LVII. We are come now to defend the great article of all, which is the question of the understanding; and, I must confess, if my reason does not assist me in arguing this point, that I expect but little help or resource from authorities; because all the authors who have touched upon the matter, with the exception of one or two particular ones only, have wrote so much on the side of the vulgar opinion, that they almost uniformly speak of the understandings of the women with contempt. LVIII. And truly, I might reply to the authority of the greatest part of these books, with the fable of the lion and the man, inserted by Carducius in one of his dialogues, which is to this effect. A man and a lion travelling together, fell to dispute whether lions or men were the bravest animals: and as they proceeded on their road, they came to a fountain, at the top of which, there was exhibited carved in marble, a man tearing a lion in pieces; upon seeing this, the man turned short on the lion, and in the tone of a conqueror, asked, if he could make any reply to so convincing an argument; to which the lion answered with a smile, this is very pretty reasoning of yours, the carving was designed and executed by a man; we lions are none of us sculptors; if we had, and were capable of doing this sort of work, I will venture to assure you, the representation would have been made quite the reverse to what you there see it. LIX. The case is, they were men who wrote those books, in which the understandings of the women are held so cheap; had they been written by women, the men would have been placed in the inferior class: and there has not been wanting a woman, who has done something of this sort; for Lucretia Marinella, a learned Venetian lady, among other works composed a book with this title, _The Excellences of Women, compared with the Defects and Vices of Men_; the sole object of which, was to prove a preference of her own sex to ours. The learned jesuit John of Carthagena says, that he saw and read this book with great pleasure at Rome, and that he saw it also in the royal library at Madrid; but the truth is, that neither she nor we can be judges in this plea, because we are parties to the suit; and therefore the sentence and decision must be confided to the angels, who being of no sex, are impartial. LX. And in the first place, those who hold the understanding of women in such contempt, as hardly to allow they are endued with more than pure instinct, are unworthy to be admitted as parties in the controversy; neither are those, who maintain, that the greatest reach of a woman’s capacity, does not extend farther than to qualify her for managing a hen-roost.