Rousseau certainly did not mean to imply that woman must of necessity be morally inferior to man, but simply that Nature had ordained that she shall be subjected to his superior strength, to his cooler judgment and to his superior common sense. He was certainly capable of imagining an ideal female, and of worshipping in her the essentially sexual qualities which make her differ from man. That portion of the fifth book of Emile which deals with the first meeting between the lovers leaves little doubt as to how he pictured to himself his ideal of womanhood. The philosophical treatise is more than once in danger of becoming a romance, embodying the slightly sobered ideals of courtship of the author of "Julie". It cannot be denied that Sophie has charm and that her subjection to Emile is not oppressive. But to form a correct notion of Rousseau's ideas regarding the social position of women we must strip the story of its lyrical element and glance at the purely philosophical portion of the treatise. It is there that we must look for an answer to the question: "Did Rousseau look upon women as partakers of the faculty of Reason?" And he gives his reply in the following words: "L'art de penser n'est pas étranger aux femmes, mais elles ne doivent faire qu'effleurer les sciences de raisonnement." He would not even object to a system by which the functions of women were strictly limited to the performance of sexual duties, if it were not that utter ignorance would make them fall a too easy prey to rascally adventurers! The subsequent statement that, after all, it being the task of woman to get herself esteemed, so as to justify her husband's choice, a little knowledge would not come amiss, does not mend matters in its re-introduction of the relativity-principle. Here indeed, Rousseau "pitches the pipe too low".
Woman's special domain is that of sentiment. But the very "sensibility" which renders her more alluring by contrast, prevents her from forming a sound judgment. This appreciation of women appears clearly in the passages of Emile in which the choice of a religion is discussed. Emile is not allowed to decide until he has completed his eighteenth year, when he is made to judge for himself, uninfluenced by his tutor. Sophie's religious notions, on the contrary, are carefully instilled by her parents at an early age, it being silently taken for granted that she will never arrive at a degree of understanding which will enable her to form her own convictions. "The female reason is of a practical nature, which renders them very quick to find the means of arriving at a fixed conclusion, but does not enable them to form that conclusion independently of others". Again that utter dependence, that total lack of individuality which characterises Rousseau's female ideal. "My daughter", says Sophie's father, "knowledge does not belong to your age; when the time has come, your husband will instruct you."
The amount of actual instruction in Rousseau's scheme is reduced to a minimum. There is no knowing what damage may be done to the unstable female imagination by the dangerous literature of the time. Here we recognise the author of the Dijon prize-essay with its crushing conclusion. Rousseau frankly hated the "femme bel esprit". Sophie's mind is to be formed by observation and reflection, and not by books. But how can Sophie be supposed to reflect, one might ask, unless she had certain fundamental truths pointed out to her, the instilment of which is not the work of every parent, however well-intentioned? It is Rousseau's fatal mistake that he cannot bring himself to realise that moral culture simply cannot exist without a certain amount of intellectual culture. He wanted to have both granted to men, and his conclusions tended to withhold both from women. The march of humanity finds him in the first rank of those who were pioneers; the feminist movement, while recognising his cleverness, looks upon him as a dangerous, and sometimes does him the injustice of calling him an hypocritical enemy.
The charge of insincerity has, indeed, been often brought against him, although he has found some defenders also. However, he is condemned by most women. Mrs. Fawcett, in her introduction to Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication, opines that a man who made so light of his duties towards his own children, and whose married life was so full of blame has no right to pronounce on problems which require the disinterestedness and self-abnegation of the pure idealist. Where Rousseau points out the shortcomings of the women, of his time and regrets them, he is with Mary Wollstonecraft; where he fails to show the way by which improvement may be attained, he remains hopelessly behind one who, with considerably less genius, had a great deal more moral courage and a far wider conception of the ideals of woman.
Of the disciples and opponents of Rousseau, some of whom, like Mme de Staël, Mme de Genlis, and Mme de Necker de Saussure were of the female sex, little need be said here, as their writings either did not throw any new light on the problem under consideration, or belong to a period following that of Mary Wollstonecraft. When the Revolution came, bringing with it an increased demand for a public education, some of its theorists, who like Condorcet, showed an interest in the female part of the problem, will call for mention.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] The "Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France" (Tome XXIII, XXIV and XXV) contains a contribution by M. Raymond Toinet entitled: "Les Ecrivains moralistes au 17ième siècle"; being an alphabetical nomenclature of moral writings published during the age of Louis the Fourteenth (1638-1715). In this list works of a feminist or an anti-feminist nature figure so largely that little doubt can be entertained as to the interest taken in the topic under discussion. They may be conveniently classified as follows:
1. Assertions of female superiority, including a. o. two French translations of Agrippa, three pieces entitled: "Le Triomphe des Dames", and one by Mlle. Jacquette Guillaume, entitled: "Les Dames Illustres". They were frequently combined with attacks on the male half of humanity, as in the case of Regnard's "Satire contre les Maris".
2. Apologies for the female sex, including Perrault's "Apologie des Femmes", Poullain de la Barre's "Egalité des deux Sexes", and a Latin translation of Anna Maria Schuurman. Some were meant as a refutation of some male attack. To this class belong Ninon de l'Enclos' "Coquette Vengee" and a number of replies to Boileau's satire.
3. Attacks on the female sex, which are gradually diminishing in number, or rather changing from the direct invective to the moral essay with a didactic purpose, busying itself with the female morals and the female character. A collection of pieces dealing with the problem of sexual preference was published in 1698 by de Vertron under the name of "La nouvelle Pandore, ou les femmes illustres du siècle de Louis le Grand".
4. Rules of female conduct, for the use of young ladies "about to enter the world", insisting chiefly on the feminine duty of preserving the reputation. A translation of Lord Halifax's "Advice" (see page 83), "Etrennes ou conseils d'un homme de qualité à sa fille" seems to have attracted some notice.
5. Pieces dealing with the relations between the sexes in daily intercourse, including the subjects of love and gallantry, and of marriage. Some are directly favourable to the state of matrimony, pointing to the reciprocal duties of the partners in the contract, and instructing them in the readiest way to happiness; others, frequently deriving their inspiration from Boileau, arguing about marriage as a social institution and enumerating its advantages and its drawbacks. To the period under discussion belongs a translation of Erasmus' "Christian Marriage".
6. Treatises of female education, containing a plea for the development of the female intellect. They are, as yet, remarkably few. Beyond the contributions by Poullain de la Barre and Fénelon there are some half-dozen pieces dealing with the education of girls on a religious basis, and a few in which the question of the pursuit of science and philosophy by women is stated and answered favourably. There was an "Apologie de la science des Dames, par Cléante", (1662); a treatise entitled: "Avantages que les femmes peuvent recevoir de la philosophie et principalement de la morale", (1667); another by René Bary bearing the somewhat questionable title of "La fine philosophie accommodée à l'intelligence des dames", and, in conclusion, one by Guillaume Colletet, headed: "Question célèbre, s'il est nécessaire ou non que les filles soient savantes, agitée de part et d'autre par Mlle Anne Marie de Schurmann, hollandoise, et André Rivet, poictevin, le tout mis en françois par le sieur Colletet" (1646).
[11] "La Nouvelle Colonie, ou la Ligue des Femmes", first presented in the Théâtre italien on the 18th of April 1729, a three-act comedy, afterwards reduced to one single act to be performed in the "théâtres de société", and published in this form in the Mercure. (Cf. Larroumet; Marivaux, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres, Paris 1882).
[12] Such, at least, is the description of Mme Geoffrin's character in M. E. Pilon's "Portraits français". M. G. Lanson, in his "Lettres du dix-huitième siècle", accuses her of vanity and consequent despotic leanings. "Elle aimait à conseiller ses amis, et les régentait en mère un peu despotique; elle n'aimait pas les indépendants, les âmes indociles et fières qui ne se laissent pas protéger, et veulent être consultés dans le bien qu'on leur fait".