The sense of the word, like that of many others in the same author, must be
determined by the scope and object of the passage in which it is used. The
object of Helena, in declaring her love to the Countess, is to show the
all-absorbing nature of it; to prove that she is _tota in illo_; and that,
however she may strive to stop the cravings of it, her endeavours are of no
more use than the attempt to fill up a bottomless abyss.
The reader may, if he pleases, compare her case with that of other heroines
in like predicaments. Thus Medaea, in _Apollonius Rhodius_:
[Greek: "Pante moi phrenes eisin amechanoi, oude tis alke Pematos."]
And the same lady in _Ovid_:
"---- Luctata diu, postquam ratione furorem,
Vincere non poterat. Frustra, Medea, repugnas.
----
Excute virgineo conceptas pectore flammas,
Si potes, infelix. Si possem sanior essem:
Sed trahit invitam nova vis."
Or Dido, in _Virgil_ or _Ovid_:
"Ille quidem male gratus, et ad munera surdus;
Et quo si non sim stulta carere velim:
Non tamen AEneam, quamvis male cogitat, odi;
Sed queror infidum, questaque pejus amo.
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