all my Plaintiffs of this Nature, I moft pity the unfortunate Philander, a Man of a conftant Paffion and plentiful Fortune, who fets forth that the timorous and irrefolute Sylvia has demurred till she 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 she drilled him on to five and fifty, and that he verily believes the 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 SA 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 fix hundred and eighty one. Dear SIR, Y OU 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 the is grown as gray as a Cat, and am with much ado become ⚫ the Mafter 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 she ⚫ has no Body to blame for it but her self: You know very well that she would never think of me whilft fhe 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 send me a Congratulatory Letter, or, if you please, an Epithala 4 mium, upon this Occafion. ་ Mrs. Martha's and yours eternally, IN order to banish 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 shall endeavour to fhew the Folly of Demurrage from two or three Re Reflexions which I earnestly recommend to the Thoughts. of my fair Readers. FIRST of all I would have them seriously think on the Shortness of their Time. Life is not long enough for a Coquette 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 three Ages in demurring. Had she Nine hundred Years good, the might hold out to the Converfion of the Jews before the thought fit to be prevailed upon. But, alas! fhe ought to play her Part in hafte, when she confiders that she 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 fhort, 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 fcarce Time to admire it. I might embellish this Subject with Rofes and Rainbows, and several other ingenious Conceits, which I may poffibly referve for another Opportunity. THERE is a Third Confideration which I would likewife recommend to a Demurrer, and that is the great Danger of her falling in Love when she is about Threefcore, if the cannot fatisfy 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 into a very odd fort of an Animal. I would therefore have the Demurrer confider what a ftrange Figure she will make, if she 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 said, to discourage 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 advise them, when they are prompted by Reafon and Inclination, to demur 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 intire, tho' only the twelve laft Lines are to my present Purpose. THE Rib he form'd and fashion'd with his Hands; Under his forming Hands a Creature grew, Manlike, but diff'rent Sex; fo lovely fair! SHE difappear'd, and left me dark! I wak'd Her Lofs, and other Pleasures all abjure; I overjoy'd, could not forbear aloud. THIS Turn bath made Amends; thou haft fulfill'd Her Virtue, and the Confcience of her Worth, Nature her felf, though pure of firful Thought, I follow'd her: She what was Honour knew, My pleaded Reafon. To the nuptial Bower L N° 90. Wednesday, June 13. Magnus fine viribus Ignis Incafum furit Virg. HERE is not in my Opinion, a Confideration TH 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 feparate 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 fpread 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 observe, that a lewd Youth who goes on in a continued Courfe of Voluptuousness, 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 moft fubject to these Paffions at a Time when it has the leaft Inftigations from the Body, we may well suppose she will still retain them when he is intirely divefted of it. The very Substance of the Soul is fefter'd 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 Platonifs) confifts the Punishment of a voluptuous Man after Death: He is tormented with Defires which it is impoffible for him to gratify, folicited 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 Reafon (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 most eminent Divines have made use of this Platonick Notion, fo far as it regards the Subfiftence of our Paffions after Death, with great Beauty and Strength of Reason. 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 themselves with the Sight of their Species, one could not devise a more proper Hell for an impure Spirit than that which Plate has touched upon. THE Ancients feem to have drawn fuch a State of Torments in the Defcription of Tantalus, who was punished with the Rage of an eternal Thirst, 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 Platonick 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 speaking of. Lucent genialibus altis Aurea fulcra toris, epulaque ante ora parata Accubat, & manibus prohibet contingere menfas; They lie below on Golden Beds difplay'd, The |