صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

der fuch proceedings excufable; and I hope I fhould have fenfe enough not to think vice lefs vicious because it was in fashion. I efteem much the morals of the Turks, an ignorant people, but very polite, in my opinion. A gallant convicted of having debauched a married woman, is looked upon by them with the fame horror as an abandoned woman by us; he is fure never to make his fortune; and every one would be afhamed to give a confiderable employment to a man fufpected of being guilty of fo enormous a crime. What would they fay in that moral nation, were they to fee one of our anti-knight-errants, who are always in pursuit of adventures to put innocent young women in distress, and to ruin the honour of women of fashion; who regard beauty, youth, rank, and virtue, but as fo many fpurs to incite their defire to ruin, and who place all their glory in appearing artful feducers, forgetting that, with all their care, they can never attain but to the fecond rank, the devils having been long fince in poffeffion of the first!

I own, that our barbarous manners are fo well calculated for the establishment of vice and mifery (which is infeparable from it) that they must have hearts and heads infinitely above the common, to enjoy the felicity of a marriage fuch as I have defcribed. Nature is fo weak, and fo given to change, that it is difficult to fupport the beft founded conftancy, amidst thofe many diffipations that our ridiculous customs have rendered inevitable. A husband who loves his wife, is in pain to fee her take the liberties which fashion allows;

it appears hard to refuse them to her, and he finds himself obligod to conform himself to the polite manners of Europe; to fe, every day, her hands a prey to every one who will take them; to hear her difplay, to the whole world, the charms of her wit; to fhew her neck in full day; to drefs for balls and fhows, to attract admirers, and to liften to the idle flattery af 1 thousand and a thousand fops. Can any man fupport his esteem for a creature fo public, or, at leaft, does not the lofe much of her merit!

I return to the Oriental maxims, where the most beautiful women content themfelves with limiting the power of their charms to him who has a right to enjoy them; they have too much honour to with to make other men miferable, and are too fincere not to own they think themselves capable of exciting paffion.

I remember a conversation I had with a lady of great quality at Conftantinople, the moft amiable woman I ever knew in my life, and for whom I had afterwards the moft tender friendship; the owned, ingenuously, to me, that she was content with her husband. What libertines youChriftian women are! (fhe faid;) it is permitted you to receive vifits from as many men as you pleafe; and your laws permit you, without limitation, the ufe of wine. I affured her fhe was very much misinformed; that it was true we received vifits, but thofe vifits were full of form and refpect, and that it was a crime to hear talk of love, or to love any other than our husbands. Your husbands are very good (faid the, laughing) to content themselves

which is, notwithstanding, the only foundation of all the fine fyftem of polite gallantry.

A paffion, that wishes only to content itfelf with the lofs of what it thinks the most amiable in the world; a paffion founded on injuftice, fupported by deceit, and followed by crimes, remorfe, fhame, and contempt;-can it be delightful to a virtuous heart? Yet this is the amiable equipage of all unlawful engagements; we find ourfelves obliged to eradicate from the foul all the fentiments of honour infeparable from a noble education, and to live in an eternal purfuit of that which we condema; obliged to have our pleafures impoifoned by remorfe, and to be reduced to the unhappy ftate of renouncing virtue, yet not able to content ourfelves with vice.

We cannot taste the fweets of perfect love but in a well-fuited marriage. Nothing fo much diftinguishes a little mind as to stop at words. What fignifies that custom (for which we fee very good reafons) of making the name of hufband and wife ridiculous ? A hufband fignifies, in the general interpretation, a jealous mortal, a quarrelfome tyrant, or a good fort of fool, on whom we may impofe any thing; a wife is a domeftic dæmon, given to this poor man to deceive and torment him. The conduct of the generality of people fufficiently juftifies thefe two characters. But I fay, again, What fignify words? A well-re gulated marriage is not like thofe of ambition and intereft: it is two lovers who live together. Let a prieft pronounce certain words, let an attorney fign certain papers; look upon thefe preparations as

a lover does on a ladder of cords, that he fixes to the window of his miftrefs.

It is impoffible that a perfect and well-founded love fhould be happy but in the peaceable poffeffion of the object beloved, and that peace does not take from the fweetnefs and vivacity of a paflion fuch as I have imagined. If I would amufe myfelf in writing romances, I fhould not place the feat of true happiness in Arcadia, or on the borders of Hymen. I am not fuch a prude as to limit the most delicate tenderness to wifhes; I fhould begin the romance by the marriage of two perfons united by their mind, tafte, and inclination; can any thing be more happy than to unite their interest and their life? The lover has the pleasure of giving the last mark of his esteem and confidence to his miftrefs,; fhe, in return, gives him the care of her repofe and liberty. Can they give each other more dear or more tender pledges And is it not natutal to wish to give to each other inconteftible proofs of that tendernefs with which the foul is penetrated?

I know there are fome people of falfe delicacy, who maintain that the pleafures of love are only due to difficulties and dangers. They fay, very wittily, the role would not be the rose without thorns, and a thousand other trifles of that nature, which make fo little impreffion on my mind, that I am perfuaded, was I a lover, the fear of hurting her I loved would make me unhappy, if the poffeffion was accompanied with dangers to her. The life of married lovers is very different, they pafs it in a chain of mutual obligations and marks of benevolence,

benevolence, and have the pleasure of forming the entire happiness of the object beloved; in which point I place perfect enjoyment.

The most trifling cares of economy become noble and delicate, when they are heightened by fentiments of tenderness. To furnifh a room is no longer furnish ing a room, it is ornamenting the place where I expect my lover; to order a fupper is not fimply giving orders to a cook, it is amufing my self in regaling him I love. These neceffary occupations, regarded in this light by a lover, are pleasures infinitely more fenfible and lively than cards and public places, which makes the happiness of the multitude incapable of true pleasure. A paffion happy and contented, foftens every movement of the foul, and gilds each object that we look

[blocks in formation]

To a happy lover (I mean one married to his mistress) if he has any employment, the fatigues of the camp, the embarraffments of court, every thing becomes agreeable when he can fay to himself, it is to ferve her I love. If fortune is favourable, (for that does not depend on merit) and gives fuccefs to his undertakings, all the advantages he receives are offerings due to her charms, and he finds, in the fuccefs of his ambition, pleasure much more lively and worthy a noble mind, than that of railing his fortune, or of being applauded by the public. He enjoys his glory, his rank, his riches, but as they regard her he loves; and it is her lover the hears praised, when he gains the approbation of the par, liament, the praises of the army, or the favour of his .prince. In misfortune, it is his confolation to

retire to a person who feels his forrow, and to say to himself in her arms, "My happiness does not depend on the caprice of fortune; here is my affured afylum against all grief; your esteem makes me infenfible to the injustice of a court, or the ingratitude of a mafter; I feel a fort of pleasure in the lofs of my eftate, as that misfortune gives me new proofs of your virtue and tendernefs. How little defirable is grandeur to perfons already happy? We have no need of flatterers or equipages; I reign in your heart, and I poffefs in your perfon all the delights of nature." In fhort, there is no fituation of which the melancholy may not be foftened by the company of the perfon we love. Even an illness is not without its pleasures, when we are attended by one we love. I fhould never have done, was I to give you a detail of all the charms of an union in which we find, at once, all that flatters the fenfes in the most delicate and most extended pleafure; but I cannot conclude without mentioning the fatisfaction of feeing each day increase the amiable pledges of our tender friendship, and the occupation of improving them according to their different fexes. We abandon ourfelves to the tender inftin&t of nature refined by love. We admire in the daughter the beauty of the mother, and refpect in the fon the appearances of understanding and natural probity which we efteem in the father.

It is a pleasure of which God himself (according to Mofes) was fenfible, when feeing what he had done, he found it good,

A propos of Mofes, the firft plan of happiness infinitely furpaffed all others; and I cannot

form

form to myself an idea of paradife more delightful than that ftate in which our first parents were placed: that did not faft becaufe they did not know the world; (which is the true reason that there are fo few love-matches happy.) Eve may be confidered as a foolish child, and Adam a man very little enlightened. When people of that fort meet, they may, perhaps, be amorous at firft, but that cannot laft. They form to themselves, in the violence of their paffions, ideas above nature; a man thinks his mistress an angel because she is handfome; a woman is inchanted with the merit of her lover, becaufe he adores her. The first change of her complexion takes from his adoration, and the husband ceafing to adore her, becomes hateful to her, who had no other foundation for her love; by degrees they are difgufted with one another, and, after the example of our first parents, they throw on each other the crime of their mutual weakness; afterwards coldness and contempt follow a great pace, and they believe they muft hate each other because they are married; their fmalleft faults are magnified in each others fight, and they are blinded to their mutual perfections. A commerce efta blished upon paffion can have no other attendants. A man, when he marries his miftrefs, ought to forget that he then appears adorable to him; to confider that he is but a fimple mortal, fubject to dif cafes, caprice, and ill-humour. He must prepare his conftancy to fupport the lofs of her beauty, and collect a fund of complacency, which is neceffary for the continual converfation of the perfon who is most agrecable, and the least un

equal. The woman, on her fide, muft not expect a continuance of flatteries and obedience. She must difpofe herfelf to obey agreeably, a fcience very difficult, and, of confequence, of great merit to a man capable of feeling. She muft strive to heighten the charms of a mistress by the good fenfe and solidity of a friend. When two perfons, prepoffeffed with fentiments fo reafonable, are united by eternal ties, all nature fimiles upon them, and the common objects become charming.

It appears to me a life infinitely more delightful, more elegant, and more pleafurable, than the best conducted and most happy gallantry.

A woman capable of res flection cannot but look upon her lover as her feducer, who would take advantage of her weakness to give himself a momentary pleasure, at the expence of her repofe, of her glory, and of her life A highwayman, who claps a pistol to the breaft, to take away your purse, appears to me more honeft and lefs guilty; andI have fo good an opinion of myfelf as to think, was Ia man, E fhould be as capable to lay the plan of an affaffination as that of debauching an honeft woman, re fpectable in the world, and happy in her marriage. Should I be ca pable of empoifoning a theart by infpiring it with an unhappy paffion, to which the muft facrifice her honour,tranquillity, and virtue! Shall I render a perfon despicable because the appears amiable to me! Shall I reward her tenderness! by rendering her house no longer. agrecable, her children indifferent, and her husband hateful! I believe thefe reflections would appear of the fame force, if my fex did ren

der

Hufh-foftly tread, and filence keep;
The wanton gods are all asleep;
Let's break their darts and bows,

So in our turn

We'll make them mourn,

And give the world repofe.

'Tis done for fcarce the goddess fpoke,
But lo! their darts and bows are broke;
Their quivers hang in triumph high,
When thus the nymphs exprefs their joy:
Our victory's great,
Our glory's compleat,

No longer shall we be alarm'd;
Then fing and rejoice,

With one heart and voice,
For Cupid at length is difarm'd.
Ye nymphs and ye fwains,
Who dwell on thefe plains,

And have by fond paffions been harm'd,
Secure of your hearts

Now laugh at his darts,

For Cupid at length is difarm'd.
Rouz'd with the noife, the god in wild affright
Awakes; but oh! what objects fhock his fight!
His dreaded arms in fcatter'd shivers thrown;
-O cruel goddefs-but I fcorn to moan.
Revenge be mine-ftill one unbroken dart
Remains-He said, and lanc'd it thro' her heart.
Beware how you the god of love provoke ;
Ah! what avail a thousand arrows broke,
If one remains to waft

The dire heart-wounding shaft!

Ah! what avail a thoufand arrows broke
If one remains to waft the fatal stroke!

The ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE:
A fragment of Menander, tranflated by Francis Fawks, M. A.

WHOE'ER approaches to the Lord of all,
And with his offerings defolates the stall;
Who brings an hundred bulls with garlands drest,
The purple mantle, or the golden veft,
Or ivory figures richly wrought around,
Or curious images with emeralds crown'd;
And hopes with thefe God's favour to obtain, f
His thoughts are foolish and his hopes are vain.
He, only he may truft his pray'rs will rife,
And heav'n accept his grateful facrifice,

Who

« السابقةمتابعة »