The herald., 1894-10-07

TWO master paHblo1e OF MANKIND. Dut
few ambitions are worthy, and com.
paratively few loves are true. Vulgar
love, like vulgar ambition, may degrade
its possessor and ruin others. but true
love ennobles him who feels it, and ex-
alts its object beyond all else. Lately
our contention that true love is the pro-
duct of later times, and was unknown to
the ancients, has been called in ques-
| ion by one or two superficial critics.
The Bible and Horace have been quoted
to disprove our statement. In regard to
the scriptures, the conditions of life
were such in biblical times that Its ex-
istence was impossible. Women were
either slaves or semi-slaves, constantly
in subsection from their birth to their
death to one man or another. Solomon's
song is very beautiful ss the production
OF an ancient eastern poet. But the
royal lover, whose harem contained 1000
women. obtained by power. could never
have known the sentiment in its purity,
however much he may have fancied
new beauty or however impassioned
may have been his lay. Much has been
made of Jacobs serving seven years for
Rachael, but that was q common mode
in those days of obtaining a wife when
man was too fpoor to buy one, and it is
still done in many parts OF the world.
Jacobs affection, which came nearer to
modern love than any OF which We have
read, did not prevent him from taking
as many other women as we're offered
him, although he preferred Rachael to
to her sorc-eyed sister and to the female
slaves who were his ooncubines. Seeing
that she was quick witted. beautiful and
we'll favored" his preference is not
surprising, nor that the seven years
seemed to him but few days for the
love he had to her," for these were
years OF courtship between q patient
shepherd and pretty shepherdess. In
the pastoral age they took no note of
time. Jacobs grandfather had just
completed century, and his wife and
half sister wGs nearly as old when Isaac
was born to them. We sober westerns
must not take the tales OF the east too
literally. The whole account is deeply
tinged with the exaggeration and mar
wells OF the Arabian Nights. Sarah is
the Jewish Helen with whom all who
see her are smitten. By collusion she
passed as Abraham's sister. The king
of Egypt takes this very matured beauty
into his harem, and "the Lord plagued
Pharoah and mis- house with great
plaques because of Sarai, Abraham
wife," Twen.y-four years later, when
sbe was extremely old, and at
leaet 40 years past the period
of child bearing, her husband
was informed that she would become
mother. She is very sarcastic over it,
regarding it as a physical imposeibility,
nevertheless it came to pass within a
year, But, in the meantime, her beauty
attracted the notice OF the king of
Gerar, who also seizss her, and takes
the venerable princess into his harem.
God visits him in dream and tells him
all shout his mistake. Besides which,
the fertile ladies OF the court were sud-'
denly afflicted with barrenness, but as
coon as Abimilech restored her, things
went on as usual. II the purity OF love
is to be proved in scriptural times, it
must be on more coherent testimony
than ell this. The course of nature pro-
ceeds irrespective OF human morality or
immortality, but the sacred writer had
very confused notions Of moral and ply
sical causes and sequences, and often
mixed them incongruously.
The odes of Horace are next cited to
refute US. Well. all who have really
read Horace know that he followed the
indescribable and abominable custom OF
the Romans of his day, just as they cop
led the Greeks, and that it was a matter
OF Indifference to him whether the OBJ
ject OF his affection were girl or boy.
This custom was lawful, was INDUCED in
openly. and neither honorable men or
virtuou5 women appear to have disap.
proved Of it. But sucn people must not
be quoted aa knowing anything of love.
The men were too sensual and the
women too servile to comprehend the
pure passion OF today, and the prettiest
phrases that ever were penned cannot
conceal the vile immoralities and unnat-
ural lusts which they have enshrined.
When our objectore next do US the honor
to criticise, we trust that they will fret
prepare themselves by some elementary
acquaintance with the subject.
Chaucer, in the Clerks Tale. gives the
story of the patient Grisildis, who euf.
fered every cruel indignity at her hus-
bands hands and never once complained
nor resented il. This was much es-
teemed. Abject submission, however,
is not love. No woman could really love
q man who treated her so foullY. Yet
many poets have held up this Griselda
as pattern OF wifsly virtue and con-
jugal love. The patient countess. in
Percy's Reliqucs, is somewhat similar
but better example. The first etsnza
anticipates is moral:
"Impa,ience chaungeth smoke to fame
But jeousie is hell
Some wives by patience have reduced
Ill husbands 10 live well;
As did ihe ladie of an earle,
OF whom l now shall tell"
The ancient ballad OF Sir Caulne, who
loved 'sfaire Christabelle, that lady
bright" the daughter of "bonnye
kinge in Ireland, ferr over the ees," is a
beautiful tale OF unhappy love with o.
tragic ending. Yet we see from the frat
il was chiefly "the lust OF the eye."
They had no other reason to love, for
they knew little OF each other.
The ballad of Tho Nut-Brown Maid"
gives US nearer glinpae of the true
passion. Yet even che seems to have
bsen relation Of the patient Griaelda.
Men, however, like women to learn that
the most esteemed among them were
those who would t1atter and pet them,
Notwithstanding their infidelities. their
coarseness Of mind and manners, their
neglect and general bad conduct. Thus
pretty fools without much sensibility
have always been admired, while women
of eenee and learning and self-respect
have been Stunned. Both sides, how
ever, are becoming wiser. Mon
are not so ready to marry
doll face as thoy we're, and women
begin to look for men with brains and