I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady;
but 'tis so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood, and
particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two or
three difficult terms.

The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best
account I know of them is in a French book called 'Le Comte de Gabalis,'
which both in its title and size is so like a novel, that many of the
fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen,
the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call _Sylphs,
Gnomes, Nymphs_, and _Salamanders_. The Gnomes, or Demons of Earth,
delight in mischief; but the Sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are
the best-conditioned creatures imaginable. For they say, any mortals may
enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a
condition very easy to all true adepts--an inviolate preservation of
chastity.

As to the following cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous as
the vision at the beginning, or the transformation at the end; (except
the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence). The human
persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of
Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty.

If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person, or in your
mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so
uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine
is happy enough to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I
am, with the truest esteem, Madam, your most obedient, humble servant,