lry, as
something more than human. There was a grace in their motions, a
gallantry in their bearing, and a generosity in their spirit of
enterprise, that the softness of the female heart found irresistible.
Nor less on the other hand did the knights regard the sex to whose
service and defence they were sworn, as the objects of their perpetual
deference. They approached them with a sort of gallant timidity,
listened to their behests with submission, and thought the longest
courtship and devotion nobly recompensed by the final acceptance of the
fair.

The romance and exaggeration characteristic of these modes of thinking
have gradually worn away in modern times; but much of what was most
valuable in them has remained. Love has in later ages never been
divested of the tenderness and consideration, which were thus rendered
some of its most estimable features. A certain desire in each party
to exalt the other, and regard it as worthy of admiration, became
inextricably interwoven with the simple passion. A sense of the honour
that was borne by the one to the other, had the happiest effect in
qualifying the familiarity and unreserve in the communion of feelings
and sentiments, without which the attachment of the sexes cannot
subsist. It is something like what the mystic divines describe of the
beatific vision, where entire wonder and adoration are not judged to be
incompatible with the most ardent affection, and all meaner and selfish
regards are annihilated.

From what has been thus drawn together and recapitulated it seems
clearly to follow, as was stated in the beginning, that love cannot
exist in its purest form and with a genuine ardour, where the parties
are, and are felt by each other to be, on an equality; but that in all
cases it is requisite there should be a mutual deference and submission,
agreeably to the apostolic precept, "Likewise all of you be subject one
to the other." There must be room for the imagination to exercise its
powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do
not actually witness; each party must feel that it stands in need of
the other, and without the other cannot be complete; each party must be
alike conscious of the power of receiving and conferring benefit; and
there must be the anticipation of a distant future, that may every day
enhance the good to be imparted and enjoyed, and cause the individuals
thus united perpetually to become more sensible of the fortunate
event