Love stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Scotland -- Fiction
Athlyne did not feel safe till the French vessel was dipping her
nose into the open Atlantic seas, and the Long Island Hills were a
faint blue line on the western horizon. The last dozen hours of his
stay in New York had been as though spent in prison. He knew well now
that he really loved Joy; that this was no passing fancy, no mere
desire of possession of a pretty woman. All phases of the passion of
love, from the solely physical to the purely spiritual, have their own
forces commanding different sets of nerves. Any one of these many
phases may be all-compelling--for a time. But it is rather the blind
dogged reckless pursuit of an immediate purpose than the total
abandonment to a settled conviction. All the passions--or rather the
phases of one passion--are separate and co-ordinate. Inasmuch as they
are centred in one physical identity they are correlated. Nature has
its own mysteries; and the inter-relations of various functions of a
human being form not the least of them. As there are broad divisions
of them--Christians accept three, the ancient Egyptians held to
eight--so must we accept their uses and consequences. “Body and soul,”
so runs the saying of the illiterate, not seldom used in objurgation.
“Body, mind and soul” says the quasi-thinker who believes that he has
grasped the truth of the great parcelling-out of qualities. “Heart,
soul and flesh” says the lover who knows that he understands. The
lover alone it is who knows as distinguished from believing. For his
world is complete; in it there is no striving after knowledge, no vain
desire of many things, no self-seeking. For the true lover’s one idea
is to give. In such a world there can be no doubting, no fearing, no
hoping. Before its creation Pandora’s box has been emptied to the
last. It may be that the lover’s world is only a phantasm, a
condition. It may be that it is a reality which can only be grasped by
those who have been gifted with special powers. It may be that it is
an orb as real as our own world, whirling in space in darkness, and
can only be seen by those who have a new sense of vision. Surely it is
not too much to believe, following the great analogies, that the soul
as well as the body has eyes, and that all eyes of all sorts and
degrees have vision of one kind or another; that there may be even a
power of choice. We know that in the great manifestation which we call
Light are various rays, each with its own distinctive powers and
limitations. When these are all classified and understood, then
science may take breathing time for its next great effort at
investigation. Why, then, may not certain visual organs be adapted to
specific purposes! We know through our sensoria that there is response
in various ways to seekings of our own; whatever be the means of
communication; whatever it be--electrical or magnetic, or through some
other of the occult root forces, the message is conveyed. Why may it
not be, again following the great analogies, that two forces of
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