In this therefore (fay the Platonists) 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 ftate of invincible defire and impotence, and always burns in the purfuit of what he always defpairs to poffefs. It is for this reafon (fays s Plato) that the fouls of the dead appear frequently in coemiteries, and hover about the places where their bodies are buried, as ftill hankering after their old brutal pleafures, and defiring again to enter the body that gave them an opportunity of fulfilling them. A Some of our most eminent divines have made ufe of this Platonick notion, fo far as it regards the fubfiftence of our paffions after death, with great beauty and ftrength of reafon. Plato indeed carries the thought very far, when he grafts upon it his opinion of ghofts appearing in places of burial. Though, I must confefs, if one did believe that the departed fouls of men and women wandered up and down thefe lower regions, and entertained themselves with the fight of their fpecies, one could not devise a more proper hell for an impure fpiri than that which Plato has touched upon.75 The ancients feem to have drawn fuch a ftate of torments in the defcription of Tantalus, who was punifhed 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 fyftem of Platonick philofophy, fo far as it relates to the foul of man, in beautiful allegories, in the fixth book of his Enied, gives us the punishment of a voluptuary after death, not unlike that which we are here fpeaking of, of die bordet ei, look silt to sorte 257) su primit cor onog al pesto -Lucent Lucent genialibus altis Aurea fulcra toris, cpulaque ante ora parata They lie below on golden beds difplay'd, ea DRYDEN.. That I may a little alleviate the feverity of this my fpeculation (which otherwife may lofe me feveral of my polite readers) I fhall tranflate a flory that has been quoted upon another occafion by one of the most learned men of the prefent age, as I find.. it in the original. The reader will fee it is not foreign to my prefent fubject, and I dare fay will think it a lively reprefentation of a perfon lying under the torments of fuch a kind of Tantalifm, or Platonisk hell, as that which we have now under confideration. Monfieur Pontignan fpeaking of a love-adventure that happened to him in the country, gives the following account of it. "When I was in the country laft fummer, I was often in company with a couple of charming women, who had all the wit and beauty one could defire in female companions, with a dash of coquetry, that from time to time gave me a great many agreeable torments. I was, after my way, in love with both of them, and had fuch frequent opportunities of pleading my paflion to them when they were afunder, that I had reafon to hope for particular favours from each of them. As I was walking one evening in my chamber with nothing about me but my night-gown, they both came in D 3 to? to my room and told me, They had a very pleafant trick to put upon a gentleman that was in the fame boufe, provided I would bear a part in it. Upon this they told me fuch a plaufible ftory, that I laughed at their contrivance, and agreed to do whatever they fhould require of me. They immediately began to fwaddle me up in my nightgown with long pieces of linen, which they folded about me till they had wrapt me in above an hundred yards of fwathe: My arms were preffed to my fides, and my legs clofed together by fo many wrappers one over another, that I looked like an Egyptian mummy. As I ftood bolt-upright upon one end in this antique figure, of the ladies burft out a laughing. And now, Pontignan, fays fhe, we intend to perform the promise that we find you have extorted from each of us. You have often afked the favour of us, and I dare fay you are a better bred cava"lier than to refufe to go to bed to two ladies, that "defire it of you. "After having ftood a fit of laughter, I begged them to uncafe me, and do with me what they pleafed. No, no, faid they,. we like you very well as you are; and upon that ordered me to be carried to one of their houses, 2 and put to bed in all my fwaddles. The room was lighted up on all fides; and I was laid very decently between a pair of fheets, with my head (which was indeed the only part that I could move) upon a very high pillow: This was no fooner done, but my two female friends came into bed to me in their fineft night-clothes. You may eafily guefs at the condition of a man that faw a couple of the most beautiful women in the world undrest and abed with him, without being able to ftir land or foot. I begged them to releafe me, and ftruggled all I could to get loofe, which I did with fo much violence, that about: midnight they both leaped out of the bed, crying, DE y were undo out But feeing me fafe, they took their pofts again, and renewed their rallery. Finding all my prayers, and endeavours were loft, I compofed myfelf as well as I could, and told ← them, that if they would not unbind me, I would fall afleep between them, and by that means difgrace them for ever: But alas! this was impoffible; could I have been difpofed to it, they would have prevented me by feveral little ill-natur⚫ed careffes and endearments which they beftowed upon As much devoted as I am to womankind, would not pafs fuch another night to be mafter of the whole fex. My reader will doubtlefs be curious to know what became of me the next morning: Why truly my bed-fellows left me about an hour before day, and told me, if I would be good and ly ftill, they would fend fomebody to take me up as foon as it was time for me to rife: Accordingly, about nine o'clock in the morning, , an old woman came to unfwathe me. I bore all this very patiently, being refolved to ⚫ take my revenge of my tormentors, and to keep no meafures with them as foon as I was at liberty; but upon afking my old woman what was become of the two ladies, fhe told me the be lieved they were by that time within fight of Par ris, for that they went away in a coach and fix before five o'clock in the morning. L THURSDAY, 0000000000009300043900000000000 No 91. THURSDAY, JUNE 14. In furias ignemque ruunt, amor omuibus idem. VIRG. Georg.iii. ver. 244.. They rush into the flame; For love is lord of all, and is in all the fame. THOUGH the fubject I am now going upon be mich more properly the founda י tion of a comedy, I cannot forbear inferting the circumftances which pleafed me in the account as young lady gave me of the loves of a family in town, which fhall be nameless; or rather, for the better found and elevation of the hiftory, instead of Mr.. and Mrs. Such a one, I fhall call them by feigned names. Without further preface, you are to know, that within the liberties of the city of Westminster Jives the Lady Honoria, a widow about the age of forty, of a healthy conftitution, gay temper, and elegant perfon. She drefies a little too much like a girl, affects a childish fondnefs in the tone of her voice, fometimes a pretty fullenness in the leaning of her head, and now and then a down-caft of her eyes on her fan': Neither her imagination nor her: health would ever give her to know that she is turn-ed of twenty; but that in the midft of thefe pretty. foftneffes, and airs of delicacy and attraction, fhe has a tall daughter within a fortnight of fifteen, who impertinently comes into the room, and towers fo much towards woman, that her mother is always checked by her prefence, and every charm of Ho noria droops at the entrance of Flavia. The agreeable Flavia would be what fhe is not, as well as her mother Honoria; but all their beholders are more partial to an affectation of what a perfon is grow |