to love.

There are others, who deem this sentiment a Weakness. If a lady find
herself inclined to it, she should at once strive to subdue it. Much as
one, whose face is marked by disease or accident, would fain conceal the
blemish, so would she hide, even from a mother or sister, any experience
of affection for a particular individual. Love is, in her view, a thing
to be ashamed of, an infirmity, which, if one have not power wholly to
escape, she should yet lock with eternal secrecy in her own bosom.

Now I ask, why should we blush for emotions, of which the God of nature
implanted the germs within us? Is it weak to indulge a sentiment so
productive of happiness as this, so essential to the wellbeing of the
holiest bond on earth? Love is not a folly; in its purity, it is a
noble, unselfish thing, the inspirer and friend of moral excellence.
When I see a young woman pining over a hidden grief, which might have
been spared, had she imparted her feelings to a friend; when I witness
the mental powers tried, and at length overcome, by the struggles of a
pent-up fire in the soul, I lament the sad error, to which these
mournful consequences can be so directly traced. Why, if the object,
especially, of her affection deserve and requite it, why should she bury
it as a weakness in her soul? The cases are very rare, in which there is
no one to whom a secret of this description may with propriety, and
ought, to be frankly confided. The peril lies in concealment.

Some esteem love a Disease. They look upon her, who indulges it, as in
an unsound condition. It is as if a member of the body were amputated,
or maimed. The individual, on whom its visitations have been inflicted,
is an object of compassion. Hence its approaches are actually dreaded.
She who entertains this theory, instead of receiving cordially the
advances of a gentleman, even a favorite, shrinks from the thought of
it, and repels the intimations of any special attention on his part.

Is this well? Is it right so to deal with a sentiment common to the sex?
Were it a disease, we should form exceptions to the rule. But since it
is so almost universally experienced, why should one avert it from the
heart? She who does this, misinterprets the human constitution. Let her
study the purposes of Providence, and no more will she refuse the
admission of this sentiment, when circumstances justify its
encouragement, than she will decline taking food, lest it cause sickness
and d