1904.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N O work can fafely be defpifed which 
i every one reads and no one forgets : 
‘on this account I hope you will indulge 
me by giving a place to a few ftrictures 
on Pope’s “ Epiftle on the Charaéters of 
Women”—a produétion which I fhould 
otherwife be very willing to abandon to 
the contempt that in almoft every point 
of view it fo jultly merits. 
Ttruft I am not tranfported by an un- 
‘due zeal for the honour of my fex, when 
I undertake to prove this celebrated, but 
‘outrageous, fatire upon it, inconfiftent 
with itfelf, with truth, and with jultice, 
replete with falfe maxims, falfe wit, and 
unprovoked malignity, and equally un- 
worthy the philofopher, the philanthro- 
pit, the man of tafte, and the man of 
fenfe. 
Firf, what can be more inconfiftent 
than to preface an Epiftle on the Charaders 
of Women with an affertion that ‘* moft 
women have no character at all?” If 
indeed they are 
** Beft diftinguifhed by black, brown, or fair,” 
what remained for Pope but to torow 
down the pen, and borrow the pencil 
of his friend Jervas to introduce us to 
a gallery of female portraits ? But 
this would not have gratified his fpleen 
againft a fex which nature had denied 
him the power to pleafe: nor indeed did 
be believe it; but it had been faid—it 
was a fevere thing—a contradiction coft 
him nothing; and he was refolved to in- 
fert it. Before he proceeded however, it 
was neceflary to get rid of this maxim 
which muft otherwife have put him to 
filence; and {kulking, as Sophiltry is wont 
to do, behind the glittering buckler of 
fimile, which is fo ferviceabie in dazzling 
the eyes of an opponent, he glides off 
the field, in order to renew the attack 
from a direftly oppofte quarter. He 
mow advances with a charge of univerfal 
inconfiftency and endle!s caprice againtt 
our tucklefs fex, which he procee.s to 
iluflrate by ‘¢ inftances of contrarieties 
in fuch charagters as are moft ftrongly 
marked, and feemingly therefore moist 
confiftent, as firft in the Affected.’’ But 
furely between Rufa attracting ‘ each 
light gay meteor of a fpark,”? and  Ru- 
ta fiudying Locke,” there is no real in- 
confifiency: the effence of affectation is, 
an attempt to attract admiration by pre- 
tending to be what we really are nat; 
the very definition includes vertfatility, 
and what human being can keep clear 
wt © co traricties’” if they are incurred 
‘~MontTury Mac. No. 112. 
Stridures on Pope's Charafiers of Women. 
10) 
fimply by purfuing the fame end by dif. 
erent means? Further, may it not be 
called unphilofophical to mention affeéta- 
tion at all among fexual chara¢teriftics ? 
For it is neither a paffion, or difpofition, 
nora quality or endowment of the mind, 
but fimply a habit produced by circums,. 
fiances, an adventitious garb aflumed for 
particular purpofes, and capable of ad- 
hering to any one whofe marking fea- 
ture is vanity.—In Silia, whofe failing 
is infinuated with fo much felf-compla- 
cent flippancy, what ‘* contrariety’’ is 
difplayed but that between the fame per- 
fon when fober and when drunk; and 
furely there is nothing in thzs peculiar to 
the fofter fex !—Papillia I wouid allow to 
be a fair inftance of feminine caprice, 
could I be certain that ‘* her amorous 
{park,” did not partake her ennui, and 
long, like herfelf, when the honey-moon 
was ended, to return to the pleafures 
and gayeties of a town.—Of the four 
odioufly grofs portraitures which follow, 
I fhall only obferve that the ‘ artful’* 
character is as little to be taxed. with 
inconfiftency as the ‘ affected,” and for 
fimilar reafons ; and that the three, wuta- 
tis mutandis, are mere fervile draughts 
after:the Whartons, the Villierses, &c. 
the “* riddle’? of whofe lives he had al- 
ready expatiated on in his Satires again{k. 
the other fex. In fact, it was impoilible 
for him to fay ftronger things of the in- 
confiftencies of women, than he had al- 
ready faid of thofe cf men; and if in one 
cafe he fuppofed he had difcovered a key 
by which the deepett fecrets of nature 
were decyphered, and all made plain, no 
good reafon can poffibly be given why” 
he fhould not have applied the fame key 
here alfo, inftead of winding up his won. 
dering remarks with the gracious con 
clufion, 
6¢ Woman and Fool are two hard things te 
hit, 
For true no meaning puzzles more than wit.” 
Meekne(fs and obitinacy, are in reality 
very congenial qualities, and may be 
found in many individuals of both: fexes 
befides ** Simo’s Mate.” The ¢* viciffi- 
tude’’ of ** mirth and opium, ratifia and 
tears,” is a mere phyfical phenomenen, 
and has nothing to do with charader, 
moral or intellectual. —Atoffla I will 
allow to be a ftriking and fpirited pic- 
ture; it was drawn from an individual, 
and has probably a caricature likenefs of 
her: but the weman-bating arift was 
probably not aware that, by enlarging 
the ftrong features of his original, he 
made them more mafculine than femi- 
s : Ries 
‘\ 
