A Sequel to Don Juan — page 81: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

72 | A SEQUEL TO CXCV. Rousseau says mental love cannot subsist, Unless shared by its object tenderly ; And that the hopeless passions, which exist For years and cause such lasting misery To those who in their fruitless aims persist, Have their roots fixed in sensuality.— This may, or may not be—one thing I know, That with Aurora ’twould not have been so. CXCVI. Had she loved Juan, ’spite of his neglect— Had she persisted in her love—had she Imagination with the fond hopes decked Which love inspires in the young memory— Had she loved on until those hopes were wrecked On disappointment’s rock,—it could not be That such a love owed its omnipotence, Not to the mind, but merely to the sense ! CXCVII. No—she was pure, and cold, and chaste, as ever Was snow unwreathed from the untrodden height Of Alpine mount, and borne unto the river, With which it mingled ;—pure as that soft light W hich on the water’s surface seems to quiver, Amid the splendours of a northern night :— She knew as much of sensual love as one Born blind can know of the refulgent sun. COPMIClOOKS. CONN