The rake will always have the advantage until conditions change. Women do not understand that true beauty arises from the mind, but it is not wholly their fault because they are conditioned to think in this manner. These superficial accomplishments give the rake the edge with women, for they are "rendered gay and giddy by the whole tenor of their lives" and shy away from wisdom. Love and arbitrary passion reign by their own authority and are not privy to reason "common passions are excited by common qualities." Rakes thus find it easy to appeal to women, who shun reasonable and sensible men because their feelings are not as affected and they have "few sentiments in common." It is a bit absurd to expect women to be more reasonable than men in matters of love when men themselves turn from the mind to beauty when they are looking for a female companion. Women are usually ridiculed for their rote learning, but how can they be held responsible, she asks, when they are not allowed to let reason govern their conduct and can only learn in a rote fashion? Everything they see or hear fixes their associations and calls forth emotions, but these are of a sexual character and they are weakened and rendered delicate and sickly. Thus, education "only supplies the man of genius with knowledge to give variety and contrast to his associations but there is an habitual association of ideas, that grows 'with our growth,' which has a great effect on the moral character of mankind and by which a turn is given to the mind that commonly remains throughout life." Females tend to be more habitually enslaved to first impressions than males because they do not move about in larger society and occupy themselves with significant concerns as males do. Humans tend to prefer these poetic feelings and flights of fancy, fleeing from sensible objects until an author shows them the truth and they benefit from his eyes. We have little power over these quick associations, and reason can obtain little sway over them. The association of ideas is either habitual or instantaneous, with the latter mode "seeming to depend on the original temperature of the mind than on the will." Ideas are taken in until a circumstance makes them dart into the mind with force.
Acquiring knowledge, on the positive side, offers a great advantage.
Early associations and ideas tend to have a determinate effect upon their character.
The insufficient education women receive, coupled with their subordinate status in society, render them defected.
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