[fj] _But there are forms which Time adorns, not wears_, _And to which Beauty obstinately clings_.--[MS.] {246}[299] [Legend has credited Ninon de Lenclos (1620-1705) with lovers when she had "come to four-score years." According to Voltaire, John Casimir, ex-king of Poland, succumbed to her secular charms (see _Mazeppa_, line 138, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 212, note 1). "In her old age, her house was the rendezvous of wits and men of letters. Scarron is said to have consulted her on his romances, Saint-Evremond on his poems, Molière on his comedies, Fontenelle on his dialogues, and La Rochefoucauld on his maxims. Coligny, Sévigné, etc., were her lovers and friends. At her death, in 1705, she bequeathed to Voltaire two thousand francs, to expend in books."--_Biographic Universelle_, art. "Lenclos."] [300] ["Her fair maids were ranged below the sofa, to the number of twenty, and put me in mind of the pictures of the ancient nymphs. I did not think all nature could have furnished such a scene of beauty," etc.--Lady M.W. Montagu to the Countess of Mar, April 18, O.S. 1717, ed. 1816, p. 163.] [301] ["Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici, Solaque quæ possit facere et servare beatum." Hor., _Epist._, lib. 1, ep. vi. lines 1, 2.] {247}[302] ["Not to admire, is all the Art I know To make men happy, and to keep them so, (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of speech, So take it in the very words of Creech)." _To Mr. Murray_ (Lord Mansfield), Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book I. epist. vi. lines 1-4. Thomas Creech (1659-1701) published his _Translation of Horace_ in 1684. In the second edition, 1688, p. 487, the lines run-- "Not to admire, as most are wont to do, It is the only method that I know, To make Men happy and to keep 'em so."] [303] [Johnson placed judgment and friendship above admiration and love. "Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship like being enlivened." See Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, 1876, p. 450.] {248}[304] There is nothing, perhaps, more distinctive of birth than the hand. It is almost the only sign of blood which aristocracy can generate. {249}[305] [In old pictures of the Fall, it is a cherub who whispers into the ear of Eve. The serpent's coils are hidden in the foliage of the tree.] {250}[fk] _The very women half forgave her face_.--[MS, Erased.] [fl] _Had his instructions--where and how to deal_.--[MS.] [fm] _And husbands now and then are mystified_.--[MS.] {251}[306] [Narrow javelins, once known as archegays--the assegais of Zulu warfare.] {252}[fn] _But nature teaches what power cannot spoil_ _And, though it was a new and strange sensation_, _Young female hearts are such a genial soil_ _For kinder feelings, she forgot her station_.--[MS.] [fo] _War with your heart_--.--[MS.] {254}[307] [See _Fielding's History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews_, bk. i. chap. v.] [308]