Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/189

 "Among the young men, who surrounded me, was one of such seemingly perfect accomplishments, both of person and mind, of such a treacherous and seducing fire, as ultimately rendered him pliable to all my wishes. It was he who seemed to be the foremost to make pretensions to my favor; he only lived in my looks, and was happy or unhappy in the various whims and changes of my humor. Never were all the arts of insidious seduction more strongly combined in one object; each circumstance concurred to his advantage; all that the company said or did, helped to raise and support his influence, and convinced by time and his invariable solicitude of the genial purity of his passion, I should inevitably have fallen in the long run, had not a little incident snatch me for ever from his hopes, and restored me to myself and my projects.

He had a small Bolognese lap-dog, and I became so uncommonly fond of this canine charmer, that I oftentimes gave him to understand, its possession would be very grateful to my liking. At first he seemed rather un-