It tends to emancipate one
from the slavery of self. It is altogether unsordid; itself is
its only price. It inspires gentleness, sympathy, mutual faith,
and confidence. True love also in a measure elevates the
intellect. "All love renders wise in a degree," says the poet
Browning, and the most gifted minds have been the sincerest
lovers. Great souls make all affections great; they elevate and
consecrate all true delights. The sentiment even brings to light
qualities before lying dormant and unsuspected. It elevates the
aspirations, expands the soul, and stimulates the mental powers.
One of the finest compliments ever paid to a woman was that of
Steele, when he said of Lady Elizabeth Hastings, "that to have
loved her was a liberal education." Viewed in this light, woman
is an educator in the highest sense, because, above all other
educators, she educates humanly and lovingly.
It has been said that no man and no woman can be regarded as
complete in their experience of life, until they have been subdued
into union with the world through their affections. As woman is
not woman until she has known love, neither is man man. Both are
requisite to each other's completeness. Plato entertained the
idea that lovers each sought a likeness in the other, and that
love was only the divorced half of the original human being
entering into union with its counterpart.
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