Look you there, quoth Sir Roger, do you see there, all Mischief comes from Confidents!  But let us not interrupt them; the Maid is honest, and the Man dares not be otherwise, for he knows I loved her Father:  I will interpose in this matter, and hasten the Wedding. Kate Willow is a witty mischievous Wench in the Neighbourhood, who was a Beauty; and makes me hope I shall see the perverse Widow in her Condition.  She was so flippant with her Answers to all the honest Fellows that came near her, and so very vain of her Beauty, that she has valued herself upon her Charms till they are ceased.  She therefore now makes it her Business to prevent other young Women from being more Discreet than she was herself:  However, the saucy Thing said the other Day well enough, ’Sir ROGER and I must make a Match, for we are ’both despised by those we loved:’  The Hussy has a great deal of Power wherever she comes, and has her Share of Cunning.

However, when I reflect upon this Woman, I do not know whether in the main I am the worse for having loved her:  Whenever she is recalled to my Imagination my Youth returns, and I feel a forgotten Warmth in my Veins.  This Affliction in my Life has streaked all my Conduct with a Softness, of which I should otherwise have been incapable.  It is, perhaps, to this dear Image in my Heart owing, that I am apt to relent, that I easily forgive, and that many desirable things are grown into my Temper, which I should not have arrived at by better Motives than the Thought of being one Day hers.  I am pretty well satisfied such a Passion as I have had is never well cured; and between you and me, I am often apt to imagine it has had some whimsical Effect upon my Brain:  For I frequently find, that in my most serious Discourse I let fall some comical Familiarity of Speech or odd Phrase that makes the Company laugh; However, I cannot but allow she is a most excellent Woman.  When she is in the Country I warrant she does not run into Dairies, but reads upon the Nature of Plants; but has a Glass Hive, and comes into the Garden out of Books to see them work, and observe the Policies of their Commonwealth.  She understands every thing.  I’d give ten Pounds to hear her argue with my Friend Sir ANDREW FREEPORT about Trade.  No, no, for all she looks so innocent as it were, take my Word for it she is no Fool.

T.

* * * * *

No. 119.  Tuesday, July 17, 1711.  Addison.

      ’Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Melibaee, putavi
      Stultus ego huic nostrae similem ...’

      Virg.

The first and most obvious Reflections which arise in a Man who changes the City for the Country, are upon the different Manners of the People whom he meets with in those two different Scenes of Life.  By Manners I do not mean Morals, but Behaviour and Good Breeding, as they shew themselves in the Town and in the Country.