Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/38

 food product from which all the vital, life-sustaining elements have been removed, leaving nothing but a superficially pleasing residue which at best starves the body, at worst poisons it.

Love, the transcendent, elevating force of humanity, is reflected in its individual expression, in a harmonious development of the socialized impulses, and those individual qualities which typify mental and spiritual growth.

Altruism and Self-Sacrifice. The law of self-preservation is said to be the first law of nature. From the standpoint of the individual, as such, it unquestionably is-but man is a social being and the strength of his social fibre tends to neutralize his purely individualistic, or egoistic, impulses. As a result, "the first law of nature" is every day subordinated to the altruistic impulse of self-sacrifice for others.

Men sacrifice their lives for the women they love; and women for the men they love. The sacrificial ardor of mother-love for the child is too well known to require elaboration. The love impulse extends far and wide and embraces every human relationship where a strong attachment is present.

Of course, a manifestation of this same impulse asserts itself in the animal world as well. While that leads into other and diverging channels which the limitations of space will not permit us to follow, it will be pertinent in this connection to repeat the significant thought expressed in Shelley's beautiful line: "Nothing in the world is single."

This mighty, universal impulse which does so much to make life worth while is indeed a complex thing. Considering how universally throughout nature is the sacrificial aspect of the love instinct, largely automatic in its expression, it would seem to be a biological process, of which sex in its broadest interpretation is the motivating factor.