CLE. (_to_ PSYCHE). The avowal which we would make to your divine
charms, Madam, is, no doubt, a rash one; but so many hearts, on the
point of expiring, are by such avowals obliged to displease you, that
you have ceased to punish them by the terrors of your wrath. You see
in us two friends who were joined in childhood by a happy similarity
of feeling, and this tender union has been strengthened by a hundred
contests of esteem and gratitude. The attachment of our friendship has
been proved in the severe assaults of unfavourable fortune, the
contempt of death, the sight of torture, and the glorious splendour of
mutual good offices; but whatever trials it may have endured, to-day
witnesses its greatest triumph, and nothing proves so much its tried
fidelity as its duration through the rivalry of love. Yes, in spite of
so many charms, its constancy subjects our vows to the laws it gives
us. It comes with sweet and entire deference, to submit the success of
our passion to your choice; and, to give a weight to our competition
which may bring the balance of state reasons to favour the choice of
one of us, this friendship intends of free will to unite our two
estates to the fortune of the happy one.

AGE. Yes, Madam, we wish to make of these two estates, which we
propose to unite under your happy choice, a help towards obtaining
you. The sacrifice which we make to the king, your father, in order to
ensure this happiness, has nothing difficult in it to our loving
hearts, and it will be a necessary gift that the rejected unfortunate
should make over to the one who is fortunate a power which he will no
longer know bow to enjoy.

PSY. Princes, you both display to my eyes a choice so precious and
dazzling that it would satisfy the proudest heart. But your passion,
your friendship, your supreme virtue, all increase the value of your