The Fatal Secret

Love and Grief are Passion too potent to be struggled with, and too obstinate for Perswasion:--Opposition makes them mad:--They grow fiercer by Restraint:--The patient is himself his own best Physician; and if by soothing his Disease he does not absolutely cure it, he, at least, prevents the Tortures it would otherwise occasion: And it has been often seen, that in giving a Loose to the Passion, the Spirit had evaporated of itself; though this never happens but in a weak and flashy Mind, and could not be the case of our Anadea. As she was not easily wounded by the Darts of Love, so having once received them, could not suffer them to be torn out, without breaking at the same Time the strings of Life: --But in the Midst of all the Perplexity she was involv'd in, she now and then found a Mixture of Delight. Ah! with what kind of Deceits does Love sometimes beguile the Imagination--What pleasing Chimera's does a Fancy, fired with that tender Flame, create!--What airy Prospects of unsubstantial Blessings present t