The embarrassment which he
occasioned to those who spoke to him, flattered that secret
satisfaction with which he felt his own superiority." These
frivolous accomplishments, supported by his rank, and, no doubt too,
by a degree of other talents and virtues, which seems, however, not to
have been much above mediocrity, established this prince in the esteem
of his own age, and have drawn, even from posterity, a good deal of
respect for his memory. Compared with these, in his own times, and
in his own presence, no other virtue, it seems, appeared to have any
merit. Knowledge, industry, valour, and beneficence, trembled, were
abashed, and lost all dignity before them.'
Woman also thus 'in herself complete,' by possessing all these
frivolous accomplishments, so changes the nature of things
-'That what she wills to do or say
'Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best;
'All higher knowledge in her presence falls
'Degraded. Wisdom in discourse with her
'Loses discountenanc'd, and, like Folly, shows;
'Authority and Reason on her wait.'
And all this is built on her loveliness!
In the middle rank of life, to continue the comparison, men, in
their youth, are prepared for professions, and marriage is not
considered as the grand feature in their lives; whilst women, on the
contrary, have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties. It is not
business, extensive plans, or any of the excursive flights of
ambition, that engross their attention; no, their thoughts are not
employed in rearing such noble structures.
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