In the third section, ignorance and cunning lead to a woman's over-fondness of dress.
Women should not read such silly and irrelevant works but instead "read something superior." The way to get women to avoid these novels is to ridicule them, but this should not be done indiscriminately, throwing away the good with the bad, and the proper discrimination should come from someone whom they admire. Of course, it is better to read something than nothing, but novels are quite dangerous. Their "sentiments become events." They shy away from reading history, which they find boring. Women's attention is focused not on important community issues but on these minute fictions. They read stupid and silly novelists who know nothing of real human life and spin sordid, tawdry tales to draw the heart and mind away from real duties. In the second section, Wollstonecraft turns to women's romantic, "sentimental" twist of the mind. One cannot respect God and give credence to such manipulative liars. Rational religion must be based on reason, not these devilish pursuits.
Actual physicians should be aware of the basics of medicine and anatomy they should adhere to a regimen, "another word for temperance, air, exercise, and a few medicines, prescribed by persons who have studied the human body" as "the only human means, yet discovered, of recovering that inestimable blessing health." The swindlers, however, are motivated merely by money, not "superior temperance or sanctity." They are merely "priests of quackery." It is even worse when they claim to be Christians. Women are also swayed by magnetizers, who are mesmerists or hypnotists who claim to treat bodily or spiritual infirmities.
A Christian woman cannot really believe God would allow his prophets to lurk in cities and charge money to dabble in astrology. Wollstonecraft adds that going to a soothsayer belies the Christian religion in that this activity violates God's commands. Women flock to them ignorantly, not seeing them as the charlatans they are. In the first section she calls attention to people who prey on women by predicting the future using astrology. She divides this chapter into smaller sections on specific topics. There are plenty of follies particular to women, and Wollstonecraft explains that her goal here is to point out those follies most harmful to women's moral character.
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