bosom, "written
with great elegance and spirit; and, though the subject may give offence
to some narrow-minded people, the author will always be held in esteem
by every person of wit and learning." So saying, he put into my hand
Petronius Arbiter, and asked my opinion of his wit and manner. I told
him, that, in my opinion, he wrote with great ease and vivacity, but
was withal so lewd and indecent that he ought to find no quarter or
protection among people of morals and taste. "I own," replied the earl,
"that his taste in love is generally decried, and indeed condemned
by our laws; but perhaps that may be more owing to prejudice and
misapprehension than to true reason and deliberation. The best man among
the ancients is said to have entertained that passion; one of the
wisest of their legislators has permitted the indulgence of it in his
commonwealth; the most celebrated poets have not scrupled to avow it.
At this day it prevails not only over all the East, but in most parts
of Europe; in our own country, it gains ground apace, and in all
probability will become in a short time a more, fashionable vice than
simple fornication. Indeed there is something to be said in vindication
of it; for, notwithstanding the severity of the law against offenders
in this way, it must be confessed that the practice of this passion is
unattended with that curse and burthen upon society which proceeds from
a race of miserable and deserted bastards, who are either murdered by
their parents, deserted to the utmost want and wretchedness, or bred up
to prey upon the commonwealth: and it likewise prevents the debauchery
of many a young maiden, and the prostitution of honest men's wives; not
to mention the consideration of health, which is much less liable to be
impaired in the gratification of this appetite, than in the exercise of
common venery, which, by ruining the constitutions of our young men, has
produced a puny progeny that degenerates from generation to generation.
Nay, I have been told, that there is another motive perhaps more
powerful than all these, that induces people to cultivate this
inclination; namely, the exquisite pleasure attending its success."

From this discourse I began to be apprehensive that his lordship,
finding I had travelled, was afraid I might have been infected with this
spurious and sordid desire abroad, and took this method of sounding my
sentiments on the subject. Fired at this supposed suspicion, I argued
ag