All the moralists have agreed to interpret this fable as a caution to us
never to trust a woman. What reasons they could have for giving so rough
and uncourtly a precept, is not easy to be imagined: for, however fickle
and unstable some women may be, it is well known there are several who
have a greater regard for truth, in what they assert or promise, than
most men. There is not room, in so short a compass, to express a due
concern for the honour of the ladies upon this occasion, nor to show how
much one is disposed to vindicate them: and, though there is nothing bad
which can be said to them but may with equal justice be averred of the
other sex, yet one would not venture to give them quite so absolute a
precaution as the old mythologists have affixed to this fable; but only
to advise them to consider well and thoroughly of the matter before they
trust any man living.