the currents of
lust in the organism have been so irradiated as to affect other parts of
the psychic organism--at the least the affections and the social
feelings--it is not yet sexual love. Lust, the specific sexual impulse, is
indeed the primary and essential element in this synthesis, for it alone
is adequate to the end of reproduction, not only in animals but in men.
But it is not until lust is expanded and irradiated that it develops into
the exquisite and enthralling flower of love. We may call to mind what
happens among plants: on the one hand we have the lower organisms in which
sex is carried on summarily and cryptogamically, never shedding any shower
of gorgeous blossoms on the world, and on the other hand the higher plants
among whom sex has become phanersgamous and expanded enormously into form
and color and fragrance.

While "lust" is, of course, known all over the world, and there
are everywhere words to designate it, "love" is not universally
known, and in many languages there are no words for "love." The
failures to find love are often remarkable and unexpected. We may
find it where we least expect it. Sexual desire became idealized
(as Sergi has pointed out) even by some animals, especially
birds, for when a bird pines to death for the loss of its mate
this cannot be due to the uncomplicated instinct of sex, but must
involve the interweaving of that instinct with the other elements
of life to a degree which is rare even among the most civilized
men. Some savage races seem to have no fundamental notion of
love, and (like the American Nahuas) no primary word for it,
while, on the other hand, in Quichua, the language of the ancient
Peruvians, there are nearly six hundred combinations of the verb
_munay_, to love. Among some peoples love seems to be confined to
the women. Letourneau (_L'Evolution Litteraire_, p. 529) points
out that in various parts of the world women have taken a leading
part in creating erotic poetry. It may be mentioned in this
connection that suicide from erotic motives among primitive
peoples occurs chiefly among women (_Zeitschrift fuer
Sozialwissenschaft_, 1899, p. 578). Not a few savages possess
love-poems, as, for instance, the Suahali (Velten, in his _Prosa
und Poesie der Suahali_, devotes a section to love-poems
reproduced in the Suahali language). D.G. Brinton, in an
interesting