of several of her letters; and when I called for your assistance, was there no way of persuading you that I needed it, but by telling you with a tragical exclamation, that my heart was bursting asunder!-Indeed, madam, I will frankly confess, that such a declaration had been too dear a price for the very best counsel that you yourself could have proposed. But do you therefore conclude that my love is inconstant? And is there no way in the world to save one's reputation without breaking one's heart? It is a most unhappy case! When I lost my mistress, I bore it the more decently, in the hope that in some future amour, I might meet with more equitable and generous usage. But alas, with what confidence can I pretend to offer my heart to another charmer when she may so readily and unanswerably conclude that it is inconsistent, because it is alive! If this be a new way of deciding the question, which is universally received, I am afraid I have lost the whole sex ;-and if such be the case, it would be more likely to break my heart, than to loose any one, of its agreeable members. If such a catastrophe should really happen, I shall at least have this consolation in my dying agonies, that even upon your own severe principles I have proved myself constant to woman— whatever I may have been to my late tyrant of awful memory. I am sure I am with great sincerity, and I believe shall continue with great constancy,

Dear Madam,

Your most obedient and most humble Servant,

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.

N. B. If what I have said be not sufficient for my vindication, I hope I may be able to produce a certificate from Mrs. Jennings and Mrs. Wingate, that I have as great a measure of constancy as the celebrated Don Quixote della Mancha.

TO MISS JENNINGS*.

HONOURED MADAM,

Harborough, June 23, 1726. I AM exceedingly obliged to you for your grave epistle, which I have perused with great admiration! As the advice is certainly of the highest importance, so I can never sufficiently express how much I am charmed with the delicacy and complaisance you have used in imparting it. How happy is it, that you are so well acquainted with yourself, and know those airs which in a lady of your age will be most taking and significant! I have known women who have had something so agreeable both in their person and their behaviour, when in an easy and obliging humour, as to be very much esteemed and beloved by those about them; yet, by presuming a little too far upon their authority, and assuming airs of greater importance than they could support, have undesignedly fallen upon the readiest way in the world to make themselves ridiculous. You once knew a tyrant in the neighbourhood who lost herself by such a seve

On what some people would term a very conceited and impertinent letter which she sent me when angry.

rity. It is indeed a surprising thing to me that you should be able so entirely to guard against a weakness to which your shining excellencies lay you under a very powerful temptation. Let me entreat you, madam, to pursue your admonition in some of those many instances which are yet behind, to complete that profound respect and admiration, with which I am, madam, your ladyship's

Most obliged, most obedient,

and most humble Servant,

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.

MY DEAR,

TO MISS JENNINGS *.

June 25, 1726.

I AM obliged to you for your letter, and in the main I thank you for it. But I believe you may easily see by my looks that I thought there was a little too much severity in it. For my own part I admire you so much, and love you so dearly, that I cannot bear to hear you find fault with me without some discomposure and uneasiness. However, it is worth our while to bear the trouble of hearing of our faults, as

it

may be the means of engaging us to correct them. As for kissing, I frankly acknowledge there is something very impertinent in it occasionally, that is, when it recurs too frequently, (though, when you

In answer to the same letter when I was in a good humour.

called it a mean thing, there was an air of gravity and superiority, which would have looked much more graceful in mamma! But you abundantly atone for it in blushing while you read this. However, I plainly tell you, that you are so pretty, and I

am so fond, that I must and will have a kiss now and then; nor is there any way of curing me of the inclination, but by putting on a very demure face when you have no provocation, except you complain of being too much beloved, and then indeed it will be a most friendly remedy. Yet, as fond of that genteel amusement as you may imagine me, I never languish for the kiss of a frowning fair! I conclude this important head, with begging that my dear little girl would soon be as indulgent in her grants, as I am moderate in my demands.

By the by, I have a pepper-corn of advice for you; and that is, that you go to bed sooner than you commonly do. This may have a good influence both on your health and your temper; for I have frequently observed, that about forty minutes after eight the dear little infant begins to grow pettish for want of sleep, and can hardly persuade herself to bestow one smile upon her humble servant, who perhaps for the former part of the day has been her happy favourite,

P. DODDRIDGE.

DEAR SIR,

TO MR. HUGHES.

June 28, 1726, Midnight.

I RECEIVED your last of the 23rd instant the morning after it was written, and own I deserve a little of the severity with which you complain of the shortness of the note you refer to. To affect to fill a page with two lines is indeed a very compendious, but not a very equitable commerce, however, you must remember that I told you I quickly intended to favour you again, and moreover, you see that I have begun to do so, but when I shall end I know not. I fear you are in danger of three pages, and then you will be paid at the rate of more than two hundred per cent. for I have not been a quarter of a year in your debt. If you wonder at so accurate a computation, you must recollect that a few months ago had some thoughts of matrimony, which naturally led me into sundry speculations of management and economy, which had not before been very familiar.

I

As for yours of the 20th of April I have run it over so often that I can say a good deal of it by heart. I am essentially obliged to you for your correspondence; you know that I am naturally of a social temper, and you contrive in the abundance of your humanity, not only to give me pleasure in perusing your letters myself, but enable me to entertain my friends by communicating them; for I read the greater part of them to all the persons of taste