Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/85

Rh I have, probably, had an opportunity of oberving more girls in their infancy than J. J. Roueau—I can recollect my own feelings, and I have looked teadily around me; yet, o far from coinciding with him in opinion repecting the firt dawn of the female character, I will venture to affirm, that a girl, whoe pirits have not been damped by inactivity, or innocence tainted by fale hame, will always be a romp, and the doll will never excite attention unles confinement allows her no alternative. Girls and boys, in hort, would play harmlesly together, if the ditinction of ex was not inculcated long before nature makes any difference.—I will go further, and affirm, as an indiputable fact, that mot of the women, in the circle of my obervation, who have acted like rational creatures, or hewn any vigour of intellect, have accidentally been allowed to run wild—as ome of the elegant formers of the fair ex would ininuate.

The baneful conequences which flow from inattention to health during infancy, and youth, extend further than is uppoed—dependence of body naturally produces dependence of mind; and how can he be a good wife or mother, the greater part of whoe time is employed to guard againt or endure icknes? Nor can it be expected that a woman will reolutely endeavour to trengthen&ensp;