Abstract
This paper considers the abundance of addresses to women in the early eighteenth century and notes that Mr Spectator's approach is conspicuous by his apparently objective treatment of them as a different species of humanity, an approach which is consistent with a two-sex model which is emergent at this time. This second sex is characterized by ‘animal spirits’ that are ‘light and volatile’ and require counterbalancing by the natural gravity of the male, but which nevertheless offer the possibility of charming and refining male behaviour. Mr Spectator does not advance any of the programmes for educating women, such as we find in Astell and Defoe. Analysis of The Spectator's view of women as mentally, morally and physically delicate serves to correct recent readings which have tended to see it as offering an improving view of women.
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