Judith Drake
AN ESSAY IN DEFENCE OF THE FEMALE SEX
A feminist literature classic
Published by
Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting
[email protected] 2017 OK Publishing ISBN 978-80-272-3336-6
AN ESSAY In Defence of the FEMALE SEX.
In which are inserted the CHARACTERS
OF
| A Pedant, |
 |
 |
A Vertuoso, |
| A Squire, | A Poetaster, | ||
| A Beau, | A City-Critick, &c. |
In a Letter to a Lady.
Written by a Lady.
The Third Edition with Additions.
Since each is fond of his own ugly Face; Why shou’d you when we hold it break the Glass?
Prol. to Sir F. Flutter
Table of Contents
To Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark.
To the Most Ingenious Mrs. — or her admirable Defence of Her Sex.
To Madam — on the Occasion of her Essay, in Defence of her Sex.
“The Question I shall at present handle is, whether the time an ingenious Gentleman spends in the Company of Women, may justly be said to be misemploy’d, or not.”
“Our Company is generally by our Adversaries represented as unprofitable and irksome to Men of Sense, and by some of the more vehement Sticklers against us, as Criminal.”
“It remains then for us to enquire, whether the Bounty of Nature be wholly neglected, or stifled by us, or so far as to make us unworthy the Company of Men? Or whether our Education (as bad as it is) be not sufficient to make us a useful, nay, a necessary part of Society for the greatest part of Mankind.”
“Let us look into the manner of our Education, and see wherein it falls short of the Mens, and how the defects of it may be, and are generally supply’d.”
“To begin with Vanity, it is a Failing the greatest Part of Mankind are tinctured with, more or less.”
“Impertinence is a humour of busying ourselves about things trivial, and of no Moment in themselves, or unseasonably in things of no concern to us, or wherein we are able to do nothing to any Purpose.”
“Amongst the rest Dissimulation is none of the least Blemishes, which they endeavour to fix upon us.”
“Envy is the Parent of Calumny, and the Daughter of Jealousie.”
“We stand yet charg’d with Levity, and Inconstancy, two Failings so nearly related, and so generally United, that it is hard to treat of ’em apart; we will therefore consider ’em briefly together.”
“These are the most considerable Imperfections, or at least those, which with most Colour of Reason are charg’d upon us, as general Defects; and I hope, Madam, I have fairly shown, that the other Sex are both by Interest and Inclination more expos’d, and more Subject to ’em than we, Pride, Lust, Cruelty, and many more, are by the Declaimers against us thrown into the Scale to make weight and bear us down, but with such manifest Injustice, that without giving myself any further trouble, I dare appeal to any reasonable Man, and leave him to decide the Difference.”
To Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark.
MADAM,
IF in adventuring to lay this little Piece at your Highnesses Feet, and humbly to beg your Royal Protection of it, I have presum’d too far, be pleas’d to impute it to your own most gracious Goodness, the knowledge of which encourag’d me. Our Sex are by Nature tender of their own Off-spring, and may be allow’d to have more fondness for those of the Brain, then any other; because they are so few, and meet with so many Enemies at their first appearance in the World. I hope therefore to find pardon, if like an indulgent Parent, I have endeavour’d to advance my first Born, by entering it very early into your Highnesses Service.
I have not presum’d to approach your Highness out of any Confidence in the merits of this Essay, but of the Cause which it pleads, wherein the Honour of the whole Sex seem’d to exact of me no less a Patronage than that of the Best, as well as Greatest among ’em, whom they are all