THE LOVER'S LEXICON.* THOSE who have read in the Pall
Mail Gazette some of the little articles here collected, will be glad to welcome them in their new and more attractive setting. Some writing is more impressive if read in a daily journal, but it must be of the aggressive order of things. Newspapers are read, as it were, on the wing, in the train, or at the club, and the impression produced should be sharp and clear, and need not give rise to much thought. Possibly, modern political writing, with its hammerlike repetitions, has somewhat deadened the faculty of discriminating between delicate situations. But The Lover's Lexicon belongs to quite another region of thought. Though in one sense these articles have all the brilliancy belonging to the daily Press; the book is essentially one to be kept by us, dipped into, and pondered over. It should be read in the serene atmosphere of the domestic hearth. Both young and old will find it refreshing reading. It revives the imaginations of youth, while it appeals to the experience of a lifetime. Both on the surface and deeper down the book is full of subtle and wise sympathy, of keen and discriminating criticism, On first consideration we might be surprised that an author so well- known on the battlefield of politics should be equally versed in the subtleties of social metaphysics. Bat those who have studied more closely Mr. Greenwood's political writing will be familiar with that vein of sympathetic insight which softens while it intensifies the sturdy blows he deals to his antagonist. At least, he spares his foes the keener pain of being misunder- stood. But in The Lover's Lexicon there are no foes to de- molish, no battles to win. He speaks to none but friends there, to all, that is to say, who can love, and laugh, and weep, and who therefore can join with him in graceful badinage over the tender mysteries of life.
In conception and plan the book is most original. In some hundred short articles, definitions of various terms and con- ditions of emotion are given ; and while writing chiefly for " the enamoured," less exalted persons, like philosophers and novelists, may read Mr. Greenwood to good purpose. These various terms or conditions are given alphabetically (like a fin de siècle menu-book), so that he who would analyse his
soul must first reduce his emotion to a given point. This in itself will do the lover (or the philosopher) all the good in
the world. It will bring order out of disorder, and bring science to bear upon a most unscientific condition. For instance, the uncontrollable circumstances of life have sepa- rated for a brief period a lover from the beloved one. Let them turn to the table of contents, and they will find, under the head of " Absence," a very consoling treatise on the possible advantages of the state,—if not prolonged indefinitely. Should the lover feel aggrieved by uncertainty, or hesitation on the part of his adored one, he may gain both counsel and comfort from studying " Coyness " or Misunderstandings." Again, if he would look deeper into the mysteries of life, let him read " Marriage," " The Heart," or " Affinity," or a score more of these excellent and wholesome little themes on daily life and feeling. Indeed, one of the greatest charms of the book lies in its wholesome outlook on life. There is a robust refinement about it which is rare indeed in these days. Take " Temptation," for instance :-
" To be tempted is to be drawn away from what is known to be right into what is felt to be wrong ; and thus temptation should be a word of fear. But the tenderness, the self-compassion that has filtered into 'human,' so that it has almost become an expres- sion for weakness sweetly forgivable, has found its way into temptation.' The word has been so abused, that ina'oad of being nothing else than a warning of danger an a call for resistance, it is nearly as much a plea for wrong-doing as an excuse for sur- render."
The old prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," has a new prayer now running upon it, "Lead me into temptation, for then I shall be pitied and excused." What an epitome of much of the spirit and teaching in the modern idea of brotherhood. Weakness made a virtue, while stern, though perhaps unlovely, resistance gains no credit and no sympathy. Take, again, the article headed " Familiarity." Sounder and truer doctrine cannot be preached. It is a word of many meanings, says Mr. Greenwood, a state of extreme danger not always recognised. It might be taken as denoting con, fidential attachment. It really almost always implies au.
* The Lover's Lexicon. By Frederick Greenwood. London: Macmillan and Co. absence of respect, and is apt to fill the soul of the observer with something akin to a shudder. But he is careful to dis- tinguish. He does not mean by the term " Companionship close, intimate, and, above all, exclusive." Neither does he mean by familiarity " familiar knowledge of each other," but what he does mean and condemns most emphatically is "familiarity in personal intercourse."
"No good-natured couple about to marry," says Mr. Green- wood, "need fear the one, but in pity of themselves they should dread the other, in whatever station of life they may have been born or purpose to wed The refinement that is con- spicuous in polite society, punctually answering to all require- ments, is no warranty against a brutal absence of reserve in dressing-gown and slippers."
The natural savage will assert itself in some natures even after generations of civilisation ; and— "When two such persons are joined in marriage, their freedom of speech and conduct may possibly be conducive to mutual happiness ; but where it is one and one, either wife or husband is doomed to a torment that might be compared with being devoured by worms. Prudery P There is no prudery in the matter. It is all a question of civility, of common courtesies."
Intimacy itself cannot flourish when such familiarity exists. Again, we have the most happy sayings under the head of "Faithfulness ":—" Shall the merchant be praised for being faithful to his gold, or a man to the heart and soul of him P Faithfulness begins where there is misfortune, or disappoint- ment, or temptation, or provocation to doubt."
We have hitherto chosen out some of the more serious articles in the Lexicon. There are others more entirely light in their treatment. " Tendresse," for instance,—an untranslatable word. What is its equivalent in English ? " It is a reproach to the language," says Mr. Green- wood, and " a reflection on the character of the people," that there is no word for a state of mind we are all so sensible of.. It is not exactly "tenderness," and still less is it adequately rendered by " a great regard," which has " neither the delicacy nor the depth of the nameless feeling." (Certainly we should say that when women used the expression it implied that they were rather bored.) "Creeping kindness" is suggested, which, of course, fails con- versationally. "Hankering kindness" is more discriminat- ing; but, after all, none of these terms really express the sentiment. Accepting, therefore, the French word "tendresse," Mr. Greenwood goes on to analyse it. It " should not be confounded with affection,"—a feeling which he truly says is " without emotion entirely." Who could be jealous of "affection"P It has a pussy-cat purr in it which suggests a comfortable contentment to love at a distance. Why, therefore, should it not be added to our epistolary language, which is poor enough, with only its " truly " and "sincerely," to be applied indiscriminatingly to the barest acquaintance or a friend of twenty years' standing P We English are afraid of fine lines of distinction, and so are content with using about half the terms available, Outward expression of friendship bores the average man, and so, in a rough-and-ready way, he talks of his "friends" and means his " acquaintances," and loves them with as little effort, and as little real interest, as he is able. As to " Love-Letters," we wonder if Mr. Greenwood is right in thinking that "the best and truest" letters are those " which are never meant to be sent." We doubt if a woman often puts " the love, the fears, the pride, the pain, the joy that cannot be contained," on to paper, unless for some reason she means them to reach her lover. Men are different. They no doubt some- times break out into poetic effusion ; but have they no eye for a possible future publisher P Are we cynical in thinking that there is more method in his madness than Edwin would admit to himself in even his most candid moments P Women, on the other hand, are oftener actors than poets, and Angelina will more readily pour out her impassioned soul to the winds and waves, or into the ears of a sympathetic friend, than on paper. Endless are the questionings which arise out of this fascinating volume, Each page provides a fresh problem for discussion ; and on some points, we would venture to assert, all sides of the subject have not been duly noted. Take "Constancy," for instance. In that article, we find the highest possible ideal pleaded for with all the fervour of pathos ; but we would humbly suggest that a certain beauty can be attained on a somewhat lower grade, We maintain that there is a kind of constancy which is compatible with what at first sight may appear like inconstancy. It might be described as the inconstancy of the supremely constant man, —take, for instance, a man who has a quiet, unimpassioned, but persistent, attachment to a given object. So long as that object is in the range of the attainable, no second vision crosses his path. In full sunlight neither moon nor stars are visible. Let the sun go down, and, behold, another light is there to guide his steps. A lesser light, perhaps ; anyhow, a different one ; and possibly one which is more suited to him. Death or marriage has made the first object unattainable, and being passionless and simple, the lover without moral injury to himself devotes himself to another object. We say deliberately "being passionless and simple,"—for com- plex passionful natures cannot thus turn without spot or stain. And is there not a sort of constancy in the change of purpose of such a man P He loved with quiet intensity, so long as the object existed to be loved. Having lost it, he loves with the same quiet intensity the object that takes its place. We have seen it, and though it is hardly an interest- ing and certainly not an exciting sentiment, it is a very real and a very true one. It has only one eye, but that is fastened on the sun which lights his heavens. It partakes of the nature of childhood, and, after all, " of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
All young people owe Mr. Greenwood a debt of gratitude. With the Christmas vacation before us, this book should prove a cause of rejoicing for both young and old. Love-making abounds then, the atmosphere is charged with it. Some of the electricity may be let off in ethical discussion on the sub- ject. Men and maidens can question their own hearts, and the hearts of each other, with comparative safety. The wisdom of Mr. Greenwood will check the folly of impulsive and meditative youth. Only let the maiden begin by reading the chapter on " Pity," while the young men are studying that on " Conquest." Both will come better armed for the fray, and, if the present generation has anything of the speculative interest of their fathers and mothers in their young days, The Lover's Lexicon will Supply an inexhaustible fund of material to work upon.
For ourselves, we would only remind Mr. Greenwood that as all the world is not equally in the lover stage, there are endless ethical problems, belonging to a later period, waiting to be solved.
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