Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/154

 lower through the passions, where jealousy renders them miserable.

"In the lower stages of human society it is a crime for any man or woman to so live as to become an object of general or universal love; and envy, jealousy, and selfishness will soon, if possible, destroy such person, or drive him or her to the spirit-life, where all find their true level. Jesus and many other good men who lived above the world while in it, and were beloved by too many followers, were put to death by the wise and self-righteous of their ages, and the world is not much different now.

"The principal and general expression of love in our country is through the sexual passions ; hence men of strong and lustful dispositions are popular, and elevated to power and place, while those more spiritual, angelic, and pure, whose love is general to God and the race, and expressed through the intellect and affections, are unpopular, and often branded as fanatics or ' free-lovers,' and crowded out of the places they are the most competent to fill. A few years ago (and even by many now) those who advocated the equality of the sexes in social and political rights were branded by sensualists as ' free-lovers,' and often for no other reason.

"We have no doubt that it is the same element working in both cases, which is like the fire that bakes our bread and burns our dwellings, and we are not sure that anger and hatred are not reversed and perverted expressions of love. If the filial, maternal, fraternal, and devotional love all arise from the same source as the conjugal and sexual, we do not see why anger may not be also a reversed action of the same element, especially as the same object often calls out both expressions, or even all of the above phases of manifestation. It is often asserted that God is Love; but it is not so; for love is not God in any world or any sense, more than electricity is. When men and women can reason on the love relations and the passions, we shall reach valuable truths, and bring them to use in life."

There is a bad sign hung out from the windows of the world; it is painted on both sides: on one it reads, "Hearts for sale;" on the other, " Marriage is folly." The one tells a sad tale; the other is a falsehood; and yet many there are who believe this last proof: There are more single women and men by millions than