ever more in love the Sun can as well cease his motion as Po. loving you see how little I prize my own preservation when I am always acquainting you with what you make use of to my destruction However I must and do with all imaginable sincerity protest my Vows and my Love are the never to be parted Companions of my Soul joyn'd by the force of Inclination and secured by Laws both Humane and Divine Adieu Joy is taking of its flight Dearest Delia How shall I Live when Life is out of sight I believe I shall dye Nor is the Eye at leisure here To suffer the instructions of the Ear The dull instructions of Advice May fit the Happy or the Wise What can the wretched have from Hope Or can it my Destruction stop Or if it could 't would be a grief To find in absence a relief V. MY Dearest Dear Lady every way Dear to poor Call Where alone it is the faithfullest Servant living searches for what is most valuable upon Earth his Pleasure his Ambition and his Love terminates all their Wishes there distant from thence every thing looses both its Nature and its Name Quiet is a stranger Content is not to be found Time the Soul and Essence of every thing turns to torment to the then dear Authoress of all my Joy I have and inseparable from my Thoughts Doth Call send this little and imperfect Atom of his Love from larger Worlds of Thought this Season having made him a Creature of Contemplation and Devotion I do from the truth of the one and consideration of the other avow that I am sure I know his Soul so well as to swear for him he has more Love more Admiration and more Fidelity for dear Mithridatia than all the World besides for the rest of her Sex Oh Madam I am in no humor to Lye and yesterday being Sunday where I eat the food of Angels may all its Holy nourishment turn to my destruction if ever I forsake or love my charming Mithridatia less this is not the impression of a suddain Passion no Madam years before you ever knew it was my Adorable and admired Mithridatia my Choice both by Reason and Inclination But alass What a Bar has Fate thrown betwixt us will you be angry if I repeat what I told you the last time I had the Blessing to see you come it must be it will be so The old Parliament Gentleman chear'd up after Sixteen years despair I shall yet live to own to the World a Passion that you too much trusted in your last Ah Mithridatia I am so little able to support my self under the affliction of your disfavour or under the seeming guilt of any thing derogatory to that respect and love under which I have vowed to live and dye as I have sent this to Mithridatia to beg and beg it I do with all the earnestness imaginable that she will send me one kind Line by this Bearer and to dissipate my Fears she will bid me come and lay my self at her Feet First to tell her of my Love and then how it was my Brothers Business with my Mother which I have been forc'd to adjust there being accounts between them that has created me much trouble but how can I talk of trouble when I have all that can be called so in your unkindness that I cannot bear oh dear Madam let me no longer be left destitute of all I can think or esteem happiness let not that be laid to my Charge which whenever I contract upon my self I withal bring a Sorrow that is as inconsistent with my Health as Light and Darkness Well my dear Mithridatia adieu despise me not for my Demerit nor yet for my Age for upon my Salvation I have Love enough to hide those blemishes and Courage enough to dye for you rather than live for any Woman else upon Earth and to convince you of the truth of what I now say I am come this moment out of my little Grove where I have invoked the Holy Angels to witness against me to my Creator whenever I prove false to my Vows Ah Madam I must lose the Image of my Maker and the reasonable Soul wherewithal he has endued me when such villanies enter my Breast and till then disdain me not from being the most passionate the most faithful and the most obedient of Men Callimachus VI. I Should be unfortunate beyond expression if the Malice or Design of prejudiced persons should lessen me in the Favour of her to whom I pay a Homage of such a nature as I think in the Eye of Heaven cannot be deemed criminal or defective if there be such a thing as allowance for Humanity if sweet Mi. find it guilty of either I shall submit to her Censure but 't is too unhappy to be at the mercy of others for what they are not concern'd in I beg you to distinguish between those who prefer you before all the World by Inclination and those whose envy pay your Merit an unwilling acknowledgment in their emulation we both in our way do you right but I wish such a Joy as my own Happiness is not more engaged by it than the content I take in your being more deserving than all the World I beg leave to tell my amiable Mi. there dwells not in the Soul of Man a Passion more securely guarded by Fidelity and Respect as the one will always make me love and admire you the other will always oblige me to do it in the manner you will approve so that till you find I grow disobedient give me not death by your unkindess and when I change from what I have so often vow'd to Heaven and you then my Charming Mi. may I become not only the scorn of every one but an exemplary punishment of him that made me May I dye unpittied and my Grave be filled with infamy and reproach when ever I forsake the only Woman upon Earth I ever lov'd for by that great Argument Comparison it is so then why will not my Adorable Mi. be contented with my Love When she can tell her self it is such an one as the dull World is yet a stranger to it pursues you Madam in every shape Obedience Duty and Submission are its attendance my Fortune and my Life shall follow you to the last period be but then contented I should live and that impulse which has told me so a thousand times tells me now we shall yet live to get of the bright side of the Cloud and end our days together and if I fail you may I never see the face of the Holy Beatitude Adieu Let me hear the next Post unless you design me more misery than I can bear Calli. VII I This day Madam found two Papers with Superscriptions that soon recalled those Thoughts that either publick or private Business had set on work like Atoms that Stormy weather had set on float retire when the Calm arrives that Centre Dear Methridatia
such a Love as I beg of you to aske Sweet Whether it were not a crime to part them If you will let her be the Priest she shall at our next meeting pronounce them inseparable and then should my journey prove my death I shall have all the satisfactions that being parted from you can admit and if there be such a thing in the next State as retaining our least sentiments here they will have Purity and Innocence enough to be my Companions there Adieu Sweet as the Breezes Eastern Winds convey As breath of Cows or Rose at break of Day She breaths a Wit as sweet as Flowers to Sense And o'er my Soul she hath such influence That when but near me in a Thought she 's come My Breast for nothing else can find a room Did you know fine Asteria you would say She 's gently Great Obliging Sweet and Gay Converse finds there its first and chief Delight The Splendor of the Day and Pleasure of the Night 'T was there I left my Soul and found her Mind The Wonder yet the Pleasure of Mankind Farwel all Joys except she will allow I come to beg and fetch them from her Brow Ah! there I 'de kneel and pray I might express The Beauties and the cause of Happiness But she well knows they 're to her self confin'd There bounteous Nature all her strength combin'd To make the finest Body noblest Mind III. SInce all the content of my Life depends upon giving you these reiterated assurances of my Passion you must finest Mithridatia forgive me if I seize upon all opportunities to tell you I am now arriv'd to that degree that living and loving you is one and the same thing and that nothing but the expiration of the one can be the destruction of the other the loss of your Favour will make me miserable in excess but the end of my passion depends upon nothing but death too violent a remedy for any thing but the dreadful misfortune of your unkindness not so gastly if I know my Heart as to make me rather bear that burthen than shun it but if you will incourage me to throw away these melancholy Reflections and make me desire to preserve my life for your service Accept of that Love which properly makes a Life and which under the severest dispensations shall be pleasant to me with your kindness the greatest Blessing I beg of this side Heaven and of Heaven I beg it Since the Reverence and Respect I will use so great a Blessing with shall be such as Angels shall not think Criminal my desires have been regulated by that Virtue which makes my Passion such My Friendship shall be Just and Constant my Fidelity shall be as uncorrupted as the sweet Mithridatia I adore and the Admiration I have for you shall be so particular as excluding all possibility of other Temptations My Love shall Saint us confirm this Passion of no common Nature by all the Holy Obligations that such things can admit Let our Vows our Promises make as firm a Contract as Love can tye and if I pursue you not all the days of my life with such uncessant peals of kindness as to Mankind is now a stranger make me the unhappiest of Men for I am content you have this Reserve of banishing and ruining me the moment I digress from what I say you need not tell me of what any Mortal would dread but I never presume to trouble you with that Did your confidence in me bear an equal sway I scarce know what could hinder you from preferring my Love before that of other Men nay all the World since nothing in it ever lov'd a Woman more or more submissively the uncertainty of telling you this and the care I must always take to preserve the niceties of your Reputation before my own Happiness make me decline the Blessing of being near you to give you these more distant Discoveries I shall not expect you should be under so great inconveniencies in this place to make me returns of the same nature but I must and do upon my knees beseech you to make your Eyes and Tongue the messengers of my Happiness you shall with your permission receive when I can make an answer to them this way for God above knows I had rather spend my time in this or in the pleasure of your converse than in all that my ambition or wishes can aspire to Adieu forgive me this Callimicles IV. I Come sweetest Delia upon so sad an Errand as will require both your Generosity and Compassion to extenuate the misfortunes that attend it 'T is Madam to take my leave of you and by that Word and Action of Parting to tell you I am as unhappy as a Man divested of all he can call or think satisfaction can be supposed to be 't is true the great part of my Life looks like a continued parting but distance is a great aggravation of absence and I am more unfortunate as the space is greater between me and that which alone can allay the troubles of my Life or add to its content The truth of this Madam is as great as that I have a Being and fixed upon my Soul in such indelible Characters that to live and have respect for you above the rest of the World is one and the same thing Give me dearest Madam the delight to know you desire it should be so and it shall not be in the power of any thing Humane to make it otherwise This Passion implanted by all the irrefragable Arguments of Reason and Inclination shall pursue you and your Interest in all the shapes of friendship Gratitude and Service shall pay you all those Duties the censorious World admits in acquaintance and all those which Reverence and Fidelity impose upon one tyed by Vows and Love if this condition charming Delia presents its self agreeably enough to obtain your Opinion of its being a Happiness desirable scruple not to let me know it 't will be the only companion I wish in my journey a permission to entertain my self with an assurance you will instate me in so great a Bliss will be all I now desire Oh my admired Delia make me as irresistibly yours by Obligation as I am inevitably so by Passion not that I can wish more reasons to be so than I have but that I would not have you want one to conclude me so I hope you will forgive me if I am now more importunate than ordinarily in petitioning your Favour and that I presume to give you this Note at this time 't is to beg of you and I do it this moment upon my Knees that you will add something this Afternoon to what I know you design me that may convince me of my being in your Favour let me in plain words without a dash receive some such expression as you do not usually part with in return I will present you with Services shall be legible enough for you to understand no Mortal was
acquitted by that very breath that accused me pray consider whether such a condition be consistent with what I have offered if nothing else will do think whether laying down every thing but my Soul to serve Delia can have in it the thought of her prejudice all this is at her service every hour of the day but a thousand Worlds should never be my temptation for a days sorrow to her give me not therefore this new wound and throw that which is tenderer to me than my Eye or my Heart Ah charming De. heal all these by believing I love you with a Devotion above that of Authorities as you might do all my other miseries if you thought I deserved the Cure No Delia live and live as the finest the worthiest and the most charming Woman alive ought to do and with this assurance that whenever I must wade through a Sea of Miseries and Afflictions nay to death to contribute to that happy condition you deserve by all that 's Sacred I 'le do it having said this and vow'd once more by the Eternal Powers that I will perform it I will say no more And now give me leave to tell you that all kinds of Obedience being as much your due as any ones I will try what I can to live to serve you till you require the other yes I will serve you with such Respect with such Passion and such Care as neither you nor the World shall call me in question Ah Delia With what Transport did I find out that word Hope in your Letter I know I perverted it to Senses you never meant it was but a short Content I enjoyed by it therefore pray forgive me but in its most limited Sense I must acquaint you that it gave me more redress than all the Physicians in Town could do truly I must confess I was in a condition very different from what I am in at this momoment and tho' I try to recover only that my relapse may be more dangerous I will nevertheless obey you as fast as I can and shall long of all things to hear whether it be in my case better than Sacrifice Blest Angels hover about you and if it be true that as faithful Guardians they inspire Dreams for our direction may they infuse into your Soul the and humble Passion I have for you Delia will then know that no Mortal had ever more obedience than I nor more power than Delia make use of it Madam as you please till Nature in my last Tragedy incapacitate me you shall never fail of such effects as the greatest Merit and the greatest Love must necessarily produce Adieu XIII YOu must be so abundantly satisfied not only of the Notion I have of Happiness but of the foundation I have laid of all I wish in this World that it is impossible you should think Call the person you represent him Besides knowing fine Methri so generous as to have some kind of content in making others happy I am naturally led to the sad Reflections of my own Imperfections when I enquire for a reason why I should always be so unjustly and unkindly interpreted Oh Madam How can you say that the declaration of Contempt for charming Methri would have lookt like the Sentiments of my Heart but that you can never believe what I have made my whole business to convince you of Bestow a moment I beg of you to consider whether I were capable of saying the one so long as Heaven Blest me with my Reason and my Sence and think whether I deserve to have the other said to me believe it I have had no such pleasure since I see you last as to want this allay nor so unmindful of what is now the inseparable attendant of my life as to merit this reproach But how can you force your Reason to make such a construction of something else I said as to conclude I have taken such pains to deface that Idea which is so infinitely preferible before any other object 't is true I said since I admired you and before you knew it amongst other attempts I resolved to try the Philosophy of expelling Fire by Fire but having given you an account of the success then I wonder you could infer any thing but the contrary of what you did Since that Blest moment wherein you deigned to know you were in my Thoughts the finest Woman living I hope you do not expect I should give you Thanks for the obliging assistance you so readily offer me or that in savour of your kind protestation I should this Post according to your desire send you word I am in want of your help no Madam I must tell you that all the Trials you can find not all the Charms of the Sex not all the power of Call can make me endeavour desire or think of so great baseness or so much misfortune without horror imagine then how infinitely you have afflicted one that loves the ground you tread on one that would lay his Fortune and his Life as he hath done his Love at your Feet to obtain your Favour or Belief But how impossible is it for me to enjoy these Blessings under the unhappy condition of Absence where Malice Emulation and that ready Inclination that always waits upon you to make the severest and most undeserved Interpretation of whatever I can say or write will still render me unfortunate Well sweetest Methridatia live assured whatever Fate attends me in this unparallel'd concern it shall be the last of this nature that shall ever possess my Soul and that as you may secure me with all delight imaginable whatever Passion Reverence or Fidelity made any Man so under all misfortunes you shall never divest me of these Resolves adieu if you will throw one Thought upon the greatest Fidelity in being Let me not waste my tedious hours away in trouble of this kind but send poor Call some such expressions as have often fill'd his Heart with Joy in return you shall be presented with treasures of Love and Respect in a Heart so full of Obedience as shall make you as absolute in your power as you are in your Merit Adieu Adieu XIV SInce the pleasures of poor Orantes increase with the health of sweetest Asteria How do you think he is engaged for every moments care taken to preserve it I know he is every day making it his business to requite the Obligation and if I am not mistaken or rather too short liv'd I fancy I shall live to see dear Asteria convinced Love Friendship and Fidelity are the Ballast of his Soul Ah Madam they carry his little Pinnace steady through all Storms and all Climates and when he parts with them may his Vessel sink I long now for the happy time but that submission which always guides me is not now to fail me well fine Asteria Nature hath no stronger ties no not those that hold the World together than those that keep the faithful Orantes in your
shall have a Life spent in your service the expiration of which shall only end it but I must now leave this and tell you I am again incouraged to go to London and there being some things which are the common intercourses of acquaintance as such disdain not to know you must command your faithful Pol. Ah Delia this is business He hates to mention any thing in love but what the nicest Thought of Delia may allow from the Humble and Passionate Pol. Who has not a Iess solid tho' a differnt foundation who has Indies tho' not Golden ones to offer Empires tho' not so gross as Interest and Ambition lives upon Ah Delia Heaven and the Powers above of which the Mind of Man is a Type confirm what I say to you for Truth and shew you the vast difference betwixt the lasting power of Merit and the short dominion of Design but whether am I falling let some prosperous Gale direct my Passion into Delia's Breast sweet safe and happy Harbor let me there unload all that Love Fidelity Religion and Honour ever made binding and let Delia take choice of all I have to offer nay she must refuse none it being the gift of Heaven as well as mine well Adieu all the Blessings of Heaven descend upon you quiet Hours soft Dreams and steady Friends be your Portion and let me beg you to believe none so much so as your unfortunate Lover Polierchus XXI SInce all the ambition of my Life receiv'd its Original from and hath its termination in finest Methridatia How pardonable is it I complain of the unjust diminution you make of that Merit which gave my Passion its Being and is the happy assurance of its duration it is of the highest concern possible to me to oblige you to believe that I think you what you are but 't is very strange you 'll not own what you know you are 't is yet some satisfaction to see what Arguments you are forced to support your diffidence withal either to resolve I must be ignorant of what I make appear I know or to disown your own knowledge rather than believe what I vow to be true Charming Methridatia be not any longer injurious to so many attractions as make all can be paid your due nor to that Love which besides being its own destruction would in its Falsity be my Infamy and misfortune But consider had you not upon a long Contemplation been preferible to me before all the World you had not been my choice and had you not been that my Passion had been impossible now my Reason is its companion and being determined by a Power which can confer what the nature of Reason and Love can desire there can be no greater assurance of its continuance than your Favour give me that dearest Madam and believe me Just and it shall not be in the power of Second Causes to violate in our Case that Order which Nature in other things is so careful to preserve my Happiness shall depend upon my Love that upon my Vows they upon my Reason and all upon Methridatia's Merit as the Spring the only sweet Fountain from whence to derive upon passionate Call the pleasant moments of his Life Call not this Folly Madam nor think it so easily alterable at your own or any other bodies pleasure for had you an equal Obligation both from your Judgment and your Inclination to value Call before any thing else you would not know where to look for either Power or Will to resist the sweet violence of a particularity But because this Case is not like to arrive from the inequality you will always find betwixt your self and others yet must you not by this Rule judge them especially poor Call whos 's unhappy defects make his pretences to any right in your kindness impossible but yet cannot stop the tide of that Ambition which riseth as far as Admiration and Respect will admit I cannot give you a greater Instance of both than when I tell you that nothing hath been more my wish and desire than your being satisfied to allay the terror of Absence with this kind of Converse but since you say 't is troublesom and I cannot be obliged but at the expence of being disagreeable I will endeavour to moderate the heat of those impatiencies which yet I cannot so regulate as not to wish for a Note to day But pardon me if I err in the moment I pretend to repent and indeed I fear your own Declaration looks too like a Civil notice that mine are too frequent and too long yet I cannot forbear saying that if I have any Sence you designed my making use of it when you tell me if your observation fail not the heat will be over by that time you return Oh Methridatia it had all the Cruelty imaginable in it to answer for one and pardon me if I say all the disobligation and injustice possible to include the other it carrying with it all that can conclude me miserable or infamous No Madam I have not built my Passion upon the hopes of Happiness it had misfortune in prospect but it lookt not grim enough to divert me more from loving you to come in that State then it did long ago under a suffering Silence you cannot therefore be free from my Respect however I may be divested of your Favour which yet I will prosecute with a life so spent in your Service as shall make you wish I had more Merit to have been made more Happy Adieu I never found seeing my Love one day Could the Delights to morrow brings allay Each day produces various Joys And Pleasure doth consit in Choice Why then should this Converse which must supply The Powers of Sence meet a worse destiny It ceases to be Love or Joy when we Cease wishing them Eternity Down Rebel Fear the Just Asteria The pleasant Charming Methridatia The fine the sweet the generous Delia Will not refuse the Duty that I pay Because 't was humbly paid them yesterday Absence that preys on Thought when this Relief Cannot be had turnâ— all to Fear and Grief Now Love and Hope at work Command in Chief By these two Messengers be pleas'd to know That Streams do not more naturally flow To their dear Ocean then my Soul to you That Sweets from Flowers persum'd Gums from Tree That Virgin Honey from the â—â—den Bee Are not so sweet as one kind Look from D. XXII IT is not my charming Delia without a mixture of all those apprehensions which make up the greatest Concern that I ever now receive the Honour of a Letter the Joy to see it and the fear to find in it any thing ruinous to my Love are always endeavouring to supplant one another and truly I cannot but say I found enough couched under a serious and grave stile to set my Fears on work for dear Delia should it proceed from a diffidence of my Love as sure thus many years has convinced you I can
never change I will waste away this wretched Life in despair Yes Madam if my Vows and Oaths which Heaven only knows I have made without those I have paid at your Feet will not secure you to this Breast and perswade you I will carry this Passion to my Grave I am not sitting to live Alas to break with you would be barbarous inhumane and base I am not arrived at such Villanies yet and when I do let my end come or what is worse be every Man's wonder Then give me leave to hope you believe this and to send you a Vow taken from the bottom my Soul sent with a Passion and Fidelity inferior to none I ever read of that if you will keep me alive and give me leave to love you it shall never violate the Rules you set to your own Goodness and my Duty nor ever know decay till Pol. His great one Ah dearest Delia believe poor Po. that is ready to dye for Love and Grief to read a melancholy Letter let me implore you not to question my Faith but to conclude me as unalterable as the decrees of Heaven come Delia the Sun will yet shine and we shall yet live to appear our selves Charge not your self for not searching the World nor do not lay such Corrosives as too many of them will cause the death of the passionate Poli. Adieu Soul of my Soul I Love thee more than Misers do their Wealth Than Captives Freedom or than sick Men Health XXIII I Was in such great hopes that the Saturdays Post would have brought some account of Delia's Health as poor Po. hath wasted his whole Day with expectation and wishes but the Post is come and no news if it be designed as a continued piece of severity Po. submits But since he cannot but dread every accident which hinders his hearing when dear Delia is not well it may easily be guessed how uneasie he is all his Treasure is in one bottom and how natural at least how frequent is it to make the apprehensions of a ruine almost as great as the ruine it self indeed Po. is extremely concerned as ever I saw him in my life Alas he is so far from omitting any opportunity of sending as were the conveniencies every hour of the day I dare say Delia would miss very few for he spends them all in thinking of his Dearest and his only Concern Truly all the tenderness that the Soul of Man hath is imployed when we fear for that dear Friend you must let me some way or other know how you are or torment me to death order some body to write two words for I would not have you venture your Eyes yet But alas what do I talk you may be dead you may be any thing I have not heard these three Posts Ah how wretchedly miserable has this made me if satal this arrives farewel to Joy with as much resolution as I will welcome Death which the Holy one knows I will do whenever I lose my Delia I was in hopes the worst had been past when I left you and if so Why do I not hear from you remember what Grief and Sorrow plunged me into at the beginning of this great misfortune you know I am but just recovered and if you have a mind to defer my death have a care of the most deserving of Women for 't is to her alone my Services and my Life are Dedicated Fidelity is not more your due than 't is my nature therefore whatever Calumnies from Malice or Ignorance I may lie under you can answer for me for many years I pray take it here for an undeniable Truth bound with all the reiteravows and Resolutions my Soul can make that only at the Feet of my charming Delia will I breath out my Love and my Obedience in my last breath my Love shall end with my Life and when that goes my Eyes shall close up the Image of my Adorable Delia Let me hear I beseech you as soon as possible for if ever uncertainty was pain it is now a torment an unspeakable one to me Ah Delia What did I not leave you well and of such a Disease how cruel is the mention of it Why did not Fate permit Po. to bear the burthen I repent the word for I should esteem it one tho' it were my destruction Ah think how loth I am say Farewel to all that is my Joy and all that is my Life Adieu Witness this Truth for me ye Rural Powers Such as inhabit Groves or sit in Bowers You watry Nymphs and such as dwell in Shade How oft to you was this confession made Witness you nimble Spirits of the Air And you its Quire who sing away your Care I tried as many years as most have lov'd To save the Heart hath so defenceless prov'd But as some Warlike Nation grown too great And numerous for its Native fertile Seat Sends Colonies abroad to dispossess Those who made Home-bred Ease their Happiness Too much confined tho' in vast Empire She Conquers no less than general Liberty Such Force victorions Delia did display Night could as well resist the approaching Day Yet have we seen a thickned watry Cloud Sometimes attempt to be the Morning Shroud And as the mighty spreading light begun Tried to withstand the lustre of the Sun Suce weak attempts hath Reason sometimes made But how like Clouds did opposition fade Tell her Oh tell her ye Powers above I am made up of Duty and of Love XXIV DId you know how valuable every little is that comes from the Head and Hand of finest Methridatia there would have been more care taken than to have let so great a part of that little suffer Martyrdom before it came to Tryal Nay having made Call Judge I am sure the execution had been deferr'd till they had been companions in destruction But remember you are accountable to me for the Ruine of what I esteem above the value of anything but such an reparation as you can make and having now so fair an opportunity of appealing to your generosity think not I have so much as to lose it nay had I as much as generous Methridatia her self I should dare intrench upon what she prizeth so much or rob her of so great a share as she hath now occasion for Know then the thirsty Earth was never more covetous nay that I have in this case a Soul so great as not to be contented with less than what the Noblest Person living can give in compensation for what was almost inestimable expect me therefore to come and dun you I should not be in a condition to have entertained any one so much at random upon this Subject if I had not been last night blest with the happy news of a friend of mine being recovered of a Distemper I dreaded a person so dear to me by all that merit and obligation can inspire as I must beg of you to congratulate with me Oh! Comparisons are odious yet I must