Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/145

Rh infers, that he was formed to pleae and to be ubject to him; and that it is her duty to render herelf agreeable to her mater—this being the grand end of her exitence. Still, however, to give a little mock dignity to enual deire, he inits that man hould not exert his trength, but depend on the will of the woman, when he eeks for pleaure with her.

'Hence we deduce a third conequence from the different contitutions of the exes; which is, that the tronget hould be maters in appearance, and be dependent in fact on the weaket; and that not from any frivolous practice of gallantry or vanity of protectorhip, but from an invariable law of nature, which, furnihing woman with a greater facility to excite deires than he has given man to atisfy them, makes the latter dependent on the good pleaure of the former, and compels him to endeavour to pleae in his turn, in order to obtain her conent that he hould be tronget. On thee occaions, the mot delightful circumtance a man finds in his victory is, to doubt whether it was the woman's weaknes that yielded to his uperiour trength, or whether her inclinations poke in his favour: the females are alo generally artful enough to leave this matter in doubt. The undertanding of women anwers in this repect perfectly to their contitution: o far from being ahamed of their weaknes, they glory in it; their tender mucles make no reitance; they affect to be incapable of lifting the&ensp;