Lover

Is a Kind of Goth and Vandal, that leaves his native self to settle in another, or a Planter that forsakes his Country, where he was born, to labour and dig in Virginia. His Heart is catched in a Net with a Pair of bringht shining Eyes, as Larks are with Pieces of a looking-Glass. He makes heavy Complaints against it for deserting of him, and desires to have another in Exchange for it, which is a very unreasonable Request ; for if it betrayed its bosom Friend, what will it do to a stranger, that should give it Trust and Entertainment ? He binds himself, and cries out he is robbed of his Heart, and charges the Innocent with it, only to get a good Composition, or another for it, against Conscience and Honesty. He talks much of his Flame, and pretends to be burnt by his Mistress’s Eyes, for which he requires satisfaction from her, like one that sets his House on Fire to get a Brief for charitable Contributions. He makes his Mistress all of stars, and when she is unkind, rails at them, as if they did ill Offices between them, and being of her Kin set her against him. He falls in Love as Men fall sick when their Bodies are inclined to it, and imputes that to his Mistresses Charms, which is really in his own Temper ; for when that is altered, the other vanishes of it self, and therefore one said not amiss,

The Lilly and the Rose Not in her Cheeks, but in thy Temper grows.

When his Desires are grown up, they swarm, and fly out to seek a new Habitation, and wheresoever they light they fix like Bees, among which some late Philosophers have observed that it is a Female that leads all the rest. Love is but a Clap of the Mind, a Kind of running of the Fancy, that breaks out, if it be not stopped in Time, into Botches of heroic Rime ; for all Lovers are poets for the Time being, and make their Ladies a Kind of mosaic Work of several coloured stones joined together by a strong Fancy, but very stiff and unnatural ; and though they steal stars from Heaven, as Prometheus did Fire, to animate them, all will not make them alive, nor alives-liking.