grain of truth in both of them. But a grain of
truth is not the whole truth, and if an opinion contains ninety-nine
parts of untruth to one part of truth, then the effect of the opinion
is practically the same as if it were all false.

Here is the truth, or at least what I think is the truth, as it
appears to me after many years of thinking and many years of
observing.

=Foundation of Love.= The _foundation_, the _basis_ of all love is
sexual attraction. Without sexual attraction, in greater or lesser
degree, there can be no love. Where the former is entirely lacking the
latter can have no existence. This you may take as an axiom. Some may
call it love, but on analyzing it you will find that it is no such
thing. It may be friendship, it may be gratitude, it may be respect,
it may be pity, it may be habit, it may even be a _desire_ or a
_readiness_ to love or to be loved, but it is not love. Experience has
proved it in thousands and thousands of sad cases. And the girl who
marries a man who is physically repulsive to her, who possesses _no_
physical sexual attraction for her, though she may experience for him
all of the feelings mentioned above, namely, friendship, gratitude,
respect and pity, is preparing for herself a joyless couch to sleep
on. Unless, indeed, she happens to belong to the class of women whom
we call frigid, that is, if she is herself devoid of any sexual desire
and feels no need of any sexual relations. Such a woman may be fairly
or even quite happy with a husband who repels her physically, but whom
she likes or respects. And what I said about the wife applies with
still greater force to the husband. A man who marries a woman who is
physically antipathetic to him is a criminal fool.

I repeat, sexual, physical attraction is the _basis_, the foundation
of love. It is true we see certain cases of love which puzzle us. We
cannot understand what "he" has seen in "her" or what "she" has seen
in "him." But let us remember this paradox, which paradoxical though
it be, is true nevertheless: Love is blind, but Love also sees acutely
and penetratingly; it sees things which we who are indifferent cannot
see. The blindness of Love helps her not to see certain defects which
are clearly seen to everybody else; but, on the other hand, her
penetrating vision helps her to see good qualities which are invisible
to others. And a homely person may possess certain compensating
_physical_ qualities--such as passionate ar