[Greek:  Su d’ o theon tyranne k’ anthropon, Eros.]
  (Tu, deorum hominumque tyranne, Amor!)

Murderous darts, blindness, and wings are Cupid’s attributes.  The latter signify inconstancy, which as a rule comes with the disillusion following possession.

Because, for instance, love is based on an illusion and represents what is an advantage to the species as an advantage to the individual, the illusion necessarily vanishes directly the end of the species has been attained.  The spirit of the species, which for the time being has got the individual into its possession, now frees him again.  Deserted by the spirit, he relapses into his original state of narrowness and want; he is surprised to find that after all his lofty, heroic, and endless attempts to further his own pleasure he has obtained but little; and contrary to his expectation, he finds that he is no happier than he was before.  He discovers that he has been the dupe of the will of the species.  Therefore, as a rule, a Theseus who has been made happy will desert his Ariadne.  If Petrarch’s passion had been gratified his song would have become silent from that moment, as that of the birds as soon as the eggs are laid.

Let it be said in passing that, however much my metaphysics of love may displease those in love, the fundamental truth revealed by me would enable them more effectually than anything else to overcome their passion, if considerations of reason in general could be of any avail.  The words of the comic poet of ancient times remain good:  Quae res in se neque consilium, neque modum habet ullum, eam consilio regere non potes.  People who marry for love do so in the interest of the species and not of the individuals.  It is true that the persons concerned imagine they are promoting their own happiness; but their real aim, which is one they are unconscious of, is to bring forth an individual which can be begotten by them alone.  This purpose having brought them together, they ought henceforth to try and make the best of things.  But it very frequently happens that two people who have been brought together by this instinctive illusion, which is the essence of passionate love, are in every other respect temperamentally different.  This becomes apparent when the illusion wears off, as it necessarily must.

Accordingly, people who marry for love are generally unhappy, for such people look after the welfare of the future generation at the expense of the present. Quien se casa por amores, ha de vivir con dolores (He who marries for love must live in grief), says the Spanish proverb.  Marriages de convenance, which are generally arranged by the parents, will turn out the reverse.  The considerations in this case which control them, whatever their nature may be, are at any rate real and unable to vanish of themselves.  A marriage of this kind attends to the welfare of the present generation to the detriment of the future, it is true; and yet this remains problematical.