There are many sides to love--admiration, reverence,
gratitude, pity, affection--they are all different shapes of that one
great spirit of love. Surely all of you have felt its power more or
less; how wonderfully it can conquer a man's whole heart, change his
whole conduct. For love of a woman; for pity to those in distress;
for admiration for anyone who is nobler and wiser than himself; for
gratitude to one who has done him kindness; for loyalty to one to
whom he feels he owes a service--a man will dare to do things, and
suffer things, which no self-interest or fear in the world could have
brought him to. Do you not know it yourselves? Is it not fondness
for your wives and children, that will make you slave and stint
yourselves of pleasure more than any hope of gain could ever do? But
there is no one human being, my friends, whom we can meet among us
now, for whom we can feel all these different sorts of love? Surely
not: and yet there must be One Person somewhere for whom God intends
us to feel them all at once; or else He would not have given all
these powers to us, and made them all different branches of one great
root of love. There must be One Person somewhere, who can call out
the whole love in us--all our gratitude; all our pity; all our
admiration; all our loyalty; all our brotherly affection.
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