THE DECLARATION.

Ir is a melancholy evidence of the depravity of man, that the severest of human maladies, the acutest of mortal sufferings, are standing themes of caricature, jest, and ridicule. Thus, for instance, a person afflicted with the toothache is an object of general derision; and he is usually passed by with the heartless remark, "That fellow wants an application of cold steel!" One who is suffering from homesickness, or even from seasickness, is often treated in the same unfeeling manner.

But, of all complaints that flesh is heir to, lovesickness is doubtless the most excruciating. And yet, exactly in proportion to its malignity, this disease seems to excite the sneers of a cold, unsympathizing world. Nay, woman gentle, tender-hearted woman she who hath sympathy seems to find occasion

for all other sorrows

for mirth in the agonies of this horrid malady. It is true that some old maids seem to have a

proper sense of the wickedness of mocking those who are suffering from this disease; but those who are about the age of seventeen, are often utterly destitute of such feelings. I have known - whether in my own experience, I shall not say a girl, who, in other respects, sustained a fair character, to titter outright at seeing a man fall down at her feet in a paroxysm of this complaint. Alas! alas! to what a state of sin and misery, hath that slip of our mother Eve, reduced her descendants!

All this might seem incredible, if it were not matter of notoriety. There are few, indeed, who have not had their share of bitter experience, to demonstrate the verity of what we affirm. But, if the facts are clear, the philosophy, upon which they rest, is involved in mystery. Why are these things so? This is a question which must be left to some future Locke or Newton. But there is another practical question, which each one should put himself: Why is it that there are hospitals for rheumatism, and gout, and fever, and small-pox, and none for lovesickness? Why is it that there are societies, even in benighted Hindostan, for the relief of maimed rats and mice, and, throughout all

Christendom, not a convent or a hospital for those who suffer from the most bewildering and bewitching of earthly complaints?

This subject demands immediate attention; and, in an age of associations for ameliorating the condition of the human race, something surely may be done for that class of sufferers of whom we speak. While there is such an enlightened sympathy for Hindoo widows, the day cannot be far distant when the attention of the benevolent shall be directed to the relief of those who are smitten with the arrows of the most malicious of archers.

If we may be permitted to make a suggestion, we will say that this subject appeals with great force to the softer sex. We are of that class, who believe, indeed, that the lamp of earthly charity would go out forever, if woman were not, day and night, replenishing it with oil from the fountain of her generous bosom; and especially we believe, that she alone can hope to alleviate or remove the calamity of lovesickness a disease which seems to fall with peculiar severity upon the sterner sex. If a woman is ever affected with it, it is usually of such kind or degree, that she keeps it to herself. May we, then, not hope and expect, that woman