Mr. Dryden, who knew Human Nature, perhaps, as well as any Man who ever ftudied it, has given us a juft Picture of the Force of female Charms, in the Story of Cymon and Iphigenia. Boccace, from whom he took it, had adorned it with all the tinfel Finery an Italian Compofition is capable of. The English Poet, like moft English Travellers, gave Sterling Silver in Exchange for that fuperficial Gilding; and bestowed a Moral where he found a Tale. He paints, in Cymon, a Soul buried in a Confufion of Ideas, informed with fo little Fire, as fcarce to ftruggle under the Load, or afford any Glimmerings of Senfe. In this Condition he represents him ftruck with the Rays of Iphigenia's Beauty: Kindled by them, his Mind exerts its Powers, his intellectual Faculties feem to awake; and that uncouth Ferocity of Manners, by which he had hitherto been diftinguished, gave way to an obliging Behaviour, the natural Effect of Love! The Moral of this Fable is a Truth which can never be inculcated too much. It is to the Fair Sex we owe the moft fhining Qualities of which ours is Master: As the Ancients infinuated, with their usual Addrefs, by painting both the Virtues and Graces as Females. Men of true Tafte feel a natural Complaifance for Women when they converfe with them, and fall, without knowing it, upon every Art of pleafing; which is the Difpofition at once the most grateful to others, and the moft fatisfactory to our felves. An intimate acquaintance with the other Sex I fixes fixes this Complacence into a Habit, and that Habit is the very Effence of Politeness. Nay, I prefume to fay, Politeness can be no other way attained. Books may furnish us with right Ideas, Experience may improve our Judgments; but it is the Acquaintance of the Ladies only, which can bestow that Eafinefs of Addrefs, whereby the fine Gentleman is diftinguished from the Scholar, and the Man of Bufinefs. That my Readers may be perfectly satisfied in a Point, which I think of fo great Importance, let us examine this a little more ftrictly. There is a certain conftitutional Pride in Men, which hinders their yielding, in point of Knowledge, Honour, or Virtue, to one another. This immediately forfakes us at the Sight of Woman. And the being accustomed to fubmit to the Ladies, gives a new turn to our Ideas, and opens a Path to Reason, which she had not trod before. Things appear in another Light; and that Degree of Complacency seems now a Virtue, which heretofore we regarded as a Meannefs. I have dwelt the longer on the Charms of the Sex, arifing from the Perfection vifible in their exterior Compofition; because there is the strongest Analogy between them, and the Excellencies which, from a nicer Enquiry, we discover in the Minds of the Fair. As they are diftinguished from the robust Make of Man 4 Man by that Delicacy, expreffed by Nature, in their Form; fo the Severity of masculine Senfe is foftened by a Sweetness peculiar to the female Soul. A native Capacity of pleafing attends them through every Circumftance of Life; and what we improperly call the Weakness of the Sex, gives them a Superiority unattainable by Force. The Fable of the North-wind and the Sun contending to make the Man throw off his Cloak, is not an improper Picture of the fpecific Difference between the Powers of either Sex. The bluftering Fierceness of the former, inftead of producing the Effect at which it aimed, made the Fellow but wrap himself up the clofer; yet no fooner did the Sunbeams play, than that which before protected became now an Incumbrance. Juft fo, that Pride which makes us tenacious in Difputes between Man and Man, when applied to the Ladies, inspires us with an Eagerness not to contend, but to obey. To fpeak fincerely and philofophically, Women feem defigned by Providence to spread the fame Splendour and Chearfulness through the intellectual Economy, that the celeftial Bodies diffuse over the material Part of the Creation. Without them, we might indeed contend, deftroy, and triumph over one another. Fraud and Force would divide the World between them; and we fhould pafs our Lives, like Slaves, in continual Toil, without the Profpect of Pleasure or Relaxation. It It is the Converfation of Women that gives a proper Bias to our Inclinations, and, by abating the Ferocity of our Paffions, engages us to that Gentleness of Deportment, which we ftyle Humanity. The Tenderness we have for them, foftens the Ruggedness of our own Nature; and the Virtues we put on to make the better Figure in their Eyes, keep us in Humour with ourselves. I speak it without Affectation or Vanity, that no Man has applied more affiduously than myself to the Study of the Fair Sex; and I aver it with the greatest Simplicity of Heart, that I have not only found the moft engaging and most amiable, but also the most generous and most heroic Qualities amongst the Ladies; and that I have difcovered more of Candour, Difinterestedness, and Fervour in their Friendships, than in those of our own Sex, though I have been very careful, and particularly happy in the Choice of my Acquaintance. My Readers will, I dare fay, observe, and indeed I defire they should, a more than ordinary Zeal for inculcating a high Efteem of, and a fincere Attachment to, the Fair. What I propofe from it is, to rectify certain Notions, which are not only deftructive of all Politeness, but, at the fame Time, detrimental to Society, and incompatible with the Dignity of Human Nature. These have, of late Years, fpread much amongst those who affume to themselves the Title of fine Gentlemen; and, in Confequence thereof, thereof, talk with great Freedom of those from whom they are in no Danger of being called to an Account. There is fo much of Bafenefs, Cowardice, and Contempt of Truth in this Way of treating those who are alone capable of making us truly and rationally happy, that, to confider the Crime, must be fufficient to make a reasonable Man abhor it. Levity is the best Excufe for a tranfient Slip of this Kind; but to persist in it is evidently defcending from our own Species, and, as far as we are able, putting on the Brute. Fram'd to give Joy, the lovely Sex are seen; I choose to put an End to my Lecture on Politenefs here, because, having spoke of the Ladies, I would not defcend again to any other Subject. In the Current of my Difcourfe, I have taken Pains to fhew the Ufe and Amiablenefs of that Art which this Treatife was written to recommend; and have drawn, in as ftrong Colours as I was able, thofe Solecifins in Behaviour, which Men, either through Giddiness, or a wrong Turn of Thought, are most likely to commit, VOL. I. T perhaps |