secondarily. How can Sophie be a companion for him, and an
instructor for their children, unless she likewise has been left in
the hands of nature, and had the same chances permitted to her as were
given to her predestined mate? Again, the pictures of the New Heloisa
would have led us to conceive the ideal of womanly station not so much
in the wife, as in the house-mother, attached by esteem and sober
affection to her husband, but having for her chief functions to be the
gentle guardian of her little ones, and the mild, firm, and prudent
administrator of a cheerful and well-ordered household. In the last
book of the Emilius, which treats of the education of girls, education
is reduced within the compass of an even narrower ideal than this. We
are confronted with the oriental conception of women. Every principle
that has been followed in the education of Emilius is reversed in the
education of women. Opinion, which is the tomb of virtue among men, is
among women its high throne. The whole education of women ought to be
relative to men; to please them, to be useful to them, to make
themselves loved and honoured by them, to console them, to render
their lives agreeable and sweet to them,--these are the duties which
ought to be taught to women from their childhood. Every girl ought to
have the religion of her mother, and every wife that of her husband.
Not being in a condition to judge for themselves, they ought to
receive the decision of fathers and husbands as if it were that of the
church. And since authority is the rule of faith for women, it is not
so much a matter of explaining to them the reasons for belief, as for
expounding clearly to them what to believe. Although boys are not to
hear of the idea of God until they are fifteen, because they are not
in a condition to apprehend it, yet girls who are still less in a
condition to apprehend it, are _therefore_ to have it imparted to them
at an earlier age. Woman is created to give way to man, and to suffer
his injustice. Her empire is an empire of gentleness, mildness, and
complaisance. Her orders are caresses, and her threats are tears.
Girls must not only be made laborious and vigilant; they must also
very early be accustomed to being thwarted and kept in restraint. This
misfortune, if they feel it one, is inseparable from their sex, and if
ever they attempt to escape from it, they will only suffer misfortunes
still more cruel in consequence.[318]

After a series of