“A rational mind will be employ’d, it will never be satisfy’d in doing nothing, and if you neglect to furnish it with good materials, ’tis like to take up with such as come to hand.”
- Date
- 1697
- Local voice
- Authorial / signed preface voice · Mary Astell
Meaning of “A rational mind will be employ’d, it will…”
Astell argues that the mind naturally seeks occupation, so denying people serious intellectual material does not make the mind inactive; it leaves it to whatever material happens to be available.
Where does it come from?
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part I, printed page 56 in the represented 1697 two-part edition, Project Gutenberg #54984. Astell writes that a rational mind will be employed while arguing that women denied serious intellectual education may be driven toward inferior materials. Original spelling is retained; the passage belongs to her explicitly religious and educational proposal, not contemporary educational-outcome research.
Why the local voice matters
A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. Astell argues for serious intellectual formation of women and warns that an active mind deprived of better material will still find something to occupy it.