But, as I propose to devote a letter entirely to the
pleasure of retracing to you all the particulars of my ac-
quaintance with this ever, to me, memorable friend, I shall,
in this, transiently touch on no more than may serve, as
mortar to cement, to form the connection of my history, and
to obviate your surprize that one of my high blood and relish
of life should count a gallant of threescore such a catch.
Referring then to a more explicit narrative, to explain
by what progressions our acquaintance, certainly innocent at
first, insensibly changed nature, and ran into unplatonic
lengths, as might well be expected from one of my condition
of life, and above all, from that principle of electricity
that scarce ever fails of producing fire when the sexes meet.
I shall only her acquaint you, that as age had not subdued
his tenderness for our sex, neither had it robbed him of the
power of pleasing, since whatever he wanted in the bewitching
charms of youth, he aton'd for, or supplemented with the ad-
vantages of experience, the sweetness of his manners, and
above all, his flattering address in touching the heart, by
an application to the understanding. From him it was I first
learn'd, to any purpose, and not without infinite pleasure,
that I had such a portion of me worth bestowing some regard
on; from him I received my first essential encouragement, and
instructions how to put it in that train of cultivation, which
I have since pushed to the little degree of improvement you
see it at; he it was, who first taught me to be sensible that
the pleasures of the mind were superior to those of the body;
at the same time, that they were so far from obnoxious to, or
incompatible with each other, that, besides the sweetness in
the variety and transition, the one serv'd to exalt and per-
fect the taste of the other to a degree that the senses alone
can never arrive at.
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