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  A Serious

  PROPOSAL

  TO THE

  LADIES,

  FOR THE

  Advancement of their

  True and Greatest

  INTEREST.

  In two Parts.

  _By a Lover of her SEX._

  _LONDON_:

  Printed for _Richard Wilkin_ at the _King’s-Head_
  in St. _Paul’s Church-Yard_, 1697.




A Serious

PROPOSAL

TO THE

LADIES.


LADIES,

Since the Profitable Adventures that have gone abroad in the World
have met with so great Encouragement, tho’ the highest advantage they
can propose, is an uncertain Lot for such matters as Opinion, not real
worth, gives a value to; things which if obtain’d are as flitting
and fickle as that Chance which is to dispose of them; I therefore
persuade my self, you will not be less kind to a Proposition that comes
attended with more certain and substantial Gain; whose only design is
to improve your Charms and heighten your Value, by suffering you no
longer to be cheap and contemptible. Its aim is to fix that Beauty, to
make it lasting and permanent, which Nature with all the helps of Art
cannot secure, and to place it out of the reach of Sickness and Old
Age, by transferring it from a corruptible Body to an immortal Mind.
An obliging Design, which wou’d procure them _inward_ Beauty, to whom
Nature has unkindly denied the _outward_, and not permit those Ladies
who have comely Bodies, to tarnish their Glory with deformed Souls.
Wou’d have you all be wits, or what is better, Wise. Raise you above
the Vulgar by something more truly illustrious, than a sounding Title
or a great Estate. Wou’d excite in you a generous Emulation to excel
in the best things, and not in such Trifles as every mean person who
has but Money enough may purchase as well as you. Not suffer you to
take up with the low thought of distinguishing your selves by any
thing that is not truly valuable, and procure you such Ornaments as
all the Treasures of the _Indies_ are not able to purchase. Wou’d help
you to surpass the Men as much in Vertue and Ingenuity, as you do in
Beauty; that you may not only be as lovely, but as wise as Angels.
Exalt and Establish your Fame, more than the best wrought _Poems_ and
loudest _Panegyricks_, by ennobling your Minds with such Graces as
really deserve it. And instead of the Fustian Complements and Fulsome
Flatteries of your Admirers, obtain for you the Plaudit of Good Men and
Angels, and the approbation of Him who cannot err. In a word, render
you the Glory and Blessing of the present Age, and the Admiration and
Pattern of the next.

And sure, I shall not need many words to persuade you to close with
this _Proposal_. The very offer is a sufficient inducement, nor does
it need the set-offs of _Rhetorick_ to recommend it, were I capable,
which yet I am not, of applying them with the greatest force. Since you
can’t be so unkind to your selves, as to refuse your _real_ Interest, I
only entreat you to be so wise as to examine wherein it consists; for
nothing is of worse consequence than to be deceiv’d in a matter of so
great concern. ’Tis as little beneath your Grandeur as your Prudence,
to examine curiously what is in this case offer’d you, and to take care
that cheating Hucksters don’t impose upon you with deceitful Ware. This
is a Matter infinitely more worthy your Debates, than what Colours are
most agreeable, or what’s the Dress becomes you best. Your _Glass_ will
not do you half so much service as a serious reflection on your own
Minds, which will discover Irregularities more worthy your Correction,
and keep you from being either too much elated or depress’d by the
representations of the other. ’Twill not be near so advantageous to
consult with your Dancing-Master as with your own Thoughts, how you
may with greatest exactness tread in the Paths of Vertue, which has
certainly the most attractive _Air_, and Wisdom the most graceful and
becoming _Mien_: Let these attend you and your Carriage will be always
well compos’d, and ev’ry thing you do will carry its Charm with it. No
solicitude in the adornation of your selves is discommended, provided
you employ your care about that which is really your _self_; and do
not neglect that particle of Divinity within you, which must survive,
and may (if you please) be happy and perfect, when it’s unsuitable
and much inferiour Companion is mouldring into Dust. Neither will
any pleasure be denied you, who are only desir’d not to catch at the
Shadow and let the Substance go. You may be as ambitious as you please,
so you aspire to the best things; and contend with your Neighbours
as much as you can, that they may not out do you in any commendable
Quality. Let it never be said, That they to whom pre-eminence is so
very agreeable, can be tamely content that others shou’d surpass them
in _this_, and precede them in a _better_ World! Remember, I pray you,
the famous Women of former Ages, the _Orinda_’s of late, and the more
Modern Heroins, and blush to think how much, is now, and will hereafter
be said of them, when you your selves (as great a Figure as you make)
must be buried in silence and forgetfulness! Shall your Emulation fail
_there only_ where ’tis commendable? Why are you so preposterously
humble, as not to contend for one of the highest Mansions in the
Court of Heav’n? Believe me, Ladies, this is the only _Place_ worth
contending for; you are neither better nor worse in your selves for
going before, or coming after _now_; but you are really so much the
better, by how much the higher your station is in an Orb of Glory.
How can you be content to be in the World like Tulips in a Garden, to
make a fine _shew_ and be good for nothing; have all your Glories set
in the Grave, or perhaps much sooner! What your own sentiments are I
know not, but I can’t without pity and resentment reflect, that those
Glorious Temples on which your kind Creator has bestow’d such exquisite
workmanship, shou’d enshrine no better than _Ægyptian_ Deities; be
like a garnish’d Sepulchre, which for all its glittering, has nothing
within but emptiness or putrefaction! What a pity it is, that whilst
your Beauty casts a lustre all around you, your Souls which are
infinitely more bright and radiant, (of which if you had but a clear
Idea, as lovely as it is, and as much as you now value it, you wou’d
then despise and neglect the mean _Case_ that encloses it) shou’d be
suffer’d to over-run with Weeds, lie fallow and neglected, unadorn’d
with any Grace! Altho’ the Beauty of the mind is necessary to secure
those Conquests which your Eyes have gain’d, and Time that mortal Enemy
to handsome Faces, has no influence on a lovely Soul, but to better and
improve it. For shame let’s abandon that _Old_, and therefore one wou’d
think, unfashionable employment of pursuing Butter-flies and Trifles!
No longer drudge on in the dull beaten road of Vanity and Folly, which
so many have gone before us, but dare to break the enchanted Circle
that custom has plac’d us in, and scorn the vulgar way of imitating all
the Impertinencies of our Neighbours. Let us learn to pride our selves
in something more excellent than the invention of a Fashion; And not
entertain such a degrading thought of our own _worth_, as to imagine
that our Souls were given us only for the service of our Bodies, and
that the best improvement we can make of these, is to attract the
Eyes of Men. We value _them_ too much, and our _selves_ too little,
if we place any part of our desert in their Opinion; and don’t think
our selves capable of Nobler Things than the pitiful Conquest of some
worthless heart. She who has opportunities of making an interest in
Heaven, of obtaining the love and admiration of GOD and Angels, is too
prodigal of her Time, and injurious to her Charms, to throw them away
on vain insignificant men. She need not make her self so cheap, as
to descend to court their Applauses; for at the greater distance she
keeps, and the more she is above them, the more effectually she secures
their esteem and wonder. Be so generous then, Ladies, as to do nothing
unworthy of you; so true to your Interest, as not to lessen your Empire
and depreciate your Charms. Let not your Thoughts be wholly busied in
observing what respect is paid you, but a part of them at least, in
studying to deserve it. And after all, remember that Goodness is the
truest Greatness; to be wise for your selves the greatest Wit; and
_that_ Beauty the most desirable which will endure to Eternity.

Pardon me the seeming rudeness of this Proposal, which goes upon a
supposition that there’s something amiss in you, which it is intended
to amend. My design is not to expose, but to rectifie your Failures.
To be exempt from mistake, is a privilege few can pretend to, the
greatest is to be past Conviction and too obstinate to reform. Even
the _Men_, as exact as they wou’d seem, and as much as they divert
themselves with our Miscarriages, are very often guilty of greater
faults, and such, as considering the advantages they enjoy, are much
more inexcusable. But I will not pretend to correct their Errors,
who either are, or at least _think_ themselves too wise to receive
Instruction from a Womans Pen. My earnest desire is, That you Ladies,
would be as perfect and happy as ’tis possible to be in this imperfect
state; for I love you too well to endure a spot upon your Beauties, if
I can by any means remove and wipe it off. I would have you live up to
the dignity of your Nature, and express your thankfulness to GOD for
the benefits you enjoy by a due improvement of them: As I know very
many of you do, who countenance that Piety which the men decry, and
are the brightest Patterns of Religion that the Age affords; ’tis my
grief that all the rest of our Sex do not imitate such Illustrious
Examples, and therefore I would have them encreas’d and render’d more
conspicuous, that Vice being put out of countenance, (because Vertue
is the only thing in fashion) may sneak out of the World, and its
darkness be dispell’d by the confluence of so many shining Graces.
The Men perhaps will cry out that I teach you false Doctrine, for
because by their seductions some amongst us are become very mean and
contemptible, they would fain persuade the rest to be as despicable and
forlorn as they. We’re indeed oblig’d to them for their management, in
endeavouring to make us so, who use all the artifice they can to spoil,
and deny us the means of improvement. So that instead of inquiring
why all Women are not wise and good, we have reason to wonder that
there are any so. Were the Men as much neglected, and as little care
taken to cultivate and improve them, perhaps they wou’d be so far from
surpassing those whom they now despise, that they themselves wou’d sink
into the greatest stupidity and brutality. The preposterous returns
that the most of them make, to all the care and pains that is bestow’d
on them, renders this no uncharitable, nor improbable Conjecture. One
wou’d therefore almost think, that the wise disposer of all things,
foreseeing how unjustly Women are denied opportunities of improvement
from _without_ has therefore by way of compensation endow’d them
with greater propensions to Vertue and a natural goodness of Temper
_within_, which if duly manag’d, would raise them to the most eminent
pitch of heroick Vertue. Hither, Ladies, I desire you wou’d aspire,
’tis a noble and becoming Ambition, and to remove such Obstacles as
lie in your way is the design of this Paper. We will therefore enquire
what it is that stops your flight, that keeps you groveling here below,
like _Domitian_ catching Flies when you should be busied in obtaining
Empires.

Altho’ it has been said by Men of more Wit than Wisdom, and perhaps
of more malice than either, that Women are naturally incapable of
acting Prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I
must by no means grant it; that Hypothesis would render my endeavours
impertinent, for then it would be in vain to advise the one, or
endeavour the Reformation of the other. Besides, there are Examples in
all Ages, which sufficiently confute the Ignorance and Malice of this
Assertion.

The Incapacity, if there be any, is acquired not natural; and none of
their Follies are so necessary, but that they might avoid them if they
pleas’d themselves. Some disadvantages indeed they labour under, and
what these are we shall see by and by and endeavour to surmount; but
Women need not take up with mean things, since (if they are not wanting
to themselves) they are capable of the best. Neither God nor Nature
have excluded them from being Ornaments to their Families and useful in
their Generation; there is therefore no reason they should be content
to be Cyphers in the World, useless at the best, and in a little time
a burden and nuisance to all about them. And ’tis very great pity that
they who are so apt to over-rate themselves in smaller Matters, shou’d,
where it most concerns them to know and stand upon their Value, be so
insensible of their own worth. The Cause therefore of the defects we
labour under is, if not wholly, yet at least in the first place, to be
ascribed to the mistakes of our Education, which like an Error in the
first Concoction, spreads its ill Influence through all our Lives.

The Soil is rich and would if well cultivated produce a noble Harvest,
if then the Unskilful Managers, not only permit, but incourage noxious
Weeds, tho’ we shall suffer by the Neglect, yet they ought not in
justice to blame any but themselves, if they reap the Fruit of this
their foolish Conduct. Women are from their very Infancy debar’d those
Advantages, with the want of which they are afterwards reproached, and
nursed up in those Vices which will hereafter be upbraided to them.
So partial are Men as to expect Brick where they afford no Straw; and
so abundantly civil as to take care we shou’d make good that obliging
Epithet of _Ignorant_, which out of an excess of good Manners, they
are pleas’d to bestow on us!

One would be apt to think indeed, that Parents shou’d take all possible
care of their Childrens Education, not only for _their_ sakes, but even
for their _own_. And tho’ the Son convey the Name to Posterity, yet
certainly a great Part of the Honour of their Families depends on their
Daughters. ’Tis the kindness of Education that binds our duty fastest
on us: For the being instrumental to the bringing us into the World,
is no matter of choice and therefore the less obliging; But to procure
that we may live wisely and happily in it, and be capable of endless
Joys hereafter, is a benefit we can never sufficiently acknowledge.
To introduce poor Children into the World and neglect to fence them
against the temptations of it, and so leave them expos’d to temporal
and eternal Miseries, is a wickedness for which I want a Name; ’tis
beneath Brutality; the Beasts are better natur’d, for they take care of
their offspring, till they are capable of caring for themselves. And if
Mothers had a due regard to their Posterity, how _Great_ soever they
are, they wou’d not think themselves too _Good_ to perform what Nature
requires, nor through Pride and Delicacy remit the poor little one to
the care of a Foster Parent. Or if necessity inforce them to depute
another to perform _their_ Duty, they wou’d be as choice at least, in
the Manners and Inclinations, as they are in the complections of their
Nurses, left with their Milk they transfuse their Vices, and form in
the Child such evil habits as will not easily be eradicated.

Nature as bad as it is and as much as it is complain’d of, is so far
improveable by the grace of GOD, upon our honest and hearty endeavours,
that if we are not wanting to our selves, we may all in _some_, tho’
not in an _equal_ measure, be instruments of his Glory, Blessings to
this World, and capable of Eternal Blessedness in that to come. But
if our Nature is spoil’d, instead of being improv’d at first; if from
our Infancy we are nurs’d up in Ignorance and Vanity; are taught to be
Proud and Petulant, Delicate and Fantastick, Humorous and Inconstant,
’tis not strange that the ill effects of this Conduct appear in all
the future Actions of our Lives. And seeing it is Ignorance, either
habitual or actual, which is the cause of all sin, how are they like
to escape _this_, who are bred up in _that