LOVE AND—A LIBEL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1651, 21 October 1903, Page 26

LOVE AND—A LIBEL

When Avomen open their hearts and give us their confidences they are always sure of an attentive audience; so Mrs Neisli. who in the “Pall Mall Magazine” offers to analyse for us the heart of her oxvn sex. xvhich will no doubt be read with admiring curiosity. Mrs Neisli premises that with man love is evanescent, whereas- it is a woman’s life, and that it is impossible to say when she ceases to love. This is, if we’remember aright, the adaptation of a venerable saying, in xvhich. one is called on to consider hoxr deep an emotion 'ove is with women. But xvlien touched on by tills lofty claim one is disposed to grant it -submissively; Mrs Neisli. brings us up with a start; for. xve read that “women had endless’ ways of loving,” which in her hardihood she proceeds to analyse. No mere man dare venture on such an audacious task. To begin then, there is the “unreal lox r e” of tho young girl xvho fancies herself in that pleasant condition because she has attracted some man. This man offers marriage, and we are to suppose that, deluded hv her false feelings, the girl accepts him, and both to face the consequences. This, though Mrs Neish does not say so; is somewhat hard on the man. Then there is “the humble, doglike fidelity that some xvomen feel.” That is undoubtedly a craven sort of love, that “survives ex r ery form of neglect and illtreatment.” Man is not likely to reciprocate that kind of love, says Mrs Neish, scornfully, for it is not his nature “to care for xvhat is, openly thrust upon him.” Ala®, did! not Ovid make that plain so many centuries ago? We regret to learn that it is by these Aveak creatures who shed tears instead of curses that

"men have been goaded into committing brutalities and even murder.” But there in another sort of lave called “iniaginary love," which centres itself foolishly on a false ideal. “A. young girl often imagines hevself madly in love with a man who cares nothing for her, and wlxo perhaps lias never even so much as given her a thought. This, again, is'trying'for the man, and we pricier stand, that our fashionable actors will corroborate Mrs Neish., who, while pitying the victim of this illusion, is unable to "avoid a slight contempt of court." If womaiv she declares, would only exercise in affairs of the heart comimonsanse the world would! move much more satisfactorily. Bxxt this seems aspiring after the moon in the glamour of wliich loe-lorn lovers walk, aud do such talking as is consistent, with their condition and the necessary limitations of their enunciation. A coarse word, howevei', wei learn, will kill this kind of affection at once, so that those men who suffer from it will know precisely what to do. Mrs Neish herself confesses this time that it is hard on man to be regarded as a plaster saint. It would,, indeed, seem as if most of these kind of woman’s love were trying to the other sex Oxx the whole, the peiuxsal of this ingenious article is not altogether reassuring to an eligible baCiheloix How can he be certain which of the various loves analsed* by Mrs Neish is actuating the heart of any young lady? So far a® appears there is only one kind of love known to men, whereas the girl has her choice of several. Sir Thomas More’® fatliei*. who had lixado sevex’al max*rurges, declared that marriage is like dipping a hand into a hag in which, are ninety-nine snakes and one eel—the chances being ninety-nine to one that you do not. get the eel. That, of course, is a libel but it doers seem as if the odds were against getting the right kind of affection.