Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / by Alexander Walker.

  • Walker, Alexander, 1779-1852.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / by Alexander Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    themselves, and look at them in connection with their own influence and their individual interest, then are they scarcely deserving even of those ephemeral praises which are the sole reward of successful vanity. Women are never honoured by any kind of pretension : even wit, which seems to offer a more extended career, obtains for them only a momentary elevation to the height of vanity. The reason of this judgment, whether just or unjust, is that men see no kind of general utility in encouraging the success of women in this career, and that every com- mendation that is not founded on the basis of utility is neither profound, durable nor universal. Chance affords some exceptions: where there are minds carried away either by their talent or character, they will perchance break through the common rule, and applause may occasionally be bestowed upon them ; but they cannot escape their destiny. “Women’s happiness suffers by every kind of personal ambition. When they strive to please solely that they may be loved, when this sweet hope is the only motive of their actions, they are employed more in perfecting than in exhibiting themselves, more in forming their minds for the happiness of one than the admiration of all: but when they aim at celebrity, their attempts as well as their successes destroy that sentiment which under different names must always be the destiny of their lives. Woman cannot exist alone : fame itself would be insufficient as a support; the insurmountable weakness of her nature and of her position in social order, has placed her in a state of daily dependence from which nothing can free her.