Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	eat_v	fruit_n	serpent_n	1,943	5	9.6634	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89721	Hæc & hic; or, The feminine gender more worthy than the masculine. Being a vindication of that ingenious and innocent sex from the biting sarcasms, bitter satyrs, and opprobrious calumnies, wherewith they are daily, tho undeservedly, aspers'd by the virulent tongues and pens of malevolent men. ...	Norris, James, fl.1682-1684; Harefinch, John, fl. 1682-1690, printer	1683 (1683)	Wing N1242A; ESTC R228457	50,405	172

mei Fair Mistress pity me I waste my Life my Time my Friends my Fortune and all to win your single Favour which is all the Favour I aim at though they have been formerly most scurrilous and abusive in their Language they do at length invertere stilum and unsay what they formerly said with Shame and Confusion Witness also the great Bononian Doctor who was once of Opinion Impedire studia literarum that Women did obstruct Men in their Study and Contemplation but he recanted at last and in a solemn manner with true-conceived Words did ask the World and all Women Forgiveness But you shall have the Story according to his own Relation For a long time saith he I liv'd a single Life and could not endure Marriage but as a rambling Lover Erraticus ac Volaticus Amator to use his own Words per multiplices Amores diseurrebam I took a Snatch where I could get it nay more I rail'd at Marriage downright and at a Publick Auditory when I did interpret the sixth Satyr of Juvenal out of Plutarch and Seneca I did heap up all the Dicteries I could against Women but now recant with Stesichorus Palinodiam cane nec poenitet censeri in ordine Maritorum and exhorts all Men to marry and especially Scholars that as of old so they may do now hold the Candle as Martia did to Hortensius Terentia to Tibullus Calphurnia to Pliny Pudentilla to Apuleius Legentibus Meditantibus candelas candelabrum tenuerunt who held the Candle whilst their Husbands did meditate and so saith he doth my Dear Camilla to me And truly the Fly may very fitly be their Emblem who sport thus in jest and are wounded in earnest So long the foolish Fly plays with the Flame Till her light Wings are singed with the same And we may well upbraid and laugh at them with this Distich If Cupid then be blind how blind are ye That will be caught by one that cannot see So severe against this Sex all were not nay many of them had a better Opinion of them for they ascribed all Sciences to the Muses all Sweetness and Morality to the Graces Prophetick Inspiration to the Sibyls and in my small revolving of Authors I find as high Examples of Vertue in Women as Men. Mr. Howel in his Epistles The Divine Plato whose very Infancy presaged many fair Expressions of his future Maturity definitely professed that among other Blessings which the Gods had bestowed on him he had greatest cause of all others to give them Thanks for three things 1. That they had made him a reasonable Creature and not a Beast 2. A Grecian civiliz'd and not a Barbarian And 3. That he was made a Man and not a Woman Yet did he sometimes ingenuously confess the necessity of them by winding up all his humane Felicity in these four Particulars So I may have saith he 1. Eyes to read 2. A Mind to conceive what I read 3. A Memory to conserve what I conceive and read And 4. A Woman to serve me at my need Then should Adversity assail me it should not foil me should an immerited Disgrace lye heavy on me it should not amate me should my endeared Friends forsake me by enjoying my self thus in my own Family I should laugh at the Braves of Fortune account Reproach my Repute and partake in the free Society of so sweet and select a Friend within me as no Child without me could perplex me Nay he was angry with his Fellow-Philosopher though otherwise a learned and brave Man for not sacrificing to the Graces those gentle Female-Goddesses Some are of Opinion indeed that he had perus'd the Mosaical Law and bestowed much time in it during his Residence with his Friend Phocian in Cilicia No marvel then if he found there the Excellency of their Creation with their primary Office or Designation being made a help for Man and so intimate to Man as she took her Mold from Man as Man his Model from Mold But yet the Vulgar believe that if there be no Ill in handsom Women at least there is inconvenience that Tentation is there tho the Sin be not To this Mr. Mountague in his accomplish'd Woman answers When Beauty is the occasion of Ill 't is an Innocent that makes the Offender and those that complain of it do as idly as if one should accuse the Sun for dazling his sight when he looks too fixedly on that glorious Body Some Buffoons have been so bold as to say that Woman is a crooked Rib and consequently of a crooked Temper but that is a great mistake for a Rib is bending and presupposeth her pliant not her crooked Disposition Adam for the loss of a Rib regain'd a better Self had he not had her he had liv'd an Anachoret in Paradise Others of the Rabble will pretend to give you a Learned Derivation of her Name Woman quasi Wo to Man but Nathanael de Laune Batchelor of Arts of Cambridge saith Good Etymologies in the English Tongue are for the most part taken out of Latin but saith he such as are drawn from the English are commonly absurd and ridiculous as Woman Wo to Man and Brathwait in his English Gentlewoman sings thus Are Women Wo to Men No they 'r the way To bring them homeward when they go astray Another Objection against that Sex is That one cannot love a Woman and be wise a Gross Erroneous Tenet for it is the opinion of wiser Heads That One cannot truly love and not be wise and surely this Opinion will soon be hiss'd off of the Stage by Men both young and old or else they proclame themselves all Fools since Mr. Brathwait tells you p. 288. Look all about you who so young that loves not And who so old a comely Feature moves not If you object and bid us look up to Heaven there are but two among the Planets Venus and Luna all the rest are Males you may as well argue that among the Celestial Signs there are but three human Creatures and seven brute Animals with two inanimate that there are more brutes in Heaven than men would not this be a brutish Argument And Mr. Howel in his Epistles will tell you that he believes there are as many Female as Male Saints in Heaven But Sir under favour whereas you alledge that among the heavenly Planets there are but two Females the rest Males it shews that Men are of a more erratick and wandring humour than Women Thus Men bestow ill favour'd Names and Expressions or rather Aspersions on lovely things as Women like Astronomers that call such Stars Bulls and Scorpions that have neither Fury nor Venome but only Purity and Light But Woman was tempted first and therefore to blame not so for in the first Sin her Fault was least because her Temptation was greatest and strongest being beguil'd by the subtle Serpent but Man by a deceived or mistaken Woman Man was prohibited eating the forbidden Fruit for

the other Howel's Letters Some will deprive Women of their Priviledge of going abroad and I know what Philosopher he was that would have them appear but thrice abroad all their Life-time at their Christening Marriage and Burial but the reason was not their Wantonness but his own Lust that he might have the better opportunity to go the oftener to them at home in private and in truth Jealousie which was one cause of it is a fear which discovers not so much as it confesseth the Merit of our Enemy Yet I am not so Laconically severe saith Burton in his Melancholy or Stoically Rigid as to debarr Women of all Society and Meetings they may improve them by a Civil and Moral Use to their Advantage and Benefit they may Converse with a modest and becoming Freedom The Latin Tongue styles a Friend Amicus a Sweet-heart Amica and in this that Language is Injurious to that Sex as if it were incapable of any kind of Familiarity or Friendship but in way of Marriage Fuller in his Holy State but daily Experience confutes this Argument and therefore 't is not worthy an Answer But the Herculean and Irrefragable Argument is still to come viz. That Women are subject to paint which is a kind of Self-Adultery a Metamorphosis of God's Works c. But one of the best Wits of our Nation hath penn'd a Treatise in Defence of it call'd Auxiliary or Artificial Beauty who saith It is but a Fixation of Nature's Inconstancy and is no more Adulterating of God's Works than to die Wool Linnen or Silk out of their Native Simplicity or to wash the Scurf and Filth off which riseth naturally from our Bodies by Sweating or Evaporation It is no more the Adulterating of Nature than the applying of sweet Smells and Scents to our Clothes Bodies or Breath not only as a Delight but Remedy to the Native Rankness or Offensiveness which some Persons are subject to both in their Breath and Constitution which not to Cure or alter by Art is to condemn such Persons otherwise not ill Company to Solitude by reason of those very Savours which make them fitter for Cells than Society We cannot that is we may not make one hair of our Head white or black Matthew 5.36 So Men may not by the same reason that are Mad be restrain'd from their Extravagancies because God hath afflicted them so Sick men must bid Defiance to all Physicians accounting them as so many bold Giants or Monsters who daily seek to fight against Heaven by their Rebellious Drugs and Doses prescribed in strange affected Terms of Art and ill-scribled Bills which seem to be as so many Charms or Spells So Lame Men may not either use Crutches to supply the weakness of their Legs or to shore up the tottering frame of their Body Any one undoubtedly may lawfully redeem himself from the uncomeliness of such an untimely Accident by dying his Hair or by using a Perruque suitable to his greener Years without interfering with our Saviour's meaning that we cannot make one Hair white or black which only shews the unchangeable Bounds and Principles of Nature as to God's Fixation and Providence in all things but not to forbid the Ingenious Operations of Humane Art and Invention to which the Works of God in Nature are subjected so far as they are managed within the Limits of Moral Intention and Religious Ends. It seems to me no better than a strait-lac'd Superstition which thus pinches God's Bounty and a Christian's Liberty which makes Christianinity such a Captive to such unnecessary Rigors and pedling Severities as if it were never in a due Posture and Habit till its Nails be pared to the quick and its Hair shaven to the Skull To be Godly it is not necessary to be ugly nor doth Deformity add any thing to our Devotion God's Mercy to our Souls denies us not due care and consideration of our Bodies After these Methods of Holy Ill-husbandry we must let our Fields and Gardens be oppressed under the Usurpation of Brambles and the Tyranny of all evil Weeds which are the Products of Providence as well as the best Herbs and Flowers and you may not by the invention of Artificial Day supply the Sun's absence with Candle or Torch-light nor dispell the horrour of that Darkness which Providence brings over the face of the Earth in the Night You may as well discommend a Glass-Eye when the Natural one is out Surely Face-mending is no sin nor to help a wither'd Autumnal Complexion no Crime nor to fill up the Ranks and rotted Files of the Teeth with Ivory Adjutants and Lieutenants The Sarcasm which was us'd by a Witty and Eloquent Preacher whom we both heard at Oxford meaning the two Ladies disputing about Painting in the Treatise of Auxiliary Beauty who speaking against the abuse of Womens Ornaments instanced in Jezabel's being eaten with Dogs as shewing saith he that a Woman so polished and painted was not fit to be Man's meat which Expression had more of Wit and Jest in it than Weight or Earnest as if the Heart received sinful Infection by any Colour or Tincture put to the Face more than it doth moral defilement by any thing that enters into the Mouth To deprive Women of Additional Arts is to reduce them from the Politure and Improvement of after Times and Experience to their first Caves and Cottages in primitive Skins and Aprons St. Jerom writing to Gaudensius about the Clothes of young Pacutula seems to excuse the Curiosity of Women in very remarkable terms Their Sex saith he is curious in Ornaments and studies naturally the Sumptuousness of Clothes insomuch as I have seen many chaste Ladies that dress themselves very costly without having any aim in their Designs but their particular Contentment by a certain harmless Complacency or Satisfaction This Inclination is so natural to them as heretofore many Ladies did intomb their Ornaments with themselves to carry into the other World that which they had acknowledged so much in this It is true there is a Story That Caesar seeing his Daughter Julia Augusta too curiously brave considered her a great while without gracing her with a Word expressing his Dissatisfaction by his Silence The next day seeing her more modestly dress'd he told her with a smiling Countenance that that Habit better became the Daughter of Augustus but the Reply of this Princess was not less considerable than the Admonishment of the Emperour I was dressed Yesterday said she for my Husband but to Day for my Father But they will object That Painting is an adventitious Stealth a bastardly kind of Adoption You never are jealous of any Scarlet Crimson or purple Tincture in your Cloaths wherein you please your selves more than in deader colours they are but the simple Juice or Extract of some innocent Herb Leaf Flower or Root of which no other use in Physick or Food can be made Beauty is a great Blessing among those little momentary ones which our Dust

Birds derive Womans Prerogative The Eagle is Queen of the winged Inhabitants of the Air the Phoenix but one and she a Female too but the killing Basilisk is accounted King of Serpents Next consider her under the Notion of a Wife and you shall find more Argument of Praise and Admiration than the contrary if the most Refined Wits of the Times are in the right some of whose Opinions shall be insisted on for should they be all amass'd and heap'd up the Contents would be too large for one Volume and first of Marriage it self Marriage saith the learned Apostle of the Gentiles is Honourable and well he might for God Honoured it himself It is Honourable as one of our own Divines hath it for the Author Time and Place For the Author because it was ordained by himself whereas all other Ordinances were appointed of God by the Hands of Men or Angels For Time for it was the first ordinance God instituted and that in the state of Innocence before Man had any other calling he was call'd to be a Husband therefore it hath the Honour of Antiquity because it was the first and consequently the most Antient Ordinance For Place Marriage was instituted in Paradice in the happiest Place and so hath the honour of Place above all other Ordinances As God the Father Honoured Marriage so did the Son not only by his Birth but Miracles for the first Miracle the blested Jesus wrought was at a Marriage in Canaan John 2. 6. where he turned Water into Wine Nay farther he honoured it with his Praises Matt. 22. 2. for he compareth the Kingdom of God to a wedding Verse 11. and Holiness to a wedding Garment Cantic 5. 8. Nay he himself is said to be wedded all which premises if seriously and duly consider'd do sufficiently and undeniably evince the Honour of a Marriage State let the single chatter what they please Next as to the Wife take her ensuing Character A Wife is a Man's best Moveable one that is more than a Friend less then Trouble a Scions incorporate with the Stock and equal with him in the Yoke Nothing pleaseth her that displeaseth him She is Relative in all and he without her is but half himself she frames her Nature to his howsoever The Hyacinth follows not the Sun more willingly Stubborness and obstinacy are Flowers that grow not in her Garden A Husband without out her is a misery in Man's Apparel and if Age hath snow'd gray Hairs upon his Head She is both a Staff and a Chair to base and support him She is his absent Hands Eyes Ears and Mouth his present and absent all The good Wife never crosseth her Husband in the Spring tide of his Anger but stay 's till it be ebbing-VVater Her Carriage is so Modest that she disheartens VVantons not only to take but even besiege her Chastity Her Children tho many in number are none in noise steering them with a look whither she listeth A great and eminent Divine of this Modern Age a Man searcely to be parallel'd for Sanctimony by twenty six Arguments commends Marriage as a thing necessary for most laudable and fit to be embraced by all sorts of Persons and is persuaded withall that no man can live and dye religiously as he ought to do without a VVife These are his very words Persuasus sum neminem posse neque pie vivere neque bene mori citra Vxorem Let all Stale Batchelers that seem to boast of their Resolution against and Aversion to so sacred an Ordinance as Matrimony ruminate on this He is an Enemy to the Kingdom of Heaven injurious to himself destructive to the VVorld an Apostate to Nature and a Rebel against Heaven and Earth who declines Marriage and leads a single Life The Hebrews have a saying He is not a Man that hath not a VVoman i.e. a VVife for tho Man alone may possibly be good yet it is not good for Man to be alone As for the Catholicks who exact the Virgin state so extravagantly it is like him that commended Fasting when he was cloy'd with Feasting Where there is no Generation there can be no Regeneration the Church could not be expatiated without Marriage It was a Question that one put to him who said Marriage Peoples the Earth but Virginity Heaven How can the Heaven be full if the Earth be empty VVilt thou condemn all for the Faults of one as if it were true Logic because some are Evil therefore none are good To blast thy Helper is to blame thy Maker Is a solitary as good as a married Life then can one string make as good Harmony as a Consort God commanded Abraham to do as his good VVife Sarah commanded A happy Couple He joying in her she joying in her self but in her self because she enjoyed him Both increased their Riches to each other each making one Life double because they make a double Life one where desire never wanted Satisfaction nor Satisfaction bred Satiety He ruling because she would obey or rather because she would obey he id ib. therein ruling Nature when a Female was first born vow'd her a Woman and as she made her the Child of a Mother so to do her best to be Mother of a Child She gave her Beauty to move Love VVit to know Love and an excellent Body to reward Love James de Voragine upon those words in the second of Genesis Adjutorium simile c. by an honest Jury of Arguments proves the excellency of Marriage above Virginity as followeth viz. 1. Hast thou Riches Thou hast one to keep and increase them 2. Hast thou none Thou hast one to help to get them 3. Art thou in Prosperity Thy Happiness is doubled 4. Art thou in Adversity She 'll Comfort assist and bear a part of thy Burthen to make it more tolerable 5. Art thou at home She 'll drive away Melancholy 6. Art thou abroad She looks after thee going from home wishes for thee in thy Absence and joyfully welcomes thee at thy return 7. Ther 's nothing delightful without Society no Society so sweet as Matrimony 8. The Band of Conjugal Love is Adamantine 9. The pleasant Company of Kinsmen increaseth the number of Parents Children Brothers Sisters and Nephews is doubled 10. Thou art made a Father by a fair and happy Issue 11. Moses curseth the barrenness of Matrimony how much more of single Life 12. If Nature her self escape not Punishment surely thy Will shall not avoid it Heinsius a Learned man faith Nemo in Severissima Stoicorum Familia c. There will not be found I hope no not in the severe Family of the Stoicks any one Person that will refuse to submit his grave Beard and supercilious Look to the clipping of a Wife or disagree from the rest of that Sect in this Particular Women are stiled by our ingenious Lord Chancellor Deliciae Humani generis solatio Vitae Blanditiae noctis placidissinia cura Diei

Woman was not then created therefore he sinned by reason the Charge was made to him Whitlock's Magnetick Lady p. 331. Another Accusation is That Beautiful Women are Scornful but when we think well of it we shall find their Disdain proceeds rather from Conscience than Vanity because they cannot endure the Idolatrous pursuits of the excessive Praises which Men artificially offer up to surprize them Mountague's A. W. p. 105. And they that think Women cannot be obliging understand little of the Nature of Virtue and are so far from a right Opinion that they are absolutely void of all common Sense and Civility That Womens Piety is but tenderness of Nature or weakness of their Wits those that imagine thus are not of my Opinion saith Mountague p. 30. and methinks they do them no less affront to deny them this Divine Quality than if they should take their Eyes from them which makes the best part of the Face besides Piety is oftner found as well as Pity in the tender and soft-hearted than in the more Rough and Robustuous Tempers That Timorousness restrains Women from Courtship more than Virtue this is ill argued for if their Inclination be ill Sollicitation will embolden it Indeed there have bin Men that have possess'd this Virtue upon occasion where some Considerations have taken away the Merit from it Witness Alexander who testified some Constancy to Darius his Wives but to shew it was rather out of Politie than Virtue what did he not with the Amazons That Women are of a fearful and cowardly Temper I cannot think that Men have reason to call Women Fearful because they are not hasty and unadvis'd for they that know their Temper will confess they have a greater disposition to true Courage than Man being neither cold to a degree of Insensibleness nor hot to a degree of Rashness Mountag A. W. p. 49. Upon this Account I suppose it was more curiously than usefully more subtilly than fruitfully demanded why Woman might not as properly Woe Man as Man Woman And that Arabian Resolution retrieved from the very depth of Imagination with much Ingenuity assoiled the Question Woing said the Arabian Wit is a Lovely Seeking now we seek not for that we have but what we have not it is more proper for the Man in Love's Quest to seek for what he has lost than for the Woman to seek for what she already has The Man hath lost his Rib and he seeks after her that has it it is for him to seek it who tho he may not have it yet he seeks to enjoy her who has it Brathwait Sect. 2. p. 442. As to their Levity and Inconstancy whatsoever Slanderers invent to their disparagement in that particular we must confess they are more firm in their Passions than Men at least we learn by the Holy Writ that on the most noble occasion that ever offered it self where we owe more Affection and Courage to the Service of God there were seen three Maries under the Cross and Mary Magdalen constantly followed him to the very last when the Disciples fell off after all their Protestations of never deserting him Women are shallow and unfit for Knowledge methinks this is to mis-judge of Constitutions which as the Physicians and Philosophers say being more delicate than ours is also better disposed for it but it may be 't is an effect of their Judicious Choice to quit freely the Vexatious musings of Studie's wearisomness I may say without flattering them or pretending by this Insinuation to the Honour of their good Graces that they are capable of as many Virtues as Men and if sometimes they quit their claim which they may lay to them 't is rather out of Modesty or Consideration than Unaptness Nay there have not been wanting Champions in Philosophy Law and History to answer or confute Opposers and some of them to say truth have not undertaken the Cause effeminately Plutarch counted it worth his pains to bestow a whole Book De Virtutibus Mulierum But now adays such is the sad Fate of Females they are depriv'd of all means to advance themselves so that no wonder they are not publickly Famous being forc'd to lead a retir'd Life at home their Needle is their only Recreation or Cloyster'd in some Nunnery or if married confin'd to their Husband's Humour Men bespatter them because their Soul is not contain'd in so rich a Cabinet they climb by Intrusion to Honour and Dignity not by Title or Merit not by Rule or Divine Command but by Strength and might The best Land incultivated bears nothing but Briers and Thorns where Art and Labour might bring forth Lillies and Tulips it is that that is often wanting to their good Inclinations and Desires when Tyranny or some other misfortune barrs them the possession of these fair Qualities of which Nature has given them a Capacity The Oracle of Apollo declared Socrates the wisest of men and he confess'd that his Diotinia taught him the Wisdom and Prudence which the Gods themselves judged incomparable It was no small advantage to this Woman to instruct this Philosopher who might prescribe Rules to all men for Life and manners The Emperour Justinian the great Civilian would not judge of any matter till he had first given an account of it to his Wife And Plutarch writes that the Roman Lady Porcia endeared Cethegus so far that he enterpriz'd no Design nor managed any Affair without her Advice and Approbation Priscilla was so knowing that she instructed Apollo a Bishop and Aspatia was judged worthy to teach Pericles Nay whole Nations as well as single Persons have honoured them for their Knowledge The Scythian Women judged of Publick matters and their Verdict was of great Esteem Our Antient Gauls divided with them the Glory of Peace and War reserving only the Active part of Arms unto themselves and leaving the Women the Establishment of Laws and Preservation of Commonwealths that was not to be done by Ignorant Persons and one may judge in what esteem our Ancestors held them since they allotted to the Men only the Exercise of the Body and to the Women the Abilities of the Mind But Women are Deceitful and can command Tears at will Admit they can and do frequently weep it is a great Argument of their Tenderness and Pity for a Woman if ever she weeps she thinks her self oblig'd so to do because all the World is not so good as she her self It was a snarling Speech of a Cynique when passing by a Tree whereon a Maid had hang'd her self wished that all Trees might bear such Fruit but his very name implies an Answer it was a Dog-like and currish Expression The odd opinion that the Jews and Turks have of Women that they are of an Inferior Creation to Man and therefore exclude them the one from their Synagogues and the other from their Mosquets is in my Judgment not onely Partial but Prophane for the Image of the Creator shines as much in the one as in

saith he I have prov'd the preeminence of VVomen by their Name Order of Creation Nature Religion c. Ne debitas illis Laudes c. lest I should hide a Talent intrusted to me if I should conceal what Truth hath said for them p. 334. and 335. Whitlock's Mag. Lady Women are made of purer plastical Ingredients there went more refin'd Stuff to their Composition than that of Man for if Man be of never so fine a Paste if he wash his hands in the clearest Water in several Basons never so often yet he will leave some foulness and feculencie behind but a Woman can wash and leave the Water at last as clear fair and limpid as when it came from the Source or Fountain 0 it self in few times washing As to their Modesty take this Example The Daughter of Pythagoras being demanded what most shamed her to discourse of made Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those Parts which made her Woman And if that of Justin be true Vera mulierum ornamenta Pudicitiam esse non Vestes That Modesty is the best Apparel of a Woman They have the best Ornaments Heylin So modest they are when alive that they cannot enter into Company without a Maiden-blush nay 't is proverbially call'd a Maiden-blush as if they only had a Patent to dye that Colour tinctur'd like a fair Morning in May. And if we may believe Pliny the great Naturalist one of Nature's Prothonotaries who had strip'd her to her Smock and lay with her as familiarly as a Wife they retain this Grace of Modesty even after Death for if a Woman be drown'd she swims with her Back-parts upward the Man with his Belly but such Cases as these must not be argued in the Common Pleas. Nay the Woman swims the Man sinks if they fall into the Water Man's Head his greatest Ornament is sometimes deform'd with Baldness but on the contrary VVomen rétain their Ornamental Tresses to the last Fonseca is of Opinion and so am I that there is something in Woman beyond all humane Delight a magnetick Virtue a charming Quality and powerful Motive to incite Love and Affection Nay Alexander being much in Love with Apelles as one highly rapt with the Exquisiteness of his Art proposed him that Model for his Task which he of all others affected most commanding him on a time to paint Campaspe a Beautiful Woman naked which Apelles having done the Picture wrought such an Impression on his Affection that Apelles fell in Love with her and Alexander perceiving it bestow'd it upon him If such impressive motives of Affection draw Life from a Picture what may be conceiv'd by the Substance To illustrate this there is a Story recorded in the Lives of the Fathers concerning a Child who was educated in a Desart from his Infancy by an old Eremite Being come to Man's Estate he accidentally spied two Comely Women wandring in the Woods and inquir'd of the Aged Father having never seen such Amiable Creatures before in his Life what they were The Eremite told him they were Fairies here note by the way tho Eremites pretend never so much Religion and Sanctimony they can now and then swallow a Lye without choaking as well as vitious Persons After some tract of Time being in Discourse the Old Man demanded of him which was the pleasantest and most delectable Sight that ever he saw in his Life He readily replied the two Fairies he saw in the Woods so that indubitably there is in a fair and beautiful Woman a magnetick and natural inbred attractive Faculty which moves Man to love her But we need not have rambled in the Desart to prove this since we have a Confirmation thereof at home An Ambassador who being to be entertain'd by Queen Elizabeth where the greatest State was still observ'd first passed through a Lane of the Guard in their rich Coats next through the Gentlemen-Pentioners and so through all the greater Officers the Lords Earls and Counsellors The Queen sat there in State at the upper end of a long Gallery which when the Ambassador was to enter the great Ladies of either side richly attir'd were placed through the midst of whom as he passed along he so amazed at the State or admiring at their Beauties cast his Eyes first on one side then on the other and that not without some Pause as if he had been to take a particular Survey of all their Features but by degrees coming toward the Queen who sat like Diana among her Nymphs or Ariadne with her Crown of Stars instated above the lesser Lights to give him Entertainment and observing his Eye still to wander thus bespake him Averte oculos ne videas vanitatem to whom he suddenly replied Imo potius mirabilia opera Dei such wonderful Fabricks are Women And this confirms Plato's Opinion That Beauty is a humane Splendor amiable in it's own Nature that has the power to ravish the Mind with the Eyes And Mr. Mountague saith Those that adore or despise Beauty offer too much or too little to the Image of God for we as seldom find Beauty without Vertue as Ugliness without Mischief and heretofore deformed Ministers have been rejected from the Temple let us not therefore believe ill of Beauty since God himself hath thought it necessary for those that approach his Altars Heliogabalus from a Priest of the Sun rose to be Emperour of all the World for his Beauty and the Face of Scipio the African subdued many a Barbarous Nation without so much as drawing his Sword In the expression of the Affection which requires a great measure of Discretion we shall find a more rare Temperature in the Feminine Sex they can shadow their reserv'd Love with a Discreet Secresie and an absolute Command of what Soveranizeth most in the contrary Sex declining the seeming grounds of Jealousie or if they fall in Love as they are subject to Passions as well as we so Modest they are that they will suffer rather than discover their Affection witness that fair Lady Elizabeth Daughter to Edward the Fourth who being Enamor'd with Henry the Seventh that noble young Prince and newly saluted King she brake forth into this passionate Speech O that I were worthy of that comely Prince but my Father being dead I want Friends to motion such a Matter What shall I say I am all alone and dare not open my Mind to any What if I acquaint my Mother Bashfulness forbids What if some Lords Audacity wants O that I might but conser with him Perhaps in Discourse I might let slip such a Word as might discover my Intention Modesty in Women is like the Angels flaming Sword to keep vile Men out of the Paradise of their Chastity The four Parts of the World had beenlost for want of a certain Name and utterly unknown but for Women What were the 9 Muses The 3 Graces The 12 Sibils Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom and the watchful Hesperides were they not all Women We may from