dulness But when we shall find that the world has received not greater benefits by the Idolaters of Liberty then from the votaryes of Wedlock and when it will appear that nothing is more just to mankind then that condition we shall be able to return so criminable a Charge Those Ages defind more prudently and with greater moderation who made not bravery of minde a Knight errant humour submitting to all the risques of Fancy and Appetite the world has suffer'd by nothing more then in this useless noise nor could there have been an act of greater prudence then to put the shackles on this mad and wild Liberty which would more then any other thing have disordered humane Affairs True nobleness and glory is regular and managed and not like that Goddess born on the brain an infinite number of benefits and publique kindnesses sate long in Counsell how to define it nor have they passed its Character without many correctings and emendations they have drawn together different perfections and then tryed them all like Emmas Purgation by the vigour of humane affaires our Ancestours conferred not their favours so readily nor did they admit those into the family of Hero's who were considerable only for a peculiar wildness and frenzy of minde the present managers of Genius's may try their off-spring by their Poetick fire but they ought not to do that injustice to their Fathers as to affirm they adored no other light They have introduced Chymaeras then and have exploded excellent Realities who have dislodged braveries of Minde from the circles of Marriage and with them they have rob'd the world of great advantages of which I shall give you a prospect in this following Paper To oblige mankind by an obligation sacred and unalter'd to the affairs and interests of one Love was an act of that prudence and wisdome against which none can justly dispute They could with no equity have raised a Title to more since the Law of nature proclaims that Loving of one should be for one enough and that Sex must have been left in a condition wholly base and mercenary to have took the pay of every Amour they would have set up a Tyranny in Love which must have been the most cruel and insupportable of all others because exercised on the best interests of Life Marriage puts the world into Discipline and a happy government incloseing the common injoyment that none might lay claim to the portion of an other had beauty and the possession of that Sex been left a prey to the Conquerour and subject to be borne away by the most forceible courtships mankind must have ever dwelt jealous of each other proclaiming an enmity against all the World and have judged their power alone a sufficient defence but by the fore of matrimoniall Laws and the allotments made us from above we live in quiet and security with each other who must else have stood perpetually on our guard and secured what we had loved from the wandering Lusts of others the world must have been perpetually involved in Quarrels since Love is more restless and more impatient then Ambition and whilst a charming object had many claimers she must at last have yeilded to the Conquerour and not have gratified the passion of the most deserving but the most happy being without the exercise of that Empire which Halcion Lawes had gave her that must have been wholly lost amidst the animosities of Rivals Or if mankind had been wearyed into a more Friendly way of living and yeilded that to indifference which they pretend would have been the effect of Saciety yet still the world must have lost its Glory to preserve its Peace and like those despised Regions who are therefore quiet because they bannish all things that would invite a Conquest The use of excellent things must have been laid aside and the World must have practised the wisdome of a prudent Consort who disbands her beauties to cure the jealousies of a Husband And as the great Cato urged the preserving of Carthage to keep up the vigour of the Roman vertue which would languish when it had nothing to emulate so such an indifference must have yeilded up all things of a generous concernment Most actions of bravery and glory receive a motive and originall from without and as we have seen that all Ages have applyed themselves to those things that procured the esteem and the reward Vertue presently fading when it wants the Sun-shine of applause and emulation and the showers of recompence so no consideration of particular concernments in Love and the studdy of appearing gratefull and accepted had brought a greater dulness on the world then a present reflexion can readily discover neither shall we affirm a thing at all unjust to say that the world owes not inconsiderable benefits to a vertuous Love and that not so much as it has brought upon its bosome so many Hero's but also as it made vigorous and strong the beginning of that vertue which had possible sat down wearied with small acquirements had it not been supported by a generous passion a truth that has found more excellent experiments then what are met with in foolish Romances And whilst thus the excesses and the indifference had done the world equal prejudices what could be more propitious to it then the moderation and the middle way of Marriage it removes on one hand what is violent furious and Rapacious and overcomes on the other a degenerate indifference and sloath and as it is not our inclinations but their irregularity that makes our Crime so every thing is happy in its moderation thus the assistances of fire to the occasions of life are very happy and necessary it is only dreadfull when it growes unruly we saile with pleasure on that Ocean and trace its yeilding bosome with remotest wealth from which yet we fear an inundation So Love preserved in happy bounds by the institutions of Marriage its excellencies and advantages remain to the world its childish and troublesome qualities are cut off by Lawes â—its made tame and gentle which would else have devoured the fairest concernments of the Universe should the world be without the society of this govern'd Passion it might want a heate to vigourate and render serviceable all its parts which must else have submitted to dull languishments nothing then appeares more just then Marriage since the love it cuts off and regulates the world could not have borne and the love it manages it cannot spare without parting with the foundation of its best Affairs neither have any appeared dissatisfied with this conduct but only the Bravo's and Furioso's of Ages who think that the satisfying of an ungovern'd appetite is more important then the being kind and oblieging to common nature whilst only such politiques as their own can make it be thought expedient to destroy the good of the whole for the unreasonable satisfaction of some in particular The highest wisdome took the prospect of all the Species
those who are justly esteemed the greatest Wits of our Nation but amongst the latter it met with the Haloo and the 〈◊〉 for the Country this it is to have any thing to do with those Gentlemen for my part I disclaim them and shall hereafter be as unwilling to Note their Imperfections as I have ever been to admire their sort of Vertue Another great mistake is that I designed Sir T. L. for a Hero what was intended in him was only to show that a Gentleman who had arrived at all the perfections of a good Education might live more prudently on his Estate in the Countrey then to spend it in the Town only on women Playes Garniture and Fricacies and this Gentleman knowes who must be a man of the Law by his frequent Quotations That his Majesties Father of Glorious Memory Commanded by Proclamation all Country Gentlemen to reside on their Estates and not to come to the Town to Hero-fie in eating of Ragoo's and Fricacies and in short next to those whose affairs lye in it it is properly a place for younger Brothers who may raise their Fortunes by Armes Letters or Conversations I think I have in these few lines answered all that the Gentleman has Objected There is only a great deal of Divertisment Reviling hard Words if not Pedantry too behind for which I shall say in the Gentlemans behalf that as for the former he endeavour'd to imitate the present mode of Writing and he does excellently well for a beginner and he may easily be excused if he has reach'd but few of those perfections required in that criticall Stile and as for the latter having to do with a Pedant and a Tutor he could not but forget that Civility and Respect which without doubt is otherwise naturall to him and he thought it needless to use any of the Lawes which he found not in his study of Writeing-Mascarade since he thought himself not at all obliged to show any respect to one in a Vizzard But I resolve for my own part to be more carefull and wish heartily his friendship and reconcilement and if the Gentleman who has succeeded so well in Letters should also make his applycations to Armes if Sir T. L. and his Tutor meet him in the spring on board his Majesties Fleet. I know that Person will endeavour a friendship betwixt this worthy Gentleman and his Mothers Secretary but I would not willingly defer it so long but rather perfect now so Important an affair Come Sir you are out of humour I wish we might injoy you a little in our Country where you should have good entertainment though you might not meet Astraea there whose allusion you so unkindly mistook my Lady will treat you with extraordinary Magnificence and her Secretary shall serve you with great officiousness you shall Drink Hunt Hawke Course nay you shall stay on Sunday and hear our Parson who is an honest Gentleman though possible he cannot Preach so Divinly as Maximin I have now done with the Gentleman I have only a word to say to the Town and particularly the vindictive Ladyes as for any thing in the Remarques I do affirm on the reputation with my Answerers good leave I would say it of a Gentleman that I never intended it in the least to impair the reputation of excellent Persons or the Conversations of the Town and I hope no other will be guilty of so unkind a mistake as to think I meant Age Nation and Town any otherwise then as they are frequently applyed to particular humours Nay I will say further to prevent any other Essayes that the Remarques was in a manner Printed against my desire though I will not accuse a Gentleman who had eat and drank and slept in an Inns of Court And besides that there are some things in it which were not my own I know there is no Person of Justice and good Nature but will be satisfied with this Apology and as for others I am wholly careless of their Censure To Antonia NOthing is more just then the Dedicating this following Paper to you neither could any consideration oblige me to forbear it and even whilst it seeks a shade it yet desires so illustrious a patronage What ever censure it receives in the world will soon be forgot in the kindness you will shew it and the favour of so excellent a Person will sufficiently reinforce it against all the assaults of custome and prejudice And in the privacies where we now are I may assume the liberty to say we are the votaries of the neglected Theme and acknowledge the Divinity of that Altar which the Irreligion of the Age has abandoned all our regret is the difficulty we have found in making that sacrifice which is now esteemed the degenerate Devotion of the World Though Vertue has lost its Traine yet it receives the most obsequious respect from us and it has not been our hearts but our conditions that have refused its conduct in the track of Ages We are not yet become Atheists to a Hymen nor deserters of a fidelity which is loaden with reproaches Neither do we recount these things in a shade because we blush to avow them in the Sun beams No Antonia we have deposited those resolutions in faithful assurances which we would at any time be willing to lay out for so fair a purchase in which also we have preserved our Vertue like snow that 's in cold houses saved from the Estive seasons of a rageing vice the age has no propitious sentiments from us nor do we valew the reproach of being singular in our vertue the ancient Idea's though the world may pretend they are faded are yet more charming to us then the gayness of their present Images All their Paint and imbellishments cannot enamour us on these nor has the dirt they have flung upon the former prevented us from admiring an unequall'd beauty in them We have given them the Ascendant of our soules and they have fashion'd there that fidelity and justice which will be for ever the ornament of our breasts neither do those qualities appear less fair and agreeable to us whilst their habilements are out of mode Now the popular fury and practise has proscribed a vertuous love it receives a protection in our hearts and we can boast that it shall never be refin'd but with our lives we are sorry to give it no larger a Territory and we would gladly lead it farther into the affairs of our lives we are not stopped in thâ—se designes by the Platonick precaution nor a fear to try our Idaeas by action we have took other measures of a just and happy life and prefer the example of generous Ages before the fictions of Romance t is not because we love their beautifull wanderings that we are kept in a perplexing Labyrinth and know not how to come at what we love Since it is not our humours but our affairs conceale the Clue In the mean time our inclinations and our
Punctilios and affectations It has been such Whimseys that have lost the excellent affairs of the world and men placing their contentments in such idle likenesses have neglected to pursue what were the most useful concernements of humane Life Nature has set out the measure by which that Sex is found fit for our Society which consists of something more important then the pleasing of our vain humours the Interests of the world were at first common and men intended the good of the whole but the envy the capriciousness and sullenness of after-times made infinite inclosures and men laid out all that stock on the little portions of their saâ—y which should have been imployed in the publick Banke of the Universe And whilst they have pretended to refine humane Society They have made its profitable Affairs evaporate into nothing neither have they left any thing of those grave and prudent Interests but some wild and thin Idea's which they have in sport hunted through the barren Regions of Philosophy and along the fairy Traverses of Poetry Marriage has also appeared excellent for the education of Mankind which was the next thing important to his being without that as his Affairs now stand he had come into the world an Extravagant abhorring Laws and the Regularities of Society and his Reason rising at an Age after his mind had been rude and barbarous for want of discipline it would not easily have been able to subdue the wildness of his youth Nay all its performances had been but ill and imperfect Draughts whilst it wanted compleated Images and Idea's to draw by its natural propensities would have designed something but the world cou'd never have known what to have called it but Marriage has been in all Ages the Repository of discipline and excellent Idea's in its School they are not only taught but revered heat is learned modesty respect and subjection affectation and stubbornness are betimes cashiered the fleeting and inconstant fancy directed to an aim and kept steddy by a peculiar authority Marriage is the Garden where the Flowers of Youth are preserved in their freshness and vigour whereas the open discipline of the world is like the rudeness of a desart where they grow wild and neglected the sense of shame and the fear of vice are preserved under this management and influenced from this lower Sphear whilst the general defection had made them difficult to be seen above but besides this condition has laid an Obligation on the Parent to look after the Education of his Children and if there had not been such an instition in which it was both our duty and our reputation too to look after our Issue the Children of many had been neglected and perished without a name or any considerable acquirements but now those persons who have strangely overcome and worn out the impression of what they owe to God and their own affections are yet so careful of their reputation and the esteem of their Race as to Educate their Children in those ways by which they may be capable of serving the Common-wealth and live with credit had not Marriage been instituted when the lustful youth had satisfied his appetite 't is likely he would have abandoned the wretched Mother with her Infant to the incoumers of various sorrows and the Children of the great and the Noble had been Rocked in Cottages and all their dayes followed the Plough but now there are sacred Channels cut in which one stream of peculiar and distinguished Blood perpetually runs from one Generation to another and we find that even the most extravagant and voluptuous are yet careful of that current using all the industry imaginable to make it noble and imbelished thinking it not enough to continue their greatness but their virtues also They endeavour to fashion and to sweeten youth that it may be grateful and accomplished when it comes to be opened in the Affairs of the world to this purpose are the severity of Chastisements the variety of Instructions and the representing of differing Examples not only those that have rendred virtue fair and agreeable but such also that shew a loathsomness a degeneracy and abhorrency in vice by such variety of Wayes fashioning them into the habit of excellent qualities which performances have set so many accomplished Persons into the world who if they had met with Parents less careful they might have missed that esteem and veneration which Ages have paid them It is true that the force of a Genius sometimes supplies the defect of a Parent but where they both assist are the most excellent pieces of humane perfection and though Nature often does much yet we many times find that those persons are to seek in the turnes of Humane Affairs and in the artful Traverses of Glory who have not been very well furnished with great variety of Images and from hence has rose the defect that spoil'd the whole frame of an Heroick virtue design'd by some persons In some Men we have observed a strange assiduity in the quest of glorious Atchievments whilst yet a diligent Reminder will see more of affection and earnestness then a handsome dexterity in that pursuit There is a sleight in all Humane Affairs which though Nature may sometimes happen on it yet can never hit it with so much certainty and success as Art and hence it is that a great draught of an Heroick virtue is fain to be taken from so many because no one person appears furnisht with all those various Colours Some men have excelled for the number and Art of their Conquests but the world has seen them subdued by a power from the Rostra Achilles's Shield was after won by a virtue different from that in which its owner excelled the crafty Italian with his single Conduct wound about the bravery and vigour of the French Affairs which perfection in any endowment has arose from a happy Education meeting with a good Genius and where it willingly declines an accomplishment it yet submits to the force of the discipline So that to Marriage the world ows the Education of Mankind and by consequence their fitness and usefulness to Humane Affairs which is a great advantage because the security of having our Issue well educated is thereby established and that care taken for the coming Generation which our fathers had of ours which is so important a reflection in the Series of succession Marriage did moreover prevent the inconveniencies and extravagancies of a rambling Love for what disorder and distraction had there been in the world if an impetuous and lawless appetite had been subject to no Conduct but that the fancy placing it self upon any Object had presently transported the owner to all manner of violent actions To serve its mad desires Cities had been consumed to Ashes Houses left desolate or filled with groans only for the ravishment of a beautious Prey The Affairs of the State had been neglected or readily wounded for the acquirements of an idle Love for such
important concernments which have been so revered in the world and so beneficial to Humane Race If they must exercise that doated on wit of theirs let them choose a subject more agreeable to the Interest and complexion of Mankind and let them think it to be a little rude to reproach the practice of their Fathers and the greatest part of the world which they do in speaking against Marriage But never any Age had more trifling Gallantries and yet none was evermore in love with them great capacities use to be serious modest and unaffected but now he that owns a little wit makes such a noise with it as to disturb the quiet and the serious Affairs of the world If they would have us admire their great abilities let them give us a more excellent proof of them let them again rescue those Interests which they have betrayed or else pretend to merit nothing but the reproaches and curses of the world But that which is yet a more important injury to Marriage is a certain humour and opinion taken up by some people that it is a piece of Gallantry and good Breeding to divert our selves with sacred Wedlock as an extraordinory proof that we have overcome the Flegm of a degenerate complexion if we spend all our life in frolick Amours There is another accusation that belongs to these reflections and that is of those who are of this Condition whose affection to it ought to be commended but their follies and indiscretions ought to be accused It is not always found that a good intention can free it self from the blemishes of an ill conduct and the follies of many Persons have rendred some things ridiculous that would have supported their gravity in a better management in this enquiry the subject is extream nice and critical and so ought to be made with great wariness and circumspection besides to pry into the miscarrages of others in so close an union is a little imprudent but yet our ordinary conversation and notice will furnish us with this belief that many commit those follies in Wedlock that become matter of divertisement to some Persons and and an extream scandal to others One great cause to be ascribed of this is that men live narrowly and to their particular inclinations and humours forgeting that they are to support a common concernment and we may very well believe that men may find as much ease and a great deal more generous contentment if they tyed up their inclinations to a severe discretion then in permitting them to wanton in all the liberties of their little freedoms How few live with a careful respect to their reputation and fewer consider the importance of a publick aim which neglects giving birth to perpetual follies and affectations amongst other things that they prejudice Marriage suffers in the opinion of the indifferent or prepossessed Any thing that is uneasie in Wedlock should be concealed and supported with a gravity that might cover it from the spectators No man should gad abroad with his complaints which as they render his condition nothing the more easie so they either importune or divert those to whom they are communicated it is tiresome to the serious man to be entertained with the follies of another and it is Comical to the Frollick So that we receive no advantage by such sallies of great weakness and indiscretion and yet though the satisfaction be so momentary as only the easing of a present fulness yet the revelation of such Matters spread in conversation and remains long enough as a blemish on that Condition this open temper has in some made an injurious progress reproaching with the worst treachery the intimacies of Marriage the first Espousals proclaimed that two were one thereby to unite all their concernments The gallant Portia tried her secrisy on her wounded Arm to make an experiment of her Sexes sufficiency which whilst she bravely rescued from the reproches it had suffer'd she retorted the blushing scandal upon ours Friendship is of all other blessings the greatest solace to humane Life and it is not only intimate but sacred in the Circle of Marriage To communicate our troubles is to lessen them and the Philosopher advised us not to eat the Heart which he meant of secret and concealed griefs The great distrust of some men has appeared in hiding under ground their wealth and this Age has in part reason to have the same care of their thoughts which those had of their Treasure Mankind were at first distinguished into particular dwellings that they should have separated Interests and injoy their contentments in an undiscovered shade we call it good humour to use all manner of freedom in our conversation but how seldome is it found that others will well interpret what we well design It were easie Sir to lead this Current further but it would be no discretion to do it and many times we decline a safe Conduct because we fantastically love our own management 'T is moreover certain they best see their errours who discover them by their own light And that not only because we find our selves in some disorder to have them revealed but also from a certain pride that puts us upon justifying all we do and besides all the dexterity of another can never fit the Perspective to our own sight But yet there are somethings so remarkable that there is no need of these Glasses to discover them and there are some crimes committed against that Relation which none will attempt to extenuate that respect would be very injurious that should forbear the censure of the great scandals that are flung upon Marriage The incontinence of the Espoused is that Crime whose Bowels are filled with many others Neither can we readily say the influence it has had in the world since it is evident that the sacredness of this Institution has kept the Power above us with respect upon our minds Other things have though unjustly been accused of Art but the great Antiquity of Marriage declares its divine original And it has received the same respect in diversities of Nations and Religions its Honour is so tender that the least blot reproaches it and besides incourages the hardyness of after attempts which take them for a President who were the first Invaders of this seperated state by whose attempts not only that condition which appeared the principal foundation of the most excellent advantages became shaken and infirme but a way was opened to that liberty which after made its incursions into all revered concernments The sacredness of an Oath and Protestations uttered where Heaven and Earth were the Witnesses became the trifles of Custom and design which being made so by a wandering appetite that crime became the incouragement to a freedom in other things What assaulted the first innocence we very well know and we have reason to believe that this Crime was one of the first that attempted the concernments of the world And it is like to be that which will
Rational beings to Vegitables and inanimate It has turned Mortals to Fountains to Trees to Eccho's and to Wall-flowers preserving only in the note the murmur or the fragrant Character the remembrances of a former state the wantonness of the Poetick fancy have in these instances appeared very extravagant though they design'd in all to shew the invincible Power of Love whilst changing Natures could not change Desire Neither could all the cruelties of a Metamorphosis disoblige a faithful Passion Eccho though grief has worn her to a shadow preserves yet strength enough to answer to an amorous Call the Heliotrope yet linkes the presence of the cruel Sun and appears Melancholly when he forsakes its Company But yet after all these cruelties and strange Experiments the Poetick fancy could not otherwise attone for so much barbarousness but by obliging Love to shave and retire to the Cloyster The reflection on so much Blood as it had spilt could not but naturally produce in it so great a Melancholly But yet here whilst it pretended to be a Devote it proved a Monster and could not forget the exercise of its former Tyranny It is true it grew more Circumspect but not less guilty it ruined equally though in a different way It formerly invaded the life and the felicity aud now the Innocence and the Honour It was more open and plain in the former attempts but now it affected privacy and Arts The world had felt enough of its force and it therefore applied it self to Stratagems and dissimulation so long a War as it had he 'd with humanity had taught them to reinforce and fortifie themselves and therefore undermined what it could not assault It took the habit of a Recluse and it made many of their orders appear but Fratricelles It shewed to the world a mortified look and an Innocent Habit But its Altars burnt with as brisk a Flame and were thronged with lascivious Votaries it grew weary of open cruelties but strangely enamoured of those private sleights Here with a show of great humility it devoured the portions of an excellent Virtue and consumed the Innocence of the world with Fire disguized in Snow-balls It whispered Intrigues through the Monastick Grate and made assignations at the foot of an Altar it coma'd amorous sentences with Beads and vigourated a lascivious Song with the Airs of an Anthem It bore it self disguized into the Pallaces of Magnificos and practised dishonour whilst it proclaimed a Shrist It resorted to the Chair of confession only to ease an amorous bosome and demanded from the Father not absolution but assistance It kept Leigers in Republicks of Virgins and held Intelligence with fidelity and Honour It was adored whereever it came and prevented jealousie by the reputation of sanctity But though the successes of Love were great in this shade yet it participated so much of a natural inconstancy as to grow weary of so easie a prosperity and left its recesses for more publick incounters Its Elogies here blunted the Poetick fancy whose flights whilst they were happy were yet regular and confined they resolved to make it a mad Cap that it might better serve the Rhiming reach that has been so much the Idol of present Ages here it acknowledged a Divinity and shewed a respect to Piety and Altars But they better affected its old Ethnick prophaneness they liked it only when it was too vigorous for Earth and too extravagant for Heaven They gave it a power above Immortality and fashioned it a quality that should Paramount the Universe And no sooner had they thus took it from the Cell but they furnished it out a Knight Errant and made it traverse Desarts they inured it to hardship and often forced it to take up its Lodgings at the foot of an Oak or the Banck of a Rivulct whilst it was fed Cameleon like on the Air of sighs and reproaches it exercised its courage in hunting of Ravishers in rescuing distressed Damsels in obtaining the freedome of captiv'd Knights and in putting an end to inchantments whilst sometimes again it affected the killing of Dragons the incountering of horrid Visions and in appointing assignations in the dark apartments and Residence of Spirits But succeeding Poets declined these Melancholy fancies whilst they took Love from that Discipline and applied it to the Affairs of Grandeur and Society They adopted it into the Family of Atoms and made it the Captain of those Numerous Legions They gave it an extravagant and unlimited Commission and made it equal with that appetite which they believe to be the Genius of the Universe and the Trace they have led it has been agreeable to their Idea's they have brought it on Theatres to inspire those Bravo's whom they call their Hero's They have thought fit that it should signalize it self only in prodigies of valour and miracles of Councel It has bestowed a sufficiency on a single Person to rout Armies to look Kings out of their Thrones and to make Conquests more facile then Ruine and more easie then Traverses It has bafled all the Stratagems of an Adversary and wound about at pleasure the fidelity and courage of numerous Armies all which are found but mean Exploits in the Records of their Dryades But yet it does not always keep constant to the point of this elevation neither does it ever affect to be so Heroick it is often pleased to divcrt it self with meaner Actionfs And to fashion the fooleries of Comedy It can make Experiments on the Groome and is not averse from an Intrigue with the Landress It is pleased with the small incounters and the fallacies of Mascarade and delights in being Cajol'd and in committing Errours Its Principles speake it an Epicure and declare its abhorrance to be bound up to the high Rules of its Glory whilst it finds the sweetest Pleasures in the most extravagant Liberties though it can sometimes despise Crowns and toss them from one head to another yet it is not always pleased with so hardy an exercise It can with as much pleasure manage the designs of the Chamber-maid and receive Propositions from the brawny Clown that greatness is uneasie to it which stands above the divertisments of ordinary men and it now less affects Glory then good Humour But though this passion appears active and vigorous yet it seems but the effects of its Age whilst it pleases it self in odd and fruitless performances It studdies infinite researches and the Punctilio's of a Genius weak and defective it grows hard to humour and is pleased with niceties and Criticisms before things brave and substantial The Poetick Lawgivers have formed it a State and designed its observance but it is weary of that troublesome greatness and they are forced to indulge it in little Frolicks and childish divertisements It has reach'd its Climaterical Year and forgets its Grandeur so fast that all the lofty nonsence of its ablest Ministers cannot preserve it from a sottish Lethargy they have carried it to the Magnificent Pallaces of
Command they have shewed it the state it should preserve and remonstrated it with an Eloquence more charming and refined then their Fathers ever knew But it see 's not the force of these splendid Harangues and its glorious managers must lament their misfortune that they were born in an Age when Love was so unable to comply with those precepts which they are so capable of giving So Rich and Magnificent a sence in the dayes of its Youth had found it an aboad in Stars from which some of its Directors pretend it to have come and it had used no more these mortal divertisements But unhappy Poets they practice in a time when its Nature is unfit to comply with the Excellencies of their Art and yet they are resolved not to be altogether unsuccessful they will accompany it to another world Nay they have sent their Poetick fancies before it to prepare an Elizium to furnish it with Grotto's with shady Groves and Rivers They have designed it an Eternal business to repeat a past fidelity and the Triumphs of mortal incounters They have put it into the Arms of a perpetual Spring of Beauty leaned it on a fragrant bosome and under the influence of bright and shining Eyes wherein so sweet a recess it must entertain it self for ever with repeating its humane Atchievments yer if it find these Pleasures too luscious they will permit it that varity in Heaven which they allowed on Earth They have formed it assignations in wither'd hollow Trees and weary Traverses in Sooty Regions They can imagine a perfect tranquility in nothing and have framed their Elizium according to the Colour and Figure of its Atoms which they esteem a happy thought since it would dull so vigorous a Passion to be confined to one enjoyment It would be tired with sitting for ever still and therefore they resolve it shall be perplexed in innumerable Labyrinths that it shall grow Melancholly and delight to behold the purple Current of a Wound that it shall incounter the Spectres of jealousie and fright it self with its own shadow that it shall Tilt in Tournaments of fancy overthrow Rivals and win Garlands Thus have the Poets ploted an Immortal business to themselves in the managements of Love But yet they will not leave its languishing Affairs upon Earth though they accompany its lofty Genius to Elizium yet they will not quit its Earthly part whilst it rots in dirty Actions they will force a freshness from that withered Trunk and perswade the world that it is still as lovely and as charming as in all the vivacity and sweetness of its Life But it is high time to leave them when they grow so Extravagant Thus Sir have I given you a Prospect of the Poetick Image which you will find very unlike to that which has the ascendant of Marriage The busie world has all along lain below this Romantick Passion and would have nothing to do with its Chimera's Sometimes it received a wound from those Fantasms But it endeavoured to cure it as fast as it could They have often made it propositions for a Commerce but they were always strange and extravagant Sometimes they were too rude and simple and of a Melancholly below its active Affairs Otherwhile they were too Heroick and flew above their humility It s reality was too sordid and its imbelishments altogether useless and Romantick It therefore with great justice excluded them all from its conversation and took those Idea's that were the product of Actions and not of the Brain It entertained nothing above its Affairs and preserved those benefits in vigorous Actions whilst it refused to refine them by idle Harangues It saw too plainly in other concernments that their imbelished Theories had ruined their plactice and therefore would not admit of the leisure to be flourisht and extolled It despised Artful and fine Records whilst it only valued an active and vigorous tradition which it has conveyed to this Age in spight of all the attempts have been made upon it and if it must be its Doom to suffer now it will not only fall a Victime to the injustice and sottishness of barbarous men but stand a mighty instance of the approaching Catastrophe of the world which will even before its dissolution grow too like that Chaos it must be at last whilst all its virtue and glory will be darkened and grow a place frequented only by a savage appetite in all its horrid shapes a youthful Virtue must Traverse it with abhorrency whilst it incounters so many frightful representations of vice and the Ghosts of murdered Honours and it must at the same time preserve it self from the Cyrcean Poetick Note whose harmonious blandishments will lead it upon the Precipices of ruine and dishonour and are the great procures of the Prey for monstrous vices And thus that frame which began with innocence and Marriage will end with Crimes and with the contempt of it it rose with peaceful and amicable virtue but must fall with cruel and warring vices and those Flames in which it shall suffer will like burning Glasses be a mirrour to shew the monstrous attempts of this Age The Atheist must behold with horrour a confutation of his bold Philosophy in the Period of that world to which he had given so fantastick a beginning and the Poet will with the same surprize see it the Stage of that Tragedy that will out-do all the dolours of his Dramatick fancy FINIS ERRATA PAge 49. l. 1. for errous r. errours p 51. l. 6. for our to r. to our p. 52. l. 10. for oppeared r. appeared p. 58. l. 16. or presidid r. presided p. 65. l. 4. for feeting r. fleeting p. 66. l. 1. for insensible r. insensibly p. 98. l. 1. for assented r assaulted p. 124. l. 10. for Rialdty r. Ribaldry p. 131. l. 9. for have the most r. have most