 and a Freedom from her Yoke is what no Man could bear.
There are no Forms of human Government that can exempt us from her Sway, no System of Laws that can exclude her Authority. Do we not study, toil, and sweat, and go forth in the Darkness, and put our Face to every Danger, to win and bring home Treasure and Ornaments to our Love? even the Robbers and savage Spoilers of Mankind grow tame to the civilizing Prerogative of Beauty.
If Men seek Peace, it is to live in kindly Society with Woman; and if they seek War, it is to please her with the Report and Renown of their Valour.
Even the Highest, the Mightiest, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is caught in the fascinating Net of his
Apame.
I saw her seated by his Side; she took the Crown from his Head, and gave it new Lustre by the Beauty of her Brow and the Brightness of her Tresses. I saw her chide him in her Playfulness, and strike him in her Petulance; yet he pressed the Hand of her pleasing Presumption to his Lips; he gazed fondly and fixedly on her; if she laughed he laughed also, but if she affected Displeasure, he spoke and looked Submission; and was fain to plead and sue for Reconcilement.
Here ended the blooming Orator. The Monarch rose from his Throne and gave loud Applause, and the Roofs resounded with the Shouts and Acclamations of the Assembly.
Wherefore it was decreed,
by the Laws of the Medes and Persians,
that female Beauty ought to govern the World in Meekness, and that Men owed thereunto a voluntary Obedience.
Pray, my good Sir, this same
Esdras,
is it among the Canonical Books?
I can't affirm that it is. But, it is held as authentic, and very sacred, I assure you.
It is a pity that your System of female Government should be apocryphal. But, since you have not proved their Dominion to be
jure divino;
permit me to retain my Faith, and to go on with my Story.
CHAP. IX.
MR. CLEMENT, said Mr.
Fenton,
I am singularly obliged and instructed by your Story. The Incidents of your Life have been very extraordinary, and have been evidently accompanied by the Controul and Attention of a peculiar Providence. The same Providence is, undoubtedly, with, and over all his Works; though we are not willing to admit him in, what we call, common Occurrences, and which, we think, we can account for, without his Interposition. But, in the
