There is not a surer Sign of a noble Mind, a Mind very far advanc’d towards Perfection, than the being able to bear Contempt and an unjust Treatment from one’s Superiors evenly and patiently. For inward Worth and real Excellency are the true Ground of Superiority, and one Person is not in reality better than another, but as he is more Wise and Good. But this World being a Place of Trial, and govern’d by general Laws, just Retributions being reserv’d for hereafter, Respect and Obedience many times become due for Order’s sake, to those who don’t otherwise deserve them. Now tho’ Humility keeps us from over-valuing our selves or viewing our Merit through a false and magnifying _Medium_, yet it does not put out our Eyes, it does not, it ought not to deprive us of that pleasing Sentiment which attends our Acting as we ought to Act, which is, as it were, a Foretaste of Heaven, our present Reward for doing what is just and fit. And when a Superior does a mean and unjust thing, as all Contempt of one’s Neighbour is, and yet this does not provoke his Inferiors to refuse that Observance which their Stations in the World require, they cannot but have an inward Sense of their own real Superiority, the other having no Pretence to it, at the same Time that they pay him an outward Respect and Deference, which is such a flagrant Testimony of the sincerest Love of Order, as proves their Souls to be of the highest and noblest Rank. A Man therefore for his own sake, and to give Evidence that he has a Right to those Prerogatives he assumes, should treat Women with a little more Humanity and Regard than is usually paid them. Your whifling Wits may scoff at them, and what then? It matters not, for they rally every Thing though ever so sacred, and rail at the Women commonly in very good Company. Religion, its Priests, and those its most constant and regular Professors, are the usual Subjects of their manly, mannerly and surprizing Jests. Surprizing indeed! not for the Newness of the Thought, the Brightness of the Fancy, or Nobleness of Expression, but for the good Assurance with which such Thread-bare Jests are again and again repeated. But that your grave Dons, your learned Men, and, which is more, your Men of Sense, as they would be thought, should stoop so low as to make Invectives against the Women, forget themselves so much as to jest with their Slaves, who have neither Liberty, nor Ingenuity to make Reprizals; that they should waste their Time, and debase their good Sense, which fits them for the most weighty Affairs, such as are suitable to their profound Wisdom and exalted Understandings! to render those poor Wretches more ridiculous and odious who are already in their Opinion sufficiently contemptible, and find no better Exercise of their Wit and Satire, than such as are not worth their Pains, though it were possible to Reform them, this, this indeed may justly be wonder’d at!