nswer the often asked question: How do marriages turn out
which are the result of a sudden, violent passion, or of love at first
sight? No ironclad rules suitable for all cases can be given. Some
turn out very unhappily, the couple gradually finding out that they
are altogether unsuited to each other, that their temperaments are
incompatible, that their views, ideas, likes and dislikes are
different. In some cases what was supposed to be a great love is soon
seen to have been merely an infatuation. And satiety and disgust
follow. But in other cases, as mentioned, the sudden consuming passion
turns into a warm, life-long love and the people live happily ever
after.

Dr. Nystroem relates the case of a prominent physician of France, of
high social and scientific standing, who beheld a young girl
accidentally in the street. He did not have the slightest idea who she
was. He was irresistibly attracted to her. He followed her, boarded
the same omnibus and went to the house which she entered, rang the
bell, introduced himself, begging pardon for his intrusion, but was
dismissed. He returned and explained to her his ardent passion and
asked permission to visit her parents, well-to-do people in the
country, and the climax was a mutual love and a happy marriage.

Many of us know of similar cases. But as a rule the slow developing
love is more reliable than the suddenly bursting out flame.

* * * * *

Love is the most complex, the most mysterious, the most unanalyzable
of human emotions. It is based upon the difference in sex--upon the
attraction of one sex for another. It is fostered by physical beauty,
by daintiness, by a normal sexuality, by a fine character, by high
aspirations, by culture and education, by common interests, by
kindness and consideration, by pity, by habit and by a thousand other
subtle feelings, qualities and actions, which are difficult of
classification or enumeration.

A great love, greatly reciprocated, is in itself capable of rendering
a human being supremely happy. _Nothing else is._ Other things, such
as wealth, power, fame, success, great discoveries, may give supreme
satisfaction, great contentment, but supreme, buoyant happiness is the
gift of a great love only. Such loves are rare, and the mortals that
achieve it are the envy of the gods. But a great love, unreciprocated,
especially when admixed to it is the feeling of jealousy, is the most
frightful of tortures