I imagined, indeed, that you would have been cloy'd and
tired with uniformity of adventures and expressions, insep-
arable from a subject of this sort, whose bottom, or ground-
work being, in the nature of things, eternally one and the
same, whatever variety of forms and modes the situations are
susceptible of, there is no escaping a repetition of near
the same images, the same figures, the same expressions,
with this further inconvenience added to the disgust it cre-
ates, that the words JOYS, ARDOURS, TRANSPORTS, EXTASIES,
and the rest of those pathetic terms so congenial to, so
received in the PRACTICE OF PLEASURE, flatten and lose much
of their due spirit and energy by the frequency they indis-
pensably recur with, in a narrative of which that PRACTICE
professedly composes the whole basis. I must therefore
trust to the candour of your judgement, for your allowing
for the disadvantage I am necessarily under in that respect,
and to your imagination and sensibility, the pleasing task
of repairing it by their supplements, where my descriptions
flag or fail: the one will readily place the pictures I
present before your eyes; the other give life to the colours
where they are dull, or worn with too frequent handling.
What you say besides, by way of encouragement, con-
cerning the extreme difficulty of continuing so long in one
strain, in a mean temper'd with taste, between the revolt-
ingness of gross, rank and vulgar expressions, and the ridi-
cule of mincing metaphors and affected circumlocutions, is
so sensible, as well as good-natur'd, that you greatly
justify me to myself for my compliance with a curiosity that
is to be satisfied so extremely at my expense.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156