Once Delia flept, on eafy mofs reclin'd, Her lovely limbs half bare, and rude the wind: Such good offices as these and fuch friendly thoughts and concerns for one another, are what make up the amity, as they call it, between man and woman.. It is the permiffion of fuch intercourse, that makes a young woman come to the arms of her husband, after the difappointment of four or five paffions which she has fucceffively had for different men, before fhe is prudentially given to him for whom he has neither love nor friendship. For what fhould a poor creature do, that has loft all her friends? There's Marinet the agreeable, has, to my knowledge, had a friendship for Lord Welford, which had like to break her heart; then she had fo great a friendship for Colonel Hardy, that fhe could not endure any woman elfe fhould do any thing but rail at him. Many and fatal have been difafters between friends who have fallen out, and thefe refentments are more keen than ever thofe of other men can poffibly be: But in this it happens unfortunately, that as there ought to be nothing concealed from one friend to another, the friends of different fexes very often find fatal effects from their unanimity. For my part, who ftudy to pafs life in as much innocence and tranquillity as I can, I fhun the company of agreeable women as much as poffible; and muft confefs that I have, though a tolerable good philofopher, but a low opinion of Platonic love: For which reafon I thought it neceffary to give my fair readers a caution against it, having, to my great concern, obferved the waift of a Platonist lately fwell to a roundness which is inconsistent with that philofophy. N° 401 Tuesday, June 10. In amore hæc omnia infunt vitia: Injuriæ, Sufpiciones, inimicitiæ, induciæ, Bellum, pax rurfum. Ter. Eun. A& 1. Sc. 1. It is the capricious ftate of love, to be attended with reproaches, fufpicions, enmities, truces, quarrelling, reconcilement. I ་ Shall publish, for the entertainment of this day, an odd fort of a packet, which I have juft received from one of my female correfpondents. Mr. SPECTATOR, INCE you have often confefs'd that you are not difpleafed your papers should sometimes convey the complaints of diftreffed lovers to each other, I am in hopes you will favour one who gives you an undoubted inftance of her reformation, and at the fame ⚫ time a convincing proof of the happy influence your labours have had over the most incorrigible part of the most incorrigible fex. You must know, Sir, I am one of that species of women, whom you have often ⚫ characterized under the name of Filts, and that I ⚫fend you these lines as well to do public penance for having fo long continued in a known error, as to beg pardon of the party offended. I the rather chufe this way, because it in fome measure anfwers the terms on ⚫ which he intimated the breach between us might poffibly be made up, as you will fee by the letter he fent me the next day after I had difcarded him; which 1 thought fit to fend you a copy of, that you might the better know the whole cafe. 4 I mult further acquaint you, that before I jilted him, there had been the greatest intimacy between us for a year and half together, during all which time I • cherished his hopes, and indulged his flame. I leave 'you you to guefs after this what must be his surprise, when < upon his preffing for my full confent one day, I told ⚫ him I wonder'd what could make him fancy he had ever any place in my affections. His own fex allow him fenfe, and all ours good-breeding. His perfon is fuch as might, without vanity, make him believe himself not incapable of being beloved. Our fortunes indeed, weighed in the nice fcale of intereft, are not exactly equal, which by the way was the true caufe of my jilting him, and I had the affurance to acquaint him with the following maxim, That I should always believe that man's paffion to be the moft violent, who could ⚫ offer me the largest fettlement. I have fince changed my opinion, and have endeavoured to let him know fo much by feveral letters, but the barbarous man has re• fufed them all; fo that I have no way left of writing to ⚫ him but by your affiftance. If you can bring him about once more, I promise to fend you all gloves and favours, and fhall defire the favour of Sir ROGER and ⚫ yourself to ftand as god-fathers to my first boy. I am, SIR, MADAM, I Your most obedient most humble fervant. Philander to Amoret. am fo furprised at the queftion you were pleafed to ask me yesterday, that I am ftill at a lofs what to fay to it. At least my anfwer would be too long to trouble you with, as it would come from a perfon, ⚫ who, it feems, is fo very indifferent to you. Instead of it I fhall only recommend to your confideration the opinion of one whofe fentiments on thefe matters I ⚫ have often heard you fay are extremely juft. A generous_ and conftant paffion, fays your favourite author, in an agreeable lover, where there is not too great a disparity in their circumftances, is the greatest blefing that can befal a perfon beloved; and if overlook'd in one, may perhaps never ⚫ be found in another. I do not, however, at all despair of being very fhortly much better beloved by you than Antenor is at pre B 3 fent; fent; fince whenever my fortune fhall exceed his, you were pleased to intimate your paffion would increase accordingly. The world has feen me fhamefully lofe that time to please a fickle woman, which might have been employed much more to my credit and advantage in other purfuits. I fhall therefore take the liberty to acquaint you, however harfh it may found in lady's ears, that tho' your love-fit fhould happen to return, unless you could contrive a way to make your recan⚫tation as well known to the public, as they are already apprifed of the manner with which you have treated me, you shall never more fee SIR, U PHILANDER. Amoret to Philander... PON reflexion, I find the injury I have done both to you and myself to be fo great, that the the part I now act may appear contrary to that deco. rum ufually obferved by our fex, yet I purposely break through all rules, that my repentance may in some meafure equal my crime. I affure you that in my prefent hopes of recovering you, I look upon Antenor's eftate with contempt. The fop was here yesterday in a gilt chariot and new liveries, but I refused to fee him. Though I dread to meet your eyes, after what has paffed, I flatter myself, that amidst all their con⚫ fufion you will discover fuch a tenderness in mine, as " none can imitate but those who love. I fhall be all this month at Lady D's in the country; but the woods, the fields and gardens, without Philander, afford no pleafures to the unhappy my AMORET I muft defire you, dear Mr. Spectator, to publish this letter to Philander as foon as poffible, and to aflure • him that I know nothing at all of the death of his rich uncle in Gloucestershire. X Wednesday, W 7EREI to publish all the advertisements I receive from different hands, and perfons of different circumftances and quality, the very mention of them, without reflexions on the feveral fubjects, would raife all the paffions which can be felt by human minds. As inftances of this, I fhall give you two or three let ters; the writers of which can have no recourfe to any legal power for redress, and seem to have written rather to vent their forrow than to receive confolation. Mr. SPECTATOR, I Am a young woman of beauty and quality, and fuitably married to a gentleman who dotes on me. But this perfon of mine is the object of an unjuk paffion in a nobleman who is very intimate with my husband. This friendship gives him very eafy accefs, and frequent opportunities of entertaining me apart. My heart is in the utmost anguish, and my face is covered over with confufion, when I impart to you another circumftance, which is, that my mother, the moft mercenary of all women, is gained by this falfe friend of my ' husband's to folicit me for him. I am frequently chid by the poor believing man my hufband, for fhewing an impatience of his friend's company; and I am never alone with my mother, but she tells me stories of the difcretionary part of the world, and such a one, and fuch a one who are guilty of as much as the advifes me to She laughs at my aftonishment; and feems to hint to me, that as virtuous as fhe has always appeared, I am not the daughter of her husband. It is poffible that printing this letter may relieve me from the unnatural importunity of my mother, and the perfidious courtship of my husband's friend. I have an unfeigned love of ⚫ virtue B 4 |