C. But what remedy is there for these impertinences? why no other, but disregarding, and not giving answers to such letters. Oh! but this would shew want of urbanity; no it would not, for I assert, that so far from it, it would manifest much discretion; and I consider any man who maintains a contrary opinion, to be under a great mistake. There is no one who thinks it shews want of urbanity, to deny your being at home to a man who persecutes you with troublesome visits. Why then should it be thought that a man is wanting in this respect, who returns no answer to these sort of letters? It is very likely, that the writer of them will be much concerned and affected at not having answers to them; but if I can cure an indisposition I labour under, by making the person who brought it upon me, swallow the bitter draught that it may be necessary should be taken to accomplish that end, instead of my taking it myself, why should not I avail myself of such a remedy? In short, in cases of this sort, it is impossible to adopt any other method than that of giving no answer to these kind of letters; for attempting to do otherwise, would be attempting more than a man who receives great numbers of such letters could find leisure to execute; for I can safely declare with respect to myself, that if I had not taken a resolution not to answer all the letters I received, my whole time would not have been sufficient to write those answers, nor my whole fortune, to pay the postage of those that would have been addressed to me. A DEFENCE OR VINDICATION OF THE WOMEN. SECT. I. I. I Enter upon a serious and difficult undertaking; in the prosecution of which, it is not one ignorant vulgar person only I shall have to contend with, for setting about to defend all the women, amounts to pretty near the same thing as resolving to offend all the men, there being scarce one among them, who, in order to give precedence to his own sex, does not endeavour to bring the other into disesteem; and to such an extravagant length, has this custom of abusing and vilifying the women by common consent been carried, that in a moral sense they load them with defects, and in a physical one with imperfections, and will scarce allow them to possess a single good quality: but they lay the greatest stress on the scantiness or limitation of their understandings; for which reason, after briefly vindicating them in other respects, I shall discourse more at large on their aptitude, for attaining all sorts of science and sublime knowledge.