ABSTRACT
On sounding the soul of the woman of the eighteenth century to the depths and challenging it for its principle, we discover that its law, the perceptible rule of the conscience of her sex, is not a religious law, a divine law, a law consecrated by faith. Rather, it is the absolute and essential human law which the woman of the day calls "a little philosophy," in other words a plan of conduct preceding her actions, a design within which she must attempt to enclose her life lest she move forward at hazard, a mode of making the best of reason for the sake of personal happiness.
