XX. Robustness, which is a bodily perfection, may be considered as counterpoised by beauty, which is so likewise. Many people are disposed to give the last the preference; and they would be right, if that was to be esteemed the most valuable, which is the most flattering or pleasing to the sight: but the consideration of which is most useful to the public, should, in the eye of sound judgment, weigh most in deciding the question; and, viewing the thing in this light, robustness must be preferred to beauty. The robustness of men, furnishes the world with three most essential benefits, which may not improperly be termed the three columns which support every state, to wit, arms, agriculture, and mechanics. From the beauty of women, I do not know what important advantage can accrue, unless it comes by accident. Some will argue, that beauty, so far from producing benefits, occasions serious mischiefs, by causing unruly amours, which inflame and excite competitions and strife, and which involve those who are charged with the custody of women, in cares, uneasiness, and anxiety. XXI. But this accusation, as it originates from a want of reflection, is ill-founded; for supposing, for argument’s sake, that all the women were ugly, in those who were blemished with the fewest deformities, we should experience the same attraction, which we do at present in the handsome ones, and they would consequently occasion the same mischief. The least ugly placed in Greece would have caused the burning of Troy, as Helen did; and placed in the palace of King Roderigo, would have been the ruin of Spain, as La Caba was. In those countries where the women are the least tempting, there are not fewer disorders than there are in those where they are more genteelly, and more admirably formed: even in Muscovy, which in number of handsome women exceeds all the other kingdoms of Europe, incontinence is not so unbridled as in other countries, and conjugal faith is observed there, with more exactness than it is in other places. XXII. Beauty therefore of itself, is not the cause of the mischiefs which are attributed to it; notwithstanding which, in the present question, I must give my vote in favour of robustness, as I esteem it a much more important quality than beauty, and therefore, in this particular, must give the preference to the men. There is, however, saved and remaining to the women, if they chuse to avail themselves of it, an objection to this decision, which may be founded on the judgment of many learned men, and which was assented to and admitted by a whole illustrious school: this judgment, recognizes the will for a more noble faculty than the understanding, which is rather favourable to their cause; for if robustness, as being of the most consequence, is, in the general opinion, most prized and valued, beauty, as the more amiable quality, has most control over the will.