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.