Nc 61. love to continue in them. These beauties rival cach other on all occasions, not that they have always had the same lovers, but each has kept up a vanity to shew the other the charms of her lover. Dick Crastin and Tom Tulip, among many others, bave of late been pretenders in this family: Dick to Honoria, Tom to Flavia. Dick is the only surviving beau of the last age, and Tom almost the only one that keeps upthat order of men in this. I wish I could repeat the little circumstances of a conversation of the four lovers, with the spirit in which the young lady, I had my account from, represented it at a visit where I had the honour to be present; but it seems Dick Crastin the admirer of Honoria, and Tom Tulip, the pretender to Flavia, were purposely admitted together by the ladies, that each might shew the other that her lover had the superiority in the accomplishments of that sort of creature whom the sillier part of women call a fine gentleman. As this age has a much more gross taste in courtship, as well as in every thing else, than the last had, these gentlemen are instances of it in their different manner of application. Tulip is ever making allusions to the vigour of his person, the sinewy force of his make; whilst Crastin professes a wary observation of the turns of his mistress' mind. Tulip gives himself the air of a resistless ravisher, Crastin practises that of a skilful lover. Poetry is the inseparable property of every man in love; and as men of wit write verses on those occasions, the rest of the world repeat the verses of others. These servants of the ladies were used to initate their manner of conversation, and allude to one another, rather than interchange discourse in what they said when they met. Tulip the other day seized his mistress' hand, and repeated out of Ovid's Art of Love, 'Tis I can in soft battles pass the night, Yet rise next morning vigorous for the fight, Upon hearing this, Crastin, with an air of deferenze played Honoria's fan, and repeated, Sedley has that prevailing gentle art, That can, with a resistless charm, impart 'The loosest wishes to the chastest heart; Raise such a conflict, kindle such a fire, 'Between declining virtue and desire, 'Till the poor vanquish'd maid dissolves away When Crastin had uttered these verses, with a tenderness which at once spoke passion and respect, Honoria cast a triumphant glance at Flavia, as exulting in the elegance of Crastin's courtship, and upbraiding her with the homeliness of Tulip's. Tulip understood the reproach, and in return began to applaud the wisdom of old amorous gentlemen, who turned their mistress' imagination as far as possible from what they had long themselves forgot, and ended his discourse with a sly commendation of the doctrine of Platonic love: at the same time he ran over, with a laughing eye, Crastin's thin legs, meagre looks, and spare body. The old gentleman immediately left the room with some disorder, and the conversation fell upon untimely passion after love, and unseasonable youth. Tulip sung, danced, moved before the glass, led his mistress half a minuet, hummed. 'Celia the fair, in the bloom offifteen :" when there came a servant with a letter to him, which was as follows: 'SIR, I UNDERSTAND very well what you meant by your mention of Platonic love. I shall be ghd to 'meet you immediately in Hyde-Park, or behind Montague-House, or attend you to Barn-Elms, or any other fashionable place that is fit for a gentlemen to die 'in, that you shall appoint for, Sir, "Your most humble servant, RICHARD CRASTIN.' Tulip's colour changed at the reading of this epistle; for which reason his mistress snatched it to read the contents. While she was doing so, Tulip went away, and the ladies now agreeing in a common calamity, bewailed together the danger of their fovers. They immediately undressed to go out, and took hackneys to prevent mischief: • but Arithmetic, and concludes with a postcript, that he hopes I will not forget The Countess of Kent's Receipts. I may reckon the ladies themselves as a third class among these my correspondents and privy-counsellors. In a letter from one of them, I am advised to place Pharamond at the head of my catalogue, and if I think proper, to give the second place to Cassandra. Coquetilla begs me not to think of nailing women upon their knees with manuals of devotion, nor of schorching their faces with books of housewifery. Florella desires to know if there are any books written against prudes, and intreats me, if there are, to give them a place in my library. Plays of all sorts have their several advocates: All for love, is mentioned in above fifteen letters; Sophonisba, or Hannibal's Overthrow, in a dozen; The Innocent Adultery is likewise highly approved of: Mithridates King of Pontus has many friends: Alexander the Great, and Aurengzebe have the same number of voices; but Theodosius, or The Force of Love, carries it from all the rest. I should, in the last place, mention such books as have been proposed by men of learning, and those who appear competent judges of this matter; and must here take occasion to thank A. B. whoever it is that conceals himself under those two letters, for his advice upon this subject: but as I find the work I have undertaken to be very difficult, I shall defer the executing of it till I am further acquainted with the thoughts of my judicious contemporaries, and have time to examine the several books they offer to me; being resolved, in an affair of this moment, to proceed with the greatest caution. In the mean while, as I have taken the ladies under my particular care, I shall make it my business to find out, in the best authors ancient and modern, such passages as may be for their use, and endeavour to accommodate them as well as I can to their taste; not questioning but the valuable part of the sex will easily pardon me, if,from time to time, I laugh at those little vanities and follies which appear in the behaviour of some of them, and which are more proper for ridicule than a serious censure. Most books being calculated for male readers, and generally written with an eye to men of learning, makes a work of this nature the more necessary; besides, I am the more encouraged, because 49 because I flatter myself that I see the sex daily improving by these my speculations. My fair readers are already deeper scholars than the beaux : I could name some of them who talk much better than several gentlemen that make a figure at Wilis'; and as I frequently receive letters from the fine ladies and pretty fellows, I cannot but observe that the former are superior to the others, not only in the sense but in the spelling. This cannot but have a good effect upon the female world, and keep them from being charmed by those empty coxcombs that have hitherto been admired among the women, though laughed at among the men. I am credibly informed that Tom Tattle passes for an impertinent fellow, that Will Trippet begins to be smoked, and that Frank Smoothly himself is within a month of a coxcomb, in case I think fit to continue this pa. For my part, as it is my business in some measure to detect such as would lead astray weak minds by their false pretences to wit and judgment, humour and gallantry, I shall not fail to lend the best lights I am able to the fair sex for the continuation of these their discoveries. L No 93. SATURDAY, June 16. -Spatio brevi Spem longam reseces: dum loquimur, fugerit invida ---Be wise, cut off long cares HOR. Od. 11. l. 1. v. 6, E'en whilst we speak, the envious time Then seize the present, use thy prime, CREECH. WE all of us complain of the shortness of time, saith Senec, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, says he, are present either is doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpos Nc 61. love to continue in them. These beauties rival cach other on all occasions, not that they have always had the same lovers, but each has kept up a vanity to shew the other the charms of her lover. Dick Crastin and Tom Tulip, among many others, bave of late been pretenders in this family: Dick to Henoria, Tom to Flavia. Dick is the only surviving beau of the last age, and Tom almost the only one that keeps up that order of men in this. I wish I could repeat the little circumstances of a conversation of the four lovers, with the spirit in which the young lady, I had my account from, represented it at a visit where I had the honour to be present; but it seems Dick Crastin the admirer of Honoria, and Tom Tulip, the pretender to Flavia, were purposely admitted together by the ladies, that each might shew the other that her lover had the superiority in the accomplishments of that sort of creature whom the sillier part of women call a fine gentleman. As this age has a much more gross taste in courtship, as well as in every thing else, than the last had, these gentlemen are instances of it in their different manner of application. Tulip is ever making allusions to the vigour of his person, the sinewy force of his make; whilst Crastin professes a wary observation of the turns of his mistress' mind. Tulip gives himself the air of a resistless ravisher, Crastin practises that of a skilful lover. Poetry is the inseparable property of every man in love; and as men of wit write verses on lose occasions, the rest of the world repeat the verses of others. These servants of the ladies were used to in itate their manner of conversation, and allude to one another, rather than interchange discourse in what they said when they met. Tulip the other day seized his mistress' hand, and repeated out of Ovid's Art of Love, 'Tis I can in soft battles pass the night, Yet rise next morning vigorous for the fight, Upon hearing this, Crastin, with an air of deference played Honoria's fan, and repeated, 'Sedley has that prevailing gentle art, That can, with a resistless charm, impart 'The loosest wishes to the chastest heart; |