what is it to be in love?

Do you remember Rosalind ? Do you remember, when Jacques said “The worst fault you have is to be in love”, Orlando replied “It is a fault I will not change for your best virtue”. For it is this fault which makes possible the discarding of the “life of painted pomp”.

What is it to be in love? As Silvis said
“It is to be made of all sighs and sorrows.
It is to be made of all faith and service.
All adoration, duty and observance
All humbleness, all patience …
All purity, all trial …”.


To be in love is to participate in Rosalind’s existence by feeling for her. Psychology is a (failed) attempt to subject feelings to rational analysis. The psychologists regard feelings as a disturbing element which deflects thought from its rational norm. But feelings are an independent source for the validation of knowledge – the heart has its own reasons. Feelings are a way of appreciating the whole through participation in truth – a way not accessible to discursive thought for its appreciation of truth is always from the ‘outside’, always as an ‘observer’, always partial. Discursive thought can never provide the insights that participationing reality can.