Women well furnish’d in these Parts may divert themselves with their Companions, to whom for the most part they can give as much Pleasure as Men do, but cannot receive in any proportion the Pleasure themselves, for want of Ejaculation, the Crisis of Enjoyment to the Male in the Intrigues of Venus.  I am inform’d that Diversions of this nature are frequently practis’d by robust and lustful Females, who cannot with any prospect of safety to their Reputations, venture upon the Embraces of a Man, though they are never so strongly enclin’d.  The unnatural Pleasures of this kind are finely illustrated in the following Song, written by Mr. ROWE, which I take it will not be improperly inserted in this Place.

[Footnote A:  Le Tableau de l’Amour Conjugal, par Monsieur Venette.  Paris 1710.]

SONG.

I.

While SAPPHO, with harmonious Airs,
Her dear PHILENIS charms,
With equal joy the Nymph appears,
Dissolving in her Arms.

II.

Thus to themselves alone they are,
What all Mankind can give;
Alternately the happy Pair
All grant, and all receive.

III.

Like the Twin-Stars, so fam’d for Friends,
Who set by Turns and rise;
When one to THETIS Lap descends
His Brother mounts the Skies.

IV.

With happier Fate, and kinder Care,
These Nymphs by Turns do reign,
While still the Falling, does prepare
The Rising, to sustain.

V.

The Joys of either Sex in Love;
In each of them we read,
Successive each, to each does prove,
Fierce Youth and yielding Maid.

* * * * *

Intrigues of Hermaphrodites and Masculine Females.

The hotter the Climate, the stronger are the Inclinations to Venery.  When I was formerly in Italy; there happened a notable Adventure in the Neighbourhood of Rome, between a certain Lady call’d Margureta, one of a noble Family in the Papal Dominions, and a Lady of France, whose Name was Barbarissa:  These two Females were in their Statures very near equal to the largest siz’d Male; they had full and rough Faces, large Shoulders, Hands and Feet; and but slender Hips, and small breasts:  In short, they resembled Men in all respects, but their Dresses, their Gates and Voices, and indeed they were suspected to be Hermaphrodites.  These Ladies, I am inform’d, paid frequent Visits to each other, and ’twas always observ’d, that no Body was admitted to their splendid Entertainments, which heighten’d the Curiosity of a Servant in the Family of Margureta, to attempt a Discovery of their Intrigues, they always locking themselves in, the moment they had dispatch’d their Suppers:  In order to this, on a Time, this Servant, call’d