; which attributing to the same causes, he had the
audaciousness to throw himself at my feet, and talk of the stillness of
the evening; then ran into deifications of my person, pure flames,
constant love, eternal raptures, and a thousand other phrases drawn from
the images we have of heaven, which ill men use for the service of hell,
were run over with uncommon vehemence. After which, he seized me in his
arms: his design was too evident. In my utmost distress, I fell upon my
knees--"My lord, pity me, on my knees--On my knees in the cause of
virtue, as you were lately in that of wickedness. Can you think of
destroying the labour of a whole life, the purpose of a long education,
for the base service of a sudden appetite, to throw one that loves you,
that dotes on you, out of the company and road of all that is virtuous
and praiseworthy? Have I taken in all the instructions of piety,
religion, and reason, for no other end, but to be the sacrifice of lust,
and abandoned to scorn? Assume yourself, my lord, and do not attempt to
vitiate a temple sacred to innocence, honour, and religion. If I have
injured you, stab this bosom, and let me die, but not be ruined by the
hand I love." The ardency of my passion made me incapable of uttering
more; and I saw my lover astonished and reformed by my behaviour: when
rushed in Sempronia. "Ha! Faithless, base man, could you then steal out
of town, and lurk like a robber about my house for such brutish
purposes?" My lord was by this time recovered, and fell into a violent
laughter at the turn which Sempronia designed to give her villany. He
bowed to me with the utmost respect: "Mrs. Distaff," said he, "be
careful hereafter of your company"; and so retired. The fiend Sempronia
congratulated my deliverance with a flood of tears. This nobleman has
since very frequently made his addresses to me with honour, but I have
as often refused them; as well knowing, that familiarity and marriage
will make him, on some ill-natured occasion, call all I said in the
arbour a theatrical action. Besides that, I glory in contemning a man
who had thoughts to my dishonour. And if this method were the imitation
of the whole sex, innocence would be the only dress of beauty; and all
affectation by any other arts to please the eyes of men, would be
banished to the stews for ever. The conquest of passion gives ten times
more happiness than we can reap from the gratification of it; and she
that has got over such a one