-ordinary passion and exalted affection. But in
its essence love is always and everywhere the same, a meditation on the
composition of the next generation and the generations that thence
proceed--_Meditatio compositionis generationis futurae e qua iterum pendent
innumerae generationes_.

The character of the meditation, its durability or impermanence, is,
Schopenhauer continued, in direct proportion to the presence of
attributes that attract. These attributes are, primarily, physical.
Attraction is induced by health, by beauty, particularly by youth, in
which health and beauty are usually combined, and that because the Genius
of the Species desires above all else the creation of beings that will
live and who, in living, will conform to an integral type. After the
physical come mental and temperamental attributes, all of which, in
themselves, are insufficient to establish love except on condition of more
or less perfect conformity between the parties. But as two people
absolutely alike do not exist, each one is obliged to seek in another
those qualities which conflict least with his or her own. In the
difficulty of finding them is the rarity of real love. In connection with
which Schopenhauer noted that frequently two people, apparently well
adapted to one another, are, instead of being attracted, repelled, the
reason being that any child they might have would be mentally or
physically defective. The antipathy which they experience is induced by
the Genius of the Species who has in view only the interests of the next
generation.

To conserve these interests, nature, Schopenhauer explained, dupes the
individual with an illusion of free will. In affairs of the heart the
individual believes that he is acting in his own behalf, for his own
personal benefit, whereas he is but acting in accordance with a
predetermined purpose for the accomplishment of which nature has instilled
in him an instinct that moves him to her ends, and so forcibly that rather
than fail he is sometimes compelled to sacrifice what otherwise he would
do his utmost to preserve--honor, health, wealth and reputation. It is
illusion that sets before his eyes the deceiving image of felicity. It is
illusion which convinces him that union with some one person will procure
it. Whatever efforts or sacrifices he may consequently make he will
believe are made to that end only yet he is but laboring for the creation
of a predetermined being who has need of his assi