–26 REFER TO THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE, WRITTEN IN EIGH-TEENTH...

Questions 17–26

refer to the following passage, written in eigh-

teenth-century England. Read the passage carefully and then choose

the answers to the questions.

From

A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Line

It is difficult for us purblind* mortals to say to what height human

discoveries and improvements may arrive when the gloom of despo-

tism subsides, which makes us stumble at every step; but, when

mortality shall be settled on a more solid basis, then, without being

5

gifted with a prophetic spirit, I will venture to predict that woman

will be either the friend or slave of man. We shall not, as at present,

doubt whether she is a moral agent, or the link which unites man

with brutes. But, should it then appear, that like the brutes they were

principally created for the use of man, he will let them patiently bite

10

the bridle, and not mock them with empty praise; or, should their

rationality be proved, he will not impede their improvement merely

to gratify his sensual appetites. He will not, with all the graces of

rhetoric, advise them to submit implicitly their understanding to the

guidance of man. He will not, when he treats of the education of

15

women, assert that they ought never to have the free use of reason,

nor would he recommend cunning and dissimulation to beings who

are acquiring, in like manner as himself, the virtues of humanity.

Surely there can be but one rule of right, if morality has an

eternal foundation, and whoever sacrifices virtue, strictly so called, to

20

present convenience, or whose

duty

it is to act in such a manner,

lives only for the passing day, and cannot be an accountable creature.

The poet then should have dropped his sneer when he says

If weak women go astray,

The stars are more in fault than they.

25

For that they are bound by the adamantine chain of destiny is

most certain, if it be proved that they are never to exercise their own

reason, never to be independent, never to rise above opinion, or to

feel the dignity of a rational will that only bows to God, and often

forgets that the universe contains any being but itself and the model

30

of perfection to which its ardent gaze is turned, to adore attributes

that, softened into virtues, may be imitated in kind, though the

degree overwhelms the enraptured mind.

If, I say, for I would not impress by declamation when Reason

offers her sober light, if they be really capable of acting like rational

35

creatures, let them not be treated like slaves; or, like brutes who are

PRACTICE TEST 5—

Continued

dependent on the reason of man, when they associate with him; but

cultivate their minds, give them the salutary, sublime curb of prin-

ciple, and let them attain conscious dignity by feeling themselves only

dependent on God. Teach them, in common with man, to submit to

40

necessity, instead of giving, to render them more pleasing, a sex to

morals.

Further, should experience prove that they cannot attain the

same degree of strength of mind, perseverance, and fortitude, let

their virtues be the same in kind; though they may vainly struggle for

45

the same degree; and the superiority of man will be equally clear, if

not clearer; and truth, as it is a simple principle, which admits of no

modification, would be common to both. Nay. The order of society as

it is at present regulated would not be inverted, for woman would

then only have the rank that reason assigned her, and arts could not

50

be practised to bring the balance even. Much less to turn it.

These may be termed Utopian dreams. Thanks to that Being who

impressed them on my soul, and gave me sufficient strength of mind

to dare to exert my own reason, till, becoming dependent only on

him for support of my virtue, I view, with indignation, the mistaken

55

notions that enslave my sex.

I love man as my fellow; but his sceptre, real, or usurped,

extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my

homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.

In fact, the conduct of an accountable being must be regulated by the

60

operations of its own reason; or on what foundations rests the throne

of God?

It appears to me necessary to dwell on these obvious truths,

because females have been insulated, as it were; and, while they have

been stripped of the virtues that should clothe humanity, they have

65

been decked with artificial graces that enable them to exercise a

short-lived tyranny. Love, in their bosoms, taking place of every

nobler passion, their sole ambition is to be fair, to raise emotion

instead of inspiring respect; and this ignoble desire, like the servility

in absolute monarchies, destroys all strength of character. Liberty is

70

the mother of virtue, and if women be, by their very constitution,

slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigorating air of

freedom, they must ever languish like exotics, and be reckoned

beautiful flaws in nature.

—Mary Wollstonecraft