Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-12-30

we'll known publishing firm of London
and New York, Mcmillan & Co., issued
from their press volume of nearly 600
pages, small Svo size, which has taken
its place high up in the ranks Of per-
manent literature. The title is " Romantic
Love and Personal Beauty" While
the book is interesting in the extreme,
there is nothing of the light emotional
character within it's pages. IL is really
treatise at once historical and scien-
tific. There is no branch of life that is
not analysed for material for this book.
Nor is there any epoch of time or race OF
men whose history is not eifted
thoroughly from matter congate to the
subject or illustrative of some of its
phases. The lower animals as we'll as
man, the birds of the forest and the
beasts of the plain are mgde subs3rvient
to the authors purposes.
These purposes are to show that ro-
mantle love lies at the bottom of all per-
sonal beauty, that tho love of one male
and one female is the well-spring from
which flows all the development of races,
the natural selection from which comes
improvement in species as we'll
as the highest happiness of the
human race. Love in all its.
phases, maternal, paternal, filial,
fraternal, sexual and even friendship are
analysed with a closeness that proves
Mr.. Finck to be possessed of both the
historical and the scientific turn OF mind.
Coleridge's opening verse in "Genevieve"
is the keynote to this charming volume:
AL thoughts. all passions, all delights;
Whatever s'irs the mortal frame
All are but ministers of love
And feed It's sacred flame.
And all the passions that arise from
love are as perfectly analysed as the
main head of the subject of the book.
| the literature of all nations Is ran
sacked for matter illustrative of love and
it's cognate emotions. The poets of
Greece and Rome seem to be as familiar
to the author as those of Germany, Eng
land and America. The dicta of Aristotle
are quoted with the same smooth facility
as the opinions of Herbert Spencer or Sir
Edwin Arnold.
| Our author likeps Romantic Love" to
music. Each note OF music 10 accom-
"overtones. These are go fine that
|
mental" tone. Exceptionally sharp ears
hear each OF them as an accompaniment
to this tone, but to the common ears they
merely give quality to the sound. They
make the peculiar timbre of the indi-
vidusl note and make it merely possible
for ordinary ears to tell whether the note
comes from violin, flute, piano, or a
human voice, and still more delicately to
| Of ha
listener to distinguish the notes of one
voice from those of another, or of one
violin from those of another. But for
these "undertones" all voices and all in-
struments would sound alike and the
note as the violin.
Love is the fundamental" tone, and
around it are grouped the "undertones. -
One is individual preference" This is
concomitant of Romantic Love-" A
savage chief ignorant of love will swap
one woman for another as he will swap o
getting the best of the bargain. Ro-
clings to the individual of it's choice,
although there are other women richer,
fairer, more intelligent and in various
| III
person, the lover hardly knows why, and
the accidental surroundings of the per-
sonality cut but more or less figure in the
selection.
The next 'undertone" is monopoly or
exclusiveness. GAS in a eun-glsss all
solar rays are concentrated into
one burning focus, go are the
lovers emotions on his beloved. I"
Jealousy is third "undertone." ;"
| ''This is the salt and pepper Of love. A
little is piquant, too much of it spoils the
SOUP"
CoynesH, a feminine "undertone, "comes
next, which by retarding the eager
lovers conquest, augments and idealizss
his passion. The modern artificial COR
ruption of this quality inclinss on one
side towards prudery and on the other
towards coquetry.
Gallantry, seif-sacrifcs, sympathy,
pride of conquest, emotional hyperbole,
mixed moods, and admiration of per-
sonal beauty follow, making in all eleven
'undertones" to romantic love. Here
are the separate parts of that compound
emotion made of many sub passions
which men call love. Heine says:
Angels call 1t heavenly joy,
| Internal torture the devils say;
And men? They call it-Love.
Mr.. Finck takes up the history of love
as it is found in the sacred books of the
Hebrews, of the Aryans before them,
and of the Egyptian literature that re-
| mains. Greece and Italy follow, where
all the poets and philosophers are quoted
in support of the theory of romantic
love. The literature of the Middle Ages
comes next and then that of all modern
nations. After these branches come
chapters on all imaginable subdivisions
of the main subject. Genius in mar"
riage and genius in love are among these,
and are very interesting, The main idea
is that genius is not very successful in
either marriage or love. In some in
stances it is too successful and in direct
opposition to the central iGea of the book
that monogamy is an essential element
in romantic love. He is bound to admit
that in rare cases men have been found
to love two woman at the same time.
and that real affection of the sexual
quality existed for both these women.
Mr.. Finck is forced to admit this from
the biographies of such men az Goethe,
Burns, Heine, Ovid and othors. At the
end of tho cha ntar dpyotad to fl;o