exclaim, "If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would not give you one upon compulsion!" A woman resemble a religious creed! When I promise to believe a creed, I promise only that I will believe it, until its falsehood is pointed out. The veriest fanatic has this conditional reservation. It is the nature of such promises; and they cannot be otherwise made, or construed. It may be difficult, or impossible, to convince a fanatic; but he does not tell you he would maintain his creed, if it were proved false. He holds it, because he is satisfied it cannot be proved false. He does not admit "the creed he professes may be a mass of errors and absurdities;" so far from it, he would go to the stake for the contrary opinion, that it was impossible it should contain either error, or absurdity. Nor does any votary of love admit, "the woman he then loves may be infinitely inferior to many others." In the points of preference which determine his choice, he must, on the contrary, contend she is superior to all others:—and if he be competent to judge, while those excellencies remain, his reasons for preference will continue. He selects that woman who most promises to realize his ideas of happiness!—Surely woman has the same reason to urge in her be-
