ABSTRACT
But this Reason (tho’ certainly a very material one) is not the only one which induc’d me to intreat your Ladyship’s Protection. – Flattery is a Vice so much in Fashion, and, I am sorry to say, so much encouraged, that there is nothing more di cult than to nd a Patron who not expects, nor would be pleased with it: Where then should a Person, by Nature averse, and by Precept taught to shun it, make an Address of this Nature, but to a Lady whose Perfections strike all Encomiums dumb because they cannot reach her Worth? – a Lady, whose Character is so justly establish’d for all those Graces both of Mind and Body, which can be an Ornament to our Sex, that it would be as needless as vain to attempt a Repetition of them! – You, Madam! are possess’d of Charms which the Soul only can describe! –‘tis not in Words to speak them. – We all admire the Diamond’s sparkling Lustre; but tho’ we gaze never so long on the thousand di ering colour’d Rays it casts, no Artist yet had ever skill to paint the Brightness of it.
