Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A28927
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Characters of the virtues & vices of the age, or, Moral reflections, maxims, and thoughts upon men and manners translated from the most refined French wits ... and extracted from the most celebrated English writers ... : digested alphabetically under proper titles / by A. Boyer, Gent.
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Boyer, Abel, 1667-1729.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing B3912; ESTC R19552
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97,677
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222
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* Love is a kind of penurious God very niggard of his Opportunities he must be watch'd like a hard-hearted Treasurer for he bolts out of a sudden and if you take him not in the nick he vanishes in a twinkling XXX * There is no reason in the World to revenge upon a Lover the Deceits of his Love for as in War so in Love Stratagems are always allow'd XXXI * A silly Mistress is like a weak Place soon got soon lost XXXII * Mistresses are like Books if you pore upon them too much they doze you and make you unfit for Company but if us'd discreetly you are the sitter for Conversation by them XXXIII * Some Women pray for Husbands that they may the better love at random XXXIV * Many a Spark that hunts after a Mistress often gets a Wife and stands condemn'd to a Repentance during Life without Redemption except one of the two dies XXXV * Some People fall in love by Contagiâ—n and meerly by conversing with the infected XXXVI * Men do not see or taste or find the thing they love but they create it They fashion an Idol in what Figure or Shape they please set it up worship it dote upon it pursue it and sometimes run mad for it XXXVII * The extravagant Transports of Love and the wonderful Force of Nature are uncontroulable The one carries us out of our selves and the other brings us back again XXXVIII Two passionate Lovers cannot partake of other Pleasures than those which they receive from their Love XXXIX There is no Passion that more excites us to every thing that is Noble and Generous than an honest Love XL. Short absence excites Passions whereas a long one destroys them XLI Women who preserve a Passion for Persons that are absent raise but little in those who see them and the continuation of their Love for the Absent is less an Honour to their Constancy than a Scandal to their Beauty XLII The Love of young People is only an irregular Passion and boiling Desire that has no other Object than Pleasure and which Enjoyment dissipates XLIII Love comes in by the Ears as well as by the Eyes and therefore it is a great Indiscretion in a Man to make a long Descant upon his Mistress's Perfections before his Friend XLIV Love has as it were never well establish'd his Power till he has ruin'd that of Reason XLV Love begins by Love and the greatest Friendship can never influence but a very small Passion XLVI Nothing resembles true Friendship so well as those Engagements which have a secret Love at the bottom XLVII We never love truly but once and that 's the first time we love The following Passions are less involuntary XLVIII That Passion which is rais'd on the sudden is the most difficult to be cur'd XLIX That Love which encreases by degrees is so much like Friendship that it can never be a violent Passion L. As nice as we are in Love we still forgive more Faults in that than in Friendship LI. We tell our Secrets in Friendship but they slip from us in Love LII There are many Remedies to cure Love but never a one of them is infallible LIII The greatest Miracle Love can work is to cure a Coquet Humour LIV. Coquets make it a Pride to be jealous of their Lovers only to conceal their Envy of other Women LV. The reason why Lovers are but seldom uneaâ—ie in one another's Company is because they never talk of any thing but themselves LVI It is a Lover's Fault if he is not sensible when he ceases to be belov'd LVII A Man of Parts may love indiscreetly but not â—ottishly LVIII The Grace of Novelty is to Love what the Blue-mourn or Gloss is to the Fruits it gives them a Lustre which is easily defac'd and when once gone never returns any more LIX A Fever is the properest Simile of Love for in both Cases the Degree and the Continuance of the Disease is out of our own Power LX. 'T is better for a Man sometimes to be deceiv'd in what he loves than to be plainly dealt with LXI It is as hard for a Woman to manage a fond Lover as a cold one LXII Women generally keep the first Lover only for want of a second LXIII Men often go from Love to Ambition but seldom come back again from Ambition to Love LXIV All our Passions engage Men in some Faults but those of Love are the most ridiculous LXV Of all violent Passions Love becomes a Woman best LXVI In the first Passion Women have commonly an Affection for the Lover but afterwards they seldom love but for the Pleasure of Loving LXVII Love tho' never so agreeable a Passion pleases still more by the ways it takes to shew it self than it does upon its own account LXVIII Tho' Love is worn out yet it makes both Lover and Mistress uneasie to part LXIX It is oftentimes much harder to forbear loving an unkind Mistress than to bear with her cruel Usage LXX It is with old Love as with old Age a Man lives to all the Miseries but is dead to all the Pleasures of Life LXXI There is one kind of Love whose excess prevents Iealousie LXXII In Love Cozening always exceeds Distrust LXXIII There are some self-conceited Fops who when they are in Love entertain themselves with their own Passion instead of the Person that causes it Marriage Matrimony Children I. MAny Marriages prove convenient and useful but few delightful II. * 'T is much with Wedlock as with our Elixirs and Antidotes there goes a thousand Ingredients to the making of the Composition but then if they be not tim'd proportion'd and prepar'd according to Art 't is a Clog to us rather than a Relief III. * Marriages are govern'd rather by an over-ruling Fatality than any solemnity of Choice and Judgment tho' 't is a hard matter to â—ind out a Woman even at the best that 's of a just Scantling for her Age Person Humour and Fortune to make a Wife of The one single disparity of Years is of it self sufficient without a more than ordinary Measure of Vertue and Prudence to make a Man ridiculous IV. * A Wife and Children are a kind of Discipline of Humanity and Single Men tho' they be many times more charitable because their Means are less exhausted yet on the other side they are more cruel and hard-hearted because their Tenderness is not so oft call'd upon V. * Grave Natures led by Custom and therefore constant are commonly loving Husbands VI. * Chast Women are often proud and froward as presuming upon the Merit of their Chastity VII * It is one of the best Bonds both of Chastity and Obedience in the Wife if the think her Husband Wise which she will never do if she find him Iealous VIII * Wives are young Men's Mistresses Companions for middle-Age and old Men Nurses IX * The Joys of Parents are secret and so are their Griefs and Fears They cannot utter the
It has different Inclinations after the diversity of Tempers which turn and devote it sometimes to Riches sometimes to Glory sometimes to Pleasure it alters them according to the variety of our Age Fortune and Experience It never matters whether it has many or but one because it divides it self to many or gathers and collects it self to one when either its Interest or Fancy requires it It is unsteady and besides the Alterations it receives from external Things there are a thousand that spring from it self It is inconstant by Fickleness by Love by Novelty and by Nauseating and Dislike It is capricious and humoursome Sometimes with incredible Hardships it snatches at Things not only unprofitable but even hurtful and offensive which it hankers after only because it has a mind to it It is unaccountable and fantastical it often busies it self about the most vain and frivolous Employments it delights in the most insipid Things and keeps its Loftiness and Pride in the vilest Drudgery It is in all states of Life as in all sorts of Conditions it lives every-where it lives upon every thing sometimes upon nothing It is contented with the Enjoyment of Things and the Want of them It sides with its Foes follows their Designs and which is wonderful it hates it self hatches its own Rnin and pushes on its Overthrow To sum up all All its care is to subsist provided it be it is content to be its own Enemy We ought not therefore to think it strange to see it associate with the roughest Ansterity and hardest Mortification and side with them to destroy it self for it is no sooner cast down in one place but it rises up again in another When it seems to forsake its Pleasure it does but suspend or alter it nay when it is so conquer'd that Men would believe themselves to be rid of it it springs up again and triumphs in its Overthrow This is the true Picture of Self-love of which the whole Life is but a strong and long Agitation The Sea is a sensible and lively Image of it for you may find in the continual Ebbs and Flows of its Waves a faithful Representation of the boisterous and turbulent Succession of Self-love's everlasting and endless Movements II. Self-love is the greatest Flatterer in the World III. Self-love bears less patiently the Condemnation of our Tastes or Inclinations than of our Opinions IV. The Fondness or Indifference that Philosopâ—ers express'd for Life was but a particular Tang of the Love of themselves for which there is no more reason to be given than for the variety of Palates or the choice of Colours in some People V. The first motion of Joy that we resent at the Happiness and Preferment of our Friends does seldom proceed either from our Good-nature or the Kindness we have for them but generally from Self-love which flatters us that our Turn of being happy is coming or that we shall reap some Bâ—nefit from their Prosperity VI. As if the Power of transforming it self were small Self-love does frequently transform its Objects too and that after a most wonderful manner for it not only disguises them so artificially as to deceive it self but it perfectly alters the Nature and Condition of the Things themselves Thus when any Person acts in opposition to us when he crosses and persecutes us Self-love passes Sentence upon his Actions with the utmost strictness and severity of Iustice it aggravates all his Imperfections so as to make them look monstrous and horrible and sets his Good Qualities in so ill a Light as to make them appear more disagreeable and nauseous than his very Failings And yet as soon as the same Person ceases to be our Enemy or that any of our Interests brings him to Reconciliation and Favour the Satisfaction we receive presently restores his Merit and allows it that Lustre our Aversion so lately robb'd it of His Ill Qualities vanish out of sight and his Perfections appear in a greater Splendour nay we summon all our Indulgence to excuse and justifiâ— the Quarrel he formerly had against us Tho' this Truth be evidenc'd by every Passion yet none demonstrates it so sensibly as Love For we see a Lover full of Rage and Despair at the Neglect or Infidelity of his Fondling contrive and meditate for his Revenge whatever his violent Passions suggests him Nevertheless no sooner has a kind Smile of his Darling calmed his boisterous Resentments but his Joy and Rapture pronounces this Beauty innocent he accuses himself alone and condemns nothing but his own Condemning her before and by this miraculous Power of Self-love he takes away the Blemish and Odiousness of his Mistress's Proceedings he clears her of the Crime and lays it upon himself VII The love of our selves makes our Friends appear more or less deserving in proportion to the delight we take in them and the Estimate we make of their Worth depends upon the manner of their conversing with us VIII One would think that self-Self-love were over-reach'd by Good-nature and Liberality and that a Man forgets himself when he promotes the Advantages of others Nevertheless this is the most effectual way to gain our ends 't is lending on Usury under the pretence of giving freely In a word 't is a nice and dexterous Way of winning over the Affections of every body IX There is no Passion wherein self-Self-love is so predominant as in that of Love And Men are always more disposed to sacrifice all the Ease of them they love than to part with their own X. We feel and resent both our good and ill Fortune in proportion to our Self-love XI Self-love makes more Men Cruel than natural Sternness and a rough Temper XII Self-love is often cheated by its own self for when it considers its own Interests it so wholly overlooks the Interests of others as thereby to lose all the Advantage that might beâ— made by the exchange of Kindnesses and good Offices XIII A Man is but little the better for liking himself when no body else likes him for an immoderate Love of one's self is very often chastifed by Contempt from others XIV Self-love according as it is rightly or otherwise understood and apply'd is the Cause of all the Moral Virtues and Vices in the World XV. That Prudence which is made use of in the good Management of Men's Affairs is only a wise and quick-sighted Self-love whose contrary is Inconsideration and Blindness XVI Tho' according to that Position we may rightly conclude That Men in all their Actions keep still an eye to their own Interest yet does it not follow that there is no such thing left in the World as Iustice and Honesty Men may govern themselves by commendable and honest Interests and 't is the just Discretion of a well-regulated Self-love that makes a Good or an Honest Man XVIII The Love of our selves inclines us to look upon all the Pleasures and Happiness of Life as things that we have a right to call ours