Excerpt from The Romantic Past As of old, man continues to be enmeshed in the nets of the temptress scenting prey, and woman to be deceived by man. Unsuccessful lovers languish in agonies of sorrow, whilst successful ones have cause to regret triumphs the rewards of which are too often of but doubtful worth. Such considerations, however, even when combined with the knowledge that headlong and impetuous passion is inevitably followed by its own atonement, have in all probability never yet calmed the trans ports of one single real lover, for the insidious whisper of Cupid easily stifles the voice of reason. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.