...Suddenly all the stimuli unite, all the conditions appear together; the needs of the race speak through the hunger of body and soul; and love is born, love mounts in the heart like light on the morning sky, and fills all with its warmth and radiance. And great Lucretius sings :
"Thou, O Venus, art sole mistress of the nature of things, and without thee nothing rises up into the divine realms of life, nothing grows to be lovely or glad. Through all the mountains and the seas, and the rushing rivers, and the leafy nests of the birds, and the plains of bending grass, thou strikest all breasts with fond affection, and drivest each after its kind to continue its race with hot desire. For so soon as the spring shines upon the day, the wild herd bound over the happy pastures, and swim the rapid streams, each imprisoned by thy charms, and following thee with love."
From this sound and natural basis rises the love that is spirit and poetry. From this passion of life for perpetuation comes the loyalty of mate to mate; from this hunger of the flesh comes the fairest devotion of soul to soul from the lust of the savage in the cave comes at last the poet's adoration....
~
{Will Durant ~ The Mansions Of Philosophy, Love, pp. 163-164}
{Programming by DPC}
