“Prince,” answered Mirzoza, “Selim has too great obligations to our sex, to tear them in pieces without mercy.”

“Madam,” said Selim, “his highness, who could not possibly meet with cruel women, ought naturally to think of the sex as he does: and you, who have the good nature to judge of others by yourself, can hardly have any other sentiments than those which you defend. I will own however, that I am apt to believe there are women of sense, to whom the benefits of virtue are known by experience, and whom a serious reflection has convinced of the ill consequences of an irregular life; women happily born, well educated, who have learn’d to feel their duty, who love it, and will never swerve from it.”

“And not to lose ourselves in speculative reasoning,” added the favorite, “is not Egle, with all her sprightliness and charms, a model of virtue? Prince, you cannot doubt it, and all Banza knows it from your mouth: now, if there be one virtuous woman, there may be a thousand.”