The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1897-05-26
copYRIonr BY AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION,

and bigots had ever been the foes of
progress and enlightenment. We who
take the broader and profounder views
can afford to disregard their clamUr.
We (said Jocelyn, taking the prima don.
mas hand in his, and strobing it gently
can set them the example of coura q,
and independence which will sooner g
later be followed. It is not merely o"r
privilege. but our duty, Hla it would be-
base for us to shrink from -
The prima donna withdrew her hanl
as unobtrusively as she could, and asked
her mentor what objection there was TO
: marriage if people loved each other;
He replied that if they loved each
other what was the use of marriag ?
She rejoined that for two persons TO
love each other was for them to feel tha;
they must belong to each other forevc:'
and that marriage was simply their open
declaration before God and man of the
existence of this feeling in their hearts
| To make such declaration was. she
| conceived, n natural and inevitable i'm
pulse. and it was natural and expedient
| that 1t should be made according to GER
tain forms. the gradual outcome of ira.
dition and custom. Therefore she
thought marriage was not so much an
injustice of society to the individual. as
demand made by the individual that
society be the witness and voucher Of
his covenant.
But Jocelyn hereupon pointed ont that
a covenant always implied Il binding
promise, involving penalties if it were
hrol,a,. that tbic on,;, i,npl;aI d;,tr,,e.
in the power of pure love to hold it's own,
and that any outside pressure brought to
bear upon a passion essentially so free as
love must tend to promote the very re-
action and revolt which it professed to
guard against. She made answer that
the covenant of marriage was not II
bondage, and had not that effect upon
the parties to it, but that to make ones
happiness known to others endowed il
with a reality and substance which were
else wanting to it. That every per, on
one met tacitly or explicitly confirmed
it, reechoed it and assured it, and that
the welded state wOuld consequently
lose ialf its delight and security if it ex-
isted, for example. between two persons
ON o desert island. debarrcd from ever
tnt t6et oI mutual
relation to others.
.Nocelyn here changed his ground, the
better to convey his meaning, and put it
to his interlocutOr whether large per.
c@itage of marriages Were not notori-
or,sly unhappy. and this being admitted
whether it were not thereby demon.
strated that IA great mapy marriages
were mistake. She answered that
even If all marriages which had ever oc-
CURED were mistakes, that would not
prove that marriage itself MAS u mistake.
but only that the welded partners had
been mistaken in each other. Upon his
maintaining that every institution must
be judged by its practical application,
fihe rejoined that IL there were no such
thing as love, there was an end TO all
argument about it.
He said that love did nnquestionably
exist. and that it was the strongest and
most enduring passion of the human
heart, but that il by no means followed
that we could always love the same per.
son with equal ferwor. Life was
growth. and love. which was the essence
of life, must Therefore he subject to
growth likewise. As we developed, as
cur minds and capacities expanded. we
put aside the things of our less ma.
tuFe time, and embraced the Interests
and the loves corresponding to our larger
sphere. There was one love for child
hood, another for youth another for the
prime of life. The greater Il persons in
herent scope and energy, the finer his
organization. the none often would he
find 1t necessary to change the object of
his affections. To do so was not in OPP
position to true morality, hut in obe-
dieioe to ii; but society, consulting sole
ly its sOwn selfish convenience, had arti-
fcially and arbitrarily made such acts
criminal, and had thereby hewildered
and mortally injured myriads of inno-
cent human beings.
To TINS the prima donna replied that
love could grow illimitably without dan
ger OF ever outgrowing its object. The
need WAS not of more to love, but to love
more. God, who was love itself, loved
the meanest of his creatures, and what
God loved that, surely, is not unworthy
the affection of the most richly endowed
of mankind AS Jocelyn did not imme-
diately confute this argument the prima
donna arose and gently intimated that
1t was necessary for her to be alone in
order to prepare for the evenings per-
formance.
Jocelyn ought to have known the fulfill
ity of argument with woman about a
subject in which the emotions are main
ly involved. Even if he had demon
strated his proposition and obtained her
assent to it, he would not have been
bit nearer his goal. A woman overpow-
cred by passion will act in direct oppo-
lition to the most elementary dictates of
reason; and the same woman will not
j L - i 4 g II