and by Prof. H. +V. Routh (vol. 3 p. 88). + +[4] Cf. p. 30. + +[5] See also page 32. + +[6] A very interesting article on "_Le tiers Livre du Pantagruel et la +Querelle des Femmes_" by M. Abel Lefranc, containing an extensive list +of contributions to the feminist and the anti-feminist literature of +the time, may be found in the "Revue des Etudes Rabelaisiennes", (Tome +II, 1904). + +[7] Heinrich Morf, in his "_Geschichte der französischen Literatur im +Zeitalter der Renaissance_" relates that a number of ladies took to +frequenting the _Académie de poésie et de musique_ founded by Baïf +under the auspices of Charles IX; especially after his successor Henry +III had transferred its seat to an apartment in the Louvre, whence it +came to be called "_Académie du Palais_". + +[8] P. Rousselot. _Histoire de l'Education des Femmes en France._ + +Poullain de la Barre owes his revival to an article by M. Henri +Piéron in the "_Revue de Synthèse historique_" of 1902. The latter's +judgment is based upon two works: "_De l'Egalité des Sexes_" and "_De +l'Education des Dames_", which he found in the Bibliothèque Nationale. +In 1913 the "_Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France_" contained an +article by M. Henri Grappin, pointing out that some of Poullain's works +had been overlooked, supplying a full list of his literary productions +and fully discussing one, entitled: "_De l'Excellence des Hommes, +contre l'Egalité des Sexes_." The above-named three are the only +treatises by Poullain which bear upon the position of women. + +[9] Cf. Livet, _Précieux et Précieuses_, p. XXV. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +_The Position of French Women in Eighteenth Century Society._ + + +In the earlier half of the eighteenth century, at a time when the +inferiority of English women was so generally recognised as to leave +no room at all for controversy, the Woman Question was attracting a +good deal of notice in France, and scarcely a year passed without +some kind of contribution to its literature.[10] It was by this time +an acknowledged problem, and theoretically speaking it may be said +that by the middle of the century feminism in France had carried the +day, thanks mainly to the influence of modern philosophy, which the +salons helped in propagating. The instruction-problem was also settled +in theory in a manner satisfactory to feminists, and only that of +female occupations remained as yet unbroached. The position of women +in society not only became a favourite topic of conversation and +controversy, but came to command a number of able pens in periodical +literature and in the drama. In the latter branch of literature a +number of pieces were written on the subject, some of which were +hostile and sought the aid of ridicule, but of which the majority were +of a more sympathetic tendency, showing that Molière's attack had +failed. All the important theatres paid their tribute of attention to +the cause of feminism. One of the earliest was Montchenay's "_Cause +des Femmes_", a comedy performed at the Théâtre italien as early as +1687, while a more elaborate dramatic statement of the cause, entitled +"_l'Ile des Amazones_" was composed in 1718 by Lesage and d'Orneval, +and suggested the machinery of the "_Amazones Modernes_" of Legrand +(1727), performed at the Théâtre français. This brings us to the field +of Utopian literature _à la_ Mrs. Manley, whose "_New Atlantis_" had +appeared a few years previously. The Amazons, who had founded their own +community in a remote island, having forsworn the society of men, made +their return conditional on the acceptance of the following terms: + +1stly, there was to be no subordination of the wife to the husband; + +2ndly, the women were to be allowed to study, and to have their own +universities; + +3rdly, they were to be eligible to the highest positions in the army +as in jurisdiction and finance; and finally it was to be considered as +shameful an act on the part of a man to break the conjugal faith as on +that of a woman, so that men might no longer boast of that which in a +woman was deemed criminal. That the last was among the most rankling +sores will be seen later on, when the "dual standard of morality" +aroused the indignation of true "Blues" like Mrs. Chapone, and equally +of radical feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft. + +But the piece in which the question was best and most conclusively +treated was a comedy, entitled "_La Colonie_", which Marivaux wrote +about the middle of the century, and which, possibly owing to lack of +success, was not included in the different editions of his works, +so that it is at present accessible only in the _Mercure de France_ +of 1750[11]. It was on the whole sympathetic to women, in spite of +the failure of their effort--described in the play--to establish a +feminine republic, and the pleasantries of which men and women alike +are the object. Both the weak points of the female character, as +vanity, coquetry, garrulity and frivolity, and those of the men, as +envy and vainglory, are made the object of ridicule. But the feminist +tendency of the whole appears from the fact that the speeches of the +female leaders are more reasonable than those of the males who are +worsted by them. The women of the island-state, bent upon vindicating +their rights, and inflamed by the speeches of Arthenice and Madame +Sorbin,--whose respective lover and husband occupy responsible +positions on the male side--contemplate a final breach between the +sexes. They experience their first disappointment when the young and +pretty women refuse to give up their empire of coquetry, especially +when told to make themselves ugly! An ultimatum is duly sent to the +male leaders, demanding the admission of women to different occupations +and equality between the sexes in matrimonial affairs, a refusal of +which will mean instant dissolution of the social state. When the men, +driven to despair, are on the point of surrendering, a philosopher's +stratagem brings relief. Rumours are spread of a hostile attack upon +the island, and the women, by virtue of the proposed compact, are +called upon to swell the ranks of the defending army. This proves too +much for the majority, who find that they prefer the worries of the +daily household routine to the hardships of war, causing peace to be +restored. + +The periodical essay was also made subservient to the propagation of +feminist ideas when in 1750, while in London, Mme Leprince de Beaumont +started the "_Nouveau Magasin français_", in which the rights of women +were vindicated with great fervour. Nine years later, a second, even +more pronounced attempt to adapt the periodical to the female interests +was made in the "_Bibliothèque des Femmes_", which after a short run, +was continued in the "_Journal des Dames_". This paper, which enjoyed +great success, was continued for twenty years, during which it served +the female interests and contained a number of articles written by +women. The original intention of having only female contributors +proved incapable of realisation. The paper sang the praises of women +in different keys, as an antidote to the daily revilings in other +periodicals, and the original idea of promoting the female interests by +stimulating the female intellect was gradually lost sight of. + +But the greatest friends of woman and her cause, who fought and won +her battles for her, and were willing to recognise her empire, were +the philosophers of the Encyclopedia, with the emphatic exception +of that most inconsistent of all geniuses: J. J. Rousseau. The +Encyclopedian spirit is best reflected by d'Alembert's "_Lettre à J. +J. Rousseau_", written in reply to the "_Lettre sur les Spectacles_" +in the famous controversy on the drama. He protests against the +latter's cynical views of womanhood. The human race would be indeed +in a pitiable condition, he says, if the worthiest object of the +male homage were indeed so rare an occurrence as Rousseau chooses to +intimate. But supposing he should be right, to what cause would such a +deplorable state of things be attributable? "L'esclavage et l'espèce +d'avilissement où nous avons mis les femmes; les entraves que nous +donnons à leur esprit et à leur âme, le jargon futile et humiliant pour +elles et nous; auquel nous avons réduit notre commerce avec elles, +comme si elles n'avaient pas une raison à cultiver, ou n'en étaient +pas dignes; enfin, l'éducation funeste, je dirai presque meurtrière, +que nous leur prescrivons, sans leur permettre d'en avoir d'autre; +éducation ou elles apprennent presque uniquement à se contrefaire sans +cesse, à n'avoir pas un sentiment qu'elles n'étouffent, une opinion +qu'elles ne cachent, une pensée qu'elles ne déguisent. Nous traitons +la nature en elles comme dans nos jardins, nous cherchons à l'orner en +l'étouffant." And d'Alembert makes an appeal to the philosophers of the +age to destroy so pernicious a prejudice, to shake off the barbarous +yoke of custom and to set the example by giving their daughters the +same education as their sons, that they may be saved from idleness and +the evils that follow inevitably in its train. And the cause of woman +thus became incorporated in the great scheme of Liberty and Equality +which was slowly maturing in the master minds of the nation. + +The gulf that yawned between the two opposing parties was widening +every instant. On one side were those in possession of power and +authority, leaning upon Custom and Tradition, drawing what inspiration +animated them from the source of the Ancients and stubbornly opposing +any change which might tend to undermine their position. Ranged on the +other was the intellect of the nation, the devotees of a philosophy +which held the promise of the millennium to be almost within immediate +reach, firing the mind with their daring schemes for improvement +and asserting the coming triumph of Modernism. Nothing could be more +natural than that woman should throw in her lot with the latter and +that her cause should become a subdivision of the great problem of +humanity. The great sphere of activity, next to the wide field of +literature, was the more modest compass of the eighteenth century salon. + +Madame de Lambert herself draws a parallel somewhere between the salons +of the seventeenth and those of the eighteenth century, more especially +with regard to the prevailing codes of morality. Her conclusions, like +those of M. Brunetière nearly two centuries later, are overwhelmingly +in favour of Mme de Rambouillet and her contemporaries. She complains +that the delicate intellectual amusements of the seventeenth century +assemblies have been largely superseded by the grosser delights of the +card-table and of a declining stage. The merest semblance of knowledge +is regarded with disapproval,--this in consequence of Molière's furious +onslaught in his _Femmes Savantes_--and as a natural consequence of +ignorance, the female morals have sadly decayed. Being thus deprived +of the means of improving the mind, women are naturally driven to a +life of pleasure-seeking. And she doubts whether society has derived +any benefit from the change. "Les femmes ont mis la débauche à la +place du savoir, le précieux qu'on leur a tant reproché, elles l'ont +changé en indécence." In other words, Mme de Lambert wanted to return +to the earlier preciosity, granting women the right to be instructed, +and trying to steer clear of those excesses which had called forth the +attacks of Molière and Boileau. She emphatically protests against the +pernicious habit of making a pleasing appearance the sole aim of female +education, and claims for her sex the blessings of an education which +in cultivating the mind will improve the female morals. + +It would be impossible to deny that the moral standard was considerably +lower than it had been half a century earlier. The consequences +entailed by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and by the +suppression of Port Royal had been equally disastrous. The chief +bulwarks of Protestant and Catholic orthodox faith had been removed, +leaving a free field to both libertinage and disbelief. The coarseness +of manners which it had been the aim of the Rambouillet societies to +suppress reasserted itself on the one hand, while on the other the +rising spirit of philosophical inquiry and scientific research had +degenerated into a scepticism which was no longer counteracted by that +spirit of religious mysticism which had been a weapon of orthodoxy +against unbelief. The Encyclopedian spirit often spelt deism and +atheism, both of which flourished in the salons. The very fact that +their society was no longer exclusive, but freely admitted people of +all class and opinions, and from different parts of the world, accounts +for the enormous influence exercised by these "bureaux d'esprit" upon +public opinion in the eighteenth century. Moreover, the monarchical +power was declining, and the king, in establishing a barrier between +himself and the society of the salons, was himself instrumental in +raising opinions which more and more became the prevailing ones, and +upon which he had no influence whatever. Rationalism began to gain +ground rapidly and became a basis for speculations which soon came to +include politics and economics. + +M. Brunetière, whose judgment on the salons of the eighteenth century +is very severe, complains that the lofty artistic and moral ideals of +the preceding generation had given way to scepticism and to cynicism of +a kind which made Madame de Tencin refer to her guests as "ses bêtes". +This statement, which no doubt is mainly correct, seems strange in +consideration of the fact that it was by the new philosophy which the +same salons helped in spreading, that the great problems of the future +of the human race were put forward, which in broader minds gave rise +to much idealism in what M. du Bled so finely calls: "le souci de la +modernité." But eighteenth century society regarded philosophy as an +intellectual pastime rather than as bringing the hope of relief to the +oppressed millions, and if it occasionally dabbled in social problems, +the misery of the multitude did not touch the majority of those who +lived lives of comfort and luxury, and were utterly unacquainted with +suffering, very deeply. No direct attempt at improvement, therefore, +was to be expected from them, they were talking in theory about things +of the practice of which they knew nothing. Brunetière calls the +eighteenth century salon "le triomphe de l'universelle incompétence", +with which its seventeenth century predecessor, with its more limited +programme, compares favourably. It became habitual "to talk wittily +of serious problems, while seriously discussing trifling subjects". +It needed, indeed, the fiery imagination and fervent enthusiasm of a +Rousseau to inspire the philosophical theories with the life of his +genius. And yet, if the social problems of the time were not directly +solved by eighteenth century society, they were at least formulated by +it in such a manner as to make them the catchword of the period and to +draw to them the attention of those who were better able to do them +justice. The very fact that the salons were ruled over by women and +independent of court-influence made them the place where opinions were +most freely uttered and most readily listened to. + +Literature, which had been the chief occupation of the early salons, +now found a powerful rival in science. The poetry of the eighteenth +century "ruelles" became of an even lighter and more insipid kind. On +the other hand, the latter half of the previous century had witnessed a +growing interest in anatomy and surgery, and after the introduction (by +Fontenelle) of astronomy as a fashionable science, Newton became the +rage, and ladies of quality like the marquise du Châtelet were among +his worshippers. The domination of the salons thus became extended +to philosophy, science, economics and politics. When the Ancient and +Modern controversy was re-introduced in the opening years of the +century, nearly all the female philosophers were fervent partisans of +the Moderns, believing in a future in which all human beings would be +guided by the light of Reason. + +Of this eighteenth century modernism, feminism is, in fact, only a +subdivision. This appears from the work of Poullain de la Barre, +and still more from the great defence of the Cause of Woman (when +threatened by Boileau in Satire X "_Sur les Femmes_") by the great +champion of modernism Perrault in his "_Apologie des Femmes_." The +Moderns, indeed, saw in the prejudice against women a remnant of +the servility of antiquity which was in flagrant contradiction with +the dictates of Reason. Hence the close connection between feminist +literature in the eighteenth century and life in the salons, of which +the authors were mostly among the regular frequenters. The marquise de +Lambert laid down her ideas of feminism in her "_Réflexions sur les +Femmes_", and we have seen that both D'Alembert and Marivaux were among +the staunch defenders of the right of the sex to equal consideration. + +Boileau's death had left the "précieuses" in the undisputed possession +of the field of light literature, to which now became added that of +science. This new form of preciosity, "la préciosité scientifique", +which made its appearance in the salon of Mme de Lambert, where it +found an ardent worshipper in Fontenelle, grew so powerful that even +Voltaire's efforts to crush it with ridicule were unavailing. So strong +had the female dictatorship become, that three of the most influential +men-of-letters in the kingdom had vainly tried to get the better of +it. But unfortunately the platonic ideal to which the women of the +preceding century had owed their ascendancy had degenerated, and in +consequence of the altered circumstances women often had to buy with +physical submission and degradation that worship of their beauty and +deference to their opinion which made them at the same time the rulers +and the slaves of men, and against which the moralists of the century, +with the glaring exception of Rousseau, made it their business to +protest loudly, but in vain. + +Mme de Lambert merely wanted to restore the right sort of preciosity +to its throne as an antidote to the evils of ignorance, in which she +set herself the ideals of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, and advocated +moderation in everything. Her salon thus became as much a protest +against exaggeration and affectation as against the prevailing opinion +that the education of women should only aim at teaching them how to +please the opposite sex. An occasional frequenter calls it "l'hôtel de +Rambouillet présidé par Fontenelle, et où les précieuses corrigées se +souvenaient de Molière." + +Being left a widow at a comparatively early age, Mme de Lambert opened +her salon in the Palais Mazarin in the rue Colbert about 1700. She +was at that time rather more than fifty, and reigned supreme over her +circle of visitors for more than thirty years. She set herself to prove +that it was possible to have a lively entertainment without the help +of the card-table, relying chiefly on conversation and literature. +Her Tuesdays and Wednesdays soon became famous, and attracted both +the aristocracy and the literati. Among her regular visitors were +Fontenelle, Marivaux, Mlle de Launay (Mme de Staal) and de la Motte, +champion of the moderns, whilst Mme Dacier undertook the defence of the +opposite cause. Mme de Lambert herself was the ruling spirit of the +Académie, of which the way towards membership lay through her favour, +and the chief literary productions previous to being published--if +published they were--were read and criticised in her circle. + +If Mme de Lambert deserves mention for having kept a salon which +formed a link between the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, and +exercised a beneficial influence on the tone of conversation, she +is even more entitled to attention on account of the part played by +her in the development of feminism. She was a moralist rather than +educator, and followed in the steps of Fénelon. She had the Cartesian +belief in the infallibility of Reason, with two exceptions, which do +honour to the qualities of her heart, and saved her from the inevitable +conclusions of logic _à outrance_: religion and honour. "Il y a deux +préjugés auxquels il faut obéir: la religion et l'honneur", and a +little further: "En fait de religion, il faut céder aux autorités. +Sur tout autre sujet, il ne faut recevoir que celle de la raison et +de l'évidence", excluding even honour. But her actions show that she +realised the danger which lies in obeying the duties of reason while +totally excluding the admonitions of the heart. Stronger than her love +of logic was that exquisite form of sensibility which made her at least +a real champion of the less fortunately situated. There is real concern +for the welfare of her inferiors in the precept that "servants should +be treated as unhappy friends", and a true love of humanity in the +statement that "humanity suffers in consequence of the inequality which +Fortune has introduced among men". Words which come from the heart and +entitle her to sympathy and admiration. + +Her ideas concerning female education are contained in the "_Avis d'une +mère à sa fille_". She insists on the importance of cultivating the +female mind to render woman an agreeable companion to her husband, who +will then honour her and give her her due. And she places herself on +the standpoint which Mary Wollstonecraft took after her, in basing upon +this foundation her vindication of women's _right_ to be instructed. +She complains of the tyranny of men, who condemn to ignorance +the partners of their wedded lives, disregarding the pernicious +consequences entailed thereby. For ignorance leads to vice, and the +mind should be kept employed, were it only as a means of avoiding +mischief. To Mme de Lambert the Muses were "l'asyle des moeurs". Her +educational scheme contains more instruction than Fénelon's, as it +includes philosophy, which is to reclaim women to virtue through the +medium of Reason. + +Of all the French female authors on the Woman Question it is Mme de +Lambert whose ideas show the nearest approach to Mary Wollstonecraft. +The essential difference between the two--the former's indifference +to political emancipation--was due to a difference in social +circumstances, which made her a ruler whose influence over men no +political enfranchisement could have increased, and also to the +condition of things in France, where the first steps towards the +political equality of the stronger sex were yet to be taken. She +believed the domestic circle to be the proper sphere of women, and +her "metaphysics" of love--if less fantastic than the ideals of her +17th century predecessors, which, however, found some adherents among +the regulars of her own circle in de la Motte and the Duchesse du +Maine--were certainly more conducive to real happiness in the high +moral principles out of which they arose. It was the marquis d'Argenson +who said of her writings that they were "un résumé complet de la morale +du monde et du temps présent la plus parfaite", and there seems no +reason to doubt the truth of his judgment. + +Unfortunately the good example set by the marquise de Lambert was +not followed in other circles, where the increasing influence of the +feminine element, instead of purifying the morals of the male sex, +depraved them yet further. The great catastrophe of the end of the +century was hastened by the vicious excesses of many females. + +Goncourt says that the eighteenth century lady of quality represented +the principle that governed society, the reason which directed it and +the voice which commanded it; she was, in fact, "la cause universelle +et fatale, l'origine des événements, la source des choses," and +nothing could be achieved without her concurrence. Rousseau, when +first arriving in Paris, was advised by a Jesuit to cultivate the +acquaintance of women, "for nothing ever happened in Paris except +through them". + +The bulk of female influence upon the morals of the century was +disastrous. The gross materialism amongst society-women found +expression in a well-known utterance of the marquise du Châtelet: +"We are here merely to procure ourselves the greatest possible +variety of agreeable sensations." The most perverse code of morality +came to reign in some of the most-frequented salons. One of the +leading hostesses of Paris boasted that one of her reception-days +was reserved for "gentlemen of a damaged reputation", the so-called +"jour des coquins". Of the Englishmen who frequented these circles of +appalling vice, Horace Walpole--who in a space of forty years paid +six successive visits to Paris, and who was very far indeed from +being a sentimentalist,--refers to the utter absence of any sense of +decency among people whose chief occupation was the demolition of +all authority, whether temporal or spiritual, including the Divine +Authority itself. + +One of the worst examples of the epicurian spirit was furnished by +the salon of the notorious Mme de Tencin. She disdained even to keep +up the appearance of quasi-platonic courtship and lived in open and +shameless debauch. Her entire life was made up of political intrigues +and adventures of gallantry, in which she turned the latter to account +to promote the former. She possessed plenty of literary talent, and her +two novels "_Le Comte de Comminges_" and "_Le siège_ _de Calais_" rank +among the best female productions of the century--but even Fontenelle +thought her heartless. After a childhood spent in the very imperfect +seclusion of a convent which was notorious for its nocturnal orgies, +"la religieuse Tencin" came to Paris in 1712 to begin her siege of +male hearts, directing her first attack against no less a person than +the Regent himself, and ultimately contenting herself with one of his +ministers, which gallant adventure was followed by many more. She gave +birth to a child, whom she deposited on the steps of a church, to be +found and brought up by strangers. This child afterwards became the +famous d'Alembert. + +In order to be able to pursue her political schemes she filled her +salon on different days of the week with people of various occupations +and interests; keeping philosophers and académiciens, politicians and +ecclesiastics carefully separated, making herself their confidante, and +possessing herself of their secrets, managing them all so cleverly that +they became her tools without being aware of it, secretly despising her +"bêtes" while openly flattering them. The visitors to her two weekly +dinners were nearly all men, Bolingbroke and Matthew Prior being among +her "habitués". Apart from Mme Geoffrin, who became her successor, and +of whom she said that "she only came to see if there was anything among +her inventory that she might have a use for", there were hardly any +women, for Mme de Tencin would brook no possible rivals. Such was her +degradation that she wrote a most indecent "_Chronique scandaleuse_" +for the special delectation of the Regent. As Mme de Lambert's salon +represents eighteenth century society at its best, so Mme de Tencin's +foreshadowed some of the worst instances of female intriguing that were +to follow. + +A totally different salon was that kept by Mme Geoffrin. Mme de +Tencin--whose own birth was not above suspicion--had all the pride +of class, and looked down upon the Third Estate; Mme Geoffrin on the +contrary was the daughter of a court-valet and consequently remained +all her life a "bourgeoise", without any pretence to "préciosité" or +anything but a kind and warm heart, a most remarkable wit, sound common +sense and a natural delicacy which made her an ideal hostess. For Mme +de Tencin's lofty disdain she substituted an almost maternal solicitude +for the welfare of her "children", who, with the exception of Mlle de +Lespinasse, were of the male sex. Besides d'Alembert, Diderot, Morellet +and Grimm there were the ubiquitous Horace Walpole, David Hume the +philosopher and Wraxall; the first-named of whom in his correspondence +declared her to be "a most extraordinary woman with more common sense +than he had ever encountered in one of her sex." + +The principles of the salon in the Rue St. Honoré were much the same +as at Mme de Tencin's, but a milder spirit prevailed, and the demon +of intrigue was absent. Mme Geoffrin kept fixed reception-days, her +Mondays being devoted to artists, and her Wednesdays to men-of-letters +and philosophers, while her intimates were made welcome on both days. +The hostess presided over the assemblies without in any way obtruding +her personal opinions or bringing her private interests into play, +exercising an absolute authority which never became tyranny, and +keeping peace among the more excitable of her guests[12]. She was +much appreciated by them all, not least by the future king of Poland, +Stanislas Augustus, her devoted "son", causing Walpole to refer to +her as "the queen-mother of Poland". Her apotheosis came when in her +sixty-eighth year she visited Warsaw, where she met with a royal +reception. After her return her mental powers declined rapidly, and her +daughter--fearing the influence of scepticism upon her mother--kept her +favourite philosophers at a distance, eliciting from her the remark +that she was, like Godfrey of Bouillon, "protecting her tomb against +the infidels." + +The third of the "Muses of the philosophical Decameron", whose +salon was much in vogue, was Julie de Lespinasse, whose attractive +personality and brilliant conversational and epistolary powers account +for her success. She combined the warmth of heart of Mme Geoffrin with +the ardent temperament of Mme de Tencin, but without the latter's +brazen-facedness. She possessed a degree of sensibility which made her +succumb to different lovers "for each of whom she cherished a passion +which it was beyond her power to resist." Her youth had been fed with +Richardson, "_Clarissa Harlowe_" being her favourite. She had entered +the employ of the famous marquise du Deffand, herself a prominent +hostess, in the capacity of reader. Her wit and the natural buoyancy +of her character soon made her more popular than her mistress, whose +guests took to visiting her in her room, while her mistress was still +asleep. Mme du Deffand in her jealousy accused her of "skimming off +the cream of her visitors' conversation"; a breach followed, and Julie +was enabled by some supporters to set up a small salon in the rue +St. Dominique, which flourished from 1764 till the year of her death +in 1776. She could not afford sumptuous dinners, but her guests were +sure of a warm welcome and of some interesting conversation, which +she conducted so tactfully, effacing herself completely and making +her guests feel at home by always appearing interested, that her lack +of personal beauty was quite forgotten in the charm of her manner. +Politics were a frequent topic, and Mlle de Lespinasse was among the +professed admirers of the British Constitution. D'Alembert, Condorcet, +Turgot and also Mme Geoffrin belonged to her circle, and that Walpole +knew her also, appears from the correspondence between him and Mme du +Deffand, who at Julie's death complained that the rupture with her had +robbed her of the friendship of d'Alembert. + +While the women of society were celebrating their triumphs in the +salons, philosophy was trying to do something for the female multitude. +We have seen that it was Fénelon who caused education to be included +among the subjects of moral philosophy, but it was the diffusive +power of Rousseau's writings that made it one of the most frequently +discussed themes of the century. His "_Emile, ou de l'Education_", +which appeared in 1762--curiously enough, the year of the suppression +of Jesuitism in France--marked a new era in the history of education, +if not in that of feminism. Of Rousseau it might have been reasonably +expected as the champion of liberty and equality to carry to their full +extent the philosophical venturings of Fénelon and thus to usher in a +new era of female emancipation. However, with an inconsistency which +is one of his chief characteristics, Rousseau not only deliberately +left the female half of mankind out of his scheme for political +enfranchisement, but ranged himself among the anti-feminists by the +great emphasis he laid on the consideration of a sexual character, +which he construed into evidence of female inferiority, by arguing +that it makes the subjection of woman a natural law, which is to be +respected according to the theory that "whatever is in Nature, must be +right." Owing to the contradictory nature of his views, however, while +directly opposing the movement, he indirectly furthered it in two ways. +In the first place, his social theories were adopted without reserve +and without restrictions by some of his followers, who thus repaired +the omission which had left Woman out of the scheme; and secondly it +was Rousseau who once for all broke the back of the monastic system of +education by continuing the campaign which Fénelon in theory, and Mme +de Maintenon in practice, had entered upon before him, and bringing +it to a happy conclusion. The reduction and ultimate abolition of +the education of religion, which was one of the great victories of +the philosophical school, became manifest in the latter half of the +century. It was a signal success, achieved over an unwilling government +and crowned by the expulsion of the Jesuits, who had formed one of the +chief bulwarks against the growing revolutionary spirit. + +The Cartesian principles, which had been a beacon-light to seventeenth +century philosophy, were supplemented in the next by a new element: +that of _utility_. In John Locke's "_Treatises of Government_" and +also in "_Some Thoughts concerning Education_", he let himself be +guided chiefly by considerations of usefulness, thus becoming the +founder of that doctrine of Utilitarianism which, after influencing +the French Encyclopedians, was to return to England a century later +and to find a fervent champion in William Godwin. In deciding upon a +course of action, the inevitable question was: "What is the use?" and +this guiding principle became paramount also in matters of education. +To Locke, who was a man of practical sense and not a mere theorist, +the problem was how to make people understand their real interests, +and to make them act in accordance with them, which must necessarily +lead to happiness. His educational system, therefore, is based upon the +communication of such useful knowledge as will most contribute to the +total amount of happiness to be found on this globe[13]. Locke insisted +on the necessity for a physical education which increases the mental +and moral capacity by rendering the body less subject to fatigue. +Simplicity and effectiveness in dress and food, and plenty of outdoor +exercise are recommended, and in this important matter, as indeed in a +great many others, Locke may be said to have struck the keynote of the +philosophical tendencies of the eighteenth century, anticipating the +famous Nature-theory of Rousseau. Many important questions were mooted +by him. He introduced the ethical problem of reward and punishment, and +discussed the advisability of reasoning with a child and of making him +learn a trade, which became a part of the educational programme of the +next generations. + +The French philosophers became Locke's immediate heirs, and afterwards +repaid their debt to England with interest. Where Locke gave his "young +gentleman" a tutor, his views were adopted by the opponents of the +monastic education. It could hardly be expected of Locke, who lived +in a time when the female fortunes in his own country were at a very +low ebb, to have paid much attention to the possibility of making +women share in the obvious advantages of the new system. However, if +he did little or nothing for British women, his theories were turned +to account for the benefit of their French sisters, whose position +in the lower walks of life was not very much better than theirs. His +French disciples, carrying the theory of utility to its fullest extent, +included the female sex in their reflections. The first in point of +time was the Abbé de St. Pierre, of whom Rousseau contemptuously said +that he was "a man of great schemes and narrow views". Seen from +a feminist standpoint this judgment is cruelly unjust. For, even +granting that the Abbé's schemes were too Utopian to be capable of +full realisation--a circumstance he himself sadly recognised--the +fact remains that he was responsible for the first project of female +education _on a national basis_, making wholesale education a +state-concern and thus wanting to extend the benefit of instruction to +many who would otherwise be deprived of it. He stands at the beginning +of the lane that leads via Bernardin de St. Pierre and Talleyrand to +the great Condorcet. + +The Abbé de St. Pierre was willing to grant women _as a class_ that +equality which the better-class women had actually attained, and he +believed in their instruction, holding that on the instruction given +to the young, whether male or female, depended the happiness of +the coming race. But he believed still more in the necessity for a +moral education, for his utilitarianism is not of this earth, but of +eternity. With him the ever recurring question is: "What will it profit +the soul?", and the fear of punishment in Hell is rather stronger with +him than the sense of moral duty. He thus laid himself open to attack +from the notorious Mme de Puysieux, who believed in reputation and the +preservation of appearances, informing him that it was silly to let the +fear of Hell withhold people from seeking happiness by cultivating the +good opinion of others, _whether deserved or not_! The final clause +sums up what moralists found most objectionable in the inclinations of +a depraved age. + +The real aim of women, according to the Abbé, should be to please God, +and not men, so as to gain eternal life. He has no ambition for women +beyond that of making them devout Christians and good housekeepers, +and his educational efforts are accordingly directed towards these two +accomplishments. Girls are to dress simply, to eschew cards--that curse +of the age--and to learn useful needlework, the keeping of accounts and +in general such things as will be of the greatest use to them in the +performance of their domestic duties. But he very unaccountably refuses +their youth the advantages and innocent enjoyments of home-life, +wishing them to be brought up in colleges, in which they are to be kept +immured until such time as their education will be completed, when they +will be ready for matrimony! At college girls may learn to be good +citizenesses, but they will scarcely gain the necessary experience for +managing a home of their own. The comprehensiveness of his scheme, +however, and his recognition of the female equality entitles him to a +place in the history of feminism above Rousseau. + +The latter's attitude towards the feminist movement is so complicated +as to demand careful analysis. Where women were concerned the strong +individuality of the female genius would not allow him to side +fully either with "those who wished to condemn them to a life of +household-drudgery, making of them a sort of superior slaves, or those +who, not satisfied to vindicate woman's rights, made her usurp those +of the stronger sex", for the former have too low a notion of the +duties of womanhood, whilst the latter overlook the considerations +of a sexual character by which, according to Rousseau, the relations +between the sexes are exclusively determined. Rousseau's opinion of the +depth to which women had sunk appears from his "_Lettre à d'Alembert +sur les Spectacles_," which contains a fierce onslaught upon their +moral perversity, which has caused the drama, too feeble to rise +to worthier themes, to fall back upon erotics of a most despicable +kind. Rousseau judged women capable of becoming something better than +what eighteenth century society had made of them, but in his demands +for them and in his schemes for perfecting their moral education he +was extremely modest. Next to the salons he held the education of +the convents, "ces véritables écoles de coquetterie", to be chiefly +responsible for the degradation of the female character. The young +women who, on leaving them, enter society, carry into instant practice +the lessons of vanity and coquetry which the convents have supplied. +For convent and salon Rousseau wanted to substitute the blessings +of true domesticity--painted in glowing colours in the pages of the +"_Nouvelle Héloise_." His sympathies went out, not to that college-life +of which the Abbé de St. Pierre had such sanguine expectations, but to +the intimacies of the family-circle, presided over by loving parents, +an ideal which he reintroduced in the fifth book of his treatise on +education, where, circumstances rendering it advisable to provide the +finished male product with a suitable partner for life, the principles +of Sophie's education are elaborately described[14]. + +Where he recommends making the duties of life as pleasant as possible +to the young pupil, protesting against that austere conception which +allowed her no other diversion than studies and prayers, Rousseau sides +with Fénelon. In his opinion girls enjoy too little freedom, whilst +grown-up women are left too much liberty. Let the young girls have an +opportunity to enjoy life, he says, or they will take it when they are +older. Nor does the notion of making them at an early age acquainted +with the world inspire him with terror, for he trusts with Mme de +Sévigné that the sight of noisy gatherings will only fill them with +disgust instead of tempting them to imitation. + +So far there is nothing anti-feminist in Rousseau's ideas. But +unfortunately we have come to the end of what is positive and his +further utterances rather advocate woman's subjection than her +enfranchisement. The habit of reverting to first principles which +is so dominant a characteristic of his Nature-theory makes him draw +a parallel between the sexes upon the foundation of those innate +qualities which constitute the sexual character. Men and women are the +same in whatever is independent of sex, and radically different, almost +diametrically opposed, in all that pertains to it. Thus all disputes +regarding equality are vain, for "in what the sexes have in common they +are naturally equal, and in that in which they differ no comparison is +possible". And woman is to be congratulated upon this diversity, for +in it lies the great secret of her subtle power. Where woman asserts +the natural rights which arise from this difference she is superior +to man; where she tries to usurp the natural rights of the opposite +sex she remains hopelessly below their level. The two sexes have +different spheres of activity, and each sex can do well only in its own +sharply-defined sphere. + +Reason itself demands this stress laid on the contrast between the +sexes. For, says Rousseau, once women are brought up to be as like men +as possible, their authority and influence, _which are rooted_ _in +their being essentially different_, will be lost without a substitute. +This remark is one of great wisdom and psychological insight. Rousseau +saw what many extreme feminists are so apt to forget, that those who +wish to develop in women those qualities which naturally belong to man, +and to suppress in them what is proper to their own sex, are in reality +doing them irreparable harm. + +There are, according to Rousseau, a male empire and a female one. The +former rests upon a foundation of superior physical strength and mental +superiority; but although the stronger sex are masters in appearance, +they in reality depend on the weaker. For the female empire, +_established by Nature herself_, derives its strength from those +delicate feminine charms which command the worship of that gallantry +which Nature again has instilled into the hearts of men. + +In giving this interpretation of female power and influence Rousseau +exposed himself to attack. The platonic worship, we have seen, had +sadly degenerated, and what remained was a worthless, hypocritical +imitation which was felt by well-meaning women as an insult rather than +a compliment. But what called down a storm of feminist indignation upon +his head was the sweeping conclusion he drew from the natural law that +man, having physical strength on his side, must always play the active +part in the intercourse between people of different sexes, while woman +has to be always content with the passive rôle. "The sole object of +women," says Rousseau, "ought consequently to be _to please_ men, on +whom their relative weakness has made them dependent", and goes on to +assert that all female education should as a natural consequence be +"relative to men". + +There is in the above passage, which shows that on the subject +of feminism Rousseau, instead of a revolutionary, was rather a +conservative, nothing to suggest the bold and daring vindication of +female rights that was so soon to resound in the philosophical world +like a mighty trumpet-blast. His ideas about the position of Woman are +characteristic of his want of equilibrium in presenting a bewildering +chaos of judicious observations and unaccountable oversights. It is +not so much that some of his statements are untrue, as that they +are incomplete. In drawing sweeping conclusions from the physical +inferiority of the sex he deliberately closes his eyes to their moral +and mental possibilities. It is true that he insists upon a moral +education for women, but whatever of merit may be contained in this +claim is instantly neutralised by its only object: making women more +acceptable companions to their husbands, contributing to the happiness +of the latter by unwearying devotion and unalterable constancy. There +are undoubtedly many women to whom the above would seem the most +acceptable task, as there are others whose consciousness of their +talents would make them indignantly reject so subordinate a part. As +long as women are not cut after the same pattern, allowance will have +to be made for individual propensities and any theory, however cleverly +put together, will succeed with some types of womanhood and hopelessly +fail with others. + +St. Marc Girardin indignantly remarks that the condition of the women +in Rousseau's Nature-scheme suggests the oriental seraglio. This is an +exaggeration, for the "relative education" is qualified by Rousseau to +such an extent that the harem-picture which it may at first conjure up +is considerably modified. He wished the term "made to please men" to be +understood in a far wider meaning than the merely sensual, for no one +realised better than he that in the absence of a spiritual element no +love based upon the grosser passions can possibly endure. + +Where the female weaknesses and vanities are concerned Rousseau's +discernment even surpasses that of Fénelon. The task of woman being to +please, Nature has made her regard above all things the opinion of the +opposite sex. And the moralist who teaches men to ignore the opinion of +others as destructive of individuality, goes so far as to prescribe for +women an unlimited deference to opinion and reputation. "Opinion, which +is the grave of virtue among men, ought to be among women its high +throne". The utilitarian question: "A quoi cela est-il bon?", which +is to be the guiding principle in Emile's case, changes its character +where Sophie is concerned, and becomes: "Quel effet cela fera-t-il?" +The question what impression a thing will produce naturally leads to +putting the shadow before the substance, and appearance before reality, +and as such may have a most disastrous effect. + +Sophie's love of needlework is accounted for not so much by +considerations of usefulness as by the reflection that this delicate +occupation will make her appear to advantage to her admirer. The same +train of thoughts makes her abominate the useful occupation of cooking, +by which her hands might become soiled. Did Rousseau actually imagine +that his much-recommended simplicity in dress would hold out against +the innate love of finery which was to help in the accomplishment of +what he considered the chief aim of womanhood? + +Rousseau certainly did not mean to imply that woman must of necessity +be morally inferior to man, but simply that Nature had ordained that +she shall be subjected to his superior strength, to his cooler judgment +and to his superior common sense. He was certainly capable of imagining +an ideal female, and of worshipping in her the essentially sexual +qualities which make her differ from man. That portion of the fifth +book of _Emile_ which deals with the first meeting between the lovers +leaves little doubt as to how he pictured to himself his ideal of +womanhood. The philosophical treatise is more than once in danger of +becoming a romance, embodying the slightly sobered ideals of courtship +of the author of "_Julie_". It cannot be denied that Sophie has charm +and that her subjection to Emile is not oppressive. But to form a +correct notion of Rousseau's ideas regarding the social position of +women we must strip the story of its lyrical element and glance at +the purely philosophical portion of the treatise. It is there that we +must look for an answer to the question: "Did Rousseau look upon women +as partakers of the faculty of Reason?" And he gives his reply in the +following words: "L'art de penser n'est pas étranger aux femmes, mais +elles ne doivent faire qu'effleurer les sciences de raisonnement." He +would not even object to a system by which the functions of women were +strictly limited to the performance of sexual duties, if it were not +that utter ignorance would make them fall a too easy prey to rascally +adventurers! The subsequent statement that, after all, it being the +task of woman to get herself esteemed, _so as to justify her husband's +choice_, a little knowledge would not come amiss, does not mend matters +in its re-introduction of the relativity-principle. Here indeed, +Rousseau "pitches the pipe too low". + +Woman's special domain is that of sentiment. But the very "sensibility" +which renders her more alluring by contrast, prevents her from forming +a sound judgment. This appreciation of women appears clearly in the +passages of _Emile_ in which the choice of a religion is discussed. +Emile is not allowed to decide until he has completed his eighteenth +year, when he is made to judge for himself, uninfluenced by his tutor. +Sophie's religious notions, on the contrary, are carefully instilled +by her parents at an early age, it being silently taken for granted +that she will never arrive at a degree of understanding which will +enable her to form her own convictions. "The female reason is of a +practical nature, which renders them very quick to find the means of +arriving at a fixed conclusion, but _does not enable them_ _to form +that conclusion independently of others_". Again that utter dependence, +that total lack of individuality which characterises Rousseau's female +ideal. "My daughter", says Sophie's father, "knowledge does not belong +to your age; when the time has come, your husband will instruct you." + +The amount of actual instruction in Rousseau's scheme is reduced to a +minimum. There is no knowing what damage may be done to the unstable +female imagination by the dangerous literature of the time. Here +we recognise the author of the Dijon prize-essay with its crushing +conclusion. Rousseau frankly hated the "femme bel esprit". Sophie's +mind is to be formed by observation and reflection, and not by books. +But how can Sophie be supposed to reflect, one might ask, unless she +had certain fundamental truths pointed out to her, the instilment of +which is not the work of every parent, however well-intentioned? It +is Rousseau's fatal mistake that he cannot bring himself to realise +that moral culture simply cannot exist without a certain amount of +intellectual culture. He wanted to have both granted to men, and his +conclusions tended to withhold both from women. The march of humanity +finds him in the first rank of those who were pioneers; the feminist +movement, while recognising his cleverness, looks upon him as a +dangerous, and sometimes does him the injustice of calling him an +hypocritical enemy. + +The charge of insincerity has, indeed, been often brought against +him, although he has found some defenders also. However, he is +condemned by most women. Mrs. Fawcett, in her introduction to Mary +Wollstonecraft's _Vindication_, opines that a man who made so light +of his duties towards his own children, and whose married life was +so full of blame has no right to pronounce on problems which require +the disinterestedness and self-abnegation of the pure idealist. Where +Rousseau points out the shortcomings of the women, of his time and +regrets them, he is with Mary Wollstonecraft; where he fails to show +the way by which improvement may be attained, he remains hopelessly +behind one who, with considerably less genius, had a great deal more +moral courage and a far wider conception of the ideals of woman. + +Of the disciples and opponents of Rousseau, some of whom, like Mme de +Staël, Mme de Genlis, and Mme de Necker de Saussure were of the female +sex, little need be said here, as their writings either did not throw +any new light on the problem under consideration, or belong to a period +following that of Mary Wollstonecraft. When the Revolution came, +bringing with it an increased demand for a public education, some of +its theorists, who like Condorcet, showed an interest in the female +part of the problem, will call for mention. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] The "_Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France_" (Tome XXIII, +XXIV and XXV) contains a contribution by M. Raymond Toinet entitled: +"Les Ecrivains moralistes au 17ième siècle"; being an alphabetical +nomenclature of moral writings published during the age of Louis +the Fourteenth (1638-1715). In this list works of a feminist or an +anti-feminist nature figure so largely that little doubt can be +entertained as to the interest taken in the topic under discussion. +They may be conveniently classified as follows: + + +_1._ _Assertions of female superiority_, including a. o. two French +translations of Agrippa, three pieces entitled: "_Le Triomphe des +Dames_", and one by Mlle. Jacquette Guillaume, entitled: "_Les Dames +Illustres_". They were frequently combined with attacks on the male +half of humanity, as in the case of Regnard's "_Satire contre les +Maris_". + +_2._ _Apologies for the female sex_, including Perrault's "_Apologie +des Femmes_", Poullain de la Barre's "_Egalité des deux Sexes_", and +a Latin translation of Anna Maria Schuurman. Some were meant as a +refutation of some male attack. To this class belong Ninon de l'Enclos' +"_Coquette Vengee_" and a number of replies to Boileau's satire. + +_3._ _Attacks on the female sex_, which are gradually diminishing in +number, or rather changing from the direct invective to the moral essay +with a didactic purpose, busying itself with the female morals and the +female character. A collection of pieces dealing with the problem of +sexual preference was published in 1698 by de Vertron under the name of +"_La nouvelle Pandore, ou les femmes illustres du siècle de Louis le +Grand_". + +_4._ _Rules of female conduct_, for the use of young ladies "about to +enter the world", insisting chiefly on the feminine duty of preserving +the reputation. A translation of Lord Halifax's "_Advice_" (see page +83), "_Etrennes ou conseils d'un homme de qualité à sa fille_" seems to +have attracted some notice. + +_5._ _Pieces dealing with the relations between the sexes in daily +intercourse_, including the subjects of love and gallantry, and of +marriage. Some are directly favourable to the state of matrimony, +pointing to the reciprocal duties of the partners in the contract, and +instructing them in the readiest way to happiness; others, frequently +deriving their inspiration from Boileau, arguing about marriage as a +social institution and enumerating its advantages and its drawbacks. +To the period under discussion belongs a translation of Erasmus' +"_Christian Marriage_". + +_6._ _Treatises of female education_, containing a plea for the +development of the female intellect. They are, as yet, remarkably few. +Beyond the contributions by Poullain de la Barre and Fénelon there +are some half-dozen pieces dealing with the education of girls on a +religious basis, and a few in which the question of the pursuit of +science and philosophy by women is stated and answered favourably. +There was an "_Apologie de la science des Dames, par Cléante_", (1662); +a treatise entitled: "_Avantages que les femmes peuvent recevoir de la +philosophie et principalement de la morale_", (1667); another by René +Bary bearing the somewhat questionable title of "_La fine philosophie +accommodée à l'intelligence des dames_", and, in conclusion, one by +Guillaume Colletet, headed: "_Question célèbre, s'il est nécessaire ou +non que les filles soient savantes, agitée de part et d'autre par Mlle +Anne Marie de Schurmann, hollandoise, et André Rivet, poictevin, le +tout mis en françois par le sieur Colletet_" (1646) + +[11] "_La Nouvelle Colonie, ou la Ligue des Femmes_", first presented +in the Théâtre italien on the 18th of April 1729, a three-act comedy, +afterwards reduced to one single act to be performed in the "théâtres +de société", and published in this form in the _Mercure_. (Cf. +Larroumet; _Marivaux, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres_, Paris 1882). + +[12] Such, at least, is the description of Mme Geoffrin's character in +M. E. Pilon's "_Portraits français_". M. G. Lanson, in his "_Lettres du +dix-huitième siècle_", accuses her of vanity and consequent despotic +leanings. "Elle aimait à conseiller ses amis, et les régentait en +mère un peu despotique; elle n'aimait pas les indépendants, les âmes +indociles et fières qui ne se laissent pas protéger, et veulent être +consultés dans le bien qu'on leur fait". + +[13] That a great many of the Utilitarian ideas of John Locke may be +traced to their origin in the works of Montaigne has been demonstrated +by M. Pierre Villey in his "_L'influence de Montaigne sur les Idées +pédagogiques de Locke et de Rousseau_", who thus claims for the +literature of his own country an honour which was commonly granted to +that of England. + +[14] The education recommended for Emile is not domestic. He was to +be kept carefully isolated from the world, so as to escape its taint, +until such time as his character would be fully matured, placing him +above the reach of disastrous influences. A similar principle had +prevailed at Mme de Maintenon's establishment of St. Cyr. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +_Feminist and Anti-Feminist Tendencies among the English Augustans._ + + +In studying the march of feminism among the two rival nations on either +side the Channel, one cannot help being struck by the remarkable +lateness of anything resembling a feminist movement in England. That +the women of mediaeval England were looked down upon, not only on +account of their inferior muscular strength, but also on the score of +their supposed want of mental and moral stability, appears but too +plainly from the numerous scornful references to the weaker sex in +the literature of those days. The Song-collections of the Transition +Period clearly betray the "esprit gaulois" in their brutal estimate +of woman and in the tone of undisguised contempt and ridicule which +prevails whenever women are the theme. The often-repeated story of the +henpecked husband and the shrewish wife contains a warning against +marriage which, although couched in the form of banter, evidently has +its foundation in the general conviction of female depravity. The +early plays with their brawling scenes and stock female characters +were also most unfavourable to women. Nor did the early Renaissance +bring any marked improvement either in the female morals or in the male +appreciation of them, for the satires against women continued with +hardly a refutation. The improvement which resulted in Ascham's days +from the awakening female interest in learning and in the Caroline +period from the introduction into poetry of the Platonic love ideal, +was too partial and too qualified to be permanent, and in later years +the Puritanic ideal of womanhood was an abomination to feminists of +the Wollstonecraft type. But the general estimate of women in England +had never been lower than in the notorious days that followed the +Restoration. In the Middle Ages all influence had been denied them on +the score of their supposed inferiority of understanding and inequality +of temper; the men of the reign of Charles II regarded them merely as +fair dissemblers and utter strangers to the nobler motives, in which +opinion the ladies of the age did all they could to confirm them. +The higher the society in which they moved, the less likely they were +to escape the many vices which prevailed in that age of depravity and +libertinism. There were, of course, the Puritans, who were forced +by circumstances to lead lives of retirement, regarding the vicious +excesses of Whitehall with disgust and jealously guarding their women +against degrading influences. The puritan ideal of womanhood was thus +preserved; but there was no promise for the future in the state of +close confinement and complete submission which the Judaic notions of +Puritanism demanded. + +In those days, when night was darkest, a faint glimmer of a coming +dawn was seen. It consisted in some women beginning to take a modest +share in literary pursuits. When late in the seventeenth and early in +the 18th century the modern novel was passing through its preparatory +stage, Mrs. Aphra Behn, Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Haywood and some other women +realised that here was a new domain of literature in which woman was +qualified by her fertile imagination and quick power of observation to +excel. Even before the Restoration, the birth of a new social problem +dealing with the relative positions of the sexes was heralded in the +works of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle[15]. However, public +opinion stamped any such efforts--whether conscious or no--as immature, +and therefore doomed to failure. + +All through the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century +women were regarded from a purely sexual point of view; they were, +as Mr. Lyon Blease calls it "enveloped in an atmosphere of sex". +Their being judged exclusively by a sexual standard entailed as a +necessary consequence the scornful neglect of those among them who +were disqualified by age or lack of physical attractions. If the lot +of the married women was often a sad one, considering the habitual +inconstancy of husbands, the condition of those who had drawn a blank +in the matrimonial lottery was even more pitiable. Hence that desperate +hunting for husbands which it is among the most creditable performances +of modern feminism to have lessened. It is easy to understand that +it is among forsaken married women and especially among the more +pronounced spinsters that we must look for such elements of female +wisdom and virtue as the barren age affords. The middle-aged mother of +a family was sometimes possessed of a certain hard-acquired dignity; +and to the often bitter experiences of spinsterhood we owe women of +the type of Mary Astell. But contemporary literature, while on the +whole inclined to be lenient towards married women who became "stricken +in years" was almost uniformly severe in dealing with the "old maid of +fiction", and the unmarried female had to await the broader days of +humanitarianism to have her troubles understood and her wrongs righted. + +But even the more privileged among the female sex, those who in their +personal attractions possessed some kind of coin, the value of which +masculine opinion was not slow to recognise, were not much better off +than their plain sisters. The prevailing views regarding the place of +women in social life were the direct outcome of the general tendencies +of egoism and materialism by which the age was characterised. Woman was +regarded only in her relations to the male sex, and, what was worse, +woman herself had not yet learned to rebel against the shackles of a +convention of centuries, unquestioningly adopted the male verdict and +tried her hardest to become what the opposite sex wanted her to be. +They found it easy to relinquish all individuality, and live up to the +ideal set up by a degenerated manhood, and readily assumed the vices +which their lack of any sense of moral responsibility prevented them +from recognising as such. This total absence of moral purpose is a +characteristic of the age which was not restricted to women only. The +moral standard had sunk very low indeed, existence among the better +situated seemed exclusively devoted to the pursuit of pleasure with +all its attendant vices. From the male standpoint this view of life +determined the esteem in which the female sex was held. The eighteenth +century "beau" regarded woman only as an instrument of animal passion, +which hypocrisy tried very successfully to gild over with a varnish of +mock gallantry that was a remnant of better times of Platonic chivalry, +and aroused the indignation of moralists. This gallantry tried to make +up in extravagance for what it lacked in sincerity. The pursuit of the +object of his passion led the libertine to the most absurd excesses +which were very far removed from a devout worship[16]. Love had become +a grossly sensual passion, and women were treated with exaggerated +ceremony, but with little respect. Men held with Pope that "every +woman is at heart a rake", and treated them accordingly. They laid a +mock siege to what was conventionally called "the female heart" and +when that fortress in an unguarded moment surrendered or was taken +by storm, the conqueror, after enjoying the spoils of his victory, +left the poor victim to pay the penalty of social excommunication and +flaunted his conquest in the face of a society which maintained a +double standard of morality, and in which seduction and adultery on the +part of the male were held to be titles of honour. + +To fully understand the eighteenth century interpretation of the +passion of love we have only to scan the pages of that new form of +fiction, the novel, which has supplied us with a truthful and lifelike +picture of the morals and manners of the time. In many of them the +heroine is made the object of libertine attempts which to the twentieth +century reader are absolutely revolting. It is true that she does +not submit to the outrage, but defends her honour as well as she is +able--strange to say, the eighteenth century heroine, apart from a few +females of the picaresque kind, is generally represented as virtuous +and chaste, rather a picture of womanhood as the author liked to +imagine than a faithful one, a circumstance for which the presence of +a moral purpose may account--but the secondary female characters are +often of a frailty which contrasts strongly with it. The "_Memoirs of +a Lady of Quality_" in _Peregrine Pickle_, for instance, are a frank +confession of the most shameless female profligacy, and the outrages +upon decorum and good taste described in them are corroborated by +numerous descriptions of female indecency and wantonness displayed +either in the baths of the fashionable watering-places or at the +masquerades which were in great vogue, giving the female sex ample +opportunity for displaying their charms with an utter want of delicacy. +Nor were the "bucks", "beaux" or "maccaronies" at all inclined to be +particular with regard to the language they used in the presence of +ladies. The obscenity of their conversation aroused the indignation of +Swift's Stella, but upon the whole women were too much accustomed to +the coarseness of male conversation to think of protesting, nor did +their parents or husbands think it necessary to interfere. Besides +which, the dialogue of those novels which constituted their daily +amusement was of much the same kind, and even the works of an Aphra +Behn or a Mrs. Manley were read freely in the presence of young girls +without being considered in the least offensive to feminine delicacy. + +The improvement which the latter half of the century witnessed in +this respect was, as we shall see, in no small measure due to female +influence. The Bluestocking circles were largely instrumental in +bringing about this purifying of conversational and literary taste. +The female novelists of the next generation, while following in the +steps of Richardson and Fielding, and imitating their choice of +incidents, do not imitate their revolting coarseness. The stories +of libertinage and violence occur in a much modified form, and the +treatment is less offensive and not unfrequently humorous, taking the +edge off the indelicacy of many a doubtful situation. + +The chief literary exponents of female depravity, satirising women for +what they were and hardly allowing an exception to the general rule, +forgetting the part of men in their degraded state, and regarding +the prospect of improvement with a degree of scepticism which has +made them the abomination of feminists, were Alexander Pope and Lord +Chesterfield. Pope's estimate of the sex, contained in the second of +the "_Moral Essays_", and confirmed by numerous allusions in his other +works, ranks him among those who jeer at women in general. Their two +prevailing passions according to him, are "love of pleasure", and "love +of sway": + + + "Men, some to bus'ness, some to pleasure take, + But every woman is at heart a rake: + Men, some to quiet, some to public strife, + But every lady would be queen for life." + + +The former he is rather inclined to excuse, for "where the lesson +taught is but to please, can Pleasure be a fault?" But the latter +contains in it the germs of unavoidable wretchedness to the woman who +outlives the power and influence which beauty grants her and whose +punishment consists in finding herself in later years friendless and +neglected, and without the redeeming blessing of a cultivated intellect +and a sensitive heart, which + + + "... shall grow, while what fatigues the ring + Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing." + + +The many inconsistencies in the female character are passed in review +and scourged with the whip of a satirist who does not care to rack +his brains for means of improvement, but whose egoism revels in the +intellectual delight of scathing ridicule. Women make their very +changeability a means of attracting suitors, they are "like variegated +tulips," showing many colours and attracting chiefly by variety: + + + "Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create + As when she touched the brink of all we hate." + + +It was no doubt Pope's intention to run down the entire female sex, but +while uttering the above insinuation, he seems fatally blind to the +very questionable light the successful application of certain female +devices reflected on the contemporary male character! + +From a purely feminist point of view, the name of "cold-hearted +rascal", by which Mary Wollstonecraft distinguished the Earl of +Chesterfield, although not altogether deserved--for where his son was +concerned he was anything but "cold-hearted"--may be easily accounted +for. Whenever woman is the subject, his contentions as well as his tone +of uttering them betray a callous, contemptuous cynicism which marks +the man of fashion who "knows the season, when to take occasion by the +hand", and has been taught by the intricacies of diplomacy to regard +women from a purely egoistical standpoint as political weathercocks, +whose undeniable influence may be turned to account, but upon whom +otherwise no judgment can be too severe. There is in his writings no +trace of interest whatever in women for their own sake; despising them +for their weaknesses, he regards them merely as possible instruments by +which his personal ends may be furthered. The morality preached in the +famous "_Letters to his Son_" (written between the years 1739 and 1768, +representing the dawn of the Bluestocking movement) has been severely +and deservedly criticised. Their worst defect as well as their greatest +danger is that while containing a number of maxims which are absolutely +repugnant in their cynicism, they were written for an educational +purpose and pretended to instil the ways of conscious virtue "which +is the only solid foundation of all happiness."[17] Another objection +is that he insisted far too much on "the graces" (i. e. deportment), +while almost forgetting to recommend the more solid acquirements of +the character. Mrs. Chapone complained that he substituted appearances +for the real excellences which she considered more important, and Mrs. +Delany wrote that his letters were generally considered ingenious and +useful as to polish of manners, but very hurtful in a moral sense. "Les +grâces", she added, "are the sum total of his religion." This, and the +fact that he made a point of discussing moral questions of the greatest +importance with a child not yet ten years old and incapable of grasping +their full purport, afterwards made Mary Wollstonecraft turn upon +him with her accustomed vehemence. No doubt she found this education +of deliberate cynicism more difficult to forgive than even his cold +contempt of the female sex. + +Chesterfield wanted to perfect his son in what he considered the most +important of arts, to be recommended to both sexes with equal emphasis: +that of pleasing. No man held more by opinion as a means of reaching +aims than he. To read his correspondence one might think the chief aim +of life to be a perfect mastery of the art of "wriggling oneself into +favour", with all its attendant insincerity and duplicity. Such was the +man whose advice the bishop of Waterford asked in respect to the kind +of reading to be permitted to his daughters[18]. + +When women are the topic, Lord Chesterfield invariably appears at his +worst. Nowhere in literature do we find a lower estimate of the sex and +a more sneeringly insolent ridicule of their foibles. Little is known +about the marriage of young Philip Stanhope, who even forgot to inform +his father of the circumstance, and who died too soon after to test +the truth of his father's teaching that "husband and wife are commonly +clogs upon each other." However, with such a mentor his chances of +happiness in the matrimonial state would have been slight in any case. + +In the first place Lord Chesterfield regards women as intellectually +inferior and beneath notice. They are to him only "children of a +larger growth"[19] who seldom reason or act consistently; their best +resolutions being swayed by their inordinate passions, which their +reason is to weak to keep under constant control. Even the so-called +"femme forte",--of which type Catherine the Second was a prominent +representative--was in his eyes only another proof of this statement; +for at bottom all women are Machiavelians and they cannot do anything +with moderation, sentiment always getting the better of reason[20]. +They do not appreciate or even understand the language of common sense, +and the proper tone to be adopted in their presence is "the polite +jargon of good company"[21]. + +His opinion of female morals is not more flattering. Women are capable +of, and ruled by two passions: vanity and love, of which the latter is +made dependent upon the former. "He who flatters them most pleases them +best; and they are most in love with him who they think is the most in +love with them"[22]. They value their beauty--real or imaginary--above +everything, and in this respect "scarce any flattery is too gross for +them to follow". + +The above, if true, might be a reason for a man to rather avoid female +company than court it. However, says Chesterfield, low as they are, +we cannot afford to ignore them, for it is not to be denied that they +are a social power. "As women are a considerable, or at least a pretty +numerous part of company; and as their suffrages go a long way towards +establishing a man's character in the fashionable part of the world +(which is of great importance to the fortune and figure he proposes +to make in it), it is necessary _to please_ them". The sole use of +women in Chesterfield's eyes is that they may be turned into a ladder +for social advancement: "here women may be put to some use"; and he +who has discovered the right way of humouring them may serve his own +interest by cultivating their acquaintance and fooling them to the top +of their bent with judicious and cleverly administered flattery. Of all +Chesterfield's insinuations this is certainly the worst. + +But how is woman to be pleased? The scheme for social promotion +involves an effort to please on an even more general scale. Women feel +a contempt for men who pass their time in "ruelles", making themselves +their voluntary slaves; they value those most who are held in the +highest esteem among their fellowmen; for this will render their +conquest by a woman worth her while. However, to please men, and gain +influence among them, the concurrence of women is indispensable, and so +forth, ad nauseam. + +Practical hints are not wanting either. The best stepping-stones to +fortune are "a sort of veteran women of condition" who, besides having +great experience, feel flattered by the least attention from a young +fellow and in return render him excellent services by pointing out +to him those manners and attentions which pleased and engaged them +when they were in the pride of their first youth and beauty, and are +therefore the most likely to prove effective. + +In conclusion, two instances may here be quoted of the excellent +father's recommendable advice to his son in regard to the exploitation +of female sympathies. The first regards that Mme du Bocage whose +name will be mentioned again in connection with her relations to the +Bluestocking circles in England. When young Stanhope was residing in +Paris and frequenting some salons, Lord Chesterfield advised his son to +make the French lady his confidante and confess to her his eagerness +"to please", asking her in true hypocritical fashion to teach him her +secret of pleasing everybody. Offered under different circumstances +this might have been a pretty compliment, coming as it did from the pen +of such a cynic and confirmed womanhater it was about the worst insult +that could be offered to a lady of "esprit" and dignity. + +But the second passage is even worse. The exemplary father here +suggests a full scheme for political advancement through the +intermediacy of a lady of unsullied reputation, who was to be courted +and inveigled into granting her concurrence in a manner so beyond words +that we must let the letter speak for itself. "A propos, on m'assure +que Mme de Blot, sans avoir des traits, est joli comme un coeur, et +que nonobstant cela, elle s'en est tenu jusqu'ici scrupuleusement à +son mari, quoiqu'il ait déja plus qu'un an qu'elle est mariée. Elle +n'y pense pas; il faut décrotter cette femme-là. Décrottez vous done +tous les deux réciproquement. Force, assiduités, attentions, regards +tendres, et déclarations passionnées de votre côté produiront au moins +quelque velléité du sien. Et quand une fois la velléité y est, les +oeuvres ne sont pas loin." + +Social life in the eighteenth century had indeed sunk to the appalling +depth which such letters as Chesterfield's reveal, through an utter +lack of purpose. The time was entirely void of social interest. At a +time when the French philosophy which had been so largely stimulated by +British example found its way into the assemblies of Paris, awakening a +vivid intellectual interest in thousands of minds and giving birth to a +national thought-life which laid the theoretical foundations not only +of the coming changes in the social order, but also of that glorious +edifice of science of which the nineteenth century was to witness the +rapid growth--English society was content to let things remain as they +were and did not at once respond to the call that came from beyond the +Channel. If England, too, contained a number of social abuses that +were rank and appealed to the justice of Heaven, they did not heed +them. The self-sufficiency thus revealed remained characteristic of the +better classes in England, and was in the majority of cases increased +rather than lessened by the outbreak of the Revolution, when most +Englishmen felt secure in the conviction that in England there were +no great wrongs to be righted. It had its origin in gross selfishness +and coarse materialism, which did not leave the bulk of the nation +an opportunity to realise the miserable condition of the poorer +classes in Ireland,--in England itself there was comparatively little +pauperism in the beginning--or the gross injustice of the prevailing +system of Parliamentary representation, or the cruelty of punishments, +or the abominable condition of the jails in which thousands of small +offenders were abandoned to the horrors of slow and gradual extinction, +or the shame of the execrable system of slavery prevailing in the +colonies. It was not until the second half of the century that the +great humanitarian movement began to make rapid progress; before that +great dawn British society remained undisturbed while pursuing their +round of pleasure which was interrupted only by death. Of the heralds +of a better time, who acted according to their lights, and of whom +some were doomed to failure, while others were to see their efforts +crowned with ultimate success, it is gratifying to think that a fair +percentage were women. If the education of men was sadly inadequate, +that of women was so hopelessly neglected that ladies of quality could +hardly sign their own name. They were, upon the whole, quite content to +remain in ignorance. Their horror of the "femme savante" was such, that +all appearance of even the slightest degree of learning was carefully +avoided. The result was disastrous. Dean Swift can hardly be said to +rank among the defenders of the sex, and yet even he recognised the +absurdity of this utter ignorance. In a letter, dated October 7th +1734, occurring in Mrs. Delany's correspondence, and addressed to +her, he says: "I speak for the public good of this country; because a +pernicious heresy prevails here among the men, that it is the duty of +your sex to be fools in every article except what is merely domestic; +and to do the ladies justice, there are very few of them without a good +share of that heresy, except upon one article, that they have as little +regard for family business as for the improvement of their minds." He +proposes to "carry Mrs. Delany about among his adversaries", and (I +will) "dare them to produce one instance where your _want of ignorance_ +makes you affected, pretending, conceited, disdainful, endeavouring to +speak like a scholar, with twenty more faults objected by themselves, +their lovers or their husbands. But I fear your case is desperate, for +I know you never laugh at a jest before you understand it, and I must +question whether you understand a fan, or have so good a fancy at silks +as others; and your way of spelling would not be intelligible." + +Only those qualities were considered worth developing which were +calculated to excite desire in the opposite sex. Women were skilled in +the commonplace conversation of the gaming-table, and were taught to +dance and to play the spinet, or the harpsichord, and to say ballads, +regardless of talent. Household duties and needlework were held in less +repute, and the qualities of the mind were utterly disregarded. All +feminine education was deliberately discouraged.[23] + +In marriage the wife was completely subjected to the husband's +authority. If he proved inconstant--which was the rule--and transferred +his attentions to other women, it was considered most unwise in the +wife to object, the approved course being to pretend ignorance of the +fact, lest the husband should be displeased at being taken to task by +his inferior. About 1700 Lord Halifax's "_Advice to a Daughter_" was +published; and being the reflections of a man of recognised social +abilities, became a standard-work not only in England, but also on +the other side the Channel, where it was translated into French and +repeatedly quoted with great deference. Viewed in the light of the +conditions then prevailing it must be unreservedly admitted that +the advice is absolutely the best that could be given under the +circumstances. Mr. Lyon Blease's indignation in quoting it, seems +due rather to very natural disgust at the social conditions that +necessitated it, than to the nature of the advice in itself. Lord +Halifax exhorts his daughter to consider that she "lives in a time +which hath rendered some kind of frailties so habitual that they lay +claim to large grains of allowance." This reasoning would seem faulty +to a moralist, but there is more. "This being so, remember that next to +the danger of committing the fault yourself, _the greatest is that_ +_of seeing it in your husband_. Do not seem to look or hear that way, +if he is a man of sense he will reclaim himself; the folly of it is of +itself sufficient to cure him; if he is not so, he will be provoked, +but not reformed." In other words he advises her to "eat her half +loaf and be happy", rather than disturb her share of happiness by +aiming higher than is compatible with the character and morality of +the average male. Halifax further observes that a benign indulgence +on the wife's part for the husband's wanderings will "make him more +yielding in other things", i. e. he admonishes his daughter to make a +compromise, enabling her to acquire certain advantages by conniving at +her husband's faithlessness! This is certainly pretty bad; but there +seems no room for any doubt that Halifax indeed struck the key-note of +eighteenth century opinion. + +So far we have looked at the purely negative side of the picture, which +presents no features that can be called redeeming. Before passing to +the brighter side to examine the utterances of those who aimed at +the moral improvement of the female sex, or at an amelioration of +their social position, or both, we shall have to make some mention of +the views expressed by Swift in his "_Letter to a Young Lady on her +Marriage_". The general tone is certainly not encouraging. It holds the +male sex to be absolutely superior in matters physical, intellectual +and moral. While criticising with his habitual sarcasm the errors, +fopperies and vices of the female sex, Swift does not even trouble +to consider what has made them so depraved. The nearest suggestion +of possible blame to the male sex in regard to their treatment of +women is to be found in a passage in the "_Hints towards an Essay +on Conversation_". There are certain signs of a coming dawn in this +passage. After complaining of the degeneracy of conversation, "with the +pernicious consequences thereof upon our humours and dispositions," +Swift suggests that it may be partly owing to "the custom arisen for +some time past of excluding women from any share in our society, +farther than in parties at play, or dancing, or in the pursuit of +an amour." In this respect he readily admits the superiority of the +more peaceable part of Charles the First's reign, "the highest period +of politeness in England," when the example set by France, and the +love-ideals prevailing among French society found English followers, +"and although we are apt to ridicule the sublime Platonic notions +they had, or personated, in love and friendship; I conceive their +refinements were grounded upon reason, and that a little grain of the +romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt the dignity of +human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into everything +that is sordid, vicious and low." This astonishing avowal on the part +of one so inclined to cynicism throws a most unfavourable light upon +the relations between the sexes in the early years of the eighteenth +century. + +However, if it could not be denied that manners and morals had decayed, +Swift never doubted that the female sex were chiefly responsible. +In his advice to the young bride their depravity is contrasted with +the sound wisdom and the more dignified conduct(!) of their lords +and masters. Swift satirises the worthlessness of the females who +spend their afternoon visiting their neighbours to indulge in talking +scandal, and whose evenings are devoted to the gambling-table. His +opinion of the sex in general is such as to make him emphatically warn +his young _protégée_ against the dangers of female conversation. "Your +only safe way of conversing with them is, by a firm resolution to +proceed in your practice and behaviour directly contrary to whatever +they say or do." The fondness of the sex for finery disgusts him to +such an extent, that he "cannot conceive them to be human creatures, +but a certain sort of species hardly a degree above a monkey." + +Such was the verdict Swift passed upon the women of his time, whose +moral ideals, he was willing to grant, might be and ought to be the +same as those of men, always excepting "a certain reservedness, which +however, as they manage it, is nothing but affection and hypocrisy." + +Man being superior to woman in every respect, also morally, it +follows that her chief aim should be to render herself more worthy +of him. Swift here introduces that pernicious theory of "relativity" +which in Rousseau's "_Emile_" was to arouse the indignation of Mary +Wollstonecraft. An effort is to be made to raise women out of that pool +of iniquity into which they have sunk, not so much for the sake of +their precious souls, as to render them more acceptable companions to +men. Whatever in Swift seems to favour a certain degree of emancipation +owes its origin to this consideration. He does not believe in what +he calls "the exalted passion of a French romance". By the time his +first passion is spent, the husband will want a companion to amuse and +cheer his leisure hours. Some provision should be made for the years +to come when, beauty having disappeared forever, it will be necessary +to fall back upon the accomplishments of the mind as a substitute, by +means of which the husband's esteem may be gained. Thus, by a process +differing materially from that of the feminists, Swift arrives at the +same conclusion; viz. that the first step towards improvement is the +institution of some kind of mental education for women. At the same +time he has little confidence in the mental capacities of the female +sex, so that his claims are in truth modest enough. Books of history +and travel represent the limit of what he deems them capable of +grasping; and he even recommends the making extracts from them, should +the fair reader's memory happen to be a little weak! For the rest the +task of instructing woman will necessarily devolve upon man; i. e. +upon the husband and upon those of his friends whom he judges best +calculated to enrich her mind by their advice and conversation, and to +set her right should her imagination tend to lead her judgment astray! +"Learned women," in the full sense of the term, were an abomination to +Swift, who believed the average female intellect to be so deficient +that "they could never arrive in point of learning to the perfection of +a schoolboy." + +There can be no doubt that Swift's estimate of female capabilities +was the general one, which makes it all the more astonishing to find +that as early as 1673 a deliberate attempt was made to "raise women to +the dignity and usefulness which distinguished their ancestresses", +by giving them an education which included a rather considerable +amount of knowledge. A school for girls was founded in that year by +a certain Mrs. Makin, who explained her purpose in "_An Essay to +revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen in Religion, Manners, +Arts, and Tongues; with an Answer to the Objection against this Way +of Education_", dedicated to Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York. +The author protests against "the barbarous custom to breed women low", +which arises from the general belief that women are not endowed with +the same reason as man. Learning, and even virtue, in a woman are +"scorned and neglected as pedantic things, fit only for the vulgar", +and the creation of schools seems the only way to restore women to the +place they once held. Mrs. Makin wisely refrains from asking too much, +and therefore will not "as some have wittily done, plead for female +pre-eminence. To ask too much, is the way to be denied all". A plea, +therefore, for female education as a means of improving female morals. +Curiously enough, one of her pupils, Elizabeth Drake, was destined to +become Mrs. Robinson, and the mother of that Elizabeth Robinson who as +Mrs. Montagu became the recognised queen of the Bluestockings. + +To strengthen her argument Mrs. Makin points to a number of women +who were proficient in knowledge among the Ancients, after which she +refers to some Englishwomen of great erudition, as: Lady Jane Grey, +Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess of Newcastle, "who overtops many grave +gownsmen", and the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Charles the First, +whose tutoress Mrs. Makin had been. + +Her school for gentlewomen was situated at Tottenham High Cross, +then within four miles of London, on the road to Ware, "where by the +blessing of God, gentlewomen may be instructed in the principles of +religion and in all manner of sober and virtuous education: more +particularly in alle things ordinarily taught in other schools." Half +the time available for study, according to the sort of prospectus +with which the essay closes, was to be devoted to foreign languages, +particularly Latin and French, and those who wanted further instruction +could be served with "Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish, in all which +this gentlewoman hath a competent knowledge." As a linguist, therefore, +Mrs. Makin here constitutes herself the rival of the famous translator +of Epictetus, Mrs. Carter. But she realised that the gift of languages +is not granted everybody. "Those who think one language enough for +a woman may forbear the languages and learn only (!) experimental +philosophy." + +That the lady herself regarded the undertaking more or less as an +experiment appears from the fact that the terms were made dependent on +the success achieved. The minimum was twenty pounds per annum, but in +case of very marked improvement "something more would be expected", it +being left to the happy parents to judge how much more was due to the +preceptress. + +A discourse on the "practicability of the scheme" was to be delivered +by a proxy "every Tuesday at Mrs. Mason's Coffee House in Cornhill, +near the Royal Exchange; and Thursdays at the 'Bolt and Tun' in Fleet +Street, between the hours of three and six in the afternoon." + +That in Mrs. Robinson's case, at least, Mrs. Makin's efforts had not +been wholly in vain, is demonstrated by the fact that her children +called their mother "Mrs. Speaker", probably in connection with her +easy flow of language in the miniature contests of wit that used to be +held among them, which were no doubt an excellent preparation for the +later Mrs. Montagu's social task. + +If we consider that both Port Royal and St. Cyr aimed far more at +instilling moral principles than imparting useful knowledge and that +neither in France nor in England had so sweeping an assertion ever been +put forward, it seems only giving Mrs. Makin her due to allow her a +prominent place among the pioneers of female education in Europe. + +The history of feminism is as much that of the indirect influences +fostering the movement while slowly and almost imperceptibly leavening +the whole of society, as that of the direct and embittered struggle +for enfranchisement. The earlier half of the eighteenth century cannot +boast any direct champions of the cause beyond that Mary Astell of whom +it will be our business to speak presently, no martyrs out of whose +sacrifice arose the hopes of better things to come, but there are some +instances of men--and even of women--of letters who, while aiming at a +less ambitious or even a different object, indirectly contributed to +the growth of new opinions regarding the social status of women. Among +them must be reckoned the essayists, whose aim was (as the General +Advertisement of the _Tatler_ has it) "to teach the minuter decencies +and inferior duties, to regulate the practice of daily conversation, to +correct those depravities which are rather ridiculous than criminal, +and remove those grievances which, if they produce no lasting +calamities, impress hourly vexation." Life is chiefly made up of such +seeming trifles, and the men who by pointing out the shortcomings of +humanity bring about an improvement in the general morals may claim to +be mentioned among the benefactors of mankind. Where the correction +of the slighter errors was avowedly the object in view, the essayists +were naturally drawn to consider the relations between the sexes, +to criticise women freely, and to point out the ready way towards +improvement. That the success they undeniably achieved was not--at +least in its direct consequences--in proportion to the talent lavished +on the essays, nor to the eagerness with which these literary efforts +were devoured by the reading public, was due mainly to two causes. In +the first place, considering probably that the times were not ripe for +that more direct form of attack upon the stronghold of conventional +manners and customs which in arousing opposition and resistance +results in war to the knife and ends in the complete overthrow of one +of the combatants, they chose to inculcate their moral lessons almost +imperceptibly, assuming a light and bantering tone of ridicule which +was not likely to give serious offence and might cause the reader to +laugh at her own expense and perhaps make her consider how much of +truth there lay in a criticism so jovially offered. No doubt this plan +was the wisest course under the circumstances then prevailing, but it +is not the way in which thorough reforms arise. Moreover, the moral +lessons were introduced so much at random, and with such utter lack of +system; and the improvements suggested were so vague, that in stating +that the periodical essay of the days of Addison and Steele helped +in some measure to prepare the way for the more emphatic assertions +of the later feminists, we have done the essayists full justice. +Their feminism is indeed extremely qualified, and stamps them as the +forerunners of the moralists among the Bluestockings, while leaving a +very wide gulf between them and Mary Wollstonecraft. + +The thought of making anything like a definite claim never entered +their minds; the time for suggesting extensive social and political +improvements was yet far off, and Addison and Steele were content +to recommend in a general way the cultivation of the female mind +as the readiest way to overcome the prevailing worthlessness and +irresponsibility, thus continuing a line of thought which others +had held before them, and bringing it under the public notice. This +involves the supposition that the female mind is improveable to an +eminent degree, and here Addison and Steele fully agree. In No. 172 of +the _Guardian_ the latter, in giving an extract from a poem "in praise +of the invention of writing, written by a lady", delivers himself of +the sentiment that "the fair sex are as capable as men of the liberal +sciences; and indeed there is no very good argument against the +frequent instruction of females of condition this way, _but that they +are too powerful without that advantage_." + +Addison in another number (155) of the same periodical says that "he +has often wondered that learning is not thought a proper ingredient in +the education of a woman of quality or fortune. Since they have the +same improveable minds as the male part of the species, why should they +not be cultivated by the same method? Why should reason be left to +itself in one of the sexes, and be disciplined with so much care in the +other?" An assertion, therefore, of the faculty of Reason in woman, and +a denial of that much-professed sexual character upon which eighteenth +century society was almost exclusively founded, and which Steele held +to be the main cause of contemporary female inferiority. He complained +(_Tatler_ No. 61) that the fact that the eighteenth century woman +valued herself only on her beauty, caused her to be regarded by men on +no other consideration as "a mere woman" from a purely sexual point of +view; it being his opinion that the rule for pleasing long (which, with +a want of logic in matters of sex characteristic of his time, he held +to be woman's chief consideration) was "to obtain such qualifications +as would make them so, were they not women," and therefore without any +reference to sex. + +The superiority of the accomplishments of the mind over mere physical +beauty is a favourite theme with Steele, and may be found illustrated +in the usual way in No. 33 of the _Spectator_ in the character of the +two sisters Laetitia and Daphne. The suitor whom the former's charms +have captivated is not long in discovering that her pleasing appearance +but ill conceals the insipidity of her character, and promptly +transfers his affections to the less handsome but more cultured and +therefore far more agreeable Daphne. And so Steele wants it to be +realised that we commit a gross blunder when "in our daughters we take +care of their persons and neglect their minds", whereas "in our sons we +are so intent upon adorning their minds that we wholly neglect their +bodies" (_Spectator_ No. 66). Strangely enough in a moralist, the +ethical side of the question is here left out of discussion. + +The conclusions drawn by both Steele and Addison from this neglect +of the education of the mind are characteristic of the difference +between the two. Steele observes that the unavoidable loss of her +beauty through the ravages of time causes a woman in the prime of her +years to be out of fashion and neglected, and he pleads earnestly for +an education to be given to women, that they may have better chances +of happiness in the later years of matrimony; whilst Addison with his +habitual irony weakens the impression produced by his assertion of the +perfectibility of the female mind, by ridiculing the much-discussed +"femmes savantes" in his picture of Lady Lizard and her daughters +reading Fontenelle's "_Pluralité des mondes_" while "busy preserving +several fruits of the season, dividing their speculation between +jellies and stars, and making a sudden transition from the sun to an +apricot, or from the Copernican system to the figure of a cheese-cake." +His treatment of the question is throughout tinged with sarcasm. "If +the female tongue will be in motion", he says, after complaining of +their _copia verborum_, "why should it not be set to go right?" Thus +science might be made into an antidote to scandal and intrigue. + +The most directly feminist among the authors of the late seventeenth +and the early eighteenth century was Mary Astell, the author of "_A +Serious Proposal to the Ladies_", written in 1696. Her personality +and ideas remind us strongly of Mlle de Gournay, who lived nearly a +century earlier. The conviction that all contact with the world and +its wickedness would infallibly end in moral ruin had made Mary Astell +the warm advocate of education in a nunnery, far from the madding +crowd, where women might be brought up to lives of Christian virtue. +The very fact, however, that she was not a worldly woman, made her +overlook the circumstance that her scheme, however promising in theory, +could never hope to stand the test of practice. It was to be expected +that the first practical hint for an educational establishment for +women--a hint which, however, was not more regarded than Mary Astell's +had been--would come from one whose close contact with the outside +world enabled him to do something more than brood over schemes that +were incapable of realisation. Mary Astell in her religious zeal had +entirely forgotten to take into account the innate proclivities of the +female character. Daniel Defoe knew how to reconcile the demands of +life and of womanhood with those of a moral educational establishment, +and he suggested a scheme which was certainly more capable of being +put into practice than Mary Astell's. But even he was firmly convinced +that his proposal would meet with almost universal disapprobation and +therefore recommended it to the consideration of a later generation. +Defoe was a man of great inventiveness and sound common sense, and many +undeniable improvements were suggested in his "_Essay upon Projects_" +(1702). He had certainly heard of, and very probably read (although +he misquotes the title) Mrs. Astell's "_Serious Proposal_", and it +redounds to his credit that he is one of the very few contemporaries +of that eccentric lady to do justice to her motives in seriously +considering her ideal of a nunnery, instead of making it the object +of obscene insinuations like those of which Dr. Swift was guilty in +the pages of the _Tatler_. His estimate of the possibilities of women +was very considerably in advance of his time, and places him among the +most advanced of woman's male advocates. Unlike the essayists, his +tone is serious throughout, and the proposal well worth considering, +although even Defoe has so far become tainted with the prevailing +opinion regarding women as to assume certain sexual propensities which +he fears will be in the way of their moral improvement. "I doubt a +method proposed by an ingenious lady in a little book called "_Advice +to the Ladies_" would be found practicable," he says. "For, saving my +respect for the sex, _the levity which is perhaps a little peculiar +to them_, at least in their youth, will not bear the restraint, and +I am satisfied nothing but the height of bigotry can keep a nunnery." +Here we have the voice of worldly experience and psychological insight +protesting against Utopianism. For in women who for ages have lacked +the moulding influence of education Nature cannot fail to assert +herself, and will ruin the scheme. + +On the other hand, his confidence in the improvability of the sex is +such as to make him claim for them the right to an education which +will bring out their dormant qualities. "I have often thought of it +as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as +a civilised and a Christian country, that we deny the advantage of +learning to our women. We reproach the sex every day with folly and +impertinence, which I am confident, had they the advantage of education +equal to us, _they would be guilty of less than ourselves_." That the +pioneer should occasionally somewhat overstep the bounds of moderation +is surely pardonable. Defoe in his zeal holds the capacities of women +to be greater and their senses quicker than those of men. + +Nor does he fail to recognise the advantage that will accrue to the +female soul from an education which will "polish the rough diamond", +and without which its lustre might never appear. The Academy for +Women which he proposes, therefore, shall be "different from all sort +of religious confinements," and above all, there shall be no vows +of celibacy. The ascetic view of finding fault with every innocent +enjoyment seems to him as objectionable as the perpetual pursuit of +pleasure upon which it was a reaction. + +The Academy was to be a sort of public school, supplying women with the +advantages of learning "suitable to their genius", without requiring +any monastic vows which were sure to be broken. Defoe is inclined to +try his women "by the principles of honour and strict virtue", being +convinced that the measure of keeping the men effectually away from the +college will put an end to all intriguing. According to him, temptation +comes with the suggestion of opportunity and all modesty takes its root +in custom, "for this alone, when inclinations reign, tho' virtue's +fled, will act of vice restrain". + + + "If their desires are strong, and nature free, + Keep from her man and opportunity, + Else 'twill be vain to curb her by restraint; + But keep the question off, you keep the saint." + + +Everything should be done to render intriguing dangerous, if not +impossible. The building should be of three plain fronts, "that the +eye might at a glance see from one coin to the other, the gardens +walled in the same triangular figure, with a large moat and but one +entrance." But the restraint would be only relative, for only those +were to be admitted into the seclusion of the college who were willing +to live there, and even they were not to be confined a moment longer +than the same voluntary choice inclined them. + +Defoe realised that upon an absolute separation from the opposite sex +depended the success of his undertaking. We seem to be listening to +Lilia in Tennyson's _Princess_ saying: "But I would make it death for +any male thing but to peep at us", when Defoe pleads the advisability +of an act of parliament making it "felony for any man to enter by +force or fraud into the house, or to solicit any woman though it were +to marry, while she was in the house." Any woman willing to receive +the advances of a suitor, might leave the establishment, whilst those +anxious to "discharge themselves of impertinent addresses" would be +sure at any time to find a refuge in it. + +The plan of instruction is made relative to the natural inclinations +of the sex. An important place is to be given to music and dancing, +"because they are their darlings", and to foreign languages, +particularly French and Italian, "and I would venture the injury +of giving a woman more tongues than one." Books are recommended, +especially on historical subjects, to make them understand the world, +nor are "the graces of speech", and "the necessary air of conversation" +forgotten, in which the usual education was so defective. + +In the solution he proposes to the problem of female erudition, +Defoe was equally effective. He recognises that it will not do to +fit all women into a universal harness. Allowance must be made for +individuality. "To such whose genius would lead them to it" he would +deny no sort of learning. He is even roused to an ecstatic pitch +of enthusiasm by the contemplation of the ideal female which his +imagination conjures up before his mind's eye. "Without partiality; +a woman of sense and manners is the finest and most delicate part of +God's creation, the glory of her Maker, and the great instance of his +singular regard to man, his darling creature, to whom he gave the best +gift either God could bestow or man receive", to which he adds that +education may make of any woman "a creature without comparison, whose +society is the emblem of sublime enjoyments." God has given to all +mankind souls equally capable, and the entire difference between the +sexes proceeds "either from accidental differences in the make of their +bodies, or from the foolish difference of education." And Defoe winds +up with the bold assertion that all the world are mistaken in their +practice about women, "for I cannot think that God Almighty ever made +them such delicate and glorious creatures, and furnished them with such +charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind, with souls capable +of the same accomplishments with men, and only to be stewards of our +houses, cooks and slaves." + +In direct opposition to the opinion of the Dean of St. Patrick's, +holding women to be the main cause of their own depravity and endowing +them with a very limited share of intelligence rendering them forever +inferior to men, stand out the views of at least one individual member +of the sex. While fully sharing Swift's disapproval of the actual +condition of women, she felt more inclined to follow Defoe in blaming +the other half of mankind for refusing them every opportunity to show +their possibilities. The tyranny of the male sex aroused the burning +indignation of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose feelings found vent +both in her voluminous correspondence and in her, mostly occasional, +poetry. She was most vehement in her denunciation of the treatment of +married women by their husbands, which she made an argument against +matrimony, and in favour of the virginal state, which at least ensured +to women a certain amount of freedom and leisure. "Wife and servant +are the same, but only differ in the name", and accordingly women are +exhorted to "shun that wretched state, and all the fawning flatt'rers +hate."[24] She did not, like Swift, believe in the moral superiority +of man, and called marriage "a lottery, where there is (at the lowest +computation) ten thousand blanks to a prize." Being all her life a +furious reader, she had in her earliest years imbibed the romantic +notions of d'Urfé's _Astrée_ and of de Scudéry's long-winded romances +of _Cyrus_ and _Clélie_, causing her to deeply regret the utter loss +of that platonic ideal of gallantry with its tendency to elevate the +mind and to instil honourable sentiments which had so charmed her hours +of meditation. In spite of the fact that her passion for literature +met with little or no encouragement, and that her own education had +been, according to her own statement[25] "one of the worst in the +world"--being an exact parallel to that of which the unfortunate +Clarissa Harlowe became the much-lamented victim--her erudition was +such, that Pope--previous to their quarrel, when he said some very +nasty things about her--playfully wondered what punishment might be in +store for one who, not content, like Eve, with a single apple, "had +robbed the whole tree". + +Her own marriage to Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu was hardly a success. +His diplomatic career, however, gave his wife the much wished-for +opportunity to cultivate her understanding by means of foreign travel. +As a result of her experiences at Constantinople she was enabled on the +one hand to furnish the medical science with the means of successfully +combating that most destructive disease: the smallpox, and on the +other to enrich literature with a correspondence which bespeaks a +profound knowledge of the world, combined with great sagacity and a +wonderful discriminating power, and cannot fail to charm even the +modern reader with the freshness and variety of its descriptions. Both +style and descriptive manner show a pronounced resemblance to Mary +Wollstonecraft's "_Letters from Sweden_", written nearly eighty years +later. A preface to Lady Mary's Letters, which were not published until +her death, was written in 1724 by Mrs. Astell, who certainly did not +deserve the description given of her by the first editor of the Letters +as "the fair and elegant prefacer", being "a pious, exemplary woman, +and a profound scholar, but as far from fair and elegant as any old +schoolmaster of her time."[26] Her friendship for Lady Mary found its +origin in the circumstance that she saw in the latter's talents the +conclusive evidence of that mental equality of the sexes which she made +it her business to demonstrate. "I confess I am malicious enough to +desire that the world should see to how much better purpose the Ladies +travel than their Lords; and that, whilst it is surfeited with male +travels all in the same tone, and stuffed with the same trifles, a lady +has the skill to strike out a new path and to embellish a worn-out +subject with variety of fresh and elegant entertainment." That this +praise is--at least partly--due to considerations of feminism, appears +from the following verses: + + + "Let the male authors with an envious eye + Praise coldly, that they may the more decry; + Women (at least I speak the sense of some) + This little spirit of rivalship o'ercome. + I read with transport, and with joy I greet + A genius so sublime, and so complete, + And gladly lay my laurels at her feet." + + +Lady Mary on her part wrote an "_Ode to Friendship_", addressed to +Mrs. Mary Astell. She also sympathised with the latter's scheme for +the establishment of a convent. She thought that a safe retreat might +be preferable to a show of public life. Her friend Lady Stafford +once said of her that her true vocation was a monastery, and we have +Lady Mary's own evidence where, approving of a project of an English +monastery in "_Sir Charles Grandison_", she confesses that it was one +of the favourite schemes of her early youth to get herself elected +lady-abbess. This intellectual propensity--for what appealed to +her most in the scheme was the indefinite leisure to be devoted to +studies--pervades all her writings, and throws further light upon her +disinclination to the matrimonial state and her recluse habits. + +Lady Mary's social career came to a sudden close when in 1739 her +declining health made it advisable for her to leave England for the +sunny skies of northern Italy, where she remained till the year +before her death. To this period belong her chief contributions +to the Woman Question, contained in her correspondence with her +daughter the Countess of Bute, and giving her views of the position +of women, elicited by certain remarks on the education of her little +granddaughter. The circumstances under which this correspondence was +carried on bear a close resemblance to Mme de Sévigné's when writing +to her daughter Mme de Grignan her excellent advice regarding the +education of little Pauline de Simiane. From what has already been +said it may be readily concluded that the principal of Lady Mary's +grievances against the existing system was not that women were not +allowed their share of political and social power,--for she felt +no difficulty in entrusting the male sex with those duties which +would have kept her from her favourite pursuit--but rather that they +should be purposely and systematically debarred from studies and kept +in ignorance. But she was wise in avoiding all generalisation and +recommending the consideration of each individual case by itself and +for its own sake, since what might suit one woman might prove a source +of misery to another. + +When her own daughter had been young, the fact that she was likely to +attract the highest offers had made it necessary that she should learn +to live in the world, for which very few intellectual qualifications +were then needed. But her granddaughter's chances of a brilliant +match were considerably less, and so she ought to be taught how to be +perfectly easy out of the world, in that retirement which Lady Mary +herself preferred to the social state. Thus, a new element is added +to the arguments in favour of liberal instruction, which is to be a +pleasure rather than a task, with no more important background than +the providing of a substitute for social intercourse to those whose +circumstances prevent them from occupying a place in social circles. +And it is clearly the mother's task to talk over with her daughter what +the latter may have read, that she may not "mistake pert folly for wit +and humour, or rhyme for poetry, which are the common errors of young +people, and have a train of ill consequences." + +The moral education which she recommends for her granddaughter is +rather slight, and based chiefly on the negative principle--which we +have also found in Fénelon and other French moralists--of keeping the +mind occupied as a means of preventing idleness, which is the mother of +mischief. Learning,--which modesty would have them carefully conceal, +for ignorance is bold, and true knowledge reserved--will tend to make +women less deceitful instead of more so, and as the same lessons will +form the same characters, there is no reason to "place women in an +inferior rank to men." + +Lady Mary thus declared her belief in the equality of the sexes, but +she has not enough of the social leaven in her to make any definite +claim for her sex. She is rather an isolated specimen of womanhood, +serving as a proof of the capacities of some exceptional women, than +a fighter for female rights. Her intellectual and literary powers +were of a critical and satirical rather than a creative nature. That +she was among the very first women to possess the critical faculty in +an eminent degree, appears from the clever criticism of contemporary +fiction with which her correspondence abounds, and which makes her +the forerunner of her husband's relative of Bluestocking fame. She +was sufficiently independent in her judgment to disagree with the +general opinion of Richardson's novels, without being able to remain +uninfluenced by his pathos. "I heartily despise him, and eagerly read +him, nay, sob over his works in a most scandalous manner." This merely +because of the parallel some of the heroine's circumstances afforded +to those of her own youth, for neither Miss Howe nor even Clarissa +herself found favour in her eyes. She was one of the very few readers +of Richardson who saw the faultiness of the moral of both _Pamela_ and +_Clarissa Harlowe_, considering them "to be two books that will do more +general mischief than the works of Lord Rochester." Her sound common +sense made her heartily despise any excess of that sensibility which +Richardson's works fostered. Her verdict of _Sir Charles Grandison_ +was even more crushing. "His conduct (towards Clementina) puts me in +mind of some ladies I have known who could never find out a man to +be in love with them, let him do or say what he would, till he made a +direct attempt, and then they were so surprised, I warrant you! nor +do I approve Sir Charles's offered compromise (as he calls it). There +must be a great indifference to religion on both sides, to make so +strict a union as marriage tolerable between people of such distinct +persuasions. He seems to think women have no souls, by agreeing so +easily that his daughters should be educated in bigotry and idolatry." + +In her love of learning, and more still in her keen literary judgment +Lady Mary foreshadowed the coming of the Bluestockings, whom her total +lack of sociability would have forever prevented her from joining. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] "_The World's Olio_" (1655) contains an essay on "_The Inferiority +of Woman, morally and physically_". + +[16] See Forsyth, _Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century_, pp. +18-24. + +[17] Letter 126. + +[18] Letter 298. + +[19] Letter 76. + +[20] Letter 481. + +[21] Letter 78. + +[22] Letter 124. + +[23] The above statement may at first sight seem rather too sweeping. +But it is supported by the authority of Mary Astell (cf. page 90), +who in her "_Serious Proposal to the Ladies_" remarks that it was +generally considered quite unnecessary to waste money on the education +of daughters. Most parents, she says, "_took as much pains to beat +girls away from knowledge as to beat boys towards it_". She was quite +aware that her scheme for the establishment of a nunnery in which the +daughters of the aristocracy were to be saved from neglect must be +shocking to the parents of her generation, who feared that such an +education might in all probability corrupt their morals(!) and would +certainly _prevent them from marrying_. In this lies the gist of all +deliberate discouragement of female learning. The only object in a +girl's life being to make a suitable match,--meaning a wealthy one,--it +followed that everything was subordinated to this consideration. And +it unfortunately happened that the men of the century preferred their +partners in wedlock silly and ignorant, and consequently easy-going and +submissive. + +At one time Mary Astell's scheme came very near to realisation. The +devout, intellectual and wealthy Lady Elizabeth Hastings became +interested in it and declared herself willing to supply the necessary +funds. But it so happened that Bishop Burnet heard of the plan and of +the promised donation. A scheme for a rational education for girls +struck this conservative churchman as so absurd that in his Anglican +hatred of Catholicism he rather irrelevantly referred to it as "a +popish project", using all his influence to divert Lady Elizabeth's +charity, in which effort he was completely successful. + +[24] _A Caveat to the Fair Sex._ + +[25] _Letter_ to the Countess of Bute, March 6, 1753. + +[26] "_Introductory Anecdotes_" to Lord Wharncliffe's Edition of the +Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Paris, 1837). + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +_Qualified Feminism: The Bluestockings._ + + +"Feminism", says M. Ascoli, in an article in the "_Revue de Synthèse +historique_", "is the mental attitude of those who refuse to admit a +natural and necessary inequality between the faculties of the sexes, +and, in consequence of this, between their respective rights; who +believe that--within certain limits clearly defined by Nature--women +are capable of the same occupations as men, in which they will succeed +equally well when, prepared for their task by an adequate education, +they will be no longer opposed by the ill-will and the hostile jealousy +of the opposite sex; of those who, eager for the birth of a more +extensive liberty and a more liberal justice, hope for the realisation +of an ideal which will bring the greatest boon not only to women, but +to all humanity." + +If the above is a correct and exhaustive definition of feminism, the +Bluestockings certainly cannot be called feminists, for they none +of them believed that the future of the human race was in any way +dependent on a recognised equality between the sexes. This, however, +should not be understood as implying that they did nothing to promote +the march of feminism, or rather to prepare the national mind for the +first symptoms of a more directly feminine movement which were to +manifest themselves before the more or less artificial conversations +of the Bluestocking côteries had retired into insignificance before +the looming spectre of Revolution, filling the mind with speculations +of more direct importance, and arousing the hereditary conservatism +which slumbers at the bottom of every true British heart in a common +effort to uphold the laws of the country against the revolutionary +element, sown broadcast at home, and prevailing with most disastrous +consequences abroad. But the contribution of the English salons to +feminism in its narrower sense, however important in its consequences, +must be described as largely unintentional, and extremely qualified. +The very mention of Mary Wollstonecraft's name was enough to arouse +indignation and disgust in the bosom of every true "Blue" except Miss +Seward, on the joint score of her being considered an extreme feminist, +a revolutionary and most of all: an atheist. + +The charge of atheism is of the many accusations brought against the +author of "_A Vindication of the Rights of Women_" beyond any doubt the +most absurd, and where there was so little mutual understanding, it +is not astonishing that there should be an utter lack of appreciation +between such women as Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecraft, both of whom +were actuated by the noblest motives and whom a closer acquaintance +could not have failed to bring nearer together. Of the main contentions +in the former's "_Strictures_" a very considerable majority, stripped +of their dogmatic spirit of orthodox Christianity, and worded in +such a manner as to make them sound as a vindication of inalienable +rights and corresponding duties rather than an exhortation to a life +of moral virtue, are an exact repetition of the notions put forward +in the "_Rights of Women_"; with the contents of which Hannah More +was unacquainted. Horace Walpole, the tone of whose letters to "Saint +Hannah" is so completely different from his usual scoffing as to +suggest a conflict in the writer's mind between irony and genuine +admiration, in referring to the Paris massacres, expresses his disgust +of "the philosophing serpent", and is pleased to find that his friend +has not read her works; to which Hannah replies that she has been "much +pestered" to read the "_Rights of Women_", which she evidently never +did. + +Mary's feminism was of the most comprehensive description. Although +very far from atheism, her religious notions, shaken by bitter +experience, were not sufficiently strong to support her in what was to +her the very cruel struggle for life, the facts of which were, from her +earliest infancy, so hideous as to leave her no leisure for the gradual +development of social ideas under the regulating influence of a riper +mind, but put her through the hard school of suffering. The problem +with which she found herself confronted was an urgent one, calling for +immediate solution. + +Considerations of a future existence certainly did come at different +times to comfort her, but they were to her a remnant of convention +and called forth in times of pressure rather than an inherent part +of her being. In proportion as the more tangible ideals of the +Revolution came to absorb her interest, the hope of salvation became +a secondary consideration, which was not to be allowed to interfere +with the necessity for correcting present evils and relieving present +wants. To her, the problem of the female cause was stern reality which +was well worth the devotion of a lifetime. Her energetic mind took +in the subject in its entirety and thought it out to the minutest +details, suggesting radical changes without stopping to consider their +feasibility, and impressing us with the almost masculine width of its +range. + +How insipid and uninteresting compared to her radicalism are the +attempts at a partial reform of a Hannah More, the very limitations +of which bring out more clearly the utter want of breadth, the narrow +conventionality which hampered the growth of the ideal! To her and +to her associates the Woman Question had a much narrower range, and +remained limited to the problem of moral improvement. Hannah More, +indeed, had no cause to complain of scornful treatment at the hands +of men, and in her circle, next to one or two of the greatest men of +the day, women were the ruling influence. Of the lower classes and +their struggles her early youth had taught her little or nothing, and +her sympathy with the poor and humble was awakened in the course of +the long and bitter struggle of conventionalism against radicalism, +in which, viewing the matter broadly, she ranged herself among the +defenders of a doubtful cause. It gave her a better insight into the +social conditions of England, and no doubt she grew to realise that the +great problem of humanity had reached an acute stage, and that even +in her own cherished country there were many wrongs to be righted. +From that time she became more and more of a social reformer, but the +pressing need of the case was forever mitigated by considerations +of Eternity. To her, who pinned her faith on the promise of life +everlasting, the most glaring pictures of human misery faded before +the beacon-light of faith and trust. She never found it difficult to +be reconciled to the preponderance of evil, for she looked upon it "as +making part of the dispensations of God", who in his supreme wisdom +meant this world for a scene of discipline, not of remuneration. Hence +the utter incompatibility of the orthodox view with the doctrine of +perfectibility, and the hostile attitude of the Bluestocking ladies +towards those of the new faith, by which this world was looked upon +as all-in-all, and in which want and misery were considered as evils +arising solely from the defects of human governments. "Whatever is, +is right", was Hannah More's guiding principle, and to remove that +inequality which in her eyes was a portion of God's great scheme +seemed to her rebelling against God's own decree. She relieved human +misery where she could, from a sense of Christian duty and propriety, +and by establishing schools tried to rouse the poor to a sense of +moral duty, teaching them to be satisfied in the position in which it +had pleased God to place them and to live in the hope of Eternity. +The practice of that humility which is among the first duties of a +Christian forbade any attempt at rising in the social scale. Likewise, +in the case of woman, there was to her only one great and leading +circumstance that raised her importance, and might to a certain extent +establish her equality: "Christianity had exalted them to true and +undisputed dignity; in Christ Jezus, as there is neither rich nor poor, +bond nor free, so there is neither male nor female. In the view of +that immortality which is brought to light by the Gospel, she has no +superior. Women, to borrow the idea of an excellent prelate, make up +one half of the human race, equally with men redeemed by the blood of +Christ." All other forms of equality do not seen to her worth fighting +for. + +This view of Hannah More's was fully shared by those among the +Bluestockings who took a more direct interest in social questions: Mrs. +Montagu, Mrs. Chapone and Mrs. Carter. In their opinions about social +inequality they were guided by the conservatism of dogmatic faith, as +their views of the position of women derived colour from notions of +propriety. They rejoiced with the rest of the nation at the news of +the fall of the Bastille, which to every true John Bull had become +the symbol of French slavery and which served as an opportunity to +assert his own superiority and praise that perfect liberty which he +imagined to be the privilege of every individual Briton--and no doubt +thought themselves extremely enlightened in doing so. But at the first +reports of bloodshed and lawlessness propriety suggested that they +had suffered themselves by their all-embracing love of humanity to be +betrayed into feelings which might be thought distinctly improper, +or be translated into a want of patriotic feeling. They chose to be +Englishwomen rather than cosmopolitans. This choice was made the +easier for them as they had come to regard France as the chief bulwark +of irreligion. Hannah More complains (1799) that "that cold compound +of irony, irreligion, selfishness and sneer, which make up what the +French (_from whom we borrow the thing as well as the word_) so well +express by the term _persiflage_, has of late years made an incredible +progress in blasting the opening buds of piety in young persons of +fashion."[27] When the immediate danger of revolution in England was +over, some Bluestockings--in particular Mrs. Montagu, Hannah More and +Mrs. Carter--responded to the appeal of suffering humanity, in a narrow +compass, to the best of their ability, and in the case of the second +with highly creditable zeal and devotion, but they did not, like Mary +Wollstonecraft, rise to the occasion, forego public praise and suffer +martyrdom for the cause of humanity. + +The Bluestockings, therefore, cannot be ranked as militant feminists. +They were content with the position of dependence which the authority +of the Bible assigns to women. It is true that even from among +their circle an occasional protest was heard against the deliberate +subjection of the female sex. The learned Mrs. Carter once complained +to her friend Archbishop Seeker of the partiality of the male +translator of the Bible, who in rendering the First Epistle of St. +Paul to the Corinthians had translated the same verb in different ways +so as to bring out what he thought ought to be the relations between +husband and wife, writing that he was not to "put away" his wife, and +that she was not to "leave" him; and the archbishop, who began by +contradicting her, on referring to the Bible was forced to acknowledge +that she was right. On the whole, however, the literary remains of +the Bluestockings demonstrate pretty clearly that their confidence +in female equivalence was not great. Mrs. Chapone, in her letters, +mostly adheres to the creed of male superiority. She tries, however, to +effect a compromise. Man, the appointed ruler and head, is undoubtedly +woman's superior, but a woman "should choose for her husband one whom +she can heartily and willingly acknowledge her superior, and whose +understanding and judgment she can prefer to her own". This sounds most +revolutionary at a time when women, as a rule, were not allowed to +choose their own husbands. It is interesting to note that Miss Hester +Mulso did, and made a love-match with Mr. Chapone, whom she soon after +lost through death. She goes on to say that the husband should have +"such an opinion of his wife's understanding, principles and integrity +of heart, as will induce him to exalt her to the rank of his first and +dearest friend", and concludes: "I believe it necessary that all such +inequality and subjection as must check and refrain that unbounded +confidence and frankness which are the essence of friendship, be laid +aside or suffered to sleep". A qualified superiority, therefore, upon +which the lord and master is supposed not to presume. + +Among the correspondence of Mrs. Montagu, the "Queen of the Blues", +published "by her great-great niece" Miss E. J. Climenson, is a letter +to her devoted friend and admirer the Earl of Bath on the subject of +her archenemy Voltaire's tragedy of "_Tancred_", in which she finds +fault with the character of Aménaide for not following virtue as by law +established, but despising forms and following sentiment, "a dangerous +guide". This is what we should expect from a Bluestocking leader. She +continues: "_Designed by nature to act but a second part_, it is a +woman's duty to obey rules; she is not to make or redress them". Hannah +More also admits the male superiority in a chapter on conversation +in her "_Strictures_", where she follows Swift and Mrs. Barbauld in +suggesting that men shall concur in the education of the female sex +by allowing them the humble part of interested listeners to their +superior conversation. "It is to be regretted", she says, "that many +men, even of distinguished sense and learning, are too apt to consider +the society of ladies as a scene in which they are rather to rest their +understandings than to exercise them; while ladies, in return, are too +much addicted to make their court by lending themselves to this spirit +of trifling: they often avoid making use of what abilities they have, +and affect to talk below their natural and acquired powers of mind, +considering it as a tacit and welcome flattery to the understanding of +men to renounce the exercise of their own"[28]. The last part of this +statement strikes a higher note in its denunciation of the pernicious +system of "relativity". Mrs. Carter also refers somewhere in her +correspondence to the indignity of ladies and gentlemen at various +assemblies being kept separated, as if the former were disqualified +by the shortcomings of their sex from listening to the improving +conversation of the latter. + +In conclusion it may be stated that the Bluestocking assemblies +in all probability arose from an ardent wish on the part of some +intellectual ladies to intermingle with the conversation of the members +of Dr. Johnson's club the charms of their own. One of the Literary +Clubbists informs us that a certain lady, whom he does not name, but +describes as distinguished by her beauty and taste for literature, +used to invite them to dinner and share in the conversation. He may +have meant Miss Reynolds, Sir Joshua's sister, who wrote a much +praised "_Essay on Taste_", and whose salon was among the first where +Wits and Bluestockings learnt to appreciate each other's society. +Boswell, in his "_Life of Johnson_" says: "It was much the fashion for +several ladies to have evening assemblies, where the fair sex might +participate in conversation with literary and ingenious men, _animated +by a desire to please_". Although the duty of receiving the guests and +so placing them as to ensure animated discussions fell to the share +of the women, yet few of them were bold enough to let themselves be +heard in the presence of the literary dictator, whose oracular speeches +were delivered with pompous assurance and listened to and taken in +with becoming deference and humility. Dr. Johnson made and marred the +literary and conversational reputations of his bevy of female admirers; +Fanny Burney owed her success as a Bluestocking principally to his +praise of "_Evelina_", as Hannah did hers--next to the kind protection +of Garrick--to his unstinted eulogy of her "_Bas Bleu_" poem. Johnson +had said that "there was no name in poetry that might not be glad to +own it." But after Johnson's death there came a radical change, and +in the absence of a male dictator to occupy the vacant throne, the +female element predominated more and more. Especially Mrs. Montagu +"queened it" over her satellites, both male and female, and of all +the Bluestocking hostesses who vied for supremacy she came nearest to +justifying the charge of pedantry. + +The question whether the Bluestocking societies were either directly +or indirectly an imitation of the older French salons must be answered +with some degree of circumspection. That the influence of the latter +was considerable may be taken for granted, and the direct points of +contact were numerous. Horace Walpole in particular was an intimate of +both, David Hume frequented several Paris salons and Mme du Bocage, +Mme de Genlis and Mme de Staël--the last two in the year of their +exile from France--were repeatedly seen in blue society. It is to +the pen of the first that we owe one of the most vivid descriptions +of Mrs. Montagu's convivial meetings. If we moreover consider that +French interest in England which is a prominent feature of 18th +century society and the close relations between the two countries, +we do not wonder that a parallel movement to that of the French +salon should have sprung up. And yet the Bluestocking assemblies +had a distinct individuality of their own; inferior to their French +rivals in some respects, they were superior to them in others. Most +critics of the time agree in asserting their inferiority, which is a +natural circumstance in view of the fact that they considered them as +a literary and conversational movement, in which the chief aim was +literary taste and polished, witty conversation. Their estimate never +went beyond these limits to consider the influence exercised by these +côteries upon society in general. And it is when throwing into the +scale the moral improvement, especially among women, which was the +result of the efforts of the Bluestocking ladies, that we realise that +although different, they were not necessarily inferior to their French +rivals. + +Wraxall in his "_Historical Memoirs_" opines that "neither in the +period of its duration, nor in the number, merit or intellectual +eminence of the principal members, could the English society be +held upon any parity with that of France." He might have added with +equal truth that the average Frenchwoman of the cultivated class is +distinguished from her English sister by greater keenness of wit +and by a greater brilliance of conversation. The chief talents of +the French are of the mind, "de l'esprit", and are shown off to the +best advantage, those of the English are rather of the heart and are +not flaunted in public. English society, in the matter of outside +splendour and brilliance, has always been completely overshadowed by +the greater expansiveness of the French. The Bluestocking hostesses +were upon the whole less brilliant specimens of female magnificence, +but they were undoubtedly far better women. For the light-hearted +gallantry practised in the French salons they substituted warm and +generous friendship, which considerations of envy only very rarely +disturbed. The Bluestocking atmosphere was purer, allowing one to +breathe more comfortably than in some French salon where intrigue +ruled the hour. The women were like the men, lacking in that "finesse" +in which the French excelled, but kind and considerate, and upon the +whole quicker to praise than to find fault. Hannah More realised this +when singing the praises of the Blues in her "_Bas Bleu_" poem. She +describes the members of the French assemblies as brilliant and witty, +but lacking common sense and simplicity. Her verdict would have +been more correct if for the Hôtel de Rambouillet, against which her +disapprobation is directed, she had substituted the later salons of +the decline, where indeed a mistaken "préciosité" prevailed and "where +point, and turn, and équivoque distorted every word they spoke". For +indeed the parallelism with the salon of the 17th century is far more +marked than with that of the 18th. The evolution of both French and +English polite literary society furnishes a strong argument in favour +of Rousseau's theory that "everything degenerates in the hands of +man"--by which he meant "humanity"--for after a short spell of glory +both degenerated sadly. In both pedantry supplanted wit, and Molière's +"_Femmes Savantes_" might have found its counterpart--though probably +not its equivalent--in Fanny Burney's play of "_The Witlings_", which +the unfavourable criticism of her friends induced her to destroy. The +history of Bluestocking pedantry is a repetition of what took place +in French society with the exception that to the Bluestocking society +of England no second blossoming was granted by the chilling blasts +of Revolution. Pedantry, that archenemy of Wit, robbed it of all its +charm, leaving naked Learning, than which nothing can be less sociable. +Fanny Burney signalled its approach, warned against it, and ended by +joining in the general homage. + +There can be no doubt that the French salons occupy the more important +place in the history of 18th century thought. No daring philosophical +schemes were hatched under the auspices of the Bluestockings, and +if their conversation showed the influence of the rationalist +spirit, their rationalism was not made subservient to projects of +a revolutionary nature, but made to support with its evidence the +long-established truth of orthodox religion. Mrs. Chapone in her +"_Letters on the Improvement of the Mind_" warns her niece that Reason, +which may help us to discover some of the great laws of morality, +is yet liable to error. The sending of God's son therefore is to be +looked upon as a demonstration or revelation of the evidences of the +Christian religion, by which we become convinced _on rational grounds_ +of its divine authority. Here, as in the matter of sexual preeminence, +Mrs. Chapone loved a compromise between the head and the heart. The +company at Mrs. Vesey's is described as a good "rational society" by +Hannah More, who herself rather affected a "comfortable, rational day". +Where politics are discussed, the door is opened wide to intrigue, +and party-feelings will prevail. Politics had been the ruin of many a +periodical attempt and their exclusion at the Bluestocking assemblies +left the field to literary conversation. Philanthropy, or active +benevolence, was practised instead, and the light moralising tendencies +of the _Spectator_ enlistened the same sympathy among the Bluestockings +which the sterner moral code of Port Royal awakened in the heart of the +more serious Hannah. + +Upon the whole the Bluestockings were not, like their French rivals, +recruited from the aristocracy. They belonged to the middle-class, to +whom the 18th century was a time of great financial prosperity. Mrs. +Montagu's wealth was considerable, and she made a liberal use of it not +only in philanthropy, but also in encouraging needy authors, which made +Hannah More refer to her as "the female Maecenas of Hill Street"[29]. +They were mostly the daughters of clergymen and schoolmasters, who in +early youth acquired that taste for learning which their fathers or +near relations were able to gratify, and that serious cast of mind +which never forsook some of them and fitted them to be religious +moralists. + +The tone of their conversation and writings was a distinct improvement +upon that of the ladies of the preceding generation, of whom it was +said that those who--like Mrs. Aphra Behn and Mrs. de la Rivière +Manley--excelled in wit, failed signally in chastity. The love of +scandal which had been their chief characteristic, and which Sheridan +justly satirised, was an object of scorn to the Bluestockings, who +were as careful to preserve the reputation of others as they were of +their own. That some of them occasionally went too far in constituting +themselves the mentors of others who were fully able to take care of +themselves, is an "amiable weakness" which may be readily forgiven. +Thus, for instance, Mrs. Thrale's second marriage with the Italian +vocalist Signor Piozzi aroused a good deal of unfavourable comment, +brought about an indirect rupture with Fanny Burney and partly caused +her withdrawal from the Bluestocking circles. The same exaggerated +notions, arising partly from hatred of the Encyclopedian spirit of +revolutionism embodied in the much-reviled Rousseau, occur in Mrs. +Delany's "_Essay on Propriety_" and in her extremely voluminous +correspondence. Mrs. Chapone's _Letters_ insist on a proper regard to +reputation as one of the most desirable qualities in a friend. She +emphatically distinguished between love of reputation, which is nothing +but discretion, and undue regard of opinion, which is only vanity. +Here her views coincided with Mary Wollstonecraft's, who had pointed +out the error of wanting to make opinion "the high throne of Virtue" +to women in Rousseau's _Emile_, but who did not make Mrs. Chapone's +distinction. In the behaviour of young women towards gentlemen, the +latter says, great delicacy is required, "yet women oftener err from +too great a consciousness of the supposed views of men, than from +inattention to those views, or want of caution against them." She +therefore agreed that the "desire to please" should be kept under a +certain amount of restriction. + +All the Bluestockings' actions arose from a strong sense of duty, +which the majority of French hostesses--with the emphatic exception +of Mme de Lambert--sadly lacked. One of their deliberate aims was the +substitution of conversation "à la française" for cards. The first +determined attack upon the greatest social curse of the age was made +by Mrs. Chapone,--then Miss Mulso--in collaboration with Johnson in +No. 10 of the _Rambler_ in the year 1750. She wrote to Johnson in his +capacity of censor of manners, informing him that she, "Lady Racket", +intended to have "cards at her house every Sunday". She, of course, +intended that Johnson should seize the opportunity to attack gambling +and thus range himself openly on the side of the intellectual ladies +who were in open revolt against the practice. Johnson replied that +even at the most brilliant of card-tables he had always thought his +visit lost, "for I could know nothing of the company but their clothes +and their faces." Their complete absorption in the vicissitudes of +the game, their exulting triumph when successful, and their flush of +rage at defeat or at "the unskilful or unlucky play of a partner" so +disgusted him that he soon retired. "They were too trifling for me +when I was grave, and too dull when I was cheerful". Mrs. Carter, who +did not object to taking an occasional hand at whist or quadrille, was +vehement in her condemnation of faro, which she hoped Horace Walpole +on getting into the House would succeed in putting down. Hannah More's +"_Bas Bleu_" further endorses the statement that the substitution of +conversation for cards was one of the objects of Bluestockingism. +The introduction states its origin and character. The ladies at Mrs. +Vesey's, Mrs. Montagu's and Mrs. Boscawen's, to mention the three +hostesses to whom according to their chronicler Hannah More "the triple +crown divided fell", although in the opinion of others Mrs. Thrale and +Mrs. Ord were candidates for Mrs. Boscawen's place--assembled "for the +sole purpose of conversation, and were different in no respect from +other parties, but that the company did _not_ play at cards." It was +there that Hannah More found the Rambouillet-ideal realised of learning +without pedantry, good taste without affectation, and conversation +without calumny, levity or any censurable error. + +The attacks directed against whist, "that desolating Hun", and +quadrille, "that Vandal of colloquial wit", were made not so much on +the score of their devastating influence on the moral character as of +their exclusion of conversation. It should be remembered, however, that +Hannah More wrote her "_Bas Bleu_" in the years before the desire to +effect moral reforms got the better of the natural vanity of displaying +her considerable intellectual talents. + +Conversation thus became in itself a pursuit, almost a cult, the +purpose of which was to "mend the taste and form the mind". The +record of what was said by the most prominent male and female wits +at the Bluestocking gatherings was kept with a minuteness which is +characteristic of the time in the endless memoirs and the voluminous +correspondence in which every literary lady indulged, and upon which +she lavished her talents as an author. Immeasurably the best is Fanny +Burney's diary, with its clever and vivid sidelights upon gatherings +in which she herself as the successful author of _Evelina_, and +the protégée of Johnson, was lionised, although she never became a +Bluestocking in the full sense of the word, her temperament being far +too sprightly and volatile, and the language of her pen too gushing to +suit the notions of propriety of some ladies, whom she further offended +by her marriage to a French refugee and by the freedom with which she +published details that were not meant for the general ear. + +The constellation in the Bluestocking circles differed somewhat from +French society, where the hostess received in her drawing-room a +number of prominent men-of-letters, scientists, diplomatists, artists +and philosophers, the female element being represented by herself, +and only a very few privileged friends. At the English assemblies +the majority were ladies, and although some members of the Literary +Club, Johnson's satellites, were regular frequenters, the female +element predominated. Boswell, Johnson's biographer, the painter Sir +Joshua Reynolds, the politicians Fox and Burke--before the stirring +political events that drew them apart,--the historian Gibbon, the poet +Goldsmith, the actor Garrick and the author Lyttleton--Mrs. Montagu's +friend and collaborator in the "_Dialogues of the_ _Dead_"--alike +delighted in Bluestocking society and by their conversation helped +in that diffusion of high principles which to Mrs. Chapone in her +"_Essay on Conversation_" seemed more important than the French object +of sharpening the wit. In her "_Letters on the Improvement of the +Mind_" she says that conversation must be cultivated "by the mutual +communication of whatever may conduce to the improvement or innocent +entertainment of each other." + +The literature which was the direct outcome of Bluestockingism is +far slighter in bulk than the poetical effusions called forth by the +spirit of gallantry which dominated the early French salons. There +was between the ladies and gentlemen of the English circles rather +less love-making and rather more mutual esteem. There was hardly any +of that complimentary occasional poetry of the lighter kind in which +the love-sick French swains of the Montausier type had found relief. +One of the rare instances of verse-making at an assembly occurred in +Mrs.--afterwards Lady--Miller's provincial drawing-room at Batheaston, +where, in imitation of a French custom, each of the assembled guests +deposited his or her poetry in an antique vase, to be read aloud +and judged. That this "puppet-show Parnassus[30]" called forth the +ridicule of Walpole and Johnson proves sufficiently that emulation of +this kind was not regarded with sympathy among Bluestockings and their +wellwishers. + +It is difficult to say whether the Bluestockings' contribution to +the increase of female importance and influence rivalled that of the +French societies, but we undeniably find, that in the latter half of +the 18th century the popular verdict regarding women is undergoing a +distinct change. Instead of the scornful blame to which Pope, Swift and +Chesterfield have made us accustomed we actually find women recognised +as an influence in literature by no less a critic than the great Doctor +himself. Madame d'Arblay's _Diary_ relates how--in 1799--Johnson once +talked to Mrs. Thrale and Sir Philip Jennings about "the amazing +progress made of late years in literature by the women." He said he +himself was astonished at it, and told them he well remembered when a +woman who could spell a common letter was regarded as all-accomplished; +but now they vied with the men in everything. The same _Diary_ makes +mention (in 1782) of the verses published by the author's father--Dr. +Burney--in the _Herald_, making women the object of praise instead +of blame and ridicule. The composition was entitled "_Advice to the +Herald_", published anonymously, and ascribed to Sir W. W. Pepys, until +in 1822 a M. S. copy was found among Dr. Burney's papers. They exhort +the paper not only to proclaim the shame of woman, but to also "record +in story such as shine their sex's glory". Hannah More's "pathetic +pen", Mrs. Carter's "piety and learning", Fanny Burney's "quick +discerning" are praised; and special places are retained for Mrs. +Chapone, "high-bred, elegant Mrs. Boscawen"; Lady Lucan, Mrs. Leveson +Gower, Mrs. Greville, Lady Crewe and "fertile-minded" Mrs. Montagu. + +David Garrick, Hannah More's faithful friend and supporter, in +referring to the success of her ballad entitled "_Sir Eldred of the +Bower_", followed by another poem called "_The Bleeding Rock_", +playfully represents the male sex as mortified by female success and +makes Apollo the author. And in Hoole's "_Aurelia, or the Contest_", +likewise referred to in Fanny Burney's _Diary_, the example of "the +wiser females" is glanced at to counterbalance female folly. All +which examples tend to show that public opinion regarding women was +undergoing a slow process of change. Now that women themselves had +taken their moral improvement in hand, the male authors felt that they +could again indulge in some measure of praise. + +On the other hand, women had become sufficiently conscious of the moral +shortcomings of the opposite sex, to take an occasional share in their +reclamation and point out the error of their ways. When, after long +circulating in manuscript, the "_Bas Bleu_" poem was at last published, +it was accompanied by another entitled "_Florio_", describing the +fopperies and the utter worthlessness of a typical "maccaroni" or young +man of fashion, a criticism which none of us would think of calling +undeserved. + +The department of literature in which women were qualified to shine +_par excellence_ was the novel. Richardson's novels had succeeded +marvellously in awakening interest in the workings of the female heart, +and analysis of the female character to its minutest details was what +the reading public had grown to expect. This was a field in which +women have since abundantly proved themselves in many ways the equals +of men, and the story of the universal praise with which "_Evelina_" +was welcomed, and the author's mingled pride in her achievement +and bashfulness, arising out of the fear that she might be thought +lacking in modesty, is among the most amusing parts of her diary. +Unfortunately, for all her keenness of perception and fine sense of +humour, there was about her character a certain want of depth, which +became more apparent as she grew older. But she certainly paved the way +for the later female novelists, and particularly for Jane Austen. + +Not the least among the Bluestockings' merits was the fact that by the +example some of them gave they accustomed the British public to seeing +females engaged in different occupations which before had been the +exclusive work of men. Where ladies of such a strong sense of propriety +did not shrink from appearing before the public as authors, and even +pseudonyms were often thought unnecessary, the domain of literature +ceased to be the exclusive property of men. Strangely enough, the +notion that female knowledge should be carefully concealed, originating +in Molière's _Femmes Savantes_ and prevailing all through the 17th and +18th centuries in both literatures until Mary Wollstonecraft openly +disregarded it, was implicitly obeyed by the Bluestockings. + +Not all the Bluestocking ladies were authors; Mrs. Vesey for instance, +probably the most loveable among the hostesses, who understood better +than any of her rivals the art of making her guests comfortable, +has left us no literary legacy. Of the others, Mrs. Delany and Mrs. +Boscawen concentrated their literary energies chiefly upon their +correspondence, while Mrs. Carter's clever translation of Epictetus +which elicited the unstinted praise of Mr. Long, a later translator, +who repeatedly, when in doubt, consulted her text, is of no importance +to her sex. The principal literary contributions to the subject of +feminism were made by three Bluestockings: Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Chapone +and Mrs. Hannah More, the nature of whose contributions corresponds +closely with their respective characters. + +The natural bias of Elizabeth Robinson's character was strengthened by +the circumstances of her education. In her early youth she was often +at Cambridge, where her grandmother's second husband, Dr. Conyers +Middleton, took great delight in her keenness of understanding, and +often kept her in the room while he was conversing with his visitors, +among whom were the greatest philosophers and scholars of the day. +Her father was also amused at the child's precocity and they used to +have frequent "brain cudgellings", until he became painfully aware +that he was no longer a match for his clever daughter. She was a +furious letter-writer, which occupation, if it sharpened her wit, also +developed in her that insatiable intellectual vanity which afterwards +became her ruling passion, distinguished her as a Bluestocking from +her more modest rivals and prevented her from being as universally +liked as a Mrs. Vesey. Her biographer Mr. Huchon says that "she +was all mind, if not all soul", and was more respected than loved. +Sentimentality was not among her weaknesses, her sound practical sense +dictated both to herself and to others. She strongly opposed the +love-match which her ward Miss Dorothea Gregory--one of the daughters +to whom the well-known physician of that name addressed his legacy of +advice--asked her permission to make, and the ubiquitous Fanny Burney +writes that Mrs. Montagu once asked her, "if she should write a play, +to let her know of it", which vexed Fanny's "second Daddy", Mr. Crisp, +as it "implied interference". Her own marriage (1742) was purely a +"marriage de raison", the husband being considerably older, and a man +of great wealth. Mrs. Chapone afterwards called her with reason "an +ignoramus in love", which did not in this case prevent the marriage +from being fairly happy. + +Neither was Mrs. Montagu free from affectation. Much-praised simplicity +and humility were not among her virtues, and no flattery seems to +have been too gross for her to accept. Lady Louisa Stuart--Lady Mary +Wortley Montagu's granddaughter, to whom we are indebted for some +humorous pictures of Bluestocking society--describes her as thoroughly +satisfied with herself. Her speech is described as affected, although +ready wit can scarcely be denied her. Her reply on being informed that +Voltaire, Shakespeare's translator, had boasted of having been the +first Frenchman to find "quelques perles dans son fumier": "c'est donc +un fumier qui a fertilisé une terre bien ingrate" is a good specimen +both of her proficiency in the French language and of her quickness of +repartee. However, she often descended from the heights of rhetoric, +and her affectation of speech seems to have been a weakness into +which she was occasionally betrayed by a momentary lapse of her fine +judgment. Speaking of Mr. Gray she once said: "I think he is the first +poet of my age; but if he comes to my fireside, I will teach him not +only to speak prose, but to talk nonsense, if occasion be." + +She loved to make a display of her learning, and Johnson said of her +that "she diffused more knowledge in her conversation than any women he +knew." At the same time she criticised others freely, which procured +her many enemies. Mr. Crisp thought her "a vain, empty, conceited +pretender, and little else"; Wraxall judged that "there was nothing +feminine about her"; and an essay by Cumberland in the _Observer_ +of 1785 describes the "Feast of Reason" at Mrs. Montagu's house in +Portman Square, where the lady herself is satirised under the name +of "Vanessa". It describes her as stimulated to charity, affability +and hospitality exclusively by the dictates of inordinate vanity, +and even accuses her of bribing her critics: "Authors were fee'd for +dedications, and players patronised on benefit nights". + +Her charity was, indeed, of a condescending kind. Thus her annual feast +to the chimney-sweeps on May day rather smacks of the doctrine of Good +Works pointing the way to Salvation, and to the working people in her +coal-mines she was a dutiful but immeasurably superior patroness. In +a few isolated cases, however, there were flashes of real kindness. +She gave unstinted financial support to Mrs. Williams, the blind +poetess whose lot had aroused Johnson's compassion, and her letter +of condolence to Mrs. Delany on the occasion of the death of their +mutual friend the Duchess of Portland has the genuine ring of grief +and sympathy. It tries to find solace in considerations of eternity. +Mrs. Montagu's religious views were strict, and religious worship was +a serious matter with her. However, her strong individuality would not +suffer her to bow her intellect before that of any man. Beyond the +admitted fact that "God is the loving father of all", she has only +Hope, but no definite knowledge of the certainty of a future state. + +Such was the character of the lady whom Johnson called "Queen of the +Blues", and Fanny Burney "our sex's glory". The incident which had a +determining influence on her further life was the death of her only +child. Grief of that kind may be to some extent drowned in religion or +in social intercourse, and Mrs. Montagu tried both. She emphatically +believed in the social state as productive of good through the friction +of minds. Thus it came about that in the middle of the century--the +exact date is nowhere given, which makes it difficult to decide whether +Mrs. Montagu, or Mrs. Vesey, or Miss Frances Reynolds had the right to +consider herself the first Bluestocking hostess,--Mrs. Montagu opened +her salon in Hill Street, where she entertained a great number of +guests of the most widely different description, her rooms being often +filled from eleven in the morning till eleven at night. + +The best descriptions of Mrs. Montagu's parties are to be found in +Hannah More's correspondence and in Mme du Bocage's "_Letters on +England, Holland and Italy_." The latter visited England at a time +when Mrs. Montagu's breakfasts were all the fashion, served "in +a closet lined with painted paper of Pekin and furnished with the +choicest movables of China", the so-called Chinese Room, recalling the +splendours of the "Chambre bleue" of the marquise de Rambouillet. It +was probably at Mrs. Montagu's and at Mrs. Thrale's that Dr. Johnson +chiefly indulged in his tea-orgies, and Mme Du Bocage describes his +hostess as pouring out her delicious tea, attired in a white apron and +a large straw hat. On the whole the English ladies paid more attention +to gastric delights than their French sisters, and in Mrs. Montagu's +case her well-provided table often relieved her from the wearisome duty +of keeping up the flow of conversation. In this lay the characteristic +difference between Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Vesey. The latter wanted her +guests to forget her and to consult their own inclinations in the +forming of groups of conversation, contenting herself with listening +to her literary lions; Mrs. Montagu on the other hand, to quote Fanny +Burney, "cared not a fig, as long as she spoke herself". That her +intellectual queenship involved the duty of maintaining conversation at +a high pitch seems to have considerably worried her upon occasions. + +The Bluestocking hostesses kept a great variety of hours. In the +last decades of the century late teas were in vogue, but the usual +entertainments were breakfasts and dinners, in which there was a great +variety. We read of Mrs. Garrick's dinner parties to a select company +of eight chosen friends, among whom Hannah More was proud to find +herself, and according to Horace Walpole Mrs. Montagu's breakfasts at +her house in Portman Square sometimes included seven hundred guests, +from royalty downwards. To this magnificent abode she removed in 1781, +six years after the death of her husband. She spared no cost in fitting +it up in the most gorgeous fashion, and although Walpole thought her +decorations in good taste, one cannot help feeling doubts as to the +room with the feather hangings of which Cowper wrote in 1788 that "the +birds put off their every hue, to dress a room for Montagu." The famous +"Room of the Cupidons" made her a little ridiculous in the eyes of the +more sober-minded ladies, one of whom (Mrs. Delany) in a letter refers +somewhat spitefully to "her age". + +There are no references to any of Mrs. Montagu's parties taking place +out of doors, but some of the minor hostesses would sometimes send +out invitations to tea, followed by a walk in the Park or fields. +This custom was perhaps an imitation of the habits prevailing among +Rambouillet-circles. Neither do we find anywhere mention of stated +days, such as were kept by the French hostesses, although Sundays were +objected to by some of the more orthodox. + +The greater artificiality of arrangement at the Bluestocking assemblies +appears from the pains taken by the hostess to so place her guests +as to ensure a free flow of wit. In connection with Mrs. Montagu, +reports are contradictory. Hannah More's correspondence informs us +that the company used to split up into little groups of five or six; +Fanny Burney on the contrary relates how the guests were seated in +a semi-circle round the fire. Here again, Mrs. Vesey followed her +individual inclinations, for the Bas-Bleu poem tells us how her +"potent ward the circle broke", insisting on an easy informality in +the grouping of her guests. Mrs. Ord seems to have preferred the later +method of drawing chairs round a table in the centre. + +Mrs. Montagu's early correspondence is full of wit and humour, and +displays so much discrimination that we feel surprised the writer did +not make her mark later in life as a novelist. The critical faculty +she possessed in so eminent a degree fitted her for satire, the object +being naturally contemporary society. In a letter, written when she +was twenty, she gives a vivid description of fashionable life at Bath, +ridiculing the emptiness of daily conversation and signalising the +general depravity of morals. "How d'ye do?" prevails in the morning, +and "What's trumps?" at night; the ladies' only topic is diseases, and +the men are all bad. "There is not one good, no not one." She likewise +freely vented her ridicule of overdone fashions, and descriptions like +the following are by no means rare. "Lady P. and her two daughters make +a very remarkable figure, and will ruin the poor mad woman of Tunbridge +by out-doing her in dress. Such hats, capuchins, and short sacks as +were never seen! One of the ladies looked like a state-bed running upon +castors. She had robbed the valance and tester of a bed for a trimming." + +Although her satire is chiefly directed against her own sex, she +strongly protested against the opinion that women were morally inferior +to men, whose insincere flattery was largely responsible for female +frivolity. + +One of her most constant friends and Platonic admirers was Mr. +(afterwards Lord) Lyttleton, her vindication of whose memory against +Dr. Johnson in later years led to the most famous of Bluestocking +quarrels. In 1760, Lyttleton published his "_Dialogues of the +Dead_"--referred to rather unkindly by Walpole as the "Dead +Dialogues". The preface says that after the dialogues of Lucan, Fénelon +and Fontenelle, English literature can boast only the learned dialogues +of one Mr. Hurde, who takes living persons for his characters. The +author proposes to take his cue from the history of all times and +nations, opposing them to or comparing them with each other, "which +is, perhaps, one of the most agreeable methods that can be employed of +conveying to the mind any critical, moral or political observations". +Needless to say, the dead are supposed to know all that has taken place +since their decease. + +Mr. Lyttelton goes on to say that the last three dialogues are by a +different hand. "If the friend who favoured me with them should write +any more, I shall think the public owes me a great obligation, for +having excited a genius so capable of uniting delight with instruction, +and giving to knowledge and virtue those graces which the wit of the +age has too often employed all its skill to bestow upon folly and vice." + +The above sufficiently denotes the character of the dialogues in which +Mrs. Montagu--for the "different hand" was hers--had every opportunity +to display her satirical vein. The numbers 27 and 28, of which the +former satirises fashionable conduct and the latter the literature of +gallantry, are illustrative of her opinions of contemporary female +character. The characters of No. 27 are Mercury and a Modern Fine +Lady, whose name is Mrs. Modish. The god comes to fetch her to the +nether world, but she begs to be excused: "I am engaged, absolutely +engaged". Mercury thinks she is referring to her duties to her +husband and children, but he is quickly disillusioned. "Look on my +chimneypiece, and you will see I was engaged to the play on Mondays, +balls on Tuesdays, the Opera on Saturdays, and to card-assemblies the +rest of the week, for two months to come; and it would be the rudest +thing in the world not to keep my appointments. If you will stay with +me till the summer season, I will wait on you with all my heart. +Perhaps the Elysian Fields may be less detestable than the country in +our world. Pray have you a fine Vauxhall and Ranelagh? I think I should +not dislike drinking the Lethe waters when you have a full season." +When Mercury objects that she has made pleasure the only object in +her life, she replies that she has indeed made diversion her chief +business, but has got no real pleasure out of it. For late hours and +fatigue have given her the vapours and spoiled the natural cheerfulness +of her temper. Her ambition to be thought "du bon ton" (which Mrs. +Montagu explains in a note is French cant for the fashionable air of +conversation and manners) has ruled her conduct. When asked by Mercury +to define the term, Mrs. Modish is somewhat perplexed. "It is--I can +never tell you what it is; but I will try to tell you what it is not. +In conversation it is not wit, in manners it is not politeness, in +behaviour it is not address; but it is a little like them all. It can +only belong to people of a certain rank; who live in a certain manner, +with certain persons, who have not certain virtues, and who have +certain vices, and who inhabit a certain part of the town. Like a place +by courtesy, it gets a higher rank than the person can claim, but which +those who have a legal title to precedency dare not dispute for fear of +being thought not to understand the rules of politeness." + +Mercury finds fault with her for sacrificing all her real interests +and duties to so arbitrary a thing as "bon ton". She asks him what he +would have had her do? To which Mercury replies that her real business +consisted in promoting her husband's happiness and devoting herself +to the education of her children. It appears that their religion, +sentiments and manners were to be learnt from a dancing-master, a +music-master and a French governess. The result will be "wives without +conjugal affection and mothers without maternal care." Mercury's final +advice to the lady is to "remain on this side the Styx", and to wander +about without end or aim, to look into the Elysian Fields, but never +attempt to enter them, lest Minos should push her into Tartarus, "for +duties neglected may bring on a sentence not much less severe than +crimes committed." + +The characters of the next dialogue are Plutarch, Charon and a modern +bookseller. It contains a pointed satire on literary taste. It appears +that the works of Plutarch do not command any sale whatever except +to "a few pedants," but "_The Lives of Highwaymen_" have brought our +bookseller a competent fortune, and the enormous sale of "The Lives of +Men that never Lived" (by which the novel is meant) have set him up +for life. This latest modern improvement in writing enables a man to +"read all his life and have no knowledge at all." Modern books not only +dispose to gallantry and coquetry, but give rules for them. Caesar's +commentaries and the account of Xenophon's expedition are not more +studied by military commanders than our novels are by the fair; to a +different purpose indeed, for their military maxims teach to conquer, +ours to yield; those inflame the vain and idle love of glory, these +inculcate a noble contempt of reputation. If the women had not the +friendly assistance of modern fiction, the bookseller fears they might +long remain "in an insipid purity of mind; with a discouraging reserve +of behaviour." + +Plutarch is shocked at so much degeneracy of taste and wishes that for +the sake of the good example he had expatiated more on the character of +Lucretia and some other heroines. It grieves him to hear that chastity +is no longer valued, and that crime and immorality, far from meeting +with the punishment they deserve, are universally applauded. And yet +it is not more than a century since a Frenchman wrote a much admired +Life of Cyrus under the name of Artamenes[31], in which he ascribed +to him far greater actions than those recorded of him by Xenophon and +Herodotus. He goes on to praise the gallant days of chivalry, when +authors made it their business to incite men to virtue by holding up +as an example the deeds of fabulous heroes, whereas it seems to be the +custom of a later age to incite them to vice by the history of fabulous +scoundrels. "Men of fine imagination have soared into the regions of +fancy to bring back Astrea: you go thither in search of Pandora, oh +disgrace to letters! Oh shame to the Muses!" + +The bookseller's feeble remonstrance that authors have to comply with +the manners and disposition of those who are to read them, is met +with the indignant remark that they should first of all correct the +vices and follies of their age. To give examples of domestic virtue +would surely be more useful to women than to inflame their minds with +the deeds of great heroines. "True female praise arises not from the +pursuit of public fame, but from an equal progress in the path marked +out for them by their great Creator." + +Thus we find that even Plutarch is pressed into service to inculcate a +religious moral. The Bluestocking ladies were sufficiently enlightened +to recognise the deep wisdom of the Ancients, which is of all ages and +independent of religious doctrines. Mrs. Carter, the translator of +Epictetus, was a woman of profound piety. + +The bookseller now remarks that some authors have indeed tried to +instil virtuous notions. In _Clarissa Harlowe_ "one finds the dignity +of heroism tempered by the meekness and humility of religion, a perfect +purity of mind and sanctity of manners", and _Sir Charles Grandison_ is +"a noble pattern of every private virtue, with sentiments so exalted +as to render him equal to every public duty." Next to Richardson, +Fielding and Marivaux are remarkable for their fine moral touches, and +some comfort is to be derived from the reflection that when there is +wit and elegance enough in a book to make it sell, it is not the worse +for good morals. + +Here Charon appears to conduct our bookseller to his future abode, +but deeming him after all "too frivolous an animal to present to wise +Minos", proposes to constitute him _friseur_ to Tisiphone, and make him +"curl up her locks with satires and libels". + +The above pieces derive their chief interest from the fact that they +are among the very first instances of female satire of a kind which in +being more pointed and more direct than that of the Spectator, and less +bitter and exaggerated than that of Swift, written by a member of the +sex who was herself a recognised leader of society, was more calculated +than anything else to impress the female mind with the necessity of +thorough reform. + +Strange to say, Mrs. Montagu's claims for female instruction other than +moral are very modest. It is a subject she seldom refers to, although +there is a letter dated 1773 to her sister-in-law Mrs. Robinson, +containing a reference to the education of her little niece, in which +she certainly does not aim very high. A boarding-school is recommended +in spite of the fact that what girls learn there is most trifling, "but +they unlearn what would be of great disservice--a provincial dialect +which is extremely ungenteel, and other tricks that they learn in the +nursery." French lessons she deems unnecessary, "unless for persons +in very high life", and she expects a great deal of benefit from a +good air and a good dancing-master. Mrs. Montagu here presents that +curious mixture of good sense and narrow conventionality which proves +the extreme difficulty of getting away from influences and forming an +independent judgment. + +In the "_Essay on Shakespeare_" (1769) Mrs. Montagu appears as a +literary critic. She felt offended at Voltaire's disparagement of the +great English author and also at the Frenchman's haughty arrogance. The +Essay was favourably criticised in the _Critical Review_, and Cowper +praised it in a letter to Lady Hesketh in the following words: "I no +longer wonder that Mrs. Montagu stands at the head of all that is +called learned, and that every critic veils his bonnet to her superior +judgment.... The learning, the good sense, the sound judgment, and +the wit displayed in it fully justify not only my compliment, but all +compliments that either have been already paid to her talents or shall +be paid hereafter." But Johnson spoke scornfully of it. He said he had +"taken up the end of the web, and finding it packthread, had thought +it useless to go further in search of embroidery," but had to grant +afterwards that it was conclusive against Voltaire. It procured Mrs. +Montagu a great many friends in France, where such wit as hers was sure +to find full appreciation. When, seven years later, she visited Paris, +Voltaire wrote another furious article against Shakespeare, which was +read at the Académie in her presence. "I think Madam," said one of the +members when the reading was over, "you must be rather sorry at what +you have just heard." Mrs. Montagu shrugged her shoulders. "I, Sir! Not +at all! I am not one of M. Voltaire's friends!" + +Of quite a different cast of character was Mrs. Chapone, whose +"_Letters on the Improvement of the Mind_" were dedicated to Mrs. +Montagu. She was plain and uninteresting, and when the romance of her +life had taken an untimely ending, it is to be feared her conversation +became too much like sermonizing to suit vivacious young ladies like +Fanny Burney, who thought her assemblies "very dull". But whatever she +wrote bears the stamp of sincerity. She was evidently deeply concerned +about the moral welfare of the niece she addressed in her Letters--the +example set by Mme de Sévigné and imitated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu +had found followers--and she honestly tried to reconcile what was noble +and proper in her eyes with the demands of convention. Above all she +tried to inculcate that sense of responsibility for our actions which +she held to be the basis of true Christianity. All our strivings should +have the same purpose; that of bringing us nearer to God. Her niece is +told to render herself more useful and pleasing to her fellow-creatures +(a concession to prevailing opinions), "_and consequently more +acceptable to God_". This last addition completely subverts the meaning +of what precedes. Without it, the sense would be: "Please others and +you will please your own vanity," which now becomes: "Please others and +try to make them happy, and you will please God." + +Mrs. Chapone thought pride and vanity the worst vices. Men were +particularly addicted to the former, since to be proud is to admire +oneself; and women to the latter, for vain is she who desires to be +admired by others. It is the vice of little minds, chiefly conversant +with trifling subjects, and brings affectation in its train. + +The vain woman turns exaggerated weakness to account to ensure her +empire over the stronger sex. Thus arises that false sensibility which +will weep for a fly and leads to a thousand excesses. A well-directed +reason will keep the feelings under control and spur us to actions of +Christian charity. Those who relieve the sufferer are of more benefit +to him than those who lament over his misfortunes. + +Sensibility is, indeed, one of the catchwords of the century. +Originally a laudable compassion and sympathy with the sufferings of +others and a reaction against "the faithless coldness of the times", +Richardson's novels show how soon it began to degenerate into sickly +sentimentality which, when indulging in the luxury of woe, forgot to +relieve the suffering which called forth the tears of sentiment. One +of the most serious charges brought against J. J. Rousseau was that +in his "_Nouvelle Héloise_" and in his "_Confessions_" he makes his +lovers wallow to a sickening extent in the ecstasy of grief, inducing +others by the magic of his personality to imitate him. This false +sensibility was as much the abomination of the Bluestocking ladies +as a well-regulated fellow-feeling was thought commendable, and here +at least Mary Wollstonecraft heartily agreed with them. The usual +reproach that the revolutionary leaders, those "friends of humanity", +in fighting for the interest of the human race neglected the immediate +wants of the individual--of which argument especially the Anti-Jacobin +made ample use--was, therefore, in her case at least, utterly +undeserved. + +Hannah More made "_Sensibility_" the subject of a poem dedicated to +Mrs. Boscawen, and in her "_Strictures_" devoted an entire chapter +to it. In both the conclusion runs that sensibility has received its +true direction when it is supremely turned to the love of God: "But if +religious bias rule the soul, then sensibility exalts the whole." + +There is, of course, in Mrs. Chapone's letters the usual warning +against the danger of fiction, especially of the sentimental kind, the +chief nurse of false sensibility, and also an element arising from the +wish to reconcile Christian charity with the "necessary inequality" +among individuals: the question of the treatment of inferiors. Since +the chief duties of woman are of a domestic nature, it follows that +the management of servants will be her task, and the Christian in Mrs. +Chapone would see them treated with kind civility, while the lady of +quality in her warns against the danger of too close intimacy with +people of low birth and education. The idea of raising them by slow +degrees to a higher social level probably never suggested itself to her. + +Her ideal of female instruction must be likewise described as in the +main conventional, with a few useful hints to mark a partial advance. +Dancing and French are "so universal that they cannot be dispensed +with", but music and drawing she wanted to be taught only to those +who were qualified by possessing talent. The study of history is +recommended as giving a liberal and comprehensive view of human nature, +and supplying materials for conversation, and the reading of poetry +will improve the female imagination, which only wants regulating to +be superior to that of men. Shakespeare, Milton, and Mrs. Montagu's +_Essay_ ought to be the object of diligent study, and even heathen +mythology and Greek philosophy may be recommended as containing a +strong moral element. The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake clearly +did not appeal to Mrs. Chapone at all. + +The most pronounced character among the Bluestockings, as well as the +most privileged among them in literary gifts was beyond any doubt Mrs. +Hannah More.[32] It will be interesting, in continuation of the more +general appreciation of respective tendencies in the introduction to +this chapter, to contrast her with Mary Wollstonecraft with a view to +establishing the chief causes from which the difference in their ideas +arose, and arriving at a vindication of the laudable intentions of both. + +If Mary Wollstonecraft was turned into a social reformer chiefly +through the influence of the outward circumstances which dominated her +youth, Hannah More's career was largely the consequence of certain +innate qualities, which predestined her to become a moralist. She may +have inherited her preaching propensities from her father, who had +himself been designed for the church before circumstances interfered to +turn him into a schoolmaster. Her mother, a farmer's daughter, devoted +herself entirely to the children's education. In her earliest youth, +little Hannah's favourite pastime--as her biographer and admirer Mr. W. +Roberts tells us in his memoirs--was the writing of long exhortative +letters "to depraved characters", and when in later years she lived +at Mrs. Garrick's we find her referred to as the latter's "domestic +chaplain". And yet she could be witty enough when she chose and was +not without a sense of humour. At the time of the writing of her "_Bas +Bleu_" she sent her friend Mrs. Pepys a pair of stockings for one of +her children, accompanied by a letter, "_The Bas Blanc_", in which +she treats the subject as if it were an epic, "so far of a moral cast +that its chief end is utility,"--hoping the child will be able "to run +through it with pleasure". She goes on to say that "the exordium is +the natural introduction by which you are led into the whole work. +The middle, I trust, is free from any unnatural humour or inflation, +and the end from any disproportionate littleness. I have avoided +bringing about the catastrophe too suddenly, as I know that would +hurt him at whose feet I lay it", and so on in the same strain. Mary +Wollstonecraft would have been utterly incapable of such playfulness. A +further determining factor in the difference in the lives of both was +the treatment received at the hands of the influential. Mary was first +treated with indifference and coldness, and afterwards reviled for her +opinions, whereas Hannah More was courted and flattered in a way which +might have turned the head of any more volatile girl. To the struggle +for life of which Mary bore the marks till her dying-day, Hannah was +a total stranger, having had a comfortable annuity settled on her by +a Mr. Turner, who once made her an offer of marriage. Thus secured +against penury, that constant dread of rising authors, Hannah could go +to London and give herself up to social amusements and to literature. +Her meeting with Garrick ensured her a hearty welcome in Bluestocking +circles, and his support smoothed her brief dramatic career and +contributed to the warm reception of her first poetic attempts. They +represent her contribution to romanticism, and gained the approval of +no less a critic than Dr. Johnson himself. + +Hannah More thus became a universal favourite, and her "vers de +société" became very popular. However, her career as a dramatist came +to an end with Garrick's death, and after the success of "_Bas Bleu_" +and "_Sensibility_" she more and more directed her energies towards +social and moral reform. The Bluestocking assemblies, much as they +appealed to her love of witty conversation, afforded no outlet for that +pent-up energy which made her long for some worthy object on which to +concentrate herself for the benefit of society. It may be said that +from the decade which saw the outbreak of the French Revolution dates +the participation of English women in the discussion of the great +social problems by which the times were stirred. It was as natural +that Hannah More should openly declare herself in favour of a strict +maintenance of the existing social order as that Mary Wollstonecraft +should become the champion of radical social and political reform. +Thus, each of the contending parties numbered among the warmest +advocates of their cause a member of the female sex. And yet, previous +to the great social upheaval in France, Hannah More at one time seemed +likely to range herself among the partisans of moderate social reform. +Her first social object was found in the struggle for the abolition +of the slave-trade which in 1787 held the attention of Parliament. Mr. +Wilberforce became her "Red Cross Knight", and Hannah wrote a poem +entitled "_The Black Slave Trade_", in which her attitude towards the +Revolution is foreshadowed. The lines: + + + Shall Britain, _where the soul of freedom reigns_, + Forge chains for others she herself disdains? + Forbid it, Heaven! O let the nation know, + The liberty she tastes she will bestow; + + +are sufficient to show that she consented to be the champion of liberty +in other countries only while they regarded England as the natural home +of Freedom. Burke had no more faithful follower among his conservative +friends than the reformer Hannah More. + +After the outbreak of the Revolution she soon altered her opinion +that, although the capture of the Bastille had been undertaken by +"lawless rabble" yet "some good" might be expected from it. Price's +sermon filled her with horror, and Burke's _Reflections_ had her +undivided sympathy. While engaged upon religious tracts and plans for +instructing the children of the poor came the news of Dupont's speech +in the National Assembly, attacking all religion and calling Nature +and Reason the gods of men. Indignation made Hannah take up her pen in +reply, and refute the atheistic arguments in a pamphlet. The success of +this effort caused her to be solicited from all sides to undertake the +refutation of Thomas Paine's _Rights of Man_. Her humorous treatment of +the subject in this second tract, entitled "_Village Politics, by Will +Chip_", appealed to the class for whom it was chiefly intended and was +a distinct success, as were her doggerel ballads on the subject, some +of which were to popular tunes, preaching submission to the existing +social order, for, as "Will Chip" puts it in his "true Rights of Man": + + + That some must be poorer, this truth will I sing, + _Is the law of my Maker_, and not of my king; + And the true Rights of Man, and the life of his cause, + Is not equal possessions; but equal, just laws. + + +Hannah's sympathy went out to patient Joe, the Newcastle collier, who +held that "all things which happened were best", and to the ploughman +who felt safe in his cottage with the British laws for his guard: "If +the Squire should oppress, I get instant redress"; a view which the +author of _Caleb Williams_ emphatically did not share, and which makes +the modern reader feel as if Hannah More were "laying it on a little +too thick." + +Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecraft--who, as will be seen in the +next chapter, ranged herself among the opponents of Burke--thus took +opposite sides in the great struggle, defending diametrically opposed +principles, yet collaborating in gradually weaning the reading public +from the conventional notion that the domain of literature was taboo +to women and in accustoming them to the unwonted spectacle of women +participating in a social struggle. + +Mary Wollstonecraft's claims for a complete emancipation impressed +Hannah More as directed straight against the divine authority. The +state of inequality, we have seen, was looked upon by her as God's +will, and to rebel against it was to oppose the decrees of the +Almighty. The right way to benefit her sex seemed to her to insist on +a better moral education. On this subject at least the two political +adversaries were agreed. "In those countries in which fondness for +the mere persons of women is carried to the highest excess, they +are slaves; their moral and intellectual degradation increases in +direct proportion to the adoration which is paid to their charms" is +one of the many statements in Hannah More's "_Strictures on Female +Education_"[33] which Mary Wollstonecraft might have written, and +both saw in a liberal moral education the only remedy. At this point, +however, the two paths become separated. To Mary Wollstonecraft +female education was merely one of the milestones in the march +towards perfection; to Hannah More it seemed that women might be made +instrumental "to raise the depressed tone of public morals and to +awaken the drowsy spirit of religious principle", and also that they +might be called upon "to come forward and contribute their full and +fair proportion towards the saving of their country." With Hannah More, +high morality and patriotism necessarily went hand in hand. Her ideal +was to see all English women join in a thorough reform of manners and +morals, that her country might become not only the bulwark of tradition +against the mania for innovation, but also that of the religion she +held sacred against the onslaughts of atheism coming from across the +Channel. + +If she had a less fervent temperament than Mary, she compensated for +this lack through her practical insight, which told her that sudden +radical changes are apt to destroy the edifice of ages, without +offering anything solid as a substitute. She felt the guardian of +her sex against the attacks of infidelity which in her eyes were +principally directed against the female heart. "Conscious of the +influence of women in civil society, _conscious of the effect which +female infidelity produced in France_, they attribute the ill success +of their attempts in this country to their having been hitherto chiefly +addressed to the male sex. They are now sedulously labouring to +destroy the religious principles of women, and in too many instances +have fatally succeeded. For this purpose not only novels and romances +have been made the vehicles of vice and infidelity, but the same +allurement has been held out to the women of our country which was +employed in the Garden of Eden by the first philosophist to the first +sinner,--knowledge"[34]. + +The above lines determine Hannah More's attitude towards female +learning, which she regarded as the devil's own bait. As an example +of the corrupting tendencies of foreign literature she makes a few +remarks on the much-admired German plays of "_The Robbers_" and "_The +Stranger_", the second of which presents the character of an adulteress +in the most pleasing and fascinating colours. "To make matters worse, +the German example has found a follower in a woman, a professed admirer +and imitator of the German suicide Werter. The female Werter, as she +is styled by her biographer, asserts in a work entitled, "_The Wrongs +of Women_" that adultery is justifiable, and that the restrictions +placed on it by the laws of England, constitute one of the wrongs of +women".[35] + +To come to a correct understanding of this passage, it is necessary +to remember that the "_Strictures_" were written in 1799, when the +remembrance of Mary Wollstonecraft's attempt at suicide was still +fresh, and when her unexpected death had drawn attention to Godwin's +edition of her works, the only one containing "_Maria, or the Wrongs of +Woman_". + +In their ideas of marriage, as indeed in all their applications +of religious precepts, the gulf between Hannah More and Mary +Wollstonecraft becomes immeasurably wide. But wherever the sense of +moral duty, unhampered by convention or by a rigid philosophical +harness, was free to assert itself, it is curious to note the close +affinity between the ideas of two women who occupied such widely +different positions in the social life of their time, yet were +both so extremely conscious of the moral responsibility of their +sex. It remains for us to consider the interesting--if somewhat +eccentric--personality of the woman who had brought down upon herself +so many charges of gross immorality. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27] _Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, p. 10._ + +[28] _Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, p. 245._ + +[29] See W. Roberts, _Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. +Hannah More_, p. 62. + +[30] Walpole. + +[31] There seems to have been a good deal of uncertainty as to the +authorship of the works of the famous brother and sister. Contemporary +opinion unanimously assigns that of "_Le Grand Cyrus_" to Madeleine de +Scudéry, and not to her brother George. + +[32] Like Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah More took brevet-rank as a matron +by virtue of her literary publications. + +[33] p. 2. + +[34] _Strictures_, p. 29. + +[35] _Strictures_, p. 32. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +_Radical Feminism: Mary Wollstonecraft._ + + +Around the name of Mary Wollstonecraft a storm of adverse criticism +raged for years after her death, prompting Godwin to the publication of +his "_Memoirs of the author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman_", +and calling forth the somewhat half-hearted defence of her actions +and writings by an anonymous author in 1803. Both failed to attract +any degree of notice. Shelley, whose meetings with young Mary Godwin +over her mother's grave in St. Pancras cemetery are described in Mrs. +Marshall's biography, offered her the sincere tribute of his verse +in "_The Revolt of Islam_", where the heroine resembles her in her +character. + +The champion of the Cause of Woman was herself an essentially loveable, +thoroughly feminine representative of her sex, whose many troubles +arose from an extremely sensitive heart, a pure, refined sensibility, +without any of the alloy which she was the first to regret in so many +other women, and from the circumstance that, being born a century +before her time, her striving was only moderately successful and +brought her the ill-will of many who were unable to appreciate the +sincerity of her motives. Nothing could be more undeserved, or bespeak +a more glaring ignorance of the character it reviled than Horace +Walpole's mention of Mary Wollstonecraft in his letter to Miss Hannah +More--in her rigid respectability the direct opposite of the author +of the "_Vindication_"--as "a hyena in petticoats, whose books were +excommunicated from the pale of his library". Few books and their +authors have been the object of such unsparing censure as the _Rights +of Women_ and Mary Wollstonecraft, and it may be added that seldom was +the imputation of meddling spitefulness and even of gross immorality +more utterly undeserved. There speaks from the entire work a spirit of +absolute sincerity, of disinterested eagerness for necessary reforms +and of that fervent enthusiasm in the pursuit of aims which will not +shrink at martyrdom, which endear the author to the unbiased reader, +and which only the narrowest conservatism could overlook. Nor would +it have met with the bitter antagonism it encountered had not the +public mind, harassed by the constant menace of the French Revolution, +been overmuch inclined to cry down all works of reform. As it was, +Mary Wollstonecraft's reputation passed through three distinctly +marked phases; in the first, the work and its author were violently +attacked by the many, and enthusiastically defended by the few; in the +second, they were consigned to temporary oblivion; in the third, Mr. +Kegan Paul in 1876, and after him Miss Mathilde Blind in "_The New +Quarterly Review_", Miss H. Zimmern in the "_Deutsche Rundschau_", +and E. R. Pennell in the "_Eminent Women Series_" tried with a fair +amount of success to awaken a new interest in both and to vindicate the +author's memory by clearing her personal character from the monstrous +imputations of immorality. The fact has now been definitely established +that she was prompted by the noblest love of humanity, and is entitled +to rank among those champions of the new faith who suffered martyrdom +for the cause. She was one of those predestined by that innate +character she was so fain to deny to a life of the bitterest anguish, +brightened by spells of almost perfect happiness. Both the joys and +the sorrows of humanity were abundantly hers. With her, character was +indeed fate, and the outward circumstances of her life only emphasized +the convictions to which a woman of her stamp was bound to come in +the world of inequality and cruel injustice in which she moved. She +combined in her person the rarest gifts of both head and heart; as +a quick perception, enabling her to grasp a situation very rapidly; +a never-flinching determination to use the divine gift of Reason in +the pursuit of useful knowledge, and a boundless devotion to what +she considered the obvious task of her life. Once she had discovered +her vocation she flung herself into her work with indomitable zeal, +trying to do herself violence in asserting the superiority of reason +over sentiment, and to put a restraint on the passions that threatened +to overpower her. In this attempt she did not always succeed, and +while it makes her appear to us thoroughly human, yet her imperfect +self-control was not without influence on her works of reform, leading +her to exaggeration and wearisome reiterations. In the chapter of the +_Vindication_ which deals with national education she insists that only +that man makes a good citizen, who has in his youth "exercised the +affections of a son and a brother," for public affections grow out of +private, and it is in youth that the fondest friendships are formed. +This sounds like a confession, for if Mary Wollstonecraft had not been +in earlier years such a devoted friend to her dear ones as to utterly +disregard her own comfort in her desire to befriend them, she could +never have loved humanity with such intensity. It is difficult to say +what would have become of the Wollstonecraft household if Mary had not +strained every faculty to assist them. When her drunken father beat +his wife, the latter used to appeal to Mary for protection. When at +last the poor soul felt death approach, it was again Mary who without +a second's hesitation flung up her situation as a lady's companion at +Bath to return to her mother's sickbed and to ease her last moments. +Not only her sisters Everina and Eliza, but also her younger brothers +Charles and James received from her both moral and financial support, +to be able to give which she cramped herself to such an extent that +the room in George Street in which she wrote was furnished only with +the barest necessaries, and her gowns were so extremely shabby that +Knowles in his "_Life of Fuseli_" describes her as "a philosophical +sloven". In thus reducing her wants, however, she was merely acting in +accordance with the view--held by all the friends of reform and derived +from Rousseau--that only he can be happy whose desires are so few that +he can afford to gratify them, an offshoot of the famous Nature-theory. +Nevertheless, the description of Mary as a "sloven" seems exaggerated, +judging from the two portraits by Opie which have been preserved, of +which the one may be spurious, but the other, now in the National +Portrait Gallery, is beyond any doubt genuine. It shows the face +("physiognomy" Mary Wollstonecraft herself would have preferred to call +it) of a strikingly pretty, refined-looking woman, with a profusion of +auburn hair, a clear complexion and a pleading look in her brown eyes +which reminded Mr. Kegan Paul of Beatrice Cenci. + +The grim realities of Mary's youth left little space for the +development of any sense of humour, but they bred in her a fighting +spirit which afterwards stood her in good stead. Her next championship +was that of Fanny Blood, whom she shielded from domestic misery very +much like that she had herself experienced, and whose brother George, +who became involved in a nasty scandal[36], also experienced Mary's +all-embracing kindness of heart. From her correspondence with him in +the years of his forced absence from England it indeed appears that she +was not by any means a "fair-weather friend". + +The extremely serious cast of her character--which circumstances +afterwards developed into melancholy--also found expression in a strong +sense of duty. Unlike those champions of humanity who clamour for the +rights of Man without reference to the corresponding obligations, Mary +Wollstonecraft in later years always insisted not only that every right +of necessity involves a duty, but also that we should insist upon +those rights chiefly to be enabled to perform the moral duties which +life imposes. Add to this an absolute "incapability of disguise", as +her friend and publisher Johnson expressed it, and a frankness which +made her "fling whate'er she felt, not fearing, into words"--often +uncovering the worst sores of society in all their hideousness with a +determination bordering upon indelicacy--and the portrait of Mary's +character, as far as elementary traits go, is complete. + +The strong natural bent of her character was further emphasized by +incidents which presented to her mind the problem of the subjugation +of women urgently demanding a champion. On three different occasions +did she see the lives of women ruined by cruel, dissipated husbands. +The third of these was by far the worst. It concerned the marriage of +her sister Eliza ("Poor Bess", as Mary calls her in her correspondence +with Everina and Fanny), to a Mr. Bishop, who, although he was probably +a clergyman, appears to have been a most hypocritically sensual brute. +No doubt the wife also was to blame; indeed, all the Wollstonecraft +girls were inclined to be suspicious, irritable, and over-ready to +take offence. Shortly after the birth of a child matters came to a +crisis, and Mary, having come over to nurse her sister, who after +her confinement had had an attack of insanity, proposed that they +should leave Mr. Bishop's house together, a plan actually carried +into execution, after which Mary, Eliza and Fanny Blood started +teaching as a profession. The daily bickerings of the Bishop household +impressed upon Mary's mind the state of utter defencelessness and +abject slavery in which many women were kept. It afterwards made her +decide to supplement her "_Rights of Women_" with a novel, dealing +with the Wrongs of Women, in which some of the incidents she had +witnessed found a place. The work was unfortunately interrupted by her +unexpected death, and in its unfinished state was included by Godwin +in the posthumous edition of some of Mary Wollstonecraft's works in +1798. Thus death claimed her while making a last effort to succour the +oppressed. + +With the sisters' flight from Mr. Bishop's house began the long +struggle against adverse circumstances in which Mary did most of the +fighting. One wonders what would have become of Eliza and the boys--who +had soon left their father's home--but for Mary's resourcefulness. +Everina found a home with Edward, the eldest brother, who obviously +thought that in sheltering her he had done all that could be expected +of him. The girls met with little or no sympathy from friends, the +general opinion finding fault with Eliza's conduct and judging that +"women should accept without a murmur whatever it suits their husbands +to give them, whether it be kindness or blows". This represents the +general belief of those days with regard to the position of married +women. The possibility of girls of the better middle class having +at any time of their lives to earn their own living had never been +seriously considered, and the sisters were indeed in great distress. +Again Mary had the utter incapacity of even the bravest of her sex to +support themselves brought home to her in a way that left no doubt. And +yet the two or three years of the little boarding-school at Newington +Green were not wholly devoid of enjoyment. Mary made the acquaintance +of the famous Dr. Price, the dissenting preacher who was soon to rouse +the fire of Burke's indignation, and who strongly influenced her +religious views. + +It seems the right place here to say something of Mary's attitude +towards religion. In a life like hers, bringing her face to face with +the evils of existing society, and with her degree of sensitiveness it +is but natural that religious feelings should have played a prominent +part. Her mother had bred her in the principles of the Church of +England, but Mary was far too independent to allow her mother any real +influence. But at least the circumstances of her youth saved her from +sophistic teachings, which may form hypocrites or awaken an altogether +disproportionate hatred of whatever smacks of Christianity, under +the impression that Christianity and the dogmatism of narrow-minded +orthodoxy are at bottom one and the same thing. Such was Godwin's +case, and it proved a deathblow to his faith. Mary, however, was a +great deal left to herself and, as Godwin informs us in the _Memoirs_, +her religion was mostly of her own creation, and little allied to any +system of forms. The many Biblical quotations in her works suggest +diligent reading of the Bible and point to a state of mind very far +removed from indifference or antipathy. She rather felt a natural +leaning towards religion, a craving for mental peace to be satisfied +only by firm religious convictions. As Godwin puts it, the tenets of +her system were the growth of her own moral taste, and her religion +therefore was always a gratification, never a terror to her. The +same almost feminine yearning for the moral support of a religion +that warms the heart, distinguished Rousseau from the robust and +self-reliant philosophers of the rational school, and possibly caused +Mary Wollstonecraft to feel attracted towards him and at the same time +to pity him, when first reading his "_Emile_"[37]. Up to the time of +her first meeting with Dr. Price her attitude had been that of simple +faith, with constant appeals to the Divine interference. She had been +a regular church-goer, and it is quite possible that the public and +regular routine of sermons and prayers and the implicit subjection +it demands, had already begun to pall upon her, and predisposed her +for the adoption of the less dogmatic views of Deism. It may also be +safely assumed that her experiences in Ireland as a governess and +the subsequent period of close intimacy with some of the leading +revolutionists lessened her interest in religion, which points to +the future, and proportionately increased that in Man, who is the +present. As the years advanced, the rapid growth of her considerable +intellectual powers, the tendencies of the times in which she lived, +and the society which she frequented made her drift unconsciously +towards rationalism. Then it was that a conflict arose between +Sentiment and Intellect. She set about "repressing her natural ardour +and granting a more considerable influence to the dictates of Reason", +or, as Professor Dowden puts it, "she set her brain as a sentinel over +her heart, trying to put a curb on her natural impulsiveness"[38]. + +This change in her views of life, dating from her intimacy with Price, +was hastened by circumstances. The death of her friend Fanny--who +died in her arms at Lisbon,--and the want of success of her first +educational efforts--due chiefly to Mrs. Bishop's mismanagement of +the school in Mary's absence--had made her feel low-spirited and +ill. It was only the sale of the manuscript of the "_Thoughts on_ +_the Education of Daughters_" to Mr. Johnson, the publisher of Fleet +Street, for ten guineas--part of which sum she sent to the Bloods +whose straits were worse than her own--that staved off utter ruin. She +relinquished her work as a schoolmistress, and through her friend Mr. +Prior, assistant master at Eton, obtained the situation of governess to +the children of Lord Kingsborough at a salary of forty pounds a year. +Before leaving for Mitchelstown in Ireland, she spent some time with +the Priors at Eton, where she had an opportunity to study the life in +an English public-school. It did not impress her favourably and gave +rise to some severe criticism in the _Rights of Women_ on the subject +of false religion and undue attachment to outward things. "I could not +live the life they lead at Eton", she says in a letter to her sister +Everina, "nothing but dress and ridicule going forward, and I really +believe their fondness for ridicule tends to make them affected, the +women in their manners, and the men in their conversation, for witlings +abound and puns fly about like crackers, though you would scarcely +guess they had any meaning in them, if you did not hear the noise they +create". This was her first glimpse of society. In the same letter +she finds comfort in the reflection that the time will come when "the +God of love will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and neither death +nor accidents of any kind will interpose to separate us from those we +love". No wonder she was horrified at the boy who only consented to +receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to avoid forfeiting half a +guinea! + +She was now, indeed, entering upon a new phase of her life. She had +witnessed the horrors of a domestic life in which drunkenness and +other moral vices reigned supreme; she was now to behold the utter +worthlessness of the pleasure-seeking, irresponsible upper classes, +whose religion was all sham, and who tried to make up in dogmatic +narrowness what they lacked in true piety. It was the conduct of her +own sex that most of all disgusted her. It taught her that the absurd +distinctions of rank corrupted not merely the oppressed dependents, +but also their tyrants, whose only claim to respectability was in the +titles they held. In short, it turned her from a mere educator into a +social reformer, and from a devout Christian into a Deist. + +What struck her most forcibly about the women of the Kingsborough +household was their unfitness for their chief task in life: that of +educating their own children. They represented a varied catalogue of +female errors. Lady Kingsborough was too much occupied with her dogs to +care for her children, whom she left to the care of their governess. +When afterwards that governess came to stand first in the children's +affections, she promptly dismissed her. Mary Wollstonecraft's revilers +have tried to substantiate the charge of irreligiousness against her +by pointing out that her favourite pupil Margaret--afterwards Lady +Mount Cashel--was not wholly without blame in her later life; thus +ignoring the degrading influence of a mother like Lady Kingsborough, +and overlooking the fact that Mary's stay in Ireland lasted only one +year. In her correspondence with Mrs. Bishop there is a description of +Lady Kingsborough's stepmother and her three daughters, "fine girls, +just going to market, as their brother says". This short sentence shows +the state of revolt she was in against the frivolity of women in making +a wealthy marriage the sole aim of life. If, therefore, her religious +principles were of a sternness hardly suited to the practice of those +days, it need not necessarily be the former that were at fault. The +imputation of insincerity, however, merits absolute contempt. Here, +indeed, "to doubt her goodness were to want a heart". It is impossible +to read any portion of her works without being struck by the earnest +tone of sincere piety which pervades them all. It was a great pity that +what she saw of Christianity prevented her from going to the source of +that religion, which might have given her that peace "which passeth +understanding" for which her heart yearned and which the vagueness of +her deistic views, although better suited to satisfy her Reason, could +not supply. + +While at Bristol Hot Wells in the summer of 1788 she wrote a little +book entitled "_Mary, A Fiction_", relating the incidents of her +friendship with Fanny Blood. But it is not the incidents that make +the charm of this composition. Godwin, who could admire in another +those qualities which he knew he himself lacked, says that in it "the +feelings are of the truest and most exquisite class; every circumstance +is adorned with that species of imagination which enlists itself under +the banners of delicacy and sentiment"[39]. + +Mary's dismissal as a governess fortunately did not leave her +unprovided for. The generous Mr. Johnson found her lodgings in George +Street, near Blackfriar's Bridge, and made her his reader. She +criticised the manuscripts sent to him, and the kindness and sincerity +of her criticisms brought her a few real friends, among whom was Miss +Hayes, who afterwards became the means of bringing her and Godwin +together. Mr. Johnson had just started the _Analytical Review_, in +which Mary took a considerable share. The many translations she did +at this period were suggested by Johnson, and as such throw no light +on her personal taste, but in the case of Salzmann's "_Moralisches +Elementarbuch_" he certainly gave her a congenial subject. She had by +this time read Rousseau's _Emile_, with the main tendencies of which +she agreed as far as the boy Emile was concerned, but whose ideal of +womanhood, embodied in Sophie, was very far removed from her own, and +also Thomas Day's "_Sandford and Merton_," in which the influence of +Rousseau is very marked. The ideas expressed by Day, corroborated and +added to by her own experience and by Salzmann's theories, form the +basis of her "_Original Stories from Real Life, with Conversations +calculated to regulate the Affections and form the Mind to Truth and +Goodness_". (1788). The idea of a private tutor (or preceptor) had +been Rousseau's, and Day makes a kind-hearted clergyman, Mr. Barlow, +who had attained excellent results in the training of young Harry +Sandford, a farmer's son, undertake the instruction of Tommy Merton, +the son of a rich planter of Jamaica. Day obviously cannot refrain from +introducing the theme of class-distinctions, making the farmer's child +appear to great advantage by the side of the gentleman's son, who has +been utterly spoiled by an over-indulgent mother and has had the whole +catalogue of prejudices of birth and station inculcated into him. The +story consists of a string of incidents, partly arising from natural +causes and partly due to Mr. Barlow's "coups de théâtre pédagogiques", +in which Rousseau also was fond of indulging. They all contribute +towards the formation of Tommy's mind and heart, in conjunction +with a number of stories, told at the psychological moment by their +preceptor, which it appears do not fail to produce their effect, for +Tommy is promptly changed from an insufferable little despot into a +paragon of virtue. Nor is he slow himself to adopt the oracular tone of +self-sufficiency which Harry exhibits from the first. Where Day's book +differs from Rousseau,--which is only in two respects,--the deviation +is due to the fact that Rousseau was essentially a theorist, whose +aim was to provide an educational scheme, whilst Day in combination +with Mr. Edgeworth meant to, and did carry his theories into practice, +in doing which he had to make a good many concessions to outward +circumstances. Rousseau seldom indulges in story-telling, in his scheme +the work of instructing the child under twelve (Tommy and Harry are +only six) is left to Nature, and the preceptor keeps his precepts to +himself and merely mounts the most jealous guard over his pupil to +ward off undesirable influences and to leave Nature undisturbed in +accomplishing her task. Thus Rousseau advises the negative education +for young children. In Day, however, the preceptor takes a decidedly +active part, and both by precept and example directs his pupils' +thoughts towards certain conclusions they are meant to draw. A natural +consequence of Rousseau's radical Nature-scheme is that the pleasure +of reading books--beyond a few of great practical value to the Man of +Nature, such as Defoe's Robinson Crusoe--is withheld from the young +pupil, who is only taught to read at his own request, and at a much +later age. Instead, he should be content to read the book of Nature, +which is in a language every human creature can understand. Here again +the more practical Day disagrees, and in _Sandford and Merton_ books +play a prominent part. Again, Rousseau wants to separate his pupil not +only from the family to which he belongs, but from all other children, +thus overlooking the important factor of inter-education. Day educates +the two boys together and occasionally brings them in contact with +other children also, mostly of the peasant-class. + +For the rest, however, there is a close parallelism between the two +systems. Stress is laid on simplicity being the mother of all virtues, +the boys are taught to regard manual labour as an honest occupation of +which no so-called "gentleman" need be ashamed, and which may stand him +in good stead should circumstances make it necessary for him to earn +his own living. They have their physical strength developed by manly +exercise, and the advantages accruing from a life in accordance with +the dictates of Nature are pointed out to them in a most suggestive +way. They learn to regard class-privileges with scorn; to them a "man" +is a being superior to a "gentleman"; are taught that the only property +a man is entitled to is the result of his own labour; and acquire some +knowledge of botany, zoology, cosmography, geography and in general of +such subjects as may render the child more fit for a life in accordance +with Nature such as Day himself practised. + +It need hardly be said that Mary Wollstonecraft's educational ideas did +not go the entire length of Day's somewhat eccentric radicalism. She +sympathised with Rousseau's Nature-scheme only inasmuch as it asserted +the advantages of country-life and did away with conventionality. +Although accustomed to the most rigid simplicity, she never approached +the utter disregard of appearances which Day professed to feel. She +utterly disagreed with Rousseau where he asserted the necessity of +giving girls an education "relative to men", it being one of the chief +aims of her later works to show that there should be no difference +of principles in the education of the two sexes; but she applied a +great many of Rousseau's suggestions, which he intended for boys, +to her own sex. Far from wishing to furnish a complete scheme for +the education of young girls upon a basis of abstract reasoning, she +follows Day in attacking the defects most common to childhood and +in trying to establish a standard of virtue which may be attained +by following Reason. She entirely relies upon the force of a moral +lesson contained in a well-told story, or, better still, illustrated +by personal example. In one point of difference the contrast in +character between her and Rousseau becomes most obvious. The latter's +lack of moral firmness makes him, while shielding his pupil from the +evil influence of his surroundings, rather unaccountably overlook the +necessity of inculcating a sense of duty. His scheme has no ethical +background. In Mary Wollstonecraft, however, this ethical background +is the essential thing. Her parting advice to her pupils (voiced by +Mrs. Mason) is: "Recollect, that from religion your chief comfort must +spring, and never neglect the duty of prayer. Learn from experience the +comfort that arises from making known your wants and sorrows to the +wisest and best of Beings not only of this life, but of that which is +to come." Rousseau's pupil was not likely to become a "striver", Mary +Wollstonecraft's had had high ethical principles instilled into her. + +The lack of incentives to virtue which characterises Rousseau's scheme +may be the consequence of his theory of original innocence. He does not +believe in the existence of evil in connection with the Divine Will, +but holds that evil is merely the consequence of wrong opinions. Here +he was Godwin's teacher. A radical change in individual opinion will +cause evil to disappear. How original sin and evil could find their +way into the world, mankind being in a state of perfect innocence, he +does not explain. Godwin, and with him Mary Wollstonecraft, were of +opinion that there is in mankind no natural bias towards either good or +evil, and that everything depends on the forming of the mind, hence the +all-importance of education. + +Religion, therefore, is an essential part of Mary Wollstonecraft's +educational plan. It is true that the child cannot grasp the +fundamental truths, its power of reasoning being as yet limited, and +should not for this reason be permitted to read the Bible. But her +girls are taught from the first that "religion ought to be the active +director of our affections" and that "happiness can only arise from +imitating God in a life guided by considerations of virtue. Virtue, +according to her mouth-piece Mrs. Mason, is "the exercise of benevolent +affections to please God and bring comfort and happiness here, and +become angels hereafter." + +In the "_Original Stories_" we have some of the theories of the _Rights +of Women_ presented to us in a nutshell. They claim for girls equality +of education with boys, and indirectly deny the sexual character +theory, based on that of innate principles, which Mary Wollstonecraft +agreed with Godwin did not exist. Rousseau held that Reason was the +prerogative of Man, and that Woman's substitute for it was Sensibility. +Man was made to think, and Woman to feel. "Whatever is in Nature is +right", was the axiom he applied to the case of Woman. Nature meant +her to be kept in a state of subjection to Man, and to give her an +education without regarding the limitations of her sex would have +seemed to him flying in the face of providence. + +Mary Wollstonecraft's views of society were sufficiently pessimistic +to consider the average parent utterly unfit to educate a child. She +therefore adhered to Rousseau's idea of a preceptor. Her two girls, +Mary and Caroline, aged 14 and 12, far from having been kept in +ignorance, and further handicapped by the death of their mother, had +already imbibed some false notions and prejudices. Mary's judgment +was not sufficiently cool to make her realise that appearances are +often deceptive, and that bodily defects may be found together with +excellent moral qualities. She had an unfortunate turn for ridicule. +Her sister Caroline, by being vain of her person, proved that she +did not understand the source of true merit. It was, therefore, the +task of their monitress to carefully eradicate these prejudices and +to substitute for them correct notions of true virtue. In Mrs. Mason, +Mary Wollstonecraft enriched English literature with the portrait of +the typical British matron with "no nonsense about her", but in making +this woman her mouth-piece she scarcely did justice to the qualities +of her own heart. It was the struggle of her life to make her heart +yield to the dictates of Reason, and Mrs. Mason certainly does not +impress the reader as struggling very hard. She is the embodiment of +pure, undiluted Reason in all its unyielding sternness. Any show of +tenderness towards her charges would have seemed to her a confession of +weakness. When after a long spell of life together she returns them to +their father, they have advanced just far enough in her affection to be +termed "candidates for her friendship"; which, by the way, is meant +to imply that they have made satisfactory progress in the faculty of +Reason. + +Mary Wollstonecraft for the moment does not seem to realise that the +essential quality in an educator should be to make her pupils not +only respect, but also love her, and Mrs. Mason is a most unloveable +person. Her haughty arrogance and insufferable self-sufficiency were +not likely to escape her eldest pupil's sense of humour and could not +but seriously affect her influence over the girls. Thus the children of +Mary Wollstonecraft's fancy are brought up in the midst of reasoning +logic, unwarmed by the sunshine of parental love. + +To make matters worse, this champion of liberty, who found fault with +Rousseau for failing to see that his schemes of freedom applied with +equal justice to women; who was soon herself to protest against the +abuse of parental authority, who held with Locke that "if the mind +be curbed and humbled too much in children, if the spirit be abased +and broken much by too strict a hand over them, they lose all their +vigour and industry",[40] herself made the fatal mistake of aiding +and abetting the thraldom of the young girl. The education which +Mary and Caroline receive is nothing but a dreary course of constant +admonition, in which the word liberty would be utterly misplaced. +She has entirely failed to catch the spirit of Rousseau's _Emile_, +in which the instructor only prevents the pupil from hurting himself +overmuch through his ignorance, leaving him otherwise free to draw +the conclusions of awakening Reason, and above all allowing him to +live out his life. Harry Sandford and Tommy Merton go together for +long walks in the woods, get lost and owe their rescue to the lucky +accident of meeting a boy who takes them to his home. When Mr. Barlow +is informed that the boys have turned up, he goes to meet them on their +way home and merely tells them to be more careful in future, availing +himself of the incident to instil certain lessons in geography which +smack of Rousseau. But their liberty is in no way cramped. With Mary +Wollstonecraft, however, the case is entirely different. One wonders +what sort of paragons Mrs. Mason was going to turn out. The chances +would seem pretty even between prim old maids and confirmed young +hypocrites, depending on those very innate tendencies she was fain +to deny! She held that children should not be left too much freedom, +because, the faculty of Reason being as yet insufficiently developed +in them, they might make the wrong use of it. But the restrictions on +their liberty should be such as to remain almost unnoticed by them. +They should not have a variety of prohibitions imposed upon them, as +was the case with Lady Kingsborough's children, whom she immediately +restored to some degree of liberty. One cannot help thinking that +theory and practice often clash, owing to the perpetual conflict +between reason and the feelings. Granting, however, that Mrs. Mason had +the best and most disinterested intentions, what, we may ask, can be +left of liberty to children whom their monitress "never suffers out of +her sight?" + +In her catalogue of living creatures Mary puts animals at the bottom on +account of their being incapable of Reason. They are guided exclusively +by instinct, which is a faculty of a coarser growth than Reason. The +love of their young, for instance, though sweet to behold, and worthy +of imitation, is not in their case dictated by Reason. Next upon the +list come children; in them the latent faculty ought to be developed by +older and wiser people bringing what Godwin would call "the artillery +of Reason" to bear upon the infant mind. Mary Wollstonecraft protests +against the arrogance of those philosophers who, while granting their +own sex the privilege of an education, wilfully exclude the other half +of humanity from the blessings of Reason, which is the only guide to +virtue and moral perfection. + +When Mary wrote the "_Original Stories_" she was not more than +twenty-nine herself, and had known neither the passion of love nor +motherhood. Her all-embracing love of humanity made the subject of +interest to her, but there is upon the whole too much of Reason and +too little of the heart in the little volume. Circumstances over +which she had no control were soon to teach her for good and all that +the affections will not be suppressed and peremptorily demand their +share. When next she touched upon the subject she was a mother and +confronted with the task of educating her own child in the long and +frequent absences of a faithless and undeserving father. The "_First +Lessons for an Infant_" in Volume II of the posthumous edition of +her works are the result of the joint teachings of maternal love and +bitter experience. Here she is herself, an essentially human, loving +woman, overflowing with tenderness and bound up closely with her child +not merely by the ties of duty, but by those of an all-absorbing +affection. Having thus tried to do justice to the author by accounting +for what seems contradictory, we may frankly say that Mrs. Mason is an +insufferable pedant. The Mr. Barlow of _Sandford and Merton_, while +constantly moralising,--in doing which he draws far more sweeping +conclusions than even Mrs. Mason--and arranging incidents to illustrate +and anticipate his moral lessons like the best of stage-managers[41], +at least does not obtrude her own personality. But the impeccable Mrs. +Mason in her boundless self-confidence never loses an opportunity to +introduce her own personality. Her benevolence is unlimited, and she +is utterly incapable of doing wrong. If she inflicts bodily pain, it +is that Reason has whispered to her that in doing so she avoids a +greater evil. She puts her foot deliberately on a wounded bird's head, +"turning her own the other way". She teaches by example rather than +precept, and the example somehow seems to be always herself. Never for +a moment are the girls allowed a rest from the moral deluge. The first +eight chapters of the little book contain the moral food for one single +day, carefully divided into a morning, an afternoon and an evening +of incessant moralising. Yet she is "naive" enough to imagine that +she teaches imperceptibly, by rendering the subject amusing! If Mary +Wollstonecraft had possessed the slightest indication of a possible +sense of humour, the absurdity of the Mrs. Mason portrait would have +struck her. But she had not, and while relating the most ludicrous +incidents, she always remains terribly in earnest! + +There is something distinctly oppressive, too, about Mrs. Mason's +benevolence. She relieves the distress of the poor, but while doing so +her coldly critical eye wanders about the humble cottage and makes the +poor wretch feel uncomfortably conscious of its generally unfinished +appearance. With her, Reason is always enthroned. The passions are not +to be mentioned in her presence. And yet, her cupboard, too, has its +skeleton. Early attachments, we are informed, have been broken, her own +husband has died, followed by her only child, "in whom her husband died +again". Her afflictions have taught her to pin her faith on the hope +of eternity, in doing which she has unfortunately forgotten to learn +the lesson of earthly suffering and to realise her own imperfections. +The virtue of modesty, which she recommends to the girls in contrasting +the sweet and graceful rose to the bold and flaunting tulip (!) was not +among her many accomplishments. + +The little book prepares the reader's mind for the "_Vindication of the +Rights of Women_," which was soon to follow, in that it contains a +long plea for the glorious faculty of Reason, leading to virtue. The +heart should be carefully regulated by the understanding to prevent +its running amuck. All errors are due to a relegation of Reason to an +inferior position; a systematical application, however, cannot fail to +conduct towards perfection. + +One seems too be listening to the sweeping assertions of _Political +Justice_, which was to appear a few years later and in which the +general philosophical tendencies of the revolutionary movement were +gathered up and stated with bold radicalism. The main line of thought +which Godwin followed, and the tendency to resort to "first principles" +is everywhere manifest. To call girls "rational creatures" for doing +what their monitress expects of them is to give them the most unstinted +praise. The absolute subjection of the poor children to their governess +is the necessary outcome of the infallibility of the latter's superior +Reason, which renders implicit obedience the interest of the former. +In her discussion of the filial duties in connection with the parental +affections in the _Vindication_, Mary Wollstonecraft insists on just +such a degree of obedience as is compatible with the child's obvious +interest. Nor is the respect due to superior Reason lost sight of when +she opines with respect to marriage that, although after one and twenty +a parent has no right to withhold his consent on any account, yet +the son ought to promise not to marry for two or three years, should +the object of his choice not meet with the approbation of his "first +friend". Thus the principles of liberty and obedience are made to fit +each other. + +The infallibility of Reason is enforced by some "glaring" examples, +which bring fresh proof of the author's fatal insensibility to the +ludicrous and absurd. The story of the girl who, like Caroline, was +vain of her good looks, until she had smallpox, when, having to pass +many days in a darkened room, she learned to reflect and afterwards +took to reading as a means of enlarging the mind, may pass; but the +history of Charles Townley is utterly absurd and distinctly inferior +to Day's stories, some of which afford pleasant reading and must have +amused the boys. Its hero is the "man of feeling" so prominent in the +sentimental school, who allows his conduct to be governed solely by +sentiment. Having chosen the wrong guide, he is made miserable for +life, and his sorrows culminate when he beholds the daughter of his +benefactor, a maniac, "the wreck of a human understanding", merely +because he has too long put off assisting her and relieving her +distress, as he intended to do. + +The principal vices against which the book inveighs and which are +for the most part illustrated by means of fitting stories, or warned +against by means of toward incidents, are: anger and peevishness, +by which Reason is temporarily dethroned (story of Jane Fretful), +lying, immoderate indulgence of the appetite, procrastination, pride, +arrogance to servants[42], sensitiveness to pain and an excessive +regard for the vanities of dress and for the opinions of the world +(story of the schoolmistress). Thus the ideas which found an outlet +in the _Vindication_ were anticipated, and the little book marks the +first step in the transition from pedagogical to social and political +authorship. + +Next to the careful eradication of vices, the cultivation of virtues is +attended to. The children are taught to love all living creatures, the +love of animals being characteristic of the new movement as a natural +offshoot of the greater but more difficult love of mankind. They are +instructed in the practice of charity, economy, self-denial, modesty +and simplicity. The last-named virtue constitutes the link between +the educational and the social instruction. The stories of "the Welsh +Harper" and of "Lady Sly and Mrs. Trueman" are intended to convey the +great truth that class-distinctions are not by any means dependent on +moral character and that often "the lower is the higher." Nor can Mary +Wollstonecraft refrain from making herself the advocate of the greater +love towards mankind. The sad fate of Crazy Robin, who languishes in +a debtor's prison, after losing his wife and children through death, +is described in a little story which has true touches of pathos, and +the horrors of the Bastille are incidentally thrown in to heighten +the impression produced. In the naval story told by "Honest Jack"--in +which, by the way, absurdity reaches its climax when the hero, losing +an eye in a storm, thanks God for leaving him the other--we hear that +even the French are not so bad as they are often painted, and are +capable of mercy, for while Jack was pining away in a French prison, +some women brought him broth and wine, and one gave him rags to wrap +round his wounded leg. The whole story is rather a poor attempt at a +sailor's yarn, in which the author visibly though vainly exerts herself +to catch the right tone, with a rather too obtrusive moral background. +We feel that Jack is Mrs. Mason's ideal of manhood and the excellent +lady forgets herself and her constant companion Reason to such an +extent that tears of benevolence are seen "stealing down her cheeks"! + +The girls' trials come to an end when at last their father writes for +them to return to London. They are described as visibly improved, "an +air of intelligence" beginning to animate Caroline's fine features. +Mrs. Mason accompanies them to London, and there takes her leave of +the two girls, probably to inflict her personality on a pair of fresh +victims. + +In the next few years the problem of the education of children, +although remaining a subject of constant speculation, receded before +that of the Cause of Woman. But when Mary was herself a happy mother, +the old problems presented themselves in a more tangible form. Godwin +informs us in the "_Memoirs_" that shortly before her death she +projected a work upon the management of the infant years, "which she +had carefully considered, and well understood". + +It was about the time of the publication of the "_Original Stories_" +that Mary made up her mind to definitely adopt writing as a profession. +She realised that in doing so she was flying in the face of prejudice. +But she had seen enough of the world, and the result of her long and +bitter wrestlings with adversity had been a sufficient increase of +moral strength to render her independent of the opinion of others. +Henceforth it was to be her task to form the opinions of her sex, and +in doing so she totally disregarded the opinion of others concerning +herself. Her voluntary martyrdom had begun. + +At the same time her scope of observation became considerably widened. +Mr. Johnson's house was the resort of a great many of the leading +philosophical minds of the day, all of whom had strong revolutionary +tendencies, and whose works he brought out with an utter contempt of +consequences very much to his credit. Nothing could be more natural +than that the constant intercourse with people like Thomas Paine, +Fuseli the Swiss painter, Mr. Bonnycastle the pedagogue, Dr. Priestley, +Dr. Geddes, Dr. George Fordyce, Lavater and Talleyrand (who in those +days paid a visit to England)--to whom was added afterwards the +enigmatical personality of William Godwin--should tend to inspire her +with strong revolutionary ideas. It had the effect of widening her +horizon and of causing her to transfer her energies from the work of +education to that of social reform. Mr. Johnson's circle consisted +almost entirely of men, the only women, besides Mary, being the more +easy-going, and less energetic Mrs. Inchbald and the far less gifted +Miss Hayes and Mrs. Trimmer. Where the men had the Rights of Men for +their watchword, Mary Wollstonecraft as a natural consequence found her +attention directed towards the position of her own sex, a subject which +these hot-headed champions were too apt to overlook. + +It was in those days (Nov. 1, 1790) that Burke made his violent +onslaught upon what he termed the "seditious" theories concerning the +rights of man voiced by her dear friend Dr. Price in his epoch-making +sermon at the Old Jewry to his congregation of sympathisers with +the Revolution. This direct attack had the effect of making Mary +Wollstonecraft seize her pen in defence of her old friend and in +support of those principles which had slowly and gradually come to mean +a great deal to her. Already the correspondence of the Kingsborough +period is distinctly suggestive of awakening social interests, stress +being laid on the prejudices connected with rank and station. (Letters +to Everina, 1787 and 1788, and to Mrs. Bishop, 1787). In Ireland her +eyes had been opened to the moral inferiority of men and women of +quality and to the distress of those who, like herself, were dependent +on them. The picture of eternity receded before that of earthly +injustice to be repaired. + +At Mr. Johnson's she frequently took part in the discussion of the +possibility of reestablishing the governments of Europe on primary +principles, and the new ideas sounded in her ears like a new Gospel of +Man. The reflections of Jean-Jacques--she must have read and discussed +the _Contrat Social_ in those days, although there is no correspondence +to prove the assumption--couched in prose "made lyrical by faith" could +not fail to impress a mind like that of Mary, than whom they never made +an easier proselyte. Add to this the direct stimulus of the revolution, +and the prospect of immediate application of the new theories which +electrified all revolutionary minds, and it will not be difficult to +account for her enthusiasm, which placed her among the first to use +her pen in defence of the new creed. When she had almost finished her +pamphlet and was about to have it printed, she felt less sanguine +about her powers of persuasion, but the work as she wrote it bears the +unmistakable evidence of having been struck at a heat, which, together +with its obvious sincerity, may account for some of its success. + +Dr. Price, in his sermon of 1789, "in commemoration of the Revolution +of 1688", had given vent to the feelings of approbation with which he +had greeted the outbreak of the French Revolution, and among others +expressed the view that the king owes his crown to the choice of his +people and "may be cashiered for misconduct", thus openly declaring +himself a follower of the theories of the Social Contract, which are +based upon the sovereignty of the people. + +Burke in his "_Reflections on the Revolution in France_", takes his +stand upon the British constitution--once the object of the admiration +of a Montesquieu--to oppose what he regards as nothing less than a +direct attempt at sowing the seeds of revolution in Great Britain. His +pamphlet called forth no fewer than thirty-eight replies, of which that +written by Thomas Paine was the most successful amongst the partisans +of the new movement in consequence of its radical tendencies. Mary +Wollstonecraft was in the van of the revolutionary army, and shared +with Dr. Priestley the honour of being the first to enter the field. +To account for her indignation it should be remembered that Burke had +until then been regarded as one of the principal Whig advocates of +reform, in connection with his attitude towards the American problem. +No one had anticipated this sudden change of tactics, so welcome, +though unlooked-for, to King George and to Pitt, and it fairly maddened +the champions of reform. + +Buckle, in his "_History of Civilisation in England_", deeply regrets +Burke's conduct, which he calls the consequence of an unfortunate +hallucination, due to his feelings having temporarily got the better +of his Reason. The vehemence of the controversy in question between +opponents who were equally sincere and convinced of the soundness of +their views, is due to an essential difference in standpoint, leading +to opinions which in either case, though containing an element of +truth, must be termed one-sided. The thoroughly practical Burke, +whose political ideas were the fruit of an experience of nearly half +a century, placed himself upon the purely empirical standpoint, +resting his arguments upon a basis of sound historical experience, +and asserting that the legislator's first aim should be expediency, +taught by experience, and not abstract, speculative truth. He points +to the difference between political and social principles, which are +the outcome of reason; and political practice, which is the product of +human nature, and of which reason is but a part. The reformers of the +opposing camp took their stand upon a basis of abstract, geometrical +reasoning, and persistently refused to consider the argument of +expediency. They only regarded the theoretical aspect of the social +problem. Both parties recognised the doctrines of human rights and of +the popular sovereignty, which were of British growth, having been put +forward long before Rousseau by John Locke; but they differ in their +application of them. With Burke, rights are of an hereditary nature. +To him, the constitution is the embodiment both of the rights of the +free British citizen, and of the duties of the British subject, an +inheritance they derived from their ancestors of 1688, together with +the duty of keeping the legacy intact in its general tendencies. It +was Burke's firm conviction that a statesman should steer clear of +philosophical principles, which an absolute want of adaptability to the +exigencies of a special case renders unfit for practice. + +It must be granted that this line of argument in Burke's case led to +a fatal blindness to obvious injustice and to a curious inability +to appreciate what was good, noble and disinterested in the leaders +of the revolutionary movement. Mary Wollstonecraft and her friends +failed to see that reforms which are to affect the roots of existing +conditions--however desirable and even necessary--must of necessity +be slow and gradual, lest our gain should prove but a poor substitute +for our certain loss. There are none more dangerous to society than +the abstract idealist, whose very inexperience confirms him in the +belief that he is in possession of absolute Truth, for which he is +willing to lay down his own life, and, _en passant_, the lives of +others. Of such a nature was the "amiable defect"--to use her own +terminology--developed in Mary Wollstonecraft's nature by too impulsive +a zeal in the cause of mankind. + +She felt intensely on the subject. The furious onslaught which she +makes upon Burke in the _Rights of Man_--without that respect for grey +hairs which she would have Burke observe in his dealings with Dr. +Price--was prompted by a far deeper feeling for mankind than Burke was +capable of. The two vulnerable points in Burke's pamphlet were his +unreasonable vehemence and the personal character of his attacks on the +one hand, and his want of real sympathy with the "swinish multitude" +on the other. The submerged portions of humanity have little to hope +for in a statesman who coolly advises them "by labour to obtain what by +labour can be obtained and to be taught their consolation in the final +proportions of eternal justice". The hopeless conservatism of this view +aroused the indignation of Mary Wollstonecraft. "It is possible," she +exclaims, "to render the poor happier in this world without depriving +them of the consolation which you gratuitously grant them in the next!" + +Nor has Mr. Burke's "immaculate constitution" her undivided sympathy. +She agrees with Rousseau that property, while one of the pillars of the +monarchical system, is a deadly enemy to that equality of men before +the law without which there can be no real liberty. The preservation +of the intact family-estate for the purpose of perpetuating a +time-honoured name and tradition, much as it appeals to Burke, was a +phrase the force of which did not strike Mary Wollstonecraft, whose +indifference to opinion we have already referred to. It would be far +better for society if each large estate were divided into a number +of small farms, so that each might have a competent portion and all +amassing of property cease. + +In the same passage she boldly asserts the rights of man, as laid +down by Rousseau in his famous Social Compact, which give him a title +to as much liberty, both civil and religious, as is compatible with +the rights of every other individual. As it is, the first rule of the +doctrine of equality, which says that all men are equal before the +law, is utterly disregarded, for does not the law shield the rich and +oppress the poor? Property in England is a great deal more secure than +liberty. + +The views expressed in the above passage to a great extent anticipate +those of Godwin's "_Caleb Williams_", published in 1794, which, +according to the author's preface, comprehended "a general view of +the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes +the destroyer of man", and in which a social system was denounced +which enabled the rich man to use the power of a law which seemed +to regard only the interests of one single class of society for the +most nefarious purposes[43]. A parallel to this sociological novel is +afforded by Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished "_Maria, or the Wrongs of +Woman_", to which, if we replace the last word by "woman", the sentence +just quoted applies literally. + +It is but fair to state that Mary Wollstonecraft did not persist in her +extreme views as to the necessity of a sudden and radical change which +at one time made her overlook the principle of slow evolution. She was +willing to recognise this principle in her "_Historical and Moral View +of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution_", of which the +first and only volume was written some three years later. At Paris, +before her intimacy with Imlay and the birth of her daughter Fanny +brought about a temporary relaxation in her social zeal, her time was +spent in watching the development of events with eager and sympathetic +interest. Her optimistic faith in the perfectibility of mankind helped +her--as it did Wordsworth--to look beyond the horrors and bloodshed +by which her heart was moved to intense pity and indignation. She was +convinced that out of the chaotic mass "a fairer government was rising +than ever shed the sweets of social life on the world." But, she adds, +"things must have time to find their level." + +The "_Vindication of the Rights of Man_"--although quite overshadowed +by Paine's pamphlet--met with so much success that very soon after its +publication a second edition was called for. There is no doubt that +this circumstance gave Mary a great deal of encouragement. It became +an incentive to further efforts on a larger scale in the direction in +which she now realised lay the mission of her life. In spite of her +theories she was sufficiently sensitive to praise to feel gratified by +it and to derive from it the moral courage necessary to defy public +opinion and constitute herself the champion of the Cause of Woman. + +We have seen that the Cause of Woman had met with very little regard in +England in the course of the century, except where moral improvement +was concerned. In France, however, the progress to be recorded was +considerable. It will be remembered that Fénelon had been the first +to insist on an education which might teach girls the pursuit of some +useful ideal instead of leaving them to pass their time in a degrading +search for pleasure. There is in Fénelon a distinct foreshadowing +of the tendencies of educational reform in later years. With Mary +Wollstonecraft also, the chief aim of education is not to prepare the +individual for social intercourse, but to accustom the mind to listen +to the dictates of Reason. Fénelon has a more negative way of putting +the question. He believes in filling the mind with useful ideas as a +means of preventing moral degradation. + +In the course of the following century, the philosophers of the +Encyclopédie introduced their theories of rationalism. Helvétius +(in his _Traité de l'Homme_, 1774) insisted on the necessity of an +education in connection with his theory that the human mind, which is +sovereign, is the exclusive product of education and experience. He +may be called a link in the chain of advocates of the Cause of Woman, +although not paying the slightest attention to women in particular; +for he indirectly advances their cause a step by defending the view +that an education is indispensable to develop the mind and thus attain +perfection. He is one of the originators of the theory which says that +the mind is in a perfectly neutral state at birth, capable of receiving +and guarding any impressions which may be produced by accidental +circumstances, which a well-regulated education may to a certain extent +make or re-make; the obvious conclusion being that all men are of equal +birth. To this scheme Diderot in his "_Réfutation_" opposed his theory +of heredity, or innate character. Both Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft +were adherents of Helvétius. Viewed in the light of original equality, +which supposes equal possibilities in individuals who are only +physically different, it will be readily seen what a long vista of +improvements may be opened by perfecting the education. + +In the catalogue Rousseau must be passed over until Mary herself will +introduce him, when he will be fighting on the wrong side, although +not so completely as Mary Wollstonecraft would have us believe. +Although their respective views on the subject of female education and +the consequent position of women in society are almost diametrically +opposed, yet there is a great deal of sound reasoning in the remarks +of both. However, we find in each the same unfortunate tendency to +generalisation and exaggeration. + +A discussion of the social position of women without direct reference +to education, criticising them as they then were, and pointing out what +they might be, may be found in d'Holbach's _Social System_ (1774), +where an entire chapter is devoted to the subject. Mr. Brailsford[44] +points out the strange incongruity which lies in the fact that an +atheist and a confirmed materialist was among the first to recommend +the emancipation of women. For a rationalist philosopher, indeed, to +arrive at the conclusion that women should be made the social equals of +men, would be nothing very remarkable, but where d'Holbach constantly +keeps in view the moral side of the problem, he approaches the English +moralists rather than the French thinkers of the school of Reason. + +The tone of his plea is sincere, and his hints are wise, moderate and +worthy of consideration. He complains that the education of the women +of his time, instead of developing in them those qualities which are +best calculated to bring happiness to men, merely tends to make them +inconstant, capricious and irresponsible. They are being tyrannised +over in every country; in Europe their position is not more enviable +than elsewhere, although a varnish of gallantry seeks to hide the fact. +Not woman herself is to blame for this, but rather man, who refuses her +the benefit of an education which may render her fit to perform the +duties of life. There is nothing more inconsistent than the education +of girls, which includes instruction in religious matters, teaching +them the hope of eternity in conjunction with all the vanities of life, +such as dancing and a too great regard for dress and deportment, which +are incompatible with true piety. + +D'Holbach was also the first to protest against those marriages in +which even mutual esteem is wanting, which is even more important than +love, because of its greater permanence. Where conjugal infidelity is +encouraged on the stage and in society, married life too often becomes +one protracted intrigue, and the domestic duties and the education +of the children cease to be regarded. Women of the lower classes are +even worse off; prostitution is their only course, and society, while +readily forgiving the seducer, leaves the victim to a life of infamy. + +The chapter ends with an earnest appeal to women to learn the value of +reason and the power of virtue, which alone lead to happiness, and to +respect themselves if they wish others to respect them. + +The parallelism between the passages referred to above and the main +drift of Mary Wollstonecraft's contentions in her "_Vindication of the +Rights of Women_" is so particularly striking, that the assumption +seems justified that she had read d'Holbach. + +The outbreak of the revolution caused the new philosophical principles +to be put to the test of practical experiment. In 1791 the National +Assembly, realising that an important step towards the realisation +of that equality they aimed at was the institution of a national +education, called upon Talleyrand to elaborate a project of an +educational scheme on rational principles. Talleyrand's report pointed +out the desirability of allowing women to share in the universal +education and to establish schools to which both sexes were to be +admitted. As regards the possibility of their taking part in political +discussions, he was of opinion that their domestic duties forbade their +entering the arena of politics. The education of children was the +principal of these duties, and the report says that "after reaching the +age of eight, girls should be restored to their parents to be taught +housekeeping at home." + +The dissolution of the National Assembly caused Talleyrand's scheme to +be consigned to oblivion, and his task was entrusted by the Legislative +Assembly to the philosopher Condorcet. This disciple of Turgot, who +may be called the French Godwin, sharing the latter's love of the +mathematics of philosophy, blessed with the same boundless confidence +in the future of humanity, and actuated by the same unselfish +enthusiasm, which he did not, like Godwin, take the trouble to hide +under a mask of seeming Stoicism,--read his report in April 1792. It +almost coincided with the publication of the _Vindication_, for a +letter written by Mrs. Bishop to Everina Wollstonecraft in July of +the same year refers to Mary as the successful author of the _Rights +of Women_. Condorcet's views differ from Mary's in that he wishes the +instruction which is open to all classes to be regulated in accordance +with talent and capacity. An education, therefore, regarding innate +talents rather than social distinctions, and by which each man is to be +rendered independent of others[45]. + +Women are to receive the same instruction as men. It is not astonishing +that the theorist Condorcet should be inclined to go beyond what the +practical Talleyrand considered feasible and to forget the undeniable +difference in character and capacities existing between the sexes. In +this, Mary Wollstonecraft felt like Condorcet. Both make the mistake, +when anxious to assert the intellectual equality of women and to have +them recognised as "partakers of Reason", of trying to strengthen +their plea by pointing to one or two exceptional women to prove what +woman is capable of. The grounds on which Condorcet--continuing the +line of thought of his French predecessors--demands instruction for +women are the same as those of Mary. Women are the natural educators +of the young, they should guard their husbands' affections by making +themselves agreeable companions, capable of taking an interest in their +daily occupations. But it is the last argument that clinches matters: +the two sexes have equal _rights_ to be instructed. + +It is Condorcet's ideal--as it had been that of Bernardin de St. +Pierre--to give the children of the two sexes a joint education, which +may prepare them for the social state, and which he feels confident +will remove the atmosphere of unhealthy mystery which an artificial +separation is apt to produce. Mary heartily concurs with this view. "I +should not," she says, "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." + +I have tried to point out that, although the acquaintance of Mary +Wollstonecraft with the works of the French educationalists (Rousseau, +of course, excepted) is doubtful, yet there is the closest resemblance +in the spirit which animates them. The English writers on the subject, +as we have seen, were upon the whole much less enlightened. Their +names are repeatedly mentioned in the _Vindication_, and their methods +criticised. The principles underlying the theory of the Rights of +Man are adopted with perfect logic as a basis on which to consider +the position of the female half of society. "If the abstract rights +of man will bear discussion and explanation", says the dedication to +Talleyrand, in whom she trusted to find a sympathiser, "those of woman, +by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test." + +Mary's methods of investigation are borrowed from Rousseau. In his +scheme for the improvement of social conditions, the latter had +insisted on the necessity of reverting to the original principles +which underlie the social structure, and out of the misunderstanding +and consequent misapplication of which the great hindrances to human +progress, prejudice and prescription arose. A too close regard to +expediency--continually contrasted with simple principles--seems to +her the cause of the introduction of measures "rotten at the core", +from which flow the misery and disorder which pervade society. While +adopting Rousseau's general lines of thought, however, she cannot bring +herself to share his raptures about the state of nature, which in its +essence is nothing but a denial of the possibility of a well-organised +society. The optimism with which he regards the individual does not +extend to society, in respect to which he is far too pessimistic to +suit Mary's unshakable confidence in human perfectibility. Where +Rousseau asserts that "l'homme est né bon", and holds the social state +responsible for the introduction of evil, Mary Wollstonecraft feels +in the presence of evil the will of the Almighty that we should make +use of the gift of Reason as a means of conquering evil and attaining +perfection. To return to Nature, therefore, would mean evading the +chief task which God meant to impose upon his favourite creature, that +of cultivating virtue in the social state which He ordained. + +Here again, as in Helvétius, d'Holbach and so many others, Reason is +to be the governing power. In Reason lies Man's pre-eminence over +the brute creation, and out of the struggle between Reason and the +passions arise virtue and knowledge, by which man is conducted towards +happiness. Mary Wollstonecraft, in bringing her reason to bear upon +the existing social conditions, had become deeply conscious of the +degrading position of her sex, and, having herself risen above her +troubles, makes a fervent appeal to rational men to give them a chance +of becoming more respectable. Her plea, while in the first place +for her sex, embraces all humanity, for unless woman be prepared by +education to become the companion of man rather than his mistress, she +will hamper the progress of knowledge and virtue. + +There seems, indeed, a great deal of absurdity in a social scheme which +in vindicating the rights of the male portion of humanity, in claiming +for them equality, liberty and the blessings of education, could leave +the other half of mankind out of consideration. Was liberty to be the +portion of men only; and was woman to continue in her state of bondage? +Were all men to be partakers of Reason, guided by her only, whilst +women had the use of that faculty denied them? In a social state where +such partiality could prevail, man was himself responsible for the +utter depravity of women. The worst despotism is not that of kings, but +that of man, and woman is the trampled-upon victim. + +We are thus led to a natural division of the subject into an +examination of the position of woman such as it is, and an +investigation of what it ought to be and might be. There is one +circumstance which distinguishes Mary Wollstonecraft from other +champions of the new social creed. In their eagerness to champion +oppressed humanity against all forms of tyranny and oppression, Thomas +Paine and his followers had been too much inclined to forget that +"every right necessarily includes a duty." It is very much to Mary's +credit that she emphatically pointed out that "they forfeit the right +who do not fulfil the duty." In her claims for equality with men, +far from being prompted by sordid motives of envy, or by a desire to +obtain power or influence for her sex, she aims at enabling women to +discharge the duties of womanhood, among which that of educating their +own children occupies the first place. She was always ready herself to +take more than her share of those duties, and no one at present doubts +her sincerity when saying that she pleads for her sex rather than for +herself. + +In considering the actual position of women in society she concludes +that the trouble arises from two widely different sources. Women +have either too much attention paid them, or they have no attention +whatever paid them, and the result is equally disastrous, although in a +different way. She had had personal experience of the defencelessness +and helplessness of a young woman whom fate had cast out upon the +cruel world without the means of fighting adverse circumstances, when +financial embarrassments forced her to accept a situation as governess +in Lord Kingsborough's home. It had stung her to the quick to realise +the contempt in which she was held by those whom she justly considered +her intellectual inferiors, merely because no government had ever +taken the trouble to provide for women without a natural protector, +and the narrow views of society were that any woman who, compelled +by circumstances, tried to support herself in an honest profession, +degraded herself. That her only alternative was to throw herself upon +the protection of some lord of creation and prostitute herself, did +not seem to occur to these judges of morality. The only compassion +excited by the helplessness of females was the consequence of personal +attractions, making pity "the harbinger of lust." + +It is the duty of a benevolent government to add to the respectability +of women by enabling them to earn their own bread, and to save them +from inevitable prostitution, or from the degradation of marrying +for support. Let the professions be thrown open to them, let women +study to become physicians and nurses. Let there be midwives rather +than "accoucheurs", let them study history and politics, all of which +will keep them far better employed than the perusal of romances or +"chronicling small beer". Women are capable of taking a share in the +dealings of trade, of regulating a farm, or of managing a shop. The +only employments which have hitherto been open to them are of a menial +kind. Thus the position of a governess, who must be a gentlewoman to be +equal to her important task of education, is held in less repute than +that of a tutor, who is himself treated as a dependant. This prejudice +entirely destroys the aim of tutorship in rendering him contemptible to +his pupils. + +How the personal note appears in the above remarks, the demands of +which will certainly not strike the modern reader as exorbitant. +However, seen in the light of the prejudices prevailing in Mary's days, +they make her stand out very clearly from the common herd of those who +were willing slaves to man. She seconds Condorcet in hinting at the +remote possibility of having female representatives in Parliament. It +may here be argued in favour of her modest proposal--which she fears +may excite laughter--that the introduction of women into the Parliament +of those days could not very well have made matters worse than they +were. The mock representation of the "rotten boroughs" was indeed as +she calls it "a handle for despotism" of the worst description, and +on this subject at least a large portion of the nation held coinciding +views. + +The position of women of the upper classes, who have every attention +paid them and pass their lives in search of amusement, although +it seems better, is in reality even worse. In connection with his +views on this subject Mary is reluctantly obliged to recognise in +Rousseau--whose inconsistency is among his chief characteristics--a +champion of despotism. Making allowance for a few deviations in details +of education, it may be said that here Rousseau's views reflect the +general opinion of his time. His educational scheme, which upon the +whole had Mary's sympathy, and from which she borrowed largely in +her purely educational works, only regards Emile, the boy. The girl, +Sophie, only interests him as being essential to the happiness of the +male. The theory that the education of women should be "relative to +men", as Rousseau puts it, places him in direct opposition to Mary +Wollstonecraft, as it implies a necessary inferiority on the part of +women. His maxims supply her with a target against which to direct +the shafts of her disapprobation and indignation. In his "_Lettre à +d'Alembert_" he had made a violent onslaught on women and the passion +they inspire. It does not leave them a shred of reputation: modesty, +purity and decency are said to have completely forsaken them. The +hysterical violence of his sallies was probably due to his hatred of +the Encyclopedians, those "philosophers of a day" whose rationalism +opposed the utter subjection of women to man's desires. I have already +pointed out that it was from the French school of rationalism that the +first suggestions of emancipation came, and the above-mentioned epistle +marks the beginning of hostilities between the rationalist and the +emotional school. + +Mary Wollstonecraft did not find it difficult to agree with Rousseau +that many women had sunk to a state of deep degradation, but, she +asked: "A qui la faute?" It was man who brought her there, and she +expected man to lift her on to a more exalted plane. + +The Julie of Rousseau's "_Nouvelle Héloise_" impresses us as +another inconsistency. She displays, it is true, the characteristic +submissiveness to a characteristically masterful parent, and the usual +notions of virtue consisting chiefly in the preservation of reputation +which Mary attacks so vigorously in the _Rights of Women_, but Julie +has far more individuality than the average young woman of the period. +She rather leads her lover than he her. The _Nouvelle Héloise_, +however, displays Rousseau's sentimental vein, and is therefore more +directly irrational than anything else he wrote. The Sophie of _Emile_ +is partly the creation of his intellect, the Julie of the _Nouvelle +Héloise_ almost exclusively that of his sentiment. + +In the fifth book of _Emile_, therefore, sentimentality only plays +an occasional part. Rousseau's intellect assigns to woman the place +which she ought to fill in society. A writer on female education, +says Lord John Morley, may consider woman as destined to be a wife, +or a mother, or a human being; as the companion of man, as the rearer +of the young, or as an independent personality, endowed with talents +and possibilities in less or greater number, and capable as in the +case of men of being trained to the best or the worst use, or left +to rust unused[46]. Rousseau insists upon the first, makes little of +the second, and utterly ignores the third. Emile is brought up to be +above all a man; Sophie, however, is given no chance of attaining the +necessary qualifications for womanhood and motherhood and is merely +educated to be an obedient and submissive companion to her husband. Her +opinions are modelled upon Emile's, and in no matter of importance, not +even in religion, is she allowed to choose for herself. The last is +an emphatic denial of the faculty of Reason in women. That a woman of +this stamp, accustomed to mental and moral dependence, is all unfit to +educate her own children, is self-evident, nor did Rousseau destine her +for this task. As soon as the child has been weaned, the mother passes +out of the educational scheme, her place and that of the father being +taken by the instructor. + +Mary Wollstonecraft regards women in the first place as human beings +and asserts their right to be educated. They are in possession of the +faculty of Reason, which in them is as capable of being perfected as +in their lord and master, man. Their conduct and manners, however, +show that their minds are in no healthy state. Having been taught that +their chief aim in life is to make a wealthy marriage, they sacrifice +everything to beauty and attractiveness of appearance. Instead of +cherishing nobler ambitions, they are satisfied to remain in that +state of perpetual childhood in which the tyranny of man has purposely +kept them. The relative education has made them utterly dependent on +masculine opinion. Rousseau, who calls opinion the tomb of virtue in +men, recommends it to women as its "high throne", thus introducing +a sexual code of morality. They know that the flattering sense of +physical superiority makes man prefer them feeble and clinging for +protection, and accordingly they cultivate physical weakness and +dependence. A puny appetite is considered by them "the height of human +perfection". Why did not Rousseau extend his excellent advice regarding +outdoor sports and games to girls? They would not care for dolls if +their involuntary confinement within doors did not incapacitate them +from healthier pursuits. Thus the physical inferiority of women is +partly of man's own creation, and might be to a large extent remedied. + +Once the right of being educated has been granted to women, they must +of necessity develop into suitable companions to their husbands and +affectionate parents to their children. To assert that woman's only +duty consists in catering for the happiness of her lord and master +is taking a sordid view of her possibilities. Granting that woman +has a soul, and that the promise of immortality applies also to +her, it follows naturally that the cultivation of that soul is her +chief business in life. The prevailing notion of a sexual character, +therefore, is subversive of all morality. Soldiers, who like women are +sent into the world before their minds have been stored with knowledge +or fortified by principles, show the same deplorable lack of common +sense. + +Scattered through the book are a number of rather desultory remarks +from which may be gathered the author's notions regarding the baleful +influence of slavery upon the moral aspirations of her sex. Nearly all +contemporary authors agreed that woman's chief aim ought to be "to +please". Among their number were Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Piozzi, Mme de +Genlis and Mme de Staël. From the first the notion was inculcated that +the chief object is to make an advantageous match, "it is acknowledged +that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring +a smattering of accomplishments, meanwhile strength of mind and body +are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire of +establishing themselves--the only way women can rise in the world--by +marriage." + +The cardinal virtues of the sex are therefore those qualities which +are best calculated to make them acceptable to men, as gentleness, +sweetness of temper, docility and a "spaniel-like" affection. Men +complain, and with reason, of the follies and caprices of women, +forgetting that they are the natural outcome of an ignorance which is +very far removed from innocence. + +The education of women, such as it is, consists only in some kind of +preparation for social life, instead of being considered the first +step to form a rational being, advancing by gradual steps towards +perfection. Thus a woman is methodically prepared for the bondage +that awaits her, and never gets an opportunity of asserting her better +possibilities. A sexual character is established by artificial means, +and in this circumstance Mary sees the chief cause of woman's moral +decay, for which she herself is only partly responsible. + +All her life she remains powerless to get away from the shackles of +first impressions. Her conduct is regulated by absurd notions of a +specially feminine virtue, chastity, modesty and propriety. Instead +of realising that virtue--which surely ought to be the same for women +as for men--is nothing but love of truth and fortitude, she confounds +with it reputation. Respect for the opinion of the world is considered +one of her chief duties, for does not Rousseau himself declare that +reputation is no less indispensable than chastity? + +For true modesty--which is only that purity of thought which is +characteristic of cultivated minds--she substitutes the coquettish +affectations which are to draw the lover on while seemingly rejecting +him. The insincerity of these principles of daily conduct tend to +develop in the female mind that cunning which Rousseau calls natural +and accordingly recommends! For a woman to show her actual feelings is +to be guilty of the most flagrant breach of modesty. + +Where writers have granted to man the monopoly of reason, they have +given to woman as a substitute that which is delicately termed +"sensibility", but is in reality nothing but a morbid sort of +sensuality, the consequence of devouring novels which have the effect +of inflaming the senses, and the only antidote to which is healthy +exercise. + +Mary Wollstonecraft, like the Bluestocking moralists, regarded the +quality of sensibility with favour only when regulated by Reason. +In her enjoyment of the beauty of natural scenery, according to her +own analysis, it is her very reason which "obliged her to permit her +feelings to be her criterion." (Letters from Sweden). But it was one +of her chief contentions that far too much stress was laid on the +cultivation of that kind of sensibility in women which in its very +exaggeratedness leads to the worst excesses of sentimentalism. The +eighteenth century interpretation of the term "sensibility" with its +concomitant absurdities awakened in her feelings of intense disgust. +All Rousseau's errors in her opinion arose from its source. To indulge +his feelings, and not to imbibe moral strength at the fountain of +Nature, or to satisfy a thirst for scientific investigation, he sought +for solitude when meditating the rapturous but dangerous love-scenes +of the _Nouvelle Héloise_. No doubt these scenes were in her mind +when she wrote: "Love such as the glowing pen of genius has traced, +exists not, or only resides in those exalted, fervid imaginations that +have sketched such dangerous pictures." She only sees in them "sheer +sensuality under a sentimental veil." The sentimentalists who, like +Richardson and Rousseau, laid bare the play of the human passions to a +reading public consisting almost entirely of women, whose minds were +not sufficiently occupied to keep their imagination within bounds, "set +fire to a house for the sake of making the pumps play." + +Morbid sensibility, in its exaggerated tenderness over insignificant +trifles and corresponding indifference to real social evils, excludes +from the mind all sense of moral duty. + +Two writers of Mary Wollstonecraft's time had shown a more than usual +narrowness of views. They were the Rev. Dr. James Fordyce, author +of a number of sermons addressed to women, and Dr. Gregory, who had +written a "_Legacy to his Daughters_." The former proceeded from the +propositions which had formed the basis of Rousseau's argument. He is +so thoroughly convinced of the all-round superiority of man, that he +assumes the natural folly of woman to be the cause of all matrimonial +differences. He feels sure that women who behave to their husbands with +"respectful observance", studying their humours and overlooking their +mistakes, submitting to their opinion, passing by little instances of +unevenness, caprice or fashion, and relieving their anxieties will find +their homes "the abode of domestic bliss." + +Fordyce held the principal charm of women to be a sickly sort of +delicacy which, as it flatters the vanity of the male, is not wholly +without effect even in our days, in spite of all Mrs. Fawcett may say +to the contrary. Men of sensibility, he says, "desire in every woman +soft features and a flowing voice, a form not robust, and demeanour +delicate and gentle." This hint could only have the effect of making +women more insipid than even Rousseau's Sophie, who at least after her +marriage shared her husband's outdoor exercise. But the worst part of +Fordyce's argument is that passage in which he advises young women to +remember that the devout attitude of pious recollection (in prayer) +is most likely to conquer a man's heart. When a clergyman thus by +well-meant advice perverts his flock, what are we to expect from the +grosser bulk of mankind! + +As Mary Wollstonecraft justly points out, there is about these +sermons, for all their sentimental posing and bombastic phrasing, a +certain sneaking voluptuousness which would strike a modern woman as +most insulting; a confident tone of proprietorship which could not +fail to stimulate any woman of independent temper into revolt. Mrs. +Rauschenbusch points out that Dr. Fordyce was acting in accordance with +the tendencies of the Church in advocating that meekness and bearing of +injuries without retaliation which are taught by the Gospel. + +What particularly galled Mary was the hypocritical prostration of men +before woman's charms, that mock politeness which seemed to her the +most cruel proof of the degradation of her sex. The description of +women by Fordyce as "smiling, fair innocents", and the frequent use of +terms like "fair defects", "amiable weakness", etc. where women were +concerned, sounded to her as an insult. + +In Gregory's "_Legacy to his Daughters_" the case was slightly +different. The author was an affectionate father, whose anxiety to +shield his motherless girls induced him to become an author. That an +honest, well-intentioned man like he should be capable of writing such +trash makes us realise the hopelessness of Mary's task. He openly +recommends dissimulation. For a woman to show what she feels must be +termed indelicate. A girl should be careful to hide her gaiety of +heart, "lest the men who beheld her might either suppose that she was +not entirely dependent on their protection for her safety, or else +entertain dark suspicions as to her modesty." In the lives of the poor +Gregory girls Mrs. Grundy was omnipotent! + +Unreserved praise, on the contrary, is bestowed upon Mrs. Catherine +Macaulay's "_Letters on Education with Observations on Religion and +Metaphysical Subjects_", which had appeared in 1790, shortly before +their author's death. Mrs. Macaulay had been among the opponents of +Burke in a vindication of a French government which owed its authority +to the will of a majority; and also in matters educational her +views coincided with those of Mary Wollstonecraft. She believed in +co-education up to a certain age, which has the obvious advantage of +making the daily intercourse between people of different sexes less +strained and more natural not only in early youth, but also later in +life, when the relations between the sexes ought to be based upon +mutual appreciation and esteem. Like Mary Wollstonecraft, she protested +against what she called "the absurd notion of a sexual excellence", +which not only excluded the female sex from every political right, but +left them hardly a civil right to save them from the grossest injuries. +It was an unlucky circumstance indeed that the only woman who might +have granted Mary the full support of her reputation as the author of +a very successful work on the "_History of England from the Accession +of James the First to that of the Brunswick Line_" should have been +removed by death at a time when that support might have been of so much +value to one who felt forsaken by the majority of her own sex.[47] + +Mary Wollstonecraft pleads the necessity of giving woman an education +like that which is granted to man, that she may learn to take +Reason for her guide. Only then will she be able to perform the +specific duties of her sex. But there is a weightier argument for +the cultivation of Reason in women. Their deplorable deficiency in +this quality has so far made them consider only earthly interests and +disqualified them from looking beyond the affairs of this world to the +promise of that eternity for which only the soul can fit them. It is +in pointing out the evil consequences to the soul of a life devoted to +pleasure that Mary's pleadings attain their greatest depth of pathos +and intensity. The profound piety of her character makes her protest +against this sordid view of life. + +"Surely" she exclaims, "she has not an immortal soul who can loiter +life away merely employed to adorn her person that she may amuse the +languid hours and soften the cares of a fellow-creature who is willing +to be enlivened by her smiles and tricks when the serious business of +life is over." + +Once a woman has attained her aim of a profitable marriage, the +circumstances of which almost exclude the possibility of love, she +turns all her "natural" cunning to account to establish a sort of mock +tyranny over her master. She lives in the enjoyment of her present +influence, forgetting that adoration will cease with the loss of her +charms, and that woman is "quickly scorned when not adored". In later +years there will be no sound basis of friendship arising from equality +of tastes to take its place, no reflection to be substituted for +sensation, and their earthly punishment consists in a miserable old +age. Even when married to a sensible husband, who thinks for her, what +will be the fate of a woman who is left a widow with a large family? +"Unable to educate her sons, or to impress them with respect, she +pines under the anguish of unavailing impotent regret." The passage +in which she pictures her ideal of rational womanhood, who, far from +being rendered helpless by her husband's death, rises to the occasion +and devotes herself with a strong heart to the discharge of her +maternal duties, finally reaping the reward of her care when she sees +her children attain a strength of character enabling them to endure +adversity, is a piece of true eloquence. "The task of life fulfilled, +she calmly waits for the sleep of death, and rising from the grave, may +say: "Behold, thou gavest me a talent, and here are five talents".[48] + +There never was a more fervent champion of marriage and domesticity +than Mary. The sanctity of matrimony needed no enforcement by means of +a wedding ceremony, but consisted in the mutual affection and esteem +which was felt. Hence her violent criticism of loveless marriages +contracted from mercenary motives and her severe condemnation of the +harshness with which society treated poor ruined girls. + +The twelfth chapter of the _Rights of Women_ contains a plea for +national education. Mary is here seen treading in the steps of +Talleyrand, and forsaking her old masters Locke and Rousseau. They +both advocate a private education. Locke wants to educate the +"gentleman", making his scheme practicable in isolated applications, +but disregarding the bulk of the nation. + +Rousseau, who did regard the mass of the people in matters of political +speculation, entirely loses sight of the public interest in favour +of the private in his educational scheme, thus reducing it to mere +abstract speculation, incapable of extensive realisation. But Mary +Wollstonecraft adopts the more practical view of the active socialist. +The children of the nation are to be educated without the slightest +reference to class distinction, and they ought to be brought up +together. The exclusive teaching of a child by a tutor will make him +acquire a sort of premature manhood, and will not tend to make him a +good citizen. He is to be a member of society, and it will not do to +regard him as a unit, complete in himself. The same view limits the +freedom of the individual to what is compatible with the rights of +others. To ignore the duties of the individual towards society would be +to build the entire structure of education upon an unsound basis. + +This plea for co-education will be seen to be a recantation from former +opinions expressed in the "_Original Stories_". The latter had their +rise chiefly in the experience gained of boarding-schools during her +stay at Eton with the Priors. They seemed to her absolute hotbeds of +vice and folly, where an utter want of modesty introduced the most +repulsive habits. The younger boys delighted in mischief, the older in +every form of vice. The colleges were full of the relics of popery, the +'mouth-service',which makes all religion but a cold parade of show, and +the educators themselves were very poor champions of true religion. +What Mary saw at Eton confirmed her in the belief that dayschools were +to be preferred, as the only way of combining the advantages of private +and public education. + +That important part of education which aims at awakening the affections +can only be given in the home of loving parents, and only that man can +be a good citizen who has first learned to be a good son and brother. +A country day-school, affording the best opportunities for unstinted +physical exercise, might be expected to be productive of the greatest +benefit to young pupils. The division of the educational task between +school and home will moreover leave the children the necessary amount +of freedom which is denied them when living the cramped lives of +boarding-schools. + +To make women the companions of men, and to remove the unhealthy +atmosphere of an artificial separation of the sexes which produces +indelicacy in both, she thinks it necessary that boys and girls should +be brought up together. All children should be dressed regardless of +class and submitted to the same rules of discipline. They should not be +made to remain in the schoolroom for longer than an hour, and be taken +out into the schoolyard, or better still, for walks. A good deal of +outdoor instruction of the kind Rousseau described might be given by +means of spectacular illustration. + +At the age of nine comes the first great change in the daily routine. +The two sexes will still be together in the morning, engaged in common +pursuits, but the afternoon will find the girls bent over their +needlework, millinery, etc., while the boys' further instruction +will depend on their choice of a trade. Special schools ought to be +established for those whose superior abilities render them fit to +pursue some course of scientific studies. + +Being thus together will take the edge off that unnatural restraint +which too often marks the relations between children of a different +sex. The position of the teachers--not ushers--should be such as to +render them entirely independent of their pupils' parents. The usher's +ambiguous position of mixed authority and submission frequently +rendered him an object of ridicule to the children. Talleyrand, from +whom Mary in all probability borrowed this suggestion, even wanted +to make the children independent of their masters in respect of +punishment, by having it inflicted only after the offender had been +tried and found guilty by his peers. + +It will be seen that the "_Vindication of the Rights of Women_" touches +upon a great many points which at the present time have become foregone +conclusions, but which, nevertheless, were in Mary's days daring +speculations, which were received with anything but general approval. + +If it should now appear to us that some of her conclusions were rather +too sweeping, that the very physical inferiority of woman which she +is willing to grant makes it impossible for her to combine in her +person the wife, the mother and the social woman, and that a too +ardent application of her theories of the social possibilities of her +sex is responsible for some abominations of the public hustings, who, +banging their fists on the table, "refuse to be the playthings of men +any longer"--it should be remembered that she insisted with equal +emphasis upon the cultivation of the female qualities, and that it was +not granted her to be taught moderation by the repulsive spectacle +of female extremism in later times! Moreover, in the introduction to +the first edition of the _Vindication_, she expresses her disgust of +"masculine women". And yet the type of a "masculine woman" in Mary's +days, with her "ardour in hunting, shooting and gaming", was not nearly +so objectionable as her modern sister. + +It is, indeed, very difficult to find anything to praise in the +_Vindication_ when viewed as a literary effort. Mary Wollstonecraft +herself clearly did not regard it as such. The importance of the +object by which she was animated made her disdain to cull her phrases +or polish her style, wishing rather to persuade by the force of her +arguments than dazzle by the elegance of her language. Unfortunately +the former is not inconsiderably weakened by a deplorable tendency +to reiteration, and a general desultoriness and lack of system which +cannot fail to strike the reader. The "flowery diction" which she +professed herself anxious to avoid, but did not succeed in completely +banishing, is responsible for a great deal of the turgidity and false +rhetoric which disfigure certain passages. + +Godwin, whose unemotional nature enabled him to judge of his wife's +work without prejudice and whose _Memoirs_ contain a most sincere and +therefore valuable criticism, although admiring the courage of her +convictions, the disinterestedness of her motives and the originality +of her contentions, finds fault with what he calls "the stern and +rugged nature" of certain passages which will probably impress the +modern reader as coarse and indelicate. Her great devotion to the cause +may account for the "amazonian" temper which fills some parts of her +book, more especially the "animadversions" on the opinions of those +of her opponents whose "backs demanded the scourge". Her disapproval +of Lord Chesterfield's moral standpoint has already been referred to. +Mary Wollstonecraft was not in the habit of mincing matters, and her +sincerity and consequent frankness brought her the ill-will of many. + +The publication of the _Rights of Women_ at once brought Mary into +prominence. Unfortunately, the scare of a French invasion and the +trial of the reformers were most unfavourable to the spread of any +new ideas in England. From her sisters she had little sympathy, and +"poor Bess" rather spitefully alluded to information she had received +to the effect that "Mrs. Wollstonecraft was grown quite handsome" and +intended going to Paris. For this trip to France there were several +causes. In the first place she felt intensely interested in the march +of events there, which were hastening to a crisis, Louis XVI being a +prisoner in the hands of the Convention. The second motive--perhaps +the principal--was connected with her friendship for Mr. Fuseli, the +celebrated Swiss painter; but whether she hoped to make the trip in +company with the Fuselis and her friend Johnson, as Mr. Kegan Paul +supposes[49], or wanted to get away from the influence of the artist, +with whom Godwin informs us she was in love, is uncertain. The end was +that she went to Paris alone in December 1792, and boarded at the house +of Mme Filliettaz, a lady in whose school Eliza and Everina had been +teachers, but who was absent from home, so that Mary's French was put +to the severe test of conversation with the servants. + +She now became a close spectator of the progress of that Revolution +which upon the whole had her sympathy. Yet it was with mingled feelings +that she saw the chariot pass her house in which the royal prisoner +was conveyed to his trial a few days after her arrival. The sight of +Louis going to meet death with more dignity than she expected from his +character, brought before her mind the picture of his ancestor Louis +XIV, entering his capital after a glorious victory, and pity, her +ruling passion, interceded for the poor victim who had to pay for the +crimes of his forefathers. + +Economy prescribed her removal from the Filliettaz mansion to less +pretentious quarters at Neuilly, where she was left a great deal to +herself, save for an occasional visit to her English friends in Paris +Miss Williams and Mrs. Christie. It was at the latter's house that a +meeting took place which decided the next few years of her life. + +Her days at Neuilly were thus spent in retirement. She had a devoted +old gardener to wait upon her and generally went out for a walk in +the evening, the hours of daylight being given up to the composition +of a new work, combining history with philosophy and inspired by the +stirring events to which she was such a close witness. Although not +published until some years after, "_An Historical and Moral View of +the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, and the Effect it +has produced in Europe_" was written in the first months of 1793 at +Neuilly. The Advertisement with which it opens declares the author's +intention of extending the work to two or three more volumes, a +considerable part of which, it informs us, had already been written; +but Godwin assures us that no part of the proposed continuation was +found among her papers after her death. The only existing volume both +in style and method shows a very decided advance upon the earlier +_Vindication_. Mary's narrative powers were even greater than her +capacity for philosophy, and her imagination had been fired by the +thrilling accounts she had received from her Parisian friends of the +march of events. The greater freedom and fluency of the style, the +greater cogency of the reasoning and the dignity of the narrative +render the volume very pleasant reading, the more so, as it shows great +moderation and impartiality as far as actual facts are concerned. +That the delineations of personal character are not always felicitous +may be due to the fact that the author obtained all her information +from witnesses who were not free from the prejudices which strong +party-feelings awaken. On the whole, however, Mary succeeded in placing +herself above her subject and in proving that time had taught her +to modify her extreme views and made her readier to grant certain +concessions. The book is a compromise between her former principles +of abstract philosophy and those of gradual evolution. Although +unwilling to abandon her original view that "Reason beaming on the +grand theatre of political changes, can prove the only sure guide to +direct us to a favourable or just conclusion", and that the erroneous +inferences of sensibility should be carefully guarded against, yet she +felt sufficient appreciation for her old enemy Burke's principle of +growth to admit that the Revolution was the natural consequence of +intellectual improvement, gradually proceeding to perfection. + +Never before had her hopes been so sanguine. It seemed to her that +the time was at hand for the final overthrow of the tremendous empire +of superstition and hypocrisy. What, in comparison with the great +end in view, were the inevitable horrors of the Revolution, produced +by desperate and enraged factions? There is not a single page in +the history of man but is tarnished by some foul deed or bloody +transaction. That the vices of man in a savage state make him appear an +angel compared with the refined villain of artificial life finds its +cause in those unjust plans of government which exist in every part of +the globe. A simpler and more effective political system would be sure +to check those evils, and a faithful adherence to the new principles +will lead mankind towards happiness. + +Her feelings for mankind, however strong, were not powerful enough +to interfere with the coolness of her judgment, and the light of her +reason which was so soon to be temporarily eclipsed by the conflict of +passions a thousand times more powerful because proceeding from within, +was never obscured by the contemplation of social evils, which could +not disturb her optimistic faith. + +The history of the French Revolution is traced down to the king's +removal to Paris, where he was sent to stand for trial. It is, upon +the whole, a successful attempt at impartial narrative not only of +the course of events in Paris, but also of the causes which produced +them, the author indulging in a minute survey of the state of French +society and politics previous to and during the catastrophe. The +severity of the judgment she passes on the king and more especially on +Marie Antoinette has been commented upon. Here especially it should +be remembered that she had everything from hearsay. What she heard of +the character and actions of the queen struck her as characteristic +of the type of womanhood she had so violently attacked in the _Rights +of Women_. She saw in Marie Antoinette the product of education by a +priest, who had instilled into her all those vices which Mary held in +abhorrence. She was devoted to a life of pleasure, vain of her good +looks, but dead to intelligence and benevolence, using the fascination +of her cultivated smiles and artificial weakness to exercise the +tyranny of sex over a sensual, besotted husband, whose depravity she +completed; an artificial dissembler, regarding only decorum, without +any reference to moral character, making free with the nation's +money to support a worthless brother, and depraving the morals of +those around her; in short, Mary Wollstonecraft regarded her as the +Babylonian scarlet woman, a sort of "painted Jezebel." Her judgment is +diametrically opposed to that of Burke, who went into such raptures +over the beauty and dignity of the queen, and gave vent to such a burst +of indignation at her sad and ignominious fate that Thomas Paine saw +fit to remind him that "while pitying the plumage, he was forgetting +the dying bird." + +The outer revolution which was to assert the rights of the species +was followed by an inner revolution in the individual which came to +constitute the tragedy of Mary Wollstonecraft's life. The Father of +Nature, whom she thanked for having made her so intensely alive to +happiness, had also implanted in her breast an overwhelming capacity +for sorrow, and after a short taste of the former, the latter became +her portion to such an extent that life seemed to her unendurable. + +The letter to Mr. Johnson referring to the king's trial was the last +news her friends in England received from her for eighteen months. +In February 1793 war broke out between England and France and Mary's +nationality made it advisable for her to keep close. Among her +new acquaintances was an American, Captain Gilbert Imlay, and the +tenderness which about this time she began to cherish for him, was no +doubt fostered by a sense of loneliness. Moreover, that affection for +Mr. Fuseli which she had so resolutely suppressed,--Fuseli was happily +married--left her more vulnerable than before to Cupid's arrows, in +addition to which Imlay was to her the representative of that nation +which embodied her ideals of liberty and virtue. She gave herself up +body and soul to the all-devouring passion of love, and Reason, seeing +another in full possession of the field, "with a sigh retired." + +Mr. Imlay had served as a captain in the revolutionary army during +the War of Independence, and derived some slight literary fame +from the publication of a short monograph on the state of America, +entitled "_Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North +America_." He was, therefore, a man of some accomplishments, which +makes his subsequent behaviour to Mary all the more unpardonable. + +At the time of Mary's first meeting him he appears to have been in +business--probably his line was timber--and the dealings of his +trade claimed a great deal of his time and nearly all his attention. +Circumstances putting marriage out of the question,--a wedding-ceremony +would have betrayed that nationality she was so anxious to conceal--she +consented to live with him as his wife by virtue of their mutual +affections. His correspondence shows that he regarded her as his +lawful wife, and as Mary fully expected the alliance to be of a +permanent nature, and believed him capable of that affection which +Reason causes to subside into friendship after the first flame of +passion is spent, she was acting in full accordance with the views she +had repeatedly expressed.[50] + +The letters which she wrote him in the first stage of their growing +intimacy are full of exquisite tenderness. Her repeated "God bless +you", which Sterne says is equal to a kiss, shows the depth of her +feelings towards him. Seldom was a purer, more unselfish love wasted +upon a more unworthy recipient. Imlay was a "mere man", of a cheerful +disposition and to a certain extent good-natured, but easy-going, +self-indulgent, inconstant and incapable of appreciating a noble love +which he himself could not cherish. He evidently looked upon his +relation to Mary as the amusement of a day,--she lavished upon him +that which might have made a greater soul happy for life. She tried to +draw him up to her level and failed; her efforts to cure him of his +sordid love of money which so disgusted her only irritated him, and +made him anxious to cast off the bonds of a union of which he soon +began to tire. Their agreement had been entered upon in a different +spirit, and it was Mary who paid the full penalty of disillusionment. A +letter he wrote to Mrs. Bishop in November 1794, when the estrangement +had already begun, at a time when Mary was deeply conscious of the +fact that he neglected her for business and perhaps worse, in which he +states that he is "in but indifferent spirits occasioned by his long +absence from Mrs. Imlay and their little girl" shows that he cannot +even be acquitted from the charge of absolute hypocrisy. + +Such was the individual whom Mary had appointed the sole keeper of her +possibilities of happiness. Love had come to her late in life, but when +it did, it took the shape of that complete surrender in which consists +woman's greatest bliss and which she had never thought possible. It +came as a revelation and brought experience in its train. Who shall +describe the anguish of her heart when after a short spell of ecstatic +bliss, the inevitable truth began to dawn upon her! Mary was not an +essentially sensual woman; almost from the first she looked for that +sympathy of the mind which was not forthcoming. She found him wanting, +and the recognition of this probably irritated him, and ultimately +made him transfer his easy-going affections to those who were less +exacting. He was far too matter-of-fact to sympathise with or even +understand her moments of tenderness, and too much occupied with his +business to be much of a companion to her. In the month of September, +after a few months together, he went to Hâvre. Then it was that Mary's +troubles began. In her letters she repeatedly protested against his +prolonged absences. She grew to hate commerce, which kept him away from +her. His promise "to make a power of money to indemnify her for his +absence", failed to produce any impression. Perhaps there was already +then the vague fear of a possible desertion haunting her. She was in +expectations, and the tenderness with which her letters refer to the +coming event would stamp a repetition of her hopes and fears as an +indelicacy. For the first time in her life, the champion of the rights +of women was happy in acknowledging the superiority of a man. "Let me +indulge the thought that I have thrown out some tendrils to cling to +the elm by which I wish to be supported." Well might she say that this +was talking a new language for her! The feelings, so long pent up and +cheated of their birthright by tyrannical Reason, were indeed asserting +themselves with a vengeance! + +The undefined dread of coming disaster makes her letters more and +more insistent. Grief and indignation at Imlay's neglect struggle for +the mastery. At last he wrote to ask her to join him at Hâvre. The +irritation he had felt against her--which she humbly ascribed to the +querulous tone of her correspondence--had worn away and there was a +brief renewal of happiness when in the spring of 1794 a little girl +was born, to whom the name of Fanny was given in commemoration of the +friend of Mary's youth. + +In the course of the following August Imlay went to Paris, where Mary +joined him in September, at the end of which month he proceeded to +London on business. The extensive trade he was carrying on with Sweden +and Norway at this time completely engrossed him. Mary's first letters +after this fresh separation were cheerful and pleasant, although she +was subject to occasional fits of depression. The conviction that Imlay +was about to forsake her does not appear to have taken root until the +closing month of the year. The days of the Terror were now over, and +people once more breathed freely. Mary made an heroic effort to let +the future take care of itself and to concentrate her attention upon +her little girl, who developed an early fondness for scarlet coats +and music, and on one occasion wore the red sash in honour of J. J. +Rousseau, her mother confessing that "she had always been half in love +with him." + +Imlay's letters now became few and far between. His business-schemes +were unsuccessful, and Mary took the opportunity to point out to him +the absurdity of thus wasting life in preparing to live. The tone of +her correspondence betrays a growing indignation at his treatment +of her, which appeared in spite of herself and which repeated +protestations of unalterable affection could not hide. "I do not +consent to your taking any other journey," she writes, "or the little +woman and I will be off the Lord knows where." She wants none of his +cold kindness and distant civilities, but wishes to have him about her, +enjoying life and love. The picture of sweet domesticity, of parents +sharing the sacred duty of education, of pleasant evenings of homely +tenderness spent at the fireside, recurred to her mind with a sense +of aching regret. She would far sooner struggle with poverty than go +on living this unnatural life of separation. Too proud to be under +pecuniary obligations to a neglectful husband, she began to consider +the possibility of having to provide for herself and her child. + +When at last he allowed her to join him in England, she no longer +cherished false hopes, but begged him to tell her frankly whether +he had ceased to care. But Imlay wanted her support for his +business-schemes. He asked her to go to Sweden and Norway for him to +attend to his interests and Mary consented with a heavy heart, hoping +that a complete change of surroundings might afford distraction, if not +amusement, for she was feeling utterly worn out and ill. + +Imlay kept up the melancholy farce a few months longer. Mary wrote him +a series of long epistles from Scandinavia, into which, as a means +of keeping her mind concentrated upon other matters, she inserted +elaborate descriptions of the voyage, of the countries in which she was +travelling, and of their inhabitants. + +Of these letters, the descriptive portions of which were published in +1796, Godwin speaks highly. Their perusal caused him to change his +opinion of the author of the _Rights of Women_. Their first, and so +far only, meeting--in November 1791--had not prepossessed him in her +favour. She seemed to him to monopolize the conversation, and prevented +him from listening to Tom Paine, who never was a great talker, and whom +she reduced to absolute silence. But he now learned to think highly of +her literary talent. The passages dealing with personal affairs had +of course been omitted, and afterwards found their way into Godwin's +_Posthumous Edition of the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft_, and also into +Mr. Kegan Paul's collection of _Letters to Imlay_. The tone of despair +has on the whole given way to one of resigned melancholy. In spite +of the sadness which prevailed in Mary's heart, the change was doing +her good, and her health was improving rapidly. Before her arrival at +Tonsberg in Sweden, she had felt very ill, a slow fever preyed on her +every night. One day she found "a fine rivulet filtered through the +rocks and confined in a basin for the cattle." The water was pure, and +she determined to turn her morning-walks towards it and seek for health +from the nymph of the fountain. She also wished to bathe, and there +being no convenience near, took to rowing as a pleasant and at the same +time useful exercise. + +While thus the flush of health was returning to her cheeks, she found +it easier to arrive at a conclusion. She made up her mind that there +should be an end to all uncertainty. Imlay was put before a dilemma. +Either they must live together after her return, or part forever. Still +he kept flattering her with the hope that he might join her at Hamburg, +for a trip to Switzerland, the country of her dreams since the days of +Neuilly. But he did not keep his word, and when Mary landed at Dover in +October 1795, she realised that all was over and that Imlay had entered +into a new connection with an actress. + +Then it was that Mary made up her mind to die. The harrowing details +of her fruitless attempt at suicide may be found in Godwin's _Memoirs_ +and also in Mr. Kegan Paul's work. After her rescue she learnt to live +for her child's sake, and not to flinch from the sacred duties which +tied her to life. Imlay passed out of her sphere, and she parted with +him in peace. But the sufferings through which he had made her pass had +stamped themselves indelibly upon her heart. + +The "_Letters written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and +Denmark_" met with a favourable reception. Being the narrative of +foreign travel, they mark a new departure in her literary career. She +held with Rousseau that travelling, as the completion of a liberal +education, ought to be adopted on rational grounds.[51] The writing +of a journal was to her a means of keeping the mind employed, and +preventing it from dwelling overmuch on painful recollections of +disappointed hopes. Her works of education and reform had been so +full of the militant spirit, and her correspondence with Imlay so +replete with the anguish of unrequited love, that she had not yet come +to recognise the soothing effect upon the mind of a close communion +with Nature. It is in the Scandinavian correspondence that the +Nature-element is first met with. The contemplation of the grand +coast-scenery gave her that peace and quiet for which her heart +yearned. It did not bring her forgetfulness of present troubles, but +it gave her the necessary strength to meet them without flinching. +In her little boat, surrounded by the glorious works of Nature, +she found herself for the first time capable of grappling with her +problem, which the sense of human insignificance reduced to its true +proportions. The nature of her worship stamps her as the true spiritual +child of Jean-Jacques. The writers of an earlier period had been +able to appreciate only what is congenial in nature. The forbidding +austerity of the snow-clad mountains of Switzerland had produced no +raptures in Goldsmith's breast, and Cowper's English landscape owed its +attractiveness to its suggestion of peaceful harmony. Rousseau had been +the first to love Nature also in her sterner moods and aspects; like +Wordsworth, "the sounding cataract haunted him like a passion", and +the _Nouvelle Héloise_ contains the faithful record of the impressions +produced upon him by the grandeur of the Valais mountains. Some of +Mary's nature-descriptions--notably those of the Trolhaettan Falls, and +of the rocky Norwegian coast--afford a parallel to these passages. She +was deeply impressed by the wonders of Nature she witnessed, and by the +exquisite loveliness of the short northern summer. "In the evening the +western gales which prevail during the day, die away, the aspen leaves +tremble into stillness, and reposing Nature seems to be warmed by the +moon, which here assumes a genial aspect; and if a light shower has +chanced to fall with the sun, the juniper, the underwood of forest, +exhales a wild perfume, mixed with a thousand nameless sweets, that, +soothing the heart, leave images in the memory which the imagination +will ever hold dear." + +There is an anticipation of Wordsworth in the last line of the above +passage. Mary recognises in Nature "the nurse of sentiment", producing +melancholy as well as rapture, as it touches the different chords of +the human soul like the changing wind which agitates the aeolian harp. + +Her worship of Nature, like that of Wordsworth, contains an element +of profound piety. When she wrote her letters from Sweden, Mary had +reached that stage in her religious life which is marked by a complete +silence as far as dogma is concerned. Yet this silence should not be +misconstrued into indifference. Her feelings on the subject were not of +the nature of a systematic creed, and therefore never took an external +organisation. They remained perfectly subjective in their vagueness, +like the natural religion of Rousseau with which they have so much +in common. Mary did not care to become an apostle of faith, to her +religion was rather a matter of the inner life, which wanted no outlet +into the world, but remained locked up in itself. She believed that her +rational powers enabled her to discover certain portions of Truth, but +that the mystery which veiled the presence of God could not be removed +by Reason, but remained a matter of the heart. There is no touch of +rationalism, or anything but pure sentiment, in the passage in which +she describes her return from Fredericshall in a perfect summer night. +"A vague pleasurable sentiment absorbed me, as I opened my bosom to the +embraces of Nature, and my soul rose to its author, with the chirping +of the solitary birds, which began to feel, rather than see, advancing +day." + +A great deal of attention is paid in the letters to the national +character of the inhabitants of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which +she holds to be the result chiefly of the climatic conditions. Never +had she seen the blessings of civilisation more clearly demonstrated +than by the utter lack of them among the Scandinavians. Especially in +Sweden, civilisation was at that time in its earliest infancy, and what +struck Mary from the first was the ignorance of the people. What she +saw of their manners and customs was not calculated to make her fall +in love with Rousseau's golden age of simplicity. They were full of +vices, and their very virtues had their origin in considerations of a +lower order. They were hospitable, but their hospitality, arising from +a total want of scientific pursuits, was merely the outcome of their +inordinate fondness of social pleasures, "in which, the mind not having +its proportion of exercise, the bottle must be pushed about." + +Being ignorant of the advantages of the cultivation of the mind, they +were content to remain as they were: ignorant, sluggish and indifferent +to social progress. They moved in a narrow sphere, did not care for +politics, had no interest whatever in literature and no topics of +conversation, and were strangely incapable of appreciating the charms +of Nature. Mary's experience was chiefly gained in the small provincial +towns. They necessarily presented to her--so she thought--the worst +side of the picture. To her, the ideal condition was "to rub off in +a metropolis the rust of thought, and polish the taste which the +contemplation of Nature had rendered just." But no place seemed to her +so disagreeable and unimproving as a small country-town. + +The refined amusements of a cultivated society being thus inaccessible +to the Swede, he will choose them of the coarsest kind. Meals occupy a +prominent place in the daily routine, and a good many hours are wasted +at table. A "visiting-day" means a severe strain upon the powers of +digestion, and to make matters worse, the brandy-bottle,--the bane of +the country--passes round freely. + +What Mary saw of wedded life in Sweden did not give her a high opinion +of Swedish morals. The men were generally inconstant, and also the +women lacked chastity--the product of the mind. The statement that +in later life "the husband becomes a sot, whilst the wife spends her +time in scolding the servants", likewise finds its explanation in +the _Rights of Women_ as the natural result of vacancy of mind where +youthful beauty and animal spirits have gone the way of all flesh! + +Neither has the treatment of servants Mary's sympathy. "They are not +termed slaves; yet a man may strike a man with impunity because he pays +him wages." But the lot of female servants is immeasurably harder. +Their having to eat a different kind of food from their masters strikes +Mary as a remnant of barbarism. + +The general appearance of the women is not prepossessing. Too much +attention to the delights of a well-provided table makes them fat and +unwieldy and soon changes the natural pink of their complexions to a +sallow hue. They are uncleanly of their persons, and vanity is more +inherent in them than taste. Their ignorance is even more profound than +that of the males, and Mary once had the compliment paid her that "she +asked men's questions." + +The peasantry of Sweden impressed her as more really polite and +obliging than the better-situated classes, whose cold politeness +consisted chiefly in tiresome ceremonies. + +In Norway, however, the unmistakable signs of a coming dawn were +noticeable. A river forms the boundary between the two countries, and +yet, what a difference in the manners of the inhabitants of the two +sides! Instead of the sluggishness and poverty of the Swede, here +are industry and consequent prosperity. It is the patient labour of +men who are only seeking for a subsistence which affords leisure for +the cultivation of the arts and sciences that lift man so far above +his first state. The world requires the hand of man to perfect it, +and as this task naturally unfolds the faculties he exercises, it is +physically impossible that he should remain in Rousseau's golden age +of stupidity. And although the cultivation of science in Norway is as +yet in its earliest stages--the time for universities having not yet +come--yet a bright future is awaiting her. + +Norway seemed to Mary Wollstonecraft the country of the greatest +individual freedom. The king of Denmark, it is true, was an absolute +monarch, but the state of imbecility to which illness had reduced him +placed the reins of government into the hands of his son the prince +royal and of his wise and moderate minister Count Bernstorff. Under +their almost patriarchal authority every man was left to enjoy an +almost unlimited amount of freedom. The law was mild, and the lot of +those it sentenced to hard labour not unnecessarily hard. She found +in Norway no accumulation of property such as existed in Sweden, +resulting in the abject poverty of the submerged tenth. Rich merchants +were made to divide their personal fortunes among their children; +and the distribution of all landed property into small farms,--one +of the ideals hesitatingly put forward by Mary in the _Rights of +Women_--produced a degree of equality which was found nowhere else in +Europe. The tenants occupied their farms for life, which made them +independent. There was every hope that drunkenness, the inherent vice +of generations, would before long disappear, giving place to gallantry +and refinement of manners; "but the change will not be suddenly +produced." + +The Norwegians love their country, but they have not yet arrived at +that point where an enlarged understanding extends the love they +cherish for the land of their birth to the entire human race. They have +not much public spirit. However, the French Revolution meets with a +great deal of sympathy among the people of Norway, who follow with the +most lively interest the successes of the French arms. "So determined +were they," says Mary, "to excuse everything, disgracing the struggle +of freedom by admitting the tyrant's plea necessity, that I could +hardly persuade them that Robespierre was a monster." + +Mary hoped that the French Revolution would have the effect of making +politics a subject of discussion among them, "enlarging the heart by +opening the understanding," and leading to the cultivation of that +public spirit the absence of which she regretted. + +Although the women of Norway were not much more cultivated than their +Swedish sisters, regarding custom and opinion to such an extent that +Mary's educational advice was not listened to lest "the town might +talk", and on the plea that "they must do as other people did"--yet +they compared favourably with the latter in the matter of personal +appearance and cheerfulness of disposition. They had rosy complexions, +and were pronouncedly fond of dancing. They were very strict in the +performance of their religious duties; yet showed the greatest +toleration; nor was the Norwegian Sunday remarkable for that stupid +dulness which characterises the English Sabbath, the outcome of that +fanatical spirit which Mary feared was gaining ground in England. + +The same lack of public spirit which Mary commented upon in her +description of the national character of the Norwegians, also struck +her when observing the manners and customs of the Danes in their +capital. There had been a huge fire, destroying a considerable portion +of the town, and held by some to be the work of Pitt. It was the +general opinion, that the conflagration might have been smothered in +the beginning by pulling down several houses before the flames had +reached them, to which, however, the inhabitants would not consent. +Mary found among the Danes a great many vices. The men led dissolute +lives, and utterly neglected their wives, who were reduced to the state +of mere house-slaves. Their only interest was love of gain, which, in +rendering them over-cautious, sapped their energy. A visit to a theatre +showed Mary the state of the dramatic art in Denmark and the gross +taste of the audience, and the fact that well-dressed women took their +children to witness the execution of a criminal as a favourite kind of +entertainment, filled her with unutterable disgust. "And to think that +these are the people," she exclaims, "who found fault with the late +Queen Matilda's education of her son!" Matilda, it appears, had carried +some of Rousseau's principles into effect, which, however, had found no +favour at the court. + +The ignorance and coarse brutality which she found among the Danes +were instrumental in changing Mary's opinions of the French. The +Parisian festivals were rendered more interesting by the sobriety of +those who took part in them, a Danish merry-making, however, generally +degenerated into a drunken bacchanal. "I should have been less severe," +she says, "in the remarks I have made on the vanity and depravity of +the French, had I travelled towards the north before I visited France." + +The antipathy with which she had always regarded the dealings of +business was increased by the experience she gained during her stay in +Scandinavia. At Gotheburg and at Hamburg the contrast between opulence +and penury which the war had called forth filled her with indignation, +and at Laurvig, in Norway, the lawyers proved to be all great +chicaners. It seemed to her that traffic was necessarily allied with +cunning. The gulf which now yawned between her and Imlay was widened +by the circumstance that she was unable to feel anything but contempt +for what he had made his chief object in life. She was willing to admit +that England and America to a certain extent owed their liberty to +commerce, which created a new species of power to undermine the feudal +system. But let them beware of the consequence, the tyranny of wealth +is still more galling and debasing than that of rank! + +Shortly after the final rupture with Imlay Mary renewed her +acquaintance with Godwin in the house of their mutual friend Miss +Hayes. She took a fancy to him, and in the following month of April +called upon him in Somers Town, having herself taken a lodging in +Pentonville. In Godwin's _Memoirs_ the description of their friendship, +"melting into love" may be found. A temporary separation in July 1796, +when Godwin made an excursion into Norfolk, had its effect on the mind +of both parties. As Godwin says, it "gave a space for the maturing of +inclination," and both realised that each had become indispensable to +the other. + +They did not at once marry. Godwin, in his _Political Justice_, had +declared himself against marriage, which compels both parties to go +on cherishing a relation long after both have discovered their fatal +mistake. Moreover, marriage is a contract for life, and binding to +both parties; and no rational being can undertake to promise that +his opinions will undergo no change in the future. Mary's ideas of +marriage we have seen to be different, nor did she change her mind +under Godwin's influence. But she had been much and rudely spoken of in +connection with Imlay, and she could not resolve to do anything that +might revive that painful topic, and therefore agreed to keep their +relations a secret from the world. + +Mary's pregnancy, however, became their motive for complying with +a ceremony to which Godwin in a letter to Mr. Wedgwood, refers as +follows: "Nothing but a regard for the happiness of the individual, +which I had no right to injure, could have induced me to submit to an +institution which I wish to see abolished, and which I would recommend +to my fellowmen never to practise but with the greatest caution." The +marriage took place at Old St. Pancras Church on March 29th, 1797, but +was not declared till the beginning of April. Godwin records with some +bitterness that certain of his friends, among whom were Mrs. Inchbald +and Mrs. Siddons, from this moment treated him with coldness. + +In accordance with Godwin's ideas of cohabitation he engaged an +apartment about twenty doors from their house in Somers Town, where +he pursued his literary occupations and sometimes remained for days +together. The notes which passed between the two lovers in their five +months of married life show that upon the whole they were very happy, +although they had one or two slight differences. Their most serious +trouble in those days were the constant financial embarrassments. In +June Godwin went on a long excursion with his friend Montagu, and the +letters of both husband and wife are full of the most affectionate +solicitude. The time of Mary's confinement was now rapidly approaching, +but her health was quite good, and she concentrated a good deal of +energy upon a novel which she had begun in the first period of her +intimacy with Godwin. It engrossed her mind for months, and she wrote +and rewrote several chapters of it with the most elaborate care. When +she died, the work, to which she gave the name of "_Maria, or the +Wrongs of Woman_", was unfinished, in spite of which circumstance +Godwin decided to include the fragment in his edition of her posthumous +works. + +A long and circumstantial account of Mary's last days is given in +Mr. Kegan Paul's "_William Godwin; His Friends and Contemporaries_." +Suffice it to say, that she gave birth to a daughter Mary on the 30th +of August, 1797, and in spite of the constant attendance of some of the +best doctors in London, died eleven days later. + +In the year following her death, Godwin published his _Memoirs_. They +are an admirable piece of writing; yet they did not produce the effect +he hoped for: that of making the principles and motives by which she +was actuated in life better understood and more generally appreciated. +The disfavour with which his personality was regarded in many circles +on account of his radicalism rendered him all unfit for the task. +Fortunately, later generations have done justice to the impartiality of +his judgments. We, at least, realise what the unstinted praise of a man +of Godwin's sincerity means, although to us her character and actions +require no vindication. + +Perhaps without being aware of it himself, Godwin paid his deceased +wife the greatest compliment in his power when insisting on the +astonishing degree of soundness which pervaded her sentiments, enabling +her to supplement her husband's deficiencies. Both he and Mary carried +farther than to their common extent the characteristics of the sexes +to which they belonged. Godwin, while stimulated by the love of +intellectual distinction, was painfully aware of his lack of what he +calls "an intuitive sense of the pleasures of the imagination." Women, +he says, who are more delicate and susceptible of impression than men, +in proportion as they receive a less intellectual education, are more +unreservedly under the empire of feeling." + +If this estimate of women is correct, it proves the superiority of Mary +Wollstonecraft over the other members of her sex. For the fact that +her great natural gifts, joined to her boundless energy enabled her to +attain an intellectual level far beyond the reach of others, did not in +any sense detract from the warmth of her heart and the intensity of her +feelings, by which she proved herself above all a tender, loving woman, +thoroughly capable of constituting the happiness of a husband who was +himself a leader of men. + +When two years after Mary's death Godwin published "_St. Leon_," he +gave in his idealised description of the married life of St. Leon and +Margaret what he felt to be a faithful account of their short spell of +matrimonial happiness. Well might he say of his Margaret that the story +of her life is the best record of her virtues. + + +It has been the aim of the present study to prove Mary Wollstonecraft +the spiritual child and heir to the French philosophers of her own +and of the preceding century--to a Poullain de la Barre, a Fénelon, a +Mme de Lambert, a d'Holbach, who ventured to propose a scheme for the +improvement of the deplorable conditions of an erring and suffering +womanhood. More extreme in her views, and more determined in her claims +than her Bluestocking sisters, she stands out the one great apostle of +female emancipation among the revolutionary leaders who held out the +hope of lasting social improvement to all mankind. That she aimed too +high and failed to find that recognition among her contemporaries to +which her spirit of ready sacrifice entitled her, lends her a certain +tragic dignity which adds materially to the interest felt by posterity +in her striking personality. + +And yet her work certainly was not done in vain, although it was left +to a later generation to build the huge structure of modern feminism +on the ruins of a hope which, together with even more comprehensive +ideals, had been blasted by the rude winds of Reaction. This structure +the present generation beholds with feelings which are not wholly +unmixed, for it is as yet full of imperfections, and much remains to be +done. But those who feel doubtful of the final issue, may turn to Mary +Wollstonecraft, to borrow from her that unshakable faith in evolution +and progress which to her became a kind of religion which never forsook +her. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] C. Kegan Paul, _William Godwin, His Friends and Contemporaries_. + +[37] See Letter from Mary to Everina, dated from Dublin, March 24th. +1788, with which compare the following severe judgment by Hannah More +in her _Strictures_: "It is worthy of remark that 'Depart from me, I +never knew you', is not the malediction denounced on the sceptic or +the scoffer, but on the high professor, on the unfruitful worker of +"miracles", on the unsanctified utterer of "prophecies", for even acts +of piety, wanting the purifying principle, however they may dazzle men, +offend God. Cain sacrificed, Balaam prophesied, Rousseau most sublimely +panegyrised the son of Mary...." Those who lacked true humility did not +fall within the range of Hannah More's compassion. + +[38] E. Dowden, _The French Revolution and English Literature_. + +[39] W. Godwin, _Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights +of Women_. + +[40] "A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind." +(_A Vindication_, Chapter on _Duty to Parents_). + +[41] The creation of congenial surroundings, and the bringing about +of circumstances which involuntarily lead the pupil to draw certain +illuminating inferences, is recommended also in _Emile_, where the +preceptor relies largely upon them. There seems nothing to be said +against them, unless it were that the pupil might sooner or later +discover that he was "being sold", which might be attended with awkward +consequences! + +[42] The position of servants very naturally called for discussion in +the great liberty scheme. The treatment of female servants never failed +to interest Mary. Many years later, Godwin treated the subject in an +essay. + +[43] Mr. Falkland, the "high-spirited and highly cultured" gentleman of +the dramatis personae, utilises all the advantages of his superior rank +to crush his enemy Caleb and finds the law upon his side. + +[44] See H. W. Brailsford, _Shelley, Godwin and their Circle_. + +[45] This rule, which also applies to property, and may be traced to +the _Contrat Social_, strikes the keynote of what was the common view +of the social reformers. Mary's scheme of enfranchisement advocates the +admission of women to the different professions to ensure their social +independence. + +[46] See Morley's _Rousseau_. + +[47] See Lilly Bascho, _Englische Schriftstellerinnen in ihre +Beziehungen zur französischen Revolution_. (_Anglia 41)._ + +[48] Curiously enough, Hannah More,--who refers to the education of +the children as "the great object to which those who are, or may be +mothers, are especially called"--unwittingly copies Mary Wollstonecraft +where she says: "In the great day of general account, may every +Christian mother be enabled, through Divine grace, to say, with humble +confidence, to her Maker and Redeemer, Behold the children whom thou +hast given me!" + +[49] C. Kegan Paul, Memoir to the "_Letters to Imlay_". + +[50] "We are soon to meet, to try whether we have mind enough to keep +our hearts warm". (_Letter to Imlay_, August 1793). + +[51] When Emile's education is almost completed, he is sent abroad for +the final touch. In this way he obtains full command of the principal +languages of Europe. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + ADDISON AND STEELE. The Tatler; The Spectator; The Guardian. + + ASCOLI, G. Les idées féministes en France. (Revue de Synthèse + historique, 1906.) + + ASTELL, MARY. A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. (London, 1696.) + + BASCHO, LILLY. Englische Schriftstellerinnen in ihre Beziehungen + zur französischen Revolution. (Anglia, 41.) + + BLEASE, W. LYON. The Emancipation of English Women. (National + Political Press, 1913.) + + BLED, V. DU. La société française. (Libraire académique, Paris, + 1900.) + + BOULAN, E. Figures du dix-huitième siècle. (Leiden, 1920.) + + BRAILSFORD, H. N. Shelley, Godwin and their Circle. + + BRUNETIÈRE, F. Histoire de la littérature française classique. + (Vol. II and III.) + + BRUNETIÈRE, F. Nouvelles Etudes classiques. (La société française + au 17ième siècle.) + + BUCKLE, H. TH. History of Civilisation in England. (Longman, Green + and Co., London, 1903.) + + BURNEY, FANNY. (Mme d'Arblay). Diary and Letters. + + CABE, JOSEPH MAC. Woman in Political Evolution. (Watts and Co., + London, 1909.) + + A Cambridge History of English Literature, Vol. XI. + + CHABAUD, L. Les Précurseurs du féminisme. + + CHAPONE, HESTER. Letters on the Improvement of the Mind. + + CHESTERFIELD, Lord. Letters. (Ed. J. Bradshaw.) + + CLIMENSON, E. J. Mrs. Montagu. + + COMPAYRÉ, G. Histoire critique des doctrines de l'éducation en + France. + + DAY, THOMAS. Sandford and Merton. + + DEFOE, DANIEL. Essay upon Projects. + + DELANY, Mrs. (Mary Granville). Correspondence. + + DODDS, M. HOPE. Fulfilment. (An article about Mary Astell in "The + Englishwoman".) + + DORAN, Dr. J. A Lady of the Last Century. (Mrs. Montagu.) + + DOWDEN, E. The French Revolution and English Literature. + + ELWOOD, Mrs. A. K. Memoirs of Female Writers in England. + + FORSYTH, W. Eighteenth Century Novels and Novelists. + + GODWIN, W. Political Justice. + + GODWIN, W. Caleb Williams. + + GODWIN, W. Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of + Women. + + GRAPPIN, H. Poullain de la Barre. (Revue d'histoire littéraire de + la France, Tome XX.) + + GIRARDIN, ST. MARC. Cours de littérature dramatique. (Vol. III.) + + HALES, J. W. The Last Decade of the Last Century. (Contemp. + Review, Vol. 62.) + + D'HOLBACH. Le Système Social. + + HUCHON, R. Mrs. Montagu and her Friends. + + KEGAN PAUL, C. William Godwin, his Friends and Contemporaries. + + LANSON, G. Lettres du dix-huitième Siècle. + + LARROUMET, G. Marivaux, sa Vie et ses oeuvres. + + LEFRANC, ABEL. Le tiers Livre du Pantagruel et la querelle des + femmes. (Etudes Rabelaisiennes, Tome II, 1904.) + + LIVET, CH. L. Précieux et Précieuses. (Paris, 1895.) + + LYTTLETON, Lord. Dialogues of the Dead. (Containing three + Dialogues by Mrs. Montagu.) + + MEAKIN, A. B. Hannah More. (John Murray, London, 1919.) + + MONTAGU, Lady MARY WORTLEY. Works. (Ed. by Lord Wharncliffe.) + + MORE, HANNAH. Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education. + + MORE, HANNAH. Poems. + + MORF, H. Geschichte der französischen Literatur im Zeitalter der + Renaissance. + + MORLEY, JOHN. Rousseau. + + MORGAN, CHARLOTTE. The Rise of the Novel of Manners. + + PENNELL, E. R. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. (Eminent Women Series.) + + PIÉRON, H. Poulain de la Barre. (Revue de synthèse historique, + 1902.) + + PILON, EDM. Muses et Bourgeoises de jadis. (Paris, 1908.) + + PILON, EDM. Portraits français. + + POPE, ALEXANDER. Moral Essays. (Epistle II: On the Characters of + Women.) + + RAUSCHENBUSCH, Mrs. Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rights of Women. + + ROUSSEAU, J. J. Emile, ou de l'Education. + + ROUSSEAU, J. J. Du Contrat Social. + + ROUSSEAU, J. J. Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloise. + + ROBERTS, W. Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah + More. + + ROUSSELOT, P. Histoire de l'Education des Femmes. + + SCHIFF, M. Marie de Gournay. + + STEPHEN, Sir LESLIE. English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. + + STOPES, Mrs. C. C. British Free Women. + + SWIFT, JONATHAN. Letter to a Very Young Lady. + + SWIFT, JONATHAN. Hints on Conversation. + + TAYLOR, G. R. S. Mary Wollstonecraft. + + TEXTE, JOSEPH. J. J. Rousseau et les origines du cosmopolitisme + littéraire. + + TOINET, R. Les Ecrivains Moralistes au 17ième siècle. (Revue + d'Histoire Littéraire de la France, T. 23, 24, 25). + + VILLEY, P. L'Influence de Montaigne sur les Idées pédagogiques de + Locke et de Rousseau. + + WHEELER, E. R. Famous Bluestockings. (Methuen and Co., London.) + + WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY. Original Stories from Real Life. + " " A Vindication of the Rights of Women. + " " The French Revolution. + " " Letters to Imlay. (Ed. by C. Kegan Paul.) + " " Letters from Sweden. + + YONGE, CHARLOTTE M. Hannah More. (Eminent Women Series.) + + + + +STELLINGEN + + + 1. There never was a more fervent champion of marriage and + domesticity than Mary Wollstonecraft, who twice lived with a man + to whom she was not married. + + 2. The Bluestocking assemblies differed in their essential + qualities from the French salons both of the seventeenth and of + the eighteenth century. + + 3. British influence was a potent factor in the intellectual + revolt which preceded the French Revolution. + + 4. Those who, like St. Marc Girardin and Lord John Morley, observe + that in the fifth Book of Rousseau's "_Emile_" we are confronted + with the oriental conception of women, do its author an injustice. + + 5. The views expressed in Paine's "_Rights of Man_" regarding the + attitude of Burke towards democracy are open to criticism. + + 6. Mr. R. H. Case's interpretation of the text of Shakespeare's + "_The Tragedy of Coriolanus_", Act I, Scene IX, l. 45: + + When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk, + Let him be made an overture for the wars! + + is quite plausible. + + 7. The popularity of Tennyson's poetry is largely due to + circumstances which are independent of his greater poetic + qualities. + + 8. There is a strong element of romance in Richardson's so-called + "realistic" novels. + + 9. Behoudens het geven van eene beknopte historische inleiding is + het niet wenschelijk het onderwijs in de Engelsche letterkunde + aan onze middelbare scholen en gymnasia uit te strekken tot die + perioden welke vallen vóór Shakespeare. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Wollstonecraft and the beginnings +of female emancipation in France and England, by Jacob Bouten + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59448 *** |