Page:Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure Vol 1.djvu/158

 glow and suffusion of blood through his fresh, clear skin, whilst even his sturdy rustic pressures, wanted not their peculiar charm? Oh! but say you, this was a young fellow of too low a rank of life to deserve so great a display. May be so: but was my condition, strictly considered, one jot more exalted? or, had I really been much above him, did not his capacity of giving such exquisite pleasure sufficiently raise and enoble him, to me, at least? Let who would, for me, cherish, respect, and reward the painter's, the statuary's, the musician's art, in proportion to the delight taken in them: but at my age, and with my taste for pleasure, a taste strongly constitutional to me, the talent of pleasing, with which nature has endowed a handsome person, formed to me the greatest of all merits; compared to which, the vulgar prejudices in favour of titles, dignities, honours, and the like, held a very low rank indeed: nor perhaps would the beauties of the body be so much affected to be held cheap, were they, in their nature, to be bought and delivered; but for me, whose natural philosophy all resided in the favourite center of sense, and who was ruled by its powerful instinct, in taking pleasure by its right handle, I could scarce have made a choice more to my purpose.