LOVE IN THE ABSTRACT.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 337, 12 March 1868, Page 3

LOVE IN THE ABSTRACT.

(From the London licview. ) Our contemporary the Chronicle has been publishing some articles on the Love analysis of the Shakspearian Philosophy, which are remarkable for the seriousness with which a subject generally so provocative to wit has been treated. There is. no doubt, something to be said in all gravity on a matter in which all men and women are interested ; and we aro thankful to the Chronicle for reminding us that, outside the drawing room and opera-box views of the passion, there are deeper meanings and complex truths involved in it. That which supplies art with its chief designs, which in different shapes pervades us and influences us from life to death, may occasionally be considered without a conventional snigger. The writer in the Clironicle devotes himself to an elaborate division of love, in order to give an insight into Shakspear's system of working the amatory conceptions of his dramas and poems ; but the principles laid down in the essay are much more valuable than the rather pedantic conclusions at which he strives to get. No one will ever understand Shakspeare better for these fine critical exercises ; but they possess an intrinsic value, if it were only for the sensible protest of the tone in which they are pitched against the levity with which love is most frequently dealt with. Modern society is anxious enough to suppress ostensible emotional existence ; and, of that inner sentimental life, which most people are conscious of having one time passed through, or it may be still retain a spark of, it is remarkably impatient. And yet our most successful novelists and most popular poets still find the old theme more profitable than any other ; and the best and the worst of them, strange to say, will be found treating it with an intensity and a fervor apparently more real and more earnest than in the times of chivalry or of sonnets. It follows from this that, the cynicism of the period is in some measure an affectation. It is simply a ; fashion — a fashion which defers to the utilitarian spirit in profession only. Besides the mere fun which can always be made for the situation, there is something at once sad and pleasing in the affection of a young couple who have chosen each other from a mutual regard, which, as far as can be seen, is both unselfish and disinterested. It may be too wide to say that they prefer the choice they have made to all the world, for they have not had time to know much of the world, but the fact is present at least that they are satisfied to meet the chances of life hand in hand, without waiting any longer, or looking any further than they have done. Whatever be the ultimate result, no young man of spirit, of talent, or of character, is morally the worse for a romantic engagement. If he is inclined to work, it will make him work harder. If he has never worked, if the stuff is in him, he is certain to show it. Occasions of this kind are rare nowadays, for the fashions of social thought, especially among women, almost compel an early abandonment of love as a thing to be hoped for or realised by men. Many of the latter also, even of the newest school, are accustomed to conceal a morbid intensity of feeling under a cynical or indifferent exterior, and find it nearly impossible to meet with women ready to sympathise with a sentiment which becomes almost repelling in its. aflectionate earnestness and fervor. It is only those who can hate well who can love well, and women seldom make greater mistakes than in chosing amiable nincompoops, who are in truth as incompetent for affection as for thought. Love, rightly considered, cannot be shared in or partaken off by fools. It requires reading and general culture to give it grace and sweetness ; it requires self-restraint, selfrespect, and education, in the highest sense of the word, to preserve it, and to render it what it ought to be, not only enduring but accretive. People of a poor and unintelligent order may love, but only as they can read, with difficulty, and by spelling the words, and with no insight into or recognition of glowing fancies and the adored spirit which pervade passion in utterance. We do not mean that it is necessary to be a poet in order to be married. Many poets make love badly off paper, but there is no doubt a tendency in the most prosaic natures to imitate (and the imitation, however abominably false, is still a homage to principle) the form of verse, and as much of its soul as they can catch when wanting to win the heart of a woman. There never was a breach of promise case yet in which rhymes were not briefed to the counsel for the plaintiff; and here we have at once the fact that, from the sucking pork-butcher to the romantic artist, there is a universal acknowledgment of love in- the abstract being a business requiring for its use the most exalted mode of thinking and expression of which we are capable.

Whether a great poet or a great painter could love the most and the longest is a delicate and difficult question to decide, and one which our essay scarcely calls upon us to consider. All that we want to maintain is that the loves of stupid men and stupid women must lack the force, color, and beauty of an affection sanctified not simply by a common impulse, but by a sincere, far-reaching, and jealous esteem as well as passion. Wits, it is said, do net make good husbands, and although, according to Moore, wit got an entrance whero wealth failed to penetrate, we suspect that, in our times ihj case is reversed ami that the poet is lef o out in the cold ; while tho stock-broker is received in the drawing-room. It ia not, however, necessary from our point of view, that a man should be, for instance, a professional writer, living by his wits, in order to be qualified for the true enjoyment of loving. On tho contrary, his taste may be spoiled by his rendering love a matter of business' in his books, though, as a rule, authors who manage the affair well enough in their works, are just as delightfully fond and foolish when it comes home to them as other people. Love is, in truth, a pleasure which, to be felt properly, must be cultivated. Music or eating must be studied to be appreciated, and it is nothing to urge against the assertion that when a man is hungry he will be satisfied with a beefsteak. One of our contemporaries last week called attention to the immense quantity of what might be termed emotion food which is just now in the market. A year's subscription to Muclie ought to prepare any yo\ ng lady for love ; and, indeed, nature does so much for the sex, that by an instinct women are far in advance of men in appreciating the more ordinary sQnsibilitios of the feeling, but it is not given to every woman or to every mau to be able to love, any more than it is given them to be loved. There are men possessing a capacity for affection which they are conscious is so affluent and abiding, that they remain single all their lives sooner than exchange it for the ordinary love of ordinary women. Such men brood over their condition in quiet, but seldom show their thoughts except in tenderness to children. As tlie world goes, the number of such men must increase. The census, however, will show no appalling decrease on this account. A certain number of persons must commit marriage every year despite the cynicism, romanticism; or Bohemianism of those we are alluding to. Society will never fail in its duty towards itself. The blight, however, of a critical and absorbing disposition weakens the steps of many who would otherwise incline towards love and marriage. They think of love very far off and very beautiful, as a star is far off and beautiful ; and, when it is reflected in their minds, it seems as deep and as distant there as the star seems when its image is mirrored in the tide.