C the Kind, but by thofove written in Praffe of you: I will not pletend to be your val even, with fuch an Adyantegoy you but, alluring. ou, in M. Codrington's * Words that I do not know whethermove or Admiration ieaer, I remin Your mon Faithful Friend, Humble Servant, RICHARD STEELE. Thou haft no Faults, or I no Faults can spy: Thou art all Beauty, or all Blindness I. Codrington to Dr, Garth before the Difpenfary & THE LOVE R. Written in Imitation of the TATLER. By MARMADUKE MYRTLE, Gent. N° 1. Thursday, February 25. 1714. فا Virginibus Puerifque Canto. Hor. T HERE have been many and laudable Endeavours of late Years, by fundry Authors, under different Characters, d of different Inclinations and Capacities, to improve the World, by Half-fheet Advertisements, in Learning, Wit, and Politicks; but thefe Works have not attentively enough regarded the fofter Affections of the Mind, which being properly raised and awakened, make way for the Operation of all good Arts. AFTER mature Deliberation with my felf upon this Subjea, I have thought, that if B I I could trace the Paffion or Affection of Love, through all its Joys and Inquietudes, through all the Stages and Circumstances of Life, in both Sexes, with ftrict refpect to Virtue and Innocence, I fhould, by a juft Representati on and History of that one Paffion, fteal into the Bofom of my Reader, and build upon t all the Sentiments and Refolutions which in cline and qualify us for every thing that is truly Excellent, Great, and Noble. ALL You, therefore, who are in the dawn of Life, as to Converfation with a faithless and artful World, attend to one who has paffed through almost all the Mazes of it, and is familiarly acquainted with whatever can befal you in the pursuit of Love: If you diligently obferve me, I will teach you to avoid the Temptations of lawless Defire, which leads to Shame and Sorrow, and carry you into the Paths of Love, which will conduc you to Honour and Happiness. This Paffion is the Source of our Being, and as it is fo, it is also the Support of it; for all the Adventures which they meet with who fwerve from Love, carry them fo far out of the Way of their true Being, which cannot pleasingly pafs on when it has deviated from the Rules of honourable Paffion. MY Purpose therefore, under this Title, is to Write of fuch things only which ought to please all Men, even as Men; and I fhall never hope for prevailing under this Chara&ter of Lover from my Force in the Reason offer'd, but as that Reafon makes for the Happiness and Satisfaction of the Perfon to whom I addrefs. My Reader is to be my Mistress, Miftrefs, and I fhall always endeavour to turn my Thoughts fo as that there fhall be nothing in my Writings too fevere to be spoken before one unacquainted with Learning, or too light to be dwelt upon before one who is either fixed already in the Paths of Virtue, or defirous to walk in them for the future. MY Affiftants, in this Work, are Perfons whofe Conduct of Life has turned upon the Incidents which have occurred to them from this agreeable or lamentable Paffion, as they refpectively are apt to call it, from the Impreffion it has left upon their Imaginations, and which mingles in all their Words and Actions. IT cannot be supposed the Gentlemen can be called by their real Names, in fo publick a manner as this is. But the Heroe of my Story, now in the full Bloom of Life, and feen every Day in all the Places of Refort, fhall bear the Name of one of our British Rivers, which washes his Eftate. As I defign this Paper fhall be a Picture of familiar Life, I fhall avoid Words derived from learned Languages, or ending in Foreign Terminations: I fhall fhun alfo Names fignificant of the Perfon's Character of whom I talk; a Trick used by Play-wrights, which I have long thought no better a Device than that of under-writing the Name of an Animal on a Poft, which the Painter conceived too delicately drawn to be known by common Eyes, or by his Delineation of its Limbs. Mr. Severn is now in the twenty fifth Year of his Age, a Gentleman of great Modefty B 2 and |