LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 25, 24 October 1907, Page 3

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

A.WELLINGTONIAN'S OPINION. Dear Sir, —Tub -Dominion deserves tho thanks of every' right-minded man and woman in Wellington for publishing those interesting and instructive confessions as to "love at first sight." As tho well-being of tho race'depends on happy and riages, the subject is well worthy of discussion. Now, 1 nrmly believe in love at first sight. Love is of heart, and not of the head, and one of the main causes of the growth of divorce' at , the present time is tho tendency to let reason take the place of instinct in choosing life partners. Reason : at ! its',bcst is a poor, weak, and unreliable thing compared with intuition. The.great thinners of tho day candidly recognise this, and reason is having a bad time just nowamong.thc philosophers, in the street still pins. his faith to it, because lie does not know its shortcomings.' Nature' knows bettor than the man in tho street,..and Nature almost in'-; variably places intuition or instinct above reason; and nowhere does reason show its feebleness more plainly than when' it tries to. wrestle with trie affairs of the heart. If people would only give their hearts free play in love matters wo'would'hear.far less ot unhappy marriages caused by incompatibility of 'temper. Two hearts that beat' as one 'arp drawn instinctively' , together, and so wo. get love at first sight. iam surprised that a man like tho liov. T. H. Sprptt, who generally takes a broad and sane view of things, and who knows as much as;any man in ■Wellington about modern philosophy, should suggest (as; he did at a-meeting the other day) that by. ; tho introduction into our love affairs' of ; the - ; cokl calculations of reason, and •the/ pitiful : safeguards ■ i of ' common-; sense ; (which is generally ■ common nonsense), there would be ah increase in domestic felicity. I am sure when ho thinks it over he will recognise, that he is on the 'wrong track! The one'.thing needful'for. a' liappy marriage is the union of hearts, and this is not to bo secured by tho reasoning faculties. If a man cannot add a.cu'bit to hie stature by taking thought, much less can ho guarantee a happy marriage by such means: One writer quoted! in The Dominion suggests that no one should marry, until after an engagement, of two years. .'; Is . not this the veriest " tnmmy-rot?" ; Could anyone, po's-' sibly live happily, with a man who, on seeing ,a' girl 'who took his fancy, would sit down in cold blood and say to' himself:" I will enter upon a two years'engagement with that' girl, , and if 'she doesn't suit' I will try someone else.' I will not let myself really fall in love until sho has stood the test for tho two years." The man who falls in'love'doesn't' calculate, and the man who calculates doesn't fall in love—lain, , etc., V' : ,' .' : ONE WHO KNOWS. • . Wellington, October 23. . ..; ' . .'. ' ',', ' :