Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-10-04
GRATITUDE.
BY Max O'Rell.


Has love anything to do with graft
tude? In other words, does gratitude
engender love? No: to kill a woman
love for him a man has only to keep OF
reminding her of what he has done te
earn her gratitude; and, by the same
means, q woman will obtain the same
result with.a man.
A woman will often hate a man Whe
lavishes money upon her and will love
the first man who comes along te
whom she will owe no gratitude, simply
because the former degradeS her bs
paying for her favors, whereas the lat
ter enables her to regain her ndepen'
dence and to raise herself in her OWE
estimation.
"A man who marries below his rank
in society may be loved by his wife,
not because she feels that she is in.
debted to him although he has raised
her to his rank. And a man will sell
dom love the wife whom he has mar
ried for money, because by so doing
he has to a certain extent sold himself,
and love never goes abreast with either
feelings of self-degradation or absence
of respect for the other party. This is
why mesalliances, as a rule, turn out
to be very unhappy marriages. The
best guarantee of happiness in matri-
monial life is the equal footing on
which a husband and a wife will go
through the years of their association.
Neither of them must feel that they
owe anything to the other. It must be
q partnership into which each party
has brought the same amount of CAPT
tai.
Gratitude will engender affection, de-
~votion, great friendship, but not love.
Nay, L will go further and risk the
following statement: Not only graft
tude does not engender love, but it will
stand il its way.
A woman hoes not love a man be-
cause she feels it is her duty to love
him. Love has nothing to do with duty.
You cannot help falling in love any
more than you can help becoming gray
: or bald, and you may fall in love
} against all the interests Of your life
7 The more you argue gains love the
more you love. Love has nothing tc
= do with arguing and reasoning any
!, more than it has with duty and graf
itude. Yon cannot love tt
p come or 60, and many a woman ha:
been on her knees praying that sht
!. might love a man to whom she OWED
= a debt of gratitude, but the prayer ha!
seldom been heard. A woman will re
i, main faithful to a man out of duty o.
: out of gratitude, but all that will no
make her love him.
No, no.; and I will even say that 70
4 man TO 1ee1 C1aI ne mas TO De STdlGlu
!, to a woman is injurious to his love 70
= that woman. He so hates himself TO
' being unable to do for her all he woul
: like to do hat he curses himself an
} fails to love her more for all her pa
= ~tienee, for all the devotion she show
to him through the hardships of life
3 A man loves a woman all the more 70
u all he can do for her, and SO does
u woman a man.
e OF course, when people already low
y gratitude will increase their love &c
D the one they owe it to; what I mea
L 10 say is that if love does not exist
l. is not gratitude that will e~ngender it
Sc Love is inspired by an exaitation thu
IL makes US feel better or greater. Graf
l. tude, like pity, make US look smaller
n that IS why gratitude does not and cal
not engender V
er A cynic once remarked that irgrat
or tude was the independence of tt
lie heart. He might have added that era
Of ttude, by attempting to force the hear
lie fails to touch it in the tender relation
le between man and woman.