AN ESSAY In Defence of the FEMALE SEX.
In which are inserted the CHARACTERS
OF
| A Pedant, |  |  | A Vertuoso, |
| A Squire, | A Poetaster, |
| A Beau, | A City-Critick, &c. |
In a Letter to a Lady.
Written by a Lady.
The Third Edition with Additions.
Since each is fond of his own ugly Face; Why shoud you when we hold it break the Glass?
Prol. to Sir F. Flutter
The Question I shall at present handle is, whether the time an ingenious Gentleman spends in the Company of Women, may justly be said to be misemployd, or not.Our Company is generally by our Adversaries represented as unprofitable and irksome to Men of Sense, and by some of the more vehement Sticklers against us, as Criminal.It remains then for us to enquire, whether the Bounty of Nature be wholly neglected, or stifled by us, or so far as to make us unworthy the Company of Men? Or whether our Education (as bad as it is) be not sufficient to make us a useful, nay, a necessary part of Society for the greatest part of Mankind.Let us look into the manner of our Education, and see wherein it falls short of the Mens, and how the defects of it may be, and are generally supplyd.To begin with Vanity, it is a Failing the greatest Part of Mankind are tinctured with, more or less.
Impertinence is a humour of busying ourselves about things trivial, and of no Moment in themselves, or unseasonably in things of no concern to us, or wherein we are able to do nothing to any Purpose.Amongst the rest
Dissimulation is none of the least
Blemishes, which they endeavour to fix upon us.
Envy is the Parent of
Calumny, and the Daughter of
Jealousie.We stand yet chargd with
Levity, and
Inconstancy, two Failings so nearly related, and so generally United, that it is hard to treat of em apart; we will therefore consider em briefly together.These are the most considerable Imperfections, or at least those, which with most Colour of Reason are chargd upon us, as general Defects; and I hope,
Madam, I have fairly shown, that the other Sex are both by Interest and Inclination more exposd, and more Subject to em than we,
Pride,
Lust,
Cruelty, and many more, are by the Declaimers against us thrown into the Scale to make weight and bear us down, but with such manifest Injustice, that without giving myself any further trouble, I dare appeal to any reasonable
Man, and leave him to decide the Difference.
To Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark.
MADAM,
I F in adventuring to lay this little Piece at your Highnesses Feet, and humbly to beg your Royal Protection of it, I have presumd too far, be pleasd to impute it to your own most gracious Goodness, the knowledge of which encouragd me. Our Sex are by Nature tender of their own Off-spring, and may be allowd to have more fondness for those of the Brain, then any other; because they are so few, and meet with so many Enemies at their first appearance in the World. I hope therefore to find pardon, if like an indulgent Parent, I have endeavourd to advance my first Born, by entering it very early into your Highnesses Service.
I have not presumd to approach your Highness out of any Confidence in the merits of this Essay, but of the Cause which it pleads, wherein the Honour of the whole Sex seemd to exact of me no less a Patronage than that of the Best, as well as Greatest among em, whom they are all ambitious to see at their head. I have only endeavourd to reduce the Sexes to a Level, and by Arguments to raise Ours to an Equallity at most with the Men: But your Highness by illustrious Example daily convinces the World of our Superiority, and we see with wonder, Vertues in you, Madam, greater than your Birth. In this I am peculiarly happy, that I am exempted from the common Task of other Dedicators, who lie under an Obligation of publishing to the World those Excellencies of their Patrons, which perhaps appear no where but in their Epistles. In me it were as great folly, to pretend to make known the Illustrious Quallities of your Highness, as it woud be to go about to demonstrate by Argument, that the Sun shind, to a Crowd that are warmd by the Influence of it.
I had attempted the Character of a consummate Woman, could I, tho but faintly have shaddowd the inimitable Graces of your Highness; but the impossibillity of that Task forcd me to desist. It were easy here to lanch into those glorious particulars, which affirmed of any other than your Royal Highness, would have been extravagance of Flattery; but to you Injustice, and in me the highest presumption, to attempt with my feeble Hand those perfections, which the ablest must fall infinitely short of. The lustre of your Royal Vertues, Madam, like the Sun, gives us warmth and light, and while at a modest distance we admire it, improves our sight, which too bold a view confounds, yet the meanest and most ignorant see those Glories, which the most exquisite Artist can never express. The World therefore will rather justify than condemn my conduct, if I do not wrong so bright an Original with a dark obscure Copy.
Madam, Tho the world may condemn my performance, it must applaud my choice in this Address, and own that had I known as well how to Argue, as to Instance, I must infallibly have Triumphd over all Opposition. It may be easie to evade, or baffle the force of my Arguments, but it is impossible without the utmost Stupidity and Injustice, to deny the manifest Advantages of those Illustrious Graces, which raise your Highness so far above theirs as well as your own Sex. In this I have imitated the conduct of prudent Generals, who, when they doubt the sufficiency of their strength, retire to some strong Fort, and rest secure under the Protection of it.
There is yet another Reason, Madam, which tho the least justifiable, was nevertheless most prevalent with me to devote this Essay to your Highness. My Ambition to shew the profound Respects I have always had for your Highness, would not suffer me to let slip any occasion of expressing it, even tho I blush for the meanes of it. Thus I find my self reducd by my Zeal, to the condition of poor Tenants, who must expose their Poverty, to shew their Affection to their Lord in a worthless Present. I am sensible of the rashness of my Ambition in aspiring to the Patronage of Your Highness, and the need I have of an Apology; but were I able to make one as I ought, I should have taken care to have had less occasion for it. Yet I doubt not from Your Goodness that Indulgence, which I cannot expect from Your Justice, nor but that you will (like Heaven, whose more immediate Images Princes are) accept my unprofitable Service, for the sincerity with which it is tenderd. If my unfeignd Submission may procure pardon for my Presumption, that Your Happiness may equal Your illustrious Vertues, and Your Royal Person be as far out of the reach of Fortune, as your Fame and Honour of Detraction, shall ever be the prayers of
Madam,
Your Royal Highnesss
most Humble, most
