Honour perhaps of Health of Fortune and Estate And it shows the Safe and the Honourable Roads of Vertue And is it not a very Important and necessary thing to be taught these Matters before we launch into the World Without this we shall be in danger of learning the Shelves in this dangerous Sea by running aground there and the Rocks by splitting upon them Without a previous Admonition and Instruction about what we are to avoid and what to chuse we shall learn the World only to imitate it we shall learn and comply and endeavour to be as like it as we can we shall be led away with the Error of the Wicked and follow a Multitude to do Evil. We are naturally prone to imitate what we see done by others and more prone to imitate Evil than Good and we shall commonly meet with more Ill Examples than Good ones By consequence we shall be in greater likelihood of learning and following Vice than Vertue if we are not fenced against it by Good Instruction before we venture into the World Let me add 'T is of very great Importance to you to be as early as is possible acquainted with these things to learn betimes the Knowledge and Practice of Vertue For as much as Habits of Good or Ill are continually growing in us but especially in our young and tender Years Our Actions in those Years are as it were the Seeds or Foundations of future Habits which we contract when we are young and are not able to leave when we are old But if we cannot rightly discern Good from Evil we shall become accustomed to do Evil before we know what it is And if once we are arrived as this it will be a matter of as much difficulty to cure our selves as it were for the Ethiopian to change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots This encreases the difficulty of convincing us of our Faults We shall be loth to own that we have been in an Error This will engage us to justifie our Faults rather than acknowledge them that we may let our selves go on without shame or remorse And besides if we are convinced of a Fault after that difficulty is over there is more remaining and 't is yet a very large task to conquer and forsake it when 't is become as it were a second nature It is easie to correct and form young and tender Inclinations to Evil. But when several Years are gone over them and they are become confirm'd Habits they are then not easily subdued We must then know Vertue and Vice betimes and know them in their least beginnings and lowest degrees that we may practice the one and abstain from the other And 't is necessary that we begin betimes to practice Vertue and to resist and avoid Vice that we may be inured and accustomed to do so Then will it be easie to be Vertuous all our Days and we must put a Violence and Constraint upon our selves if we would comply with the Solicitations of any Vice Whereas without this we shall fall into that unhappy State that it will be easie to us only to be Vicious and we must put a Constraint upon our selves when we are to do that which would become us and would be for our Interest or our Honour Besides 't is our Wisdom and Happiness to have as little occasion for repentance as is possible and therefore to begin a Course of Vertue betimes And 't is our Honour to have attain'd a great and eminent degree of Vertue but the sooner we begin to endeavour this the more likely we are to attain it Vertue in youth settles a good Constitution and confirms Health in the strong Bodies and supports a tender and weak Constitution which Vice would quickly destroy Vertue in youth makes the best Provision of Worldly Enjoyments and Comfortable Thoughts for Old Age. It defers the Infirmities of Old Age and makes that commonly the freer from the things that are usually grievous to it To Young Persons then I would particularly recommend the Vse of this Book for the promoting of Vertue among them To conclude The Women have here an excellent Mirrour wherein they may see themselves and all the World they may discover whatever Spots or Deformities are upon themselves or others This is a Glass that will certainly show you what does best become and most adorn you Drest by this you must needs like your selves and may do so with good reason and without flattering your selves and you would also approve your selves to God and the Holy Angels and to the best and wisest among Mankind I must only desire you to take notice of this further That I do not apply the great Character I have given of this Book to what you now see of it but to the whole that which is here is at most but half worthy of it for it is but half the intended design The other half is actually under Hand and I hope will be speedily presented to you And then I doubt not but it will appear worthy of your Esteem and of my Recommendation and Highly Vseful to promote your Honour and Happiness the end for which it is designed A TABLE OF THE Subjects Treated on in this BOOK Chap. 1. OF Reading with some Remarks upon that of this Book Page 1 Chap. 2. Of Conversation Page 31 Chap. 3. Of the Chearful Humour and the Melancholy Page 51 Chap. 4. Of Reputation Page 70 Chap. 5. Of the Inclination to Vertue and of Devotion Page 82 Chap. 6. Of Chastity and of Complaisance Page 91 Chap. 7. Of Courage Page 102 Chap. 8. Of Constancy Page 112 Chap. 9. Of Prudence and Discretion Page 123 Chap. 10. Of the Learned Women Page 131 Chap. 11. Of Habits or Ornaments Page 141 Chap. 12. Of Beauty Page 148 Chap. 13. Of Curiosity and Slander Page 156 Chap. 14. Of the Cruel and the Compassionate Page 163 Chap. 15. Of a Good Grace Page 170 Chap. 16. The Debauched or Lewd Woman Page 176 Chap. 17. Of Jealousie Page 183 Chap. 18. Of Friendship and the Love of Inclination and that of Election Page 196 Chap. 19. Of the Complaisant or Pleasing Humour Page 216 Chap. 20. Of Birth or Nature and Education Page 252 Chap. 21. Of an Equal Mind under Good and Bad Fortune Page 279 ERRATA PAge 8. Line 5. for least read last p. 18. l. 6. for west r. wast p. 20. l. 8. for Jammuz r. Tammuz P 57. l. 28. for void r. avoid p. 121. l. 18. for Wickednesses r. Wickedness p. 134. l. 15. for really r. rarely p. 180. l. 20. for Impudence r. Imprudence p. 272. l. 2. for are r. are not Of READING With some Remarks upon that of this Book THERE IS NOT any thing more true than that Reading Conversation and Contemplation are three of the most useful and most charming emploiments in the world By Reading we enjoy the Dead by Conversation the Living and by Contemplation our Selves Reading enriches the Memory Conversation polishes the Wit
THE EXCELLENT WOMAN Described BY HER TRUE CHARACTERS AND THEIR OPPOSITES Licensed and Entered LONDON Printed for Joseph Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC XC II. TO THE EXCELLENT AND MUCH HONOURED LADY The Lady Mary Walcot MADAM THERE is not any Thing that can Recommend Vertue to the World with so much Force and Advantage as the Examples of those that eminently Practise it Vertue is like Beauty in this That it has Peculiar and Nameless Charms in the Living Original which no Art can possibly represent in the Draughts or Descriptions of it But 't is the great Unhappiness of the World that these Excellent Examples are seldom very Numerous And none but those who live within the Sphere of their Converse can have the Benefit of their Influence And which is yet a greater Disadvantage perhaps several of these like your Ladiship do Love and Chuse Retirement In which case they can be seen but by Few All that we can do then for the Rest of the World towards the making them in Love with Vertue and the perswading them to Court and seek it lies in these following Things We must present them with as exact a Draught and Picture of this Beauty as we can in the clear and distinct Explications of Vertue We must add to this the most fitting and advantageous Dress in giving it the becoming Illustrations and deserved Praises And it may further conduce to our Purpose to draw also and set near the Former the deform'd Characters of the opposite Vices which like a Black-a-more by a Fair Lady will set off the Beauty to more Advantage Thus much I presume is tolerably perform'd in the following Book which is greatly Ambitious to obtain the Honour of Your Ladiship 's Approbation Besides these there is but one Thing remaining that can be serviceable to our Purpose But 't is that which seems as Necessary and Conducing as all the Rest that we can do And that is to assure the World That the Excellent Draught or Picture we have made is the Description and Character of some Real Person who rather Excels than falls short of the Representation Without this the Skill of the Representer may be admired but the Thing represented cannot when it is not known that there is any such Thing really in Being and so the Design of the Labour would be lost and the End frustrated When we propose a Person in whom those Excellent Characters of Vertue may all be found and that with advantage then we make it known that the Precepts and Rules prescrib'd are not Notions but Practice they are not only what ought to be done but what is done they are not invented but are raised frâ—â— Observation When we can mention an Excellent Example we confute that Prejudice which deters the Cowardly and Mean Spirits from the Pursuit of Vertue who represent it to themselves as too strict in the Rules of it as a Thing in Imagination only and as too difficult or even impossible to be put in Practice And we do that which will inspire the more Generous Souls with a Spirit of Emulation and kindle in all such a brave Ambition to imitate and equal if they can what is so Excellent and Commendable It is for this Madam that I have made so bold as to set Your Ladiship 's Name to the Front of this Book 'T is well known of Your Ladiship by all that have the Honour and the Happiness of Your Acquaintance that the best Characters here are no more the Description of an Excellent Woman than they are Characters of You. And they will all bear with me this Testimony to Your Worth that wherein soever this Description comes short of the Subject it might be perfectly compleated by one that were able to compleat Your Excellent Character To the Instances of particular Vertues in the Body of the Book I had a Desire to add an Universal One. This Apology Madam I ought to make for my Interrupting Your better Employment for venturing to Publish those Vertues to the World which Your Ladiship does seek to Conceal and for ascribing those Praises which You are as unwilling as deserving to receive I hope You will be pleased to Pardon that which a Zeal for the Honour and Advantage of Your Sex has inspired and suffer me to Subscribe MADAM Your Ladiship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant T. D. THE PREFACE To the Female Sex I Present you here with a Piece of Morality wherein you have the Characters of Vertues and Vices drawn indeed with design to Recommend the One Sort and to Expose the Other Yet I think it is done with Sincerity too and that there needs no more but to represent these Things truly for both those Purposes The Book I am sure would most effectually recommend its self to you if you would take the Pains to Read and Consider it well and compare what it says with the Common Practice of the World This is the best Way to know fully how Vseful and Important to you those Intimations are which are here presented But since this cannot be known without such an use of it and especially those who have most need of these Instructions will be apt to neglect them I think fit to say some few Things to Recommend the Reading of it It is design'd and directed to serve the Honour and Happiness of the Female Sex who are perhaps the larger Half of Mankind and who doubtless are or may be as Important at least as the Other I cannot chuse but think that the Glory and Worth and Happiness of any Nation depends as much upon them as upon the Men. And perhaps others will be of my Mind if it be consider'd That we are born of them that we commonly derive from them what we are in our Nature more than from the other Parent So far as this does depend upon the frame of the Body which is not a little it is form'd in the Womb. We are beholden to our Mothers Vertue and good Disposition and wise ordering of her self for our natural Inclinations to any Vertue for the Calmness of our Temper for the Brightness of our Wit for the Regularity of our Constitutions and for the Strength of our Bodies And on the contrary from their Exorbitant Passions we are disposed to great Passions and from their ungovern'd Appetites their Intemperance and other Vices we often derive the Strength of Vitious Inclinations a crazy Constitution and a weak Body But further will their Influence upon the World appear if we consider that Invincible and Vniversal Law of Nature which inclines the other Sex to love and seek their Conversation and Company From hence it must needs follow That their Influence upon the Men may be commonly as great as they will Their Example will effectually lead us we cannot chuse but put on some Conformity to those whom we love Their Perswasions and Instigations will powerfully provoke and excite us their Approbation and Applause is
and Contemplation improves the Judgment But among these noble Occupations of the Soul if we would determine which is the most important it must be confessed that Reading furnishes both the other And without that our Contemplation would be of no advantage and our Conversation without pleasure It is necessary to the Ladies of greatest Wit as well as to those of the meanest in that it gives to the former much the greater Lustre as it mends the Imperfections and Defects of the latter It renders these tolerable and makes them admirable And to say the truth Reading shews us many things which our own reasoning could never discover it adds solidity to our thoughts and a charming sweetness to our discourse It finishes and compleats that which Nature has but only begun Nor is it strange that we should receive so great advantage from this since the best Inventions in the world have ow'd their Original to Reading join'd with Judicious Thinking and the one is as the Father the other a Mother to the sinest Thoughts And because neither of these separately can produce any thing of perfection it is easie to comprehend why they who have no love for Books can speak nothing but what is trivial and their conversation is no better than a persecution of their company That a good Wit may set off its self well enough without any thing of Study as they say a good Face needs no Ornaments is what I cannot without dissimulation allow But on the contrary it must be said that as the stomachs which have greatest heat have need of most food to keep the body in good plight and maintain life so the brightest Wits have most need of reading to acquire thereby politeness and fulness and especially to moderate that vigour which cannot succeed but by chance when it is altogether alone It is then in this incomparable School they must learn what is excellent to entertain the company that is good and to be a remedy against the bad Here the Ladies must receive antidotes against the persecutions of those whose discourse is all Idle and Impertinent It is Reading that renders Conversation most grateful and Solitude least tedious There are others nevertheless of another opinion and such as think that 't is sufficient for learning the best things in the world to enjoy the conversation of good Wits without putting ones self to the trouble of turning over Books But tho I grant that the Conversation of Worthy Persons is very necessary and may as a living School influence us most powerfully while we see the rule and an excellent example together Yet it seems to me that they who content themselves with the company of those that Know much might become more compleat by reading their works It is my Opinion that if Conversation gives readiness Reading affords abundance that the former distributes only what this latter acquires and is liberal of the riches which reading heaps together Moreover since men take more pains about what they write than what they speak and no man employs so much care in that which is to endure but for a moment as in that which is to endure for ever It must be own'd that we may rather expect to find excellent things in the Writings of great Persons than in their Discourse for while they let nothing pass in their Books that is not finisht it is not possible but many things imperfect will slip from them in discourse and conversation Besides there needs no more but an agreeable voice or with some a great noise a sweet accent or a good grace to charm those that hear But there is nothing to abuse or impose upon them that read It is much more easie to deceive the Ear than the Eye Discourses pass on with but a superficial notice taken of them and hardly have we the leisure to observe their defects But Writings remain steadily exposed to the Censures of those that judge and the faults of them are never pardon'd Herein there lies as I think a very good reason for the reading of good Books that the great Wits have in them left us their best performances and they have employ'd their watchings and studies more to the Writing than Speaking well However if it be necessary for the proof of this to join Experience with Reason what can any desire for the Ornament of the Mind that may not be met with in Books We may find there Instructions of every make we may see Vertue under every sort of Visage We may there discover Truth in every representation of it we can desire we may see her with all her strength among the Philosophers with all her purity among the Historians and with all her beauty postures and sine disguises in the Orators and Poets And from this so agreeable variety it is possible for all sorts of humours and conditions to find content and instruction It is here that Truth is not disorder'd by Passions that she speaks without fear as well as without design and dreads not to enter the Palaces nor even the Presence of the greatest Monarchs For this reason too is Reading extreamly requisite to the Ladies for since they want Mute Instructors as well as Princes and as well Beauty as Royalty does not so easily find Teachers as Flatters It is necessary that for the apprehending their defects they should learn sometimes from the admonitions of the Dead That which the Living dare not say to them It is in Books alone that they can remark the imperfections of their minds as in their Mirrors they discern those of their Faces It is there they will find Judges that cannot be corrupted either by their Love or Hatred It is there that the most fair as well as the least so are equally treated having to do with Arbitrators that use the Eyes they have only to put a difference between Vertue and Vice BUT HOWEVER since all Books are not excellent and there are many which truly deserve to be brought to no light but by the fire the printing of which should rather have been hindred than the reading them It must be acknowledged that there is no less difficulty in choosing good Books to employ us when we are alone than to choose good Wits for our entertainment in company So that if any find they must not rely upon themselves in this matter for the making of a good choice they ought at least to follow the counsel of the most knowing and most vertuous for fear that in reading they may happen to infect the Mind or debauch the Conscience I cannot forbear in this place to reprehend the tyranny of certain Wits who form among themselves a kind of Cabal for the censure of all things and think the approbation of their Cabal must be first obtained before a thing can deserve to be approved by others As the value of Money derives it self from the Ordinance of the Prince so must the value of Books and the purity of Language depend upon
matter what they will I will eternally condemn these ill Books which serve but as a School to teach persons to sin with address and which one may very justly call the Politicks of the Vicious and of the Libertines I declare my self an enemy to all that which is an enemy to Vertue And to speak in a few words what I think of the Reading of good or bad Books It is very necessary that they who are not able to make a difference should follow the counsel of the most intelligent And they who are the most capable to discern aright in this matter should yet not suffer themselves to be carried away with a curiosity to search into what is forbidden which seems to be a humour even natural to the most It is without all doubt that reading is both pleasant and useful and if care be taken to read such Books as are truly good it will instruct the ignorant reform the debauched and divert those that are Melancholy It affords remedies to them that are greatly afflicted against the greater evil of Despair and to the happy and prosperous it administers antidotes against Insolence It exhibits examples fit to humble the one sort and to encourage the other It makes our discourses the better when we entertain and our thoughts when we are alone Without that it is impossible both to meditate or to speak well But this subject is too copious and if I should pursue it as I might instead of putting an end to this discourse of it I might begin and exhaust another There is then no doubt to be made but the reading of honest Books is a most agreeable employment But we should always remember that it is not enough that this be useful to the Understanding unless it be so moreover to the Conscience As Vertue is of much more worth than Knowledge the Ladies ought to think that 't is of more avail to them to be good than learned And I fear not to say that if they have a true Modesty they would blush no less at the reading of an ill Book than if they were surprized alone and shut up with a debauched Man THUS MUCH I thought fit to say concerning the reading of other Books But to make now as I promised some remarks upon the reading of this of mine I believe it will be very useful to the Ladies after that I have shewn them why I make so much use of Fables why I make a great part of the Subjects I treat of to appear with two Faces why I have not produced such general Instructions as would have serv'd for the Men as well as the Women and why I have not descended to instructions so particular as the Vulgar could wish for that they might be touched the more sensibly These are the four principal parts of this Book of which it seems to me I ought to give an account for the rendring it the more profitable to those who will take the Pains to read it AS FOR FABLES if I bring in some examples of them I do this but to explain my self with the greater clearness I do it not to support my Arguments but to embelish them t is not to render Truth more strong but only to make it more agreeable All the World know that the examples of Fables divert us more than those of History because they are contri'vd to please The Historians recount successes Poets invent them So that when I serve my self of these only to recreate and not to convince I have contented my self often to chuse the most diverting rather than the most probable Besides No one ought to think it strange if I have endeavour'd to render the Metamorphosis profitable since it ought to be accommodated to the gust of those that are to be persuaded and there are many that love Fables and that read them If we cannot utterly destroy Serpents out of the World at least we have reason to make remedies of their Poison and if the reading of fictions be dangerous we endeavour to draw some profit from it and to find good in that evil which we cannot hinder Let it be consider'd that the Ancients have conceal'd in a manner all their Morality and all their Divinity under Fables and tho they could have serv'd themselves of Examples that were true as well as of false yet they sometimes chose the latter to make their instructions the more sensible AND AS I make use of Fables sometimes to render my thoughts the more clear and the more agreeable it is for the same reason too that I treat of many Subjects in the way of Problems It is that the variety may gratifie and that I may yield delight at the same time that I give instruction I have constrain'd my self to endeavour that I might Please while I Teach I believe that the Mind as well as the Eye is recreated with variety and that men take delight to see both what is evil and what is good in all things And moreover since the best instructions ought to shew at the same time both what we ought to avoid and what to do I have thought that to succeed in both these things it would be good to make appear on every Subject what it is that is worthy of our Love and what will deserve our Hatred And cannot every one see that there is nothing but the matters of Faith which we may not view under divers aspects If the Melancholy Humour has something that is Good is it not also true that there is in it something Evil If it be wise for deliberation yet it is not sufficiently strong to enterprize It is a Paralytick that has good Eyes but the Hands are feeble and it cannot move of it self And may not as much be said of the Gay Humour which on the one side appears fit to entertain but on the other hand is found too much a Pratler to contain secrets and too light for designs of Importance I might here repeat several passages of my Book to demonstrates that if I have made use of Problems it is because all moral actions are full of circumstances which give occasion to consider the same thing under several visages and make it now appear good and anon to appear evil Tho I have always concluded that vertue ought to be lov'd I have yet sometimes shewn that it has two Extreams of which men ought to be aware Lest they run into the danger of being Prodigal instead of practising Liberality or of becoming opinionative while they aim at constancy or fall into impudence while they seek to be pleasant This is that I believe which deceives the Vulgar Readers that while I present the excess and the defect it seems to them as if I did praise and did condemn the same thing Who are to understand that I am willing to shew what it is that abuses us and to discover in every subject that which is worthy of our choice and of our aversion If I attack the
the brink of the Ocean without being able to return to it She saw her self at that time between two frightful dangers one of which she must needs fall into She could not quit him without the loss of her life nor commit her self to his conduct without the loss of her Honour She was transported to an Isle where she sadly knew to her cost that this Bull was a God thus disguised to surprise her See herein what will happen to those that will play with Beasts when they are more free or more familiar with Stupid Persons than with Good Wits Europe was more bold with a Bull than she would have been with Jupiter if he had but declared himself He made his approaches more easily under the Hide of a Beast than under the appearance of a God The most cunning persons after his example will counterfeit themselves silly and ignorant to arrive with the more ease at what they design They pass from small Favours to great ones and always advance their design till they change their Entreaties into Threatnings and their Soothing into Violence And it is from thenceforth that such acknowledge too late that the true Simplicity is ill treated when it entertains it self with the false one The fear of losing their Reputation after they have given some advantages does corrupt many But they deserve to be punisht for their easiness that they may learn at their cost that there is no great safety with persons that are disguised and that those Spirits that are least dissembled are the more vertuous and the more capable of Friendship Those that would disparage the Ladies say that the Foolish are more fortunate and happy with them than the most Worthy Persons Because the Violence of the one sort succeeds better than the Persuasions of the other and because they are less ashamed to let Favours be wrested from them than to bestow them to the end they may excuse their consent by the force But these are Opinions that deserve rather to be despised than credited and which no less contradict the Sincerity than the Vertue of the Ladies who ordinarily do not fall into any evil but by reason that they have not artifice enough against that of their Enemies BUT THAT WE may blame Affectation after we have commended Plainness It is not very easie to employ so many inventions as some do that they may appear amiable without having some design in so doing They that give Love for their pleasure are often forced to receive it by necessity Those Women would work a Miracle in carrying so much fire in their Eyes without having any kindle in the Soul and how resolv'd soever they may be their Looks have not the priviledge of the Sun who burns all below without inflaming his own Sphere These are ill Weapons these of Love that one can rarely make use of them to hurt others but first or last she shall hurt her self I have heretofore a long time mused upon the Statue of Venus made by Phidias under the feet of which he placed a Tortoise I judge that the greatest Mystery that can therein be discovered is that the Tortoises go but very little or if they remove themselves sometimes they are always arm'd and cover'd carrying their House along with them Venus despises the Solitary and the Cautious Those Women that seek with so much Passion all sorts of Conversation do please her more for the encrease of her Empire And above all things she has always affected Nudity because it was that which gain'd her the Apple Those Women that are so much pleased to find themselves often in the midst of their Enemies have something of a desire to be overcome And in truth how good soever a Company may be yet Distrust is always better than too much Boldness And since she who ought to be the Pattern of her Sex was confus'd at the presence of an Angel who appear'd to her in the likeness of a Man The Women also ought always to testifie some bashfulness in the company of men tho when they are under the form of an Angel Unless it were so that they having no other than his design the Women also would have no need of her fear IT IS DOUBTLESS ill asserted to say That Timerousness restrains more Women than Vertue If their inclination were bad would they want to be solicited Experience shews sufficiently that if they have any apprehension it is rather of being Vicious than of being blamed Tho the Men that have written Books and Proverbs have writ all things to their own advantage Yet they have declar'd that Chastity does particularly belong to the Women for as much as they who have lost this are taken for Monsters It would not be thought so strange if this Quality were not natural to them There have indeed some Men been found that have possest this Vertue but this has been upon such occasions as wherein some Considerations or Constraint have taken away all the merit of it Alexander testified some reservedness with the Women of Darius's Family But to shew that this was more out of Policy than Vertue what did he not do with the Amazons Scipio while he was yet a Young Man sent back a very fair Woman to her Husband after his Souldiers had presented her to him But Glory was stronger in him than Love because he had lost his Credit with the Spaniards if he had accepted that Offer What praise did Xenocrates deserve for not medling with the Woman whom they brought to him His coldness proceeded from his Old Age he was Drunk he wanted to Sleep And if he had not been either Feeble or Drowsie yet it was in publick in which case the most Debauched had been asham'd as well as a Philosopher There is no need of a long Discourse to prove that Chastity does not belong to Men they themselves too freely renounce any part in it and believe that they should encroach upon the profession of the Women if they should put in practice the Precepts which they themselves give to them Is not this a Custom altogether worthy of blame to see the Men take all manner of Liberty without being willing to give the least degree One would say when one beholds this Tyranny that Marriage sure was instituted for nothing else but to put Women under the Custody of Goalers There is herein a great deal of Ingratitude as well as of Injustice to make claim to a Fidelity which they will not return especially when they themselves are no less obliged to preserve it The Women have enough of Wit and of Conscience to believe that a Revenge would cost them too dear if they should lose their own Vertue to have satisfaction for the Vice of their Husbands Octavia did not cease to love the Lewd Mark Antony even while he made Love to Cleopatra and abandon'd a great Beauty at Rome to possess one that was far a lesser one in Egypt Those Women that have this Constancy
persuading himself that a Woman had Learning enough when she could put a difference between the Shirt and the Doublet of her Husband The Opinion of this Prince would be very ridiculous in those Countries where People go Naked or as well among those Nations who make the Shirt and the Doublet all of a piece The Esteem which he had of the Ignorant and Simple does oblige me to believe he might have made a Vow that he would love none but those that were like himself The Emperor Theodosius made not so great account of the Ignorant He married Athenais only because she was Learned and of a good Wit without any regard to this that she was Daughter to a Father of but mean Extraction who left her no other Dowry but the Beauty she was born with and the Philosophy of his School They that will distrust a Woman when she knows a little more than ordinary are certainly such weak people as deserve to fall under what they fear and who found their Suspicions upon the very Reasons themselves which ought to give them Assurance Moreover the Ladies that have some Knowledge and Learning do of all others afford the greatest pleasure in Conversation and they receive no less in solitude when they entertain themselves alone Their Thoughts have wherewithal to content them while the Ignorant are subject to Evil Thoughts because they know nothing commendable to employ their minds about As their Conversation is tedious so their Musing can be but extravagant They that say the Women have a great advantage in their Ignorance do they not give too much honour to the untaught simplicity of the Village which is commonly much in danger when it meets with Importunity and Occasion Or if this Sentiment be good why may we not say as well that the Blind are great gainers in the loss of their Eyes if it were enough to shut the Eyes for the avoiding of a Precipice In the Court as in the Ocean it is necessary to know the Shelves if we would avoid the making Shipwreck and if the Ladies do that which is evil after they know it to be so we ought to place the Cause of their Misfortune in their Design not in their Knowledge And nevertheless I will maintain as Reason does oblige me That a Lady ought to be Learned that she may make a figure in Conversation It may be that this Sentiment will at first sight offend that of the Ignorant and Stupid who persuade themselves that they should find their own dear resemblance every where that a Woman cannot study nor read without becoming Vicious or at least without being suspected But they that judge so rashly in this case do despise that which they ought to desire as if they were oblig'd to hate all the accomplishment which they have not themselves or as if they ought not to make account of any but very little Spirits Whereas they ought to represent to themselves that those Women who have not Judgment enough to know Vice they have not enough neither for the choice of Vertue or to know how according to the Occasions they should prefer Truth to an appearance Also they who understand ever so little of Morality cannot be for this Advice since we are daily taught by experience to acknowledge that the light of our Reason is as it were a natural Vertue which disposes to do good almost without any Study and that we really see a very good Wit without a good Conscience The assistance of Learning fortifies the good Inclinations and they that persuade themselves the reading of Books is only a School to teach them to commit Evil with Address might more decently believe that the Ladies may find there more to correct than to corrupt them Reading and Conversation are absolutely necessary to render the Wit and the Humour agreeable and as the one collects for us matter for Discourse the other by use teaches the method of unfolding it gracefully that we may join together Readiness and Abundance without this our Conversation is nothing else but an insupportable Tyranny and it is impossible without putting ones self upon a Rack to stay long with these Women who can entertain us with nothing but the number of their Sheep if they be of the Country or if they be of the Town then can talk of nothing but the Heads and Petticoats in fashion It ought not then to be imagin'd that in speaking of this accomplisht Woman whose Character we are framing we do intend to describe a Mother of a Family that knows well how to follow her Servants or takes care to comb her Children Tho we do not condemn these things yet we must declare that skill in Musick History and Philosophy and the like accomplishments are more agreeable to our design than meer good Houswifry And there can be none so much Strangers to Common-Sense as not to own that without these good Attainments tho the Women may have an excellent Wit yet they will be apt to have their minds fill'd with things very Evil and very Impertinent Their good Nature and their good Inclination remain without effect under the want of Reading and Conversation when the Tyranny of their Mothers or of their Husbands or else some other misfortune hinders them from attaining those excellent qualities which they are born capable of FOR TO SAY that the Sciences are too obscure for the Ladies and that they cannot comprehend the Arts even in their Principles because of the Terms that are too hard to be understood This in truth is a very strange Error It is an opinion altogether extravagant to think that the Sciences cannot as well be exprest in English as in Greek or Latin These Disputers that through Ignorance or Malice have obscur'd the Arts under Terms that are rude as under ragged Cloaths and who will not unravel the Confusion that we may still have recourse to them as to an Oracle They do them no less wrong in forcing them to appear in an Apparel so shameful than the Libertins do to Vertue when they describe it as terrible and inaccessible that they may deter others from venturing upon it But the Worthy Persons know how to take away this Mask It is an Imposture that gives no trouble but to the Spirits of the Vulgar I easily allow that as for Philosophy and Theology one may find in them some words that seem not to be purely English I grant that when other Arts have their peculiar Terms which are not usually softned and explained to be accommodated to them who do not make profession of those Arts it is not reasonable that two of the noblest Sciences in the World should make themselves more familiar than the others I own too that in strong reasoning there are sometimes words used which are a little mysterious because they express the truth somewhat better than those that are more Polite But after all where there is not this necessity what need have we to affect Obscurity