OCR Text |
Show j Is Thirty tile Love p : Dr. Georce A. Dorsey is great scientist, and great student of human nature. For years he has studied human beings, not only In the civilized drawing rooms of the world, but in savage jungles, strange tropical lands, impenetrable Arctic countries. His recent book, "Why We Behave Like Human Beings," shows a startling insight into every process of the extraordinary mechanism wo call man. Doctor Dorsey is married. By GEORGE A. DORSEY, Ph. D., LL. D "N man over thirty can fall In love." Isn't thai Just like a philosoph-iisler! philosoph-iisler! Bin pprhaps Ihicloi Duraut nevei said it Or perhaps he 'fi9 iiieri'l. trying to establish an alibi. I don'i know ihe facts in his case: hut I can see how a man niarric d al ihir-ty-one and cooled off al thiny-lwo. might couniei his wife's "You don't love me any morel' wilh: "1 try, hut I just can't ; I never did love you, I only thought I did. No man over thlr ty can fall In love." i Why is there no tool like an old fool? Because he was a fool to fall at all. hut the older he is the harder he falls. Five years ago I mel an old friend on the fast St. Louis-New York ruin 1 had known him all my life, bul uev er had I seen him so radium in conn lenance or so resplendent in new dollies and shiny shoes. My random "You must be on your way to your wedding" made hi old pink cheeks (he was onl.v sixty-five) crimson, and. caught in the act as it were, he could only .stammer: "How did you know?" I didn't know, but all thai I know of human nature and of the significance signifi-cance of being born human led me to believe that this nice olr widower hadn't blossomed out for nothing. I could think of nothing but love that could drive him out of his, rut and rusty routine into fine raiment and an excess fare train to New York. A few weeks later I mel the bride. She could nnt have been more than sixty, but she was as radiant as had been her lover on his way to claim her. Today, after five years, they are as much In "love with each other as ever, and note this point his devotion is sucli as would tickle the vanity of the most exacting girl of eighteen married to a youth of twenty. 1 said "note." It is bad enough to say that no man over thirty can fall in love, but to add that he cannot he-come he-come devoted to a woman Is to salt Ihe wound to human capacity. More is known about wha: man can do than about what he can't. In fact, to put an arbitrary limit on man's capacity ca-pacity is to disclose the limits of one's understanding of human nature. An ordinary man of thirty can grow no taller; the pituitary gland normally sets limits on Increase in stature after aft-er twenty-five. The exceptional man can grow taller after he is thirty : his pituitary has not yet limited his growth. Normally, and speaking biologically, bi-ologically, ' men can fall In love till they are fifty or sixty, a few till they are sixty or seventy, hut some reach sex senility before they turn thirty. There is no arbitrary or fixed limit to the functioning of the love impulse certainly no arbitrary limit al thirty years of age. The depth ot a man's love for a woman could well he believed to be greater at forty than at thirty, or at fifty than at twenty. The usual flare-ups flare-ups of youlh have been well styled "puppy love" playful, Heeling, lies! tatlng. ephemeral, and too often deal, dumb and blind. Eren savages recognize rec-ognize the fact, and some do not .con-sider .con-sider a man fit for endurin0 love and whole-hearted devotion until he Is thirty years of age. They think, aim not without reason, that love cannot ripen until the man has matured. Cannot fall In love? Speak for your self, Doctor Durant. Some can I know. How do I kn w? I am re minded of the man wLo called up a lawyer to explain his trouble witli the officer? of the law. "Bui they cant put you" in jail for that.' replied the lawyer. "Maybe they cant: hut I'm In I" I'm In tor lite, commuted al the age of fifty-five. And as for "true de votion," perhaps I'm nol Ihe one to speak; but If forced to answer, would ask first : .lust what do you mean py "devotion," Doi-toi nurant it you really said it? Conjugal liddity? Or such constancy for the wellare and happiness of a loved one as uiimunis to a zeal only to be surpassed, if at all, by devotion to a helpless child? If the former, age has nothing to do with it ; II the hitler. I rlnn'i know how old a man would have to be not j to be able to become truly devoted to j n woman. ! Why don't I know? By Hie same , token Hint prompted iuv ,ui ccilcned i woman u ho. when usI;mi tmw old u j woman hail to lie before she could no ' longer fall in love, replied: "1 diinno j honey; you'll have to nsl, somebody ' older 'n I Is." Oc- 1028 bv Ihe Bell Svndlrale Inc.! |