to subjection, I should resign into their fair hands the
           sovereign authority over the republic of letters. As the case
           stands, my commission extends no farther, than to desire a
           league, offensive and defensive, against our common enemies,
           against the enemies of reason and beauty, people of dull heads
           and cold hearts. From this moment let us pursue them with the
           severest vengeance: let no quarter be given, but to those of
           sound understandings and delicate affections; and these
           characters, 'tis to be presumed, we shall always find
           inseparable.

           To be serious, and to quit the allusion before it be worn
           thread-bare, I am of opinion, that women, that is, women of
           sense and education (for to such alone I address myself) are
           much better judges of all polite writing than men of the same
           degree of understanding; and that 'tis a vain pannic, if they
           be so far terrified with the common ridicule that is levelled
           against learned ladies, as utterly to abandon every kind of
           books and study to our sex. Let the dread of that ridicule
           have no other effect, than to make them conceal their
           knowledge before fools, who are not worthy of it, nor of them.
           Such will still presume upon the vain title of the male sex to
           affect a superiority above them: but my fair readers may be
           assured, that all men of sense, who know the world, have a
           great deference for their judgment of such books as ly within
           the compass of their knowledge, and repose more confidence in
           the delicacy of their taste, though unguided by rules, than in
           all the dull labours of pedants and commentators. In a
           neighbouring nation, equally famous for good taste, and for
           gallantry, the ladies are, in a manner, the sovereigns of the
           learned world, as well as of the conversible; and no polite
           writer pretends to venture upon the public, without the
           approbation of some celebrated judges of that sex. Their
           verdict is, indeed, sometimes complained of; and, in
           particular, I find, that the admirers of Corneille, to save
           that great poet's honour upon the ascendant that Racine began
           to take over him, always said, that it was not to be expected,
           that so old a man could dispute the prize, before such judges,
           with so young a man as his rival. But this observation has
           been found unjust, since posterity seems to have ratified the
           verdict of that tribunal: and Racine, though dead, is still
           the favourite of the fair sex, as well as of the best judges
           among the men.

           There is only one subject, on which I am apt to distrust the
           judgment of females, and that is, concerning books of
           gallantry and devotion, which they commonly affect as high
           flown as possible; and most of them seem more delighted with
           the warmth, than with the justness of the passion. I mention
           gallantry and devotion as the same subject, because, in
           reality, they become the same when treated in this manner; and
           we may observe, that they both depend upon the very same
           complexion. As the fair sex have a great share of the tender
           and amorous disposition, it perverts their judgment on this
           occasion, and makes them be easily affected, even by what has
           no propriety in the expression nor nature in the sentiment.
           Mr. Addison's elegant discourses of religion have no relish
           with them, in comparison of books of mystic devotion: and
           Otway's tragedies are rejected for the rants of Mr. Dryden.

           Would the ladies correct their false taste in this particular;
           let them accustom themselves a little more to books of all
           kinds: let them give encouragement to men of sense and
           knowledge to frequent their company: and finally, let them
           concur heartily in that union I have projected betwixt the
           learned and conversible wor1ds. They may, perhaps, meet with
           more complaisance from their usual followers than from men of
           learning; but they cannot reasonably expect so sincere an
           affection: and, I hope, they will never be guilty of so wrong
           a choice, as to sacrifice the substance to the shadow.

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           [1][COPYRIGHT: (c) 1995, Christopher MacLachlan
           (cjmm@st-andrews.ac.uk), all rights reserved. Unaltered copies
           of this computer text file may be freely distribute for
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           permitted only for purposes of computer printouts, although
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           notice supersedes all previous notices on earlier versions of
           this text file.

           EDITORIAL CONVENTIONS: Note references are contained within
           square brackets (e.g., [1]). Spelling and punctuation have
           been modernized.

           [2][Matthew Prior, Alma, or the Progress of the Mind (1718),
           Canto 3, lines 525f.]

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   © 1996