love-sentiments. "For
mankind there is so much love in life. At the age of four we love
horses, the sun, flowers, shining weapons, uniforms; at ten we love a
little girl, our playmate; at thirteen we love a buxom, full-necked
woman. The first time I saw the two breasts of a woman, entirely
unclothed, I almost fainted. Finally, at the age of fourteen or fifteen,
we love a young girl, who is a little more to us than a sister and a
little less than a mistress; and then, at sixteen, we love a woman once
more, and marry her."

Most charmingly Hebbel describes his first experience of love, when but
four years old. "It was in Susanna's dull schoolroom, also, that I
learned the meaning of love; it was, indeed, in the very hour when I
first entered it, at the age of four. First love! Who is there who will
not smile as he reads these words? Who will fail to recall memories of
some Anne or Margaret, who once seemed to him to wear a crown of stars,
and to be clad in the blue of heaven and the gold of dawn; and now--but
it would be malicious to depict the contrast! Who will fail to admit
that it seemed to him then as if he passed on the wing through the
garden of the earth, flitting from flower to flower, sipping from their
honey-cups; passing too swiftly, indeed, to become intoxicated, but
pausing long enough at each to inhale its divine perfume!... It was some
time before I ventured to raise my eyes, for I felt that I was under
inspection, and this embarrassed me. But at length I looked up, and my
first glance fell upon a pale and slender girl who sat opposite me: her
name was Emily, and she was the daughter of the parish-clerk. A
passionate trembling seized me, the blood rushed to my heart; but a
sentiment of shame was also intermingled with my first sensations, and I
lowered my eyes to the ground once more, as rapidly as if I had caught
sight of something horrible. From that moment Emily was ever in my
thoughts; and the school, so greatly dreaded in anticipation, became a
joy to me, because it was there only that I could see her. The Sundays
and holidays which separated me from her were as greatly detested by me
as in other circumstances they would have been greatly desired; one day
when she stayed away from school, I felt utterly miserable. In
imagination she was always before my eyes, wherever I went; when alone,
I was never weary of repeating her name; above all, her black eyebrows
and intensely red lips were ever before my