Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/334

298 So tender of the young and fair! It showed a true paternal care: Five thousand guineas in her purse! The doctor might have fancy'd worse.

In his first surprise at her extraordinary declaration, he tried to turn it off by raillery, treating it as a thing spoken only in jest; but when a woman has once broken through the restraint of decorum, the established barrier between the sexes, so far as to begin the attack, she is not easily to be repulsed. She in stronger terms both avowed and justified her passion for him, by such arguments as must be highly flattering to his self-love. Of the impression which these made on him, he gives the following account in the same poem:

, to his grief and shame, Could scarce oppose 's flame; And though her arguments were strong. At least could hardly wish them wrong, Howe'er it came, he could not tell, But sure she never talked so well. His pride began to interpose, Preferred before a crowd of beaux: So bright a nymph to come unsought. Such wonders by his merit wrought; 'Tis merit must with her prevail. He never knew her judgment fail; She noted all she ever read, And had a most discerning head. 'Tis an old maxim in the schools, That flattery's the food of fools; Yet,