800 Years of Women's Letters by Olga Kenyon Read Free Book Online Page B

accused at all hands of driving him to pursue in worse places, that which he cannot enjoy in peace at home. And, when this disease gains ground, and ends in an established habit, she is treated as a fool for attempting a cure for what is incurable.
    M. HAYS, LETTERS AND ESSAYS, MORAL AND MISCELLANEOUS (1793)
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT TO TALLEYRAND: VOTES FOR WOMEN
    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) was a novelist, essayist, travel writer, and a leading feminist and radical. She lived in France for two years, just after the French Revolution. It proclaimed ‘Liberty, Fraternity and Equality’, but did not extend these rights to women. Here she writes in ‘patriarchal’ registers to a leading French politician, Talleyrand, to persuade him of the wisdom of giving women the right to vote. In the new Constitution of 1791, only men over twenty-five were considered citizens and allowed the vote. French women did not get the vote till 1944.
    1791
    Consider, I address you as a legislator, whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if women partake with him the gift of reason?
    In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part, when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark? For surely, Sir, you will not assert, that a duty can be binding which is not founded on reason? If indeed this be their destination, arguments may be drawn from reason: and thus augustly supported, the more understanding women acquire, the more they will be attached to the duty – comprehending it – for unless they comprehend it, unless their morals be fixed on the same immutable principle as those of man, no authority can make them discharge it in a virtuous manner. They may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent.
    But, if women are to be excluded, without having a voice, from a participation of the natural rights of mankind, prove first, to ward off the charge of injustice and inconsistency, that they want reason – else this flaw in your N EW C ONSTITUTION will ever shew that man must, in some shape, act like a tyrant, and tyranny, in whatever part of society it rears its brazen front, will ever undermine morality.
    I have repeatedly asserted, and produced what appeared to me irrefragable arguments drawn from matters of fact, to prove my assertion, that women cannot, by force, be confined to domestic concerns; for they will, however ignorant, intermeddle with more weighty affairs, neglecting private duties only to disturb, by cunning tricks, the orderly plans of reason which rise above their comprehension.
    Noted for her path-breaking Vindication of the Rights of Woman , Wollstonecraft had many intellectual men friends, including Dissenters. In 1787 she was befriended by her publisher, Johnson. He was a middle-aged bachelor and suggested she marry a young acquaintance to prevent gossip. She replied angrily in completely distinct discourses:
    1787
    I will not be insulted by a superficial puppy – His intimacy with Miss –– gave him a privilege, which he should not have assumed with me – a proposal might be made to his cousin, a milliner’s girl, which should not have been mentioned to me. Pray tell him that I am offended – and do not wish to see him again! – When I meet him at your house, I shall leave the room, since I cannot pull him by the nose. I can force my spirit to leave my body – but it shall never