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Article ON MODESTY, AS A MASCULINE VIRTUE. ← Page 2 of 2
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On Modesty, As A Masculine Virtue.
kind ought to be respected ) is certainly somewhat hard , and , for the honour of the sex , one could not but wish it were otherwise . Is it not absurd when a virtuous young man ( of which number I believe there are not too many in this metropolis ) is praised for one of his good qualities—is it not absurd I say for any man , infinitely more so for any woman , to add , " that he is too modest , and that spoils all ? " And is not this an encouragement to vice and debauchery
from that very quarter whence they ought to receive their greatest check , the tribunal of the fair ? . I can account for this absurdity by one suggestion , which , if not in the mouth , is , I fear , in the heart of almost every young woman , viz . " That a modest man has not a sufficient regard for the sex : " than which there never was a more false . maxim advancedfor the most
, modest men are generally the greatest adorers of the fair sex , their regard for whom is indeed the very occasion of that' timidity which so often exposes them to ridicule . Should any woman be apprehensive of any farther inconveniencies from such a disposition , what an opinion might we not justly entertain of her ! Yet such is the force of customfor I should be sorry to attribute it to any thing elsethat the
, , most abandoned men of the town are often preferred , even by the most modest women ; ancl in excuse we are told , " that reformed rake . ? make the best husbands . " If this maxim were true , it might perhaps be hard to judge when a rake was reformed ; but I fear the contrary is generally the case : for , in the first place , it is hard , very
hard , to wean such persons from their evil courses ; and , in the second place , when they have at last been brought to abandon ill women , it is a great chance indeed if they do not also quit all thoughts of the whole sex . Accustomed as they are to the worst of females , they generally get an ill opinion of all ; and surfeited as they are with fictitious charms , they seldom retain any relish for real ones . In short , the consequence of a woman joining herself in wedlock with such a
man , is generally that he brings her a fortune and constitution equally broken and impaired , and often despises his wife for no other reason than because he himself is really an object of supreme contempt . I mean not by this , that every young fellow who has been imprudent enough to run into some juvenile follies , however reprehensible , ought to be marked out for reprobation by the women ; all I would
be understood to inculcate is , that the abandoned rake is by no means a fit companion for the modest fair , either in wedlock or in company ; and certain I am , that if the ladies gave Jess encouragement to such persons , we should see fewer of them both in our public and private companies . I know that much of this has been noticed to little purpose ; and the same absurd maxims still prevailing , I must own
have roused my attention . —Homo sum ; nihil hiimanum a me alienum puto ; and as it is certain that the men here , as inmost countries , chiefly form themselves by the women , I thought the conduct of the latter in this respect of too much consequence to be passed over in silence , - MODESTUS .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Modesty, As A Masculine Virtue.
kind ought to be respected ) is certainly somewhat hard , and , for the honour of the sex , one could not but wish it were otherwise . Is it not absurd when a virtuous young man ( of which number I believe there are not too many in this metropolis ) is praised for one of his good qualities—is it not absurd I say for any man , infinitely more so for any woman , to add , " that he is too modest , and that spoils all ? " And is not this an encouragement to vice and debauchery
from that very quarter whence they ought to receive their greatest check , the tribunal of the fair ? . I can account for this absurdity by one suggestion , which , if not in the mouth , is , I fear , in the heart of almost every young woman , viz . " That a modest man has not a sufficient regard for the sex : " than which there never was a more false . maxim advancedfor the most
, modest men are generally the greatest adorers of the fair sex , their regard for whom is indeed the very occasion of that' timidity which so often exposes them to ridicule . Should any woman be apprehensive of any farther inconveniencies from such a disposition , what an opinion might we not justly entertain of her ! Yet such is the force of customfor I should be sorry to attribute it to any thing elsethat the
, , most abandoned men of the town are often preferred , even by the most modest women ; ancl in excuse we are told , " that reformed rake . ? make the best husbands . " If this maxim were true , it might perhaps be hard to judge when a rake was reformed ; but I fear the contrary is generally the case : for , in the first place , it is hard , very
hard , to wean such persons from their evil courses ; and , in the second place , when they have at last been brought to abandon ill women , it is a great chance indeed if they do not also quit all thoughts of the whole sex . Accustomed as they are to the worst of females , they generally get an ill opinion of all ; and surfeited as they are with fictitious charms , they seldom retain any relish for real ones . In short , the consequence of a woman joining herself in wedlock with such a
man , is generally that he brings her a fortune and constitution equally broken and impaired , and often despises his wife for no other reason than because he himself is really an object of supreme contempt . I mean not by this , that every young fellow who has been imprudent enough to run into some juvenile follies , however reprehensible , ought to be marked out for reprobation by the women ; all I would
be understood to inculcate is , that the abandoned rake is by no means a fit companion for the modest fair , either in wedlock or in company ; and certain I am , that if the ladies gave Jess encouragement to such persons , we should see fewer of them both in our public and private companies . I know that much of this has been noticed to little purpose ; and the same absurd maxims still prevailing , I must own
have roused my attention . —Homo sum ; nihil hiimanum a me alienum puto ; and as it is certain that the men here , as inmost countries , chiefly form themselves by the women , I thought the conduct of the latter in this respect of too much consequence to be passed over in silence , - MODESTUS .