The Moral of Love...Sins Against Love

Though love is light it becomes darkness when its law is not understood. Just as water, which cleans all things, becomes mud when mixed with earth, so love, when not understood rightly and when directed wrongly, becomes a curse instead of bliss. There are five chief sins against love, which turn nectar into poison.

1. The first is when the lover deprives the beloved of freedom and happiness against her desire, because of his love;
2. the next is when the lover gives way to a spirit of rivalry and jealousy or bitterness in love;
3. thirdly, if the lover doubts, distrusts, and suspects the one whom he loves;
4. fourthly, if he shrinks from enduring all the sorrows, pains, troubles, difficulties, and sufferings that come in the path of love; and
5. finally, when the lover pursues his own will instead of complete resignation to the beloved's wish.

These are the natural failings of a loving heart. As maladies are natural to the physical body, as lack of health makes life miserable, so lack of love makes the heart wretched. Only the lover who avoids these faults benefits by love, and arrives safely at his destination.