Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-08-17

Enuncintiou ofthe Doctrine ofUntrammeIed
Affection in n New Form-ATrs. Mary
Gurncy's Idea OF True Love.
To Mrs Gurney's lengthy letter in defense
of her conduct in clipping from her husband
with her groom, we have already alluded;
and we now give this noticeable extract from
her half-amorous, half-logical epistle to her
friend:
And this love, what is III 1t is power
present always in the world, which, recog-
nized by two like natures, thenceforth binds
them TO each other, beyond the control, and
in violation, if need be, of any other law
as my mothers love bound her to my father,
and my fathers love bound him to her, and
gave me my being-a being Graded in the
tenderest, .truest passion that ever existed
between two human beings.
How long / have been in ascertaining and
yielding myself up to this divine lawl What
wasted years. What subjections derogatory
10 the vilest naturel What hypocrisy, dis
honoring to God What suffering have /
caused this man, assigned TO me alone, since
that day in which l first in him recognized
myself
1t seems so long ago; it seems far longer to
me than the time makes it; it seems as if an
eternity had rolled backward to that day.
oh, had questionings Of right and wrong
in that fathomless interval of despair, far
other, far deeper, than all had been taught
or could be taught by their lips-question-
ings that brought me to the very brink OF
death.
Why should have loved him2 Why do
love him? What is it / love in him? All
this have asked myself thousand times,
and there has never been, can never be, an
answer TO all this questioning.
Yet say now to you: Why should ! not
love him? What is there not to love in HIM
My heart only answers: What is there il
me that | should be loved, that should
know that joy which in its tiniest momen
makes all years of other time mockery2
And these questions do we ask each othei
daily and nightly forever.
And yet there is one reason, they say, why
should not have loved him-one word there
is which the world places as an impossible
barrier between us-a word that has never
crossed my lips till nova meaningless
word, and yet involving in their eyes acrim,
as great as that adultery which | commit
just as great, for both are equally meaning
less as touching our relation.
And that word expresses the social posi-.
tiOn he bore me. Rather than have been hi
lawful wife even, might have been a king
mistress, or any nobleman's paramour, will
less offense.
And /, who was the reputable bawd o
marriage rites, was / above him? |, q daily
offense against decency in obedience TO the
same social law that would have forced him
to lifelong humility Was l above himf
How? In what way? l, sunk in the abase-
ment of my own weak, unnatural compliance
below the veriest nameless outcast2 Could
be above any thing2 Was he not at least my
peer2 He, who, il we leave too such vapid
questions of distinction, is Hyperion to q
Satyr compared in person with me-short
fat, little body that ami
have silently asked myself in his arms
when dared not soil our lips with Their
utterance, about these words-groom and
adulterer. Yet well / knew that they had
no relation TO our love-that they were but
words-that true soul no contamination
defles or degrades-that nobility unrecog-
nized, and virtue an outcast, whereverplaced
are eternally the same.
had learned these lessons from parent
lips. The example of my own true-hearteC
mother had taught me this. My own life hat
been given me in violation of society
teachings.