LOVE AND PLATONISM. 66 It does not appear likely that the Platonic system of love and friendship should ever become fashionable. The romantic and sentimental attachments of lovers, have been a fruitful theme for the novelist, and the observer of life and manners, in every age and country. But Platonic attachment is too cold, and lifeless, to interest the many. Love founded on esteem, as it is the most noble, so is it the most constant of the passions; but the liaisons of love, and of Platonic friendship, are altogether dissimilar. I would not infer from this, that friendship cannot exist in great purity; for history shews the contrary. But it existed only for a period of time. Its duration was fleeting. It found no continuing city." A Pylades, a Damon, a Pliny, appeared at remote intervals. Neither is friendship at all times equal. My friend does not always "hate the man who injures me.' But love knows not this "cold medium." It must either passionately adore, or hate. It was the enthusiastic nature of this passion, that in the Gothic ages incited so many of its admirers to perform such memorable acts of heroism and devotion. While the knights templars, marching under the banner of the cross,. carried war and devastation into the east: the troubadours of Provence, those wandering minstrels, the very essence of whose existence appeared to consist in gallantry, travelled through different countries, chaunting forth the praises of beauty, in strains to which no lady could listen with indifference. Another, and a more extraordinary race of beings, who appeared to unite the opposite characters of the lover and the monk, flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century. They called themselves "The Fraternity of the Penitents of Love." Engaged in voluntary acts of penance for the cause of the deity whom they worshipped, they enveloped themselves in the thickest garments during the heats of summer, and in the winter, were clad in the lightest and thinnest habiliments. Thus, at one season, the warmth of their adoration was evinced by the texture of the garment in which they were enwrapped, while, at another, they wished to shew that the flame of love burnt with an ardour, which the frosts of winter could neither diminish, nor destroy. It is not known what became of these penitents, or whether some of them did not die martyrs to love and constancy for one sufferer had a penance of two years' silence imposed on him by the object of his affections. A Platonic affection may extend itself to various objects, since many may command our esteem who yet can never awaken our love. But love endures not division; it cherishes no secondary affections. A modern writer has beautifully observed, "If we love ardently, we can love but once; that enchanting passion, with all its train of hopes and fears, its raptures and its ecstacies, can only be felt in that age when bliss seems waiting upon fruition; every emotion which we feel in the autumn or the evening of our days, is like the last leaf which has survived its fellows on the withering tree. It has lost its verdant hue, and only preserved its form to shew that it once flourished under kindlier aspects. This warmth of feeling, which contributes so much to the intensity and purity of this passion, could not endure in its original freshness, from youth to age, on the Platonic system. The conjugal attachment of that wedded female, who declared, that during a period of fifty years, she never was separated from her husband for more than twelve hours! is another bright instance of that continuous happiness, true and unalloyed, which is likely to accompany the love which usually takes its station at the fireside, and in the infantine circle. Calmly and serenely it glides along, and, passing by insensible gradations, from one period of life to another, it finds at last a peaceful retreat in the grave, to be, perhaps, renewed, with inconceivable purity, in a better world. We know enough also of the warring passions and misguided motives which actuate mankind not to be aware, how much this placid state contributes to the general good, and how greatly it tends to prolong the existence of man. But Platonic love if ever such an affection there were-knows nothing of this. It commences, I suppose, in a formal manner; is continued with evident constraint, and at remote intervals of time; and terminates with indifference, if not with disgust. That Plato was a great advocate for this peculiar spécies of affection, cannot be doubted. But the Greek philosopher must have been aware, that the cherished favourite of his mind had no existence in nature, and that its evident tendency was (premising the possibility of its power) to render the whole human race apathetic and unactuated by the motives of generosity, benevolence, or sensibility. The precepts of Zeno would here have had full effect, and a stoical indifference would have been cherished, towards the most pleasing and (under proper regulations) the most virtuous of the human passions. Indeed love, founded on esteem, has been properly termed an affection rather than a passion, because it involves a desire of the happiness of its object. It must, however, be confessed, that on a simple inspection of history it will appear that the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, knew nothing of the purity of disinterested love. Achilles, in the Iliad, dismisses the captive girl Briseis without any emotions of disappointed love, but rather of wounded pride Χερσὶ μὲν οὔτοι ἔγωγε μαχήσομαι εἵνεκα κούρης Οὔτε σοὶ, οὔτε τῷ ἄλλῳ, κ. τ. λ.--Iliad, b. i. v. 298. His conquering sword in any woman's cause.-POPE. The version of Pope is not so strong as the original, for there it is, literally, "I shall not fight with my hands on account of a girl, neither with you, nor with any one else." In the parting scene between Hector and Andromache, which is exquisitely tender, delicate, and affecting, the poet has, however, depicted conjugal love in its true and unsophisticated form. All her happiness centres in his presence, and all her affliction is awakened by his departure and anticipated death. Εκτορ, ἀτὰρ σύ μοί ἐσσι πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ, Μὴ παῖδ ̓ ὀρφανικὸν θείης, χήρην τε γυναῖκα Iliad, b. vi. v. 429. Yet while my Hector still survives, I see Once more will perish, if my Hector fall.-POPE. Plato, well acquainted with the disposition of his countrymen, and the manners of the age in which he lived, wished, in common with other philosophers, to reform the general impurity of life, and to substitute a finer and purer feeling in the place of mere sensual desire. But love, augmented by esteem, is not a pure, spiritual, incorporeal affection: it is something far more estimable. The romantic instances of attachment so common in the northern nations, and in the dark ages, did not concern mind alone; the passion which gave to their life half its value, was not associated with an ethereal essence, or a visionary form; it was a natural and domestic affection; and from it they derived true felicity. Love in them belonged to the heart, and not to the head or to the brain, as Jacques Ferrand endeavours to prove. The peculiar susceptibility, and warm temperament of Petrarch, indeed, eaused him to cherish a glowing and unwearied though unfortunate attachment for twenty years, to one lady: but it was any thing but Platonic: the form, the aspect of Laura haunted him, rather than her mind. Her dress, her air, her words, all preyed upon his imagination, and tormented him with corroding and incessant care. But this was love, love in all the intensity of that powerful passion. And so it has always appeared to the world. At the distance of nearly five centuries, the tale, and the feelings of this interesting pair, yet command the admiration of every country. The attachment of Abelard to Eloise might here indeed be adduced as an example, in the concluding years of their lives, of Platonic love. But this will not be so evident to him who shall carefully attend to their history. In truth, the character of Abelard has been greatly overrated. He has been pitied as a virtuous and unfortunate man. Was he so? Hear his own words, " I excelled so much in form and person, that no woman could resist me.' Mr. Berrington says, "When he loved Eloise, it was neither her abilities, nor her person, nor her charms, nor her virtues, which he loved, he sought only his own gratification; whilst in its pursuit, no repulsion of innocence could thwart him; no voice of duty, of gratitude, of unguarded confidence, could impede his headlong progress. He suffered, and from that moment rather he became a man.' The advocates of Platonic love could contemplate with no satisfaction the closing years of Abelard's life, marked indeed by overwhelming calamity and penitence, but also by wounded pride. Another example remains, that of Dean Swift. Here the inconsistency of his conduct, and the pride with which he treated Mrs. Johnson, are sufficiently apparent. Though affection dwelt upon his lips, there was no love in his heart: and the unfortunate object of an unrequited affection sunk into an early grave. Φ. IMPROMPTU. Ce monde est plein de fous, et qui n'en veut pas voir, You meet with none but fools and asses; * His curious work was printed at Paris in 1623, entitled "De la Maladie d'Amour ou Melancholie Erotique par Jacques Ferrand," in which the title of one of his chapters is "Si en la Melancholie Erotique le cœur est la principale partie malade ou le cerveau.' PROSE BY A POET, 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 579. Longman & Co. 1824. PROSE by a Poet-Law by a Physician-Divinity by a Lawyer, all sound pretty much alike; but we very much doubt whether such excursions out of their own, into another's province, can prove any recommendation to either. In those instances which have come under our observation we have generally found that such persons, in overstepping "the modesty of Nature," have come short of that reputation, which they might have obtained had they continued within their allotted sphere; while they have incurred that censure, which they might otherwise have escaped. In the volumes before us, the light essays have neither the interest or animation which is necessary to render productions of this nature attractive to the generality of readers. A few pieces in verse exhibit the writer to more advantage, and shew that he does not assume too much when he "writes himself poet." But in his serious effusions he rises to a degree of excellence, which induces us strongly to recommend him to cultivate this style of composition, in preference to all others. Whenever the subject permits him to touch on moral or religious topics, he evinces a simple, unostentatious piety, which cannot but secure the esteem and approbation of every well-disposed reader. In support of this opinion we need only to quote the article entitled "The Last Day," vol. ii. p. 281-290. "To every thing beneath the sun there comes a last day, and of all faturity this is the only portion of time that can in all cases be infallibly predicted. Let the sanguine then take warning, and the disheartened take courage; for to every joy and every sorrow, to every hope and every fear, there will come a last day; and man ought so to live by foresight, that while he learns in every state to be content, he shall in each be prepared for another, whatever that other may be. When we set an acorn, we expect that it will produce an oak: when we plant a vine, we calculate upon gathering grapes: but when we lay a plan for years to come, we may wish, and we can do no more, except pray, that it may be accomplished, for we know not what even the morrow may bring forth; all that we do know beforehand of any thing is,—that to every thing beneath the sun there comes a last day. "From Adam to Noah sixteen centuries elapsed, during which men multiplied on the earth, and increased in wickedness as in number, till to the forbearance of mercy itself there came a last day, and wrath in one flood of destruction swept away a whole world of transgressors.-The pollutions of Sodom and Gomorrah long insulted the Majesty of Heaven; but a last day came, and the Lord rained fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, that overthrew them for ever, erasing the very ground on which they stood from the solid surface of the globe. The children of Israel groaned for ages under the yoke of the Egyptians; a last day came, the bands of iron were burst asunder, and the Red Sea, the eastern wall of their prison-house, opened its flood-gates, to let the redeemed of the Lord pass through, but closed them in death on their pursuers, like the temple of Dagon pulled down upon the heads of the Philistines. For almost two thousand years, the law, and the covenant of works, delivered from Mount Sinai, were honoured and violated by the same rebellious and stiff-necked people, who deemed themselves the elect of God, to the exclusion in perpetuity of all kindreds beside; but a last day came, the sceptre departed from Judah, the Holy City was made an abomination of desolations, and the covenant of grace, universal and everlasting, was proclaimed to all mankind. "In profane history we read similar lessons of mutability, similar evidences of the uncertainty of every day except the last day. The walls of Babylon were built to outstand the mountains, which they rivalled in grandeur and solidity; a last day came, and Babylon is fallen. If you ask, "Where is she?"-"Where was she?" will be the reply; for she has so fallen, that there remains of her unexampled magnificence, no more vestige on the soil by which she can be traced, than of a foundered ship on the face of the ocean, when the storm is gone by, and the dolphins are bounding among the billows, and throwing out their colours to the sun.-Greece, among the nations like the Pleiades among the stars, a small and beautiful sisterhood of states, flourished in arts and arms without a rival in her own age, and without a parallel in succeeding times; but her last day came, and Greece is gone to decay, unutterable decay; yet she lives in her ruins, amidst the moral desolation of Turkey, and she lives in her glory on the pages of her poets, historians, and orators; yea, and she shall live again in her sons, for the last day of their enslavement is at hand.-Rome was seven hundred and fifty years growing from infancy to maturity; she stood through half that period more in splendid infamy; her last day came, and then she sunk under such a weight of years and trophies, that her relics have buried in their dust the seven hills, on which in her prosperity she had glorified herself, and lived deliciously, saying in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.' Rome was mortal; there can be no revival from her degradation: the last of the Romans perished a thousand years ago, among the millions of barbarians with whom the Roman people were at length indistinguishably and inseparably amalgamated. Rome and Babylon have been equally identified in perdition, as in name, by the "sure word of prophecy; and the metropolis of modern Italy is no more the one, than Bagdad is the other: a different race possesses each, and their glory or shame in ages to come can never again affect the character of the generations gone by, whose last day stands irreversible in the calendar of time. It is not so with Greece, her posterity was never cut off. Our own country has experienced as many vicissitudes of government as have here been recounted from the annals of the world; to each of these there came a last day: her own last day is not yet come; nor, while she continues pre-eminent in virtue, intelligence, and enterprise, need we fear its arrival. "Taking the middle age of life as the standard of the present generation, those who are arrived at that period have themselves been living witnesses of more new eras and last days, in which the destiny of nations was implicated, unravelled, and re-woven more strangely and disastrously, than were wont to occur in whole centuries of ordinary time. The French Revolution brought on the last day of the antiquated despotism of the Bourbons; many last days cut off, as suddenly as by strokes of the guillotine, the ephemeral constitutions that followed; till Buonaparte, like Milton's Death, bridging his way from hell to earth, with his "mace petrific" struck, and fixed the jarring, jumbled elements of the political chaos, and seemed for a while to have established an immoveable throne on the rased foundations of every other in Europe; but a last day to his empire came, and wafted him, as passive as a cloud, over the ocean to St. Helena. A last day to his life came also, and he disappeared from the earth.-The universal war in Christendom, which raged from the fall of the Bastile to the fall of Napoleon, found its last day on the plains of Waterloo. Peace followed, but for years it has been like peace on the battle-field, when the conflict is ended the dead alone are at rest; the living are maimed, lacerated, writhing · with agony. But let them not faint; they shall yet arise, they are rising-and have half-risen since these speculations were first penned.A last day to the present miseries of our country will come; the wounds of war will soon be healed entirely. "In the life of every adult there occur many last days. Man is ushered into the world from a source so hidden, that his very parents know him not till he appears, and he knows not himself even then. He passes rapidly through the stages of childhood, youth, maturity, old age; and to each of these there comes a last day. The transitions, indeed, are so gradual as to be imperceptible; no more to be remembered than the moment at which we fell asleep last night, and as little dependent on our will as was the act of awaking this morning. Yet so distinct are these several states of progressive existence, that though all bound together by unbroken consciousness, the changes are in reality as entire as the separate links of one chain. In the issue comes a last day to the whole; and man is withdrawn into an abyss of eternity, as unsearchable by finite thought as that from which he emanated at first. "It has been already observed, that in the life of every adult individual there |