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
a great Encouragement and their Condemnation or Dislike necessarily weakens and dispirits our Endeavours Do not these things appear in the Experience of all Ages Could Adam himself long keep his Innocence when Eve had eaten the forbidden Fruit and added to that the Perswasion of him to do the same Was not the Mighty Saul mov'd to a mortal Envy against David because the Women in their Songs and Applauses had preferr'd the lucky Youth before the practis'd Warriour Did not the Idolatrous Wives so far prevail with Solomon as to draw that wise Prince into the absurd Sin of Idolatry Do not Histories show us that they have been able to perswade even the greatest Men to what they would That they have by their Instigation overturn'd Kingdoms confounded Commonwealths laid Cities desolate and brought to pass the greatest Revolutions and Confusions And that on the other side they have sometimes been the Springs and first Movers of the Bravest Actions Have they not saved many Cities and Contributed greatly many times to the Strength and Prosperity of Commonwealths Some of these Things may be seen in the following Book We may see it common in the World that the other Sex are often but the Tools and Slaves to their Vices or the Instruments and Servants of their Vertues And indeed that they take Delight in being so that 't is usually their greatest Joy and Pleasure and the most sensible part in the Reward of their Hazards and Labours to have pleased this Sex in what they have done to have promoted the Honour and Interest or to have gain'd the Praise and Favour of the Woman that is loved These Things are not said to Impute to them all the Vice and Folly of the World but to show from the Influence which they can have in it How necessary and Important it is that they be brought up in Learning and Vertue and have their Minds well furnish'd and govern'd by these Accomplishments They have contributed no more towards Vice than towards Vertue What harm that Sex did to the World in Eve they have made us a sufficient amends for in the Blessed Virgin What harm soever they do to the present Age and whatever their share may be in the Vices and Follies of it this we may justly blame the Men for who take upon them to govern all Things and condemn the Women to such an Education as can render them but very little useful and leaves them apt to be only mischievous and hurtful to the World Certainly there cannot possibly be a greater over-sight than to banish them to those little trivial and useless Employments which usually take up their precious Time of Leasure and a single Life To confine them to the Molding up of Wax when they should be forming of their Minds by the Laws of Vertue and Wisdom To learn the adjusting of their Cloaths rather than of their Words and Actions If these Employments keep them out of the way of such Temptations as would corrupt them yet what good do they put into them If they keep them from Vice what Vertue do they form in their Minds The Truth is they cannot hinder the growth of Vice and Folly from the Seeds of them that are in our corrupted Nature These will improve and get Strength in them by the Exercise of their own Thoughts Ill desires will be stirring if they are kept from evil Actions And they may be corrupted by their own untaught and ungovern'd Discourses with each other There is no Opposition to Vice and Folly made by this Sort of Education and then it must needs grow if it be not check'd and kill'd yea it rather serves to cherish and promote it They are bred in a great concern and care abeut their Bodies and in a neglect of their Minds they are taught to strive to recommend themselves to the World without any real worth and meerly by the Ornament and disposal of the Outside What measure of Chastity are they taught by making the Image of a Fair Woman with but one Garment on and Caressing a Black-a-moor Their Musick joyn'd with such Songs as have for their common Subjects either fond Love or obscene Intimations or blasphemous Flatteries of their Sex what does it but cherish Vanity and Pride and feed and excite foolish and shameful Desires And what Vertue are they taught what useful Knowledge are they possess'd with by this Education What Vertue do they learn by the Management of the Needle How little may they understand of Fortitude or possess of it for all the Forming of a Broad-shoulder'd Image in Wax and the setting it by a Pillar Or what degrees of Charity does it put into them and what Rules of Exercising it are taught them by their learning to make up the Image of a Woman with Three naked Children about her What do they learn of the Nature and Vse of Fruits and Plants while they learn to imitate them in their Shape and Colour Might not the Wit that can excel in these Curious and Vseless Trifles be taught more important Things Why might they not learn Physick and Chirurgery as well as Cookery to save as well as to destroy Men pleasantly That which is a Vice rather than an Accomplishment as commonly practised why are they not as soon taught the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of Meats and Drinks as what is Pleasant and Grateful to the Palate Why have they not Lectures of Morality read to them in their Schools and the Mistresses showing them the Importance and Vsefulness of the Precepts of Vertue Why may not they learn Languages as well as we Whenever they set well about it they commonly do it better than we can And if they were taught the Art of Reasoning and the Art of Speaking if their Minds were well furnished with Philosophy and Divinity if they were plentifully endowed with useful Knowledge and refined Vertue we should not think one Language nor hardly one Tongue enough for them Their chief Time for Improveing is spent without Improvement and all they learn in it is not any thing that they can ever be the wiser or the better or the happier for Their Education is not directed nor design'd to teach them how Odious a Thing Vice is how shameful and contemptible Ignorance and how Glorious and Lovely a Thing it is to be Vertuous We have reformed our Nunneries the Schools of our Women from Popery and Superstition but not from Pride and Vanity nor have made them as we should do the Schools of Vertue and Religion and useful Knowledge See here the Ground and Reason of all the Defects and Disparagements of that Sex Hence are we so often vexed or tainted with their Vices and Follies This is the fundamental Occasion of all the just Complaints that are made against them And most unjusty are they used while they are bred to be of no use and then are despised for being so and while there is no care taken to possess them with Vertue and
There is indeed some appearance of Ill in the Writings of the Ancients and there is nothing but an empty appearance of good in the Romances which are read insomuch that if we take away the Mask and pierce the Shell of the one and the other we shall find nothing but Vice in these last mentioned and nothing but Vertue in the other We ought not to abandon the Ancients for so little evil as is in them nor espouse the Romances for so little good as is in them It is sufficient to retrench and pare the one sort but the other are to be entirely thrown away IT MAY BE this my Opinion of them may be displeasing to some to whom a Lie appears more beautiful than Truth and who can take no delight but in that which is unprofitable and think the time cannot be well passed away unless it be lost Why say they is the Reading of Romances forbidden when the Use of the Poets is allow'd And what pretence can there be to believe that Fictions are more dangerous in Prose than in Verse What necessity is there that for trivial Considerations we should deprive our selves of the sweetest Pleasures of Life And what greater contentment can a man contrive for himself than to read in Romances so many different successes where we find our Passions still in motion according to the Adventures that are presented Yea and tho we know very well that the Objects which affect us never had a being in the world and never will yet we suffer our selves very often to entertain a true compassion for feigned miseries and dissolve into tears for imaginary Shepherds They add further we ought not to throw away any Books because there is something of Ill in them as it is not reasonable to resolve never to go to Sea because there are Shelves and Sands there or because the art of Navigation is not infallibly successful as appears in that there are some that yearly suffer Shipwreck either by misfortune or by ignorance It is not at all just to abandon that which is good because it is sometimes mingled with bad Prudence teaches to separate the Vice from the Vertue rather than to shun both together otherwise we must pluck out our Eyes that we may not abuse our looks and never venture to stir lest we should happen to fall Besides why is it forbidden to Romances to present us with Lives of them that never were any more than to Painters to draw Imaginary persons or to paint according to their own fancy a piece of Grotesque Why may not the one sort be permitted to divert the mind by their Writings as well as the other to refresh the Eye with their Pictures Why is the Pen in this case to be accounted more culpable than the Pencil and may we not describe in words what we may by Pictures AND TO SAY truth that we may answer to this Apology for Romances I do not at all doubt that if any one of them could be found that were entirely honest it were not Injustice to defend the reading of it And provided one could find in them any good divertisement without danger of corrupting the mind there would be no cause to complain of them any more than of those recreations that innocently pass the time and refresh us after the fatigue of Study or Business But when I think of the very ill things which the most of Romances are fill'd with when I consider how many minds are debauched with these poisonous Books I should account my self very guilty if I did not shew the snares to those who apprehend no danger and declare open war with these corrupters of innocence And in truth to examine this matter throughly what satisfaction can any seek in Romances which may not be found in History May we not see there the sucesses the adventures and the Events that are sufficiently pleasant or sufficiently tragick as well of Love as Fortune to move or instruct or divert Can there be any thing more pleasant than to see the Birth and the ruine of Empires and Monarchies and to know in a little time that which was several long Ages in passing Is not this a very commendable way to shorten the time when it seems too long and even to bring back again that which was past When we find there refreshment against weariness and remembrance to prevent oblivion What can be said to prove that we cannot divert without corrupting our selves or that the mind cannot be pleased unless we bring the conscience in danger But if I grant that sometimes there are good Instructions to be found in Romances Yet what engagement are we under to conform our course of life to an imaginary Representation or how shall we bring our selves to imitate examples which we know to be false Do we miss of excellent Patterns in History or do we need Painted and feigned Stars to serve us in the stead of those that adorn the Sky This is a very great Errour And if Bees are not able to gather Honey from Flowers in a Picture as little is it possible to us to receive advantage from a History which we know was invented to please I may grant too that there is some pleasure in the reading of Romances But is there not often an agreeable relish in the food that is poison'd We must abandon that which pleases to avoid that which would hurt and renounce a great pleasure to avoid a little danger Otherwise to propose to our selves the separating what seems to be good in Romances from what is truly evil there or to take pleasure in the relations without being defiled with the uncleanness which they convey under a disguise and which throws out a thousand Hooks with the pleasant Lines to catch the fancy of the Reader this were to throw ones self into a conflagration that we might rescue something from the flames that is of little worth or importance It were to propose to our selves the separating of Wine from the Poison as we drink after we had mingled them together And indeed since we may find divertisement joyn'd with instruction in a History why should we separate the profitable from the pleasant which we may enjoy together To entertain the mind as well as to preserve the body there is no need that we separate the pleasure of the Palate from the usefulness of the Food since reading as well as eating ought to strengthen at the same time that it pleases It is not only superfluous and needless to read these Books but extreamly dangerous too And how much pains soever we take to defend our selves from infection yet we take it The mischief enters insensibly into our Soul with the pleasing words and under the charms of those adventures that affect us Whatever Wit a person has however innocent he is yet as our bodies do without our consent partake of the quality of the things we eat so our minds espouse even in spite of us the Spirit
is after this manner that it abuses both Reproofs and Praises and makes the Laws either severe or favourable as it will It throws Oil into Fire it foments and inflames yet more the most debauched Inclinations it encourages to the committing of evil those that as yet boggle a little at it it le ts loose the Reins to the most wild Desires when a just Fear had restrain'd them It speaks to us as the accursed Julia to her Son Bassianus You can do whatever you will This young Emperour being become most monstrously in love with his own Mother when at a certain time he saw her with her Neck and Brests uncover'd and sigh'd in her hearing without daring to tell the Cause the Motions of his lascivious Love not having yet entirely stifled those of his Respect and Fear This complaisant Courtisan took away from him all Apprehension she hardned him in his Passion instead of reproving him She was not asham'd to have her own Son her Gallant and to be Mother and Mistriss to the same Person What is there so horrid and impious but Complaisance can advise to it It can dispence with any thing there are no Passions so extravagant but this can breed them in the Soul or maintain them there When the vile Myrrha fell in love with her own Father she found a Compliance in her Nurse who afforded her Means to succeed in her infamous Design instead of diverting her from it When Dido was passionately in love with a Stranger her Sister too complaisant in the Case added to the Flames instead of striving to quench them Complaisance approves all that which we will and takes but little care to perswade tho' without Eloquence since it advises only to that which pleases The Ills that Concupiscence causes only to bud in us Complaisance makes them increase and bring forth Fruit. If Concupiscence be the Mother of Wickedness this is the Nurse of it it finishes and exalts that which the other left but low and beginning It finds Excuses for every thing It said to the Wretch Bassianus when he was in love with his Mother that the Will of Kings ought to be their only Rule And they being above all others there is no reason they should be depriv'd of the Pleasures they desire by submitting themselves to the forbiddings of another Man This said to Myrrha that the Gods themselves had no Regard to Nearness of Blood that Juno was the Sister and Wife of Jupiter and that the Motions of Love do not at all oppose those of Nature It told Dido that the Dead do not mind at all what the Living do that there is no Fidelity due to him that is not any longer and that Sichaeus was not jealous in his Tomb of that which Aeneas might do at Carthage This has in it a readiness to undertake the most horrid Enterprises this was the Sister of Dido that corrupted her this was the Nurse of Myrrha that led her to the fatal Precipice this was the Mother of Baessianus that debauch'd her own Son It encourages those Women that hesitate and tremble it teaches those that are ignorant it hardens those that are scrupulous and fortifies them that are weak It is for this Reason that Complaisance is so well receiv'd when any have ill Designs because instead of contradicting or reproving these it gives the Means to carry them on and accomplish them It is from hence that the terrible Guards about the Persons of Kings cannot hinder this from entring into Palaces It is for this that it is every where receiv'd with such a gracious Countenance and especially in Courts where there must be nothing used but supple Cringing and where Licentiousness will not be reprov'd It is lastly for this Reason that the Amorous and the Courtiers strive to keep the Fair and the Princes in Errour to the end they may maintain themselves in their Favour Let us not dissemble in this matter and while we are speaking of this base and cowardly Complaisance let us not render our selves guilty of the Crime we condemn The Complaisant round about a Man that is in favour are as Shadows about a Body in the Sun-shine If one removes â—â—mself they are stirr'd with the same Motion if one sweats they wipe their Faces if one be a cold their Faces are frozen if we speak these are but Echo's to repeat our Words They are Shadows which have no Solidity and fly from us when we think to lay hold on them Voices without a Soul which Interest and not Truth drives from the Breasts of Flatterers How unprofitable to us is such a Complaisance Have we any Assistance from a Shadow that follows us Have we any Consolation from an Echo that pities us But alas how dangerous is this Complaisance If you speak Blasphemies this Echo will answer them run to any manner of Wickedness this Shadow will follow you This Echo repeats the Speeches of the Impious as well as of the Just and this Shadow follows the Bodies that are Sick as well as those that are sound Unhappy Compassion that knows very well how to destroy us in a good Fortune but knows not how to comfort us as it ought under a bad one Deceitful Complaisance that stays with us but only while our gaudy Days last and flies away like the Birds that change their Country when the Winter approaches May we not after all this say That Prosperity as well as Adversity has but few true Friends since as the one wants them that should comfort it the other is no less in want of those that should admonish As the Miserable have none to show them some grounds of Hope so they that are Happy are no less destitute of such as should warn them to fear If Compassion be dumb in the presence of the Afflicted Complaisance is so in the presence of the Vicious the one is careful not to keep at too great distance from a good Fortune the other sometimes fears to approach an evil one See here that Complaisance is the Poison of the Great the Enchantment of the Court the Enemy of Truth and Mother of all Vice AND NEVERTHELESS how much Mischief soever it does we have no small Difficulty to defend our selves from it it is an agreeable Murderer the Wounds of it please us and when it kills we cannot tell how to complain I grant there are some that have Remedies as well as Vlysses against this fatal Syren who smiles to make others weep and wracks those Vessels that she has allur'd to her by her Songs and who appears beautiful but is indeed a Monster Certainly if there be some that are Enemies to Complaisance there are a great many more that suffer themselves to be enchanted with it If there are some few that resemble Theodosius in this that they are invincible to their Commendations and that they chuse rather to endure Slander than Flattery There are many more like Antipater who are willing to dissemble their
in our Discourses and Writings As if Clearness would render the Sciences less venerable or as if the Darkness serv'd them for Ornament and Luster as if the Force and the Dignity of reasoning were necessarily tackt to the Rudeness of Terms On the contrary we no more diminish their price in taking away the Veil that conceals them than it lessens the value of Gold to dig it out of the Entrails of the Earth to refine it and make it serviceable to Commerce I judge that they who clearly explain the Sciences do discover to us true Treasures and that they merit some part of the Glory of Socrates who brought Wisdom down from Heaven to Earth that is he render'd it easy to be understood by those minds which seem'd to be the most uncapable of it There is then nothing more true than that when the Sciences are well and rightly conceiv'd and understood they may also be exprest even in any Language whatever and the Ladies are then capable to understand them ON THE OTHER SIDE tho some say that all the hindrance lies on the part of their Minds as not being strong enough for Learning It seems to me that this is a very wrong Judgment of their Temperament which according to the Physicians being more delicate than ours it is also more disposed to the study of Arts and Sciences Whatever can be said they are capable of these as well as the Men and if they quit sometimes what they might pretend to this is more out of Modesty or Consideration than out of Weakness Do we not see in History that the Ancient Gauls divided with their Women the glory of Peace and of War that the Men reserv'd the Arms to themselves but left to the Women the Establishment of Laws and the Preservation of their Republicks This could not be done out of Ignorance and it may be judg'd from hence what Esteem they had of the Women when the Part allotted to the Men was the Exercises of the Body and they committed to them the matter of Conduct and the exercises of the Mind What Science so difficult can be imagin'd wherein they have not excell'd at least as far as the Men Was not Aspasia judg'd worthy to teach Pericles who yet was able himself to give Instructions to all the World Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi composed Letters so excellent as that her Sons afterwards derived from them all their Eloquence which was also great and these Letters of hers did Cicero himself admire Pamphila wrote so many as an hundred and three Books of History which all the Learned Men of that Age highly esteem'd And as for the Sacred Sciences Does not St. Gregory himself acknowledge that his Sister serv'd him for a Tutouress and that she gave him the knowledge of the best Learning But it is not necessary to search the Ages past for Examples of this kind We have in our own some Instances so extraordinary as may be compar'd with any the greatest in Antiquity We have Ladies that know how to write upon the most serious and the most difficult Subjects In truth I cannot chuse but believe that the most obstinate Persons would yield the cause if they would only take the Pains to read the Homilies that Madam the Vicountess of Auchy has Composed upon St. Paul She has not undertaken those places that are more plain and where she might most easily have succeeded She has bestow'd her pains upon the Epistle to the Hebrews which contains as every own knows the most secret and the most lofty Mysteries of our Religion Nevertheless in a matter so Elevated there is nothing can conquer the force of this great Spirit she marches over Thorns as another would do upon Roses her Style has nothing forced or affected it is sweet and pompous both together and the nicest Persons would admire in this Work that which one shall rarely find in the same Author there is Clearness joyn'd with Vigour and Sharpness with Politeness There is that will instruct the devout and satisfie the curious The learned and the delicate will there find things that do deserve to be consider'd with Attention and they that persuade themselves a Woman cannot write well would confess their Errour after the reading of that Book What need is there to enumerate a great many more To mention those amongst us that have excell'd in Poetry to that degree as to force Applauses from their Competitours in Fame This Subject is too large to be follow'd through And tho the Men have been very sparing and cautious in writing the praises of Women yet they have not been able wholly to refrain from bringing Testimony to this Truth and many of their Books have afforded room for their Commendations And if it may be permitted us for this purpose to appeal to Fable for our assistance we may learn that if the Men have an Apollo for the Author of the Sciences the Women have also a Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom who Invented the better Learning and who gives them a just right to pretend to the same If I did not fear to support so known a Truth upon Fictions I should content my self to send them that yet doubt in this to the Famous Nine Muses of the Poets to whom all the Ancients ascribed the Invention of Arts. Of Habits or Ornaments IT IS CERTAIN that in whatsoever Fashion we can possibly cloath our selves we shall very hardly please all sorts of persons either the Old or the Young will find in our Habit something or other to find fault with And it is next to Impossible that we should avoid falling under either the Derision of the one or the Censure of the other There are some melancholy Spirits that cannot endure we should do any thing according to the Fashion and who will infallibly find out something unlawful in our Dress if we cannot prove that it has been a thousand Years invented and used This is to disdain altogether the present Time that we may give too much Honour to that which is past Without considering that we must bear with that which cannot be hinder'd and that there may often be less Vanity in following the New Modes than in adhering to the Old ones It is true that the Foolish invent them but the Wise may conform too instead of contradicting them The Habit as well as the Words we use ought to be conform'd to the Time we live in And as they would take him for a Madman who should talk in the Court the Language used in the time of King William the First so we ought not to think better of them who would cloath themselves as he did Those who blame without a distinction the alteration of our Fashions would better become themselves in quitting their slavish Sentiments Who would forbid the seeking our Convenience or Decency for fear we should not be habited like our Ancestours Were it not in truth an indecent Confusion to see a Boy in the same