t of tact and skill, and women who would flirt and be blameless,
no matter how vast their materials, must follow Opie's plan and "mix
them with brains."

It used to be a maxim that no gentleman could be refused by a lady,
because he would never presume beyond the line of her encouragement;
therefore it is to be presumed, on this rule, no lady advances further
than she is willing to ratify. But such a state of society would be
very stupid and formal, and we should miss a very piquant flavor in
life, which even very good and great people have not been able to
resist.

Upon this rule we must convict Queen Elizabeth as an arrant flirt, and
"no lady;" we should be compelled to shake our heads at the fair
Thrale and the great Dr. Johnson, at naughty Horace Walpole and Mrs.
Hannah More, and to even look with suspicion on George Whitefield and
"good Lady Huntingdon."

No, in polished society flirting in a moderate form is an amusement,
and an investigation so eminently suited to the present condition of
the sexes that a much better one could be better spared. In one case
only does it admit of no extenuating circumstances,--that of the
married flirt of both sexes.

A flirt may not indeed be an altogether lovely character, even with
all her alluring faults; but she is something a great deal nicer than
a prude. All men prefer a woman who trusts them, or gayly challenges
them to a combat, in which she proposes their capture, to her who
affects horror at masculine tastes and ways, and is always expecting
them to do some improper, or say some dreadful, thing. Depend upon it,
if all the flirts were turned into prudes, society would have gone
further to fare worse.

On Falling in Love

"Something there is moves me to love; and I
Do know I love, but know not how, or why."

There is in love no "wherefore;" and we scarcely expect it. The
working-world around must indeed give us an account of their actions,
but lovers are not worth much in the way of rendering a reason; for
half the charm of love-making lies in the defiance of everything that
is reasonable, in asserting the incredible, and in believing the
impossible. And surely we may afford ourselves this little bit of
glamour in an age judging everything by the unconditional and the
positive; we may make little escapades into love-land, when all the
old wonder-lands, from the equator to the pole, are being mapped out,
and dotted over with railway depots, and ports