SOCIAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1898, 19 June 1890, Page 39

SOCIAL TOPICS.

By Oigabettb.

PLATONIC AFFECTION.

" What is it ? " asks someone. " Oh, something they have in America," answers a young maiden still in her " teens." However, this lucid explanation does not satisfy the inquirer, so he turns to the dictionary, which delightful book with its usual aggravating tautology leaves him no wiser than before, the only definition it gives being " an affection advocated by Plato." Not to be discouraged, he asks someone else, who declares there is "no such thing," and adds with a Botto vooe growl, •' Platonic humbug I " Evidently it.is a sore subject with the individual in question. The anxious inquirer beats a hasty ret* eat, preferring ignorance to further research. . Let us try and enlighten him.

In the first place, then, what is Platonic affection 1 It is a pure spiritual affection existing between the Bexes the mind only, and utterly free from passion. Many people will say that such a thing is simply impossible, but surely the wisdom of Plato, the " Divine Philosopher,'" is greater than theirs, and human nature was the same then as it is now. Men and women were made of flesh and blood, not marble, and we have no reason to, suppose that they were any better before Christianity was in vogue than after. If we say there can be no such thing as Platonic affection^ we simply admit that in these days human nature is so degraded that a pure intellectual affection between a man and a woman is a moral impossibility. Bather let as take a higher stand. What does the Bible say 1 " Unto the pure all things are pure." Why, then should, not an affection between man and woman be pure and practicable 1 The majority will shake their headß and say "It is dangerous." Very well, if they find it so, let them abstain from it. The real danger is not in Platonic affection, but in the mischief - making suspicions of unbelievers, who will not countenance in othersj what they do not approve of themselves.

Plato and Mrs Grundy were presumably not contemporaries. Perhaps if Plato had known the difficulties his latter-day disciples would have to contend with in conciliating her, while following out his philosophy, he would not have been so warm an advocate of this purely spiritual love ! Let us ignore Mrs Grundy for the present, and take for granted that Platonic affection can exist. The next question that will be asked is, " What good can it do 7 " A great deal. Like mercy, "It blesses him that gives and him "that takes," or to quote Longfellow :—: —

Talk not of wasted affection — Affection never was wasted ; If it enrich not the heart of another, It* waters returning Back to their springs like the rain, Shall fill them full of refreshment : That which the fountain sends forth

Returns again to the fountain. Then |there is the good that results from interchange of ideas, the benefit of sympathy in trouble, and the happiness of knowing there is a soul in harmony with your own. It may be said that all this can be found in connubial love ; and so it can, but why limit it to that? If a thing is good let us have as much of it as we can. Besides, it often happens that in marriage The pleasure of potßeasing Is joy beyond expressing ; But proves too short a blessing', And love too long a pain. Whereas in Platonic affection everything is spontaneous. This is the beauty and the poetry of it, to say nothing of the ennobling effect of an intellectual love, entirely free from obligations of any kind; and as for the element of danger, we will not allow it, and in support of our views quote Tupper, who says —

Better is the mass of men, Suspicion, than thy fears ; Kinder than thy thoughts, O chilling heart of Prudence : Purer than the judgements, Aicetic tongue of Censure — In all things worthier to lovP f If not also wiser to eßteem,

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