By a contrary effect, resulting from a want of self-respect, woman
becomes an easy prey to men of vain hearts and frivolous minds, who,
not thinking themselves more obliged to respect her than she respects
herself, without any reserve, give expression to the vanity of their
hearts and thoughts. Everywhere and always ignorance or contempt of
the Christian religion has begot contempt for woman, or disregard for
her sacred rights and exalted dignity. Every where and always,
irreligion has produced libertinism, the immediate and necessary
effect of which is a depreciation of woman; and in those countries
where the habits and institutions of the people have been deprived of
the precious culture of Christianity, woman's condition is so abject
that it differs in nothing from that of the brute, save that in
_her_ the sacred rights established by divine Providence are
most shamefully violated.
That woman is worthy of glory or ignominy is the logical consequence
of her being regarded as a daughter either of Eve or of Mary. In the
one she is the poisoned source whence sin with all the evils that
attend it flowed into the world, in the other she is the blessed
source whence the Salvation of the world has issued forth.
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