Lady - The Ladies Defence: (Chap. 16) lyrics

Thro' all the labyrinths of learning go, and grow more humble, as they more do know. By doing this, they will respect procure, silence the men, and lasting Fame secure, And to themselves the best companions prove, And neither fear their Malice, nor desire their love. Sir William. Had you the learning you so much desire, you, sure, would nothing, but your selves admire, all our addresses would be then in vain, And we no longer in your Hearts should Reign, sighs would be lost, and Ogles cast away, you'd laugh at all we do, and all we say. No courtship then durst by the beaux be made To anything above a chamber maid. Gay cloaths, and periwigs would useless prove, none but the Men of Sense would dare to love, With such, Heaven knows, this Isle does not abound, For one wise man, Ten thousand fools are found, who all must at an awful distance wait, and vainly curse the rigor of their Fate. Then blame us not if we our Interest mind, And would have knowledge to our selves confined, Since that alone pre-eminence does give, and robbed of it we should undervalued live. While You are ignorant, we are secure, a little pain will your esteem procure. Nonsense well clothed will pa** for solid Sense, and well pronounced, for matchless eloquencez boldness for learning, and a foreign air for nicest breeding with the' admiring Fair. Sir John. By Heaven I wish 'twere by the Laws decreed They never more should be allowed to read. Books are the bane of states, the plagues of life, but both conjoined, when studied by a Wife, They nourish factions, and increase debate, teach needless things, and causeless fears create. from plays and novels they learn how to plot, and from your sermons all their cant is got,from those they learn the dammed intriguing way How to attract, and how their snares to lay.