from The Female Advocate Or, An Answer to a Late Satyr*
Blasphemous wretch! How canst thou think or say
Some cursed or banished fiend usurped the sway
When Eve was formed? For then’s denied by you
God’s omnipresence and omniscience too:
Without which attributes he could not be
The greatest and supremest deity:
Nor can Heav’n sleep, though it may mourn to see
Degen’rate man speak such vile blasphemy.
When from dark chaos Heav’n the world did make,
And all was glorious it did undertake; [10]
Then were in Eden’s garden freely placed
Each thing that’s pleasant to the sight or taste,
’Twas filled with beasts and birds, trees hung with fruit,
That might with man’s celestial nature suit:
The world being made thus spacious and complete,
Then man was formed, who seemed nobly great.
When Heav’n surveyed the works that it had done,
Saw male and female, but found man alone,
A barren sex, and insignificant,
Then Heav’n made woman to supply the want, [20]
And to make perfect what before was scant:
Surely then she a noble creature is,
Whom Heav’n thus made to consummate all bliss.
Though man had being first, yet methinks she
In nature should have the supremacy;
For man was formed out of dull senseless earth,
But woman had a much more noble birth:
For when the dust was purified by Heaven,
Made into man, and life unto it was given,
Then the almighty and all-wise God said, [30]
That woman of that species should be made;
Which was no sooner said, but it was done,
’Cause ’twas not fit for man to be alone.
Thus have I proved woman’s creation good,
And not inferior, when right understood,
To that of man’s; for both one maker had,
Which made all good; then how could Eve be bad?
But then you’ll say, though she at first was pure,
Yet in that state she did not long endure.
’Tis true; but yet her fall examine right; [40]
We find most men have banished truth for spite:
Nor is she quite so guilty as some make,
For Adam most did of the guilt partake;
While he from God’s own mouth had the command,
But woman had it at the second hand:
The Devil’s strength weak woman might deceive
But Adam only tempted was by Eve:
She had the strongest tempter, and least charge;
Man’s knowing most, doth make his sin more large.
But though that woman man to sin did lead, [50]
Yet since her seed hath bruised the Serpent’s head:
Why should she thus be made a public scorn,
Of whom the great almighty God was born?
Surely to speak one slighting word, must be
A kind of murmuring impiety:
But yet their greatest haters still prove such
Who formerly have loved them too much;
And from the proverb are they not exempt,
Too much familiarity has bred contempt.
They make all base for one’s immodesty; [60]
Nay, make the name a kind of magic spell,
As if ’twould conjure married men to Hell.
Woman! By Heaven, the very name’s a charm,
And will my verse against all critics arm […]
… I am not sorry you do females hate,
But rather deem ourselves more fortunate,
Because I find, when you’re right understood,
You are at enmity with all that’s good,
And should you love them, I should think they were
A-growing bad, but still keep as you are: [70]
I need not bid you, for you must I’m sure,
And in your present wretched state endure;
’Tis as impossible you should be true,
As for a woman to act like to you,
Which I am sure will not accomplished be,
Till heaven’s turned hell, and that’s repugnancy;
When vice turns virtue, then ’tis you shall have
A share of that which makes most females brave;
Which transmutations I am sure can’t be;
So thou must lie in vast eternity, [80]
With prospect of thy endless misery,
When woman, your imagined fiend, shall live
Blessed with the joys that Heaven can always give.