Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/41

 and attracted toward me; and the conversation happened to turn upon the alleged phenomena of table-turning; and, just for sport, we sat round in a circle, joining hands, and I declare that I hadn't held the lady's hand five minutes before all my strength left me, and I came near fainting. I don't know what caused the strange feeling; but this I do know, that during the time I sat there I became more exhausted of vitality, life, spirit, strength, force, and power, than in any year's labor of my life. And it all went to that strangely fascinating lady!" Well, interchange the pictures, and you have the strange experience of thousands, especially during these last past twenty years. That woman was a vampire, and there are thousands of men of the same sort in society. They abound everywhere. They are human sponges, love-empty, and draw the precious fluid of life from all with whom they come in contact. The difference between this fatal attraction and a genuine passion and love lies in this. Such persons give nothing in return! — vampires, they extract all and give nothing; hence the game is all winning on their side, all losing on yours. Such persons are generally such as were born of women who, during gestation, yearned for love from the father of the child, but yearned and longed in vain; hence the new soul came into the world ahungered and athirst for that great food and drink whereon souls grow strong and fat. They are to be avoided. They are basilisks, and their glance is lingering death; and madness, disease, insanity, result from their contact. Not infrequently such persons set themselves up as medical oracles, human spiders rather, and in their foul webs thousands have been ruined.

The test of a love attraction as to its reality, or counterfeit, is simple. Do I grow strong or weak; healthy or the reverse? As are the verdicts, so is the case. Hic Rhoda; hic Salta!

One clay a gentleman invited the author of these pages to attend a female patient exclusive of all other business. The girl was empty. Six months' attendance nearly killed the attendant. A European voyage only prolonged the attendant's life, for up to that time the poor sick girl existed mainly on the life and vitality thus afforded. When the current was broken the patient died. Study these truths; there is a volume of wisdom to be obtained therein.

I cut the subjoined scrap from a paper, and it suggested a