no flames but such as arise from the difference of Sex and are kindled in the blood and other luxuriant humours of the body and that her Amours always â—end to the propagation of somewhat more Material than the simple Ideas of vertue of which our Philosophical Ladies so much talk Which heretical doctrine if they once hear her preach 't is not all the Armies in the world shall protect her from suffring the fate of Orpheus â—or shall you Sir with all your good language and other ingratiating Arts be able to vindicate hercause or secure your self from the hateful brand of a Woman-hater As therefore you value this Ephesian's free conversation or the favour of Ladies be sure you keep her to your self but if you will needs shew your self to be of the number of those open-breasted men who think no pleasure compleat until they have boasâ—ed of it yet at least be so just to the sacred Laws of friendship as never to reveal who brought her into England only for your private recreation and then leave her adversaries to consult their grand Oracle Lilly how to find out Most honoured Sir Your most Humble Servant The Ephesian MATRON A Certain Merchants Daughter of Ephesus having been long gazed upon by the admiring Youths of that populous and wealthy City and sought in marriage by many whose ample Fortunes encouraged them to hope for success answerable to their desires which could not be but just and commendable since fixed upon an Object whom an incomparable Beauty an ingenious Soul vertuous Education and that usual attendant of all these an honourable Fame had conspired to make an extraordinary Person This Virgin I say was at length espoused to a young Gentleman in whom nothing was wanting that could be required to make him accomplisht and amiable especially in her eye who loved him with equal ardours and thought of no felicity but in his mutual affections and society So that all men his envious Rivals only excepted expected the perfection of mortal happiness to arise from so rare a union But observe unconstancy of human felicity This pair of Turtles had not long enjoyed the pleasures of each others conversation when Fate seldom long propitious to Lovers steps in and divides them by the eternal divorce of death translating the Husband into a state of more durable delights and leaving the poor widdowed Lady in the arms of a distracting grief too excessive to fall under the description of the most tragical Pen and indeed so violent as would soon have sufficed to the destruction of so delicate and tender a Nature as hers was had not her resolution to see her dearest All so she called him laid into his Tomb with such Funeral Pomp and solemn Obsequies as were agreeable both to his quality and her sorrow somewhat conduced to her preservation Which yet was but an accidental preservative aâ—d such whose effect she could not directly aim at all the faculties of her wounded soul being wholly taken up with the image of her loss and excluding all light of comfort but those weak and faint glimpses that arose in her darksome imagination from her hopes to make haste and overtake him who was gone before But alas I speak much to the diminution of her fidelity when I call them Hopes they werâ— advanced to full Resolutions and those made unalterable by the sanction of a solemn vow to out-do the malice of death and by a speedy re-union of her spirit with his in the Elyzium to regain that content in the other World which the cruelty of the gods had ravisht from her in this And according to this too rigorous Vow she refuseth all nourishment admitting nothing into her mouth but the cold air and tears uncessantly distilling from her once bright and sparkling but now dim and blubber'd eyes and this notwithstanding the importunities of her Parents and Friends on one side and the necessities of Nature on the other urging her to commiserate and relieve her self In this sad condition she continued three whole days and nights aâ—horring all objects but what her grieâ— presented and keeping her conâ—â—â—ed remembrance perpetually upon â—he Rack to afford her the images of heâ— past felicities that might aggravate the resentments of her present misery Which yet being as she thought insufficient to exalt her sorrows to thâ— height of destroying her she privately conveys her self inâ—o the Vault wheâ—â— the remains of her Husband had been newly laid and there sits down upon the damp earth with her eyes fixt upon his Coffin lest her thoughts might chance to wander from their proper object It was great wonder that Nature Might suffer any creature To have such sorowe and she not ded Full piteons pale and nothing red She said a lay a maner souge Without note withouten song And was this for full well I can Reherse it right thus it began I have of sorrow so great wone That joy get I never none Nowe that I se my husband bright Whiche I have loved with all my might Is fro me deed and is agone And thus in sorowe left me alone Alas Dethe what yeleth the That thou noldest have taken me This you 'l say was a rare demonstrâ—â—ion of a Woman's constancy and ought not to be past over without admiration and an acknowledgement that this vertuous Matron well deserved to wear a Garland in that Troop of Heroiâ—al Wives who scorning to survive their better part their Husbands are honoured by posterity as examples of singular faith and conjugal amity And I shall also ingâ—nuously confess that her love must needs be great which transported her to so generous a pitch of sorrow and bravery of resolution I presume moreover that your pity is already risen to that height that are coâ—cerned in her danger and that you would most gladly run into the Vault â—o save her from a death so cruel so iminent But alas she is resolved upon it and your humanity would but degenerate into a prolongation of her afflictions For in life she knew no content but in the society of her Love whose mortal part was now in the cold fetters of an everlasting sleep and therefore remains holy uncapable of any the least consolation unless from this that she may be hastned in her journey to meet and embrace his beloved Ghost If therefore your commiseration will do any thing towards her comfort and repose pray exercise it in killing her and let the kindness of your sword suddainly prevent the lingring tortures of her famine and laments But I know you are too good-natured to have her die and but to suppose her after all this capable of being reconciled to life were the only way to make her and her whole Sex hate you What then is to be done in order to her Rescue Why have but patience a little and you shall see how miraculously Foâ—tune hath contrived to gratifie you and other her friends in her preservatioâ— It hapned that on the very same
into the same dust with that of her former Lover of whose singular Worth Fame hath diffused so honourable a report And having thus hastily delivered to her the Cause of his desperate Resolution he begins again to free his hands of the encumbrance of hers that he may speedily effect it But good and tender hearted Creature her Affection was too great to suffer her to yield to any thing conducing to his death and the more he strives to disingage her breast from his the closer she clings to him vowing withal That if he wounded himself it should be by forcing the sword first through her body â—o which she added that she would not live to be so miserable as to lose so dear a person so soon and in the same plâ—ce where she had been so happy to find him unexpectedly that very Gratitude forbad her to consent to the taking away his life who had lately and miraculously preseâ—ved hers and as she had some reason to believe infused a new life into her that it would be less affliction to her to die before him than to survive and behold at once the dead bodies of Two persons each of which she had loved infinitely above her own life and that the death he so much dreaded from from the Hangman was not so unavoidable as his Fears had made him imagine but there were other ways of evasion besides self-murder and would he but follow her advice she doubted not to put him upon such a course as should procure both his own security and her content The Soldier more effectually wrought upon by this last clause than by all else she had said and remembring the old saying that Womâ—n are always more subtle and ingenious at Evasions in sâ—ddain Exigences than men he easily promiseth as who would not in his case to listen to her Counsel and pursue it also if it appeared reasonable Well then saith this Good-Woman since the body of the best and greatest of mortals is but a lump of Clay after the departure of the soul which gave it life sense and motion that all Relations are extinguished in Death all Piety is determined in the Grave and that it is but Charity to use the reliques of the Dead in case of necessity to preserve the Living why should not I dispense with the Formality of posthume Respects to the putrifying Corps of my deceased Husband and make use of it for the preservation of my living Friend with whose life my own is inseparably bound up and whose danger therefore is equally mine Come therefore my Dear and let us take my Husbands body out of his Coffin and place it upon the Gibbet in the room of the Malefactor which you say hath been stoln away Death you know doth so change disfigure the Countenance as to disguise it from the knowledge of even the most famâ—liar Acquaintance Who then can distinguish this his naked body fâ—om the other Besides we will besmear his face with blood and dirt and rather than fail in any part of resemblance break his Arms and Lâ—gs and make the same wounds in him the Executioner did in the Rogue 's so that his neerest Relations shâ—ll not be able to find a difference much less shall strangers who come to gaze upon such horrid spectacles out of a savage Curiosity and commonly stand aloof off Here I cannot but cry out with Father Chaucer in his Bâ—llad of the praise of Women Lo what gentillesse these women have If we could knowe it for our rudeness How busie thei be us to keepe and save Both in heale and also in sickness And alwaie right sorie for our distress In every maner thus she we thei routh Tthat in hem is all goodness and trouth For of all creatures that ever were get and born This wote ye well a woman was the best By her was recovered the bliss that we had lorne And through the woman we shall come to rest And been â—saved if that our self lest Wherefore me thinketh if that we had grace We oughten honour women in every place The Souldier quickly approves the Woman's project how to excuse him and having no time for now day was approaching to insist upon acknowledgement either of her great Love or of the felicity of her Wit he joyns his strength with hers and removes the Husband's Corps out of the Vault to the Gibbet whereon he placeth it in the same posture he had left the villains omitting no part of those resemblances she had suggested as requisite to delude the spectators Which done He and his incomparable Mistress secretly retire to his obscure lodging there to consult further not only of their present safety but also how they might continue that mutual happiness which Fortune had so unexpectedly begun betwixt them And while they are there deliberating give me leave to deliver my self of a certain Conceipt I have in my head which is that the witty invention this Matron lighted upon on the suddain and in desperate extremity was that which gave the first occasion to this Proverb A Womans wit is always best at a dead lift FINIS THE Cimmerian MATRON To which is added THE MYSTERIES And MIRACLES OF LOVE By P. M. Gent. Qui cavet ne decipiatur vix cavet etiam cum cavet Etiam cum cavisse ratus est is cautor captus est Plautus In the SAVOY Printed for Henry Herringman at the Sign of the Anchor in the Lower-walk of the New-Exchange 1668. TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Ephesian Matron My dearest Friend YOu can be I perceive both highly obliging and no less severe to one and the same Person in one and the same act When you were pleas'd last Summer to send me your EPHESIAN MATRON with strict Command that I should entertain her as jealous Italians do their Mistresses mew her up in my Cabinet from sight of the whole world You sent a Present I acknowledge than which nothing could have been more gratefull but you conjoyn'd therewith a Râ—striction than which none could have been more rigorous You gave me good Wine and then gelt it with Water as the Spanish saying is of such who destroy their own benefits Like an imperious Lord you would have had the Lady my Tenent at your will and after you had made me a free Grant you inserted a Proviso to render it void In a word your Injunction to me to restrain her from the conversation of all others was not only tyrannical and inhumane in it self for as our great Moralist and beloved Author Chaucer in the Wise of Bath's Prologue He is to great a Diggarde that will werne A man to light a candle at his Lanterne but also inconsistent with both the goodness of her nature and the freedome of my enjoying the pleasures thereof For First the love of Liberty is no less natural to the soft and delicate Sex than to our harder and martial one nor doth our Magna Charta contain more Priviledges and Franchises than theirs
shifting her Mantle some will have it to be only a Blanket from her own shoulders to the Matrons readily yielded her self to be bound to the Pillar in the same manner as she had found her Predecessor This certainly was a most pleasant Scene well worthy a Theatre and might make a good plot for a Tragicomedy The Matron leaving her Deputy thus bound and naked yet without impeachment of her modesty and mounting on the wings of love fled in an instant to her Paramour 'T was a bold and adventurous Act this for a Woman so lately suâ—prized so cruelly treated so miraculously delivered nay not yet delivered from danger of greater torments and perhaps of death thus to throw her self into the Arms of her Adulterer to force even destiny it self to give way to the satisfaction of her desires But Love inspires Audacity and Contempt of all perils into the Weakest and most timorous hearts Hardly had the greedy Matron with silence express'd her jâ—y and tasted the first dish of Loves Banquet Kisses a dish that doth at once satisfie and pâ—ovoke the Appetite when the Soldier deceived by the Mantle she had borrowed and mistaking her for the true owner thereof began to put her from him as scoâ—ning to use his Arms against so base and impudent an Enemy but she soon guessing at the cause of his aversion by her harmonious voice which yet she durst not raise above a whisper convinced him of his error and restored him to a due assurance that he had the person he look'd for and no Changeling Whereupon omitting all further ceremonies he did his devoir to verifie the good opinion she had at first sight wâ—en he was bathing himself conceived of his good parts and she on the other side if at least there were now any distinction of sides did hers to fix him in a confidence that her Love was true and unfeigned ¶ Whâ—le thâ—se our zealous votaries to the Goddess of Pleasures are at their silent devotions the silly Cuckold now I think we may call him so her Husband who is an example of that Sentence in Seneca that many times by seeking to avoid dangers we run headlong â—nto the midst of them was in a slumber wherein his pertuâ—bed imagination presented to him dismal and infaust visions he dreamed that he saw his wife sacrificing her honour and doing that odious Act that drew an indelible stain and reproach upon him and his whole Family having broken her bonds asunder and mixing her self with her armed Adulterer in closest embraces that himself while he was labouring to revenge the contumelious injury was transformed into a Satyr The horror of this ominous dream interrupting his slumber and his Fancy retaining a deep impression of those dire Phantasmes he begins to believe his transformation to be real and feels his Nose if it were not grown crooked like a Satyr's his Forehead if it were not armed with Antlers his Thighs if they were cloth'd with shaggy hair his feet if they were not cloven and his Toes turned into hoofs then still credulous of the first part of his vision he leaps out of his bed throws open the window and calls aloud upon his wife who was now either out of hearing or not at leasure to give answer to his curses and reproaches But alas the Reverend Bail her Confidâ—nt heard and trembled she now though too late found the error of her kindness and saw no way to safety but by obstinate silence which she with more resolution and constancy kept than one of Pythagoras Scholars during his novitiate in spite of the ingeminated exclamations of the â—nraged Malbecco who exasperated by that Contempt for so he understood it and fancying some Divine suggestions to revenge from the Genius of the Marriage-bed snatches up a Razor that lay in the Window runs down the Stairs in the dark and flying most fâ—riously at the very face of his wifes Deputy catches her fast by her Nosâ— and with one well-guided slash cuts it quite off then flinging the same in her face Thou worst of Women saith he worthy of a greater brand of infamy there take that token of my hate and send it for a present to thy Adulterer who perhaps will either grow more enamour'd upon this change of thy forme this new-â—odell'd face or confess thee to have a better Title to his love by thy suffrings for his sake Thus insulting over the miserable wretch and triumphing in his revenge he returns to his thorny bed there with sleep to ease his head now in truth much heavier than before What shall I say of the poor mangled and noseless Bawd only this that her fear of a worse accident if she were known to her Tormentor made her undergoe her pains and loss with more than a Spartan patience Unhappy friendship sad Exchange it was her lot to be drencht with the Gall of Love while the Matron suck'd the Honey of it her evil destiny to be besmear'd with her own blood while the more guilty wife was anointed with the Butter of Joy Thus in Duels we see often the seconds are wounded while the Principals remain unhurt The Schismatical Nose was scarcely grown cold when our Faustina having finished her first trial oâ— skil with her Gladiator and with a thousand parting kisses dismiss'd him to recâ—uit his spirits lost in the conflâ—ct retuâ—ns with the joys of a double victory to her Post. But how short-lived a thing is sensual delight how evanid are all our triumphs when she undeâ—stood the sufferings of her Martyr the Sun-shin of her content was iâ— a moment darkned with clouds of grief and dâ—eadful apprehensions and all her exulâ—ing â—miles exchanged for tears and dejection of Mind But Grief and Fear are almost as bad Counsellors as Love which our witty Matron well understanding and remembring withal that Nature had furnished her whole Sex with a faculty of quick invention how to evade approaching danger and to conceal faults re-assures her self and sets her brain on work how to palliate this wound which was past her cure She hath recourse therefore to the Art of Consolation and endeavours to miâ—igate the Bawds dolours â—ith an Anoâ—yne of kind and commiserating language She bâ—ds her not to be cast down with her misfortune which carried with bravery and discretion might turn to her advantage and prove a noble experiment of her Fidelity among all the Cimmerians that the segment of her Nose would be to Venus an offering as grateful and propitiatory as locks of hair to other Deities that if iâ— a Soldier wounds in the face were honourable witnesses of his courage and bravery why should not those received in the service of Venus be likewise accounted marks of Gallantry and a daring spirit that though the now mâ—rtified Nose could not be set on again for Tagliacotius lived a greaâ— way off Cimmeria yet the wound would be easily cured and at woâ—st if she were so foolish to resolve not to live without one
a thing many a person of greater quality had done before her she would cause a new one to be made for her of much more value and better mettal than the first This last promise mollified more than all the consolatory reasons precedent and the Bawd who had a Soul so abject and Mercenary that she would for Money have sold her eyes and ears too into the bargain becom's pacified and comforted therewith then being loosed from the Pillar and binding thâ— Matron who desired it to the same she gropes out the piece of her Nose wraps it up in a corner of her Mantle and away she â—rudges in quest of a Chirurgeon locking the back door very carefully after her and reflecting upon the ill success of her obligation ¶ King Salomon reckoning Conies among the four sorts of Animals that being little are yet exceeding wise saith of them that being a generation not strong they make holes for themselves among the Rocks The same may be said of Women who wanting strength to assert their faults yet have cunning enough to hide them they make burrows of excuses and run into them when in danger to be taken Like Statesmen who have for their Impress a Glass Bee-hive with this Motto Nulli patet opus they do their business in the dark or as a witty Italian expresseth it desmienten lo transparente con un vanno de cera they smear over their Hives with wax so that no eye can pry into the secrets of their workings or be able to trace them in their amorous stealths if you doubt of this you shall see it verifiâ—d in the fourth Act of this our Tragicomedy which we are now arrived at The Bawd being handsomly conjur'd away the coast clear and all the world at rest our subtle Matron after a short meditation hath found out a way if it succeed not only to dissemble her joyful Treason but to appear still innocent and faithful to her Husband yea yet farther to invert the guilt upon him and bring him at last to confess himself to have been in an error This you 'l say is somewhat difficult but remember she is a woman and in Love and then you 'l conceive it to be facil Having formed the design she delays not to put it in execution Counterfeiting therefore an appeal to the Moon then newly risen above the verge of the Horizon with a voice raised by degrees from a low whiâ—per to a pitch high enough to reach the poor Cuckolds ears she invocates her help and protection in such verses as these Sister of Jove Queen Regent of the night From whom the meaner Stars derive their light Or wouldst be worshipt by great Juno's name Joves Wife or Sister thou art still the same That Sov'raign Dame who art the Deity Of wedlock rites and femal Chastity Why with auspicious Omens did I pay My Nuptial vows upon my Marriage day If with an unconcern'd and even face Thou dost behold the Mischiefs of this place And you bright Planets Heavens unerring eyes With which by night he things on earth descries You witnesses of my pure innocence Who yet as Iudges my hard fate dispense Don't you grow dimm with horror thus to see A jealous Husbands causeless cruelty See naked bound and mangled here I grone And expiate offences not my own If then the vertuous you can thus torment For these rewards who would be innocent Methinks I now seem but my own pale Ghost Beauty and Fame a Womans soul are lost Though pure from Thought or Act yet wretched I Must wear a face that gives my heart the lie Why live I thus why does this mangled shape Confine that soul which would so fain escape To die is better and one blow to give Than rob'd of Honour nay and Beauty live To die is best indeed but oh the hands That should performe my freer Wills commands Alas are fetter'd For death when courted from us then to flie Forcing to live 't is then he makes us die Ah cruel Man here thou hast torments found Beyond these bonds beyond this horrid wound Happy Lucreâ—ia since thou could'st attest Thy innocence by piercing of thy breast Whilst thus expiring in thy Husbands arms Ev'n in thy death couldst gain more pow'rful charms Thou Chast art call'd because thou couldst but die Whilst death to me doth that relief deny Thou Goddess wert severe unto thy Jove And Heav'n couldst purge from his unâ—awful love If to bad Women thou so just art known Wilt thou not vindicate one honest one Behold with pity and do not despise Tears mixt with blood which flow from mournful eyes Punish the jealous Man and make him feel The sad effects of his own cruel steel Shew him his crime and what 't is let him know T' offend a Woman and a Goddess too At least be just and my late form restore With my lost fame or let me be no more Having breath'd forth this supplication in a languishing tone and made it seem more pathetical by interposing now and then a profound sigh or two and indeed of all our Passions none are more easily counterfeited then Zeal and Sorrow on a suddain changing the key of her voice into a confused murmur and then to that of a civil conference she dissembled a familiar Dialogue with the Deity whose ayd she had newly implored and in fine as if her prayer had been heard and her petition miraculously granted with an elevated voice she makes an Apostrophe to her Husband exclaiming against his improsperous tyranny in these words Ho thou most barbarous of men thou Fury in human shape thy bloody rage against thy chastest wife hath prov'd thy own undoing The mercy of the Celestial Powers hath overcome thy Cruelty lest my virtue might suffer by thy undeserved and base suspicions Now shalt thou be forced to confess what thy impiety made thee doubt of that I am innocent and that There is a God who sees and notes our deeds I am convinced I am convinced it is none but Juno Protectress of conjugal Chastity who compassionating my sufferings hath by Miracle restored that amiable form of mine which thou distracted with jealousie had'st destroy'd Goe then desperate Villain and sheath that bloody knife of thine in thy own inhuman bowels that so unworthy a wretch may no longer enjoy the happiness of so faithful and spotless a Wife Having obtained so signal a favour from the immortal Gods well may I contemn and bid defiance to the anger of a Mortal Man especially one so wicked so degraded by his crimes O night more illâ—strious than the brightest day O hour more fortunate than that of my birth Now flow on flow on officious Tears but from a different passion But thou execrable Hâ—ngman sacrilegious Thief hasten hither to be convinced of my purity and thy crime make hast I say that if it be possible thou maist make attonement for the innocent blood thou hast spilt and for the sacrilege thou hast committed and so
and in a trance of wonder and amazement Upon which Love immediately succeeding and in a moment with its celestial raies dispelling all the foggs of his cold and phlegmatick brain yea inspiring him as it were with a new and ingenious soul he rowzd up himself reflected upon the misery and dishonour of his late condition and put on a sprightly resolution to pursue his Nymph with Courtship and Gallantry worthy her admirable Form and his own noble extraction To this purpose he the next day followed his retreating Fairy to the City put on a becoming habit and with it a graceful and obliging Mine and animated with hope industriously imploy'd himself in learning Musick dancing fencing and acquiring all other good qualities requisite in a Gentleman So that in a very short time he was transformed from an Ideot a BartholmewCokes a Clown to a Bon Esprit a Virtuoso a Truwitt in a word to the most accomplish'd Gallant of the times nor was Iphigenia so invincible to such assaulting perfections as not by marriage of him to appropriate to her self the fruits of the Miraculous Metamorphosis the vision of her Beauties had wrought in him Such power hath the sight of a fair Lady naked to cause Love such power hath Love to cure the Lethargy of the Soul and awaken it into Wit and Galantry making a Heros of a Sott in fewer minutes than the Writers of Romances can in years I say a Heros because the same Cymon proved also famous at Arms fought sundry combats performed many heroical exploits and alwaies had Fortune for his Second the same flame that enlightned his understanding having heated his blood also and kindled Courage and Magnanimity in his heart At this you will the less wonder if you remember what you have read in Cardan lib. 2. de Sap. who there occasionally recounting many of the admirable effects of Love says thus Ex vilibus generosos efficere solet ex timidis andaces ex avariâ— splendidos ex agrestibus civiles ex crudelibus mansuctos ex impiis religiosos ex sordidis nitidos cultos ex duris misericordes ex mutis eloquentes c. If you contemn this authority I hope you will not dispute the Example of Sir Walter Manny in Edward the thirds time who being stuck full of Ladies favours fought like a Dragon nor that of Ferdinand King of Spain who as Castilio thinks had never conquer'd Granado had not Queen Isabella and her Ladies been present at the Siege it cannot be expressed sayes our Author what courage the Spanish knights derived from the raâ—es of the Ladies eyes a handful of amorouâ— Spaniards overcoming a multude of Moors Every true Lover is wise just temperate and valiant saith Agatho lib. 3. de Aulico who doubts not therefore but if a Prince had an Army of such Lovers he might soon conquer the whole world except he met with the like Army of Inamorato's to oppose it Plato then had reason when 5. de Legibus he would have women follow the Camp to be both Spectators and Encouragers of noble Actions it being his opinion in convivio that Mars himself borrowed most of his valour from his love of Venus SECT V. HAving beheld this Proteus Love in some of those various shapes wherein it usually appears you are I presume thereupon inclined to think it may be no less unconstant to its Object than it seems to be to it self To obviate this scandalous mistake therefore I find my self obliged in the next place to evince that the Judgments of Love are like those of Fate unalterable and perpetual that it is constant and immutable He who can cease to love whom he hath once loved doe's but dream he loved For the conjunction of true Lovers hearts like solemn Matrimony admits of no divorce When the Virgin Zone is untied a knot is in the same instant knit that can never be dissolved sometimes indeed as the Gordian it may be cut asunder Death may be the Alexander to discind but cannot untie it Love ceases not though what is loved hath ceas'd to be When your Turtle hath molted all her beautiful feathers and is grown old you shall not cease to think her still the same still amiable and youthful and what of her charming featureâ— time hath impaired your affection will continually renew the pleasing Form now lost to your eye shall be perpetually found fresh and lively in your mind The fidelity of Remembrance shall countervail the cruelty of Age which may by a natural Metamorphosis render your Wife a stranger to her former self but hath not the more tyrannical power to alienate her from you Nay when Fate shall have torn her from your armes even then shall you still retain and enjoy her in your imagination you shall think her not dead but only absent and as often as you mix embraces wâ—tâ— her kind Ghost you shall deny her to have perish'd Love shall make you triumph over Mortality and in the ardor of your spiritual â—ruition you shall bid defiance to Destiny crying out Though you have seperated us O Fatal Sisters you have not divided us yet we converse together yet we are a pair from others you have taken away the Woman from me not so much as her shadow While she lived we used but one Soul now but one Body Her Spirit is received into my breast and there remains fixt as in its proper Asterism and Heaven Thus Love seems to perform iâ—s course as the Sun in a Circle alwaies returning to the point whence it set forth so ending in it self as alwayes to begin For no man loves who can ever be able to love either less or not at all Of love there can be no end because no satiety Like Heaven and a contemplative Mind it is perpetually in motion never at rest yet that labour doth not weary but refresh Thus the end of one benefit is a degree toward another and the Soul provoked by a double ardor cherishes first the person and then its own obligations ad amor is perennitatem sufficit amasse Notwithstanding Love be thus immortal as being the proper affection of an immortal Soul and devoted to an eternal Object Good yet can I not deny but it is a kind of Death For who is ignorant that Lovers die as often as they kiss or bid adieu exhaling their Souls upon each otheâ—s lips Like Apollo's Priests possessed with the spirit of Divination they are transported out of themselves their life is a perpetual Extasie they devest themselves of their own Souls that they may be more happily fill'd with others I believe Pythagoras his Metempsychosis or Transmigration of his Soul when he loved not when he philosophiz'd At sight of a fair and well built house our souls like delicate and proud Ladies grow weary of ther own homely dwellings and are unquiet until removed thither because they were not born they affect to live yea to be born again therein Longing for the Elyzium of