*

No. 433. Thursday, July 17, 1712. Addison.

'Perlege Maeonio cantatas carmine Ranas,
Et frontem nugis solvere disce meis.'

Mart.

The Moral World, as consisting of Males and Females, is of a mixt
Nature, and filled with several Customs, Fashions and Ceremonies, which
would have no place in it, were there but _One_ Sex. Had our Species no
Females in it, Men would be quite different Creatures from what they are
at present; their Endeavours to please the opposite Sex, polishes and
refines them out of those Manners which are most Natural to them, and
often sets them upon modelling themselves, not according to the Plans
which they approve in their own Opinions, but according to those Plans
which they think are most agreeable to the Female World. In a Word, Man
would not only be unhappy, but a rude unfinished Creature, were he
conversant with none but those of his own Make.

Women, on the other side, are apt to form themselves in every thing with
regard to that other half of reasonable Creatures, with whom they are
here blended and confused; their Thoughts are ever turned upon appearing
amiable to the other Sex; they talk, and move, and smile, with a Design
upon us; every Feature of their Faces, every part of their Dress is
filled with Snares and Allurements. There would be no such Animals as
Prudes or Coquets in the World, were there not such an Animal as Man. In
short, it is the Male that gives Charms to Womankind, that produces an
Air in their Faces, a Grace in their Motions, a Softness in their
Voices, and a Delicacy in their Complections.

As this mutual Regard between the two Sexes tends to the Improvement of
each of them, we may observe that Men are apt to degenerate into rough
and brutal Natures, who live as if there were no such things as Women in
the World; as on the contrary, Women, who have an Indifference or
Aversion for their Counter-parts in human Nature, are generally Sower
and Unamiable, Sluttish and Censorious.

I am led into this Train of Thoughts by a little Manuscript which is
lately fallen into my Hands, and which I shall communicate to the
Reader, as I have done some other curious Pieces of the same Nature,
without troubling him with any Enquiries about the Author of it. It
contains a summary Account of two different States which bordered upon
one another. The one was a Commonwealth of _Amazons_, or Women without
Men; the other was a Repub