[197] Optabo tamen, &c. Nothing can be more affecting than this wish of Leander, as it gives us a strong picture of the violence of his passion, and shews at the same time the tender and pathetic sentiments with which it had inspired him. It is certain, that love, when strongly rooted in the heart, is attentive to a thousand little particulars, which a mind not affected in the same manner would overlook, or perhaps despise as trifling. Leander seems here to take a pleasure in the imagination of what may happen, should his body be thrown upon the coast within sight of Hero. Her tender complaints and tears are all foreseen and numbered; and he considers them as a recompence for his hard fate. A thought like this must come from a mind extremely sensible to all the soft emotions of love. It is to be remarked here, that this in the end proved to be Leander's fate. He made some attempts with success; but, astorm arising one fatal night, Hero in the morning saw his body floating near the shore.
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