" more kind reception, and that every thing would • now be according to my wishes: but all they " faid was ineffectual to remove intirely that grief, " which her behaviour had fettled on my heart; " and I remained fluctuating between hopeand de" spair, till the day appointed by her father for " giving a decisive answer being arrived, my kinf" man brought me a heavy confirmation of what " I most feared would be the result;---"That he had " founded his daughter's inclinations, and found " they were not in my favour; so defired I would " not give myself any farther trouble.' This mef"sage, though dressed up in many compliments, " threw me into a fever;---my life was despaired " of;---fresh applications were made both to fa"ther and daughter ;---all were unsuccessful; yet " I recovered, if a man may be faid to do so who " is continually wasted with inward pinings:--" I summoned all my courage, imagined I could " content myself with feeing her, thor at a distance, " and quitted my bed, in order to pursue her with ८८ my eyes wherever she went: --- I had the cruel " bleffing of beholding her at church one Sunday " morning, and flattering myself with doing so in "the afternoon, went again; but the inexorable " creature was not there, though the had never " been known to miss before :---I fought her in "the park,-at the opera, --- the play ;---at each " of these places, found her once, but no more. "In a word, she chose to deprive herself of every "thing that gave her pleasure, rather than allow " me that poor one of seeing the face that had "deprived me of all other comforts.---Was ever " ingratitude like this!---Was ever fate so hard as "mine!--- Yet all the does cannot abate my paf"sion; nor is it in her power to hide herself fo "intirely, but that I sometimes get a glance..... "In a disguise I watch about the house; see her get into her coach; see her, with all that deluding foftness in her eyes, which almost tempts me to give the lie to my own reason and expe"rience, and pronounce her as good-natured as "she is fair. "My whole time is taken up with haunting " her in this manner: --- all day I skulk in corners "like a thief, and thun the light, and at night "stand centinel opposite her chamber-window, " blest to see her thadow through the curtains, " while undressing for bed. "THIS, worthy SPECTATOR, is the folebusiness " I am capable of pursuing; this, the sole plea.. " sure I can tafte; and in this I am wholly loft to “ all my kindred, friends, acquaintance, and al" most to myself.---Never was there a cause in " which your pen could be more worthily em"ployed, than in an endeavour to preserve the " fentes, the life, nay the very foul from death of " an unfortunate miferable man, who is so only by "his having too great a share of love and conftancy " for the most amiable woman in the world. "EXERT, then, all your eloquence to move the "heart of my obdurate fair, to give her a lively " fenfe of her ingratitude, and convince her how " ill fo foul a vice becomes so beauteous a form: -- she is a constant reader of your essays, a great "admirer of them, has often said the world would " be happy could it once be brought to follow the " maxims you lay down; --- who knows, there"fore, but she may be wrought upon herself, when " so favourite an advocate vouchsafes to plead ?--" Ingratitude is a copious subject, or were it less "fo, my unhappy story might give you a sufficient " hint.---It is a theme, I think, you have never "touched " touched upon, and perhaps will be no less agree_ " able to a great many of your readers, than to the Sorrowful AMINTOR." POOR Amintor! He is in a desperate situation Indeed, and if the FEMALE SPECTATOR'spity will do him any good, I am commissioned by our little club to tell him he is heartily welcome to it; but am forry to acquaint him withal, that we are afraid by the history he gives us of the progress of his paffion, pity will be all the consolation he will ever be able to procure. Nothing can be more plain, than that the lady finds no dispositions in her heart of that kind, which he places his whole happiness in inspiring: there is no accounting for antipathies in nature, nor is the strongest reason sufficient to furmount them :---in vain his love and conftancy have a claim to her regard :---in vain her father's affent would authorize that regard :----in vain a parity of age, of circumstances, of birth, concur to render a marriage between them suitable :--- if that secret impulse which rules the heart be wanting, all other confiderations are of no force to attach. -- THIS therefore being evidently the cause that Amintor is rejected, he ought not to accufe Arpafia for what is not in her power to remedy:-- fre can no more love him, than he can forbear loving her: the sentiments on each fide are involuntary; and where the obligation is not of the will, there can be no ingratitude in refusing the recompence : --- not, but it were to be wished, for the happiness of both, that Arpafia could meet so ardent and so sincere an affection as that of Amintor, with an equal warmth ; but fince it cannot be, and nature is refractory, he should endeavour rather to forget, and enable himself to live without her, BS her, than perpetuate his paffion and anxieties by any idle hopes of living with her. THERE are many methods to be taken which may heighten and invigorate a paffion that has once gained entrance; but no human power can inspire it in contradic ion to the heart: --- All at tempts, therefore, that the FEMALE SPECTATOR could make for that purpose would be labour loft; and Amintor ought to think it more kind in us to advise him to quit the vain pursuit, than by pretending to plead in his favour, flatter him with deceit ful expectations, which would only serve to add to his disquiet in the end.---Time, abfence, and a constant exertion of his reason, may one day restore his liberty, but nothing can be done for him to make hint easy in his chains. I WOULD have him confider, in the first place, the invincible obstacle between him and the accomplishment of his wishes; and in the next, that were there a possibility of her ever being prevailed upon, by a romantic generofity, to give herself to him, and do a violence to her own inclinations for the gratification of his, the happiness of such an union would be far from perfect: --- a passion fo fervent, as he pretends to be inspired with, could never be fordidly contented with being blessed alone: --- the chief felicity of true affection con fifts in the power of bestowing it; and though in full poffeffion of the body, he would still languish in a conscious inability of having influenced the mind. I WONDER that his own good sense did not Jong ago remind him of this truth, as it seems not to have done by his never making any efforts for fubduing a paffion, which, from the very beginning, ning, threatened him with despair :-he confefses the received the first overtures of it with a coldness which had nothing of affection in it, and no fooner knew the motive of his visits than she refused to fee him any more :---it was not possible for her to testify a more fincere difslike of his addresses, nor a greater inclination to check in their infancy defires, which by their growth would be fatal to his peace :---he might have loved a woman (as too many such there are) who, fond of admiration even from the man she hated, would have encouraged his pretenfions; fed his flame with the fuel of vain hopes, only to make the damp of her disdain more shocking; and then triumphed in the ruin she occafioned: but Arpafia, I find by his own confession, is not one of these she has acted toward him with honour and difcretion; and I not only acquit her of ingratitude, but pronounce Amintor the perfon obliged; and he ought to take care that in not acknowledging he is so, he does not draw upon himself that imputation he unjustly offers to fix on her.. INGRATITUDE implies a want of will, when one has the power, of returning a real benefit: now this is so far from being the cafe bcfore us, that, as I think has been already proved, Arpafia in the first place is wholly destitute of power to return the benefit, if it were a benefit, of Amintor's paffion; and in the next, to be loved by person one cannot love, is not a benefit, but a perfecution; at least it is certainly so to this lady, fince it obliges her to impose a banishment: on herself from all the places the has been accuf tomed to frequent. BESIDES, there is methinks a strange tenaciouf ness in Amintor on the score of his paffion :---he feems B 6. |