“Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.”

Why is it great? Take a look at the publication date: 1792. That’s more than two centuries ago, and two things are remarkable about this fact. 1) That Wollstonecraft, the mother of “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley, was such a terrific feminist back then. And 2) that in many respects it still holds true. But the sentence is a lyrical wonder, creating an image that brings to mind “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” (In reading up on Wollstonecraft, I learned that she died soon after giving birth to Mary. And her widower told a friend: “I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy. I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again.”)