we may dye together I seem to stand before a Magistrate not a Companion What man more cruel than Mezentius would espouse dead Carcases to warm Embraces or disturb the Pleasures of Life with maundring Counsel and unseasonable Advice What unequal Judge is that who would command me to live backward with a man of another Age VVith whom to live in familiarity is a Crime to reverence is to proscribe him without the bounds of Love and Laws of Humanity by a kinde of Canonization To whom this only remains to intrigue themselves with the Amours of others to intermix their Precepts and Directions like Philters to teach and wish For these poor Creatures only twinkle like an expiring Snuff they live only to shew they have lived and usurp the Torches of Hymen to grace their Funeral-Pomp and light 'em to their Graves But when Youth and Beauty court each other there is the perfection of delight For true Love is a desire of real Beauty which real Beauty is not humane and mortal but immortal and divine So that they who associate with this divine Beauty live not in this world but as it were in Heaven like so many Deities For they are a sort of Deities who despise mortal things as divine and aspire to divine things as mortal Now for a Man to love a beautiful Woman is not to love another but in part to love himself or rather the other half of himself For Man at first had two Faces four Hands four Feet and all other Members alike but afterwards he was divided into two Sexes as now he remains by Jupiter against whom he adventur'd to rebel But misliking this Separation and willing to return to his first estate as they rose upon their feet both the halves closed together again as they have done ever since and this is called loving and being loved For when a Man loves a Woman he seeks his other half and the same thing do Women when they fix their Affections upon Men. However this is the supreme Office of Reason to make a right choice of Disposition and Conditions to choose a Companion with whom we are sure to live with more delight than with our selves whose judgment we may be sure to follow as our own or else to stay till we can finde a proper Object of Love Then also so to love like one who is guided by Judgment not carried away by Passion like one so far from ceasing that he is always beginning to Love This is to joyn Patience with Constancy This is to receive the Idea more fairly imprinted in the Minde than in Wax and to preserve more stedfastly 'T is the Office of Vertue to determine upon one measure of wishing to covet a disposition and inclination like his own through all the changes of Fortune and so to make two of one that they may act the same person They are to be such as of necessity ought to have the same Will having no other Desires but what are virtuous and noble There ought also to be an exact Communion because they are to impart the Virtues which they possess without Envy and therefore eagerly desire to communicate the Riches of the Minde It being the part of a candid Soul like the Light of Heaven to lavish it self with a perpetual Prodigality It is a firmer Bond than the Stoic's Chain of the Fates which creates the alliance of Souls not so much to have the same Parent as to have the same Original of Life that is to say Reason and which has a more vital vigour to be fill'd with the same honest Affections rather than with the same Blood that the Heart should be smitten with the same Desires rather than that the Arteries should spin the same Spirits 'T is a small thing to believe the same Soul only somewhat separated in two Bodies to have the same Thoughts in two Minds There can be no distraction of thoghts where there is nothing left to make a distinction of Two For whatever distinguishes at length separates nay sometimes propinquity of Alliance begets a fiercer Enmity which often happens among half Kindred In vain do Vices imitate the leagues and ties of Friendship as they endeavour to ape several other acts of Vertues In vicious men to have the same Delights as well as to have the same Mistresses kindles Hatred out of Love To have the same Benefits though this sounds more religiously than to have the same Parents ill grounded upon familiarity feeds Envy and begets louder brawls than those of Crows or Coheirs that mutually prey upon each other There are none that will envy them but admire how they came together rather they will deny any Complacency between them but only as it fares with those that sail both in one Ship whom Fears and Dangers knit together who are no sooner come ashoar but their Friendship shipwracks as if they had met with a Land-storm and their affection to Trade rather than Friendship separates some one way some another With what Fidelity can they agree with others whom nothing of Kindness but a loathing of themselves have constrained to this custome of Society With much ado they endure themselves and strive to shun themselves among the Croud not out of any delight but to ease themselves as much as lies in their power For who can please them who are displeased with themselves Who abominate undefil'd conditions and unlike their own and dread them as the Guilty do the Seat of Justice Emulous manners as if they fear'd to be try'd by Imitation as Rivals lest they should be excluded they utterly exclude and like the deformed fly the sight of the Mirrour This is the first punishment of Improbity by her own Sentence to be condemn'd among men to the most desert of Solitudes and unfaithfull Society with much labour to act all things in vain by Obsequiousness to purchase the favour of others to let out his mercenary Soul to Flattery diligently to court his Friends but no otherwise than as we clean our shoes and take care of our Cattle that they be the more serviceable to us to toil for his own sake to meet with Ingratitude in the midst of his profusion and among all these Allurements of Fortune to fear and doubt and be tormented with a hatred and loathing of himself Who would chuse him for his other self whom he sees to be his Adversary Or who would accept the severe Favour of him whom he cannot love with the same Affection as he loves himself Whose most serene looks like those of Mars or Fortune he ought to fear and timorously enjoy his own Joys as snares or Pleasures perishing with the next Sun and Winde Methinks I see Twins at strife with each other the Embraces of Wrestlers the Countenances of Divorcements contrary flights always avoyding each other Hence thou Prodigy of Venus Nature abhors those more than Monsters being the Copulations and mixtures of Creatures of various kinds Who like the antient Emperours Married
new birth to be admitted into her Presence What unhappiness is this that he that has his hearts desire should not be able to enjoy his own Wishes That Majesty encircled with the Graces both allures and terrifies That Sun-like splendour of a most serene Countenance both recreates and annoys the sight The Veneration of that Divinity which he hath feign'd terrible to himself astonishes the Worshipper suffering like a Cyclops under the oppression of his own Thunderbolts Love hath beguil'd him with that imposture of Titles and Divinity that he believes the possession more worthy than is fit for him to enjoy neither will Religion suffer him to envy his misfortune for what he looks upon as a Divinity he judges not proper to be approach'd with the Eye but with the Minde alone So carefully hath Heaven provided for this Affection by intermixing Fear and Anguish with Joy to render that Pleasure more delicate Hence it is that our Desires so torment us that they may also delight us and our Delights are so infested with Misfortunes to increase our Sorrows They are so sparingly distributed that they appear like the Ladies Faces which by their Silken Vails are but more openly conceal'd So that they may be said to enjoy and to want both at one time being such for whom greater things are aimed at than are convenient to be allowed them the single felicities of a Glance or a Smile or a short charming Discourse being enough at a time Nevertheless our restless and hungry Passion not satisfied with the sweet repasts either of converse or view attempts to taste somthing yet more Divine which it is nor allow'd neither to obtain or know Neither do I know how it comes to pass that this Misfortune turmoils us that because we are wont to enjoy Felicity only in Dreams we are doubtful whether we possess what we really enjoy or no and believing that we still enjoy what we imagine to be only Dreams and Shadows we refuse to be any farther deluded and therefore fear enjoyment That Passion which settles all other motions of the Minde that reconciles Men Brutes and Philosophers is at enmity with it self alone by the ties of Discord coupling things altogether repugnant to each other We are not therefore to reproach him for soft and tender whose Arms are tired only with Embraces who always breathes either Perfumes or Sighs who suffers himself to be cast to the ground by the threats of a smooth Brow or the glance of an Eye Neither are we to account him bold and daring that endures the nocturnal Importunities of his Cares or the diurnal Sollicitations of his troubled Thoughts or by a tedious sufferance of Injuries exercises his greediness of Danger so that although his fears cease he delights to dissemble more and to invoke Jeopardie and Hazard as favours and arguments of his Love as if Paleness and Wanness were the Symptomes of Woing or that the only way to prove himself a Lover were to make himself miserable On the other side shall we count a man stupid because we finde that Rigour and Disdain so frequently inflame and provoke a Lover That person believe me is all transmigrated into Soul or that Aethereal particle of Fire which feels no wounds Or if this seem a Riddle know that it is Loves Philosophy to vanquish Hatred by Affection and to assail one Fire by another though much the brighter Consider nevertheless that this is not the Stupidity but the Heat of a Lover For as all Injuries contemn'd loose their end and perish so being kindly taken they pass for Benefits or else like flints are broken by that soft tender Breast that gives them way Again Why do we exclaim against him for being mad or blinde who beholds the spots and blemishes of his Mistriss as so many Ornaments and little Stars that he assignes her Imperfections for Beauties and by a most kinde mistake extols and adorns her failings with the title of the nearest resembling Virtues The more she needs it the more curious is her Lover to dress and set her forth in his own ascititious and borrowed Colours But in this case men prove partial Censurers not Friends requiring Judgment instead of Affection envying to the Lover that most happy Errour which gives him his greatest satisfaction Suffer him to impose that most honest deceit upon himself and to form in his Minde a more Majestical resemblance of Her whom he has there decreed more seriously to contemplate and to worship more devoutly 'T is the custom of Painters to pensil Faces not like but fairer and to flatter the Original polishing his workmanship rather according to the reflexion of the Mirrour than after the real Representative Believe me we are not to think that Lovers have lost their Eyes which are only overshadow'd with a Vail through which they take their prospect more clearly and securely Nevertheless you may think them three quarters shut as in persons taking aim that they may more judiciously discern and being fix'd upon one Object they are not only purblind to all others but loath the sight of them and quite close up themselves Now when the Eyes are wholly intent upon one Object and employ all their quickness and vigour upon that resolving as it were for the nonce not to contemplate any thing else this is not to be dim but too quick-sighted So that if to Philosophize be only to contemplate Idea's then is it the particular work and office of Philosophie to Love Nay if a man may be said to love as much as he understands then that which is accounted the madness of Passion that is to say to be ready to dye for Love may be adjudg'd an Argument of Knowledge Do but consider the Stratagems and Sieges of Lovers equal even to the Assaults upon Cities and winning of Kingdoms Behold the Virgins daily led in Triumph as the Trophies of so many wilie Ingenuities whom there was a necessity of deceiving before they could be taken captive and brought to an unwilling submission to their Admirers desires So odly do they choose rather to be deluded than belov'd As if they look'd upon the Shackles of Wile and Fallacy to be the forerunners to the Fetters of Embraces Consider how many great Wits the word Mistriss has inspir'd how many Lyricks Amorous Desire has begot how extravagantly the rage of wounded Hearts has taught the Epigrammatist to wantonize Then emulous of so much glory thou wilt cry Give me an object to love And then instead of Apollo the Darling of Venus shall become thy Deity He is in an Errour whoever he be that believes those things to be the raving Dotages of a distracted Minde which are the Mysteries of divine Fury Thus the God of Love himself prosperously governs the violence of his Actions though contrary to Reason His right hand never misses when he shoots the Hearts of Mortals though blinde and never aiming at the mark For the hand is not govern'd by the Eye but
then speak a word which covets rather to be the subject of Contemplation than Demonstration and because it keeps its station in the most secret Recesses of the Heart disdains acquaintance with the Tongue A thing which we poor Mortals never learn either from precept or examples but then at length all first began to understand when we had all practised the same thing You would say that Love were not only blind but Tongueless who has made all the joints of our bodies vocal unless the Tongue alone Whence it comes to pass that Lovers more eloquently make use of sighs than words to convey the Intelligence of their secret flames and like Paphian Doves weep enliven'd Epistles by which means they also discourse with their eloquent Fingers without the assistance of a Pen and dialogue in signs with affable Nods missary Smiles and by means of those vocal Messengers of their Desires hear each others mutual Wishes and read each others visible Souls At other times the Rhetorical Tropes of Gesture woe in a mysterious and various Idiome while Pilgrim Glances seeming to be out of their way outwardly renouncing all familiarity privately hold a strict correspondence together Their counterfeited Frowns display an outward displeasure when they are studying all the charms of Friendship in the midst of their Anger At other times their Souls taking reciprocal flights from each others eyes ravish from each other Bridal Kisses at a distance returning in Triumph with the Thefts of Embraces in thought And among all their Triumphs and their Pleasures this they look upon as the chiefest that the business lies hid So frequent a thing it is for Lovers to appear upon the publick Stage and yet beguile the Spectators by disguising the Comedy These Angelic Interlocutors seem indeed to be above all humane Laws and consequently by most certain signs to understand each others Wishes to inspect each others Entrails and to manage their Affections rather by way of Oracle than Discourse while they display in thought a clearer discovery of each others Mindes before the addresses of words or that they know how to deceive and their Desires like Apparitions shew themselves to the eye Such however as by no other Art are to be seen than that which bred them while issuing visibly from the Body they not only appear to the sight but assume the shape and enliven the person whom they designe to discourse As if there were within the same Body a free Intercourse of restless and wandering thoughts that commune with others abroad with no less silence than they observe at home This one Affection that cannot be exprest is ador'd as a Mysterie whose sacred Rites like those of the most antient Deities are like Crimes protected by a modest Shame and warie Silence Love has always its Vail and the Adorers of Venus like Aeneas walk envelop'd in a Cloud and keep themselves secret in the most publick Assemblies of Men. Nay Cupid himself hardly content with one Vail delights to peep out of his Ambushments and to see the hearts he daily wounds beholding all himself unseen Thus Love that compos'd the world kept his Station in Confusion lurking in the antient Darkness of the primitive Chaos Still doth Venus as if she were a Traitor flie the Sun and for fear of being discover'd I know not what Divinity has inclos'd within a Labyrinth not only the Affections of Pasiphaë but the whole Love of all Mankinde or if at any time he chance to be apprehended he appears either like one caught in a Net or else in the shape of a Monster Thus in complaisance to Mortals that love Riddles Love is become a Problem to himself living without Rule and exercising the Affections at his own pleasure while contrary Desires agitate him no less impetuously driven this way and that way by the Ebbs and Flowings of the Passions from whence it may be easie to infer that the Cyprian Queen was born upon the rowling Billows in the midst of contrary Winds Strange Riddles That the same person should both serve and live free should be at his own disposal and at the command of another as it hapned to the Freed-men of the Roman Emperours who govern'd their Lords and Masters under the title of Slaves That this same Love should both live and dye both at the same time and like the Phoenix revive from the Ashes of his own Funeral Pile Mad and malignant Wishes of the same Lover therefore to wish his most beloved Favourite unfortunate only to have the opportunity of being his Comforter Therefore to desire him depriv'd of Friends and bereav'd of Subsistance that he may have the honour of supplying both Therefore to wound that he may be the Author of the Cure That Necessity rather than Love and Merit should enforce the Oblig'd to retaliation Not to know whether to desire the Hatred and Enmity or the Favour and Kindness of his Friend while Hatred and Jealousie are equally mischievous in their undertakings 'T is a piece of Inhumanity to hinder the effects of all other mens Kindness only to engross the Affection singly to himself to remove and implead all his other Rivals as the injurious Authors of his private wrongs but above all things to be solicitously careful lest at any time hereafter he should grow wiser which might render him contemptible with so much delight are Lovers blindly misguided See how an inamour'd breast grows cold and hot reciprocally by fits as it fares with those in high Fevers neither is there any one that loves without perfect indignation Deservedly he curses the pleasing Executioner that burns him in those flames that rob him of himself Yet like a Butter-flie delights to play about those flames and enjoy the happy Author of his Death He seeks himself without himself and lingers to be taken that being a prisoner he may be in a capacity to redeem himself and to be next to himself sticks close to his Possessor It is a difficult thing for him to love as difficult not to love but more difficult than both to enjoy Love So miserably is his afflicted Minde tormented not so much with his own wishes themselves as with the necessary event of what he desires So that if the Heavens prove propitious to favour him with success in his Love he then cries out again for his former miseries and that pleasing torment of sighing and desiring So much more grateful it is to aspire to embraces than to be fetter'd in the Chains Every one more highly esteems the pleasure of desiring than the Desires themselves not likely to be happy in any condition who complains of the event and with reluctance suffers his Sighs and delightful Anxieties to be lost Which is the hard and cruel fate of Lovers that what way soever Fortune favour them they are still adversaries to their Happiness Whence comes it to pass that he flies the sight of her the sight of whom is his most pleasing Nourishment while he thinks it a
born under lesser that I should love my Diseases and Distempers lest I should be said to have changed my former Condition that I should submit to Chance or what more often erres my own Judgment as to a certain Destiny Suffer me pray now more vehemently to admire these particles of a Diviner Genius which first astonish'd me in thee grown to a riper perfection in another Permit those progresses in Love which thou thy self hast begot cherish'd up Thou who hast taught me to prefer the candor of the Minde before the Snow of Lillies and rude Sincerity before soft but over-foolish Courtesie hast now taught me upon the sight of a brighter splendour to despise thee unless from thence I may not seem so much to contemn as to adore thee under a most illustrious Image Thus lesser Tapers are not extinguished but out-shone and less Stars for shame abscond themselves when a more splendid Constellation rises Why dost thou invoke the Faith of Gods and Men Thou art belov'd by me on this condition while thou either art or seemest to me to be beyond compare the best of all Behold the insensible Love-sports of Nature behold how she has excited the worst of all her pieces to workmanship to the best of Actions out of an admiration of a more excellent Beauty It was the Will of Nature conscious to her self of Injury and shameful sloath which oftner brings forth Abortives than perfect Births and therefore she has endued them with an Operative Faculty to enable them to come nearer their Idea's and owe their own polishing to themselves Hence the Marigold though fixed in the Earth follows the flight of the Sun and sucking in his Beams with a greedy appetite becomes a vegetable Star With the same emulous Ardour while the Stones imbibe the Ethereal flames they receive a congealed Brightness and solid Light and they that were the excrements of a hard and rigid heap become Jewels and shine no less in the Rock than in the Lovers Rings By this alluring Art while the Ocean admits as well the Image as the Motion of the Moon it seems to correspond with the Intelligence of the Celestial Orb. By this lovely Envy while Iron is drawn away as it were with admiration of the Magnet by and by becomes the Magnet it self it exercises all its Operations and draws as it was drawn before Though Philosophers were wanting we have the Mathematical waves that tell us of the Eclipses of the Moon more certainly than the Ephemerides We have your Astronomer-Flowers that teach us the Motion of the Sun and instead of Dyals shew us the time of the Day And though there were no Spectators of this Theatre yet is universal Nature ravish'd with a Veneration of it self And as both the Eyes of the World so both Worlds contemplate and feed themselves with the mutual sight of each other Nature hath ever provided for her affairs by committing the World to the Guardianship of Love so that an idle Deity may be either denied or contemned But when other things are so order'd as to receive and want only Man knows how to love In those things she has only rough drawn an imperfect Affection to practise in lesser things what she intended to bring to perfection in Man Though I confess this Affection of men hath the same original and growth as man himself being as it were at several births endow'd with Life Sense and Reason For Love at first unfeather'd creeps along by the instinct of formless Sympathy then it comes to use the wings of Desire after that it matures to Manhood becomes Reason which was before the violence of Passion or the weight of the predominant Element For while the Infant-heat sits brooding in the Heart ere it has hatch'd the panting sparks Desire dares hardly give credit to itself When the new-wounded Heart uncertain of the Smiters hand or of the hurt itself feels the pains of Infants when their Teeth first cut their Gums but when Desire encreasing they begin to kiss and bill then Ring-doves you behold not Men When in wanton Contentions they make their Amorous moans then you hear the Turtles voice who being by Nature compos'd to Kindness with a harmless Affection prosecute their innocent Loves while Dolphins and Lizzards prefer humane kinde But a more generous Passion seizes Men whose flames are of full maturity though blinde enough perhaps By this blinde force like the Idalian Doves with their eyes sealed up we are carried upward and ignorantly strive with all our might to reach Heaven as our Nest. In this manner do the very Vices of Lovers shew a nature covetous of Divinity and the very Errours of this Affection breathe somwhat immortal So that that more impure Desire which derides the Nuptials of the Virtues and the Copulation of Mindes that seeks for something to fill its embraces and worships Venus though threatning Storms and Shipwrack to its Nativity seems to be inflam'd not so much with the Tapers of Hymen as with the desire of Eternity while it so eagerly seeks to survive itself and by a continued series of Succession to survive itself He whom a Supper makes thee his Friend and a Morsel causes to sawn upon thee like a Beast who loves thy Dainties not thee He that values Man as he values his Farm and exercises mercenary Love with a trafficking Soul the one makes use of Love like Money but the Money of the Gods by means whereof we traffick with Heaven and enrich ourselves with Divinity the other enjoys his Love for the advantage of Luxury and Banquets for Love is accounted the Nectar of the Gods Both certainly with less Covetousness provide for their own advantage whether he that seeks for a Patrimony or for food out of Affection than he who with a liberal Minde hastens to give away perishing Riches and to transfer them out of the reach of Fortune or Fate before they are quite decay'd Who though he expect no return of Gratitude yet carries off a vast gain which is That he hath done a Kindness So that although he gave greatly away yet his recompence is much larger that is Vertue Great Gifts and such as Modesty almost forbids us to receive are more profitable to the Donor either because they render him the more rever'd as from whom little things are not expected or because he bestows a Benefit more necessary than that of Jove or the Sun itself as from whom Benefits are lookt upon as Debts paid by him out of Duty and Custome whose Munificence is such as if he intended to loose the benefit of Thanks through the largeness and frequency of his Bounty What shall I think of him that seeks to please and not to love Whom I visit like a Summer-tree which affords me leasure and shade but of no use in the depth of Winter to whom we that love more severely are often us'd thunder out this Saying The name of Friend like that of Wife is a name of Dignity
not of Pleasure Thou hast invented a new Delight beyond that of embracing By this sort of Wantonness worse than that of the Stews thou hast deflowr'd Love it self Diligently to please is the Art of Flatterers and the alluring venome of Harlotrie Society Splendidly to entertain is the Intrigue of those that fish for their own ends to soothe with Bribes the common trick of Suitors the Rudiment of loving not the life of Lovers Far be it from us to believe him to be a Friend whom while we desire he is a torment to us when we enjoy him irksome Yet they are not far out of the way who believe all Lovers inhabit Elysium and that Flowers spring up wherere they tread There are no other Joys in Heaven than to Love and be Belov'd no other upon Earth That divine Flame which makes the Empyreum and is to be the Happiness of our future Life shall be the only Solace of this All other things we suffer those only we enjoy which we pluck up by force with our wishes which we chuse and for whose sake we endure all other Hardships In Storms we see the Brethren Twins with an earnest gladness rejoycing together and bringing no less liquid Joys to the Saylors than to themselves but having joyn'd their Lights they loose themselves in their Embraces and become Twins again We have seen the Favourites of Venus encompass'd with a Cloud like young Brides under their silken Veils led to their wishes with a more secret Triumph We confess there is in Love something more potent than Misery more Majestical than Honour more splendid than Riches more delightful than Pleasure for whose sake we despise all those things for whose sake on the other side we do not contemn but have those things in Veneration It enjoys that Priviledge of Majesty that no Ignominy can touch it rather it frees from Infamy and renders glorious the very stains and blemishes of Life Hence it comes to pass that the Thirteenth Labour of Hercules is so much applauded and that it is reckon'd among his praise-worthy deeds to have handled a Distaff as well as brandish'd his Club wherewith after he had vanquish'd all other wilde Beasts it remain'd for him to tame that Monster Woman Why do we admire those immaculate Rays of Phoebus since the Tapers of Hymen give a lustre to sordid things being never themselves defil'd Why does the famish'd Soul so sollicitously seek Divinity in things below if it bring Divinity along with it And indeed whatever we love all that is Deity Whatever thou desirest is Jupiter How Does Jupiter buy and sell for that sordid person stampt all over that admits no Companion without a Dowry Yes but Jupiter thundering under the shape of Gold and the Deity converted into a Price How Does Jupiter itch with a libidinous Desire Yes but Jupiter in the shape of a Satyr and the Deity converted into Semeleian flames Jupiter invites himself to Supper but Jupiter lurking under the soft Down of a beautiful Swan Jupiter is luxurious but 't is the Ganymedean Iupiter bedew'd with Nectar and Ambrosia The Poets were not altogether deceived Our Loves and Amours not those of Jupiter transform'd the Deity into these conceited Disfigurements But because volatile and wandering Love is never at a stay till it come to the top or pleasingly discern'd believes itself there arriv'd when it is always the companion of the chiefest Good or as if it were the chiefest it ought to acquiesce in this one thing and travel earnestly toward this as Souls covet Heaven or Fire the Center He will have no leasure to tend the Allurements of new Felicity if there be any such He will not endure to love another nor so much as himself he will complain that he is below his own desires and so overmuch wanting to that which fills and wearies with overmuch desire and after he has wholly set his minde upon one yet cannot finde he has done enough it remains that he must be cruel to all but Stoics and Monks Hence Monster of Syracuse who invented a new Tyranny a third degree of Friendship Who could not endure to murder a pair of Friends but endeavoured to separate them and to intercept the Fidelity which he had emulated of a Tyrant being become a Rival Tell me Tyrant if thou cam'st a threefold Lover to these Twins which wouldst thou first receive into thy Bosome If thou challengest the equal Embraces of both Suppose one of them to be led to Death which wouldst thou choose to dye with the one or live with the other I finde thee at a loss like a piece of Iron between two Loadstones detain'd from both upon the confines of the two Elections Foolishly thou desir'st to live and dye both at a time Equality of Affection amuses a Lover about to adhere to neither yet to both The one expects thy tears the other would have thee laugh Toward the one over-faithful and officious toward the other impious So that the Minde thus torn in several pieces like Metius deservedly merits the punishment of Metius for its Perjury Consider well Loves Dominion or his Submission for certainly these new Eteocle's and Polynice's command and obey by turns there is in both somwhat singular they will not admit of two Masters If thou supposest Love to be a God he has but one Heaven If Fire Fire has but one Sphere If Death the Gods forbid us to expire often and not above once to deposite our Souls in the bosome of another having allow'd us but once to live If thou callest a Lover the Representation Coin or Seal of the Party beloved which take their form and price from the Image the Mirrour can be enliven'd but with one Effigies at a time the Coin is to carry the Face but of one Lord or Prince the Seal closes up the Epistle to all but one But if in Friendship you look upon the Marriage of Souls it would be a great Crime to admit Polygamy in male Amours to wed a new one having married a former and commit Adultery with his Friend Does this Affection then which has distinguish'd Humane Society from the herding of Beasts bring Men about again to Stoic Barbarism which is the contempt of all men Must the the rest of Mankinde be hated to love one Heavens forbid There is nothing more kinde nothing more benigne than Friendship and Philosophy nothing more the support of the World except the Deity Minds already soft easie and prone to Affability behave themselves without Severity or Perversness to all others They diffuse their beams like Phoebus who guilds Rhodes with a more peculiar Light The party beloved is dedicated to the Lover no otherwise than a Book sent to one but to be read by all We congratulate those candid Souls who like the Gods cherish with their favourable Influence not one person but all humane Kinde Who like our first Parents look upon all Nations as one Family or as if their Minds
Mansion of formerly Double-bodied Man we finde this in some measure to be true by the eager endeavours of the Parts of dissected Worms to meet together again as also by this that we see some persons at first sight rushing into each others Embraces as if they had remember'd their former Fellowship How did the Platonic transmigrate all into Memory when he taught that to Love and Philosophize was but to remember Indeed to him who believes that to Love is the same thing as to Philosophize this is no more than to excite those Souls slid down from Heaven together with their Bodies to a perpetual Contemplation of Heaven and to breathe with a continual desire of Eternity This is that I know not what Ardour which begetting in Mortals always in Emulation with the Gods both a loathing of their condition and means to remedy it hastens to put off the most frail part of man Hence furnish'd with many eyes what the Sun cannot do we behold both ends of the Earth at one time Hence it was that Amphitryo could look after his House and his Camp at once Hence it is that without any limit of time or space we live a posthumous Life either by our Friends the Guardians of our transmitted Souls or our Children Heirs of our transmitted Lives Plato prevents the wonderer at these things with a nearer Experiment for this same Platonic affirms that this same Cupid is a desire of enjoying and forming Beauty in a fair Object Fain indeed we would enjoy not with a fruitless delight always woe and contemplate that by an addition of Splendour as by the meeting of a Star in Conjunction the Influence may be the greater and that so the Star may become a Constellation Therefore as Pictures so the Countenances of extraordinary Majesty flattering beyond our humane condition affect the Beholders with a certain pleasure but with no desire And that same portion of Beauty which recreates the Eyes with that same delicacy of Symmetry and Colour after death shall meet with more Spectators than Lovers Nothing wither'd or dead can move living Affections neither is the pleasure of enjoying greater than that of forming pleasure Lust is from Nature which indulges this Art as well to the Minde as to the Countenance that where e're it should fix its sight it might expunge it self Therefore all Beauty loves a Mirrour and lest there should want a Spectator seeks its self beholding its own reflexion I call thee to witness noble Socrates the Master both of Love and Sanctity who dost the same as a Philosopher which the Statuary did before both shape and polish men though the price not only of the Art but of the matter must be enhaunsed For which reason it was thy Custome to enrol in thy Schools as in a Nursery of Women such beautiful Auditors as Phaedrus and Alcibiades who might easily imbibe thy Soul and render thy reflexion more fair as being more smooth than all the Mirrours in the world and more apt to take an impression than wax it self Something there is whatever it is which with a Celestial brightness like that of the Stars surpasses humane Envy but allures Adoration and ravishes Love to itsself with a specious enticement and so certainly so entirely possesses us that it will not suffer us to turn our sight upon any other Object Nothing but what is adorn'd with such beams as these nothing but what thus draws and smites the Eyes can dazle and inflame our Mindes Even our very Vertues flatter us under the lovely shape of Vertue And as often as we are minded to erre with Nature as often as we seek among Monsters for something to be adopted into the number of Angels as well as into humane Society this in them appears pleasant and delightful that they fear no Rival and serve to shew the incongruous pleasure of Nature in Contrariety Unless any one will deny that there is any thing deformed in Nature since those Animals which the Grand Artificer has condemn'd to darkness retain a certain Beauty in ugliness and like Warts and Shadows set off the rest of the worlds face For that which less flatters the sight is not therefore ugly to the Eye but may be accompted a rarity not frequently seen which the nicer sort are wont to purchase at any rate What may not be accompted sacred when Owls and the most ill-favour'd Creatures have found Adorers Where since there is no Deformity nothing of Hatred remains neither is the name of Antipathy admitted but among the Sects of Philosophers Wherefore dost thou tell me among the Documents of Sobriety how the Colewort shuns the Vine Sober not out of a loathing of Wine or love of Sobriety but for thy healths sake Thus the Wolf devours the Lamb Fire feeds upon Water not out of Hatred but for Self-preservation Thus Man abhors not Man but Inhumanity and therefore guards himself Thus we do not envy others their Riches as offended at 'em but over-unjustly solicitous for our selves If there be any Strife of Nature certainly the Contention is very favourable and such as founds and raises Common-wealths as sociable Thievery which lays the foundations of its Greatness upon others Losses neither can we call these Spoils but Gifts by a reciprocal Concession Severe Love If these Wars must be carried on with thy Weapons if Helena must be always purchas'd by Rapine and Bloodshed and Venus be only granted to Mars Nevertheless of so great moment it is for us to perish that we may please him Nor do I wonder when Beauty sets the Gods at odds if miserable Paris and the rest of Mortals prove such vigorous Rivals in the same case Hence it was that Love the Parent of all the world form'd Harmony out of Discord and coupled Vulcan to Venus that is to say Fire to Water and made an intertexture of the most disagreeing things in Nature And when he had fram'd and adorn'd the vast bulk of the Universe for a more than ordinary Shew He was the first Admirer of his own work and first felt the force of that Beauty which He himself infus'd This is that Order from whence things borrow not their Softness but their Strength and Ornament together Beauty seems to me to be nothing else but the Consummation Flower and Maturity of every thing That I take to be beautiful and splendid which is entirely what it ought to be The innate Vigour gives Strength and Figure to the Sinews how the half-concocted Gem sparkles in the unpolish'd mass and how the inward juice not only fructifies but adorns with an Emral-greenness Thus we finde a Minde composed within polishes the outward Countenance honest Thoughts and a Minde incontaminated adorn the cheeks beyond all the Fucus in the world The Minde appears through its natural Veil like the Sun through a Cloud This is that brightness of an undefiled Minde that addes a lustre to the members that by the vertue of Similitude they may be capable to
Statue Lesbia to a Statue whereby they did not so much desire as undergo a change and experiment in themselves the Fables of the Poets finding themselves as it were changed into Trees Stones and Birds it is not our meanest Felicity to feign Discourses Answers and frame Delights to our selves as if we intended to be happy at our own not at the Will of another It pleases us to enjoy an Affection not in vain returning to the Author where there is that of Delight still remaining which is accompted the chiefest in Love that we love our Love reciprocally and like the Sun enjoy the reflexion of our own heat Nor does that other chance of being Belov'd afford less Delight but more of Honour Whence men more extensively court the Affections of others than they expend their own This is without the Ensignes of Magistracy or the Scepter to extend the proper Kingdom of the Gods in the Minds of Men. This shews us vast Felicities and Vertues and causes us rather to suffer than render good Offices Hence are reckoned so many Trophies of thy Vertues as we finde Retainers following thy Triumphal Chariot But when the Contest is who shall render most good Offices when it is a Combat of Kindness not after the fashion of the Court but with a modest shame to submit and out of a fear of less well-doing then is that parity of reciprocal Kindness which Aristotle dignified with the known Title of Friendship though giving no Example Well fare that Equality which Justice with her Sword and her Ballance has been long attempting but Love has easily brought into Custome among Mankinde Sometimes it happens that the distance of Fortunes or Merits separates Friendship Jupiter must descend to Earth and put off his Deity before he can enjoy the Embraces of Mortals Nay the brute Deity must descend below man and work his admittance rather by Contempt than Terrour Semele has sufficiently taught us how great a punishment it is to admit a Deity to her Bed The adoration of great people is only sweet to the ignorant as approaching nearer to Flattery than Charity 'T is our Ambition not our Friendship advises us to this to purchase our selves into the number of Servants rather than of Friends But they are both equal who have captivated each other at the expence of true worth Sometimes we experiment a more fragrant Ambition while humble Masters strive to love themselves and chuse rather to suffer a contempt of Dignity than a decrease of Candor Alexander puts off the Emperour and by Loving looses what he won by Conquest content that Ephestio should reign upon condition he may be a part of his Kingdom He bestows upon Ephestio the Flatteries which he receives from others while he serves Ephestio he seems to enjoy more than another World We all confess that Love is a soothing and restless desire of pleasing them who please us either by chance or through their own vertue or our mistake It little imports either to Life or Friendship where the heat first kindled The Heart moves and throbs never the less for that continually reverberating our breasts and like a double-diligent Importunate either to tire or force to deserve or asswage cherishes Kindnesses with Kindnesses and where there is no place for kinde Offices like one alway rendring something obliges the Inclinations of the other with a countenance of diligent Obsequiousness and strives to please with a fear of displeasing But this he accounts a benefit to have sometimes displeas'd by which means he may either hate or reform his own proceedings For to be most like to this person is to be both good and happy he dives into the most inward Motions of the heart performs commands by conjecture and fulfils them as yet unknown to the Master before the pangs of labouring desire can come to torment him Neither shall he ever satisfie himself though the other has done sufficient whereby it is apparent that he who is the Courter is delighted with those Offices of Kindness not so much to gain favour as out of a desire to serve as if Man were a Slave born by nature for that one Mistress For you must know that there is the same pedigree and original of Loving as of Living Of some certain things there is an order and mutual agreement among themselves either instituted by Nature or voluntarily undertaken of things like or dislike whereby those are conjoyn'd those are disunited and parted asunder But that tye of Blood is the work of chance nor does it shew any merit of Affection as being engrafted in our Breasts we never admit but ignorantly suffer and now so much as it brings of Necessity so much it imposes of Burthen Pardon me therefore if I hold the name of Friends more holy than that of Parents We owe all that to Love which we attribute to our Parents that is to be led by the Errour of easie Piety For out of their mutual Love not out of any Charity to us it happens that we come to receive the benefit of this light Neither does proper Alliance inflame or cherish Domestic Friendship but Familiarity and that same sweet Society in Calamities and reciprocal Kindness in common Miseries I am deceiv'd or Lovers are joyn'd together by a more strict alliance and by a tye so much the straiter by how much Reason is above Nature The force of a mans own Will is greater than that of Consanguinity For every one obeys himself the more stedfastly by how much he does it with more pleasure and submits to his own Laws But both these conspiring together how promptly and placidly does this Affection sway the Minde by a tacite consent confederating our Will with Nature But O thou least of all the Gods though greatest of all the Deities divine Cupid It is beneath thy Merits that the audacious Philosophers and Poets should only feign thee a God However thou hast this proper to a Deity to be unknown and to receive sacred reproaches from men He has also this farther property of a God to lead men by a tacite Influence so that they obey though they feel not his Motions and to draw others against their Wills insomuch that all Affections contrary to it at the beck of his Majesty submit their Services While he is pleased to jeast the lofty hang their drooping heads the brave and stout fear and tremble at the glittering Darts of splendid eyes The Illiterate Heir of a sudden grows eloquent he no longer buys his Love-Songs but grows enraged himself and sings her praise To omit the other Attributes of his Divinity Love is a Circle eternal immense in whom reside those acts of Providence to Govern and Cherish wherein I am the more confirm'd for that Love's Religion strikes an awe upon the very wicked They court in such a manner as if they were performing Divine Service Their Countenances fail they view their Garments and compose themselves to all the habits of Reverence To