MihaElla > Recent Status Updates

If you love to see features that glow,though the heart is frozen,& never yet was thawed;if you love fine sense,&adages,flowing through teeth of ivory &lips of coral;an eye that penetrates all things;a voice that is harmony itself;an air of grandeur,mingled with a sweetness that cannot be described;a politeness that,if ever equalled,was never excelled-you'll see all these excellencies,& ten times more,in my GLORIANA

You know I never permitted any of you to talk obscenely. Time enough for that, when we grow old, and can ONLY talk. Far from obscenity, therefore, do not so much as touch upon the double entendre. What! as I have often said, cannot you touch a lady's heart without wounding her ear?

Who could have dreamt of such a whim as this?—Impossible she should think of being my wife!—Besides, she doesn’t consider, if she goes to church, I must go too!—To church, of all places!—Is the devil in the girl? said I, as soon as I could speak.

It is impossible to describe the dear creature's sweet and silent confusion, when I touched upon the matrimonial topics.
She may doubt. She may fear. The wise, in all important cases, will doubt, and will fear, till they are sure. But her apparent willingness to think well of a spirit so inventive, and so machinating, is a happy prognostic for me. O these reasoning ladies!—How I love these reasoning ladies!

Your letter, my beloved Miss Howe, gives me great comfort. How sweetly do I experience the truth of the wise man's observation, That a faithful friend is the medicine of life!

Excuse my flippancies. I wish I were with you. I would make you smile in the midst of your gravest airs, as I used to do. O that you had accepted of my offer to attend you! but nothing that I offer will you accept—Take care!—You will make me very angry with you; and when I am, you know I value nobody; for, dearly as I love you, I must be, and cannot always help it,
Your saucy Friend

Few friendships are founded on such a basis as ours; which is, freely to give reproof, and thankfully to receive it as occasions arise; that so either may have opportunity to clear up mistakes, to acknowledge and amend errors, as well in behaviour as in words and deeds; and to rectify and confirm each other in the judgment each shall form upon persons, things, and circumstances.

[…] and I believe a notable wife is more impatient of control than an indolent one. An indolent one, perhaps, thinks she has something to compound for; while women of the other character, I suppose, know too well their own significance to think highly of that of anybody else. All must be their own way. In one word, because they are useful, they will be more than useful.

Our likings and dislikings, as I have often thought, are seldom governed by prudence, or with a view to happiness. The eye, my dear, the wicked eye, has such a strict alliance with the heart—and both have such enmity to the judgment!—What an unequal union, the mind and body! All the senses, in a confederacy against that which would animate, and give honour to the whole, were it allowed its proper precedence

This was one of his speeches once, I believe designed for me—"A woman who means one day to favour her lover with her hand, should show the world, for her own sake, that she distinguishes him from the common herd.

I had a view, moreover, to give her an high opinion of her own sagacity. I love, when I dig a pit, to have my prey tumble in with secure feet and open eyes; then a man can look down upon her, with an O-ho, charmer, how came you there?

I could hardly forbear taking her into my arms upon it, in spite of an expected tempest. So much wit, so much beauty, such a lively manner, and such exceeding quickness and penetration! O Belford! she must be nobody's but mine. I can now account for and justify Herod's command to destroy his Mariamne, if he returned not alive from his interview with Caesar:

..I try awaken the woman in her.To try if she,with all that glowing symmetry of parts,& that full bloom of vernal graces,by which she attracts every eye,be really inflexible as to the grand article

If she be a woman,& love me,I shall surely catch her once tripping;for love was ever a traitor to its harbourer:& love within,& I without,she will be more than woman,as the poet says,or I less than man,if I succeed not

Besides I have read in some places, that the woman was made for the man, not the man for the woman

Let LOVE then be the motive:—Love of whom?
A Lovelace, is the answer. Is there but one Lovelace in the world? May not more Lovelaces be attracted by so fine a figure? By such exalted qualities? It was her character that drew me to her: and it was her beauty and good sense that riveted my chains; and now all together make me think her a subject worthy of my attempts, worthy of my ambition.

What can be done with a woman who is above flattery,& despises all praise but that which flows from the approbation of her own heart?
What a sad thing would it be,were I,after all,to lose her person,as well as her opinion! the only time that further acquaintance,& no blow struck,nor suspicion given,ever lessened me in a lady's favour!A cursed mortification! I can have no pretence for holding her, if she will go.

[…] Because, to be plain with me, the more she saw of me, and of my ways, the less she liked of either.
This cut me to the heart! I did not cry, indeed! Had I been a woman, I should though, and that most plentifully; but I pulled out a white cambric handkerchief; that I could command, but not my tears.

Allow me a little rodomontade, Jack—but really and truly my heart is fixed. I can think of no creature breathing of the sex, but my Gloriana.

My charmer has written to her sister for her clothes, for some gold, and for some of her books. What books can tell her more than she knows? But I can. So she had better study me.

Yet how unhappy, that these two young ladies lived so near each other, and are so well acquainted! Else how charmingly might I have managed them both!
But one man cannot have every woman worth having—Pity though—when the man is such a VERY clever fellow!

Why, why, will the dear creature take such pains to appear all ice to me?—Why will she, by her pride, awaken mine?—Hast thou not seen, in the above, how contemptibly she treats me?—What have I not suffered for her, and even from her?—Ought I to bear being told, that she will despise me, if I value myself above that odious Solmes?

Thou hast heard me often expatiate upon the pitiful figure a man must make, whose wife has, or believes she has, more sense than himself. A thousand reasons could I give why I ought not to think of marrying Miss Clarissa Harlowe; at least till I can be sure, that she loves me with the preference I must expect from a wife.

How it swells my pride, to have been able to outwit such a vigilant charmer! I am taller by half a yard in my imagination than I was. I look down upon every body now. Last night I was still more extravagant. I took off my hat as I walked, to see if the lace were not scorched, supposing it had brushed down a star; and, before I put it on again, in mere wantonness and hearts ease, I was for buffeting the moon.

I will see how her will works; and how my will leads me on. I will give the combatants fair play, and yet, every time I attend her, I find that she is less in my power; I more in hers.
Yet, a foolish little rogue! to forbid me to think of marriage till I am a reformed man! Till the implacables of her family change their natures, and become placable!

Her emotions were more sweetly feminine, after the first moments; for then the fire of her starry eyes began to sink into a less dazzling languor. She trembled; nor knew she how to support the agitations of a heart she had never found so ungovernable. She was even fainting, when I clasped her in my supporting arms. What a precious moment that! How near, how sweetly near, the throbbing partners!

I am a critic, thou knowest, in women's dresses. Many a one have I taught to dress, and helped to undress. But there is such a native elegance in this lady, that she surpasses all that I could imagine surpassing. But then her person adorns what she wears, more than dress can adorn her; and that's her excellence.
Expect, therefore, a faint sketch of her admirable person with her dress.

Fie upon me! for meeting the seducer!—Let all end as happily as it now may, I have laid up for myself remorse for my whole life. What still more concerns me is, that every time I see this man, I am still at a greater loss than before what to make of him. I watch every turn of his countenance, and I think I see very deep lines in it. He looks with more meaning, I verily think, than he used to look;

I have not the better opinion of Mr Lovelace for his extravagant volubility.He is too full of professions.He says too many fine things of me,& to me.True respect,true value,I think,lies not in words:words cannot express it: the silent awe,the humble,the doubting eye,& even the hesitating voice,better show it by much,than,as our beloved Shakespeare says,
———The rattling tongue
Of saucy & audacious eloquence”

This is another of his perfections.I ventured to check him for his free words, as we sat at dinner.
Having heard him swear at his servant,when below, whom,nevertheless,he owns to be a good one; It is a sad life, said I,these innkeepers live, Mr Lovelace.
No; pretty well, I believe—but why, madam, think you, that fellows, who eat & drink at other men's cost, or they are sorry innkeepers, should be entitled to pity?

—Take care, take care, O beloved of my soul! for jealous is the heart in which love has erected a temple to thee.

[…]

She comes! she comes! And the sun is just rising to attend her! Adieu! Be half as happy as I am (for all diffidences, like night-fogs before the sun, disperse at her approach) and, next myself, thou wilt be the happiest man in the world.