Mary Astell

“ Life is insipid, and not to be endur’d without it; and he is too much the Lady’s Friend, has too just a Value for her, to entertain a Thought to her Disadvantage.
Now if once it is come to this, God help the poor Woman! for not much Service can be done her by any of her Friends on Earth. That Pretender, to be sure, will be the Darling, he will worm out every other Person, though ever so kind and disinterested. For tho’ true Friends will endeavour to please in order to serve, their Complaisance never 105goes so far as to prove injurious ”

“ Lady Betty went to Ledstone to live in about 1705 and was thereafter only occasionally in London, so they could not have had much continuous personal association, but they apparently found themselves in immediate accord on vital subjects. Lady Betty and her sisters on the remote Yorkshire estate almost realized in a small way Mary Astell's ideal of a religious retirement. If the correspondence between them were only extant it would be [305] invaluable. Elizabeth Elstob is also given as one of Mary Astell's friends. ”

“ For since God has placed different Ranks in the World, put some in a higher, and some in a lower Station, for Order and Beauty’s sake, and for many good Reasons; though it is both our Wisdom and Duty not only to submit with Patience, but to be thankful and well-satisfied, when by his Providence we are brought low, yet there is no manner of Reason for us to degrade our selves; on the contrary, much why we ought not. The better our Lot is in this World, and the more we have of it, the greater is our Leisure to prepare for the next ”

“ Is he her Better, and she hopes, by catching him, to make her Fortune, alas! the poor Woman is neither acquainted with the World nor her self; she neither knows her own Weakness, nor his Treachery, and though he gives her ever so much Encouragement to this vain Hope, ’tis only in order to accomplish her Ruin. To be sure the 109more Freedom she allows, the more she lessens his Esteem, and that’s not likely to increase a real, though it may a pretended Kindness; she ought to fly, if she would have him pursue, the strictest Vertue and Reserve being the only Way to secure him. ”

“ And therefore as he does not abound in Superfluous Ornaments, so neither does he reject any thing that can promote his End, which is not his own Reputation, but the Glory of his GOD and his Neighbours Edification. He considers the narrowness of the Humane Mind, and says all that is necessary but no more; Understands it so well as to know what will move and Please, and has so much command of himself as to give over when he has done enough. Yet he can exhaust the most fruitful Subject without making the Reader weary ”

“ For she lays up in her Mind as in a Store-house, ready to produce on all Occasions, a Clear and Simple Idea of every Object 143 that has at any time presented it self. And perhaps the difference between one Womans Reason and anothers may consist only in this, that the one has amass’d a greater number of such Ideas than the other, and dispos’d them more Orderly in her Understanding, so that they are at hand, ready to be apply’d to those Complex Ideas whose Agreement or Disagreement cannot be found out but by the means of some of ’em. ”

“ Cou’d I think of any other Objection I wou’d consider it; there’s nothing indeed which witty Persons may not argue for and against, but they who duly weigh the Arguments on both sides, unless they be extreamly prejudiced, will easily discern the great usefulness of this Institution. The Beaux perhaps, and topping Sparks of the Town will ridicule and laugh at it. For Vertue her self as bright as she is, can’t escape the lash of scurrilous Tongues ”

“ If Discretion and Piety prevail upon her Passions, she sits down quietly contented with her Lot, seeks no Consolation in the Multitude of Adorers, since he whom only she desir’d to please, because it was her Duty to do so, will take no Delight in her Wit or Beauty: She follows no Diversion to allay her Grief, uses no Cordials to support her Spirit, that may sully her Vertue or bring a Cloud upon her Reputation ”

“ It is not impossible for a man to live in an infected House or Town and escape with Life and Health, yet if he have a place in the Country to retire to, he will not make slight of that advantage; and surely the Health of our Souls is of greater consideration than the health of our Bodies. Besides, she has need of an establish’d Vertue and consummated Prudence, who so well understands the great end for which she came into the World, and so faithfully pursues it, that not content to be wise and good her self alone, she endeavours to propagate Wisdom and Piety to all within her Sphere ”

“ Since he has not denied us the faculty of Thinking, why shou’d we not (at least in gratitude to him) employ our Thoughts on himself their noblest Object, and not unworthily bestow them on Trifles and Gaities and secular Affairs? Being 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? Especially since the Will is blind, and cannot chuse but by the direction of the Understanding ”

“ From this sacred Mountain where the world will be plac’d at our feet, at such a distance from us, 87 that the steams of its corruptions shall not obscure our eye-sight, we shall have a right prospect of it and clearly discern that all its Allurements, all those Gaities and Pageantries which at present we admire so much, are no better than insignificant Toys, which have no value but what our perverse Opinion imposes on them. Things which contribute so very little to our real Good, that even at present, which is their only season, we may live much happier without than with them ”

“ For the Ladies wou’d have more discernment than to esteem a Man for such Follies as shou’d rather incline them to scorn and despise him. They wou’d never be so sottish as to imagine, that he who regards nothing but his own brutish Appetite, shou’d have any real affection for them, nor ever expect Fidelity from one who is unfaithful to GOD and his own Soul. They wou’d not be so absurd as to suppose, that Man can esteem them who neglects his Maker ”

“ And to help forward this deception, the Great instead of being Industrious in finding out the Truth, are generally very impatient when they meet with her. She does not treat them so tenderly and fawningly, with so much Ceremony and Complaisance as their Flatterers do. There’s in her that which us’d to be the Character of our Nation, an honest Plainness and Sincerity, Openness and blunt Familiarity: She cannot mould her self into all Shapes to be rendred agreeable, but standing on her Native Worth is regardless of Out-side and Varnish. ”

“ Shall your Emulation fail there only where ’tis commendable? Why 9 are you so preposterously humble, as not to contend for one of the highest Mansions in the Court of Heav’n? Believe me, Ladies, this is the only Place worth contending for; you are neither better nor worse in your selves for going before, or coming after now; but you are really so much the better, by how much the higher your station is in an Orb of Glory. How can you be content to be in the World like Tulips in a Garden, to make a fine shew and be good for nothing ”

“ Nor need she trouble her self in turning over a great number of Books, but take care to understand and digest a few well-chosen and good ones. Let her but obtain right Ideas, and be truly acquainted with the nature of those Objects that present themselves to her mind, and then no matter whether or no she be able to tell what fanciful people have said about them: And throughly to understand Christianity as profess’d by the Church of England, will be sufficient to confirm her in the truth, 52 tho’ she have not a Catalogue of those particular errors which oppose it. ”

“ But we will not do that, chusing rather to Act by the Wrong Judgments we have formerly made, and to follow blindly the Propensities they have given us, than to suspend our Inclinations as we both May and Ought, and restrain them 222 from determining our Will, till we have fairly and fully examin’d and ballanc’d, according to the best of our Knowledge, the several degrees of Good and Evil present and future that are in the Objects set before us. The neglect of which is at once both our Fault and Misery ”

“ We must therefore withdraw our Minds from the World, from adhering to the Senses, from the Love of Material Beings, of Pomps and Gaieties; for ’tis these that usually Steal away the Heart, that seduce the Mind to such 107 unaccountable Wandrings, and so fill up its Capacity that they leave no room for Truth, so distract its Attention that it cannot enquire after her. For tho’ the Body does partly occasion this fault, yet the Will no doubt may in good measure Remedy it, by using its Authority to fix the Understanding on such Objects as it wou’d have Contemplated ”

“ We’re all apt enough to cry out against the Age, but to what purpose are our Exclamations unless we go about to Reform it? Not faintly and coldly as if we were unconcern’d for the success, and only wou’d do somewhat to still the reproaches of our Consciences and to exalt us in our own Imaginations, with the Pompous Idea of Zeal and Public Spiritedness; but with all our Might, with an Unwearied Industry and Vigor, I’me asham’d to say like that which the Instruments of Satan express in making Proselytes to Wickedness and Prophaneness ”

“ Such an one would value her self only on her Vertue, and consequently be most chary of what she esteems so much. She would know, that not what others say, but what she her self does, is the true Commendation and the only thing that exalts her; the loudest Encomiums being not half so satisfactory, as the calm and secret Plaudit of her own Mind, which moving on true Principles of Honour and Vertue, wou’d not fail on a review of it self to anticipate that delightful Eulogy she shall one day hear. ”

“ Our own Heart which is indeed one of the best Books we can Study, especially in respect of Morality, and one principal Reason why we’re no better Proficients in useful Knowledge, is because we don’t duly consult it.
Again, we shou’d endeavour to render Spiritual and Future things as Present and Familiar as may be, and to withdraw as much as we can from sensible Impressions, especially from such as attack us violently. She whose Mind is busied about the former will find ’em of Weight and Moment sufficient to employ all her Passions, whilst the other will be scarce taken notice of ”

“ The only danger is that the Wife be more knowing than the Husband; but if she be ’tis his own fault, since he wants no opportunities of improvement; unless he be a natural Block-head, and then such an one will need a wise Woman to govern him, whose prudence will conceal it from publick Observation, and at once both cover and supply his defects. Give me leave therefore to hope, that no Gentleman who has honourable designs, will hence-forward decry Knowledge and Ingenuity in her he would pretend to Honour ”

“ That what makes them so Positive is their firm persuasion that they are acted only by a Zeal for GOD, an honest Constancy and Stanch Integrity, tho at the very same time quite different Motives 166 move them under these Appearances.
And indeed he must be an extraordinary good Man, a Wonder scarce produc’d in an Age, who has no Irregular Passion stirring; Who receives no Manner of Tincture from Pride and Vitious Self-Love, to which all are so prone, and which hide themselves under so many disguises ”

“ Neither GOD nor Wise men will like us the better for an affected severity and waspish sourness. Nature and Grace will never disagree, provided we mistake not the one, nor indulge the petulancy of the other; there being no Displacencies in Religion, but what we our selves have unhappily made. For true Piety is the most sweet and engaging thing imaginable, as it is most obliging to others, so most easie to our selves. ’Tis in truth the highest Epicurism, exalting our Pleasures by refining them ”

“ She values her self on things that have no real Excellency, or which at least add none to her, and forgets from whose Liberality she receives them: She does not employ them in the Donors Service, all her care is to Raise her self, and she little considers that the most excellent things are distributed 290 to others in an equal, perhaps in a greater measure than to herself, they have opportunities of advancing as well as she, and so long as she’s puft up by this Tumor of Mind, they do really excel her. ”

“ Her Ruin is commonly too far advanc’d to be prevented, ere you can in Good-breeding reach out a Hand to help her. For if the Train has took, if she is intangled in the Snare, if Love, or rather a blind unreasonable Fondness, which usurps the Name of that noble Passion, has gain’d on her, Reason and Persuasion may as properly be urg’d to the Folks in Bethlem, as to her. ”

“ But is there no Remedy for this disorder, since we hope that All are not irrecoverably lost, tho too many are so invellop’d in Prejudice that there’s little probability of disengaging them? Why really the best that I can think of at present is, to Resolve to be Industrious, and to think no Pains too much to purchase Truth; to consider that our Fore-fathers were Men of like Passions with us, and are therefore not to be Credited on the score of Authority but of Reason ”