anding, she
explains that she does not wish them to seek to transform themselves into
men by cultivating essentially masculine qualities. They are inferior
physically, and must be content to remain so. Enthusiasm never carried
her to the absurd and exaggerated extremes which have made later
champions of the cause laughing-stocks. She also expresses her intention
of steering clear of an error into which most writers upon the subject,
with the exception perhaps of the author of "Sandford and Merton," have
fallen; namely, that of addressing their instruction to women of the
upper classes. But she intends, while including all ranks of society, to
give particular attention to the middle class, who appear to her to be in
a more natural state. Then, warning her sex that she will treat them like
rational creatures, and not as beings doomed to perpetual childhood, she
tells them:--

"... I wish to show that elegance is inferior to virtue, that the
first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a
human being, regardless of the distinction of sex, and that
secondary views should be brought to this simple touchstone."

The Introduction is important because, as she says, it is the "very
essence of an introduction to give a cursory account of the contents of
the work it introduces." Having learnt from it what she intends to do, it
remains to be seen how she accomplishes her task.

For the convenience of readers, the treatise may be divided into three
parts, though the author does not make this division, and was probably
unconscious of its possibility. The first chapters give a general
statement of the case. The second part is an elaboration of the first,
and is more concerned with individual forms of the evil than with it as a
whole. The third part suggests the remedy by which women are to be
delivered from social slavery.

Mary assumes as the basis of her entire argument that "the more equality
there is established among men, the more virtue and happiness will reign
in society." The moral value of equality she demonstrates by the
wretchedness and wickedness which result whenever there is a substitution
of arbitrary power for the law of reason. The regal position, for
example, is gained by vile intrigues and unnatural crimes and vices, and
maintained by the sacrifice of true wisdom and virtue. Military
discipline, since it demands unquestioning submission to the will of
others, encourages though