the stinging nettle and wild briar increase and are renewed, (continued the prefect) the tree of love had not that privilege. its blossoms vanished without leaving a kernel, and its shoots planted in the ground did not take root; they died and nature groaned.
mean while, this only tree was going to decay; its sap withdrew from most of the branches, and the faded leaves withered on their boughs.
the elementary spirits were sensible how valuable the treasure was, that the sons of men were going to lose, and 222were under the deepest concern for them. they studied therefore to find the means to fix love upon earth, and imagined they had succeeded.
they took from the languishing and exhausted tree, its best shoots and grafted them upon different stocks. this precaution saved love, but at the same time, altered its nature. nourished by an extraneous sap, these shoots and their emanations quickly degenerated: so the exotic plants which grow in our gardens by the assiduous care of the gardiner, change their nature, and lose almost all their virtues.
love then existed among men; but what love? it sprung from caprice, was attached without choice, and vanished with levity: it became such 223as it is at this day amongst you. it is no longer that common band which united mankind, and rendered them happy; it is on the contrary, an inexhaustible fountain of discord. formerly, it was stronger alone than all the passions together; it was subject only to reason: now, it is overcome by the weakest passion, and hearkens to any thing but reason.
to say the truth; it is no longer love: phantoms have taken its place, and receive the homage of men. one in the highest ranks only finds objects worthy his vows; he thinks it love, it is only ambition. another fixes his heart where fortune is lavish of her gifts, he imagines, love directs him, but it is thirst of riches. another flies from 224where delicateness of sentiments calls for his care and regard, and runs where an easy object hardly gives him time to desire. what is the ground of his haste? a depraved appetite for pleasure. of pure, sincere, and unmixt love there is none left; the grafts are quite spoiled.
at babylon, degenerated love varied with the fashions, the manners, and every thing else. at first it gave into the romantick: this was in the days of our good knights errant. it was all fire, transport, extasy. the eye of the fair was a sun, the heart of the lover was a volcano, and the rest of the same stamp.
in time, it was found, that all this was departing a little from nature; in order 225therefore, to make it more natural, love was dressed like a shepherd with a flock and pipe; and spoke the language of a swain. in the heart of his noisy and tumultuous city, a babylonian sung the refreshing coolness of the groves, invited his mistress to drive her flock thither, and offered to guard it against the wolves.
the pastoral language being drained, the sentiment was refined, and the heart analysed. never had love appeared so subtilised. to make a tolerable compliment to a girl beloved, a man must have been a pretty good metaphysician.
the babylonians, weary of thinking so deeply, from the height of these sublime metaphysicks fell into free speeches, double-meanings, and wanton 226stories. their behaviour was agreeable to their talk; and love, after having been a valiant knight-errant, a whining shepherd and a sublime metaphysician, is at last grown a libertine. it will soon become a debauchee, if it is not so already; after which, nothing remains but to turn religious; and this is what i expect.
moreover, the babylonians flatter themselves with being a people the most respectful to the ladies, and boast of having it from their ancestors. in this respect, as in all others, two things must be distinguished at babylon, the appearance and the reality. in appearance, no place where women are more honoured; in reality, no place where they are less esteemed. outwardly, nothing 227but homages, inwardly, nothing but contempt. it is even a principle at babylon, that the men cannot have, in an assembly, too much respect for the sex, nor, in private too little.
