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THE MA ROON TIGER
Page Twenty-seven
sion, So Big, Simon Called Peter, The Wasted Gen
eration, Street Called Straight, Never the Twain
Shall Meet.
Having read these, the student will have a fair
background for more extensive poring into the
realm of bookland.
In the next issue a list of books every Sopho
more and Junior should read will be published.
More Social Intercourse for
College Men and Women
N. M. Christopher, ’28
In the mating of sexes there are three great
laws of fundamental importance which college men
and women in their social relations should under
stand and observe, viz: the law of opposites, the
law of similarity, and the law of complement. When
these laws are carefully obeyed, there should be
no doubt about the peace and joy of marriage, no
skepticism about the glory and grandeur of the
home, no dread of a disappointed old age. I must
confess, however, that in this age of jazz and wild
excitement, such doubts, skepticism and dread are
fingering their way into the lives of men and wo
men who rule sixty-five per cent of the world’s
endeavors and now family life is fastly approaching
chaos and pandemonium. But my faith in the strength
of love is such that I firmly believe, if college men
and college women have more contact, we can avoid
it. But the strength of love is directly proportional
to the natural attracting power between the two
and that power is no stronger than the observance
of these laws. Pause with me then for a moment
that we may look into them.
In consideration of the first law let me quote
Elinor Glyn in her “Philosophy of Love,” the Ad
vance Thought Publishing Co., in its book on Sex
Force, and “Socrates in Dialogues of Plato”—“Likes
Repel, Unlike Attract,” the tall is attracted to the
low, the large to the small, the light to the dark, etc.
This law is very necessary for the perpetuation of
the race. It is only natural and operates solely on
the physical plane. We see this law at its best when
we agree that man and woman form a social globe
one becoming the North Pole, the other the South
Pole. In its revolution one has his winter while the
has her summer, one his dark days, the other, light
days. If both had winter at the same time, the
globe would freeze up, and if summer, burn up. To
state the relation in another way in natural phe
nomena, man becomes the sun and woman the moon.
Consequently men should realize that woman has
a dark side as well as a light side and goes on
changing very, very often. Now and then an eclipse
occurs and the divorce court settles the matter. Men
desire that women remain SHE women and if col
lege women don’t remain so, college men will turn
their attention to the normal and high school girls.
Of course men should remain HE men, for when
women become masculine and men become femi
nine, each loses his attraction for the other.
When college men turn their attention to the
high school girl, they often face the brink of un
happiness and ruin. The second law proves it—the
law of similarity. This does not mean in form, ap
pearance or dress, but similar in thought and ideas.
Two minds are similar if the angles of the one are
equal respectively to the angles of the other. Under
this law love swings from the physical to the men
tal. Aristotle argued for, “Unanimity of ideas ap
preciable to one another’s aim in life.” This is where
the high school girl fails. She cannot see why a
man will spend so many years in college prepar
ing for life. The eyes of her love are near-sighted,
she cannot see “Italy beyond the Alps” I speak of
the average. Her love is like a bed of roses in
the summer, but she forgets that winter is coming,
a time when nothing in the world can suffice save
the real self alone, a time when dimpled cheeks,
and sparkling eyes are lost in the bearing of life’s
sorrows. Then, when the college man opens the
word hole of his education, a thing he is very apt
to do, and swoops down upon her from the peaks
of philosophy, science and literature, she brands
him, “Mr. Know-Every-Thing” Halt!
Let me relate this incident, it illustrates this
law quite clearly. As I sat in a theatre one evening
last summer, I chanced to observe the eccentrici
ties of a couple sitting just in front of me. The
screen was twinkling with “Ben Hur.” The young
man sat earnestly looking upon and drinking in
the experiences a Jew was having with the great
Roman Empire of Christ’s time. The girl gazed lazi
ly on the screen, twisted and turned occasionally
to complain of the “hard seat” the warm air, etc.
She bought peanuts, and ice cream and would not
remain any longer than the end of part two. But.
before they could get away, I secured the man’s
name and address. Later I called on him and found
out that he was a sophomore and the girl tenth
grade. Her lack of interest, as investigation proved,
was due primarialy to the fact that she knew noth
ing of ancient history, nothing of government, and
nothing of Jews. Otherwise she was very nice look
ing, had a good character and a sweet disposition,
but nevertheless her angles of thought and ideas
were so dissimilar to the young man’s that she was
absolutely incompatible and unhappy with him.
Man and woman should be as nearly as possible, in
tellectual companions.
But love cannot live by opposites alone, nor
can it be tempted by intellect to jump down from
the temple of passion to prove that similarity will
bear it up. It is not true love until it worships the
law of complement. God has so made man and wo
man that what is lacking in one is made up in the
other. Man and woman form a social unit. “Sex
Force” the book referred to above, puts it this way:
“If a man is eighty per cent masculine and twenty
per cent feminine, he should mate with a woman
who is eighty per cent feminine and twenty per
cent masculine.” Every individual has both mascu
line and feminine qualities. This law attempts to ad
just temperaments as well as characters. This ad
justment depends upon the amount of plasticity
found in each. This brings age in question, mental
as well as physcal. There comes a time in every
one’s life when his mental images of women crystal-