writing; and we learn from history, that he settled in Bœotia, where he founded the city of Thebes. To this may be added, that in Bœotia is found Mount Helicon, dedicated to the Muses, and from which they derive their name of Heliconides; and that from this mountain, descends the famous Aganippe fountain, consecrated to the same fictitious deities, the water of which, they feign to have been the wine of the poets, which enraptured and inspired them, and lighted up the fire of enthusiasm in their brains. It seems as if all these fictions could have no other origin, than poetry having in some former time flourished in that region. XCIX. But admitting the Bœotians by nature to be rude and stupid, how can it be proved, that this is derived from the humidity of the country, and not from some other hidden cause; especially, when we see moist or damp countries, on which this stigma is not fixed? Let humidity then, be acquitted of the false accusation which has been raised against it, to wit, of being at war with, and an enemy to ingenuity; and let it be settled, that from this principle, no proof can be deduced to ascertain, that the women in point of understanding, are inferior to the men. SECT. XV. C. Father Malebranche, reasons in another way, and denies the women have equal understanding with the men, on account of their brains being more soft and tender than those of the other sex. I really don’t know whether what he supposes about this greater degree of softness be true or not, but I have read two treatises on anatomy, and did not find the least mention of it in either of them. Perhaps, from having taken it for granted, that the brains of women were more humid, he concluded they were more soft; but this is not always a certain consequence, for ice is humid and not soft, and melted metal is soft, but not humid; or perhaps, from having observed the women were of a more soft and docile disposition than men, he inferred, that in their material composition they were the same; for there have been people so superficial, as to form ideas upon these sort of analogies, which afterwards, for want of due reflection, have been adopted by persons of great perspicuity.