PREFACE. In moral inquiries of a practical nature like the present, anything pretending to novelty would be in great danger of becoming paradoxical. But if truths that are generally admitted are also very often neglected, it shows, either that their importance has not been adequately felt, or that the manner of applying them to practice has not been made sufficiently evident to common understandings. When circumstances are such as to exhibit the consequences of some error very strongly, truths that had been habitually disregarded, acquire force and activity. This occurred in America with respect to intemperance, and a rapid and remarkable change is said to have taken place. We find, therefore, that people can sometimes be led, by regard for the interests of society, to practise self-control; and it is not too much to expect also in other cases, that if the mischiefs which flow from certain false principles can be made equally evident, the languid assent yielded to a general maxim may be converted to practical conviction. For a purpose that aims so little at novelty, the qualifications most requisite are reflection and observation; and they who have felt the subject most deeply are more likely to succeed than others who, with greater ability, have thought less of the matter. Some of the reflections now offered to the reader's attention were graven on the mind of the writer by the force of circumstances at an early age, long before it is usual for stern realities to occupy the thoughts. Many more have been a deposit slowly disengaged from the partial opinions produced by personal feelings and accidental positions, from the confusion occasioned by the conflicting theories of different writers, and the numerous prejudices imposed on women by education and society. A strong conviction of useful truth is inseparable from the desire to spread it. When the hopes of distinction (the fairy-land of youth) have passed away, there springs up in the mind another and more durable feeling, one more consistent and vigorous in its action-the desire of utility. This has been the mainspring of the present undertaking. Not that the writer affects an indifference to approbation, which it is no particular merit to feel, but it is simply the fact, that personal ambition alone never had proved sufficiently strong to counteract the reluctance to gratuitous labour, or to lead her to brave the chances of mortification. When the purpose was once formed of attempting to give some effect to views and opinions held with an earnest conviction of their importance, the choice of a connecting subject was not difficult. Observations and reflections, made separately, on many different subjects of moral inquiry, when contemplated together, exhibited a mutual dependence; and little remained but to determine among the several principles intended to pervade the whole work, which should be made the leading object. Circumstances had led her continually and anxiously to study the influences of our manners on the formation of character; and to consider what habits of mind would enable the young to resist their perversions, to reap the advantages of them, and to contribute to social improvement. The actual amount of virtue and happiness in society, appeared to her to be quite disproportionate to the knowledge and the means we possess. This opinion suggested the belief that a wider extension of the knowledge we have, was an object of still greater importance than its absolute increase. The vices, follies, and prejudices which impede our progress in every direction, appeared in some measure referable to certain bad social habits, and to defects in the moral training of youth, over both of which the influence of women is immediate and great, and might be extremely beneficial if their own views could be raised. The condition of women, liable to many privations, yet without any corresponding advantage to society, had often painfully engaged her attention. The injudicious pretensions sometimes made on their behalf are so contrary to their true interests, that it appeared very desirable to inculcate sounder opinions, if possible, and rescue their real rights from the fatal advocacy of indiscreet friends. This subject, of the condition of women, which at first sight may not appear very closely connected with the others, on a short consideration showed a relation sufficiently intimate, to make it the proper connecting link for the whole. The education and views that would enable women to be the agents of great social improvement, would infallibly raise their own condition; which is more powerfully affected by the state of opinion and feeling than by positive laws. Opinion will practically yield rights which law refuses, and withhold those that law endeavours to secure; and opinion could not fail to give increased consideration to those whose influence was daily felt in wisely-directed and beneficial exertions. In any attempt to influence the opinions and practice of others, it is expedient to prove the importance of them to society; to exhibit on a great scale the effects of existing bad habits, prejudices, and ignorance; and to trace their connexion with the social disorders which spring from them at last. Those disorders, at this moment, are unhappily in great activity. |