3ad6e.md (1107B)
1 This definition explains sufficiently clearly the 2 essence of love; the definition given by those authors who say 3 that love is the lover's wish to unite himself to the loved 4 object expresses a property, but not the essence of love; and, 5 as such authors have not sufficiently discerned love's essence, 6 they have been unable to acquire a true conception of its 7 properties, accordingly their definition is on all hands admitted 8 to be very obscure. It must, however, be noted, that when I say 9 that it is a property of love, that the lover should wish to 10 unite himself to the beloved object, I do not here mean by wish 11 consent, or conclusion, or a free decision of the mind (for I 12 have shown such, in II. xlviii., to be fictitious); neither do I 13 mean a desire of being united to the loved object when it is 14 absent, or of continuing in its presence when it is at hand; for 15 love can be conceived without either of these desires; but by 16 wish I mean the contentment, which is in the lover, on account of 17 the presence of the beloved object, whereby the pleasure of the 18 lover is strengthened, or at least maintained. 19 20