The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-11-03
The Social Affection.

The following exquisite passage oc-
ours in discourse delivered few days
ago By Rev. ]. c. French, n young
clergyman in Brooklyn, pastor of the
Ormond Place Church: In this world,
affection demands affection, and gener-
ally in equal measures. Love is the
food of love. 1t is called q passion, yet
it has nearly all the attributes of an ap-
petite. 1t is quiekened by the presence
of its object, it Graves its nutriment, it
may be fed even to safety and disgust.
Affection is like the morning-glory
which shoots up its delicate, spiral, out
feeling vine, and not finding its coveted
support, trails downward, becomes
trodden under foot and dies. There is
only one kind of love, which is able to
survive, in perennial bloom and
strength. the winters of entire and
frosty neglect. This is parental or it
would be more accurate to say maternal.
The mother follows her boy forever,
vagrant, depraved, hostile, insulting
though he be. But the love of friend
for friend will not long endure such
stunning shocks. Its first element is
respect. Never was there any leve
worthy the name without this. And
the moment this is impaired by dis
covery of vulgarity, cowardice or dis
honesty-the moment your human god
becomes revealed Bacchus or Vulcan,
or your goddess Venus, your ardor
cools, unless your taste inclines toward
those deities of coarse indulgence. The
second element in true ELECTION is
confidence. This will naturally follow
respect. Therefore conversely, if re-
spect has vanished, confidence will not
long tarry behind it. If true affection
cannot exist without these ele-
ments; if you, in loving, bring re-
spect and confidence to your
friend, You naturally exact the
same from him. You demand the de,
monstrations, which they inspire. You
observe, and are chilled. You pine in
sadness if the tokens of affection are
withheld which You have a right to ex.
pect. If long continued, your devotion
wanes. For reciprocation was the fuel
upon its altar. That withheld, the fire
burns low. 1t is this which makes
variableness in a friend so stinging at
first, and so sure to produce ultimate
alienation. These principles are uni,
versal. Occasional exceptions only
prove the rule Platonic love is a
vagary, a brief farce. 1t is fame
without heat. 1t may be brilliant as
the aurora, but it is a. frigid. 1t is a
January affair. 1t might do for race
of Boreal angels whose home was on Ice
bergs, but never for this. latitude. ]
think that love very seldom grows out
of, or is sustained by the attention to
abstract qualities, for those very same
qualities exist in o host Of other friends
for whom our regard is in no sense OF
degree, love. This passion is rather the
product or result of certain undefnahle,
subtle magnetism or affinities, by which
the heart instinctiyely elects its objects
Hence we do not find the strongly in.
tellectual always choosing the the in.
tellectual, nor the nicely refined the re
fined, nor the amiable electing the anna
bic, nor the spiritual affiliating with
the spiritual. For it is not primarily
qualities which the soul seeks. chooses
and by which it is bound, but rathe,
certain responsive affections, reciprocal.
ted passions, indescribable congeniali.
tiles; and these frequently exhibit to
the world the most amazing unions
which to our eyes seem wholly incon
gruous, if not impossible. But one thing
there must be-mutual confidence, an6
expression of love, or the relation ex
pirss for want of sustenanee; the prof
fered love degenerates into mere sen
timent, and at last eyaporates. alto
gether. Itwasfor this reason that Paul
loving the Corinthians and being hur,
by their apparent indifference, charge,
"a cif e. q - g llisse g.. =. - =.