I derived many principles of judgment and maxims of prudence, by
which I was enabled to draw upon myself the general regard in every
place of concourse or pleasure.

4. My opinion was the great rule of approbation, my remarks were
remembered by those who desired the second degree of fame, my mein was
studied, my dress imitated, my letters were handed from one family to
another, and read by those who copied them as sent to themselves; my
visits were solicited as honours, and multitudes boasted of an intimacy
with Melissa, who had only seen me by accident, whose familiarity had
never proceeded beyond the exchange of a compliment, or return of a
courtesy.

5. I shall make no scruple of confessing that I was pleased with this
universal veneration, because I always considered it as paid to my
intrinsic qualities and inseparable merit, and very easily persuaded
myself, that fortune had no part in my superiority.

6. When I looked upon my glass, I saw youth and beauty, with health that
might give me reason to hope their continuance: when I examined my mind,
I found some strength of judgment and fertility of fancy, and was told
that every action was grace, and that every accent was persuasion.

7. In this manner my life passed like a continual triumph amidst
acclamations, and envy, and courtship, and caresses: to please Melissa
was the general ambition, and every stratagem of artful flattery was
practised upon me. To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that
our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them: for they prove
at least our power, and shew that our favour is valued, since it is
purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

8. But perhaps the flatterer is not often detected, for an honest mind
is not apt to suspect, and no one exerts the power of discernment with
much vigour when self-love favours the deceit.

9. The number of adorers, and the perpetual distraction of my thoughts
by new schemes of pleasures, prevented me from listening to any of those
who crowd in multitudes to give girls advice, and kept me unmarried and
unengaged to my twenty-seventh year, when, as I was towering in all the
pride of uncontested excellency, with a face yet little impaired, and a
mind hourly improving, the failure of a fund, in which my money was
placed, reduced me to a frugal competency, which allowed a little
beyond neatness and independence.

10. I bore the diminution of my riches without any outrages of sorrow,
o