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Romance might strike our grave forefathers pomp,
But Novels for our buck, and lively romp!
Caffandra's folios now no longer read,
See, two neat pocket volumes in their stead!
And then, so sentimental is the ftyle,
So chafte, yet so bewitching all the while!
Plot and elopement, paffion, rape and rapture,
The total fum of every dear-dear-chapter.
'Tis not alone the small talk and the fmart,
"Tis Novel most beguiles the female heart.
Mifs reads, fhe melts, fhe fighs, love fteals upon her,
And then, alas, poor girl! good night poor honour!

AN ESSAY ON WOMEN.

Those who confider women only as pretty figures, placed here for ornament, have but a very imperfect idea of the sex. They perpetually fay, that women are lovely flowers, defigned to heighten the complexion of nature. This is very true; but at the fame time women should not let themselves be perverted by such trifling discourse, but take care not to be content with thefe fuperficial advantages. There are, too many, who, fatisfied with that partition, feem to have renoun ced any other accomplishment but that of charming the eye. Women have quite another destination, and were created for more noble ends, than that of being a vain fpectacle: their beauties are only heralds of more touching

touching qualities; to reduce all to beauty, is to de grade them, and put them almoft on a level with their pictures. Thofe who are only handfome, may make a pretty figure in an arm chair, or may decorate a drawing-room: they are literally fit to be feen; but to find in their acquaintance all the advantages we have a right to expect, women must have more than beauty.

Among intelligent beings, fociety fhould not be bounded by a cold exhibition of their persons, or a dull converfation of lies and vanity. Whatever doth not tend to make us better, corrupts us; but if women, who are the ornaments of fociety, would ftrive to join juftnefs of thought, and uprightness of heart, to the graces of the body, the taste we have for them would unfold excellent qualities in us: let them then raise their fouls to noble objects, and they will ripen the feeds of every virtue in men.

The empire which women owe to beauty, was only given them for the general good of all the human fpecies. Men, destined to great actions, have a certain fierceness, which only women can correct; there is in their manners, more than their features, a sweetness capable of bending that natural ferocity, which, unattempered, would foon degenerate into brutality.

We may well fay, that if we were deftitute of women, we fhould all be different from what we are. Our endeavours to be agreeable to them, polish and foften that rough fevere ftrain fo natural to us; their cheerfulness is a counter balance to our rough, austere humours.

humours.

In a word, if men did not converfe with women, they would be lefs perfect, and lefs happy than they are.

That man who is infenfible to the fweetness of female converfation, is rarely the friend to mankind: fuch cherish an insensibility, which renders even their virtues dangerous.

If men require the tender application of women to render them more tractable, those, on the other hand, equally want the converfation of men, to awaken their vivacity, and draw them from a negligence, into which, if they were not ftimulated by a defire of pleafing, they would certainly fall. That defire produces the allurements of the face, the grace of air, and the sweetness of voice for whether they speak, move, or fmile, they think of rendering themselves agreeable. Whence we may conclude, that it is the men who, in fome degree, give charms to the women; who, without them, would fall into a four, or indolent temper. Befides, female minds, overwhelmed with trifles, would languish in ignorance, if men, recalling them to more elevated objects, did not communicate dignity and vigour.

'Tis thus, that the two fexes ought to be perfected by one another. The manly courage of the one is tempered by the foftness of the other, which, in its turn, borrows from the fame courage, The one acquires, in women's company, a milder tincture, while the other lofe their female levity. Their different qualities balance each other; and it is from that mixture, that that happy accord arifes, which renders them both more accomplished.

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The variety of minds, may be compared to that of voices, which would rather form an agreeable concert, than a grating difcord. If men are of a ftronger frame, it is the more effectually to contribute to the happiness of thofe who are more delicate; one fex was not defigned to be the oppreffor of the other; the intimate connection between them is for general advantage, and those ridiculous debates of fuperiority, are an infult to nature, and an ingratitude for her benefits.

We are born women's friends, not their rivals, much lefs their tyrants; and that ftrength which was given us for their defence, is abused, when thereby we enflave them; and to banish from fociety its sweetest charm, that part of the human fpecies which is most proper to animate it, would render it quite infipid.

The truth of this, hath been proved by the people of the Eaft, who, joining together a sense of their own weakness and a brutal paffion, have regarded women as dangerous companions, against whom they must be on their guard: therefore they have enflaved that fex to avoid being enflaved by them, and have thought too much love gave them a title to mifufe them: but these tyrannic masters have been the first victims of their tyrannic jealousy. Devoted to alonely, melancholylife, they have fought for tender fenfations in vain, amidst their fair flaves. Senfibility, with the delicacy, ever its companion, are only to be found in the reign of freedom, fince they both neceffarily fhyn a fociety, void of those fprings whence they might grow.

LITERARY MISCELANY.

AN

AN ESSAY ON THE STUDIES PROPER FOR WOMEN.

To prohibit women entirely from learning, is treating them with the fame indignity that Mahomet did, who denied them fouls; indeed the greatest part of women act as if they had really adopted a tenet fo inju rious to the sex.

When we confider the happy talents which women in general poffefs, and how fuccefsfully fome have cultivated them, we cannot without indignation obferve the little esteem they have for the endowments of their minds, which it is fo eafy for them to improve. They are, as Montaigne fays, " flowers of quick growth, and by the delicacy of their conception, catch readily and without trouble, the relation of things to each other."

The charms of their perfons, how powerful foever, may attract, but cannot fix us; fomething more than beauty is neceffary to rivet the lover's chain. By often beholding a beautiful face, the impreffion it firft made foon wears away. When the woman whose perfon we admire is incapable of pleasing us by her conversation, languor and fatiety foon triumph over the relish we had for her charms: hence arifes the inconftancy with which men are so often reproached; that barrenness of

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