DAMON AND DELIA: A TALE. --NEQUE SEMPER ARCUM TENDIT APOLLO. HOR. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. HOOKHAM, AT HIS CIRCULATING LIBRARY, NEW BOND-STEET, CORNER OF BRUTON-STREET. M,DCC,LXXXIV. CONTENTS PART the FIRST. CHAPTER I. _Containing introductory Matter._ CHAPTER II. _A Ball_ CHAPTER III. _A Ghost._ CHAPTER IV. _A love Scene._ CHAPTER V. _A Man of Humour._ CHAPTER VI. _Containing some Specimens of Heroism._ CHAPTER VII. _Containing that with which the Reader will be acquainted when he has read it._ CHAPTER VIII. _Two Persons of Fashion._ CHAPTER IX. _A tragical Resolution._ CONTENTS. PART the SECOND. CHAPTER I. _In which the Story begins over again_. CHAPTER II. _The History of Mr. Godfrey_. CHAPTER III. _A Misanthrope_. CHAPTER IV. _Much ado about nothing_. CHAPTER V. _A Woman of learning_. CHAPTER VI. _A Catastrophe_. CHAPTER VII. _Containing what will terrify the Reader_. CHAPTER VIII. _A Denouement_. CHAPTER IX. _Which dismisses the Reader_. DAMON AND DELIA. PART the FIRST. CHAPTER I. _Containing introductory matter_. The races at Southampton have, for time immemorial, constituted a scene of rivalship, war, and envy. All the passions incident to the human frame have here assumed as true a scope, as in the more noisy and more tragical contentions of statesmen and warriors. Here nature has displayed her most hidden attractions, and art has furnished out the artillery of beauty. Here the coquet has surprised, and the love-sick nymph has sapped the heart of the unwary swain. The scene has been equally sought by the bolder and more haughty, as by the timid sex. Here the foxhunter has sought a new subject of his boast in the _nonchalance_ of _dishabille_; the peer has played off the dazzling charms of a coronet and a star; and the _petit maître_ has employed the anxious niceties of dress. Of all the beauties in this brilliant circle, she, who was incomparably the most celebrated, was the graceful Delia. Her person, though not absolutely tall, had an air of dignity. Her form was bewitching, and her neck was alabaster. Her cheeks glowed with the lovely vermilion of nature, her mouth was small and pouting, her lips were coral, and her teeth whiter than the driven snow. Her forehead was bold, high, and polished, her eyebrows were arched, and from beneath them her fine blue eyes shone with intelligence, and sparkled with heedless gaiety. Her hair was of the brightest auburn, it was in the greatest abundance, and when, unfettered by the ligaments of fashion, it flowed about her shoulders and her lovely neck, it presented the most ravishing object that can possibly be imagined.