"old women that have saved money? Do not I see

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beauty from fifteen to twenty-one rendered null "and void to all intents and purposes, and those "six precious years of womanhood put under a sta“ tute of virginity ? What! shall I call that rancid "passion love, which passes between an old bache"lor of fifty-six and a widow lady of forty-nine? "Never! never! What advantage is society to "reap from an intercourse, where the big belly is "oftenest on the man's side? Would any persuade "me that such a passion was natural, unless the "human race were more fit for love as they approached the decline, and, like silk-worms, be"came breeders, just before they expired?"

Whether love be natural or no, replied my friend gravely, it contributes to the happiness of every society into which it is introduced. All our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals: love is a method of protracting our greatest pleasure; and surely that gamester, who plays the greatest stake to the best advantage, will at the end of life rise victorious. This was the opinion of Vamini, who affirmed, that every hour was lost which was not spent in love. His accusers were unable to comprehend his meaning, and the poor advocate for love was burned in flames, alas, no way metaphorical. But whatever advantages the individual may reap from this passion, society will certainly be refined and improved by its introduction: all laws, calculated to discourage it, tend to embrute the species and weaken the state. Though it cannot plant morals in the human breast, it cultivates them when there: pity, generosity, and honour receive a brighter polish from its assistance; and a single amour is sufficient entirely to brush off the clown.

But it is an exotic of the most delicate constitution; it requires the greatest art to introduce it inte

a state, and the smallest discouragement is sufficient to repress it again. Let us only consider with what ease it was formerly extinguished in Rome, and with what difficulty it was lately revived in Europe: it seemed to sleep for ages, and at last fought its way among us through tilts, tournaments, dragons, and all the dreams of chivalry. The rest of the world, China only excepted, are and have ever been ntter strangers to its delights and advantages. In other countries, as men find themselves stronger than women, they lay a claim to a rigorous superiority; this is natural, and love which gives up this natural advantage must certainly be the effect of art. An art calculated to lengthen out our happier moments, and add new graces to society.

I entirely acquiesce in your sentiments, says the lady with regard to the advantages of this passion, but cannot avoid giving it a nobler origin than you have been pleased to assign. I must think, that those countries, where it is rejected, are obliged to have recourse to art to stifle so natural a production, and those nations, where it is cultivated, only make nearer advances to Nature. The same efforts that are used in some places to suppress pity and other natural passions, may have been employed to extinguish love. No nation, however unpolished, is remarkable for innocence, that is not famous for passion; it has flourished in the coldest, as well as the warmest regions. Even in the sultry wilds of Southern America, the lover is not satisfied with possessing his mistress's person without having her mind.

But the effects of love are too violent to be the result of an artificial passion. Nor is it in the power of fashion to force the constitution into those changes which we every day observe. Several have died of it. Few lovers are unacquainted with the fate of the two Italian lovers, Da Corsin and Julia Bellamano, who after a long separation expired with pleasure in each other's arms. Such instances are too strong confirmations of the reality of the passion, and serve to shew, that suppressing it is but opposing the natural dictates of the heart. Adieu.

LETTER CXVI.

TO THE SAME.

THE clock just struck two, the expiring taper rises and sinks in the socket, the watchman forgets the hour in slumber, the laborious and the happy are at rest, and nothing wakes but meditation, guilt, re velry and despair. The drunkard once more fills the destroying bowl, the robber walks his midnight round, and the suicide lifts his guilty arm against his own sacred person.

Let me no longer waste the night over the page of antiquity, or the sallies of contemporary genius, but pursue the solitary walk where Vanity, ever changing, but a few hours past walked before me, where she kept up the pageant, and now, like a froward child, seems hushed with her own importunities.

What a gloom hangs all around! the dying lamp feebly emits a yellow gleam, no sound is heard but of the chiming clock, or the distant watch-dog. All

GG 2

The summi nemples and t which were 1 ya machongaished a 1A 4 Troy me fules for hours and ar I made them leave The rewards of the And With, and not on useful, toped worry. Their riches and opulence the invaders, who, though at first repulsed, pain, conquered by perseverance, and at last the dhe hendants into undistinguished destru How few appear in those streets, which h w hours ago were crowded; and those who www longer wear their daily mask, r hide them lewdness or their misery. Mut why are those who make the s and and a short repase from w helent? They a

e world has disclaimed them; society turns its back on their distress, and has given them up to nakedss and hunger. These poor shivering females have ce seen happier days, and been flattered into auty. They have been prostituted to the gay curious villain, and are now turned out to meet severity of winter. Perhaps, now lying at the ors of their betrayers, they sue to wretches whose arts are insensible, or debauchees who may curse, t will not relieve them.

Why, why was I born a man, and yet see the sufings of wretches I cannot relieve! Poor houseless eatures! the world will give you reproaches, but Il not give you relief. The slightest misfortunes the great, the most imaginary uneasinesses of the ch, are aggravated with all the power of eloquence, d held up to engage our attention and sympathetic rrow. The poor weep unheeded, persecuted by ery subordinate species of tyranny; and every law, hich gives others security, becomes an enemy to

em.

Why was this heart of mine formed with so much nsibility or why was not my fortune adapted to 3 impulse! Tenderness, without a capacity of reeving, only makes the man who feels it more retched than the object which sues for assistance.

Adieu.

LETTER