Whatever guides us to this treasure we shall know is moral; whatever tends to withdraw us from it we shall know is immoral.
Such is the positivist theory as to all the higher pleasures of life, of which affection confessedly is one of the chief, and also the most obviously human.

Let us proceed now from generalities to special concrete facts, and see how far this theory is borne out by them.

And we can find none better than those which are now before us--the special concrete facts of affection, and of sexual affection in particular.
The affection of man for woman--or, as it will be best to call it, love--has been ever since time was, one of the chief elements in the life of man.

But it was not till Christianity had very fully developed itself that it assumed the peculiar importance that is now claimed for it.

For the ancient world it was a passion sure to come to most men, and that would bring joy or sorrow to them as the case might be.