The Law is for All

Chapter III <#• Verses 55—56 179 If we are to have Beauty and Love, whether in begetting children or works of art, or what not, we must have perfect free­ dom to act, without fear or shame or any falsity. Spontaneity, the most important factor in creation, because it is evidence of the magnetic intensity and propriety of the will to create, depends almost wholly on the absolute freedom of the agent. Gulliver must have no bonds of packthread. These conditions have been so rare in the past, especially with regard to love, that their occur­ rence has usually marked something like an epoch. Practically all men work with fear of result or lust of result, and the “child” is a dwarf or still-born. It is within the experience of most people that pleasure-parties and the like, if organized on the spur of the moment, are always a success, while the most elaborate entertainments, prepared with all possible care, often fall flat. Now one cannot exactly give rules for producing a “genius” to order, a genius in this sense being one who has the Idea, and is fortified with power to enflame the enthusiasm of the crowd, with wit to know, and initiative to seize, the psychological moment. But one can specify certain conditions incompatible with the manifestation of this spontaneity; and the first of these is evi­ dently absolute freedom from obstacles, internal or external, to the idea of the “genius.” It is clear that a woman cannot love naturally, freely, whole­ somely, if she is bound to contaminate the purity of her impulse with thoughts of her social, economical, and spiritual status. When such things restrain her, Love may conquer, as often enough it does; but the Beauty engendered is usually stunted or wried, assuming a tragic or cynic mask. The history of the world is full of such stories; it is, one may almost say, the chief motive of Romance. Men and women have to face actual ruin, as well as the prob­ ability of scandal and disgust, or consent to love within limits which concern not love in the least. The chance of spontaneity is therefore a small one; and, should it occur and be seized, the law­ yers hasten to hide under the bridal bed, while the Families, gluing eye to chink and keyhole, intrude their discordant yowls on the Duet.