If Men would be content to graft upon Nature, and assist her Operations, what mighty Effects might we expect?  Tully would not stand so much alone in Oratory, Virgil in Poetry, or Caesar in War.  To build upon Nature, is laying the Foundation upon a Rock; every thing disposes its self into Order as it were of Course, and the whole Work is half done as soon as undertaken.  Cicero’s Genius inclined him to Oratory, Virgil’s to follow the Train of the Muses; they piously obeyed the Admonition, and were rewarded.  Had Virgil attended the Bar, his modest and ingenious Virtue would surely have made but a very indifferent Figure; and Tully’s declamatory Inclination would have been as useless in Poetry.  Nature, if left to her self, leads us on in the best Course, but will do nothing by Compulsion and Constraint; and if we are not satisfied to go her Way, we are always the greatest Sufferers by it.

Wherever Nature designs a Production, she always disposes Seeds proper for it, which are as absolutely necessary to the Formation of any moral or intellectual Excellence, as they are to the Being and Growth of Plants; and I know not by what Fate and Folly it is, that Men are taught not to reckon him equally absurd that will write Verses in Spite of Nature, with that Gardener that should undertake to raise a Jonquil or Tulip without the Help of their respective Seeds.

As there is no Good or bad Quality that does not affect both Sexes, so it is not to be imagined but the fair Sex must have suffered by an Affectation of this Nature, at least as much as the other:  The ill Effect of it is in none so conspicuous as in the two opposite Characters of Caelia and Iras; Caelia has all the Charms of Person, together with an abundant Sweetness of Nature, but wants Wit, and has a very ill Voice; Iras is ugly and ungenteel, but has Wit and good Sense:  If Caelia would be silent, her Beholders would adore her; if Iras would talk, her Hearers would admire her; but Caelia’s Tongue runs incessantly, while Iras gives her self silent Airs and soft Languors; so that ’tis difficult to persuade one’s self that Caelia has Beauty and Iras Wit:  Each neglects her own Excellence, and is ambitious of the other’s Character; Iras would be thought to have as much Beauty as Caelia, and Caelia as much Wit as Iras.

The great Misfortune of this Affectation is, that Men not only lose a good Quality, but also contract a bad one:  They not only are unfit for what they were designed, but they assign themselves to what they are not fit for; and instead of making a very good Figure one Way, make a very ridiculous one another.  If Semanthe would have been satisfied with her natural Complexion, she might still have been celebrated by the Name of the Olive Beauty; but Semanthe has taken up an Affectation to White and Red, and is now distinguished by the Character of the Lady that paints so well.  In a word, could the World be reformed to the Obedience of that famed Dictate, Follow Nature, which the Oracle