“But let me, my dear ladies, ask, what that passion is, which generally we dignify by the name of love; and which, when so dignified, puts us upon a thousand extravagances?  I believe, if examined into, it would be found too generally to owe its original to ungoverned fancy; and were we to judge of it by the consequences that usually attend it, it ought rather to be called rashness, inconsideration, weakness, and thing but love; for very seldom, I doubt, is the solid judgment so much concerned in it, as the airy fancy. But when once we dignify the wild mis-leader with the name of love, all the absurdities which we read in novels and romances take place, and we are induced to follow examples that seldom end happily but in them.

“But, permit me further to observe, that love, as we call it, operates differently in the two sexes, as to its effects.  For in woman it is a creeping thing, in a man an incroacher; and this ought, in my humble opinion, to be very seriously attended to.  Miss Sutton intimated thus much, when she observed that it was the man’s province to ask, the lady’s to deny:—­excuse me.  Madam, the observation was just, as to the men’s notions; although, methinks, I would not have a lady allow of it, except in cases of caution to themselves.

“The doubt, therefore, which a lady has of her lover’s honour, is needful to preserve her own and his too.  And if she does him wrong, and he should be too just to deceive her, she can make him amends, by instances of greater confidence, when she pleases.  But if she has been accustomed to grant him little favours, can she easily recal them?  And will not the incroacher grow upon her indulgence, pleading for a favour to-day, which was not refused him yesterday, and reproaching her want of confidence, as a want of esteem; till the poor lady, who, perhaps, has given way to the creeping, insinuating passion, and has avowed her esteem for him, puts herself too much in his power, in order to manifest, as she thinks, the generosity of her affection; and so, by degrees, is carried farther than she intended, or nice honour ought to have permitted; and all, because, to keep up to my theme, she hopes too much, and doubts too little?  And there have been cases, where a man himself, pursuing the dictates of his incroaching passion, and finding a lady too conceding, has taken advantages, of which, probably, at first he did not presume to think.”

Miss Stapylton said, that virtue itself spoke when I spoke; and she was resolved to recollect as much of this conversation as she could, and write it down in her common-place book, where it would make a better figure than any thing she had there.

“I suppose, Miss,” said Mrs. Towers, “your chief collections are flowers of rhetoric, picked up from the French and English poets, and novel-writers.  I would give something for the pleasure of having it two hours in my possession.”