1S86.] °±^ [Urinton. 



to man in amicable fellowship and mutual interchange of kindly 

 offices, thus creating a nobler social compact than that "which 

 rests merely on increased power of defence or aggression. These 

 sentiments are those which bind parent to child and child to 

 parent, and thus supply the foundation upon ^which the family 

 in the true significance of the term should rest. These are they 

 which, directed toward the ruler or the state, find expression 

 in personal loyalty and patriotic devotion. Surpassing all in 

 fervor and potency, these sentiments, when exhibited in love be- 

 tween the sexes, direct the greater part of the activity of each 

 individual life, mould the forms of the social relations, and con- 

 trol the perpetuation of the species. Finally, in their last and 

 highest manifestations, these sentiments are those which have 

 suggested to the purest and clearest intellects both the most 

 exalted intellectual condition of man, and the most sublime defi- 

 nition of divinity.* These are good reasons, therefore, why we 

 should scan with more than usual closeness the terms for the 

 conception of love in the languages of nations. 



Another purpose which I shall have in view will be to illus- 

 trate by these words the wonderful parallelism which everywhere 

 presents itself in the operations of the human mind, and to show 

 how it is governed by the same associations of ideas both in the 

 new and old worlds. 



As a preparation for the latter object, let us take a glance at 

 the derivation of the principal words expressing love in the 

 Ar\an languages. The most prominent of them may be traced 

 back to one of two ruling ideas, the one intimating a similarity 

 or likeness between the persons loving, the other a wish or de- 

 sire. The former conveys the notion that the feeling is mutual, 

 the latter that it is stronger on one side than on the other. 



These diverse origins are well illustrated by the French aimer 

 and the English love. Aimer, from the Latin amare, brings us 

 to the Greek «,««, o/io<; 7 both of which spring from the Sanscrit 

 sam ; from which in turn the Germans get their words sammt, 

 along with, and zusammen, together; while we obtain from this 

 rooi almost without change our words similar and same. Ety- 



*I scarcely need say that I refer to the marvelous words of St. John: 

 6 p.?} ayaniuv, duk eyvat rnv deov, ore 6 0so$ ayanrj errrcv (1 John iv, 8); 

 and to the amor intellectualis, the. golden crown of the philosophy of Spinoza as 

 developed in tlie last "book of his Etldra. ""- 



PROC. AMER. PHIJLOS. S0C. XXIII. 124. 3R. PRINTED DEC. 2, 1886. 



