The Little Review, January 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 10) — John Shaqi
The Little Review, January 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 10)Various
General
The Little Review, January 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 10)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
The author combines science and sentiment in a new way. Her facts show
that she has read widely; her conclusions show that she has thought
deeply; her sentiments show that she has felt—at least potentially—most,
if not all, of the joys and sorrows which the practice and malpractice
of love produce. And the one shining truth that she has discovered in
all this hidden treasure of sex happiness is that “_we’ve a right to as
much love as we can work up into the stuff of a superior personality_.”
This truth is thrown out as independently of conventions, prejudices,
religious beliefs or practices as a searchlight is independent of the
hinges that hold it in place. It is the ultimate measure of what is good
or what is bad in love; it is the standard by which all sex problems
must finally be adjusted. She goes on to say that “taking anything over
what we can give back in some form or other to the social sum is my
notion of sinning”—and an inspired notion of sinning it is, too. We are
all searching for the treasure of love happiness, yet no one may justly
take more than he can carry away in inspiration and the impulse of
creating something within or without that will add to the sum total of
human happiness.
Between facts and sentiment Mrs. Austin leans to sentiment—yet why not?
She is not writing for the elect body of sex students, but for ordinary
men and women. Those who have read little or nothing of sex psychology
would find cold, uncompromising facts too difficult a diet. Offering
them such an argument would be like comforting a bumped child with the
multiplication table. By means of such a book as _Love and the Soul
Maker_ it may be possible for even the ossifying brains of dogmatists to
catch a glimmer of light on our present sex problems, while such
dazzlingly and ruthlessly true books as Havelock Ellis writes may
petrify several additional lobes.
Although not openly propagandic, Mrs. Austin has a decided philosophy of
life which she sets forth in a dozen different ways and which, without
saying so, she hopes her reader will accept. She insists that “the
proper end of loving is not personal but racial; it is the Soul Maker’s
most precious commodity,” and that love pirates or love grafters commit
their most venal sin by believing that love is its own excuse. As Mrs.
Austin expresses it, “Love for love’s sake is the shibboleth by which
they blunt the unassailable fact that love was not invented for love’s
sake but for life’s.” Here, of course, is a radical point of departure
which will turn many readers away from her pages; it may, however,
induce an equal number to read further.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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