on with the opposite sex, or put the girl
forward and incite her to a bold and boisterous manner, and their mutual
influence is diminished and soon lost. You transgress a plain law of the
Creator.

So in the society of adults. Let men group themselves together, and they
will converse only of their farms, their merchandize, and their
manufactures, or of governments and administrations. Insulate the female
sex, and they shall discourse upon dress, or the minor affairs of their
neighbors, far too exclusively. But shall we, to obviate these evils,
completely transpose their conditions? Do we wish to see woman on
Change, or man given up to fashion, and culinary duties? No; let the
main pursuits of each be distinct; but let neither regard him or herself
as having no influence on the duties of the other.

What check were there on man's wrong impulses as a lover of gain, or a
devotee of ambition, should woman participate with him in these
dispositions? And would not the inevitable consequence of her resigning
herself to masculine offices and labors be, that she became as insane in
the toil for riches as man; that she proved his rival instead of his
ally; that far from composing and regulating the fire of his ambition,
she did but kindle it to a devastating flame? To argue the contrary were
to close our eyes on the native ardor of woman, and to forget the
fearful agency of sympathy, when it takes an unholy direction. Morality,
religion, the order, if not the very existence of society, hence point
out a peculiar and appropriate sphere to woman.

Let me say first, negatively, what is not the province of this sex.

They should not engage in pursuits, for which their Physical powers are
inadequate. If man is endowed with superior bodily strength, to him
exclusively be allotted those manual avocations, which demand that
strength. Let not the more delicate sex be tasked with the severe
exercises of the field or the workshop. And if mental power depend at
all on physical, if giant minds are usually found in vigorous frames,
woman may infer that she can engage in the highest intellectual pursuits
only by becoming an exception to the ordinary character of her sex.

"For contemplation he, and valor formed,
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace."

Again, it is not the province of woman to enter into Political life.
Plato, indeed, admitted this sex to an equal share with man in the
dignities and offices of his commonwea