But as I snatched a look, the first gleam that
struck me was in general the dewy lustre of the whitest skin
imaginable, which the sun playing upon made the reflection
of it perfectly beamy. His face, in the confusion I was in,
I could not well distinguish the lineaments of, any farther
than that there was a great deal of youth and freshness in
it. The frolic and various play of all his polish'd limbs,
as they appeared above the surface, in the course of his
swimming or wantoning with the water, amus'd and insensibly
delighted me: sometimes he lay motionless, on his back,
waterborne, and dragging after him a fine head of hair,
that, floating, swept the stream in a bush of black curls.
Then the over-flowing water would make a separation between
his breast and glossy white belly; at the bottom of which I
could not escape observing so remarkable a distinction as a
black mossy tuft, out of which appeared to emerge a round,
softish, limber, white something, that played every way,
with ever the least motion or whirling eddy. I cannot say
but that part chiefly, by a kind of natural instinct,
attracted, detain'd, captivated my attention: it was out of
the power of all my modesty to command my eye away from it;
and seeing nothing so very dreadful in its appearance, I
insensibly lock'd away all my fears: but as fast as they
gave way, new desires and strange wishes took place, and I
melted as I gazed.
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