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THERE is nothing so natural to persons of the Fair Sex, as to take a pleasure in their own Beauty. They please themselves as much as 'tis possible for others to please them, and are the first that discover their own Charms, and fall in Love with them.
But the motions of this self-love are so sweet and so pleasing, That they are
scarce sensible; for self-love only flatters; but Love of another nature, when it comes to visit us, makes us feel it with a Vengeance.
This first sort of Love is congenial to all Women, it is naturally formed in them, and has themselves only for its Object. The second comes from without, and is either caused by a secret sympathy, or by the violence of an amorous impression.
The one is a Good that only occasions Pleasure, but yet it is always a Good, and lasts as long as their Beauty does. The other is capable of touching them more sensibly, but is more subject to change and alteration.
To this advantage of duration, which the pleasure that the Ladies take in their Beauty, has above the influence of an A∣mour, we may add the following one, viz. That a Beautiful Woman is more concerned to preserve her Beauty than her Lover; and shews less tenderness for a Heart already vanquish'd, than she expresses vanity and ostentation, in ex¦tending her Conquests. Not but that she may very well be allowed to be sensible for her Gallant; but in all probability, she will sooner resolve to suffer the loss
of what she loves, than lose and ruine what causes her to be beloved.
There is a certain sort of a pleasure, tho' 'tis in a manner impossible truly to describe it, which we feel in deploring the death of one we love.
Our Love supplies the place of a Lo∣ver in the Reign of grief; and thence proceeds that affection to this mourning which has its Charms.
Cease, Thyrsis, cease, by an ill tim'd relief, To rob me of my best Companion, Grief. Sorrow to me all lovely does appear, It fills the place of what I held so dear.
But 'tis not so with the loss of Beauty. This loss is a full consummation of all other Calamities; it cruelly robbs the Ladies of the hopes of ever receiving a∣ny pleasure as long as they live.
As long as a Woman is in full possessi∣on of her Beauty, no Misfortune can befall her, which she cannot in some measure alleviate. But when once that Blessing has left her, all the other advan∣tages of Fortune will never be able to give her any tolerable satisfaction. Where∣ever she goes, the remembrance of what
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she has lost, or the consideration of wha∣she is at present, will give her a thou sand uneasinesses.
In such a case, her best remedy will be to employ all her discretion to make her self easie under that unfortunate Condition. But alass! what an unpalatable remedy is it for a Woman, who has once been a∣dored, to abandon so dear a vanity, and come back to her Reason. 'Tis a new and mortifying experiment this, after a per∣son has been used to entertain her self with such agreeable Thoughts.
The last Tears that beautiful Eyes re∣serve, are spent in bewailing themselves, after they are effaced out of all Hearts. The only person that still laments a lost Beauty, is the miserable Possessor.
One of our best Poets, endeavouring to comfort a great Queen for the loss of her Royal Spouse, would make her asham'd of the extravagance of her Affection, by citing to her the Example of a certain Princess in despair, who so wholly aban∣don'd her self to this weakness, that she reproached the Stars, and accused the Gods for the loss of her Husband.
Boldly she charges every Power above. (So much her Reason's govern'd by her Love.) With all that fruitful anger can inspire, When Grief indulg'd, renews the glowing Fire.
But finding that the horrour of Impiety was not strong enough to make any im∣pression on a mind so disordered by grief; for his last and concluding Reason, he re∣presents to her that it was her Interest to be sedate, as if he had no better a remedy against this excess, but to put her in mind of the great injury it did her Beauty.
Those charming Locks the rudest Hands would spare, And yet they suffer by your own despair. Alass! what Crimes have those fair Tresses done? Think what a train of Conquests they have won. Is grief so cruel, or your rage so blind, That to your self you must be thus un∣kind?
He excused the Ladies for paying some
Tribute to their Sorrow, but he never pardons them the Sin of making them∣selves less amiable. This is a Transgres∣sion that he imagins will easily create an horror in them, without urging any far∣ther Considerations.
It had been mere impertinence to en∣deavour to reduce them by reason; but to set before their Eyes the interest of their Beauty, was the strongest Argument he could think of to oppose to the ob∣stinacy of their Grief, and he knew no∣thing beyond that, which was capable to reform this extravagance.
That we may fully know how far the Ladies are devoted to their Beauty, let us consider the most retired and solitary amongst them. There are some in that station who have renounced all Pleasures; who are weaned from the Interests of the World; who endeavour to please no bo∣dy, and whom no body pleases. But a∣midst all this coldness and indifference for every thing else, they secretly flat∣tor themselves, to see they are still agree∣able enough.
There are others that abandon them∣selves to sorts of austerities; yet if they accidentally happen to see them∣selves
in a Glass, you shall hear them sigh, to behold so Melancholly an al∣teration. They do every thing that helps to disfigure their Faces with all ima∣ginable readiness, but can't endure the sight of them when they are once dis∣figured.
Nature that can consent to destroy her∣self out of Love to God, secretly opposes it self to the least change of Beauty, out of a principle of self-love that never dies with us.
Let a Fair Person retire into what place she pleases, let her condition be what it will, yet her Charms and Fea∣tures are still dear to her. They will be dear to her even in the time of sick∣ness, and if her sickness goes as far as Death, the last sigh that passes from her is more for the loss of her Beauty, than for that of her Life.