Let the dread of that ridicule
have no other effect, than to make them conceal their
knowledge before fools, who are not worthy of it, nor of them.
Such will still presume upon the vain title of the male sex to
affect a superiority above them: but my fair readers may be
assured, that all men of sense, who know the world, have a
great deference for their judgment of such books as ly within
the compass of their knowledge, and repose more confidence in
the delicacy of their taste, though unguided by rules, than in
all the dull labours of pedants and commentators. In a
neighbouring nation, equally famous for good taste, and for
gallantry, the ladies are, in a manner, the sovereigns of the
learned world, as well as of the conversible; and no polite
writer pretends to venture upon the public, without the
approbation of some celebrated judges of that sex. Their
verdict is, indeed, sometimes complained of; and, in
particular, I find, that the admirers of Corneille, to save
that great poet's honour upon the ascendant that Racine began
to take over him, always said, that it was not to be expected,
that so old a man could dispute the prize, before such judges,
with so young a man as his rival.
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