way.




The Philosophy of Love

[Illustration]




The Philosophy of Love


[Sidenote: The Prevailing Theme]

A modern novelist has greatly lamented because the prevailing theme of
fiction is love. Every story is a love story, every romance finds its
inspiration in the heart, and even the musty tomes of history are beset
by the little blind god.

One or two men have dared to write books from which women have been
excluded as rigorously as from the Chinese stage, but the world of
readers has not loudly clamoured for more of the same sort. A story of
adventure loses none of its interest if there is some fair damsel to be
rescued from various thrilling situations.

The realists contend that a single isolated fact should not be dwelt
upon to the exclusion of all other interests, that love plays but a