which seems to intimate that the principal view in which they considered the women was that of creatures, who were so formed as to be capable of gratifying the amorous appetite of the men.

There seems to be a passage in Virgil which something illustrates the scripture I have mentioned, and the occasion upon which I have introduced it. It is in the speech of Ascanius to Nisus, when proposing an expedition in search of Æneas, who was gone to the court of Evander. The young prince, charmed with his gallantry, tells him, with the sanguine air peculiarly natural to a person of his age, that when Italy was conquered, which he takes it for granted would certainly happen, he would among other valuable presents give him

Ibi sex electissima matrum corpora.

Which, though it would have been a very awkward speech to persuade any other prince of that character in the age when Virgil himself flourished, was admirably well suited to the genius and manner of the times in which young Ascanius is supposed to have lived.

As this was the case in most of the eastern nations, it was peculiarly so in Judea, where the people were discouraged from maintaining that commerce with their neighbours which might have formed them to a polite behaviour, and so have given to the more tender sex that influence which they will always have over educated man.

It is true the New Testament was written in an age of the greatest delicacy, and after many of the

Grecian and Roman writers had said many admirable things upon the subject of love; but one may easily account in some measure, at least, for the silence of the inspired penman upon this head; for, if we consider the genius and education of the greater part of them, the wonder will in great measure cease. An honest fisherman would be the last man in the world whom one would expect to be experienced in the tender languishments of a lover; and though a student who reads plays and romances, and drinks tea in the company of a lady, may naturally enough fall into some amorous contemplations, yet I imagine that Paul, under the eye of Gamaliel, accustomed to all the strictness and mortification of the Pharisaical sect, and engaged in the study of the Mosaic law, was under no very potent temptations of that nature. After these good men were engaged in the apostolic office, they had too much important business on their hands to attend to the encroachments of that ideal dominion, and were engaged in a struggle of mortification and affliction, which would leave them as little inclination, as they had leisure, for its consideration. Now, when we consider these things in conjunction, we shall easily allow it was not very probable that these good men should talk much of the vanity and anxiety of ungoverned love, a subject far more suitable to writers, who, like many of the Heathen poets, had been educated in the delicate luxury of a court, and had been taught by a woeful experience in amore bene insunt omnia, &c.

The sacred spirit, under whose influence the holy

penman wrote, knew all the follies of mankind, and could therefore have directed their thoughts to the most rational, copious, and elegant remarks on those things of which they had no personal experience; but we must recollect that the several discourses of the New Testament were originally intended for the immediate use of the first Christian converts, who were generally gathered from the meanest of the people, whose habits rendered them but little subject to amorous entanglements. Besides, it seems beneath the sublime genius of the gospel to descend to the world of such little vanities. It was the design of that illustrious dispensation to unite the heart to God in the Redeemer, and to fill it with the prospect of an immortal glory; and when Peter and Paul are dilating on such momentous subjects, it is not to be expected they should spare a thought for those little elegant remarks which Lucretius or Horace might think of the greatest importance. It is enough that they charge us in general, not to devote ourselves to the love of the world, but to adore our God with all the strength and might of the soul; and to maintain such an affection towards His creatures, as to be able to resign them to Him, while we fix our hearts on things above, and look not too ardently at those things which are seen and temporal, but to those which are unseen and eternal.

These general precepts, duly attended to, will effectually preserve the soul from all the disquietude, and all the guilt, which inseparably attend the extravagancies of love; and besides, the apostle, with

out descending to the little niceties which were below the notice of an inspired writer, has indeed given us one very express caution against an excessive affection to a fellow-creature, even in an instance where of all others it might seem to be most pardonable, it is, "let those who have wives be as though they had none!"-Now, if we are to take so much care to preserve our hearts from being engrossed by those to whom we are united in the most intimate relation, in one of peculiar tenderness, and from which the principal happiness of life does in a great measure flow, the argument concludes with an undeniable strength against an excessive fondness for those to whom we are not joined in so intimate an affinity, and on whom our happiness does not necessarily depend.

But I am surprised to see how long I have preached upon a subject which I intended to dispatch in half a dozen lines. You will perhaps expect I should remember to proceed methodically, and mention the other advantage which I have received from that lamented love, and which it is peculiarly proper for me now to subjoin. In short it is this, it furnishes me with a stronger excuse for idleness on the one hand, and for impertinence on the other!-I intended it at first as a reason why I could not write you a long letter, but I think it is out of date with regard to that, for you see how I have got over the hurry which I talked of at first; and I hope you will allow it as an instance of peculiar esteem. As to the impertinence, let me entreat you to pardon it. I have

not yet read over what I have written, but I am sure there is a great deal more for you to forgive. However, take it all in good part, as coming from a poor unfortunate lover,

And your most obliged and affectionate Servant,
P. DODDRIDGE.

P. S. I desire you to write quickly, and continue your criticism, which charms me exceedingly. I have noted some such parallelism between some passages in Homer, and the Proverbs of Solomon, as you speak of, which I may perhaps presume to communicate to you. Pray write, and scruple not to send your next letter by the post. Had I paid as many shillings for the last as I shall pay pence for the next, I should think it cheap. Let me know in a few words how two friends who understand the general principles of grammar and the Latin language may best proceed to learn French.

DEAR SIR,

TO MR. GUTTERIDGE.

Dec. 2, 1726.

MRS. WINGATE being now a-bed, and I suppose, according to the usual custom, fallen into a very sound sleep, desires me to write something for her; and having a profound respect for a lady of such uncommon merit, I herein accordingly obey her com