They think our women insufferably bold and unfeminine. How rarely it is thateven men complain of the general order of society; and how much rarer stillwould such complaint be, if they did not know of any different order existinganywhere else. Women do not complain of the general lot of women; or ratherthey do, for plaintive elegies on it are very common in the writings of women,and were still more so as long as the lamentations could not be suspectedof having any practical object. Their complaints are like the complaintswhich men make of the general unsatisfactoriness of human life; they arenot meant to imply blame, or to plead for any change. But though women donot complain of the power of husbands, each complains of her own husband,or of the husbands of her friends. It is the same in all other cases of servitude,at least in the commencement of the emancipatory movement. The serfs didnot at first complain of the power of their lords, but only of their tyranny.
The commons began by claiming a few municipal privileges; they next askedan exemption for themselves from being taxed without their own consent; butthey would at that time have thought it a great presumption to claim anyshare in the king's sovereign authority. The case of women is now the onlycase in which to rebel against established rules is still looked upon withthe same eyes as was formerly a subject's claim to the I right of rebellingagainst his king. A woman who joins in any movement which her husband disapproves,makes herself a martyr, without even being able to be an apostle, for thehusband can legally put a stop to her apostleship. Women cannot be expectedto devote themselves to the emancipation of women, until men in considerablenumber are prepared to join with them in the undertaking.
NOTES:
1. Especially is this true if we take into consideration Asia as wellas Europe. If a Hindoo principality is strongly, vigilantly, and economicallygoverned; if order is preserved without oppression; if cultivation is extending,and the people prosperous, in three cases out of four that principality isunder a woman's rule. This fact, to me an entirely unexpected one, I havecollected from a long knowledge of Hindoo governments. There are many suchinstances: for though, by Hindoo institutions, a woman cannot reign, sheis the legal regent of a kingdom during the minority of the heir; and minoritiesare frequent, the lives of the male rulers being so often prematurely terminatedthrough the effect of inactivity and sensual excesses. When we consider thatthese princesses have never been seen in public, have never conversed withany man not of their own family except from behind a curtain, that they donot read, and if they did there is no book in their languages which can givethem the smallest instruction on political affairs; the example they affordof the natural capacity of women for government is very striking.
2. "It appears to be the same right turn of mind which enables aman to acquire the truth, or just idea of what is right, in the ornaments,as in the more stable principles of art. It has still the same centre ofperfection, though it is the centre of a smaller circle. -- To illustratethis by fashion of dress, in which there is allowed to be a good or bad taste.
The component parts of dress are continually changing from great to little,from short to long; but the general form still remains; it is still the samegeneral dress which is comparatively fixed , though on a very slender foundation;but it is on this which fashion must rest. He who invents with the most success,or dresses in the best taste, would probably, from the same sagacity employedto greater purposes, have discovered equal skill, or have formed the samecorrect taste, in the highest labours of art." -- Sir Joshua Reynold'sDiscourses, Disc. vii.
