the order which they found setlâ—d for obtaining the end that they proposed which was the good government of a State by the administration of justice To be short if they should be head-strong to hold that Women are naturally in a condition of dependance upon men we might fight them with their own weapons since they themselves acknowledge dependance and servitude to be contrary to the order of Nature which renders all mankind equal Dependence being a meer Corporal and Civil Relation ought not to be considered but as an effect of chance force or custome except in the case of Children to those who have given them life And yet neither does that pass a certain age wherein men being supposed to have reason and experience enough to guide themselves are freed by the Lawes from the authority of an other Amongst persons of an equal or not much different age there ought only to be a reasonable subordination according to which those who have less understanding willingly submit themselves to such as have more And if we remove the Civil Priviledges which the Laws have bestowed on men and which establish them heads of the family we cannot find betwixt them and their wives any other submission but that of Experience and Knowledge both one and other freely engage themselves at the same time when the VVives have asmuch and often more Judgment than the Husbands Their Promises and Covenants of Marriage are reciprocal and the power equal upon one and others Body And if the Lawes give the Husband more Authority over the estate Nature allowes the Wife more power and right over the Children And as the will of the one is not the Rule of the other if the wife be obliged to do what the Husband minds her of he is no less bound to follow the advertisements of the Wife when she tells him his duty And except it be in matters just and reasonable the Wife is not to be constrained to submit her self to the pleasure of her Husband unless you ll say that he is stronger which is the dealing of a Turk with a Moore and not of Men of reason We shall not need much trouble to rid our selves of the opinion of the Learned of whom I have spoken because we may easily be satisfied that their profession does not engage them to so exact an enquiry into the nature of things Appearances and probabilities are sufficient for Poets and Orators The Testimony of Antiquity to Historians And Custome and Practice to Lawyers to bring them to their intended end But as to the Sentiment of Philosophers we must not so easily pass it seeing that they seem to be above all the preceding considerations as indeed they ought to be and that they are thought to try matters more strictly which gaines them the common credit and makes it believed unquestionable what they assert especially when they contradict not the received opinions So the common People confirm themselves in the opinion that there is inequality betwixt the two Sexes because they see those whose Judgements they regard as the measures of their own and the same opinion not knowing that the most part of Philosophers walk by no other Rule than that of the Vulgar and that it is not by Vertue of Science or Knowledge that they often dictate especially concerning the matter in hand They have carryed their prejudices even to the Schools where they have learned nothing that might serve to disengage them there-from On the contrary all their Science is sounded upon the Judgements that they have made from their Cradle And with them it is a crime or Errour to call in question that which they believed before the years of discretion They are not taught to know Man by the body nor by the soul And that which they teach commonly may very well serve to prove that betwixt us and beasts there is no other difference but that of Lesser and Greater in the Same kind They hear not a word of Sexes They are supposed to know them sufficiently already Very far from Examining the Capacity and real and natural difference betwixt them which is one of the most curious and probably also the most important Question of all natural or Moral Philosophy They spend whole years and some all their lives at Trifles and Entia Rationis being no where to be sound without their own Brains and to plod and find-out whether or not there be beyond the world imaginary Spaces and whether the atoms or small dust which appeares in the Beams of the Sun may be sliced out into infinite parts What solid ground can we lay upon what the learned of this kind say when we are to treat of serious and important matters Men may think nevertheless that though they be so ill taught themselves yet their Principles probably are sufficient to discover which of the two Sexes have naturally the advantage of the other But none can think so but such who either know them not or are pre-possessed thereby The Knowledge of our selves is absolutely necessary to enable us for the handling of that Question aright and especially the knowledge of our Body which is the Organ of Sciences after the same manner as for to know how Telescopes and Glasses of Approach magnifie the Objects we must know the Fashion of them They touch not this but in passing no more than they do Truth and Science I mean the Method of acquiring true and certain Knowledges without which it is impossible to examine Whether or not VVomen be as capable thereof as our selves And without amusing my self to repeat the Notions that they give us thereon I shall declare in general what my Thoughts are thereof All Man-kind being made alike have the same Sentiments and Notions of Natural things for example of Light Heat and Hardness And all the Knowledge which we labour to gain there-from is reduced to this That we may truly find out what is the Disposition internal and external of every Object which produceth in us the thoughts and conceits which we have of them All that Masters can do to guide us to this Knowledge is but So to apply our Minds to what we remark that we may examine the Appearances and Effects thereof without Precipitation or Prejudice and to shew us the Order which we are to observe in the ranking of our Thoughts for to find what we look for For instance If an Illiterate Person should desire me to explain to him Wherein consists the Liquidity of Water I would not assert any thing but only ask him What he had observed thereof How that if Water be not contained in a Vessel it sheds that is to say that all the Parts thereof separate and dis-unite of themselves without the Intermixtion of any other Body that we may thrust there-into our Fingers without trouble and without finding Resistance as from harder Bodies And that in putting therein Sugar or Salt we perceive that these two Bodies dissolve piece and piece and
that all the Parcels thereof are dispersed through the several parts of the Liquor Hitherto I should teach him no new thing And if after the same manner I had told him What it is to be in Repose or in Motion I should have brought him to acknowledge that the Nature of Liquors consist in this That their insensible Particles are in perpetual Motion which requires them to be enclosed in a Vessel and disposes them to give easie Entry to hard Bodies And that the Particles of Water which are little glib and pointed insinuating themselves into the Pores of the Sugar shake and divide the Parts thereof by their Justling and moving themselves every way transport with them into all the Quarters of the Vessel that which they have separated This Notion of Liquors which is a Part taken from the Body of Natural Philosophy would appear a great deal more clear if we saw it in its proper Place and Order and it hath nothing which the meanest sort of VVomen are not able to understand The rest of all our Knowledges being proposed in Order and Method have no greater Difficulty And if we consider attentively we shall find that every Science of Reasoning requires but less wit and time than is necessary to learn to make Point or Tapistry In effect the Notions of Natural things are necessary and we form them alwayes after the same manner Adam had them as we have Children have them as Old Men and VVomen as Men And these Idea's are renewed confirmed and entertained by the continual use of Sense The Mind is alwayes in Action and he that knows well how it proceeds in one thing discovers without trouble how it works in all others There is nothing but More and Less betwixt the Impression made by the Sun and that of a Spark of Fire And to think well thereon there is neither need of great Skill nor Exercise of Body It is not so in the Works of which I have spoken There is need of greater Application of Spirit the Idea's thereof being Arbitrary are harder to be learned and retained which is the cause that so much time is necessary for to Learn well a Trade because it depends on long Exercise There is Skill required rightly to observe the Proportions on a Canvas to Distribute equally the Silk or the Wool to mingle with Exactness the Colours neither to joyne too close nor keep too open the Points to place no more in one Rank than in another to make the little Knots imperceptible In a word One must know to make and vary in a thousand different Wayes the Works of Art to be skillful therein when as in Sciences there is no more required but an orderly viewing of Works already made and alwayes Uniform and all the difficulty of Success therein proceeds more from the Incapacity of Masters than from the Objects or Disposition of the Body We must not then any more wonder to see Men and VVomen without Study entertain themselves about things which concern Sciences since the Method of Teaching of them serves only to certifie our Judgements which are confounded by Precipitation Custom and Use. The Notion which we have given of Knowledge in general might suffice to perswade unprejudiced Persons That Men and VVomen are equally capable thereof But because the contrary Opinion is most deeply rooted we must for the intire plucking of it up Fight it by Principles to the end that joyning the Appearances agreeing to the Beautiful Sex which have been presented in the First Part with the Natural Reasons which we shall here-after adduce Men may fully be convinced in favour of it That Women considered according to the Principles of Sound Philosophy are as capable as Men of all Sorts of Sciences IT is easie to be Remarked That the Difference of Sexes regards only the Body there being no other but that Part properly which serves for the Production of Men And the Spirit concurring no other way but by its Consent which it lends to all after the same manner we may conclude That in it there is no Sex at all If we consider it in our selves we find it equal and of the same Nature in all Men and capable of all sorts of Thoughts The smallest busie it as well as the greatest and there is no less required to the right knowing of a Gnat than of an Elephant Whosoever knows wherein consists the Light and Fire of a Sparkle knows also the Light of the Sun When we are accustomed to reflect on things which only concern the Spirit we perceive therein all at least as clearly as in the most material things which are discerned by the senses I can discover no greater difference between the Spirit of a dull and ignorant man and of that one who is delicate and ingenious than betwixt the Spirit of the same man considered at the age of ten years and at the age of Fourty And since there appeareth no more betwixt that of the two Sexes we may affirm that their difference is not on that side the constitution of the body But particularly the Education Exercise and the impressions that come from all that does surround us being every where the Natural and Sensible causes of so many diversities as are observed therein It is God who unites the Soul to the body of a Woman as to that of a Man and who joynes them by the same Lawes The sentiments the passions and inclinations make and entertain that Union And the Spirit operating after the same manner in the one as well as the other is there equally capable of the same things This is yet more clear when we consider onely the Head the sole organe of Sciences and where the soul exerciseth all its functions the most exact Anatomy remarks to us no difference in this part between Men and Women their brain is altogether like to ours The impressions of sense are received and muster themselves there in the same fashion and are no otherwise preserved for Imagination and Memory Women hear as we do by the ears they see by the eyes and they tast with the Tongue And there is nothing peculiar in the disposition of these Organs but that the Women have them ordinarily more delicate which is an advantage So that the outward objects affects them after the the same manner Light by the eyes and Sound by the eares Who can hinder them then to apply themselves to the consideration of themselves To Examine in what consists the nature of the soul how many kinds of thoughts there are and how they are excited by occasion of certain corporeal Motions to consult afterwards the natural Notions which they have of God and to begin with things Spiritual to dispose in order their thoughts and to frame to themselves that Science 〈◊〉 we call the Metaphysicks 〈…〉 Since they have also eyes and hands may they not make themselves or see others perform the dissection of an humane body consider the Symmetry and structure
thereof observe the diversity difference and relation of its parts their figures their motion and functions the Alterations to which they are Subject and to conclude on the means to preserve them in good disposition and to restore it to them when it is changed They need no more for this but to know the nature of Extrinsical bodies which have any reference to their own discover their Properties and all that renders them capable of making any impression good or bad thereon this is known by the aid of the Senses and by the various Experiments that are made upon them And Women being equally capable of the one as well as the other might learn as well as we Physick and Medicine Is there need of so much understanding to know that Breathing is absolutely necessary for the preservation of life and that it is performed by the means of the Air which entering by the pipe of the nose and mouth is insinuated into the lungs for the cooling of the blood which passeth that way in Circulation and there causeth different Alterations according as it is more or less Gross by the Mixture of Vapours and Exhortations with which we see it sometimes blended Is it a matter so difficult to discover that the tast of Food consists on the part of the body in the different manner how it is allayed on the tongue by the Spitle There is no Person but finds after meals that the Victuals which then are put into the mouth being divided quite other ways than those with which we are Nourished cause there a Sensation less pleasing That which remains to be known of the Functions of Mans body being considered in order have nothing more of difficulty The Passions are certainly that which is most Curious in this matter We may therein observe two things the Motions of the body with the thoughts and stirrings of the Soul which concurr in them Women may know this as easily as we do And as to the causes which excite Passions we know how they do it When we have once by the study of Natural Philosophy comprehended their manner how Circumambient things affect and touch us And by experience and use how we thereto apply or separate our wills and inclinations In making regular Meditations upon the objects of the three Sciences lastly spoken of a Woman may observe that the order of her thoughts ought to follow that of Nature that then they are exact when they are conform thereto that there is nothing but hast and precipitation in our Judgements which hinders that exactitude And marking consequentially the Oeconomy which she hath observed to attain thereto she may make Reflections which may serve her as a Rule for the future and form to her-self there-from a Logick If it be objected notwithstanding of this That Women by themselves could never acquire these knowledges which is but said at least we cannot deny but that with the help of Masters and Books they might As the ablest men in all ages have done It is enough to alledge the acknowledged property of the Sex to prove it capable of understanding the proportions of the Mathematicks And we should contradict our selves to doubt that if it applyed it self to the making of Engines it would succeed as well therein as our own since we our selves allow it more invention and artifice There is need but of eyes and a little attention in observing the Appearances of nature To make us remark that the Sun and all the Luminous bodyes of the Heavens are real Fires since they heat and light us in the same manner as the Fires here below that they appear'd successively to answer to several parts of the earth and so be able to judge of their Motion and Course And whosoever can roul in his head great designs and set to work the Movements thereof may there likewise with exactness turn the whole Machin of the World if he have but once well observed the diverse Appearances of the same We have already found in Women all the Dispositions which render Men proper for the Sciences which concern them separately in themselves And if we continue to consider them within distance we shall also fir'd in them those which are necessary for the Sciences which regard them as tyed altogether with their like in Civil Society It is a Fault in Vulgar Philosophy to place amongst Sciences so great a Distinction that following that peculiar Method of it we cannot acknowledge any Tye or Coherence amongst them which is the cause that we restrain so much the Extent of Humane Understanding imagining to our selves that the same Man is never almost capable of many Sciences that to be fit for Natural Phylosophy or Medicine one is not thereby proper for Rhetorick or Divinity and that there ought to be as many different Capacities as there are Sciences in the World This Thought proceeds on the one hand from this That Men confound ordinarily Nature with Custome in taking the Disposition of certain Persons to one Science rather than another for an Effect of their Natural Constitution when indeed it is often but a Casual Inclination coming from Necessity Education or Habit And on the other hand for want of having Remarked that there is properly but one Science in the World which is the Knowledge of our selves and that all others are onely particular Applications thereof In effect the Difficulty which we find at this day to learn the Tongues Moral Philosophy and the rest consists only in this That we know not how to referr them to this general Science From whence it may have arrived That all those who have believed Women capable of Natural Philosophy and Medicine may not have therefore judged them capable of the Sciences that we are to speak of However the Difficulty is the same on both sides It is the business in All to think aright And this we do by applying seriously our Minds to the Objects which represent themselves to us that we may raise from them clear and distinct Notions that we may eye them in all their different Faces and Relations and that we may pass no Judgement thereon but upon what appears manifestly true With this we need no more but to dispose our Thoughts in a Natural Order for the obtaining of a perfect Science And here there is nothing too High for Women For such of them who may be by this way instructed in Natural Philosophy and Medicine may likewise by the same become capable of all others Wherefore might they not perceive that the necessity of living in Society obliging us to Communicate our Thoughts by some External Signes the most expedient of all others is Speech which consists in the use of Words agreed on amongst Men That we ought to have as many of them as we have Notions of things That they ought to have some Relation of Sound and Signification one with another to make us learn and retain them with more ease and that we should not be
shown them where of they understand not the Fabrick or Movements Had we been brought up in the midst of the Seas without having ever come Ashore we should not have failed to have believed as Children do when they put off in Boats that in our Floating-houses the Land went from us Every one esteems his own Countrey the best because there he is most accustomed and that the Religion wherein he hath been Nursed is the True which he ought to follow although he hath never perhaps dream'd of examining or comparing the same with others VVe find our selves alwayes more inclined for our Countreymen than for Strangers even in matters where Right is on their side VVe are more pleased to Converse with those of our own Profession than others though neither their VVit nor Vertue be so great And the Disparity of Estates and Conditions make many judge that Men amongst themselves are altogether unequal If we enquire into the ground of all these diverse Opinions we shall find them bottom'd on Interest or Custom and that it is incomparably more difficult to draw Men from such Sentiments wherein they are engaged by Prejudice than from the Opinions which they have embraced upon the Motive of the strongest and most convincing Arguments Amongst these odd Opinions we may reckon the common Judgment which Men make of the Difference of the two Sexes and of all that depends thereon there is not any mistake more Antient or Universal For both the Knowing and Ignorant are so prepossessed with the Opoinion That Women are inferiour to Men in Capacity and Worth and that they ought to be placed in that dependance wherein we see them that the contrary Sentence will not miss to be eyed as a Paradox and piece of Singularity However for the Establishing of it it would not at all be necessary to use any positive Reason if Men were more just and less interested in their Judgements it might suffice to advertise them That hitherto the difference of the Sexes to the disadvantage of the Female hath been but very lightly discoursed off and that to judge soundly whether our Sex have obtained any Natural Pre-eminence beyond theirs we ought to think thereon seriously and without Partiality rejecting all which hath been hitherto believed upon the simple Report of other Men without Tryal or Examination It is certain that if a Man would set himself in this State of Indifferency and Neutrality he must acknowledge on the one hand that it is Weakness and Precipitancy that make us reckon Women less Noble and Excellent than our selves and that certain Natural Indispositions render them obnoxious to the Failings and Imperfections that are attributed to them and thereby contemptible to many And on the other hand he must see That these very Colours which cheat People concerning their own Subjects when they slightly pass them over would serve to undeceive them if they sounded them a little deeper In short if that Man were a Philosopher he would find that there are Natural Reasons which invincibly prove that both Sexes are a like both as to Body and Soul But as there are not many Persons in a condition of themselves to put in Practice this Advice so it must remain useless without some pains be taken to labour with Men and to put them in the way of making use of it And seeing the Opinion of those who have less studied is the most general with it we shall begin our Enquiry Let every Man in particular be asked his Thoughts of Women in general and that he would surely confess his Mind he will tell you without doubt That they were not made but for Man That they are fit for nothing but to Nurse and Breed little Children in their Low Age and to mind the House It may be the more Ingenious will add That there are many Women that have indeed Parts and Conduct but that even they who seem to have most when they are nearly examined discover still some-what that speaks their Sex That they have neither Solidity nor Constancy nor that depth of Judgement which they think to find in themselves And that it hath been an Effect of Divine Providence and Wisdom of Men to have barred them from Sciences Government and Offices That it would be a pleasant thing indeed to see a Lady in the Chair in quality of a Professor teaching Rhethorick or Medicine marching along the Streets followed by Officers and Sergeants putting in Execution Laws Playing the part of a Counsellour pleading before Judges Seated on a Bench to Administer Justice in Supream Courts Leading of an Army giving Battel and Speaking before States and Princes as the Head of an Embassy I do confess such Practices would surprize us but for no other reason but that of Novelty For if in modelling of States and establishing the different Offices that compose them Women had been like-wise called to Functions we should have been as much accustomed to have seen them in Dignity as they are to see us And should have found it no more strange to have seen a Lady on a Throne than a Woman in a Shop If these Blades be pressed a little further we shall find their mightiest Arguments reduced to this That as to Women matters have alwayes past as now they go which is a mark that they are really such as they are esteemed And that if they had been capable of Sciencies and Offices Men would not have denyed them their shares These kind of Reasonings proceed from the Conceit that we have of the Equity of our Sex and a false Notion which Men forge to themselves of Custom It is enough with them to find that a thing is established to make them believe it well grounded And as they judge that men ought to do nothing without Reason so the most part of People cannot imagine but that Reason hath been consulted for the introducing of such Practises as they see universally received and fancy to themselves that Prudence and right Reason have established the Customes to which they both oblige us to conforme since without breach of Order we cannot therein dispence with our Obedience Every one sees in his own Countrey the Women in such Subjection that in all things they depend on Men without being admitted to Learning or any of those Conditions that afford opportunity to become remarkable by the advantage Parts No Body affirms that he hath ever seen them treated other-wise And all know That matters go so with them every where that there is no place in the World where they are not used after the same manner as we find at Home In some Countries their Usage is worse where they are regarded as Slaves In China they keep their Feet little from their Child-hood to hinder them from rambling out of Doors where they never see any thing but their Husbands and Children In Turkey the Ladies are strictly enough confined And in Italy they are not much better Almost all the People of Asia Affrica
and to draw from thence the two Advantages which we expect therefrom the one to have clear and distinct Knowledges which we naturally desire and whereof the desire is often stifled and annihilated by the confusion of thoughts and the cares and agitations of life And the other To employ these Knowledges for the particular conduct of themselves and for that of others in the different conditions of Society of which they make a part This agrees not atall with the common Opinion There are indeed many that will believe that Women may learn what is to be attained by the Physicks or Natural Sciences but will not admit that they are as fit as Men for those which may be called Civil as Ethicks Laws and Politicks and that if they should be able by the Maximes of these Last to conduct themselves they could not therefore be capable of guiding of others Men entertain this thought because they consider not that the mind in all it's actions hath need of no more but Discerning and Exactitude and whosoever hath once these two qualities in one thing may as easily and by the same means have them in all the rest The being Moral or Civil changeth not the nature of our actions They continue to be still Natural Because that Morality is nothing else but to know the manner how men regard the actions of others with Relation to the Notions which they have of good or evil of vice and vertue of justice and injustice And as that when we have once rightly conceived the Rules of Motion in Natural Philosophy we may apply them to all the changes and varieties which are remarked in Nature So likewise knowing once the true principles of civil Sciences there remains no more difficulty to make application thereof to the new and incident Emergents which occurr They that are in places have not alwayes more wit though they have better Luck than others And indeed it is not necessary that they should have more than the common though it be to be wished that none were admitted to employments but the most worthy We act still after the same manner and by the same Rules in what estate soever we find our selves unless it be that the more our conditions are raised the more our cares and views are extended because we have the more to do And all the change which happens to men who are placed above others is like to that of a person who being mounted to the top of a Tower caryes his prospect farther and discovers more different objects than they who stay on the ground below It is their favours if VVomen be as capable as we are to guid themselves they are likewise to conduct others and to have place in charges and dignities of Civil Society The most Simple and natural use that we can make of Sciences which we have well learned is to teach them to others And if VVomen had studyed in the Universities with men or in others appointed for them in particular they might have entred into Degrees and taken the title of Master of Arts Doctor of Divinity Medicine Civil and Cannon Law And their genius so advantagiously fitting them to learn would dispose them likewise to teach with success They would find methods and insinuating biassess to instill their Doctrine they would discover the strength and weakness of their Schollars to proportion themselves to their reach and the facility which they have to express themselves and which is one of the most excellent talents of a good Master would compleat and render them admirable Mistresses The employment which approacheth most to a School-Master is that of Pastour or Minister in the Church and there can be nothing else but custome shewn which remove VVomen there-from They have a Spirit as well as we capable of the Knowledge and love of God and thereby able to incline others to know and love him Faith is common to them with us And the Gospel with the Promises thereof are likewise addressed to them Charity also comprehends them in its duties and if they know how to put in practice the actions thereof may not they likewise publickly teach its Maxims Whosoever can preach by Example from stronger reason can do so by Words And a VVoman that should joyn her Natural Eloquence with the Morality of Jesus Christ should be as capable as another to Exhort Direct Correct admit into Christian Society those who deserved And cut off such who after having submitted themselves thereto should refuse to observe the Rules thereof And if men were accustomed to see VVomen in a Pulpit they would be no more startled thereat than the VVoman are at the sight of men We are not assembled into Society but that we may live in peace and find in a Mutual assistance all that is necessary for the Body and Soul This we could not enjoy without trouble if there were no authority that is to say that for that end there ought to be some persons who have power to make Laws and to inflict punishment upon the breakers of them And to make the right use of that authority we must know to what it obligeth and be perswaded that those who possess it ought to have no other design in the discharge thereof but to procure the welfare and advantage of their inferiours Women being no less susceptible of this perswasion than men may not we then submit our selves to them and consent not only not to resist their Orders but even contribute as much as we can to oblige to obedience such as make any difficulty therein So that nothing needed to hinder but that a Woman might sit upon a Throne and that for the government of her people She might study their humour the interests their Lawes their customes and their practices That she might place in Offices of the Gown and Sword only able and deserving persons and in the Dignities of the Church men of understanding and Example Is it a thing so difficult that a Woman could not perform it to instruct her-self of the strength and weakness of a State and of those that lay round it to entertain amongst strangers secret Intelligences for to discover their designes and disappoint their measures and to have faithfull Spies and Emissaries in all Suspected places to be exactly informed of all that passeth there wherein she might have interest Is there needfull for the conduct of a Kingdome more vigilance and application than Women have for their families or the Religious for their Convents They would prove no less refined in publick Negotiations than they are in private affairs And as piety and mildness is natural to their Sex their government would prove less Rigorous than that of many Princes and we should wish for under their Reign that which is often feared under that of many others that Subjects would regulate themselves according to the Example of their Governours We may easily conclude that if Woman are capable to possesse severally all publick authority they
more Injurious than that which might be made to Rich and Powerful Men that they are more wicked than the Poor because they have more Opportunies of hurting And VVomen might answer as they That if they can do Hurt they can also do Good and that if the Ignorance wherein they are left be the cause Why they are worse than we Knowledge on the contrary would render them much better This short Discussion of the most signal Defects which Men conceive peculiar and natural to the lovely Sex proves two things the one That they are not so considerable as the Vulgar Imagine and the other That they may be Rejected upon the little Education which VVomen have and what-ever they are they may be amended by Instruction of which VVomen are no less capable than our Selves If the Philosophers had followed this Rule in judging of all that concerns VVomen they would have spoken more soundly and had not in Respect of them fallen into Ridiculous Absurdities But the most part both of Antient and Modern having only built their Philosophy upon popular Prejudices and having been in great Igno-rance of themselves it is no wonder that they have so far mistaken others Without giving our selves any trouble to medle with the Antients we may say of the Modern That the manner how they are Taught making them believe though falsly That they cannot become more knowing than those that have gone before them renders them Slaves to Antiquity and enclines them to embrace blindly all that they find therein as Constant and Universal Truths And because that all that they say against VVomen is principally founded upon what they have Read in the Antients it will not here be unprofitable to relate some of the most curious Conceits on this Subject which have been left to us by these Illustrious Dead whose very Ashes and Rottenness are at this Day held in so great Veneration Plato the Father of Antient Philosophy thanked the Gods for three Favours which they had bestowed on him but chiefly for that he was Born a Man and not a VVoman If he had in his Eye their present Condition I should easily be of his Mind But that which makes me think that he had some-what else in his Thoughts is The Doubt which he is said to have been often in If Women ought to be placed in the Category of Beasts That may be sufficient to Rational Men to make him Condemn himself of Ignorance or Brutishness and totally to degrade him from the Title of Divine which he enjoyes no more but among Pedants His Scholar Aristotle to whom the Schools still continue the Name of the Glorious Genious of Nature upon a Mistake that he hath known her better than any other Philosopher pretends that VVomen are but Monsters Who would not believe it upon the Authority of so Renowned a Personage To say It is an Impertinence would be to choak his Supposition too openly If a VVoman how Learned soever she might be had wrote as much of Men she would have lost all her Credit and Men would have imagined it sufficient to have refuted such a Foppery by answering That it must be a VVoman or a Fool that had said so In the mean-while she would have had no less Reason than this Philosopher VVomen are as Antient as Men We see them in as great Number and no Man is surprized to meet them in his Way To be a Monster according to the Opinion it self of that Man there must be something Extraordinary and Surprizing VVomen have nothing of all that They have been alwayes made after the same Fashion alwayes Pretty and Witty And if they be not made like Aristotle they may say That Aristotle was not made like them The Disciples of this Author who lived in the time of Philo fell into a Conceit no less old Fashioned in regard of VVomen fancying to themselves according to the Relation of that Historian That they were Half-Men or Imperfect Males It is without doubt because they have not the Chin hung with a long beard unless it be that I can apprehend nothing The Two Sexes to be Perfect ought to be as we see them If the one were altogether like the other it would be neither of the Two If Men be the Fathers of Women Women are the Mothers of Men which at least renders them Equal And we might have as much Reason as these Philosophers to say That Men are Imperfect VVomen Socrates who was the Morality and Oracle of Antiquity speaking of the Beauty of that Sex was accustomed to compare it to a Temple of a Fair Show but built upon a Jakes If this Conceit do not turn our Stomacks we must only Laugh at it It is propable that he judged of the Bodies of others by his own or by his Wives who was a She-Devil which made him detest her and that he spake of her Sex to bring her down And that he himself was mad to the very soul because he was ugly as a Maggot Diogenes Sir-named The Dog because he was good at nothing but Biteing seeing one day in passing two VVomen who Discoursed together told the Company That there was two Serpents an Aspe and a Viper who Communicated to one another their Poison That Saying is worthy of an Honest Man and I wonder not that it is Ranked among the goodly Philosophical Sentences If the Wise Men of Gottam had lived in his time it is certain we should have found their Ran-counters more sprightly The good Man was a little wounded and they that knew him a little judged that at that time he had nothing else to say For the admirable and pleasant Democritus as he loved to be merry and laugh a little we must not take every thing litterally which came from his Mouth He was a very tall Man and his Wife one of the least Being one day asked Why he had so ill matched himself He answered according to his ordinary Rallery That when we are obliged to choose and when there is nothing that is good to be taken the Least is alwayes the Best If the same Question had been put to his Wife she might have repartied with as much Reason That a little and a big Husband being both alike the one as bad as the other she had taken her's hap Hazzard for fear that if she had chosen she might have done worse Cato the Sage and Severe Critick prayed often That the Gods would pardon him if he had been so Imprudent as to trust the least Secret to a VVoman There stuck in the good Mans Mind a Famous Passage in the Roman History which Antiquaries use as a great Argument to prove the little Secresie of VVomen A Child of twelve Years of Age being pressed by his Mother to tell her the Resolution of he Senate where he had been Assistant invented to baffle her that it had been decreed That every Husband should have several Wives Immediately she went and told her Neighbours to consult