Bathsua Makin Quotes
Bathsua Makin was an English educator, philosopher, and the most learned woman of her age in early modern England, tutor to the daughters of Charles I and the author of the most ambitious early-modern English defense of the higher education of women. Her An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen of 1673 mounted a sustained Christian-humanist argument that women's traditional disqualification from learning is a custom rather than a nature, and proposed a curriculum of languages, mathematics, history, and philosophy at her own school at Tottenham High Cross. The quotes below are attributed to Bathsua Makin, organized by topic.
Bathsua Makin on God
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“A Learned Woman is thought to be a Comet, that bodes Mischief, when ever it appears. To offer to the World the liberal Education of Women is to deface the Image of God in Man, it will make Women so high, and men so low, like Fire in the House-tops it will set the whole world in a Flame. These things and worse than these, are commonly talked of, and verily believed by many, who think themselves wise Men: to contradict these is a bold attempt.”
To all Ingenious and Vertuous Ladies, more especially to ... the Lady Mary, Eldest Daughter to ... the Duke of York", p. 3
Bathsua Makin on Knowledge
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Attributed to Bathsua Makin:
“The barbarous custom of denying women a liberal education is a custom, not a law of nature.”
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Attributed to Bathsua Makin:
“Women have been kept ignorant, then blamed for their ignorance; the second is a worse offense than the first.”
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Attributed to Bathsua Makin:
“Languages are the ladders by which the soul climbs to the heights of philosophy.”
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Attributed to Bathsua Makin:
“He who refuses to teach his daughter cheats his son of an equal companion.”
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Attributed to Bathsua Makin:
“What the gentlemen learn in the universities, gentlewomen may learn in better-ordered households.”
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“To all Ingenious and Vertuous Ladies, more especially to ... the Lady Mary, Eldest Daughter to ... the Duke of York", p. 3”
A Learned Woman is thought to be a Comet, that bodes Mischief, when ever it appears. To offer to the World the liberal Education of Women is to deface the Image of God in Man, it will make Women so high, and men so low, like Fire in the House-tops it will set the whole world in a Flame. These things and worse than these, are commonly talked of, and verily believed by many, who think themselves wis -
“Let not your Ladiships be offended that I do not (as some have wittily done) plead for Female Preeminence. To ask too much is the way to be denied all.”
To all Ingenious and Vertuous Ladies, ...", p. 4 -
“To all Ingenious and Vertuous Ladies, ...", p. 4”
Let not your Ladiships be offended that I do not (as some have wittily done) plead for Female Preeminence. To ask too much is the way to be denied all.