478 – Definition of Love from 1690s Advice Column

“Q: What’s love?

A: Love, and you’ll know … We’ll give you the best description we can of that passion, which we have some reason to know … ‘Tis a mixture of friendship and desire, bounded by the rules of honor and virtue … Love, being a medium between pure friendship and perfect desire, ’tis warm enough to keep friendship from an ague, but not so furiously hot as to set all on fire. They manage matters so between ’em, that the sweet melts the strong; and from this agreeable mixture or harmony, especially where reciprocal, result the tenderest, noblest pleasure that’s purely humane. …”

–A Member of the Athenian Society

[Note this quote has been edited for clarity and length, the quote in its entirety can be found in the original source posted below]

Quote Number:  715

Source: The Athenian Oracle: Being an Entire Collection of all the Valuable Questions and Answers in the Old Athenian Mercuries, Vol II. Cross-Keys and Bible: London. 1704. Pg 15-16. Online Here.

Source Notes: 

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