, while neglect or
perversion enkindles God's wrath, even as did the disobedience of the
wandering Israelites.

The one great fact which pervades the universe is _action_. The very
existence of Love demands its activity, and, hence, the highest
happiness is attained by a normal and legitimate development of this
element of our being. The heart demands an object upon which to lavish
the largess of its affection. In the absence of all others, a star, a
flower, or even a bird, will receive this homage. The bird warbles a gay
answer to the well-known voice, the flower repays the careful cultivator
by displaying its richest tints, the star twinkles a bright "good
evening" to the lonely watcher, and yet withal there is an unsatisfied
longing in the lover's heart, to which neither can respond; the desire
to be loved! Hence, the perfect peace of reciprocated love. If its laws
are violated, nature seeks revenge in the utter depression or
prostration of the vital energies. Thus has the Divine Law-giver
engraven His command on our very being. To love is, therefore, a duty,
the fulfillment of which should engage our noblest powers.

This emotion manifests itself in several phases, prominent among which
is filial affection, the natural harmonizer of society. Paternal love
includes a new element--protection. Greater than either, and second only
in fortitude to maternal affection, is

CONJUGAL LOVE.

"He is blest in Love alone
Who loves for years and loves but one."--HUNT.

With Swedenborg, we may assert, "_that there is given love truly
conjugal, which at this day is so rare, that it is not known what it is,
and scarce that it is_." The same author has defined this relation to be
a union of Love and Wisdom. The fundamental law of conjugal love is
_fidelity to one love_. God created but one Eve, and the essential
elements of paternal and maternal love pre-suppose and necessitate, for
their normal development, the Love of _one_ only. Again, Love is the sun
of woman's existence. Only under its influence does she unfold the
noblest powers of her being. Woman's intuitions should therefore be
taken as the true love-gauge. If she desire a plurality of loves, it
must be a law of her nature; but is communism the desire of our wives
and daughters? No! Every act which renders woman dear to us, denounces
such an idea and reveals the exclusive sacredness of her Love. As
condemning promiscuity in this relation, we may cite the lo