"Even love is sold;—the solace of all woe,
Is turned to deadliest agony; old age
Shivers in selfish beauty's loathing arms,
And youth's corrupted impulses prepare
A life of horror from the blighting bane
Of commerce."
To the first four words of this quotation, is appended a note of some length, in which he enters more in detail into the subject of our difference. Before I proceed to this, let me remark, that the expression "even love is sold," in the text of his dissertation, is a fallacy:—and he himself demonstrates it to be such, when he adds that "old age shivers in selfish beauty's loathing arms!" In the instance he has offered, it is not love that is the object of sale, but "selfish beauty;" which whether sold, or given, affords no reason for his hypothesis. A better reasoner than Mr. Shelley has said—
"Judges and senates may be bought for gold;
Esteem, and love, were never to be sold!"
It is hardly to be presumed, if the institution of marriage were abolished, that mercenary beauty would not dispose of itself to the best advantage, and to hazard the proposition that a yearly, a monthly, or a diurnal sale, of such selfish charms, would better the condition of society, would be to hazard the pro-
