own Sex, who are on this Subject much more capable than the ableſt of ours.
I Remember it was the Obſervation of a Lady, for whoſe Opinion I have a great Veneration, that there is nothing more generally unnatural, than the Characters of Women on the Stage, and that even in our beſt Plays: If this be fact, as I ſincerely believe it is, whence can it proceed, but from the Ignorance in which the artificial Behaviour of Women leaves us, of what really paſſes in their Minds, and which, like all other Myſteries, is known only to the Initiated?
Many of the foregoing Aſſertions will, I queſtion not, meet with very little Aſſent from thoſe great and wiſe Men, who are not only abſolute Maſters of ſome poor Woman's Perſon, but likewiſe of her Thoughts. With ſuch Oppoſition I muſt reſt contented; but what I more dread, is, that I may have unadviſedly drawn the Reſentment of her own lovely Sex againſt the Author of theſe Volumes, for having betrayed the Secrets of the Society.
To this I ſhall attempt giving two Anſwers: Firſt, that theſe nice Touches will, like the Signs of Maſonry, eſcape the Ob-
