conceited ignorance might be brought down, and the fair sex (whose
virtues are so illustriously bright that they excite our wonder and
command our imitation), may be freed from the calumnies and detractions
of ignorance and envy; and so their honour may continue as unspotted, as
they have kept their persons uncontaminated and free from defilement.

Virginity, in a strict sense, signifies the prime, the chief, the best
of anything; and this makes men so desirous of marrying virgins,
imagining some secret pleasure is to be enjoyed in their embraces, more
than in those of widows, or of such as have been lain with before,
though not many years ago, a very great personage thought differently,
and to use his own expression:--"The getting a maidenhead was such a
piece of drudgery, that it was fitter for a coal heaver than a
prince."[1] But this was only his opinion, for I am sure that other men
think differently.

The curious inquirers into the secrets of Nature, have observed, that in
young maidens in the _sinus pudoris_, or in what is called the neck of
the womb, is that wonderful production usually called the _hymen_, but
in French _bouton de rose_, or rosebud, because it resembles the
expanded bud of a rose or a gilly flower. From this the word _defloro_,
or, deflower, is derived, and hence taking away virginity is called
deflowering a virgin, most being of the opinion that the virginity is
altogether lost when this membrane is fractured and destroyed by
violence; when it is found perfect and entire, however, no penetration
has been effected; and in the opinion of some learned physicians there
is neither hymen nor expanded skin which contains blood in it, which
some people think, flows from the ruptured membrane at the first time of
sexual intercourse.