Autumn Love

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 11, 24 December 1925, Page 15

Autumn Love

WHY IT LASTS. (By Joan Herbert.) A philosopher has said there is no illusion like the last illusion of the disillusioned. That is presumably the secret of the happy autumnal marriage. Fot that the average iniddle-agcd union is happy is beyond dispute, if one may judge from numerous examples within one’s own ken. The tact that these mature lovers start off their comradeship unburdened by a mass oi inferior illusions is a primary guarantee ol success. For there are illusions and illusions; and those inspired merely by self-love and a refusal to see hie as it is. belong to the inferior category. The superior, or if you will, lhe “last illusion of the disillusioned,” is that which is acutely aware of all file s commonplaces, but has learned to li<i them to“ glory. Lt does not look lor glory trailing from the clouds; it illumines it with its own hand and Ijpart op solid earth. THE LESSON OF THE YEARS. Autumn lovers, cither from actual experience or long observation, have passed the feverish stage of Love’s Young Dream and won through to a middle-aged awakening. In the process they have learned many things. They have learned -that what appeals at twenty can be anathema at forty, as the, divorce courts bear only too tragic witness. 1 hey have learned thai it does not suffice for two young people to live together in the bonds of holy matrimony over a long period of years to ensure inevitably their developing along identical lines, or borrowing enough of each other’s main charaetcrisFics to make life, long propinquity nearable; or achieving that harmonious mating of utterly contrasting temperameiits seldom met. with outside the pages of optimistic fiction. They have learned that personalities have a way of developing individually- olten intensely so—despite, enforced mental contacts that widen rather than narrow tlie breach between alien minds and natures. And having learned too much, the autumn lovers who know that in the divinest sense like drifts to like, who are attracted to each other on a plane of comradely understanding. .stand a better chance of intimate lifelong friendship than two pitiiul young' things hurled together by Nature for the fulfilment of her relentless purpose. ! A SECOND FLOWERING. If the union be one ol early autumn, and consecrates Love's second Hovering, a middle-aged marriage can 1 e the most beautiful of all human experiences. Middle-aged love ls gloriously sure of itself when il i- tho ical thing, li i- a flower that blossoms in a earefullv sheltered garden 10 an enduring beauty, neither wiltnm' W th' 1 scorching sun of an unn *Ol 1 jealousy nor bowing its head beiorc the bleakness of the heart-loneline>> that can assail ill-mated youth Autumnal lovers have lived lonc enough to know that seme heartloneliness must be our portion m t>: happiest irelat ionship; but that -m l isolated moments are the mere.-: dnq ig the sea on which they gal.ant!.' embark. There are tho.-c v.ho make mock <>' autumn lovers facing life hand in hand as obviously remote from the worldj ■’•ets and jars as the youngest swan gpd his sweetheart in tbo i:'-' this!: o girly passion. But such dl-nature< and often envious gibe> leave the her< and the heroine of the middle-age' romance untouched. Ilie.v may bi victims of the “la-i illusion ci t.u di-illusioned” ; but ii i- a noble illumi >• Quit ma,v attain the >ublime. Tor n is real enough to accent life •' ■ ? is ■'n c | to make u -crone parmli-i- in ■ 1