matory inclination would have been as useless in poetry. Nature, if
left to herself, leads us on in the best course, but will do nothing by
compulsion and constraint; and if we are not satisfied to go her way, we
are always the greatest sufferers by it.

29. Wherever nature designs a production, she always disposes seeds
proper for it, which are as absolutely necessary to the formation of any
moral or intellectual existence, as they are to the being and growth of
plants; and I know not by what fate and folly it is, that men are taught
not to reckon him equally absurd that will write verses in spite of
nature, with that gardener that should undertake to raise a jonquil or
tulip, without the help of their respective seeds.

30. As there is no good or bad quality that does not affect both sexes,
so it is not to be imagined but the fair sex must have suffered by an
affectation of this nature, at least as much as the other: the ill
effect of it is in none so conspicuous as in the two opposite characters
of _Caelia_ and _Iras_. _Caelia_ has all the charms of person, together
with an abundant sweetness of nature, but wants wit, and has a very ill
voice: _Iras_ is ugly and ungenteel, but has wit and good sense.

31. If _Caelia_ would be silent, her beholders would adore her; if _Iras_
would talk, her hearers would admire her; but _Caelia_'s tongue runs
incessantly, while _Iras_ gives herself silent airs and soft languors;
so that 'tis difficult to persuade one's self that _Caelia_ has beauty,
and _Iras_ wit: each neglects her own excellence, and is ambitious of
the other's character: _Iras_ would be thought to have as much beauty as
_Caelia_, and _Caelia_ as much wit as _Iras_.

32. The great misfortune of this affectation is, that men not only lose
a good quality, but also contract a bad one: they not only are unfit for
what they were designed, but they assign themselves to what they are not
fit for; and instead of making a very good, figure one way, make a very
ridiculous one in another.

33. If _Semanthe_ would have been satisfied with her natural complexion,
she might still have been celebrated by the name of the olive beauty;
but _Semanthe_ has taken up an affectation to white and red, and is now
distinguished by the character of the lady that paints so well.

34. In a word, could the world be reformed to the obedience of that
famed dictate, _follow nature_, which the oracle of _Delphos_ pronounced
to _Cicero_ when he