Massasoit Community College Astell Radical Proposals Discussion

I’m working on a literature question and need an explanation to help me understand better.

Mary Astell’s “radical” proposal is to establish a higher education school for women. The idea is obviously commonplace in today’s society. However, what makes the reading so interesting is the extent the author went to in order to “sell” her idea. To appreciate this effort, choose one of the following quotes taken from the reading and explain it’s meaning:

1. “Its aim is to fix that Beauty, to make it lasting and permanent, which Nature with all the helps of Art cannot secure, and to place it out of the reach of Sickness and Old Age, by transferring it from a corruptible Body to an immortal Mind. An obliging Design, which wou’d procure them inward Beauty, to whom Nature has unkindly denied the outward,” (paragraph 1)

2. “To introduce poor Children into the World and neglect to fence them against the temptations of it, and so leave them expos’d to temporal and eternal Miseries, is a wickedness for which 20 I want a Name; ’tis beneath Brutality; the Beasts are better natur’d, for they take care of their offspring, till they are capable of caring for themselves.” (paragraph 7)

3. “When a poor Young Lady is taught to value her self on nothing but her Cloaths, and to think she’s very fine when well accoutred; When she hears say, that ’tis Wisdom enough for her to know how to dress her self, that she may become amiable in his eyes, to whom it appertains to be knowing and learned; who can blame her if she lay out her Industry and Money on such Accomplishments, and sometimes extends it farther than her 34 misinformer desires she should? When she sees the vain and the gay, making Parade in the World and attended with the Courtship and admiration of the gazing herd, no wonder that her tender Eyes are dazled with the Pageantry, and wanting Judgment to pass a due Estimate on them and their Admirers, longs to be such a fine and celebrated thing as they?” (paragraph 13)

4. By paragraph 47, the author is assuming that the intended reader (the “Ladies”) might now be persuaded to accept her proposal. However, the author realizes that the ladies will then need to persuade the men of society to agree. Summarize Astell’s suggestions for what the ladies should say to the men so that they will recognize the value of women being educated.