Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	time_n	year_n	9,128	5	4.5915	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31737	The Character of love guided by inclination, instanced in two true histories / translated out of French.		1686 (1686)	Wing C2020; ESTC R32589	50,690	135

THE CHARACTER OF LOVE Guided by INCLINATION Instanced in Two true Histories Translated out of French Licensed Octob. 16. 1685. Ro. L'Estrange LONDON Printed for R. Bentley in Russel-street in Covent-Garden near the Piazza 1686. THE CHARACTER OF LOVE Guided by INCLINATION AMan of Quality not having Estate enough to support his Quality and Birth at the Court was forced to retire into the Countrey and especially because the Peace which then reigned throughout all Europe bereaved him of the hopes of those Employments which he might pretend to in a time of War his Name was Polydamus This made him choose to settle in one of the greatest province-Province-Cities of this Kingdom where having married a Lady of Riches and Quality whose Name was Olympia he lived with a great deal of Consideration and Splendor Polydamus and Olympia having lived several years without having any Children were at length rewarded by Heaven for this long and patient expectation with a Son To this Son they gave the Name of Alcander who being born of a Family wherein Wit and Vertue were as it were hereditary and his Veins filled with illustrious Blood promised all that could be hoped for from so happy a Birth These Parents did not as most Fathers and Mothers do leave the Education of their Children solely to the Conduct of Tutors and Governours whose mercenary Souls make them very often little concern themselves with the Improvement of the Children they are intrusted with Olympia Mother to Alcander hardly suffer'd him to go out of her sight and Polydamus his Father who was as it were the Overseer of his Education had always an eye to the Conduct of those who governed him to correct them when they committed any Error and to encourage them when they shewed any remissness In the first years of his Infancy Alcander made the Tenderness of his Parents and the Skill of his Masters become desperate He had a Fieryness in his Mind which nothing was able to stop His Motions were so sudden and violent that for a long time he was thought uncapable of Discipline Whatever he had a mind to he desired with an invincible Heat and an unsupportable Obstinacy yet this Mind which nothing could tame had Intervals which discover'd in it a great and a charming Goodness He made appear at several times in his Actions and Words an admirable Nature a great generosity of Mind and Courage a great deal of Reason Equity and a Love for all great things but nothing was able to fix him or make him tractable either for the Exercises of the Mind or Body This extream eagerness of Mind and this Intractability which was thought unconquerable lasted till he was 15 years old And it is here we are to admire the power of Inclination and the surprizing Effect it had upon Alcander Lirana who was a Friend and Neighbour to Olympia had a Daughter called Celintha who often was in company with Alcander she often coming to visit Olympia Celintha had a tolerable Beauty an agreeableness and a sweetness in her Temper and a great stock of Goodness in her Heart which was her principal Merit And as she was some years older than he was she had over him some superiority of Reason and a great Ascendant This Commerce which the conveniency of the Neighbourhood kept up doubled it self by Pleasure and Custom and this Custom insensibly became a Necessity to Alcander he could now no more be satisfied without seeing Celintha his Mind which nothing before could settle now applies it self solely to Celintha he neither lives acts nor sighs but for her And that which is most wonderful is that Alcander who loved Beauty and who suffer'd himself to be taken every time it presented it self before him finds in Celintha an I know not what which makes him forget all the Beauties of the World his desire of seeing her became violent hasty and restless Olympia who had always her eyes upon her Son was the first that perceived it she soon found that this Passion for a young Gentlewoman whose Wit or Beauty had nothing of extraordinary in them and who had nothing in her which should cause any great Passions could proceed from nothing but that blind Inclination and that invincible Instinct which makes us sometimes love Persons who have nothing that is amiable in them in the eyes of others This sort of Passion which is so violent even in those who are fortified with Reason and Experience is much more so in the Minds of those who know neither Love nor Reason and who give it more power by Ignorance and the weakness of their Age. This had produced such great Effects upon Alcander that to oppese such a dangerous beginning Olympia resolved to break the Commerce which he had with Celintha She had at first allowed of her frequent Visits because she was glad to see her Son was capable of fixing his Mind upon any thing but seeing that this Engagement went too far she thought it necessary without any delay to hinder the Consequences This Remedy was worse than the Disease for if her Sons Thoughts were naturally too much distracted by his too great vivacity of Mind they were yet much more so by the heat of his Passion and by the continual Disturbances which the absence of Celintha caused in him This impetuous Vivacity which appeared in all his Actions yielding at last to a deadly Melancholy he was soon seen to fall into a deep and lasting Thoughtfulness which made Olympia very much apprehend the consequence of so prodigious a Change This fear caused her to take another method for his Cure She had a Neece whose Name was Parthenia whom she tenderly loved and she invited to accompany her many young Ladies of her own Age and Quality who helping to divert her made use at the same time of their Wit and Beauty to amuse Alcander and to divert him from or at least to weaken the Passion he had for Celintha These Ladies who were but just out of their Childhood had however heard the noise which this new and so extraordinary a Passion of Alcander for Celintha had made so that they conceived towards her a sort of Jealousie or Envy or Emulation which made them forget nothing of what their Age could furnish of little Plays and Pastimes to divert the sad Alcander and to please him Their Endeavours succeeded well at first Alcander's Passion seemed to lye asleep sometimes but also at other times even in the midst of his Pleasures and Diversions this Passion would a waken it self with so much force that he often fell on a sudden into a dismal Melancholy These little Rivals of Celintha were offended at it for there is a little jealous Pride incident to all Ages They could not restrain themselves from letting it appear and took at these Disturbances of Alcander such offence as usually wounds Beauties so cruelly when they see themselves neglected one discovers a great deal of Sharpness and Anger another in a low