equivocal bits
of secret history and scandal-mongering may probably be attributed to
her at the very time when in "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749-50) she was
advocating sobriety, religion, and morality. These suspected lapses into
her old habits should serve as seasoning to the statement of the
"Biographia Dramatica" that Eliza Haywood was "in mature age, remarkable
for the most rigid and scrupulous decorum, delicacy, and prudence, both
with respect to her conduct and conversation." If she was not too old a
dog to learn new tricks, she at least did not forget her old ones. Of
her circumstances during her last years little can be discovered. "The
Female Spectator," in emulation of its famous model, commences with a
pen-portrait of the writer, which though not intended as an accurate
picture, certainly contains no flattering lines. It shows the essayist
both conscious of the faults of her youth and willing to make capital
out of them.

"As a Proof of my Sincerity, I shall, in the first place, assure him
[the reader], that for my own Part I never was a Beauty, and am now
very far from being young; (a Confession he will find few of my Sex
ready to make): I shall also acknowledge that I have run through as
many Scenes of Vanity and Folly as the greatest Coquet of them all.--
Dress, Equipage, and Flattery were the Idols of my Heart.--I should
have thought that Day lost, which did not present me with some new
Opportunity of shewing myself.--My Life, for some Years, was a
continued Round of what I then called Pleasure, and my whole Time
engross'd by a Hurry of promiscuous Diversions.--But whatever
Inconveniences such a manner of Conduct has brought upon myself, I
have this Consolation, to think that the Publick may reap some Benefit
from it:--The Company I kept was not, indeed, always so well chosen as
it ought to have been, for the sake of my own Interest or Reputation;
but then it was general, and by Consequence furnished me, not only
with the Knowledge of many Occurrences, which otherwise I had been
ignorant of, but also enabled me ...to see into the most secret
Springs which gave rise to the Actions I had either heard, or been
Witness of--to judge of the various Passions of the Human Mind, and
distinguish those imperceptible Degrees by which they become Masters
of the Heart, and attain the Dominion over Reason....

"With this Experience, added to a Genius tolerably extensive, and