Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Thoughts Suggested By Beading A Treatise On The "Origin Of Language."
was new , her faculties not clouded as ours are—she could quickly make such progress as to believe that the fruit she had ate had the wonderful effect to make her know good and evil . And wherein does the good aud evil of a woman consist so much , as in the proper use of her tongue . What else could have made the fair sexin all agesso remarkable
, , for the power and force of their tongues ? The facetious Mr . Fielding says , in describing one of his battles— " Our landlady then entered , and made an attack with a weapon many men have fled from , who could face a battery of cannon . "—So ambitious was the first and most perfect of her sex to speak , that she willingly renounced immortality to obtain that faculty . Aud no doubt but this mark has
been set upon her daughters to keep in perpetual remembrance , that women first learned to speak from the Devil : —do not tve say such a woman has the Devil of a tongue ? Is not a scold called a Dragon , a Brimstone ? & c . It may , perhaps , be said , that since I found my hypothesis upon the history of Moses , and reject the authority of tra-, vellers ancient and modernand even of the wild Girl 30 years
, , after she was caught , that Moses , had this been true , would have mentioned it in his history . To this I answer , that Moses has been very short in that part of his history , and that he has said nothing to contradict it .
By the time Moses came to write his history , women had gained a great ascendant in the world by the superiority of their eloquence . His own preservation shewed how far the daughter of Pharaoh could counteract her King and father ' s positive command , that every male of that people should be put to death as soon as born . In . contradiction to this command , she not only preserved his life , but educated him in her father ' s courtand had all his wise men to instruct him :
, add to this , his politesse , his court education , and the obligations he lay under to that Princess , it would have been a conduct , Sir , quite the reverse-of every thing we can suppose , that Moses should have handed it down to all posterity that the Fair Sex had received so valuable an endowment from the Devil . Moses himself tells us , he was so much under the influence of his own wifethat he forbore
compli-, ance to the most positive law given to his people , that of circumcision , and that . no less authori ty than that of an angel from heaven could prevail upon her to perform that rite ; and after she had performed it , " A bloody husband hast thou been , " said she . Had Moses given us the contents of a speech to which this was the preambleconsidering he was a man of a meek temperand slow of speech
, , , I believe , Sir , you would join with me in pardoning Moses for his silence upon any subject that could in the least reflect upon the Fair-Sex ; more especially as , by his silence , he has not contradicted the truth .
I could say a great deal more in support of my hypothesis , did I not intend to write the History of Womankind , where this subject shall be more fully discussed , if I live to finish it . I shall here only add , that on the person who can believe that women were for thousands of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Thoughts Suggested By Beading A Treatise On The "Origin Of Language."
was new , her faculties not clouded as ours are—she could quickly make such progress as to believe that the fruit she had ate had the wonderful effect to make her know good and evil . And wherein does the good aud evil of a woman consist so much , as in the proper use of her tongue . What else could have made the fair sexin all agesso remarkable
, , for the power and force of their tongues ? The facetious Mr . Fielding says , in describing one of his battles— " Our landlady then entered , and made an attack with a weapon many men have fled from , who could face a battery of cannon . "—So ambitious was the first and most perfect of her sex to speak , that she willingly renounced immortality to obtain that faculty . Aud no doubt but this mark has
been set upon her daughters to keep in perpetual remembrance , that women first learned to speak from the Devil : —do not tve say such a woman has the Devil of a tongue ? Is not a scold called a Dragon , a Brimstone ? & c . It may , perhaps , be said , that since I found my hypothesis upon the history of Moses , and reject the authority of tra-, vellers ancient and modernand even of the wild Girl 30 years
, , after she was caught , that Moses , had this been true , would have mentioned it in his history . To this I answer , that Moses has been very short in that part of his history , and that he has said nothing to contradict it .
By the time Moses came to write his history , women had gained a great ascendant in the world by the superiority of their eloquence . His own preservation shewed how far the daughter of Pharaoh could counteract her King and father ' s positive command , that every male of that people should be put to death as soon as born . In . contradiction to this command , she not only preserved his life , but educated him in her father ' s courtand had all his wise men to instruct him :
, add to this , his politesse , his court education , and the obligations he lay under to that Princess , it would have been a conduct , Sir , quite the reverse-of every thing we can suppose , that Moses should have handed it down to all posterity that the Fair Sex had received so valuable an endowment from the Devil . Moses himself tells us , he was so much under the influence of his own wifethat he forbore
compli-, ance to the most positive law given to his people , that of circumcision , and that . no less authori ty than that of an angel from heaven could prevail upon her to perform that rite ; and after she had performed it , " A bloody husband hast thou been , " said she . Had Moses given us the contents of a speech to which this was the preambleconsidering he was a man of a meek temperand slow of speech
, , , I believe , Sir , you would join with me in pardoning Moses for his silence upon any subject that could in the least reflect upon the Fair-Sex ; more especially as , by his silence , he has not contradicted the truth .
I could say a great deal more in support of my hypothesis , did I not intend to write the History of Womankind , where this subject shall be more fully discussed , if I live to finish it . I shall here only add , that on the person who can believe that women were for thousands of