apartments, where he found Vice and Folly well received before him. He joined the train; recommended himself very quickly to his landlord; and entered into fuch familiarity with Vice, that he was inlifted in the fame company with Folly. They were frequent guefts to Wealth, and from that moment infeparable. Diffidence, in the meantime, not daring to approach the great houfe, accepted of an invitation from Poverty, one of the tenants; and entering the cottage, found Wisdom and Virtue, who being repulfed by the landlord, had retired thither. Virtue took compaffion of her, and Wifdoin found, from her temper, that she would eafily improve: fo they admitted her into their fociety. Accordingly, by their means, fhe altered in a little time fomewhat of her manner, and becoming much more amiable and engaging, was now known by the name of Modesty. As ill company has a greater effect than good, Confidence, though more refractory to counsel and example, degenerated fo far by the fociety of Vice and Folly, as to pafs by the name of IMPUDENCE. Mankind, who faw thefe focieties as Jupiter first joined them, and know nothing of thefe mutual defertions, are thereby led into strange mistakes; and, wherever they fee Impudence, make account of finding Virtue and Wisdom; and whereever they obferve Modefty, call her attendants Vice and Folly,

ESSAY

No. I.

ESSAY II.

OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE.

I KNOW not whence it proceeds, that women are fo apt to take amifs every thing which is faid in difparagement of the married state; and always confider a fatire upon matrimony as a fatire upon themfelves. Do they mean, that they are the parties principally concerned, and that if a backwardness to enter into that ftate fhould prevail in the world, they would be the greatest sufferers? or, are they fenfible, that the misfortunes and miscarriages of the married state are owing more to their sex than to ours? I hope they do not intend to confefs either of these two particulars, or to give such an advantage to their adversaries the men, as even to allow them to fufpect it.

"I have often had thoughts of complying with this humour of the fair fex, and of writing a panegyric upon marriage; but in looking around for materials they feemed to be of so mixed a nature, that at the conclufion of my reflections, I found that I was as much difpofed to write a fatire, which might be placed on the oppofite pages of the panegyric; and I am afraid, that as fatire is, on moft occafions,

Bb 4

cafions, more read than panegyric, I fhould have done their cause more harm than good by this expedient. To mifrepresent facts is what, I know, they will not require of me. I must be more a friend to truth, than even to them, where their interests are opposite.

I fhall tell the women what it is our fex complains of most in the married state; and if they be disposed to fatisfy us in this particular, all the other differences will easily be accommodated. If I be not mistaken, 'tis their love of dominion which is the ground of the quarrel; though it is very likely, that they will think it an unreasonable love of it in us, which makes us infist so much upon that point. However this may be, no paffion feems to have more influence on female minds than this for power: and there is a remarkable instance in history of its prevailing above another paffion, which is the only one that can be fuppofed a proper counterpoife for it. We are told, that all the women in Scythia once confpired against the men, and kept the fecret fo well that they executed their defign before they were fufpected. They furprised the men in drink, or afleep; bound them all fast in chains; and having called a folemn council of the whole fex, it was debated what expedient fhould be used to improve the prefent advantage, and prevent their falling again into flavery. To kill all the men did not feem to be the relifh of any part of the affembly, notwithstanding the injuries formerly received; and they were afterwards pleased to make a great merit

of

of this lenity of theirs. It was, therefore, agreed to put out the eyes of the whole male fex, and thereby refign in all future time the vanity which they could draw from their beauty, in order to secure their authority. We must no longer pretend to dress and fhow, faid they; but then we shall be free from flavery. We fhall hear no more tender fighs, but in return we shall hear no more imperious commands. Love muft for ever leave us; but he will carry fubjection along with him.

It is regarded by fome as an unlucky circumftance, fince the women were refolved to maim the men, and deprive them of some of their fenses, in order to render them humble and dependent, that the fenfe of hearing could not ferve their purpose, fince it is probable the females would rather have attacked that than the fight; and, I think, it is agreed among the learned, that, in a married state, it is not near fo great an inconvenience to lose the former fenfe as the latter. However this may be, we are told by modern anecdotes, that fome of the Scythian women did fecretly fpare their husbands' eyes; prefuming, I fuppofe, that they could govern them as well by means of that fenfe as without it. But fo incorrigible and untractable were these men, that their wives were all obliged, in a few years, as their youth and beauty decayed, to imitate the example of their fifters; which it was no difficult matter to do in a state where the female fex had once got the fuperiority.

I know not if our Scottish ladies derive any thing of this humour from their Scythian ancestors; but I must confefs, that I have often been furprised to fee a woman very well pleased to take a fool for her mate, that the might govern with the less controul; and could not but think her fentiments, in this respect, still more barbarous than those of the Scythian women above mentioned; as much as the eyes of the understanding are more valuable than thofe of the body.

But to be juft, and to lay the blame more equally, I am afraid it is the fault of our fex, if the women be fo fond of rule; and that if we did not abuse our authority, they would never think it worth while to difpute it. Tyrants, we know, produce rebels; and all history informs us, that rebels, when they prevail, are apt to become tyrants in their turn. For this reafon I could wish there were no pretenfions to authority on either fide, but that every thing was carried on with perfect equality, as between two equal members of the fame body. And to induce both parties to embrace thofe amicable fentiments, I fhall deliver to them Plato's account of the origin of Love and Marriage.

Mankind, according to that fanciful philofopher, were not, in their origin, divided into male and fcmale, as at present; but each individual perfon was a compound of both fexes, and was in himself both husband and wife, melted down into one living

creature.