Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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ID |
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Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
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A45754
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The ladies dictionary, being a general entertainment of the fair-sex a work never attempted before in English.
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N. H.; Dunton, John, 1659-1733.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing H99; ESTC R6632
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671,643
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762
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what a Letter is It is or ought to be the express Image of the Mind represented in writing to a friend at a distance wherein is declared what He or She would do or have done This excellent use we have of Letters that when distance of place will not admit of Union of Persons or converse Viva voce that deplorable defect is supplied by a Letter or Missive Let me now shew you the parts of a Letter the common ones are Superscription and Subscription The Superscription of Letters is twofold the one external the other internal the outward Superscription is that when the Letter is folded up and containeth the Name Title and Abode of the Person we write unto but above all you must have a care that you give proper Titles such as befit the Quality of the Person The Title of a King is To His most Excellent Majesty To the Queen the same altering the Article To all Sons or Brethren of the King of England To His Royal Highness To a Duke To His Grace To a Dutchess the same To all Earls Marquesses Viscounts and Barons To the right Honourable To Marchionesses and Countesses by Patent To the Right Honourable To all Lords To the Right Honourable To Knights To the right Worshipful To all Justices of the Peace High Sheriffs Councellors at Law Esquires either by birth or place c. To the Worshipful If Kindred write one to another the greater may express the Relation in the beginning of the Letter but she that is of the meaner Quality must be content to specifie it in the Subscription Besides Superscription and Subscription you must set down what year and day you write this Letter in and the place from whence it came yet it is not always convenient to mention the place nor the Relation the Person hath to you to whom you write For the style of your Letters let it not be affected but careless not much differing from our usual way of speaking In Letters of Complement supply the barrenness of your matter with the smoothness of your Rhetorical Exornation Consider seriously what best befits the things you are to write of regarding Person Time and Place It would be absurd for any one to write to a Superiour as to a Familiar we are not to use the like expressions to a Soldier as we do to a Scholar or a Lady Be not too prolix in your writing nor too short do not study for had words but such as are either plain or very significant this perspicuity of writing is to be measur'd according to the capacity of the Person to whom the Letter is directed for some will easily conceive what is difficult and hard for others to comprehend Lastly be curious in the neat folding up your Letter pressing it so that it may take up but little room and let your Seal and 〈◊〉 be very Fair. Lying-in if some Men might have their Will Women were in the worst Condition of all Creatures for Nature has taught the Birds of the Air against they are ready to Lie in to frame their Bed-Chambers with that Art and Curiosity to make their Beds and draw their Curtains about them with so much Neatness and Artifice that their Nurseries seem to be so many petty Palaces and the Winds themselves are forced to rock the Cradles of their Young ones But Women must never be taken care of while they are breeding nor provided for against their Delivery 'T is true indeed when we see a Poor Woman reduced to that miserable shift as to be Deliver'd in Rags we are apt to believe that the Woman misses somewhat of Matrimonies Pleasure but then again we take her for some forlorn Creature abandon'd by all Mankind and forsaken even by Charity it self But we find all Creatures as Nature instructs them making king some Provision or other against their Delivery the Male doing his and the Female her Duty in all respects only Women must shift for themselves for after the Men have once got 'em with Child they have nothing to do but to drink and guttle and Whore or Roar or if they will be such Fools to compassionate the Sufferings of their Wives this must be look'd upon as the disturbance and inconvenience of Matrimony But these upholders of Paradoxes consider not that in the same Chamber where the Wife Lies in the Effect of the Husband's Manhood comes to light and would you have the Parents want a great Candle or two to see what God has sent ' em Man is Born naked all other Creatures come into the World with their Cloaths on and their Cloaths grow as they grow without the help of Taylors and Coat-sellers Do you think it is not greatly for the Reputation of the Man that his Wife has been with Child and that she is deliver'd at length of a lusty Boy Suppose it be a Girl that Girl may bring Boys in time for so the World goes round The Name of Da Da is now as pretty a pleasing Name as Mr. Bridegroom was before Why we have heard of many Fathers of Children that have been Fathers of Nations and the first Wife has had always equal respect with the first Husband Lacedemonians highly beloved by their Wives The very Heathems were in their Cities and Goverment strengthned by the prosperous effects of Marriage Plutarch thus relates the Story in the Life of Pyrrhus that when the City of Sparta was besieged by that Prince with design to assault it the next Morning the Lacedemonians resolved that Night to send away their Wives and Children into Creta but the Women themselves oppos'd the Decree and one among the rest called Archidamia went into the Senate House with a Sword in her hand in the Name of all the rest and told them That they did their Wives great wrong if they thought them so Faint-hearted as to live after Sparta was destroyed upon which the Council determined their Stay and the Wives and Daughters did that Night work at the Trenches sending the Young Men that were to Fight the next Morning to sleep and at break of day when the Enemy began the Assault the Women fetched the Weapons and put them in the Young Mens hands delivering them the Trench ready made and praying them valiantly to keep and defend it telling them how great a Glory it must be to overcome their Enemies Fighting in the sight of their Wives and Countrey and what Eternal Honour it was to dy in the Arms of their Mothers and Wives after that they had fought valiantly like honest Men for their Countrey and these Women did not only encourage the Men in words but during the Fight stood by assisting them and taking out of the Battel such as were wounded by which means they repulsed the Macedonians Here we have an unparallel'd Example of that Force which attends Conjugal Love See a Book called marriage promoted Love fully treated on Love has very ample Limits and though his walks be very spacious yet