Falling in Love.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XVIII, 31 October 1903, Page 64

Falling in Love.

FROM CHILDHOOD TO OLD AGE. Scientists will leave nothing alone. Thev have been analysing the sentiment of love, collecting and tabulating statistics. and arriving at hard and fast opinions concerning its beginnings, course and decay, and tin* causes thereof. Most of us know that the tender passion exists in pretty nearly every norma’ bosom after twenty. But how many can guess that the infant who still loves his rattle may not love his little two-year-old sweetheart, too? How many of us know that small boys often dare death ami are sometimes even killed just to prove their prowess to some rosy-cheek-ed maiden whose pigtails still hang down to her waist? But one scientist declares that these are facts. He has been studying the matter for fifteen years, and surely he ought to know something of the matter. This indefatigable hunter after truth began at the cradle of some of his subjects. Others he followed through old age to senility ami even to the grave. Ife got many persons' of many ages to confess their own loves of every age: he sought out subjects in the public schools with which he was connected. He got students to furnish him with their own experiences. During the past fifteen years, he says 1 have observed eight hundred cases. Many more cases were studied from data supplied by persons of their own loves or instances that had come under their notice. Of 360 people who reported data of their own •‘cases’’ or of “cases" of their friends and relatives. 355 actually owned to one or more romances, some beginning after twenty four months of life. Only five of the 360 failed to remember any childish romance. Of 360 persons, 355 had experienced some tender touch of the heart in their early days. The scientist concludes that love begins at two years, and extends through old age—literally from the cradle to the The seven ages of love for man do not run exactly parallel to those of woman. Sometimes she starts in on an age earlier; sometimes she a bit behind. The boy babe begins about thirty months: the girl baby takes notice of things emotional when she is Miss Two Years. It is a budding romance. Babes of both sexes show early fondness for each other. The baby girl of two years would rather play on the lawn with the sturdy boy of thirty months than have dolly and her dishes. The boy shuns his older brother of four to show newly-discovered flowers or a bird’s nest to the intellect of Miss Two Years. It is a budding romance. But when the couple reach the mature age of three — months —then their actions are more capable of reduction to black and white. Here are the signs of love at this age: Caresses, sitting close, mutual confessions, talking about each other when apart, seeking each other to the exclusion of others, grief at separation, exchange of gifts, courtesies not shown to playmates, sacrifice* for each other, extreme jealousy.

This love differs from that of some of the following ages by extreme lack of shyness. The tiny lovers are naively happy and free in their ignorance. Jimmy doesn’t see why he shouldn’t kiss Grace right in front of her father and mother. Now. when these lovesick youngsters pass into the next age they become imbued with the idea of marriage, so the investigator finds. They may be only in the third reader, but Jack looks forward ten years hence when he can marry little Mary, the girl who lives across the street. The girl’s beauty now appeals to the boy. Then comes the serious stages or ages. The boys get tremendously shy. Sometimes the boys express their feelings freely, but investigations prove tl at they are effeminate boys and are shunned or looked down upon by other hoys. Your true boy of twelve who loves a girl doesn’t tell a soul about it. He turns pale if caught alone with her. In fact, his very absence from her in a company shows his devotion. Games show the love emotion too. Of eighty children’s games it was found that thirty of them were kissing games. The scientist cites cases of love sacrifice in this stage, where boys miss a word purposely in a spelling match to ht their little sweethearts win. He says from close scrutiny of his 250 i) cases: ‘Akin to disturbance caused by absence of the lover from school is grief from being separated. Four attempts at suicide are reported, one boy being eight years old. another nine: a girl nine and another eleven. Six cases of m-ivous illness are reported as due either to separation or jilting. Ordinal ily. however, weaning it is an easy matter. " ‘Showing oft’.’ as a method of court ship, is as old as the human race. It constitutes one of the chief numbers in the boy’s repertory of love charms, and is not totally absent from the girl’s. It is a most common sight to see boys tax ing their resources in devising means of exposing their own excellences and often doing the most ridiculous and extravagant things—jumping, dancing, pranc ing. sparring, wrestling, turning handsprings. and somersaults, climbing, singing. whistling, imitating the movements of animals, ‘taking people off.’ courting danger, and affecting courage. ■‘l saw a boy upon one such occasion stand upon the railway track until by the barest margin he escaped death by a passenger engine. One writer gives the account of a boy who thus sat on the end of a cross tie and was killed by a passing train. This ‘showing off’ in the boy lover is the forerunner of the skilful, purposive, and elaborate means of self-exhibition in the adult male, ami the charming coquetry in the adult female. in their love relations. ‘‘Previous to the age of about nine the girl is more aggressive than the boy in love affairs. At this age her modesty, coyness, and native love for being wooed come to the surface, and thereafter characterise her attitude toward the opposite sex.” In discussing the subsequent ages of love, the scientist savs that the age of

sober courtship is from 26 to 50 in men and 22 to 40 in women. This courtship is most public and generally quite short. Happy marriages generally result. From the prime of life to old age there is still love, and particularly for those who have parted long ago and again come into each other’s lives. Courtship is curtailed because there is little left of life now. Then comes the last age of love—old Men and women have many times Wen married when all but themselves of their own families have been laid away to rest. It is the age that seeks companionship. It is the age that harks back to the loves of long ago. Even Cupid’s alchemy cannot paint the roses into the cheek again or put the sunshine in the age-dimmed eyes. But he can control the heart still, and many a man at eighty, ninety, yes. and ever one hundred. has fallen victim to Cupid’s darts, though he knew every day might be his