# Why Besant thought unity would deepen love

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH08.P014](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH08.P014/#char=1004,1053): "If souls are united love is obviously impossible."

Besant's own account makes this a contested philosophical inference. In ‘Psychism and Spirituality,’ delivered on 16 June 1907 and published that year in *London Lectures of 1907*, she describes loving sacrifice within a family as the first training in a consciousness that expands toward humanity. Giving something up for a child's happiness brings a richer enjoyment of the beloved's happiness; love of particular people prepares a person for wider love. The inspected edition is Project Gutenberg's transcription of the Theosophical Publishing Society's 1907 volume, pp. 19–23. [Besant, ‘Psychism and Spirituality’](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20800/pg20800-images.html#Page_19).

For Besant, overcoming separateness means overcoming exclusive possession and egoism through practical sympathy. Chesterton argues instead that permanent otherness makes love possible at all. Their disagreement therefore concerns love's metaphysical conditions, rather than whether affection and self-sacrifice are desirable. His final image of a selfish cosmos expresses his objection to her account; it does not describe the ethical conduct she recommends.

## Sources

- [Annie Besant, London Lectures of 1907 (1907 edition, Project Gutenberg transcription)](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20800/pg20800-images.html#Page_19), Part I, Psychism and Spirituality, delivered 16 June 1907, pp. 19–23; title page and lecture heading identify edition and date

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