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INTRODUCTION.

EING by nature more inclined to fuch enquiries as by general custom my fex is debarred from, I could not refift a strong propenfity to reading; and having flatered myself that what I read dwelt with improvement upon my mind, I could not but conclude that a due regard being had to different circumstances of life, it is a great injustice to fhut books of knowledge from the eyes of women.

Mufing one day in this tract of thought, I turned over fome books of French and English, written by the moft polite writers of the age, and began to confider what account they gave of our compofure, different from that of the other fex. But indeed, when I dipped into thofe writings, were it poffible to conceive otherwife, I could not have believed, from their general and undiftinguished afperfions, that many of these men had any fuch relations as mothers, wives, or fifters. One of them makes a lover fay in a tragedy, B

VOL. I.

"Thou

"Thou art woman, a true copy of the first, "In whom the race of all mankind was curft: "Your sex by beauty was to heav'n ally'd, "But your great lord, the Devil, taught you pride, "He too, an angel, 'till he durft rebel,

"And you are, fure, the ftars that with him fell. Weep on! a flock of tears, like vows, you have, "And always ready when you would deceive.” OTWAY'S DON CARLOS.

"Rather than folid virtue; all but a rib,
"Crooked by nature.----Oh! why did God,
"Creator wife, that peopled highest heaven
With fpirits masculine, create at last
"This novelty on earth, this fair defect
"Of nature, and not fill the world at once
"With men, as angels without feminine,
"Or find fome other way to generatè
"Mankind?”---

MILTON.

And a third,

"Ah traitress! ah ingrate! ah! faithless mind!
"Ah sex, invented first to damn mankind!
"Nature took care to drefs you up for fin;
"Adorn'd without, unfinish'd left within:
"Hence by no judgment you your love direct;
"Talk much, ne'er think, and still the wrong affect.
"So much felf-love in your compofure's mix'd,
"That love to others ftill remains unfix'd;
"Greatness, and noise, and fhew, are your delight,
"Yet wife men love you in their own defpight:
And, finding in their native wit no ease,
"Are forc'd to put your folly on to please.",
DRYDEN'S AURENGZEBE.

I shall

I fhall conclude poetical teftimonies to our difadvantage, with one quotation more.

Intolerable vanity! your sex

"Was never in the right: You're always falfe,
"Or filly; ev'n your dreffes are not more
"Fantastick than your appetites: You think
"Of nothing twice: opinion you have none:
"To-day you're nice, to-morrow nought fo free;
"Now fmile, then frown, now forrowful, then glad,

Now pleas'd, now not, and all you know not why.
"Virtue you affect; inconftancy you practife:
"And when your loofe defires once get dominion,
"No hungry churl feeds coarfer at a fealt:
Every rank Fool goes down."

OTWAY'S ORPHAN.

It may be faid for thefe writings, that there is fomething perhaps in the character of thofe that fpeak, which would circumftantiate the thing, fo as not to make it a reproach upon women, as fuch. But to this it may be cafily and justly anfwered, that if the author had right fentiments of women in general, he might more emphatically aggravate an ill character, by comparison of an ill to an innocent and virtuous one, than by general calumnies without exception.

But I leave authors, who are fo mean as to defire to please by falling in with corrupt imaginations, rather than affect a just tho' lefs extenfive efteem by labouring to rectify our affections by reafon; of which number are the greater part of those who have fucceeded either in verfe or profe on the stage.

When I apply myself to my French reading, I find women are ftill worfe in proportion to the greater warinth of the climate; and according to the defcriptions of us in the wits of that nation, tho' they write in cool thought, and in profe, by way of plain opinion, we are made up of affectation, coquetry, falfhood, difguife, treachery, wantonnefs, and perfidi

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oufnefs.

aufnefs. All our merit is to be lefs guilty one another under one of these heads.

Differtations for the conduct of life are as gr compofed upon these topicks, as if they were a fallible as mathematical truths. It coft me a great of pains to ftudy by what means I fhould refute fcandalous intimations againft my very nature. the more I reflected upon thofe abufes, I grew th concerned to anfwer them, and finally refolved this.

They are perhaps in the right who fpake this of women; and it is the bufinefs of ingenious debau men, who regard us only as fuch, to give us thofe of ourselves, that we may become their more eafy pre

I believe it, therefore, the fafeft and fureft me of gainfaying fuch light accounts of our fex to t them a truth, 'till I had arrived, by the perufal of folid authors, to a conftancy of mind and fettled nion of perfons and things, which should place above being pleafed or diffatisfied with praife or praife, upon account of beauty or deformity, or other advantages or difadvantages, but what flowed the habits and difpofitions of my foul.

I refolve, therefore, to confine my little ftu which are to lead to the conduct of my life, to writings of the most eminent of our divines; and thence, as I have heard young ftudents do in the f of a science, make for my own private ufe a comm place, that may direct me in all the relations of that do now, or poffibly may, concern me as a

man

EMPLO

EMPLOYMENT.

DLENESS is not only the road to all fin, but is a dmanable fin itself, quite oppofite to the great ends of the Creator, both in our creation and redemption. Can we imagine that God who made nothing. but for fome excellent end, fhould make man for no end at all, or for a veryfilly one? The foul is a lively active principle, and for what was reafon given us, but to enable us to do good? This is the trueft and most natural pleasure of a rational foul, which would always be in action, and should always have virtue for its object. Does it confift with infinite wifdom to endow us with fo noble qualities, that we might trifle them away in vanity and impertinence? And if we confider the vice of idleness, with refpect to our redemption; did not our Redeemer, give himself for us, to purify to himfelf a peculiar people, zealous of good works? how can an unactive ufelefs life anfwer the expectation of our Saviour? Where will that zeal appear in idleness? how dull and impure will be its flame? What is more bufy”, than the mind of a wicked man? How is it in the purfuits of pleasure? How patient under difficulties ? How infenfible of pain? And fhall we not be as active, as lively, in the purfuits of virtue? A barren life is a miferable return to the facrifice of the fruitful blood of Chrift. It difappoints all the purposes of his word, which every where condemns the fin of idle- .

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