rtue? Cannot you hazard the loss of
Fortune to possess _Isabella_, who loses all for you!' Then bursting
into Tears, at her misfortune of Loving, she suffer'd him to say, 'Oh,
Charming fair one! how industrious is your Cruelty, to find out new
Torments for an Heart, already press'd down with the Severities of Love?
Is it possible, you can make so unhappy a Construction of the tenderest
part of my Passion? And can you imagin it want of Love in me, to
consider, how I shall preserve and merit the vast Blessing Heaven has
given me? Is my Care a Crime? And would not the most deserving Beauty of
the World hate me, if I should, to preserve my Life, and satisfy the
Passion of my fond Heart, reduce her to the Extremities of Want and
Misery? And is there any thing, in what I have said, but what you ought
to take for the greatest Respect and tenderness!' 'Alas! (reply'd
_Isabella_ sighing) young as I am, all unskilful in Love I find, but
what I feel, that Discretion is no part of it; and Consideration,
inconsistent with the Nobler Passion, who will subsist of its own
Nature, and Love unmixed with any other Sentiment? And 'tis not pure, if
it be otherwise: I know, had I mix'd Discretion with mine, my Love must
have been less, I never thought of living, but my Love; and, if I
consider'd at all, it was, that Grandure and Magnificence were useless
Trifles to Lovers, wholly needless and troublesom. I thought of living
in some loanly Cottage, far from the noise of crowded busie Cities, to
walk with thee in Groves, and silent Shades, where I might hear no Voice
but thine; and when we had been tir'd, to sit us done by some cool
murmuring Rivulet, and be to each a World, my Monarch thou, and I thy
Sovereign Queen, while Wreaths of Flowers shall crown our happy Heads,
some fragrant Bank our Throne, and Heaven our Canopy: Thus we might
laugh at Fortune, and the Proud, despise the duller World, who place
their Joys in mighty Shew and Equipage. Alas! my Nature could not bear
it, I am unus'd to Wordly Vanities, and would boast of nothing but my
_Henault_; no Riches, but his Love; no Grandure, but his Presence.' She
ended speaking, with Tears, and he reply'd, 'Now, now, I find, my
_Isabella_ loves indeed, when she's content to abandon the World for my
sake; Oh! thou hast named the only happy Life that suits my quiet
Nature, to be retir'd, has always been my Joy! But to be so with thee!
Oh! thou hast charm'd me with a Thought so dear, as has for ev