but upon afking my old woman what was become of the two ladies, fhe told me the believed they were by that time within fight of Paris, for that they went away in a coach and fix before five o'clock in the morning.' L".

N° 91. Thursday, June 14, 1711.

In furias ignemque ruunt: Amor omnibus idem.

VIRG. Georg. iii. 244.

They rush into the flame;

For love is lord of all, and is in all the fame. DRYDEN.

THOUGH the fubject I am now going upon would be much more properly the foundation of a comedy, I cannot forbear inferting the circumstances which pleased me in the account a 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 hif tory, instead of Mr. and Mrs. fuch-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 lives the lady Honoria, a widow about the age of forty, of a healthy constitution, gay temper, and elegant perfon. She dreffes a little too much like a girl, affects a childish fondness in the tone of her voice, fometimes a pretty fullenness in the leaning of her head, and now and then a downcaft of her eyes on her fan. Neither her imagination nor her health would ever give her to

b By Addison, dated it seems, London. See N° 7, and No 121, final notes on Addison's fignatures.

know that she is turned of twenty; but that in the midst of these 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 Honoria 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 growing up to, than of what has been already enjoyed, and is gone for ever. It is therefore allowed to Flavia to look forward, but not to Honoria to look back. Flavia is no way dependent on her mother with relation to her fortune, for which reason they live almost upon an equality in converfation; and as Honoria has given Flavia to understand, that it is illbred to be always calling mother, Flavia is as well pleased never to be called child. It happens by this means, that these ladies are generally rivals in all places where they appear; and the words mother and daughter never pafs between them but out of fpite. Flavia one night at a play observing Honoria draw the eyes of feveral in the pit, called to a lady who fat by her, and bid her afk her mother to lend her her fnuff-box for one moment. Another time, when a lover of Honoria was on his knees befeeching the favour to kifs her hand, Flavia rushing into the room, kneeled down by him and asked her bleffing. Several of these contradictory acts of duty have raised between them

fuch a coldness, that they generally converse when they are in mixed company by way of talking at one another, and not to one another. Honoria is ever complaining of a certain sufficiency in the young women of this age, who affume to themselves an authority of carrying all things before them, as if they were poffeffors of the esteem of mankind, and all who were but a year before them in the world, were neglected or deceased. Flavia upon fuch a provocation, is fure to obferve, that there are people who can refign nothing, and know not how to give up what they know they cannot hold; that there are those who will not allow youth their follies, not because they are themselves past them, but because they love to continue in them. These beauties rival each other on all occafions, not that they have always had the fame lovers, but each has kept up a vanity to fhow the other the charms of her lover. Dick Craftin and Tom Tulip, among many others, have of late been pretenders in this family: Dick to Honoria, Tom to Flavia. Dick is the only furviving 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 circumftances of a conversation of the four lovers with the fpirit in which the young lady, I had my account from, reprefented it at a vifit where I had the honour to be prefent; 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 fhew

the other that her lover had the fuperiority in the accomplishments of that fort of creature whom the fillier part of women call a fine gentleman. As this age has a much more grofs taste in courtship, as well as in every thing else, than the last had, these gentlemen are inftances of it in their different manner of application. Tulip is ever making allufions to the vigour of his perfon, the finewy force of his make; while Craftin profeffes a wary obfervation of the turns of his mistress's mind. Tulip gives himself the air of a refistless ravisher, Craftin practises that of a skilful lover. Poetry is the infeparable property of every man in love; and as men of wit write verses on thofe occafions, the rest of the world repeat the verfes of others. These fervants of the ladies were used to imitate their manner of converfation, and allude to one another, rather than interchange discourse in what they faid when they met. Tulip the other day feized his mistress's hand, and repeated out of Ovid's Art of Love,

• "Tis I can in foft battles pass the night,
Yet rise next morning vigorous for the fight,
Fresh as the day, and active as the light.'

Upon hearing this, Craftin, with an air of deference, played with Honoria's fan, and repeated,

Sedley has that prevailing gentle art,

That can with a refiftless charm impart
The looseft wishes to the chafteft heart:
Raise fuch a conflict, kindle fuch a fire,
Between declining virtue and defire,

'Till the poor vanquish'd maid diffolves away In dreams all night, in fighs and tears all day.'

When Craftin had uttered these verfes with a tenderness which at once fpoke paffion and respect, Honoria caft a triumphant glance at Flavia, as exulting in the elegance of Craftin's courtship, and upbraiding her with the homelinefs of Tulip's. Tulip understood the reproach, and in return began to applaud the wisdom of old amorous gentlemen, who turned their mistress's imagination as far as poffible from what they had long themselves forgot, and ended his discourse with a fly commendation of the doctrine of Platonic love; at the fame time he ran over, with a laughing eye, Craftin's thin legs, meagre looks, and fpare body. The old gentleman immediately left the room with fome diforder, and the converfation fell upon untimely paffion, after love, and unfeasonable youth. Tulip fung, danced, moved before the glafs, led his mistress half a minuet, hummed

Celia the fair in the bloom of fifteen!'

when there came a fervant with a letter to him, which was as follows:

< SIR,

I

'I UNDERSTAND very well what you meant by your mention of Platonic love. fhall be glad to meet you immediately in Hyde

i These verses on Sir Charles Sedley are from Lord Rochefter's Imitation of Horace, I Sat. x.