Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/265

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OF THE VEIL.
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promotes love, as the ſtiff brocade of our Lady of Loretto inſpires devotion. A plain decent diſhabille is the proper uniform of love—it makes more conqueſts than a cuiraſs of jewels, or an head-piece of point and gauze, with the addition of triumphant plumes, which gain no victory. Friedbert floated in a ſtream of pleaſure, but did not ſuffer himſelf to be hurried away by it. In the tumult of the reſtoration of the court, amid ſong, and dance, and muſic, the wrinkles of ſorrow ſtill furrowed his brow. For him did the faireſt maids of Greece adorn themſelves, that like armed magnets they might attract his heart more forcibly: nevertheleſs he remained cold and unmoved. Reſpecting the theory of love, Zoe had herſelf always followed the doctrine of her countryman, the ſage Plato—whether from inclination, or becauſe the watchful jealouſy of her deſpotic huſband allowed her paſſions no freer ſcope, may be hard to decide; but to a knight in full blood, ſhe thought the ſenſual ſyſtem of Epicurus

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much