vincible difficulty in cases of this
nature. I had always, indeed, from a passion to please the eyes of the
fair, a great pleasure in dress. Add to this, that I have writ songs
since I was sixty, and have lived with all the circumspection of an old
beau as I am. But my friend Horace has very well said: "Every year takes
something from us;" and instructed me to form my pursuits and desires
according to the stage of my life; therefore, I have no more to value
myself upon, than that, I can converse with young people without
peevishness, or wishing myself a moment younger. For which reason, when
I am amongst them, I rather moderate than interrupt their diversions.
But though I have this complacency, I must not pretend to write to a
lady civil things, as Maria desires. Time was, when I could have told
her, "I had received a letter from her fair hands; and that, if this
paper trembled as she read it, it then best expressed its author," or
some other gay conceit. Though I never saw her, I could have told her,
"that good sense and good-humour smiled in her eyes; that constancy and
good-nature dwelt in her heart; that beauty and good-breeding appeared
in all her actions." When I was five-and-twenty, upon sight of one
syllable, even wrong spelt, by a lady I never saw, I could tell her,
"that her height was that which was fit for inviting our approach, and
commanding our respect; that a smile sat on her lips, which prefaced
her expressions before she uttered them, and her aspect prevented her
speech. All she could say, though she had an infinite deal of wit, was
but a repetition of what was expressed by her form; her form! which
struck her beholders with ideas more moving and forcible than ever were
inspired by music, painting, or eloquence." At this rate I panted in
those days; but ah! sixty-three! I am very sorry I can only return the
agreeable Maria a passion expressed rather from the head than the heart.

"DEAR MADAM,

"You have already seen the best of me, and I so passionately love you
that I desire we may never meet. If you will examine your heart, you
will find that you join the man with the philosopher; and if you have
that kind opinion of my sense as you pretend, I question not but you add
to it complexion, air, and shape; but, dear Molly, a man in his grand
climacteric is of no sex. Be a good girl, and conduct yourself with
honour and virtue, when you love one younger than myself. I am, with the
greatest tenderness,