The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-06-04

In the spring time of his manhood,
Augu.t e Comte, sensitive, confiding,
geneI Jus, loved beautiful girl. She
did not share his intellectual ambi-
tons, his divine aspiration; she was
only a beautiful animal.
Man proposes, but he is not always
accepted.
She married another, and Comte
was disconsilate-for a day.
He pondered the subject, read the
lives of various great men, talked with
cowled monks and sundry friars gray,
and after five years wrote at length
the reasons why a man in order to
accomplish far-reaching and SPLEEN
did work must live the life of cell
bate.
TO achieve" said Comte, you must
be married to your work"
Comte lived for some tine content
in his philosophy, constantly strength
ening it and buttressing it against at
tick; for we believe a thing first and
skirmish for our proof afterward.
But when past 40, and his hair was
| turning to silver and crows feet were
showing themselves to his fine face
and when there was a halt in his
step and his laughter had died away
into a weary smile, Comte met a wo-
man whose nature was as finely sensi-
tive and as silkenly strong as his
own.
She had intellect, aspiration, power
She was gentle, and a woman, withal.
His best mood was matched by hers;
she sympathized with his highest
ideal.
They loved, and they married.
The crows feet disappeared from
Comics face, the halt in his step was
gone, the laugh returned, and people
said that the silver hair was becom-
ing.
Shortly after, Comte set himself to
work overhauling all of the foolish
things he had said about the neces-
sity of celibacy. He declared that a
man without his mate only stumbled
his way though life. There was the
male man and the female man, and
only by working together could these
two souls hope to progress. 1t re-
| quires two to generate thought.
! Comte felt sure that he was writ
| ing the final word. He avowed that
| there was no more to say. He de
clared that should his wife go hence
the fountains of his soul would dry
up, his mind would famish, and the
light of his life would go out in dark
ness.
The gods were enyious of such Il
love as this.
Comics mate passed away
He was stricken dumb; the calam-
ity was too great for speech or tears.
But five years after he got down
his books and went over his manu-
scripts for the third time. He revised
his philosophy of what constitutes the
true condition for the highest and pur-
est thought.
To have known a great and exalted
love and have it fade from your grasp
and flee as a shadow, living only in
memory is the highest good. he wrote
A great sorrow at one stroke pu'
chases redemption from all r,.u
troubles; it sinks all trivial anna.
anccs into uothineness and grants ,.,
man lifelong freedom from all petty
corroding cares His feelings have
been sounded to their depths-the
plummet has touched bottom. Fate
has done her worst; she has brought
him face to face with the Supreme
Calamity and thereafter there is moth
ing can inspire terror.
The memory of a great love can
never die from out the heart. II al
fords a ballast against all the storms
that blow, And although it lends an
unutterable sadness, it imparts an un.
speakable peace.
A great love, even when fully pos
sessed, affords no complete gratifica.
ton. There is an essence in it all