roper Opportunity.

* * * * *

No. 605. Monday, October 11, 1714. Budgell.

'Exuerint sylvestrem animum, cultuque frequenti
In quascunque voces artes, haud tarda sequentur.'

Virg.

Having perused the following Letter, and finding it to run upon the
Subject of Love, I referred it to the Learned _Casuist_, whom I have
retained in my Service for Speculations of that Kind. He return'd it to
me the next Morning with his Report annexed to it, with both of which I
shall here present my Reader.

_Mr._ SPECTATOR,

'Finding that you have Entertained an useful Person in your Service in
quality of _Love-Casuist_, [1] I apply my self to you, under a very
great Difficulty, that hath for some Months perplexed me. I have a
Couple of humble Servants, one of which I have no Aversion to; the
other I think of very kindly. The first hath the Reputation of a Man
of good Sense, and is one of those People that your Sex are apt to
Value. My Spark is reckoned a Coxcomb among the Men, but is a
Favourite of the Ladies. If I marry the Man of Worth, as they call
him, I shall oblige my Parents and improve my Fortune; but with my
dear Beau I promise my self Happiness, altho' not a Jointure. Now I
would ask you, whether I should consent to lead my Life with a Man
that I have only no Objection to, or with him against whom all
Objections to me appear frivolous. I am determined to follow the
_Casuist's_ Advice, and I dare say he will not put me upon so serious
a thing as Matrimony, contrary to my Inclination.'

I am, &c.

_Fanny Fickle_.

_P.S._ 'I forgot to tell you, that the pretty Gentleman is the most
complaisant Creature in the World, and is always of my Mind; but the
other, forsooth, fancies he hath as much Wit as my self, slights my
Lap-Dog, and hath the Insolence to contradict me when he thinks I am
not in the Right. About half an Hour ago, he maintained to my Face,
that a Patch always implies a Pimple.'

As I look upon it to be my Duty rather to side with the Parents than the
Daughter, I shall propose some Considerations to my Gentle Querist,
which may encline her to comply with those, under whose Direction she
is: And at the same time, convince her, that it is not impossible but
she may, in time, have a true Affection for him who is, at present,
indifferent to her: Or, to use the old Family Ma