The excellent woman described by her true characters and their opposites

The Debauched or Lewd Woman.

THERE ARE perhaps but few Pa∣laces that resemble the Isle of Chio, where it is said the Ladies preserved inviolate the Laws of Chastity and Honour during the space of seven hundred Years. I know not whether this was an Effect of their Skill, or of their Vertue; but be it as it will, this was a Chastity of a long Duration, and which de∣serves Admiration and Praise as much as the Corruption of the present Age deserves Re∣proofs and Punishments. It may be this Dis∣course will not be at all pleasing to those Wo∣men

to whom I desire it should be useful; but if the Vicious are not disposed to receive our Remedies for their Cure, at least they must expect to undergo our Affronts for their shame. I speak boldly to all; for if they be debauch'd, I desire not to be in any Favour with them; and if they be honest, I do not fear that I shall hereby incurr their Hatred. The one sort will applaud my Censure, and the other will do me honour in not approving my Discourse any more than I do their Life. However I shall always lie under this Inconvenience, That whatever Horrour I can help any to conceive at this Crime, it must be more obscure than injurious in such a matter. It is necessary to conceal, through Modesty, that which Hatred and Truth would require to be publish'd. It is herein that this Crime has a great advan∣tage, in that, while it is worthy of Reproof, the Filthiness it self nevertheless serves it for a Defence, and one is constrained to spare it more out of shame than pity.

IT IS VERY TRUE then, that the Passion of the debauched does no way deserve the Name of Love; it is some other Disease which cannot be cured but by a Miracle: and one may well say to the reproach of those that are infected with it, what the Poet said of Myrrha; that it was not Cupid that en∣kindled such a Flame in her, but rather one of the most inraged Furies. This is a Fire from Hell, which has for its Smoak a black

and dismal Blindness, for its gloomy Shine a horrid Scandal, and for its Ashes Infamy and Shame. And how can their filthy Desire be call'd Love; when instead of Election there is nothing in it but a brutal Universality? For in loving all, to speak properly, they do not love any; since this is a Fire which mingles with all sorts of Matter, even to the burning in the Water: I mean it can entertain for its Objects such as are worthy of the great∣est horrour and detestation.

AND NEVERTHELESS, though they have the Conscience full of Crimes, these are often they who would pass for Saints: As the most deform'd have most need of Paint and Disguise; so these Debauchees do some∣times seek the most industriously the Appear∣ance of Vertue. It is for this Reason they live with so much constraint; and that there is nothing equal or natural in their Deport∣ment; that they appear this day insolent ac∣cording to their humour, and to morrow carry themselves modestly according to their Dissimulation and Hypocrisie. They who say the Vicious resemble the Syrens, perhaps do not know all the Mystery of this Comparison. One of these Monsters was named Parthenope, that is to say, Virgin; having a smiling Coun∣tenance to allure Mariners withal, and make them split upon those Rocks that were co∣vered by the Water. The most Immodest will sometimes endeavour to appear the most

Chast, but with all their Disguise they are but infamous Gulphs where none but the Impru∣dent and the Desperate make Shipwrack.

They make a show of Candour and inge∣nuous Freedom, to the end they may the bet∣ter deceive those who are simple enough to believe they do those things only out of Hu∣mour or very innocently, which they really do with Design to catch some Fool or other thereby. They do nevertheless even herein acknowledge the worth of Vertue, since they borrow the Appearance of that for the putting off their Vice. But herein their De∣sign succeeds ill, whatever address they have, their Artifice renders them suspected: And as we know that is counterfeit Gold which bears too bright a Colour; so we may discover their disguised Vertue, by it's making too great a show. After all, the true Chastity does not seek so much to set off it self as that which is feigned; the Caution and Reserved∣ness of an honest Woman is very different from that of her who is not so; the one is plain and natural, the other is constrain'd.

But to say the truth, it is not in this, that the Debauched seem to me most blameable; as yet they give some Honour to Vertue, when they take pains to counterfeit it. It seems that their Artifice is an effect of their Re∣morse, and that as the homely, in using paint, do own the Defects of their Faces; so the vicious, while they dissemble their Crime,

have still some horrour at it, not being able to endure that it should appear quite naked. But there are some Impudent Creatures who boast of their Filthiness, and make their Sin publickly appear; who love not the Conver∣sation of any but those that are most licen∣tious; and who entertain themselves always with the most shameful Discourses.

WHATEVER some say to excuse this Liberty, I must needs think that 'tis neither Genteelness nor good humour that gives such an Easiness; that Complaisance does not at all ex∣tend hitherto; and that it is impossible any should live in such Loosness, without Offence to Modesty. Shamefac'dness is always severe when 'tis entire and true; it is corrupted when it becomes softned. If the Widow of Sigismond had been the most chast of all Wo∣men; yet had she not put a Slur upon her Vertue, when she answer'd to them who counsell'd her not to marry again; That if she were to take an Example from any of the Birds, she should rather chuse to imitate the Sparrows than the Turtles? Though she had been never so innocent, this bold Dis∣course would have made her accounted guil∣ty. If there was no wickedness in it; yet at least there was Impudence. But that I may dissemble nothing in this matter; it must be said that the true Modesty will not only re∣strain a Woman from speaking what is disho∣nest, but even from hearing, and giving her

self leave to understand it. After Helen had opened the Letter which was sent her by Paris, she thought her self bound to refuse him no∣thing. When they have granted some Favour they engage themselves afterwards to do more than they intended. They who have indeed no Desire to be conquer'd, ought to take a∣way at first all Hopes from those that assault them; for fear lest they should take a gentle Refusal for a disguis'd Permission.

THE DEBAUCHED are not only Impudent, but also Slanderers; perswading themselves by a false Politick, that they have justified their Sin if they can make it be thought universal. What Errour, what Blindness is here! If they slander the most Vertuous, they also hate those that are like themselves: So that the Conformity which produces Friend∣ship in all other Professions, breeds nothing but Hatred among these. Is not this to be at Variance with all sorts of Persons; when the Presence of the Vertuous seems to reproach them with their Crimes, and the Company of those that are like them, does something diminish their Divertisement?

Lastly they add Cruelty to Impudence and Slander. And that we may not engage in an impossible Task in undertaking to reckon up all the ill that is in such Persons; it may suf∣fice to say that we must reckon up all that there is of Wickedness and Crime in the whole World, to express all that which is a∣mong

these abject Creatures. The Salvation of these hardned Wretches is almost desperate, their Repentance ought to be placed in the rank of Miracles; and whatever purposes they make of Conversion, they always relapse into the same Hell. It ought not to be a Wonder if they have sometimes in this World as much of Prosperity as of Sin; and if they are as happy as they are guilty, it is because the Righteous God deferrs their Punishment, to render it the more extream: He is not willing that they should encroach at all in this Life upon the Punishments which he prepares for them in the other.

I acknowledge, that in this Age, as well as in that of Phryne, there may be found too many fair Debauchees. But if we could well consider a great many of these infa∣mous Sinners, and had compar'd the Lines of their Faces with those in their Consci∣ences, we should often enough find in them an equal Deformity. They do not think what must needs be the ugly Horrour of their filthy old Age; since many of them have given their Nurses some fear almost from the Cra∣dle. They do not consider that the wrin∣kles make a reckoning of the Years upon their Faces, as the figures do of the Hours upon a Dial. If one had painted the Por∣traicture of these wretches to the life, and any could perswade themselves that the Devils do resemble them, I believe the more

among Mankind would take care not to damn themselves, and that this frightful Object would beget in Men a greater fear of Hell than the severest Preachers are able to do.

But that I may be as short as obscure in a matter so unpleasing, I shall finish the Cha∣racter of the Debauchee after the same man∣ner as Appelles did one of his Pictures. Af∣ter this admirable Limner had considered, with abundance of Pleasure, the Features and Charms of Compaspe a Mistress of Alex∣ander, he was so in Love that he was not able to finish the Copy of so lovely an Ori∣ginal. I do that out of Hatred which he did out of Love, and I find so many hor∣rible Lines in the Pourtraicture of these Infamous Wretches, that the Pencil falls out of my Hand; having too much Anger, and too few Reproaches, to finish this Peice with Colours that are black enough.