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 Stars that with him fell.
Weep on! a Stock 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 Spirits mafculine, create at laft
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 generate
Mankind?--

And a third,

Milton.

Ab Traitrefs! Ab ingrate! Ab faithless Mind!
Ab Sex, invented first to damn Mankind!
Nature took care to drefs you up for Sin;
Adorn'd without, unfinish'd left within:
Hence by no Judgment you your Love direct;
Talk much, ne'er think, and fill the Wrong affe&t.
So much Self-love in your Compofure's mix'd,
That Love to others fill remains unfix'd;
Greatness, and Noife, and Shew are your Delight,
Yet wife Men love you in their own despight:
And, finding in their native Wit no Eafe,
Are forc'd to put your Folly on to please.

Dryden's Aurengzebe.

I fhall

I fhall conclude poetical Testimonies 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
Fantaftick than your Appetites: You think
Of nothing twice: Opinion you have none :
To-day you're nice, to-morrow not so free;
Now fmile, then frown, now forrowful, then glal,
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 Feaft:

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 easily and juftly answered, That if the Author had right Sentiments 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 so 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 Reason; 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 still worfe in proportion to the greater Warmth 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.

oufnefs. All our Merit is to be lefs guilty one than another under one of thefe Heads.

Differtations for the Conduct of Life are as gravely compofed upon thefe Topicks, as if they were as infallible as mathematical Truths. It coft me a great deal of Pains to study by what Means I fhould refute fuch fcandalous Intimations against my very Nature. But the more I reflected upon thofe Abuses, I grew the less concern'd to answer them, and finally refolved upon this.

They are perhaps in the right who fpeak this of mere Women; and it is the Bufinefs of ingenious debauch'd Men, who regard us only as fuch, to give us those Ideas of ourselves, that we may become their more eafy Prey.

I believed it, therefore, the safest and surest Method of gainfaying fuch light Accounts of our Sex to think them a Truth, 'till I had arrived, by the perufal of more folid Authors, to a Conftancy of Mind and fettled Opinion of Perfons and Things, which should place me above being pleafed or diffatisfy'd with Praife or Difpraife, upon account of Beauty or Deformity, or any other Advantages or Difadvantages, but what flowed from the Habits and Difpofitions of my Soul.

I refolve, therefore, to confine my little Studies, which are to lead to the Conduct of my Life, to the Writings of the most eminent of our Divines; and from thence, as I have heard young Students do in the study of a Science, make for my own private Use a CommonPlace, that may direct me in all the Relations of Life, that do now, or poffibly may, concern me as a Wo

man.

EMPLOY

EMPLOYMENT.

DLENESS is not only the Road to all Sin, but is a damnable Sin 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 very filly one? The Soul is a lively active Principle, and for what was Reason given us, but to enable us to do good? This is the trueft and most natural Pleasure of a rational Soul, which would always be in Action, and fhould always have Virtue for its Object. Does it confist with infinite Wisdom to endow us with so noble Qualities, that we might trifle them away in Vanity and Impertinence? And if we confider the Vice of Idlenefs, with respect 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 useless Life answer the Expectation of our Saviour? Where will that Zeal appear in Idlenefs? 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 miserable Return to the Sacrifice of the fruitful Blood of Chrift. It disappoints all the Purposes of his Word, which every where condemns the Sin of Idle

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nefs:

nefs: It was one of those, and not the leaft, that drew down the Wrath of Heaven on Sodom in a Shower of Fire. To what does the barren Fig-tree allude, but to the Deftruction and Damnation of the Lazy and Idle? Why perish'd the unprofitable Servant, but because he had not improv'd his Talent? Many are the Declarations in Scripture against the Sluggish and Disorderly. The Son of God was an Example of active Virtue as well as Innocence, and did not only refrain from doing Evil, but he went about doing Good. We are not only forbidden the Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit, we are commanded the perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God; when we are prohibited to do Evil, we are at the fame time enjoin'd to learn to do well. Can the Imagination of Man form a ftronger Image of a Life of Action, than by comparing it to a Race? And how can he hope to Enifh his Courfe with Glory, that lags and preffes not forward to obtain the Prize? There is not one Chriftian Virtue to which the Vice of Idleness is not entirely contrary; Faith, Hope, Charity, Fear, Vigilance, and Mortification, are inconfiftent with it; and the Confequence is, that it must be a damning Sin. All those Virtues animate and invigorate the Mind; whereas Idlenefs enfeebles and fetters it. Pure, ftrict, and severe are thofe Principles, Idleness is foft and indulgent; they raise and exalt the Soul, this debafes and depreffes it. And tho' it has great Pretences to Innocence and Merit, its Beginning is in Sin, and its End in Infamy and Perdition. Stupidity, Ignorance, Levity and Senfuality, are its Companions, and harmless and fimple as it appears, 'tis of all Vices the most pernicious and dangerous.

There is hardly a Sin that can be charg'd with fo many tragical Effects as Idleness. It is the Mother of Difgrace and Poverty; yet it deceives itfelf with a vain Conceit of Innocence, and is fo foolish as to hope that it may be happy without labouring, or even defiring to be fo. But granting it were as inoffenfive as it would seem to be, that it is negatively good; let us confider

the