Are Women Human? 231mortal (46, 54, 57, 136). Were they born only to die and disappear without
a trace, the pursuit of pleasure would be hard to criticize. But because this
life is but a brief and partial phase in an eternal existence, frittering it away
on transient pleasures amounts to squander (61, 90 – 91, 102–104, 119). As
this intimates, an unspoken premise of Wollstonecraft’s theology seems to
be that “the High and Lofty One” (72) does nothing without a purpose.^6 As
He endowed humans with an immortal soul, this design feature should be
acknowledged and respected, steering humans’ actions and choices.
The second distinguishing feature of the human being is the capacity for
reason: “improveable reason is... the dignifi ed distinction which raises
men above the brute creation, and puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand”
(30; see also 37, 79 – 80, 128).^7 God placed this power in the hands of all
humans and, once again, he did so for a purpose. Reason makes it possible
for humans to understand themselves, the deity, and their relationship to
Him. That relationship is one of dependence but also of emulation: humans
should strive to imitate the Supreme Being’s qualities. “Why should he
lead us from love of ourselves to the sublime emotions which the discov-
ery of his wisdom and goodness excites, if these feelings were not set in
motion to improve our nature, of which they make a part, and render us
capable of enjoying a more godlike portion of happiness?” (40; see also 59,
61, 72, 135, 158, 192). Wollstonecraft’s advocacy of emulation of the deity
provides one explanation for her rejection of the Rousseauian premise that
virtue varies according to sex (52–53, 65, 77, 204 –205). For her, there
is one God and so one standard of goodness, to which all humans should
aspire.^8 Each should employ this “eternal rule of right” (164) to imagine
how his or her conduct appears from a God’s eye view.
Humans are, therefore, “placed on this earth to unfold their faculties”
(30), with reason being chief among these.^9 Wollstonecraft even calls the
“right of acting according to the direction of his own reason” the “birth-
right of man” (184). While she does not believe that all humans are capable
of the same feats of reason (91 note), all possess some rationality, and each
should be allowed to increase his or her endowment as far as possible.
Indeed, superior rationality should be the only basis for the power of one
human over another,^10 and even then “the submission is to reason, and not
to man” (62). Reason’s chain of command leads, moreover, ultimately back
to God: “to submit to reason is to submit to the nature of things, and to
that God, who formed them so, to promote our real interest” (186). Only
power that can be rationally defended is not arbitrary just as, conversely,
“the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority,
but that of reason” (224).