Hunc tegit omnis

Lucus, et obfcuris claudunt convallibus umbræ.

The Propriety of its being facred to the Female Character !

Junoni Inferna dictus facer

But the Beauty and Confiftency of the Allegory are peculiarly striking, when the Hero is directed in his Search by the Doves of Venus. Who does not fee that Softness and Complaifancy of Manners, the Ground of pleasing Address, and agreeable Flattery, depictured in thofe Doves?

Maternas agnofcit aves, lætufque precatur,
Efte duces

But Venus herself is to affift on this great Occafion. Softnefs and Complaifance, without Elegance and Beauty, will not rightly attain to this perfuafive Compliment. It must be

ritè repertum,

and therefore the Goddess of Elegance and Beauty is invoked.;

Tuque, O, dubiis, ne defice, rebus,

Diva Parens

There

'There is not in any Part of Virgil's Works, perhaps not in all Antiquity, a more beautiful or better-wrought Allegory than this.

But has it not its Use too, as well as its Beauty? Has not the Poet left us an instructive Lesfon in what Manner we are to deal with difficult Men in difficult Times? If Pluto, or the Wife of Pluto, is to be appeased, and rendered acceffible by this Golden Branch, I should have but an indifferent Opinion of that Man's Difcretion who would not go in Quest of it. For my own Part, whenever I am called upon to attend her Elyfian Majefty, I will not fail to carry, this along with me, and then, though I may have written forty Panegyrics on Cromwell, I fhall have no Occafion to be afraid of Minos.

LETTER

[16]

WE

LETTER IV.

ST. EVREMOND to WALLER,

*

ERE it poffible to prevent Gallantry from running into the Spirit of Intrigue, nothing certainly could be more agreeable; but, the two Ideas are hardly to be feparated before that Period of Life which you and I have attained. Nothing, indeed, can be more inoffenfive than the Gallantry of our Years. It is the harmlefs Offspring of Memory and Fancy, amusing itfelf with the Shadows of Pleasures that are past. Let gay Youth, and graver Age count this ridi culous; if we find the Tadium Vite in any Degree diverted by it, we have a Right to indulge it. The Recollection of former Enjoyments is all that Age has to fubfift upon. To treat with. Courtliness, and contemplate with Pleasure, fuch Objects as once afforded us Delight, is the Reli gion of Nature

'Tis a Sacrifice of Grati

tude 'Tis a Teftimony of Content.

Befides, I know not whether by these Attachments we may not lengthen as well as lighten.

Life.

Waller,

Waller, qui ne fent rien des maux de la vieilleffe,
Dont la vivacité fait bonte a jeunes gens,
S'attache à la Beauté pour vivre plus long temps,
Et ce qu'on nommeroit dans un autre foibleffe
Eft en ce rare Efprit une fage tendreffe,
Qui le fait refifter a l'injure des ans,

Your Friend Rymer has given a better Turn to thefe Lines:

Vain Gallants, look on Waller and defpair,
Fle, only be, may boaft the grand Receipt;
Of Fourfcore Tears he never feels the Weight;
Still in bis Element when with the Fair;
There gay and fresh, drinks in the rofie Air:
There happy, be enjoys bis leifure Hours,
Nor thinks of Winter whilst amidst the Flowers

The Gallantry of the prefent Times feems to be of a Genius very different from that which prevailed in our better Days. It is fallen back into the Original Barbarism of Nature. The Affair of poor Shrewsbury is a fhocking Inftance of this. There is nothing extraordinary in the Duel between him and the Duke of Buckingham; though it was expected that his well known Indifference about Lady Shrewsbury's Commerce with his Grace, would have faved him from the Folly of thinking his Honour concerned in the Affair:

Affair: But in the Conduct of that bold and abandoned Woman, there was something that forbids one to think of her without Detestation You have been informed, that, during the Engagment, the held the Duke's Horfes, in the Habit of a Page. I have lately been told that fhe had Pistols concealed, and that he had pledged her Honour to fhoot both Shrewsbury and herfelf, if the Hufband fhould prove victorious. It was a Weakness and Want of Honour in the Duke to expofe his Antagonist to fo unfair, and fo contemptible a Death; but it was a ftill greater Weakness to be capable of loving a Woman, who wanted the Characteristics of her Sex, Tenderness and Delicacy. The Genius of bold and vulgar Proftitution! What a depraved Spirit! what a groveling Soul must he have, who can mix his Paffions with any thing fo odious! A masculine Woman is my immortal Aversion! Masculine in Perfon, or in Spirit, fhe is equally dreadful! Courage in that Sex is to me as difgustful as Effeminacy in ours. I cannot bear to find even their Sentiments of the Male-Kind A Female Divine, a Female Lawyer, a Female Hiftorian, a Female Politician, are all infupportable Monsters! Out of Sex! Out of Character! Out of Nature! Loft to the very Idea of Propriety and always affected to the laft Excefs of Abfurdity!

How