"Women have a frame of body more delicate and susceptible of impression than men, and, in proportion as they receive a less intellectual education, are more unreservedly under the empire of feeling."
— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
J. Johnson
Date
1798
Metaphor
"Women have a frame of body more delicate and susceptible of impression than men, and, in proportion as they receive a less intellectual education, are more unreservedly under the empire of feeling."
Metaphor in Context
A circumstance by which the two sexes are particularly distinguished from each other, is, that the one is accustomed more to the exercise of its reasoning powers, and the other of its feelings. Women have a frame of body more delicate and susceptible of impression than men, and, in proportion as they receive a less intellectual education, are more unreservedly under the empire of feeling. Feeling is liable to become a source of erroneous decisions, because a mind not accustomed to logical analysis, cannot be expected accurately to discriminate between simple dictates of an ingenious mind, and the factitious sentiments of a partial education. Habits of deduction enable us to correct this defect. But habits of sophistry; and scepticism and discussion, while they undermine our prejudices, have sometimes a tendency to weaken and distort our feelings. Hence we may infer one of the advantages accruing from the association of persons of an opposite sex: they may be expected to counteract the principal mistake into which either is in danger to fall.
(pp. 200-1 in 2nd edition; cf. pp. 215-6 in Broadview ed.)
(pp. 200-1 in 2nd edition; cf. pp. 215-6 in Broadview ed.)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; confirmed in ECCO.
Citation
4 entries in the ESTC (1798, 1799). [First edition published in January. Second edition published in August of the same year. Variants included from the "corrected," second edition, are flagged in the text field and included under this same entry.]
See Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: By William Godwin (London: Printed for J. Johnson; and G. G. and J. Robinson, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. By William Godwin. The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Reading Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman eds. Pamela Clemit and Gina Luria Walker (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2001).
See Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: By William Godwin (London: Printed for J. Johnson; and G. G. and J. Robinson, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
See also Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. By William Godwin. The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>
Reading Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman eds. Pamela Clemit and Gina Luria Walker (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2001).
Date of Entry
07/12/2014
