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feventh book de Legibus, tells a pleasant story to the like effect, of a city under ground, the inhabitants of which being furnished through certain apertures with small portions of light, conceived it was impoffible there fhould be any other place equally capable of affording them pleasure and delight; but when fome of them emerged from their fubterranean darkness, and beheld the beauties of the broad and glorious day, although they were at firft uncomfortably dazzeled by its fuperior light, they foon difdained the fancied felicities of their dark abode, and deplored the miseries of their concealed friends:

For he wants wit, that wants resolved will
To learn his wit t' exchange the bad for better.

A SIXTH RULE is to follow the advice, good, counsel, and timely persuasion of friends. Many are of opinion, that in this blind, licentious paffion, counsel can do no good;, but without queftion, good counfel and advice muft needs be of great force, especially if it proceed from a wife, fatherly, revered, difcreet perfon, of fome authority, whofe favor, and good opinion, the fufferer ftands in awe of, and refpects. The kind advice of a fenfible friend muft, upon all occafions, have a great effect. Gordonius, the physician, attributes to it fo powerful an influence, that he recommends its application in the earliest

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or abfence; and, indeed, it is quite as ùfelefs offer advice while the bofom is raging with fires, as it would be to adminifter confolation affectionate parents, who had juft loft an on and beloved child; but the moment the rays reafon begin to dawn, a friendly and tempera reprefentation of the miferable and ruinous co fequences that are likely to enfue from an indu gence of the prevailing defire, and of the hig advantages which may refult from fuppreffir it, may certainly be attended with very bene cial effects; for what Seneca has faid of vic may, with equal truth, be faid of this hero paffion: Sine magiftro difcitur, vix fine magift deferitur; it is acquired without inftruction, b cannot be unlearned without a tutor. The ju dicious expoftulations of a kind friend, ther fore, fhewing the unhappy fufferer the lamenta ble confequences that are likely to enfue fro an indulgence of the difeafe, and which th blindness and fury of his paffion prevents hir from obferving by his own reflection,

Although it cannot quench his love's hot fire,
May qualify the fire's extremest rage,
And keep it ftill within the bounds of reason..

Th

The conteft, on the part of the pupil, may be difficult, but the prize to be obtained is. great; for the lofs and gain are no less than the pleasures of paradife or the pains of hell.

The beloved object must be either chafte or unchafte. If unchafte, let the adviser recommend to the idolater of such a deity, to read the affecting letter which Eneas Sylvius has addreffed to his deluded friend Nicholas of Warthurge, where he will find the baleful character on which he has fixed his affection defcribed in its true light and genuine colours. "A bitter delight, a gilded poison, a brilliant mischief, a fplendid but certain mifery; the mercenary corrupter of his youth, the spoiler of his fortune, the ruin of his honor, and, perhaps, the deftroyer of his life." But if this eloquent epiftle should produce no effect, let him perufe the candid, but melancholy, confeffion of the penitent Lucretia, the celebrated Roman courtezan, in which he will find that anger, envy, pride, facrilege, theft, flaughter, and every difgraceful and pernicious vice, were born on the day when woman firft commenced the trade of harlotry: that the miferable wretches who purfue this deeply mired path, are more tyrannical than an Eastern defpot, mòre malignant than a cancerous disease, more malicious than a fatyr, and Q 6

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OF LOVE MELANCHOLY.

more rapacious and unprincipled than the devil himself; and that if, from the beginning of time, there ever was a character fcandaloufly bad, from the lowest to the highest degree, mala, pejor, pessima, it is that abandoned, profligate and miferable character which the world fo mistakingly calls a woman of pleasure. "O "Antonia," exclaims this miferable magdalen, "how many virtuous youths have I configned "to infamy and ruin! The human eye fees and "admires the outward symmetry of my fine and "faultlefs perfon; but it is the Great Searcher of "all Truth alone that can discover and fuffi"ciently deteft the deformity of my mind. My "body, fair as it may feem, is a corrupted mass. "I am, alas! the very fink of fin, and the im<< pure puddle of all iniquity." Let, I fay, the young idolater read thefe confeffions, and meditate on the confequences of fuch connections.

The object, however, of his illicit flame may be already A WIFE; the wife, perhaps, of this egregious lover's friend! If fo, let his adviser represent to him that the crime of adultery is worse than that of whoredom; that it is an offence equally forbidden by the commandments of God, and the laws of the land; abominable in the fight of his Creator; deeply injurious to the happiness of his fellow-creature; unfriendly to his own wel

fare

fare in this world, and deftructive to his felicity in that which is to come; that it is, to use the words of Shakespear,

Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O such a deed

As from the very body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet RELIGION makes
Arhapsody of words. That Heaven's face doth glow;
And this solidity and compound mass
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

But if the object of his boiling paffion be yet chafte and unmarried, let the adviser call forth all his eloquence, and shew, in nature's strongest language, the more than mortal crime of violating, with unhallowed hands, the fanctity of the facred temple of virgin innocence, and unspotted truth!

Suppose, however, that his views are upright, and that he means to lead the object of his eager love in honorable bands to the altar of connubial Hymen; ftill there is matter for deep and ferious confideration. It must not be concluded that the love is not heroic, because the god of

warm

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