Chapter 5

LOVE AS A TEST OF GOODNESS.

The positivists represent love as a thing whose value is self-dependent 101

And which gives to life a positive and incalculable worth 103

But this is supposed to be true of one form of love only 104

And the very opposite is supposed to hold good of all other forms 105

The right form depends on the conformity of each of the lovers to a certain inward standard 105

As we can see exemplified in the case of Othello and Desdemona, etc. 107

The kind and not the degree of the love is what gives love its special value 108

And the selection of this kind can be neither made nor justified on positive principles 109

As the following quotations from Théophile Gautier will show us 110

Which are supposed by many to embody the true view of love 110

According to this view, purity is simply a disease both in man and woman, or at any rate no merit 116

If love is to be a moral end, this view must be absolutely condemned 117

But positivism cannot condemn it, or support the opposite view 117

As we shall see by recurring to Professor Huxley's argument 118

Which will show us that all moral language as applied to love is either distinctly religious or else altogether ludicrous 122

For it is clearly only on moral grounds that we can give that blame to vice, which is the measure of the praise we give to virtue 123

The misery of the former depends on religious anticipations 124

And so does also the blessedness of the latter 125

As we can see in numerous literary expressions of it 126

Positivism, by destroying these anticipations, changes the whole character of the love in question 128

And prevents love from supplying us with any moral standard 131

The loss sustained by love will indicate the general loss sustained by life 131