among the rest, Mr. Charles Cotton, author of Virgil Travesty, throws in
his mite in her praise; though the lines are but poorly writ. But of all
her admirers, Mr. Charles Gildon, who was intimately acquainted with our
poetess, speaks of her with the highest encomiums.

In his epistle dedicatory to her histories and novels, he thus expresses
himself. 'Poetry, the supreme pleasure of the mind, is begot, and born
in pleasure, but oppressed and killed with pain. This reflexion ought to
raise our admiration of Mrs. Behn, whose genius was of that force, to
maintain its gaiety in the midst of disappointments, which a woman of
her sense and merit ought never to have met with. But she had a great
strength of mind, and command of thought, being able to write in the
midst of company, and yet have the share of the conversation: which I
saw her do in writing Oroonoko, and other parts of her works, in every
part of which you'll find an easy stile and a peculiar happiness of
thinking. The passions, that of love especially, she was mistress of,
and gave us such nice and tender touches of them, that without her name
we might discover the author.' To this character of Mrs. Behn may be
very properly added, that given of her by the authoress of her life and
memoirs, in these words.

'She was of a generous humane disposition, something passionate, very
serviceable to her friends in all that was in her power, and could
sooner forgive an injury than do one. She had wit, humour, good-nature
and judgment. She was mistress of all the pleasing arts of conversation:
She was a woman of sense, and consequently a lover of pleasure. For my
part I knew her intimately, and never saw ought unbecoming the just
modesty of our sex; though more gay and free, than the folly of the
precise will allow.'