1
A Serious
PROPOSAL
TO THE
LADIES,
FOR THE
Advancement of their
True and Greatest
INTEREST.
In two Parts.
By a Lover of her SEX.
LONDON:
Printed for Richard Wilkin at the King’s-Head
in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1697.2
3
A Serious
PROPOSAL
TO THE
LADIES.
LADIES,
Since the Profitable Adventuresthat have gone abroad in theWorld have met with so great Encouragement,tho’ the highest advantagethey can propose, is an uncertainLot for such matters as Opinion,not real worth, gives a valueto; things which if obtain’d areas flitting and fickle as that Chancewhich is to dispose of them; Itherefore persuade my self, you willnot be less kind to a Propositionthat comes attended with more certain4and substantial Gain; whoseonly design is to improve yourCharms and heighten your Value,by suffering you no longer to becheap and contemptible. Its aim isto fix that Beauty, to make it lastingand permanent, which Naturewith all the helps of Art cannot secure,and to place it out of the reachof Sickness and Old Age, by transferringit from a corruptible Bodyto an immortal Mind. An obligingDesign, which wou’d procure theminward Beauty, to whom Naturehas unkindly denied the outward, andnot permit those Ladies who havecomely Bodies, to tarnish their Glorywith deformed Souls. Wou’d haveyou all be wits, or what is better,Wise. Raise you above the Vulgarby something more truly illustrious,than a sounding Title or a greatEstate. Wou’d excite in you a generousEmulation to excel in thebest things, and not in such Triflesas every mean person who has but5Money enough may purchase aswell as you. Not suffer you to takeup with the low thought of distinguishingyour selves by any thingthat is not truly valuable, and procureyou such Ornaments as all theTreasures of the Indies are not ableto purchase. Wou’d help you tosurpass the Men as much in Vertueand Ingenuity, as you do in Beauty;that you may not only be as lovely,but as wise as Angels. Exaltand Establish your Fame, morethan the best wrought Poems andloudest Panegyricks, by ennoblingyour Minds with such Graces asreally deserve it. And instead ofthe Fustian Complements and FulsomeFlatteries of your Admirers,obtain for you the Plaudit of GoodMen and Angels, and the approbationof Him who cannot err. Ina word, render you the Glory andBlessing of the present Age, and theAdmiration and Pattern of thenext.6
And sure, I shall not need manywords to persuade you to closewith this Proposal. The very offeris a sufficient inducement, nor doesit need the set-offs of Rhetorick torecommend it, were I capable,