In counseling men and women at the jail and in missions,

Hands down, the most frequent cause of getting sidetracked is

Infatuation.

The following quote is about infatuation

and it is a letter

written to a mother to inform her that her daughter, Flora,

Has been bitten by the infatuation bug and certainly

Must be in grave danger!

Never have I read anything so captivating and expressive

explaining how an infatuated person sees their lover.

This was written in the 1700s and we would certainly

Describe it in different terms today,

but never so well.

“Dear Madam, I think it my duty,

as well from the high esteem I bear yourself,

as from the tender and solicitous affection I feel for your lovely daughter,

to inform you of an affair between her and one who

has lately been fluttering about her;

and for whom,

young as she is,

she seems to have conceived an extraordinary fondness.

Of this you will be convinced, madam,

when I assure you,

she often walks in the fields purposely to meet him;

and on her return, I have seen her lips and cheeks

improved in their color by his kisses.

It is but within these few weeks that this lover of hers

has frequented the environs of Hampstead,

for he spent the winter between Lisbon and the Canary Islands;

and since his return,

which by her has been passionately longed for,

her fondness for walking has been much more apparent.

Her excursions to the Heath,

and her parties to West-end,

particularly when she gave me the slip the other day,

have been all planned with the hope of meeting him.

Nor can I wonder, indeed,

that she admires so pretty a fellow;

for he is a light airy being like herself,

as playful and as frolicsome.

He dresses in a light garment of the thinnest blue silk,

fluttering in a thousand different folds.

His breath is made up of sighs,

and perfumed with violets;

and his whispers, especially at this season of the year,

have a certain prevailing languishment and softness in them,

that few can resist.

He is fond of caressing the opening roses;

and no birth night beau is more powerfully scented

than he is with every blossom of the spring.

I am sorry to say, madam, your daughter absolutely courts this fickle

and faithless lover,

and she allows him liberties which a prudent mother like yourself

must tremble at.

He delights to play with her fair hair;

sometimes he throws it over her forehead,

and almost covers her face with it.

Sometimes he takes a single lock, and plays it about her temples;

And then he spreads her tresses all over her graceful shoulders;

and then lifts them up, or gently parts them,

to discover the elegant turn and whiteness of her neck,

giving them all the while a thousand kisses.”