JiMYNTOR AND ALMIRA. 21 



that the flame is kindled and cherished too by a superior power. 'Tis 

 not a pretty face, or an elegant person, — 'tis not a brilliant wit, or a 

 fine understanding, that can excite or preserve mutual affection, it 

 springs from a higher source ; it has been known to subsist in its 

 utmost ardour where these accomplishments have been wanting; there 

 is a nameless sympathy of congenial souls, even amongst those of the 

 same sex, which is felt — which cannot be described, — ^but which 

 lisping mortals have denominated Friendship. 



" When this nameless sympathy meets in congenial souls of different 

 sexes 'tis amazingly heightened, friendship cannot express the 

 sensation, and we have learnt to call it by the name of Love : a name, 

 indeed, sadly profaned by the lips of the sensualist, and covetous, and 

 ambitious, but felt and understood in its true meaning and import by 

 those alone who seek for happiness in the sweet tranquility of domestic 

 endeannents, who consider the lover and the husband but as one and 

 the same character. 



" Such an union is indeed devoutly to be wished for, and when once 

 accomplished the pleasures of life are enjoyed with a double relish, 

 because each, besides his own, partakes of the beloved partner's sen- 

 sations. Misfortunes too — and whoever tasted the cup of life without 

 finding some bitterness in the draft ? — misfortunes too loose half their 

 weight by being divided, and as each assists the other to bear the load, 

 so each comforts the other whilst labouring under it. 



" Time, that great destroyer of temporal objects and human joys, 

 perpetuates and increases such a felicity as this, which depends not so 

 much upon external circumstances as upon the internal feelings of 

 their own breasts ; in the days of their marriage they may with more 

 propriety be called lovers than in the days of their courtship. 



" Failings no doubt each will discover in the other as long as the angel 

 is clogged with the fetters of mortality, but even in this they so much 

 resemble one another, that they soon learn either to overlook them, 

 or to bear them with a meekness which true love never fails to inspire. 



" This sweetness of disposition, mutual forbearance, and unin- 

 terrupted intercourse of endearing sensibilities must not only secure to 

 them all the bliss which this world has to give, but must be an 

 excellent preparative for their future enjoyment of those external 

 scenes, where love reigns without the least alloy of any sordid passion. 



