N° 26.
THE GUARDIAN .
149
right truth, and whether the reſt of the world
will give us the privilege or not, we have ſo little to aſk of them , that we can take it.
I ſhall be
very free with the women from this one conſide ration ; and, having nothing to deſire of them , ſhall treat them as they ſtand in nature, and as they are adorned with virtue, and not as they are
pleaſed to form and diſguiſe themſelves. A ſet offops, from onegeneration to another, has made ſuch a pother with
Bright eyes, the fair ſex,
the charms, the air, and ſomething ſo incapable to be expreſſed but with a figh, that the crea
tures have utterly gone out oftheir very being, and there are no women in all the world .
If
they are not nymphs, ſhepherdeſſes , graces,or goddeſſes, they are to a woman all of them the
ladies.' Get to a chriſtening at any alley in the town, and at the meaneſt artificer's, and the word
is, · Well, who takes care of the ladies ? ' I have taken notice that ever ſince the word Forſooth
was baniſhed for Madam, the word Woman has
been diſcarded for Lady. And as there is now never a woman in England, I hope I may
talk
of women without offence to the ladies. What
puts me in this preſent diſpoſition to tell- them
their own, is, that in the holy week I very civilly defired all delinquents in point of chaſtity to make ſome atonement for their freedoms, by be
ſtowing a charity upon the miſerable wretches who languiſh in the Lock hoſpital. But I hear of very little done in that matter; and I am in
formed, they are pleaſed, inſtead of taking notice of my precaution , to call me an ill-bred old fel
low, and ſay I do not underſtand the world. It L3
