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The Love of Excitement.
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fiction, then only she seems to herself to exist. Excitement is to her the vital spark, the breath of life. It is a phantom which she chases through every path the demon haunts. She dances after it in the ball-room; she diligently seeks for it in places of public entertainment; she looks for it even in the temple of Love; she hopes to find it in the very church of God. Yes, she will alike desecrate devotion to man and worship for her Creator, by regarding them as sensation mediums. Thus she yields to the fascinations of the "tender passion," not for the sake of love, but of emotion! She indulges in what has aptly been styled "religious dissipation," not for the sake of piety, but of excitement!

And yet, let her pursue the Protean shadow where she will, it treacherously melts from her grasp when found, and leaves her exhausted by the race, depressed by the inevitable re-action, her mental and physical faculties collapsed until new and powerful stimulus rouses them into some fresh activity, alas! only to be followed by equally prostrating results.

Adeline's friends mourn over her short-comings, and, making no allowance for the errors consequent upon her fervent temperament, predict the most frightful fruition from this insatiable passion for excitement. In vain they warn her of the precipice towards which she is hurrying! The very danger heightens her enjoyment! In vain

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