I shall conclude this Speculation with one useful Inference.  How can we sufficiently prostrate our selves and fall down before our Maker, when we consider that ineffable Goodness and Wisdom which contrived this Existence for finite Natures?  What must be the Overflowings of that good Will, which prompted our Creator to adapt Existence to Beings, in whom it is not necessary?  Especially when we consider that he himself was before him in the compleat Possession of Existence and of Happiness, and in the full Enjoyment of Eternity.  What Man can think of himself as called out and separated from nothing, of his being made a conscious, a reasonable and a happy Creature, in short, of being taken in as a Sharer of Existence, and a kind of Partner in Eternity, without being swallowed up in Wonder, in Praise, in Adoration!  It is indeed a Thought too big for the Mind of Man, and rather to be entertained in the Secrecy of Devotion, and in the Silence of the Soul, than to be expressed by Words.  The Supreme Being has not given us Powers or Faculties sufficient to extol and magnifie such unutterable Goodness.

It is however some Comfort to us, that we shall be always doing what we shall be never able to do, and that a Work which cannot be finished, will however be the Work of an Eternity.

[Footnote 1:  See Nos. 565, 571, 580, and 628.]

* * * * *

No. 591.  Wednesday, September 8, 1714.  Budgell.

  ‘—­Tenerorum lusor amorum—­’

  Ovid.

I have just receiv’d a Letter from a Gentleman, who tells me he has observed, with no small Concern, that my Papers have of late been very barren in relation to Love [1]; a Subject which when agreeably handled, can scarce fail of being well receiv’d by both Sexes.

If my Invention therefore should be almost exhausted on this Head, he offers to serve under me in the Quality of a Love Casuist; for which Place he conceives himself to be throughly qualified, having made this Passion his Principal Study, and observed it in all its different Shapes and Appearances, from the Fifteenth to the Forty Fifth Year of his Age.

He assures me with an Air of Confidence, which I hope proceeds from his real Abilities, that he does not doubt of giving Judgment to the Satisfaction of the Parties concerned, on the most nice and intricate Cases which can happen in an Amour; as,

  How great the Contraction of the Fingers must be before it amounts to
  a Squeeze by the Hand.

  What can be properly termed an absolute Denial from a Maid, and what
  from a Widow.

  What Advances a Lover may presume to make, after having received a
  Patt upon his Shoulder from his Mistress’s Fan.

  Whether a Lady, at the first Interview, may allow an Humble Servant to
  kiss her Hand.

  How far it may be permitted to caress the Maid in order to succeed
  with the Mistress.