Yet, oh! if grief thy steps attend; Forget me not-forget me not. Mrs. Opie. Animated with an affection like this, the earth with all its inconveniences, is a paradise: even when toiling through the parched deserts of Lybia, the solitudes of the Ohio, or the frozen wastes of Lapland.' I love the memory of Mr. Pitt on many accounts. He was an unfortunate statesman, it is true; but he had a lofty eloquence, capacious views, and a noble mind. Sir Walter Farquhar calling one day, the premier observed him to be unusually ruffled. "What is the matter?" exclaimed the patient. "Why, to tell you the truth," replied Sir Walter, "I am extremely angry with my daughter. She has permitted herself to form an attachment for a young gentleman, by no means qualified in point of rank or fortune, to be my son-in-law." "Now, let me say one word in the young lady's behalf," returned the minister. "Is the young man, you mention, of a respectable family?" "He is." "Is he respectable in himself?" "He is." "Has he the manners and education of a gentleman?" has." "Has he an estimable character?" has." 66 Why, then, my dear Sir Walter, hesitate no longer. You and I are well acquainted with the delu "He "He "Sic amor contorquet caput nostrum," says a Lapland poet, "mutat cogitationes et sententias. Puerorum voluntas, voluntas venti; juvenum cogitationes, longæ cogitationes." Schefferi Lapponia, cap. xxv. sions of life. Let your daughter follow her own inclinations, since they appear to be virtuous. You have had more opportunities, than I have, of knowing the value of affection, and ought to respect it. Let the union take place; and I will not be unmindful, that I had the honour of recommending it." The physician followed the direction of his patient; the lovers were united; and the patronage of the minister soon testified his satisfaction. III. Though Horace seems to have known but little of this passion, the Romans in general, as well as Tibullus, Propertius, and Ausonius, in particular, seem to have enjoyed a much higher opinion of it. Hence deities were appointed to guard affection in many of its stages. One tied the nuptial bands; a second conducted the bride to her house; a third kept her from gadding; a fourth preserved a unity of soul; and a fifth took charge of reconciling the parties, when any difference accidentally occurred. Chesterfield called women "toys;" Montesquieu said, they were found to delight by personal charms1: while Cato declared to the senators, in a debate on the Appian law, that if they made women their equals, they would soon be their superiors. Hippocrates, Euripides, Plautus and St. Chrysostom, have likewise borne testimony to the dishonour of women. Weak 1 Spirit of Laws, b. xvl. c. 2. 2 Livy, lib. xxxiv. c. 2. men, in their turn, signalize their vanity and their heroism in the endeavour to degrade them: they call them the "weak sex;" the "frivolous sex;" the "sensitive sex;" the "bad sex." If you were men, as men you are in shew, Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 2. Some, following the example of Adam in his anger, style them "the fair defect of Nature:" while the Talmud of Babylon insinuates, that the great power, foreseeing the evils, women would bring upon men, refused to make Eve, till Adam had repeatedly requested him; fearful that men should consider the making of women an act of malice! Augustine, however, esteemed them the "pious sex:" a gentlier star His lovelier search illumin'd. See women in what country you will, with few exceptions,' we find, that travellers give the same account of their virtues: from Ledyard down to Golownin. The pedant, the coxcomb, and the man of the world, affect to despise women: so do those, who are conscious, that women despise them. But the man of pure sentiments, and of unaffected consciousness of his own strength, prides himself in his 1 Vide Shipwreck of the Oswego, p. 117, 145, 210, 225. companion: while the man of misfortune, hailing women by the endearing name of the "good sex,' compares them to Aurora and Thetis, asking arms for Memnon and Achilles. IV. "He is truly free," says Rousseau, "who, to ac-. complish his happiness, wants not the assistance of a second person." Fortunately for the moral of this argument, a man, so constituted, not only does not exist, but cannot exist. It is the wild vision of an imagination, teeming with enthusiasm, and producing in melancholy! Women are the charms and delights of our existence. When they love, they do so with purity, with disinterestedness, with constancy. Their hearts are sanctuaries, and fit to become the centres of every pure enjoyment. I speak not, it is true, of the gay, the frivolous, or the supercilious; and yet even to many of these, the following lines are not always inappropriate or inapplicable. Oh Woman! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please ; And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, Scott. The appetite of the wanton is like the south wind of Arabia, breathing over the strings of lutes. The strings relax, and the lutes are never in tune; the girdle of love bursts from under the bosom; while love is like a tree, yielding in all seasons either blossoms or fruit. It builds its nest, as it were, with cinnamon; and gives a charm to life, as silver leaf gives greater lustre to the polish of the chrystal. Men there are, however, who laugh at love! The power of ridicule alone distinguishes them from animals. In their families they are wasps, or gnats, or gad-flies: terrific as lions to their wives and children; but mere mice to men! Love is composed of all, that is delicate in happiness and pleasure: it is an union of desire, tenderness, and friendship; confidence the most unbounded; and esteem the most animated and solid. Filling the entire capacity of the soul, whether in sickness, in sorrow, or in poverty, it elevates the character by purifying every passion; while it polishes the manners with a manly softness. When the flame of a love, so pure and delicate as this, goes out, a friendship, the most solid and affecting, springs from its ashes. And where love, like this, exists, far better is it to be joined in death, than by the malice of a wayward fortune, to drag on years of anxious separation.' He who is capable of acting greatly and nobly, when 1 Ubi idem et maximus et honestissimus amor est, aliquando præstat morte jungi, quàm vita distrabi.-Valerius Maximus. Moore has a similar sentiment: VOL. III. Oh! I would ask no happier bed, Than the chill wave my love lies under : Sweeter to rest, together dead, Far sweeter, than to live asunder. P |