A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Parts I and II (1694, 1697; 1697 printing)

Mary Astell · c. 1694–1697

The book opens with

Women are denied advantages from infancy and then reproached for lacking them

Their wordsWomen are from their very Infancy debar’d those Advantages, with the want of which they are afterwards reproached, and nursed up in those Vices which will hereafter be upbraided to them.

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Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Women are denied advantages from infancy and then reproached for lacking them

Their wordsWomen are from their very Infancy debar’d those Advantages, with the want of which they are afterwards reproached, and nursed up in those Vices which will hereafter be upbraided to them.
Our reading
Piety founded on reason and truth is secure; piety founded on feeling and inclination will not last

Their wordsReason and Truth are firm and immutable, she who bottoms on them is on sure ground, Humour and Inclination are sandy Foundations, and she who is sway’d by her Affections more than by her Judgment, owes the happiness of her Soul in a great measure to the temper of her Body; her Piety may perhaps blaze high but will not last long.
Our reading
Since the soul was made to contemplate truth, keeping women from knowledge is as cruel and unjust as keeping them from good

Their wordsBeing the Soul was created for the contemplation of Truth as well as for the fruition of Good, is it not as cruel and unjust to preclude Women from the knowledge of the one as from the enjoyment of the other?
Our reading
A lack of education makes women's talk insipid and their solitude unbearable; learning is necessary to make them useful company

Their wordsWhat is it but the want of an ingenious Education, that renders the generality of Feminine Conversations so insipid and foolish and their solitude so insupportable? Learning is therefore necessary to render them more agreeable and useful in company, and to furnish them with becoming entertainments when alone, that so they may not be driven to those miserable shifts, which too many make use of to put off their Time, that precious Talent that never lies on the hands of a judicious Person.
Our reading
Those who deny women intellectual improvement must either claim women have no souls or let them cultivate their minds

Their wordsLet such therefore as deny us the improvement of our Intellectuals, either take up his Paradox, who said that Women have no Souls, which at this time a day, when they are allow’d to Brutes, wou’d be as unphilosophical as it is unmannerly, or else let them permit us to cultivate and improve them.
Our reading
In matters of importance women should assert their liberty instead of submitting to impertinent customs

Their wordsSingularity is indeed to be avoided except in matters of importance, in such a case Why shou’d not we assert our Liberty, and not suffer every Trifler to impose a Yoke of Impertinent Customs on us?
Our reading
Nothing should be believed merely because it was once believed, but only when it carries clear and uncontested evidence

Their wordsDisengage our selves from all our former Prejudices, from our Opinion of Names, Authorities, Customs and the like, not give credit to any thing any longer because we have once believ’d it, but because it carries clear and uncontested Evidence along with it.

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