John Milton on Women
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“A bevy of fair women.”
“ My latest found, Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!”
“ Wisest men Have erred, and by bad women been deceived; And shall again, pretend they ne’er so wise.”
“ Nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote.”
“O fairest of creation! last and best Of all God’s works! creature in whom excell’d Whatever can to sight or thought be form’d Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!”
“Oh! why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven With Spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on Earth, this fair defect Of Nature, and not fill the World at once With men as Angels, without feminine.”
“ Yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, And in herself complete; so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.”
“Neither her outside, form'd so fair, nor aught So much delights me, as those graceful acts, Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions, mix'd with love And sweet compliance, which declare unfeign'd Union of mind, or in us both one soul.”