Shalum, Master of Mount Tirzah, to Hilpa, Mistress of the
  Vallies.

  In the 788th Year of the Creation.

’What have I not suffered, O thou Daughter of Zilpah, since thou gavest thy self away in Marriage to my Rival?  I grew weary of the Light of the Sun, and have been ever since covering my self with Woods and Forests.  These threescore and ten Years have I bewailed the Loss of thee on the Tops of Mount Tirzah, and soothed my Melancholy among a thousand gloomy Shades of my own raising.  My Dwellings are at present as the Garden of God; every Part of them is filled with Fruits, and Flowers, and Fountains.  The whole Mountain is perfumed for thy Reception.  Come up into it, O my Beloved, and let us People this Spot of the new World with a beautiful Race of Mortals; let us multiply exceedingly among these delightful Shades, and fill every Quarter of them with Sons and Daughters.  Remember, O thou Daughter of Zilpah, that the Age of Man is but a thousand Years; that Beauty is the Admiration but of a few Centuries.  It flourishes as a Mountain Oak, or as a Cedar on the Top of Tirzah, which in three or four hundred Years will fade away, and never be thought of by Posterity, unless a young Wood springs from its Roots.  Think well on this, and remember thy Neighbour in the Mountains.

Having here inserted this Letter, which I look upon as the only Antediluvian Billet-doux now extant, I shall in my next Paper give the Answer to it, and the Sequel of this Story.

* * * * *

No. 585.  Wednesday, August 25, 1714.  Addison.

  ’Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant
  Intonsi montes:  ipsae jam carmina rupes,
  Ipsae sonant arbusta—­’

  Virg.

The Sequel of the Story of Shalum and Hilpa.

The Letter inserted in my last had so good an Effect upon Hilpa, that she answered it in less than a Twelvemonth, after the following Manner.

  Hilpa, Mistress of the Vallies, to Shalum, Master of Mount Tirzah.

  In the 789th Year of the Creation.

’What have I to do with thee, O Shalum? Thou praisest Hilpa’s Beauty, but art thou not secretly enamoured with the Verdure of her Meadows?  Art thou not more affected with the Prospect of her green Vallies, than thou wouldest be with the Sight of her Person?  The Lowings of my Herds, and the Bleatings of my Flocks, make a pleasant Eccho in thy Mountains, and sound sweetly in thy Ears.  What tho’ I am delighted with the Wavings of thy Forests, and those Breezes of Perfumes which flow from the Top of Tirzah: Are these like the Riches of the Valley?

’I know thee, O Shalum; thou art more wise and happy than any of the Sons of Men.  Thy Dwellings are among the Cedars; thou