A Serious PROPOSAL TO THE LADIES. (continued 2)

But the men if they rightly understand their own interest, have no reason to oppose the ingenious Education of the Women, since ’twou’d go a great way towards reclaiming the men, great is the influence we have over them in their Childhood, in which time if a Mother be discreet and knowing as well as devout, she has many opportunities of giving such a Form and Season to the tender Mind of the Child, as will shew its good effects thro’ all the stages of his Life. But tho’ you should not allow her capable of doing good, ’tis certain she may do hurt: If she do not make the Child, she has power to marr him, by suffering her fondness to get the better of discreet affection. But besides this, a good and prudent Wife wou’d wonderfully work on an ill man; he must be a Brute indeed, who cou’d hold out against all those innocent Arts, those gentle persuasives and obliging methods she wou’d use to reclaim him. Piety is often offensive when it is accompanied with indiscretion; but she who is as Wise as Good, possesses such Charms as can hardly fail of prevailing. Doubtless her Husband is a much happier Man and more likely to abandon all his ill Courses, than he who has none to come home to, but an ignorant, froward and fantastick Creature. An ingenious Conversation will make his life comfortable, and he who can be so well entertain’d at home, needs not run into Temptations in search of Diversions abroad. The only danger is that the Wife be more knowing than the Husband; but if she be ’tis his own fault, since he wants no opportunities of improvement; unless he be a natural Block-head, and then such an one will need a wise Woman to govern him, whose prudence will conceal it from publick Observation, and at once both cover and supply his defects. Give me leave therefore to hope, that no Gentleman who has honourable designs, will hence-forward decry Knowledge and Ingenuity in her he would pretend to Honour; If he does, it may serve for a Test to distinguish the feigned and unworthy from the real Lover.

Now who that has a spark of Piety will go about to oppose so Religious a design? What generous Spirit that has a due regard to the good of Mankind, will not be forward to advance and perfect it? Who will think 500 pounds too much to lay out for the purchase of so much Wisdom and Happiness? Certainly we shou’d not think them too dearly paid for by a much greater Sum, did not our pitiful and sordid Spirits set a much higher value on Money than it deserves. But granting so much of that dear Idol were given away, a person thus bred, will easily make it up by her Frugality & other Vertues; if she bring less, she will not waste so much as others do in superfluous and vain Expences. Nor can I think of any expedient so useful as this to Persons of Quality who are over-stock’d with Children, for thus they may honourably dispose of them without impairing their Estates. Five or six hundred pounds may be easily spar’d with a Daughter, when so many thousands would go deep; and yet as the world goes be a very inconsiderable Fortune for Ladies of their Birth, neither maintain them in that Port which Custom makes almost necessary, nor procure them an equal Match, those of their own Rank (contrary to the generous custom of the Germans) chusing rather to fill their Coffers than to preserve the purity of their Blood, and therefore think a weighty Bag the best Gentility, preferring a wealthy Upstart before the best Descended and best Qualified Lady; their own Extravagancies perhaps having made it necessary, that they may keep up an empty shadow of Greatness, which is all that remains to shew what their Ancestors have been.

Does any think their Money lost to their Families when ’tis put in here? I will only ask what course they can take to save it, and at once to preserve their Money, their Honour and their Daughters too? Were they sure the Ladies wou’d die unmarried, I shou’d commend their Thrift, but Experience has too often shewn us the vanity of this expectation. For the poor Lady having past the prime of her Years in Gaity and Company, in running the Circle of all the Vanities of the Town, having spread all her Nets and us’d all her Arts for Conquest, and finding that the Bait fails where she wou’d have it take; and having all this while been so over-careful of her Body, that she had no time to improve her Mind, which therefore affords her no safe retreat, now she meets with Disappointments abroad, and growing every day more and more sensible, that the respect which us’d to be paid her decays as fast as her Beauty; quite terrified with the dreadful Name of Old Maid, which yet none but Fools will reproach her with, nor any wise Woman be afraid of; to avoid this terrible Mormo, and the scoffs that are thrown on superannuated Virgins, she flies to some dishonourable Match as her last, tho’ much mistaken Refuge, to the disgrace of her Family and her own irreparable Ruin. And now let any Person of Honour tell me, if it were not richly worth some thousand Pounds, to prevent all this mischief, and the having an idle Fellow, and perhaps a race of beggarly Children to hang on him and to provide for?

Cou’d I think of any other Objection I wou’d consider it; there’s nothing indeed which witty Persons may not argue for and against, but they who duly weigh the Arguments on both sides, unless they be extreamly prejudiced, will easily discern the great usefulness of this Institution. The Beaux perhaps, and topping Sparks of the Town will ridicule and laugh at it. For Vertue her self as bright as she is, can’t escape the lash of scurrilous Tongues; the comfort is, whilst they impotently endeavour to throw dirt on her, they are unable to soil her Beauty, and only defile and render themselves the more contemptible. They may therefore if they please, hug themselves in their own dear folly, and enjoy the diversion of their own insipid Jests. She has but little Wisdom and less Vertue, who is to be frighted from what she judges reasonable, by the scoffs and insignificant noises of ludicrous Wits and pert Buffoons. And no wonder that such as they who have nothing to shew for their pretences to Wit, but some scraps of Plays and blustring Non-sense; who fansie a well adjusted Peruke is able to supply their want of Brains, and that to talk much is a sign of Ingenuity, tho’t be never so little to the purpose, no wonder that they object against our Proposal: ’Twou’d indeed spoil the Trade of the gay fluttering Fops, who wou’d be at a loss, had they no body as impertinent as themselves to talk with. The Criticism of their Dress wou’d be useless, and the labour of their Valet de Chambre lost, unless they cou’d peaceably lay aside their Rivalling, and one Ass be content to complement and admire another. For the Ladies wou’d have more discernment than to esteem a Man for such Follies as shou’d rather incline them to scorn and despise him. They wou’d never be so sottish as to imagine, that he who regards nothing but his own brutish Appetite, shou’d have any real affection for them, nor ever expect Fidelity from one who is unfaithful to GOD and his own Soul. They wou’d not be so absurd as to suppose, that Man can esteem them who neglects his Maker; for what are all those fine Idolatries, by which he wou’d recommend himself to his pretended Goddess, but mockery and delusion from him who forgets and affronts the true Deity? They wou’d not value themselves on account of the Admiration of such incompetent Judges, nor consequently make use of those little trifling Arts that are necessary to recommend them to such Admirers; Neither wou’d they give them opportunity to profess themselves their Slaves so long till at last they become their Masters.

What now remains, but to reduce to Practice that which tends so very much to our advantage. Is Charity so dead in the world that none will contribute to the saving their own and their neighbours Souls? Shall we freely expend our Money to purchase Vanity, and often times both present and future Ruin, and find none for such an eminent good Work, which will make the Ages to come arise and call us Blessed? I wou’d fain persuade my self better things, and that I shall one day see this Religious Retirement happily setled, and its great designs wisely and vigorously pursu’d; and methinks I have already a Vision of that lustre and glory our Ladies cast far and near; Let me therefore intreat the rest of our Sex, who tho’ at liberty in the world, are the miserable Slaves of their own vile affections, let me intreat them to lay aside their Prejudices and whatever borders on Envy and Malice, and with impartial eyes to behold the Beauties of our Religious. The native innocency and unaffectedness of whose Charms, and the unblameable Integrity of their Lives, are abundantly more taking than all the curious Artifices and studied Arts the other can invent to recommend them, even bad men themselves being Judges, who often betray a secret Veneration for that vertue they wou’d seem to despise and endeavour to corrupt. As there is not any thing, no not the least shadow of a motive to recommend Vice but its fashionableness and the being accustom’d to it, so there is nothing at all forbidden in Vertue but her uncouthness. Acquaint your selves with her a little, and you’ll wonder how you cou’d be so foolish as to delight in any thing besides! For you’ll find her Conversation most sweet and obliging; her Precepts most easy and beneficial; her very tasks Joys and her Injunctions the highest Pleasures. She will not rob you of any innocent delight, not engage you to any thing beneath your Birth and Breeding; but will put a new and more grateful relish into all your Enjoyments, and make them more delicious with her Sweetness. She’ll preserve and augment your Honour, by allying you to the King of Heaven; secure your Grandeur by fixing it on a firm bottom, such as the caprice of Fortune cannot shake or overthrow; she’ll enlarge your Souls, raise them above the common level, and encourage that allowable Pride of Scorning to do a base unworthy action; Make you truly amiable in the eyes of GOD and Man, preserve even the Beauty of your Bodies as long as ’tis possible for such a brittle thing to last, and when it must of necessity decay, impress such a loveliness on your Minds, as will shine thro’ and brighten your very Countenances; enriching you with such a stock of Charms, that Time which devours every other thing, shall never be able to decay: In a word, ’tis Vertue only which can make you truly happy in this world as well as in the next.

There is a sort of Bravery and Greatness of Soul, which does more truly ennoble us than the highest Title, and it consists in living up to the dignity of our Natures, being so sensible of our own worth as to think our selves too great to do a degenerate and unbecoming thing; in passing indifferently thro’ Good and Evil Fortune, without being corrupted by the one or deprest by the other. For she that can do so, gives evidence that her Happiness depends not on so mutable a thing as this World; but, in a due subserviency to the Almighty, is bottom’d only on her own great Mind. This is the richest Ornament, and renders a Woman glorious in the lowest Fortune. So shining is real worth, that like a Diamond it loses not its lustre tho’ cast on a Dunghill. Whereas, she who is advanc’d to some eminent Station and wants this natural and solid Greatness, is no better than Fortunes May-game, rendered more conspicuous that she may appear the more contemptible. Let those therefore who value themselves only on external accomplishments, consider how liable they are to decay, and how soon they may be depriv’d of them, and that supposing they shou’d continue, they are but sandy Foundations to build Esteem upon. What a disappointment will it be to a Ladies Admirer as well as to her self, that her Conversation shou’d lose or endanger the Victory her eyes had gain’d! For when the Passion of a Lover is Exchang’d for the Indifference of a Husband, and a frequent review has lessen’d the wonder which her Charms at first had rais’d, she’ll retain no more than such a formal respect as decency and good breeding will require, and perhaps hardly that, but unless he be a very good Man (and indeed the world is not over full of ’em) her worthlesness has made a forfeit of his Affections, which are seldom fixt by any other thing than Veneration and Esteem. Whereas a wise and good Woman is useful and valuable in all Ages and Conditions: she who chiefly attends the one thing needful, the good part which shall not be taken from her, lives a cheerful and pleasant Life, innocent and sedate, calm and tranquill, and makes a glorious Exit; being translated from the most happy life on Earth, to unspeakable happiness in Heaven; a fresh and fragrant Name embalming her Dust, and extending its Perfume to succeeding Ages. Whilst the Fools, and the worst sort of them the wicked, live as well as die in Misery, go out in a snuff, leaving nothing but stench and putrefaction behind them.

To close all, if this Proposal which is but a rough draught and rude Essay, and which might be made much more beautiful by a better Pen, give occasion to wiser heads to improve and perfect it, I have my end. For imperfect as it is, it seems so desirable, that she who drew the Scheme is full of hopes, it will not want kind hands to perform and compleat it. But if it miss of that, it is but a few hours thrown away, and a little labour in vain, which yet will not be lost, if what is here offer’d may serve to express her hearty Good-will, and how much she desires your Improvement, who is

LADIES, Your very humble Servant. FINIS.

Letters concerning the Love of GOD, between the Author of the Proposal to the Ladies, and Mr. John Norris; wherein his late Discourse, shewing that it ought to be intire and Exclusive of all other Loves, is farther clear’d and Justified, 8vo.

Printed for Richard Wilkin.