BOOK I. § 66. The erotic type. caprice or coquetry in the object of it. To cause eros to represent the hoped for anteros sometimes as given, sometimes as refused, or as bestowed elsewhere, has the effect of irritating the eros. Again, acts and appearances which excite the aesthetic admiration excite the eros. Both of these things produce a state of irritation, in the person feeling eros, which is often indistinguishable from its naturally produced passion, which only arises legitimately from a very intense emotion. Other circumstances also may have the same effect as the caprice of the person for whom the eros is felt, such as separation, or admiration shown by others. The natural allies of eros are accordingly envy and jealousy of possible rivals; the state of eros is one peculiarly open to these passions, so that they can be excited in it even in persons of the least suspicious and most generous natures, witness Shakespeare's Othello. All the emotions which have been grouped together in Chapter ii. under the head of emotions of comparison are or may easily be stimulated in turn, by the course of events, in a person under the dominion of eros, or whose character is of that type. The counterbalancing force is to be found only in an emotion which is self-regarding, the better form of pride, proper pride as it is called, the expression or passion of which is one kind of Honour. This however is a general emotion, arising indifferently from several qualities and containing them as groundwork; we may place our pride in firmness, for instance, or in being superior to calamities from without of whatever kind they may be, or in the pursuit of a great public career, or in being devoted to religious contemplation. If we place our interest in any such ends as these, as a refuge from the storms of eros, we may be said to take refuge in honour. For it is only in or as the representation of honour that they are opposed to eros with its envy and jealousy; they are not antagonistic to it in themselves, but only as props of self-sufficiency, which resists the torments of unsatisfied passion, unsatisfied because depending on the will or caprice of another. 4. Finally it becomes intelligible how eros may alternate with hate, towards the same person, and in rapidly consecutive moments; how the intensity of the one feeling may measure that of the other; and how both together in the retrospect, or even in actual experience, may produce a total impression almost indescribable by words, and even by the metrical language of poetry. All men of the erotic type of character do not feel and act in the same way under the influence of its passion. Some are willing slaves even to the most exaggerated form of caprice; some rebel, with alternate hatred, against its mildest manifestations; some become gloomy and melancholy, until an entire change of passion, or its entire transference to another person of more respondent humour, releases them from their tribulation. § 67. 1. The second type of character founded in the sympathetic group is that which finds its completion in love, properly so called. The series, of which it is the last member, consists of goodwill, benevolence, friendship, love. But, as already said, love can never reach its perfect development except between two persons of opposite sex, because only between them can rivalry ever be entirely abolished; except in cases where the difference in degree is immense or rather infinite, as in the love of God, which equally excludes rivalry and all antagonism of in BOOK I. § 67. ate type. terest whatsoever. The three lower stages of this series may perhaps be considered as forming a type The affection of character apart, since there are persons who may be capable of these lower degrees of sympathetic emotion only, and, possessing also the tendency to emotions of comparison, together with those of justice and the moral sense, may, from this combination, become good citizens, politicians, and men of business, as well as trustworthy and to a certain extent affectionate friends, but feel love only in a very faint and feeble degree of intensity, being rather allies than friends even of those most dear to them. Affection must be passion, an end desired as well as an emotion felt, in order to justify the name love being applied to this character. But it is better perhaps to consider this, not as a separate type, but only as the imperfect development of one, which reaches its completion in the passionate attachment of love, whether towards persons of the same or of the opposite sex, of which the latter case is the most perfect. 2. Love in this sense cannot exist between persons of opposite sex without a certain amount of eros and of sexual appetite being developed. Given the love, the other two feelings would follow as a consequence of the intimacy and familiarity of intercourse between the two persons; usually of course they precede it; but they are subordinated to it, and kept from degenerating into gross forms, as well as from becoming ends in themselves, since they are dominated by the desire for a complete union of interest in all modes of feeling and emotion, which modes would be weakened or destroyed by the preponderance of eros or of appetite. Love then may be combined with eros and appetite, which only then BOOK I. § 67. ate type. perhaps are entirely pure and blameless, love purifying eros as eros appetite; but both of these are distinct from love, which gives a new and special ele- The affectionment to the combination. The great purpose which justifies the institution of marriage is this, to superinduce love upon eros, or to develop eros into love, by providing a condition of life in which both may be united. The historical causes which produced the institution of marriage are another matter; as are also the minor advantages, which it secures, such as the founding and binding together the family group, and the education and support of the offspring. The institution of marriage lies at the very heart of civilisation; even its minor advantages are of inestimable value. The admiration upon which love is founded, or which it includes, is an admiration for nobleness or beauty of character itself, not, like that of eros, for bodily excellences of personal beauty or grace. Hence it is impossible to love a person whom you regard as worthless; except indeed it be said to be possible, in return for love manifested by him to you; but then this very circumstance takes him, in your eyes, out of that category. The admiration in love is from its very origin a reflective admiration and emotion; not a direct one, as the aesthetic admiration in eros. It may coexist and be coeval with the asthetic admiration of eros towards the same person, just as love with eros itself. Observers often confound this case with that of eros alone; but the compound feeling is of a much higher kind, as well as likely to be much more durable; more durable, because the traits of character, which are the objects of the admiration of love, are capable of improvement VOL. I. KK and development by time, which is not the case with those of the admiration of eros. 3. In love as well as in eros the emotion must be represented as reciprocated; otherwise there is no career, and consequently no permanence and no increase. If it is not returned, the love remains only admiration of moral excellences, veneration, or esteem; but these may be very intense in degree. If in any measure returned, this will suffice to feed imagination and to sustain the love. But only when it is returned in the measure in which it is felt, does it spring up to its full height, and effect a perfect union between the two persons. Then follows a contest which of them shall love the other with most devotion; and this aim becomes an object of pride and honour in their best sense, one of the materials which feed or constitute them. Other emotions and other aims are not excluded; still less are benevolence and friendship towards other persons; still less the sense and love of justice and of duty; between which and love there is difference but no antagonism. The passion of love is a desire for an increased intensity of the same emotion, love, and also, like that of eros, for its being returned with greater intensity. It has no purpose except itself, and is therefore an end in itself; it has too a career before it which has no limit imposed by itself; for the equalisation of the love felt and returned is not such a limit, as it was in the case of eros; the passion goes on beyond, as the desire of greater intensity in the reciprocated emotion itself. 4. It has been mentioned above that Aristotle assigned longing, Tódos, as the test of affection. There is also a test of love, which is applicable alike in |