Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	love_n	young_a	youth_n	62	3	7.6992	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59539	Discourses useful for the vain modish ladies and their gallants under these following heads, viz. I. Of some of the common ways many vertuous women take to lose their reputation, &c. II. Of meer beauty-love, &c. III. Of young mens folly in adoring young handsom ladies, &c. IV. Of the power womens beauty exercises over most young men. V. Of the inconstancy of most ladies, especially such as are cry'd-up beauties, &c. VI. Of marriage, and of wives who usurp a governing power over their husbands. VII. Of the inequality of many marriages, with the sad end that usually attend such matches. VIII. Against maids marrying for meer love, &c. IX. Against widows marrying. X. Against keeping of misses. XI. Of the folly of such women as think to shew their wit by censuring of their neighbours. XII. Of the French fashions and dresses, &c. XIII. Of worldly praises which all ladies love to receive, but few strive to deserve. XIV. Useful advices to the vain and modish ladies, for the well regulating their beauty and lives. By the right honourable Francis Lord Viscou	Shannon, Francis Boyle, Viscount, 1623-1699.	1696 (1696)	Wing S2963A; ESTC R222490	137,565	280

possible a Widow may Marry an ill Man and not be miserable but 't is impossible a Man can keep a Miss and not be wicked 'T is a common Proverbial saying That a Wife is a necessary Evil which I fancy is not to be taken in the sense most do that Men cannot not live without them but because Men are still bound to live with them for whilst they are Wives tho far from being good ones yet poor Husbands are oblig'd to serve out their time of bondage according to agreement for better for worse till death them do part But now for the new Mode of protempore Wives called Misses they are generally look'd upon by our Gallants and keepers of them as only Tenants at will to Mens Persons and Purses being tied to them in no other manner than we are to reading Romances on which we may begin when we will and leave off when we please for we are not oblig'd to read longer in them than they suit our humor and please our fancy Indeed Misses are now become in most great Towns especially London to Gentlemen as Books are in Stationers Shops to Scholars where they may pick and chuse Read sometimes this kind of Books another that sort all or any and hire them by the Day Month or Year and when they have read them over as oft as they please and have no longer delight in them or farther use of them they may return them and leave them where they found them and there 's no harm done they lying ready expos'd for the next Courteous comer Misses in Towns are like Free-booters at Sea no Purchase no Pay they are never out of their way except to Heaven so they can but meet a prize in it indeed our fine young Gallants are wise in this particular but pray do not ask me in what other lest you puzle me and this their wisdom consists only in chusing of two evils the least for they will keep Misses which is ill but they will not be bound to keep them longer than during pleasure which is less ill than a longer time that is they will be tied to Misses by no other Law than that dearly beloved one of sweet variety Misses being to be us'd but like slight summer Garments which are only useful in the youthful Spring or hot Summer Season of Mens Lives and may without much Ceremony or great difficulty be put on or cast off 'twere well if the sin of using them could be so too lightly worn and cheaply bought Misses being but a kind of Summer-Fruit for present eating not long keeping for their beauty will never hold out long after a hot Venus blast or burning clap of thunder and their Bodies are often withered and rotten before they are near ripe in substance and perfection as many of the Merchant Adventurers in that Trade can tell you by woful experience And therefore young Men do wisely in not binding themselves to them in Health and Sickness for then they are not only useless but chargeable not till death them do part but till their Misses beauties does decay or their Passion change for Miss-Love must still be Passionate because it ceaseth to be Love when it ceaseth to be Passionate having no other motive to cherish and maintain it and therefore usually such Mens Love expires assoon as their Misses beauty breaks or may be sooner if he be taken with a more agreeable object for his present fancy and conveniency for though most of our young Gallants Love constantly yet few are constant in their Amours for tho they are still Loving 't is Women more than a Woman for considering they are only Constant to Inconstancy they can only keep the name of Constant Lovers as Rivers still keep the same Name tho they are never two Minutes the same Water they still running into the Sea as Springs are still running into them Indeed if young Gallants were bound to keep their Misses during life such an obligation would come so near to matrimonial bondage as our young Gallant on those terms would as little love and like a handsom young Miss as an ugly old Wife all confinements to our Sparks of the times being odious O what a brave World and pleasant Age do we live in when new setts of Misses are now grown modish marks of Greatness as numbers of Wives and Concubines were signs of Magnificence in Solomon's days which is the only thing I know our young Gallants imitate him in and their only grand reason for doing it is meerly because Christs holy Gospel forbids them doing it Really the Drunkards in S. Paul's days were a kind of sober Men to the Libertins of our Age for they knowing their deeds were evil and scandalous had so great a sense of modesty and shame tho not of sin as to cast a vail of darkness over them to hide themselves and their Debauchery from the sight of others which is implied by S. Paul's saying Those that are Drunken are Drunken in the Night but the Debauchees of our times so glory in their own unshamefulness as they expose their Persons and Vices I might have said Sins to the open Sun-shine and publick Assemblies and are so far from casting a vail either to cover their own shame or their Misses painted faces as many of our young Sparks nay others that are more than middle aged Sinners allow their Misses Coaches to themselves but with Coachmen in their own Livery for fear all might not know whose Misses they are and who keeps them to shew to the World that their vile impudence scorns all sober Mens censure as well as it defies the great Gods punishment This base species of mercenary Miss Love being grown as very common as themselves are who are as impudent in their Carriage as lewd in their Actions and really 't is now grown a disputable question which now abounds most in London Hackny Coaches or Hackny-Women Tradesmen or Trading-women Thus impudence is now become a kind of Staple Commodity in our Kingdom of Love it being now adays esteem'd a shameful meanness of Spirit in a young Gentleman to be out of countenance for keeping a Miss but grown no shame at all to keep one they being now looked upon but as marks of greatness and riches and signs of Youth health fashion and gaity but never in the least thought on to be the sad effects of sin shame folly and wickedness O strange change That sin should be thus supported by a customary impudence and vertue suppressed by a general Custom Thus the tolerated nay I might have said incouraging mode of acting this sin has taken away both the shame and conscience of committing it yet as very debauch'd as our Age is we ought not to cast our faults on it for there can be no time so bad as to render sins necessary for general Custom can never justifie particular faults since we might all live well if we did not spend our time ill for the will in