But whatever was the Reason that Man and Woman were made with this Variety of Temper, if we observe the Conduct of the Fair Sex, we find that they choose rather to associate themselves with a Person who resembles them in that light and volatile Humour which is natural to them, than to such as are qualified to moderate and counter-ballance it.  It has been an old Complaint, That the Coxcomb carries it with them before the Man of Sense.  When we see a Fellow loud and talkative, full of insipid Life and Laughter, we may venture to pronounce him a female Favourite:  Noise and Flutter are such Accomplishments as they cannot withstand.  To be short, the Passion of an ordinary Woman for a Man is nothing else but Self-love diverted upon another Object:  She would have the Lover a Woman in every thing but the Sex.  I do not know a finer Piece of Satyr on this Part of Womankind, than those lines of Mr._Dryden_,

  ’Our thoughtless Sex is caught by outward Form,
  And empty Noise, and loves it self in Man.’

This is a Source of infinite Calamities to the Sex, as it frequently joins them to Men, who in their own Thoughts are as fine Creatures as themselves; or if they chance to be good-humoured, serve only to dissipate their Fortunes, inflame their Follies, and aggravate their Indiscretions.

The same female Levity is no less fatal to them after Mariage than before:  It represents to their Imaginations the faithful prudent Husband as an honest tractable [and] domestick Animal; and turns their Thoughts upon the fine gay Gentleman that laughs, sings, and dresses so much more agreeably.

As this irregular Vivacity of Temper leads astray the Hearts of ordinary Women in the Choice of their Lovers and the Treatment of their Husbands, it operates with the same pernicious Influence towards their Children, who are taught to accomplish themselves in all those sublime Perfections that appear captivating in the Eye of their Mother.  She admires in her Son what she loved in her Gallant; and by that means contributes all she can to perpetuate herself in a worthless Progeny.

The younger Faustina was a lively Instance of this sort of Women.  Notwithstanding she was married to Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest, wisest, and best of the Roman Emperors, she thought a common Gladiator much the prettier Gentleman; and had taken such Care to accomplish her Son Commodus according to her own Notions of a fine Man, that when he ascended the Throne of his Father, he became the most foolish and abandoned Tyrant that was ever placed at the Head of the Roman Empire, signalizing himself in nothing but the fighting of Prizes, and knocking out Men’s Brains.  As he had no Taste of true Glory, we see him in several Medals and Statues [which [1]] are still extant of him, equipped like an Hercules with a Club and a Lion’s Skin.