But better Judges scorn this idle Dream,
And ftill fhall Beauty hold its due Efteem,

(Call.

Man ftill fall praise,and Woman be the Theme. Sewell.
Ye Gallic Matrons, if ye fcorn to know

The Pleasures which from polifh'd Letters flow:
If you delight not to inform your Soul,
At least preferve your Body chaft and whole;
Whether the Loom for your Employment chufe,
Or else the Distaff, or the Needle ufe,
Let Virtue be the Bus'nefs of your Life,
And take Example by a Sabine Wife.

Who is not fhock'd to fee the beauteous Fair,
With Looks obfcene, and meretricious Air?
Lais and Flora modest Swains defpife,

Their wanton Words,loose Smiles,and swimming Eyes,
And all the Tricks by which loofe Nymphs difgrace
The chafter Honours of the Female Race.

By no fuch Charms did Psyche from above
Allure and captivate the God of Love:
By graceful Innocence alone the won
The melting Heart of Cytherea's Son :
A Beam from her Etherial Virtue came,
And lighted up the pure, the Virgin-Flame.
Nature, who gave, 'till fhe could give no more,
On Woman lavith'd all her precious Store,
Who now courts folid and substantial Praise,
Nor values Beauty, wedded to a Face.
Her Mind peculiar Ornaments defires,
And Virtues proper to her Sex requires.
And fince my tuneful Sifters all delight
In comely Forms, obliging to the Sight:
Since we alone can tell what fofter Art
Suits with the Genius of a Virgin's Heart,
I leave the learned Mountains to difclofe
What well. Thy lov'd CALLIOPE A knows.
Be Thou attentive, while I deigne to shine
On thy fmooth Page, and brighten ev'ry Line,
(Rowe's Call.

'Tis true, that MAN is more fublime and bold,
But WOMA N's figur'd of a finer Mold.
Hence the foft Nature of her plyant Clay
Will all Impreffions take, all Forms obey.
Who then excludes the Virgin as unfit
For the high Arts and Myfteries of Wit?
Or why should bafe, invidious Man deny
The Search of Truth to their discerning Eye ?
Why, when ingenic Reafon fhoots her Ray
To light us all, are they forbid the Day?
Why fhould th' implanted Energy of Mind
Grow faint, and flacken in the Female Kind?
Impartial Jove forbids fo great a Crime,
Nor was Apollo only born to climb
Aonian Hills; when to inhabit there,
The Muses, ever Tuneful, ever Fair.
Tritonian PALLAS does her gis wield,
Nor will to PHOEBUS or GRADIVUS yield,
But rules in Athens, and commands the Field.
Thou'rt 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.

}

(Otw. Don. Carl. Oh Virtue! Virtue! what art thou become, That Men fhould leave thee for that Toy a Woman! Made from the Drofs and Refufe of a Man: Heav'n took him fleeping when he made her too; Had Man been waking he had ne'er confented.

(Dryd. Span. Fry. Out of my Sight, thou Serpent, that Name beft Befits thee, with him leagu'd, thy felf as false, And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy Shape,

455 Like his, and Colour ferpentine, may shew Thy inward Fraud, to warn all Creatures from thee. Thy All is but a Show,

Milt.

Rather than folid Virtue; all but a Rib,
Crooked by Nature. Oh why did God,
Creator wife, that peopled highest Heav'n
With Spirits mafculine, 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 generate Mankind?
Ah Traitrefs! Ah ingrate! Ah faithless Mind!
Ah Sex invented first to damn Mankind!
Nature took care to dress you up for Sin;
Adorn'd withour, unfinish'd left within :
Hence by no Judgment you your Love direct;
Talk much, ne'er think, and ftill the Wrong affect.
So much Self-love in your Compofure's mix'd,
That Love to others ftill remains unfix'd.

Greatnefs, and Noife, and Shew, 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. Dryd. Auren.
Intolerable Vanity! your Sex

Was never in the Right: you're always false
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 fo free;
Now Imile, then frown; now forrowful, then glad ;
Now pleas'd, now not; and all you know not why.
Virtue you affect; Inconftancy's your Practice;
;
And when your loofe Defires once get Dominion,..
No hungry Churl feeds courfer at a Feast :
Ev'ry rank Fool goes down.

Otw. Orph

The Sex was firft in Mock'ry of us made; They are the falfe, deceitful Glaffes, where We gaze, and drefs our felves to all the Shapes:

of

Of Folly. What is it Woman cannot do ?

She'll make a Statesman quite forget his Cunning, And truft his dearest Secrets to her Breaft,

Where Fops have daily Entrance

Make a Priest,

Forgetting the Hypocrify of's Office,

Dance and fhew Tricks,to prove his Strength and Brawn.
Make a Projector quibble; an old Judge

Put on falfe Hair and paint: And, after all,
Tho' fhe be known the lewdeft of her Sex,

She'll make fome Fool or other think she's honeft.

(Otw. C. Marius.

Henceforth not name a Woman?

'Tis Treafon to my Ear. They are

The Bane of Empire, and the Rot of Pow'r!
The Caufe of all our Mifchiefs, Murders, Maffacres !
What Seas of Blood they've spilt in former Ages ?
Woman, that dooms us all to one sure Grave,
And fafter damns than Providence can fave.

(Lee's Conftant.

Dryd. Juv.

Each Inconvenience makes their Virtue cold,
But Womankind in Ills is ever bold.
Oh Woman, Woman, Woman! All the Gods
Have not fuch Pow'r of doing Good to Men,
As you of doing Harm!

Dryd. All for Love,
I'd leave the World for him that hares a Woman!
Woman, the Fountain of all human Frailty?
What mighty Ills have not been done by Woman ?
Who was't betray'd the Capitol ?' a Woman!
Who was the Cause of a long ten Years War,
And laid at last old Troy in Afhės ? a Woman!
Who loft Mark Anthony the World? a Woman!
Destructive, damnable, deceitful Woman!
Woman, to Man first as a Bleffing given,
When Innocence and Love were in their Prims;
Happy awhile in Paradife they lay,

2

But quickly Woman long'd to go aftray:
Some foolish new Adventure needs must prove,
And the first Devil fhe faw, the chang'd her Love.

To

To his Temptations lewdly fhe inclin'd

Her Soul, and for an Apple damn'd Mankind.
(Otw. Orph.
Oh Woman! lovely Woman! Nature made you
To temper Man: we had been Brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair to look like you.
There's in you all that we believe of Heav'n;
Amazing Brightnefs, Purity, and Truth,
Eternal Joy, and everlasting Love.

Otw. Ven. Pref.

Under how hard a Fate are Women born!
Priz'd to their Ruin, or expos'd to Scorn.
If we want Beauty we of Love despair,
And are befieg'd like Frontier Towns, if Fair.
Women are govern'd by a stubborn Fate;
Their Love's infuperable as their Hate;
No Merit their Averfion can remove,
No ill Requital can efface their Love.

Wall.

Unhappy Sex! whofe Beauty is your Snare; Expos'd to Tryals, made too frail to bear. Dryd. Auren. For I who made them, know their inward State : No Woman, once well pleas'd, can throughly hate : I gave 'em Beauty to fubdue the Strong; A mighty Empire! but it lafts not long : I gave 'em Pride to make Mankind their Slave, But, in Exchange, to Men I Flatt'ry gave. Th' offending Lover, when he loweft lyes, Submits to conquer, and but kneels to rife.

Forbidding me to follow, fhe invites me: This is the Mould of which I made the Sex ; I gave them but one Tongue to fay us Nay, And two kind Eyes to grant.

Dryd. Amphit. [Spoken by Jupiter. Why was I made with all my Sex's Softnefs, Yet want the Cunning to conceal its Follies. I'll fee Caftalio; tax him with his Falfhood ; Be a true Woman, rail, proteft my Wrongs, Refolve to hate him, and yet love him ftill. Otw. Orph.

VOL. II.

X