Italian Letters, vols 1,2 | Page 7

this appetite
be the source? It does not indeed romantically seek to reclaim a class of
women, whom every sober man acknowledges to be irreclaimable. But
with that benevolence that is congenial to a comprehensive mind, it
pities them with all their errors, and it contributes to preserve them
from misery, distress, and famine.
From what I have now said, I believe you will have already suspected
of what nature are those particulars in my conduct, which I set out with
an intention of confessing. Whatever may be my merit or demerit in
this instance, I will not hide from you that the marquis of San Severino
was the original cause of what I have done. You are already sufficiently
acquainted with the freedom of his sentiments upon this subject. He is a
professed devotee of the sex, and he suffers this passion to engross a
much larger share of his time than I can by any means approve. Incited
by his exhortations, I have in some measure imitated his conduct, at the
same time that I have endeavoured not to fall into the same excesses.
But I believe that I shall treat you more regularly in the manner of a
confessor, and render you more master of the subject, by relating to you
the steps by which I have been led to act and to justify, that which I
formerly used to condemn. I have already told you, how aukward I felt
my situation in the first society of the gayer kind, into which my friend
introduced me. Though he politely freed me from my present
embarassment, he could not help rallying me upon the rustic
appearance I made. He apologized for the ill fortune I had experienced,
and promised to introduce me to a mistress beautiful as the day, and
sprightly and ingenious as Sappho herself.
What could I do? I was unwilling to break with the most amiable

companion I had found in the city of Naples. I was staggered with his
reasonings and his eloquence. Shall I acknowledge the truth? I was
mortified at the singular and uncouth figure I had made. I felt myself
actuated with a social sympathy, that made me wish to resemble those
of my own rank and age, in any thing that was not seriously criminal. I
was involuntarily incited by the warm description San Severino gave
me of the beauty and attractions of the lady he recommended. Must we
not confess, my St. Julian, setting the nature of the business quite out of
the question, that there was something highly disinterested in the
behaviour of the marquis upon this occasion? He left his companions
and his pleasures, to accommodate himself to my weakness. He
managed his own character so little, as to undertake to recommend to
me a female friend. And he seems to have neglected the interest of his
own pleasures entirely, in order to introduce me to a woman, inferior in
accomplishments to none of her sex.

Letter VII
The Same to the Same Naples Could I ever have imagined, my dear
count, that in so short a time the correspondence between us would
have been so much neglected? I have yet received no answer to my last
letter, upon a subject particularly interesting, and in which I had some
reason to fear your disapprobation. My St. Julian lives in the obscurity
of retreat, and in the solitude most favourable to literary pursuits. What
avocations can have called off his attention from the interests of his
friend? May I be permitted however to draw one conclusion from your
silence, that you do not consider my situation as critical and alarming?
That although you join the prudent severity of a monitor with the
candid partiality of a friend, you yet view my faults in a venial light,
and are disposed to draw over them the veil of indulgence?
I might perhaps deduce a fairer apology for the silence on my part from
my new situation, the avocations incident to my rank and fortune, and
the pleasures that abound in a city and a court so celebrated as that of
Naples. But I will not attempt an apology. The novelty of these
circumstances have diverted my attention more than they ought from
the companion of my studies and the friend of my youth, but I trust I

shall never forget him. I have met with companions more gay, and
consorts more obsequious, but I have never found a character so worthy,
and a friend so sincere.
Since I last addressed my St. Julian, I have been engaged in various
scenes both of a pleasurable and a serious kind. I think I am guilty of
no undue partiality to my own conduct when I assure you, that I have
embarked in the