rallel quality of Drinking alfo; a vice deteftable in all, but prodigious in Women, who put a double violence upon their nature, the one in the intemperance, the other in the immodefty. And tho' they may take their immediate copy from Men, yet (to the praise of their proficiency) they out do their Exemplar, and draw near the Original: nothing humane being fo much beaft as a drunken Woman. This is evident enough if we look only on the mere furface of the crime; but if we dive farther into it's inferences and adherences, the affirmation is yet more irrefragable. She who is firft a proftitute to Wine, will foon be to Luft alfo: fhe has difmift her Guards, difcarded all her fuggeftions of reafon, as well as Grace, and is at the mercy of any, or every affailant. And when we confider how much fuller the world is of Amnons than Fofephs, it will not be hard to guess the fate of that woman's Chastity, which has no other bottom than that of mens. So that unlefs her vice fecure her vertue, and the loathfomeness of the one prevent attempts on the other, 'tis fcarce imaginable a woman that looses her fobriety fhould keep her Honesty. So that indeed I might more properly have made this reflection, when I come to speak of Modefty in the fecond notion of it, as it is oppos'd Lightness and Wantonnefs; but it falls not much amifs now to be the introduction to it.

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17. AND if we confider Modesty in this fenfe, we fhall find it the moft indispensable requifite of a Woman; a thing fo effential and natural to the Sex, that every the leaft declination from it, is a proportionable receding from Woman-hood; but the total abandoning it ranks them amomg Brutes, nay fets them as far beneath those, as an acquir'd vilenefs is below a native. I need make no collection of the verdicts, either of the Philofophers or Divines in the cafe, it being so much an inftinct of nature, that tho' too many make a shift to fupprefs it in themselves, yet they cannot fo darken the notion in others, but that an Impudent Woman is lookt on as a kind of Moniter, a thing diverted and dif torted from it's proper form. That there is indeed a strange repugnancy to nature, needs no other evidence than the ftrugling, and difficulty in the firft violations of Modefty, which always begin with regrets and blushes, and require a great deal of Self-denial, much of vitious Fortitude, to encounter with the recoilings and upbraidings of their own minds.

18. I make no doubt but this Age has arriv'd to as compendious arts of this kind, as induftrious vice can fuggeft, and we have but too many inftances of early proficients in this learning; yet I dare appeal even to the forwardeft of them, whether at firft they

could

could not with more ease have kept their ver tue than loft it. Certainly fuch are the Horrours and fhames that precede those first Guilts, that they must commit a rape upon themselves, (force their own reluctancies and averfions) before they can become willing proftitutes to others. This their Seducers feem well to understand, and upon that score are at the pains of fo many preparatory courtings, fuch expence of presents too; as if this were fo uncouth a crime, that there were no hope to introduce it, but by a confederacy of fome more familiar vices, their Pride or Covetoufness.

19. THE best way therefore to countermine thofe Stratagems of Men, is for Women to be fufpiciously vigilant even of the first approaches. He that means to defend a Fort, muft not abandon the Out-works; and fhe that will secure her Chaftity, must never let it come to too clofe a fiege, but repel the very first and most remote infinuations of a Tempter. Therefore when we fpeak of Modefty in our present notion of it, we are not to oppose it only to the groffer act of Incontinency; but to all thofe misbehaviours, which either discover, or may create any inclination to it; of which fort is all Lightness of carriage, wanton glances, obfcene difcourfe; things that fhew a Woman fo weary of her honour, that the next comer may reasonably

expect a furrender, and confequently be invited to the Affault. Indeed they are fuch, that one would rather think them the refult of many acts, than merely the Prologue to one; and that nothing but a cuftom of private fin, could fupply impudence enough to do what is fo publickly fcandalous: and where this is found in those of any confiderable Age, charity it felf can scarce pafs a milder cenfure. Yet poffibly in thofe of the youngest fort, they may at first be taken up (as their drefs

merely in imitation of others, embrac'd implicitly upon the authority of those, whofe examples govern the modes. When a poor girl, who has ftill fo much of the child, as to admire every thing that glitters, fees these things us'd by the gay people of the world, 'tis no wonder if the take these as part of their accomplishments, and, upon peril of that formidable calamity of being unfashionable, conform to them. Which yet do's not fo much extenuate the guilt of thofe few feduc'd perfons, as it aggravates that of the feducers, and attefts the ftrange corruption of the age, that thofe things which the lefs harden'd fort of prostitutes were formerly afham'd of, fhould now pass into the frequency and avowedness of a fashion, become a part of Difcipline and Inftitution of Youth; as if vice now difdain'd to have any punies in it's fchool, and therefore by a prepofterous anticipation makes

it's pupils begin where they were wont to end; initiates them at firft into that fhamelessnefs, which was wont to be the product only of a long habit. What the end will be of these Piqueerers in impudence, who thus put their vertue on the forlorn hope, is easy to divine. Yet is not this the only state of danger: they who keep their ranks, and tho they do not provoke affaults, yet ftay to receive them, may be far enough from fafety. She that lends a patient ear to the praises of her Wit or Beauty, intends at firft perhaps only to gratify her vanity; but when he is once charm'd with that Sirens fong, bewitcht with that Flattery, the infenfibly declines to a kindness for that perfon that values her so much: and when that spark fhall be blow'd up by perpetual remonftrances of Paffion, and perhaps little Romantick artifices of pretending to die for her, with a thousand other tricks, which luft can fuggeft, 'twill, like the Naptha Naturalifts fpeak of, in a moment grow to an unquenchable flame, to the ruine both of her vertue and honour.

20. LET no woman therefore presume upon the innocence of her firft intentions; fhe may as well, upon confidence of a found conftitution, enter a peft-house, and converse with the plague, whofe contagion do's not more fubtlely infinuate it felf, than this fort of temptation. And as in that cafe fhe would

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