Un essai en défense du sexe féminin

Dark Clouds of Prejudice obscur’d their Verse, You with Victorious Prose those Clouds disperse: Those Foggs, which wou’d not to their Flame submit, Vanish before your Rising Sun of Wit. Like Stars, they only in Themselves were bright, The whole Sex shines by your reflected Light. Our Sex have long thro’ Usurpation reign’d, And by their Tyranny their Rule maintain’d. Till wanton grown with Arbitrary Sway Depos’d by you They practice to obey, Proudly submitting, when such Graces meet, Beauty by Nature, and by conquest Wit. For Wit they had on their own Sex entail’d, Till for your self, and Sex you thus prevail’d. Thrice happy Sex! Whose Foes such Pow’r disarms, And gives fresh Lustre to your native Charms, Whose Nervous Sense couch’d in close Method lies, Clear as her Soul, and piercing as her Eyes. If any yet so stupid shou’d appear, As still to doubt, what she has made so clear, Her Beautie’s Arguments they would allow, And to Her Eyes their full Conversion owe. And by Experiment the World convince. The Force of Reason’s less, than that of Sense. Your Sex you with such Charming Grace defend, While that you vindicate, you Ours amend: We in your Glass may see each foul defect. And may not only see, but may correct. In vain old _Greece_ her Sages would compare, They taught what Men should be, you what they are With doubtfull Notiones they Mankind perplext, And with unpracticable Precept vext. In vain they strove wild Passions to reclaim, Uncertain what they were, or whence they came. But you, who have found out their certain Source, May with a happier Hand divert their Course.…