OLD MAIDS. 375 



so that should the ' subtle poison' be infused, it would produce no effect 

 upon the stagnant circulation ; others who wrap themselves in the robes 

 of metaphysics, and in this hoary covering dose away existence ; and 

 others who suffer their souls to wander amongst the elements, or bury 

 them in oyster-shells, or in the hollow tooth of a Megatherium ; others 

 who lavish the whole sum of their affection upon a butterfly's wing or 

 the colour of a peony ; and others whose love must be sought 



* Ten fathoms deep' 



in a coal-pit or a lead-mine ; others whose * soul's treasure ' is encased 

 in a block of granite, iron, stone, or grey wacke ; and others whose 

 passions and desires are fixed upon the * loves of the angels,' the sons of 

 Anak, or the gigantic Cyclops ; others who think only of the loves of 

 fairy elves, the singing of the Troubadours, or the clashing of spears in 

 some gallant tourney ; others whose brains are turned with the fervid 

 descriptions of Sappho, Anacreon, Bion, Moschus, and Tibullus, or of 

 Horace, Ovid, or Virgil, and find the approach of a mere man without 

 the adjuncts of a poetical declamation, so different from the picture 

 sketched out by their heated imaginations, that he is repulsed as a 

 monster. Thus are Literary Maidens armed cap-a-pie against the 

 assaults of love partly by having their minds so much engaged with 

 other matters that they are unconscious of the existence of the * boy god,' 

 and his shafts fly past them as little cared for as the * idle wind/ " 



One of the best characteristics of the Old Maids is the extreme 

 purity of its feeling and its expressions. There is a gracefulness 

 and a delicacy about it most strictly in accordance with its subject, 

 and many of its passages come before us as soothing 



" As sweet music creeping upon the waters." 



There is also an extent of reading and a tine poetical conception 

 shown in it, which are rarely combined, as 



" pains, study, and reading," 



often prove fatal to the lighter and more sparkling portion of man's 

 intellectual attributes. 



We need not say we like the book ; our notice of it is the most 

 convincing proof of the estimation in which we hold it. Its aim is 

 excellent, and though the author might have worked out his inten- 

 tions in a more logical and analytical manner, we doubt if he would 

 have been as successful as his work must be in its present shape. 



Celibacy, considered in reference to the social happiness of man, 

 is a deeply interesting and important subject of speculation. Multi- 

 tudes of women are condemned to single life by the calculating pru- 

 dence, as it is called, of young men, and 



*' waste their sweetness in the desert air," 



in place of filling a married home with unalloyed happiness. We 

 hope the author of Old Maids will take Old Bachelors in hand, and, 

 treating the subject in a somewhat loftier way, lay bare the folly 

 and absurdity of the many notions prevailing about marriage. The 

 voluptuary avoids a wife, because, pander-like, he lives solely for 

 the gratification of his animal passions ; the Cynic sneers at her 

 because he knows nothing of the million delights that dwell around 

 her ; the poet too often shuns her because the flame of genius is too 

 bright and flickering to be confined within the precincts of home, 



