ith her,
yet kept at such awful distance, that I dare not break into a
correspondence, that may perhaps be a mean to defeat all my devices.

Would it be very wicked, Jack, to knock her messenger on the head, as
he is carrying my beloved's letters, or returning from Miss Howe's?--To
attempt to bribe him, and not succeed, would utterly ruin me. And the
man seems to be one used to poverty, one who can sit down satisfied with
it, and enjoy it; contented with hand-to-mouth conveniencies, and not
aiming to live better to-morrow, than he does to-day, and than he did
yesterday. Such a one is above temptation, unless it could come clothed
in the guise of truth and trust. What likelihood of corrupting a man who
has no hope, no ambition?

Yet the rascal has but half life, and groans under that. Should I be
answerable in his case for a whole life?--But hang the fellow! Let him
live. Were I king, or a minister of state, an Antonio Perez,* it were
another thing. And yet, on second thoughts, am I not a rake, as it is
called? And who ever knew a rake stick at any thing? But thou knowest,
Jack, that the greatest half of my wickedness is vapour, to shew my
invention; and to prove that I could be mischievous if I would.

* Antonio Perez was first minister of Philip II. king of Spain, by whose
command he caused Don Juan de Escovedo to be assassinated: which brought
on his own ruin, through the perfidy of his viler master.--Gedde's
Tracts.

When he comes to that part where the Lady says (Letter
XXIX.) in a sarcastic way, waving her hand, and bowing,
'Excuse me, good Mr. Lovelace, that I am willing to think
the best of my father,' he gives a description of her air
and manner, greatly to her advantage; and says,

I could hardly forbear taking her into my arms upon it, in spite of an
expected tempest. So much wit, so much beauty, such a lively manner,
and such exceeding quickness and penetration! O Belford! she must be
nobody's but mine. I can now account for and justify Herod's command to
destroy his Mariamne, if he returned not alive from his interview with
Caesar: for were I to know that it were but probable that any other
man were to have this charming creature, even after my death, the very
thought would be enough to provoke me to cut that man's throat, were he
a prince.

I may be deemed by this lady a rapid, a boisterous lover--and she may
like me the less for it: but all the ladies I have met wit