St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-04-26
Falling in Love.
saturday Review


1t is often quite impossible for the
most intimate friend and closest Observ-
er to specify all the influences which
have combined to bring aboHt this state
of mind in any given instance. Yet
/ this does not hinder us from surprising
that the process is always at bottom Il
perfectly natural one. One circum-
/ stance of the case which seems to be
commonly overlooked is the special
pTedisposition to the amatOry sentiment
which shows itself in certain stages of
development and in certain transient
moods 1t is not too much TO say, per-
hapS. that most people tall in love at a
given time because OF. special cOndi-
tiuns of the moment. If A had not
presented himself or herself as an OBJ
iect for the impulse, B OF G would prob
ably have sufficed. This way of look
ing at the matter will no doubt appear
shocking to the romantic mind, yet the
idea seems to have a firm substratum
OF fact.
1t would be interesting to know what
part the process of falling in love is
destined to play in the future history
of mankind. 4 review of the past de-
tive times to our own enlightened age,
suggests the reflection that it has tend
ed to become a slower and more con-
sciOus operation. 1t is not many peO-
pie who now tumble suddenly aud reck-
lessly into this condition of mind. Gull
ture seems to have the effect of trans
forming the process of falling into one
of sliding. To refer again to some
what analogous mental experience, cul-
| ture seems to make less frequent both
sudden forms of falling in love and sud-
den conversions. And this change is
plainly due in a large measure to
growth of vOlitiOnal force. Ali falling
in love is, of course, the direct effect of
an involuntary and emotional impulse !;
yet a negative act of will may perhaps
be said to be involved in the nOn-re-
preston of this impulse. As people
advance in intellect and character, the
ascendancy of the will increases, and
the amatOry sentiment is only allowed
to attach itself to an object very slowly
and after the fullest critical investiga
ton. 1t is not necessary TO adopt the
ultra prosaic suppostiOn that sexual
selection will ever become a purely
that more and more persons now marty
for definite objects, such as wealth, So
cial position or domestic adornments
yet the normal mode of selection is still
held to include the play of an instinc-
tive emotion as well. What the higher
culture seems to do, over and above
Strengthening the controlling power of
will, is to make this emotion more re-
Elective and self conscious. People
learn to understand more clearly their
own feelings and tastes, and to know
better beforehand what kind of object
is likely to satisfy them. The emotion
al impulse now shows itself as a con-
scious wish to possess an object of
certain definite character. Still the ac-
tual conception of a strong affection is
process that goes outside the will,
though the will may be said to approve
of it in a new sense when its result is
recognized as agreeing with pre-exist-
ing wish and desire. We hardly think,
then, that there is ground for the cyni-
cal prediction that falling in love is
rapidly becoming an obsolete custom.
The experience will probably grow
much less violent and catastrophe in
its character by being brought into clos
er relation to the intellectual and vO-
litiOnal parts of the mind. And the
same influences which bring about this
effect will no doubt tend to tone down
peoples rapturOus faith in the occult
and transcendent nature of the process.