he birds invariably choose
their mates for the ensuing season. In imitation, therefore, of their
example, the vulgar of both sexes, in many parts of Britain, meet
together; and having upon slips of paper wrote down the names of all
their acquaintances, and put them into two different bags, the men drew
the female names by lot, and the women the male; the man makes the woman
who drew his name some trifling present, and in the rural gambol becomes
her partner; and she considers him as her sweetheart, till he is
otherwise disposed of, or till next Valentine's day provide her with
another.

COURTS OF LOVE.

In Spain, during the Middle Ages, courts of Love were established. These
courts were composed of ladies summoned to meet together, for the
purpose of discussing, in the most formal and serious manner, "beautiful
and subtle questions of love." They decided the precise amount of
inconstancy which a lady might forgive, without lowering her own
dignity, provided her lover made certain supplications, and performed
certain penances; they took it into solemn consideration whether a lover
was justified, under any circumstances, in expressing the slightest
doubt of his lady's fidelity; they laid down definite rules, and
ceremonials of behavior, to be observed by those who wished to be
beloved; and gravely discussed the question whether sentiment, or sight,
the heart, or the eyes, contributed most powerfully to inspire
affection.

IMMODESTY AT BABYLON.

That modesty and chastity, which we now esteem as the chief ornament of
the female character, does not appear in times of remote antiquity to
have been much regarded by either sex. At Babylon, the capital of the
Assyrian empire, it was so little valued, that a law of the country
even obliged every woman once in her life to depart from it. This
abominable law, which, it is said, was promulgated by an oracle,
ordained, That every woman should once in her life repair to the temple
of Venus; that on her arrival there, her head should be crowned with
flowers, and in that attire, she should wait till some stranger
performed with her the rites sacred to the goddess of debauchery.

This temple was constructed with a great many winding galleries
appropriated to the reception of the women, and the strangers who,
allured by debauchery, never failed to assemble there in great numbers,
being allowed to choose any woman they thought proper from among those
who came there in obedience