According to the dictionaries, solitude and loneliness are synonymous terms, but when examined under the lens of metaphysics their difference is seen to be antithetical. This contrast is emphasized by a comparison of their definitions. Solitude describes the fact that a person is alone, while loneliness expresses the sense of pain and oppression a person feels from being alone. Solitude is a grand word, signifying richness and depth of individual thought which leads into the super-sensible realm of Truth. It is typified by Jesus' experience in the wilderness, which led to a wonderful unfoldment of man's spiritual possibilities, and showed that man does not live by matter, but by "every word of God." Loneliness, on the contrary, indicates the want and wo of self-love and denotes dependence upon other gods than the one omnipresent Being.
Solitude is the door which is forever closed upon material sense, but opened wide to those mental channels through which flood-tides of Love continually flow, and in which communion with God and association with His ideas are natural and normal experiences; whereas loneliness is the dreary pool in which the sluggish streams of morbid sentimentalism stagnate into selfish absorption. Solitude is the prairie's lone tree which bravely faces the storm and grows the stronger, while loneliness is the clinging vine that, torn from its support, withers and dies. Solitude is born in life's Gethsemanes, and develops into the child of self-completeness as it turns away from the world's satisfactions to discover the kingdom of heaven within. Loneliness, better known as lonesomeness, being a parasite with no life of its own, feels the void in its empty heart and seeks the more to companion with some person or thing, as it wanders weepingly in the wilderness, wondering why somebody does not come to its rescue, fondle it, bemoan its fate, and satisfy its personal desires. Furthermore, it is sure that no one loves it, and yet demands love without giving aught in return, save in its own selfish way.
Solitude is too useful and busy to be lonesome. In isolation it reaches out to God, discovers the rose in the wilderness, beholds the rivers in the desert, and climbs steadily upward to dwell forever on the mount of revelation. In company with grand and noble ideas, it is quick to see beneath life's surface as it searches in the depths of human thought for the flickering flame of good. It casts aside the material sense of personality and, understanding without the need of words, ascends to sojourn on the plane of Soul. Perceiving the things of Spirit, solitude kneels in deepest reverence before the altar of self-immolation and breathes a silent benediction upon all the world. Neither vain yearnings nor insufficiency can ever reach the heights of spiritual solitude, for peace and silence patrol their highways and extend passports only to the pure in heart, the lovers of good. Although it rejects popularity, solitude is never systematically nor selfishly exclusive. Instead it mingles in "life's throng and press," seeking to give rather than to get, while quietly helping humanity through example and works more than words. It is a sister to consecration and ever a close friend to gentleness and strength. As the world turns from its false loves to spiritual attraction, solitude will be lifted up from human aloneness to divine association.
