were there but one sex. Had our species no females in it, men would be quite different creatures from what they are at present: their endeavours to please the opposite sex polishes and refines them out of those manners which are most natural to them, and often sets them upon modelling themselves, not according to the plans which they approve in their own opinions, but according to those plans which they think are most agreeable to the female world. In a word, man would not only be an unhappy, but a rude unfinished creature, were he conversant with none but those of his own make.

to time, and supplied with their respective subjects.

These two states were engaged together in a perpetual league, offensive and defensive; so that if any foreign potentate offered to attack either of them, both of the sexes fell upon him at once, and quickly brought him to reason. It was remarkable that for many ages this agreement continued inviolable between the two states, notwithstanding, as was said before, they were husbands and wives; but this will not appear so wonderful, if we consider that they did not live together above a week in a year.

In the account which my author gives of the male republic, there were several customs very remarkable. The men never shaved their beards, or paired their nails, above once in a twelvemonth, which was probably about the time of the great annual meeting upon their frontiers. I find the name of a minister of state in one part of their history, who was fined for appearing too frequently in clean linen; and of a certain great general, who was turned out of his post for effeminacy, it having been proved upon him by several credible witnesses that he washed his face every morn- | ing. If any member of the commonwealth had a soft voice, a smooth face, or a supple

Women, on the other side, are apt to form themselves in every thing with regard to that other half of reasonable creatures with whom they are here blended and confused: their thoughts are ever turned upon appearing amiable to the other sex; they talk, and move, and smile, with a design upon us; every feature of their faces, every part of their dress, is filled with snares and allurements. There would be no such animals as prudes or coquettes in the world, were there not such an animal as man. In short, it is the male that gives charms to woman-kind, that produces an air in their faces, a grace in their motions, a softness in their voices, and a deli-behaviour, he was banished into the comcacy in their complexions.

As this mutual regard between the two sexes tends to the improvement of each of them, we may observe that men are apt to degenerate into rough and brutal natures who live as if there were no such things as women in the world; as, on the contrary, women who have an indifference or aversion for their counterparts in human nature are generally sour and unamiable, sluttish and censorious.

monwealth of females, where he was treated as a slave, dressed in petticoats, and set a spinning. They had no titles of honour among them, but such as denoted some bodily strength or perfection, as such-a-one the tall,' such-a-one 'the stocky,' such-aone 'the gruff.' Their public debates were generally managed with kicks and cuffs, insomuch that they often came from the council-table with broken shins, black eyes, and bloody noses. When they would reI am led into this train of thoughts by a proach a man in the most bitter terms, little manuscript which is lately fallen into they would tell him his teeth were white, my hands, and which I shall communicate or that he had a fair skin and a soft hand. to the reader, as I have done some other The greatest man I meet with in their hiscurious pieces of the same nature without tory, who was one who could lift five huntroubling him with any inquiries about the dred weight, and wore such a prodigious author of it. It contains a summary ac-pair of whiskers as had never been seen in count of two different states which bordered the commonwealth before his time. These upon one another. The one was a common-accomplishments, it seems, had rendered wealth of Amazons, or women without him so popular, that if he had not died very men; the other was a republic of males, seasonably, it is thought he might have enthat had not a woman in the whole com-slaved the republic. Having made this munity. As these two states bordered upon short extract out of the history of the male one another, it was their way, it seems, to commonwealth, I shall look into the history meet upon their frontiers at a certain sea- of the neighbouring state, which consisted son of the year, where those among the of females; and if I find any thing in it, will men who had not made their choice in any not fail to communicate it to the public. former meeting, associated themselves with particular women, whom they were afterwards obliged to look upon as their wives in every one of these yearly rencounters. No. 434.] Friday, July 18, 1712,

The children that sprung up from this alliance, if males, were sent to their respective fathers; if females, continued with their mothers. By means of this anniversary carnival, which lasted about a week, the commonwealths were recruited from timel

Quales Threiciæ, cum flumina Thermodoontis
Pulsant, et pictis bellantur Amazones artis:
Seu circum Hyppolyten, seu cum se Martia curru
Penthesilea refert, magnoque ululante tumultu,
Fœminea exultant lunatis agmina peltis:

C.

Virg. x. viii. 660.

So march'd the Thracian Amazons of old,
When Thermodon with bloody billows roll'd:
Such troops as these in shining arms were seen,
When Theseus met in fight their maiden queen.
Such to the field Penthesilea led,

From the fierce virgin when the Grecians fled.
With such return'd triumphant from the war,
Her maids with cries attend the lofty car:
They clash with manly force their moony shields;
With female shouts resound the Phrygian fields.

Dryden.

this single overthrow obliged them to call in the male republic to their assistance; but, notwithstanding their common efforts to repulse the victorious enemy, the war continued for many years before they could entirely bring it to a happy conclusion.

The campaigns which both sexes passed together made them so well acquainted with one another, that at the end of the war they did not care for parting. In the beginning of it they lodged in separate camps, but afterwards, as they grew more familiar, they pitched their tents promiscuously.

could not attend the public affairs as so great an exigency of state required; but this I can give no manner of credit to, since it seems to contradict a fundamental maxim in their government, which I have before mentioned. My author gives the most probable reason of this great disaster; for he affirms that the general was brought to bed, or (as others say) miscarried, the very HAVING carefully perused the manu-night before the battle: however it was, script I mentioned in my yesterday's paper, so far as it relates to the republic of women, I find in it several particulars which may very well deserve the reader's attention. The girls of quality, from six to twelve years old, were put to public schools, where they learned to box and play at cudgles, with several other accomplishments of the same nature: so that nothing was more usual than to see a little miss returning home at night with a broken pate, or two or three teeth knocked out of her head. They were afterwards taught to ride the great horse, to shoot, dart or sling, and listed into several companies, in order to From this time, the armies being checkperfect themselves in military exercises. ered with both sexes, they polished apace. No woman was to be married till she had The men used to invite their fellow soldiers killed her man. The ladies of fashion used into their quarters, and would dress their to play with young lions instead of lap-dogs; tents with flowers and boughs for their reand when they made any parties of diver-ception. If they chanced to like one more sion, instead of entertaining themselves at than another, they would be cutting her ombre and piquet, they would wrestle and name in the table, or chalking out her pitch the bar for a whole afternoon toge-figure upon a wall, or talking of her in a ther. There was never any such thing as kind of rapturous language, which by dea blush seen, or a sigh heard, in the whole grees improved into verse and sonnet. commonwealth. The women never dressed These were as the first rudiments of archibut to look terrible; to which end they would tecture, painting, and poetry, among this sometimes, after a battle, paint their cheeks savage people. After any advantage over with the blood of their enemies. For this the enemy, both sexes used to jump toreason, likewise, the face which had the gether, and make a clattering with their most scars was looked upon as the most swords and shields, for joy, which in a few beautiful. If they found lace, jewels, years produced several regular tunes and ribands, or any ornaments in silver or gold, set dances. among the booty which they had taken, they used to dress their horses with it, but never entertained a thought of wearing it themselves. There were particular rights and privileges allowed to any member of the commonwealth_who was a mother of three daughters. The senate was made up of old women, for by the laws of the country, none was to be a counsellor of state that was not past child-bearing. They used to boast that their republic had contínued four thousand years, which is altogether improbable, unless we may suppose, what I am very apt to think, that they measured their time by lunar years. There was a great revolution brought about in this female republic by means of a neighbouring king, who had made war upon them several years with various success, and at length overthrew them in a very great battle. This defeat they ascribe to several causes: some say that the secretary of state, having been troubled with the vapours, had committed some fatal mistakes in several despatches about that time. Others pretend that the first minister being big with child, VOL. II.

22

As the two armies romped together upon these occasions, the women complained of the thick bushy beards and long nails of their confederates, who thereupon took care to prune themselves into such figures as were most pleasing to their friends and allies.

When they had taken any spoils from the enemy, the men would make a present of every thing that was rich and showy to the women whom they most admired, and would frequently dress the necks, or heads, or arms, of their mistresses, with any thing which they thought appeared gay or pretty. The women observing that the men took delight in looking upon them when they were adorned with such trappings and gewgaws, set their heads at work to find out new inventions and to outshine one another in all councils of war, or the like solemn meetings. On the other hand, the men observing how the women's hearts were set upon finery, begun to embellish themselves, and look as agreeably as they could in the eyes of their associates. In short, after a few years' conversing toge

ther, the women had learned to smile, and a hat and feather, a riding-coat, and a the men to ogle; the women grew soft, and the men lively.

When they had thus insensibly formed one another, upon finishing of the war, which concluded with an entire conquest of their common enemy, the colonels in one army married the colonels in the other; the captains in the same manner took the captains to their wives: the whole body of common soldiers were matched after the example of their leaders. By this means the two republics incorporated with one another, and became the most flourishing and polite government in the part of the world which they inhabited. C.

No. 435.] Saturday, July 19, 1712.
Nec duo sunt, et forma duplex, nec fœmina dici,
Nec puer ut possint, neutrumque et utrumque videntur.
Ovid. Met. iv. 378.

Both bodies in a single body mix,
A single body with a double sex.-Addison.

periwig, or at least tie up their hair in a bag or riband, in imitation of the smart part of the opposite sex. As in my yesterday's paper I gave an account of the mixture of two sexes in one commonwealth, I shall here take notice of this mixture of two sexes in one person. I have already shown my dislike of this immodest custom more than once; but in contempt of every thing I have hitherto said, I am informed that the highways about this great city are still very much infested with these female cavaliers.

I remember when I was at my friend Sir Roger de Coverley's, about this time twelvemonth, an equestrian lady of this order appeared upon the plains which lay at a distance from his house. I was at that time walking in the fields with my old friend; and as his tenants ran out on every side to see so strange a sight, Sir Roger asked one of them, who came by us, what it was? To which the country fellow replied, "Tis a gentlewoman, saving your worship's presence, in a coat and hat.' This produced a great deal of mirth at the knight's house, where we had a story at the same time of another of his tenants, who meeting this gentleman-like lady on the highway, was asked by her whether that was Coverleyhall? The honest man seeing only the male part of the querist, replied, Yes, sir;' but upon the second question, whether Sir Roger de Coverley was a married man? having dropped his eye upon the petticoat, he changed his note into No, madam.'

Had one of these hermaphrodites appeared in Juvenal's days, with what an indignation should we have seen her described by that excellent satirist! he would have represented her in a riding habit as a greater monster than the centaur. He would have called for sacrifices of purifying waters, to expiate the appearance of such a prodigy. He would have invoked the shades of Portia and Lucretia, to see into what the Roman ladies had transform

MOST of the papers I give the public are written on subjects that never vary, but are for ever fixed and immutable. Of this kind are all my more serious essays and discourses; but there is another sort of speculations, which I consider as occasional papers, that take their rise from the folly, extravagance, and caprice of the present age. For I look upon myself as one set to watch the manners and behaviour of my countrymen and contemporaries, and to mark down every_absurd_fashion, ridiculous custom, or affected form of speech, that makes its appearance in the world during the course of my speculations. The petticoat no sooner begun to swell, but I observed its motions. The party-patches had not time to muster themselves before I detected them. I had intelligence of the coloured hood the very first time it appeared in a public assembly. I might here mention several other the like contingent subjects, upon which I have bestowed distinct papers. By this means I have so effec-ed themselves. tually quashed those irregularities which For my own part, I am for treating the gave occasion to them, that I am afraid sex with greater tenderness, and have all posterity will scarce have a sufficient idea along made use of the most gentle methods to of them to relish those discourses which bring them off from any little extravagance were in no little vogue at the time they into which they have sometimes unwarily were written. They will be apt to think fallen. I think it however absolutely necesthat the fashions and customs I attack- sary to keep up the partition between the ed were some fantastic conceits of my two sexes, and to take notice of the smallest own, and that their great grandmothers encroachments which the one makes upon could not be so whimsical as I have represented them. For this reason, when I think on the figure my several volumes of speculations will make about a hundred years hence, I consider them as so many pieces of old plate, where the weight will be regarded, but the fashion lost.

Among the several female extravagances I have already taken notice of, there is one which still keeps its ground. I mean that of the ladies who dress themselves in

the other. I hope therefore I shall not hear any more complaints on this subject. I am sure my she-disciples, who peruse these my daily lectures, have profited but little by them, if they are capable of giving into such an amphibious dress. This should not have mentioned, had I not lately met one of these my female readers in Hyde-park, who looked upon me with a masculine assurance, and cocked her hat full in my face.

BEING a person of insatiable curiosity, I could not forbear going on Wednesday last velled parts abroad, and came last from the to a place of no small renown for the gal-frontier of Portugal, for the love of Elizalantry of the lower order of Britons, to beth Preston, do assert that the said Elizathe Bear-garden, at Hockley in the Hole; beth is the fairest of women. Then the where (as a whitish brown paper, put into my hand in the street, informed me) there was to be a trial of skill exhibited between two masters of the noble science of defence, at two of the clock precisely. I was not a little charmed with the solemnity of the challenge which ran thus:

This would give the battle quite another turn; and a proper station for the ladies, whose complexion was disputed by the sword, would animate the disputants with a more gallant incentive than the expectation of money from the spectators; though I would not have that neglected, but thrown to that fair one whose lover was approved by the donor.

answer; I Timothy Buck, who have staid | if all their lives depended on the first blow. in Great Britain during all the war in The combatants met in the middle of the foreign parts, for the sake of Susannah stage, and shaking hands, as removing all Page, do deny that Elizabeth Preston is so malice, they retired with much grace to fair as the said Susannah Page. Let Susan- the extremities of it; from whence they nah Page look on, and I desire of James immediately faced about, and approached Miller no favour.' each other, Miller with a heart full of resolution, Buck with a watchful untroubled countenance; Buck regarding principally his own defence, Miller chiefly thoughtful of annoying his opponent. It is not easy to describe the many escapes and imperceptible defences between two men of quick eyes and ready limbs; but Miller's heat laid him open to the rebuke of the calm Buck, by a large cut on the forehead. Much Yet, considering the thing wants such effusion of blood covered his eyes in a moamendments, it was carried with great or- ment, and the huzzas of the crowd_under. James Miller came on first, preceded doubtedly quickened the anguish. The by two disabled drummers, to show, I sup- Assembly was divided into parties upon pose, that the prospect of maimed bodies their different ways of fighting; while a did not in the least deter him. There poor nymph in one of the galleries appaascended with the daring Miller a gentle-rently suffered for Miller, and burst into a man, whose name I could not learn, with a flood of tears. As soon as his wound was dogged air, as unsatisfied that he was not wrapped up, he came on again with a little principal. This son of anger lowered at the rage, which still disabled him farther. But whole assembly, and, weighing himself as what brave man can be wounded into more he marched round from side to side, with a patience and caution? The next was a stiff knee and shoulder, he gave intimations warm eager onset, which ended in a deof the purpose he smothered till he saw the cisive stroke on the left leg of Miller. The issue of the encounter. Miller had a blue lady in the gallery, during this second strife, ribbon tied round the sword arm; which covered her face, and for my part I could ornament I conceive to be the remains of not keep my thoughts from being mostly that custom of wearing a mistress's favour employed on the consideration of her unon such occasions of old. happy circumstance that moment, hearing the clashing of swords, and apprehending life or victory concerning her lover in every blow, but not daring to satisfy herself on whom they fell. The wound was exposed to the view of all who could delight in it, and sewed up on the stage. The surly second of Miller declared at this time, that he would that day fortnight fight Mr. Buck at the same weapons, declaring himself the master of the renowned Gorman; but Buck denied him the honour of that courageous disciple, and asserting that he himself had taught that champion, accepted the challenge.

Miller is a man of six foot eight inches height, of a kind but bold aspect, well fashioned, and ready of his limbs; and such readiness as spoke his ease in them was obtained from a habit of motion in military exercise.

The expectation of the spectators was now almost at its height; and the crowd pressing in, several active persons thought they were placed rather according to their fortune than their merit, and took it in their heads to prefer themselves from the open area or pit to the galleries. The dispute between desert and property brought many to the ground, and raised others in propor- There is something in nature very unaction to the highest seats by turns, for the countable on such occasions, when we see space of ten minutes, till Timothy Buck the people take a certain painful gratificacame on, and the whole assembly, giving tion in beholding these encounters. Is it up their disputes, turned their eyes upon cruelty that administers this sort of delight? the champions. Then it was that every or is it a pleasure which is taken in the exman's affection turned to one or the other ercise of pity? It was, methought, pretty irresistibly. A judicious gentleman near remarkable that the business of the day me said, I could, methinks, be Miller's being a trial of skill, the popularity did not second, but I had rather have Buck for run so high as one would have expected on mine.' Miller had an audacious look, that the side of Buck. Is it that people's passions took the eye; Buck, a perfect composure, have their rise in self-love, and thought that engaged the judgment. Buck came on themselves (in spite of all the courage they in a plain coat, and kept all his air till the had) liable to the fate of Miller, but could instant of engaging; at which time he un-not so easily think themselves qualified like dressed to his shirt, his arm adorned with a bandage of red riband. No one can describe the sudden concern in the whole assembly; the most tumultuous crowd in nature was as still and as much engaged as

Buck?

Tully speaks of this custom with less horror than one would expect, though he confesses it was much abused in his time, and seems directly to approve of it under