Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1922)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 36, 1923 ... ! SSSi ' it 4em fofe Fleshless, " Says This ! ISlflf S4 ' Mllfe5 Their Affection M KSll XHr IpT y&U&and Beatrice. , - MHmMim I lilt . illMl IMlr- ! X - . . , BY WINIFRED VAN DUZER. IN STRANGE tales you always are reading of them; the rose without perfume; the night without stars; the flame without warmth! But the pas sion without sex! Still it has burned its pure, cold way . ! across the pages of tradition. Abelard End Heloise, monk and religieuse, met end marveled at a life holding such per fection as each other. Though a sea rolled between them all the days of their after life, save only one, their passion, which indeed was sexless since it held no alloy of carnal desire, was like a star that never sets. And when they did meet, after years of separation, in the sanctity cf an obscure monastery, without so much as a handclasp they knelt side by eide and in the terrific sacrament of renunciation offered their love to God. . Dante adored his Beatrice with a lofty love beyond the standard of affection Plato advocated. But he needed no de fense against the lure o'f physical appeal, since life never brought them together. And could there be love freer from carnal taint than that of the Blessed Damozel who leaned from the very wall of heaven Itself to lavish sorrowing devotion upon her beloved still on earth? Now Is it possible that such a sexless rassion actually drew together the "Rev Frederick W. Leeds, scholar and religious man, even as Abelard and his altar girl, Ellen Reid, and gave them strength to defy question and criticism and finally accusation while remaining serene in the awareness of each other? "Yes!" sobs the girl who likens her self to the gentle heroine of long ago, heartbroken that any should dispute the .quality of her emotion. "My love for Mr. Leeds is a sacred feeling. It is spirit ual as a prayer. He is my spiritual friend and guide; the embodiment of my salva tion in this world and the next!" "Yes!" declares the former pastor of the aristocratic Grace Episcopal church of New Haven. "My love for Ellen Reid Is a spiritual love, passing the under icanaing of the world- It is a religious feeling, an expression of the loftiest form cf Christianity. It is the will of God!" "No!" contradicts Mrs. Leeds, the third point of the triangle, "that spiritual love is not possible. It Is a delusion; a cloak to hide real motives. I am his wife and my husband's love should he mine. I shall fight for It." . Now that their passion has run its course, or now that it has run at least as. far as the barrier of the law which seeks to curb human nature by orders, you may look backward from the Ignominy of their day in vcourt to the beginning of Wo , St - Holliday's famous painting, "Dante and Beatrice." Ellen Reid says she wanted to be a "Beatrice of inspiration to Revi Mr. Leeds." Above Frederick W. Leeds, Connecticut pastor, who says that his love for his altar girl is like that which Abelard held for Heloise. Ellen Reid, altar girl, who was holding hands with her pastor when she was arrested with him in a Boston hotel after their "spiritual" love affair had startled his pastoral flock. their "sexless passion" as each one treas ures it In memory. Leeds, the scholar, had received most of his education in Europe. Wandering through galleries that hold the great treasures of all time, making his leisurely way over paths of beauty stretching from the North sea to the cataracts of the Nile, he developed an estheticism which ever after was to dominate his character. It was in ' the old world cathedrals, where worship .is expressed in ceremonials rivaled In elaborate picturesqueness only by Wagnerian opera that he linked his love for abstract beauty with religion. Perhaps be suppressed bis longing for a time after returning to America, where life is more conducive to fast movement than dreams. Anyway, you find him In the pulpit of the New Haven church, de-, livering the divine message, as he under-, stood "IT, to the fashionable congregation in a manner to win respect if not actual love for himself. He lived quietly and with apparent happiness in a home made pleasant by his wife. They were com panionable and friendly; she did welfare work in the parish and assisted him with advice. , The even tenor of this sort of .life ran to monotony, possibly. Anyway, you can fancy Leeds growing a little restless; finally developing poignant memories of the days in the old world; longing for the picturesqueness of the cathedrals and the beauty of ceremonials. Then you can see him introducing Just a bit of those formalities in his church. A bit of change about the altar, perhaps; a few words added; a little more atten tion given to symbols and something withdrawn from the faith that takes on trust. There were changes and more changes, all slight, but sufficient to arouse the protest of the parish. The church members did not share his estheticism and they wanted their re ligion unchanged. ' ' Out of his disappointment and dejec tion, Mr. Leeds found comfort. It was offered by a church worker, Ellen Reid, a slight, delicate appearing girl with pale gold , hair and dreamy eyes. She, too, thrilled to beauty in the abstract; she loved the suppressed drama of religious ceremonial; in the rector she saw the em bodiment of all that was splendid.' She helped him trim the altar- it was she who began to plan for him 'instead of the rather heavy, plain woman in the ivy covered red brick parish house. And so sympathy was established. You need touch upon only two points in their ways which became a single way. One was when the girl assumed the duties of secretary to the pastor; the second was the night they went away from New Ha ven two nights, they insist, for each went separately and with no intention of meeting again, they say. That was after Leeds had resigned his place in the pulpit and had .taken up the astonishing work of insurance selling; after the parish had questioned and gos siped; and the neglected wife had won dered and sorrowed and finally accused Lim, point-blank, of giving her up for a younger woman. This, probably, was the first time he declared his friendship with Miss Reid to be purely spiritual. "Hir resignation meant the downfall of his career," said the wife. "It meant the ruin of all our hopes. He has a won derful mind and a keen intellect and he bad a great future in the church. He had a chance to become a spiritual lead er; everything was in his favor." So unlike Abelard, whom he keeps be fore him as an example, the Rev. Mr. Leeds gave up his church and turned hit attention to material things. So you will believe the climax of hi association with the un-Heloise-like He loise inevitable; detectives after a search of three months, breaking the door of a Boston hotel room to find the "sexless lovers" sitting hand in hand. "There was nothing premeditated about our being there," Miss Reid ex plained. "We did not go away together. I had been in Boston visiting friends. , He. didn't know where I was and I didn't know he was in the city. We met on the street. Then we went to a hotel together because there was no other place we could talk and renew our spiritual friend-! ship. "We are looked on as guilty of a grave and terrible offense. I ara not ashamed; just saddened to think the world misun derstands. I am glad that he holds a (Concluded on Tags 9.)