Some Reflections Upon Marriage.: With additions.Astell, Mary
Philosophy
Some Reflections Upon Marriage.: With additions.
Astell, Mary
Marriage; Women -- Social conditions
capable of attaining in this Life by the Grace of _GOD_; such true
Wisdom, such real Greatness, as though it does not qualify them to make
a Noise in this World, to found or overturn Empires, yet it qualifies
them for what is infinitely better, a Kingdom that cannot be mov’d, an
incorruptible Crown of Glory.
Besides, it were ridiculous to suppose, that a Woman, were she ever so
much improv’d, could come near the topping Genius of the Men, and
therefore why should they envy or discourage her? Strength of Mind goes
along with Strength of Body, and ’tis only for some odd Accidents which
Philosophers have not yet thought worth while to enquire into, that the
sturdiest Porter is not the wisest Man! As therefore the Men have the
Power in their Hands, so there’s no Dispute of their having the Brains
to manage it! Can we suppose there is such a Thing as good Judgment and
Sense upon Earth, if it is not to be found among them: Do not they,
generally speaking, do all the great Actions and considerable Business
of this World, and leave that of the next to the Women? Their Subtlety
in forming Cabals and laying deep Designs, their Courage and Conduct in
breaking through all Tyes, sacred and civil, to effect them, not only
advances them to the Post of Honour, and keeps them securely in it for
twenty or thirty Years, but gets them a Name, and conveys it down to
Posterity for some Hundreds; and who would look any further? Justice and
Injustice are administred by their Hands, Courts and Schools are fill’d
with these Sages; ’tis Men who dispute for Truth, as well as Men who
argue against it: Histories are writ by them; they recount each other’s
great Exploits, and have always done so. All famous Arts have their
Original from Men, even from the Invention of Guns, to the Mystery of
good Eating. And to shew that nothing is beneath their Care, any more
than above their Reach, they have brought _Gaming_ to an Art and
Science, and a more Profitable and Honourable one too, than any of those
that us’d to be call’d _Liberal_! Indeed, what is it they can’t perform,
when they attempt it? The Strength of their Brains shall be every whit
as conspicuous at their Cups, as in a Senate-House, and, when they
please, they can make it pass for as sure a Mark of Wisdom, to drink
deep, as to reason profoundly; a greater Proof of Courage, and
consequently of Understanding, to dare the Vengeance of Heaven it self,
than to stand the Raillery of some of the worst of their Fellow
Creatures!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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