A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Having read with great pleasure a pamphlet which you have lately published, I dedicate this volume to you; to induce you to reconsider the subject, and maturely weigh what I have advanced respecting the rights of woman and national education: and I call with the firm tone of humanity; for my arguments, Sir, are dictated by a disinterested spirit — I plead for my sex — not for myself. Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue — and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.