Even in 1652 the Paradoxes and Problemes were not printed entire. Another Probleme concerning Sir Walter Raleigh has been preserved in the Bodleian Library (Tanner MSS. 299, f. 32), the copier stating that it ‘was so bitter that his son, Jack Donne, LL.D., thought fit not to print it with the rest’. Yet another has recently been discovered in a manuscript containing Donne’s poems. The _Juvenilia_ have not been reprinted since 1652. In the present edition the text follows that of the second edition of 1633, amplified from the third edition of 1652 and with the additional Probleme from the Bodleian manuscript, already printed by Mr. Edmund Gosse in his _Life and Letters of Donne, 1899, ii. 52_. The spurious epigrams have not been included. GEOFFREY KEYNES [Decoration] PARADOXES 1. _A Defence of Womens Inconſtancy._ That Women are _Inconſtant_, I with any man confeſſe, but that _Inconſtancy_ is a bad quality, I againſt any man will maintaine: For every thing as it is one better than another, ſo is it fuller of _change_; The _Heavens_ themſelves continually turne, the _Starres_ move, the _Moone_ changeth; _Fire_ whirleth, _Ayre_ flyeth, _Water_ ebbs and flowes, the face of the _Earth_ altereth her lookes, _time_ ſtayes not; the Colour that is moſt light, will take moſt dyes: ſo in Men, they that have the moſt reaſon are the moſt alterable in their deſignes, and the darkeſt or moſt ignorant, do ſeldomeſt change; therefore Women changing more than Men, have alſo more _Reaſon_. They cannot be immutable like ſtockes, like ſtones, like the Earths dull Center; Gold that lyeth ſtill, ruſteth; Water, corrupteth; Aire that moveth not, poyſoneth; then why ſhould that which is the perfection of other things, be imputed to Women as greateſt imperfection? Becauſe thereby they deceive men. Are not your wits pleaſed with thoſe jeſts, which coozen your expectation? You can call it Pleaſure to be beguil’d in troubles, and in the moſt excellent toy in the world, you call it Treachery: I would you had your _Miſtreſſes_ ſo conſtant, that they would never change, no not ſo much as their _ſmocks_, then ſhould you ſee what ſluttiſh vertue, _Conſtancy_ were. _Inconſtancy_ is a moſt commendable and cleanely quality, and Women in this quality are farre more abſolute than the Heavens, than the Starres, Moone, or any thing beneath it; for long obſervation hath pickt certainety out of their mutability. The Learned are ſo well acquainted with the Starres, Signes and Planets, that they make them but Characters, to reade the meaning of the Heaven in his owne forehead. Every ſimple Fellow can beſpeake the change of the _Moone_ a great while beforehand: but I would faine have the learnedſt man ſo skilfull, as to tell when the ſimpleſt Woman meaneth to varie. Learning affords no rules to know, much leſſe knowledge to rule the minde of a Woman: For as _Philoſophy_