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9 OTHMAR. delude us, unconsciously, into doing so. You remember the hackneyed saying of the philosopher about the real John——the John as he thinks himself to be, and the John as others imagine him: it is never the real John that is loved ; always an imaginary one built up out of the fancies of those in love with him.' 'That is fancy, your Majesty; it is not love.' 'And what is love but fancy? ——the fancy of attraction, the fancy of selection; the same sort of fancy as allures the bird to the brightest plumaged mate?' 'I do not think any love is likely to last which is not based on intellectual sympathy. When the mind is interested and contented, it does not tire half so fast as the eyes or the passions. In any very great love there is at the commencement a delighted sense of meeting something long sought, some supplement of ourselves long desired in vain. When this pleasure is based on the charm of some mind wholly akin to our own, and filled for us with ever- renewing well-springs of the intellect, there is really hardly any reason why this mutual delight should ever change, especially if cir-