Yet for us, our recreation and retreat offer all the ease we could wish for. We take nothing from the public or from ourselves. On the contrary, we enrich ourselves without impoverishing others. We glorify our homeland by becoming glorious ourselves, and without compromising anyone, we accumulate much renown. It seems fair, since we leave ascendancy to men, that they at least leave us to the freedom to know all things our minds are capable of. The desire for goodness and knowledge should not be forbidden to us, and practicing it is not criminal. The gods created nothing useless in nature, each thing follows the order that has been given to it. The sun illuminates and warms the universe, the earth offers us flowers and fruits each year, the sea gives us all its wealth, the rivers water our meadows, the forests provide us with their shade, and in the end, all things contribute to society. Under these conditions, why should we be the only rebels and ungrateful ones towards the gods? Why is it that our minds should be employed in a shameful or perpetually useless way? What morality could there be in despising what is honest? What cause can sustain that what is honest becomes bad and condemnable as soon as it is within us? Those who have slaves educate them for their comfort, and those whom nature or usage govern want us to extinguish within ourselves all the lights that heaven has set there, and that we live in the darkest ignorance. If this is to more easily obtain our admiration, they do not achieve their goal, for we do not admire what we do not know. If their goal is to make us more obedient, it does not show great nobility. And if they truly have a certain control over us, they receive no glory for ruling people who lack intelligence and knowledge, according to them.
       You might tell me that not all men are so ruthless towards us and that some consent to women using their minds in the knowledge of letters on the condition that they do not compose works themselves. But let those who hold this view remember that if Mercury and Apollo are of their sex, Minerva and the Muses are of ours. I acknowledge that having received as many gifts from heaven as we have, we should not faint-heartedly engage in this art. For example, the shame is not of writing verses, but of writing poor ones. If my poems had not been fortunate to please, I would never have shown them a second time. This shame is not exclusive to us, and anyone who does badly something they willingly undertake undoubtedly deserves to be criticized, regardless of their sex. A bad orator, a bad philosopher, and a bad poet do not acquire more glory than a woman who performs all these things poorly. Regardless of gender, one deserves to be criticized when doing wrong and much respect when doing right. But to address the customs and decay of the age, leave all these thorny sciences to those who seek glory through difficult paths. I do not wish to lead you to places where you see nothing pleasant. I don't want you to spend

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