Different women interpret the word love differently. Thus,
To one woman, love is as the rising of the sun: it shines but once in her
whole life-day; it floods everything with its light; it brightens the
world; it dazzles her.
To another woman, love is as the rising of a star: a fresh one may appear
every hour of her life, and nor she nor her world is one whit affected by
its rays. Indeed, one would hardly err if he said that
Many a woman really does not know whether she is "in love" or not. She
is sought--that she perceives; but which of her seekers is worthiest,
which most zealous, which merely takes her fancy, and which appeals to
her heart--on these matters she meditates long--to the exasperation, of
course, of the individual seeker. Accordingly,
Men, carried away by their own passionate impulse, detest calculation of
the part of women:
Since HE stakes his all on impulse in the matter of love, says man, why
should woman stay to consider? Foolish man! he forgets that
A woman always weighs a man's declaration of love--and legitimately--
and naturally; perhaps legitimately because naturally; for, once again,
What a woman stays to consider in the matter of love is, not the potency
of the impulse of the moment, but the permanent efficacy of the emotion.
Therefore it is that
Woman unwittingly obeys great Nature's laws.
* * *
Many imagine that love is a thing like a chemical element: with a fixed
symbol 84 and a rigid atomic equivalent. And so it may be; but, like the
philosopher's stone, hitherto it has defied detection in its elemental
form. The fact is probably that
Love may be compared to a substance that is never found free, and which
not only combines in all sorts of relationships with all sorts of
substances, but also, like many another chemical body, takes on the most
varied forms, not only in these relationships, but also under varying
pressures and temperatures.--Or perhaps it would be better to say that
Love may be compared to a musical note: to the unthinking it is a simple
sound; to the more experienced it is know to consist of endless and
complicated harmonical vibrations; harmonizing with some, and making
discord with other, notes by regular but unknown laws; differing
according to the timbre of the emitter; reverberating under certain
conditions; lost to the ear in others; and only responding to resonators
vibrating synchronously with itself. Lastly,