A serious proposal to the Ladies, for the advancement of their true and greatest interest (In Two Parts)Astell, Mary
Religion
A serious proposal to the Ladies, for the advancement of their true and greatest interest (In Two Parts)
Astell, Mary
Feminism -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century -- Sources; Women's rights -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
we need no Instructor to teach us this Knowlege, ’tis born with us, and
is inseparable from our Being, but we very much need to be Inform’d
what is the true Way to Happiness. When the Will comes to ask the
Understanding this Question, What must I do to fill up my Vacuities, to
accomplish my Nature? Our Reason is at first too weak, and afterwards
too often too much sophisticated to return a proper Answer, tho it
be the most important concern of our Lives, for according as the
Understanding replies to it so is the Moral Conduct of the Will, pure
and right if the first be well Inform’d, irregular and vitious if the
other be weak and deluded. Indeed our power of Willing exerts it self
much sooner than that Rational Faculty which is to Govern it, and
therefore ’twill either be left to its own range, or to the Reason of
another to direct it; whence it comes that we generally take that
Course in our search after Happiness, which Education, Example or
Custom puts us in, and, tho not always, yet most commonly, we tast of
our first seasoning; which shou’d teach us to take all the care we can
that it be Good, and likewise that how Good soever it appear, we be not
too much Wedded to and biass’d by it. Well then, the first light of our
Understanding must be borrow’d, we must take it on trust till we’re
furnish’d with a Stock of our own, which we cannot long be without if
we do but employ what was lent us in the purifying of our Will, for as
this grows more regular the other will enlarge, if it clear up, that
will brighten and shine forth with diffusive Rays.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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