N° 45 .
THE GUARDIAN .
261
thoſe who have not yet taken their party as to vice and virtue for life ; but I know not how it
is that our fex has uſurped a certain authority to
exclude chaſtity out of the catalogue of maſcu line virtues, by which means females adventure
all againſt thoſe who have nothing to loſe ; and they have nothing but empty fighs, tears, and reproaches, againſt thoſe who reduced them to real ſorrow and infamny.
But as I am now talk
ing to the world yet untainter, I will venture to recommend chaſtity as the nobleſt male
qua
lification .
It is, methinks, very unreaſonable that the dif
ficulty of attaining all other good habits is what makes them honourable, but in this caſe the very
attempt is become ridiculous. But, in ſpite of all the raillery of the world , truth is ſtill truth, and
will have beauties inſeparable from it.
I ſhould
upon this occaſion bring examples of heroic chaf tity, were I not afraid of having my paper thrown away by the modiſh part of the town , who go no further, at beſt, than the mere abſence of ill, and are contented to be rather irreproachable than
praiſeworthy. In this particular, a gentleman in the court of Cyrus reported to his majeſty the charms and beauty of Panthea, and ended his panegyric by telling him , that ſince he was at leiſure he would carry him to viſit her : but that prince, who is a very great man to this day, an ſwered the pimp, becauſe he was a man of qua lity , without roughneſs, and ſaid with a ſmile , • If I ſhould viſit her upon your introduction now I have leiſure , I do not know but I might go
again upon her own invitation when I ought to be S 3
