viz._)
that you are sure to prevail with them, if you can but once persuade
them that you believe they are Witty and Handsome; for the Devil, you
may observe, never quits any Hold he gets, and having once found a way
into the Heart, always takes care to keep the Door open, that any of his
Agents may enter after him without any more Difficulty: Hence the same
Argument, especially the last, has so bewitching an Influence on the
Sex, that they rarely deny you any thing, after they are but weak
enough and vain enough to accept of the Praises you offer them on that
Head; on the other hand you are sure they never forgive you the
unpardonable Crime of saying they are Ugly or Disagreeable: It is
suggested that the first Method the Devil took to insinuate all those
fine things into _Eve_'s giddy Head, was by creeping close to her _one
Night_, when she was asleep, and laying his Mouth to her _Ear_,
whispering all the fine things to her, which he knew would set her Fancy
a Tip-toe, and so made her receive them involuntarily into her Mind;
knowing well enough that when she had form'd such Ideas in her Soul,
however they came there, she would never be quiet till she had work'd
them up to some extraordinary thing or other.

It was evident what the _Devil_ aim'd at, _namely_, that she should
break in upon the Command of GOD, and so having corrupted her self,
bring the Curse upon her self and all her Race, as GOD had threatn'd;
but why the Pride of _Eve_ should be so easily tickled by the Motion of
her exquisite Beauty, when there then was no prospect of the use or want
of those Charms? that indeed makes a kind of Difficulty here, which the
learn'd have not determined. For,

1. If she had been as Ugly as the _Devil_, she had no body to rival
her, so that she need not fear _Adam_ should leave her and get
another Mistress.

2. If she had been Bright and Beautiful as an Angel, she had no
other Admirer but poor _Adam_, and he could have no room to be
jealous of her, or afraid she should cuckold him; so that in short,
_Eve_ had no such Occasion for her Beauty, nor could she make any
use of it either to a bad purpose or to a good, and therefore I
believe the _Devil_, who is too cunning to do any thing that
signifies Nothing, rather tempted her by the Hope of encreasing her
Wit, than her Beauty.

But to come back to the Method of Satan's tempting her, _viz._ by
whispering to her in