Love and Lovemaking.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 4310, 15 March 1884, Page 3 (Supplement)

Love and Lovemaking.

Mr Euskin haa been expressing in his Fort, at considerable length and with characteristic plainness of speech, hisviewson girlsand their relations to love and courtship. The subject is one which has commanded the best thought of the best minds in all ages, and when treated by so masterly a writer as Mr Kuskinnaturally attracts wide attention. Whatever interests the girls iuterests everybody else whose heart is what it should be, and there is not a girl in England worthy of her sex who could fail to be profoundly interested in what Mr Kuskin has been saying. He starts with the impregnable general position that there is nothing in this world more beautiful than a girl, and from this passes to gay that no girl is plain who is wellbred,kindormodest; all real deformity means want of manners or of heart, or of .vulgarity of education. "The wickedness of a nation," he says, "may be briefly measured by observing how far it has made its girls miserable," a philosophic observation which is tantamount to an admission that the United States is as free from wickedness as any country on the globe. These general assertions are not the onei which have excited controversy in England. Their truth is admitted on ull hands. It is only when he comes to denning what he calls "ideal lovemaking" that ho calls forth adverse criticism. His theory of that is his old one, that each girl should have live or six suitors all under vow to her at the same time. Thia vow should not be"an oath of allegiance preventing the freedom of further search or choice, but only the promise of the youth that until ho saw one better worth winning, he would faithfully obey his chosen mistress's will in all things, and suffer such a test as she chose to put him to, it being understood that at any time he had the poweras openly to withdraw as hehadopenly accepted the candidature." It is perhaps unnecessary to remark that no girl in all England has objected to this arrangement, but there have been growls of disapproval from the men, who are of much the same composition in England as they are everywhereelee. To the American girl the theory will scarcely have the merit ~f novelty. It has been in practice here more or less for many years, and has worked, in the main, to the great satisfaction of the girls. Yet, even with this broad.and liberal system in force, Mr Ruekin takes a despondent view of lovemaking. He says that real love between young people is an "impossibility and an abßurdity,"and that he is convinced by what has been said about his complex suitor scheme that "very few young people, brought upon modern principles, have ever felt love, or even known what it means, except under the conditions in which it ia also possible to the lower animals." He says he could easily prove this, if the subject were not too painful, by the evidence given him in a single evening, during v hich he "watched the enthusiastic acceptance by an English audience of Salvini's frightful and radically false interpretation of ' Othello.' " We fail to perceive how any girl, especially if she had six pledged suitors, could be expected to exhibit to the casual spectator a capacity for real love while contemplating "Othello's" frightful experiences. The natural effect upon a girl with > only one suitor would be to make her shy of him. The awful possibility of holding " vows " from six possible "Othellos" would inevitably depress the spirits of any truly affectionate girl. Mr Raskin doe* his own theory injustice to condemn it after such an unfair experiment.

But he seems to have found ather obstacles equally fatal, for ho adds that if he were so disposed he could show that " true love is inconsistent with railways, with jointstock banks, with landed interest, witli parliamentary interest, shooting, with lawn tennis, with monthly magazines, spring fashions and Christmas cards." This makes the mattermuchmore serious, and implies thatthere is something peculiaraboutthecourseof true love in England. In thiscountry lawn tennis has frequently been found to be a direct incentive to love-making, and as for spring fashions, instead of being an obstacle, webolieve ittobea well-established fact that their presence is often an iib-jolute necessity both for the inception and perpetuation of the tender passion. Perhaps Mr Ruskin doee not state the case 'jorrectly about the English girls—and perhaps after all his contemplation he does not understand girls any better thaa pother mon do.—"New York Evening Post."