A Woman's Philosophy of Woman; or, Woman affranchised.: An answer to Michelet, Proudhon, Girardin, Legouvé, Comte, and other modern innovatorsHéricourt, Madame d'
Philosophy
A Woman's Philosophy of Woman; or, Woman affranchised.: An answer to Michelet, Proudhon, Girardin, Legouvé, Comte, and other modern innovators
Héricourt, Madame d'
Women's rights -- France
"A multitude of women, innocent at first, have been turned aside from the
right path by men who do not think as you do. They now avenge themselves
upon your sex for the evil it has done them. They corrupt and ruin men
who, in their company, lose all sense of morality, who learn to laugh at
what you believe and venerate, and undermine and destroy their health. Do
you feel the deplorable courage to expose yourself to such risks?"
The young man, practised from childhood to subject his inclinations to
reason and justice, would reply: "No, mother, I will not do what I would
not wish my companion to do; I will neither degrade myself morally, nor
destroy my health, nor contribute my share towards perpetuating a state
of things which degrades the sex to which belongs my mother, my sister,
my wife and my daughters, should I be so happy as to possess them.
"I acknowledge frankly that I foresee a violent struggle with myself,
but, thanks to the moral training to which you have accustomed me, thanks
to the ideal of destiny which you have given me, which I have accepted in
the plenitude of my reason, and which my duty marks out for me, I do not
despair of subduing myself."--"This victory will be less difficult to
obtain, if you employ yourself usefully and seriously; for you will thus
attract your vitality to the superior regions of the brain. You will do
wisely to add to this, much physical exercise; to abstain from too
substantial a diet, and especially from stimulating drinks! you know the
reaction of the physical upon the moral system. Carefully avoid
licentious reading and improper conversation; give a place in your mind
to the virgin who will be united to you; think and act as if in her
presence; it will guard you and keep you pure. This sweet ideal will
strengthen you against temptation, and contribute greatly to render you
insensible towards those women who should have no place in your heart."
"Love, my child, is a thing most serious in its results; for the beings
whom it unites become modified by each other; it leaves its traces,
however short may be its duration.
"Its end is Marriage, one of the ends of which is the continuity of the
species. Now, you know the effects of solidarity of blood; it is most
important therefore that you should choose for your companion a woman
whose character, morals and principles are in unison with your own; not
only for your happiness, but for the _organization_ of your children, the
harmony of their nature and conduct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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