Part I.  Warm-up (25%)

This section may include images as well as text, and it will emphasize the material we've read since the second midterm more than the material read earlier.

Identify 5 out of 10 of the following items: Indicate work and writer (as appropriate) and then explain BRIEFLY, in two or a few complete sentences and as appropriate to the item, who is speaking, what’s happening, what’s at stake, and why this material is interesting. Do not say "This material is interesting because . . ." Just make a claim.

Part II.  Analysis of quoted material (25 %)

Choose one of the remaining 5 items in Part I and analyze it closely.  Your analysis should have a main point.  Underline it.

Part III. Answer one of the following essay questions.  (50%)

In Part III, please do not write on any of the works you have written on in Parts I & II.

Sample items for Part I.

1. Nor can any thing be concluded to the contrary from St. Paul’s argument, I Cor. [11]. For he argues only for decency and order, according to the present custom and state of things. Taking his words strictly and literally, they prove too much, in that praying and [prophesying] in the Church are allowed the women, provided they do it with their head covered, as well as the men; and no inequality can be inferred from hence, neither from the gradation the apostle there uses, that the head of every man is Christ, and that the head of the woman is theman, and the head of Christ is God;8 it being evident from the form of baptism that there is no natural in all things coequal. The apostle indeed adds that the man is the glory of God, and the woman the glory of the man, etc. But what does he infer from hence? He says not a word of inequality or natural inferiority, but concludes that a woman ought to cover her head and a man ought not to cover his, and that even nature itself teaches us that if a man has long hair it is a shame unto him.

2. .  .  .  .  a handsome wench in our way of business is as profitable as at the bar of a Temple coffee house, who looks upon it as her livelihood to grant every liberty but one. You see I would indulge the girl as far as prudently we can. In anything but marriage!  After that, my dear, how shall we be safe? Are we not then in her husband’s power? For a husband hath the absolute power over all a wife’s secrets but her own. If the girl had the discretion of a Court lady, who can have a dozen young fellows at her ear without complying with one, I should not matter it.

3. THE natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that established, by consent, in the common-wealth; nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact, according to the trust put in it. Freedom then is not what Sir Robert Filmer tells us, Observations, A. 55. a liberty for every oneto do what he lists, to live as he pleases, and not to be tied by any laws: but freedom of men under government is, to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power erected in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, where the rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man: as freedom of nature is, to be under no other restraint but the law of nature.

4. I answer, It is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbours, to destroy those creatures! not for any personal injury received, but for prevention; not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do! Serpents, toads, vipers, &c., are noxious to the body, and poison the sensitive life: these poison the soul! corrupt our posterity! ensnare our children! destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future felicity! and contaminate the whole mass!

5. Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected.  

6. To begin then with the period of the Guinea negroe's arrival in one of the islands.—As soon as the ship that brings them is at anchor, the master or surgeon goes on shore to procure fresh provisions, fruit, and vegetables of all kinds, which are immediately sent on
board for the slaves. Parties of them are sent on shore at different times, and conducted a little way into the country, where they frequently meet with many natives of their own country, who speak the same language, and sometimes with near and dear relations, who all appear very cheerful and happy. These agreeable and unexpected meetings are truly affecting, and excite the most tender and pleasing sensations in the breasts of the bystanders. It is not uncommon for these newly arrived guests, to mingle in the dance, or to join in the song,with their country people.

7. What then—were they the wicked above all,
And we the righteous, whose fast-anchored isle
Moved not, while theirs was rocked like a light skiff,
The sport of ev'ry wave? No: none are clear,
And none than we more guilty. But where all
Stand chargeable with guilt, and to the shafts
Of wrath obnoxious, God may choose his mark.
May punish, if he please, the less, to warn
The more malignant. If he spared not them,
Tremble and be amazed at thine escape,
Far guiltier England, lest he spare not thee.

Imagine choosing the following section for Part II:

The Africans have been always represented as a cruel and perfidious people, lazy, lascivious, faithless in their engagements, innate thieves, without morals, and without any just notion of any one religious duty. Their laws are founded on such principles as naturally flow from so impure a source. The government of the slavecoast
of Africa is despotic. The will of the Prince must be obeyed. There is no appeal upon earth from his awful decree. The lives and fortunes of every one are absolutely at his disposal. These tyrants have thought fit to distinguish a number of crimes, but have taken no care to proportionate their degrees of punishment. Every offence is there punished with loss of life or liberty. Captives in war are deliberately murdered, or sold as slaves, as may most indulge the sanguinary caprice of the conqueror. Those convicted of adultery or theft, lose their liberty. He who is in debt, and unable to pay must either sell himself or his children to satisfy the creditor. It may be said, that the loss of life, or liberty, only commences with the injury done to society. I answer, "that in Africa, the civil liberty is already destroyed by the political slavery."

Part III. Sample essay topic:

In The Beggar’s Opera, Polly says to her father: "I know as well as any of the fine ladies how to make the most of my self and of my man too. A woman knows how to be mercenary, though she hath never been in a court or at an assembly. We have it in our natures, Papa. If I allow Captain Macheath some trifling liberties, I have this watch and other visible marks of his favor to show for it. A girl who cannot grant some things, and refuse what is most material, will make but a poor hand of her beauty and soon be thrown upon the common."

Analyze Polly's speech closely and compare her idea of a woman’s proper knowledge to Astell’s.  Draw one more work into your analysis in order to make your discussion and comparison more complex.