it was the Acknowledgment of an Obligation, I have not Merit enough ever to be capable of laying upon any; the Letter is thus, Mr. MYRTLE, March 19, 1714. SINCE you have taken upon yourself the Province of Love, all Transactions relating to that Paffion moft properly belong to your Paper. I beg the Favour of you to infert this my Epiftle in your very next, in order to give the earliest Notice poffible of my having received very great Favour and • Honour done to me, by fome one to whom I am more obliged, than it can ever be in my Power to return. I beg therefore that you will infert the following Advertisement, and you will oblige (tho' unknown,) Your Servant, and great Admirer, A.B. A certain Prefent, with a Letter from an unknown Hand, hath been very fafely delivered to the Party to whom directed. IT is the nicest part of Commerce in the World, that of doing and receiving Benefits. Benefits are ever to be confidered rather by their Quality than Quantity, and there are fo many thousand Circumftances, with respect to Time, Perfon and Place, which heighten and allay the Value, that even in ordinary Life it is almost an Impoffibility to lay down Rules on this Subject; because it alters in every in dividual Cafe that can happen, and there is fomething arifes in it, which is fo inexplicable, that that none but the Perfons concerned can judge of them, and thofe, as well as all other Perfons, are incapable of giving Judgment in their own Cafe. All thefe Circumftances are still more intricate in that part of Life which is naturally above the Rules of any Laws, and muft flow from the very Soul to be of any Regard at all, and are more exquifitely valua ble and confiderable, as they proceed more from Affection, without any manner of Refpect to the intrinfick Worth of what is given, and it is indifferent whether it be a bit of Ribband or a Jewel. The Lover in the Comedy is not methinks abfurd, where he prates of his Rules and Obfervations on this Subject. YOU must entertain Women bigh, and bribe all about them. They talk of Ŏvid and his Art of Loving; be liberal, and you outdo his Precepts The Art of Love, Sir, is the Art of Giving Be free to Women, they'll be free to you. Not every Open-banded Fellow bits it neither. Some give up Lap fulls, and yet ne'er oblige. The Manner, you know, of doing a Thing, is more than the Thing its felf drop a Jewel, which had been refus'd if bluntly offered. Some Some lufe at Play what they defign a Prefent. The Skill is to be generous, and feem not to know it of yourself, 'tis done with fo much Eafe; but a liberal Blockhead prefents a Mistress as he'd give an Alms. I intend all this upon the Paffion of Love within the ftri&teft Rules; but Benefits and Injuries cannot touch to the Quick, till the Paffion is arrived to fuch a Height, as to be mutual. Before that, all Prefents and Servi ces ces are only the Offerings of a Slave to a Tyrant; it is therefore neceffary, to make them worthy to be received, to fhew that they proceed from Affection, and that all your Talents are employed in fubferviency to that Affection. The Skill and Addrefs which is ufed on thefe Occafions in conveying Prefents, or doing any other obliging thing, is for this reafon much more regarded than the Prefents or Actions themfelves. I knew a Gentleman who affected making good Company chearful, and diverting himself with a whimsical way he had of laying particular Obligations upon feveral Ladies by the fame Action, and ma king each believe it was done for her fake. Thus he would make a Ball, and tell one he wifhed the would give him leave to name for whom it was principally intended: Another, that he was overjoyed to fee her there, for that he was fure had the not, no body elfe would have been there that Evening. He would whisper a third, who was brought thi ther by a Relation, and without being named, And did your Coufin believe the introduced you hither; there is a Gentleman yonder said, fhe came with you, and not you with her. By this wily way he was by all efteemed the moft obliging fine Gentleman; that was fo genteely faid, and t'other Thing fo prettily contrived, that who but Charles Myrtle with all the fair and delightful, in his Time. About his flourishing Years the Stage had a particular Livelinefs owing to this Paffion, but too often to this Paffion abufed and mifreprefented. Otway, who writ then, expofed in his Play of Venice preferved, the Bounty of a filly difagreeable old Sinner, who at that time was a great Pretender to Politicks, in which he was the most ungainly Creature, and nothing could be more ridiculous than Antonio (for fo he calls him) a Politician, except Antunio a Lover. This grim puzzled Leacher is thus treated by his Aquilina, whom he keeps and vifits: In one of thofe lovely Moments the fays to him, I hate you, deteft you, loath you, I am weary of you, I am fick of you crazy in your Head, and lazy in your Body; you love to be medling with every thing, and if you had not Money you are good for nothing. This imperious Wench of this fribling Politician, was in the Interefts of those who were then attempting to deftroy his Country; the rates him in Behalf of Pierre, who is her Favourite, and is then plotting the_Defruation of Venice. Where's my Lord, my Happiness, my Love, my God, my Hero. This contemptible Image reprefents in a very lively manner, how offenfive every Endeavour to pleafe is in the Man who is in himself difagreeable; poor Antonio, to fatisfie an amorous Itch, muft not only maintain his Wench, but fupport every Ruffian in her favour that is an Enemy to his Country; which will for ever be the Fate of those who attempt to be what Nature never defigned them, Wits, Politicians and Lovers. BUT I will break off this Difcourfe to oblige a Neighbour, who writes me the fol lowing Letter. Good Good Mr. MYRTLE, AS I am your near Neighbour, within two Doors of the Lover's Lodge, and ⚫ within the Sound of your melodious Bafeviol, I cannot better exprefs my Gratitude for that Favour you do my Ears, than by inviting you to divert your Eyes in my large Gallery, which is now garnifht, from ( top to bottom, with the finest Paintings Italy has ever produced: I dare promife my felf you will find fuch Variety, and fuch beautiful Objects, of both Hiftory and Landfchape, Profane and Sacred, that it will not only be fufficient to please and recreate the Sight, but alfo to yield Satisfaction and Pleafure to your Mind, and instructive enough to inform and improve every Bodies elfe: When you have well viewed and confidered the whole Collection, then I am to leave it to you, whether you will not think it friay be of Ufe to the Readers of your Levet, which I understand is to come out to Morrow, very luckily for me the Day before my Sale begins) to recommend the viewing of my Collection to them, as a 6 very agreeable and inftructive Amufement to all Perfons in Love. But this and eve( ry thing elfe, that may concern me or my "Collection, I leave to Mr. Myrtle's Judg ment, and known Réadinefs to ferve Mankind in their particular Stations of Life. 6 I am, SIR, Tour most Obedient, Thurf |