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all my Plaintiffs of this Nature, I moft pity the unfortu nate Philander, a Man of a conftant Paffion and plentiful Fortune, who fets forth that the timorous and irrefolute Sylvia has demurred till fhe is paft Child-bearing. Strephon appears by his Letter to be a very cholerick Lover, and irrevocably fmitten with one that demurrs out of Self-Intereft. He tells me with great Paffion that she has bubbled him out of his Youth; that the drilled him on to five and fifty, and that he verily believes fhe will drop him in his old Age, if the can find her Account in another. I fhall conclude this Narrative with a Letter from honeft S A M. HOPEWELL, a very pleasant Fellow, who it feems has at laft married a Demurrer: I muft only premise, that SAM, who is a very good Bottle-Companion, has been the Diverfion of his Friends, upon account of his Paffion, ever fince the Year one thousand six hundred and eighty

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Dear Sir,

You know very well my Paffion for Mrs. Martha,

and what a Dance fhe has led me: She took me out at the Age of Two and Twenty, and dodged with me above Thirty Years. I have loved her till fhe is grown as grey as a Cat, and am with much ado become the Master of her Perfon, fuch as it is at prefent. She is however in my Eye a very charming old Woman. • We often lament that we did not marry fooner, but the has no Body to blame for it but her felf: You know very well that he would never think of me whilst she had a Tooth in her Head. I have put the Date of my Paffion (Anno Amoris Trigefimo primo) instead of a Pofy, on my Wedding-Ring. I expect you should fend me a Congratulatory Letter, or, if you please, an Epithalamium, upon this Occafion.

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Mrs. Martha's and yours eternally,
SAM, HOPEWELL,

IN order to banifh an Evil out of the World, that does not only produce great Uneafinefs to private Perfons, but has alfo a very bad Influence on the Publick, I fhall endeavour to fhew the Folly of Demurrage from two or three

Re

Reflections, which I earnestly recommend to the Thoughts of my fair Readers.

FIRST of all I would have them feriously think on the Shortness of their Time. Life is not long enough for a Coquet to play all her Tricks in. A timorous Woman drops into her Grave before fhe has done deliberating. Were the Age of Man the fame that it was before the Flood, a Lady might facrifice half a Century to a Scruple, and be two or thee Ages in demurring. Had fhe Nine hundred Years good, the might hold out to the Converfion of the Jews before fhe thought fit to be prevailed upon. But, alas! fhe ought to play her Part in hafte, when fhe confiders that fhe is fuddenly to quit the Stage, and make Room for others.

IN the fecond Place, I would defire my Female Readers to confider, that as the Term of Life is short, that of Beauty is much fhorter. The finest Skin wrinkles in a few Years, and lofes the Strength of its Colouring fo foon, that we have scarce Time to admire it. I might embellish this Subject with Roses and Rainbows, and feveral other ingenious Conceits, which I may poffiby referve for another Opportunity.

THERE is a third Confideration which, I would likewise recommend to a Demurrer, and that is the great Danger of her falling in Love when fhe is about Threefcore, if he cannot fatisfie her Doubts and Scruples before that Time. There is a kind of latter Spring, that fometimes gets into the Blood of an old Woman and turns her ino a very odd fort of an Animal. I would therefore have the Demurrer confider what a ftrange Figure she will make, if the chances to get over all Difficulties, and comes to a final Refolution, in that unfeafonable Part of her Life.

I would not however be understood, by any thing I have here faid, to difcourage that natural Modefty in the Sex, which renders a Retreat from the firft Approaches of a Lover both fashionable and graceful: All that I intend, is, to advife them, when they are prompted by Reafon and Inclination, to demurr only out of Form, and fo far as Decency requires. A virtuous Woman should reject the firft Offer of Marriage, as a good Man does that of a Bishoprick; but I would advife neither the one

nor

nor the other to perfift in refufing what they fecretly approve. I would in this Particular propofe the Example of Eve to all her Daughters, as Milton has reprefented her in the following Paffage, which I cannot forbear tranfcribing entire, tho' only the twelve laft Lines are to my prefent Purpose..

THE Rib he form'd and fashion'd with his Hands; Under his forming Hands a Creature grevs, Manlike, but diff'rent Sex; fo lovely fair! That what feem'd fair in all the World, feem'd now Mean, or in her fumm'd up, in her contain'd, And in her Looks; which from that time infus'd Sweetness into my Heart, unfelt before: And into all things from her Air infpir'd The Spirit of Love and amorous Delight..

SHE difappear'd, and left me dark! I wak'd
To find her, or for ever to deplore

Her Lofs, and other Pleasures all abjure:
When out of hope, behold her, not far off
Such as I faw her in my Dream, adorn'd
With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow
To make her amiable. On she came,
Led by her heav'nly Maker, though unseen,.
And guided by his Voice, nor uninform'd
Of nuptial Sanctity and Marriage Rites:
Grace was in all her Steps, Heav'n in her Eye,.
In every Gesture Dignity and Love.

Loverjoy'd, could not forbear aloud.

THIS Turn hath made Amends; thou haft fulfill'a Thy Words, Creator bounteous and benign!

Giver of all things fair! but faireft this

Of all thy Gifts, nor enviest. I now fee

Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Fleh, my Self.....
SHE heard me thus, and tho' divinely brought,
Yet Innocence and Virgin Modefty,

Her Virtue, and the Confcience of her Worth,
That would be woo'd, and not unfought be won,.
Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retir'd
The more defirable; or, to say all,

Nature her felf, though pure of finful Thought,
Wrought in her fo, that seeing me fhe turn'd.

I followed her: She what was Honour knew,
And with obfequious Majesty approved
My pleaded Reafon. To the nuptial Bower
I led her blushing like the Morn

L

No 90. Wednesday, June 13.

Magnus fine viribus Ignis

Incaffum furit

T

Virg.

HERE is not, in my Opinion, a Confideration more effectual to extinguish inordinate Defires in the Soul of Man, than the Notions of Plato and his Followers upon that Subject. They tell us, that every Paffion which has been contracted by the Soul during her Refidence in the Body, remains with her in a fe-. parate State; and that the Soul in the Body, or out of the Body, differs no more than the Man does from himself. when he is in his House, or in open Air. When therefore the obfcene Paffions in particular have once taken Root, and spread themselves in the Soul, they cleave to. her infeparably, and remain in her for ever, after the Body is caft off and thrown afide. As an Argument to confirm this their Doctrine they obferve, that a lewd Youth who. goes on in a continued Courfe of Voluptuoufnefs, advances by Degrees into a libidinous old Man; and that the Paffion furvives in the Mind when it is altogether dead in the Body; nay, that the Defire grows more violent, and (like all other Habits) gathers Strength by Age, at the fame time that it has no Power of executing its own Purposes. If, fay they, the Soul is the most fubject to these: Paffions at a Time when it has the leaft Inftigations from the Body, we may well fuppofe she will still retain them when he is entirely divefted of it. The very Subftance of the Soul is feftered with them, the Gangrene is gone too far to be ever cured; the Inflammation will rage to all Eternity..

IN

IN this therefore (fay the Platonifts) confifts the Punishment of a voluptuous Man after Death: He is tormented with Defires which it is impoffible for him to gratifie, follicited by a Paffion that has neither Objects nor Organs adapted to it: He lives in a State of invincible Defire and Impotence, and always burns in the Pursuit of what he always defpairs to poffefs. It is for this Reason (fays Plato) that the Souls of the Dead appear frequently in Comiteries, and hover about the Places where their Bodies are buried, as ftill hankering after their old brutal Pleasures, and defiring again to enter the Body that gave them an Opportunity of fulfilling them.

SOME of our moft eminent Divines have made use of this Platonick Notion, fo far as it regards the Subfistence of our Paffions after Death, with great Beauty and Strength of Reafon. Plato indeed carries the Thought very far, when he grafts upon it his Opinion of Ghosts appearing in Places of Burial. Though, I must confess, if one did believe that the departed Souls of Men and Women wandered up and down thefe lower Regions, and entertained themfelves with the Sight of their Species, one could not devife a more proper Hell for an impure Spirit than that which Plato has touched upon.

THE Ancients feem to have drawn fuch a State of Torments in the Description of Tantalus, who was punished with the Rage of an eternal Thirft, and fet up to the Chin in Water that fled from his Lips whenever he attempted to drink it. ·

VIRGIL, who has caft the whole Syftem of Platenick Philofophy, fo far as it relates to the Soul of Man, into beautiful Allegories, in the fixth Book of his Æneid gives us the Punishment of a Voluptuary after Death, not unlike that which we are here fpeaking of.

-Lucent genialibus altis

Aurea fulcra toris, epulaque ante ora parata
Regifico luxu: Furiarum maxima juxta
Accubat, & manibus prohibet contingere menfas;
Exurgitque facem attollens, atque intonat ore.

They lie below on Golden Beds difplay'd,
And genial Feafts with regal Pomp are made,

The

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