Concerning the virtues of women.
Concerning the virtues of women, O Clea, I am not of
the same mind with Thucydides. For he would prove
that she is the best woman concerning whom there is the
least discourse made by people abroad, either to her praise
or dispraise; judging that, as the person, so the very name
of a good woman ought to be retired and not gad abroad.
But to us Gorgias seems more accurate,who requires that
not only the face but the fame of a woman should be known
to many. For the Roman law seems exceeding good, which
permits due praises to be given publicly both to men and
women after death. Wherefore when Leontis, a most
excellent woman, departed this life, immediately we made
a long oration to thee about her, and truly not devoid of
philosophical consolation; and now (as thou didst desire)
I send thee in writing the rest of my speech and conversation, carrying with it an historical demonstration that the
virtue of a man and woman is one and the same. And
although it be not composed for the tickling of the ear,
yet if there be jucundity in the nature of an example to
him that is persuaded of the truth of it, my narration fails
riot of that grace which works conviction; neither is it
ashamed of commixing the Graces with the Muses in the
sweetest harmony (as Euripides saith), while it engageth
confidence especially through that part of the soul which
is studious of grace and beauty. For surely, if, whilst we
asserted the art of painting to be the same, whether performed
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by men or women, we produced the same sort of
draughts wrought by women which Apelles, Zeuxis, or
Nicomachus hath left, is there any one who would reprehend us as attempting rather to humor and cajole men
than to convince them? Verily I do not think it. Moreover, if, whilst we go to make appear that the poetic
or comic art is not one thing in men and another in
women, we compare Sappho's verses with Anacreon's, or
the Sibylline oracles with those of Bacis, can any one justly
blame this way of argumentation, because it insinuates a
credence into the pleased and delighted hearers? No one
surely would say this. Neither can a man truly any waybetter
learn the resemblance and the difference between feminine and virile virtue than by comparing together lives with
lives, exploits with exploits, as the products of some great
art; duly considering whether the magnanimity of Semiramis carries with it the same character and impression with
that of Sesostris, or the cunning of Tanaquil the same with
that of King Servius, or the discretion of Porcia the same
with that of Brutus, or that of Pelopidas with Timoclea,—
regarding that quality of these virtues wherein lie their
chiefest point and force. Moreover, virtues do admit some
other differences, like peculiar colors, by reason of men's
dispositions, and are assimilated to the manners and temperaments of the bodies wherein they are, yea, to the education and manner of diet. Achilles was courageous in
one manner, Ajax in another; the subtlety of Ulysses was
not like that of Nestor, neither were Cato and Agesilaus
just after the same manner; neither was Eirene a lover of
her husband as Alcestis was; neither was Cornelia magnanimous in the same way with Olympias. But, for all
this, we do not say that there are many kinds of fortitude,
prudence, and justice specifically distinct, so long as their
individual dissimilitudes exclude none of them from the
specific definitions.
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Those things now which are very commonly discoursed
of, and of which I know thou hast had the exact history
and knowledge from solid books, I will at present omit,
unless there be some public and recorded matters worth
your hearing, which have escaped the historians of former
times.
And seeing that many worthy things, both public and
private, have been done by women, it is not amiss to give
a brief historical account of those that are public, in the
first place.
