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
To Sum up all: Since there are Innumerable Beings in the World, which
have each of them their several Excellencies or Perfections; Since
these can no more derive their Perfections than their Being from
themselves or from any other Creature; Since a Self-Existing Being is
the result of our Thoughts; the First and only True Cause, without
whom it is impossible that any thing should ever have Existed; since
Creatures with their Being receive all that depends on it from him
their Maker; Since none can give what he has not, and therefore he who
Communicates an innumerable variety of Perfections to his Creatures,
even all that they enjoy, must needs contain in himself all those
Beauties and Perfections he is pleas’d to Communicate to Inferior
Beings; nothing can be more Plain and Evident than that there is a GOD,
and that the Existence of an All-Perfect Being is Absolutely necessary.
Perhaps these Arguments are not in Form, I do not oblige my Self to
follow servilely the Rules of Art, nor know I what better Judges will
think of ’em, but they seem to me to be Clear, Rational and Concluding,
which is all I aim at. And I hope the Reader will receive from hence
more light into the way of Arguing, than she cou’d have gain’d had I
spent as many Pages in prescribing Rules and giving trifling Examples,
which when they are known, merit only to be forgot again. But if some
are better pleas’d with the usual way of Syllogism, and think an
Argument cannot be rightly managed without one, for their Satisfaction
we will add another Instance.
Suppose the Question were put _Whether a Rich Man is Happy_? By a Rich
Man understanding one who possesses the Wealth and Good things of this
World, and by Happy the Enjoyment of the Proper Good of Man. We compare
the two Terms Riches and Happiness together, to discern if they be so
much one and the same, that what is affirm’d of the one may be laid of
the other; but we find they are not. For if Riches and Happiness were
terms Convertible, then all who are Happy must be Rich, and all who are
Rich must be Happy, to affirm the last of which is to beg the Question,
and the contrary appears by the following Argument, which makes use of
_Satisfaction with ones own Condition_ for the middle Idea or Common
Measure.
He who is Happy is satisfied with his Condition and free from Anxious
Cares and Solicitude (for these proceeding from the want of Good, he
who enjoys his proper Good cannot be subject to them.) But Riches do
not free us from Anxieties and Solicitude, they many times encrease
them, Therefore to be Rich and to be Happy are not one and the same
thing.
Again, If there are some who are Happy and yet not Rich, then Riches
and Happiness are two distinct things. But a Good Poor Man is Happy (in
the Enjoyment of GOD who is better to him than Thousands of Gold and
Silver,) therefore Riches and Happiness are to be distinguish’d.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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