Some Reflections Upon Marriage.: With additions.Astell, Mary
Philosophy
Some Reflections Upon Marriage.: With additions.
Astell, Mary
Marriage; Women -- Social conditions
But how can a Woman scruple intire Subjection, how can she forbear to
admire the Worth and Excellency of the Superior Sex, if she at all
considers it! Have not all the great Actions that have been perform’d in
the World been done by Men? Have not they founded Empires and overturn’d
them? Do not they make Laws and continually repeal and amend them? Their
vast Minds lay Kingdoms waste, no Bounds or Measures can be prescrib’d
to their Desires. War and Peace depend on them; they form Cabals and
have the Wisdom and Courage to get over all the Rubs, the petty
Restraints which Honour and Conscience may lay in the Way of their
desired Grandeur. What is it they cannot do? They make Worlds and ruin
them, form Systems of universal Nature, and dispute eternally about
them; their Pen gives Worth to the most trifling Controversy; nor can a
Fray be inconsiderable if they have drawn their Swords in’t. All that
the wise Man pronounces is an Oracle, and every Word the Witty speaks, a
Jest. It is a Woman’s Happiness to hear, admire and praise them,
especially if a little Ill-nature keeps them at any time from bellowing
due Applauses on each other! And if she aspires no further, she is
thought to be in her proper Sphere of Action; she is as wise and as good
as can be expected from her!
She then who Marries, ought to lay it down for an indisputable Maxim,
that her Husband must govern absolutely and intirely, and that she has
nothing else to do but to Please and Obey. She must not attempt to
divide his Authority, or so much as dispute it; to struggle with her
Yoke will only make it gall the more, but must believe him Wise and
Good, and in all respects the best, at least he must be so to her. She
who can’t do this is no way fit to be a Wife, she may set up for that
peculiar Coronet the antient Fathers talk’d of, but is not qualified to
receive that great Reward which attends the eminent Exercise of Humility
and Self-denial, Patience and Resignation, the Duties that a Wife is
call’d to.
But some refractory Woman perhaps will say, how can this be? Is it
possible for her to believe him Wise and Good, who by a thousand
Demonstrations convinces her, and all the World, of the contrary? Did
the bare Name of Husband confer Sense on a Man, and the meer being in
Authority infallibly qualify him for Government, much might be done. But
since a wise Man and a Husband are not Terms convertible, and how loth
soever one is to own it, Matter of Fact won’t allow us to deny, that the
Head many times stands in need of the Inferior’s Brains to manage it,
she must beg leave to be excus’d from such high Thoughts of her
Sovereign, and if she submits to his Power, it is not so much Reason as
Necessity that compels her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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