Romantic Love and Personal Beauty: Their development, causal relations, historic and national peculiaritiesFinck, Henry T.
Science
Romantic Love and Personal Beauty: Their development, causal relations, historic and national peculiarities
Finck, Henry T.
Beauty, Personal; Love
In Love the fundamental tone is the sexual relation—the fact that one of
the lovers is male, the other female. This fundamental tone does not
vary throughout Nature. It is the same among animals and savages as
among civilised men; and what distinguishes the passion of one of these
groups from that of the other is alone the overtones of love, which vary
in number, relative prominence, and refinement (“high-toned”).
What are these overtones?
I.—INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE
What first ennobles Love and raises it above mere passion, is the
stubborn preference for a particular individual. A savage chief ignorant
of Love would not hesitate a moment to exchange his bride for two or
three other women equally young and tempting; whereas a man under the
influence of Love would not give his beloved for the choice among all
the beauties of the Caucasus and Andalusia. “If we pass in review the
different degrees of love,” says Schopenhauer, “from the most transient
attachment to the most violent passion, we shall find that the
difference between them springs from their different degrees of
_individualisation_.”
II.—MONOPOLY OR EXCLUSIVENESS
Closely connected with the first overtone is that of exclusiveness. True
Love is a monopolist. As in a sun-glass all the solar rays are
concentrated into one burning focus, so are the lover’s emotions on his
beloved. Not only does he care for _her_ alone of all women, but he
voluntarily offers her a monopoly of _his_ thoughts and feelings. In
return for this, however, he expects and exacts of her a like monopoly
of her affection and favours; and this leads to the next overtone.
III.—JEALOUSY
This is the salt and pepper of Love. A little of it is piquant, too much
of it spoils the soup. The moral mission of Jealousy is, by means of
watchfulness and the inspiring of fear, to ensure fidelity and chastity,
and thus help to develop the romantic features of Love.
IV.—COYNESS
This is a specially feminine trait of Love, which, by retarding the
eager lover’s conquest, augments and idealises his passion. In Modern
Love, Coyness varies in two directions—towards prudery on one side,
coquetry on the other.
V.—GALLANTRY
If Coyness is a peculiarly feminine ingredient of Love, Gallantry, on
the other hand, is a specially masculine attribute. The eager desire to
please, it is true, is also present in a woman’s Love; but it shows
itself less as an active impulse to do something for the lover, than as
a desire to please him by making herself as attractive as possible.
VI.—SELF-SACRIFICE
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