Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-11-13
BEING IN LOVE.

"a temple to Friendship, said Laura, en-.
III! build in this garden; the thought is di.
Her temple was built, and she only now
wanted
An image Of Friendship to place on ths
shrine.
She aew to a sculptor, who set down before
her
a Friendship the fairest his art could iu-
vent;
But so cold, and so dull, that the youthful
adorer
Saw plainly this was not the idol she meant. -
This is one mistake But did Moore 5
Laura want something in addition to friend
ship, or did she want something totally
different2 L'amitie est L amour sans allies. -
Is that true, so that, if we add wings to
Friendship, we get Love for the product
ln the days when Goodwin, declining, as
became a republican, the prefix Of Mister,
vas a sage much sought, LADY visitor, of
the sniffg, love-in-the-abstract type, asked
hin for an oracle upon the great subject of
subjects. William Goodwin, said she, sud
DENY, what is your opinion of loye?' God
wiz was too absorbed in meditation to an
swer the question, and continued solemnly
putting his pipe William Goodwin, said
ths determined woman once more, what is
your opinion Of loye?" And still Goodwin
smoked, and kept silence. Not liking to
see woman snubbod, even in appearance,
Shelly, then young fellow, also in attend
ance on the oracle, hazarded a Jest Il
thirk said he, love acts upon the heart
ike a nutmeg-grater; it wears it away.
Again the undaunted woman put her ques-
ton. Shifting at poor Shelly, who was then
nobody, she, with raised voice. said:
William Goodwin, what is your opinion of
lover Reused at last, the oracle responded:
My opinion agrees with that of Mr..
Shelly, and relapsed into his thoughts and
his pipe.
This was a case in which the oracle
snubbed the votarist, because the votar-
ist was unworthy. Goodwin would no more
tell sniffy woman what he thought about
love than the lady in "Comus" would ex-
pound to Gree ''the sublime notion and
high mystery that must be uttered to unfold
the sage and serious doctrine of virginity.
1t is pretty certain that Goodwin himself
knew nothing about it; or he would never
have (for example) published, after her
death, his wife's old letters to the heartless
father of our little barrier-girl Bus, per
haps, the majority of living men and women
think that love Is like a nutmeg crater; that
most Of US must, in the natural course of
things, get our hearts grated; but that, when
we find the process agreeable, nature has got
US in a trap, and the sooner we are out of it
the better At the same time, there is al
ways what Mr.. Balm, with such innocent
surprise, calls heated atmosphere around
the subject, and there is a luminous haze Of
superstition about love overhanging all the
literature of imagination It is true you
now and then come across an essay in which
the subject of falling in love Is discussed a.
ifit came as much within the caIculable
province of life as buying a hat, and youare
told to be sure and do it wisely, because-be-
cause of reasons which might find place in
Poor Richard Almanac Last night
said a halfman poet and painter, l came
uuexp xpectedly upon fairy's funeral and
he proceeded to describe the ceremony as
only poet and painter could. What
wonderfully good advice might be given in
an essay on Seeing Fairies Funerals Be
sure you never see a fairy funeral, unless,
&c ,&c
There is no thoroughly sincere person,
with a grain of spiritual sensibility, who
does not in his heart, rebel when Poor
Richard takes upon himselfto preach about
love matters. What the tFoubadours called
amour pouramour, love for loves own sake
is what every human creature with a soul
aboge buttons goes in for. And We feel a
subtle pang of fdisapprobation when anything
in the round heaven or in the living air
is put before love, or turned into a cause or
a justification Of it. There is a legend of
distinguished preachers courtship, which
raates how he went down into the kitchen,
AID. addressing his maid-servant, said,
Betty, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Yes, sir, said Betty. And, Betty, re-
s1nled the good man, do you love me2'
Similar in spirit is that letter of Governor
Winthrop wife to her husband, in which
sIe tells him she loves him for two reasons
-."First, because thus loves God; and
secondly, because thou lowest me. The
dallest feels that there is play upon words;
ald there is. Far better was Rowland
Hills courtship In the first place, he
wrote to the lady, Il think | can say before
God that l love your person. Without this
srth union could never be happy The
qlotation is from memory, butt is substan-
tilIv correct, and we feel in a moment that
Ravland Hill was straightforward and true,
willie the Puritan lady, pressed upon by the
etiuette of the current talk of her set, and
MT able to dIsentanglo horsol4 from f~llaoy
vas untrue to nature and to herself, This
was nothing remarkable; most people are
untrue 70 nature and to themselves.
The most plausible and the most common
ofthe fallacies about love is that which sup
POSES it is the friendship that Laura sought
yith something added to it, instead OF be-
ng, as it is, a thing sui generis. Colerldge
exposed this fallacy in a curious piece called
aThe Improvisatory," which is included
among his poems:
"Coleridge-Love, as distinguished from
friendship on the one hand, and from the
passion that too often usurps its name or
the other
':Lucius (Eliza's brother, who had just
Joined the trio, in whisper to ColeTidge)
But is not love the union Of both?
"CoIeridge (asido to Lueius)-He nevel
loved who thinks SO. =
And then follows Coleridge' 5 own account
Of love, of which it can only be said that, |