THE EVOLUTION OF LOVE

CONTENTS


PAGE

PREFACE 5

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION 9

FIRST STAGE: THE SEXUAL INSTINCT 21

SECOND STAGE: LOVE

CHAPTER

I. THE BIRTH OF EUROPE 39

II. THE DEIFICATION OF WOMAN (FIRST FORM OF
METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM):--(_a_) The Love of the Troubadours;
(_b_) The Queen of Heaven; (_c_) Dante and Goethe;
(_d_) Michel Angelo 115

III. PERVERSIONS OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM:--
(_a_) The Brides of Christ; (_b_) Sexual Mystics 217

THIRD STAGE: THE BLENDING OF SEXUALITY AND LOVE

I. THE LONGING FOR THE SYNTHESIS 231

II. THE LOVE-DEATH (SECOND FORM OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM) 251

III. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN SEXUALITY AND LOVE.--THE SEEKER
OF LOVE AND THE SLAVE OF LOVE 266

IV. THE REVENGE OF SEXUALITY.--THE DEMONIACAL AND THE OBSCENE 275

CONCLUSION: THE PSYCHOGENETIC LAW.--THE INDIVIDUAL AS AN
EPITOME OF THE HUMAN RACE 284




TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION


Since the triumphant days of the Mechanists some twenty-five years ago,
the wedge of Pragmatism--a useful tool to be used and discarded--has
been driven between materialism and idealism, and it appears that the
whole tendency of philosophy is now in the latter direction. Even in
England the influence of Bergson has led modern thought away from the
pure materialism of the monists, and it seems probable that Benedetto
Croce's _Philosophy of the Spirit_ will carry the movement a step nearer
towards the idealistic concept of reality. And among the latest signs of
the new tendency must be counted the brilliant work of Emil Lucka, the
young Austrian "poet-philosopher," whose conception of the development
of love must rank with the most daring speculations in recent
psychology.

In the great reaction of the last century, love, that most cogent motive
of human thought and action, fell from its high estate and came to be
regarded as an instinct not differing in any essential from hunger and
thirst, and existing, like them, from the beginning, eternal and
immutable, manifesting itself with equal force in the heart of man and
woman, and impelling them towards each other. But Emil Lucka, in his
remarkable new book, _The Three Stages of Love_ (which was recently
published in Berlin, and has already created a sensation in literary
circles abroad), leads us on to speculative heights from which we may
look back upon the whole theory of evolution not as a bar but as a
bridge. "My book is intended as a monograph of the emotional life of the
human race," he says in the preface, and "I am prepared to meet with
rejection rather than with approval." There has been abundance of
criticism and controversy, but Lucka has stated his case and drawn his
conclusions with such admirable precision and logic, that his work has
aroused admiration and appreciation even in the ranks of his opponents.

Love is a theme which at all times and in all countries has been of
primary interest to men and women, and therefore this book, which throws
an illuminating ray of light in many a dark place still wrapped in
mystery and silence, not only impresses the psychologist, but also
fascinates the general reader with its wealth of interesting detail and
charm of expression.

The three vitally important points which the author develops are as
follows:--

Love is not a primary instinct, but has been gradually evolved in
historical time.

Ernst Haeckel's biogenetic law is expanded in a psychogenetic law.

Only man's emotions have undergone evolution, and therefore have a
history, while those of woman have experienced no change.

Lucka's book will probably not please the advanced feminists, but the
delicate, although perhaps involuntary homage to her sex which is
implied in his theories ought to rouse a feeling of gratification in the
heart of every right-feeling woman. The very limitations and
restrictions which he lays upon her raise and glorify her. For while man
has been the "Odysseus wandering through heaven and hell, passing from
the bestial to the divine to return again and become human, woman has
always been the same, unchangeable and without problems.