The age-herald., 1899-05-14
THE MURMUR
 OF THE WORLD
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 force of inspiration. The affection of the ignorant is merely coarse passion, often immoral in It's tendency and unrighteous in its purpose. In some instances it has a softening, even refining. influence for day. but on the morrow the inherent coarseness reasserts itself and the ignorant falls back to the dead level that borders upon crime. Ingomar's wild and savage passion for Parthenia had in it no quality that was beautiful. Her beauty tanned him, but it was powerless to refine; and when she led him from his forest realm she walked perilously near to the thorny way which innocence may not tread. His mad shout of q love thee" was not the cry of a tender and holy sentiment; but simply suggested emotions best not dwelt upon here. Ingomar could no more tell what love was than a moose piping to his mate in the Maine woods.
 
 Somebody has jingled words together to the effect that "the loving are the daring the tender are the brave" That is illogl- cal, untrue, absurd. Love has got noth- ing to do with those fools who rush in where angels fear to tread; tenderness is
 
 reputation at the cannon's mouth. The daring do love-in many instances; the brave are true-sometimes. But in every case 1t is when the learned eye finds the way. Low ignorance would look upon the rarest maid whom the angels ever sung to her slumbers as simply an animal superior to any other one he had seen, and as being ther more attractive than any beast that had come under his observation. The pure soul shining from the proud face of purity would not appeal to him. The deli cate lines from her beautiful white brow to her beautiful white feet, wondrous proof Of civilization, culture and refinement would move him not at all. She would be differ ent from any other creature he had seen, but how or why he could not tell.
 Somewhere somewhen there was youth who loved a maid with nut-brown hair, and he wept that his devotion won from her no answering emotions. He read all sorts of rubbishy verses and was superla- lively unhappy. One day he came upon some lines wherein the poet swore that a loving eye beguiled his poetic soul more than flames emblazoned seal. and one sweet note of tenderness than triumph's widest peal. Now this youth had never seen a seal of fame, emblazoned or other wise, and no loving eye had ever beamed upon him; but the sentiment appealed to him powerfully, and he used to recite the verse to the patient maid, much to her an- noyance, no doubt. She and he were both ignorant. Neither of them had any more capacity to love than they had the ability to fly. They were a pair of young fools, he being chief There was nothing attrac- tive in their association. Ignorance can never be attractive. The maid welded man unlearned and poor. with the usual result. Necessity impelled the youth to learn something. It has been years since last they met and seas have rolled be- tween;" but the folly of the young years is not, forgot, the lesson learned in the very shadow of ignorance abides with the blessedness of a ceaseless benediction. In its essence it is, "the learned eye is the loving one''
 It is not strange that one instinctively so to speak. brings into every thought md every discussion of love the figure of a wo- man. Every man thinks at times of some woman-every man loves or has loved woman. In robust health, in the delirium of fever, in whatever physical or mental condition, there fits across his vision a figure that to him is radiant. and whether it beckon to him he would follow whither- soever it went. "A beautiful woman is a picture which drives all heholders nebly mad" Emerson assures those of us who ha o1, upon this planet. Know ye before all the gods that she is beautiful" is an assevera- ton ever upon the lips of every man. Often Tn the crowded street one sees face "so fair that like the air it seems less of earth than of heaven;" and one feels the inn pulse 10 whisper, 'T swear to thee that thou art beautifully We bring a woman to bear upon our measurement of most things in the world. And woman estimates a man by what she believes the man thinks of her. if she estimate him at all.
 But truce to emotional love as it sub- s,sts between man and woman, or is given by one to the other without responsive sigh. There are other loves, nobler per haps, and certainly less selfish, less exact ing, less influenced by doubts or fears. The love of friendship, the tie that bound Da- mon and Pythias, the love of the learned eye-that is the love that makes life worth life; that is the great controlling force that separates mankind from the beasts of the field. "Know ye, Andrew, that this is James," lightly spoken according to our custom of making one known to another, paves an easy way to a love that shall be blessed to both. Or 'know ye, Mary, that this is David,' has the same effect. Noth- ing in life is more beautiful or more en- nobling that frank friendship between a good woman and an honest man. But there can be real love without intelli- gence. The trained mind alone can sound the depths of a human soul, comprehend the blessedness of love, the fragrance and beauty of the flowers, the granduer of the forest, or the majesty of the mountain. As well might you look for a painter in Roumanan swineherd. Without some rea- sonable degree of culture, of intelligence there can be no real comprehension of love