According to the view which the positivists have adopted, so little counting the cost of it, a pure human affection is a union of two things.

It is not a possession only, but a promise; not a sentiment only, but a _pre_-sentiment; not a taste only, but a foretaste; and the chief sweetness said to be found in the former, is dependent altogether upon the latter.

'_Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God_,' is the belief which, whether true or false as a fact, is implied in the whole modern cultus of love, and the religious reverence with which it has come to be regarded.

In no other way can we explain either its eclecticism or its supreme importance.

Nor is the belief in question a thing that is implied only.