diffatisfied with what he had done, in adopting Livia's fons and difinheriting his own nephews; Fulvius goes home, and tells it his wife, fhe tells it to the empress, who upbraids the emperour with it. Auguftus, when he faw Fulvius next, checked him for it; by which he perceived himfeif ruined, and therefore went immediately, told his wife what she had done, and that he refolved to ftab himself: But certainly the wife's anfwer was very fufficient; nor did you deserve less, faid fhe, who having lived fo long with me, did not know I could not keep a fecret. But omitting these, whose actions are recorded to their infamy, let us fee a little of those who are quoted as the glories of their fex. and who more cry'd up amongst them than † Judith? What action, more celebrated than her murdering Holofernes, when he had treated her with all the kindness and refpect imaginable in his tent? For my part, I muft own my virtue does not arrive to fo high a pitch; and should rather have fuffered my town to have been ruin'd, than have been guilty of an action that appears to me fo barbarous ; but I confefs that of ‡ Jael is yet worfe, to invite a man into her tent, promife him protection, and when he had trufted his life in her hands, to murder him whilft he was afleep. What fhall we fay to Penelope, who is inftanced as a pattern of chastity and conjugal love? I will not with | Ovid and Virgil (if the Priapeia are his) make malicious † Judith xiii. Penelope vires juvenum, tentabat in arcu, (Speaking of Ulyffes) Judges iv. ver. 17. Ovid. Amor. Lib. 1. El. 8. Qua Ad vetulam tamen ille fuam properabat, & omnis Mens erat in cunno Penelopea, tuo. malicious reflexions upon her trying her lovers ftrength in a bow; but take the flory as it lies in the Odyffeys; I am fure she would hardly pass for such a faint in our days; and if a lady had her houfe full of lovers for twenty years of her husband's abfence, and if her husband were forced to fight all these before he could have his wife again, it is poffible the lampooners of the town would not have reprefented her cafe fo favourably as Homer has done. But what fhall we fay to Lycophron even amongst the Greeks, who speaks of her as a moft profligate fort of woman, or to Duris Samius, who afferts her to have been fo very common, as to have lain with all comers during her husband's abfence, from whofe promifcuous copulations Pan was born, and therefore took the name. (Pan, your ladyfhip knows, in Greek, fignifies all.) For Lucretia, I fhall not infinuate, as a great wit feems to do, that she stabbed herself, rather than return to the embraces of a husband, after having been fo much better pleafed by a gallant; but if fhe were one who valued her chastity fo much, and her life fo little, as they would make us believe, it is fomewhat odd that fhé fhould ra تيتية Quæ fic cafta manes, ut jam convivia vifas. Sive illi laterum, feu fuit artis opus. Qui quoniam perit, modò vos intendite: qualem * V. Domin, in Ovid. El. 8. Lib. I. Epiftles. + Lilius Giral. Hift. deorum Gent. Pan. Priapeia. See alfo Seneca's Sir Charles Sedley, in his translation of Ovid's VIIIth elegy, book 1. ther ther let Tarquin enjoy, her alive. than a flave lie in the bed with her when he was dead;, and that the fhould choose to commit the fin, rather than bear, the fhame. But let us forgive them all thefe things I have mentioned; and fince | Le Chambre affures us that there is no beauty in a woman, but what is a fign of fome vice; let us attribute it to nature's fault, not theirs; and reckon, that the more vicious they are, the nearer they come to, the perfection of the fex; and indeed, not spending much time in their converfations, I will pardon them all their levity, babling, malice, and impertinence; and, being unmarried, shall not be fo fevere upon their lufts and, adulteries; provided they will stop there. Let Helen, run away from her husband with a handfomer man; but let her not fuffer all Troy to be ruined for the keeping her there: Let Clytemneftra lie with another man, during her husband's abfence; but let her not murder him, for it when he comes home: Let* Semiramis make ufe of all the handsomeft fellows of her army; but let her put them to death for fear they should tell tales: And tho' I would forgive her, yet her own fex would never pardon her being the first maker of † eunuchs Let Phædra and Faufta invite their husband's fons to fupply, their father's defects; but let them not accuse them, and, have them put to death for refufing: Let Joan of Naples make ufe of all the men in her kingdoms; but let her not strangle her husband for his imperfections in a point that he could not help: That cruelty and barbarity, I confefs, is what provokes me fo much against the sex: I can see Tibullus's mistress jilt him, for a fool who is not L'Art de Connoitre les hommes. Or, the art how to know men. Chap. 1. *Diodor. Sicul. Book 2. + Ammian, Marcellin, Book 14..'* not not half fo handfome; I can fee Ovid waiting all night at his mistress's door, whilft another man is in her arms; and I can fee half a score impertinent women plaguing you with nonfenfical ftories, and be very well diverted all the while: But I confess I cannot hear of Medea's cutting her brother in pieces, and ftrewing his limbs in the way to ftop her pursuing father, without horror and dread; nor of her treating her own children after the fame manner, to revenge herself upon Jafon, without a like emotion: I know not how other people may bear fuch things; but for my part, when I fee all the murders and barbarities they commit, to revenge themselves on their inconftant lovers, to get rid of their husbands for fome one they like better, or to prevent the difcovery of their lewdness; but my hair ftands on end, my blood fhrinks, and I am poffefs'd with an utter deteftation of the fex. Go but one circuit with the judges here in England; obferve how many women are condemned for killing their bastard children; and tell me if you think their cruelties can be equalled; or whether you think those who commit fuch actions fit for your, or for any civil converfation. But I fee by your looks you are convinced, I fee you abandon your caufe, and I fhall cease to expose any farther a fex, of whofe patronage you feem already afhamed. T Here Mifogynes left off, and Philogynes began to anfwer him: But I muft beg your pardon, fir, faid my friend, for my time is come, and I must neceffarily be gone. The devil you fhall, said I; you would engage me in a pretty affair; I promise a lady a defence of her! fex, and you will make me fend her a fatire against it. Truly, my dear friend, faid he, I defigned to have told you all, but it is later than I thought, and I have business waits for me. No bufinefs, faid I,' can be fo confiderable to you, as the fatisfying a fair lady is to me, therefore fit down, and bring me fairly off what you have told me al ready, ready, or you and I shall be friends no longer. After all, madam, to tell you the truth, tho' there is no great matter in this speech of Mifogynes, yet I can hardly believe he made it upon a fudden; 'tis poffible tho', they two having discoursed the matter as they told us before, might have provided themselves each with arguments. But fuppofing that, I can fcarcely believe one man would be fuffered to talk fo long without interruption; at leaft I am fure, fome who we know were none of the company. But it is poffible, that he who told me, might leave out all that was fpoke by others, for brevity fake, being as you fee in hafte. If you are as apt to be mistaken in your judgment of things as of looks, replied Philogynes, it is no wonder you should make fuch ftrange conclufions. Whatever ferioufnefs you may fee in my face, does not, I'll affure you, proceed from any diftruft of my caufe, but an aftonishment at what strange arguments the invention of man can fuggeft against the best things that are. I fay, the invention of man, for I am far from believing you in earnest in this point; I have too juft an opinion of Mifogynes, to think he does any thing but put on this humour for a trial of skill; and I no more believe you a hater of women, for the invective you have made against them, than I believe Erafmus a lover of folly, for the encomium he has writ upon it. If you have therefore any thing more to urge, forbear it not upon any fup. pofed conviction you fee in my countenance; for, notwithstanding that I think you have handled the fubject as fully as any one who has undertaken it, yet I will affure you I cannot fubmit to your arguments; and therefore I am very ready to hear any thing you have further to urge. No, fays Mifogynes, I am fenfible I have troubled the company long enough about a trifle, and it is very fit you fhould have your turn of fpeaking now. Part of the company was already convinced by his arguments, |