Seneca's _Morals_.
Taylor's _Holy Living and Dying_.
La Ferte's _Instructions for Country Dances_.
I was taking a catalogue in my pocket-book of these
and several other authors, when Leonora entered, and (20)
upon my presenting her with the letter from the knight,
told me, with an unspeakable grace, that she hoped Sir
Roger was in good health. I answered, "Yes," for I
hate long speeches, and after a bow or two retired.
Leonora was formerly a celebrated beauty, and is still (25)
a very lovely woman. She has been a widow for two or
three years, and being unfortunate in her first marriage,
has taken a resolution never to venture upon a second.
She has no children to take care of, and leaves the management
of her estate to my good friend Sir Roger. But
as the mind naturally sinks into a kind of lethargy, and
falls asleep, that[32] is not agitated by some favourite pleasures
and pursuits, Leonora has turned all the passions of
her sex into a love of books and retirement. She converses (73:5)
chiefly with men,--as she has often said herself,--but
it is only in their writings; and admits of very few
male visitants except my friend Sir Roger, whom she
hears with great pleasure and without scandal.
[32] Rearrange this sentence.
As her reading has lain very much among romances, (10)
it has given her a very particular turn of thinking, and
discovers itself even in her house, her gardens, and her
furniture. Sir Roger has entertained me an hour together
with a description of her country seat, which is situated
in a kind of wilderness, about an hundred miles distant (15)
from London, and looks like a little enchanted palace.
The rocks about her are shaped into artificial grottoes
covered with woodbines and jessamines. The woods are
cut into shady walks, twisted into bowers, and filled with
cages of turtles.[33] The springs are made to run among pebbles, (20)
and by that means taught to murmur very agreeably.
They are likewise collected into a beautiful lake that is
inhabited by a couple of swans, and empties itself by a
little rivulet which runs through a green meadow, and is
known in the family by the name of the Purling Stream. (25)
[33] Turtle doves.
The knight likewise tells me that this lady preserves
her game better than any of the gentlemen in the country.
"Not," says Sir Roger, "that she sets so great a value
upon her partridges and pheasants, as upon her larks and
nightingales; for she says that every bird which is killed
in her ground will spoil a consort,[34] and that she shall
certainly miss him the next year."
[34] Concert.
When I think how oddly this lady is improved by (74: 5)
learning, I look upon her with a mixture of admiration
and pity. Amidst these innocent entertainments which
she has formed to herself, how much more valuable does
she appear than those of her sex who employ themselves
in diversions that are less reasonable, though more in (10)
fashion. What improvements would a woman have
made, who is so susceptible of impressions from what
she reads, had she been guided to such books as have a
tendency to enlighten the understanding and rectify the
passions, as well as to those which are of little more use (15)
than to divert the imagination.
But the manner of a lady's employing herself usefully
in reading shall be the subject of another paper, in which
I design to recommend such particular books as may be
proper for the improvement of the sex. And as this is a (20)
subject of a very nice nature, I shall desire my correspondents
to give me their thoughts upon it. C.