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Notes was their situation? They were either sunk almost to the level of the brutes in mental darkness,
buried in their own homes, the slaves instead of the companions of their husbands, only to be
preserved from vice by being excluded from the world, or, not being able to endure these restraints,
employing their restless powers and turbulent passions in the pursuit of vicious pleasures and
sensual gratifications. And we cannot wonder that this was the case, when they were gifted with
faculties which they were not permitted to exercise, and were compelled to vegetate from year to
year, with no object in life and no hope in death.Observe what an immediate change was wrought
by the introduction of Christianity. Mark the zeal, directed by knowledge, of the female converts,
of so many of whom St. Paul makes honorable mention as his friends, on account of their exertions
in the great cause. An object was held out for them to obtain, and their powers were bent to the
attainment of it, instead of being engaged invice and folly. The female character has been observed
to improve since that time, in proportion as the treasures of useful knowledge have been placed
within the reach of the sex.
I wish to imply by what I have said, not that great stores of information are as necessary to women
as to men, but that as much care should be taken of the formation of their minds. Their attainments
cannot in general be so great, because they have their own appropriate duties and peculiar
employments, the neglect of which nothing can excuse; but I contend that these duties will be
better performed if the powers be rationally employed. If the whole mind be exercised and
strengthened, it will bring more vigour to the performance of its duties in any particular province.
The first great objection which is made to enlightening the female mind is, that if engaged in the
pursuit of knowledge, women neglect their appropriate duties and peculiar employments . Second
That the greatest advances that the female mind can make in knowledge, must still fall far short
of the attainments of the other sex. Third That the vanity so universally ascribed to the sex is apt
to be inflated by any degree of proficiency in knowledge, and that women therefore become
forgetful of the subordinate station assigned them by law, natural and divine.
To the first objection I answer, that such a pursuit of knowledge as shall lead women to neglect
their peculiar duties, is not that cultivation of mind for the utility of which I am contending. But
these duties may be well performed without engaging the whole time and attention. If “great
thoughts constitute great minds,” what can be expected from a woman whose whole intellect is
employed on the trifling cares and comparatively mean occupations, to which the advocates for
female ignorance would condemn her? These cares and these occupations were allotted to women
to enable them to smooth our way through life; they were designed as a means to this end, and
should never be pursued as the end itself. The knowledge of these necessary acts is so easily
acquired, and they are so easily performed, that an active mind will feel a dismalvacuity, a craving
after something nobler and better to employ the thoughts in the intervals of idleness which must
occur when these calls of duty are answered, and if nothing nobler and better is presented to it, it
will waste its energies in the pursuit of folly, if not of vice, and thus continually perpetuate the
faults of the sex. . . .
It must be allowed by all, that one of woman’s first duties is to qualify herself for being a companion
to her husband, or to those with whom her lot in life is cast. She was formed to be a domestic
companion, and such an one as shall give to home its charms, as shall furnish such entertainment
that her husband need not be driven abroad for amusement. This is one of the first duties required
from a woman, and no time can be misemployed which is applied to the purpose of making her
such a companion, and I contend that a friend like this cannot be found among women of
uncultivated minds. If their thoughts are continually occupied by the vanities of the world, if that
time which is not required for the fulfilment of household duties, is spent in folly, or even in

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