as she was, that thought was
woven into her very life. It is pitiable to see how early the mind of
the child is tainted by sentimentality, by the unwise suggestions of
older friends. I remember hearing of a child of six who was talking of
getting married. Some one said, "You are too little to think of
getting married," and the child replied, "Why, I have thought of it
since I was two years old." And doubtless she had, because it had been
continually impressed on her mind by the conversation of parents and
friends, and the direction they had given her thought in regard to her
relation to everything masculine.

Parents are often very unwilling to teach their daughters the facts of
sex, and yet quite willing to emphasize the consciousness of sex by
intimating the possibility of flirtations, love affairs, etc. And this
false, pernicious idea of the relation of men and women is too often
called love. The central idea of romances is this passionate
attraction of the sexes. The plot gathers in intensity around the
lovers, and culminates in their marriage, after which life is presumed
to move on without a jar, and silly girls and impulsive boys imagine
that the sweet pain that accompanies the touch of hands or the glance
of the eyes is love, and is a sufficient guarantee for the forming of
a life partnership.

Let us face this question fairly. What is love? Of what is it made?
Can you judge with any certainty of its lasting qualities? How can you
know the true from the false?

Unfortunately we have but the one word, "love," to designate many
phases of kindly regard. The mother loves her child, the child loves
the mother, yet love differs much in these two instances. The one is
protecting, anxious, self-sacrificing, unstinted care, unqualified
devotion; the other is sweet dependence, unquestioning acceptance,
asking all and giving little. The love of brother and sister differs
from that of brother for brother, or sister for sister. The love of
man for woman differs from all other emotions of love. It contains
elements not found in other forms. It may have the same quality of
giving or accepting, of protecting or yielding, but with all this
there is an added quality that is not found in any other relation of
life, a quality that rises to the intensity of a passion, and which,
if thwarted or distorted, may become murderous or lead to insanity.

This overwhelming, domineering sway of feeling inheres in the fact of
sex. It is t