gence which interferes not with the enjoyments or interests of
others. The miser should not accumulate his gold at the expense of
another; the libertine should not revel in beauty's arms, by force; the
lady must make a willing sacrifice--thus nobody is injured--and thus the
pleasure is _legitimate_; though bigoted churchmen and canting
hypocrites may declaim on the sin of carnal indulgences unsanctioned by
the priest and his empty ceremonies. Fools! NATURE, and her laws, and
her promptings, and her desires, spurn the trammels of form and custom,
and reign triumphant over the hollow mummery of the parson and his pious
foolery.

"Now, dear madam," continued the artful logician, (whose words belied
his own sentiments, and his own belief,) "supposing that you admit all
these premises; what do we next arrive at? Let me be plain, since you
have been so candid with me. You have admitted that the prevailing and
all-absorbing passion of your nature is--an intense desire to enjoy that
delicious communion which had its origin in the garden of Eden. Why
deprive yourself of the gratification you long for? Why do you hunger
for the fruit which is within your reach? Why disregard the promptings
of nature? Why obstinately turn aside from a bliss which is the rightful
inheritance of every man and woman on the face of the earth? And,
lastly, why are you so cruel to me, whom you have been pleased to
pronounce agreeable? Answer me, charming Duchess, and answer me as your
own generous heart and good sense shall dictate."

The Duchess was silent for a short time, and appeared to reflect
profoundly; then she said, in a tone and manner singularly earnest--

"Listen to me, my friend--for that you are such, I am very sure. I do
not deprive myself of the pleasures of which you speak, in consequence
of any scruples, moral or religious. I have no respect for the
institution of matrimony, or its obligations; I laugh at the doctrines
of those who speak of the crime of an indulgence in Love's pleasures,
without the sanction of the church. I agree with you that we all have
derived from nature the _right_ to feed our diversified passions
according to their several cravings; but while we are authorized, by the
very laws of our being, to seek those delights of sense for which we
yearn, a perverted and ridiculous PUBLIC OPINION prohibits such
indulgences, unless under certain restrictions, and accompanied by
certain forms. Now, though this public opinion