I made nothing of Mr. Selby. I called him the tyrant of the family. And as little of JMr. Deane, Lord L. and still less of my own lord, who was as eager in the debate as if it concerned him more than any-body to resist me; and this before my brother; who by his eyes, more than once, seemed to chal-lenge me, because of the sorry creature’s earnest — ness. All those, however, were men of straw, with me; and 1 thought myself very near making Mr. Selby ask pardon of his dame for his thirty years usurj)ation. In short, I had half-established our sex’s superiority on the ruin of that of the sorry iellows, when the debate was closed, and referred to Mrs. Shirley, as nioderatrix; my brother still excluded any share in it. She indeed obliged me to lower!i;y top-ails a little.

‘ 1 thiiik,’ siiid the venerable lady, ‘women arege-nerally too naicli eon^luer^d as a spi’cies apart. To bo sure, in the duties and affairs of li!e, where they have ditlerent or o; posite shares allotted them by Providence, t’ley or,i;ht not to go out of their own s})lKre. or inv:u!e the n;eii’s provip.cc, any more than the n;en theirs. Nay, I am so niuch of this opinion, tluit thou^It I think the confidence which some men place in their wives, in eonmiitling all their ailuiis to t’uir care, very iLittering to the opi-nion both ol’ tlair integrity and e;:paeitv; yet I should \ioi choose (wi’Jiout C()n^idering tre-uble) to inti ril row ill! iIil’ inanagenient ^vithout-tloors, which I thiiik I’.u’iV’ propi^rly the man’s province, unless in some jJarLieular easts.

‘ Ijut in conur.on intercourse and conversation, why are we to be perpetually considorin^— iheicu of the person we are talking to? ^Vhy must wome always be addressed in an appropriated language; and not treated on the common footing of reasonable creatures? And why must they, from a false notion of modesty, be afraid of shewing themselves to be.^uch, and affect a childish ignorance?

‘ I do not mean, that I would have women enter into learned disputes, for which they are rarely qualified: but I think there is a degree of know-ledge very compatible with their duties; there — fore not unbecoming them, and necessary to make them fit companions for men of sense: a charac-ter in which they will always be found more useful than that of a plaything, the amusement of an idle hour.

‘ No person of sense, man or woman, will venture to launch out on a subject with which they are not well acquainted. The lesser degree of know-ledge will give place to the greater. This will secure subordination enough. For the advantages of edu-cation which men must necessarily have over wo — men if they have made the proper use of them, will have set them so forward on the race, that we can never overtake them. But then don’t let tiiem despise us for this, as if their superiority were entirely founded on a natural difference of capacity: despise us as women, and value themselves merely ns men: for it is not the hat or cap which covers the head, that decides the merit of it.