The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public BenefitsMandeville, Bernard
Philosophy
The Fable of the Bees; Or, Private Vices, Public Benefits
Mandeville, Bernard
Charity-schools -- Early works to 1800; Ethics -- Early works to 1800; Virtue -- Early works to 1800
A young woman, moreover, that would be thought well-bred, ought to
be circumspect before men in all her behaviour, and never known to
receive from, much less to bestow favours upon them, unless the great
age of the man, near consanguinity, or a vast superiority on either
side, plead her excuse. A young lady of refined education keeps a
strict guard over her looks, as well as actions, and in her eyes we
may read a consciousness that she has a treasure about her, not out
of danger of being lost, and which yet she is resolved not to part
with at any terms. Thousand satires have been made against prudes, and
as many encomiums to extol the careless graces, and negligent air of
virtuous beauty. But the wiser sort of mankind are well assured, that
the free and open countenance of the smiling fair, is more inviting,
and yields greater hopes to the seducer, than the ever-watchful look
of a forbidding eye.
This strict reservedness is to be complied with by all young women,
especially virgins, if they value the esteem of the polite and knowing
world; men may take greater liberty, because in them the appetite is
more violent and ungovernable. Had equal harshness of discipline been
imposed upon both, neither of them could have made the first advances,
and propagation must have stood still among all the fashionable people:
which being far from the politician's aim, it was advisable to ease
and indulge the sex that suffered most by the severity, and make the
rules abate of their rigour, where the passion was the strongest, and
the burden of a strict restraint would have been the most intolerable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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