LOVE AND BEAUTY 127 



What the Artist now sees with the eyes of 

 Love will be the ground upon which he will have 

 to form his judgment in the most critical decision 

 of his life. For the moment will now have 

 come when he will have to decide whether of all 

 others he will give himself to her, and whether 

 he can presume to ask of her that she will give 

 herself to him — and each to the other for all the 

 rest of their lives. It is a momentous decision to 

 have to make. With his highly developed power 

 of vision he .will have divined her true nature. But 

 he will have now to exercise his judgment on it — 

 whether it will satisfy the needs of his whole being 

 and whether his whole being is sufficient to satisfy 

 her needs. Each has to be sure that his peculiar 

 nature satisfies — and satisfies fully — his or her own 

 peculiar needs, and that his peculiar nature satisfies 

 the other's needs. A wrong decision here is fatal. 

 The responsibility is fearful. All will depend upon 

 his keenness of vision, his capacity for discrimina- 

 tion, and his soundness of judgment. The decision 

 may be arrived at swiftly and consciously, or it may 

 be come to unconsciously, gradually, and imper- 

 ceptibly. But shorter or longer the time, con- 

 sciously or unconsciously the method, it will have 

 in the end to be made in a perfectly definite 

 fashion — yes or no — and from that decision there 

 can be no going back. And on that clear decision 

 will hang the future welfare not only of the one 

 who makes it, but of both. Each, therefore, has 

 to decide for the welfare of both. 



This is the real Day of Judgment. And each 

 is his own judge. Now all his and her past life 



