Allestree, Richard (1611/2-1681)

The Ladies Calling, in Two Parts by the Author of The Whole Duty of Man, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, and The Gentlemans Calling

Oxford: Printed at the Theater

1673

Modest "is indeed a vertu of a general influence; does not only ballast the mind with sober and humble thoughts of ones self, but also steers every part of the outward frame."

7. This will be found true in all the severals we are to pass through, but in none more eminently then in that we shall chuse to begin with, the Vertue of Modesty; which may be considered in a double notion, the one as it is opposed to boldness and indecency, the other to leightness and wantonness. In the first acception, Zeno has not ill defin'd it, to be the Science of decent motion, it being that which guides and regulates the whole behavior, checks and controles all rude exorbitancies, and is the great civilizer of conversations, It is indeed a vertu of a general influence; does not only ballast the mind with sober and humble thoughts of ones self, but also steers every part of the outward frame. It appears in the face in calm and meek looks, where it so impresses it self, that it seems thence to have acquir'd the name of shamefacedness. Certainly, (whatever the modern opinion is) there is nothing gives a greater luster to a feminine beauty: so that St. Paul seems, not ill to have consulted their concerns in that point, when he substitutes that as a suppletory ornament to the deckings of Gold & Pearl and costly Array, 1 Tim. 2. But I fear this now will be thought too antiquated a dress, and an Apostle be esteemed no competent Judge in this Science; which is now become so solemn a thing, that certainly no Academy in the World can vie numbers with the Students of this Mystery. Yet when they have strein'd their art to the highest pitch; an innocent modesty, and native simplicity of Look, shall eclipse their glaring splendor, and triumph over their artificial handsomness: on the other side, let a Woman be decked with all the embellishments of Art, nay and care of Nature too, yet if boldness be to be read in her face, it blots all the lines of beauty, is like a cloud over the Sun, intercepts the view of all that was otherwise amiable, and renders its blackness the more observable, by being plac'd neer somwhat that was apt to attract the eyes.
(I.i.7)

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The Ladies Calling, in Two Parts by the Author of The Whole Duty of Man, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, and The Gentlemans Calling. [attributed to Richard Allestree] Oxford: Printed at the Theater, 1673. <Link to Project Canterbury Edition>

03/30/2010