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 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