CHAPTER II
In what esteem the Women are held by the Men, and how justly.
My fair adversary is undoubtedly right in saying that "the men are unanimous in
thinking women made only for their use, fit only to breed and nurse children in
their tender years, to mind household affairs, and to obey, serve and please the
masters" appointed them by Heaven. And would not all women be as right in
thinking the same with men? Can it be doubted by the Christian Sophia that her
sex was made for our use, after St. Paul has told her in his Epistle to the
Corinthians that the man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the
man?
. . . Though the consideration of man's not being created till all creatures were
in readiness for him be no contemptible argument of their being created for his
use; yet it is far from being the only one on which he builds his authority. It is
the only one indeed which Sophia thought to her purpose to alledge; though had
she allowed herself time to reflect, woman as she is, she might have been able
to see how little it suits the purpose she has applied it to.
For she is certainly mistaken in saying, that, "if this argument has any weight at all,
it must equally prove that the men were made for the woman's use rather than she
for theirs."
And her mistake, it is plain, arises from the vulgar error of imagining that
woman was created at all. Whereas any understanding inferior to that of
woman, if such a being could exist, would be capable of discerning that the
production of that weak sex was no distinct creation from that of man. . . Let
not Sophia then nor any of her sex glory any more in their disgrace.
Let them not be vain of the title of creatures which our sex is so generous to
compliment them with; rather ought they to reject it as flattery, since they
cannot themselves but be convinced that we can look upon the most perfect of
their sex in no better a light than a kind of amphibious thing between a creature
and no creature; and therefore man, who calls them creatures, must mean very
poor creatures indeed.
After what I have just now said, good breeding obliges me to add, that,
whenever I let the word drop in the course of this little treatise, it neither is nor
will be my meaning to offend, or call them names; but a desire of complying
with fashion, a goddess ever sacred in their tender eyes. However, to show
more fully my aversion to abusing them, whenever I may chance to give them
the title of creatures, I shall take the precaution of adding the softening epithets,
pretty, charming, beautiful, etc, which, unless I am more unfortunate than
others before me, would, I know, be looked upon by the generality of them as a
sufficient atonement for the grossest invectives.
Though I will allow the women to deserve that some care should be taken of
them, in consideration of the part they have in the propogation of human nature,
as a field does on account of the vegetables it produces; yet I cannot see the
reason why they are to be considered on a level with the men they bring forth,
any more than that the mould in a garden is to be equally valued with the fruits
it produces; unless the Ladies place a merit in the superior propensity they have
above men to this office of life. But how ever they may value themselves upon
this score, I am apt to believe that they, who have the most of this sort of merit,
are not such as have the least of our disesteem.
To name but one instance of the many which this one town affords, Salacia is
undeniably rich in this kind of worth, and too much so to obtain the esteem of
the more moderate even of her own sex. It is true she is fair, most exquisitely
fair; but not more fair than wanton. The charms of her person can be excelled
by nothing, but the brightness of her wit; which bears so near a resemblance to
sense that any man would be liable to mistake it for such, who should lay down
reflection but for a minute.
Her good nature is boundless, and her evenness of temper not to be ruffled.
In short, all the blemishes which compose the perfections of her sex, she
possesses in so high a degree, that we could not but acknowledge her worthy
of something very like our esteem, if all these feminine accomplishments were
not eclipsed by one more, which absorbs all the rest. She is sensible that the
chief end she was made for is to breed; and therefore is unweariedly solicitous
to answer that end.
The good man she pitched upon for a husband, as the most likely to second
her procreative zeal, is indeed every way qualified to answer the expectations of
any woman less public- spirited than herself; and is rather industrious than
indolent in the duty of propogation. But the misfortune is, that his industry to
forward the Lady's good intentions serves only to point out his inability,
and to convince her, that all mankind are scarce a sufficient match for one
woman, whose zeal nothing less could gratify than being the immediate mother
of all men.
If she herself is not so, it is more to be ascribed to the obstinacy of fate than
any slackness in her capricious disposition which takes in the whole creation of men.
Had she her will she would breed in every pore. And if she is not incessantly
employed in this important office, it is for want of a perpetual succession of
help-mates.
Though to give her her due Nature itself is not more active in multiplying, than
she in procuring them. As she is never tired with labouring towards the
preservation of the species, no assistant comes amiss to her.
Her taste is as little nice as her appetite is never sated nor satiable. In the act of
gratifying it, like a true woman, No hungry Churl feeds coarser at a feast;
Every rank Fool goes down: Otway
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