apparently remains constant to the end. The
reader is even left in some doubt as to the exact nature of their
relationship. The lady at one time calls it a "criminal Conversation,"
but later resents an attempt upon her honor, and seems generally to
believe that "a distant Conversation, if it is less sweet, will be, not
only more pure, but also more durable."

But perhaps it is only fair to let the author speak for herself.

"The Lady, whose Letters I have taken the liberty to translate, tho
she has been cautious enough in expressing any thing (even in those
the most tender among them) which can give the Reader an Assurance she
had forfeited her Virtue; yet there is not one, but what sufficiently
proves how impossible it is to maintain such a Correspondence, without
an Anxiety and continual Perturbation of Mind, which I think a Woman
must have bid farewell to her Understanding, before she could resolve
to endure.

"In the very first she plainly discovers the Agitation of her Spirits,
confesses she knows herself in the wrong, and that every Expression
her Tenderness forces from her, is a Stab to her Peace; she dreads the
Effects of her Lover's too powerful Attractions, doubts her own
Strength of resisting such united Charms as she finds in him, and
trembles at the Apprehensions, that by some unlucky Accident the
Secret should be known. Every thing alarms her ... 'Tis impossible to
be conscious of any thing we wish to conceal, without suspecting the
most undesigning Words and Actions as Snares laid to entrap us ... So
this unfortunate Lady, divided between Excess of Love, and Nicety of
Honour, could neither resolve to give a loose to the one, nor entirely
obey the Precepts of the other, but suffered herself to be tossed
alternately by both. And tho the Person she loved was most certainly
(if such a thing can be) deserving all the Condescensions a Woman
could make, by his Assiduity, Constancy, and Gratitude, yet it must be
a good while before she could receive those Proofs; and the Disquiets
she suffered in that time of Probation, were, I think, if no worse
ensued, too dear a Price for the Pleasure of being beloved by the most
engaging and most charming of his Sex."

The "Discourse concerning Writings of this Nature," from which the above
quotation is taken, makes no attempt to consider other series of amorous
letters, but proceeds to enforce by platitudes and scraps