We find the Latin poets of to-day writing just as freely on the subject of love as the old Latin poets of the age of Augustus, while Northern poets observe with few exceptions great restraint when treating of this theme.

Now where is the line to be drawn?
Are the Latins right?
Are the English right?
How are we to make a sharp distinction between what is moral and good and what is immoral and bad in treating love-subjects?
Some definition must be attempted.
What is meant by love?
As used by Latin writers the word has a range of meanings, from that of the sexual relation between insects or animals up to the highest form of religious emotion, called "The love of God." I need scarcely say that this definition is too loose for our use.

The English word, by general consent, means both sexual passion and deep friendship.
This again is a meaning too wide for our purpose.

By putting the adjective "true" before love, some definition is attempted in ordinary conversation.
When an Englishman speaks of "true love," he usually means something that has no passion at all; he means a perfect friendship which grows up between man and wife and which has nothing to do with the passion which brought the pair together.

But when the English poet speaks of love, he generally means passion, not friendship.