^ STUDIES OF NATURE. 



of both together, by the concurrence of thefe two 

 caufes. 



As Nature has affigned to the province of this 

 paflion, which is defigned to be tlie means of re- 

 perpetuating human hfe, all the animal fenfationsj 

 flie has likewife united in it all the fentiments of 

 the foul i fo that love prefents to two lovers, not 

 only the fentiments which blend with our wants, 

 and with the inftind: of our mifery, fuch as thofc 

 of proteftion, of afhftance, of confidence, of fup- 

 port, ofrepofe, but all the fublime inftindls, be- 

 fides, which elevate Man above humanity. In this 

 fenfe it is that P/aio defined love to be, an inteir 

 pofition of the Gods in behalf of young people *. 



Whoever 



*■ It was by means of the fublime influence of this paffion, 

 that the Thebans formed a battalion of heroes, called the facred 

 band ; they all fell together in the battle of Cheronea. They 

 "were found extended on the ground, all in the fame flraight line, 

 transfixed with ghaftly wounds before, and with their faces turned 

 toward the enemy. This fpeélacle drew tears from the eyes of 

 Philip himfelf, their conqueror. Lyciirgus had likewife em- 

 ployed the power of love in the education of the Spartans, and 

 rendered it one of the gr. at props of his republic. But, as the 

 animal counterpoife of this celeftial fentiment was no longer 

 found in the beloved objeft, it fometimes threw the Greeks into 

 •certain irregularities, which have juftly been imputed to them as 

 matter of reproach. Their Legiflators confidered women as the 

 inftruments merely of procreating children ; they did not per- 

 ceive that, by favouring love between men, they enfeebled that 



. . which 



