As every thing connected with the soft passion of Love, will claim the highest consideration in the undertaking about to be commenced, it may not be amiss to dedicate the first article to his Godship; or, at least, to a remark upon those emotions attributed to his almighty power.

That love was designed to be the chief business of our lives, is evident, from the peculiar strength which NATURE has given that passion over every other, and from the length of time that we are susceptible of its influence. Other animals experience its power but at stated intervals; and then in so limited and mechanical a manner, that its impulses are gone the moment the purposes of procreation are answered, and the desire ceases with the capability to perform its operations. But, with men and women, the season of love lasts from the moment in which Nature first kindles it in their blood at the age of puberty, to the latest period of Ram. Mag.-No. 1.

B

their lives; for even the incapability of administering or of receiving the sensual portion of its pleasure, does not incapacitate us from enjoying that intellectual luxury which springs from the contemplation of personal, mentál, or moral beauty, in a favourite object of our opposite sex. Nature has been particularly bountiful to her creature man, in giving him a perpetual relish for the pleasures of love, and making them the most agreeable of all his pastimes; for what is there in the world that can afford us such superlative bappiness? Does ambition, avarice, drunkenness, or gluttony, yield their votaries a hundredth part of the felicity experienced by two youthful lovers during their courtship-and at that period when they sink panting and breathless in each other's arms, after the first taste of Hymeneal bliss? "Can ought saint, sage, or sophist ever writ"-can spirits from above, or dæmons from below, cozen us out of our senses, and seduce us to deny that the happiest moments of our lives are spent in the society of lovely woman? While we are single, is she not the Polar Stor that guides our course? Is it not our grand object to render ourselves acceptable to her to acquire a competence in order to support ber-and ultimately to gain possession of her, and to enjoy her? There is no pursuit but what had its origin either in a desire to render ourselves agreeable to her, or in her support and protection: whether we cross the seas for war or merchandize-whether we toil by night.or by day, the object of all our efforts will be found to have sprung from love, however we may be subsequently seduced by interest or ambition.

It is true that all this is founded on the secret spring of sexual-desire, which nature has implanted in us, that, as creatures of necessity, we should, in spite of ourselves, do her journeywork; but then she has decked it with such various charms-endowed it with/ such exquisite sensations-and made her service the greatest boon of our existence.

In yielding to the dictates of love, and in performing its joyful rites, we are subscribing to the religion of

*

NATURE; we are pious without hypocrisy, and our fervour arises from real instead of pretended inspiration. Our devotion is not the discipline of gloomy bigots, but the ardent enthusiasm of zealous votaries, who are prompted by a love of heaven, and not goaded by a fear of hell. We may perhaps be told, that all these ineffable delights are fleeting and imaginaryand that when once the spells of expectation are broken, and the charm of novelty destroyed, we shall in vain seek for that luscious zest which exhilirated our souls when first we drank of the magic cup: but we would ask, whether the enlivening goblet of rich Falernian wine is despised because we have drank of it the hundredth time? Do we despise every pleasure that has lost the first fascination of novelty, and because it comes not in the shape of an untried, untasted luxury? No: the endearing acquaintance with the ecstatic delights of love only renders our homage the more loyal and the more constant; while we abstain, we are able to refrain-but, when once we taste, we are anxious' again and again to partake of the delicious banquet, and however the want of that economy which is necessary in the enjoyment of every good thing, may occasionally cloy, yet the unutterable raptures of connubial bliss are a never-ending, still-beginning, consolation to the sons and daughters of Adam and of Eve.

Perhaps we may also be told of the evils which arise from the junction of uncongenial souls, and be entertained with a history of wars, and jars, and brawls, and strife, which sometimes ensues the connection of the sexes-but with this we insist we have nothing to do; it is not the fault of Nature, but of the fools themselves, for having taken up with the wrong half, and when that is the case, they can no more be expected to join in mutual harmony than two odd halves of a pair of scissars to fit and join in a close embrace.

*We perfectly agree with what the laughing sage, Boccaccio, says in his witty and well conducted allegory

"Che quello servigio che piu si poteva far grato a Dio, si era rimettere il DIAVOLO in INFERNO."

Novella X.-Giorno III.