Is it given to any to grant all that love beseeches? And yet
Were all love sought bestowed, what sequel?
Perhaps 't were well to leave love but semi-satisfied. At bottom the real question is this: What will win and keep me another heart? But
How to win and keep another heart, that is a thing has to be found out for oneself—if it be discoverable. And always by the experimental method. Since
In matters amatory, there is no a priori reasoning possible. All we know is that
There is nothing more potent than passion. And
The chasm, which seems to innocence to yawn between virtue and frailty, is leapt by that Pegasus, Passion, at a bound—but he blinds his rider in the feat.
* * *
In spite of the poesy of love, deeds are more potent than words; —though perhaps it is well to pave the way for the one by the other.
In spite, too of the piety of love, love laughs at promises—that is, the promises that affect it.