The evening times., 1898-03-19
ENIGMHS OF
HUMAN HEARTS
The Rareness OF Absolute
Reciprocal Affection.
Shrine of Love Is Unworthy of
the Homage.

The French, who excel in epigram more
than in wisdom have n proyerb that goes
to the root of the matter we have on
hand "Il Y toujours lUn qui baise ct
rautre aui tend la joue''-they say; al
ways one who kisses while the other on
ly holds the cheek-sufferins not retHrn-
ing-beloved and not loving. Nothing IN
life is rarer than the absolute reciprocity
of Iove-the measure of affection heaped
ip equally on either side. Almost always
there is a preponderance to the one side
or the other. whether it be between pa
rents and children. husband and wife,
friends or lovers. Now it is the woman
who idealizes her beloved man. hum0iy
adoring or passionately exalting accord
ing to her own temperament. Now 1t Is
the man who places the woman on
pedestal, when he brings her all the
treasures or his lovo and worship. and re-
fuses TO see her as aught less than SEMI
divine Sometimes it is the mother who
makes an idol of her boy, and VINO cred
its her girls with the virtues of saints
the qualities of heroines, the faculties OF
eeniuses all in bunch together. so on
through the list. And what the most
puzzling part of the matter - says MFS.
Lynn Linton, in London Queen, that the
idnIized and idealized one is so seldom
worthy of the incense carried TO his or
her shrine love having mere than ma
,iciau's power to blind the eyes ana warp
the fundamentals in the days OF o!d' "heh
the fatal charm could make loaL!hs
J.,vr- 1aV
when Samson trusted Deliidh III"
Merlin believed IN NivieU.
What the loving see in the beloved 10
warrant this infatuation is the problem
set themselves by the bystandcrs' VINO
are. seldom sympathetic oniookers. She
is a fat foolish feather-head IN the eyes
of her unenchanted companions 10 her
lover she is perfection of sweet siinplui-
~ and ingenious candor Her dribhle of
mindless talk seems To him Is sweetly
spontaneous as the song of the blrds IN
the bushes. Her want of womanly le-
ticence is the guiIelesuess of child 5
confidence in universal goodness; nsr fail
ure in all practical power is the deiicacy
of an organization too remote from ma
teriaIism to be practical OF another.
Love translates wooden rightly into dig
nity-of a third. volcanic intemperance of
speech is generous indignation--of a
fourth, the silence of ariditY is shyness-
of a fifth, the inconsequenGe OF rashness
is courage-Of a sixth. the. spirtiessness
Of self-indulgence is the refinement of a
pride which cannot stoop to lower
plane, and which must have its dainty
delicacy ministeTed TO. even at another's $
cost, if not able to be compassed by per-
sonal means. So the glamour OF Love
throws it's silver wells over all the loved
faces. till what is absolute defornity be-
comes transformed TO beauty. aud the
negatively commonplace il made To do
duty for the positively supreme. This is
the undecipherable enigma OF much that
We see about US, when, like poor HazlItt
with his artful little JeZebel, who was ut
terly commonplace in al save her power
Of deception, the gifted ideallze the Clown
ish-the good first whitewash ann then
adore the bad-the warm and tender. the
loving and the passionate pour out the
living wealth of their souls at the feet of
the cold and indfferent-which is water
ing the sea-sand with their hearts blood
and harvesting weeds for good grain