If it ever is, we would have here a germ of amorous pride.  Others may be found in Hindoo literature, as in Malati and Madhava, where the intermediary speaks of having dwelt on the lover’s merits and rank in the presence of the heroine, in the hope of influencing her.  “Extolling the lover’s merits” is mentioned as one of the ten stages of love in the Hindoo ars amandi.

In Oriental countries in general, where it is difficult or impossible for young men and women to see one another before the wedding-day, the praising of candidates by and to intermediaries has been a general custom.  Dr. T. Loebel (9-14) relates that before a Turk reaches the age of twenty-two his parents look about for a bride for him.  They send out female friends and intermediaries who “praise and exaggerate the accomplishments of the young man” in houses where they suspect the presence of eligible girls.  These female intermediaries are called kyz-goeruedschue or “girl-seers.”  Having found a maiden that appears suitable, they exclaim, “What a lovely girl!  She resembles an angel!  What beautiful eyes!  True gazelle-eyes!  And her hair!  Her teeth are like pearls.”  When the young man hears the reports of this beauty, he forthwith falls in love with her, and, although he has never seen her, declares he “will marry her and no other.”  A sense of humor is not given to every man:  Dr. Loebel remarks seriously that this disproves the slanderous assertion so often made that the Turks are incapable of true love!

In their treatment and estimate of women the ancient Greeks resembled the modern Turks.  The poets joined the philosophers in declaring that “nature herself,” as Becker sums them up (Ill., 315), “assigned to woman a position far beneath man.”  As there is little occasion for pride in having won the favor of so inferior a being, the erotic literature of the Greeks is naturally not eloquent on this subject.  Such evidence of amorous pride as we find in it, and in Roman poetry, is usually in connection with mercenary women.  The poets, being poor, had only one way of winning the favor of these wantons:  they could celebrate their charms in verse.  This aroused the pride of the hetairai, and their grateful caresses made the poets proud at having a means of winning favor more powerful even than money.  But with genuine love these feelings have nothing to do.

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SYMPTOMS OF LOVE

In common with ambition and other strong passions, love has the power of changing a man’s character for the time being.  One of the speakers in Plutarch’s dialogue on love ([Greek:  Erotikos], 17) declares that every lover becomes generous and magnanimous, though he may have been niggardly before; but, characteristically enough, it is the love for boys, not for women, that is referred to.  A modern lover is affected that way by love for women.  He feels proud of being distinguished by the preference of such a girl, and