’Hard is the Doubt, and difficult to deem,
  When all three kinds of Love together meet,
  And to dispart the Heart with Power extreme,
  Whether shall weigh the Ballance down; to wit,
  The dear Affection unto Kindred sweet,
  Or raging Fire of Love to Womenkind,
  Or Zeal of Friends combin’d by Virtues meet. 
  But, of them all, the Band of virtuous Mind
  Methinks the gentle Heart should most assured bind.

  For natural Affection soon doth cease,
  And quenched is with_ Cupid’s greater Flame;
  But faithful Friendship doth them both suppress,
  And them with mastering Discipline does tame,
  Through Thoughts aspiring to eternal Fame. 
  For as the Soul doth rule the Earthly Mass,
  And all the Service of the Body frame;
  So Love of Soul doth Love of Body pass,
  No less than perfect Gold surmounts the meanest Brass.’

T.

[Footnote 1:  Lib. iv. ep. 22.]

[Footnote 2:  an]

[Footnote 3:  its Place]

* * * * *

No. 491.  Tuesday, September 23, 1712.  Steele.

  ‘Digna satis fortuna revisit.’

  Virg.

It is common with me to run from Book to Book to exercise my Mind with many Objects, and qualify my self for my daily Labours.  After an Hour spent in this loitering Way of Reading, something will remain to be Food to the Imagination.  The Writings that please me most on such Occasions are Stories, for the Truth of which there is good Authority.  The Mind of Man is naturally a Lover of Justice, and when we read a Story wherein a Criminal is overtaken, in whom there is no Quality which is the Object of Pity, the Soul enjoys a certain Revenge for the Offence done to its Nature, in the wicked Actions committed in the preceding Part of the History.  This will be better understood by the Reader from the following Narration [1] it self, than from any thing which I can say to introduce it.

When Charles Duke of Burgundy, surnamed The Bold, reigned over spacious Dominions now swallowed up by the Power of France, he heaped many Favours and Honours upon Claudius Rhynsault, a German, who had serv’d him in his Wars against the Insults of his Neighbours.  A great part of Zealand was at that time in Subjection to that Dukedom.  The Prince himself was a Person of singular Humanity and Justice. Rhynsault, with no other real Quality than Courage, had Dissimulation enough to pass upon his generous and unsuspicious Master for a Person of blunt Honesty and Fidelity, without any Vice that could bias him from the Execution of Justice.  His Highness prepossessed to his Advantage, upon the Decease of the Governour of his chief Town of Zealand, gave Rhynsault that Command.  He was not long seated in that Government, before he cast his Eyes upon Sapphira, a Woman of Exquisite