MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE
La Ruine des mœurs, 2020

MA BIBLIOTHEQUE now has its own book bag, with a quotation from Sylvain Maréchal’s tract on why women should not be taught to read. The text reads:
Apprendre à lire aux femme est un hors-d’œuvre,
nuisible à leur éducation naturelle :
c’est donc une luxe dont l’effet fut presque toujours l’altération et la ruine des mœurs.
In a rather hasty translation:
To teach women to read is inessential,
harmful to their natural education:
thus it is a luxury, of which the effect is almost always
the interference and ruin of morals.