To counterballance this violent natural Desire, all young Women have strong Notions of Honour carefully inculcated into them from their Infancy. Young Girls are taught to hate a _Whore_, before they know what the Word means; and when they grow up, they find their worldly Interest entirely depending upon the Reputation of their Chastity. This Sense of Honour and Interest, is what we may call artificial Chastity; and it is upon this Compound of natural and artificial Chastity, that every Woman’s real actual Chastity depends. As for Instance, some Women are naturally more Chaste, or rather, to speak properly, less Amorous than others, and at the same time have very strict Notions of Honour. Such Women are almost impregnable, and may be compar’d to Towns strongly fortify’d both by Art and Nature, which, without Treachery, are safe from any sudden Attacks, and must be reduc’d by long and regular Sieges, such as few Men have the Patience or Resolution to go thro’ with. Other Women, again, have the same Value for their Reputation, and stand as much upon the Puncto of Honour; but then they are naturally of a very sanguine amorous Disposition. 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. Besides, altho’ we allow Love and Honour to be pretty equal Combatants, nay even granting, that in a _Pitch’d Battle_, when they have muster’d up all their Forces, Honour will have the Advantage, and quell Inclination; yet, in the Course of a long _Civil War_, it is Odds but Love one Time or other obtains a Victory, which is sure to be decisive: for Inclination has this unlucky Advantage over Honour, that, instead of being weaken’d, it grows stronger by Subjection; and, like _Camomile_, the more it is press’d down and kept under, the sturdier it grows; or, like _Antæus_, it receives fresh Vigour from every Defeat, and rises the brisker the oftener it is thrown. Whereas Honour once routed never rallies; nay, the least _Breach_ in Female Reputation is irreparable; and a _Gap_ in Chastity, like a _Chasm_ in a young Tree, is every Day a _Widening_. Besides, Honour and Interest require a long Chain of solid Reasoning before they can be set in Battle-Array: 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