Thus wisely careless, innocently gay, Cheerful he played the trifle life away, Till age at length his gentle breath supprest, As smiling infants sport themselves to rest. Notwithstanding his coarse habits and perverted sentiments, Rousseau was at times a grievous victim to the passion and power of love. It was not sensibility which he wanted-with which, on the contrary, his heart overflowed. A morbid imagination, unsettled principles, the propensities of an impassioned constitution, corrupted and defiled by early abandonment, degraded in him a nature gifted with the noblest and finest faculties. Poor man! broken in health and spirits;

man who enjoys a great popularity among a certain class, which is chiefly owing to his effeminate manner, soft voice and sentimental air, combined with an impassioned and insinuating address. He is in manner, at least, a pulpit Lothario-the very sybarite of saints. Spurious religious enthusiasm has certainly a singular connection with sensual ardor-so much so, that the morals of a rhapsodical sentimental religionist, without rational and well-matured principles, are ever to be suspected. Such persons always find their first disciples and apostles among weak and susceptible women. Still we believe that there is not only a love in religion, but also a religion in love, and that when this is pure and exalted it is more than any other feeling ex-prematurely old through disease, misfortune and a sinpressive of the spiritual and immortal part of our being; approximating us to the nature and happiness of those higher essences, whose thoughts and affections are not depressed and manacled by the bonds of flesh and blood-for they too love, according to the declaration of Raphael, the "sociable angel" to our first

parent:

Let it suffice thee that thou know'st
Us happy; and without love no happiness,
Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy'st
(And pure thou wert created) we enjoy
In eminence; and obstacle find none

Of membrane, joint, or limb, exclusive bars.

boon or bane of the children of men.

gularly agitated life; the sport of passion and outcast of fortune; he, at the unsentimental age of forty-five, almost fainted by the road side, with love for a woman, who, he admits, was neither very young nor very handsome. No one can read his fervid account of the feelings which overpowered him in his morning walk of miles, made expressly to entitle him to the customary salutation of a kiss from Madame d'Houdetot, without being convinced that the passion was deep in the "lake of his heart"-nel lago del cuore. Sobieski the Great, was the most uxorious and meanly compliant of husbands. The late viceroy Constantine, a man of so harsh and brutal a character, that common prudence compelled his family to substitute his younger brother in But to come down from these elevated regions-his place on the Muscovite throne, was softened and rethrough the pure ether of which it is sometimes re-strained only by his amiable consort, a Polish lady of defreshing to soar, as with angelic wings-we shall now licate frame and feeble health. "Teterrima causa belli,” treat somewhat discursively, indeed, of that earthly it may have been, which assembled the kings and chiefpassion of love, which is the delight or torment, the tains of Greece upon the plains of Troy-yet how terrible in its consequences was the beauty of Helen, and with And first, a word to those who deny its reality or what fame it has filled the world! Ulysses the astute, and scoff at it as an idle fancy or vain delusion. With the pious Eneas, could not altogether defy the fascinasuch, reason and facts avail little towards conviction; tion of female charms; and to come down to a later yet, if properly constituted, experience will sooner or period, the high Roman sacrificed for the sake of the later bring to them sweet or bitter proof. Nemo me Egyptian queen, "a world well lost." Huge Samimpune lacessit. It was Voltaire, we believe, the sneer-son laid his lion head upon the lap of Dalilah, and pering sceptic and unrivalled master of irony, with the mitted the Philistian traitress-we had almost saidsardonic, Mephistopheles grin-the impersonation and to spin from his poll the manly locks in which dwelt type of the hard, polished, disenchanting philosophy of his strength. the eighteenth century-who erected in his garden a statue of Cupid, and inscribed upon its base, "Whoever thou art, that approachest, do homage to him who either was, is, or shall be thy master!" Swift, the bitter, relentless contemner and satirist of humanity, who seemed actuated by a fiendish desire to strip our nature of its dignity and charm; who perversely scattered the feculence of a grovelling and disordered imagination upon beauty, delicacy and sentiment; even he, passed much of his life in the company of two amiable women, to whom he seemed bound by a singular infatuation, yet whose happiness he cruelly sacrificed by a conduct so utterly strange, if not selfish, as to defy all scrutiny into its cause. Pope, from his sympathy with Swift, his satire on women, his personal deformity, and the mocking pleasantry with which he generally alludes to the passion, would seem to have been a sceptic; and yet the fervor of his Eloisa, the lines to an unfortunate lady, and his devotion to Martha Blount, indicate that he too had a soft place in his heart, in spite of his admiration for the Epicurean philosophy, so exquisitely depicted in his character of Voiture.

'Twas love that brought upon his knees,
That hectoring kill-cow Hercules,
Transformed his leager-lion's skin
T'a petticoat and made him spin;
Seiz'd on his club and made it dwindle
T'a feeble distaff and a spindle.

But there is no occasion to refer to extraordinary personages, whether fabulous or real, for striking examples of the power of this passion over minds and tempers which would be deemed the least susceptible of its impression. We see every day, in ordinary life, the most singular transformations of character, and other surprising effects, produced in persons who would scarcely be supposed amenable to such a control. The hard lawyer, the greedy merchant, the bitter bigot, the frivolous man of the world, are all brought in turn and bound hand and foot at the shrine of Cupid. The strong man becomes weak; the passionate calm; the violent "roars you as gentle as a sucking dove;" the gay becomes sad; the melancholy cheerful; the sloven, an arbiter elegantiarum. Witness its effect upon a proud and beautiful young woman, too confident in her indif

ference, as pictured by the delicate pencil of La Bruyere, | view taught her more than she wished to know, and whom we thus venture to translate: "There lived in changed her suspicions to certainty. She avoids EuSmyrna a very beautiful girl called Emire, who was phrosine--no longer finds in her the qualities which even less known throughout the city, for her beauty, had charmed her-loses her taste for her conversation. than from the severity of her manners and the indiffer- She is fond of her no longer, and this change tells her ence which she felt for all men, whom she beheld, as that love has taken the place of friendship in her heart. she declared, without peril, and without any other emo- Ctesiphon and Euphrosine see each other every day with tions than those which she entertained for her friends or increasing attachment; they think of marrying; they for her brothers. She attached not the smallest credit are actually married. The news spreads through the to the extravagances which in all ages have been as- city, and it is proclaimed that two persons, at length, cribed to love; and those which she had witnessed her- have experienced the happiness, so rare, of espousing self, she could not comprehend. She knew no passion the objects of their love. Emire hears it and is in but that of friendship. A young and charming person despair. She feels the whole force of her passion; she to whom she was indebted for this experience, had visits Euphrosine, for the sole gratification of seeing rendered it so agreeable to her, that her sole anxiety Ctesiphon again; but this young man is still the lover was to prolong it, and she could not imagine by what of his wife, and finds a mistress in his charming bride; other sentiment the esteem and confidence with which in Emire he recognizes only a person who is dear to she was so well satisfied, could be cooled and surpassed. her. The unfortunate girl loses her sleep and appetite; She spoke of nothing but Euphrosine-it was the name she becomes weak-her mind wanders-she takes her of this young friend—and all Smyrna talked of nobody brother for Ctesiphon, and speaks to him as to a lover. but of her and Euphrosine; their friendship passed into She is undeceived, and blushes with shame; she soon a proverb. Emire had two brothers, who were young, falls into greater extravagances-ceases to blush for of great beauty, and with whom all the women of them--no longer, indeed, perceives them. Then she Smyrna were smitten; she loved them as a sister loves begins to fear men, but it is too late; for her mind is her brothers. There was a priest of Jupiter, who had unseated; she has intervals of returning reason, which access to her father's house, who was pleased with her, but add to her misery. The youth of Smyrna, who who ventured to declare himself, but received nothing beheld her once so proud and insensible, confess that but contempt. An old man, who, confiding in his birth the gods have punished her too severely." and fortune, had the same audacity, met with a similar fate. She triumphed—and hitherto, it was only in the midst of her brothers, a priest and an old man, that she proclaimed herself insensible. It seemed that Heaven was resolved to expose her to stronger trials, which seemed but to render her more vain, and to confirm her reputation as a girl whom love could not touch. Of three lovers, who came successively captivated by her charms, and the depth of whose passion she did not fear to behold-the first, in a transport of feeling, plunged a dagger in his breast, at her feet-the second, overwhelmed by despair at not being listened to with favor, sought his death in the Cretan war-and the third died of languor and want of sleep. He who was to revenge them had not yet appeared. The old man, who had been so unfortunate in his attachment, had been cured of it by reflections upon his age and the character of the person whom he had sought to please. He asked her consent to continue to see her, and she permitted it. One day, he brought with him his son, who was young, of an agreeable countenance and elegant person. She saw him with interest, and as he was very silent in the presence of his father, she thought him rather dull, and wished that he had been blessed with more wit. He saw her alone, talked sufficiently, and with sprightliness; but as he looked at her but little, and spoke still less of her beauty, she was surprised, and indeed somewhat indignant, that so handsome and witty a person should be devoid of gallantry. She spoke of him to her friend, who desired to see him. He had eyes for Euphrosine alone-he told her that she was handsome-and Emire, who had been so indifferent, became jealous, perceived that Ctesiphon was sincere in what he said, and that he was not only gallant but tender. Thenceforward, she felt less at ease with her friend; she wished to see them together once more, to be convinced; and a second inter- The

We have cited this remarkable extract, for the beauty of the picture and the delicacy of the style, rather than its justness, although we have met with an instance where love produced in a less degree, the effects so powerfully and touchingly described, in which, however, the disappointment proceeded from obstacles foreign to the parties interested. We do not think it possible, that such a passion could spring up and grow to such a head in the heart of a woman spontaneously and without the nour ishment of a corresponding affection. Love rarely or never originates in the female breast, which is thus protected and strengthened by a wise law of nature. It must be the result of attentions and devotion, real or feigned-for woman is to be softened only by kindness, and her love always begins with sympathy; she is therefore said to yield, to be melted, to surrender.

But the most curious examples of the power of this passion, are exhibited by self mortifying puritans, whose very creed inculcates the eradication of all that is inviting in fancy or attractive in sentiment. Alas! the conventicle affords not a better protection than the chapel, and the nasal twang is sometimes constrained to break forth into amorous ditties. Poor Dr. Watts, of hymning celebrity, whose amiable character could not be hardened by the rigidity of his creed, was sorely exercised by the tender passion. The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul of Dr. Doddridge, did not altogether defend him from a weakness, the too ardent confession of which has somewhat scandalized his pious admirers. The devotion of Mrs. Hutchinson to "her Colonel" could not be excelled by the tenderness of the fairest lady of the polite court of Charles for her sighing cavalier. Women

To whom the saints were so beholden-
Rubb'd down the teachers tir'd and spent
With holding forth for parliament.

substitution of a crop for the lovelocks of the

to his heart, which swells, as it were, to embrace it. To be seated at her footstool, is a greater privilege than to press the golden cushions of a throne; to clasp her hand, a higher boon than to grasp a sceptre. Appetite fails; sleep deserts the couch which is no longer that of repose. A languor diffuses itself through his frame, which is more delicious than the energy of health and the vigor of action. The long night is too short to think of her; and when the dim outlines of objects are

gallant cavaliers, could not entirely cool the ardor of the roundheads. Tom Paine pithily remarked, that if the quakers had had the making of the world, what a drab-colored creation it would have been. They might have clothed external nature in the sober livery of their sect, yet their hearts would not have been drab-colored. In spite of all these harsh and crabbed opinions and expedients, Nature wil speak out and vindicate herself. One of the most loving faces we ever beheld, peeped forth from beneath the quaker bon-discerned through the casement, and the birds are heard net. The young and dashing Count Segur was captivated by a fair quaker girl of New England, whose charms he has not failed to celebrate in the recollections of his age. "Marry for love alone, but see that thou love that which is lovely," was the pure, wise and tender precept, of the broad-brimmed founder of Penn-fume-the air is balmy as that breathed by the lifesylvania.

to stir among the branches before their voices salute the dawn, the approach of day is welcomed, only that the eye may once more rest upon her and be happy. Then the mind is redolent of poetry; the heart fragrant with sentiment. Then the flowers exhale unwonted per

of paradise, and the universe smiles as though it had never been defaced by sin or depopulated by death, "beautiful in the uncultivated loveliness of gardens long run wild ;" radiant with

giving winds of heaven. Then all nature is clothed with It is vain to dispute, resist, or to resolve, we are all hues of unearthly brightness, and the common landobnoxious to this irresistible power, whose sway every scape is transformed into another garden of Eden. The man, unless he be more or less than man, must acknow-trail of the serpent is no longer seen upon the flowers ledge, at some period of his life. Be he soldier or scholar, ambitious politician, votary of pleasure, or slave of business, it matters not-sooner or later his heart is touched his spirit is moved within him-and he loses the mastery of his affections. And when this eventful The purple light of love and bloom of young desires. period has arrived, how altered are the thoughts of his mind and the sentiments of his heart! Perhaps he Then too, there is a charm in solitude never felt does not suspect what it is that possesses him-perhaps loved one can surpass. To lie stretched for hours in before, and which nothing but the presence of the he resists with efforts which but entangle him the more. He wanders about, restless, uneasy, dissatisfied. He dreamy contemplation, musing unutterable things; to feels himself under a power which he can neither dis- wander in the silent fields, or pierce the deep recesses lodge nor control. Like the stricken deer, he rushes on of the forest, while the mind glows with thoughts, with the herd, or plunges in the deepest recesses of the and the heart thrills with emotions which lap the spirit thicket, in the vain search for relief. More generally, in Elysium; "to outwatch the Bear" beneath the however, he swallows the potent drug with avidity, Chaldean canopy of stars, until the feelings are someand yields himself a willing victim to the intoxicating times so overwrought that tears course down the man. draught. He no longer lives for himself alone; his liest cheek; these are the delights of the solitary existence becomes bi-partite or dual. An eye has met lover. The heart labors as though it were compresshis which is gifted with a strange fascination; a voice ed within the bosom, or dissolves in tenderness. If has fallen upon his ear charged with the sweetest sickness chase the rose from the cheek, or sadness dim melody; which dwells in his memory as if it were the eye of the living idol, how deep is the sympathy ever heard, and is repeated in his dreams as though an awakened. Then is the force of genuine love increased angel discoursed unto him "most excellent music." tenfold. It seems as if there could be no higher pleaAnd ah! with what untold delight does he not listen to sure in life, than to soothe her sufferings, to sympathe voice of the charmer! Then his heart acknow-thise with her sorrow, to support her wounded spirit; ledges the truth of the sentiment--"A beautiful face is the fairest of spectacles, and the most exquisite harmony is the sound of the voice of her we love." Then every other passion, if not eradicated, is at least suspended. Ambition flings aside the sword and forgets the glittering vision of a sceptre the cravings of sense are hushed, avarice ceases to count its hoards, interest drops the quill and closes the ledger. There is but one feeling in the heart; there are but two persons in the world. Then frail, delicate woman, is gifted with a giant's power over the strong man. He trembles in her presence, and is withered by her frown. He does homage to her as to a divinity, and deems it even heroic to bow his strength to her weakness. Then it is happiness beyond compare, to be near her, to be in her presence, within the sound of her voice; to catch even the rustling of her robe, the echo of her footsteps, the shadow of her form. A flower which she has plucked, an object which she has touched, a lock of her hair, becomes a priceless treasure. He presses it in secret

that it were a privilege, indeed, to consecrate existence,
in bearing or at least sharing the burden of her grief.
Beauty is never so powerful, as when downcast and
distressed. The flower is fairest when it begins to
droop. The anger of the justly offended hero, in
Samson Agonistes, almost vanishes, when the chorus,
announcing the approach of the "bosom serpent" who
had betrayed him, exclaims-

But now with head declined,
Like a fair flower surcharged with dew, she weeps,
And words addressed seem into tears dissolved,
Wetting the borders of her silken veil.

How touchingly does Milton describe his own recon-
ciliation with his penitent wife, when he represents
Adam moved to forgiveness by the resistless tears of

our common mother.

She ended weeping; and her lowly plight
Immoveable till peace obtained from fault
Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought
Commiseration; soon his heart relented,
Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,

Now at his feet submissive in distress;

Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,
His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid:

As one disarmed, his anger all he lost;

Such if thou wert in all men's view,

An universal show,

What would my fancy have to do?

My feelings to bestow?

And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon. Selfish the passion of love is not, whatever shallow There is indeed much power in the tear of woman, observers may assert. It is on the contrary, at least in and she knows it well. Shakspeare calls it "woman's noble natures, a generous devotion, which finds its highweapon." The poets when they wish to give the high-est delight in the sacrifice of convenience, pleasure, inest charm to beauty, describe it as pensive, languid, touching, drooping, tearful. "Downcast and beautiful those eyes."

She looked as if she sat at Eden's door,
And wept for those who could return no more.
Or let the fair one beautifully cry,

In Magdalen's loose hair and lifted eye.
How moving is this picture in Milton's affecting sonnet
on his deceased wife, the one whom he seems to have
loved with deep tenderness, only interrupted by her
early death!

terest; in a word, of self. It is La Rochefoucault, we believe, who says, that the reason why lovers are never tedious to each other, is that their conversation is always about themselves. This sentence like most of those of the French philosopher, is rather pointed than just. The true explanation is found in the deep interest and ardent attachment which are mutually felt. One of the most pleasing and generous effects of love, is its adoption of the ties of nature.

It embraces the

whole kindred of the person loved-parent, sister, brother with the tender attachment inspired by natural affection. Perhaps there is no better test of genuine love, than is this drawing which is felt towards all those who are connected with its object. It is a new birth and adoption into the family fold.

Methought I saw my late espoused saint, Brought to me, like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint. The painters, too, have shown the same instinctive sentiment in the choice of their subjects. Esther pleading Those, too, who would confound it with merely senwith Ahasuerus for her kindred and people; the Jew-sual feeling, forget that one of its most marked effects, ish women bewailing the massacre of the innocents; Ruth the Moabitess, a desolate gleaner in the field of Boaz; Jeptha's daughter, the Iphigenia of the Bible, preparing to submit with filial piety to the cruel vow of her agonized parent; Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are not these and other kindred personages have ever been the favorite subjects of the pencil. What is it that renders the Beatrice Cenci so beautiful, but the pale sadness which is diffused over the delicate features of the doomed maiden? Cleopatra is always represented at the moment, when the asp is fastening his deadly fangs in her lovely bosom. Why do we gaze with such deep emotion upon the "Niobe, all tears," but from our sympathy with the maternal anguish, which agonizes without disfiguring her beautiful face?

The most remarkable examples of connubial devotion have been manifested in cases where its object was delicate and suffering. Almost the only tender remark to be found in the writings of Swift, is one in a letter to St. John, where, alluding to the afflictions of lady Bolingbroke, he touchingly remarks, as if to soothe or console his friend, that it is ever the fate of the most estimable women to be martyrs to suffering. Indeed, we go farther, and assert, that much of the charm and influence of woman is owing to her weakness and dependance-her "fine defects of nature;" without which she would scarcely awaken sympathy or inspire tenderness, as is observed in those of a bold and mas.

culine character. Perhaps the constant care and solace
which delicate and suffering persons require, maintain
those habits of attention and devotion, which nourish
and preserve affliction, as well in those who render, as
in those who receive them. "We love those to whom
we do good," is a maxim equally old and just. Thus, by
a kind disposition of Providence, has strength been foun-
ded upon weakness, and evil been transmuted to good.
Let other bards of angels sing,
Bright suns without a spot,
But thou art no such perfect thing,
Rejoice that thou art not.

is the reformation and purification of him who is brought under its influence. To him every thing gross, becomes revolting; every idea which degrades woman, painful and intolerable. A high respect, a reverential regard, is, indeed, the very essence and foundation of love. It is a passion which has made almost as many conversions as religion. It is, in fact, a religion of the heart. It fills the soul with pure desires, and inspires the mind with elevated aspirations. The lover is fired by a noble ambition, to render himself worthy of her whom he delights to regard, as all purity, goodness and truth. He seeks after "whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report." With what regret, nay remorse, does he not look back, even upon the venial and natural errors of his past life.

And with a heart repentant of all crimes,

Pardon he asks for youth, ten thousand times.

He is deeply penitent, and anxious to consecrate the
future to holier thoughts and nobler pursuits.

And not in vain, when thoughts are cast
Upon the irrevocable past,

The penitent sincere,

May for a worthier future sigh,

While trickles from his downcast eye,

No unavailing tear.

Of this effect of love Petrarch is a noble example. Poet, scholar, philosopher, statesman, he is proud to proclaim that his turning from the paths of sin and folly to the steep ascent of virtue and of piety, was the consequence of his love for the saintly Laura. Fervently though he admires her person, his passion is character. While celebrating her charms with all the excelled by respect for her purity and reverence for her warmth of passion and enthusiasm of love, he yet constantly reverts to her spotless sanctity, and unbending severity of virtue. To his enraptured eyes, she is more than woman. Though clothed in fleshly apparel, she is a spirit sent from on high to guard and guide his erring steps; to throw a sanctified influence upon his path;