guments, the other part thought he had faid as much as the matter would bear, and therefore both agreed in defiring Philogynes to speak what he had to fay, which he did in this manner : I confefs, fir, (faid he fmiling) when I faw the affociates you alloted me at firft, I began to defpair of my caufe; I own I was afhamed of my company, and refolved to pack up baggage inftantly, and quit a trade in which none but fops and fools were engaged; but when I faw the Anacreons, the Ovids, and all the wits, ancient and modern, in the fame circumftances, I even took heart again. Courage, faid I, the bufinefs is not fo bad as I thought, and it is poffible his heart may relent, and allow us fome better company than he condemned us to at firft. At least, thought I, if it is a folly to converse with women, it is fome comfort that he owns it to be a folly of which the greateft wits of the world have been guilty before us and when I faw all Greece, and the greatest part of Afia venturing their lives for one Woman, thought I had fomewhat the advantage of them, whilft I ventured nothing but my rhetoric for them all together. And when you named Samfon, Achilles, Hanhibal, and Mark Antony, I enquired who thofe gentlemen were for certainly, thought I, if they were fuch brave men, and great foldiers, as I have heard them reprefented, we have no reafon to defpair of the victory when we have them to lead us on. You might have spoken more generally of them too, if you had pleafed; you might have told us, that there never was a great foldier who was not as famous for his amours, as his battles; that a poet was fcarce thought free of his trade; who had not paid fome duties to love and you might have added to these all the wife men Cowley's preface. and and philofophers of the world: you might have informed us, that David, tho' a man after God's own heart, was not contented without fome fhare in the womens: that Solomon who knew the virtue of every plant, from the cedar of Libanus to the hyffop that grows upon the wall, took as much pains to have as general a knowledge of the ladies: that + Socrates who was the ugliest as well as the wifeft man of his time, would in, fpite of nature aim at love too, and, not terrified by one ill wife would try to mend his hand in another that : Plato, whom antiquity has called divine, did not spend all his time in erecting common-wealths, but that fome of it was bestowed upon the Xantippe's and Archeanaffa's: that Ariftotle, whom Philip made governor to Alexander, made himself a flave to his miftrefs; that this was not an effect of his paffion alone, but of his reafon that he faid, love was not only upon the account of copulation but philofophy; and commands his wife-man to be in love, before he bids him meddle with the commonwealth; and in fine, that this great man, who fathomed all arts and sciences, who has given us the best rules of philofophy, politics, poetry, &c. did alfo not think it unbecoming his gravity to write one treatife of love, and four amatory thefes. You might have mingled facred ftory with prophane: you might have told us that St. Peter was married, that St. Paul defended the leading about a fifter; that we owe one of the moft celebrated § ནས་3 + See Diogenes Laertius in his lives of these three philofophers. Η Εινας δὲ καὶ τὸν ἔρωτα μὴ μόνον συνεσίας αλλα καὶ φιλο σοφίας, καὶ ἐρασθήσεσθαι δὲ τὴν σοφὸν, καὶ πολιτεύσεσθαι. Dioge Laert, in vit, Ariftot. St. Austin was converted by his mother. fathers fathers of the church to the endeavours and converfion of a woman; and that St. Jerom had so great an esteem for the fex, as to dedicate a great part of his works to fome of them. You might have added to these a thoufand more, which you fee I purposely omit to avoid prolixity, and mention none but whom you will allow to be the most celebrated of their profeffion, without doing your caufe any injury in the leaft; for after all it is but fhewing us a drawing-room of fops, reading a dialogue out of Lucian, feeing a scene of a play, quoting a fentence out of Solomon's proverbs, fearching all history for two or three ill women, and the bufinefs is done, the cause is gained, let the trumpets found, and Io Pæan be fung for the victory. I am forry, Sir, that I cannot be as civil to you, as you have been to me: It goes against my conscience to place you with fo bad company, confidering with what you have obliged me: and of thofe few great men whom you have seduced to your party, I am concerned that I must take the better part from you. I fancy, after what I have already faid of Solomon, after reflecting upon his hiftory, you cannot think him a true friend to your caufe; and therefore will not, I hope, depend too much upon him. I fhall fay nothing of his wives and concubines, I fhall not so much as mention his canticles, which * Grotius, as well as I, affirms to be a love-poem, *Eft autem ------ It is a dialogue between Solomon and the king of Egypt's daughter; two chorus's, one of young men, the other of virgins, who lay near the bed-chamber, fpeaking between. The nuptial fecrets lie hid here under modeft words, which was the caufe the ancient Hebrews would not fuffer this book to be read, but by those who were near marriage. Grot, in Cantic, and which Rapin* reckons both the first and best of pastorals; but I fhall attack you at your own weapon; I fhall oppose proverb against proverb? if he has been fevere in them upon ill women, whofe cause I do not undertake, he has fpoken as favourably of the † wife and the good: for whom we appear: in like manner, if Euripides has represented women fo in his tragedies, as to get the name of the woman hater, I appeal from his writings to his life and converfation, which fhew him far otherwise. If Simonides gives you fevere characters of several women, he gives you one at last, that makes amends for all: one in whom no fault can be found; and if you think that is not enough to take him off from your party, if you are ftill fo very fond of him, we will tell you, that men who are deformed and ugly, as Simonides was, naturally declare themfelves enemies to women, because they fancy women are enemies to them; and upon that account, not upon the account of his wit, we will allow him to you. As for St. Chryfoftome, tho' we have all the refpect imaginable for a father of the church, and upon that account fha'l not enter into the merits of the caufe betwixt || him and the empress Eudoxia; yet this we shall fay, fir, that as fathers of the church are subject to paffions, as well as other men; fo it is no wonder that a man who is used very ill by one woman, and converses with few elfe, fhould conclude them all alike. Thus after having taken two of your patriots from you, and if not taken, at least disabled the other two from being very credible witnesses, *Rapin de Carmine Paftorali. Proverbs, Chap. last, &c. Girald. in vit, Simonidis. Plutarch in vit. Themistoclis. you are reduced to Lucian and Juvenal. For the former, if I fhould quote you what the old fathers fay of him, if I fhould tell you, that he did not only abuse the christian religion, but even his own; that he rallied all the philofophers, orators and hiftorians of his time; that not content with that, he falls foul upon those his own religion taught him to worship as gods; I fanfy you would not think what fuch a'man fays of any great weight; but truly, fir, there is no need of that in this cafe: What does this Lucian do, pray? Why § he defcribes the bawds griping, covetous, and encouraging their daughters in lewdness; his courtesans falfe, jilting, and true courtezans throughout. And what of all this, pray? What does this make for you? It is not the caufe of bawds or courtefans that we undertake; tho' even amongst them he represents a great part easy, loving, good-natur'd fools, and us'd accordingly by their lovers. But does Lucian pretend that there are no good women? Does he fall upon the fex in general? Or does not he bring in Charicles in one place defending them, and does not he make the greatest encomiums that can be of Panthea in another, and fpeak with abundance of efteem, of feveral other women in the fame? And if he does introduce Callicratides in one of his dialogues railing at the fex, in oppofition to Charicles, he does it in the defence of a fin, which I am fure you will scarce think it civil to name. What shall we fay to Juvenal, but what Plato did to Xenocrates, bid him facrifice to the graces.. He is always violent, always declaiming, always in a paffion; and what wonder if he falls upon the women in one of his fits? After all you will make no great mat See the dialogues of the courtesans. In the dialogue of love. ter |