on of some wonderful event. From amid the throng the God of
Love selects certain persons as examples of perverted love. The stories
he relates about them range from mere anecdotes to elaborate histories
containing several love-letters. In substance these tales consist of the
grossest scandal that could be collected from the gossip of profligate
society. After hearing more than a satiety of these illustrations, the
youth beholds the Genius of the Isle, supported by Astrea and Reason,
exposing the fraud of the Enchanted Well to the dismay of the greedy
rabble. The young stranger then sinks to rest in a perfumed bower, while
the God of Love and the Genius of the Isle set about a much needed
reformation of manners.

None of the skimmings of contemporary gossip poured out in the two
volumes deserves the least consideration, save such as reveal the fair
writer's relations with other authors. In return for Savage's eulogy of
her "Love in Excess" and "Rash Resolve" the scribbling dame included in
her scandal novel the story of his noble parentage substantially as it
had already been told by Aaron Hill in the "Plain Dealer" for 24 June,
1724. But in addition she prefaced the account with a highly colored
narrative of the amours of Masonia and Riverius.[13] However much the
author of "The Bastard" may have desired to prove his noble origin, he
might easily have resented a too open flaunting of his mother's
disgrace. Moreover, Mrs. Haywood hinted that his unfeeling mother was
not the only woman whom the poet had to fear. By the insinuations of a
female fury, a pretender to the art of poetry, for whom Eliza has no
words too black--in fact some of her epithets are too shady to be
quoted--he has been led into actions, mean, unjust, and wicked. The vile
woman, it seems, has been guilty of defaming the reputations of others.

"The Monster whose Soul is wholly compos'd of Hipocrisy, Envy, and Lust,
can ill endure another Woman should be esteem'd Mistress of those
Virtues she has acted with too barefaced an Impudence to pretend to, and
is never so happy as when by some horrid Stratagem she finds the means
to traduce and blast the Character of the Worthy.... With how much
readiness the easily deceiv'd Riverius [Savage] has obliged her in
spreading those Reports, coin'd in the hellish Mint of her own Brain, I
am sorry to say.... It cannot be doubted but that he has lost many
Friends on her account, in particular one there was who bore him