"Why not? Doesn't he love her?"

"Yes; but he is afraid to tell her so. They dare not let that sway
them."

"I don't understand. Why not?"

"Because personal love is a limited thing, and comparatively an
ignoble thing."

"I don't see how there can be anything more noble than true love
between a man and a woman," declared Corydon.

"It depends on what you mean by 'true' love," replied Thyrsis. "If
two people love each other for their own sakes, and go together,
they soon come to know each other, and then they are satisfied--and
their growth is at an end. What I conceive is that two people must
lose themselves, and all thought of themselves, in their common love
for something higher--for some great ideal, some purpose, some
vision of perfection. And they seek this together, and they rejoice
in finding it, each for the other; and so they have always progress
and growth--they stand for something new to each other every day of
their lives. To such love there is no end, and no chance of
weariness or satiety."

"I had never thought of it just so," said the girl. "But surely
there must be a personal love in the beginning."

"I don't know," he responded. "I hadn't thought about that. I'm
afraid I'm impersonal by nature."