Primitive Love and Love-Stories

Henry Theophilus Finck

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• Publié par: apryo
• Publié le: 01 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Primitive Love
and Love-Stories by Henry Theophilus Finck
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Title: Primitive Love and Love-Stories
Author: Henry Theophilus Finck
Release Date: April 7, 2004 [EBook #11934]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK PRIMITIVE LOVE AND LOVE-STORIES
***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Project Manager;
Keith M. Eckrich, Post-Proofer; Online Distributed
Proofreaders TeamPRIMITIVE LOVE AND LOVE-
STORIES
BY HENRY T. FINCK
1899
DEDICATED TO ONE WHO TAUGHT THE
AUTHOR THAT CONJUGAL AFFECTION IS NOT
INFERIOR TO ROMANTIC LOVE
PREFACE
On page 654 of the present volume reference is
made to a custom prevalent in northern India of
employing the family barber to select the boys and
girls to be married, it being considered too trivial
and humiliating an act for the parents to attend to.
In pronouncing such a custom ludicrous and
outrageous we must not forget that not much more
than a century ago an English thinker, Samuel
Johnson, expressed the opinion that marriages
might as well be arranged by the Lord Chancellor
without consulting the parties concerned.
Schopenhauer had, indeed, reason to claim that it
had remained for him to discover the significance
and importance of love. His ideas on the relationsbetween love, youth, health, and beauty opened up
a new vista of thought; yet it was limited, because
the question of heredity was only just beginning to
be understood, and the theory of evolution, which
has revolutionized all science, had not yet
appeared on the horizon.
The new science of anthropology, with its various
branches, including sociology, ethnology, and
comparative psychology, has within the last two or
three decades brought together and discussed an
immense number of facts relating to man in his
various stages of development—savagery,
barbarism, semi-civilization, and civilization.
Monographs have appeared in great numbers on
various customs and institutions, including
marriage, which has been discussed in several
exhaustive volumes. Love alone has remained to
be specially considered from an evolutionary point
of view. My own book, Romantic Love and
Personal Beauty, which appeared in 1887, did
indeed touch upon this question, but very briefly,
inasmuch as its subject, as the title indicates, was
modern romantic love. A book on such a subject
was naturally and easily written virginibus
puerisque; whereas the present volume, being
concerned chiefly with the love-affairs of savages
and barbarians, could not possibly have been
subjected to the same restrictions. Care has been
taken, however, to exclude anything that might
offend a healthy taste.
If it has been necessary in some chapters to
multiply unpleasant facts, the reader must blamethe sentimentalists who have so persistently
whitewashed the savages that it has become
necessary, in the interest of truth, to show them in
their real colors. I have indeed been tempted to
give my book the sub-title "A Vindication of
Civilization" against the misrepresentations of
these sentimentalists who try to create the
impression that savages owe all their depravity to
contact with whites, having been originally spotless
angels. If my pictures of the unadulterated savage
may in some cases produce the same painful
impression as the sights in a museum's "chamber
of horrors," they serve, on the other hand, to show
us that, bad as we may be, collectively, we are
infinitely superior in love-affairs, as in everything
else, to those primitive peoples; and thus we are
encouraged to hope for further progress in the
future in the direction of purity and altruism.
Although I have been obliged under the
circumstances to indulge in a considerable amount
of controversy, I have taken great pains to state
the views of my opponents fairly, and to be strictly
impartial in presenting facts with accuracy. Nothing
could be more foolish than the ostrich policy, so
often indulged in, of hiding facts in the hope that
opponents will not see them. Had I found any data
inconsistent with my theory I should have modified
it in accordance with them. I have also been very
careful in regard to my authorities. The chief cause
of the great confusion reigning in anthropological
literature is that, as a rule, evidence is piled up with
a pitchfork. Anyone who has been anywhere and
expressed a globe-trotter's opinion is cited as awitness, with deplorable results. I have not only
taken most of my multitudinous facts from the
original sources, but I have critically examined the
witnesses to see what right they have to parade as
experts; as in the cases, for instance, of Catlin,
Schoolcraft, Chapman, and Stephens, who are
responsible for many "false facts" that have misled
philosophers.
In writing a book like this the author's function is
comparable to that of an architect who gets his
materials from various parts of the world and
fashions them into a building of more or less
artistic merit. The anthropologist has to gather his
facts from a greater variety of sources than any
other writer, and from the very nature of his
subject he is obliged to quote incessantly. The
following pages embody the results of more than
twelve years' research in the libraries of America
and Europe. In weaving my quotations into a
continuous fabric I have adopted a plan which I
believe to be ingenious, and which certainly saves
space and annoyance. Instead of citing the full
titles of books every time they are referred to
either in the text or in footnotes, I merely give the
author's name and the page number, if only one of
his books is referred to; and if there are several
books, I give the initials—say Brinton, M.N.W.,
130; which means Brinton's Myths of the New
World, page 130. The key to the abbreviations will
be found at the end of the volume in the
bibliography, which also includes an author's index,
separate from the index of subjects. This avoids
the repetition of titles or of the customary useless"loc. cit.," and spares the reader the annoyance of
constant interruption of his reading to glance at the
bottom of the page.
Not a few of the critics of my first book, ignoring
the difference between a romantic love-story and a
story of romantic love, fancied they could refute
me by simply referring to some ancient romantic
story. To prevent a repetition of that procedure I
have adorned these pages with a number of love-
stories, adding critical comments wherever called
for. These stories, I believe, augment, not only the
interest but the scientific value of the monograph.
In gathering them I have often wondered why no
one anticipated me, though, to be sure, it was not
an easy task, as they are scattered in hundreds of
books, and in scientific periodicals where few would
look for them. At the same time I confess that to
me the tracing of the plot of the evolution of love,
with its diverse obstacles, is more fascinating than
the plot of an individual love-story. At any rate,
since we have thousands of such love-stories, I am
perhaps not mistaken in assuming that the story of
love itself will be welcomed as a pleasant change.
H.T.F.
NEW YORK, October 27, 1899.CONTENTS
HISTORY OF AN IDEA
Origin of a Book
Skeptical Critics
Robert Burton
Hegel on Greek Love
Shelley on Greek Love
Macaulay, Bulwer-Lytton, Gautier
Goldsmith and Rousseau
Love a Compound Feeling
Herbert Spencer's Analysis
Active Impulses Must be Added
Sensuality the Antipode of Love
The Word Romantic
Animals Higher than Savages
Love the Last, Not the First, Product of
Civilization
Plan of this Volume
Greek Sentimentality
Importance of Love
HOW SENTIMENTS CHANGE AND GROW
No Love of Romantic Scenery
No Love in Early Religion
Murder as a Virtue
Slaughter of the Innocents
Honorable Polygamy Curiosities of Modesty
Indifference to Chastity
Horror of Incest
WHAT IS ROMANTIC LOVE?
Ingredients of Love.
I. INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCE
All Girls Equally Attractive
Shallow Predilection
Repression of Preference
Utility versus Sentiment
A Story of African Love
Similarity of Individuals and Sexes
Primary and Secondary Sexual Characters
Fastidious Sensuality is not Love
Two Stories of Indian Love
Feminine Ideals Superior to Masculine
Sex in Body and Mind
True Femininity and its Female Enemies
Mysteries of Love,—An Oriental Love-Story
II. MONOPOLISM
Juliet and Nothing but Juliet
Butterfly Love
Romantic Stories of Non-Romantic Love
Obstacles to Monopolism
W