in a cursory way, when he gave
utterance to the following remarkable words, written in quite a
different context and in his usual desultory style: _Hi sunt, quos Deus
copulavit, ut eam, quae fuit Uriae et David; quamvis ex diametro (sic
enim sibi humana mens persuadebat) cum justo et legitimo matrimonio
pugnaret hoc ... sed propter Salomonem, qui aliunde nasci non potuit,
nisi ex Bathseba, conjuncto David semine, quamvis meretrice, conjunxit
eos Deus._[18]

The yearning of love, the [Greek: himeros], which has been expressed in
countless ways and forms by the poets of all ages, without their
exhausting the subject or even doing it justice; this longing which
makes us imagine that the possession of a certain woman will bring
interminable happiness, and the loss of her, unspeakable pain; this
longing and this pain do not arise from the needs of an ephemeral
individual, but are, on the contrary, the sigh of the spirit of the
species, discerning irreparable means of either gaining or losing its
ends. It is the species alone that has an interminable existence: hence
it is capable of endless desire, endless gratification, and endless
pain. These, however, are imprisoned in the heart of a mortal; no
wonder, therefore, if it seems like to burst, and can find no expression
for the announcements of endless joy or endless pain. This it is that
forms the substance of all erotic poetry that is sublime in character,
which, consequently, soars into transcendent metaphors, surpassing
everything earthly. This is the theme of Petrarch, the material for the
St. Preuxs, Werthers, and Jacopo Ortis, who otherwise could be neither
understood nor explained. This infinite regard is not based on any kind
of intellectual, nor, in general, upon any real merits of the beloved
one; because the lover frequently does not know her well enough; as was
the case with Petrarch.

It is the spirit of the species alone that can see at a glance of what
_value_ the beloved one is to _it_ for its purposes. Moreover, great
passions, as a rule, originate at first sight:

"Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight."

--SHAKESPEARE, _As You Like It,_ iii. 5.

Curiously enough, there is a passage touching upon this in _Guzmann de
Alfarache_, a well-known romance written two hundred and fifty years ago
by Mateo Aleman: _No es necessario para que uno ame, que pase distancia
de tiempo, que siga discurso, in haga eleccion, sino que con aquella
primera y sola