er the broken marble, the sculptor entered
into the thought of the great Grecian, and with love for his art
glowing in his face and thrilling in his voice, he mused aloud upon the
genius of Phidias. Love of his art made all his days bright and all
his moons honeymoons. When Wyatt Eaton, the artist, was in Millet's
home he noticed that when the wife called the artist from his task to
his noonday meal, the artist's whole being had so gathered itself into
the eye that there was no life left with which to hear. Love lent
genius skill. No other sentiment is so universal or so powerful in its
influence as love that energizes the mind and heart. Love lent
swiftness to the feet of Sir Galahad; lent his heart courage; lent his
sword victory. Entering the palace, love, said Cicero, "makes gold
shine." Love for the birds lent fame to Audubon; just as love for the
bees lent fortune to Huber. Love of knowledge hived all the wisdom in
the libraries; love of beauty adorned all the galleries; love of
service organized all the philanthropies. To-morrow, at the behest of
love, and in the interests of dear ones at home, all the wheels will
begin to revolve; all the trains go out and all the ships come in.
When a man of real force and worth passes upward into that high state
of purity and sweet reasonableness called love, he becomes almost
sacred and exhales an ineffable and mysterious atmosphere. Great is
the power of trade; wonderful the influence of fortune and force;
marvelous the hundred instrumentalities and institutions of society,
but above all of them is man, whose love can indeed "make riches
splendid," whose wisdom love can make mellow, whose strength love can
make gentle, whose defeats love can turn into victories. In that hour
one hundred men dwell in one man.

Love also perfects morality and fulfills all ethical laws. What health
is to the body, what sweetness is to the lark's song, what perfume is
to the rose, that morality is to culture and character. Drunkenness
and gluttony have not more power to blear the eye than immorality to
degrade the soul. When Homer tells us that Ulysses escaped unharmed
from the enchanted palace, but suffered injury from his unfaithfulness
to a friend, the poet wishes us to know that it is easier to recover
from the poison of Circe's cup than to escape the effect of
disobedience to the laws of God.

Fortunately nature is so organized as to keep the consequences of
ill-doing ever b