Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: THE COMPLEAT BEAU _This vain gay thing sets unfor man, But seem^t fate attends him The powd’ring Barber first began, The Barber Surgeon endst._ ] AN ESSAY In Defence of the _FEMALE SEX_. In which are inserted the CHARACTERS OF _A Pedant_, _A Squire_, _A Beau_, _A Vertuoso_, _A Poetaster_, _A City-Critick_, &c. In a Letter to a Lady. Written by a Lady. _Since each is fond of his own ugly Face; Why shou’d you when we hold it break the Glass?_ Prol. to Sir _F. Flutter_. _LONDON_, Printed for _A. Roper_ and _E. Wilkinson_ at the _Black Boy_, and _R. Clavel_ at the _Peacock_, in _Fleetstreet_, 1696. _To Her Royal Highness the Princess_ Anne _of_ Denmark. _MADAM_, If in adventuring to lay this little Piece at your Highnesses Feet, and humbly beg your Royal Protection of it, I have presum’d too far, be pleas’d to impute it to your own, most gracious Goodness, the knowledge of which encourag’d me. Our Sex are by Nature tender of their own Off-spring, and may be allow’d to have more fondness for those of the Brain, then any other; because they are so few, and meet with so many Enemies at their first appearance in the World. I hope therefore to find pardon, if like an indulgent Parent, I have endeavour’d to advance my first Born, by entering it very early into your Highnesses Service.