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ON LEARNING. DESIRED BY A GENTLEMAN, by                    
First Line: Well, ignorance, the cause is yet unknown
Last Line: Consider, sir, a simple virgin's muse.
Subject(s): Education; Women's Rights; Feminism


WELL, Ignorance, the cause is yet unknown
Why thou'rt confined unto my sex alone.
Why are not girls, as boys, sent forth when young
To learn the Latin, Greek and Hebrew tongue?
I the first founders of great Rome would know,
Their funeral piles, their mounting eagles too,
Would trace through Greece, through Athens and old Troy;
For potent wonders give a reason why;
Search out the nature of all things below,
From what great causes dire effects do flow;
In conference with deathless Homer be,
And Virgil's thoughts, and Milton's poetry;
Study the actions of the bravest men,
Copy their worth, and shine as bright as them.
Good, great and brave, these are such envied charms,
Me, hero-like, a martial spirit warms.
And yet, methinks, I would not be a man.
No, not to put imperial purple on:
I'd rather be the foolish thing I am.
Our sex against you justly may exclaim,
To link our knowledge to so short a chain.
Cowards, you fear, had we full lengths to run,
We should eclipse your starlight with our sun.
We in their native dress our thoughts impart,
Yours decked with learning, and adorned with art.
Every error generously excuse:
Consider, Sir, a simple virgin's muse.





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