should find the custom broken over and the rule reversed in those not unfrequent cases, in which the female is in these respects the superior. We may more naturally suppose the custom to have been the consequence of the general law that the passion is absolutely stronger in the male, though it may be relatively stronger in the female.

Still, there is to observe in courtship, a beautiful reciprocity. The beauty of woman excites admiration in man; the ardent love of man excites an answering passion in woman; the delicate sentiments, inspired by such a feeling in woman, give to the passion of man new fervor and exaltation; and thus the affair goes on, in a delightful progression towards that ecstacy of rapture, which, as the novelists are pleased to inform us, is "better felt than expresed!" Further observations upon the refined and beautiful developments of the tender passion, which occur in a somewhat favorable social state, may be more properly reserved for the conclusion of this branch of our subject. We must now turn to the history of remote ages, for illustrations of courtship, as practised in various ages and nations.

The

How naturally do we turn to the historical records of the Hebrew race, for our earliest examples! When Abraham sought a wife for his son Isaac, he sent a confidential servant to find him one, among his distant relatives. servant made his selection at a public well, to which the maidens of the city came to draw water. After choosing the fittest, and it may be supposed the most beautiful, he applied, not to herself, but to her relatives, who gave their consent, that she should go in five days. But as Abraham's servant was anxious to go at once, Rebecca was consulted upon this point, and immediately consented.

This fashion of courting by proxy, which existed in the days of Abraham, we shall find to be still the prevailing oriental custom, and too much followed in some parts of Europe. In the above case we read of no representations being made by the proxy, in regard to the personal or mental qualities of the young gentleman who was to be fitted with a wife; but his wealth and magnificence were carefully specified, and costly presents made to the lady and her relatives. On the other hand Isaac appears to have taken without the least que: ion, the wife provided for him.

In the next generation, however, matters were differently managed. Jacob conducted his courtship in person. His first meeting with Rachel varies somewhat from the etiquette of modern times. Lovers, in our days, are quite cheerful, or endeavor to appear so. We have, indeed, seen remarkably sentimental young gentlemen looking mournful and "sighing like a furnace:" but Jacob "drew near and kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept." It is dif ficult to say whether this feeling, so unequivocally displayed on his part, was reciprocal; but if it was, the passions of these young people were under the most exemplary subordination; since, on Jacob's applying to her father in form, it was found that he could not pay the price demanded, and he engaged to give, instead, seven years of labor. All this time, the couple waited in hope, only to be disappointed; for Jacob, on waking up the morning after his nuptials, found himself married to Rachel's elder, and by no means pretty sister. It was of no use complaining, and he had to serve another seven years; when after this protracted courtship of fourteen years, this affectionate couple, who had fallen in love at first sight, were happily united.

What sickness of heart from hope deferred, what agonies of jealousy, what weariness and disgust, may we not imagine to have been experienced by two lovers in such an interval, and under such circumstances!

The general rule that the declaration of love is the right of the male, has also some exceptions growing out of peculiar customs and laws. Among the Hebrews, a widow had the right of demanding the brother or nearest kinsman of her deceased husband in marriage, and it was the right and duty of the eldest brother, or the nearest of kin, to marry such widow; but as in this case the privilege of asking was transferred to the female, the male had also power to refuse, but the exercise of this power was connected with some mortifying circumstances. It had to be done in public, before the elders of the people, and the woman thus slighted and insulted, had the right to spit in the face of the man hardy enough to refuse her hand. Even this was probably sometimes borne as the lesser evil.

There was a custom similar to this, among the Hurons and Iroquois, applying to both sexes. When a man's wife

died, he was obliged to marry her sister, or in her stead, any woman her family might choose for him; in the same way a widow married the brother of her deceased husband.

It appears that among the Jews, whether the parties had become acquainted or not, it was always the custom for their parents to make the overtures and settle the conditions of marriage. Even Samson, gifted as he was with superhuman strength, and little scrupulous in the use of it, when he had fallen in love with the Philistine damsel Delilah, went to his parents, laid the case before them, and besought them to get her for him. They made objections, but, instead of proceeding to accomplish his own wishes, he still persisted in entreating them. This is to be accounted for by the custom of the country and the filial obedience imposed by the Mosaic law.

In the early stages of civilization in Eastern nations, after the breaking up of patriarchial relations, and before society had settled into a state of security, we may imagine such a condition of violence and rapine to have existed, as made it necessary to protect and conceal young females, in the manner now customary in the East. Under these circumstances there could exist little of courtship. Girls were married at an early age, and even contracted for in infancy. Few were allowed a choice, and polygamy probably grew naturally out of the power to maintain and protect, enjoyed by comparatively few. It was only by accident that young people had the opportunity of forming an attachment-it was a still less likely chance that such an attachment should have a happy termination. But "custom is a second nature," and women, educated to this slavery of the affections, can scarcely conceive of a condition of tolerable freedom.

While women, in the East, were thus monopolized, in the strictest sense of the word; among the hardy and savage nations of the west, women, less concealed, were made the trophies of successful valor. As among the Greenlanders no young man can marry until he has shown his prowess and skill in capturing the monsters of the northern seas, and as among the North American savages a young man must have killed a grizly bear, or taken a scalp in battle before he can aspire to the favors of his chosen fair, so in

Europe, where several lovers aspired to the hand of some celebrated beauty, their rival pretensions were settled as among certain animals, by combat, and the maxim,

"None but the brave deserve the fair,"

was carried into practical operation. A lover in those days was obliged to contend one by one with all his rivals, and the lady, whatever her predilections, was obliged to give her hand to the conqueror. There is nothing strange in this, however, since, as we have said, the same thing is observed in the lower orders of animals. Love and war are as closely connected in reality, as are the organs which govern them, in the phrenological developments.

As society gained in refinement, the barbarity of perpetual contests declined, and games and tournaments were instituted, in which young men exhibited their skill and dexterity, for the prize of beauty. But even these less bloody contests led often to protracted feuds and deadly animosities; and, in time, marriage, among the rich and powerful, became generally a matter of contract and sale, and Christianity for ages did nothing to soften this hard fate of woman, but to give her a choice between a detested marriage and a convent.

These observations, however, must be considered as applying mostly to the higher classes of society, for in countries where polygamy does not exist, those who suffer the burthens and privations of poverty have been compensated by a much greater freedom of the affections.

In the early ages of Greece, love appears to have been little more than a gross animal appetite, impetuous and unrestrained, either by cultivation of manners or precepts of morality. Men satisfied their propensities by force, or revenged the obstruction of their desires by mur ler. In later and more enlightened ages, the young of bi sexes had few opportunities of declaring their affection ›r each other. The lover inscribed the name of his m the bark of a tree, in some grove where she reso d, or on the wall of his house. It was a beautiful custom for a lover to deck the door of his mistress' house with garlands of flowers-to make libations of wine before it, and

tress on

sprinkle the doorway, as was customary at the entrance of the temple of Cupid.

Garlands were of great use among the Greeks in their love affairs. When a man untied his garland it was a confession of love, and a woman made the same confession by composing one. It is but natural to suppose that a people, whose vivid poetical fancies sought correspondencies in every thing, found means in this way of carrying on a courtship, as pleasantly and quite as intelligibly, as by billet doux.

But if a love affair did not prosper in the hands of a Grecian, instead of endeavoring to become more engaging in his manners, he resorted to philters and incantations, in which certain women drove a lucrative trade. Nor were these potions without their effects, for if they did not excite love, they were composed of such powerful narcotics as to deprive those who took them of sense and sometimes of life itself. When love-potions failed, they proceeded to incantations and charms. A favorite one was to mould an image of the beloved object in wax, and then with certain ceremonies to gradually warm and melt it before the fire, and it was imagined that as the fire penetrated the wax, so love would soften and melt the obdurate heart of the object beloved. Experiments of this kind were tried by hapless lovers of both sexes. It was a great object to get possession of some article belonging to the beloved one, and when a man was so fortunate, he placed it in the earth beneath the threshold of her door, as a charm of peculiar efficacy.

It must not be supposed that all these conjurations were on one side, for if a person imagined himself worked upon by any philter, love-potion, or charm, he immediately applied to some old woman to prepare a counter charm, which would free him from his supposed fascination.

It is proper to state, however, that all these methods of courtship, from the beautiful ones of garlands and flowers, to the absurd ones of potions and charms, were generally practised to forward illicit amours. The Greek women, from the heroic ages to the present day, have seldom had the power of refusing such matches as were provided for them by their parents or guardians, so that the greater