Love an Act of the Will
Reading edition
Love, however sudden, as when we fall in love at first sight, (which is, perhaps, always the case of love in its highest sense,) is yet an act of the will, and that too one of its primary, and therefore ineffable acts. This is most important; for if it be not true, either love itself is all a romantic hum, a mere connection of desire with a form appropriated to excite and gratify it, or the mere repetition of a daydream; or if it be granted that love has a real, distinct, and excellent being, I know not how we could attach blame and immorality to inconstancy, when confined to the affections and a sense of preference. Either, therefore, we must brutalize our notions with Pope:
Lust, thro' some certain strainers well refin'd, Is gentle love and charms all woman-kind:
or we must dissolve and thaw away all bonds of morality by the irresistible shocks of an irresistible sensibility with Sterne.
Contents Contents, p.5