Among all the various deceptions which are carried on in this great world, I know of none more cruel, and more liable to be attended with the worst of consequences, than those practised in the affairs of love; – yet it is a crime which passes with impunity, and is scarce censured by any but the persons injured by it and their particular friends and confidants.

Even the ladies, generally speaking, for there is no rule without some exceptions, are so little the friends of each other, that we rarely find them taking up the quarrel of their sex in this point; – on the contrary, they are apt to absolve the vow-breaker, and let the whole blame fall on the believer: – a man who has triumph'd over the credulity of an hundred women, sees himself not less respected; and sometimes the number of past conquests shall serve him as a recommendation, and be a means of his attaining new ones.

Perjury is deem'd but a venial transgression in this case; – few think that oaths and imprecations, when dictated by the heat of an amorous inclination, tho' formed in the most binding terms, and utter'd in the most solemn manner, are ever register'd in heaven, – according to the words of the poet, who merrily says,

This vice, as I must take the liberty to call it, is not however wholly confined to the male sex; I am sorry to observe that those of the other, either thro’ pride, vanity, or an inconstancy of nature, are sometimes found guilty of deluding their lovers with fallacious expectations.

I hope also to be forgiven by the more discreet part of womankind, when I say that a propensity to such a behaviour is yet less excusable in them than in the men, as a perfect innocence, a sweetness of disposition, and a simplicity of manners are, or ought to be, the distinguishing characteristics of the fair sex.