“It is a strange State of Mind a Man is in, when the very Imperfections of a Woman he loves turn into Excellencies and Advantages.  I do assure you, I am very much afraid of venturing upon you.  I now like you in spite of my Reason, and think it an ill Circumstance to owe ones Happiness to nothing but Infatuation.  I can see you ogle all the young Fellows who look at you, and observe your Eye wander after new Conquests every Moment you are in a publick Place; and yet there is such a Beauty in all your Looks and Gestures, that I cannot but admire you in the very Act of endeavouring to gain the Hearts of others.  My Condition is the same with that of the Lover in the Way of the World, [2] I have studied your Faults so long, that they are become as familiar to me, and I like them as well as I do my own.  Look to it, Madam, and consider whether you think this gay Behaviour will appear to me as amiable when an Husband, as it does now to me a Lover.  Things are so far advanced, that we must proceed; and I hope you will lay it to Heart, that it will be becoming in me to appear still your Lover, but not in you to be still my Mistress.  Gaiety in the Matrimonial Life is graceful in one Sex, but exceptionable in the other.  As you improve these little Hints, you will ascertain the Happiness or Uneasiness of, Madam, Your most obedient, Most humble Servant, T.D.”

SIR, When I sat at the Window, and you at the other End of the Room by my Cousin, I saw you catch me looking at you.  Since you have the Secret at last, which I am sure you should never have known but by Inadvertency, what my Eyes said was true.  But it is too soon to confirm it with my Hand, therefore shall not subscribe my Name.

SIR, There were other Gentlemen nearer, and I know no Necessity you were under to take up that flippant Creatures Fan last Night; but you shall never touch a Stick of mine more, that’s pos. Phillis.

  To Colonel R——­s [3] in Spain.

Before this can reach the best of Husbands and the fondest Lover, those tender Names will be no more of Concern to me.  The Indisposition in which you, to obey the Dictates of your Honour and Duty, left me, has increased upon me; and I am acquainted by my Physicians I cannot live a Week longer.  At this time my Spirits fail me; and it is the ardent Love I have for you that carries me beyond my Strength, and enables me to tell you, the most painful Thing in the Prospect of Death, is, that I must part with you.  But let it be a Comfort to you, that I have no Guilt hangs upon me, no unrepented Folly that retards me; but I pass away my last Hours in Reflection upon the Happiness we have lived in together, and in Sorrow that it is so soon to have an End.  This is a Frailty which I hope is so far from criminal, that methinks there is a kind of Piety in being so unwilling to be separated from a State which is the Institution of Heaven, and in which we have