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Tribute to Values and Stephen Foster by Roberto Diego "Why No One to Love?" (1862) by Stephen Collins Foster, 1826-1864 1. No one to love in this beautiful world, Full of warm hearts and bright beaming eyes? Where is the lone heart that nothing can find That is lovely beneath the blue skies; No one to love! No one to love! Why one to love? What have you done in this beautiful world, That you're sighing of no one to love? 2. Dark is the soul that has nothing to dwell on! How sad must its brightest hours prove! Lonely the dull brooding spirit must be That has no one to cherish and love. No one to love! No one to love! Why one to love? What have you done in this beautiful world, That you're sighing of no one to love? 3. Many a fair one that dwells on the earth Who would greet you with kind words of cheer, Many who gladly would join in your pleasures Or share in your grief with a tear. No one to love! No one to love! Why one to love? Where have you roamed in this beautiful world, That you're sighing of no one to love? The above lines, a product of an earlier, more Romantic age, reflect such a depth of human understanding that they deserve to be elaborated upon. The idea of having no one to love can, in a deep psychological sense, be interpreted as a symbolic statement to mean not having achieved values. This is because love is one of the most difficult and demanding of values to achieve, for in that achievement, a person brings his moral self-appraisal most clearly into focus. To have love, true, fulfilling love, means that one has achieved a level of moral perfection; that one can achieve and deserves to achieve values. This is not to say that if one has no one to love one is immoral or has a low self-appraisal. Having no one to love is not a standard upon which moral judgment can be passed. However, it can be indicative, given other psychological processes, of a profound, though unearned, moral guilt. For the most part, it can be asserted that a person who cannot achieve his deepest values, does so primarily because of an undeserved sense of moral guilt. He possesses a feeling of his own worthlessness, a sense of thinking about himself as a person who does not deserve to achieve values. This person often defeats himself in the face of achieving his values because he cannot believe that he is worthy of values. So that the question, "What have you done..." applies to that feeling of unearned guilt. It means, "What have you done that makes you feel guilty?" It is addressed to a person of unfortunate but yet chronic self-degradation. In a deeper sense, however, the question is understood to mean, "What evil could you possibly have done..." It is a question that implies that the individual who is sighing of no one to love has no reason to feel immoral or evil, because, in fact, and in the view of the writer of the song, he is not. His guilt is unearned. He is a much better person who is depriving himself of his deepest values because of an improper conception of his worth. This is where Foster's understanding of human nature is most deeply felt. The understanding is completed when we ponder his next words,"...in this beautiful world..." One thing characteristic of the more Romantic eras of our history is that they held that the world, the universe in general, was beautiful. This idea had a special significance for them. It was an integral part of the Romantic view of life, of its philosophy. It implied that anything good was possible and achievable, that the world held no obstacle to man, that life, glory, happiness, goodness, were all within the realm of the achievable. It was a view of hope and optimism. To believe that the world is beautiful is to hold that life is livable. And this is Foster's meaning--that love, all values, are possible in this beautiful world. What, he asks, has a man done who is not allowing himself to achieve his deepest values? Foster's world was quite different from our own. Indeed, many are convinced that it is not now a beautiful world. After the wars and political corruptions we have seen, it is difficult for many to believe that their values are achievable. In the light of the many obstacles presented to the achievement of values, inflation, welfare statism, taxation as well as altruism/collectivism, none of which held sway in Foster's time, it is often difficult to see that the world, reality, is not the obstacle. Since most of our oppressions are the products of the acts of other men, it is difficult for many to keep a view of the basic goodness of man. Perhaps the realization that man was made for happiness can come to our culture through it all. But it will always be lines like Foster's and the ideas of a truly Romantic philosophy that will inevitably give the courage for the achievement of those deepest of values. Perhaps, too, such lines and ideas are the tonic for this culture mired in nihilism and despair. It is for such a tonic that men like Steven Foster will always be remembered and loved.
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