the wrong which is done us in regard to intelligence; and I will
avenge the whole sex for the unworthy place which men assign us by
confining our talents to trifles, and by shutting the door of sublime
knowledge against us.

ARM. It is insulting our sex too grossly to limit our intelligence to
the power of judging of a skirt, of the make of a garment, of the
beauties of lace, or of a new brocade.

BEL. We must rise above this shameful condition, and bravely proclaim
our emancipation.

TRI. Every one knows my respect for the fairer sex, and that if I
render homage to the brightness of their eyes, I also honour the
splendour of their intellect. PHI. And our sex does you justice in
this respect: but we will show to certain minds who treat us with
proud contempt that women also have knowledge; that, like men, they
can hold learned meetings--regulated, too, by better rules; that they
wish to unite what elsewhere is kept apart, join noble language to
deep learning, reveal nature's laws by a thousand experiments; and on
all questions proposed, admit every party, and ally themselves to
none.

TRI. For order, I prefer peripateticism.

PHI. For abstractions I love Platonism.

ARM. Epicurus pleases me, for his tenets are solid.

BEL. I agree with the doctrine of atoms: but I find it difficult to