Having in the former part of this paper considered certain theories concerning the nature, qualities, power, and vitality of love, we would now invite the attention of our readers to some of the symptoms, evidences, and effects of that passion. Here we find ourselves upon somewhat firmer ground, for the field now before us is not so much that of theory and definition as of observation and experience. While the profoundest philosophers find themselves at a loss in attempting to formulate some satisfactory theory on the subject, the most unsophisticated observer can tell us something of the signs and tokens by which love manifests its presence. The symptoms of the tender passion are both varied and varying, and we have it on the authority of Addison that there is no other passion which produces such contrary effects in so great a degree. Byron describes love as bearing within itself ‘the very germ of change.’
For a thoroughly comprehensive catalogue of love’s tokens take the reply of Silvius to Phebe in _As You Like It_. ‘Good shepherd,’ says Phebe, ‘tell this youth what ’tis to love.’ ‘It is,’ replies Silvius, ‘to be all made of sighs and tears; it is to be all made of faith and service; it is to be all made of fantasy, all made of passion, and all made of wishes; all adoration, duty, and observance; all humbleness, all patience, and impatience; all purity, all trial, all observance.’ If the foregoing be accepted as an accurate description of what it is to love, one is enabled to understand the belief that the reason why Love is not included among the virtues is that it combines them all in one.
Dryden has given us several accounts of the way in which the tender passion operates upon the mind. In one passage he says:
Love various minds does variously inspire: He stirs in gentle natures gentle fire, Like that of incense on the altar laid; But raging flames tempestuous souls invade: A fire which every windy passion blows; With pride it mounts, and with revenge it glows.
The same writer, descending to more everyday observations, and speaking of the condition of a person in love, declares:
You pine, you languish, love to be alone, Think much, speak little, and in speaking sigh.