Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-23
PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE.
The Analysis of the Passion Attempt
ed by Eminent Thinkers.

The Analysis OF the Passion attempt
ed by Eminent Thinkers.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
We are informed by Herbert Spencer that
love is IAN emotion Of the highest COM
plexity. and consequently Of the greatest
strength" One of its principal elements,
he goes on to specify. is the impression
produced by the beautiful, which includes
the idea of PERSONAL preference, and such
preference leads to the feeling called af-
lection, eliminating in special exaltaton
when existing between lovers. Then there
is the sentiment Of admiration or rever-
ence and then the vanity that is fiattered
by the knowledge that we are preferred
to all the world by the one whom we adj
mire over all others. Beyond this Is the
proprietary feeling. or the delight Of
mutual possession, and finally there is the
choice felicity Of the close participation Of
another in all of our enjoyments. In thus
scientifically taking the passion to pieces,
Mr. spencer at least proves 1T to be
amazingly complex, but he doessnot tell us
anything about the caprices in which it is
so largely expressed and does not give us
the logic of the process by which its In
dividual preferences are determined. We
are still left in the dark as to why 1t is
that people whom we like are so apt to
marry people whom we dislike, and how 1t
by which the other interests of life are
adjusted seem to be disregarded in a matter
which has the most important bearing up
on the happiness Of mankind and the well
fare of society.
When we turn to philosopher like
Emerson, we are equally disappointed; or,
to state it in another way, there is the
same lack of practical information upon
these points which are source of endless
perpexity. He describes love in the alb
stract as "a fire that, kindling it's first
embers in the narrow nook of a private
bosom, caught from a wandering spark
out of another private bosom, glows and
enlarges until it warns and beams upon
multitudeS Of men and women, upon the
universal heart of all. and so lights up the
whole world and all nature with it's gen.
erous flames" This is quite pretty. but it
Is simply the poetry Of the case and not
the explanation. He anticipates such an
objection, and hastens to meet it by saying
that the first condition Of the discussion is
that we must leave too close and linger-
ing adherence to facts, and study the SEN
timent as it has appeared in hope and not
in history" Our own experience, he says,
Is likely to have souring effect, whereas,
when we contemplate the thing at dis
lance, in the experience of others from
the point of the intellect it looks fair an |
ideal. Hence comes the prevailing desire
to know of any worthy person how he has
sped in this relation, and herein lies the
secret Of the attention that is given to a
betrayal of affection between two par
ties. Perhaps we never saw them before
and never shall meet them again. But we
see them exchange glance, or show a
deep emotion, and we are no longer
strangers" We understand the situation
at once, and the romance of it appeals to
us In tender and pleasant way But we
cannot discern the reasons which induced
these particular parties to choose each
other, and do not know how their affinity
was revealed to them in. the general con-
fusion of human affairs.