Ladies,
There is a proposition that wants to improve my charms and fix my beauty, putting it out of the reach of age and sickness “by transferring it from a corruptible Body to an immortal Mind.” It would procure inner beauty for those who aren’t pretty (ouch).
Wisdom. Wit. That which is truly valuable. Virtue. You would be glorified, blessed, and admired.
I won’t have to talk a lot or use rhetoric to get you to agree with this proposal. You won’t be so unkind to yourself to refuse.
You’re awesome. Why are you so humble? Why don’t you aim higher? Why are you ok with being just pretty? I look at you with pity and resentment that your “Glorious Temples” that god made so beautifully are so empty. You’re beautiful but your soul is neglected and growing weeds.
Time is an enemy to faces but an improver of souls. Screw “Butterflies and Trifles!” “Vanity and Folly”. “break the enchanted Circle that custom has placed us in”.
“And not entertain Such a degrading thought of our own worth, as to imagine that our Souls were given us only for the Service of our Bodies, and that the best improvement we can make of these, is to attract the eyes of men.”
Be good and wise and have wit; that is greatness.
I don’t mean to imply there’s something wrong with you. I just want to “rectify your Failures”. We all have faults; men too! But they think they’re too wise to take advice from a lady.
Be as happy as you can in your imperfection. I want you to achieve your rightful dignity.
God gave women more natural goodness, since we’re “denied opportunities of improvement from without”. I want you to desire to be better!
Men have said that women can’t act wisely; I can’t accept that. Women can avoid folly. We do have some disadvantages. We don’t have to do bad when we can do the best! God made us ornaments to our families and useful to our generation, so we can’t be content to be useless or a burden in the world. Sad that so many don’t know their worth.
The cause of this belief in our defect is the mistake of our education.
The soil is rich – if well-cultivated would produce a noble harvest. We are barred from advantages then reproached because we lack them.
You’d think parents would educate daughters. Procure that we should live wisely and happily. To neglect to educate kids (against temptations, etc) is wicked.
We are capable of being instruments of God. But if our nature is spoiled through ignorance, well, ignorance is the cause of all sin. What hope do we have if we’re brought up like that?
That we’re “unprofitable” to men is their own fault for denying us education.
Feminine vices are caused by ignorance. God has made us to want to advance ourselves. If we’re haughty in disdain of doing something mean, or pride in trying to be better, that’s fine. Given the means to understand, women will try to perfect their nature. Kept in ignorance, they’ll go for the first thing they think represents their desires.
If she has nothing else to value in herself, she’ll be proud of her beauty, money, or stuff. This will lead her to follow any guy who flatters her or gives her stuff. If she’s only raised on plays and romances, froth and emptiness, she won’t be able to see the fallacy. Educated, she’d see through all that, value her own virtue, not care what others say but focus on what she herself does.
(Through this part implies that, educated, she won’t do these things). Uneducated she’ll get love through base ways. She’ll think she’s great because she has money or a better tailor than others. She’d undervalue her judgment.
If she understands herself, she won’t be affected by praise or criticism of worthless people.
“Thus Ignorance and a narrow Education, lay the Foundation of Vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.”
Custom – if not given better means, of course she’ll follow others. This is why people do irrational things.
“we go on in Vice, not because we find Satisfaction in it, but because we are unacquainted with the Joys of Virtue.”
Between this and the “hurry and noise of the world” we don’t have the time or mind to reflect. (again – demand for quiet and solitude).
“till our minds themselves become as light and frothy as those things they are conversant about”
Add to all of that the energy bad people use to corrupt the good, and you can see why we’re not improving.
If all a girl learns to value is to dress well, you can’t blame her for putting her energy in money into that. When she sees the vain parading around and being admired, of course she’s dazzled.
If she was taught more earnestly of heaven, she’d be interested (I think). She’s taught the “what” of religion but not the “why”. Her piety may be tall but it lacks roots, so a temptation overthrows it or it withers on its own. But don’t blame her.
A woman made to display her reason, to look into motives of religion, ”who is a Christian out of Choice, not in conformity to those about her,” who isn’t just good, but can “give a reason why she is so” can’t be tempted by sin.
The heart may be honest, but understanding may be ignorant. This is why we see people falling in their piety. “Reason and Truth are firm and immutable.”
It’s useless to pray for graces if we don’t practice them; a mockery to praise perfections we contradict.
So now we know the disease and the cure, so let’s apply a remedy. I know you’re all good people who love god and want to better yourselves.
Let’s erect a Monastery – a “religious retirement” – a retreat from the world and an institution that will work to improve the future. People who are sick of the vanity of the world can come here. Those who want to do good for themselves and then for others. Want to avoid the temptations of the everyday world. Service of god, improvement of minds. “recess from the noise and hurry of the world”.
Ladies, you’re invited. You’ll avoid insignificant people. You’ll have real conversation. Avoid flattery, have “wholesome counsels”.
All you have to do is be as happy as you can.
“ you Shall feast on Pleasures, that do not, like those of the World, disappoint your expectations.” There are no serpents here to deceive. No competing except for god’s love. No ambition but procuring his favor. No envy. No covetousness. It will be like heaven, since all you have to do is glory god and love each other.
It will be a mix of contemplation and active good works. You won’t be cut off from the world (and doing good in it). It will be a “seminary to stock the kingdom with pious and prudent ladies”.
“ Shall be to expel that cloud of Ignorance, which custom has involved us in, to furnish our minds with a Stock of Solid and useful Knowledge, that the Souls of women may no longer be the only unadorned and neglected things.”
She cites a book talking about women reading Greek and Latin in the 15 and 1600s. If god gave us intelligent souls, why can’t we try to improve them?
The only reason women’s conversations are so insipid is that we’re not educated.
Ignorance isn’t the right way to prepare for heaven.
Again, if you don’t give us worthy materials with which to educate our minds, “’tis like to take up with Such as come to hand.”
I’m not saying women should teach in the church or usurp authority.
Let us read philosophy like the French ladies do, instead of idle novels and romances. I know ladies will like this idea and men won’t, “Women invited to taste of that Tree of Knowledge they have so long unjustly monopolized.” I can’t imagine how this could hurt anyone.
Women will spend part of their days praying, the rest doing charitable useful stuff like studying or teaching, works of mercy, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, etc.
Religion religion religion.
“ For true Piety is the most Sweet and engaging thing imaginable,”
As to Lodging, Habit and Diet: The ladies who subscribe can decide. They’ll probably choose what’s plain and decent. She’d never spend on herself instead of the poor or jeopardize her place in heaven.
There will be no envy. No censure, but friendly admonition. They’ll live the life of heaven while on earth.
Tutors will be “persons of irreproachable lives”. Great Christians. Lists all the ways they’ll be great. And everyone who comes here will be amiable and charming, and will be corrected by sweetness. No vows or obligations.
Something about how it’s hard to develop new thoughts and ideas when the old ones are crowding your mind. So, if you see people “respected in proportion to that pomp and bustle they make in the world” that’s what you’ll think is important, and that’s what you’ll strive for. That’s why if you try to talk to people about religion they’ll appear dull, but if you bring up something shallow “they’ll appear very quick, expert, and ingenious.” We have to get rid of the “Toys and Vanities” before we can enlarge our ideas.
Complaining about little things, like ladies do trying to be grand, ruins your joy. Disposes you to inconstancy, which is a sign of a weak mind.
Temptations are a danger.
Life is short and we have great work to do. We can’t waste time. There’s no time for thoughtfulness or recollection. This is a mechanical way to live; we repent the mistakes of the day before, making improvement impossible.
“how hard is it to quit an old road?”
Well, it will be hard to shake off the censures and scoffs of society if we try to better ourselves in its midst, so we have to “retire from the world.” That removes us from temptation and prevents us from squandering time on frivolities. “As Vice is, so Virtue may be catching”.
We will “awaken our sleeping Powers” and “begin to wonder at our Folly” that we never worked on our souls like this before. The holy spirit will come to us and we’ll be able to hear because we’ll have gotten rid of our distractions. Simplicity. We won’t be focused on this world, but the next.
(who’s her audience? Ladies? Does her rhetorical style support that or is this really aimed at men as well to convince them to let women be educated?)
We’ll “obtain truer Notions of God”.
We’ll see that the allurements of the world “are no better than insignificant Toys, which have no value but what our perverse Opinion imposes on them.” We’ll be happier without them. What you’re pursuing now isn’t pleasure, it’s amusement.
We’ll get to pursue “the purest and nobles Friendship”! (she uses exclamation points here). Friendship is a virtue. “were the world better, there would be more Friendship, and were there more Friendship we should have a better world.” But she doesn’t mean shallow friendship, but a deep love. But it’s dangerous to do so, in case you’re deceived. And it’s hard enough to know yourself, much less another. So don’t haste. Friendship should be a matching of souls and should better each of you.
Religion will become our second nature. “what a blessed world should we have”! we’ll try to show others the way. Women’s conversations will be virtuous, and “a Lecture on the Fashions” would become as disagreeable as at present any serious discourse is.” “Ladies of Quality would be able to distinguish themselves from their Inferiors by the blessings they communicated, and the good they did.”
She who doesn’t glorify god and help her neighbors will be vile and despicable.
“Modesty requiring that a Woman Should not love before Marriage, but only make choice of one whom She can love hereafter”
They will educate “Children of Persons of Quality”. Their teaching “Shall be the particular care of those of their own Rank”. This will be an advantage to the nation.
“many souls will be preserved from great Dishonors”. Her wisdom will be her dowry, not her money.
Some may ask, but can’t people be good without removing themselves from society like this? Well, yeah, and I wish that all women “were of this temper”. But removing the temptation is really good. “For those who have honest Hearts have not always the Strongest Heads”. These tender people need a place to be supported and nurtured.
Sadly, “bad people are not so apt to be bettered by the Society of the Good, as the Good are to be corrupted by theirs.”
Removing ourselves will not only strengthen our souls, but so purify them that they’ll be antidotes “to expel the poison in others.”
Sure, a little education will make women vain and increase their pride, like it does to men (BURN). But they’ll have to learn deeply, and the wisest will be she who admits she knows nothing. The more she knows the less she’ll talk, since “the most difficult piece of learning” is knowing when to talk and when not to, “and never to Speak but to the purpose.” (when I have nothing to say…)
Men have no reason to oppose women’s education. In fact, a man would be a brute to rebuff his wife’s efforts to reclaim him. Piety can be offensive, but if she’s as wise as she is good, she’ll win him. He’ll be happy and won’t give into temptation. Sure, it’s dangerous if she’s smarter than he is, but then it’s his own fault for not improving himself, unless he’s naturally stupid, in which case he needs her to hide that fact from the public and cover his defects.
So how could ANYONE oppose this? Even if you have to pay for it, she’ll easily make it up w/her frugality. You can give us your extra daughters! (?). The money you give us with them won’t be lost to your family. You can use it “to preserve their money, their honour, and their daughters too”. Gives an example of an old maid who marries a dishonorable guy – wouldn’t it be worth a few thousand pounds to prevent that??
Unless you’re extremely prejudice, you’ll see how this is useful. You’re stupid if you let idiots’ scoffs turn you away from this. Of course they object – they’d have nobody as vapid to talk with. Nobody to gossip and criticize with.
“Is Charity so dead in the world that none will contribute to the saving their own and their neighbours Souls?”
The only motive to vice is the being accustomed to it. Acquaint yourselves with virtue; you’ll love her! She’ll preserve your honor, enlarge your souls, “preserve even the Beauty of your Bodies” (that’s a bit of an exaggerated claim), and make you happy in this world and the next.
“Let those therefore who value themselves only on external Accomplishments, consider how liable they are to decay, and how Soon they may be deprived of them”.
Implies that wisdom and learning will make for a longer, truer marriage.
“Whereas, a wise and good Woman is useful and valuable in all Ages and Conditions”.
To close all, if this Proposal which is but a rough draught and rude Essay, and which might be made much more beautiful by a better Pen, give occasion to wiser heads to improve and perfect it, I have my end. For imperfect as it is, it Seems So desirable, that She who drew the Scheme is full of hopes, it will not want kind hands to perform and complete it. But if it miss of that, it is but a few hours thrown away, and a little labour in vain, which yet will not be lost, if what is here offered may Serve to express her hearty Good-will, and how much She desires your Improvement.
Ladies,
Your very humble Servant.
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