[Sidenote: The Art of Love.] The _Art of Love_ is one of the most immoral poems in existence. The first book gives instruction to young men to aid them in finding and seducing desirable mistresses, the second tells them how to keep the girls’ affection, and the third instructs girls in the art of gaining lovers. The love of which Ovid writes is mere sensual passion, not the union of souls, and his three books of systematic instruction in the arts of seduction would be utterly tedious were they not enlivened by some striking descriptive passages and myths, as well as by sententious lines of worldly wisdom. A remarkable passage in the first book[81] celebrates the praise of Roman greatness and of Augustus, in order to lead up to the mention of a triumphal procession; and this is mentioned, because in the crowd of spectators the young man may scrape acquaintance with a girl. Of the Roman women at the theatre, Ovid says: _Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsæ,_ They come to see, and to be seen themselves, and many other lines show keen observation, knowledge of humanity, and no little humor; but, in spite of these beauties of detail, the poem is, as a whole, so uninteresting that its immorality has probably done little harm. [Sidenote: The Cure of Love.] The _Cure of Love_ offers various means for freeing oneself from the bonds of passion. Activity and travel are recommended; the lover who longs for freedom is advised to consider the faults of his mistress, and the expense she causes him; he is told to make her show her faults; is urged to fall in love with another, to avoid reminders of the beloved when she is absent, and to shun poetry, music, and the dance. All this is uninteresting enough; but this poem, like the _Ars Amatoria_, contains many fine details. The _Remedia Amoris_ is the last of Ovid’s poems on the subject of love. From beginning to end his love poems show the greatest ease and fluency of expression, superb mastery of technique, much imagination, wit, and humor, but an almost absolute lack of real feeling and serious purpose.