W O M A N
Not I N F E R I O R to
M A N:
OR,
杨姓起源A short and modest Vindication of the natural Right of the F A I R -S E X to a perfect Equality of Power, Dignity, and Esteem, with the Men. _______________________________________ By S O P H I A,
A P E R S O N of Q U A L I T Y.
_______________________________________ How hard is the Condition of our Sex,
Thro' ev'ry State of Life the Slaves of Man!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . Wherefore are we
Born with high Souls, but to asrt ourlves,
Shake off this wild Obedience they exact,
我们伟大的母亲And claim an equal Empire o'er the World.
记忆中的歌声R O W E'S Fair Penitent.
_______________________________________
L O N D O N:
Printed for J OHN H AWKINS, at the Falcon in
St Paul's Church-Yard. MDCCXXXIX.
[ Price One Shilling. ]
WOMAN not Inferior to MAN
CHAP. I
The INTRODUCTION.
If a celebrated Author had not already told us, that there is nothing in Nature so much to be wondered at as THAT WE CAN WONDER AT ALL; it must appear to every one, who has but a degree of understanding above the idiot, a matter of the greatest surpri, to obrve the universal prevalence of prejudice and custom in the minds of the Men. One might naturally expect to e tho lordly creatures, as they modestly style themlves, everywhere jealous of superiority, and watchful to maintain it. Instead of which, if we except the tyrannical usurpation of authority they exert over us Women, we shall find them industrious in nothing but courting the meanest rvitude. Was their ambition laudable and just, it would be consistent in itlf, and this consistency would render them alike imperious in every circumstance, where authority is requisite and justifiable: And if their brutal strength of body entitled them to lord it over our nicer frame, the superiority of reason to passion, might suffice to make them blush to submit that reason to passion, prejudice, and groundless custom. If this haughty x would have us believe they have a natural right of superiority over us, why do not they prove their charter from Nature, by making u of reason to subdue themlves. We know we have reason, and are nsible that it is the only prerogative Nature has bestowed upon us, to lift us above the sphere of nsitive animals: And the same reason, which poin
ts us out our superiority of Men over us, if we could discover in them the least degree of n above what we ourlves posss. But it will be impossible for us, without forfeiting that reason, ever to acknowledge ourlves inferior to creatures, who make no other u of the n they boast of, than baly to subject it to the passions they have in common with brutes. Were we to e the Men every where, and at all times, masters of themlves, and their animal appetites in a perfect subordination to their rational faculties; we should have some colour to think that Nature designed them for masters to us, who cannot perhaps always boast of so complete a command over ourlves. But how is it possible for us to give-in to such a notion, while we e tho very men, who ambition of ascendancy over us, nothing less than absolute dominion can satiate, court the most abject slavery, by prostituting reason to their groveling passions, suffering n to be led away captive by prejudice, and sacrificing justice, truth, and honour, to inconsiderate custom?
How many things do the mighty wi creatures hold for undoubted truths, without being able to assign a reason for any one of their opinions! The cau of which is, that they suffer themlves to be hurried away by appearances. With them, what ems true, must be so; becau the light in which they eye things stands them in the stead of conviction. Where they want evidence in the principles, fallacy helps them to fill up the vacancy with emings in their inference. In a word, as th
ey suppo without reason, so they discour without grounds; and therefore would have as strongly maintained the negative of what they asrt, if custom, and the impression of the ns had determined them to it after the same manner.
But a few ages ago, the belief of the Antipodes was a heresy in philosophy. Ignorance, dignified with the prerogative of custom, and supported by the emings of reason, justified the contrary opinion; and the gravest philosophers were, or affected to be, so well convinced of it, that it was an argument of the utmost arrogance to attempt to t them right. And yet the matter has been since so unquestionably proved, that nothing but the height of madness, or the depth of ignorance can now countenance a doubt of it.
The constant revolution of days and years, determined the wiacres of old to asrt that all the celestial orbs move round the earth: And custom, ever prevailing custom, drags the major part of our contemporary bookworms to follow their opinion. Whereas the very same phas, if we maturely consider, may equally incline us to think, that the earth itlf is a planet, and moves with the rest of the planets round the sun. What mighty superiority of reason then have the overgrown boys over lesr children? Both argue alike from appearances: The former e, from the diversified positions of the earth and sun, that there is motion in one of them; and becau they feel not the agitation in th
e earth they stand upon, therefore precipitately conclude that it is the sun moves round them, and not they round the sun. The latter innsible of the motion of a coach, fancy, when in one, that the hous pass by them, and not they by the hous. Are not both led in their judgments by like principles? Yet with this difference still, that the are less obstinate in error, and more ready to be t right, than they.
In like manner the wild savages in the Indies, (who, by the bye, are nevertheless of the same species with our domestic ones at home) for want of knowing the mechanism of a clock, are apt to attribute its movements to invisible spirits within it; while your blind followers of Descartes are not ashamed to take upon religious trust from him, that the whole animal creation are but different kinds of automata, or lf-moving clockwork; notwithstanding its being pretty well known, that their master himlf had too much n to believe his own system, having invented it only to amu and impo upon fools.
The men, who have taken care to engross the affairs of religion, as well as others, to their own management, are no more guided in that than in anything el by the dictates of reason. The religion they were bred up in, they blindly prefer to all others, without being able to give any stronger proof of its being the best, than that it was the Faith of their forefathers. Upon the strength of this pre
judice, they adhere to it as the only true one, and without ever examining into it, or comparing it with others; they condemn all beside it as erroneous. Is not this the ca with most of the men, our clergy not excepted? No country pleas a man so well as his own; nay, so far is he apt to carry prejudice, that he can ldom be induced to do justice to any other nation, even where truth is on its side, if the honour and interest of his own is at stake: And this is a foible the very best men are equally subject to. Nay, such is the imbecility of that x, as well as ours, that even professions are a matter of prejudice. And a fool, of our own, is often more acceptable in company than a wi-man of another calling. The very inequality of stations, which constraint, and confusion have introduced among men, has deceived multitudes of them into a notion that the same inequality is in men themlves.
If we allow ourlves but time to trace this diversity of vulgar errors up to the fountain-head, shall we be able to find them any other source than interest and custom? And yet such is the prevalency which custom, ever so wrongly introduced, has over the minds of the men, that it requires much less difficulty to wean them from ntiments, which they themlves have built on the most convincing evidences of reason and truth, than to draw them from the prejudices which custom has instilled into them.
赶快的近义词
I should never have done, was I to reckon up the many absurd notions the men are led into by custom: Tho' there is none more absurd, than that of the great difference they make between their own x and ours. Yet it must be own'd that there is not any vulgar error more ancient or universal. For the learned and illiterate alike are prepossd with the opinion that men are really superior to women, and that the dependence we now are in, is the very state which Nature pointed out for us. So that to advance the contrary doctrine, after so long a preposssion, must appear as great a paradox, as it did some years ago to asrt, that on the nether surface of the globe, there were men who walked with their heads downwards to us; and whether the one be not as agreeable to truth as the other, will best be found on a fair trial. But what judge shall we have recour to, or what evidence can be admitted in an affair of so delicate a nature as this; on which depends the right of one half the creation, which ever side may prevail?
All the witness we desire to be allowed, is plain, undisguid truth; and if the men have but generosity enough left to admit this evidence, we shall have no room to fear any they can bring. We are willing, at least for charity's sake to hope, that, however they may be dispod, they will at least blush to make any exceptions against so unquestionably impartial a witness.
But who shall the matter be tried by? We ourlves are too nearly concerned in the decision, to be a
dmitted even as witness in the trial, much less then as judges; and the same consideration equally excludes men from acting in it in either capacity. And yet so far are we from having anything to apprehend from the defect of justice in our cau, that if the men were ever so little more just and less corrupted in their judgments than they really are, we would readily subscribe to their own ntence. But as the ca now stands, we must appeal to a more impartial judge.
心理健康调查问卷
检修总结Hitherto the difference between the xes has been but very slightly touched upon. Nevertheless, the men, biad by custom, prejudice, and interest, have presumed boldly to pronounce ntence in their own favour, becau posssion empowered them to make violence take place of justice. And the men of our times, without trial or examination, have taken the same liberty from the report of other men. Whereas to judge soundly, whether their x has received from Nature any real super-eminence beyond ours; they should entirely divest themlves of all interest and partiality, and suffer no bare reports to fill the place of argument, especially if the reporter be a party immediately concerned.
If a man could thus divest the partiality attached to this lf, and put on for a minute a state of neutrality, he would be able to e, and forced to acknowledge, that prejudice and precipitance are the chief caus of tting less value upon women than men, and giving so much greater excellence
江苏省自考and nobility to the latter than to the former. In a word, were the men philosophers in the strict n of the term, they would be able to e that Nature invincibly proves a perfect equality in our x with their own.
But as there are extremely few among them capable of such an abstracted way of thinking, they have no more right to act the judges in this matter than ourlves; and therefore, we must be obliged to appeal to a more impartial judge, one incapable of siding with any party, and conquently unsuspected on both sides. This I apprehend to be rectified reason, as it is a pure intellectual faculty elevated above the consideration of any x, and equally concerned in the welfare of the whole rational species in general, and in particular. To this Judge we leave our cau, by the decision of this we are prepared to stand or fall; and if, upon the evidence of truth, reason should declare us inferior to men, we will cheerfully acquiesce to the ntence. But what if we obtain a decree in our favour, upon impartial examination? Why then all the authority, which the men have exerted over us hitherto, will appear an unjust usurpation on their side; for which nothing can make a tolerable atonement, but their restoring us to the state of equality Nature first placed us in. And till they do that, the fancy'd wrongs they charge upon our whole x, tho' but applicable (if at all) to a very small number among us, whom I don't however pretend to justify, can only be looked upon as very moderate reprisals upon theirs.
To t this whole matter then in as clear a light as possible, it will be necessary to clear our ideas from all that is muddled and confud, by parating the fictitious from the real, the obscure from the evident, the fal from the true, supposition from matter of fact, emings from entities, practice from principle, belief from knowledge, doubt from certainty, interest and prejudice from justice and sound judgment. To this end therefore we must examine, in order, what are the general notions which the men entertain of our x; on what grounds they build their opinions; and what are the effects to us and to themlves of the treatment we receive from them, in conquence of their prent opinion. In the cour of this little treati I shall also occasionally examine, whether there be any esntial difference between the xes which can authorize the superiority the men claim over the women; and what are the caus of, and who are accountable for, the eming difference which makes the sum of their plea. And if, upon mature consideration, it appears that there is no other difference between men and us than what their tyranny has created, it will then appear how unjust they are in excluding us from that power and dignity we have a right to share with them; how ungenerous in denying us the equality of esteem, which is our due; and how little reason they have to triumph in the ba posssion of an authority, which unnatural violence, and lawless usurpation, put into their hands. Then let them justify, if they can, the little meanness, not to mention the grosr barbarities, which they daily practi towards that part of the creation, who happiness is so inparably linked with their own.
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