came (a very ‘handsome one’ it is, both in ‘style’ and ‘penmanship’) from my friend Mr. Walton, (though I am sure it cannot be ‘his inditing,’) expressing his sorrow, and his wife’s, and his sister-in-law’s likewise, for having been the cause of ‘misleading me,’ in the account I gave of the said ‘young lady’; whom they ‘now’ say (upon ‘further inquiry’) they find to be the ‘most unblameable,’ and ‘most prudent,’ and (it seems) the most ‘pious’ young lady, that ever (once) committed a ‘great error’; as (to be sure) ‘her’s was,’ in leaving such ‘worthy parents’ and ‘relations’ for so ‘vile a man’ as Mr. Lovelace; but what shall we say?—­ Why, the divine Virgil tells us,

      ‘Improbe amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis?’

For ‘my part,’ I was but too much afraid (for we have ’great opportunities,’ you are sensible, Sir, at the ‘University,’ of knowing ‘human nature’ from ‘books,’ the ‘calm result’ of the ’wise man’s wisdom,’ as I may say,

      ‘(Haurit aquam cribro, qui discere vult sine libro)’

‘uninterrupted’ by the ‘noise’ and ‘vanities’ that will mingle with ‘personal conversation,’ which (in the ‘turbulent world’) is not to be enjoyed but over a ‘bottle,’ where you have an ‘hundred foolish things’ pass to ‘one that deserveth to be remembered’; I was but too much afraid ‘I say’) that so ‘great a slip’ might be attended with ‘still greater’ and ‘worse’:  for ‘your’ Horace, and ‘my’ Horace, the most charming writer that ever lived among the ‘Pagans’ (for the ‘lyric kind of poetry,’ I mean; for, the be sure, ‘Homer’ and ‘Virgil’ would ‘otherwise’ be ‘first’ named ‘in their way’) well observeth (and who understood ‘human nature’ better than he?)

’Nec vera virtus, cum semel excidit,
Curat reponi deterioribus.’

And ‘Ovid’ no less wisely observeth: 

’Et mala sunt vicina bonis.  Errore sub illo
Pro vitio virtus crimina saepe tulit.’

Who, that can draw ‘knowledge’ from its ‘fountain-head,’ the works of the ‘sages of antiquity,’ (improved by the ‘comments’ of the ‘moderns,’) but would ‘prefer’ to all others the ‘silent quiet life,’ which ‘contemplative men’ lead in the ‘seats of learning,’ were they not called out (according to their ‘dedication’) to the ‘service’ and ‘instruction’ of the world?

Now, Sir, ‘another’ favourite poet of mine (and not the ’less a favourite’ for being a ‘Christian’) telleth us, that ill is the custom of ‘some,’ when in a ‘fault,’ to throw the blame upon the backs of ‘others,’

’——­Hominum quoque mos est,
Quae nos cunque premunt, alieno imponere tergo.’ 
Mant.

But I, though (in this case) ‘misled,’ (’well intendedly,’ nevertheless, both in the ‘misleaders’ and ‘misled,’ and therefore entitled to lay hold of that plea, if ‘any body’ is so entitled,) will not however, be classed among such ‘extenuators’; but (contrarily) will always keep in mind that verse, which ‘comforteth in mistake,’ as well as ‘instructeth’; and which I quoted in my last letter;