But while we cannot trace the causes of a
thousand things, we know and feel their effects. Among the other
mysteries of our nature is this of sudden and strong sympathies,
which, as between men for men, and women for women, awaken
confidence and friendship; and as between those of different sexes,
excite passionate attachments that more or less color their future
lives. The great delineator of our common nature, in no one of the
many admirable pictures he has drawn of men, manifests a more
profound knowledge of his subject, than in that in which he portrays
the sudden and nearly ungovernable inclination which Romeo and
Juliet are made to display for each other; an inclination that sets
reason, habit, prejudice, and family enmities at defiance. That such
an attachment is to be commended, we do not say; that all can feel
it, we do not believe; that connections formed under its influence
can always be desirable, we are far from thinking: but that it may
exist we believe is just as certain as any of the incomprehensible
laws of our wayward and yet admirable nature. We have no Veronese
tale to relate here, however, but simply a homely legend, in which
human feeling may occasionally be made to bear an humble resemblance
to that world-renowned picture which had its scenes in the beautiful
capital of Venetian Lombardy.
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