The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-11 00:00:00

LOVE AT ONE GLIMPSE.

Some years ago there used to be pointed out,
upon the streets of Glasgow, a man whose intel-
lects had been unsettled upon a very strange ac-
count. When a youth, he had happened to pass
a lady on a crowded thoroughfare—a lady whose
extreme beauty, though dimmed by the in-
tervention of a veil, and seen but for a mo-
ment, made ax indelible impression upon his
mind. This lovely vision shot rapidly past him,
and was in an instant lost amidst the common-
place crowd through which it moved. He
was so confounded by the tumult of his feel-
ings that he could not pursue, or even attempt
to see it again. Yet he never afterwards for-
got it.
With a mind full of distracting thoughts, and
a heart filled alternately with gushes of pleasure
and of pain, the man slowly left the spot where
he had remained for some minutes as it were
thunderstruck. He soon after, without being
aware of what he wished, or what he was doing,
found himself again at the place. He came to
the very spot where he had stood when the lady
passed, mused for some time about it, went to a
little distance, and then came up as he had come
when he met the exquisite subject of his reverie
—unconsciously deluding himself with the idea
13y
By-and-by,
when the
that this might recal her to the spot. She came
not—lie felt disappointed ; he tried again—still
she abstained from passing. He continued to
he was left
altogether alome. He then saw that all his fond
tsrtareveetrsbeectahme
e pdleasceerteitdl the.
efforts were vain, and he left the silent lonely
street at midnight, with a soul as desolate as that
' gloomy terrace.
For weeks afterwards he was never off the
streets. He wandered hither and thither through-

pfd
out the town, like a forlorn &lost. 111
cular, he often visited the place where he
first seen the object of his abstracted th6lig close
as if he considered that lie had a better ell,
of seeing her there than any where else. to
frequented every place of public atnusernest he
which he could purchase admission; kind
0.
made a tour of all the churches •.in the. 01:is
All was in vain. He never again placed ;as
eyes upon that angelic countenance. She she
ever present to his mental optics—but „tit
never appeared in a tangible form. `with-as
essential presence, all the world besides `1
to him as a blank—a wilderness.
Madness invariably takes possession'ofaleng
mind which broods over-much or over-l 0
upon the engrossing idea. So did it proven.
this singular lover. He grew innocent, as thePeet
of this country tenderly phrase it. His ibsan,;
however, was little more than mere abstract'eti,,
The course of his mind was stopped at a Part''
cular point. After this he made no further Po,re
gress in any intellectual attainment. fle
quired no new ideas. His whole soul st,c,
still. He was like a clock stopped at a pSitc-it:
lar hour ; with some things, too, about
which, like the motionless indices of that let
chine, pointed out the date 9f the interroPti°o
As, lbr instance, he ever after wore a peculisr's
long- backed and high-necked coat, as well no
neck-cloth of a particular spot, being the fas,nll.o
of the year when he saw the lady. Indeed
ss
was a sort of living memorial of the dreiri,'.
gait, and manners of a former day. It, was eto
dent that he clung with a degree of fondness
every thing which bore relation to the great ise,
dent of his life. Nor could he endure s4s
thing that tended to cover up or screen from
recollection that glorious yet melancholycireu-°;
stance. He had the same feeling of Werati.o,,
for that day—that circumstance—and for Ili,
self, as he then existed—which caused the coo
valrous lover of former times to preserve Ode,
his lips, as long as he could, the imaginery of
light which they had drawn from the touch

his mistress's hand. he
When I last saw this unfortunate personde
was getting old, and seemed still more tiers'
than formerly. Every female whom be 0 be
the street, especially if at all good-looking'.oo,
gazed at with an inquiring anxious exPressistill
and when she had passed, he usually stood
a few moments and mused, with his eyes che
upon the ground. It was remarkable, tbat,es
gazed most anxiously upon women whose:lo
and figures most nearly resembled that ot,er,
unknown mistress at the time he had seen
and that he did not appear to make allopane
for the years which had passed since his Ss,
met that vision. This was part of his maanve,
Strange power of love !—lncomprehensible
chanism of the human heart !—Edinburgh
terary Journal.