Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes: From the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean ...

Front Cover
 

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 46 - Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men : and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Page v - I should never have been able to return. This will convince you how little I am an Ingrate ; for I believe you will allow, no one that is so mean as to be forgetful of kindnesses ever fails in returning injuries.
Page 201 - ... enchant an empire by the music of his voice, skulking in the obscure habit of a slave, hiding his face in an abject robe, as if that could conceal his vices, waiting at a back-door to get undiscovered entrance into his own palace, after passing the guilty night in adultery with an infamous prostitute ! And this not for once or twice, but for months and years ! Till his sin was become as confirmed a habit as his hypocrisy...
Page 245 - ... in her person, her air, and manner, that could be exchanged for any others, and she not prove a loser. Then as to her mind and conduct, her judgment, her sense, her steadfastness, her reading, her wit and conversation, they are admirable...
Page vi - It must be you, Sir, to whom my Thanks are due; making me a Person of such Consideration, as to be worthy your important War. A weak unlearned Woman's Writings, to employ so great a Pen! Heavens! how valuable am I? How fond of that Immortality, even of Infamy, that you have promised! I am...
Page 73 - ... their Hand; the Men are the sole Managers, so that the Ladies have nothing to do but Dress, Divert, Eat, Drink, and make Visits, which last are always perform'd with splendid Ostentation; for the Sarmatians love Show, rich Equipage and Habits: The Women seldom cross the Way without a Coach, six Horses, and a numerous Train of Servants; yet have they no Money, but upon every Occasion are forc'd to kneel and implore their Husbands, who take a Pleasure in being importun'd.20 In the midst of her...
Page 201 - Was it not a good comedy, or rather farce, when you behold this sententious man, this decisive orator, who by the enchantments of his persuasion left not even Destiny to herself, for Fate and Fortune were, whenever he spoke, his slaves.
Page 216 - Hero into a dirty Scavenger. Then as to the other Extreme, Has he not made a very Deity of me, and giv'n me and some of my Fellow Patricians, such gay Clothing, that I defy our best Friends to know us in his Garb? He has almost persuaded me to believe (did I not feel the contrary) that I am Just! Couragious! Religious! and very near, Merciful! and I have rewarded him for it, and wou'd have done more, but that 'tis not Politick, being too liberal, lest the poor Rogue shou'd get above his Necessities,...
Page v - I had the greatest sense imaginable of the kind notice you gave me when I was going on to my ruin, and am so far from retaining an inclination to revenge the inhumanity with which you have treated me, that I give...
Page 115 - There is something so eloquent and persuasive in Truth alone, without the Advantage of Oratory; that there were none present (for by this time the Report of her Death had drawn a Crowd) but what wept her Fate, and detested the Lover's injustice."31 In her autobiographical defense, The Adventures of Rivella (1714), Mrs. Manley still maintained that she sought in the New Atalantis to serve virtuous ends by realistic...

Bibliographic information