Addisoman
Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne complains • (Diary, 22 September) that he finds women journalists who write about public affairs `absurdly aggrieved' and `ridiculous- ly optimistic' and contrasts this with what he calls the masculine mode in politics. This is not the first time this matter has been raised in the pages of the Spectator. In the Spectator n. 57 (Saturday, 5 May 1711) Joseph Addison notes the vehe- mence of women in party disputes and comments: For my own part, I think a Man makes an odious and despicable Figure, that is violent in a Party, but a Woman is too sincere to mitigate the Fury of her Principles with Temper and Discretion, and to act with that Caution and Reservedness which are re- quisite in our Sex. When this unnatural Zeal gets into them, it throws them into ten thousand Heats and Extravagances; their generous Souls set no Bounds to their Love, or to their Hatred; and whether a Whig or Tory, a Lap-Dog or a Gallant, an Opera or a Puppet-Show, be the object of it, the Pas- sion, while it reigns, engrosses the whole Woman.
Julian Spilsbury 16 Hollinhead, Baildon, Yorkshire
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