we Respect those that are under him Most part of Men preferr Souldiers to Judges because they directly oppose themselves to those who in most terrible manner attack our Lives and every one sets a Value upon Persons as they judge them more or less useful So that Women seem to be the most Estimable since their Service which they render to the Publick is incomparably greater than that of all others whosoever Men might absolutely dispense with Princes Souldiers and Merchants as they did in the beginning of the World and as Savages do still even to this Day But in our Infancy we cannot be without Women In States that are well pacified the most part of those who have Authority are as Men dead and useless but Women never cease to be necessary to us The Ministers of Justice are only proper to preserve Goods and Estates to those who possess them but Women to preserve Life Souldiers are employed for Men grown up and capable to defend themselves but Women labour for Men when as yet they know not what they are if they have Enemies or Friends and at that time when they have no other Arms but Tears against such as attack them Masters Magistrates and Princes do not often-times bestir themselves but for Glory and particular Interest when Women do nothing but for the good of the Children whom they breed In short The Pains the Cares the Troubles and Assiduities to which they expose themselves can in no wise be matched in any other state of Civil Society whatsoever There is nothing then but Fancy which renders them less Valuable Men would largely Reward him who had tamed a Tyger Such who have the Skill to train Horses Apes and Elephants are well considered of and we speak with Elogy of a Man that hath composed a small Work which hath cost him but little time and pains And shall we neglect Women that spend many Years in breeding and forming of Children If we enquire into the Reason thereof we shall find it is Because the one is onely more ordinary than the other What Historians say to the Prejudice of Women makes deeper Impression on the Minds of Men than the Discourses of Orators For as they seem to put forth nothing of their own Heads so is their Testimony less suspected Besides that it is suitable to that whereof Men are already perswaded when they report Women to have been in former times the same which they are believed to be at present But all the Authority which they have upon the spirits of Men is nothing but a very common Prejudice in regard of Antiquity which Men represent to themselves under the Image of a Venerable Old Man who having much Wisdom and Experience is uncapable of being deceived or of speaking any thing but Truth Whil'st in the mean time the Antients are no less Men than we are and as much subject to Errour and we ought no more at present to assent to their Opinions than we would have done in their own times Men heretofore considered Women as now they do and with as little Reason So whatsoever Men say concerning that ought to be suspected seeing they are both Judge and Party And when any one brings against them the Sentiments of a thousand Authors that History is only to be considered as a Tradition of Prejudices and Mistakes There is also as little Fidelity and Exactitude in Antient Histories as there is in Familiar Rehearsals wherein we sufficiently know that there is almost none at all They that have wrote Them have there-with mingled their Passions and Interest and the most part having but had confused Notions of Vice and Vertue have often mistaken the one for the other And those who likewise Read Them with the ordinary Pre-occupation fail not to run into the same Fault In the Prejudice wherein they have been engaged they have made it their business to exaggerate and raise the Vertues and Advantages of their own Sex and to debase and weaken the Merit of VVomen by a contrary Interest This is so easie to be discovered that I need not adduce Instances Notwithstanding if we can but a little rip-up what is past we may find enough to prove that Women have not in any thing yielded to men and that the Vertue which they have made appear hath been more excellent if we sincerely consider all the Circumstances thereof we may observe that they have giv'n as great markes of Wit and Capacity upon all occasions That there have been some who have governed great States and Empires with Wisdom and moderation that cannot be parallel'd others who have rendred Justice with an integrity equall to that of the Athenian Areopagites Many who by their prudence and counsells have restablished peace and tranquillity to Kingdomes and a throne to their Husbands Some have been seen at the head of Armies or with a courage more than Heroical defending themselves upon the walls of Townes How many have there been whose Chastity could receive no blemish neither by the terrible threats nor splendid promises which men made to them and who with a Generous and astonishing Gallantry have endured the most horrible torments for the cause of Religion How many have there been who have rendered themselves as compleat as men in all sorts of Sciences who have dived into the most Curious Secrets of Nature the most quaint of Policy the most solid of Morality and who have Elevated themselves to the highest Pitch of Christian Divinity So that History which the prejudiced abuse against that Sex to abase it may serve to those who look thereon with the eyes of equity to prove that it is in all respects as noble as our own The Authority of Laws has a great Weight upon many men as to that which concerns the Women because they make particular profession of rendering to every one their right They place the Wives under the Juridiction of their Husbands as children under the power of their fathers and alledge that it is Nature that hath assigned them the smaller functions of Society and placed them at distance from publick Authority Men think themselves sufficiently grounded to say the same after them but I hope it is lawfull without wounding the Respect which is their due to differ from them in Judgment We should strangely puzzle them If we obliged them to explain themselves intelligibly about that which they call Nature in this case and make us understand in what manner she hath distinguished the two Sexes as they pretend We must consider that they who have made or compiled the Law be-being men have favoured their own Sex as VVomen possibly might have done had they been in their place And Laws being made since the Constitution of Societies in the same manner in respect of Women as they are at present the Lawyers who had likewise their prejudice have attributed to Nature a distinction which is only drawen from Custome besides that it was not at all necessary to change
the order which they found setlâ—d for obtaining the end that they proposed which was the good government of a State by the administration of justice To be short if they should be head-strong to hold that Women are naturally in a condition of dependance upon men we might fight them with their own weapons since they themselves acknowledge dependance and servitude to be contrary to the order of Nature which renders all mankind equal Dependence being a meer Corporal and Civil Relation ought not to be considered but as an effect of chance force or custome except in the case of Children to those who have given them life And yet neither does that pass a certain age wherein men being supposed to have reason and experience enough to guide themselves are freed by the Lawes from the authority of an other Amongst persons of an equal or not much different age there ought only to be a reasonable subordination according to which those who have less understanding willingly submit themselves to such as have more And if we remove the Civil Priviledges which the Laws have bestowed on men and which establish them heads of the family we cannot find betwixt them and their wives any other submission but that of Experience and Knowledge both one and other freely engage themselves at the same time when the VVives have asmuch and often more Judgment than the Husbands Their Promises and Covenants of Marriage are reciprocal and the power equal upon one and others Body And if the Lawes give the Husband more Authority over the estate Nature allowes the Wife more power and right over the Children And as the will of the one is not the Rule of the other if the wife be obliged to do what the Husband minds her of he is no less bound to follow the advertisements of the Wife when she tells him his duty And except it be in matters just and reasonable the Wife is not to be constrained to submit her self to the pleasure of her Husband unless you ll say that he is stronger which is the dealing of a Turk with a Moore and not of Men of reason We shall not need much trouble to rid our selves of the opinion of the Learned of whom I have spoken because we may easily be satisfied that their profession does not engage them to so exact an enquiry into the nature of things Appearances and probabilities are sufficient for Poets and Orators The Testimony of Antiquity to Historians And Custome and Practice to Lawyers to bring them to their intended end But as to the Sentiment of Philosophers we must not so easily pass it seeing that they seem to be above all the preceding considerations as indeed they ought to be and that they are thought to try matters more strictly which gaines them the common credit and makes it believed unquestionable what they assert especially when they contradict not the received opinions So the common People confirm themselves in the opinion that there is inequality betwixt the two Sexes because they see those whose Judgements they regard as the measures of their own and the same opinion not knowing that the most part of Philosophers walk by no other Rule than that of the Vulgar and that it is not by Vertue of Science or Knowledge that they often dictate especially concerning the matter in hand They have carryed their prejudices even to the Schools where they have learned nothing that might serve to disengage them there-from On the contrary all their Science is sounded upon the Judgements that they have made from their Cradle And with them it is a crime or Errour to call in question that which they believed before the years of discretion They are not taught to know Man by the body nor by the soul And that which they teach commonly may very well serve to prove that betwixt us and beasts there is no other difference but that of Lesser and Greater in the Same kind They hear not a word of Sexes They are supposed to know them sufficiently already Very far from Examining the Capacity and real and natural difference betwixt them which is one of the most curious and probably also the most important Question of all natural or Moral Philosophy They spend whole years and some all their lives at Trifles and Entia Rationis being no where to be sound without their own Brains and to plod and find-out whether or not there be beyond the world imaginary Spaces and whether the atoms or small dust which appeares in the Beams of the Sun may be sliced out into infinite parts What solid ground can we lay upon what the learned of this kind say when we are to treat of serious and important matters Men may think nevertheless that though they be so ill taught themselves yet their Principles probably are sufficient to discover which of the two Sexes have naturally the advantage of the other But none can think so but such who either know them not or are pre-possessed thereby The Knowledge of our selves is absolutely necessary to enable us for the handling of that Question aright and especially the knowledge of our Body which is the Organ of Sciences after the same manner as for to know how Telescopes and Glasses of Approach magnifie the Objects we must know the Fashion of them They touch not this but in passing no more than they do Truth and Science I mean the Method of acquiring true and certain Knowledges without which it is impossible to examine Whether or not VVomen be as capable thereof as our selves And without amusing my self to repeat the Notions that they give us thereon I shall declare in general what my Thoughts are thereof All Man-kind being made alike have the same Sentiments and Notions of Natural things for example of Light Heat and Hardness And all the Knowledge which we labour to gain there-from is reduced to this That we may truly find out what is the Disposition internal and external of every Object which produceth in us the thoughts and conceits which we have of them All that Masters can do to guide us to this Knowledge is but So to apply our Minds to what we remark that we may examine the Appearances and Effects thereof without Precipitation or Prejudice and to shew us the Order which we are to observe in the ranking of our Thoughts for to find what we look for For instance If an Illiterate Person should desire me to explain to him Wherein consists the Liquidity of Water I would not assert any thing but only ask him What he had observed thereof How that if Water be not contained in a Vessel it sheds that is to say that all the Parts thereof separate and dis-unite of themselves without the Intermixtion of any other Body that we may thrust there-into our Fingers without trouble and without finding Resistance as from harder Bodies And that in putting therein Sugar or Salt we perceive that these two Bodies dissolve piece and piece and
and to draw from thence the two Advantages which we expect therefrom the one to have clear and distinct Knowledges which we naturally desire and whereof the desire is often stifled and annihilated by the confusion of thoughts and the cares and agitations of life And the other To employ these Knowledges for the particular conduct of themselves and for that of others in the different conditions of Society of which they make a part This agrees not atall with the common Opinion There are indeed many that will believe that Women may learn what is to be attained by the Physicks or Natural Sciences but will not admit that they are as fit as Men for those which may be called Civil as Ethicks Laws and Politicks and that if they should be able by the Maximes of these Last to conduct themselves they could not therefore be capable of guiding of others Men entertain this thought because they consider not that the mind in all it's actions hath need of no more but Discerning and Exactitude and whosoever hath once these two qualities in one thing may as easily and by the same means have them in all the rest The being Moral or Civil changeth not the nature of our actions They continue to be still Natural Because that Morality is nothing else but to know the manner how men regard the actions of others with Relation to the Notions which they have of good or evil of vice and vertue of justice and injustice And as that when we have once rightly conceived the Rules of Motion in Natural Philosophy we may apply them to all the changes and varieties which are remarked in Nature So likewise knowing once the true principles of civil Sciences there remains no more difficulty to make application thereof to the new and incident Emergents which occurr They that are in places have not alwayes more wit though they have better Luck than others And indeed it is not necessary that they should have more than the common though it be to be wished that none were admitted to employments but the most worthy We act still after the same manner and by the same Rules in what estate soever we find our selves unless it be that the more our conditions are raised the more our cares and views are extended because we have the more to do And all the change which happens to men who are placed above others is like to that of a person who being mounted to the top of a Tower caryes his prospect farther and discovers more different objects than they who stay on the ground below It is their favours if VVomen be as capable as we are to guid themselves they are likewise to conduct others and to have place in charges and dignities of Civil Society The most Simple and natural use that we can make of Sciences which we have well learned is to teach them to others And if VVomen had studyed in the Universities with men or in others appointed for them in particular they might have entred into Degrees and taken the title of Master of Arts Doctor of Divinity Medicine Civil and Cannon Law And their genius so advantagiously fitting them to learn would dispose them likewise to teach with success They would find methods and insinuating biassess to instill their Doctrine they would discover the strength and weakness of their Schollars to proportion themselves to their reach and the facility which they have to express themselves and which is one of the most excellent talents of a good Master would compleat and render them admirable Mistresses The employment which approacheth most to a School-Master is that of Pastour or Minister in the Church and there can be nothing else but custome shewn which remove VVomen there-from They have a Spirit as well as we capable of the Knowledge and love of God and thereby able to incline others to know and love him Faith is common to them with us And the Gospel with the Promises thereof are likewise addressed to them Charity also comprehends them in its duties and if they know how to put in practice the actions thereof may not they likewise publickly teach its Maxims Whosoever can preach by Example from stronger reason can do so by Words And a VVoman that should joyn her Natural Eloquence with the Morality of Jesus Christ should be as capable as another to Exhort Direct Correct admit into Christian Society those who deserved And cut off such who after having submitted themselves thereto should refuse to observe the Rules thereof And if men were accustomed to see VVomen in a Pulpit they would be no more startled thereat than the VVoman are at the sight of men We are not assembled into Society but that we may live in peace and find in a Mutual assistance all that is necessary for the Body and Soul This we could not enjoy without trouble if there were no authority that is to say that for that end there ought to be some persons who have power to make Laws and to inflict punishment upon the breakers of them And to make the right use of that authority we must know to what it obligeth and be perswaded that those who possess it ought to have no other design in the discharge thereof but to procure the welfare and advantage of their inferiours Women being no less susceptible of this perswasion than men may not we then submit our selves to them and consent not only not to resist their Orders but even contribute as much as we can to oblige to obedience such as make any difficulty therein So that nothing needed to hinder but that a Woman might sit upon a Throne and that for the government of her people She might study their humour the interests their Lawes their customes and their practices That she might place in Offices of the Gown and Sword only able and deserving persons and in the Dignities of the Church men of understanding and Example Is it a thing so difficult that a Woman could not perform it to instruct her-self of the strength and weakness of a State and of those that lay round it to entertain amongst strangers secret Intelligences for to discover their designes and disappoint their measures and to have faithfull Spies and Emissaries in all Suspected places to be exactly informed of all that passeth there wherein she might have interest Is there needfull for the conduct of a Kingdome more vigilance and application than Women have for their families or the Religious for their Convents They would prove no less refined in publick Negotiations than they are in private affairs And as piety and mildness is natural to their Sex their government would prove less Rigorous than that of many Princes and we should wish for under their Reign that which is often feared under that of many others that Subjects would regulate themselves according to the Example of their Governours We may easily conclude that if Woman are capable to possesse severally all publick authority they
general by the reflections which she may have made upon her self would bring her into the Mystery of Policy Interest and Passions and help her to discover the moving wheele and spring of enterprizes the fountain and source of revolutions and to supply in great Undertakings the lesser things which have made them prosper and which have escaped Histories And following their true Notions which she hath of Vice and Vertue she may observe the flattery passion and ignorance of Authors and to guard her self from the Corruption which infect men in reading of Histories where these faults are commonly mingled As the ancient policy was not so refined as the modern and the interest of Princes less conjoyned in former times than at present and commerce of less extent there is more Judgement required to understand and disentangle our Gazettes than Lives of Quintus Curtius There are a great many persons that find the Ecclesiastick History more pleasing and solid than civil or prophane because there they find the effects of Reason and Vertue farther pursued and that passions and prejudices covered with a pretext of Religion sets the mind upon a method altogether particular in its conduct A Woman would apply her self thereto with so much more affection as she judged it more important She might convince her self that the books of Scripture are as authentick as all the others which we have that they containe the true Religion and all the Maxims whereon it is founded that the New Testament where the History of Christianity properly begins is no more difficult to be understood than Greek and Latin Authors that they that read it with the simplicity of Children seeking only the Kingdome of God discover the truth and meaning thereof with more ease and pleasure than that of ridles emblems and fables And after having regulated her mind by the Morality of Jesus Christ she may find her self in condition to direct others remove their scruples and to resolve Cases of conscience with more solidity than if she had filled her head with all the Casuists in the world I see nothing that could hinder but that in the progress of her studies she might observe as well as a man How it is that the Gospel hath passed from hand to hand from Kingdom to Kingdom from age to age even to her own times but that she might gain by reading of the Fathers the Notion of true Theology and find out that it only consists in the Knowledge of the History of Christians and the Particular Sentiment of those that have written thereon So she might render her self able to compose Works of Religion Preach the Truth and batter down Novelties by shewing what hath been alwayes Believed through the whole Church about the Matters in Controversie If a Woman be capable to inform her self from History of the Nature of all Publick Societies how they have been formed and how they are preserved by virtue of a fixed and constant Authority exercised by Magistrates and Officers subordinate to one another she is no less to Learn the Application of that Authority by Laws Ordinations and Constitutions for the Conduct of those who are submitted thereunto as well to the Relation of Persons according to their several Conditions as for the Possession and Enjoyment of Goods Is it a thing so difficult to know the Relation between a Husband and his Wife between a Father and his Children the Master and his Servants the Land-Lord and his Tennants betwixt those who are Allied in Affinity betwixt a Guardian and his Pupil Is it so great a Mystery to understand what it is to possess by Purchase Exchange Donation Legacy Testament Prescription and Usufruit and what are the necessary Conditions to render Use and Possession valid There appears to be no more Understanding requisite to know aright the spirit of Christian Society than that of the Civil to frame a right Notion of the Authority which is peculiar thereto and upon which is founded all its Conduct and to distinguish precisely betwixt that which Jesus Christ hath left to His Church and the Dominion which onely belongs to Temporal Powers After having made that Distinction absolutely necessary to the right Understanding of the Canon Law a Woman might study and observe how the Church is Governed in the State and how the Spiritual Jurisdiction is mingled with the Secular wherein the Hierarchy consists what are the Offices of Prelates the Power of Councels Popes Bishops and Pastors what is the meaning of Discipline what are the Rules and Changes thereof what mean Canons Priviledges and Exemptions how Benefices are Established and what is the Right and Possession thereof In a word What are the Customs and Ordinances of the Church and the Duties of all those that Compose it There is therein nothing at all whereof a Woman is not most capable and so she might become most Skilful in the Canon-Law These are some general Notions of the Highest Knowledges where-with Men serve themselves to signalize their Parts and raise their Fortune and of which to the Prejudice of Women they have been so long in Posseâ—â—â—on And although they have as great right thereto as themselves 〈◊〉 notwithstanding entertain such Thoughts and carry with a 〈◊〉 towards them by so much the more unjust that nothing like is to be seen in the use of the Goods of the Body It hath been judged expedient that for the Peace and security of Families Prescription should take place my Meaning is That a Man who with a good Conscience and without trouble or molestation might have enjoyed the Goods of another for a certain space of time should remain Possessour thereof without the After-claims and Pretensions of any whosoever But it hath never entered into the minds of Men to believe That such who had fallen from their Possessions by Neglect or otherwise should be incapable by some manner or other to retrive them and their Incapacity hath never been considered as Natural but onely Civill On the contrary Men have not onely contented themselves not to call Women to a share in Sciences and Offices after a long Prescription against them but have proceeded farther to fancy that their Exclusion therefrom is founded on a natural Indisposition on their Part. In the mean-while there is nothing in the World more Fantastical than that Imagination For whether that we consider the Sciences in themselves or that we regard the Organs which serves to acquire them we shall find that both Sexes are thereto equally disposed There is but one only way to insinuate Truth into the Mind whereof it is the Food as there is but one to convey Nourishment into all sorts of Stomacks for the Subsistance of the Body And as to what concerns the different Dispositions of that Organ which renders us more or less fit for Sciences if we would fairly and honestly acknowledge Who have the better we must confess it to be the Women We cannot disagree but amongst Men such as are gross