AUGUST 411 



of marrying. There should be many solid reasons for 

 entering into so important a partnership beyond the fact 

 of love, even if that be ever so real. At the same time I 

 do not mean to imply that the man's moral standard in 

 the past should necessarily have been the same as the 

 woman's. The man who understands women extracts 

 far more love from them and so, in the end, makes them 

 happier than the man who knows little about them. I 

 hold it to be a great mistake for a man to have that kind 

 of fear of the girl he is engaged to or of his wife which 

 leads him to think it is desirable to deceive her. That 

 seems the great danger of the tone of the present day, a 

 woman expecting too much of men. 



One of the chief difficulties in talking or writing of 

 love is that the word may be interpreted in so many ways. 

 To generalise on love is almost as difficult as to define it ; 

 it means such different things to different people. Girls 

 who read novels and poetry are apt to think that the fancy 

 they feel for the first man they meet is the great passion 

 which they will never get over ; whereas, broadly speak- 

 ing, strong feeling most often belongs to inconstant natures. 

 As I think of it, real love never exists until it is tried by 

 adversity ; but I am the last to deny that the real thing 

 however you define -it gives dignity and nobility to life, 

 and makes it worth living. ' C'est bien a 1'amour qu'il en 

 faut venir a toute 6poque, en toutes circonstances, en tout 

 pays, tant qu'on veut chercher a comprendre pourquoi Ton 

 vit sans vouloir le demander a Dieu.' 



Thomas Moore puts it : 



When first the Fount of life was flowing, 



Heavy and dark and cold it ran, 

 Every gloomy instant growing 



Bitterer to the lips of Man ; 

 Till Love came by one lucky minute, 



Light of heart and fair of brow, 

 And flung his sweetening cordial in it, 



Proudly saying, ' Taste it now.' 



