82 Ruling PASSION of WOMEN, 
eclipfes her own charms ; and in the iflue makes herfelf de- 
testable. 
If gentlenefs and kindnefs ; if truth and honor ; if protec- 
tion from all harm ; if every thing the world calls polite, are 
expe&ed from the man, it is prefumed to be your due, as the 
reward of virtue, without which there can be no merit. She 
who experts thefe advantages, on any other terms, muft firft 
put a man’s eyes out, or lead him a dance till he is giddy. 
When milton makes the angel fliow our great progenitor, in 
a vifton, the complicated miferies which fhould happen in the 
world, adam remarks, 
<£ Still I fee the tenor of man s woe 
“ Holds on the fame , from woman to begin .” 
The angel rebukes him, and fays, 
tc p rom man s effeminate flachnefs it begins 
We muft acknowledge, that whatever vice or folly arife from 
the influence the fexes have on each other, fools of their own 
making, feem to be lefs pardonable than thofe who become fuch 
by an immediate confequence of that influence : but this does 
not alter the nature of guilt or folly. The argument, which 
of the fexes is moft to blame, is ridiculous. The difcontented on 
either fide, are apt enough to reafon as if mankind were in a 
ftate of war, and that the fexes had a right to make reprifals on 
each other for injuries committed. This has carried many to fad 
extremities : they have not been fenftble of the abfurdity of the 
3 dodtrine, 
