for fo doing; fince by our attempting things of this nature, we do, in truth, but depart from our proper character; for, however fome female geniufes may fondly indulge their imaginations in the flattering hope of becoming immortal by their elaborate compofitions, I am fatiffied that literary fame, at least, will have nothing to do with us: nor will even the fuccefs which Sapho, Madam Dacier, Mrs. Rowe, and perhaps a few others, defervedly indeed obtained, by any means amount to the confirmation of a precedent, ftrong enough to deftroy the force of this affertion; or be able to make an adequate atonement, either to the public, for having frequently obtruded upon it fo much execrable nonfenfe and impertinence, or to the fex in general, for the fcandal of having fo wretchedly employ'd their time. The virtues of the women are, by themfelves, too frequently thought difficult, if not difagreeable, only because they are obfcure; and their due cultivation is confequently too often remifly attended to, merely because they think they have no helps, no fanction from public glory, to practise them to love retirement, to attend affiduoufly to the conduct of domeftic affairs, to be fimple, juft, and modeft, are are female virtues which confeffedly ftand very high in the lifts of good report; yet furely not quite high enough to demand the honour of a ftatue; for which reafon they are treated as objects of no fmall contempt by all who would judiciously emulate the character of what is called a nymph of fpirit; who to the conscious fatisfacton of preferving upon all occafions an uniform decency of conduct, prefers the wild, the mistaken glory of attempting things, that are either far beyond the conftitution of her powers, or fuch at least as betray a moft barefaced impropriety in the very fuccefs of them. The great and thining virtues were, without all doubt, originally defign'd for the atchievement of the men; and although it may appear to be a fort of contradiction, yet certain it is, that a very confiderable part of a woman's true merit confifts in her being unknown, except amidst the circle of her own immediate connections; for too familiar an intercourfe with the World feldom fails to deftroy that timid foftnefs, that delicacy of female chaftity, that is the chief ornament, the charm, the true characteristick of the fex; and I believe it is pretty generally experienced, that the tranfient pleasure, or the glory, if B 2 fuch fuch it can be juftly called, which results from exhibiting, (I had like to have faid, from proftituting) that invaluable ornament to the public, makes in fact but a wretched compenfation for the loss of it; the nipping blafts of a north-eaft wind being not more fatally fevere to the tender bloffom, than is the rude, the fullying breath of promifcuous admiration to a woman's fame: a very ingenious gentleman, who is certainly an exquifite judge of female merit, has already affured us that Our faireft virtues fly from public fight, Domestic worth, that fhuns too ftrong a light. I look upon it as an unpardonable weakness, in the character of a good woman, to defire to be much known and diftinguifhed; and I have frequently remark'd that thofe ladies generally deferve moft praife, who are fcarcely ever talked of at all; the human heart indeed is too apt to rest upon public approbation, tho' true glory moft certainly confifts in being satisfied without it; as it ought not to enter too violently into the motives of our actions, fo neither ought we to be anxious that it fhould become the certain recompence of them; the confcious fatisfaction of acting with rec titude, titude, of performing what is our duty, being in this cafe amply fufficient. It will then, perhaps, be ask'd, why I prefume, in contradiction to my own doctrine, to enter the lifts, as a candidate for fame? To which I at once very. honeftly reply, by abfolutely difclaiming any fuch pretenfion; for I rejoice in the happy fecurity of being totally unknown; and fuch, I confefs, is my fenfibility, that the moft exquifite pang a poct ever felt from a favourite work's being damn'd on the first night, would be but trifling in comparison with mine, was I known to be the author of what had even merited and received the ftamp of general approbation: but fuppofe I fhould not be able to offer a better reafon, I have ftill too good an opinion of the gentlemen, not to hope, that they would be merciful enough to pardon in me the effects of that impulfe which is fo predominant in all my fex, I mean a ftrong defire of being in the fashion, let that be what it will; for fuch indeed I cannot help thinking it, fince we are doom'd to endure that prodigious number of books of amufement, as they are modeftly call'd, that have for fome years laft paft appeared in the world; altho' I believe it will readily be granted, B 3 that that the agreeable circumftance of amufement had originally no greater a share in the motive of their compofition, than it has afforded to moft of their deluded readers in the perufal; and therefore if I am allowed to judge from the several fubjects, the manner of treating them, and the ftile, I cannot help concluding that most of them muft have been wrote by women: I had like to have faid, by old women, but that indeed would have been wounding myself a little too deeply. I do not peremptorily take upon me to pronounce that this is the age of wifdom, because I am apprehenfive that it might be rather difficult to maintain clearly the defence of fuch a pofition; but most certainly it is the age of writing; and forry I am to fay, that it is fill lefs fo for thofe who have genius, than for thofe who have none: but in fhort, the best reason, because it is the trueft which I can give, for increafing this induftrious number, is this; that it happens to be the opinion of those few, upon whofe judgment and fincerity I have the greatest reliance, that there are fome incidents in my life, and more particularly fill in the lives of fome of my moft intimate friends and relations, which, if made public, might poffibly con |