SIR,

'I am intirely convinced of the Truth of what you were pleas'd to say

to me, when I was last with you alone. You told me then of the silly

way I was in; but you told me so, as I saw you loved me, otherwise I

could not obey your Commands in letting you know my Thoughts so

sincerely as I do at present. I know _the Creature for whom I resign

so much of my Character_ is all that you said of her; but then the

Trifler has something in her so undesigning and harmless, that her

Guilt in one kind disappears by the Comparison of her Innocence in

another. Will you, Virtuous Men, allow no alteration of Offences? Must

Dear [Chloe [2]] be called by the hard Name you pious People give to

common Women? I keep the solemn Promise I made you, in writing to you

the State of my Mind, after your kind Admonition; and will endeavour

to get the better of this Fondness, which makes me so much her humble

Servant, that I am almost asham'd to Subscribe my self

Yours,

T. D.'

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The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays · 第 90 / 351 题