William Beckett

“ In short, to sum up all, there is in the Passion of Love a certain fatal Crisis, to which all Womenkind are capable of being wrought-up: The Difference of Virtue consisting only in this, that it is very hard to work a virtuous Woman up to this Crisis, and requires a very unlucky Concurrence of Circumstances: Whereas a Woman without a good Stock of Virtue, must have an unaccountable Series of good Fortune if she escapes. ”

“ For tho’ the Laws can’t prevent Whoring, they may yet regulate it; the Quid is not in their Power, but the Quomodo is. A Man must eat, but he may be directed how to eat. The strongest Curb can’t stop an unruly Horse, but the weakest will serve to turn him: And the smallest Stream is not to be obstructed, tho’ we can change the Course of the greatest River. So Love, tho’ ever so unruly and headstrong in the general, changes the particular Object of its Passion with the smallest Circumstance; and legal Penalties are no trifling Dissuasives, when the Laws don’t command Impossibilities. ”

“ The first of these, indeed, might be omitted; for Shame is so very little in the Power of the Laws, that it hardly deserves the Name of a Penalty. If the Pillory, and such like infamous Punishments, are more terrible for the Shame that attends them, than for the bodily Pain, it is not because such a Posture of a Man’s Body, with his Neck through a Hole, is in itself ignominious, or that any Law can make it so; but because it publishes to the World, that a Man has been prov’d to commit such a certain Action, in its own Nature scandalous, which he is asham’d to have thus publickly made known. ”

“ The Gallants of this Age, indeed, are not quite so sturdy as that rampant Roman Emperor who deflower’d ten Sarmatian Virgins in one Night; but what we want in Constitution, we make up in the Niceity of our Palates; as a squeamish Stomach requires the greatest Variety of Dishes: And some of our Youth are grown such perfect Epicures in Venery, that they can relish nothing but Virgins: They destroy, it is true, a great deal of Beauty, by browsing only upon the Buds. ”

“ A Woman of this Class may not unjustly be compar’d to a Town well garrison’d, but whose mutinous unruly Inhabitants are strongly inclin’d to revolt and let in the Enemy. Such Women, it’s true, by extraordinary Care and Vigilance may suppress these Mutinies; and Honour may for a long while keep Inclination under, but yet they are never perfectly safe; there are certain Times and Seasons, certain unguarded Hours, when Honour and Interest are lull’d asleep, and Love has got the entire Ascendant. ”

“ And since the Prosperity of any Country is allow’d to depend, in a great measure, on the Number of its Inhabitants, the Government ought, if it were possible, to prevent any Whoring at all, as it evidently hinders the Propagation of the Species: How many thousand young Men in this Nation would turn their Thoughts towards Matrimony, if they were not constantly destroying that Passion, which is the only Foundation of it? ”

“ After this terrible Accusation, we may easily guess what Quarter our Stews met with at the Reformation. But now Bucer has got his Ends; the Stews are destroy’d; those public Nusances are demolish’d; Whoring is attack’d on all hands without Mercy; and what then? Why, truly, by mere Dint of Reforming, we have reduced Lewdness to that pass, that hardly one Bachelor in the Kingdom will lie with a Woman, if he is sure that she’s not found; and very few modest Women will suffer a Man to get them with Child, unless he makes a Promise to marry. ”

“ Now all these Enjoyments depending upon the mutual Affection of these two, Man and Wife; whenever this Affection fails, either in the Woman or the Man, that Marriage is unhappy, and all the good Ends and Designs of this State entirely frustrated. To give the Women their Due, they must have the Preference in Point of Constancy; their Passions are not so easily rais’d, nor so suddenly fix’d upon any particular Object: but when this Passion is once rooted in Women, it is much stronger and more durable than in Men, and rather increases than diminishes, by enjoying the Person beloved. ”

“ A prodigious Example is this, and to be abhorred of all Men, which love their Nation as they should do. Yea, what may bring our Nation to more Shame and Rebuke, than to have it noised abroad, that we are Despisers of Learning? ”

“ These Kinds of Women, who put a slighter Value than ordinary upon their Characters, are generally, in their Circumstances, either above the World or below it; for when a Woman has her Interest and Fortune depending upon her Reputation, as all the middle Rank of Womankind have, she is a Woman of Honour of course. Interest, indeed, is inseparable from Female Honour, nay, it is the very Foundation of it; and Honour and Interest, when they are consider’d as Guardians to Chastity, are synonimous Terms. ”

“ Besides, not to mention the actual Pleasure a Woman receives in Struggling, it is a Justification of her in the Eye of the Man, and a kind of Salvo to her Honour and Conscience, that she never did fully comply, but was in a manner forced into it. This is the plain natural Reason why most Women refuse to surrender upon Treaty, and why they delight so much in being storm’d. ”

“ The Pain they suffer in smothering their Desires, is fully recompenced by that secret Pleasure which a Lover’s Eagerness gives them, because they esteem it a Proof both of the Sincerity and Violence of his Passion. A Woman is not, without some Reason, afraid, lest a Man’s Love should diminish after Enjoyment, and would gladly bribe his After-Love, by the great Value she seems to put upon her Chastity before she makes him a Present of it. ”

“ And on the same Account, I judge it more my Duty to serve my Native Country, than mind the Clamours of censorious Critics; not at all questioning but in a little time, the Efficacy of these Medicines will at once bring Health to the Patient, and Reputation to their Author: And the World will be convinced of the Power of these Remedies, by their Effects; tho’ ignorant Persons may be apt to contemn and neglect, till their Opinions be altered by Experience, and their Prejudices removed by Demonstration. ”

“ No Man would willingly lose any Reputation, who is to live by it. I question not, but the best Surgeons in the World will allow, there are Cases for which there is no Remedy: And he who frankly owns thus much, no more loses any Reputation, than the Quack, that promises greater Matters than he afterwards performs, gets any: And I think they, who have censured me, would have done more ingenuously, if they would rather have looked upon the present Case as incurable by any Surgeon, than have thrown their Aspersions upon me, as not treating it properly. ”

“ Whereas Inclination is presently under Arms, the Moment Love has pitch’d his Standard: For, as we find that the least wanton Glance of a Lady’s Eye quickly alarms a Man’s Animal Spirits, and puts the whole Body Corporate into an unruly Ferment; so, doubtless, the Female Imagination is at least equally alert: and in such a sudden Scuffle betwixt Love and Honour, it is ten to one but the Enemy enters; for the Gate of Chastity, like the Temple of Janus, always stands open during these Conflicts. ”

“ We are very well assured, Sir, that it has been a Matter of very great Surprize to several ingenious Men, to consider how the various Operations of the Body have continued to be performed, when those Parts which were so absolutely necessary to the Well-being of the Animal, have been naturally or accidentally disordered to such a degree, as to suffer a perfect Confusion of their Parts: And of this we find Variety of Instances in those Authors, who have very obligingly applied themselves to relate the Histories of deceased morbid Bodies. ”

“ For how can a Man give his Opinion against a thing that he never heard of before, or at least never experienced? I am sure, this unjustifiable Practice is the way to put a stop to all useful Knowledge and Improvements: It is therefore expected from the Ingenious and Candid Reader, that he should adhere to the Cause of Truth, by whomsoever it is pleaded, weigh every Invention, not in the deceitful Balance of Custom, but in the just and even Scales of Reason ”

“ The murdering of Bastard Infants is another Consequence of this Vice, by much worse than the Vice itself: and tho’ the Law is justly severe in this Particular, as rightly judging that a Mind capable of divesting itself so intirely of Humanity, is not fit to live in a civiliz’d Nation: yet there are so many ways of evading it, either by destroying the Infants before their Birth, or suffering them afterwards to die by wilful Neglect, that there appears but little Hope of putting any Stop to this Practice, which, besides the Barbarity of it, tends very much to dispeople the Country. ”

“ The Practice of Whoring has, of late Years, become so universal, and its Effects so prejudicial to Mankind, that several Attempts have been made to put a Stop to it; and a certain Society of Worthy Gentlemen have undertaken that Affair with a Zeal truly commendable, tho’ the Success does but too plainly make it appear, that they were mistaken in their Measures, and had not rightly consider’d the Nature of this Evil, which we are all equally sollicitous to prevent, however we may differ in our Opinions as to the Manner. ”

“ But since a great many Men amongst us have entertained such whimsical Notions of Religion, as to imagine, that in some Cases, a Law may be unjust and wicked, tho’ it evidently promotes the Publick Good: as if the right Enjoyment of this Life was inconsistent with our Happiness in the next: I say, since many Men of Understanding have suffer’d themselves to be possess’d with this mistaken Principle, I shall, as briefly as may be, answer such Objections as can, with any Colour of Reason, be offer’d. ”

“ It is natural for Mankind to regard chiefly the good Opinion of those with whom they converse, and to neglect that of Strangers: Now in this Community, Lewdness not being esteem’d a Reproach, but rather a Commendation, they will set a Value on their good Name, and stand as much upon the Puncto of Honour, as the rest of Mankind; being mov’d by the same commendable Emulation, and deter’d by greater, or at least more certain Punishments. ”

“ A Lawyer cheats you according to Law; and you may thank the Physician, if you live to complain of him. Over-reaching in Trade, is prudent Dealing; and Mechanick Cunning, is stiled Handicraft. Not so fares the poor Courtezan; if she commits but one ill Action, if, for Instance, she should circumvent a Gentleman of a Snuff-Box, she can hardly escape Detection; and the first Discovery ruins her; she is banish’d the Publick Stews, mark’d out for Infamy, and can have no better Prospect than a Transportation. ”

“ We should be reckoned unworthy the Advantages we enjoy, if we did not study to apply them to the Benefit of Mankind in general. The more inquisitive and learned Part of the World, are at this time very well assured that the Animal Body is an exquisitely framed Machine, and that it’s Composure is little else than a Compages of branching and winding Canals, which are kept to a moderate Degree of Extention, by Fluids of different Natures ”

“ Besides, the Methods that are necessary to be taken, before a Man can have such an Action in his Power, are in themselves Criminal; and it shows a certain Baseness of Mind to persuade a Woman, by a thousand solemn Vows and Protestations, into such a good Opinion of you, and Assurance of your Love to her, that she trusts you with all that is dear and near to her; and this with no other View but the Gratification of a present Passion, which might be otherwise vented, than at the certain Expence of her Ruin, and putting her under the Necessity of leading the Life of a Publick Courtezan. ”

“ Having thus taken a cursory View of the Sex, in their several Classes, and according to their several Circumstances, we may conclude, preferring Truth to Complaisance, that by far the greater Part of Womenkind hold their Virtue very precariously; and that Female Chastity is, in its own Nature, built upon a very ticklish Foundation. ”

“ For nothing will convince us of the irresistible Force of Love, and the Folly of hoping to suppress it, sooner than reflecting, that those venerable Sages, those Standards of Morality, those great Reformers of the World, were so sensibly touch’d with this tender Passion. ”

“ The Mischief a Man does in this Case is intirely to himself; for with respect to the Woman, he does a laudable Action, in furnishing her with the Means of Subsistence, in the only, or at least most innocent way that she is capable of procuring it. The Damage he does to himself, is either with regard to his Health, or the Expence of Money, and may be consider’d under the same View as Drinking, with this considerable Advantage, that it restores us to that cool Exercise of our Reason, which Drinking tends to deprive us of. ”

“ If there are some Men of a particular Constitution, whose puny Desires may be easily block’d up with the Assistance of three small Buttons: or else endow’d with such an extraordinary Strength of Reason, that they can master the most rampant Sallies of this raging Passion; I heartily congratulate their happy Conquest, but have nothing more to do with them at present, the Publick Stews not being design’d for such: I am here speaking of those Men of Business, who, notwithstanding their Abstinence or the Regularity of their Lives, are sometimes prevailed upon to quench these amorous Heats ”

“ But there is no Man that we know of, has spoke more agreeably of this Matter than Dr Harris, in his Pharmacologia Anti-Empirica, he owns that he took more than ordinary Pains in one particular Disease, and assures us he verily believes if learned Men, after a compleat Acquisition of the universal Method of Physick, and a necessary Search into the Nature and Cures of those manifold Infirmities and Diseases, which, with a kind of infinite Variety, do afflict Mankind, would, with their utmost Vigour and Resolution, prosecute the Knowledge of some one Disease eminently above others ”

“ The first great Cooler of a Man’s Affections after Marriage, is the Disparity of the Match. When a Man has married entirely for Love, and to the apparent Detriment of his worldly Affairs, as soon as the first Flash of it is over, he can’t help reflecting upon the Woman as the Cause, and, in some Sense, the Author of his Misfortunes; This naturally begets a Coldness and Indifference, which, by Degrees, turns to an open Dislike. Now it is these sorts of Marriages that chaste Men are always in danger of falling into, as I have already proved ”

“ In Cancers we have but little Reason to expect a Cure in a Person that is old, if the Cancer has been of many Years standing, and is firmly fixed to the Ribs; but if the Patient be not so far advanced in Years as to be uncapable of receiving the Benefit of Nature by the regular Discharge of the Menses and the Cancer be loose; notwithstanding, it be Ulcerated, over-spread with fungous Flesh, discharge a filthy Matter, and smell very offensively; we do upon Experience affirm that such a Patient may be cured. ”

“ Besides, the Risque run of a Discovery, which at least ruins a Woman’s Reputation, and destroys the Husband’s Quiet; nay, where Virtue does not intirely give way, if it warps but ever so little, the Consequence is shockingly fatal: for tho’ the good Man, suspicious of the Wife’s Chastity, the Wife of the Gallant’s Constancy, and the Gallant of the Husband’s Watchfulness, by being a Check upon each other, may keep the Gate of Virtue shut ”

“ We cannot imagine the Death of that Gentleman before-mentioned, was procured by the Action of any corrosive Salts, whether Acid or Alkaline, which would have caused a Corrosion of the Parts, but that it is only accountable from the extraordinary Stench and Malignity of the Matter, which impressing its Virulency on the Animal Juices must undoubtedly disturb their regular Motions, and cause the utmost Confusion of the whole Oeconomy. It must certainly be a very tragical Scene, to observe how Nature, by so inconsiderale Means, confounds and insults, over the Animal System ”