Love Is Not Blind, According to a Century-Old Author

Is love blind? This magazine article written a century ago delves into the timeless theme.

Thomas Lansing Masson (1866–1934) was born in Essex, Connecticut and educated in New Haven. He became a literary editor and curated several popular collections of humorous American literature.
"Cupids" - wall painting (60-79 AD) from Herculaneum, House of the Deer - Exhibition "Charles of Bourbon [Carlos III] and the diffusion of Antiquities: Naples, Madrid, Mexico" up to March 22, 2017 - Naples, Archaeological Museum

Disclaimer

This article has been republished from Red Book Magazine’s November 1922 edition and has not been edited in any way for content, clarity, or relevance. The views and opinions expressed in the article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the current time. This excerpt is intended solely for educational, entertainment, and historical purposes and should not be taken as a substitute for professional advice or guidance.

We have overturned so many old beliefs within the past few years, that isn’t it about time we got rid of another? And that is the belief that Love is blind. We don’t know who started it. Somebody must have told the story to somebody else as a joke, and then it was passed along until it came to be accepted.

The truth is, of course, that Love sees farther than anything else in the world. You might even say Love is the one thing in the world that always sees right. When Cupid wears spectacles, they are put there by some artist who doesn’t know his business. He has probably been thrown down by a girl from Boston.

For one thing, there isn’t anything so ugly that Love cannot discern some beauty in it. You may not think that your next-door neighbor’s baby is beautiful, but the baby’s mother does, because the baby’s mother is looking at that baby with eyes of love.

When a fellow proposes to a girl—and this sort of thing is still going on—he sees in her something that nobody else sees. And the thing he sees in her is there, all right, because he is looking at her with the eyes of love. She looks at him, and although, seemingly, he may not be up to par, although his trousers may bag at the knees and he may blush and stammer, and sit on the end of the sofa, her eyes of love go quite beyond all that. Those eyes of love look right into the future. Love makes prophets of us all.

Cupid is the greatest oculist in the universe. The only things that really blind you are hatred and jealousy and greed. If you have any of these diseases, go to Cupid and get cured. He doesn’t even put bifocals on you.

Why, the real trouble with most people is that they are blind because they have never learned how to love. Some married men have tried it all their lives and never really succeeded. In the beginning they had a little spurt of eyesight, and then got matrimonial astigmatism.

Now that we have all gone dry, if you want a good eye-opener, learn to love. You will see more things than in your blind philosophy you have ever dreamed of before!

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