Pa. Because their Mind is in Heaven, where it enjoys what it dearly loves; and therefore is absent from the Body.

Ma. Well, what then?

Pa. What then, hard-hearted Creature?  Then it follows, that I am dead, and you have killed me.

Ma. Where is your Soul then?

Pa. Where it loves.

Ma. Who took this Soul of yours away?  What do you Sigh for?  Tell me freely:  There’s no Hurt in it.

Pa. A cruel Maid, that I could not be angry with if she kill’d me outright.

Ma. You’re very good-humour’d; but why don’t you take her Soul from her too, and pay her in her own Coin, according to the old Proverb.

Pa. I should be the happiest Man in the World, if I could make that Exchange, that her Heart would pass as wholly into my Breast, as mine has into hers.

Ma. But may I play the Sophister with you now?

Pa. The Sophistress.

Ma. Can one and the same Body be both alive and dead?

Pa. Not at the same Time.

Ma. Is the Body dead, when the Soul is out of it?

Pa. Yes.

Ma. Nor does it animate it, but when it is in it?

Pa. No, it does not.

Ma. How comes it to pass then, that when it is there where it loves, it yet animates the Body it is gone out of?  And if it animates when it loves any where, how is that called a dead Body which it animates?

Pa. Indeed, you argue very cunningly, but you shan’t catch me there.  That Soul, which after some Sort governs the Body of the Lover, is but improperly call’d a Soul, when it is but some small Remains of the Soul; just as the Smell of a Rose remains in the Hand, when the Rose is gone.

Ma. I see it is a hard Matter to catch a Fox in a Trap.  But answer me this Question, does not the Person that kills, act?

Pa. Yes.

Ma. And does not he suffer who is kill’d?

Pa. Yes.

Ma. And how comes it about then, that when he that loves, acts, and she that is lov’d, suffers, she that is lov’d should be said to kill, when he that loves, rather kills himself?

Pa. Nay, on the Contrary, ’tis he that loves that suffers, and she is lov’d, that acts.

Ma. You will never prove that by all your Grammar.

Pa. Well, I’ll prove it by Logic then.

Ma. But do so much as answer me this one Question, do you love voluntarily, or against your Will?

Pa. Voluntarily.

Ma. Then since a Person is at Liberty, whether he will love or no; he that does love, is guilty of Felo de se, and accuses a Maid wrongfully.

Pa. A Maid does not kill in being lov’d, but in not loving again.  He is guilty of killing, that can save and don’t save.