But who is this, what thing of sea or land,—

Female of sex it seems,—

That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay,

Comes this way sailing

Like a stately ship

Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles

Of Javan or Gadire,

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,

Courted by all the winds that hold them play,

An amber scent of odorous perfume

Her harbinger?

John Milton (1608-1674): Samson Agonistes. Line 710.

The sex is ever to a soldier kind.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xiv. Line 246.

Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,

Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.

The virtuous Marcia towers above her sex.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Cato. Act i. Sc. 4.

Spirits when they please

Can either sex assume, or both.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 423.

Think you I am no stronger than my sex,

Being so father'd and so husbanded?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act ii. Sc. 1.

She hugg'd the offender, and forgave the offence:

Sex to the last.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Cymon and Iphigenia. Line 367.

Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,

Unfriendly to society's chief joys:

Thy worst effect is banishing for hours

The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 251.