54 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



them " into ages of infinite duration, and death 

 feems to them only the tranfition to eternal union* 



But Ihould cruel deftiny feparate them from 

 each other, neither the profpeds of fortune, nor 

 the friendfhip of companions the mofl endeared, 

 can afford confolation under the lofs. They had 

 reached Heaven, they languifh on the earth, they 

 are hurried, in their defpair, into the retirement of 

 the cloifter, to employ the remaining dregs of life, 

 in re-demanding of God the fehcity of which they 

 enjoyed but one tranfient glimpfe. Nay, many an 

 irkfome year after their feparationi when the cold 

 Ji^nd of age has frozen up the current of fenfe > 

 after having been diftrafled by a thoufand and a 

 thoufand anxieties foreign to the heart, which io 

 many times made them forget that they were hu- 

 man, the bofom fliU palpitates at fight of the tomb 

 which' contains the objed once fo tenderly beloved. 

 They had parted with it in the World, they hope 

 to fee it again in Heaven. Unfortunate Heloïfa ! 

 what fublime emotions were kindled in thy foui 

 by the albes of thy Abelard f . 



Such ceieftial emotions cannot poflibly be the 

 effefts of a mere animal act. Love is not a flight 

 convulfion, as the divine Marcus-Aurelius calls ,it. 

 It is to the charms of virtue, and to the fentiment 

 pf her divine attributes, that love is indebted foj 



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