saw Eupolia the other day troubling her self at the news of the death of a man who had liv'd neer an Age. For my particular said Theramenes I have seen her lose an excellent Collation for that it thundered For my part said Hiparetta I know very well she refused to come one day to a very agreeable walk onely because she must have crossed a River Pray you resumed she agreeably do not take so much pains to sift your Memory for all that I fear since I know it much better than you And now I find you have a mind the Princess and all the persons here who are but little acquainted with me should know my weakness I will confess to you all I am afraid of I fear all Diseases in general great and small I fear Thunder I fear the Sea and Rivers I fear Fire and Water Cold and Heat the Sereens or Blasts and Mists or Fogs and I am afraid the Earth should happen to tremble here as well as in Sicily Moreover I know to my misfortune all that has ever been said of Presages and I know it to my torment And to say all in few words I fear all that can directly or indirectly occasion Death But cannot you call to mind said Alcibiades that fear of Death does alter Health and may make one die the sooner for the curing your self of so many Fears Cannot you think added Melicrita all those Fears are useless that if the Earth is to tremble it will tremble in spight of you that if the Thunder is to fall it will perhaps rather fall in the place you shall chuse for your asyle than in that you quit And cannot you in short submit your mind to the will of the Gods But cannot you your self conceive retorted Eupolia that if I could do otherwise I would Do you think I am bereft of all Reason And do you think I do not sometimes see I am to blame But after all at the same time my Reason condemns me my Imagination is Mistress of my Heart and makes it act all it pleases What I finde admirable is said Therameâ—… that most people give a handsome Preâ—… to the Fear they have of dying For they boldly say they are not so weak as to fear the pain that is suffered in dying but are afraid they have not spent their Lives so well as they ought to have done And this is extraordinary that without becoming better for the putting a period to the fear they say they have they onely think of preserving their Healths and avoiding all Dangers without any thoughts of reforming their Principles and Manners Ha! as for those people said Alcibiades all the world is full of 'em and there is nothing else every where to be seen than those persons who fear the Punishments of the other Life without growing better and who by all their actions bely all their words and shew they onely fear Death since they onely precaution ' emselves against it For my part said Eupolia as I am not over-wicked and that I confide in the goodness of the Gods I do not so much fear what will happen to me when I am dead as what will happen to me before I die For I am very much afraid of grief and pain and then I have a horrour for that obscurity of the Grave But after all said Areta all your Fears are useless you must die as well as those who fear nothing and the surest way is to live the most virtuously we can wait for Death without desiring and without fearing it and receive it as a thing we had expected all our lives and which is not to be avoided For my share added the Princess I think there is more constancy required for the supporting old Age when it is attended with the inconveniencies wherewith it is usually followed than for the receiving Death with a good grace True it is said Hiparetta agreeably that when one is accustomed to be young beautiful and healthful it is a cruel thing to be Old Ugly and Sick And I know not over-well though I hate Death sufficiently if I should not rather chuse it than to see my self in that condition Ha! as for what concerns me said Eupolia though I had been as beautiful as Venus in my life-time who should offer to raise me up again to Life if I was dead and to raise me up ugly old diseased and unhappy I would take her at her word and should rather chuse to live horrible ugly than to be dead because I reckon Life for a great blessing But you do not think of what you say replied Hiparetta smiling and you are less afraid of Death than you imagine for I sancied you were going to declare you would not for any thing in the world be raised again to Life for fear of dying once again and yet you talk after this rate My acquaintance are so used to rally me for my weakness said Eupelia that I am never displeased at the drolling War they make upon me But the mischief is you are not the better by it replied Melicrita and are incurable For after all as a brave man cannot become cowardly and fearful so a timerous person cannot become valiant Since Fear does sometimes make some contemn Dangers said Lysander I know not why Reason may not do as much Those who contemn Danger through the excess of Fear which renders 'em valiant replied Xenophon can never give greater Proofs of their timidity than by doing a thing so contrary to their Temperament Thus one may say they are brave without ceasing to be Cowards and without laying by their true Nature It is not so with those who would employ their Reason for to drive Fear away from their Hearts since it cannot be done but by engaging them and making 'em act against their own inclinations Xenophon had certainly reason for his assertion said Eupolia But to comfort me for my weakness added she I could wish all the Ladies of the Company were obliged to say particularly what they think of Death I assure you said Hiparetta after having once seriously thought of Death for the regulating ones Life it is pretty convenient to think of it no more or very seldom When against my will I hear of the death of any one soever I suddenly seek for some cause for that persons death which cannot sute with me For example If it was a person in years I plainly say that he or she had been long in the World and I think in secret I am far from that Age. If the person was young I say that he or she were of an unhealthy Constitution At another time they did not take care of themselves in another Encounter that he or she had done something that had occasioned their Disease And whatsoever I say I flatter my self I shall live as long as one can live I know the Names of all those who have lived an Age and diverting my mind from that fatal thought
Occasions wherein they are bound to make acknowledgment tho there was no fixt design to serve us Our Parents did not think of obliging us in giving us life sometimes likewise they have brought us up very ill Are we therefore dispensed from Gratitude towards ' em no not at all But those who argue so bruitishly as there are enough that do in the World have never well considered the true Cause of Acknowledgment which is difficult to explain for this very reason because it is too clear and too well known and 't is rather found in the Heart than in the Reason It is in a word interrupted Cleander that all those who make use of the way and means for the sending us to Heaven or for the doing us some great good tho they know nothing of it ' emselves become to us as Sacred and besides more natural it is not for Rivers to return to the Sea from whence they came and for the Earth to send forth new Herbs and new Flowers towards Heaven after having receiv'd Dew from it than for a Benefit received to send forth another benefit towards the place from whence it came And truly Gratitude has been found established in all Ages thro all the Earth among Barbarous People who seem not to have Reason and amongst the very Beasts whom Men will not allow to be endu'd with Reason This is very well stated said Iphierates But I do not apprehend what coherence there can be between a happy Marriage and that Passion which unites Subjects to the Prince There needs no more than to consider answer'd Cleander that the most solid friendship even betwixt the most rational minds are sometimes broken thro the different Interests which arise and the like often happens in Love at all adventures the Friend and the Lover may become at least suspected of another Interest What makes the great Union in Marriage is that there can never be two opposite Interests and therefore wise and rational Persons almost ever return from the disgusts which humane Weakness seems to be attended withal The same Union of Interests and the same indissoluble Bond is found in the good Subject to the good Prince especially if he is more particularly engaged to his Person The Glory of the one is that of the other and for the knowledge of this Truth there needs no more than see the joy of Courtiers when the Prince has newly done some great and brave action Let us dive further into this business said Celanira I have a hundred times seen persons of my Sex interest ' emselves so zealously in good or ill successes that forgetting they had no share in the State they said in relating some Illustrious Action We have beaten the Enemy and taken their Canon and their Baggage That frequently happens said Philocrita but I never speak so For my part said I then I have wondred a hundred times to see the Transports of People when they have been obliged to make Bonfires for a Victory For there are Millions of Men who will make merry on those tumultuous occasions and yet have not wherewithal to live on the next day What you say is very well observed said Alcinor But in short reassumed I as to Love and Friendship I must confess I find it hard to understand how the first can agree with the Subject now in hand for Friendship truly speaking can only be very strong amongst Persons that are equal it does not seem to be made for Kings And for this time I ground my self upon Authority For do not you remember added I speaking to Cleander those Stanzas of Morality for the instruction of a young Prince that are not yet Published nor finished which were sent you from Court by the Person that made 'em and of which as ignorant as I am I have learnt the greatest part by heart so jolly and pleasant did I think 'em tho they may afford the most Learned Persons what may be to their satisfaction I remember 'em said Cleander but I know not what you can draw from 'em for your purpose You shall see said I to him that you don't well remember ' em For after having spoken tho after no distastful manner of all the Vertues and Passions and particularly Love whose good and evil he remarks in few words he cries speaking of that Passion Love thou fair Angel or foul Devil Thy Force and Strength still subdues Ours Of thee I say nor Good nor Evil Tho Bothth ' hast done me by both Powers In their Predestin'd minute all All must to Thee Adoring fall They are but Hypocrites in Love Vnless Ecstatical they prove Ah! Why dost Rove so ev'ry where Sweet Friendship which Resembles Thee Tho in some things You interfere To Love joyns Vertuous Purity Friendship Repeat it once again Candid Sincere and without Stain Vnder thy moderate Rule and Care Is all as Charming as 't is Rare Then he employs four Stanzaes in shewing the good and evil of Friendship and in giving Precepts for it But he concludes with these Into your hands it is Great Kings Fate has a Thousand Blessings put But giving us Friends 'mong other Things There Fate has the Vse from You shut A Precious Good This I must say Both as to th' one and th' other way But yet I Doubt while Both are Blest Whether your Share or ours be Best This is well applied said Cleander but you shall see Madam that your Memory tho never so good deceives you this time more than mine for the two other Stanzaes which follow but which I do not remember and begin But yet I am Alas deceiv'd destroy those two former and shew that a King who understands King-Craft may be Amiable tho he is Formidable and that iâ—… he blends Justice Wisdom and Goodness inâ—… all his actions he finds a Veneration and Tenderness for him in all hearts and may boast of having as many Friends as Subjects This it is replied I laughing to be unseasonably a pretender to ingenuity I renounce citing any thing as long as I live Be it as it will said Cleander Friendship has need oâ—… some equality but 't is rather an equality which it self makes than an equality which it finds in it Let us examine the most famous Friendships we shall almost every wherâ—… find two friends equal and yet one friend superiour and the other inferiour by much There can hardly be imagined a real Friendship between Alexander and Caesar between Cicero and Demosthenes Scipio and Hâ—…ibal they are Rivals rather than Friends But the Military Vertue of Scipio will comply with the Wisdom and Softness of Laelius Ciceroâ—… the most able that ever was in the Art of Speaking will find his satisfaction in the person of Atticus who was no less excellent in the Art of holding his Peace and Alexander will take delight in making another Alexander of Ephestion We cannot doubt interrupted I but that some of those friends you speak of were superiour and the
we take for our Domesticks For we can at most but confide our Money with our Servants and we trust our Secrets with our Friends Wherefore it is requisite before we give 'em that Rank to examine well if they deserve it and duly consider if the Complaisance they have is such as arises from Friendship and which is managed by Reason For it is not to be imagined I would banish civil Complaisance out of the World True Friends ought neither to be rash nor morose nor disagreeable They ought to praise and praise better than Flatterers and so much the more as for to acquire to themselves the right of reprehending their friends on some occasions they must needs commend 'em in others when they are worthy of praise for the sincerest mark of Friendship that can be given is to advertize our friends generously of the faults they commit or are ready to commit We must likewise couragiously run the risque of displeasing 'em in some sort rather than expose 'em to do any action for which they would be blamed When we have also done any thing which we our selves know is not well we must take notice whether our friends put us in mind of it or if at least they grant we have ground for our suspicions For if it be not so they are either weak or Flatterers I know very well the beginnings of Flattery are difficult to be known The Civility and Gallantry of the World does at first conceal it Custom afterwards gives it admittance and assoon as we are used to it we are no longer capable of knowing it Honest Complaisance which is the pretext wherewith Flattery covers it self does indeed render Friendship more sweet serves Ambition and Love and is as I may say the bond of Society Without it the Opiniative the Ambitious the Cholerick and in short all People of violent and contrary Constitutions could not live together It unites it sweetens it binds Society but it is after a free manner that has nothing low fulsom or servile and savours neither of eagerness nor interest nor dissimulation But fordid Complaisance or to say rather Flattery disguises it self in all Encounters it flatters Beauty Age and Wit It praises the Friends of those it would flatter and blames their Enemies be they who they will and takes a great circuit for the besieging a heart it has a design to gain True Friends extenuate the good Offices they render and Flatterers exaggerate ' em Sincere Friends cannot have more joy than to see that the People they love are beloved by all the World But Flatterers on the contrary are afraid that others should please more than themselves and 't is properly in their hearts that Jealousie may be found without Affection Yet we must be cautious how in forbearing to fall into one fault we fall not into another of being uncivil and contradicting The genteel manly sort of Complaisance is easie to be discern'd when we take notice of it It has never any particular interest it aims in general at the Convenience of the World It is strictly what we call the Art of Living There can be no peculiar Rules for it Judgment and Vertue must prescribe its Laws We are not to be Complaisant either for the deceiving our Prince if we are at Court or for the abusing our Friends Neither dissimulation nor lying nor any servile interest must ever be mingled with it We must not make a Trade of Flattery which is certainly a more dangerous Poyson than is imagined for there are hardly any Flatterers in the World but may have others And if acute and understanding Princes carefully observe all that comes to their knowledge they will often see Flattery in their Courts in a thousand different Figures It is to be met with in Balls in Revels in Feasts and Masquerades sometimes too in the most Holy Places where it should not dare to approach and 't is commonly more trim and gallant than sincere Complaisance which trusts in its own Charms Flattery in short has a language peculiar to it self it never praises but by exclamations and with a design to delude I know there are Flatterers by Constitution who think of nothing in particular and who thro a general design of pleasing all the World have a certain silly Complaisance These People are not mischievous but commonly have little Wit and being sensible they were not able to maintain their Opinion tho they could have one they yield to all the World and make a profession of being Complaisant I pity these People and content my self to shun them without hatred But as for Flatterers who would usurp the Esteem and Kindness of Persons of Honour and Kings and the Favourites of great Princes by Artifices that ought to be punished I hate them to that degree and I know 'em so well I think I may boast they will never deceive me Of Dissimulation and of Sincerity DOn Pedro Lucinda Padilla Alphonsa Don faelix Mathilda and several others being one day at Theodora's House they fell insensibly to talk of Dissimulation whereof Courtiers are more accused than the rest of the World For my part said Don Pedro I am perswaded the cause of this is they abound in Wit more than other People and to speak sincerely perfect Dissimulation is the Master-piece of Prudence and Judgment Ah! Sir replied Mathilda is it possible you can speak in this manner and can you praise a thing directly opposite to Reason which makes up all the happiness in the life of a Gentleman and without which the Commerce of the World would be only a continual Cheat For my share answer'd he I have ever believ'd that those who dissemble most dexterously are those who have the most reputation of being sincere There is a great deal of difference replied Lucindâ—… between seeming sincere and being really so It is certainly a thing wherein we are very easie to be deceived said Theodora For my particular added the subtle Padilla who had not yet spoken I would willingly know exactly what that sincerity is which all the World brags of without exception The truth is added Lucinda 't is a Vertue which People adorn ' emselves with the most universally The greatest part of other good Qualitys are not in use with all manner of Persons Goodness which is so precious a thing finds some who would not even pass for good and who almost place their happiness in being thought wicked Many Men whose profession is not to go to War very frankly confess they are not brave They refer ' emselves to Generosity tho I am perswaded the fearful are seldom generous There are others would be offended if you call'd 'em learned I know some that ridicule affection and think indifference is the true quality of Courtiers that they may be always ready to embrace what Party their interest demands But as for Sincerity all the World boasts of it and will needs have it and the greatest Hypocrites cloth ' emselves at
the boldness to confess he was culpable of it Men sometimes own that they are Ambitious are Cholerick are Revengeful There are also such people as boast of their being Cheats and think it commendable they have circumvented others But men never confess they are ungrateful Thus we must absolutely condemn Ingratitude wheresoever we meet with it But still it has different degrees said Plotina and I believe I may boldly maintain that it has nothing equal under the Sun In my opinion said Amilcar then we must divide the Ungrateful into three Orders For there are those that are ungrateful in Duty in Friendship and in Love The ungrateful in Duty are Kings Subjects Fathers Children Masters Slaves Husbands and Wives The ungrateful in Friendship are Friends of both Sexes And the ungrateful in Love are Lovers and Mistresses Amilcar is in the right said Herminius Not but that amid those who are called ungrateful in Duty there may be sometimes such as may be reckoned amongst the ungrateful in Friendship But generally speaking he has very well distinguished the Ungrateful and it onely remains to be examined who are the most culpable For my part said Amilcar I believe the ungrateful in Duty are the most criminal For my particular said Caesonia I should almost think the ungrateful in Friendship so And said AEmilius I am perswaded 't is the ungrateful in Love That I imagine as well as you replied Herminius and you have onely got the start of me in speaking that truth If there was a fourth side to be taken said Plotina I would willingly take it but as there is not I will first hear all your Reasons before I come to a Resolution As for mine said Amilcar smiling I shall quickly have done since I have nothing else to say than that Love cannot be brought into comparison with that kind of Duty we speak of For men who have made Laws to teach Kings to govern and People to obey have made none for the teaching 'em to acknowledge Love And all the Morals of the Goddess that is ador'd in Cyprus is onely to be met with in Songs The same reason resum'd Herminius which obliged the wise Numa to make no Laws against Parricides has without doubt obliged all those who have made Laws to say hardly any thing of Love in regard as Numa presupposed that there could not be any Parricide they have presupposed there could not be any ingratitude in Love Let it be how it will said Amilcar laughing I did not undertake to lay before you the whole state of that business but onely what I think of it I say then that considering Love as a Gallantry I do not hold that the ungrateful who are of that Order are the blackest and I think the ungrateful in Friendship are worse than them though they are not so bad as the ungrateful in Duty of whom I am speaking And truly if it be necessary to consider the consequence of Ingratitude to know the greatness of it it must be Confessed that Ingratitude in Love is so very far from troubling civil Society that it diverts the world For commonly Amorous Ingratitude gives occasion to very fine Verses As for that which happens between two Friends though it be horrible does but at the most cause Hatred to succeed Friendship and does but divide some Families But the Ingratitude of ill Kings towards their Subjects if the respect we owe to them will allow me to speak in that manner makes a thousand Injustices to be committed And that of the People towards Kings raises Seditions Revolts and eternal Wars The Ingratitude of Parents to Children and Children to Parents stifles all sentiments of Nature That of Husbands to Wives and Wives to Husbands causes almost all the Criminal Amours and all the Heroick Actions Judge then if I was mistaken when I said that the Ungrateful in Duty were the most dangerous I know not whether or no they are the most dangerous replied Caesonia but I maintain that an ungrateful person in Friendship can never be a real honest man and that it is not sometimes impossible but an ungrateful person in Duty may be so For Kings there may be who shall have no acknowledgement for the particular Services that are done them who think more of their People and yet are very great Princes And indeed if all Kings did positively love their Subjects as a good Father ought to love his Children and would acknowledge exactly the Services that are done them they would never make War but in their defence and they would leave them peaceably to cultivate their Lands without ever undertaking to make Conquests There may likewise be Ingratitudes of Ambition which are not so black as the Ingratitudes of Friendship All those who first began to raign and laid the first foundation of Soveraignty have been ungrateful to their Country However when it was brought to pass that maen Citizens became great Kings and Fortune has justified their ingratitude they have been set in the rank of Heroes But as for an ungrateful Friend he has ever been set in the Form of the base and unworthy As to Parents and Children Husbands and Wives 't is prâ—…ncipally onely because they ought to love one another that Ingratitude is most odious when it happens amongst them And truly though I am perswaded that Children must always respect those to whom they owe their Lives and obey them yet I hold that when they have to do with one of those Fathers who strain the Fatherly part too high and acting continually with authority never do any thing out of tenderness they may be in some sort excusable when they have not for him all the acknowledgement imaginable though I agree they ought ever to honour and serve them But in short there is a certain decent respect and reasonable Obedience which is very different from those that are caused by a true acknowledgement What I say of Parents and Children may likewise be said of Husbands and Wives Besides there is still a reason which renders Ingratitude more horrible betwixt Friends than between those I have now spoken of And indeed Kings do not chuse their Subjects all Subjects do not chuse their Kings Neither do Parents chuse their Children nor Children their Parents Interest commonly makes all Marriages rather than Reason or Love Thus when all these persons are wanting in acknowledgement though they be ever very culpable yet they are less faulty than ungrateful Friends Chiefly because not loving they lessen the value of the Obligations they have to one another for thinking they owe less 't is not so strange that they dispence themselves from part of what they owe. As for Lovers though their Ingratitude is to be abhor'd we may 〈◊〉 say that since people do not love whom they please they cannot be obliged to it against their will We may likewise adde that Love prepossessing alâ—… those 〈◊〉 has in hold when the prepâ—…ss ssion ceases on one side it begins on
had had no other designe than to know if Diodota had Wit enough to reform her ill Conduct And indeed Madam Socrates spent all his Life in inspiring Sentiments of Virtue into all those he sees Insomuch that at the first according to his way he had rallied with that Woman for the taming her But after having well observed that her Wit was not worthy of her Beauty he ridicul'd her deploring the misfortune of that Woman who having wherewith to make her self adored made her self despised by all the Earth I looked upon Melicrita in my turn to see in her Eyes if the virtuous Sentiments of Theramenes did not please her She blushed and would dexterously have turned the Conversation upon another Subject But is it possible said I then that people should call Love the Passionate Sentiments that men have for such a Lady as Diodota who would willingly be beloved by all those that see her without being cruel to any one of her pretended Gallants If it be Love said Alcibiades it is at least a transport of a weak and passionate Heart Truly said Melicrita you give that weakness a very soft name He who can love one of those Women without Virtue is not virtuous himself But Madam resumed Theramenes Do not you know you who love all fine and ingenious things and understand them so well too you I say who esteem Euripides so much do not you know what he has asserted in one of his finest Pieces that there are two sorts of Loves If I did know it replied she I have forgotten it but I do not believe to have seen it I then desired Theramenes to tell us the passage if he remembred it and seeking a moment in his Memory he recited these Verses drawn out of a much larger Work The Sentiments of Euripides upon Honest Love Two sorts of Love in humane Breasts do reign And o're their Minds a different Empire gain Venus the wanton Parent of the one Does from the frothy Ocean bear her Son Who with thick foggy Thoughts our Souls inspires And preys upon us with material Fires Th' other adorn'd all o're with perfect Grace Is of a pure Divine and heavenly race That in the filthy muddy senses has its place By Beauties treacherous Charms it does betray And makes of sensual an Fools an easie prey And Reason our best Guide does still annoy By too much sense it does all sence destroy But with this Love all Virtues do combine And real Modesty does with Prudence joyn This is their fate alike they seem to be Yet the one being mortal they disagree For the other is endu'd with Immortality These Verses are out of Euripides I had not seen those Verses said Melicrita but I believe Euripides has made them to shew that there ought really to be two sorts of Love and that this does not prove there is so Before that your indifference Madam said Alcibiades had taken from me all hopes of being looked upon favourably by you I should have allowed of Euripides his distinction But as I dare not now own any more than Respect and Admiration for your Ladiship I confess sincerely said he rallying to perplex Theramenes that I believe but one kind which varies a little according to the persons we love But at the bottom there are many more Loves which die than Eternal Loves It is not sufficient to say said Theramenes Love varies according to the persons we love For I believe it may be more truly said Love varies according to the person who loves since it is properly the Heart of a Lover which renders Love either inconstant or faithful And indeed when we are born to love well the indifference and cruelty of the Person beloved do not make Love die And on the contrary the Beauty Wit Virtue and even the most tender Correspondence cannot fix a heart naturally unfaithful there must then needs be a frivolous Amour such as Euripides describes it and a virtuous Love such as he represents it to us I assure you resumed Melicrita rising to break off the Conversation that the Loves in Verse and in Prose are very Chimerical Loves and what Love there is in the heart of all men is very light and very frivolous You speak too generally Madam replied Theramenes I am of your opinion resumed I and a general Rule must never be made in any thing This Alcibiades agreed to and Androcles durst not oppose it But at length Melicrita went away without suffering any of the men in my Chamber to lead her to her Chariot refusing them all equally But Madam not to abuse your patience during six Months Theramenes forgot nothing of all that Love can inspire into a very witty man for the obtaining Melicrita's Consent to demand her of Aristocrates her Father She would never allow him to do it nay stretched her câ—…uelty much farther For she forbid it him so absolutely that he durst not disobey her And besides he would only owe her to her self He sometimes discovered in spight of Melicrita's endeavours that she did not hate him But he was so much the more unhappy He sought to divert her by Feasts by Musicks and by a hundred ingenious Gallantries He attempted to touch her Heart by passionate Letters by Tears by Sighs by tender and touching words All this was to no purpose Insomuch as lying under these unhappy circumstances he resolved to endeavour the curing himself by absence Socrates having no fancy for Voyages did all he could to divert him from this design and blamed in his presence the excessive Curiosity of great Travellers as well as thaâ—… of all the Philosophers who had preceded him For all the world knows Socrates values nothing but Morality and believes it a thousand times more necessary than so many uncertain Knowledges which the most part of men make the business of all their Lives Theramenes did not tell Socrates the true cause of his design But he resolved to pursue it and departed without being able to take his leave of Melicrita For she carefully shun'd him for fear he should see in her Eyes the secret of her Heart But he wrote to her and the Letter was delivered her on the morrow after his departure The Letter was as follows I depart Madam that I may not importune you any more with my Passion and though I am perswaded my absence will not be sensible to you I easily perceive yours will be so cruel to me that Death will quickly put a period to my Sufferings Perhaps Madam when you have lost me for ever you will perceive I merited a less rigorous treatment Be not offended if I entertain so light a hope since it is the onely recompence I can pretend to for the most violent and most constant passion that the heart of man was ever capable of Theramenes addressed to me his Letter and desired me by another to deliver it to her for he was very much my Friend And though I had inviolably kept Melicrita's