of love in very much the
same way that it was considered before Christianity. But when I speak of
Christianity I am only referring to an historical date. Before
Christianity the Northern races also thought about love very much in the
same way that their best poets do at this day. The ancient Scandinavian
literature would show this. The Viking, the old sea-pirate, felt very much
as Tennyson or as Meredith would feel upon this subject; he thought of
only one kind of love as real--that which ends in marriage, the affection
between husband and wife. Anything else was to him mere folly and
weakness. Christianity did not change his sentiment on this subject. The
modern Englishman, Swede, Dane, Norwegian, or German regards love in
exactly that deep, serious, noble way that his pagan ancestors did. I
think we can say that different races have differences of feeling on
sexual relations, which differences are very much older than any written
history. They are in the blood and soul of a people, and neither religion
nor civilization can utterly change them.

So far I have been speaking particularly about the differences in English
and French novels; and a novel is especially a reflection of national
life, a kind of dramatic narration of truth, in the form of a story. But
in poetry, which is the highest form of literature, the difference is much
more observable. We find the Latin poets of to-day writing just as freely
on the subject of love as the old Latin poets of the age of Augustus,
while Northern poets observe with few exceptions great restraint when
treating of this theme. Now where is the line to be drawn? Are the Latins
right? Are the English right? How are we to make a sharp distinction
between what is moral and good and what is immoral and bad in treating
love-subjects?

Some definition must be attempted.

What is meant by love? As used by Latin writers the word has a range of
meanings, from that of the sexual relation between insects or animals up
to the highest form of religious emotion, called "The love of God." I need
scarcely say that this definition is too loose for our use. The English
word, by general consent, means both sexual passion and deep friendship.
This again is a meaning too wide for our purpose. By putting the adjective
"true" before love, some definition is attempted in ordinary conversation.
When an Englishman speaks of "true love," he usually means something that
has no passion at all; he means a pe