for that very reason, if no other, to her the palm, as it appears to me, muft neceffarily be due. THUS farin answer to the QUERIST; buthaving entered into this subject, I cannot take leave of it without adding some thoughts of my own, which in spite of me force themselves into my head, whenever I hear any mention made of this enterprizing queen. SUPPOSING, that after having reduced all Germany, expelled the emperor, and seated the grand duke in the imperial throne, humbled the power of France, and driven them from all their holds in Flanders, she should take a fancy to extend her conquests to the United Provinces, is there not a possibility Great Britain might have an unquiet neighbour of her?-The danger indeed is far remote, yet I think not more fo than that which of late has rung so great a peal in our ears, concerning the designs of France against us, at least from that quarter. O! BUT were this practicable, fome will say, her majesty of Hungary is too much obliged to us ever to entertain any designs to our prejudice. To which it may be replied, that all princes act not. upon the fame principles with private persons; what in a subject might be ingratitude, tricking, and chicanery, is refined policy in them, and for all the outcry that we make against violation of treaties, that prince who is intirely innocent of it may throw the first stone. In the mean time, the justice and magnanimity of this princess, methinks, would appear in a more advantageous light, if some equivalent were made to Great-Britain for that expence of blood and treasure' J treasure lavished in her cause, at a time when it could so ill be spared, and when no other power, without being largely paid for it, would espouse her cause. Oftend, for instance, is a demesne she might very well afford to part with, as it would be of great service to our trade, and give us a more plaufible pretence for ferving her than any we have yet been able to find. THOUGH my late celebrated brother, and many other authors, have given the world their various opinions concerning jealousy, I fancy it will not be impertinent to add fomething to what has been already faid on a subject, which has, and will for ever continue to create the most terrible disorders that can befal mankind: not only because whatever may serve as a preservative against it cannot be too often repeated, but also because I think, with all due deference to those who have hitherto treated on it, that they have not been so copious as might have been expected, and that the greatest part of them have done it more honour than it deserves. WHAT I mean by doing it with more honour than it deserves, is, that they speak of it only as the effect of a too ardent love and admiration of the object; whereas, though this may sometimes be the cafe, it is far from being always fo; and, I believe, we shall find no difficulty to prove, that the origin of it may more often be deduced from the very worst instead of the noblest paffion of the foul: foul :-it may, indeed, with great propriety, be called the bane of love; but whenever it is found the off-spring, it can only be of a base and degenerate inclination, not of that pure and refined passion which is alone worthy of the name of love. THIS certainly can be denied by none who allow that true love is founded on that esteem which the opinion we have of the good qualities of the object excites in us; and, I believe, few examples can be produced of the real and unfeigned permanence of the one, when the other wholly ceases to exist. I BELIEVE I shall be easily understood to mean that affection which is between persons who are either already married, or engaged to be so to each other by mutual assurances of a lasting ten derness. For as to that timidity which is the natural companion of love in its infancy, and before it receives encouragement necessary to strengthen hope, it proceeds only from a diffidence of our own merits, not from a distrust of the beloved object and can with no degree of propriety be termed jealoufy. As it is therefore only after being possessed of all we had to wish, or having been flattered with a belief we should infallibly be so, that those distracting ideas, which constitute jealousy, can find any entrance in the brain; I think it sufficiently justifies my assertion, that this mischievous pafsion discovers rather the meanest opinions of the object than a too vehement admiration, unless suspect suspecting a person guilty of perjury, inconftancy, and the most shocking and worst kind of deceit, can be called fo. THERE are people in the world who know not how to support profperity, and when arrived at the end they long have laboured after, find in themselves fomething which will not fuffer them to be at quiet;-they have attained all, they have no more to wish,- and like the Macedonian conqueror, are vexed they have nothing farther to oppose them :-this restlessness of mind puts them on reflecting how, and by what means they may poffibly be deprived of what they may have acquired; and whatever is poffible, they soon present to themselves as highly probable; and by degrees bring up into a downright certainty of happening. FANCY is a creative faculty, and when agitated by fear, can work wonders: it forms apparitions, and then shews them as real substances;-it turns what is, into what is not, and converts nothing into something; -it levels the mountain, and exalts the vale; it unites the greatest contraries, and divides the firmest and most cemented bodies; -in a word, it either makes or overthrows whenever it pleases, destroys the order of all things, and performs what nature has not the power to do. "When reason sleeps, our mimic fancy wakes, "Supplies her part, and wild ideas takes, "From words and things ill fuited and misjoined, "The anarchy of thought, and chaos of the mind." Thus, by an impatience of temper, and the force of imagination, are many mifled to ruin their own own peace, and that of the person they pretend to love; yet is this the least unpardonable source from which jealousy proceeds, because it may, as the poet says, be taken " For the high pulse of passion in a fever." AND if the faults of love by love are to be juftified, those who are rendered uneasy on this score may the more readily excuse the effects, in confideration of the cause. But what have they to alledge in vindication of the discontent they occafion, in whom "No fign of love remains, "But that which fick men have of life, their " pains ?" MANY there are, Heaven knows, too many of such, whom a moderate share of observation may point out: - there are those who, without being capable of feeling one tender emotion, or having any true regard even for the person of him or her, to whom they happen to be joined, have discovered a jealousy, which has rendered all within the reach of its effects, extremely miferable. THIS is indeed so common a case, unnatural as it inay feem, that I dare answer there is not one into whose hands the FEMALE SPECTATOR may fall, that have not fome time or other in their lives had an acquaintance with families where it has happened; but following the received maxim, that "jealousy is the effect of love," have rather pitied than condemned the extravagancies they may have feen occafioned by it. BUT |