He writes:
"Yet hardly my pen will be thought capable of adding to the reputation
her own has procured to her, if it shall appear that she was the author
of a work which is not more an honor to the writer than a universal
benefit to mankind. The work I mean is 'The Whole Duty of Man;' her
title to which has been so well ascertained, that the general
concealment it has lain under will only reflect a luster upon all her
other excellencies by showing that she had no honor in view but that of
her Creator, which, I suppose, she might think best promoted by this
concealment. (The claims of other authors are not difficult to be
disposed of.) If I were a Roman Catholic, I would summon tradition as an
evidence for me on this occasion, which has constantly attributed this
performance to a lady. And a late celebrated writer observes, that
'there are many probable arguments in "The Whole Duty of Man," to back a
current report that it was written by a lady,' And any one who reads
'The Lady's Calling,' may observe a great number of passages which
clearly indicate a female hand.
"That vulgar prejudice of the supposed incapacity of the female sex is
what these memoirs in general may possibly remove; and as I have had
frequent occasion to take notice of it, I should not now enter again
upon that subject, had not this been made use of as an argument to
invalidate Lady Pakington's title to those performances.
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