{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_17699/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_17699","id":"gutenberg_17699","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17699","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Love","Sex"],"text":"Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Martin Pettit and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE EVOLUTION OF LOVE\n\n\nBY\nEMIL LUCKA\n\n\nTRANSLATED BY\nELLIE SCHLEUSSNER\n\n[Illustration: Publisher's logo]\n\nLONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.\nRUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1\n\n\n_First published in Great Britain 1922_\n\n\n(_All rights reserved_)\n\n\n_Printed in Great Britain by_\nUNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON AND WOKING\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe object of this book, which is addressed to all cultured men and\nwomen, is to set forth the primitive manifestations of love and to throw\nlight on those strange emotional climaxes which I have called\n\"Metaphysical Eroticism.\" I have taken no account of historical detail,\nexcept where it served the purpose of proving, explaining and\nillustrating my subject. Nor have I hesitated to intermingle\npsychological motives and motives arising from the growth and spread of\ncivilisation. The inevitable result of a one-sided glimpse at historical\nfacts would have been a history of love, an undertaking for which I lack\nboth ability and inclination. On the other hand, had I written a merely\npsychological treatise, disregarding the succession of periods, I should\nhave laid myself open to the just reproach of giving rein to my\nimagination instead of dealing with reality.\n\nI have availed myself of historical facts to demonstrate that what\npsychology has shown to be the necessary phases of the evolution of\nlove, have actually existed in historical time and characterised a whole\nperiod of civilisation. The history of civilisation is an end in itself\nonly in the chapter entitled \"The Birth of Europe.\"\n\nMy work is intended to be first and foremost a monograph on the\nemotional life of the human race. I am prepared to meet rather with\nrejection than with approval. Neither the historian nor the psychologist\nwill be pleased. Moreover, I am well aware that my standpoint is\nhopelessly \"old-fashioned.\" To-day nearly all the world is content to\nlook upon the sexual impulse as the source of all erotic emotion and to\nregard love as nothing more nor less than its most exquisite radiation.\n\nMy book, on the contrary, endeavours to establish its complete\nindependence of sexuality.\n\nMy contention that so powerful an emotion as love should have come into\nexistence in historical, not very remote times, will seem very strange;\nfor, all outward profession of faith in evolution notwithstanding, men\nare still inclined to take the unchangeableness of human nature for\ngranted.\n\nThe facts on which I have based my arguments are well known, but my\ndeductions are new; it is not for me to decide whether they are right or\nwrong. In the first (introductory) part I have made use of works already\nin existence, in addition to Plato and the poets, but the second and\nthird parts are founded almost entirely on original research.\n\n                                                            E.L.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                  PAGE\n\nPREFACE                                                              5\n\nTRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION                                            9\n\nFIRST STAGE: THE SEXUAL INSTINCT                                    21\n\nSECOND STAGE: LOVE\n\nCHAPTER\n\n  I. THE BIRTH OF EUROPE                                            39\n\n II. THE DEIFICATION OF WOMAN (FIRST FORM OF\n     METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM):--(_a_) The Love of the Troubadours;\n     (_b_) The Queen of Heaven; (_c_) Dante and Goethe;\n     (_d_) Michel Angelo                                           115\n\nIII. PERVERSIONS OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM:--\n     (_a_) The Brides of Christ; (_b_) Sexual Mystics              217\n\nTHIRD STAGE: THE BLENDING OF SEXUALITY AND LOVE\n\n  I. THE LONGING FOR THE SYNTHESIS                                 231\n\n II. THE LOVE-DEATH (SECOND FORM OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM)        251\n\nIII. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN SEXUALITY AND LOVE.--THE SEEKER\n     OF LOVE AND THE SLAVE OF LOVE                                 266\n\n IV. THE REVENGE OF SEXUALITY.--THE DEMONIACAL AND THE OBSCENE     275\n\nCONCLUSION: THE PSYCHOGENETIC LAW.--THE INDIVIDUAL AS AN\n     EPITOME OF THE HUMAN RACE                                     284\n\n\n\n\nTRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION\n\n\nSince the triumphant days of the Mechanists some twenty-five years ago,\nthe wedge of Pragmatism--a useful tool to be used and discarded--has\nbeen driven between materialism and idealism, and it appears that the\nwhole tendency of philosophy is now in the latter direction. Even in\nEngland the influence of Bergson has led modern thought away from the\npure materialism of the monists, and it seems probable that Benedetto\nCroce's _Philosophy of the Spirit_ will carry the movement a step nearer\ntowards the idealistic concept of reality. And among the latest signs of\nthe new tendency must be counted the brilliant work of Emil Lucka, the\nyoung Austrian \"poet-philosopher,\" whose conception of the development\nof love must rank with the most daring speculations in recent\npsychology.\n\nIn the great reaction of the last century, love, that most cogent motive\nof human thought and action, fell from its high estate and came to be\nregarded as an instinct not differing in any essential from hunger and\nthirst, and existing, like them, from the beginning, eternal and\nimmutable, manifesting itself with equal force in the heart of man and\nwoman, and impelling them towards each other. But Emil Lucka, in his\nremarkable new book, _The Three Stages of Love_ (which was recently\npublished in Berlin, and has already created a sensation in literary\ncircles abroad), leads us on to speculative heights from which we may\nlook back upon the whole theory of evolution not as a bar but as a\nbridge. \"My book is intended as a monograph of the emotional life of the\nhuman race,\" he says in the preface, and \"I am prepared to meet with\nrejection rather than with approval.\" There has been abundance of\ncriticism and controversy, but Lucka has stated his case and drawn his\nconclusions with such admirable precision and logic, that his work has\naroused admiration and appreciation even in the ranks of his opponents.\n\nLove is a theme which at all times and in all countries has been of\nprimary interest to men and women, and therefore this book, which throws\nan illuminating ray of light in many a dark place still wrapped in\nmystery and silence, not only impresses the psychologist, but also\nfascinates the general reader with its wealth of interesting detail and\ncharm of expression.\n\nThe three vitally important points which the author develops are as\nfollows:--\n\nLove is not a primary instinct, but has been gradually evolved in\nhistorical time.\n\nErnst Haeckel's biogenetic law is expanded in a psychogenetic law.\n\nOnly man's emotions have undergone evolution, and therefore have a\nhistory, while those of woman have experienced no change.\n\nLucka's book will probably not please the advanced feminists, but the\ndelicate, although perhaps involuntary homage to her sex which is\nimplied in his theories ought to rouse a feeling of gratification in the\nheart of every right-feeling woman. The very limitations and\nrestrictions which he lays upon her raise and glorify her. For while man\nhas been the \"Odysseus wandering through heaven and hell, passing from\nthe bestial to the divine to return again and become human, woman has\nalways been the same, unchangeable and without problems. That which he\nhas set up to-day as his highest erotic ideal, the blending of sexual\nand spiritual love, has been her natural endowment from the beginning.\nNever perfect, he falls into error and sin where she cannot err, for her\ninstinct is Nature herself, and she knows not the meaning of sin.\"\n\nSchopenhauer's \"instinct of philoprogenitiveness\" has to-day become an\narticle of faith with the learned and the unlearned. This _sub-conscious\ninstinct for the service of the species_ which, in love, is supposed to\nrise to consciousness, and whose purpose is the will to produce the best\npossible offspring, is conceded by scientists who reject not only\nSchopenhauer's metaphysic, but metaphysic in general. Even Nietzsche,\nthat arch-individualist, has proved by many of his pronouncements, and\nmost strikingly by his well-known definition of marriage, that he has\nnot escaped its fascinations. \"Schopenhauer ignores all phenomena which\nare not in support of his myth,\" says Lucka, who denies this instinct of\nphiloprogenitiveness and would substitute for it a \"pairing-instinct.\"\n\"The experience of others,\" he argues, \"not our own instinct, has taught\nus that children _may_, not necessarily _must_, be the result of the\nunion of the sexes. Into the mediaeval ideal which reached its climax in\nmetaphysical love, the idea of propagation did not enter. Moreover, the\ndesire for children is frequently unaccompanied by any sexual desire,\nand therefore to manufacture an instinct of philoprogenitiveness is\nfantastic metaphysic, and is entirely opposed to intellectual reality.\nThis was well understood in the long period of antiquity which strictly\nseparated the sexual impulse and the desire for children.\"\n\nLucka distinguishes three great stages in the evolution of love. In\nvivid and fascinating pictures he unfolds the erotic life of our\nprimitive ancestors, basing his statements on accepted authorities. The\nsexual impulse in those remote days, unconscious of its nature and\nfar-reaching consequences, was entirely undifferentiated from any other\npowerful instinct. Every woman of the tribe belonged to every male who\nhappened to desire her. As is still the case with the aborigines of\nCentral and Northern Australia, the phenomena of pregnancy and\nchildbirth were attributed to witchcraft.[1] The concept of _father_ had\nnot yet been formed; the family congregated round the mother and saw in\nher its natural chief; gynecocracy was the prevailing form of\ngovernment. In early historical and pre-classical times, promiscuity was\nsystematised by religion in India and the countries round the\nMediterranean and survived in the Temple Prostitution and the Mysteries.\nMan as yet felt himself only as a part of nature, and aspired to no more\nthan a life in harmony with her laws. The worship of fertility and the\nendless renewal of life was the object of the orgiastic cults of Adonis\nand Astarte in the East, and Dionysus and Aphrodite in Greece; unbridled\nlicentiousness and blind gratification of the senses their sacrament.\n\nWith the growth of civilisation and the development of personality there\nslowly crept into the minds of men a distaste for this irregular\nsexuality and a desire for a less chaotic state of things. This longing\nand the wish for legitimate heirs gradually overcame promiscuity and, in\nGreece, led to the establishment of the monogamous system. It must not\nbe assumed, however, that the Greek ideal of marriage bore any\nresemblance to our modern conception. True, the wife occupied an\nhonoured position as the guardian of hearth and children and was treated\nby her husband with affection and respect, but she was not free. Nor was\nher husband expected to be faithful to her. Marriage in no way\nrestricted his liberty, but left him free to seek intellectual\nstimulation in the society of the hetaerae, and gratification of the\nsenses in the company of his slaves. Love in our sense was unknown to\nthe ancients, and although there is a modern note in the legends of the\nfaithful Penelope, and the love which united Orpheus and Eurydice, yet,\nso Lucka tells us, these instances should be regarded rather as poetic\ndivinations of a future stage of feeling than actual facts then within\nthe scope of probability. Even Plato, in whom all wisdom and\nante-Christian culture culminated, was still, in this respect, a citizen\nof the old world, for he, too, knew as yet nothing of the spiritual love\nof a man for a woman. To him the love of an individual was but a\nbeginning, the road to the love of perfect beauty and the eternal ideas.\n\nOn the threshold of the second stage of the erotic life stands\nChristianity, which, in sharp contrast to antiquity and to the classical\nperiod, sought the centre and climax of life in the soul. The founder of\nthe \"religion of love\" _discovered_ the individual, and by so doing laid\nthe foundation for that metaphysical love which found its most striking\nexpression in the deification of woman and the cult of the Virgin Mary.\nHow this change of mental attitude was brought about is worked out in a\nbrilliant chapter, entitled \"The Birth of Europe.\" The revivifying\ninfluence of Christ's preaching and personality was stifled after the\nfirst centuries by the rigid dogma and formalism which had altered his\ndoctrine almost past recognition. The Church was building up its\npolitical structure and tolerated no rival. Art, literature, music, all\nthe enthusiasm and profound thought of which the human mind is capable,\nwere pressed into her service. Independent thought was heresy, and the\ndeath of every heretic became a new fetter which bound the intellect of\nman. But about the year 1100, when the mighty edifice was complete, and\nthe pope and his bishops looked down upon kings and emperors and counted\nthem their vassals, when the barbaric peoples which made up the\npopulation of Europe had been sufficiently schooled and educated in the\nnew direction, a longing for something new, a yearning for art, for\npoetry, for beauty, began to stir the hearts of men and women. It found\nexpression in the ideal of chivalry, the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy\nGrail, and suddenly love, bursting out in a brilliant flame, shed its\nradiance on the sordid relationship which had hitherto existed between\nthe sexes, and transfigured it. Woman, the despised, to whom at the\nCouncil of Macon a soul had been denied, all at once became a queen, a\ngoddess. The drudge, the patiently suffering wife, were things of the\npast. A new ideal had been set up and men worshipped it with bended\nknees.\n\n     \"She shines on us as God shines on his angels,\"\n\nsang Guinicelli.\n\nIt was in a small country in the South of France, in Provence, that the\nnew spirit was born. The troubadours, wandering from castle to castle,\nsang the praise of love, genuine love, the earlier ones without\nadmixture either of speculation or metaphysic. The dogma that pure love\nwas its own reward inasmuch as it made men perfect, was framed later on.\n\n     \"I cannot sin when I am in her mind,\"\n\nwrote Guirot Riquier, and Dante, in the \"Vita Nuova,\" calls his beloved\nmistress \"the destroyer of all evil and the queen of all virtues.\" The\nmonk Matfre Ermengau, who wrote a text-book on love, says:\n\n     Love makes good men better,\n     And the worst man good.\n\nThe later troubadours drew a much sharper distinction between spiritual\nand sensual love. The latter was regarded as degrading and base (at\nleast in principle) and woe to the man who held, or rather, avowed,\nanother opinion. His reward was the contempt of every man and woman of\nculture. \"I ask no more of my mistress than that she should suffer me to\nserve her,\" protested Bernart de Ventadour.\n\nIt goes without saying that, in spite of this high ideal, sensuality\nflourished undiminished, and a troubadour who loudly sang the praise of\nchastity and blatantly professed his entire disinterestedness in the\nservice of his mistress, did not see the least inconsequence in carrying\non a dozen intrigues at the same time with other women. Sordello, one of\nthe best known poets of this period, was charged by a contemporary with\nhaving changed his mistress over a hundred times, and he himself,\nimpudently bragging, proclaims that\n\n     None can resist me; all the frowning husbands\n     Shall not prevent me to embrace their wives,\n     If I so wish....\n\nAnother poet, Count Rambaut III., of Orange, recommended to his\nfellow-men as the surest way of winning a woman's favour, \"to break her\nnose with a blow of the fist.\" \"I myself,\" he continued, \"treat all\nwomen with tenderness and courtesy, but then--I am considered a fool.\"\n\nAs may be expected, sublimated, metaphysical love was not without its\ncaricatures and eccentricities. One of the most grotesque figures of the\nperiod of the troubadours was Ulrich von Lichtenstein, a German knight.\nAs a page, we are told, he drank the water in which his mistress had\nwashed her hands. Later on he had his upper lip amputated because it\ndispleased his lady-love, and on another occasion he cut off one of his\nfingers, had it set in gold and used as a clasp on a volume of his poems\nwhich he sent as a present to his inamorata.\n\nAt the famous Courts of Love, the most extraordinary questions were\nseriously discussed and decided. A favourite subject for debate was the\nrelationship between love and marriage, and some of the decisions which\nhave been preserved for us prove without a doubt that those two great\nfactors in the emotional life were considered irreconcilable. At the\nCourt of the Viscountess Ermengarde of Narbonne, the question whether\nthe love between lovers was greater than the love between husband and\nwife was settled as follows: \"Nature and custom have erected an\ninsuperable barrier between conjugal affection and the love which\nunites two lovers. It would be absurd to draw comparisons between two\nthings which have neither resemblance nor connection.\"\n\nThe contrast between the new, spiritualised love and the older, sexual,\ninstinct created that dualism so characteristic of the whole mediaeval\nperiod. Sexuality and love were felt as two inimical forces, the fusion\nof which was beyond the range of possibility. While on the one hand\nwoman was worshipped as a divine being, before whom all desire must be\nsilenced, she was on the other hand stigmatised as the devil's tool, a\npower which turned men away from his higher mission and jeopardised the\nsalvation of his soul. Wagner portrayed this dualism perfectly in\n_Tannhauser_. \"A man of the Middle Ages,\" says Lucka, \"would have\nrecognised in this magnificent work the tragedy of his soul.\"\n\nIt was but a small step from the worship of a beloved mistress to the\ncult of the Virgin Mary. The Church, hostile at first, finally\nacquiesced, and \"through her official acknowledgment of a female deity,\nopen enmity between the religion of the Church and the religion of woman\nwas avoided.\" A woman, that is to say, the Virgin Mary, had stepped\nbetween God and humanity as mediator, intercessor and saviour.\n\nBoth Dante, the inspired woman-worshipper of the Middle Ages, and the\nmore modern Goethe, saw in metaphysical love the triumph over all things\nearthly. And far above either of these intellectual heroes looms the\nawe-inspiring figure of Michelangelo, the scoffer, to whom love came\nlate in life; in his ecstatic adoration of Vittoria Colonna, the\nenthusiasm of Plato and the passion of Dante are blended in a more\ntranscendent flame.\n\nSexual Mystics and the Brides of Christ present the darker aspect of\nmetaphysical love. All the latter, including even Catherine of Siena (a\nclever politician who kept up a correspondence with the leading\nstatesmen of her time), Marie of Oignies, and St. Teresa, are\nstigmatised as victims of hysteria and consigned to the domain of\npathology.\n\nWhile the first stage was characterised by the reign of unbridled sexual\ninstinct, the second by the conflict between spiritual and sensual love,\nthe third stage represents our modern conception, the blending of\nspiritual and sensual love, which is \"not the differentiated sexual\ninstinct, but a force embracing the psycho-physical entity of the\nbeloved being without any consciousness of sexual desire.\" It shares\nwith the purely metaphysical love the lover's longing to raise his\nmistress above him and glorify her without any ulterior object and\ndesire. \"In this stage there is no tyranny of man over woman, as in the\nsexual stage; no subjection of man to woman, as in the woman-worship of\nthe Middle Ages; but complete equality of the sexes, a mutual give and\ntake. If sexuality is infinite as matter, spiritual love eternal as the\nmetaphysical ideal, then the synthesis is human and personal.\" The\napotheosis of this perfect love Lucka finds in the _Liebestod_ (the\ndeath of the lovers in the ecstasy of love), in Wagner's _Tristan und\nIsolde_.\n\nAn interesting chapter on erotic aberrations, the demoniacal and the\nobscene, completes the third part of the book.\n\nThere may be much in Lucka's theories which will rouse the scepticism of\nthe monists; some of his deductions may appear to his readers a little\nstrained, but no thinking man or woman can read his brilliant\n_Conclusion_ without denying him the tribute of sincere admiration. In\nthis last chapter he applies Haeckel's biogenetic law to the domain of\nthe spirit. As the human embryo passes through the principal stages of\nthe development of the individual from lower forms of life, so the\ngrowing male must pass through the stages of psychical development\nthrough which the race has passed. The gynecocratic government of\nprehistoric time is revived in the nursery, where the mother rules\nsupreme and the sisters dominate. The normal, healthy school-boy,\npreferring the company of his school-fellows to all others, shunning his\nmother and sisters, ashamed of his female relatives, is the modern\nindividual representative of those early leagues and unions of young men\nwho opposed matriarchy and finally brought about its overthrow and the\nestablishment of male government. The promiscuous sexuality\ncharacteristic of adolescence reproduces the first, merely sexual, stage\nof the erotic life of the race in the life of the individual. As a rule\nthis phase is followed by a period of woman-worship; love has conquered\nthe sexual instinct and the latter is felt as base and degrading.\nAtavism is not so much the persistence of the earlier, as the absence of\nthe later stages of psychical development.\n\nI need not emphasise the fact that the three stages are often\nintermingled and not traceable with equal clearness in the life of every\nindividual. Many men never advance beyond the first stage and others are\nfragmentary and undeveloped; but certain phases are more or less\ndistinguishable in every well-endowed male individual. Lucka finds a\nperfect illustration of his theory in the life and works of Richard\nWagner, whose operas _The Fairies_ (based on Shakespeare's _Measure for\nMeasure_), _Tannhauser_, and _Tristan und Isolde_, successively\nillustrate the three stages through which the great poet-composer and\nimpassioned lover passed, and reflect the principal halting-places in\nthe erotic evolution of the race. In _Parsifal_, Wagner's last and\nmaturest work, he conjectures a potential fourth stage, divined by the\ngenius of the great musician and thinker, a sublimation of our modern\nideal, a stage when love will be freed from all sexual feeling (a\nconception not unlike Otto Weininger's), but to which we have not yet\nattained and which we are even unable fully to grasp.\n\nI have not been able to do more than touch upon the principal features\nof this book, the fame of whose brilliant author has long spread beyond\nthe boundaries of his own native country. Emil Lucka was born in Vienna\nin 1877, and has already achieved a number of remarkably fine books,\nmost of which have been translated into Russian, French, and other\nforeign languages. He is as yet unknown in England, this being the first\nof his works to appear in English.\n\n                                            ELLIE SCHLEUSSNER.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] _cf._ Hartland's \"Primitive Paternity\" and Frazer's \"Golden Bough.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE EVOLUTION OF LOVE\n\nTHE FIRST STAGE: THE SEXUAL INSTINCT\n\n\nTo the generations slowly rising from the dark abyss of time to the\ntwilight of the Middle Ages, the satisfaction of the sexual instinct\noffered fewer difficulties than the gratification of any other need or\ndesire. With every unpremeditated and cursory indulgence the craving\ndisappeared from consciousness and left the individual free to give his\nmind to the acquisition of the necessities of life which were far more\ndifficult to obtain. Primitive, prehistoric man lived in the moment.\nWhen there was plenty of food he gorged to repletion, heedless of the\nstarvation which might be his fate to-morrow or the day after. His\nthought had neither breadth nor continuity. It never occurred to him\nthat there might be a connection between an abrupt and quickly forgotten\nembrace and the birth of a child by a woman of the tribe after what\nappeared to be an immeasurable lapse of time. He suspected witchcraft in\nthe phenomena of pregnancy and childbirth (to this day the aborigines of\nCentral and Northern Australia do not realise the connection between\ngeneration and birth). As a rule it was remembered that a certain woman\nhad given birth to a certain child by the fact of her having carried it\nabout and fed it at her breast. Occasionally it was forgotten to which\nmother a child belonged; perhaps the mother had died; perhaps the child\nhad strayed beyond the boundaries of the community and the mother had\nfailed to recognise it on its return. But it was clear beyond all doubt\nthat every child had a \"mother.\" The conception of \"father\" had not yet\nbeen formed. Experience had taught our primitive ancestors two\nundeniable facts, namely \"that women gave birth to children\" and \"that\nevery child had a mother.\"\n\nWe must assume that sexual intercourse was irregular and haphazard up to\nthe dawn of history. Every woman--within the limits of her own tribe,\nprobably--belonged to every man. Whether this assumption is universally\napplicable or not, must remain doubtful; later ethnologists, more\nparticularly _von Westermarck_, deny it because it does not apply to\nevery savage tribe of the present day. Herodotus tells us that\npromiscuity existed in historical times in countries as far removed from\neach other as Ethiopia and the borders of the Caspian Sea. There can be\nno reasonable doubt that sexual intercourse took the form of\ngroup-marriage, the exchange or lending of wives, and other similar\narrangements.\n\nThe relationship between mother and child having been established by\nNature herself, the first human family congregated round the mother,\nacknowledging her as its natural chief. This continued even after the\ncausal connection between generation and birth had ceased to be a\nmystery. In all countries on the Mediterranean, more especially in\nLycia, Crete and Egypt, the predominance of the female element in State\nand family is well attested; it is reflected in the natural religions of\nthe Eastern races--both Semitic and Aryan--and we find innumerable\ntraces of it in Greek mythology. The merit of discovering this important\nstage in the relationship of the sexes is due to _Bachofen_. \"Based on\nlife-giving motherhood,\" he says, \"gynecocracy was completely dominated\nby the natural principles and phenomena which rule its inner and outer\nlife; it vividly realised the unity of nature, the harmony of the\nuniverse which it had not yet outgrown.... In every respect obedient to\nthe laws of physical existence, its gaze was fixed upon the earth, it\nworshipped the chthonian powers rather than the gods of light.\" The\nchildren of men who had sprung from their mother as the flowers spring\nfrom the soil, raised altars to Gaea, Demeter and Isis, the deities of\ninexhaustible fertility and abundance. These early races of men realised\nthemselves only as a part of nature; they had not yet conceived the idea\nof rising above their condition and setting their intelligence to battle\nwith its blind laws. Incapable of realising their individuality, they\nbowed in passive submission to nature's undisputed sway. They were\nmembers of a tribe, and the fragmentary existence of the single\nindividual was of no importance when it clashed with the welfare of the\nclan. The family--centred round the mother--and the tribe were the real\nindividuals, in the same way as the swarm of bees, and not the\nindividual bee, makes the whole. They lived in complete harmony with\nnature; they had no spiritual life, no history, for civilisation and the\ncreation of intellectual values which are the foundation of history\ndepend on the rise of a community above primitive conditions.\nDifferentiation had hardly begun to exert its modifying influence; all\nmen (not unlike the Eastern Asiatics of our day) resembled each other in\nlooks, character and habits.\n\nIn the countries on the Mediterranean (as well as in India and\nBabylonia) the first stage of sexual intercourse, irresponsible and\npromiscuous, was systematised by religion. The annual spring-festivals\nin honour of Adonis, Dionysus, Mylitta, Astarte and Aphrodite,\ncelebrated unbridled licentiousness. The whole community greeted the\nre-awakening vitality of the earth by an unrestrained abandonment to\npassion. Man aspired to be no more than the flower which scatters its\nseed to the winds. The incomprehensible lords of cupidity and rank\nvegetation did not suffer the individualisation of desire. The complete\nunion of the male and female qualities, as manifested both in nature and\nman, was solemnised in the Orgies, and not by any means the relationship\nof an individual man to an individual woman, or sexuality connected with\nindividuals and dominated by them. Nor was this unfettering of instinct\na symbolical act; for it to be so, man must have stood over against\nnature as an intellectual being, mirroring and transforming her acts by\nhis own deeds. He was as yet far from this. His ambition did not reach\nbeyond the desire to fulfil nature in himself. Before the majesty of\nsex--worshipped in the vague, shadowy mothers of mankind, Rhea, Demeter,\nCybele, and their human offspring, the phallic Dionysus and the\nhundred-breasted goddess of Ephesus--the individual with his piteous\nlimitations shrank into insignificance. Sex was immortal, sex and\nprimary matter, the [Greek: ule] contrasted by Aristotle with the\n[Greek: eisos], the form. \"The female principle is the mother of the\nbody, but the mother of the spirit is the male.\" The substance of those\nancient cults was birth and death, meaningless, purposeless, apparently\nwithout rhyme or reason; their sacrament the perpetual union of the\nsexes. Between the succeeding generations there was but one bond, the\nnatural bond of motherhood. It was the first tie realised by mankind, a\ntie not felt as a concrete relationship between two individuals, but as\na general, maternal, natural force. The presiding divinities were the\n\"mothers,\" the eternal, incorporeal deities, enthroned outside time and\nspace, and therefore immortal givers of life and preservers of mankind.\nBefore their silent greatness the desire of man to know his whence and\nwhither, to win shape and individuality, became blasphemy. They had\ngiven immortality to sex, but upon the individual they had laid the\ncurse of death.\n\nThus we have first a stage of fatherless, natural conception,\ncorresponding with the philosophical theories which maintained that all\ncreated things had sprung from the elements. Later ages discovered a\nspiritual principle, a becoming, or an eternal being, and finally a\nconflict between spirit and matter.\n\nBut the general attitude towards sexual intercourse underwent a change\nas soon as here and there individuals appeared who were conscious of\ntheir individuality. Natural selection could not come into play in a\ncommunity the members of which resembled one another so closely that all\npersonal characteristics were obliterated in a general monotony. One\nwoman was as good as another, although in all probability a healthy,\nyouthful and strong individual would be preferred to a sickly, puny\nspecimen. But apart from this, the wish to choose a partner instead of\nbeing content with the first comer, must have coincided historically\nwith the outward, and later on with the inward differentiation of the\nrace. I cannot prove my theory by quoting chapter and verse from ancient\nwriters, but obviously a feeling of preference could not have arisen\nuntil individuals had begun to show very noticeable traces of\ndifference. Therefore with growing differentiation a new factor--modest\nat first and operating within narrow limits--the factor of choice, had\ncome into the sexual life. The slow development of personality gave\nbirth to the feeling which rebelled against universal sexual intercourse\nand gynecocracy in general. The men desired to shape their own world;\nthey had no share in the immortality of maternal life. As (relatively\nspeaking) single individuals they stood over against the material bond\nof the generations living in the chain of the mothers. Demigods, the\nsons of the gods of light and mortal mothers, were credited with the\nsalvation of men from a confused, chaotic existence, and the\nintroduction of new conditions of life, no longer based on the dictates\nof nature but on the moulding genius of man. \"Hercules, Theseus and\nPerseus overthrew the ancient powers of darkness. They laid the\nfoundations of man's great achievement, civilisation, and were the\nfirst to worship the gods of light. They delivered humanity from the\ngross materialism in which it had hitherto been steeped; they were the\nawakeners of spiritual life, which is a higher life than the life of the\nsenses; they were as incorruptible as the sun from whence they came, the\nheroes of a new civilisation distinguished by gentleness, a higher\nendeavour and a new dispensation.\" (Bachofen.)\n\nHeinrich Schurtz has proved (though not in connection with matriarchy)\nthat side by side with the family, unions of unmarried men existed in\nmany countries at a very early time. The object of these unions, which\nhad nothing of the rigidity of blood-relationship, was fellowship. As\nsoon as the boys had outgrown the care of their mother they were\ncompelled to combine for the purpose of playing games and later on for\nwar and hunting; these men's unions therefore were the outcome of the\nnecessary conditions of life. It is obvious that innovations and\ninventions of all sorts originated in these unions rather than with the\ntemperamentally conservative women, and that we have to look upon them\nas the hotbed of all spiritual and social evolution. These\nconfederations and leagues not based on a natural or blood-relationship,\nbut on a feeling of brotherhood and friendliness, might well have been\nan attack upon the natural ties of the family, an expression of a\nfeeling of hostility to and contempt for women, and probably stood in\nclose relationship to a striking characteristic of the past: a widely\nspread homosexuality.\n\nWhether Schurtz gives us a correct picture of these men's unions or not,\nthere can be no doubt that the struggle against matriarchy originated in\nthem. This struggle led eventually to the victory of the male principle,\nthe acknowledgment of the authority of the father, the institution of\nmale government which deprived women of all legal rights, and the\ndominion of the spiritual; the victory of the gods of light over the\ndark lords of fertility. This revolution of principles was perhaps the\ncompletest revolution humanity has ever known.\n\nA long road, marked by numerous compromises and limitations, led from\ncasual intercourse to the final establishment of the monogamous system.\nFree intercourse had been sanctioned by the gods, who suffered no\nrestrictions and modifications, and sacrifices in the shape of a\ntemporary universal unfettering of instinct were required to pacify\ntheir anger and reconcile them to the new system. The first and most\nimportant of these compromises was the temple-prostitution practised by\nmany nations in Asia Minor, the Greek Archipelago, India and Babylonia.\nMany a girl gained in this way the marriage portion which enabled her\nlater on to find a husband, to whom she invariably remained strictly\nloyal. Thus all religious requirements were satisfied. At first this was\nan annually recurring rite, but gradually it became an isolated ceremony\nin the life of every female individual. \"In the place of the annual\nsurrender,\" says Priester, \"we now have a single act; the hetaerism of\nthe matrons is succeeded by the hetaerism of the maids; instead of being\npractised during marriage, it is practised in spinsterhood; the blind\nsurrender has given way to a yielding to certain individuals.\"...\n\nWith the growth of civilisation a few girls, the hierodules, were set\napart for the purpose of pacifying the offended deities and their act\nransomed the rest of the female citizens.\n\nIt was not on erotic grounds, but for political and social reasons that\nthe Greek introduced monogamy. The reason which weighed in the scales\nmore heavily than all others was the necessity for legitimate offspring.\nIt was natural that a man of property should desire a legitimate heir\nwho would inherit it on his death. The right of succession from father\nto son, incorporated later on in the Roman Right, originated during this\nperiod. But this was not the only advantage connected with the\npossession of a son: religion taught that after death the body required\nsacrificial food which could only be provided by the legitimate male\ndescendants of the deceased. (The same belief was held by the Indians\nand Eastern Asiatics.) In several Greek States marriage was compulsory\nand bachelors were fined. At the same time the contraction of a marriage\ndid not interfere with the personal freedom of the man; he was at\nliberty to go to the hetaerae for intellectual stimulation (unless he\nhappened to prefer the friends of his own sex) and to his slaves for the\npleasures of the senses. His wife, although she was not free, was\nrespected by him as the guardian of his hearth and children. There was\nbut one legal reason for divorce: sterility, which frustrated the object\nof matrimony. Conjugal love as we understand it did not exist; it is a\nfeeling which was entirely unknown to the ancients.\n\nWith the exception of the gradually weakening hold of religion on the\nimagination of the people towards the decline of the Roman Empire, no\nperceptible change occurred in the social life of the old world until\nthe dawn of the Middle Ages. To quote Otto Seeck: \"A wife had no other\ntask than to produce legitimate offspring; and yet she gave herself airs\nand graces, embittered her husband's life with her jealousy and bad\ntemper or, worse even, set all tongues wagging with her evil conduct. Is\nit to be wondered at that marriage was merely regarded as a duty to the\nState, and that a great number of men were not sufficiently patriotic to\ntake such a burden upon their shoulders?\"\n\nThus the victory of the male spiritual principle over universal sexual\nintercourse ushered in the second stage which checked the sexual impulse\nand directed it upon certain individuals, a distinction however, which\nbears no relation to love.\n\nMonogamy had conquered, in principle at least and as an ideal.\n\nThe profoundly mystical core of the most powerful Greek tragedy which\nhas come down to our time, the _Orestes_ of Aeschylus, represents the\nvictory of the new gods of light over the old maternal powers. Orestes\nhas sinned against the old law, for in order to avenge his father's\ndeath, he has slain his mother. The sun-god Apollo and the sinister\nErinnys, the upholders of the old maternal right, are waging war over\nthe justifiableness of the deed. To the Erinnys, matricide is the\nfoulest of all crimes, for man is more nearly related to the mother than\nto the father. But Apollo had commanded the deed, so that the father's\nmurder should not remain unavenged.\n\n     Not to the mother is the child indebted\n     For life; she tends and guards the kindling spark\n     The father lighted; she but holds his pledge.----\n\nhe explains. And the answer is the lament of the Erinnys:\n\n     Thus thou destroy'st the gods of ancient times!\n\nAthene, the virgin goddess, the motherless daughter of Zeus, appearing\nas mediator between the opponents, decides in favour of the new\ndispensation which places the father's claim above the mother's. Orestes\nis free of guilt; his deed was justifiable according to the canons of\nthe new law. The tragedy is the symbolical commemoration of the victory\nof the male principle in Greece. But Athene is the embodiment of the new\nhermaphroditic ideal of the Greek which stood in close connexion to\ntheir homosexuality, and with which I propose to deal later on.\n\nThere is a psychical law ordaining that nothing which has ever quickened\nthe soul of man shall be entirely lost. Were it not so, the storehouses\nof the soul would stand empty. New values are created, but the old\nverities endure; as a rule they are relegated to a lower sphere, to\ninferior social layers, but they persist and frequently merge into the\nnew. This law applies without exception to the relationship between the\nsexes; we shall come upon it again and again. During the second stage,\ncharacterised by the spiritual love foreign to the ancients, the purely\nsexual impulse continued as an unimpaired force, but it had lost its\nprestige and was not only regarded as ignoble and base, but also\nstigmatised as sinful and demoniacal. The hearts of men were stirred by\nnew ideals.\n\nA similar attitude, perhaps not quite so uncompromising because the\ncontrast was less pronounced, existed in classical Greece. The more\nhighly developed, self-conscious Hellenic genius, shrinking from\npromiscuous intercourse, had systematised the instinct and set up a new\nideal in Platonic love. But below the surface raged the unbridled\nnatural force, and in perfect harmony with the Greek spirit--it was not\nhysterically hidden, but assigned a place in the new system. Wrapped in\nthe obscurity of the Mysteries, concealed from the gaze of the new gods\nof light, it attempted to assuage its inextinguishable thirst. The\nMysteries were the annual tribute paid as a ransom by Apollo-worshipping\nHellas to chaotic Asia, so that she might be free to pursue her higher\npsycho-spiritual aims. The brilliant civilisation of Athens was based on\nthe dark cult of the Mysteries. On the festivals of the hermaphroditic\nDionysus and Demeter, which are identical with the cults of Adonis and\nMylitta, the impersonal, generative elements were worshipped. Thus,\nbelow the surface of the Greek State, founded on masculine values and\nattempting to restrict intercourse for the benefit of a more\nsystematised progeniture, flourished the orgiastic cult of the ancient\nEastern deities, who had vouchsafed to mortals a glimpse of the great\nsecret of life in the ardour of procreation and conception. The women\nupheld the religion of passion as an end in itself; bacchantes, men in\nfemale attire, emasculated priests, sacrificed to the blindly bountiful\ngods. We are told that Dionysus conquered even the Amazons and converted\nthem to his worship. Euripides described in the _Bacchantes_--the\nsubject of which is the war between the uncontrolled sexual impulse and\nthe new order of things--how Dionysus traversed all Asia and finally\narrived in Hellas accompanied by a crowd of abandoned women. But his\nreligion was more than a cult of wine and sensual pleasure, it embraced\na gentle worship of nature, throwing down the barrier between man and\nbeast--impassable by the spirit of civilisation--and lovingly including\nevery living creature. We read in the _Bacchantes_ that the women who\nhad fled from the town to follow the irresistible stranger, Dionysus,\ndwelled in the mountains, binding their hair with tame adders, carrying\nin their arms the cubs of wolves and the young deer, and feeding them\nwith the milk of their breasts; that milk and wine welled up when they\nstruck the earth with the thyrsus; and so on. Dionysus implores\nPentheus, the representative of the Hellenic masculine system, not to\nventure undisguised among the maenads: \"They'll murder you if they\ndivine your sex,\" and, knowing the secret of the male and female temper:\n\n      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  First let\n     His mind be clouded by a slight disorder\n     For, conscious of his manhood he will never\n     Wear women's garb; insane, he's sure to wear it.\n\nPentheus, recognising in Dionysus the foe of a more spiritual conception\nof the law, the _effeminate stranger_ who had driven the women to\nmadness, is torn to pieces by the frenzied bacchantes who fall upon him,\nled by Agave, his mother, and sacrificed to the _bull-god_ Dionysus. At\nthe conclusion of this strange and profound epos, Agave recovers her\nsenses and curses the acts which she has committed in her madness ...\nwomen submit to the new spiritual dispensation. We realise now why Hera,\nthe tutelary goddess of the newly introduced monogamous system, hated\nDionysus and attempted to kill him before he was born.\n\nThe subject treated in the beautiful myth of Orpheus is the\nrelationship between the primitive sexual impulse and its\nindividualisation on a single personality. For seven months Orpheus\nbewails the death of Eurydice and regards all other living creatures\nwith indifference. This loyalty offends and infuriates the women of\nThracia, who divine in it a spirit inimical to a life in harmony with\nnature. One night, during the celebration of the Dionysian rites, they\nattack the poet--the representative of the higher Hellenic poetical\nideals--and rend him limb from limb. But as the head of the murdered\nsinger floats down the river, the pale lips still frame the beloved\nname: Eurydice! It is certain that in those remote legendary days such\nlove did not exist. But the prophetic Greek spirit contrasted\npromiscuous intercourse with love for a single woman.\n\nSo far we have encountered only a general, not an individualised, sexual\ninstinct and, in a limited measure at least, a struggling tendency\ntowards individualisation. But even so it was merely a question of\ninstinct, and did not bear the least resemblance to love as we\nunderstand it to-day. _Love_ did not exist in the old world. I admit\nthat in the legend of Orpheus we are face to face with a sentiment which\nis not unlike modern love, but, as far as I am aware, this is an\nisolated case in Greek history, and may be regarded as a divination of\nsomething new, just as we find unmistakable anticipations of\nChristianity in Plato's writings. Such phenomena--the occasional\noccurrence of which I do not altogether deny, although I regard them as\non the whole improbable as far as the sphere of my research is\nconcerned--are not infrequently met with in history, but their effect\nupon civilisation was nil; they were presentiments, incomprehensible in\ntheir day, and for this very reason probably preserved as curiosities.\n\nIn spite of the fact, however, that in those far-off days spiritual love\nof a man for a woman was unknown, we find Plato contrasting \"a base and\ndegraded Eros with a divine Eros.\" Pausanias says in the \"Symposium\":\n\n\"The man who loves with his senses only, loves women and boys equally\nwell. He loves the body more than the soul.... His only striving is to\nobtain the object of his desire, and he cares not whether it be worthy\nor unworthy. The Eros he worships is the ally of that younger goddess in\nwhom male and female attributes are blended. But the other Eros is the\ncompanion of Aphrodite, Urania, the divine; unbegotten by a father,\nunconceived by a mother, she is the offspring of the male element, the\nelder one, unstained by passion.... The sensualist who loves the body\nmore than the soul is base. His love passes away like the object of his\npassion. But the companion of the Olympic goddess is the Eros who fills\nthe hearts of the lovers with the longing for virtue. The other Eros is\nthe confederate of the debased Aphrodite.\" And Aristophanes, another of\nthe participators in the feast, says: \"The yearning does not seem to be\na desire for the pleasures of the senses, the one taking delight in his\nintercourse with the other; far from it, it is obvious that each soul is\ncraving for something which it cannot express in words, but can only\ndivine and conjecture.\" And the mysterious Diotima revealed to Socrates\nan entirely novel principle in erotic life; the principle which guides\nman beyond the pleasures of the senses and--through love--leads him to\nthe divine. \"The slave of his senses runs after women; but he who loves\nwith his soul and strives to win immortality through virtue and wisdom,\nseeks a great and beautiful soul that he may surrender himself to it\ncompletely.\" But in the opinion of the classical ages, a beautiful soul\nwas only to be found in the body of a man; woman belonged to the lower,\nanimal spheres; she was destined for the pleasure of the senses and the\npropagation of the race. Plato's theory of ideas is the philosophical\nvictory of the male-spiritual principle over nature, matter and their\nwarden: woman. (Perhaps it is even the revenge of the Greek genius for\nman's original enslavement.) \"Love between men,\" continues the seer,\n\"forms a stronger tie, a closer friendship, than love between parents\nand children; it has a mutual share in children which are immortal and\nfar more beautiful than the children of men.\" She teaches Socrates that\nthis noble love is at the root of all the magnificent creations of the\nspirit, as carnal love is the origin of human life. \"Until he becomes\naware that the beauty of all bodies is closely related, a man must love\nan individual with all his heart. If a man will follow after beauty, he\nis foolish not to conceive the beauty of all bodies as one and the same.\nAs soon as he has learned this, he will become a lover of all beautiful\nforms; his fervent passion for one will diminish, he will scorn the\nindividual and hold it cheap.\"\n\nWith the Hellenic homosexuality an element foreign and even hostile to\nthe original and natural bi-sexual sensuality crept into the erotic life\nof the human race; it found its classical representation in the Platonic\ndialogues \"Symposium\" and \"Phaedros.\" In conscious opposition to all\nsexuality Platonic love (what is usually called Platonic love is based\non an obstinate misunderstanding) turns to the purely spiritual, that is\nto say, the conceptions of truth, beauty and goodness; it is a yearning\nfor the supernatural, and it knows itself as the path to it. In the\nmutual love of all noble souls lies the germ of all higher things; it is\nthe way to the gods of light which, in this connection, are conceived\nphilosophically as ideas, though in the true Hellenic spirit as\nobjective ideas, the prototypes and culminations of everything human. To\ngrasp the meaning of Platonic love it is essential to realise\nthat--unlike the spiritual woman-worship peculiar to the Middle\nAges--it is not a personal feeling of one individual for another;\nplatonically speaking, the love for an individual is only a first stage;\nthe path which leads to the love of beauty and the eternal ideas. The\ncharacteristic of this metaphysical love which Plato was the first to\nconceive, was therefore love for the universal, and not love for an\nindividual. The latter, as we shall find later on, is the characteristic\nof the true or, more modestly speaking, specifically European conception\nof love. Platonic love, finally, was the perception of perfection, the\nSocratic knowledge; its alpha and omega was not, as the mystic and true\nerotic would have it, its ardour and passion, the fulness of its own\nbeing. It had an alien purpose: the knowledge of things divine, by a\nlater period Christianised and understood as the divine mysteries. To\nPlato, the essence and climax of antique, ante-Christian culture, every\nindividual, even the beloved mistress, was but a preliminary, a\nfinger-post, pointing the way to the perception of perfect beauty. True\nvirtue is the outcome of profound knowledge; it transforms men into\ngods. The purely spiritual woman-worship of the Middle Ages was only\nanother aspect of this yearning to attain to virtue and perfection\nthrough the love of an individual. We must not lose sight of the fact\nthat it was already strongly emphasised and upheld in the Platonic ideal\nof love.\n\nIn the dark excesses of the Mysteries the beauty of the human form\ncounted for nothing; voluptuousness and intoxication ruled. In the\nAsiatic cult of the sexes there was no room for beauty, no time for\nselection. The Greeks were the discoverers of the beauty of the human\nform. Beauty kindled the flame of love in their souls, beauty was the\ngauge which determined their erotic values. Their ideal was a\n_kalokagathos_, a youth beautiful in body and soul.\n\nIn \"Phaedros\" Plato contrasts with far greater force than in the\n\"Symposium\" him \"who craves for sensual pleasure like the beasts in the\nfields\" with him \"who strives after beauty and perfection.\" To the\nlatter \"the face of the beloved is the reflection of the sublimely\nbeautiful.\" He would like to sacrifice to her, as to the immortal gods.\nAll beautiful bodies represent to him in an increasing measure the idea\nof the beauty of form, which again is subordinate to the beauty of the\nsoul. It points the way to metaphysical beauty, the eternal and\nimperishable idea of mankind. Socrates could scorn the beauty of the\nindividual because he saw in it merely an imperfect reflection of\nperfect beauty. In its truest sense Platonic love is, therefore,\nimpersonal; it is not spiritual love for a human being, but a peculiar\ncharacteristic of the Greek cult of beauty. We shall again meet this\nprinciple of beauty-worship in metaphysical love, the adoration of\nwoman; thanks to Plato, it has for all time become the inalienable\nproperty of the human mind. The striving to rise above all individualism\nwas another ideal which a later period revived. But the pivot round\nwhich the emotions revolved was the love for a beloved individual, the\nmodern, European, fundamental motive, as opposed to the antique Platonic\ncult of ideas. Thus Plato, too, was a citizen of the old world, at whose\nthreshold stood universal sexual intercourse, tolerating nothing\npersonal, knowing of no individuals, acknowledging only unchecked,\nuncontrollable instinct, and whose decline was again characterised by\nthe extreme impersonality of ideas. It had traversed the path of human\nexistence in a huge cycle. Starting from an unconscious existence in\ncomplete harmony with nature, it had passed through individualised man\nto the loftiest spiritual conceptions in the impersonal world of ideas.\n\nThe Hellenic ideal of beauty was almost invariably realised in the male\nform. The Greeks of the classical period disdained woman; she was for\nthem inseparably connected with base sensuality, but their contempt had\nits source partly in a feeling of horror. The days when matriarchy was\nthe form of government were not very remote; it survived in a great\nnumber of myths and also, subconsciously perhaps, in the soul of man. To\nthe Greek mind woman was the embodiment of the dark side of love, and it\nwas merely the logical conclusion of this conception when, at a later\nperiod, she was regarded as the devil's tool. It is certain that the\norigin of the idea must be sought in Plato's time.\n\nIn intercourse with women man dimly felt the vague elementary condition\nfrom which he had struggled hard to emerge, and fled to the more\nfamiliar companions of his own sex. Would not love between man and man\ndeliver him from the basely sensual, strengthen his spirituality and\nlead him to the gods? In this connection Zeus is called in \"Phaedros\"\n[Greek: philios], the maker of friendships. Plato, in propounding this\ndoctrine, drew thereby the most radical conclusion of the new,\napparently male, but at heart hermaphroditic ideal of civilisation,\nconceived in the heroic epoch and elaborated and brought to perfection\nby the Greek of classical times. This ideal was the victory of the\nspiritual principle over promiscuous sexuality and irresponsible\npropagation and, quite in the true Hellenic spirit, it was again\ninterpreted materially.\n\nBecause individualised love was an unknown quantity to the ancients,\nthey ornamented their sarcophagi with symbols of ecstatic life, with\ndancing and embracing fauns and maenads. Generations passed away, but\nnew ones arose, embracing and begetting life--for life was eternal.\nDeath was vanquished in the ecstasy of the nameless millions, for the\ntrue meaning of life lay in the preservation of the species. The death\nof the individual did not have a deep and poignant meaning until the\nsoul had become the centre and climax of life. An individual had passed\naway for ever--nothing could recall him. Death had become the final\nissue, the terror, because it destroyed the greatest of all things:\nself-conscious man. But love, too, had changed; it was no longer sexual\nimpulse, depending on the body and perishing with it, but a craving of\nthe soul, conscious of itself and stretching out feelers far beyond the\nearth. A new pang had come into the world, but also a new\nreconciliation.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECOND STAGE: LOVE\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE BIRTH OF EUROPE\n\n\nThe memory of the figure and preaching of Christ had so powerfully\ninfluenced the centuries that it had gradually permeated and transformed\nnot only the Platonic doctrine of ideas--that maturest fruit of Greek\nwisdom--but also the Semitic mediaeval monotheism. Something new had\nsprung into being, something which expressed a hitherto unknown feeling\nfor life and for humanity, vague and uncertain in the beginning, but\ngrowing in clearness and uniformity. On the throne of the Roman emperors\nsat a bishop, whose power was increasing with the development of the new\ncivilisation, and whom the final victory of the new transcendental\nworld-principle had made master of the world. The building up of this\nnew civilisation had absorbed the intellectual force of a thousand\nyears; it had monopolised thought and every form of energy. The reward\nwas great. For the first time in the annals of the world the\nquestionings of brooding intelligence were fully answered, the anguish\nof the tortured soul was stilled. The purpose of the universe, the\ndestiny of man, were comprehended and interpreted, good and evil being\nfinally known. At the close of the first Christian millenary, all moral\nand intellectual values were grouped round and dominated by one supreme\nideal; the loftiest value in this world and the next, side by side with\nthe greatest secular power, were in the hands of the Church; together\nwith the imperium she had succeeded to the spiritual and ethical\ninheritance of the dead civilisations. Without her uncouth barbarism\nreigned, and it was her task, while elaborating the system of the\nuniverse for which she stood, to teach and convert the new nations, to\nspread a uniform Christian civilisation.\n\nOn the mere face of it it must seem strange that a religion which had\ngrown on foreign soil, out of foreign spiritual assumptions, should have\nbeen accepted so readily and quickly by nations to whom it must have\nbeen alien and unintelligible. The love of war and valour of the\nTeutonic tribes and Christian asceticism were diametrically opposed\nideals, and very often their relationship was one of direct hostility. I\nneed only remind the reader of the contempt expressed for the chaplain\nby Hagen (in the \"Song of the Niebelungen\"). On the other hand, the\nancient Celtic and Teutonic races shared one profound characteristic\nwith the Christian world, the consequences of which were sufficiently\nfar-reaching to raise the religion of Christ to the religion of Europe.\nThe characteristic common to the still uncultivated European spirit and\nChristianity, and meaningless alike to the Asiatic barbarians, the Jews\nof the Old Testament and the Greeks, was the importance which both\nattached to the individual soul. Through the Christian religion this new\nintuition which saw in the soul of man the highest of values, became the\ncentre and pivot of life and faith--a position to which even Plato, to\nwhom the objective, metaphysical idea was the essential, never attained.\nIt had been the most personal experience of Christ, and centuries after\nhis death the nations rediscovered it as their highest value. It\nentitled Christianity to become the natural religion of Europe, and the\nsoul of its new system of civilisation. It formed the most complete\ncontrast to all Asiatic cults, Brahminism and Buddhism, a fact which,\nsince Schopenhauer, one is inclined to overlook. To the Indian, the soul\nof man is not an entity; his consciousness is a republic, as it were,\ncomposed of diverse spiritual principles and metaphysical forces which\nare not centralised into an \"I-centre,\" but exist impersonally, side by\nside. This may be a great conception, but it is foreign to the feeling\nof the citizen of Europe. To the latter the I, the soul, the\npersonality, is the pivot round which life turns. The evolution of the\nEuropean world-feeling is in the direction of the independent\ndevelopment of all psychical forces and their fusion into a unity of\never-increasing intimacy. New values will be created, but the fusing\npower of the soul will strive with growing intensity to co-ordinate and\nunify the internal and external life; personality will recreate the\nworld in conformity with its own purposes, that is to say, it will found\nthe system of objective civilisation. The incapacity of the Indian to\nproduce a civilisation perfect in every direction is explained by his\none-sided, morally-speculative thought. The world is to him nothing but\na moral phenomenon, he admits no other explanation; he seeks its true\nmeaning and the possibility of its salvation in the realisation of the\nvanity of life, not in the liberating deed, and not in the inward\nchange.\n\nThe kernel of matured and spiritualised Christianity, which reached its\napex in the German mystics, lies in the soul of man, eager to shed\neverything which is subjective and accidental, and become spirit,\nprofound, divine reality. Eckhart, the great perfecter of this European\nreligion, deliberately and in direct contradiction to the dogma of his\ntime, placed man above the \"highest angels,\" whom he considered subject\nto limitations; \"man,\" he argues, \"thanks to his freedom, is able to\nreach a goal to which no angel could aspire. For he is always new,\ninfinitely exalted above the limitations of the angels and all finite\nreason.\" Of the relationship between the soul and God he says; \"The soul\nof the righteous man shall be with God, his equal and compeer, no more\nand no less.\" The Upanishads, on the other hand, maintain that the core\nof the world is not to be found in the soul of the individual but in\nBrahma, the universal soul, outside whom there is no reality. \"The\nindividual soul is but a phantasm of the universal soul, as the\nreflection of the sun in the water is but a phantasm of the sun.\" The\nsole purpose of the world is the extinction of individual consciousness,\nits absorption in Brahma, the end of all suffering: \"When feeling has\nceased, pain must cease, too, and the world be delivered.\" The Indian\nlacks the central conception of love, for which he substitutes\nknowledge. Primitive Christianity conceived the connection between body\nand soul, the encumbering of the soul by the body, as it were, as a\ntemptation or a punishment; according to the Vedas, it is merely a\ndelusion to which the sage is not subject. Before his keen vision, the\ndeception falls to the ground, and by this very fact he is delivered. To\nthe feeling of Europe and Christianity, however, life and the universe\nare genuine, deep realities, the touchstone of the soul. Love is the\nsoul's greatest treasure and the only true path to God; knowledge can\nnever take its place. \"The divine stream of love flowing through the\nsoul,\" says Eckhart, \"carries the soul along with it to its origin, to\nthe bourne of all knowledge, to God.\"\n\nThe very general identification of the Christian and Indian mystics--a\nfact which is accounted for by their common metaphysical tendency--is\nbased on an error; Indian mysticism and Christian mysticism originated\nin different concepts; here the centre of all being is laid in love and\nin the soul of man, there it is contained in knowledge and in Brahma.\nBut ultimately, at the termination of the world-process, they will meet,\nalthough coming from different directions. \"While the soul worships a\nGod, realises a God and knows of a God,\" says Eckhart, \"it is separated\nfrom God. This is God's purpose, to annihilate Himself in the soul, so\nthat the soul, too, shall lose itself. For God has been called God by\nthe creatures.\" The words \"The soul creates God from within, is\nconnected with the divine and becomes divine itself,\" are highly\nsignificant. To the Vedantist the soul of man is an emanation from the\nworld-soul: \"Although God differs from the individual soul, the\nindividual soul does not differ from God.\" At this point it is no longer\nan easy matter to distinguish the feeling of the Christian mystic from\nthe feeling of the Brahmin; though their valuations of man, life and the\nworld differ, nay, are even opposed to each other, they finally meet in\nGod. We read in the Vedanta: \"The force which created and maintains the\nuniverse, the eternal principle of all being, dwells entirely and\nundividedly in every one of us. Our self is identical with the supreme\ndeity and only apparently differentiated from it. Whosoever has mastered\nthis truth has become at one with all creation; whosoever has not\nmastered it, is a stranger and a foe to all creatures.\"\n\nI do not intend to depreciate Indian wisdom; I merely desire to point\nout its inherent dissimilarity to Western thought; my task of laying\nhold of the spirit of Europe in its crises and watching its growth is\nbound to be advanced by this division.\n\nThe religious experience of Christ, based on the realisation of the\ndivine nature of the soul, and the road of the soul to God, has\nestablished the fundamental Western principle. A world-system was built\nup which emanated from the innermost depth of the individual soul and,\nvery consistently, related all existing things, heaven and earth, the\ncreation and the destruction of the world, salvation and perdition, to\nthe soul of man. This was achieved with the aid of a naive metaphysic,\ncreated by the Greek genius and externalised by the crude intellect of\nbarbarians; this metaphysic drew its whole content from a unique\nrevelation, and the essential was frequently hidden by dialectic and\nspeculation. One may safely say that the first millenary strove, if not\nexactly to set aside the original principle of Christianity, yet to bind\nit by dogma in such a way that it often became completely obscured. A\nlong training was necessary before the immature nations of barbarians\nwere fit to become citizens of the spiritual world, before they could\nfully assimilate the new traditions and grasp their innermost meaning,\nwhich by this very fact became altered and modified. This process of\neducation came to a temporary conclusion about the year 1100. At last\nthe European nations had outgrown the guardianship of the Church with\nits antiquated methods; a new, a creative epoch was dawning; the\ncivilisation of Europe, opposed to all barbarism and orientalism, rose\nlike a brilliant star on the horizon of the world. Spontaneous feeling\nfor the race, for nature and for the divine verities had again become\npossible.\n\nI shall have to exceed the limits of my subject in this chapter, for I\npropose showing the seeds from which, in the time of the Crusades, the\nnew soul of the European, throwing off the lethargy of the first\nChristian millenary, began to grow with extraordinary vigour and\nrapidity; that new soul which experienced a wider, if not deeper,\nunfolding in the period of the Renascence, and to this day pervades and\nfertilises our spiritual life. I might have been less digressive, but I\nhope that two reasons will justify my prolixity; the first is the great\nimportance of the subject from the point of view of a history of\ncivilisation, and the second and more particular one is its close inner\nrelationship to my principal theme. For, in complete contrast with the\nsexuality on which heretofore the relationship between husband and wife\nhad been based, a new feeling, that of spiritual love, had come into\nexistence and quickly reached its climax. Projected not only on the\nother sex, but also on God and on nature, it permeated the age and\nexplains its great and unprecedented manifestations: the spiritual love\nbetween man and woman (which deteriorated later on into the deification\nof woman), the new religion of the German mystics, the awakening\nappreciation of the beauty of nature, the sudden outburst of German\npoetry--no sooner born than it reached perfection--the specifically\nEuropean Gothic architecture, so completely independent of the old art.\nAll these new creations had their origin in the strange craving of the\nperiod for something novel and romantic, something hitherto unknown.\nThis longing begot the ideal of chivalry and a wealth of half human,\nhalf preter-human conceptions, such as the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy\nGrail. And all at once, something unprecedented, something of which the\nrace had as yet no experience, had come to pass: love, which had nothing\nin common with sensuality, which was even deliberately hostile to it,\nlove which welled up in one soul and flowed into the other--presupposing\npersonality--love was there! If, therefore, I have gone into detail, I\nhope that it has served to elucidate the principal theme of this part of\nmy book, namely, the spiritual part of man for woman aspiring to the\nmetaphysical, which is so alien to our modern feeling.\n\nIt is necessary to begin by sketching a background which shall set off\nthe new phenomenon. The spiritual achievement of the first millenary was\nthe construction of the Christian system of the universe the Church had\ncomplete knowledge of all things in heaven and earth--symbols merely of\nthe eternal verities; her wisdom almost equalled divine wisdom, for the\nsecrets of life and death had been revealed and surrendered to her; St.\nChrysostom's words uttered in the fourth century, \"The Church is God,\"\nhad become a fact. The profoundest wisdom, the greatest power, were\nhers; the loftiest ideal had been realised as it has never been realised\nbefore or since. As the wisdom of the Church had been a direct gift of\nGod, so her power, too, had divine origin and reached beyond this\nearthly life. The Church alone held the key to eternal bliss, her curse\nmeant everlasting damnation. To be excommunicated was to be bereaved of\ntemporal and eternal happiness. A man who had been excommunicated was\nworse off than a wild beast; he was surrendered to the devils in hell,\nand he knew it. There was but one road to salvation: to do penance and\nhumbly submit to the Church. This has been symbolised for all times by\nthe memorable submission of the Roman-German emperor, who stood for\nthree days, barefooted and fasting, in the snow in the courtyard of\nCanossa, before he was received back into the kingdom of God. The\nkingdom of God was synonymous with the Church; Jews and pagans were the\nnatural children of the devil, but the dissenter, the heretic who dared\nto question a single proposition of the divine system, or was bold\nenough to think on original lines--in other words in contradiction to\ntradition--voluntarily turned his back on God, and with seeing eyes went\ninto the kingdom of the devil. He was wholly evil, and no earthly\npunishment fitted his crime. The emperor Theodosius, as far back as A.D.\n380, had called such heretics \"insane and demented,\" and the burning of\ntheir bodies at the stake which prevented their souls from falling into\nthe hands of the devil, was looked upon as a great and undeserved mercy.\nBut not only during their lifetime, but after their death, too, the hand\nof the Church fell heavily on all those who had strayed beyond her pale;\ntheir bodies were dragged from their graves and thrown into the\ncarrion-pit. A man whom the Church had excommunicated was buried in the\ncemetery of a German convent. The Archbishop of Mayence ordered the\nexhumation of the body, threatening to interdict divine service in the\nconvent if his command were disobeyed. But the abbess, Hildegarde of\nBingen (1098-1179), a woman of great mental power and an inspired seer,\nopposed him. Having received a direct message from God, she wrote to the\nbishop as follows: \"Conforming to my custom, I looked up to the true\nlight, and God commanded me to withhold my consent to the exhumation of\nthe body, because He Himself took the dead man from the pale of the\nChurch, so that He might lead him to the beatitude of the blessed.... It\nwere better for me to fall into the hands of man than to disobey the\ncommand of my Lord.\" The saint had interpreted the will of God, and the\narchbishop, sanctioning a sudden rumour that the deceased had received\nabsolution at the eleventh hour, yielded. But the bishop's yielding by\nno means countenanced the belief that God might, for once, tolerate the\nbody of an excommunicate in sacred ground, far from it--the vision of\nthe abbess Hildegarde had merely served to correct an error.\n\nAll those who dared to oppose the clergy by word or deed were doomed to\neverlasting perdition--this was a fact which it were futile to doubt; at\nthe most, a man shrugged his shoulders at certain damnation for the sake\nof mundane pleasures--a rich legacy in the hour of death might save him.\nNot infrequently the fear of the devil was transformed into\nindifference, and sometimes even into demonolatry. A single ungodly\nthought might involve eternal death, and as many a man, more\nparticularly many a priest, realised his inability to live continuously\nin the presence of God, he surrendered his soul to the anti-god, not\nfrom a longing for the pleasures of the senses, but from despair. The\nworship of the devil, far from being an invention of fanatical monks,\nactually existed, and was often the last consolation of those who held\nthemselves forsaken by God. The hierarchy did not hesitate a moment to\nmake the utmost use or the power conferred upon them by the mental\nattitude of the people. The government of kings and princes, in addition\nto the ecclesiastical government, could only be a transient, sinful\ncondition; the time was bound to come when the pope would be king of the\nearth, and the great lords of the world his vassals, appointed by him to\nkeep the wicked world in check, and deposed by him if he found them\nincapable, worshippers of the devil, or disobedient to the Church. The\nwhole world was a hierarchy whose apex reached heaven and bore, as the\nrepresentative of its invisible summit, the pope. He stood, to quote\nInnocent III., \"in the middle, between God and humanity.\" The same great\npope has left us a document entitled _On the Contempt of the World_,\nwhich treats of the absolute futility of all things mundane. There is no\nreason to look upon the union of this unquenchable thirst for power and\ncomplete \"other-worldiness\" as a contradiction. The kingdom of God,\nAugustine's _Civitas Dei_, must of necessity be established that the\ndestiny of the world may be fulfilled. Every pope must account to God\nfor his share in the advancement of the only work which mattered, and\nthe greater the power the ruler of this world had acquired over the\nsouls of men, the more he trembled before God, weighed down by the\nburden of his enormous responsibility. \"The renunciation of the world in\nthe service of the world-ruling Church, the mastery of the world in the\nservice of renunciation, this was the problem and ideal of the middle\nages\" (Harnack). But not only the pope, every priest, as a direct member\nof the kingdom of God, was superior to the secular rulers. This was\ntaught emphatically by the great St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for instance,\nand Gregory VII., the wildest fanatic of the kingdom of God, said, in\nwriting to a German bishop: \"Who then who possesses even small knowledge\nand reasoning power, could hesitate to place the priests above the\nkings?\" Even the emperor Constantine, though he was still largely under\nthe sway of the imperial idea, distinctly acknowledged the bishops as\nhis masters; according to the legend he handed to the Bishop of Rome\nthe insignia of his power, sceptre, crown and cloak, and humbly held the\nbridle of the prelate's horse.\n\nThe theoretic backbone of this mental attitude was the doctrine of the\nFathers of the Church and the older scholasticism, pronouncing the\nillimitable power of human perception; the world's profoundest depths\nhad been fathomed, its riddle finally solved; there was consequently no\nroom for philosophy, the endless meditation on the meaning of the world\nand the destiny of man. Science had but one task: to bring logical proof\nof the revealed religious verities. The greatest champion of this view\nwas Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), who in his treatise, _Cur Deus\nHomo_ proved that God was compelled to become man in order to complete\nthe work of salvation. Abelard preached a similar doctrine, but carried\naway by the fervour of thought, arrived at conclusions which he was\nforced to recant ignominiously; for at the end of his chain of evidence\nhe did not always find the foregone conclusion which should have been\nthere. This system of a final and infallible knowledge of the world is\nthe very foundation of ecclesiastical government. The priest alone has\nall knowledge, for he has the doctrine of salvation. Had it occurred to\nany man to defend his own opinions in contradiction to the system of the\nChurch, that man would speedily have come to the conclusion that the\ndevil had tempted him to false observations, or false deductions, and\nhis submission to the Church would have been the outward sign of his\nvictory over the evil which had blinded his spiritual vision. A man had\nto choose between the worship of God and the worship of the devil, there\nwas no alternative. Nobody knew the limits of human knowledge;\neverybody, the learned ecclesiastic as well as the unlearned, plain man,\nbelieved others to be in possession of the key to profound secrets and\nunlimited power. One thing only was needful: to possess one's self of\nthe philosopher's stone; therefore the belief in witchcraft and the\nfear of certain men supposed to be endowed with supernatural power--the\npriests--were but the obvious results of a world-system, founded on a\nrevealed and exact religion.\n\nThe Latin poets, whose study would probably have counteracted the\nuniversal barbarism, were regarded as dangerous, the gods of antiquity\nbeing identified with the demons of the Scriptures. This view was\nresponsible for the loss of many a valuable manuscript. The favourite\nhaunts of the demons were the convents, originally designed as\nbattlefields on which the struggles with the demons were to be fought\nout, but frequently perishing in superstition and ignorance. Every monk\nhad visions of devils; miracles occurred continually; the torturing\nproblem was as to whether they were worked by God or the devil. Nature\nwas merely a collection of mystic symbols, divine--or perhaps\ndiabolical--allegories, whose meaning could be discovered by a correct\ninterpretation of the Bible. Everything which could possibly happen was\nrecorded in the Scriptures; they contained the true explanation of all\nthings. It was only a matter of selecting the right word and\ninterpreting it correctly, for every word was ambiguous and allegorical.\nEvery natural occurrence--an eclipse of the sun, a comet, or even a\nfire--stood for something else; it was the symbol of a spiritual event\nconcealed behind a phenomenon. The allegorical interpretation of the\nBible was carried to the point of abstruseness because every word was\nconsidered of necessity to have an unfathomably profound meaning. The\nfollowing amazing interpretation is by the highly-gifted German poet and\nmystic, Suso: \"Among the great number of Solomon's wives was a black\nwoman whom the king loved above all others. Now what does the Holy Ghost\nmean by this? The charming black woman in whom God delights more than in\nany other, is a man patiently bearing the trials which God sends him.\"\nAbelard's interpretation of the black woman is even worse; he maintained\nthat though she was black outside, her bones, that is her character,\nwere white. A really remarkable deed of bad taste was committed by the\nmonk, Matfre Ermengau, the author of the _Breviari d'Amor_, at a time\nwhen civilisation had already made considerable strides. He sent his\nsister a Christmas present, consisting of a honey-cake, mead, and a\nroast capon, accompanied by the following letter: \"The mead is the blood\nof Christ, the honey-cake and the capon are His body, which for our\nsalvation was baked and pierced at the Cross. The Holy Ghost baked the\ncake in the Virgin's womb, in which the sugar of His divinity\namalgamated with the dough of our humanity. In the Virgin's womb the\nHoly Ghost also spiced the mead and prepared it from wine; the spice is\ndivine virtue, the wine is human blood. In addition He caused the holy\ncapon to issue from the egg; the yolk of the egg is the deity, the white\nis humanity, the shell is the womb of the Virgin Mary ...,\" etc.\n\nThe religion of Christ was lost, man had become a stranger to his own\nsoul--celestial warnings, signs of the Judgment Day, daemonic\ntemptations, surrounded him, as far as he paid heed to anything\nsuper-sensuous on all sides. The French chronicler, Radulf Glaber (about\nA.D. 1000), might have been writing a satire on antiquity when he warned\nhis contemporaries of the demons lurking everywhere, but more especially\ndwelling in trees and fountains. Of a learned man who was studying the\nclassic poets, he said: \"This man, confused by the magic of evil\nspirits, had the impudence to propound doctrines contradictory to our\nholy faith. In his opinion everything the ancient poets had maintained\nwas true. Peter, the bishop of the town, condemned him as a heretic. At\nthat time there were many men in Italy believing this false doctrine;\nthey perished by the sword or at the stake.\" We have a letter, written\nat the same time by Gerbert, who later on became Pope Sylvester II., to\na friend, beseeching him to obtain for him manuscripts of the Latin\nphilosophers and poets. He wrote textbooks of astronomy, geometry and\nmedicine, and introduced the Arabic numbers and the decimal system into\nEurope. In consequence he, too, was accused of magic and intercourse\nwith Arabian pagans. A chronicler relates that he sold his soul to the\ndevil and became pope through the devil's agency; and that, when he was\non the point of death, he ordered his body to be cut to pieces so that\nthe devil should not carry it away.\n\nTo-day we find it difficult to realise such a state of mind. Every man\nof our period who takes the smallest interest in things spiritual--be he\nthe most orthodox ecclesiastic--at least knows that there are capable\npeople in the world whose opinions differ from his, who seek fresh\nknowledge; he knows it, even though he may pretend that they are people\nwho have gone astray and have been abandoned by God. No one can be\nentirely blind to the new values created by human intellect. But the men\nof the Middle Ages were swayed by a monstrous dualism, and despite their\nbelief in the illimitable power of human cognition, they unquestioningly\naccepted the sacred tradition and rejected the naive evidence of the\nsenses and intellect whenever it seemed to contradict the dogma. Thus\nmediaeval science did not represent what it represented in antiquity,\nand what it represents now, the study of the true relationship of\nthings, but rather the application of truths revealed once and for all.\nThere was nothing more to be discovered, and therefore scientists took a\ndelight in logical and dialectical speculations which to a man of our\nday seem senseless and childish. Far into the Renascence, natural\nhistory was a medley of ancient traditions, oriental fables and\nsuperficial observations. The strangest qualities were attributed to\nanimals with which we come almost daily into contact. The following\nquotations are culled from a Provencal book on zoology: \"The cricket is\nso pleased with its song that it forgets to feed and dies singing.\"\n\"When a snake catches sight of a nude man, it is so filled with fear\nthat it does not dare to look at him; but if the man is dressed, the\nsnake looks upon him as a weakling and springs upon him.\" \"The adder\nguards the balsam; if a man desires to steal the balsam, he must first\nsend the adder to sleep by playing on a musical instrument. But if the\nadder discovers that it is being duped, it closes one of its ears with\nits tail and rubs the other one against the ground until it is filled\nwith earth; then it cannot hear the music and remains awake.\" \"Of all\nanimals there is none so dangerous as the unicorn; it attacks everybody\nwith the horn which grows on the top of its head. But it takes such\ndelight in virgins that the hunters place a maiden on its trail. As soon\nas the unicorn sees the maiden, it lays its head into her lap and falls\nasleep, when it may easily be caught.\" Of the magnet we learn among\nother things that it restores peace between husband and wife, softens\nthe heart of all men and cures dropsy. \"If a magnet is made into a\npowder and burnt on charcoal in the four corners of the house, the\ninhabitants imagine that they cannot keep on their legs and run away,\nsorely affrighted; thieves frequently profit by this fact. If a magnet\nis placed under the pillow of a sleeping woman, she is compelled, if she\nis virtuous, to embrace her husband in her sleep; if she has betrayed\nhim, she will fall out of her bed with fear.\"\n\nAll this information was the common property of the period; Richard of\nBerbezilh, for instance, an \"aesthetic\" troubadour, tells us that--like\na still-born lion's cub which was only brought to life by the roaring of\nits dam--he was awakened to life by his mistress. (He does not say\nwhether it was by her roaring.) Conrad of Wuerzburg compares the Holy\nVirgin to a lioness who brings her dead cubs, _i.e._, mankind, to life\nwith loud roaring. Bartolome Zorgi, another troubadour of the same\nperiod, likens his lady to a snake, for--he explains--\"she flees from\nthe nude poet and her courage only returns with his clothes.\" During the\nwhole mediaeval period the unicorn was a well-known symbol of virginity,\nmore especially of the virginity of Mary. The _Golden Smithy_ of the\nGerman minnesinger, afterwards monk Conrad of Wuerzburg, contains a\nrather abstruse poem which begins:\n\n     The hunt began;\n     The heavenly unicorn\n     Was chased into the thicket\n     Of this alien world,\n     And sought, imperial maid,\n     Within thine arms a sanctuary.... etc.\n\nNatural history was in a parlous state, and geographical knowledge was\nequally spurious. The Church was averse to natural research, for the\nonly problem in the world was the salvation of man from everlasting\ndamnation. Not only Tertullian, but several Fathers of the Church,\nregarded physical research as superfluous and absurd, and even as\ngodless. \"What happiness shall be mine if I know where the Nile has its\nsource, or what the physicists fable of heaven?\" asked Lactantius. And,\n\"Should we not be regarded as insane if we pretended to have knowledge\nof matters of which we can know nothing? How much more, then, are they\nto be regarded as raving madmen who imagine that they know the secrets\nof nature, which will never be revealed to human inquisitiveness?\" Here\none is reminded of a remark made in \"Phaedros\" by _the wisest of all\nGreeks_, who refused to leave town because \"what could Socrates learn\nfrom trees and grass?\" And Julius Caesar wrote an account of his wars to\nwhile away the time when he was crossing the Alps.\n\nVery likely the system of the Church would have been less rigid had it\nnot largely been occupied in dealing with ignorant barbarians. In the\ncase of Celts and Teutons, a complete and unassailable form of dogmatics\nwith its corollary of hieratical intolerance was the only possible\nsystem. The traditions of these peoples were far too foreign to\nChristianity to allow Christian germs to flourish in their soil. And the\nnew nations, accepting what Rome offered to them, were completely\nunproductive in their adolescence. The achievement of this fatal first\nmillenary might be formulated as follows: \"The civilised world of\nWestern Europe was united under the government of the Church of Rome; on\nall nations it had been impressed in the same combination of words and\nsimiles that they were living in a sinful world; they knew when this\nworld had been created and when its Saviour had appeared; they knew that\nits end would come together with the bodily resurrection of the dead and\nthe terrible day of the Last Judgment; they knew that demons were\nlurking everywhere, seeking to destroy man's soul, and that the Church\nalone could save him. All these facts were as unalterable as the return\nof the seasons.\"\n\nThe fundamental sources of antiquity had been sensuality and asceticism,\nthe elements of the Middle Ages abstract thought and historical faith;\nnow emotion was to become the principal factor. It welled up in the soul\nand soon dominated all life. The fountain which had been dried up since\nthe dawn of the Christian era, began to flow again in a small country in\nthe south of France. The civilising centre had again shifted westwards,\nas in the past it had shifted from Asia to Greece, and from Greece to\nRome. In the course of the first thousand years Greece and Asia Minor\nhad separated themselves from Europe, and founded a distinct culture,\nthe Byzantine, which exerted no influence on the development of Europe.\nBut not even Italy, the scene of the older civilisation, was destined to\ngive birth to the new; maybe the memory of the antique, ante-Christian,\nperiod was too powerful here. Its cradle stood on virgin ground, in\nProvence, a country wrested from Celts and Teutons by the Roman eagles,\nploughed by the Roman spirit, preserving in some of its coast towns,\nnotably in Marsilia, the rich remains of Greek settlements, something of\nMoorish influence in race and language, and fusing all these\nheterogeneous elements into a splendid whole. But why this important\nspiritual centre should have been formed just here it is difficult to\nsay.\n\nFor the first time the system of ecclesiastical values was confronted by\nsomething novel, which was not--like the old Teutonic ideal of the\nperfect warrior--tainted by barbarism, but may be described as the\nsystem of mundane court values. This new ideal was not founded on an\nauthority which had to be accepted in good faith; it had its direct\norigin in the passionate yearning of the human soul. Man had\nre-discovered himself and become conscious of his personal creative\nforce. A very great thing had been accomplished; the seed which, slowly\ngathering strength, had lain in the soil for a thousand years, had at\nlast burst its husk, and was rapidly growing into the magnificent tree\nof the European civilisation. In silent opposition to the system of the\naccepted ecclesiastical values, the new ideal of _pretz e valor e\nbeutatz_ (worth and value and beauty), of _cavalaria_ and _cortezia_\n(chivalry and courtesy), was upheld in Provence. Four worldly virtues,\nwisdom, courtly manners, honesty and self-restraint, were contrasted\nwith the ecclesiastical cardinal virtues. The courts of the princes\nbecame centres of new life and art. The new spiritual-aesthetic concept\nof feasting and enjoyment transformed the former orgies of eating and\ndrinking. Woman, who had heretofore been excluded from male society, was\nall at once transferred to the very centre of being; for her sake men\ncontrolled their brutal tempers and exerted themselves to please by\ngood manners, taste and art. She, whom the Church had done everything to\ndepreciate, who had been denied a soul at the Council of Macon (in the\nsixth century), had become the very vessel of the soul; man looked up to\nher and bent his knee before the newly-created goddess.\n\nThe cultivation of the new courtly manner coincided with the nascent art\nof the troubadours. There was no gradual growth and development in the\nlatter; at the very outset it had reached perfection. The first\ntroubadour whose name has come down to us was Guillem of Poitiers, Duke\nof Aquitania (about 1100); great lords and barons gloried in the\nexercise of this new art. Every court boasted its poets, hospitably\nreceived and loaded with presents; the great ones of the earth were\nbeginning to exercise that patronage of art and letters which in the\nRenascence reached such extravagant proportions. Every distinguished\npoet employed salaried musicians, the joglars (jongleurs), who wandered\nfrom court to court, singing their masters' new songs. Others again, the\ncomtaires, related romances of love and adventure, gathering round them\na rapt throng of lords and ladies. Courtly manners and lofty principles\nquickly became the recognised ideal; the man who was satisfied with the\npleasures of the senses was held in contempt; the greatest reproach was\n\"vilania\"; in the \"Yvain\" of the French epic poet Chrestien de Troyes,\nthis universal feeling is thus expressed:\n\n     A courtier counts though he be dead,\n     More than a rustic stout and red.\n\nDante and his circle, as well as the best of the troubadours,\nsubstituted for the \"cortois\" of the superficial Chrestien the \"cor\ngentil,\" the noble heart, which they accounted more precious than rank\nand wealth and power. \"Wherever there is virtue there is nobility,\" says\nDante, \"but where there is nobility there need not necessarily be\nvirtue.\" A time had come when personal distinction was in every man's\ngrasp, no matter whether he was learned or unlearned, a nobleman or a\ncommoner. Certainly the commoner was never on an equality with the\naristocrat, partly because he was dependent on the largess of the great.\nEven Dante was compelled to seek princely patronage, and not until the\nRenascence do we hear of writers whose sarcastic tongues were so dreaded\nthat they became independent of charity.\n\nIn opposition to the monkish ideal of a contemplative life which had\nhitherto obtained, a new ideal, the ideal of the courtier's life, was\nupheld; ecclesiastical saintliness was contrasted with knightly honour.\nBeauty, which at the dawn of the Christian era had fallen into ill\nrepute and had become associated with unholy, and even diabolical,\npractices, had again come into its kingdom. Above everything it was the\nbeauty of woman which was re-discovered--or rather, in its new,\nspiritual sense, newly discovered--and claimed the enthusiasm and love\nof the best men of the period. After a thousand years of gloom and\nbrutality, joy and culture shed their radiance on a renewed world. The\nideal of chivalry bore very little resemblance to the old Teutonic ideal\nof the hero; the older ideal had been based entirely on the appreciation\nof physical strength; but chivalry was the disseminator of culture,\nleaving ecclesiastical culture, which hitherto had been synonymous with\ncivilisation, a very long way behind. \"Mezura,\" \"masze\" (the [Greek:\nmphstoes] of the Platonic Greeks) was the new criterion, as compared\nwith the barbarian's want of restraint.\n\nI do not propose to give a description of the life at the courts of\nProvence. The news of it travelled north, and everywhere roused a desire\nto imitate it. The need of a renewed life was powerfully stirring all\nhearts. Men yearned for beauty and spontaneity, for passionate life,\nunprecedented and romantic. This was especially the case in the north,\nin France and in Germany, and above all in Wales, the country of the\nimaginative and highly-gifted Celts. Here life was harder, poorer, more\nbarbaric; the cultured mind suffered more from its brutal surroundings\nthan it did in the favoured south. It was here that the great legends of\nthe Middle Ages, so clearly expressive of the yearning of the period,\nwere first collected. The early Middle Ages had produced epic poems,\ntreating scriptural subjects (such as the Harmony of the Gospels of the\nmonk Otfrit, written in the ninth century), and celebrating the exploits\nof popular heroes, as, for instance, the German Song of Hildebrand, and\nthe French \"Chansons de Geste,\" which contain episodes from the lives of\nCharlemagne and his nephew Roland. The true epic, arising from the rich\nand poetical Celtic tradition, came into existence in the eleventh\ncentury in the North of France and immediately burst into extraordinary\nluxuriance. The legends of the heroes of the dreamy Celtic race--King\nArthur and his knights, Merlin the magician, the knights of the Holy\nGrail--travelling across France, became the common property of the\ncivilised European nations, and filled all hearts with longing and\nfantastic dreams. Chrestien de Troyes, in his romances, extolled\nknightly exploits and the service of woman, thus producing by the\ncombination of the older and the newer ideals the novel of adventure\nwhich has fascinated the world for centuries. It is a mistake to believe\nthat Don Quixote has struck at the root of it; to this day the masses\nwax enthusiastic in reading of the doughty deeds of knights, the beauty\nof ladies and their unswerving, undying love.\n\nIn addition to the great and heroic subjects, there were lesser, more\nintimate, and frequently sentimental, romances, especially enjoyed and\nwidely circulated by the ladies. The baron, riding forth, left his young\nwife at home, shut up in her bower and surrounded by spies; sometimes\neven physically branded as his property. A prisoner behind bars, her\nimagination went out--not to the unloved husband who had married her for\nthe sake of her broad acres, and could send her back to her parents as\nsoon as he found a wealthier bride (he had but to maintain that she was\nrelated to him in the fifth degree and the Church was ready to annul the\nmarriage), not to him, her lord and master, but to the unknown knight,\nthe passionate lover, who would gladly give his life to win her. A\njongleur arrived with stories of the courts where love was the only\nruler; where the knights willingly suffered grief and want, if by so\ndoing they could serve their lady; where the lover, in the shape of a\nbeautiful blue bird, nightly slipped through the barred windows into the\narms of his mistress. But the jealous husband had drawn barbed wire\nacross the window, and the lover, flying away at dawn, bled to death\nbefore the eyes of his grief-stricken lady. The jongleur would tell of\nthe knight who had fallen passionately in love with a beautiful damsel\nof whom he had but caught a passing glimpse; month after month he worked\nat digging an underground passage; every night brought him a little\nnearer to her bower--she could distinctly hear the dull sounds of his\nburrowing--until at last he rose through the ground and took her into\nhis arms. These and similar tales, doubtless all of them of Celtic\norigin--preserved for us in the charming \"Lais\" of Marie de\nFrance--brought tears to the eyes of many a lonely wife and gave shape\nto her vague longing. There was no reason why a man, and a lover to\nboot, should not transform himself nightly into a blue bird. Those\nsimple stories in verse fulfilled every desire of the heart; imagination\nsupplied in the north what the south offered in abundant reality. But\nMarie de France, the first woman novelist of Europe (about the end of\nthe twelfth century), deserves to be remembered for another reason; she\nwas the first poet voicing woman's longing for love and\nromance--woman's adventure. The charming _Lai du Chevrefoile_ (\"The\nStory of the Honeysuckle\") relates an episode from the loves of Tristan\nand Isolde, the famous lovers, legendary even at that time. Tristan and\nIsolde, Lancelot and Guinevere, Fleur and Blanchefleur--these were the\nadmired and mythical lovers of whom the poets sang and dreamed. All the\nworld knew their adventures; all the world repeated them again and\nagain, reverently preserving the identical words and yet unconsciously\nremoulding them. At the recital of their loves, hand clasped hand; \"on\nthat day we read no more,\" confessed Dante's ill-fated lovers.\n\nThe longing, so characteristic of the North of Europe, to see the world\nand meet with adventures, was in Provence and Italy less pronounced.\nThese favoured climes possessed so many of the things dreamed of and\ndesired by other countries. Events, strange as fiction, actually\noccurred. Count Raimond of Roussillon, for instance, imprisoned his wife\nin a tower because the troubadour, Guillem of Cabestann, was in love\nwith and beloved by her. He waylaid the lover, killed him, cut his heart\nout of his breast and sent it, roasted, to his countess. When she had\npartaken of it, he showed her Guillem's head and asked her how she had\nenjoyed the dish. \"So much that no other food shall ever pass my lips,\"\nshe replied, casting herself out of the window. When the story spread\nabroad, the great nobles rose up in arms against Raimond, and even the\nKing of Aragon made war on him. He was caught and imprisoned for life,\nand his estates were confiscated. Guillem and the countess were buried\nin the church, and for a long time after men and women travelled long\ndistances to kneel at their grave. The charming poems of Melusine and\nthe beautiful Magelone, which to this day delight the reader, were\ncomposed during the same period.\n\nBefore the eleventh century poetry in the true sense of the word did not\nexist. There were only Latin Church hymns and legends, perverted\nreminiscences of antiquity, and, in the vulgar tongue, legends of the\nsaints and simple dancing-songs for the amusement of the lower classes.\nThanks to the relentless war which the clergy waged against them, a few\nonly have been preserved. There can be no doubt that Provence was the\nbirthplace of European poetry. The \"sweet language\" of Provence was the\nfirst to reach perfection and perfect maturity. It drove the language of\nthe German conquerors eastwards and prepared the ground for the French\ntongue.\n\nThe beginning of the twelfth century saw the birth of the poetry of the\ntroubadours, which possessed from the first in great perfection\neverything that distinguishes modern lyric poetry from the antique.\nInstead of the syllable-measuring quantity, we now have the emphasising\naccent; the rhyme, one of the most important lyrical contrivances--and\nin its near approach to music the most striking characteristic of modern\nlyrical poetry as compared with the antique--reaches perfection together\nwith the complete, evenly-recurring verse which is still to-day peculiar\nto lyrical art. The poems of many of the troubadours pulsate with\npassionate life, and bear no trace of the traditional or the\nconventional. The martial songs of Bertrand de Born stride along with a\nrhythm reminiscent of the clanking of iron. I quote the first verse of\none of these:\n\n     Le coms m'a mandat e mogut\n     Per N'Arramon Luc d'Esparro,\n     Qu'eu fassa per lui tal chanso,\n     On sian trenchat mil escut,\n     Elm e ausberc e alcoto\n     E perponh faussat e romput.\n\n     The count he sent to me one day\n     Sir Arramon Luc d'Esparro;\n     A song I was to make him--so\n     That thousand shields with ring and stay\n     And mail and armour of the foe\n     To fragments shivered in dismay.\n\nThe poetry of the Provencal troubadours had already passed its prime\nwhen, in the other European countries, lyric art was still in its\ninfancy. The crusade against the Albigenses (1209), undertaken by\nGregory VII. with the object of killing the new spirit and the new\nsecular civilisation, drove many troubadours to Italy, among others the\nfamous Sordello, who is mentioned in Dante's _Divine Comedy_. Others\nwent to Sicily, to the court of the art-loving Emperor, Frederick II.,\nwhere a distinct, but not very original, poetic art arose. In Italy the\nperfection of mediaeval poetry was reached in the \"sweet, new style\"\nimmortalised by Dante. But not only the great Italians, the trouveres\nfrom the North of France also, and--to some extent--the German\nminnesingers, were influenced by the art, and above all, the ideals\nwhich had originated in Provence. The poetry of the earliest Rhenish and\nAustrian minnesingers closely follows German folklore, and the songs of\nDietmar of Aist and others are still quite innocent of any trace of\nneo-Latin characteristics. But very soon the technical perfection of the\nProvencal poetry and the Provencal ideal of courtesy and love, famous\nall over Europe, strongly influenced the German mind.\n\nThe new poetry and the ideal of chivalry and the service of woman were\nthe first independent developments able to hold their own by the side of\necclesiastical culture. The rigid Latin was superseded; the soul of man\nsang in its own language of the return of spring, the beauty of woman,\nknighthood and adventure. Poetry became the most important source of\nsecular education, and as each nation sang in its own tongue, national\ncharacteristics shone out through the individuality of the singer.\nProvencals, Frenchmen, Germans and Italians realised that they belonged\nto different races. This was particularly the case during the Crusades\nwhen, under the auspices of the Church, the nations of Europe had\napparently undertaken a common task.\n\nIn Provence, in France and Germany, every poem was set to music, and\nthus, simultaneously with the lyrical art, secular music was evolved.\nJ.B. Beck, the greatest authority on the music of the troubadours,--the\nmusic of the minnesingers has been studied very little,--says, \"The\npoetry of the troubadours and trouveres represents in its totality a\ncollection of songs which in their frequently amazing naivete and\nmelodiousness, their spontaneity and sound music, intimate congruity of\nmelody and text and extraordinary originality, have been unparalleled to\nthis day.\" All these songs are distinguished by graceful simplicity; but\nthe ear of the non-musician can hardly perceive the originality on which\nBeck lays such stress. In any case, the music is inferior to the\nfrequently perfect text. This same period saw the inception of our\npresent system of musical notation.\n\nThe new poetry created a desire for \"literature,\" thus giving impetus to\nthe already existent art of illuminated manuscripts. Every prince kept a\nsalaried army of copyists and illuminators, producing the manuscripts\nto-day preserved and studied in our museums. Studios where this work was\ncarried on existed at various art centres, especially--as far as we are\nable to tell to-day--at the papal courts at Avignon--that meeting-ground\nof French and Italian artists--in Paris and at Rheims. These workshops\nwere the birthplace of miniature painting, which reached perfection in\nthe famous Burgundian \"Livres d'Heures.\"\n\nTo-day the science of aesthetics is attempting to trace the influence\nwhich emanated from the French and even from the earlier English\nworkshops, and spread over the whole continent. It is very probable that\nthe French art of miniature painting of the first half of the thirteenth\ncentury was mother of the later North-European art of painting. It was\nin Northern Europe that, independently of Hellenic and Byzantine\ninfluence, a new art originated, of which Max Dvorak says: \"It would\nhardly be possible to find an external cause for the quick and complete\ndisappearance of the elements of the Neo-Latin art. The past was simply\ndone with, and an absolutely new period was beginning. Thus the new art\nwas almost without any tradition.\" Dvorak calls this complete change the\nmost important in the history of painting since antiquity. George, Count\nVitzthum, has proved that the famous Cologne school of painting modelled\nitself on Northern-French, Belgian, and a quite independent English\nschool of illuminators. It is even suggested that the English style of\nminiature painting influenced Europe as far as the Upper Rhine. It is\nalso very significant that the Dutch art of the brothers van Eyck, whose\nsudden appearance seemed so inexplicable, is now proved to have had its\nsource in the North of France. On the other hand, we have drawings of\nthree ecstatic nuns showing decided originality; Hildegarde of Bingen,\nalready mentioned on a previous occasion, has herself ornamented her\nbook, _Scivias_, with miniatures which, according to Haseloff, in spite\nof their primitive style, reveal a bizarre plastic talent, and are\ntherefore closely related to her intuitions. Alfred Peltzer speaks of\n\"fantastic figures surrounded by flames.\" The two other nuns were\nElizabeth of Schoenau, and Herrad of Landsberg; these two were entirely\nunder the influence of the dawning mysticism.\n\nI will here quote a few more passages from Dvorak, who, in dealing with\nthe individual arts, does not lose sight of the whole. \"Simultaneously\nwith a new literature,\" he says, \"we have a new art of illustration, new\nminiatures, no longer drawing inspiration from antiquity.... We meet the\nnew style in its full perfection wherever it is a matter of a new\ntechnique (in the art of staining glass, for instance, or of\nillustrating profane literature)....\" He speaks of a new decoration of\nmanuscripts invented in Paris in the first half of the thirteenth\ncentury. Thus the close and causal connection between the new poetry\nand the illumination of books is clearly apparent, and it may be said\nwithout exaggeration that the Provencal lyric poetry and the\nNorth-French and Celtic cycles of romance led up to the new European\nstyle of painting which did not come to perfection until two centuries\nlater. (Nothing positive can be said about the influence of France on\nItalian art; the monumental character and the art of Cimabue, Giotto and\nthe Sienese does not, however, suggest that they were much influenced by\nthe art of miniature painting, but rather hints that they drew\ninspiration from antique frescoes.)\n\nI must add a few words on the subject of those miniatures which are not\neasily accessible to the layman, but reproductions of which are\nfrequently met with in books on the history of art. In addition to\nreligious subjects, the whole courtly company which lives and breathes\nin the legends of the Round Table, kings and knights, poets, minstrels,\nand fair damsels, hawking, jousting, banqueting and playing chess,\neverything which stirred the poet's imagination, is depicted. The spirit\nof the romances which in modern times enchanted the English\nPre-Raphaelites, six centuries ago provided food and stimulus to the\nindustrious illuminators whose names have long been forgotten.\n\nIf the art of miniature painting never rose--excepting in its wider\nconsequences--to universal significance, mediaeval architecture stands\nbefore our eyes magnificent as on the first day. Until the middle of the\ntwelfth century the monumental structures of Europe were directly\ninfluenced by the later Hellenic civilisation. The Byzantine basilica\nwas slowly transformed into the Neo-Latin house, and thus, in this\nimportant domain also, Europe drew her inspirations from antiquity. But\nonly the ground-plan of the Gothic cathedral, that is to say, the idea\nof a nave with side-aisles, was traditional and borrowed from Neo-Latin\nmodels. From this invisible ground-plan rose something absolutely\noriginal and autochthonic. This new, specifically Central-European style\nof architecture was developed on soil where there were no antique\nbuildings to stem the new life with their overwhelming domination, and\nto bar the way of artistic inspiration with their ominous \"I am\nperfection!\" In every branch of art antiquity had proved itself a foe,\nuntil at last the Renascence was sufficiently mature to assimilate and\novercome the antique inheritance so completely that it became an\nexcellent fertiliser for the new art. The essence of the Gothic style is\nthe dissolution of all that is heavy and material--the victory of spirit\nover matter. Walls were broken up into pillars and soaring arcades;\nmonotonous facework was tolerated less and less, and every available\ninch was moulded into a living semblance. The result may be studied in\nthe incomparable facades of many of the cathedrals in the North of\nFrance; and in tower-pieces almost vibrating with life and passion such\nas that of St. Stephen's in Vienna. The conflict between matter and pure\nform is settled--for the first and only time--in Gothic architecture.\nThe Greek temple with its correct proportions possessed no more than\nperfection of form without spiritual admixture; it was perfect as marble\nstatues, which are an end in themselves, and do not point the way to\nspiritual truths. Gothic architecture is probably unique in its blending\nof aesthetic perfection of form and infinite spiritual wealth; in the\nfusion of these two elements in a higher intuition. It is the balance of\nthe two characteristics of genius, inexhaustible wealth and the striving\nfor harmonious expression. It marked the first powerful working of the\nTeutonic spirit on the world; its metaphysical yearning together with a\ngenuine love of nature, found in this art its own peculiar traditionless\nexpression, just as it found expression in the newly-evolved mysticism\nwhich no longer re-echoed Aristotle and his commentators, but drew\ninspiration from its own intuition. For this reason Gothic architecture\nnever became acclimatised in Italy. The soaring tower, more especially,\nnever appealed to the Italian architect.\n\nOrnamentation and capitals, previously a combination of geometrical\nfigures, which may have been architecturally great and imposing, but was\nalways more or less formal and rigid, disappeared; the new masters,\nwhose names have been forgotten, looked round them and drew inspiration\nfrom nature. The forest trees of Central Europe became pillars; grouped\ntogether, apparently haphazard, they reflected a mystical nature pulsing\nwith mysterious life. Spreading and ramifying, growing together in an\nimpenetrable network of foliage, they bore buds, leaves and fruits.\nEvery pinnacle became a sprig, even the pendant icicles reappeared in\nthe gable-boards. But the assimilation of natural objects did not cease\nthere; tiny animals, light as a feather, run over the tendrils, lizards,\nbirds, even the gnomes of German mythology, find their way into the\nGothic cathedral. Not the traditional Greek acanthus leaf, but the\nfoliage of the North-European oak grows under the hands of the sculptor.\nEven the cross is twisted into a flower; the sacro-sanct symbol of the\nChristian religion is newly conceived, newly interpreted and moulded so\nthat it may have a place. The Gothic cathedral with its soaring arches\nfree from all heaviness is the perfect expression of that cosmic feeling\nthat inspired Eckhart and reached its artistic perfection in Dante.\n\nBut the soul of the mystic in stone contains the same elements as the\nsoul of Eckhart, who was also a schoolman. The confused and complex\nscholastic world of ideas which corresponded so well with the mediaeval\ntemper and, together with the new art, had emanated from Paris, is\nclosely akin to Gothic architecture. For the Gothic style and\nscholastic thought share the characteristics of the infinitely\nconstructive and infinitely cleft, the infinitely subtle and\nornamental--perhaps the last trace of the spirit of the north as\ncompared with the simplicity of the south.\n\nAs if from fertile soil, a world of sculptured men and beasts sprang\nfrom the facades of the new cathedrals. The figures on the cathedrals of\nNaumburg, Strassburg, Rheims, Amiens and Chartres are far superior to\nthe artistic achievements of the dawning renascence in Italy. They are\nreal men, full of life and passion, no longer symbols of the\ntranscendental glory of the world beyond the grave. \"All rigidity had\nmelted, everything which had been stiff and hard had become supple; the\nemotion of the soul flows through every curve and line; the set faces of\nthe statues are illuminated by a smile which seems to come from within,\nthe afterglow of inward bliss\" (Worringer).\n\nA longing went through the world, stimulating faith in miracles and a\ndesire for adventure, a longing which no soul could resist. Nothing\ncertain was known of countries fifty miles distant; the traveller must\nbe prepared for the most amazing events. No one knew what fate awaited\nhim behind yonder blue mountains. The existence of natural laws was\nundreamt of; there was no improbability in dragons or lions possessing\npower of speech. A period incapable of distinguishing between the\nnatural and supernatural will always indulge in those fancies which are\nbest suited to its temper. Be the native country never so poor, the long\ndarkness and cold of the winter never so hard to bear, far away in the\nEast, or in Camelot, the kingdom of King Arthur, life was full of beauty\nand sunshine. The legends of King Arthur powerfully affected the\nimagination; they were read, secretly and surreptitiously, in all\nconvents; on a sultry summer afternoon, during the learned discussion of\ntheir preceptor, one after another of the pupils would fall asleep; the\npreceptor, suddenly interrupting himself, would continue after a short\npause: \"And now I will tell you of King Arthur,\" and all eyes would\nsparkle as the pupils listened with rapt attention. Francis of Assisi\ncalled one of his disciples \"a knight of his Round Table,\" and three\nhundred years later Don Quixote lost his reason over the study of those\nlegends; some of the finest works of art of the present time, Wagner's\n\"Lohengrin,\" \"Tristan and Isolde,\" and \"Parsifal,\" take their subject\nfrom the inexhaustible treasure of the Celtic epic cycle. The longing\nfor experience and adventure had laid hold of the imagination to an\nextraordinary degree. The recital of wondrous adventures no longer\nsatisfied the listener; he yearned to participate in them. The young\nknight, trained in athletics and courtesy, and possessing a little\nknowledge of biblical history, left his father's castle to face the\nunknown world. There was a sanctuary, mysterious, almost supernal,\ncarefully guarded in the dense forest of an inaccessible mountain. A\nknight whose heart was pure, and who had dedicated himself to the\nlifelong service of the divine, could find it; but he would have to\nwander for many years, through forests and glens and strange countries,\nalone and solitary, before his eyes would behold the most sacred relic\nin the world, the Holy Grail.\n\nThe time was ripe for a great event, a universal and overwhelming\nenterprise which could absorb the passionate longing. Maybe that the\nwisdom of the great popes--half unconsciously, certainly, and under the\npressure of the age, but yet led by an unerring instinct--guided this\nstream into the bed of the Church; the vague craving found a definite\nobject: the Crusades were organised. The Holy Sepulchre, the most sacred\nspot on earth, was in the hands of the heathens; it was despised and\ndefiled--what greater thing could a man do than hasten to its rescue\nand wrest it from the grasp of pagans, giants and sorcerers? In the\nfantastic imagination of the men of that period the Lord's sepulchre was\nnothing but the earthly realisation of their yearning for the Holy\nGrail.\n\nAs far back as A.D. 1000 Gerbert had sent messengers to all nations,\nexhorting them to hoist their banners and march with him to the Holy\nLand. It had been prophesied that he should be the first to read Mass in\nJerusalem; a few ships were actually equipped at Pisa--the first attempt\nat a Crusade. But at that time Europe was not yet quite prepared for the\nextraordinary, almost incomprehensible, enterprise--the conquest of a\ncountry which hardly anybody had ever seen and in which nobody had any\npractical interest. Before such an enterprise could be carried out all\nhearts must be filled by that uncontrollable and yet vague longing, so\ncharacteristic of the great period of fantasy. The suggestion that the\nwealth of the East, exciting the greed of the western nations, led to\nthe Crusades, is an absolutely indefensible idea. Doubtless, rumours of\nthe fabulous treasure of the Orient had stirred the imagination of\nEurope, appealing far less, however, to the cupidity of the individual\nthan to his desire for something strange, new and incredible. It was\nimpossible to foresee the result of the first Crusade; the crusader went\nto a strange land in order to fight--the return was in God's hand. There\nhave been at all times men coveting wealth, but to make such men the\ninstigators and organisers of the Crusades is a deliberate attempt to\nrepresent a characteristic and unique event in the history of the world\nin the light of a commonplace and every-day occurrence. In the first\nenchanted wood a man might chance upon a beautiful princess sitting\nbeside a fountain, nude and weeping; but it was equally possible that a\ngiant would rush upon the Christian knight, break his shield and exact\nheavy penalties. It was possible to win the kingdom of a sultan or\nemir--it could be achieved by bravery and in a duel--and become a great\nking, for a king in those days was no more than a large landed\nproprietor. Such dreams were actually fulfilled in the most\nextraordinary way. Gottfried of Bouillon, a poor Alsatian knight, might\nhave become King of Jerusalem, had he not refused to wear a crown of\ngold in a land where his Saviour had worn a crown of thorns, and\ncontented himself with the title of \"Protector of the Holy Land.\"\n\nThe embattled citadel of Jerusalem, like the Holy Grail, was pictured as\nbeing situated outside the world. _There_ the longing which had become\nso vast that it had outgrown the earth, would be stilled. A direct way\nmust lead from Jerusalem, the centre of the earth--it still takes this\nposition in Dante's _Divine Comedy_--to Paradise. Was it not the spot\nwhere the Cross of the Saviour had been raised? Had not once before\nheaven opened above the city to receive His risen body? Was it not the\nscene of countless miracles in the past? Why should it be different now?\nMen knew practically nothing of Palestine; they had in their minds a\nfantastic picture tallying, in every respect, with Biblical accounts;\ndoubtless, the footprints of the Redeemer could easily be traced\neverywhere; the possession of the country promised the fulfilment of\ntranscendental dreams.\n\nThe impulse and the strength necessary for the organisation of the\nCrusades were spiritual phenomena inherently foreign and even hostile to\nthe Church; but thanks to the mental superiority of the popes of that\nperiod, and the overpowering conception of a divine kingdom, they became\nthe instruments of the greatest triumphs vouchsafed to the Church of\nRome. The hosts, driven across the sea by inner restlessness and\nill-defined longing, in reality fought for the aggrandisement of the\nChurch. The great Hildebrand resolved to lead all Christendom to\nJerusalem, to found on the site of the Holy Sepulchre the divine\nkingdom preached by St. Augustine, and invest--a risen Christ--the\nemperor and all the kings of the earth with their kingdoms.\n\nThe crusader and the knight in quest of the Holy Grail present together\na paradoxical combination of the Christian-ecclesiastical and the\nmundane-chivalric spirit, which is quite in harmony with the spirit of\nthe age. These two worlds, inward strangers, formed--in the Order of the\nKnight-Templars, for instance--a union which, while possessing all the\nexternal symbols of chivalry, attributed to it heterogeneous,\necclesiastical motives; the glory of battle and victory, the caprice of\na beautiful damsel, were no longer to become the mainsprings of doughty\nexploits; henceforth the knight fought solely for the glory of God and\nthe victory of Christianity. In addition to King Arthur's knights, the\nclassical Middle Ages worshipped the ideal of these priestly warriors\nwho waded through streams of blood to kneel humbly at the grave of the\nSaviour, of those seekers of the Holy Grail who dedicated themselves to\na metaphysical task. King Arthur's Round Table served the actual orders\nof knighthood as a model. Not only the Franciscans of Italy, but also\nslow, German mystics, such as Suso and the profound Johannes Tauler,\ndelighted in borrowing their similes and metaphors from knighthood.\nTauler speaks of the \"scarlet knightly robes\" which Christ received for\nHis \"knightly devotion\": \"And by His chivalric exploits he won those\nknightly weapons which he wears before the Father and the angelic\nknighthood. Therefore Christ exults when His knights elect also to put\non such knightly garments ...,\" etc.\n\nNot infrequently the Saracens behaved far more generously than the\nChristian armies. A German chronicler, Albert von Stade, tells us that\nA.D. 1221 \"the Sultan of Egypt of his own free will restored the Lord's\nCross, permitted the Christians to leave Egypt with all their\nbelongings, and commanded all prisoners to be set free, so that at that\ntime 30,000 captives were released. He also commanded his subjects to\nsell food to the rich and give alms to the poor and the sick.\"\nOccasionally the pope entered into an alliance with the enemies of\nChristendom against the emperor, if the latter proved troublesome. A.D.\n1246 the Sultan of Egypt (Malek as Saleh Ejul) taught Innocent IV., the\nspeaker of all Christendom, the judge of the Christian peoples, the\nfollowing lesson: \"It is not befitting to us,\" he wrote to him, \"that we\nshould make a treaty with the Christians without the counsel and consent\nof the emperor. And we have written to our ambassador at the court of\nthe emperor, informing him of what has been proposed to us by the Pope's\nnuncio, including your message and suggestions.\"\n\nThe most pathetic symptom of the restlessness of the age was the\nChildren's Crusade in 1212, which, even at its actual occurrence, caused\nhelpless amazement. The reports of two German chroniclers are\nsufficiently interesting to be quoted verbally: \"In the same year\nhappened a very strange thing, a thing which was all the more strange\nbecause it was unheard of since the creation of the world. At Easter and\nWhitsuntide many thousands of boys from Franconia and Teutonia, from six\nyears upwards, took the Cross without any external inducement or\npreaching, and against the wish of their parents and relations, who\nsought to restrain them. Some left the plough which they had been\nguiding, others abandoned their flocks, or any other task which they had\nbeen set to do, banded together, and with hoisted banner began to march\nto Jerusalem, in batches of twenty, fifty and a hundred. Many people\nenquired of them at whose counsel and admonishment they were undertaking\nthis journey, (for it was not many years ago that many kings, a great\nnumber of princes and countless people had travelled to the Holy Land,\nstrongly armed, and had returned home without having accomplished their\ndesire,) telling them that in their tender years they had not yet\nsufficient strength to achieve anything, and that therefore this thing\nwas foolish and undertaken without due consideration; the children\nanswered briefly that they were obeying God's will, and would willingly\nand gladly suffer all the trials He would send them. And they went their\nway, some turning back at Mayence, others at Piacenza, and others at\nRome; a small number arrived at Marseilles, but whether they crossed the\nsea or not, and what happened to them, no one knows; only that much is\ncertain, that of all the thousands who went forth, only very few\nreturned.\" Another chronicler wrote: \"And at this time boys without a\nleader or guide, left the towns and villages of all countries, eagerly\njourneying to the lands across the sea, and when asked whither they were\nwending, they replied: 'To Jerusalem, to the Holy Land.' Many of them\nwere kept by their parents behind locked doors, but they burst open the\ndoors, broke through the walls and escaped. When the Pope heard of these\nthings he sighed heavily and said: 'These children shame us, for they\nhasten to the recovery of the Holy Land while we sleep.' No one knows\nhow far they went and what became of them. But many returned, and when\nthey were asked the reason of their expedition, they said they knew not.\nAt the same time nude women were seen hurrying through towns and\nvillages, speaking no word.\"\n\nIf it had not been for the Crusades, something else must have happened\nto relieve the unbearable tension. The world was longing for a great\ndeed, a deed overstepping the border-line of metaphysics, and its\nenthusiasm was sufficient guarantee of achievement. In the case of the\nindividual, vanity and boastfulness played no mean part. Thus the\nAustrian minnesinger, Ulrich of Lichtenstein, proposed taking the Cross\n\"not to serve God but to please his mistress.\" It is quite probable,\nthough not historically proved, that this veritable Don Quixote dreamed\nof decorating the Holy Sepulchre with his lady's handkerchief, but in\nthe end he remained at home. A journey to foreign lands, to return after\nyears of yearning for the beloved, her loyalty, or her treachery,\nsupplied the romantic imagination of the age with endless material. The\nstory of the Count von Gleichen and his two wives is famous to this day.\nA charming Provencal song tells of a maid who, day after day, sat by a\nfountain weeping for her lover. At this spot they had bidden farewell to\neach other, and here she was awaiting his return. One day a pilgrim\narrived, and she at once asked for news of her knight. The pilgrim knew\nhim and had a message for her. After a short conversation he threw back\nhis cowl and drew the delighted maiden into his arms, for it was he\nhimself, her lover, who after many years of absence had returned and was\nfirst visiting the spot where, years ago, he had said good-bye to her.\n\nBut there was another motive, a religious one, which, joined to the\nuniversal lust of adventure, dominated the whole mediaeval period to an\nextraordinary degree; that motive was the idea of doing penance\nand--after all the failures of life--returning to God. The Crusades\noffered an opportunity for combining one's heart's desire with this\nspiritual need. Of all good works there were none more pleasing to God,\nand every participator was promised forgiveness of his sins. In the\ntroubadours' songs of the crusaders there is a strong yearning for\npenance and sanctification, quite independent of the idea of the\ndelivery of the Holy Sepulchre from the rule of the infidels.\n\n     All I held dear I now abhor,\n     My pride, my knightly rank and fame,\n     And seek the spot which all adore,\n     The pilgrim's goal--Jerusalem.\n\nsang Guillem of Poitiers, one of the gayest of the troubadours.\n\nOnly very few of the more thoughtful minds realised that divine thoughts\nhave their source in the soul of man, and that these Crusades were\nobviously a senseless undertaking (not to mention the fact that God does\nnot need human assistance). \"It is a greater thing to worship God always\nin humility and poverty,\" said the abbot, Peter of Cluny, \"than to\njourney to Jerusalem in great pomp and circumstance. If, therefore, it\nis a good thing to visit Jerusalem and stand on the soil which our\nLord's feet have trod, it is a far better thing still to strive after\nheaven where our Lord can be seen face to face.\" Both the great\nscholastic, Anselm of Canterbury, and Bernard of Clairvaux, were of the\nsame opinion. \"They shall aspire not to the earthly, but to the heavenly\nJerusalem, and travel there not with their feet, but with the desire of\ntheir hearts.\" And \"They seek God in external objects, neglecting to\nlook into their hearts, in whose innermost depths dwells the divine.\"\nAnd yet those same men, who even then seemed to have outgrown biblical\nreligiosity, were under the spell of the all-absorbing idea of the age.\nBernard solved the contradiction in the following way: \"It is not\nbecause His power has grown less that the Lord calls us feeble worms to\nprotect His own; His word is deed, and He could send more than twelve\nlegions of angels to do His bidding; but because it is the will of the\nLord your God to save you from perdition, He gives you an opportunity to\nserve Him.\" In these words a significant change of the fundamental idea\ncan already be traced. Peter of Cluny worked for the Crusades, and\nBernard, one of the most influential and venerable personalities of the\nMiddle Ages, a man before whose word the popes bowed down, journeyed\nthrough the whole of France, inciting all hearts to fanatical\nenthusiasm. Whoever heard him preach forsook his worldly possessions and\ntook the cross, clamouring for Peter himself to lead all Christendom.\n\"Countless numbers flocked to his banner, towns and castles stood\nforsaken and there was hardly one man to seven women. The wives were\nmade widows during the lifetime of their husbands.\" Thus Bernard wrote\nto the Pope, travelling through Germany, healing the sick by his mere\npresence, and preaching to the people in a tongue no one could\nunderstand. But the personality of this physically delicate man, whose\nbody was only kept alive by his spirit, touched all hearts. The prudent\nEmperor, Conrad, resisted for a long time, and would have nothing to do\nwith such an aimless enterprise. But Bernard's first sermon in the\ncathedral at Speyer, on Christmas Day, moved him to tears. Bernard left\nthe pulpit and pinned the cross on the shoulder of the kneeling emperor.\nBy this symbolical act the metaphysical spirit of the time, of which the\nChurch had obtained control for her own purposes, visibly became master\nof political common-sense.\n\nThe Crusades were one of the great movements matured by the\nnewly-awakened metaphysical yearning. The same spirit in another,\nprofounder, way, manifested itself in the efforts of religious reform\nwhich were being made here and there. \"The appearance and spread of\nheresy has always been the gauge by which the religious life of the\nindividual must be measured,\" says Buettner very pertinently in his\npreface to his edition of Eckhart. For the first time since the days of\nChrist true religious feeling was again quickening the hearts of men;\nthe ecclesiastical dogma, which until then had represented absolute\ntruth, no longer satisfied their need. Soon opposition, timidly at\nfirst, made itself felt. Laymen ventured to interfere in the domain of\nreligion. All knowledge--and consequently all tradition and\nreligion--had been for a thousand years the exclusive possession of the\nclergy; those laymen who had any culture at all knew a little Latin and\na few scholastic propositions. All this was changing. Despite reiterated\necclesiastical prohibitions, parts of the Bible were translated into\nthe vulgar tongue and eagerly studied by ignorant folk; everywhere men\nappeared to whom religion was a matter of vital importance, men who\nstrove to find God in their own souls, instead of blindly accepting the\nGod of foreign doctrine.\n\nThe more obvious cause of the growing dislike to ecclesiastical\nauthority was the immorality of the priests. The contrast between the\nprofessions of humility, and the greed, vice and tyranny of the clergy\nwas too pronounced. The ecclesiastical offices were publicly sold.\nDivine forgiveness was cheaper than a new garment; every priest was\nallowed to keep a mistress if he paid a tax to the bishop. Two poems of\nthe troubadour, Guillem Figueiras, express the state of affairs very\nbluntly: \"Our shepherds have become thievish wolves, plundering and\ndespoiling the fold under the guise of messengers of peace. They gently\nconsole their sheep night and day, but once they have them in their\npower, these false shepherds let their flock perish and die.\" In the\nother poem he says of the priest:\n\n     He lies in a woman's arms all night,\n     And wakes--defiled--in the morning light\n     To proffer the sacred host.\n\nWorse invectives even, no less forcible than those of later reformers,\nhe hurled against Rome. \"In the flames and torments of hell is thy\nplace!... Thou hast the appearance of an innocent lamb, but inwardly\nthou art a raging wolf, a crowned snake, begotten by a viper, the friend\nof the devil!\" Even the good-natured German minnesinger, Walter von der\nVogelweide, found bitter words against Rome: \"They point our way to God\nand go to hell themselves.\" Bernard of Clairvaux, the supporter of the\nChurch, sharply criticised the abuses of pope and clergy in his book,\n_De Consideratione_: \"The property of the poor is sown before the door\nof the rich, the gold glitters in the gutter, the people come hurrying\nup from all sides; but not to the neediest is it given, but to the\nstrongest and to him who is first on the spot.\" He accused the pope of\nextravagance and luxury: \"Was Peter clothed in robes of silk, covered\nwith gold and precious stones? Was he carried in a litter surrounded by\nsoldiers and vassals?\" And he uttered a word which to this day is a\nhistorical truth: \"In all thy splendour thou art the successor of\nConstantine rather than the successor of Peter.\"\n\nDissatisfaction with the life of the clergy and the tyranny of Rome was\nthe more external reason which, although it vexed even those who were\nindifferent to religion, did not question the sacred tradition; the\nother reason was more a matter of principle; it was rooted in the desire\nfor a religious revival and openly attacked perverted truths. The\ndreaded, hated, and cruelly persecuted heretics were fearless men,\nsturdily fighting for their convictions. The fundamental ideal of these\nreformers was the suppression of the outward pomp of the Church and the\nreturn to the simplicity of the gospels. Their fates varied. The gentle\nSt. Francis of Assisi was canonised; the illumined Eckhart, on the other\nhand, was tortured; most of them, like the ardent Arnold of Brescia,\nwere burnt at the stake. This conduct of the hierarchy towards the truly\nreligious men is easily explained. The Church was faced by a problem; on\nthe one hand, the genuine and profound piety of these men was\nunmistakable, but on the other, the contrast of their teaching with\nChurch tradition was too obvious, and by many of them too strongly\nemphasised to be silently ignored.\n\nThe Provencal heretic, Peter of Bruis, seems to have been the first\nreformer who preached against iconolatry and even objected to the images\nof the Crucified. He ordered churches to be razed to the ground because\nhe acknowledged only the invisible community of the saints. He was burnt\nat St. Giles' by an infuriated mob. More powerful, and far more\nnumerous than his followers, the Peterbrusians, were the Cathari and\nthe Waldenses (founded by Peter Valdez A.D. 1177) who soon spread to\nNorthern Italy and amalgamated with the sect of the Lombards. The\nCathari advocated a simple and ascetic life, in accordance with the\nteaching of primitive Christianity, refrained from all ecclesiastical\nceremonies and despised the sacraments, particularly baptism. More\nradical than later reformers, they rejected the doctrine of\ntransubstantiation, and saw in the eucharist only a symbol of the union\nof God and the soul. This made their name synonymous with heresy. But by\nfar the most famous of heretical sects was the sect of the Waldenses or\nAlbigenses. It numbered amongst its adherents--if not publicly, at any\nrate secretly--many of the great Provencal lords, and there can be no\ndoubt that this community was permeated by the spirit of a renewed\nChristianity, the Christianity of St. Francis and the German mystics.\nThe Albigenses believed that not Christ, but His semblance only, had\nbeen crucified; they rejected the God of the Old Testament and their\ndoctrine of the two creators,--the devil who created the objective\nworld, and the true God who created the spiritual world--is reminiscent\nof the loftiest Parseeism and the profoundest gnosticism. They regarded\nman as placed between good and evil; the choice lay in his own hand. An\nextraordinary poem by Peire Cardinal--not by any means a\nheretic--breathes this spirit. He confronts God not with the customary\nhumility, but as one power confronts the other. \"I will write a new\npoem, and on the day of the Last Judgment I will read it to Him who has\ncreated me from nothing. If He should condemn me to everlasting\ndamnation, I will say to Him: Lord, have mercy on me, for I have always\nstriven against the wicked world,\" (the troubadour here alludes to his\nmany polemic poems) \"and save me from the torments of hell. The heavenly\nhost will marvel at my speech. And I shall say to God that He sins\nagainst His creatures if he delivers them into the hands of the devil.\nRather let Him drive away the devils, for then He will win more souls\nand all the world will be blessed.... I will not despair of Thee and\ntherefore Thou must forgive my sins and save my soul and my heart. If I\nhad not been born I should not have sinned. It would be a great wrong\nand a sin if Thou didst condemn me to burn in hell everlastingly, for\ntruly I may accuse Thee of having sent me a thousand evils for one\nblessing.\"\n\nMost terrible was the punishment inflicted upon Provence by Innocent\nIII. That highly intellectual pope realised that he was faced by a\nrevival of the true religious instinct from which the authority of the\nChurch had far more to fear than from all sultans and emirs put\ntogether. The system of absolute, immutable values was threatened with\ndestruction. In the year 1208 the Spanish nobleman Dominicus Guzman\nfounded the order of the Dominicans and the Inquisition, which invaded\nProvence together with the papal army supported by France for political\nreasons. Half a million men were butchered in order to crush the spirit\nunderstood by a few hundreds at most; one stake was kindled by the\nother; in the memory of man no greater sacrifice to tradition and dogma\nhad ever been made. Simon de Montfort, the head of the expedition, sent\nthe following laconic report to the pope: \"We spared neither sex nor age\nnor name, but slew all with the edge of the sword.\"\n\n\nThe troubadours bewailed the desolate country, the beauty that was no\nmore. Montanhagol, although greatly intimidated by the Inquisition,\nwrote a long poem on the subject, and the otherwise unknown Bernard\nSicard de Marvajols laments:\n\n     Oh! Toulouse and Provence,\n     And thou, land of Agence,\n     Carcassonne and Beziers!\n     As once I beheld you--as I behold you to-day!\n\nJacob of Vitry, a cultured French prelate, took a different view. He\ninveighed against the \"foolish poems, the lies of the poets, the\nsing-song of the women, the coarse innuendoes of the jesters.\" \"Such\nvermin flourishes on the stream of temporal abundance; it literally\ncrawls over all food, for, as a rule, the meal is followed by a deluge\nof idle talk.\" A reconciliation of the two worlds was impossible.\n\nWhile the Waldenses flourished in Provence, various heretical sects\narose in the west of Germany and in the Netherlands; prominent among\nthem were the Apostolics, who took the Gospels literally, and introduced\ncommunism and polygamy, and the communities of the Beghards and\nBeguines, which roused little public attention, and did not aim at\nreform, but advocated a life of contemplation. They found supporters in\nall ranks of the community, and were connected with the later German\nmystics. An indictment preserved for us proves the religious originality\nof one of those sects, \"The Brethren of the Free Spirit,\" who upheld the\nheretical view that it were better that one man should attain to\nspiritual perfection than that a hundred monasteries should be founded.\nAt the same time the inspired seer and hysterical nun, Hildegarde of\nBingen, wrote wild letters to the popes, denouncing the vice existing in\nthe Church and the degradation of religion. \"But thou, oh Rome, who art\nwell-nigh at the point of death, thou wilt be shaken so that the\nstrength of thy feet shall forsake thee, because thou hast not loved the\nroyal maiden righteousness with an ardent love, but with the torpor of\nsleep, and thou hast become a stranger to her. Therefore she will desert\nthee if thou do not call her back.\" Pope Adrian IV. replied, almost\nhumbly: \"We long to hear words of warning from you, because men say that\nyou are endowed with the spirit of the divine miracles.\" St. Bernard\ncraved Hildegarde's prayer, two emperors, popes, bishops and abbots\ncorresponded with her, requesting her prayer and advice, and the\ninterpretation of difficult passages of the Scriptures. Hildegarde\nreplied in an obscure, apocalyptical language: \"In the mysteries of the\ntrue wisdom have I seen and heard this.\"\n\nProphets predicting the revival of the Gospel of Christ and the\nregeneration of the world appeared in the north and south. The Italian\nmonk and fanatic, Joachim of Floris (about A.D. 1200), preached that\nthis regeneration was predestined to happen. A precursor of Hegel, he\ntaught three eras: the dominion of the Father, or the first era,\ncharacterised by fear and the severity of the law; the dominion of the\nSon, or the era of faith and compassion; and the dominion of the Holy\nGhost, or the era of love. This last era was beginning to dawn, and in\nmany places Joachim's words were regarded as the prophecies of a seer.\nThus the monk, Gerhard of Borgo San Domino, claimed for the dawning\nthird era the preaching of a new gospel of the Holy Ghost, an\nunmistakable proof that the spirit of heresy was the outcome of\nreligious enthusiasm.\n\nThe people despised the clergy, and were favourably disposed to every\nreformer; at the same time they were entirely under the sway of a\nsuperstitious awe of the administrators of mysterious magic which, by\nappropriate practices, or by means of presents, could be turned to\nadvantage. The fetichism of relics flourished everywhere; a sufficient\nnumber of pieces of the Cross of Christ were sold and worshipped to\nfurnish trees for a big forest--to say nothing of the bones of numerous\nsaints with which many monasteries, more especially French monasteries,\ndid a lucrative trade. Even at the time this traffic repelled the finer\nintellects; in A.D. 1200, Guibert, the abbot of Novigentum, preached\nagainst the cult of the saints and the worship of relics, adducing all\nthe well-known arguments which to this day, however, have proved\ninsufficient to overcome the evil. In Guibert's words, \"It was an\nabominable nuisance that certain limbs should be detached from the body,\nthereby defying the law that all bodies must turn to dust. How can the\nbones of any man be worth framing in gold and silver,\" he asked, \"when\nthe body of the Son of God was laid beneath a miserable stone?\" He\nexhorted the people to turn from the visible and obvious to the\ninvisible. He maintained that the worship of relics was opposed to true\nreligion because \"not until the disciples were bereaved of the bodily\npresence of Christ could the Holy Ghost descend upon them.\" He even\nrejected the prevalent, entirely materialistic, view of a life after\ndeath, and dared to suggest that the torments of hell should be\ninterpreted spiritually. \"The eternal contemplation of the Lord is the\nsupreme bliss of the righteous; who could dare to deny that the misery\nof the damned consists in the eternal bereavement of the face of the\nLord?\"\n\nReligion had been lost; what should have been a vital force had become\nas far as the most learned were concerned a knowledge of historical\nevents. Many saw in a return to evangelical simplicity and love the only\nremedy; but it was the life, not the preaching of a man, which once\nagain was vouchsafed to the world as a great example. \"Nobody has shown\nme what I should do; but the Most High Himself has commanded me to live\naccording to the Gospels.\" Francis of Assisi accepted the accounts of\nthe life of Christ with the utmost naivete; he neither searched for an\nallegorical meaning (as the theologians did), nor did he subordinate the\nman Jesus to the divine principle of the _logos_ (in the manner of the\ngreat mystics). To him the imitation of Christ meant a ministry of love;\nhe did not conceive religion as dogma and the political power of a\nhierarchy, but as a state of the heart. This is a characteristic which\nhe shares with Eckhart, the great recreator of European religion,\nalthough he was fundamentally alien to him. St. Francis never uttered a\nsingle hostile word against tradition or the clergy; he never inveighed\nagainst the corruption of morals and religious indifference, as other\nreformers did; he exerted a reformatory influence solely by his life,\nfor he possessed the secret of the great love. During his whole life he\nwas averse to laying down rules for his followers, although continually\nurged to do so by popes and bishops. His importance does not lie in the\nfoundation of an order with certain regulations and a specific object,\nbut in the fact that he was a vital force. He broke the norms of the\nChurch whenever it seemed right to him to do so, for he was absolutely\nsure of himself; without being ordained he preached to the people in his\nown tongue, probably the first man (after the Provencal Peter Valdez)\nwho did so; without possessing the slightest authority he consecrated\nhis friend Clara as a nun. Innocent III., who made the suppression of\nheresy the task of his life, showed great intelligence and wisdom in\nsanctioning St. Francis' sermons to the people and acknowledging his\nunecclesiastical brotherhood. This probably transformed a dangerous\nrevolutionary into a faithful servant of the Church. Maybe the Church\nwas indebted to St. Francis for being saved from a great early\nreformation; signs of it were not wanting, and another Arnold of Brescia\nmight have arisen and brought about her overthrow. It is doubtful\nwhether the Church would have come out of a Franciscan crusade as\nvictoriously as she came out of her struggle with Provence.\n\nSt. Francis regarded science with indifference. \"Every demon,\" he said,\n\"has more scientific knowledge than all men on earth put together. But\nthere is something a demon is incapable of, and in it lies the glory of\nman. A man can be faithful to God.\" With those words he had inwardly\novercome tradition and theology, and direct knowledge of the divine had\ndawned in his soul. He even forbade his brethren to own copies of the\nScriptures. God in the heart--that was the core of his doctrine. With\nall his wonderful intuition he was absolutely innocent of the pride of\nignorance; he really felt himself smaller than the smallest of\nmen--unlike the bishops and popes who called themselves the servants of\nthe servants of God, without attaching the least meaning to it. How\ncharacteristic of his simple mind was his passionate insistence on the\nrespectful handling of the vessels used at holy Mass, because they were\ndestined to receive the body of the Lord. And yet he hardly knew\nanything of the symbolic transmutation of bread and wine--he accepted\nthe miracle without a thought, like a child.\n\nIn the year 1219, St. Francis took part in a Crusade. While the battle\nof Damietta was raging, he went into the camp of the Saracens and\npreached before the Sultan, who received him with respect and sent him\nback unharmed. According to the legend, he then went to Bethlehem and\nJerusalem, where the Sultan, touched by his personality, gave him access\nto the sacred shrines. To Francis this pilgrimage to the Holy Land had a\nprofound meaning, for to him Christianity meant the imitation of Christ.\n\nAlthough he lived on bread himself, and poverty was his chosen lady, he\nregarded the asceticism of the early Middle Ages as futile and rejected\nit. The fire of life burned in him so ardently that he gave no thought\nto the morrow, and literally followed the admonition of the Gospels: \"So\nlikewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he\ncannot be My disciple.\" We read in the _Fioretti_ (perhaps the oldest\npopular collection of poems in existence) that he expressly prohibited\nasceticism as a principle; an idea too foreign to the spirit of the age\nto have been an invention. He also disapproved of the secluded monastic\nlife, then the universal ideal of the _vita contemplativa_, and\ninsisted on his followers living in the world, radiating love and\nsustaining life by the charity of their fellow-men.\n\nThere is an anecdote contained in the _Fioretti_, reflecting the great\nsuperiority and lucidity of his mind. On a cold winter's day he and\nBrother Leo were tramping through the deep snow. \"Brother Leo,\" said St.\nFrancis, \"if we could restore sight to all blind men, heal all cripples,\nexpel evil spirits and recall the dead to life--it would not be perfect\njoy.\" And after a while: \"And if we knew all the secrets of science, the\ncourse of the stars, the ways of the beasts--it would not be perfect\njoy--and if by our preaching we could convert all infidels to the true\nfaith--even that would not be perfect joy.\" \"Tell me then, Father,\" said\nBrother Leo, \"what would be perfect joy?\" \"If we now knocked at the\nconvent gates, cold and wet and faint with hunger, and the porter sent\nus away with harsh words, so that we should have to stand in the snow\nuntil the evening; if we thus waited, bearing all things patiently\nwithout murmuring--that would be perfect joy: the mercy of\nself-control.\"\n\n\"He met death singing,\" says his biographer, Thomas of Celano, the\nauthor of the magnificent _Dies irae, dies illa_. On his deathbed St.\nFrancis composed and sang without interruption the Hymn to the Sun, that\nlofty song of praise in which the sum total of his noble life, love for\nall created things,--is comprised and transfigured. It expresses a new\nform of devotion, composed of the ecstasy of love and perfect humility.\nHe embraced in his heart his brother Sun, his sister Moon, the dear\nStars; his brother Wind, his sister and mother Earth; and on the day of\nhis death this _brother seraphicus_ added to it a powerful and touching\nsong of praise of his \"brother Death.\" The legend has it that a flock of\nsinging-birds descended on the roof of the cottage in which he lay\ndying; the songs of his \"little sisters\" accompanied him to the world\nbeyond the grave.\n\nWe are justified in comparing this death, which was sustained by the\nfundamental forces of that era, soul and emotion, to that other, more\nfamous, death of antiquity. Socrates died without in the least\nsuccumbing to any personal feeling, supported by the purely logical\nconsideration that it was expedient to obey the laws of the State. His\ndeath was the application of a universal proposition to an individual\ncase, and because no one could accuse Socrates of a dialectical error,\nthe conclusion, his death, had to take place.\n\nFrancis and some of his successors realised in their lives the simple,\nreligious, fundamental emotion of love in a way which the people could\nclearly understand. \"God's minstrels\" was the name given to his\nfollowers, because they spoke and sang of the love of God without\necclesiastical ceremony. Jacopone da Todi (1236-1306), probably next to\nDante and Guinicelli the greatest poet which Italy has produced, praised\nthe transcendent love of God in ecstatic verses. He was the religious\ncounterpart of the troubadours; his passionate devotion to the child\nJesus, the Madonna and the Crucified, eclipses their most ardent lyrics.\nThese southerners could not forgo the visible emblems of their religion;\nthe infinitely simple principle that only he who calls nothing his own,\nand desires no earthly goods, is perfectly free, and can never fall foul\nof his neighbour, was, if not lived up to, at any rate understood and\nrespected. The grateful hearts of the people surrounded the name of St.\nFrancis with legends; the study of his life inspired Giotto, the father\nof the new art, to the study of plant and animal life. The story of St.\nFrancis is written on the walls of the cathedral at Assisi, the first\nmonumental work of Italian art.\n\nSt. Francis re-lived the terrestrial life of Jesus; in one direction he\nexcelled his model, for though the love of Christ embraced all mankind,\nthe heart of St. Francis went out to all things, beasts and plants and\nstars. He applied the words, \"Whatsoever ye do to the least of my\nbrethren, ye have done unto me,\" to _Brother Bear_ and _his sisters the\nlittle birds_. He was one of the first men, since the Greek era, who saw\nnature in its true aspect and not as a hieroglyphic of the divine word.\nMen had realised with a feeling of helplessness the dangers of the\nelements, without perceiving their magnificence; they had speculated on\nand attempted to decipher the secret language of the terrestrial and\ncelestial phenomena. The discovery of the beauty of nature, and with it\nthe revival of aesthetics, was an essential part of the new-born\ncivilisation. This fact was accomplished--in an almost sentimental\nway--by the troubadours and minnesingers. But the relationship of St.\nFrancis to nature was something very different. The co-ordination of man\nand beast--in his sermon to the birds, for instance--cannot be called\nanything but frankly pagan. St. Francis said to his disciples: \"Tarry a\nlittle while in the road while I go and preach to my little sisters, the\nbirds.\" And he went into the fields and began to preach to the birds\nwhich sat on the ground; and straightway all the others flew down from\nthe trees and flocked round him, and did not fly away until he had\nblessed them; and when he touched them, they did not move. And these\nwere the words which he spoke to them: \"My brothers and sisters, little\nbirds, praise God and thank Him that He has given you wings with which\nto fly and clothed you with a garment of feathers. That he admitted your\nkind into Noah's ark so that your race should not disappear from the\nearth. Be grateful to Him that He has given you the air for your\nkingdom; you sow not, neither do you reap, but your Heavenly Father\ngives you abundance of food. He gave you the rivers and fountains; He\ngave you the mountains and valleys as a refuge, and the high trees so\nthat you may build your nests in safety. And because you can neither\nspin nor cook, God clothed you and your little ones. Behold the\ngreatness of the love of your Creator! Beware of the sin of ingratitude\nand diligently praise God all day!\" And when he had thus spoken, the\nbirds opened their beaks, beat their wings and bowed to the ground.\n\nMore than a hundred years later (1300-1365), a man was living in Swabia\nwhose soul was kindred to the soul of St. Francis: Suso, who is, as a\nrule, classed with the mystics. He had a profound, typically German love\nof meadow and forest, and expressed it more exquisitely than the best\namong the minnesingers. \"Look above you and around you and behold the\nvastness of heaven and the speed of its revolutions. The Lord has\nemblazoned it with seven planets, each of which--not only the sun--is\nfar larger than the earth; he has adorned it with myriads of radiant\nstars. See how serenely the glorious sun is riding in the cloudless sky,\ngiving to the earth abundance of fruit! Behold the verdure of the\nmeadow! The trees are bursting into leaf and the grass is springing up;\nbehold the smiling flowers and listen to glen and dale re-echoing with\nthe sweet song of the nightingales and little singing birds; the beasts\nwhich the bitter winter drove into nooks and crannies, and into the dark\nground, are emerging from their hiding-places to rejoice in the sun and\nseek a mate. Young and old are glad with an exceeding joy. Oh! Thou\ngentle God, how fair art Thou in Thy creatures! Oh! fields and meadows,\nhow surpassing is your beauty!\" Or: \"My dear brethren, what more shall I\nsay to you than that my eyes have seen many gladsome sights. I walked\nacross the flowering meadows and listened to the heavenly harps of the\nlittle birds praising their gentle and loving Creator so that the woods\nechoed with their songs.\" And, more compassionate even than St. Francis:\n\"I will say nothing of the children of man; but the misery and sorrow\nof all the beasts and little birds, and all created things, is well-nigh\nbreaking my heart; and having no power to help them, I sighed, and\nprayed to the Most High, Most Merciful Lord, that He would deliver\nthem.\" His description of a paradisean meadow sounds like the\ndescription of a picture by Fra Angelico: \"Now behold with your own eyes\nthe heavenly meadow! Lo! What summer joy! Behold the kingdom of sweet\nMay, the valley of all true joy! Glad eyes are gazing into glad eyes!\nHark to the harps and fiddles, the singing and laughter! Young men and\nmaidens are leading the dance! Love without sorrow shall reign for\never....\" etc. There is a picture, drawn by this same Suso, representing\nthe journey of man through life, his departure from God and his return.\nIn this picture the path of humanity is renunciation and asceticism;\ndeath flourishes his scythe above the heads of a dancing couple, and\nunderneath is written: \"This is earthly love; its end is sorrow\"; to\nsuch an extent was this sincere and sensitive man under the influence of\nthe traditional hatred of the world which Eckhart, his great master, had\ncompletely overcome.\n\nProvencals and Italians sang the delight of spring, and the German\nminnesingers greeted it as the deliverer from all the hardships of the\nsevere winter; with the latter it was more a childish delight in the\nopen-air life which had again become possible, after the long\nimprisonment of winter, than pure joy in beauty. But some of the German\nepic poems, \"Tristan and Isolde,\" for instance, contain genuine, sincere\ndescriptions of sylvan beauty. The student of art, especially the German\nart of the Renascence, cannot help being struck by the extraordinary\nlove with which quite insignificant objects of nature, such as a bird,\nor a flower, are treated. The familiar things of every-day life were in\nthis way brought into connection with solemn biblico-historical\nsubjects.\n\nThere is no doubt that at all times a certain keen perception of the\nbeauty of nature has been inherent in some favoured individuals; but the\nuniversally accepted opinion that only the supernal was really\nbeautiful, and that terrestrial beauty was merely its reflected glory,\nwas too strong even for them. Thus we have seen Suso translating the\nbeauty of the earthly spring to the kingdom of heaven.\n\nAt the same time men were beginning to travel to distant countries for\nthe sole purpose of seeing new scenes and acquiring fresh knowledge. The\nfamous Venetian, Marco Polo, was the first European who (in 1300)\nvisited Central Asia, crossed China and Thibet, and brought news to\nEurope of the fairyland of Japan. Sight-seeing as an end in itself was\ndiscovered. Long sea-voyages for commercial purposes were no novelty,\nbut no human foot had ever trod the summits of the Lower Alps, unless it\nhad been the foot of a peasant whose cattle had strayed. Petrarch was\nthe first man (in 1336) to climb a barren mountain, the Mont Ventoux in\nProvence, voluntarily undergoing a certain amount of fatigue for sheer\ndelight in the beauty of nature. This was a great, an immortal deed,\ngreater than all his sonnets and treatises put together. In a long\nletter which has been preserved to us, he describes with much spirit and\nerudition this extraordinary ascent, before whose profound significance\nall the Alpine exploits of our time shrink into paltry gymnastic\nexercises.\n\nThe beauty of nature discovered and appreciated, interest began to be\nevinced in the relationship existing between the various phenomena and\nthere arose a desire to obtain ocular proof of what was written in the\nvenerable books--perhaps even make new discoveries. The first man of any\nimportance in this direction was the German Albrecht Bollstaedt (Albertus\nMagnus), who, although he contributed more than any other man to the\npromulgation of Aristotelian philosophy, wrote a book on natural history\nfounded on personal observation; his great English contemporary,\nhowever, Roger Bacon, is the true father of modern experimental science.\nIt was he who coined the expression \"scientia experimentalis,\" and\nframed the principle that all research must be based on the study of\nnature. He maintained that experience was the \"mistress of all\nsciences,\" and said: \"I respect Aristotle and account him the prince of\nphilosophers, but I do not always share his opinion. Aristotle and the\nother philosophers have planted the tree of science, but the latter has\nnot by any means put forth all its branches or matured all its fruit.\"\nThis thought, though it seems to us self-evident, was of great moment in\nthe age of scholasticism. Bacon spent ten years in prison; but in spite\nof everything, he was so much under the influence of scholasticism that\nhe considered it the task of philosophy to adduce evidence for the truth\nof the Christian dogma.\n\nHere it is essential roughly to sketch the essence of the philosophical\nthought of that period, and point out the way which led from the\nChristianity of the Fathers of the Church and scholasticism to the\nreligion of unhistorical Christianity, the so-called mysticism.\nScholasticism had reached its climax in the thirteenth century;\nuniversities were founded in Paris, Oxford and Padua, and he who aspired\nto the full dignity of learning had to take his degrees there; even\nEckhart did not neglect to obtain his scholastic education in Paris.\n\nScholasticism was an imposing and yet strangely grotesque system of the\nworld, built up--before a background of blazing stakes--of scriptural\npassages and ecclesiastical tradition, lofty, pure thought and\nantique-mediaeval superstition. Its fundamental problem, the\ndetermination of the border line between faith and knowledge, was purely\nphilosophical. While the older scholasticism, based on Platonic\ntraditions, endeavoured to bring these into harmony with Christianity,\nthat is to say, prove the revelations by dialectics, Albertus Magnus\nand, authoritatively, his pupil, Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274), strictly\ndistinguished, by the use of Aristotelian weapons, the rational or\nperceptive truths from the supernatural verities or the subjects of\nfaith. This distinction, made in order to safeguard dogma, quickly\nrevealed its double-face. The handmaiden philosophy rebelled against her\nmistress theology, and asked her for her credentials. According to the\nclassic and dogmatic doctrine of Thomas, the natural verities alone\ncould be grasped by human understanding; the supernatural or revealed\ntruths (the dogmas) were beyond proof and scientific cognition. To\nsubmit them to research was not only an impossible task, but Thomas\nstigmatised every effort in this direction as heresy, fondly believing\nthat he had once and for all safeguarded the position of faith. But more\nresolute and profound thinkers, although not in so many words attacking\nthe authority of the Scriptures, and leaving Thomas' border-line\nunquestioned, found the unfathomable truths not in ecclesiastical\ntradition but in their own souls, thus investing \"faith\" with a new\nmeaning, unassailable by criticism.\n\nThe idea of drawing a line between perceivable or rational truths and\nimperceivable or divine truths, is fraught with the burning question as\nto the limits of human knowledge, a question which to this day remains\nunanswered. In the course of time the limits were extended in favour of\nimperfect knowledge (but the character of the unknowable was\nproblematised and questioned). While Thomas was still convinced of the\npossibility of proving the existence of a God by the power of the human\nintellect, Duns Scotus removed the problem of the existence of a God and\nthe immortality of the soul from the domain of science, and made both\npropositions a matter of faith. William of Occam, more uncompromising\nthan Duns Scotus, maintained the absolute impossibility of acquiring\nknowledge of supernatural things, and taught--on this point, too,\nanticipating Kant--that objective knowledge acquired through the senses\nshould precede abstract knowledge. The last conclusion of nominalism was\nthus arrived at, the existence of universal conceptions, or universals,\nsupposed to exist outside material things--the curse of the Platonic\ninheritance--declared to be impossible, and reality conceded to the\nindividual only. Roscellinus, the founder of this doctrine, had still\nbeen content to deny the existence of the conception of \"deity,\" leaving\nthe individual persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as real individuals,\nuntouched.\n\nWe see from the foregoing that the universally derided scholasticism\ntravelled along the whole line of modern thought: from the \"realism\" of\nThomas, which leaves the universals as yet unassailed by doubt and\noccupying the very heart of knowledge, past the first and, to our view,\nvery modest doubts of the nominalists, to the agnosticism of Bacon, Duns\nand Occam.\n\nWith the new position of decided nominalism the foundation was prepared\nfor the experimental sciences on the one hand, and mysticism on the\nother. For the conclusion that things supernatural are a closed book to\nus may have two results: on the one hand, the rejection of the\ntranscendental and the victory of science; on the other, the need to\ndescend into the profoundest depths of the universe and the soul, and\ngrasp by intuition what common sense does not see.\n\nThe time was ripe and the consummators came: Dante in the south, Eckhart\nin the countries north of the Alps. With regard to Dante, I will say one\nthing only; he gathered together all the achievements of the new art and\ntranscended them in a work which has never been surpassed. The\nprofoundly symbolical words, \"The new life is beginning,\" are written at\nthe commencement of his _Vita Nuova_, and with his _Divine Comedy_ the\nart of Europe had attained perfection.\n\nIt is necessary to give a more detailed account of Eckhart. He had been\nalmost forgotten in favour of his pupils, Tauler and Suso, and the\nunknown author of the _Theologica Germanica_ (to which Luther wrote a\npreface), but to-day a faint idea of the great importance of this man is\nbeginning to dawn upon the world. Eckhart was the greatest creative\nreligious genius since Jesus, and I believe that in time his writings\nwill be considered equal to the Gospel of St. John. He grasped the\nspirit of religion with unparalleled depth; everything produced by the\nhighly religious later mediaeval era pales before his illumination.\nCompared to him, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, and even St. Francis\ndwindle into insignificance; all the later reformers are small beside\nthe greatness of his soul. Every one of his sermons contains profound\npassages, such as \"God must become I and I must become God.\" \"The soul\nas a separate entity must be so completely annihilated that nothing\nremains except God, yea, that it becomes more glorious than God, as the\nsun is more glorious than the moon.\" \"The Scriptures were written and\nGod created the world solely that He may be born in the soul and the\nsoul again in Him.\" \"The essence of all grain is wheat, of all metal\ngold, and of all creatures man. Thus spoke a great man: 'There is no\nbeast, but it is in some way a semblance of man.'\" \"The least faculty of\nmy soul is more infinite than the boundless heavens.\" \"Again we\nunderstand by the kingdom of God the soul; for the soul and the Deity\nare one.\" \"The soul is the universe and the kingdom of God.\" \"God dwells\nso much within the soul that all His divinity depends on it.\" \"Man shall\nbe free and master of all his deeds, undestroyed and unsubdued.\"\n\nEckhart was the first man who thought consecutively in the German\nvernacular, and who made this philosophically still virginal language a\nmedium for expressing profound thought. In addition he wrote Latin\ntreatises which were discovered a short time ago; I have not read them,\nbut I have no doubt that his profoundest convictions were expressed in\nthe German tongue. The Latin language has at all times fettered the\nspirit far more successfully than the still untainted and living German.\n\nThe religious genius of a single individual had created Christianity.\nBut from the very beginning it was misunderstood; the salvation of the\nworld was linked to the person of a man who had aspired to be an example\nto the whole race. The term, \"Son of God,\" was understood in the sense\nof the hero-cult of antiquity; possibly the Jewish faith in a Messiah,\nthe politico-national hope of the Children of Israel, was a good deal to\nblame for this. A historical event was translated into metaphysic. The\nonly truly religious man was made the centre of a new mythology and\nnaively worshipped. It may sound like a paradox, but it is a fact that\nthe whole of the first millenary was inwardly irreligious; it concealed\nits want of metaphysical intuition behind the falsification of\nhistorical events. The entire mediaeval (and a large proportion of the\nProtestant) theology laboured to obtain an intellectual grasp of the\ndoctrine of a unique historical salvation of humanity and frame it into\na dogma. And thus occurred that unparalleled misunderstanding (a\nmisunderstanding which never clouded the mind of India) which based\nreligion, the timeless metaphysical treasure of the soul, on the\nhistorical record of an event which had happened in Asia Minor, and had\ncome down to us in a more or less garbled--some say entirely\nfalsified--version. This was the great sin of Christianity: It regarded\na historical event, revealing the very essence of religion, and\nconsequently capable of being formulated, as a divine intervention for\nthe purpose of bringing about the salvation of the world, instead of\nrecognising in the sublime figure of the founder of the Christian\nreligion a great, perhaps even perfect, incarnation of the eternally\nnew relationship between God and the soul. It promulgated the strange\nthought that only the one soul, the soul of the founder, was divine, and\ninstead of teaching the divinity of humanity, it taught the divinity of\nthis one man only--Jesus became a God who could no longer be looked upon\nas the perfect specimen and prototype of the race, but before whom it\nbehoved man to kneel and pray for salvation. Perhaps it was not possible\nto understand the new doctrine in any other way; before men can conceive\nthe idea of their divinity, they must have become conscious of their\nsouls.\n\nThis complete misunderstanding and externalising of religion which took\nplace in the first millenary, and which can never now be retrieved, is\nfundamentally pagan, antique. The record of the salvation of the world,\nachieved by a hero once and for all time, the historification of the\ndivine spark which is daily re-born in the soul, entirely corresponds to\nthe Greek myths of gods and demi-gods which before their new, symbolical\ninterpretation, were taken quite literally. I am not now concerned with\nthe problem of how far the antique heroes and Eastern mysteries directly\ninfluenced the conception of the figure of Christ; I only wish to\nemphasise the profound contrast between true religion which springs up\nin the soul of the individual, and historical tradition. If there is\nsuch a thing as religion, it must exist equally for all men, for those\nwho accidentally received a report of a certain historical event, as\nwell as for those who remained in ignorance of the fact. All heretical\ndemonstrations were rooted in a vague realisation of this contrast. But\nEckhart accomplished the unparalleled deed of once more building a\nbridge between the soul and the deity; of relegating to the background\nall the ineradicable historical misrepresentations or, if there was no\nalternative, of unhesitatingly proclaiming them as erroneous, or\ninterpreting them symbolically. \"St. Paul's words,\" he says, for\ninstance, \"are nothing but the words of Paul; it is not true that he\nspoke them in a state of grace.\" He did not regard the Scriptures as the\nbourne of truth, but as subsequent proof of the directly experienced\ntruth of the divine event. With this conception Christianity had reached\nits highest stage. Henceforth the origin of all truths and values was no\nlonger sought in doctrine and authority, but in the soul of man; God was\nneither to be found in the heavens nor in history, but in the soul; the\nsoul must become divine and creative; it had found its task: the\nrecreation of the world. It was true, St. Augustine had said: \"_Non\nChristianised, Christi sumus_,\" but this saying had never been\nunderstood, and very probably St. Augustine had not meant it in its\nliteral sense. At last the fundamental consciousness of Christianity had\ntriumphed: the principle of the \"Son-of-Godship\" inspired the soul of\nthe mystics; in future religion must emanate from the soul and find its\ngoal in God; written documents and--in the case of the profoundest\nthinkers--examples were no longer needed. The heretical sects had been\ncontent to reject post-evangelical tradition, in order to lay greater\nstress on the words of Christ. They were genuine reformers, but they\nwere as much constrained by the historical facts as the Roman Catholic\nChurch, and their standpoint has to this day remained the standpoint of\nthe Protestant professions of faith.\n\nThe fact of this new conception attaching no importance to the\nhistorical Jesus of Nazareth (had he never lived it would have made no\ndifference) made of it a new religion. By putting aside this external\nand accidental moment, it placed the metaphysical and purely spiritual\ncore of Christianity, the fundamental conviction of the divinity of the\nsoul, and the will to eternal life, within the centre of religious\nconsciousness, and by so doing put itself beyond the reach of historical\ncriticism and scepticism, Eckhart, more than any other teacher, was\nprofoundly convinced of the freedom and eternal value of the soul. \"I,\nas the Son, am the same as my Heavenly Father.\" He taught that Christ is\nborn in the soul, that the divine spark is continuously re-kindled in\nthe soul: \"It is the quality of eternity that life and youth are one,\"\nand that man must become more and more divine, more and more free from\nall that is unessential and accidental until he no longer differs from\nGod. It is only a logical conclusion to say that a perfect man,\nmystically speaking, is God; his being and his will are in nothing\ndifferentiated from absolute, universal, divine will--German mysticism\nagrees in this with the Upanishads. Kant would have said that the\nprinciples of such a man would become cosmic laws; sin would be the\nestrangement from God, the will to draw away from God.\n\nThe profound and only mission of religion is the endowment of man in\nthis hurly-burly of life with the consciousness of eternity. Religion\nplaces our transient life under the aspect of eternity, and therefore it\nmust, in its essence, remain a stranger to things temporal. Only that\nmoment in the life of a man can be called religious which lifts him\nbeyond himself, out of his petty, narrow existence, conditioned by and\nsubject to accidents, into timeless, universal life; which gives him the\ncertainty that historical events can never be regarded as definite and\nultimate--that moment which has the power to set free, to deliver, to\nsave. Thus it is irreligious to regard an event which occurred on the\ntemporal plane--and were it the greatest event which ever befell on\nearth--as the pivot of metaphysical value for all men; to link the\nsalvation of the world to an occurrence which was relatively accidental,\nto base the consciousness of eternity on the knowledge of a fact. This\nwould be a victory of time over eternity, a victory of irreligion over\nreligion.\n\nI regard it as the greatest achievement of that great time that\nspontaneous religion again became possible. Eckhart rediscovered the\ndivine nature of man; never has the consciousness of timeless eternity\nbeen expressed as he expressed it in his tract, _On Solitude_. Doubtless\nthere have been men before him who possessed direct religious\nintuitions, and now and then gave timid utterance to them; but the\nauthority of tradition has always been too great, and they never did\nmore than compromise between the historical events on which the\nChristian religion is based and the genuinely religious experience of\ntheir own souls. Eckhart, too, was careful not to offend against the\nletter, and his pupils, after suspicion had fallen on them, made many a\nconcession in terms, and perhaps even in thought. St. Augustine already\nhad steered a middle course between the historical and the religious\nconception, in his phrase: _Per Christum hominem at Christum deum_, and\nSuso (in his _Booklet of Eternal Wisdom_) followed his lead. \"Thus\nspeaks the eternal wisdom: If ye will behold me in my eternal divinity\nye must know and love me in my suffering humanity. For this is the\nquickest road to eternal salvation.\" The brutality of the tenet which\nmaintains that all those are eternally lost who, without their own\nfault, have no knowledge of the salvation of the world (especially\ntherefore, those who died before the event), was a stumbling-block to\nmany thoughtful minds. The patriarchs of the Old Testament were looked\nupon as saved--to some extent--by the fact of their being the ancestors\nor prophets of Christ; but pagans and Greeks, including Aristotle, were\ncondemned even by the great Dante. At the conclusion of his _Divine\nComedy_ Dante proved himself a truly inspired mystic, for he gave to us\nthe profoundest vision of the divinity which has ever been vouchsafed to\nman. But his genius was directed and restricted by the dogmas of the\nChurch; his religious standpoint was the standpoint of the early Middle\nAges and dogmatic Catholicism. As poet and lover he was the inaugurator\nof a new world; here he represents the culmination and conclusion of the\ncondemned world-system. He was the iron landmark of the ages--Eckhart,\nthe creator of eternal values.\n\nThe foremost of the precursors of Eckhart was Bernard of Clairvaux\n(1091-1153). He was the exponent of the love of God which he placed\nabove knowledge; in one of his letters he calls love \"the existence of\nGod Himself,\" basing his definition on the passage in the Gospel of St.\nJohn, \"God is Love.\" \"Love is the eternal law which created and\npreserves the universe; the whole world is governed by love; but\nalthough love is the law to which all creation is subject, it is not\nitself without law, but it is a law unto itself. Serfs and mercenaries\nare ruled by laws which are not from God, but which they made\nthemselves; some because they do not love God, others because they love\nthe things of this world better than God.... They made their own laws\nand subordinated the universal and eternal laws to their own will. But\nthose (who live righteously) are in the world as God is: neither serfs\nnor mercenaries, but the children of God and, like God Himself, they\nlive only by the law of love.\" \"His greatest happiness is complete\nabsorption in the vision of the divine and forgetfulness of self.\" \"All\nlove is an emanation of that one love. It is the eternally creative and\ngoverning law of the universe.\" \"To be penetrated by such emotion is to\nbecome deified. As a drop of water in a cup of wine is completely\ndissolved and takes the taste and colour of the wine, so also, in an\nindescribable manner, is the human will absorbed in the divine will, and\ntransformed into the will of God. For how could God become all in all if\nanything human were left in man?\" \"They are completely immersed (the\nmartyrs) in the infinite ocean of eternal light, in radiant\neternity....\" The entranced soul \"shall lose all knowledge of itself\nand become completely absorbed in God; it shall become unlike itself in\nthe measure as it has received the gift of becoming divine.\" Sensuous\nmetaphors from the Song of Songs and the Psalms are again and again\nintermingled with these lofty thoughts. But in spite of his divine\nemotion, in spite of his anticipations of the German mystics, Bernard\ntook the standpoint of ecclesiastical orthodoxy whenever he was not in\nthe ecstatic state; his contemplative mind was unable to grasp the\nimportance of independent thought, a fact amply proved by his inglorious\nquarrel with Abelard, the greatest thinker of his time. This quarrel was\na typical illustration of the difference between the believer and the\nthinker. Bernard forgot all about love, and did not hesitate to stir up\nunpleasantness whenever he could do so. So he wrote to Pope Innocent\nII.: \"Peter Abelard is striving to destroy the Christian faith, and\nimagines that his human intellect can penetrate the depths of the divine\nmind.... Nothing is hidden from him, neither in the earth below, nor in\nthe heavens above; his intellectual pride exceeds all limits; he attacks\nthe doctrines of faith, and ponders problems far above his intellectual\ncapacity; he is an inventor of heresies ...,\" etc. Thanks to his\nmachinations, Abelard was compelled to recant at the Council of Sens,\nand was condemned by the Pope to eternal silence. Berengar of Poitier\ntook Abelard's part, and in a satirical treatise ventured to criticise\nSt. Bernard's conduct: \"Thus philosophise the old women at the looms. Of\ncourse, when Bernard tells us that we must love God, he speaks a true\nand venerable word; but he need not have opened his lips to do so, for\nit is a self-evident truth.\" As a matter of fact, these words branded\nand contradicted the merely subjective emotional mysticism; to the\nemotional mystic salvation lies in the \"absorption in God,\" in\nshapeless, thoughtless contemplation. Richard of St. Victor, founding\nhis theories on St. Bernard, established six stages of meditation. The\nFranciscan monk, Bonaventura, the famous author of the _Biblia\nPauperum_, added a seventh, a complete rest in God--\"like the Sabbath\nafter the six days of labour.\" To Bonaventura, as later on to Dante, the\nworld was a ladder leading up to God.\n\nIf we turn from these thinkers of the Neo-Latin race, who in spite of\ntheir undeniable mysticism were completely under the dominion of the\nChurch--to German mysticism, we find above and beyond mysticism, we find\nabove and beyond love, a new principle: The soul of man is the\nstarting-point of religious consciousness and the content of the\nreligious consciousness is the soul's road to God. The nativity of\nChrist ceased to be regarded as a historical event, and became the birth\nof the divine principle in the soul of man. In passing I will mention a\nGerman nun, Mechthild of Magdeburg (1212-1277), who anticipated some of\nthe great thoughts of Eckhart, although she was incapable of grasping\ntheir mutual connection. \"The Holy Trinity and everything in heaven and\nearth must be subject to me\" (the soul), were words in the true spirit\nof Eckhart, leaving St. Bernard far behind. Mechthild found metaphors of\ntrue poetical grandeur when she spoke of the union of the soul with God.\n\"The dominion of the fire has yet to come. That is Jesus Christ in Whose\nhands the Heavenly Father has laid the salvation of the world and the\nLast Judgment. On the Day of Judgment He shall fashion cups of wondrous\nbeauty out of the crackling sparks; therein the Father will drink on His\nfestival all the holiness which through His dear Son He has poured into\nhuman souls.\"\n\nEmotional mysticism was the prevailing form of mysticism in those days;\neven Eckhart's pupil, Suso, belonged to this class of mystics. This\nvague sentimentalism saved many a mind from the rigid dogmas of the\nChurch, and as its vagueness could be interpreted in more than one way,\nit caused very little offence; but these visions and ecstasies, which\nare so often mistaken for true mysticism, have done much to bring the\nlatter into contempt with the seriously minded. Eckhart did not\nacknowledge it as genuine mysticism and directly condemned it in many of\nhis writings; and as he rejected mystic sentimentalism, clearly divining\nits pathological cause, so he also rejected asceticism and all religious\nceremonies. The evangelical poverty of the Franciscan monks was an\nobject of loathing to him. St. Francis (and thirty years before him\nPeter Valdez) had naively interpreted the imitation of Christ as a life\nof absolute poverty, and had been relentless in his denunciation of\nworldly wealth, which every monk of his order had to renounce. He\nhimself never touched money, seeing in it the source of all evil. His\ntranscendent treasure was \"Holy Poverty\"; Jacopone wrote an ardent hymn\nto \"Queen Poverty,\" and even Thomas, the representative of Dominican\nerudition, theoretically took up the cudgels on its behalf. But even in\nthe primitive Church the principle of worldly and spiritual poverty was\nwidely spread and encouraged. In the defence of poverty, which was\npractically nearly always synonymous with idleness and begging, and\ntherefore roused much hostility among the people, Bonaventura pointed\nout (in his treatise, _De Paupertate Christi_) that Jesus Himself had\nnever done any manual work. The universal preference for a contemplative\nlife encouraged the tendency, and the extreme charitableness of the\nMiddle Ages made its realisation possible. Work was frequently looked\nupon as a punishment--a view which could easily be upheld by reference\nto Adam's expulsion from Paradise--and inflicted upon the monks for\noffences against the rules. Dante's friend, Guido Cavalcanti, expressed\nthe natural sentiment that poverty is a distressing condition, in a\ncanzone which bristles with insults hurled at the Queen of the\nFranciscans:\n\n     Yea, rightly art thou hated worse than death,\n     For he, at length, is longed for in the breast.\n\n       But not with thee, wild beast,\n       Was ever aught found beautiful or good;\n       For life is all that man can lose by death,\n       Not fame and the fair summits of applause;\n       His glory shall not pause\n       But live in men's perpetual gratitude.\n       While he who on thy naked sill has stood\n       He shall be counted low, etc.\n\n                                    D.G. ROSSETTI.\n\nThe concept of the German mystics was infinitely more profound than the\nconcept of the merely external poverty of the Franciscans, which in the\ncase of St. Francis and Jacopone was an inherent characteristic and\npure, but in the case of the others more or less vicious. \"Man cannot\nlive in this world without labour,\" says Eckhart, \"but labour is man's\nportion; therefore he must learn to have God in his heart, although\nsurrounded by the things of this world, and not let his business or his\nsurroundings be a barrier.\" There is a passage in the book of an unknown\nauthor, entitled _The Imitation of Christ's Poverty_ (formerly ascribed\nto Tauler), which reads as follows: \"Poverty is equality with God, a\nmind turned away from all creatures; poverty clings to nothing and\nnothing clings to it; a man who is poor clings to nothing which is\nbeneath him, but to that alone which is greater than all things. And\nthat is the loftiest virtue of poverty that it clings only to that which\nis sublime and takes no heed of the things which are base, so far as it\nis possible.\" \"The soul while it is burdened with temporal and transient\nthings is not free. Before it can aspire to freedom and nobility it must\ncast away all the things of the world.\" \"Nobody can be really poor\nunless God make him so; but God makes no man poor unless he be in his\ninmost heart; then all things will be taken from him which are not\nGod's. The more spiritual a man is, the poorer will he be, for\nspirituality and poverty are one....\" Pseudo-Tauler even affirms that a\nman \"can possess abundant wealth and yet be poor in spirit.\" The meaning\nof this is clear: He whose heart is not wrapped up in the things of the\nworld, will find his way to God; a soul which is without desire is rich.\n\nBut there was a still greater contrast between the naive religion\nrepresented by St. Francis of Assisi and the religion of Eckhart. The\nformer lived entirely in the obvious and visible; the love of all\ncreatures filled his heart and shaped his life. The heart of the mystic\ntoo, was filled with love, but it was love transcending the love of the\nindividual, love of the primary cause. In the last sense Eckhart taught,\ncontrary to traditional Christianity, and in conformity with Indian\nwisdom, that the soul must be absorbed into the absolute and that\neverything transient and individual must cease to exist. \"The highest\nfreedom is that the soul should rise above itself and flow into the\nfathomless abyss of its archetype, of God Himself.\"\n\nEven St. Bernard was not quite free from this mystical heresy (_cf._ the\npreviously quoted passages). \"When he has reached the highest degree of\nperfection, man is in a state of complete forgetfulness of self, and\nhaving entirely ceased to belong to himself, becomes one with God,\nreleased from everything not divine.\" Even compassion must cease in this\nstate, for there is nothing left but justice and perfection.\n\nWe recognise here a characteristic of all those who are greatest among\nmen: of Goethe, for instance, of Bach, or Kant: namely, the\ncorrespondence of intense personality and the most highly developed\nobjectivity; for the greatest personality ceases in the end to\ndistinguish between itself and the world, has eradicated everything\npaltry, selfish and subjective and has become entirely objective,\nimpersonal, divine. St. Francis knew nothing of this consciousness. \"God\nhas chosen me because among all men He could find no one more lowly, and\nbecause through my instrumentality He purposed to confound nobility,\ngreatness, strength, beauty and the wisdom of the world.\" He was the\ndisciple of the earthly Jesus, Who went through life the compassionate\nconsoler of all those who were sorrowful. But Eckhart aspired \"to the\nshapeless nature of God.\" \"We will follow Him, but not in all things,\"\nhe said of the historical Jesus. \"He did many things which He meant us\nto understand spiritually, not literally ... we must always follow Him\nin the profounder sense.\" Compared to the religion of Eckhart, the\nreligion of St. Francis is the faith of a little child, picturing God as\na benevolent old man. Such a religion is equally true and sincere, but\nit represents an earlier stage on the road of humanity. If Christianity\nwere--as we are occasionally assured--the religion of Jesus, then the\ngreat mystics cannot be called Christians. And yet St. Augustine's: \"We\nare not Christians, but Christs,\" was fulfilled in them.\n\nThe profoundest depth of European religion, of which Eckhart was the\nexponent, and which found artistic expression in Gothic art, was not\nsounded by music until very much later. Bach, more emphatically in the\nHigh Mass and the Magnificat, but also in his purely instrumental music,\nbrought the universal feeling of mysticism to absolute artistic\nperfection. The deep religious sentiment which pervades the High Mass is\nso far above all cults, that it has no real connection with any\nhistorical faith--it is pure consciousness of the divine.\n\nThe peculiar state of the soul, called mysticism, could never become\npopular, or exert any very great influence. A few men, such as Tauler,\nSuso, Merswin, and the unknown author of the _Theologica Germanica_\nhanded on--not by any means always unadulterated--the doctrine they had\nreceived from Eckhart--which at all times appealed to a few\nthinkers--but the real influence on the world and on history was\nreserved for the reformers. The reformer, in his inmost nature, is\nrelated to the people; his soul is agitated by formulas and ceremonies,\nto which the mystic is indifferent; they are to him obstacles to his\nfaith and he strains every nerve to destroy them. He has every\nappearance of the truly free spirit, but he is secretly dependent on\nthat against which he is fighting. He suffers under its inefficiency;\nhis deed is the final reaction against his environment; salvation seems\nto him to lie in the improvement of existing conditions, and not until\nhe has succeeded in accomplishing his purpose can he hope for religious\npeace. The mystic is possible in all states of civilisation. He is not\ndependent on external circumstances; his whole consciousness is filled\nwith one problem only, before which everything else pales: the\nrelationship of the soul to God. But the reformer is possible only under\ncertain circumstances. He, too, starts from an inner religious\nconsciousness, but his problem is soon solved, and he devotes all his\nenergy to the world. The mystic is not even aware of the difference\nbetween his own conception of God and traditional religion; he is under\nthe impression that he is still an orthodox believer, long after he has\nbroken fresh ground; for he has taken from the traditional doctrine\neverything which he can re-animate. The remainder is dead as far as he\nis concerned. To accuse him of heresy appears to him as a monstrous\nmisunderstanding.\n\nThus mystic and reformer drink from the same well of direct religious\nconsciousness. But while in the case of the mystic the well is\nfathomless, it is much more shallow in the case of the reformer. Certain\nof himself, he directs his energy to the conversion and reformation of\nthe world. He resembles in some respects the public orator and\nagitator; he has a grasp of social conditions, strives to influence his\nsurroundings by word and deed, and is ready to sacrifice his life to his\nconvictions. The mystic remains solitary and misunderstood. Luther, who\nwas to some extent influenced by German mysticism, fought, at his best,\nagainst the dogma of historical salvation.\n\nIt is the tragic fate of all religions that they must crystallise into a\nsystem. A reflection of the enthusiasm which animated their founders\nstill falls on their disciples: Follow me! But the second generation\nalready demands proofs, tradition and clumsy miracles; reports are drawn\nup and looked upon as sacred--religion has become a glimpse into the\npast. Most people never have any direct religious experience, their\nsalvation lies in the dogmas, the universally accepted doctrines. The\nfounder of a new religion is always regarded by his contemporaries as\nabnormal, and is persecuted accordingly; not in malice, but of\nnecessity. Arnold of Brescia died at the stake; St. Francis was no more\nthan a heretic tolerated by the Church, and Eckhart escaped the tribunal\nof the Inquisition only through his death.\n\nI have attempted to show in diverse domains of the higher spiritual and\npsychical life, how powerfully _the Christian principle of the\nindividual soul, the real fundamental value of the European\ncivilisation_, manifested itself at the time of the Crusades, and\neverywhere became the germ of new things. The deepest thinkers teach the\ndeification of man as the culmination of existence, the ultimate purpose\nof this earthly life, and claim immortality for the soul. This position,\nwhich may roughly be conceived as the raising of the individual into the\nideal, has determined the European ideal of culture and differentiated\nit from all Orientalism, including even the loftiest Indian philosophy.\nEvery attempt to substitute for this fundamental concept and its\nemotional content something else--whether it be pantheism, Buddhism, or\nnaturalism--will always remain a failure.\n\nSide by side with the splendid achievement of the German mysticism, the\nTeutonic race has always been apt to give practical proof of its\nindividualism by endless petty quarrels and by splittings into numerous\ncliques. But even before this race began to play a part in history, at\nthe beginning of the third century, the principle of the individual soul\nwas outwardly carried to extremes. While it was the ideal of the man of\nantiquity to serve the higher community of the State with body and soul,\nnascent Christianity cared solely for the salvation of the individual\nsoul, and frequently proved this by quite external evidence, by living a\nhermit's life in the desert, for instance. Children left their parents,\nhusband and wife separated, dignitaries forsook their office to seek\nsolitude and prepare their souls for the world beyond the grave. The\nfirst convents--the outcome of Christian individualism and\nasceticism--were founded; and the anti-social extreme of this\nindividualism acquired such ominous proportions that the Emperor Valens\nin the year of grace 365, was forced to legislate against the monastic\nlife.\n\nThis hatred of the world, which was quite in harmony with the spirit of\nChristianity, was only overcome by the profounder concepts of German\nmysticism, for in the primitive dualistic view of the first millenary\nthe renunciation of the world was the only possibility of avoiding sin.\nThe Emperor Justinian decreed that any man who induced a consecrated nun\nto marry him should be punished by death. The thought that personal\ngreatness did not consist in renouncing the world but in living in it\nand overcoming it, had not yet been conceived.\n\nThe delight in the human form, characteristic of antiquity, was\nextinguished, a crude dualism denied all antique values. The body must\nbe hated, so that the soul could flourish. But as the Hellenic period\nwas preceded by vague, unindividualised, material life, so the\nimpersonal, chaotic, spiritual life of the first thousand years of\nChristianity matured the individual soul. It found its climax in Dante\nand Eckhart, the greatest poet of the Neo-Latin race, and the most\nillumined religious genius of Germany. These two men, who were\ncontemporaries (Dante died in 1321 and Eckhart in 1329), finally\nrevealed the character of two kindred nations, completing and\nfructifying each other. In Dante the great artistic power of the\nNeo-Latin race appeared for the first time in its full intensity; it\ntook possession of the whole visible universe, and poured new beauty\ninto the traditional myths of Christendom. Eckhart experienced and\nrecreated the shapeless depths of the soul, the regions of the blending\nof the soul with God. With these two men Europe definitely severed\nherself from antiquity and barbarism, henceforth to follow her own star.\n\nThe new world had come into existence! Renascence, the lucky heir,\ngathered the ripe fruit from the tree of art which had blossomed so\nmarvellously. God was no longer sought in the depth of the soul, all\nemotion was projected into the world of sense. Churches were built, not\nfrom an irresistible impulse, but as store-houses of the pictures which\nwere painted with amazing rapidity. The fundamental principle of\npersonality was externalised in the Renascence. Vanity and boasting,\ntraces of which frequently appeared in the age of chivalry, grew\nexuberantly. No less manifest than the incomparable genius and _esprit_\nof the heyday of the Renascence--although far less frequently commented\non--was the desire to be conspicuous, to shine, to display wealth and\nlearning. The essence of personality, instead of being sought in the\nsoul, was sought in outward magnificence. As a matter of fact, the much\nextolled Renascence only perfected the various branches of art and\npoetry, which had sprung up in the period of the Crusades. The latter\nwas the time of the planting of the tree of European culture; all that\nfollowed was merely its growth and ramification. Only exact science had\nits origin in the Renascence, and this fact, in historical perspective,\nmust be regarded as the supreme glory of this period. However\nparadoxical it may sound--the \"impersonal\" science is the perfection of\nthe European system of individualism, its most potent weapon for taking\nspiritual possession of the world and all that the world contains. The\nconsciousness of personality had to permeate the whole soul before it\ncould recover its external function: organic existence justified by\nitself. While art borrows from nature and mankind all that we ourselves\ndeem beautiful, perfect, valuable, and imposes on the world a man-made\nlaw--science strives to understand all things and all creatures\naccording to the law which dominates them; it strives to comprehend\nnature and humanity--even where they are foreign and hostile--not\naccording to human values, but according to their inherent nature--and\nthis is only possible when the individuality of all things is respected.\nThe method of science has slowly become the perfect weapon by whose aid\nEurope has attained the mastery of the world; it rests on the\nfundamental feeling for the material, and is capable of confronting the\n\"I\" with the whole system of natural phenomena, the \"not-I,\" and\nexpresses the final victory of comprehending spirit over matter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE DEIFICATION OF WOMAN\n\n(THE FIRST FORM OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM)\n\n_(a) The Love of the Troubadours_\n\n\nIn the long chapter on the Birth of Europe, I have attempted to bring\ncorroborative evidence from all sides in support of my contention that\nthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed the birth and gradual\ndevelopment of a new value of the highest importance: the value of\nindividuality, impersonated by the citizen of Europe. We are now\nprepared to realise the psychological importance and the importance for\nprogress of one of the greatest results of this new development--the\nspiritual love of man for woman. From this subject, the specific subject\nof my book, I shall not again digress.\n\nWe are aware that the man of antiquity (and also the Eastern nations of\nto-day) recognised between man and woman only the sexual bond,\nuninfluenced by personal and psychological motives, and leading in\nGreece to the institution of monogamy on purely economical and political\ngrounds. In addition to this bond there existed a very distinct\nspiritual love, evolved by Plato and his circle and projected by one man\non another member of his own sex. In the true Hellenic spirit this love\naspired to guide the individual to the ideal of perfection, the beauty\nand wisdom of the friend serving as stepping-stones in the upward climb.\nIn Christianity the spiritual love of the divine became the greatest\nvalue and the pivot on which the emotions turned. The primitive\nChristian scorned the body, his own as well as that of his fellow; he\ndespised beauty of form, and regarded only the divine as worthy of love.\nWoman was disparaged and suspected; all thinkers, down to Thomas and\nAnselm, looking upon her merely as a snare and a pitfall. The period\ndiscussed in detail in the foregoing chapter ushered in a new and, until\nthen, unknown feeling. In crude and conscious contrast to sexuality,\ndeprecated alike by classical Greece and primitive Christianity,\nspiritual love of man for woman came into existence. It was composed of\nthree clearly distinguishable elements: the Platonic thought,\nmaintaining that the greatest virtue lies in the striving for absolute\nperfection; the entirely spiritual love of the divine, sufficient in\nitself, and representing the final purpose of life, as developed by\nChristianity; and the dawning knowledge of the value of personality.\nFrom these three elements: the noblest inheritance of antiquity, the\ncentral creation of Christianity, and the pivot of the new-born European\nspirit, sprang the new value which is the subject of the second stage of\neroticism. The position of woman had changed; she was no longer the\nmedium for the satisfaction of the male impulse, or the rearing of\nchildren, as in antiquity; no longer the silent drudge or devout sister\nof the first Christian millenary; no longer the she-devil of monkish\nconception; transcending humanity, she had been exalted to the heavens\nand had become a goddess. She was loved and adored with a devotion not\nof this earth, a devotion which was the sole source of all things lofty\nand good; she had become the saviour of humanity and queen of the\nuniverse.\n\nThe rejection of sensuality is an inherent part of the Christian\nreligion; only he who had overcome his sinful desires was a hero.\nSpiritual love was as yet unknown, only the sexual impulse was realised,\nand that was looked upon as a sin; there was but one way of escape:\nrenunciation. This view is very clearly expressed in the legends of\nAlexius, and in Barlaam and Josaphat (which although of Indian origin,\nhad found a German interpreter and were known all over Europe). The\nlatter legend tells how Prince Josaphat, a devout Christian, married a\nbeautiful princess. On his wedding night he had a vision of the\ncelestial paradise, the dominion of chastity, and the earthly pool of\nsin. Recognising in his bride a devil who had come to tempt him, he left\nher and fled into the desert. Many legends illustrate the incapacity of\nthe first millenary to realise the relationship between the sexes in any\nother sense. Woman was evil; the struggle against her a laudable effort.\n\nVery probably the stigmatising of all eroticism during that long spell\nof a thousand years was necessary. Only the unnatural condemnation of\nlove in its widest sense, a hatred of sex and woman such as was felt by\nTertullian and Origen, could result in the reverse of sexuality--purely\nspiritual love with its logical climax, the deification and worship of\nwoman. There can be no doubt that the Christian ideal of chastity was\nlargely responsible for the evolution of the ideal of spiritual love.\nThe identity of love and chastity was propounded--in sharp contrast to\nsexuality and--more particularly amongst the later troubadours, such as\nMontanhagol, Sordello, and the poets of the \"sweet new style\" in\nItaly--with a distinct leaning towards religious ecstasy.\n\nInfinite tenderness pervaded the nascent cult of woman. It seemed as if\nman were eager to compensate her for the indignity which he had heaped\nupon her for a thousand years. His instinctive need to worship had found\nan incomparable being on earth before whom he prostrated himself. She\nwas the climax of earthly perfection; no word, no metaphor was\nsufficiently ecstatic to express the full fervour of his adoration; a\nnew religion was created, and she was the presiding divinity. \"What were\nthe world if beauteous woman were not?\" sang Johannes Hadlaub, a German\npoet.\n\nOnce more I must revert to personality, the fundamental value of the\nEuropean. In antiquity, even in Greece and Rome, personality in its\nhigher sense did not exist. The hero was the epitome of all the energies\nof the nation, a term for the striving of the community; the statesman\nwas the incarnate political will of the people; even the poet's ideal\nwas the representation of the Hellenic type in all its aspects.\nAgamemnon was no more than the intelligent ruler, Achilles the\nheadstrong hero, Odysseus the cunning adventurer. The individual was a\nmember and servant of the tribe, the town, the state; each man knew that\nhis fellow did not essentially differ from him; and even at the period\nwhen Hellas was at its meridian the individuals were, compared to modern\nmen, but slightly differentiated. But the Greek differed from the\nOriental, the barbarian, inasmuch as he felt himself no longer a\ncomponent part of nature, but realised his distinct individuality.\n\nWe find the first germs of the new creative principle of personality in\nthe Platonic figure of Socrates who, first of all, conceived the idea of\na higher spiritual love, blended it with the love of ideas and separated\nit sharply from base desire. Though his conception was not yet personal\nlove in the true sense, it was nevertheless a spiritual divine love. The\nGreek State could not tolerate him, and sentenced him to death. But this\nsame Socrates also said (in \"Crito\") that man was indebted to the State\nfor his existence. \"Did not thy father, in obedience to the law, take\nthy mother to wife and beget thee?\" This sentiment was as antique as it\ncould well be, and the death of Socrates--as related by Plato--was the\nmost magnificent confirmation of the Greek idea that the individual,\neven the wisest, was entirely subordinate to the community.\n\nThe civilisations of China and Japan are impersonal even to a greater\nextent than the civilisation of ancient Greece. Percival Lowell\nmaintains that the diverse manifestations of the spirit of those\ncountries can only be understood if regarded from the standpoint of\nabsolute impersonality. He sees in a \"pronounced impersonality the most\nstriking characteristic of the Far East\", \"the foundation on which the\nOriental character is built up.\" It is very instructive to observe how\nit determines the individual's conception of birth and marriage,\nthoughts and acts, life and death. It is carried to so great an extreme\nthat special terms for \"I,\" \"you,\" \"he,\" do not even exist in the\nJapanese language, and have to be replaced by objective circumlocutions.\nNot content with the fact of having been born impersonal, it is the\nambition of the inhabitant of the Far East to become more and more so as\nhis life unfolds itself. Witness the heroic exploits of Japanese\nsoldiers during the last war: individual soldiers frequently went to\ntheir death for the sake of a small advantage to their group. We\nEuropeans regard this in the light of heroism--and it would be heroism\nin the case of a European. But with the sacrifice of his individual life\nin the interest of the community, the Japanese instinctively yields the\nsmaller value. In the same way Greeks and Romans did not attach very\nmuch importance to life; suicide was very common, and frequently\ncommitted without any special motive. As true love is based on\npersonality, it is impossible for the modern East-Asiatic to know love\nin our sense. Lowell agrees with this: \"Love, as we understand it, is an\nunknown feeling in the East.\" He reports that Japanese women will appear\nbefore strangers entirely nude, without the least trace of\nembarrassment--as would Greek women!--because they are innocent of that\nother aspect of personality--the feeling of shame. To be ashamed implies\nthe desire of concealing something individual and intimate; where this\nis not the case, there can be no feeling of shame. Finally, I should\nlike to point out that the perversity and sexual refinement peculiar to\nChina and Japan are attributable simply to the fact that the limits of\nsexuality cannot be overstepped, and that sexuality is therefore\ndependent on vice and perversity to satisfy its craving for variety.\n\nThe first manifestation of overwhelming personality appears in Jesus,\nand he created the religion of love. In him personality and love were\nconvertible forces, one might even say they were identical. He, first of\nall, revealed their mysterious intimate connection, and clearly showed\nthat love can only be experienced by a distinct personality, because it\nis an emanation of the soul and not a natural instinct.\n\nIt was, again, personality which, in the twelfth century, produced a new\nforce: spiritual love projected not only on God and nature, but also on\nwoman. Now only had personality acquired its true significance; it no\nlonger meant--as it did in the mature Greek world--the individual\nseparated from his environment, the individual with a conscious\nbeginning and a conscious end, but the principle of the synthesis, a\nhigher entity above the mere individual, the source of all values and\nvirtue.\n\nPersonality is the self-conscious, individual soul, producing out of its\nown wealth the universal ideal values, and re-absorbing and assimilating\nthese ideal values in their higher form. It admits of the fusion of the\nsubjective with the universal and eternal, with the religious and\nartistic, the moral and scientific values of civilisation. \"Personality\nis the blending of the universal and the individual,\" said Kierkegaard,\nexpressing, if not exactly my meaning, something very near it.\n\nI shall endeavour to depict the spiritual love of man for woman--the\nposition cannot be reversed--from its inception to its climax. I shall\nsubmit abundant evidence to make the great unbroken stream of emotion\nclearly apparent, and indicate all its tributaries. I do not pretend\nthat I have exhausted the subject--that would be impossible. The works\nfrom which I have drawn may be safely regarded as the direct outpouring\nof emotion; those purely lyric poets were entirely subjective and ever\nintent upon their own feelings; there hardly exists one Provencal,\nold-Italian, or mediaeval love-song without the \"I.\"\n\nSpiritual love first appeared as a naive sentiment--unconscious of its\nown peculiar characteristics--in the poems of the earlier troubadours of\nProvence. There is a poem in which the Provencals claim the fathership\nof the cult of woman; their opponents do not deny it, but add that it\nwas an invention which \"could fill no man's stomach.\" These words\nexpress the great and insurmountable barrier between pure spiritual love\nand pleasure. The Christian dualism: soul-body, spirit-matter, had\ninvaded the domain of love.\n\nSpontaneous, genuine love, untainted by speculations and metaphysics, is\nfound in the songs of the earlier troubadours. The greatest among all of\nthem, Bernart of Ventadour, was the first to praise chaste love. If any\nchampion of civilisation deserves a monument, it is this poet.\n\n     Dead is the man who knows not love,\n     A sweet tremor in the heart.\n\n     Love's rapture fills my heart\n     With laughter and sighs.\n     Grief slays me a hundred times,\n     Joy bids me rise.\n\n     Sweet is love's happiness,\n     Sweeter love's pain.\n     Joy brings back grief to me,\n     Grief, joy again.\n\nGuillem Augier Novella expressed the feeling of being \"elated with\nexaltation and grieved to death\" as follows:\n\n     Lady, often flow my tears,\n     Glad songs in my mem'ry ring,\n     For the love that makes my blood\n     Dance and sing.\n     I am yours with heart and soul,\n     If it please you, lady, slay me....\n\nAimeril de Peguilhan is of opinion that the pain of love is no less\nsweet than the joy of love:\n\n     For he who loves with all his heart would fain\n     Be sick with love, such rapture is his pain.\n\nAnd Bernart again:\n\n     God keep my lady fair from grief and woe,\n     I'm close to her, however far I go;\n     If God will be her shelter and her shield,\n     Then all my heart's desire is fulfilled.\n\nAnd:\n\n     My mind was erring in a maze,\n     That hour I was no longer I,\n     When in your eyes I met my gaze\n     As in a mirror strange and shy.\n     Oh, mirror sweet, reflecting me,\n     Sighing I fell beneath your spell;\n     I perished in you utterly\n     As did Narcissus in the well.\n\nIn the same poem he goes on to say that he will ask for no reward, but\nfinally concludes:\n\n     My fervent kisses her sweet lips should cover,\n     For weeks they'd show the traces of her lover.\n\nThe German minnesinger, Heinrich of Morungen, called woman \"a mirror of\nall the delights of the world,\" and sang:\n\n     Blessed be the tender hour,\n     Blest the time, the precious day,\n     When my brimming heart welled over,\n     When my secret open lay.\n     I was startled with great gladness,\n     And bewildered so with love,\n     I can hardly sing thereof.\n\nThe sensuous element still dominated Bernart and his contemporaries to\nsome extent. In their poems, all of which are genuine and sincere, the\nlonging for kisses, sometimes for more, is frankly expressed, but the\ntendency towards the not sensuous and super-sensuous is already\napparent. The lover loves one woman only, and would rather love in vain,\npatiently enduring every pang she causes him, than receive favours from\nanother woman, were she beautiful as Venus her self.\n\nBernart says:\n\n     My sorrow is a sweet distress\n     To which no alien bliss compares,\n     And if my pain such sweetness bears,\n     How sweet would be my happiness!\n\nElias of Barjols:\n\n     Full of joy I am and sorrow\n     When I stand before her face.\n\nBonifacio Calvo:\n\n     There is no treasure-trove on earth\n     Which I would barter for my pain;\n     I love my grief, but spite and wrath\n     Run riot in my heart; my brain\n     Is reeling--and I laugh and cry.\n     Jubilant and desperate,\n     Exultant, I bewail my fate.\n     Quarter! Lady, ere I die.\n\nThe earlier troubadours were still ignorant of the later dogma which\nmade chaste love the sole fountain of virtue and the road to\nperfection--the beloved woman can make of her admirer what she wills--a\nsaint or a sinner.\n\nThus Guillem of Poitiers says:\n\n     Love heals the sick\n     And a grave does it delve\n     For the strong; mars the beauty of beauty itself,\n     Makes a fool of the sage with its magic,\n     A clown of the courteous knight,\n     And a king of the lowliest wight.\n\nThe equally early Cercamon:\n\n     False can I be or true for her,\n     Sincere or full of lies,\n     A perfect knight or worthless cur,\n     Serene or grave, stupid or wise.\n\nRaimon of Toulouse:\n\n     In the kingdom of love\n     Folly rules and not sense.\n\nIt was typical of this enthusiastic love that the social rank of the\nbeloved, the mistress, was invariably above the rank of the lover. The\nlatter was fond of calling himself her vassal and serf, proclaiming that\nshe had invested him with all his goods; even kings and German emperors\ncomposed love-songs, although in all probability they would have\nachieved their purpose far more quickly by other means; but in all cases\nwe find the characteristic attitude of the humble lover, looking up to\nhis mistress. The underlying thought is obvious: Love, the loftiest\nvalue in all the world, is the great leveller of all social differences,\na force before which wealth is as dust. \"I would rather win a kind\nglance from my lady's eyes than the royal crown of France,\" was a\nfavourite profession of the poets. Montanhagol, for instance, in a\nrhymed meditation, stated that a lady was wise in choosing a lover of a\nlower social rank, because not only could she always count on his\ngratitude and devotion, but she would also have more influence over him,\na fact which in the case of a social equal or superior was, to say the\nleast, a little doubtful. This supreme reverence for love soon became an\naccepted doctrine. We constantly meet the thought that chaste love alone\ncan make a man noble, good and wise. I will select a few illustrations\nfrom a wealth of instances:\n\nMiraval:\n\n     Noble is every deed whose root is love.\n\nPeire Rogier:\n\n     Full well I know that right and good\n     Is all I do for love of her.\n\nGuirot Riquier:\n\n     The man who loves not is not noble-minded,\n     For love is fruit and blossom of the highest.\n\nAnd:\n\n     Thus love transfigures ev'ry deed we do,\n     And love gives everything a deeper sense.\n     Love is the teaching of all genuine worth.\n     So base is no man's heart on this wide earth,\n     Love could not guide it to great excellence.\n\nGiraut of Calenso said of the City of Love that no base or ignorant man\ncould enter it, and the Italian Lapo Gianni sang:\n\n     The youthful maiden who appeared to me\n     So filled my soul with pure and lofty thoughts,\n     That henceforth all ignoble things I scorn.\n\nDante in the _Vita Nuova_ calls Beatrice \"the destroyer of all evil and\nthe queen of all virtues.\"\n\nThe very thought of the beloved makes a good man of the lover:\n\n     \"I cannot sin when I am in her thoughts.\"\n\nasserts the sincere Guirot Riquier, and he prays Christ to teach him the\ntrue love of woman.\n\nWhile it was a generally accepted theory that love was the source of\nman's perfection, I know of only one passage (by Raimon of Miraval)\ncontending that woman, also, was perfected by love; everywhere else we\nmeet the universal and silently accepted opinion that the essence of\nwomanhood is something unearthly, unfathomable and divine. Perhaps the\nmost classical formulation of the new doctrine, to wit, that spiritual\nlove is the begetter of all virtue and the mother of chastity, outside\nwhich there is nothing divine, is to be found in the poems of the\nsomewhat pedantic Montanhagol:\n\n     The lover who loves not the highest love,\n     Is like a fool polluting precious wine.\n     Let loftiest love alone within thee move,\n     And purity and virtue will be thine.\n\nGuirot Riquier expressed a similar sentiment:\n\n     For chaste and pure my love has always been,\n     From my \"sweet bliss\" I've never asked a boon;\n     If I may humbly serve her night and noon,\n     My life be her inalienable lien.\n\nWalter von der Vogelweide says: \"Love is a treasure heaped up of all\nvirtues.\"\n\nAs time went on the barrier erected between true spiritual love and\ninsidious sensuality became more and more clearly defined; the former\npervaded the erotic emotion of the whole period. Parallel with chaste\nlove, sensuality continued to exist as something contemptible, unworthy\nof a noble mind; and it must be admitted that according to the\ncontemporary \"Fabliaux,\" later German comedies and Italian and French\nnovels, the sexual manifestations of the period, were of incredible\ncoarseness. As against these, spiritual love was not merely an artistic\nand theoretic concept, but the profound emotion of the cultured minds,\nand remained a powerful and creative force even in later centuries.\nSpiritual love and sexuality were irreconcilable contradistinctions; the\nman who thought otherwise was looked upon as a libertine. The following\npassages from the poems of the troubadours and their heirs, the Italian\npoets of the _dolce stil nuovo_, will prove the historical reality of\nthis relationship, the ideal of the declining Middle Ages. We need take\nno account of the German minnesingers, for although they shared the same\nideal, they did not influence principle in the same way as the neo-Latin\npoets.\n\nBernart of Ventadour:\n\n       Lady, I ask no other meed\n     Than that you suffer me to serve;\n     My faith and love shall never swerve,\n       I'm yours whatever you decreed.\n\nPeire Rogier:\n\n     Mine is her smile and mine her jest,\n     And foolish were I more to ask\n     And not to think me wholly blest.\n     'Tis no deceit,\n     To gaze at her is all I need,\n     The sight of her is my reward.\n\nGaucelm Faidit:\n\n     Of all the ways of love I chose the best,\n     I love you, love, with ardour infinite,\n     Yours is my life, do as you will with it.\n     Nor kiss I ask, nor sweet embraces, lest\n     I were blaspheming....\n\nThe most enthusiastic champions of pure love were Montanhagol, Sordello\nand Guirot Riqiuer. The former maintained that a lover who asked for\nfavours incompatible with his lady's honour, neither loved her nor\ndeserved to be loved.--\"Love begets purity, and he who knows the meaning\nof love can never forsake virtue.\"\n\nThere is a controversy between Peire Guillem of Toulouse and Sordello,\nwhich contains the following passages:\n\n     Of all mankind I never saw\n     A man like you, Sordell', I wis,\n     For he who woman does adore\n     Will never flout her love and kiss.\n     And what to others is a prize\n     You surely don't mean to despise?\n\n     Honour and joy I crave from her,\n     And if a little rose she bind\n     Into the wreath, Sir Guillem Peire,\n     From mercy, not from duty, mind,\n     That would be happiness indeed,\n     Oh! that such bliss should be my meed!\n\n     A humble lover such as you,\n     Sordell', in faith, I never knew.\n\n     Sir Peire, methinks what you express\n     Is lacking much in seemliness.\n\nIn another poem the talented Sordello says:\n\n     My love for her is so profound\n     I'd serve her, spurn and scorn despite\n     Ere with another I'd be found--\n     Yet I'd not serve without requite,\n\nand in another, after stating that he loves his lady so much that he\nwould thank her even if she killed him, he continues:\n\n     Thus, lady, I commend to thee\n     My fate and life, thy faithful squire\n     I'd rather die in misery\n     Than have thee stoop to my desire.\n\n     The knight who truly loves his dame\n     Not only loves her comely face,\n     Dearer to him is her fair fame\n     Undimmed, unsullied by disgrace.\n\n     How grievously I should offend\n     Thy virtue, if I spoke of passion;\n     But if I did--which God forfend!\n     Sweet lady, stoop not to compassion.\n\nAlthough Sordello appeared so extremely modest, yet he was grieved to\ndeath because his lady did not return his love. There is a poem in which\nhe compares himself to a drowning man whom the beloved alone could save.\n\nThis spiritual love (then as now) puzzled the commonplace, and was\nmisunderstood and regarded with scepticism. Bertran d'Alaman taunted\nSordello with his \"hypocritical happiness\" and \"the whole deception of\nhis love,\" and Granet, in a satirical poem, cast doubt upon his\nsincerity.\n\nIt is very significant to find that Sordello, that typical champion of\nchaste love, kept up a number of questionable liaisons with all sorts of\nwomen. Bertran reproached him with having changed his lady at least a\nhundred times, and he himself shamelessly confesses:\n\n     The jealousies of husbands ne'er amaze me,\n     For in the art of love I do excel,\n     And there's no wife, however chaste she may be\n     Who can resist me if I woo her well.\n       And if her husband hate me I'll not grumble,\n     Because his wife receives me in the night,\n     If mine her kiss, if mine sweet love's delight,\n       His pain and wrath my spirit shall not humble.\n     No husband e'er shall rob me of my pleasure,\n     None can resist me, what I wish I gain,\n     All do I love and never will refrain\n     Spite husbands' wrath to rob them of their treasure.\n\nIt may seem strange at first sight that this enthusiastic exponent of\npure love should have led such a double life. But Sordello's conduct is\nnot in the least paradoxical; in accordance with the tendency of the\nperiod, he carefully distinguished in his own heart between sexuality\nand love; before the one he lay prostrate, unable to find words enough\nin self-depreciation, so that he might the more exalt his mistress; but\nwith respect to all other women he was a mere sensualist. We read that\nalthough he was \"an expert in the treatment of women\" in her presence\nhis voice forsook him and he lost all self-control. Petrarch, who--while\nliving with a very earthly woman--extolled all his life long a lofty\nbeing whom he called Laura, was akin to Sordello, although he was a far\nless brutal character. The latter approached the type of the seeker of\nlove, the Don Juan.\n\nIn a tenzone between Peirol and the Dauphin of Auvergne, the former\nmaintains that love must die at the moment of its consummation. \"I\ncannot believe,\" he says, \"that a true lover can continue to love after\nhe has received the last favour.\" (Otto Weininger agrees with this.) But\nPeirol winds up with the subtle suggestion that though love be dead, a\nman should always continue to behave as if he were still in love.\n\nThe troubadours never weary of drawing a line between _drudaria_ and\n_luxuria_, pure love and base desire. _Mezura_, seemliness, is\ncontrasted with _dezmezura_, licentiousness. Pure love is regarded as\nthe creator of all high values, luxuriousness as their destroyer. In the\nsame way the German minnesingers distinguished between \"low\" love and\n\"high\" love.\n\nAs both cultured minds and the upper classes, contemning sexuality,\nacknowledged spiritual love only, it follows as a matter of course that\nthe avowal of such sentiments became good form; the motif that the\nhonour of the beloved must be carefully shielded, and that no desire\nmust dim her purity, occurs again and again. But it should not be\nforgotten that a poet may love a sentiment for its own sake, without\nbeing in the least influenced by it. Many a troubadour drew inspiration\nfrom an emotion which all praised as the supreme value; even if he had\nno earthly mistress, he adored the sublime sentiment. Not infrequently\nit happened that a troubadour who had been loud in praise of high love\nand denunciation of base desire--a trick of his trade--suddenly came to\nhimself and changed his mind. Folquet of Marseilles, for instance, after\nmore than ten years of vain sighing, came to the conclusion that he had\nbeen a fool.\n\n     Deceitful love beguiles the simple fool\n     And binds with magic thongs the hapless wight;\n     That like a moth lured by the candle-light,\n     He hovers, helpless, round the heartless ghoul.\n\n     I cast thee out and follow other stars\n     Full evil was my meed and recompense--\n     New courage steels my fainting heart, and hence\n     I kneel at shrines which passion never mars.\n\nIn an interesting poem Garin the Red implores _Mezura_ to teach him the\nway to love purely and nobly; but he is anything but pleased with his\ninstructress, and comes to the conclusion that her whole wisdom is \"just\ngood form\" and nothing else.\n\n     But by my merry mood impelled\n     I kiss and dally night and morn\n     And do the things I feel compelled\n     To do--or else, with tonsure shorn,\n     I'd seek a cloister....\n\nElias of Barjols, finding that his love will never be returned, and\nhaving no mind to sigh all his life in vain, renounces love altogether.\n\"I should be a fool if I served love any longer!\"\n\n\"All you lovers are fools!\" exclaimed another. \"Do you think you can\nchange the nature of women?\" This is one of the very rare criticisms of\nwoman; as a rule we hear only of her angelic perfection, wisdom, beauty\nand aloofness.\n\nThe distinguished poet Marcabru was a woman-hater, and enemy of love\nfrom the very beginning. He said of himself that he had never loved a\nwoman and that no woman had ever loved him.\n\n     The love which is always a lie\n     And deceiver of men, I decry\n     And denounce; I had more than enough.\n     Can you count all the evil it wrought?\n     When I think of it I am distraught.\n     What a madman I was to believe,\n     To sigh, to rejoice and to grieve;\n     But no longer I'll squander my days,\n     We have come to the parting of the ways. Etc.\n\nHe was indefatigable in abusing the tender passion, and had a great deal\nto say about the immorality of women. But it is characteristic of the\nstrong public opinion of the time that even this misogynist (who,\nperhaps, after all was only a disappointed man) praised \"high love.\"\n\nThe subject also found its theorists, prominent among whom was the\ncourt-chaplain Andreas, who wrote a very learned book on love in Latin.\nHe expressed in propositions and conclusions what the contemporary poets\nexpressed in verse, proving thereby that spiritual love was not merely a\npoetic fiction but the profoundest belief of the period, supported by\nthe full complement of its philosophical weapons. \"In the whole world\nthere is no good and no courtliness outside the fountain of love.\nTherefore love is the beginning and foundation of all good.\" He also\nproved that a noble-minded man must be a lover, for if he were not, he\ncould not have attained virtue. \"Love disregards all barriers, and makes\nthe man of low origin the equal and superior of the nobleman.\"\n\nThis conception of spiritual nobility, which was later on perfected in\nthe theory of the _cor gentil_, only existed in Provence and in Italy;\nit remained unknown in France and Germany.\n\nAndreas drew a distinction between base love, the _amor mixtus sive\ncommunis_, and pure love, the _amor purus_. \"Love,\" he maintained, fully\nagreeing with the poets, \"gives to a man the strength of chastity, for\nhe whose heart is brimming over with the love of a woman, cannot think\nof dallying with another, however beautiful she may be.\" He proved from\nsubstance and form that a man cannot love two women. In the _Leys\nd'Amors_, a voluminous fourteenth-century Provencal treatise, largely a\ntext-book of grammar and prosody, we read: \"And now lovers must be\ntaught how to love; passionate lovers must be restrained, so that they\nmay come to realise their evil and dishonourable desires. No good\ntroubadour, who is at the same time an honest lover, has ever abandoned\nhimself to base sensuality and ignoble desires.\" The same author opined\nthat a troubadour who asked his lady for a kiss, was committing an act\nof indecency. On the other hand, Andreas was very broad-minded in\ndrawing the line between both kinds of love, allowing kisses, and even\nmore, in the case of true love. (The best troubadours disagree with him\nin this respect.)\n\nA scholasticism of love, modelled on ecclesiastical scholasticism and\nsubstituting the beloved woman for the Deity, was gradually evolved.\nLove, veneration, humility, hope, etc., were the sacrifices offered at\nher shrine. She was full of grace and compassion, and was believed in as\nfervently as was God. Some of the poets were animated by a curious\nambition \"to prove\" their feelings with scholastic erudition, and more\nespecially by the later, Italian, school, _amore_, _cor gentil_,\n_valore_, were conceived as substances, attributes, inherent qualities,\netc. The allegories of _amore_ played a prominent part, and spoiled many\na masterpiece. The German poets steered clear of these absurdities,\nwhich even Dante did not escape.\n\nAt the famous courts of love, presided over by princesses, the most\nextraordinary questions relating to love were discussed and decided with\na ceremonial closely following the ceremonial of the petty courts of\nlaw. Andreas preserved for us a number of these judgments, some of which\nprove the really quite obvious fact that love and marriage are two very\ndifferent things, for if spiritual love be considered the supreme value,\nmatrimony can only be regarded as an inferior condition. And it was a\nfact that in the higher ranks of society,--the only ones with which we\nare concerned,--a marriage was nothing but a contract made for political\nand economical reasons. The baron desired to enlarge his estate, obtain\na dowry, or marry into an influential family; no one dreamed of\nconsulting the future bride, whom marriage alone could bring into\ncontact with people outside her own family. To her marriage meant the\npermission to shine and be adored by a man who was not her husband. \"It\nis an undeniable fact,\" propounded Andreas as _regula amoris_, \"that\nthere is no room for love between husband and wife,\" and Fauriel\ntranslated a passage as follows: \"A husband who proposed to behave to\nhis wife as a knight would to his lady, would propose to do something\ncontrary to the canons of honour; such a proceeding could neither\nincrease his virtue nor the virtue of his lady, and nothing could come\nof it but what already properly exists.\"--Another judgment maintained\n\"that a lady lost her admirer as soon as the latter became her husband;\nand that she was therefore entitled to take a new lover.\" At the court\nof love of the Viscountess Ermengarde, of Narbonne, the problem whether\nthe love between husband and wife or the love between lovers were the\ngreater, was decided as follows: \"The affection between a married couple\nand the tender love which unites two lovers are emotions which differ\nfundamentally and according to custom. It would be folly to attempt a\ncomparison between two subjects which neither resemble each other, nor\nhave any connection.\" A husband declared: \"It is true, I have a\nbeautiful wife, and I love her with conjugal love. But because true love\nis impossible between husband and wife, and because everything good\nwhich happens in this world has its origin in love, I am of opinion that\nI should seek an alliance of love outside my married life.\" All this was\nnot frivolity, but the only logical conclusion of dualistic eroticism,\nincapable of blending sensuality and love. It was equally logical that\nlove between divorced persons was not only regarded as not immoral, but\nas perfectly right and justifiable; it was even decided that \"a new\nmarriage could never become a drawback to old love.\" In the old novel,\n_Gerard of Roussillon_, the princess, beloved by Gerard, is married to\nthe emperor Charles Martel, and compelled to part from her knight. At\ntheir last meeting, before a number of witnesses, she called on the name\nof Christ and said: \"Know ye all that I give my love to Sir Gerard with\nthis ring and this flower from my chaplet. I love him more than father\nand husband, and now I must weep tears of bitter sorrow.\" After this\nthey parted, but their love continued undiminished though there was\nnothing between them but tender wishes and secret thoughts.\n\nMatrimony had no advantage over the love-alliance, not even the\nsanction of the Church. A love-alliance was frequently accompanied by a\nceremony in which a priest officiated. Fauriel describes--without\nmentioning his source--such a ceremony as follows: \"Kneeling before his\nlady, with his folded hands between hers, he dedicated himself to her\nservice, vowing to be faithful to her until death, and to shield her\nfrom all harm and insults as far as lay within his power. The lady, on\nher side, declared her willingness to accept his service, promised to\ndevote her loftiest feelings to him, and as a rule gave him a ring as a\nsymbol of their union. Then she raised and kissed him, always for the\nfirst, usually for the last time.\" The parting of the lovers, too, was a\nsolemn act, resembling in many ways the dissolution of a marriage.\n\n       So that our solemn plighted troth\n     When love is dead, we shall not break,\n     We'll to the priest ourselves betake.\n     You set me free, as I do you,\n     A perfect right then shall we both\n     Enjoy to choose a love anew,\n\nwrote Peire of Barjac.\n\nIt was far more easy to dissolve a marriage than a true love-alliance;\nthe husband had only to state that his wife was a distant relation of\nhis, and the Church was ready to annul the contract. But the\nlove-alliance--so Sordello maintained, in a long poem--should be more\nbinding than any marriage.\n\n     Only one love a woman can\n     Prefer. So let her choose her man\n     With care. To him she must be true,\n     For choosing once she ne'er may rue.\n     More binding than the wedding-tie\n     Is love; for a diversity\n     Of causes wedlock may divide,\n     By death alone be love untied.\n\nThe idea that marriage and love cannot be combined is therefore only the\nlogical conclusion of the fundamental feeling that love and desire\ncannot together be projected on one woman.\n\nIf matrimonial love had not been questioned, the choice would have lain\nbetween two alternatives: the canonisation of matrimony--an expedient\nchosen by the Church--or a fusion of love and sexuality in our modern\nsense. The first was a stage which humanity had left behind, for the\nideal of absolutely perfect and pure love had already been evolved, and\nthe world was not ripe for the second. The tendency of the rarest minds\nwas in the direction of a further idealisation of love, of freeing it\nfrom all earthly shackles and bringing it nearer and nearer to heaven.\nOne of the early troubadours, Jaufre Rudel, Prince of Blaya, gave a\npractical illustration to this feeling by falling in love with a lady\nwhom he had never seen. The story of his love was famous for centuries.\nHe loved a Countess of Tripoli, a Christian princess, and his whole soul\nwas filled with his imaginary picture of her. The _Provencal Biography_\nrelates that \"he worshipped her for all the good the pilgrims had\nnarrated of her.\" In order to see her, he took the cross and journeyed\nacross the sea; he fell ill on the ship and was carried ashore in a\ndying condition. The countess, on hearing of his great love, hastened to\nthe inn where he lay. As she entered his room, Jaufre regained\nconsciousness; he knew her at once and died happily in her arms. She was\nso touched by his love that she henceforth renounced the world.--This\nstory is no fairy tale; it is well attested and universally accounted\ngenuine to-day. Jaufre's love, expressed in touching poems, was no\n_amour de tete_, as it is sometimes called, but a genuine _amour de\ncoeur_, a purely spiritual love which asked nothing of the beloved\nwoman but permission to love her. There are other instances, and even in\nlater times it is not an infrequent occurrence in the case of\nimaginative people (I need only mention Buerger and Klopstock).\n\nWe men of the present age look upon this eccentric woman-worship with\nuncomprehending eyes. Perhaps we shall feel a little less bewildered\nwhen we meet it, stripped of courtly theories and mediaeval fashions, in\nsome of the great men who are closely connected with our own period; in\nMichelangelo, in Goethe, and in Beethoven.\n\nThe Church, dualistic and ascetic from its inception, waged war against\nsensuality as the evil of evils. \"As fire and water will not mix,\" wrote\nSt. Bernard, \"so spiritual and carnal delights cannot be experienced\ntogether.\" The toleration of matrimony was never more than a compromise;\nwe require no proof that as far as the Church was concerned, chastity\nwas the only real value. Even Luther took up that position, and to this\nday Christianity and sexuality remain unreconciled. But both the\nCatholic and the Protestant professions of faith regarded matrimony as\nthe lesser evil, a concession made to the enemy, in order to render\nexistence possible. It is very interesting to observe the position taken\nup by the Church in connection with the new woman-worship which,\nalthough it sprang from the most genuine Christian dualism, had for its\nobject not God, but mortal woman. The logical attitude of the Church\nwould have been one of welcome, for the chaste worship of woman which\nregarded matrimony as an inferior state, was her natural ally. Two\nclerics, the court-chaplain Andreas, and the prolific rhymester Matfre\nErmengau, actually elaborated the theory of spiritual love contrary to\nthe spirit of the Church, but both men hastened to utter a timely\nrecantation and recommendation of orthodoxy as the only means of\nsalvation. After establishing all the desirable details of love\naccording to substance and accidents, Andreas deduced that every love\nnot dedicated to God was bound to offend Him, and advanced eighteen\npoints against the love of woman, starting with the well-known argument\nthat woman was naturally of a base disposition, covetous, envious,\ngreedy, fickle, garrulous, stubborn, proud, vain, sensual, deceitful,\netc. \"He who serves love, cannot serve God,\" he declared, \"and God will\npunish every man who, apart from matrimony, serves Venus. What good\ncould come from acting against the will of God?\" Here we are face to\nface with a grotesque position: the official Church favouring sexuality,\nthat is matrimony, as against the newer and higher standard of ascetic,\nspiritual love. This attitude was quite logical, if not in the spirit of\nreligion and in contradiction to the principle of asceticism, yet in the\nspirit of orthodoxy; for \"whatever was not for her, was against her.\"\nThe brave, Janus-headed abbe was spokesman for the whole clergy, which\nbranded love not projected on God as _fornicatio_. In his recantation\nAndreas upheld the previously-despised matrimonial state at the expense\nof love; \"love,\" he maintained, \"destroys matrimony.\" Matfre did exactly\nthe same thing; after recapitulating in his _Breviari d'Amor_ all the\nsplendid achievements rooted in the cult of woman, he suddenly veered\nround (at the 27,445th verse):\n\n     And Satan blows on their desire,\n     In monstrous flames leaps up the fire,\n     And maddened by the raging fiend,\n     From love of God and honour weaned,\n     They turn from their Creator's shrine\n     And call their mistresses divine.\n     With soul and body, mind and sense,\n     They worship woman's excellence.\n     Abandoned in her beauty revel,\n     And unawares adore the devil.\n\nThree hundred years later the fanatical Savanorola stormed: \"You clothe\nand adorn the Mother of God as you clothe and adorn your courtesans, and\nyou give her the features of your mistresses!\" which, as we shall\npresently see, was literally true.\n\nThe clergy resisted all counsels of the _cortezia_ and _cavalaria_ with\nthe sure instinct desiring the continuance of existing conditions\nrather than the victory of the higher conception. Some writers aver that\nit was partly due to this fact that later on the cult of woman developed\ninto the cult of Mary. Again we are confronted by a process which in the\ncourse of time has been repeated more than once: the spiritual-mystical\nprinciple of Christianity entered upon a new stage, and took possession\nof a new and important domain; but the Church, rigid and unyielding,\npreferred clinging to a past lower stage rather than tolerating any\nchange. Had she been absolutely consistent, her greatest poet would be\non the index to-day, for, following his own intuition and ignoring her\nrigid dogma, he introduced his beloved Beatrice into the Catholic\nheaven.\n\nThe new spiritual love was not without its caricatures. Famous in\nProvence for many strange exploits, committed in order to please his\nlady, was the talented Peire Vidal. On one occasion he caused himself to\nbe sewn into a wolfskin and ran about the fields; but he was set upon by\ndogs and so badly mangled that he nearly succumbed to his wounds. He was\nan insufferable braggart, but never had any success in love. The prince\nof caricatures, however, was the German knight and minnesinger, Ulrich\nof Lichtenstein. He is responsible for a novel in prose, entitled _The\nService of Woman_, which is faintly reminiscent of Goethe's _Werther_.\nAs a page he commenced his glorious career by drinking the water in\nwhich his lady had washed her hands; later on he caused his upper lip to\nbe amputated because it displeased his mistress, for \"whatever she\ndislikes in me, I, too, hate.\" On another occasion he cut off one of his\nfingers and used it, set in gold, as a clasp for a volume of his poems\nwhich he sent to her. One of his most famous exploits was a journey\nthrough nearly the whole of Austria, disguised as Venus, jousting,\ndressed in women's clothes, with every knight he met. But in spite of\nhis eccentricities, the tendency of his mind was not at all\nmetaphysical; he craved very obvious favours, but as a rule contented\nhimself with a kind, or even an unkind word. Incidentally, we learn that\nhe was married; but he devoted his whole life to \"deeds of heroism\" in\nhonour of his lady. Not the great book of Cervantes, as is commonly\nbelieved, held up mediaeval court life to ridicule and destroyed it as\nan ideal, but the life and exploits of this knight and minnesinger. The\nsame spirit animated Guilhem of Balaun. At the command of his lady he\nhad a finger-nail extracted and sent to her, after which he was\nre-admitted to her favour.\n\nSpiritual love was discovered by the Provencals, but the greater and\nprofounder Italian poets developed it and brought it to perfection. What\nhad been a naive sentiment with the troubadours, became in Dante's\ncircle a system of the universe and a religion. The Italian poet,\nSordello, who wrote in Provencal, may be regarded as the connecting\nlink, and the forerunner of the great Italians. He died in the year of\ngrace 1270, and Dante, who was almost a contemporary, immortalised his\nname in the _Divine Comedy_. The doctrine on which the _dolce stil\nnuovo_ was based pointed to the love of a noble heart as the source of\nall perfection in heaven and earth. Purely spiritual woman-worship was\nregarded as an absolute virtue. The words of the last of the Provencal\ntroubadours, Guirot Riquier, \"Love is the doctrine of all sublime\nthings\"--was developed into a philosophy. I will quote a few\ncharacteristic verses, omitting Dante for the present. One of the finest\nlyric poems of all tongues and ages, written by Guido Guinicelli, begins\nas follows:\n\n     Within the gentle heart love shelters him,\n     As birds within the green shades of the grove;\n     Before the gentle heart in nature's scheme\n     Love was not, or the gentle heart ere love.\n\n                         (_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nCino da Pistoia says in epigrammatic brevity:\n\n     You want to know the inmost core of love?\n     'Tis art and guerdon of a noble heart.\n\nA wonderful canzone by Guinicelli contains the following verses:\n\n     A song she seems among the rest and these\n     Have all their beauties in her splendour drowned.\n     In her is ev'ry grace,--\n     Simplicity of wisdom, noble speech,\n     Accomplished loveliness;\n     All earthly beauty is her diadem.\n     This truth my song must teach--\n     My lady is of ladies chosen gem.\n\n                         (_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nAnd Cavalcanti sings:\n\n     What's she whose coming rivets all men's eyes,\n     Who makes the air so tremble with delight,\n     And thrills so every heart that no man might\n     Find tongue for words but vents his soul in sighs?\n\n                   (_Transl. by_ SIR THEODORE MARTIN.)\n\nThe sentiment which pervades these verses has lifted us into the higher\nsphere which will henceforth be our main theme. The beloved was more and\nmore extolled; in her presence the lover became more and more convinced\nof his insignificance; she was worshipped, deified. The overwhelming\nemotion, the longing for metaphysical values which dominated the whole\nepoch, had reached its highest characteristic, had reached perfection.\nIt proved the eternal quality of human emotion: the impossibility of\nfinding satisfaction, the striving towards the infinite; it soared above\nits apparent object and sought its consummation in metaphysic. The love\nof woman and the mystical love of God were blended in a profounder\ndevotion; love had become the sole giver of the eternal value and\nconsolation, yearned for by mortal man. Christianity had taught man to\nlook up; now his upward gaze lost its rigidity and beheld living\nbeauty--metaphysical eroticism had been evolved--the canonisation and\ndeification of woman. The ideal of the troubadours to love the adored\nmistress chastely and devoutly from a distance in the hope of receiving\na word of greeting, no longer satisfied the lover; she must become a\ndivine being, must be enthroned above human joy and sorrow, queen of the\nworld. Traditional religion was transformed so that a place might be\nfound in it for a woman.\n\nThe reason for the recognition of spiritual love from the moment of its\ninception as something supernatural and divine, is obvious. The heart of\nman was filled with an emotion hitherto unknown, an emotion which\npointed direct to heaven. The soul, the core of profound Christian\nconsciousness, had received a new, glad content, rousing a feeling of\nsuch intensity that it could only be compared to the religious ecstasy\nof the mystic; man divined that it was the mother of new and great\nthings--was it not fitting to regard it as divine and proclaim it the\nsupreme value? The troubadours had known it. Bernart of Ventadour had\nsung:\n\n     I stand in my lady's sight\n     In deep devotion;\n     Approach her with folded hands\n     In sweet emotion;\n     Dumbly adoring her,\n     Humbly imploring her.\n\nPeire Raimon of Toulouse:\n\n     I would approach thee on my knees,\n     Lowly and meek,\n     I would fare far o'er lands and seas\n     Thy ruth to seek.\n\n     And come to thee--a slave to his lord--\n     I'd pay thee homage with eyes that mourn,\n     Until thy mercy I'd implored,\n     Heedless of laughter, heedless of scorn.\n\nRaimon of Miraval had said, \"I am no lover, I am a worshipper,\" and\nCavalcanti:\n\n     My lady's virtue has my blindness riven,\n     A secret sighing thrills my humbled heart:\n     When favoured with a sight of her thou art,\n     Thy soul will spread its wings and soar to heaven.\n\nPeire Vidal:\n\n     God called the women close to Him,\n     Because he saw all good in them.\n\nAnd:\n\n     The God of righteousness endowed\n     So well thy body and thy mind\n     That His own radiancy grew blind.\n     And many a soul that has not bowed\n     To Him for years in sin enmeshed,\n     Is by thy grace and charm refreshed.\n\nThe beauty of the adored was divine. Bernart of Ventadour wrote:\n\n     Her glorious beauty sheds a brilliant ray\n     On darkest night and dims the brightest day.\n\nGuilhem of Cabestaing:\n\n     God has created her without a blemish\n     Of His own beauty.\n\nGaucelm Faidit:\n\n     The beauty which is God Himself\n     He poured into a single being.\n\nAnd Montanhagol, anticipating Dante:\n\n     Wherefore I tell you, and my words are true,\n     From heaven came her beauty, rare and tender,\n     Her loveliness was wrought in Paradise,\n     Men's dazzled eyes can scarce support her splendour.\n\nFolquet of Romans:\n\n     When I behold her beauty rare,\n     I'm so confused and startled by her worth,\n     I ween I am no longer on this earth.\n\nA canzone which has been attributed to Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia and\nDante, reads as follows:\n\n     My lady comes and ev'ry lip is silent;\n     So perfect is her beauty's high estate\n     That mortal spirit swoons and falls prostrate\n     Before her glory. And she is so noble:\n     If I uplift to her my inward eye,\n     My soul is startled as if death were nigh.\n\nCavalcanti says:\n\n     Round you are flowers, is the tender green,\n     The sun is not as bright as your dear face,\n     All nature in her glorious summer-sheen\n     Has not so fair and beautiful a place,\n     It pales beside you. Earth has never seen\n     A thing so full of loveliness and grace.\n\nThe perfection which the mere presence of the beloved was supposed to\nbestow on the lover, is here conceived more broadly and freely; not only\nthe lover, but all men are touched and transfigured by her appearance.\nThe sentiment of the lover aspired to become objective truth. This was\nan important stage on the road from the spiritual to the deifying love,\nwhich I have called metaphysical eroticism. Another rung of the ladder\nof evolution had been climbed--the mistress had become queen of the\nworld and goddess, a being enthroned by the side of God. I will again\nquote Guinicelli:\n\n     Ever as she walks she has a sober grace,\n     Making bold men abashed and good men glad,\n     If she delight thee not, thy heart must err,\n     No man dare look on her, his thoughts being base;\n     Nay, let me say even more than I have said,\n     No man could think base thoughts who looked on her.\n\n                                      (D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nThe same poet in his canzone, _Al Cor Gentil_ says:\n\n     \"She shines on us as God shines on His angels.\"\n\nWhen madonna dies the angels receive her, rejoicing that she has joined\nthem. The Provencal, Pons of Capduelh, anticipated Dante:\n\n     And now we know that the celestial choir\n     Sings songs of jubilee at her release\n     From this dull earth; I heard and am at rest;\n     Who praise His hosts, praise the Eternal Sire.\n     I know she is in Heaven with the blest,\n     'Midst flow'rs whose glory time can never dim\n     Singing God's praise, and blest by seraphim.\n     Nought but the truth from my glad lips shall fall,\n     In Heaven she is, enthroned above all.\n\nFolquet of Romans wrote a letter to his beloved, in which he said\namongst other things:\n\n        Kneeling in church before God's face,\n        --A sinner to beseech His grace,--\n        And for my sins to make amends,--\n        'Twas you to whom I raised my hands;\n        Your loveliness alone was there,\n        My soul knew only of one pray'r.\n        I fancied \"Our Father\" framed\n        My trembling lips, when they exclaimed\n        Exultant at His sacred shrine:\n        Oh! Lady! All my soul is thine!\n\n     Lady, you have bewitched me with your beauty,\n     That God I have forgotten and myself.\n\nCino da Pistoia wrote the following commendatory prayer:\n\n     Into thy hands, sweet lady of my soul,\n     The spirit that is dying I commend;\n     And which departs so sorrowful that Love\n     Views it with pity, while dismissing it.\n\n     By you to His dominion it was bound,\n     So firmly, that it since hath had no power\n     To call on Him but thus: Oh, mighty Lord,\n     Whate'er thou wilt of me, Thy will is mine.\n\n                              (_Transl. by_ C. LYELL.)\n\nLancelot, one of the great mediaeval lovers, possessed a lock of\nGuinevere's hair, which he prized above all the relics of the saints.\nWhen he parted from his mistress (whom he had loved not only\nspiritually) he fell on his knees before the door of her chamber and\nprayed as if \"he were kneeling before the altar.\"\n\nSpiritual love was obviously acquiring a religious tinge. The mistress\ntook the place of God; her grace was the source of all joy and\nconsolation; she led the souls of the dying to eternal life. God had\nyielded His position to her, she had stepped to His side, nay, above\nHim. With the curse of the Church still clinging to her, she had been\nremoulded by man's emotion into a perfect, a celestial being. The God of\nChristianity was in danger--would the new religion of cultured minds,\nthe religion of woman (unwilling to tolerate any other God beside her)\nreplace the religion of the masses? Was a reformation imminent? Would\nthe traditional religion be transformed into metaphysical eroticism,\ndethroning God, enthroning a goddess? It is impossible to say in what\ndirection the spiritual history of Europe would have developed if Dante\nhad been merely a metaphysical lover, and not also an orthodox\ntheologian; if instead of penetrating to the vision of the divine\nsecret, he had fainted before the face of Beatrice....\n\nThe religion of woman and the dominant religion came to terms. This\ncompromise was possible because the Christian pantheon included a female\ndeity who, although she had not hitherto played a prominent part, held\nan exceptional position: this was Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer. From\nA.D. 400 to A.D. 1200, her rank had been on a level with the rank of the\nantique goddesses; now the new emotion enveloped and revivified her. The\nrigid, soulless image with the golden circle round the head slowly\nmelted into sweet womanhood. In Italy this sentiment inspired wonderful\npaintings of the Madonna, and was responsible for the development of\nportraiture in general. The hold of the overwhelming tradition was\nbroken. Rejecting the universal conviction that the historical Mary had\nresembled the Mary of Byzantine art, the artist, under the dominion of\nhis woman-worship--which surpassed and re-valued all things--drew his\ninspiration from the fulness of life. I do not agree with Thode that we\nare indebted to the legend of St. Francis for the modern soulful and\nhighly individualised art. Its source must have been the strongest\nfeeling of the most cultured minds, and that was undoubtedly spiritual\nlove. The Jesuit Beissel wrote with deep regret: \"Every master almost\nformed his own conception of Mary, but in such a way that the hieratic\nseverity of earlier times disappeared but slowly.\" And he continued: \"It\nis true, the artists' models were the noble ladies of their period; not\nonly on account of their kindly smiling faces, but also on account of\nthe charming coquetry with which their hands drew their cloaks across\nthe bosom.\" And the art-historian, Male, says: \"It is a remarkable fact\nthat in the thirteenth century the legend, or the story, of the Virgin\nMary was depicted on the doors of all our (_i.e._, French) cathedrals.\"\n\nThe difference between the Catholic and the Protestant world-principles\nis strongly marked in this connection. Catholicism with its striving for\nabsolute uniformity, acknowledging no individual differences, but eager\nto shape all life and all doctrines in harmony with one definite ideal,\nvery consistently pronounced one single, historical woman to be divine,\nand made her the object of universal worship. This dogma had to be\nrigid, immutable, and almost meaningless. Again, the historic and pagan\nprinciple of Catholicism was maintained; a unique event in the history\nof the world was immortalised and systematised and all new religious\nconceptions were excluded. Catholicism invariably places all really\nimportant events in the past, even in a quite definite period of the\npast, a period unassailable by historical criticism. But with the\ncommencement of individual intellectual life the uniform, ecclesiastical\nimage of the Madonna gradually gained life and individuality. Just as\naccording to Protestant teaching every soul must establish its\nindividual relationship with God (which is subject to change because\nindividuality is not excluded as it is in Catholicism), so the\nimaginative emotionalist created his own Queen of Heaven. Frequently he\nwas still under the impression--this was especially the case with\nmonks--that he was worshipping the ecclesiastical deity, when he had\nlong been praying to a metaphysical conception of his own. The great\nItalian art since the fourteenth century, as well as the Neo-Latin and\nGerman cults of the Virgin Mary were, though apparently still orthodox,\nin their innermost essence the outcome of a personal desire for love,\nand had therefore abandoned the teaching of the Church and become\nProtestant. The fact that the so-called Protestant Church looked askance\nat Mary, and that the rather coarse-minded Luther said, in his\nannoyance: \"Popery has made a goddess of Mary, and is therefore guilty\nof idolatry,\" does not contradict my statement. The true Queen of Heaven\nwas a conception of the artist and lover, incomprehensible to those who\nwere only thinkers and moralists.\n\nThrough the legitimation of a divine woman open enmity between the\nreligion of woman and the religion of the Church was avoided. A woman\nhad stepped between God and humanity as mediator, intercessor and\nredeemer. Every metaphysically-loving soul could conceive her as it\npleased, could love her and pray to her without being a heretic and\nworshipper of the devil. Matfre had complained that men\n\n     Abandoned in her beauty revel\n     And unawares adore the devil.--\n\nbut now a means had been found to adore the beloved, and yet remain\nfaithful to God. Once in a way it was remembered that the adored,\nstrictly speaking, was the Mother of God--if for no other reason, for\nfear of the Inquisition which the Dominicans had founded and placed\nunder the special patronage of Mary--her bodyguard as it were, defending\nher from the onslaught of minds all too worldly. Very rarely the adored\nearthly woman was identified with the official Queen of Heaven--(this\nmay have been done occasionally by monks); sometimes as in the case of\nMichelangelo and Guinicelli, the beloved was the sole goddess; other\npoets, among whom we may include Dante and Goethe, conceived her as\nenthroned by the side of Mary.\n\nAt this point I must interrupt my argument, and briefly sketch the\nposition occupied by Mary in the western world from the dawn of\nChristianity.\n\n\n_(b) The Queen of Heaven._\n\nDuring the first two hundred years Mary did not occupy a prominent place\nin the Christian communities; even in the fourth century she was still\nregarded as a human woman and denied divinity by St. Chrysostom, who\nreproached her with vainglory. But in proportion as Christ transcended\nhumanity, and was more dogmatically and formally interpreted by the\nChurch--more especially the Greek Church--the desire for a mediator\nbetween the wrathful Deity and sinful humanity grew more pronounced, a\nmediator who, although a human being, could be endowed after the manner\nof the ancient demi-gods with super-human virtues. The Mother of the\nSaviour gradually assumed this position. She had been an earthly woman,\nborn of earthly parents, and would be able to understand human needs and\nwishes, and she had become the Mother of God. Would not her intercession\nhave weight with the Son of God? Simultaneously with the growing\nrecognition of asceticism, the doctrine of the immaculate conception\ngained ground; in the course of time this moment was more and more\nemphasised, and virginity was set up as an ideal.\n\nSt. Athanasius (fourth century) had written: \"What God did to Mary is\nthe glory of all virgins; for they are attached as virginal saplings to\nher who is the root.\" At the close of the fourth century a long and\nbitter controversy arose over the question as to whether Mary had\nremained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. St. Ambrose, St. Jerome and\nSt. Augustine were in favour of this new doctrine. St. Ambrose, the\nfounder of Western music, was the first to praise her perfection in the\nLatin tongue, and St. Augustine in his treatise _De Natura et Gratia_,\nmaintained that she was the only human being born without original sin.\nThis was the first important step towards the stripping of the Saviour's\nmother of her humanity, and establishing her as a divine being. St.\nIrenaeus contrasted Eve, the bringer of sin, with Mary, the second Eve,\nthe bringer of salvation, and St. Ambrose said: \"From Eve we inherited\ndamnation through the fruit of the tree; but Mary has brought us\nsalvation through the gift of the tree, for Christ too, hung on the tree\nlike a fruit.\"\n\nHitherto Mary had not been worshipped; all prayers had been addressed to\nGod and to Christ. The idea of approaching her in prayer appeared for\nthe first time in a pamphlet entitled \"On the Death of Mary,\" written\nabout the end of the fourth century, and Gregory of Nazianz pictured\nMary in Heaven, caring for the welfare of humanity. The fourth and fifth\ncenturies produced the first hymns to the Virgin, written in Syriac; but\northodox bishops objected to her deification; St. Epiphanus (end of\nfourth century) said: \"Let us honour Mary by all means, but let us\nworship only the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nThis was the position of the evangelical and historical Mary before the\nfamous and decisive Council of Ephesus.\n\nThere is a very important fact which must not be overlooked. All the\nnations dwelling on the shores of the Mediterranean, Semites, and\nEgyptians, as well as Greeks and Romans, had been accustomed to the\nworship of female deities. In the minds of the ancient peoples, woman,\nthe symbol of sex, had always been endowed with qualities of magic and\nmystery. There was something supernatural in her power of bringing forth\na living specimen of the race, and in all cults the maternal woman\noccupied a very important position. Had Christianity suddenly destroyed\nthis ancient and natural need? We know that the Church had assimilated a\ngreat number of antique superstitions; nor were the female deities\nsacrificed. The great Asiatic Mothers had not been forgotten; the very\nancient Babylonian Istar (Astarte), Rhea Kybele of Asia Minor, and above\nall the Egyptian Isis, still lived in the heart of man,--subconsciously,\nprobably--as lofty, sacred memories, but nevertheless influencing his\nlife. The Egyptian Isis with Horus in her lap is the direct model of the\nMadonna with the Child. She represented earth, bringing forth fruit\nwithout fertilisation. \"This religious custom (the worship of Isis),\"\nsays Flinders Petrie, \"exerted a powerful influence on nascent\nChristianity. It is not too much to say that without the Egyptians we\nshould have had no Madonna in our creed. The cult of Isis was widely\nspread at the time of the first emperors, when it was fashionable all\nover the Roman Empire; when later on it merged into that other great\nreligious movement, and fashion and conviction could be combined, its\ntriumph was assured.\"\n\nAdvancing Christianity had depopulated the national pantheon. There must\nhave been a great sense of loss, especially among the lower classes, and\nit does not require much psychological insight to realise that it was\nthe lack of female deities which more especially roused a feeling of\nanxiety and distress. The masses were yearning for a goddess, and it was\nat Ephesus, the classical seat of the hundred-breasted Diana, that the\nstolen divinity was restored to them. The theologians were divided into\nthree camps. While some of them regarded Mary merely as \"the mother of\nman\" others acknowledged her as the \"Mother of God,\" and Nestorius\nsuggested as a compromise the title \"Mother of Christ.\" At the synod of\nAlexandria, in the year of grace 430, and at the council of Ephesus in\n431, Nestorius was found guilty of blasphemy and deprived of his\nbishopric. Henceforth Mary was [Greek: Theotochos], the \"Mother of God,\"\nand her worship was sanctioned by the Church. \"Through Thee the Holy\nTrinity has been glorified,\" exclaimed Cyril joyfully, \"through Thee the\nCross of the Saviour has been raised! Through Thee the angels triumphed,\nthe devils were driven back; the tempter was beaten and human nature\nuplifted to Heaven; through Thee all intelligent creatures who were\ncommitting idolatry, have learned the truth!\" Loud rejoicing filled the\nstreets of Ephesus. When the judgment passed on Nestorius was announced,\nthe people exclaimed: \"The enemy of the Holy Virgin has been overcome;\nglory be to the great, the divine Mother of God!\" The highest authority\nin the land had re-established the public worship of the great goddess,\nwho had for many years been worshipped in secrecy. The ancient paganism\nhad triumphed over the spiritual intuition of the loftier minds.\nAccording to ancient custom sacrifices were offered at Mary's shrine;\nthe second epoch of her history had begun.\n\nIn the East the worship of female divinities was older and more\nspontaneous than in the Western world, and thus the cult of Mary existed\nin the Orient long before it penetrated to Italy and thence into the\nnewly Christianised countries. The Virgin, who for the first few hundred\nyears had held a clearly defined position in evangelical history, had\nbecome an independent object of worship. Festivals were held in her\nhonour; churches were dedicated to her; the will of the people triumphed\nin the litany; art took possession of the grateful subject. The\ntendency to make Mary the equal of Christ grew steadily. Metaphors\noriginally intended for Christ alone were used indifferently for either.\nWe constantly find her addressed as the \"archetype, the light of the\nworld, the vine, the mediator, the source of eternal life, etc.\" Finally\nshe ceased being regarded as a passive participator in the work of\nsalvation, as the Mother of the Saviour, and was accredited with\nindependent saving power. John of Damascus (eighth century) first called\nMary [Greek: soteira tou chosmou], and soon after she was styled\n\"Saviour of the World\" in the Occident also. With this the cult of Mary\nhad reached its third stage, the stage which interests us; she had\nbecome the object of metaphysical love. But before dealing with this\nthird stage, we must glance, in passing, at the ancient Teutonic tribes.\nThey, too, worshipped goddesses and sacred women; virginity, a virtue\nnot appreciated by the Orientals, here stood in high repute. According\nto Tacitus and others, the Teutons looked upon the Virgin as a\nmysterious being, approaching divinity more closely than all others.\nThus there was here, perhaps, more than on the shores of the\nMediterranean, a favourable soil for the cult of Mary. The\ncharacteristics of Holda and Freya, as well as their perfect beauty,\nwere transferred to Mary, and Mary's name was substituted for the names\nof the old auxiliary goddesses. In the oldest German evangelical poems\nMary does not yet rank as a divinity, she is merely extolled as the most\nperfect of all earth-born women. In the \"Heliand\" (about A.D. 830) she\nis called \"the most beautiful of all women, the loveliest of all\nmaidens\"; and the monk Otfried, of Weissenburg (860), calls her, \"Of all\nwomen to God the most pleasing, the white jewel, the radiant maid.\"\n\nMary had now taken her place by the side of God, and was commonly\naddressed as divine. Anselm of Canterbury explains: \"God is the Father\nof all created things, Mary the Mother of all things recreated.... God\nbegat the creator of the world, Mary gave birth to its Saviour.\" Peter\nof Blois declared that the Virgin was the only mediatress between Christ\nand humanity. \"We were sinners and afraid of the wrath of the Father,\nfor He is terrible; but we have the Virgin, in whom there is nothing\nterrible, for in her is the fulness of mercy and purity.\" The twelfth\ncentury produced the _Ave Maria_, the angelic salutation, the principal\nprayer to Mary, which was introduced into all churches. The Italian\nFranciscan monk, Bonaventura, and Peter Damiani, were above all others\ninstrumental in spreading the worship of the Virgin, and Damiani said of\nher: \"To Thee has been given all power in heaven and on earth.\" The\nfresco of the Camposanto at Pisa, ascribed to Orcagna, shows the\ntransfigured Virgin sitting by the side of Christ, not below Him. The\nnumerous legends in which Mary, often regardless of justice and\npropriety, delivers her faithful worshippers from all manner of dangers,\nwere written during the same period. One of the most famous of these is\nthe legend of Theophilus, the forerunner of Faust. In a German version\n(by Brun of Schoenebeck) dating from the thirteenth century, Theophilus\nabjures God and all things divine, with the sole exception of Mary,\nwherefore she saves him from eternal damnation. This poem therefore\nshows us Mary as absolutely opposed to God.\n\nWe have now arrived at the third stage of the cult of Mary; the new,\nspiritual love, translated into metaphysics, was projected on her; she\nwas approached by her worshippers with the ardent love which hitherto\nhad been the prerogative of earthly women. The two currents, the one\narising in ecclesiastical tradition, and the other in the soul of the\nmetaphysical lover, had met; the genuine spiritual cult of Mary was the\ncreation of the great metaphysical lovers, who existed not only in the\ntwelfth and thirteenth centuries, but are met not infrequently later\non; man's irresistible need to raise woman above him and worship her,\ncreated the true Madonna, for whose sake romantic souls of all times\nhave \"returned home\" into the fold of the Church, the true Madonna who\nat heart is alien to the principles of the Church, but is re-born daily\nin the soul of the metaphysical lover. The hierarchy knew how to take\nadvantage of and control this adoring love; the metaphysical lover\nraised his mistress above humanity and prayed before her shrine;\nreligion said: \"The celestial woman whom you may lovingly adore is here,\nwith me. All you have to do is to call her by the name I have given her,\nand the kingdom of Heaven will be yours.\"\n\nBut on the other hand Mary represents to-day, and doubtless will do for\na long time to come, a dogmatically acknowledged deity, recognised by\nthe spirit of Protestantism as a remnant of Paganism, and duly detested;\nthe masses in Italy and Spain pray to-day to her image, as in bygone\ndays the masses prayed to the images in Greek and Roman temples. This\ngoddess is unchanging, and from the point of view of the psychologist\nuninteresting.\n\nIt is not difficult to understand why the two conceptions of Mary (more\nespecially in the souls of the monks) were so often inextricably\nintermingled; circumstances frequently demanded a complete fusion. As\nlate as in the nineteenth century, a romantic poet, Zacharias Werner,\nsaid:\n\n     Oh, sov'reign lady, mistress of my fortune,\n     And thou, the Queen and ruler of the heavens,\n     (I cannot keep you sundered and apart.)\n\nI shall endeavour to keep them sundered and apart as far as possible,\nfor I am only concerned with man's metaphysical emotion of love and its\ncreation, womanhood deified, and not with Catholic dogmas. With this\nobject in view, I will return to the poets previously quoted, and\ncontinue the unfolding of the process of deification. As a rule the\nmetaphysical lovers were content with immortalising their feelings in,\nvery often, excellent verses, raising the beloved mistress above the\nearth and worshipping her as the culmination of beauty and perfection.\nThe quite unusual craving to give her a place in the eternal structure\nof the cosmos animated only one poet, Dante, who, combining the Catholic\nstriving for unity with spontaneous, magnificent woman-worship, created\na masterpiece which is unique in literature.\n\nTypical among the later Provencals was Guirot Riquier. Several of his\npoems which have been preserved to us make it impossible to say whether\nthey are addressed to an earthly woman or to the Queen of Heaven; these\npoems mark, in a sense, a period of transition. They are exceedingly\nvague, and it is not worth while to translate them; but as they are\ndated it is interesting to watch the poet's love growing more and more\nspiritual and religious, to see him gradually deserting his earthly love\nfor the Lady of Heaven. In one poem he prays to his lady \"who is\nworshipped by all true lovers,\" to teach him the right way of loving. In\nthe next he repents his all too earthly passion:\n\n     I often thought I was of true love singing,\n     And knew not that to love my heart was blind,\n     And folly was as love itself enshrined.\n     But now such love in all my soul is ringing,\n     That though to love and praise her I aspire\n     As is her meed--in vain is my desire.\n     Henceforth her love alone shall be my guide\n     And my new hope in that great love abide.\n\n     For her great love the uttermost shall proffer\n     Of honour, wealth, and earthly joy and bliss,\n     With her to love, my heart will never miss\n     Those who no gifts like her gifts have to offer.\n     She the fulfilment is of my desire,\n     Therefore I vow myself her true esquire;\n     She'll love me in return--my splendid meed--\n     If I but love aright in word and deed.\n\nand one of his rather more religious songs ends as follows:\n\n     Without true love there is on earth no peace,\n     Love gives us wisdom, faith which will not swerve,\n     A noble mind and willingness to serve.\n     How rare a thing on earth in perfect ease!\n     To Thee, oh Virgin! Mother of all love,\n     I dedicate this song; if thou deniest\n     Me not, thou shall be my \"sweet bliss.\" With Christ\n     I pray Thee, intercede for me above.\n\nIn this song, then, he calls Mary \"his sweet bliss\" (_bel deport_), a\nname which he had previously given to a certain countess with whom he\nhad been in love. In the next poem, in which earthly love and love of\nthe Madonna are again brought into juxta-position, he commends himself\n\"to the Virgin, the sublime mother of love, on whom all my happiness\ndepends.\" One of his poems which begins in quite an earthly strain, ends\nthus:\n\n     I feel no jealousy; for he whose soul\n     Is filled with yearning for his heavenly love,\n     Has purest happiness; he is her serf,\n     And he has all things that his heart can crave.\n\nBut long before this, in one of his very worldly poems there is a sudden\noutburst, addressed to the Madonna: \"He who does not serve the Mother of\nGod, knows not the meaning of love.\" Excellent proof of this intimate\nconnection between earthly and Madonna love is found in the poems of the\ntrouvere Ruteboeuf, who calls Mary his \"very sweet lady.\"\n\nLanfranc Cigala wrote genuine love-songs to the Virgin. The following\nare two stanzas from one of his poems:\n\n     I worship a celestial maid,\n     Serene and wondrously adorned;\n     And all she does is well; arrayed\n     In noble love and gentleness.\n     Her smile is bliss to all who mourn,\n     Her tender love is happiness,\n     And for her kiss the world I scorn.\n     Lady of Heaven, Thy heart incline\n     To me, and untold bliss is mine.\n     By day and night my only thought\n     Art, Mary, Thou. I am distraught\n     Say many men, for few can gauge\n     The ardour which consumes my soul.\n     I care not that they say bereft\n     I am of sense; the world I've left,\n     To worship Thee, love's spring and goal.\n\nBut other poems written by Cigala are unmistakably addressed to the\ncelestial Madonna; some of them seem to be written in a penitential\nmood; he almost seems to repent of his former passionate adoration. The\nsame poet, in his love-songs, uses all the metaphors which are commonly\nused for Mary (or for Christ), \"root and climax, flower, fruit and seed\nof all goodness.\"\n\nA little older is an erotic hymn to Mary by Peire Guillem of Luserna; I\nquote a few stanzas:\n\n     Thy praise is happiness unmarred,\n     For he who praises Thee, proclaims the truth,\n     Thou art the flower of beauty, love and ruth,\n     Full of compassion, with all grace bedight,\n     From Thy white hands we gather all delight.\n\nThe love of Mary had usurped the peculiar property of the love of woman:\nit had become the source of poetic and artistic inspiration.\n\nThe songs of Aimeric of Peguilhan resemble those of Cigala; the former\nbewails the decline of the service of woman; he sings of the \"root and\ncrown of all noble things,\" but it is not quite clear whether he is\naddressing an earthly or a heavenly lady. \"Suffer my love, which asks\nfor no reward!\" The terms, \"friends\" and \"lovers\" (_amans_) of the\nVirgin are with these poets convertible terms, and the Virgin is styled\n\"the true friend\" (_i.e._, the beloved).\n\nGuilhem of Autpol wrote a fine poem to the Queen of Heaven, beginning:\n\n     Thou hope of all sad hearts who yearn for love,\n     Thou stream of loveliness, thou well of grace,\n     Thou dove of peace in fret and restlessness,\n     Thou ray of light to those who, lightless, grope.\n     Thou house of God, thou garden of sweet shades,\n     Rest without ceasing, refuge of the sad,\n     Bliss without mourning, flow'r that never fades,\n     Alien to death, and shelter in the mad\n     Whirlpool of life, to all who seek thy port.\n     Lady of Heaven, in whom all hearts rejoice,\n     Thou roseate dawn and light of Paradise!\n\nPerdigon, among many worldly songs, wrote one to the _regina d'auteza e\nde senhoria_, which might be translated thus:\n\n     Supreme ruler of the world,\n     Thy grace sustains\n     And maintains\n     The world.\n     Thou fragrant rose, thou fruitful vine,\n     Thou wert the chosen vessel of\n     Mercy divine.\n\nUnsurpassed in the fusion of his earthly and his celestial lady was\nFolquet de Lunel. Some of his poems cannot be classed with any\ncertainty.\n\nThe first poem which obtained a prize at the Academy of Mastersingers of\nToulouse was a hymn to Mary.\n\nThis very genuine sentimentalism appears strange to us; we cannot enter\ninto the feelings of that period. A modern philologist, Karl Appel,\nregards Jaufre Rudel's pathetic songs, addressed by him to the Countess\nof Tripoli:\n\n     Oh, love in lands so far away,\n     My heart is yearning, yearning....\n\nas songs to the Madonna; but it is a matter of indifference to the lover\nwhether his heart's impulse, translated into metaphysic, is projected on\nan unknown Countess of Tripoli, or a still more unknown Lady of Heaven.\nIt is not the loved woman who is of importance--what do we know of the\nladies who inspired the exquisite mediaeval poetry? They have long been\ndust, and we may be sure that their perfection was no greater than is\nthe perfection of their grand-daughters. But the love of the poets is\nalive to-day, an eternal document of the human heart, representing one\nof the great phases through which the relationship between man and woman\nhas passed.\n\nThe following are a few stanzas by the German minnesinger, Steinmar,\nwhich were later on adapted to the Holy Virgin:\n\n     In summer-time how glad am I\n     When over lea or down\n     A country lass mine eyes espy,\n     Of maidens all the crown.\n\n     Oh! Paradise! How glad am I\n     When o'er the heavenly down\n     God and God's Mother I espy,\n     Of women all the crown.\n\nThe Italian poets, far more profound than the Provencals, saw a goddess\nin the beloved (whom they always addressed as Madonna), and humbled\nthemselves before her. Social differences, which played such a prominent\npart in the North, are here ignored. The impecunious poet no longer\nextols the princess, the wife of his lord and master. There is no\nquestion of such a relationship; the poet is a free citizen of the town,\nsubject only to the emotion of the heart, and his song carries its own\nreward. It has ceased to be the married woman's privilege to be lauded\nand extolled; the maiden of unaristocratic origin, who to the poets\nrepresents more strongly the ideas of purity and perfection, has usurped\nher place. We know that Lapo Gianni, Dino Frescobaldi, Guinicelli and\nDante worshipped a maiden untouched by as much as a sensuous thought,\nand Frescobaldi decided the question whether it were better to love a\nmarried woman or a maiden, in favour of the latter. The feeling of those\nlovers was pure and lofty, and they had the power of giving it perfect\nexpression.\n\nIn a canzone, the authorship of which is ascribed to both Cavalcanti and\nCino da Pistoia, it is said of the beloved dead that God needed her\npresence to perfect Heaven, and that all the saints now worship her.\nShe was a miracle of perfection while she was yet on earth, but now:\n\n     Look thou into the pleasure wherein dwells\n     Thy lovely lady, who is in heaven crowned,\n     Who is herself thy hope in heaven, the while\n     To make thy mem'ry hallowed she prevails.\n\n     Of thee she entertains the blessed throngs,\n     And says to them, while yet my body thrave\n     On earth, I gat much honour which he gave,\n     Commending me in his commended songs.\n\n                         (_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nAt the conclusion of his finest poem, \"Al Cor Gentil,\" Guinicelli, next\nto Dante doubtless the greatest poet of the Middle Ages, says: \"God will\nask me after my death: 'How could'st thou have loved aught but Me?' And\nI will reply: 'She came from Thy realm and bore the semblance of an\nangel. Therefore in loving her, I was not unfaithful to Thee!'\" Here we\nhave the perfection of metaphysical eroticism: the beloved woman is God;\nhe who loves her, loves God in her.\n\nCavalcanti maintained in a poem that an image of the Madonna actually\nbore the features of his lady.\n\n     Guido, an image of my lady dwells\n     At San Michele, in Orto, consecrate,\n     And daily worshipped. Fair, in holy state,\n     She listens to the tale each sinner tells.\n     And among them who come to her, who ails\n     The most, on him the most does blessing fall;\n     She bids the fiend men's bodies abdicate;\n     Over the curse of blindness she prevails,\n     And heals sick languors in the public squares....\n\n                         (_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nAnd Guido Orlandi replies to him from the ecclesiastical standpoint, as\nto a lost man: \"Had'st thou been speaking of Mary, thou would'st have\nspoken the truth. But now I must bewail thy errors.\"\n\nA complete blending of sensuality and Mary-worship was achieved in an\nItalian poem of the fifteenth century. The author of this poem addressed\nMary as \"queen of my heart,\" and \"blossom of loveliness,\" and goes on to\nsay: \"I can tell by your gestures and your face that you respond to my\nlove; when you look at me, you smile, and when you sigh, your eyes are\nfull of tenderness.... Sometimes, in the evening, I stand below your\nbalcony; you hear my sighs, but you make no reply.... When I gaze at\nyour beauty, I burn with love, but when I think of your cruelty, I call\non death to release me.\" In this poem we have a caricature of\nmetaphysical eroticism.\n\nIn the sonnets of Petrarch, metaphysical love has become stereotyped.\nAdoration has become a phrase (as Cupid has become a phrase with the\nearlier poets). It is obvious that he loves Laura because the play on\nthe word Laura and _lauro_ (laurel) caught his fancy. I can find no\nspontaneous feeling in the famous Canzoniero; all I see is erudition and\nperfection of form. But among the few sincere specimens there is one\nbeautiful poem addressed to Mary: \"_Vergine bella che di sol vestida!_\"\nwhich is not without erotic warmth. But the singer and humanist\nexpresses himself judiciously:\n\n     Oh, Thou, the Queen of Heaven and our goddess\n     (If it be fitting such a phrase to use).\n\nSo far we have observed the current which, emanating from the beloved\nwoman, lifted her into supernal regions and endowed her with\nperfection--the mistress is stripped of everything earthly, the longing\nwhich can never be stilled on earth, soars heavenward. Now we will\nexamine the opposite current; the current which emanates from the\nMadonna of dogma, the Lady of Heaven who is the same to all men, in her\nlast stage, that is to say when she is finally enthroned by the side of\nGod. Many a monk--earthly love being denied to him--was driven to a\npurely spiritual, metaphysical love by the fact of his being permitted\nto love the Lady of Heaven without hesitation or remorse. She was the\nfairest of women, and he was at liberty to interpret the meaning of \"the\nfairest\" in any sense he chose.\n\nThe climax of the emotional worship of the ecclesiastical Mary was\nreached by St. Bernard, the _Doctor Marianus_ mentioned on a previous\noccasion. He was the author of sermons and homilies in honour of Mary,\nand has been instrumental in dogmatising her worship by placing her side\nby side with the Saviour. \"It was more fitting that both sexes should\ntake part in the renewal of mankind,\" he says, \"because both were\ninstrumental in bringing about the fall....\" \"Man who fell through\nwoman, can be raised only by her.\" \"Humanity kneels at Thy feet, for the\ncomfort of the wretched, the release of the prisoners, the delivery of\nthe condemned, the salvation of the countless sons of Adam depend on a\nword from Thy lips. Oh! Virgin, hasten to reply! Speak the word for\nwhich the earth, the nethermost hell, and the heavens even, are waiting;\nyea, the King and Ruler of the universe, greatly as He desires Thy\nloveliness, awaits Thy consent, in which He has laid the salvation of\nthe world.\" Basing his description on the Revelation of St. John the\nDivine, he draws her picture as follows: \"Brilliant and white and\ndazzling are the garments of the Virgin. She is so full of light and\nradiance that there is not the least darkness about her, and no part of\nher may be described as less brilliant, or not glowing with intense\nlight.\" And with increasingly pronounced erotic emphasis, passing from\nthe Church dogma of salvation to passionate fervour, he goes on to say:\n\"A garden of sacred delight art Thou, oh, Mary! In it we gather flowers\nof manifold joys as often as we reflect on the fulness of sweetness\nwhich through Thee was poured out on the world.... Right lovely art\nThou, oh, perfect One! A bed of heavenly spices and precious flowers of\nall virtues, filling the house of the Lord with sweet perfume! Oh! Mary,\nThou violet of humility! Thou lily of chastity! Thou rose of love!\" etc.\n\nSt. Bernard inaugurated that extraordinary blending of eroticism with\nhalf-crazy, inconceivable allegories and fantasies, which lasted for\ncenturies. Here, again, we perceive the ideal of metaphysical eroticism,\nwhich in the case of a loyal son of the Church could only refer to the\nofficial Queen of Heaven, and consisted partly of the genuine emotion of\nlove, partly of allegorically constructed connections with the Church\ndogma.\n\nSt. Bernard's emotional outbursts were comprehended and admired. His\nauthority was sufficient to override all scruples that might have stood\nin the way of this downright description of Mary's charms. He became the\nmodel for all her later worshippers; Suso, for instance, often quotes\nhim, and Brother Hans called him _the harpist and fiddler of her\npraise_.\n\nThe great ecstatic poet, Jacopone da Todi, sang Mary's praise as\nfollows:\n\n     Hail, purest of virgins,\n     Mother and maid,\n     Gentle as moonlight,\n     Lady of Aid!\n\n     I greet thee, life's fountain,\n     Fruitladen vine!\n     Infinite mercy\n     Thou sheddest on thine!\n\n     Hope's fairest sunshine,\n     Balm's well serene!\n     I claim a dance with thee,\n     All the world's Queen!\n\n     Gate of beatitude!\n     --All sins forgiven,--\n     Lead us to paradise,\n     Sweet breeze of heaven!\n\n     Thou pointest us upward\n     Where angels adore,\n     White lily of gentleness\n     Thy grace I implore.\n\n     Mirror of Cherubim!\n     Seraphim laud thy grace,\n     All things in heaven and earth\n     Ring with thy praise!\n\nThe spiritual love of Mary especially appealed to the German temper.\nAmong the adoring monks Suso deserves particular mention. He laid great\nstress on the difference between _high_ love and _low_ love. \"Low love\nbegins with rapture and ends with pain, but high love begins with grief,\nand is transformed into ecstasy, until finally the lovers are united in\neternity.\" He was keenly conscious of the older motive of the cult of\nMary, namely, the need of a gentle mediator between man and the\ninaccessible Deity. \"Oh, thou! God's chosen delight, thou dulcet, golden\nsong of the Eternal Wisdom, suffer me, a poor sinner, to tell thee a\nlittle of my sufferings. My soul prostrates itself before thee with\ntimorous eyes, shamefaced. Oh! thou Mother of all mercies, I ween that\nneither my soul nor the soul of any other poor sinner needs a mediator,\nor permission to come to thy throne, for thou, thyself, art the\nintercessor for all sinners.\" Compared to his forerunner, St. Bernard,\nSuso exhibits a marked degree of intimacy in his relationship with Mary.\nHe describes heaven as a kind of flowered meadow, and Mary keeping\ncourt, like any earthly princess. \"Now go and behold the sweet Queen of\nHeaven, whom you love so profoundly, leading the procession of the\ncelestial throng in great gladness and stateliness, inclining to her\nlover with roses and lilies! Behold her wonderful beauty shedding light\nand joy on the heavenly hosts! Eya! Look up to her who giveth gladness\nto heart and mind; behold the Mother of Mercy resting her eyes, her\ntender, pitiful eyes, on you and all sinners, powerfully protecting her\nbeloved child.\" The whole sixteenth chapter of the _Booklet of Eternal\nWisdom_ is an ardent hymn to the Madonna, almost comparable to St.\nBernard's prayer to Mary in Dante's _Divine Comedy_. It was written\nabout the time of Dante's death, not very long, therefore, after the\ncomposition of the last chapters of the _Paradise_.\n\n_The Life of Suso_ (the first German biography ever written) evidences\nhis adoration for the Lady of Heaven: \"It was customary in his country,\nSwabia, for the young men to go to their sweethearts' houses on New\nYear's Eve, singing songs until they received from the maidens a chaplet\nin return. This custom so pleased his young and ardent heart that he,\ntoo, went on the eve of the New Year to his eternal love, to beg her for\na gift. Before daybreak he repaired to the statue which represented the\nVirginal Mother pressing her tender child, the beautiful Eternal Wisdom,\nto her bosom, and kneeling down before her, with a sweet, low singing of\nhis soul, he chanted a sequence to her, imploring her to let him win a\nchaplet from her Child....\" \"He then said to the Eternal Wisdom\" (and it\nis uncertain whether he is addressing the mother or the child): \"Thou\nart my love, my glad Easter day, the summer-joy of my heart, my sweet\nhour; thou art the love which my young heart alone worships, and for the\nsake of which it has scorned earthly love. Give me a guerdon, then, my\nheart's delight, and let me not go away from thee empty-handed.\"\n\n_With a sweet, low singing of his soul_, this worshipper approached the\nstatue of the Queen of Heaven. This is love of woman undisguised, it\nmerely has a religious undertone. Other secular merry-makings were\nadapted by Suso to his celestial mistress, as, for instance, the\nplanting of the may-tree, and he repeatedly makes use of similes and\nmetaphors borrowed from the chivalrous service of woman. He frequently\nalludes to himself as \"the servant of the Eternal Wisdom\"; the meaning\nof this expression is apparently intentionally obscured, but it has a\nsavour of the feminine. Suso pictured himself, after the manner of\nlovers, with a chaplet of roses on his brow. In his _Life_ there is a\npassage unsurpassed by the best of the minnesingers: \"In the golden\nsummer-time when all the tender little flowers had opened their buds, he\ngathered none until he had dedicated the first blossoms to his spiritual\nlove, the gentle, flower-like, rosy maiden and Mother of God; when it\nseemed to him that the time had come, he culled the flowers with many\nloving thoughts, carried them into his cell and wove them into a\ngarland; and after he had done so, he went into the choir, or into Our\nLady's Chapel, prostrated himself before his dear lady, and placed the\nsweet garland on her head, hoping that she would not scorn her servant's\noffering, as she was the most wondrous flower herself, and the\nsummer-joy of his heart.\"\n\nDoubtless we here have an analogy to the religious feeling of the\nmystics. The metaphysical lover is still under the impression that he is\nworshipping the Mary of the Catholic Church; but as in the case of the\nmystic the Christ of dogma is transformed into the divine spark in his\nown soul, so the love of Mary has become undogmatic and pure\nwoman-worship, the ideal of the great lovers of that age.\n\nAnother prominent Madonna-worshipper was Conrad of Wuerzburg (died 1278).\nHe began his career as a minnesinger, but later on entered a monastery.\nHe was the author of a very extensive, and in part, poetical collection\nof songs in praise of the Queen of Heaven. \"The Golden Smithy\" is an\ninteresting instance of the mingling of genuine metaphysical eroticism\nand traditional Church doctrines. Conrad inextricably mingles all the\nBiblical allegories more or less applicable to Mary, the stories of the\nGospels, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, etc., with his own\nemotions, and thus creates a world of feeling which, though in many\nrespects exaggerated, still represents in its quaint unity something\nentirely novel and unique:\n\n     Thy glorious form,\n     Though by beauty all envested,\n     Never passion has suggested\n     Nor has lit unholy fire\n     In man's heart, that gross desire\n     From thy purity should spring.\n\nHe, too, describes the celestial Paradise as a lovely garden, in which\nMary walks as queen, and he says of her celestial maidens, (perhaps a\nreminiscence of the mythological German swan-maidens):\n\n     Thy white hand with blossoms\n     Their chaplets enhances,\n     Thou show'st them the dances\n     Of God's Paradise.\n     'Mid radiant skies\n     Thou gather'st heavenly roses.\n\nThe Italian Franciscan monk Giacomo of Verona also wrote poems to the\n\"Queen of the Heavenly Meadows\". \"On the right hand of Christ sits Mary,\nmore lovely than the flowers in the meadows and the half-opened\nrose-buds. Before her face stand the heavenly hosts singing jubilant\nsongs in her praise, but she adorns her knights with garlands and gives\nthem roses.\" Just as Pons of Capduelh describes the transfiguration of\nhis earthly mistress, Jacopone describes Mary's ascent into Heaven,\nwhere she is received by the angels singing songs of jubilee, their\n_sanctus, sanctus, sanctus_, replaced by a joyful _sancta, sancta,\nsancta_--a goddess has been received in the place of God.\n\nGottfried of Strassburg, the author of the sensuous and passionate epic\npoem \"Tristan and Isolde,\" composed a long poem in honour of Mary\ncouched in the well-known terms of the loving worshipper:\n\n     Thou vale of roses,--violet-dell,\n     Thou joy that makest hearts to swell,\n     Eternal well\n     Of valour; Queen of Heaven!\n     Thou rosy dawn, thou morning-red,\n     Thou steadfast friend when hope has fled,\n     The living bread,\n     Oh! Lady, hast thou given.\n\n     Thou sheen of flow'rs with love alight,\n     Thou bridal crown, all maids' delight,\n     Thou art bedight\n     With heaven's golden splendour!\n\n     Thou of all sweetness sweetest shine,\n     Thou sweeter than the sweetest wine,\n     The sweetness thine,\n     Is my salvation ever.\n     Thou art a potion sweet of love,\n     Sweetly pervading heaven above,\n     To sailors rough\n     Sang syrens sweeter never.\n\n     Thou enterest through eye and ear,\n     Senses and soul pervading,\n     Thou givest to the heart great cheer,\n     A guerdon dear,\n     A glory never fading.\n\nThe poet who wrote of Isolde's love potion here calls the Queen of\nHeaven a _potion sweet of love_, a strange metaphor to use in connection\nwith the Mary of dogma. Another characteristic frequently alluded to is\nher _sweet perfume_, an attribute which we to-day do not look upon as\nexclusively celestial.\n\nQuaintly delicate and tender are the love-songs of Brother Hans, an\notherwise unknown monk of the fourteenth century. He himself tells us\nthat he deserted his earthly mistress for the Queen of Heaven. Perhaps\nthe dualism between earthly and transcendent love has never been\nexpressed more clearly than by him; for in his case the worshipping love\ndid not gradually lead up to Mary, the essence of womanhood, but an\nearthly love had to be killed so that the pure heavenly love could live.\n\n     Mary! Gentle mistress mine!\n     I humbly kneel before you;\n     All my heart and soul are thine.\n\nAnd:\n\n     Oh, Mary! Secret fountain,\n     Closed garden of delight,\n     The Prince of Heaven mirrors\n     Him in thy beauty bright.\n\nBut after describing all the joys of heaven, Brother Hans comes to the\nconclusion that a man knows about as much of celestial matters as an ox\nknows of discant singing.\n\nHis relationship to Mary is tender, intimate and familiar:\n\n     Within my heart concealed\n     There is a secret cell;\n     At nightfall and at daybreak\n     My lady there does dwell.\n     The mistress of the house is she,\n     I feel her love and care about.\n     If she denies herself to me,\n     Methinks the mistress has gone out.\n\nIn another poem he prays to Mary to allow him to tear off a small piece\nof her robe, so that he may keep himself warm with it in the winter.\n\nLike Cino da Pistoia, who commended his dying soul not to God but to his\nloved one, Brother Hans commends himself to Mary:\n\n     Thus I commend my soul into thy hands,\n     When it must journey to those unknown lands,\n     Where roads and paths are new and strange to it.\n\nAnd:\n\n     Oh, come to me, thou Bride of God,\n     When my faint soul departs from me!\n\nThere remains one more motif to consider, a motif which in a way\ncompletes the picture of the celestial lady: As men love and desire the\nwomen of the earth, so God loves the Lady of Heaven. St. Bernard first\nexpressed this naive idea, which makes God the Father resemble a little\nthe ancient Jupiter. \"She attracted the eyes of the heavenly hosts, even\nthe heart of the King went out to her.\" \"He Himself, the supreme King\nand Ruler, so much desires thy beauty, that He is awaiting thy consent,\nupon which He has decided to save the world. And Him Whom thou\ndelightest in thy silence, thou wilt delight even more by thy speech,\nfor He called to thee from Heaven: 'Oh! fairest among women! Let me hear\nthy voice!'\" etc. Here we have St. Bernard, the rock of orthodoxy,\nrepresenting God as Mary's languishing admirer! Suso is irreproachable\nin this respect, but Conrad says that the colour of Mary's face was so\nbright and made it so lovely,\n\n     That even the Eternal Sire\n     Was filled with sacred fire,\n     And all the heavenly princes....\n\nThus, at the turn of the fourteenth century the great celestial change\nwas complete: By the side of God, nay, even in the place of God, a woman\nwas enthroned. \"The Virgin became the God of the Universe,\" says\nMichelet, a thorough, though rather imaginative expert on the Middle\nAges. The people primitively worshipped idols. The clergy, headed by the\nDominican and Franciscan monks, introduced Lady Days into the calendar\nand invented the rosary to facilitate the recital of the _Aves_; secular\norders of knighthood placed themselves under the Virgin's protection (La\nChevalerie de Sainte Marie), but the rarest minds, sublimating the\nbeloved, raised her into Heaven and worshipped her as divine. The\nestablished religion was compelled to enter into partnership with the\ngreat emotion of the time, metaphysical love, lest it ran the risk of\nlosing its sway over humanity.\n\nAnd a feeling was born then which to this day constitutes one of the\nstriking differences between the Eastern and the Western worlds: the\nrespect for womanhood. It is based on the woman-worship of secular, and\nthe Madonna-worship of ecclesiastical circles. It is true that Jesus,\nanticipating the intuition of Europe, had taught the divinity of the\nhuman soul and recognised woman--in this respect--as on an equality with\nman, but the instincts of Greece and the Eastern nations had proved to\nbe stronger than his teaching; for twelve hundred years woman was\ndespised, and more than once the question as to whether or no she had a\nsoul--in other words, as to whether or no she was a human being--had\ncome under discussion. The crude and primitively dualistic minds of the\nperiod realised in her sex merely an embodiment of their own sensuality,\nthe enemy against whom they fought, and to whom they knew themselves\nsubject. The strongest argument in her favour which the first millenary\ncould adduce, was the fact that the Saviour of the world had been borne\nby a woman, and that consequently her sex had a share in the work of\nsalvation; the idea that through the \"other Eve\" a part of the sin of\nthe first Eve was expiated. But genuine appreciation and respect were\nonly possible after base sensuality had been contrasted with spiritual\nlove, whose vehicle again was woman. Now the \"eternal-feminine\"--\ncontrasted with the \"earthly-feminine\"--drew the lovers upwards, and\nthis new emotion threw such a glamour over the whole sex, that it never\nentirely died away; if to-day women are respected and their efforts at\nemancipation supported, they are not indebted, as they are sometimes\ntold, to Christian ethics, but rather to the mundane culture which had\nits origin at the courts of the Provencal lords, whose ideals ultimately\nbecame the controlling ideals of Europe, and whose inmost essence still\ninfluences the world.\n\nThe evolution of love had obviously arrived at a stage when respect was\nconsidered due to women--though not perhaps to all women. I will not go\nto the courts of the great for evidence, but merely relate an episode\nfrom the life of the Dominican friar Suso: \"In crossing a field, Suso\nmet on a narrow path a poor, respectable woman. When he was close to\nher, he stepped off the dry path and stood in the mud, waiting for her\nto pass. The woman, who knew him, was astonished. 'How is it, Sir,' she\nsaid, 'that you, a venerable priest, are humbly standing aside to allow\nme, a poor woman, to pass, when it were far more meet that I should\nstand aside and make room for you?' 'Why, my good woman,' replied Suso,\n'I like to honour all women for the sake of the gentle Mother of God in\nHeaven.'\"\n\nIt may seem extraordinary, but this absolutely unphilosophical, and\nreally paradoxical emotion, found an appreciator in the German\nphilosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, the enemy of Christianity. In his _Essence\nof Christianity_, as well as in his treatise _On the Cult of Mary_, he\nrefers to it more than once. \"The holy Virgin,\" he says, \"the Mother of\nGod, is the only divine and positive, that is to say, the only lovable\nand poetical figure of Christian mythology, and the only one worthy of\nworship; for Mary is the goddess of beauty, the goddess of love, the\ngoddess of humanity, the goddess of nature, the goddess of freedom from\ndogma.\" Feuerbach is right. The Lady of Heaven stands for the delivery\nfrom dogma, because she had her origin in spontaneous emotion, clothed\nwith but a few rags of dogma. \"The monks vowed the vow of chastity,\" he\ncontinues in his great work; \"they suppressed the sexual impulse, but in\nexchange they had the personification of womanhood, of love, in the\nVirgin in Heaven. The more their ideal, fictitious representative of her\nsex became an object of spontaneous love, the more easily could they\ndispense with the women of flesh and blood. The more they emphasised in\ntheir lives the complete suppression of sexuality, the more prominent\nbecame the part which the Virgin played in their emotions; she usurped\nin many cases, the place of Christ, and even the place of God.\"\nFeuerbach then explains the need of man to project his noblest\nsentiments on Heaven, and lays much stress on the necessity of believing\nin the Mother of God, because the love of a child for its mother is the\nfirst strong feeling of man. \"Where the faith in the Mother of God\ndeclines, the faith in the Son of God, and in God the Father, declines\nalso.\"\n\n\nI will now leave the region of the historical and examine the emotion\nwhose reality and influence I have substantiated, from a timeless\nstandpoint, for my principal point is the psychical, and more\nparticularly the metaphysical consummation of the emotion of love. The\nsole object of the abundant evidence I have been compelled to adduce is\nmy desire to prove the existence and significance of all the emotions\nwhich stir the soul, and in the later Middle Ages strove so powerfully\nto express themselves. My thesis that sexuality and love are opposed\nprinciples will no doubt be rejected, for, under the strong influence of\nthe theory of evolution, all the world is to-day agreed that love is\nnothing but the refinement of the sexual impulse. I maintain that (as\nfar as man is concerned) they differ very essentially, and I have\nattempted to prove their incommensurability by submitting historical\nfacts. That they may, and will, ultimately merge, is my unalterable\nconviction. My assertion that something so fundamental as the personal\nlove of man and woman did not exist from the beginning, but came into\nexistence in the course of history, at a not very remote period, may\nseem even more strange. My only reply is that instead of advancing\nopinions I have brought forward facts and allowed them to speak for\nthemselves. Moreover, to my mind the realisation of the intimate\nconnection of love and evolving personality is a far more magnificent\nproof of the soundness of the evolutionary theory than the reflection\nthat we have received all things ready-made from the hands of nature.\nHas it not been proved to us that the religious consciousness of the\ndivinity of the human soul was also evolved in historical time, and has\nnever again disappeared?\n\nEvery strong love which finds no response is fraught with the\npossibility of an infinite unfolding; it may powerfully seize the whole\nsoul and make life a tragedy. But this tragedy is not of the very\nessence of tragedy, inasmuch as here we have merely love confronted by\nan unsurmountable obstacle, meeting and overwhelming it; the discord is\nnot inherent. Many a lover suffering from unrequited love, is born with\nthe tendency to become unhappy, with a secret will to the voluptuousness\nof pain and melancholy; he will enjoy his unhappiness, perhaps become\nproductive through it. Thus, this deliberately unhappy love may be\nregarded as an analogy to genuine metaphysical eroticism. For the\nworship of woman is in its essence infinite striving; its object is\nalways unattainable, an illusion. Every earthly love, even if it finds\nno response at all, may, in principle, be gratified, and is only unhappy\nif external circumstances intervene. But the love of the Madonna is in\nitself fraught with the tragic impossibility of requital; its foundation\nis the recognition, or divination, of the fact that mortal women are too\ninsignificant for a passion which yearns for infinitude. A lover filled\nwith the longing to glorify a woman and worship her as a divine being,\nhas frequently experienced a certain disappointment. The beloved may\nhave died young--as did Beatrice--without his ever having come into\nclose contact with her; instinctively his soul turns heavenward--and\nimagination has ample scope to transform and transfigure the dead. Or he\nmay have been disappointed in his mistress; it may have been that he,\nattuned to pure, spiritual love, has found her all too human. He flees\nfrom reality into the world of dreams, and envelops her with the veil of\nmysteriousness and divinity. Purely spiritual love is an intense\nemotion, and as men and women of flesh and blood cannot always live at\nhigh pressure, hours of dejection and disappointment will necessarily\nhave to be experienced. The soul takes refuge in an illusion which\nbecomes more and more an end in itself, and gradually the lover creates\nan inaccessibly lofty, celestial woman. For purely spiritual love\naspires to absolute transcendency; it cannot bear contact with every-day\nlife. The psychologists of the present day tell us that a feeling, in\nbecoming spiritualised, loses strength,--history teaches us that in the\ncase of great souls the opposite is the rule.\n\nThese suggestions purpose to explain the inception of an ecstatic love;\nbut the true metaphysical erotic is born and needs no outside stimulus;\nhis heart yearns for the inaccessible from the very beginning. There are\ncertain elements of feeling which must be present in his soul\nsimultaneously: a religious elementary feeling tending to the\nmetaphysical; the need of a sacred--a divine--being, as the foundation\nof all existing things; a powerful and purely spiritual craving for\nlove, hurt, perhaps unconsciously, in early youth, and finally an\nimagination endowed with plastic force--artistic tendencies. In the case\nof the mystic the soul, too, is filled with the consciousness of the\ndivine; he, too, has the capacity for a great love, but with him it is\nnot the love of woman, but of something universal, not individualised,\nthe world, the cosmos, God.\n\nWhile the mystic attempts to embody the inconceivable Deity in his soul,\nthe worshipper of the Madonna, like the artist, imaginatively creates a\nbeing which he sets up for contemplation at the greatest possible\ndistance. The mystic is blind, as it were; he is yearning personified,\nand he would force God into his soul. The metaphysical lover needs a\nplastic figure which, in the extremest case, may represent the whole\nworld to him, and this figure must be a woman. It is a historical\naccident that this woman is frequently connected with a woman of\necclesiastical tradition, an accident strengthened by insufficient\ncreative power on the part of the lover, or lack of courage and\nself-confidence. He is grateful for the support given to him by\ntradition. The greatest metaphysical lovers, Dante, Goethe and\nMichelangelo, freely created the objects of their love; the Protestant\nGoethe--whom some people even accuse of paganism--clung more closely\nthan either of the others to the Mary of Catholicism (in the final scene\nof _Faust_). The worship of the Madonna is the love of great solitary\nsouls, and--as is proved by Goethe--of the great souls in the hours of\ntheir last solitude.\n\nWhile there was only unindividualised sexual instinct, the chastity of\nwoman was of no account; we have seen that neither the Eastern nations\nnor the Greeks attached any value to it. The woman who had best\nfulfilled her vocation as a mother, was the woman most highly respected.\nIn the East, as well as with Jews and Romans, a woman could be divorced\nby her husband for sterility. The only women who were, to some extent,\nappreciated for their own sakes, were the Greek hetaerae. But when\nasceticism became a moral value, chastity, too, was regarded as a\nvirtue, and personal love between two individuals invested it with a\nprofound significance. Henceforth woman should no longer be regarded as\nthe vehicle for the gratification of male sensuality; it should be her\nmission to lead the lover to spiritual perfection. The fusion of the\nolder ideal of womanhood, the mother (acknowledged and sanctioned by\nreligion in the mother of the Saviour), with the newer ideal, the\nVirgin, created the ideal of the late Middle Ages: the virgin with the\nChild. Here the natural vocation of woman and the fantastic mission laid\nupon her by man were united in a paradoxical higher intuition, and it\nis superfluous to point out that the most irreligious minds of the\nRenascence, as well as those of all later eras, have to this day\nworshipped this ideal, and never wearied of representing it under new\nforms.\n\nBut the worship of the Virginal Mother contains another element, an\nelement of which man in his contact with woman is deeply conscious: the\nelement of mystery. To a man a young girl, untouched by the faintest\nbreath of sensuality, has a quality of strangeness and mysteriousness\n(this is probably a result of European sentiment), and at all times the\nwoman who has become a mother has been regarded with a slight feeling of\nsuperstitious awe. In the Virginal Mother these two vaguely reverential\nfeelings are blended; she is a strange and awe-inspiring being, and man,\ndivining a mystery, bows down before her.\n\nOtto Weininger was the first to give us a psychology of the cult of the\nMadonna, and he did it in a manner which proved his entire comprehension\nof this peculiar sentimental disposition. He realised and pointed out\nthe contrast between sexuality and eroticism (his terms for sexual\nimpulse and love), but in accordance with his extreme mental disposition\nhe left these two principles in irreconcilable conflict, while I regard\ntheir antithesis merely in the light of a transient phase which will be\nfollowed by a reconciling synthesis. Weininger is, I believe, in\nconflict with spiritual reality when (guided by ethical, not\npsychological considerations) he proposes the theory that a man endows\nthe beloved woman with all the lofty values he desires for himself. \"He\nprojects his ideal of an absolutely perfect being on another human\nbeing, and this and nothing else is the meaning of his love.\" \"To bestow\nall the qualities one would like to possess, but never can quite\npossess, on another individual, to make it the representative of all\nvalues, that is to love.\" It is a commonplace experience that genuine\nlove will awaken in the soul new and transcendent emotions, compared to\nwhich all previous experience appears petty and insignificant. The waves\nof this emotion are able to carry the lover to the infinite, or at least\nhis emotion will help him to divine the infinite. He sees, unexpectedly,\nhis inmost soul revealed to him, he has exceeded the limits upon which\nhe has hitherto looked as a matter of course; the barrier between him\nand the universe has fallen, the whole world belongs to him; the egoist\nbecomes less selfish, the cruel man gentle, the dullard clairvoyant;\nevery man feels that he has become greater and more human. This is\nneither illusion nor projection, nor is it a subtle, psychical\ndeception--it is sober reality. Weininger's suspicion of a delusion is\nnothing but the result of his ascetic solipsism, refusing to accept\nanother being's help in his striving for perfection, a consequence of\nthe one-sided, sterile cult of his individual soul, a noble but puerile\npride refusing to be indebted to the world and to his fellow-men, the\nfanatical, metaphysical dualism which is so often met with in the second\nstage of eroticism, and to which stage he belongs.\n\nWeininger shrank from the idea that an individual might be made the\nmeans to an end, instead of being an end in itself. In my opinion his\njustification for the translation of this formula--framed by Kant for\npure ethics--to empirical psychology, is doubtful. To use an individual\nonly as a means to an end which is alien to his inmost being, is\ncertainly immoral. But all social life is based on a mutual relationship\nof means and ends; a man is an end in himself at the same time that he\nis a means to other individuals and the community. The teacher is a\nmeans as far as his pupils are concerned; the poet is a means in respect\nto all who seek in his writings information or recreation. To carry the\nstigmatisation of these facts to a logical conclusion, one would have to\ncall it immoral to accept anything from parents or teachers; one would\nhave to reject every good influence--which always comes from\noutside--and become completely absorbed in the cult of one's own soul.\nOne would even have to object to being born, and would have to create\none's self out of nothing. It has always been regarded as the splendid\nprivilege of great men to exert an ennobling influence on others--why,\ntherefore, should the influence of a beloved woman on her lover be\nobjectionable?\n\nWeininger's error in the sphere of eroticism arises from the fact of his\nimprisoning love in a formula which is by no means applicable to it. In\nlove the mutual relationship of means and ends does not exist, the lover\nfeels that the beloved is always an end in herself in the highest sense;\nhe would find it impossible inwardly to establish such a relationship\nbetween himself and her; very frequently himself, his well-being and his\nlife, are of no account to him if he can serve her. Weininger's\nassertion that at the consummation of love every woman is merely the\nmeans of gratifying a man's passion, is simply not true. On the\ncontrary, it is a characteristic of genuine love that the physical\nembrace is of no great importance, does not even rise to full\nconsciousness. The personality of the beloved is everything, physical\nsensation nothing. Weininger identifies love with passion and his\nargument is easily refutable by the experience of many. In love there is\nneither means nor end; if, however, categoric formulas must be used, one\nmight speak of a reciprocal action. Equally erroneous is his\ncorresponding assertion that the artist loves a woman spiritually, that\nis, in the sense of deifying her, for the purpose of drawing from her\ninspiration for his work. If he loves her, then his love is the alpha\nand omega of his striving, and if love inspires him to achieve a\nmasterpiece, the effect of love on him must be considered great and\ngood, because it is a creative effect.\n\nThe extreme individualistic ideal would lead to an absolutely\nunproductive view of life. Asceticism stands condemned because it is\nunproductive. I may regard an Indian fakir who has become so godlike\nthat he can sustain life on six grains of rice a day, and draw breath\nonce every quarter of an hour--to say nothing of speech or\ncleanliness--as a very strange individual; but I see nothing positive or\nimportant in him. The road which leads from the individual to the\nuniversal cannot be the rejection of the world; it must be its\nperfection, resulting from productivity of mind, or soul, or deed. He\nwho on principle refuses to be productive, condemns himself to\nannihilation in the higher sense. I admit that he who works at his own\nperfection does good work, too; but it is the inexplicable secret of all\ntruly creative labour--in the highest as well as in the lowest\nsense--that it must ultimately affect the world and eternity. The\nstrongest emotions, the inner illumination of the mystic and the love of\nthe great erotic, have been conceived in the _heart of hearts_; and have\nultimately grown beyond their creator, from the individual to the\nuniversal. The more intimate and powerful the creative impulse has been,\nthe more retarded and abundant may, perhaps, be the effect. But the\nchain which links the great soul to humanity cannot be broken, the work\nwill make itself manifest--the work of deed, the work of the mind, the\nwork of love--I do not say to \"the public,\" but to life, to the world.\nThe creative personality alone is the father of the objective values of\ncivilisation.\n\nThe great love which led Dante, Goethe and Wagner to the summits of\nhumanity is in the highest sense positive and creative. And he who\nrealises that love is not subject to sexual impulse, who knows it as\nsomething purely personal, foreign and even hostile to the genus, must\nadmit that it is one of the very highest of values. A contrary ethic is\nsterile, Indian, unproductive, not European. I am well aware that\nWeininger did not explicitly draw this conclusion; but he rejects\nspiritual love because it endows the lover with new capacities, the\ncapacities of growth and perfection, and he is therefore in the last\nresort a representative of philosophic nihilism.\n\n\n_(c) Dante and Goethe_\n\nThe worship of woman found its climax in Dante. Through the work of his\nyouth, the _Vita Nuova_ and his masterpiece, _The Divine Comedy_, we can\ntrace step by step the stages of the road, beginning with a glimpse of a\nyoung girl in Florence, and ending with the incorporation of a woman\ninto the world-system. We are face to face with an extraordinary process\nof evolution. The young girl he had seen a few times, and who died in\nher youth, goes on growing and developing in his soul, until, at last,\nin him the will to raise woman above time into eternity, the will to\nmake her a member of the divine system, reaches its full realisation.\nWhat had been begun by the troubadours and fully comprehended by the\npoets of the _sweet new style_, reached completion in Dante, and, was\nhenceforth an eternal value for all humanity.\n\nWe see that the later troubadours were inclined to blend the lady of\ntheir heart with the universal Lady of Heaven; the need of deifying the\nloved woman was at the root of many dubious growths, and possibly these\nearly poets were also to some extent influenced by their dread of the\nInquisition (which never gained much importance in Italy). The new poets\ndeepened this feeling, stripped it of all externalities, and appeared\nbefore the adored simply as lovers. They did not require the dogmatic\nsupport of the Church, their own feeling was sufficient guarantee.\nDante, moreover, was possessed by a craving for an absolutely perfect\nand consistent world-system, and had, besides, the power to build it up\nand people it with sublime intelligences. And in this system, the crown\nand perfection of the mediaeval-Catholic conception of the universe, he\nassigned to the love of his youth a high and permanent place by the side\nof the deities. Dante thus raised his individual feeling to a universal\ndogma, and enriched the Catholic heaven by his personal love. What for\ntwo hundred years had been a dream and a desire, had become a matter of\nfaith and truth. Now, and not until now, love and religion were one; the\nlove of a woman had been included in the system of eternal verities, and\nhad become identical with the love of immortality. \"Love which moves the\nsun and all the stars\" was acknowledged as a fundamental feeling. The\nanchoring of the subjective in the eternal was achieved in this\nmetaphysical setting: the deification of the beloved; and no greater\ngift was ever vouchsafed to man than the creation of metaphysically true\nbeings and values. All that had been done before had merely prepared the\nground for this great deed: the enshrinement of the beloved in the heart\nof the divine secrets.\n\nThe _Vita Nuova_, which is at once a glorified historical record and the\ngreatest testimony of metaphysical love, emphasises from the outset the\ninspiring, purifying influence emanating from the beloved; Beatrice is\n\"the destroyer of all evil and the queen of all virtue.\" \"When I saw her\ncoming towards me and could hope for her salutation, the world held no\nenemy for me, yea, I was filled with the fire of brotherly love to such\nan extent, that I was ready to forgive anybody who had ever offended me.\nAnd whoever had begged me for a gift, I should have replied: Love! and\nmy face would have been full of humility.\" Even before his love had been\ntranslated to the world beyond, he portrayed spiritual love as hardly\nany other poet before or after him. The women of Florence ask Dante:\n\"Why doest thou love this lady, seeing that thou canst not even bear her\npresence? Tell us, for the end of such love must be incomprehensible to\nmen.\" And he replies: \"Ladies, the end and aim of my love is but the\nsalutation of that lady; therein I find that beatitude which is the goal\nof my desire. And now that it has pleased her to deny me her salutation,\nmy whole happiness is contained in that which can never perish.\" And the\nwomen: \"Tell us, then, wherein lies such happiness?\" \"In the words that\npraise my lady\" (that is to say in the emotion which is an end in itself\nand in its artistic expression). The lover never exchanged a word with\nher; had he done so, attempting to establish a reciprocal relationship,\nBeatrice, bereft of his idealising love, would have had to descend from\nher pedestal and show herself a girl like all the rest. Not until after\nher deification has become an established fact, does Beatrice (in the\nbeginning of the _Divine Comedy_) remember her lover and come to save\nhim. In one of his poems Dante says that not every woman could inspire\nsuch a love, but only a woman of peculiar nobility of character. It is\nvery apparent that Dante, at first, was not sure of himself, and that he\nonly gradually discovered the new consciousness which was stirring his\nsoul; with every chapter the beloved recedes to a greater distance and\nbecomes more sacred to him.\n\nIt is quite in keeping with all this that our knowledge of this girl of\neighteen is very vague and uncertain. Some of Dante's commentators\nbelieve her to have been a figment of his brain, a woman who never\nlived, or an allegory of wisdom, virtue, the Church, theology, etc. But\nat the death of her father Beatrice again behaves like any other earthly\nmaiden. There is a grain of truth in every one of these theories, for\nDante was a great scholastic as well as a great poet, and in more\nadvanced years he felt a need somehow to connect the love of his youth\nwith the system of the Church; this could be done in an allegorical way\nwithout being inwardly untruthful.\n\nVague forces, which the lover himself realises as mysterious, run high\nin the _Vita Nuova_ and in the poems; the lover has hallucinations in\nsleep and sickness. In the third canzone Dante speaks of the\nimpossibility of comprehending what gave him a glimpse of the nature of\nhis mistress. It was a foreboding of new and great things, struggling\nslowly and gradually to take shape, for the creation of a world-system,\none of whose supporting pillars was personal love of an individual, was\nan unprecedented achievement. \"When she speaks a spirit inclines from\nheaven.\" The angels implore God to call this \"miracle\" into their midst,\nbut God wills that they shall have patience until the \"Hope of the\nBlessed\" appears.\n\n     Love says of her can there be mortal thing\n     At once adorned so richly and so pure?\n     Then looks on her and silently affirms\n     That heaven designed in her a creature new.\n\n                              (_Transl. by_ C. LYELL.)\n\nAgain and again recurs the motif of her beauty before which the world\nmust fall prostrate. In a sonnet not included in the _Vita Nuova_ he\nsays:\n\n     In heaven itself that lady had her birth,\n     I think, and is with us for our behoof;\n     Blessed are they who meet her on the earth.\n\n                         (_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nThe lover has a foreboding of the fate awaiting him: \"I have set my feet\ninto that phase of life from whence there is no return.\" He divines the\nsorrow to which love has predestined him. But others, too, divining that\nthis man \"expects more, perhaps, of love than others,\" ask him to\nexplain to them the essence of love, and he answers them with the famous\nsonnet:\n\n     _Amor e cor gentil sono una cosa_\n     (Love and the gentle heart are but one thing.)\n\nThe death of Beatrice is accompanied by the same phenomena as was the\ndeath of Christ: the sun lost its brilliance, stars appeared in the\nsky, birds fell to the ground, dead, the earth trembled; God visibly\nintervened in the course of nature.\n\n     For from the lamp of her meek lowlihead\n     Such an exceeding glory went up hence,\n     That it woke wonder in the Eternal Sire,\n     Until a sweet desire\n     Entered Him for that lovely excellence,\n     So that He bade her to Himself aspire;\n     Counting this weary and most evil place\n     Unworthy of a thing so full of grace.\n\n                         (_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)\n\nIn the 29th chapter, which we, to-day, do not readily understand, Dante\nestablished by a system of symbolical numbers a connection between\nBeatrice and the Trinity; the deification of the beloved had been\nachieved in thought and emotion, religion enriched by a new divinity.\n\"Love, weeping, has filled my heart with new knowledge,\" he says, at the\nconclusion of the work of his youth. I repeat what I have already said\nin another place, and supported by passages from the _Divine Comedy_: It\nwas never Dante's intention to write fictitious poems in our meaning of\nthe term, but at every hour of his life he was convinced that he was\nproclaiming the pure truth; he knew himself to be the chosen vehicle for\nthe interpretation of the eternal system of the world.\n\nAt the conclusion of the _Vita Nuova_, Beatrice is a divine being,\ndevoid of all emotion--enthroned in Heaven; in the _Comedy_ she becomes\nher lover's saviour and redeemer, and through him a helper of all\nhumanity. The love of the youth had found no response in the heart of\nthe Florentine maiden, but the soul of the glorified woman was inspired\nby love of him. She trembles for him, and when Mary's messenger\nadmonishes her: \"Why doest thou not help him who has loved thee so\nmuch?\" she sends Virgil to him as a guide and finally herself leads her\nredeemed lover to God. Now she responds to his love; she has even wept\nfor him. This ultimately fulfilled, but always chastely hidden longing\nfor love in return, gives the woman-worship of Dante a peculiarly noble\ncharm. At the end of his journey through life he prays to her, who has\nagain disappeared from his sight, and his last confession is: \"Into a\nfree man thou transform'st a slave.\"\n\nLove's greatest miracle has been made manifest in him; it has\ntransfigured and purified him, and made of the slave of the world and\nits desires, a personality--the fundamental motif of love.\n\nThere is a close connection between the metaphysical love of Dante and\nGoethe's confession in the last scene of _Faust_, which reveals the\npoet's deepest conviction, his final judgment of life. The confessions\nof both poets are identical to the smallest detail. The _Divine Comedy_\nrepresents the journey of humanity through the kingdoms of the world in\na manner unique and representative, applicable alike to all men, in the\nsense of the Catholic Middle Ages. The fundamental idea of _Faust_ is\nagain the desire of man to find the right way through the world. Here\nalso the journey through life is intended to be typical; it is\nundertaken five hundred years later; the scene is laid for the most part\non the surface of the earth, but the ultimate goal of the wayfarer is\nHeaven. Hell, instead of being a subterraneous region, is embodied in a\npresence, accompanying and tempting man; modern man has no faithful\nguide; he must himself seek the way which to the man of the Middle Ages\nwas clearly indicated in the Bible. The love of his youth (which in the\ncase of Dante fills a book in itself) is merely an episode at the\nbeginning of the tragedy--the lover wanders through all the kingdoms of\nthe world, finally to return home to the beloved.\n\nThe last scene of _Faust_ is an unfolding of metaphysical love into its\ninherent multiplicity; its summit is the metaphysical love of woman. All\nhuman striving is determined and crowned by the saving grace of love.\nFaust has no longer a specific name; he has dropped everything\nsubjective, and is briefly styled _a lover_; like Dante, he has become\nrepresentative of humanity. The hour of death revives the memory of the\nlove of his youth, apparently forgotten in the storm and stress of a\ncrowded life, yet never quite extinguished in the heart of his heart.\nMargaret is present and guides him (as Beatrice guided Dante) upward, to\nthe _Eternal-Feminine_, that is to say, to the metaphysical consummation\nof all male yearning for love. \"The love from on high\" saves Faust as it\nhas saved Dante. _The blessed boys_ (who, as well as the angels, are\npresent in both poems) singing:\n\n     Whom ye adore shall ye\n     See face to face.[2]\n\nare again referring to the transcendently loving lover. Like Beatrice,\nMargaret intercedes for him (intercession for her lover has always been\nwoman's profoundest prayer) with the Queen of Heaven:\n\n     Incline, oh incline,\n     All others excelling,\n     In glory aye dwelling,\n     Unto my bliss thy glance benign;\n     The loved one ascending,\n     His long trouble ending,\n     Comes back, he is mine!\n\nThese words are more intimate and human than the words of Beatrice, but\nfundamentally they mean the same thing. Dante, meeting Beatrice again,\nsays:\n\n     And o'er my spirit that so long a time\n     Had from her presence felt no shuddering dread,\n     Albeit my eyes discovered her not, there moved\n     A hidden virtue from her, at whose touch\n     The power of ancient love was strong within me.[3]\n\nBut when he who has said so much beholds her face to face, he is\nstricken dumb.\n\nBeatrice receives Dante from his guide and herself unveils to him the\nmysteries of life. Similarly Margaret beseeches the Virgin:\n\n     To guide him, be it given to me\n     Still dazzles him the new-born day!\n\nand receives from on high the command which the symbolically burdened\nBeatrice knows intuitively:\n\n     Ascend, thine influence feeleth he,\n     He'll follow on thine upward way.\n\nAs Beatrice approaches, the angels sing:\n\n     Oh! Turn\n     Thy saintly eyes to this thy faithful one,\n     Who to behold thee many a wearisome pace\n     Hath measured.\n\nAnd with the fundamental feeling of Dante's _Divine Comedy_ Faust\nconcludes:\n\n     The ever-womanly\n     Draws us above.\n\nThe earthly love of his youth is fulfilled in the dream of metaphysical\nlove, in the dream of a divine woman. The genius creates, at the\nconclusion of his life, the fulfilment of all longing. It may sound\nparadoxical, but Faust--like Dante and Peer Gynt--unconsciously sought\nMargaret in the hurly-burly of the world; not the young girl whom he had\nseduced and deserted, but the _Eternal-Feminine_, the purely spiritual\nlove, which in his youth he divined, but destroyed, bound by the\nshackles of desire. To Dante, to whom life and poem were one, as well as\nto Goethe-Faust, the memory of first love remained typical of all\ngenuine, profound feeling; with Dante love and Beatrice are identical.\nIn the soul of these two men metaphysical love, the longing for the\neternal in woman, which they did not find on earth, gradually awoke to\nlife. Both place the glorified mistress by the side of another woman,\nthe Catholic Queen of Heaven. In Dante's, as well as in Goethe's\nParadise two women, a personal one and a universal one, are loved and\nadored. The second woman, too, has her exclusive, ecstatic worshipper.\nSt. Bernard, the _Doctor Marianus_ of Dante, prostrating himself before\nher, addresses to her the sublime prayer which begins:\n\n     Oh, Virgin! Mother! Daughter of thy Son!\n\nand in _Faust_ we meet again the _Doctor Marianus_ burning--as the\nrepresentative of the totality of her worshippers--with the \"sacred joy\nof love\" (Dante says\n\n     The Queen of Heaven for whom my soul\n     Burns with love's rapture)\n\nand pronouncing the most beautiful prayer to the Madonna which the world\npossesses, and which is almost identical with Dante's:\n\n     Virgin, pure from taint of earth,\n     Mother, we adore thee,\n     With the Godhead one by birth,\n     Queen, we bow before thee!\n\nAnd, prostrated before her:\n\n     Penitents, her saviour-glance\n     Gratefully beholding,\n     To beatitude advance,\n     Still new pow'rs unfolding!\n     Thine each better thought shall be,\n     To thy service given!\n     Holy Virgin, gracious be,\n     Mother, Queen of Heaven!\n\nIn the Divine Comedy St. Bernard prays:\n\n     So mighty art thou, Lady, and so great,\n     That he who grace desireth and comes not\n     To thee for aidence, fain would have desire\n     Fly without wings.\n\nThe _Chorus mysticus_ could equally well form the conclusion of the\n_Comedy_. The _inadequate_ which to _fulness groweth_, is what the\nProvencals already, in their time, realised as _folly_, as a paradox:\nthe metaphysical love of woman, for ever remaining dream and longing,\nalways unfulfilled, the eternal-feminine.\n\nAs the _Mater Gloriosa_ appears, Dante exclaims:\n\n     Thenceforward what I saw\n     Was not for words to speak, nor memory's self\n     To stand against such outrage on her skill.\n\nAnd Goethe:\n\n     In starry wreath is seen\n     Lofty and tender,\n     Midmost the heavenly queen,\n     Known by her splendour.\n\nHere the \"sacred fire of love,\" metaphysical eroticism, has reached its\nabsolute climax. The universe is represented by a divine woman, and man,\nabandoning himself to her, worships her. Goethe's _Faust_ concludes at\nthis point, but Dante went further, right into the heart of the eternal\nglory of the Deity, there to lose himself.\n\nI have previously said that the last scene of _Faust_ was the final\nunfolding of the manifold blossom of metaphysical eroticism, and I will\nproceed to establish my point. Hitherto I have used the term\nmetaphysical eroticism always in its narrow sense of love of woman.\nHenceforth I shall use it in its broader meaning of mystical love in\ngeneral, all love that is projected on the transcendental and the\ndivine. Emotion is the specific domain of humanity, its power, its\nessence. And in the profoundest emotion, in love, a connection between\nthe temporal and the eternal may be divined. Hence the Christian mystery\nof mysteries, God giving His Son to the world for love of humanity; God\nunable to approach the world other than as a lover--sacrificing Himself\nfor the sake of love. We cannot conceive the Sublime with any other\nprincipal function than that of love; for love is the deepest and\nprofoundest emotion of the human heart, and, in accordance with the\nfirst postulate, must therefore be the soul of the universe. On this\npoint all mystics and all metaphysical ecstatics are agreed; \"God is\nlove\" is written in the Gospel of St. John. \"Love which moves the sun\nand all the stars,\" stands at the termination of Dante's masterpiece:\nand in _Faust_ the _Pater Profundus_ confesses:\n\n     So love, almighty, all-pervading,\n     Does all things mould, does all sustain.\n\nHe is still wrestling for divine love; he still has to fight against the\ntemptations of doubt (of thought),\n\n     Oh, God! My troubled thoughts composing,\n     My needy heart do thou illume!\n\nBut the true enthusiastic lover of the divine, compelled to annihilate\nhimself so as to become absorbed in God, the lover who no longer knows\nthe difference between pain and delight, is represented by the _Pater\nEcstaticus_: The condition of rest is foreign to him, ceaselessly moving\nup and down, he sings:\n\n     Joy's everlasting fire,\n     Love's glow of pure desire,\n     Pang of the seething breast,\n     Rapture a hallowed guest!\n     Darts pierce me through and through,\n     Lances my flesh subdue,\n     Clubs me to atoms dash,\n     Lightnings athwart me flash,\n     That all the worthless may\n     Pass like a cloud away,\n     While shineth from afar,\n     Love's gem, a deathless star!\n\nThese ejaculations completely exhaust the emotional life of the\nself-destructive metaphysical erotic--he is conscious of nothing but his\npassion of love which eclipses all else. With him the second form of\nmetaphysical love, the love-death, is reached. Goethe, in creating this\ncharacter, must have had in his mind the unique Jacopone da Todi. For\nthis rapturous love was the keynote of Jacopone's character, his whole\nlife was one great ecstasy:\n\n     My heart was all to broken,\n     As prostrate I was lying,\n     With dear love's fiery token\n     Swift from the archer flying;\n     Wounded, with sweet pain soaken,\n     Peace became war--and dying,\n     My soul with pain was soaken,\n     Distraught with throes of love.\n\n     In transports I am dying,\n     Oh! Love's astounding wonder!--\n     For love, his fell spear plying,\n     Has cleft my heart asunder.\n     Around the blade are lying\n     Sharp teeth, my life to sunder,\n     In rapture I am dying,\n     Distraught with throes of love.\n\nAnd:\n\n     Oh, Love! oh, Love! oh, Jesus, my desire,\n     Oh, Love! I hold thee clasped in sweet embrace!\n     Oh, Love! embracing thee, could I expire!\n     Oh, Love! I'd die to see thee face to face.\n     Oh, Love! oh, Love! I burn in rapture's fire,\n     I die, enravished in the soul's embrace.\n\nThe legend has it that the heart of Jacopone broke with the intensity of\nlove. This would have been a love-death of cosmic grandeur.\n\nBefore Jacopone St. Bernard, in whom all the radiations of metaphysical\neroticism are traceable, was consumed by similar emotions. Some of his\nLatin poems very much resemble the poems of his successor:\n\n     Oh, most sweet Jesu, Saviour blest,\n     My yearning spirit's hope and rest,\n     To thee mine inmost nature cries,\n     And seeks thy face with tears and sighs.\n\n     Thou, my heart's joy where'er I rove,\n     Thou art the perfecting of love;\n     Thou art my boast--all praise be thine,\n     Jesu, the world's salvation, mine!\n\n\n     Then his embrace, his holy kiss,\n     The honeycomb were naught to this!\n     'Twere bliss fast bound to Christ for aye,\n     But in these joys is little stay.\n\n     This love with ceaseless ardour burns,\n     How wondrous sweet no stranger learns;\n     But tasted once, the enraptured wight,\n     Is filled with ever new delight.\n\n     Now I behold what most I sought;\n     Fulfilled at last my longing thought;\n     Lovesick, my soul to Jesus turns,\n     And all my heart within me burns.\n\n                          (_Transl. by_ T.G. CRIPPEN.)\n\nWe read in his writings: \"Blessed and sacred is he to whom it has been\ngiven to experience this in his earthly life; even if he have\nexperienced it only once, for the space of a fleeting minute. For to\nmelt away completely, as it were, as if one had ceased to exist, to be\nemptied of self, dissolved in holy emotion, has not been given to mortal\nlife, but is the state of the blessed.\"\n\nI shall have to refer to both men in a future chapter, when I shall\nexamine the degenerate growths of metaphysical eroticism; for the ardour\nof their souls was frequently kindled by sexual imaginings; in the case\nof emotional mystics it is often difficult to distinguish between\nsensual conceptions and the pure love of God (a fact which does not,\nhowever, justify the superficial opinion that all mysticism is diverted\nsexuality).\n\nIt is obvious that this love of God is not the original creation of the\nlover, as is the deifying love of woman, but the mystic love whose\nself-evident object is God or eternity. Jacopone's (and later on\nZinzendorf's) love of Jesus, though projected on a historical\npersonality, was fundamentally the same thing. The love of God also--and\nin this connection I might mention Jacob Boehme, Alphonso da Liguori,\nNovalis--is metaphysical eroticism; but I have restricted my subject to\nthe metaphysical love of woman, and shall not overstep my limits. I will\nmerely elucidate a little more the last scene of _Faust_.\n\n_Pater seraphicus_, a title given both to St. Francis and to\nBonaventura--requires but a few words: he, too, praises metaphysical\nlove, the essence of the supreme spirits.\n\n     Thus the spirits' nature stealing\n     Through the ether's depths profound;\n     Love eternal, self-revealing,\n     Sheds beatitude around.\n\nBut even the _more perfect angels_ cannot free themselves from the\ndualism of all things human (body and soul)--an unmistakable confession\nof metaphysical dualism:\n\n     Parts them God's love alone,\n       Their union ending.\n\nThe identity of the last scene of _Faust_, Goethe's masterpiece, and the\nconclusion of Dante's _Divine Comedy_, is so obvious that I do not think\nany one could deny it. I have pointed out the thought underlying both\nworks, and could easily advance further proof of their similarity, but I\nwill keep within the limits of the last scene which contains the\ntotality of metaphysico-erotic yearning, and I contend that it is very\nremarkable that a lifetime after the composition of Margaret, Faust (and\nwith him Goethe) very old, very wise, and a little cold, having had\nlove-affairs with demi-goddesses, and having finally renounced the love\nof woman, found his mission and his happiness in uninterrupted,\nproductive activity. He has discovered the final value in work. But the\nlong-forgotten heaven opens and the love of his youth comes to meet him.\nStripped of everything earthly, a divine being, she still loves him and\nshows him the way to salvation, presented under the aspect of the\n_Eternal-Feminine_--exactly as in the _Divine Comedy_. There must be a\nreason for the uniformity of feeling in the case of the two greatest\nsubjective poets of Europe (Shakespeare was greater than either, but he\nwas quite impersonal), for the logical possibility that Goethe imitated\nDante, and borrowed his supreme values from him, cannot be maintained\nfor a moment. Their mutual characteristic is the longing for\nmetaphysical love. When these great lovers experienced for the first\ntime the sensation of love, their hearts were thrown open to the\nuniverse, they had the first powerful experience of eternity, and they\nbecame poets. The first love and the cosmic consciousness of genius were\nsimultaneously present, they were one in their inmost soul. (With the\nphilosopher it is a different matter, for to him the love of woman is\nnot fraught with the same tremendous significance.) This experience of\nfirst love, awakening the consciousness of eternity, remained to them\nfor all time interwoven with religion and metaphysics--interwoven, that\nis to say, with all transcendent longing. And though the aged Faust had\nbelieved it to be buried in the dark night of forgotten things, it was\nstill alive in his inmost heart, and the dying man's vision of the\nDivine took colour and shape from it.\n\nThe source of both great poems was the poet's will to assimilate the\nworld and recreate it, impregnated with his own soul; the secret motive\npowers were the mystic love of eternity and the love of woman which had\noutgrown this world and aspired to the next. To Goethe, thirsting to\ngive a concrete shape to his yearning, God and eternity were too\nintangible, too remote and incomprehensible--but the woman he loved with\nreligio-erotic intensity was familiar to him. The Eternal-Feminine is\nthus not fraught with incomprehensibility, but is rather, and this\nnecessarily, the final conclusion. For this conclusion is a profession\nof metaphysical eroticism, that is to say, the _Eternal-Feminine_ in\ncontradistinction to the _Transitory-Feminine_. Both Dante, the devout\nson of the Middle Ages, and Goethe, the champion of modern culture,\ndemand, in virtue of the inherent right of their genius, the\nconsummation of their mystic yearning for love in another life, and\nachieve the creation of the divine woman. Precisely because Margaret was\nnothing but a little provincial, Goethe could sublimate her into a new\nbeing, for the greater the tension between reality and the vision of the\nsoul, the greater is the task and the more gigantic the creative power\nwhich such a task may develop. It has been said that, in this scene,\nGoethe revealed leanings towards Catholicism. I do not pretend to deny\nit offhand, but I must insist on these leanings being understood in the\nsense of my premises. Goethe took from tradition those elements which\nwere able to materialise his spiritual life and gave them a new\ninterpretation. We are justified in believing that he accepted nothing\nbut what was conformable to his nature; the Madonna represented his\nprofoundest feeling and, like Dante (I attribute the greatest importance\nto this), he created a new deity, moulded in the shape of his first\nlove, and placed it by the side of the universal Queen of Heaven, the\nMadonna of the Catholic Church, transformed by love.\n\nThe emotional life of both poets agrees fundamentally. They differ not\nso much in feeling as in thought and in faith. Dante possessed\nunshakable faith in the reality of his visions; eternal love in the\nshape of Beatrice was awaiting him; his vision was pure, eternal truth.\nThe vision of Goethe, on the other hand, was poetic longing, tragical,\nbecause the vision of the transcendent came to the modern poet only in\nrare hours. Where Dante possessed, Goethe must seek, strive and err.\n\nThe deifying love of woman is, as we have seen, the extreme development\nof the second stage, in which sexual impulse and spiritual love are\nstrictly separated, in which man despises and fights his natural\ninstinct, or abandons himself to it--which is the same in\nprinciple--while his soul, worshipping love, soars heavenward. This\ndualism of feeling corresponds to the persistent dualism of Christianity\nand the whole mediaeval period. But as Goethe is frequently looked upon\nas a _monist_, my proposition that he was a dualist _in eroticis_ will\npossibly be rejected, in spite of the fact that his emotional life is\nrevealed to us with great lucidity. His first important work, his\n_Werther_, which is also one of the most important monuments of\nsentimental love, contains the germs of love as we understand it; the\nlove which is no longer content to look upon sexuality and soul as two\nopposed principles, but strives to blend them in the person of the\nbeloved. I will revert to _Werther_ later on. This third stage, love in\nthe modern sense, is programmatically established (as it were) in\n_Elective Affinities_, but all the rest of the very abundant evidence of\nhis emotional life exhibits the typically dualistic feeling. Many of his\nearly poems evidence sexuality pure and simple; in the _Venetian\nEpigrams_ and in the _Roman Elegies_ it is even held up as a positive\nvalue. In the third Elegy, for instance, the poet's sensuality is linked\ndirectly to the famous lovers of antiquity, and everything which aspires\nbeyond it is rejected. In the same way his _West-Eastern Divan_ is\ncharacterised by a gay sensuality with homo-sexual tendencies.\n\nThe sensual quality of Goethe's eroticism was partly spent in his\nrelationship with Christiane Vulpius. The following passage, which forms\nan interesting counterpart to Goethe's famous correspondence with\nCharlotte von Stein, is taken from a letter written to Christiane\nVulpius during his absence from home. \"The beds everywhere are very\nwide, and you would have no reason for complaint, as you sometimes have\nat home. Oh, my sweet heart! There is no such happiness on earth as\nbeing together.\"\n\nIf Christiane represented sensuality, unrelieved by any other feeling,\nFrau von Stein represented the most important object of Goethe's craving\nfor spiritual love. These two liaisons were to some extent\ncontemporaneous; the _Roman Elegies_ and the famous letters to Charlotte\nvon Stein were written at the same period. When she reproached him with\nhis love-affair with Christiane, he replied with consistent dualism:\n\"And what sort of an affair is it? Whose interests are suffering by it?\"\nFrau von Stein, his senior by seven years, was thirty-four years old,\nand mother of seven children when Goethe first met her. According to\nSchiller she \"can never have been beautiful,\" and in a letter to Koerner\nthe latter says: \"They say that their relationship (Goethe's and\nCharlotte von Stein's) is absolutely pure and irreproachable.\" It was a\ngreat mistake ever to regard this relationship as anything but a purely\nspiritual one; Goethe never felt any passion for Charlotte; he called\nher \"his sister,\" the \"guide of his soul\"; he told her of his little\nlove-affairs and was never jealous of her husband. The following are a\nfew typical passages culled from his letters, arranged chronologically:\n\"My only love whom I can love without torment!\" Then, quite in the\nspirit of the _dolce stil nuovo_: \"Your soul, in which thousands believe\nin order to win happiness,\" \"The purest, truest and most beautiful\nrelationship which (with the exception of my sister) ever existed\nbetween me and any woman.\" \"The relationship between us is so strange\nand sacred, that I strongly felt, on that occasion, that it cannot be\nexpressed in words, that men cannot realise it.\" The following passage\nwritten by Goethe when he was thirty, might have been written by\nGuinicelli or by Dante: \"You appeared to me like the Madonna ascending\ninto heaven; in vain did the abandoned mourner stretch out his arms, in\nvain did his tearful glance plead for a last return--she was absorbed in\nthe splendour surrounding her, longing only for the crown hovering\nabove her head.\" \"I long to be purified in triple fire so as to be\nworthy of you.\" He addresses a prayer to her and says: \"On my knees I\nimplore you to complete your work and make a good man of me.\" \"While\nwriting Tasso, I worshipped you.\" Charlotte knew intuitively what he\ndesired of her, and remained silent and passive like the Madonna. Not a\nsingle sensual, or even passionate word, replied to all these\nutterances.\n\nIn the course of time the relationship between the lovers became one of\nequality; the note of adoration disappeared, and the keynote of his\nletters became friendship and familiarity. \"Farewell, sweet friend and\nbeloved, whose love alone makes me happy.\" In another letter he said\nthat all the world held no further prize for him, since he had found\neverything in her. And just as spiritual love approached more and more\nthe mean of a familiar friendship, so was his sexuality concentrated on\na single woman, on Christiane, in this connection, too, seeking a mean.\nBut it is an important point that the fundamental dualistic feeling\nremained unchanged. There was no woman in Goethe's life in regard to\nwhom he arrived at, or even aspired to, the blending of both emotions in\na higher intuition.\n\nEven before his friendship with Frau von Stein, at the time of his\nengagement to Lili Schoenemann, Goethe experienced a spiritual love for\na girl he had never seen. He calls Countess Auguste Stolberg \"his\nangel,\" \"his only, only maiden,\" \"his golden child,\" and says: \"I have\nan intuition that you will save me from great tribulation, and that no\nother being on earth could do it.\" These letters also contain the\nsignificant passage: \"Miserable fate which has denied me a happy mean.\"\nAnd touching the love of his youth, Lotte, Goethe wrote to Kestner: \"I\nreally had no idea that all that was in her, for I always loved her far\ntoo much to observe her.\"\n\nThe Princess in \"Tasso\" and \"Iphigenia\" who delivers Orestes from unrest\nand insanity, are modelled on Charlotte. Tasso is unmistakably a\nfantastic woman-worshipper, a fact of which Leonore is fully aware:\n\n     Now he exalts her to the starry heavens,\n     In radiant glory, and before that form\n     Bows down like angels in the realms above.\n     Then, stealing after her, through silent fields,\n     He garlands in his wreath each beauteous flower.\n\n     He loves not us--forgive me what I say--\n     His lov'd ideal from the spheres he brings\n     And does invest it with the name we bear.\n     He has relinquished passion's fickle sway,\n     He clings no longer with delusion sweet\n     To outward form and beauty to atone\n     For brief excitement by disgust and hate.[4]\n\nAnd Tasso says:\n\n                                  My very knees\n     Trembled beneath me and my spirit's strength\n     Was all required to hold myself erect,\n     And curb the strong desire to throw myself\n     Prostrate before her. Scarcely could I quell\n     The giddy rapture.\n\nThe significant avowal addressed by Dante to Beatrice: \"Into a free man\nthou transform'st a slave,\" the seal of all great spiritual love, was\nrepeated by Goethe in his letters to Charlotte, and is again repeated in\nTasso:\n\n     Over my spirit's depths there comes a change;\n     Relieved from dark perplexity I feel,\n     Free as a god, and all I owe to you.\n\nVery interesting is also a remark which Goethe made to Eckermann: \"Woman\nis a silver vessel in which we men lay golden apples. I did not deduce\nmy idea of woman from reality, but I was born with it, or I conceived\nit--God knows how.\" These notable words, deliberately pronounced, reveal\nGoethe's feeling very clearly; he knows that there is a little\nself-deception in his attitude towards woman, but he consciously and\nlovingly clings to it. His pronouncements are not contradictions; it is\nnatural, almost essential, that in the soul of the highly-gifted and\nhighly-developed representative of a mature civilisation the whole\nwealth of human emotions should be revivified. He possesses all\npsychical qualities--at least potentially--and one element after the\nother regains life and becomes productive. We shall see this with\nstartling clearness when we come to examine the emotional life of\nRichard Wagner. The intimate connection between the individual and the\nentire evolutionary process of the race will then become evident.\n\nIt is remarkable that Dante, too, wrote a poem clearly expressive of the\nfact that the beloved woman does not actually possess the qualities\nascribed to her, but that she has been endowed with them by the\nimagination of her lover.\n\nI shall discuss the emotional life of only one other poet in detail, and\nthat one is Michelangelo. For the most part the poets whose emotions\nwere akin to that of Dante and Goethe were men who created their ideal\nwoman because reality left them unsatisfied. In passing I will mention\nBeethoven, and his touching letter to his \"immortal love\" (\"My angel, my\nall, my I!\"), whose name, in spite of all the strenuous attempts to\ndiscover it, is to this day not known with any certainty; even if it\nshould ever be discovered, Beethoven's \"immortal love\" will yet remain a\nfigment of his brain, based on a human woman.\n\nTogether with Beethoven, we may notice the other great \"old bachelor\"\nGrillparzer, and his eternal fiancee Kathi Froehlich, and the critical\nHebbel, who at the time of composing \"Genovefa\" wrote in his diary:\n\"All earthly love is merely the road to the heavenly love.\"\n\n\nBefore closing this chapter, I must draw attention to a strange fact in\nconnection with the psychology of races. All nations endowed with fair\nmental gifts and a sympathetic understanding of nature, have in the\nperiod of their youth and anthropomorphistic and animistic thought\nworshipped light, and its source, the sun, as the supreme deity, the\ngiver of joy and abundance. All the benevolent deities of the Arians\nwere celestial beings, all the malevolent divinities spirits of\ndarkness: Olympian gods and the demons of the netherworld--Aesir and\nGiants. To the naive mind of the Indo-Germanic races it appeared a\nmatter of course that the sun, the conqueror of night and winter, the\nfertilizing, life-giving deity, should be worshipped as the active male\nprinciple, and represented as a god, while on the other hand the moon\nwas usually conceived as a female deity. In primitive Christianity\nChrist, as the bringer of light, was worshipped under the symbol of the\nsun. Thus we naturally find in the old and new Indo-Germanic languages\nthe designation of the sun--or the sun-god--of the masculine gender. In\nthe following words our word _sun_ is easily recognisable:\n\n     Savar and svari (the oldest Indo-Germanic tongue).\n     svar and surya (Sanscrit; savitar--the sungod).\n     saval (the oldest European language).\n     savel (Gracco-Italian).\n     sol (Latin and related languages).\n\nIn the Germanic languages and in the Prussian-Lithuanian both genders\noccur. (Gothic sunnan and Old High-German sunno). _Sol_ in the Norse\nEdda is a female deity, and the Anglo-Saxon _sol_ is also feminine. The\ntransition from the male to the female gender was achieved in the\nMiddle-High-German language of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and\nthe German language is the only one in which the word _sun_ is\nfeminine. As the old Teutonic deities of light were male (Baldur and\nSigurd), this change of gender must seem strange. The Germanic tribes at\nall times observed natural phenomena with the greatest attention,\nborrowed their ethical symbols from nature and used natural objects to\nrepresent their highest values. The change of gender of the supreme\nsymbol of divinity, the sun, can only be explained by the fact that in\nthe period of woman-worship the highest value was no longer felt as male\nbut as female, that secretly a goddess had usurped the place of a god.\nVery likely the minnesingers finally fixed the female gender when it had\nbecome problematical, and worshipped the loved woman under the divine\nsymbol of \"Lady Sun.\"\n\nThe great erotic, Heinrich of Morungen, says in one of his poems that\nhis lady is radiant \"as the sun at break of day.\" And also:\n\n     My lady shines into the heart\n     As through the glass the sun does shine;\n     Thus the beloved lady mine\n     Is sweet as May, full of delight,\n     Unclouded sunshine, golden light.\n\nMary, who had been called _Maris Stella_, the morning star, gradually\nassumed the symbol of the all-conquering sun. Suso, in one of his poems,\nstill clinging to the older epithet, makes use of a metaphor\ncorresponding to the breaking of the sun through clouds. \"When the\nradiant morning star, Mary, broke through the suffering of thy darkened\nheart, it was saluted with gladness and with these words: Greeting,\nbeautiful, rising morning star, from the fathomless depths of all loving\nhearts!\" But he also calls Mary: \"Thou dazzling mirror of the Eternal\nSun!\" And his Biography contains the following beautiful passage: \"And\nhis eyes were opened and he fell on his knees, saluting the rising\nmorning star, the tender queen of the light of heaven; as the little\nbirds in the summer time salute the day, so he saluted the luminous\nbringer of the eternal day, and he spoke his salutation not\nmechanically, but with a sweet low singing of his soul.\" This is pure\nand genuine nature-worship mingled with the worship of Mary.\n\nSo much for Suso. In Goethe's _Faust_, Doctor Marianus prays:\n\n     In thy tent of azure blue,\n     Queen supremely reigning,\n     Let me now thy secret view,\n     Vision high obtaining.\n\nIt is obvious that here the Queen of Heaven and the sun are conceived as\none. Eichendorff makes use of the metaphor:\n\n     The sun is smiling languidly\n     Like to a woman wondrous sweet.\n\nThe typically un-Teutonic modern poet, Alfred Mombert, on the other\nhand, conceives the sun as a youth, and contrary to all custom, calls a\npoem: _Der_ Sonnengeist (the sun-spirit).\n\nThe great Italians, also, were not unaware of this change of the sex of\nthe supreme value; at the conclusion of the _Paradise_ there is a\npassage (in St. Bernard's prayer) which points to a connection in\nDante's mind between the sun and the Queen of Heaven:\n\n     \"The love that moves the sun in heaven!\"\n\n\n_(d) Michelangelo._\n\nIn Michelangelo we meet the spirit of Plato and the plastic genius of\nGreece raised to a higher plane and lit by the peculiar glory of\nChristianity--the conception of the soul as an absolute value.\nMichelangelo was thrilled by a passionate love of beauty; beauty\nabsolute, eternal and immutable. He felt profoundly the need of\nsalvation, and he possessed an unprecedented power of spiritual vision.\nIn the end, added to all these things, came consuming love for a woman,\nlove raised to the pitch of self-destruction, an adoration which\nentitles us to regard him, next to Dante, as the greatest metaphysical\nlover of all times.\n\nAt the court of the Medici at Florence, Ficinio had founded a Platonic\nAcademy, where Plato's works and the writings of Plotinus--his greatest\npupil--were after two thousand years translated and elucidated. Many\nread and a few understood, but only in Michelangelo did the spirit of\nPlatonic Hellenism revive and become productive; the Platonic ideal of a\npurely masculine culture, aesthetically and spiritually perfect,\nillumined his soul; once again the unconditional cult of beauty and the\nlove of the perfect male form, which speaks to us from the _Dialogues_,\nquickened an imagination, and boyhood and youth were portrayed in a\nmanner which has never since been equalled.\n\nNearly all Michelangelo's youthful male figures--with the exception,\nperhaps, of the gigantic David--deviate from the decidedly masculine and\napproach the mean, the human in the abstract; thus they seem to us\nimbued with a quality of femininity; they even exhibit decidedly female\ncharacteristics. I have in mind first and foremost the youths depicted\non the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (the most soulful adolescent\nfigures in the world), but also Bacchus, St. John, Adonis and the\nfigures in the background of the Holy Family at Florence. Cupid and\nDavid Apollo (in the Bargello) are almost hermaphroditic, and even the\nAdam, and the unfinished Slaves in the Bobili Gardens exhibit female\ncharacteristics. Without going further into detail I would draw\nattention to the breasts and thighs, which positively raise a doubt on\nthe question of sex. (I am referring to the two youths above the\nErythrean Sybil.) Seen from a distance they create the impression of\nfemale figures, while the youth above Jeremiah is a perfect Hellenic\n_ephebos_. On the other hand--with the exception of two of his early\nMadonnas and, perhaps, Eve--he has not given us one glorified female\nfigure; all his women are characterised by something careworn and\nunlovely; some of his old women--most strikingly the Cumaic Sybil--are\ndepicted with absolutely masculine features, masculine figures and\ngigantic musculature. His ideal was the Hellenic ideal, was a human form\nneither man nor woman; all extremes, but also all peculiarities and\neverything personal, were, if not completely suppressed, at any rate\npushed into the background. We regard this ideal, which is alien to our\ninherent nature, with a feeling akin to contempt, for the modern ideal\nis male and female, but it nevertheless was of great moment in the\nobliteration of sex and the accentuation of the purely human. The\nPlatonic (and also Michelangelo's) love of young men was in its essence\npure love of humanity, love of the perfect human body and the perfect\nhuman soul, whose greatest harmony was achieved in the adolescent.\nMoreover, the superior mental endowment of the boy made an intelligent\nconversation--so highly appreciated by Platonists and neo-Platonists--\npossible, whereas with a girl a man could only jest.\n\nCivilisations and individuals inclining to erotic male friendships are\nendowed with great plastic talent. Artists and poets whose genius lies\nin the direction of the plastic arts rather than in music, frequently\nhave homo-sexual leanings. A musical talent, however, is as a rule\naccompanied by the love of woman. I know of no great musician, or great\nlyrical poet, inclined to erotic friendships with men. The simple song\nsuggests the love of woman, the artificial metre, let us say the Greek\nrhythm, the love of man. I am, however, merely pointing out this\nconnection, without drawing any conclusions.\n\nThe poems addressed by Michelangelo to Tommaso dei Cavalieri breathe a\ndeep longing for friendship and complete surrender, but above all things\nfor a return of affection; all barriers between the friends must be\nthrown down, \"for one soul is living in two bodies.\"\n\nThese poems are calm and well-balanced, and differ greatly from the rest\nof his poetry.\n\n     If each the other love, himself foregoing,\n     With such delight, such savour and so well\n     That both to one sole end their wills combine.\n\n                          (_Transl. by_ J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nMichelangelo painted \"Ganymede\" for Tommaso, and even at a ripe old age\nhe addressed poems to Cechino Bracci, who died at the age of seventeen.\n\nHis contempt of woman, without which the spirit of classical Greece,\ntoo, is unthinkable, formed a parallel to his male friendships.\n\nIn the prime of his life the Platonic element was superseded by the\nother great element which stirred his soul so profoundly. Exceeding the\nperfection of form of antique statuary, his later works throb with a\nspiritual and passionate life quite peculiar to him; an inward fire\nseems to consume his ardent figures. They are not creatures of this\nearth, a breath of eternity has touched them; they are an embodiment of\nthe Platonic heritage which accounts all earthly things as symbols of\neternal beauty, fertilised and glorified by a deep mourning over human\ndestiny and a longing for deliverance. And when his years were already\nbeginning to decline, Vittoria Colonna came into his life, a semblance\nand symbol of divine perfection. The love which took possession of him\ntransformed his whole life and lifted it into religion. In his\ntempestuous soul this first love, coming so late in life, far exceeded\nhuman limits; it became adoration and religious ecstasy. Michelangelo,\nwho could not tolerate in friendship any other relationship than that of\ncomplete self-surrender and equality, threw himself into the very dust\nbefore his love and debased himself almost to self-destruction.\n\nHis book of poems is filled with an unspeakable longing for the\nperfection of earthly beauty and for eternity; and his beloved mistress\nis the sole symbol of this metaphysical climax. Earthly beauty is but an\nimperfect semblance of the divine beauty, the embodiment of which is his\nlove. We meet all the familiar motives; he is nothing before her; he is\nunworthy of existence; he is like the moon receiving her light from the\nsun; love has raised him from his base condition and is teaching him the\nfutility of all he had hitherto valued.\n\n     Yea, well I see what folly 'twere to think\n     That largess dropped from thee like dews from heaven\n     Could ever be paid by work so frail as mine.\n\n                          (_Transl. by_ J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nAnd of love he says:\n\n     From loftiest stars shoots down a radiance all their own,\n     Drawing the soul above,\n     And such, we say, is love.\n\n                               (_Transl. by_ HARFORD.)\n\nHis poems, which would proclaim him a great poet if he were not an even\ngreater sculptor, breathe an emotion unsurpassed in its intensity. They\nreveal to us in an almost unique manner the emotional process which\nculminated in the deification of the beloved. If we did not know that\nVittoria Colonna was an historical individual, not much younger than\nMichelangelo himself, and (if we are to credit her portrait) a very\nplain woman with a large masculine nose, we might be tempted to believe\nher to be a mythical personage like Beatrice Portinari, or Margaret in\n_Faust_. But the conviction that all true perfection was centred only in\nher, now faced his art and threw its terrible shadow over it.\n\n\"Michelangelo conceived love in the Platonic sense,\" wrote his friend\nand biographer, Condivi; but this is only a part of the truth. In the\nheart of Michelangelo there took place the tremendous reconciliation\nbetween the Greek cult of beauty and the religion of the beyond; he\nblended the finest blossom of Hellenism with the profoundest spirit of\nChristianity; he sublimated Plato and Dante into a higher intuition; the\n_eroico furore_ of his contemporary, Giordano, had found an embodiment.\nThe two great rays which illuminated his life: the perfect earthly\nbeauty to which destiny had called him, and the boundless religious\nlonging, the last fundamental force of his soul, converged in the\nglorified woman. Vittoria appeared to him as the solution of the\nworld-discord, a solution which he had no right to expect, a miracle.\nShe was the greatest experience of his great life, an experience which\nalmost broke him. More than once the thought of Vittoria filled him with\nsudden dread. In her he had seen God and the world in one. The powerful\neffect of this on so self-reliant a character, a man who had been unable\nto find much sympathy with patrons and friends, to whom women had meant\nnothing, may easily be imagined. All at once he had found a centre, and\nmore than that--a solution of all the discords of life, of the eternal\ndualism of the earthly and the divine. His love was not the love of a\nyouth stretching out feelers to the world beyond, but the final creed of\na lonely life which had known nothing but beauty and divinity. With the\npassion characteristic of him, he threw himself into this new experience\nand made it his fate, flinging world and art aside. Before Vittoria he\nceased to be a sculptor and became a worshipper.\n\nWe realise the great difference between this worship and the worship of\nDante. The latter formed the consciousness of eternity, and became a\npoet, early in life. He never doubted the profoundest truth, the\nmetaphysical importance of his love; but in the case of Michelangelo,\nthe love of an old man was the last event in a life consumed by\nrestlessness. The adoration of this mysogynist was almost an act of\ndespair; not a sweet delivery from doubt, but a source of fresh shocks.\nIt problematised his whole previous existence and nullified the work of\nhis life. For before this new experience--perfection, met in the\nflesh--art broke down. The greatest of sculptors never made an attempt\nto imprison the beauty which had appeared to his soul in marble or in\ncanvas, deeply convinced that such an achievement was beyond the power\nof earthly endeavour.\n\nBefore Vittoria Michelangelo became deeply conscious of his inmost self;\nshe gave direction to his longing and was its symbol; she was the\nperfection for which he had always striven--and he despaired of his art.\n\n     Thy beauty it befell in yonder spheres:\n     A symbol of salvation, bright'ning heaven\n     Th' Eternal Artist sent it down to earth;\n     If it diminish, years succeeding years,\n     My love will lend it but a greater worth.\n     Age cannot fade the beauty God has given.\n\nAnd the conviction that only the idea of eternal beauty has any value,\nand that all earthly things are as nothing before it, became stronger\nand more tormenting. One instance from many:\n\n     As heat from fire, from loveliness divine\n     The mind that worships what recalls the sun,\n     From whence she sprang, can be divided never.\n\n                          (_Transl._ by J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nIn the same way he realised the futility of earthly love compared to\nmetaphysical love:\n\n     The one love soars, the other downward tends,\n     The soul lights this while that the senses stir.\n\nAnd:\n\n     The highest beauty only I desire.\n\nIt is extraordinary, however, that even this ecstatic adorer vaguely\nsuspected that he himself might be the creator of the beauty which he\nsaw in his mistress. In a sonnet he asks Cupid whether her beauty\nreally exists, or whether it is a delusion of his senses, and he\nreceives the reply:\n\n     The beauty thou discernest all is hers;\n     But grows in radiance as it soars on high.\n\n                                       (J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nIt is indescribably tragic to watch Michelangelo slowly despairing of\nhis own genius and art, and becoming more and more dominated by the\nthought of the futility of all earthly things and all earthly beauty.\nThe religious conception of eternity and transcendent beauty, the _forma\nuniversale_ became his last refuge. After Vittoria's death Michelangelo\nsaid to Condivi: \"I have only one regret and that is that I never kissed\nVittoria's brow or lips when she lay dying.\" More and more he brooded on\nsin and salvation, incarnation and crucifixion. The beloved mistress had\nbecome the sole herald of eternal truths. Melancholy and mourning took\npossession of his soul with an iron grip; he could conceive of only one\nhappiness, death closely following on birth. But the thought of death\nagain was seized and symbolised with the old artistic passion:\n\n     And cleansed by fire, I shall live for ever.\n\n     And as the flames are soaring to the sky,\n     I, changed and purified, shall soar to heaven.\n\n     Oh, blissful day! When in a single flash\n     Time slips away into eternity--\n     The sun no longer rides across the skies....\n\nMichelangelo was conscious of his near kinship with Dante; he\nillustrated a copy of the _Divine Comedy_ which, unfortunately, is lost,\nand wrote a poem on Dante in which the following lines occur:\n\n     Were I but he! Born for like lingering pains,\n     Against his exile, coupled with his good,\n     I'd gladly change the world's inheritage.\n\n                          (_Transl. by_ J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nThe paintings in the Sistine Chapel, with their materialised thoughts of\ndestiny, retribution and eternity, originated in a feeling akin to the\nfeeling underlying the _Divine Comedy_. Both here and there the creation\nof celestial and infernal spirits was the outcome of the infinite\nlonging of the artistic imagination. Both men could spend the human and\ncreative passions with which their souls were thrilled only on the\nsupreme and universal. The eternal destiny of man, fate, sin, the\nfutility of all earthly things, the relationship of the world to God,\nlove surpassing all human limits and aspiring to the eternal--these are\nthe common objects over which they brooded. But while it was given to\nDante to create his picture of the world in harmony with his own soul,\nand account it a true representation of the world-system; while his\nworld was a definite place with a beginning and an end, and his\nlife-work remained in harmony with his own soul, and the universe,\nMichelangelo's lacerated soul could find peace only in the ultimate\ntruth, which filled his heart, and to which he yearned to give plastic\nlife, only to be unsatisfied after achieving it. George Simmel, in a\nprofound work, draws our attention to the infinite melancholy which\novershadows all Michelangelo's figures, because his genius aspired to\nexpress the inexpressible. Even the supremest plastic representation of\nthe passion and longing for the transcendental which thrilled his soul\ndid not satisfy him. This tragedy is the tragedy of the metaphysical\nerotic overflowing its own specific domain. Dante's faith in the\nabsolute value of his work and in the truth of the consummation of his\nlove in eternity--which was the sustaining power of his life--remained\nunshaken, but Michelangelo lost his faith in his work; art and love\nforsook him and withdrew into a transcendental world which he could\ndivine, but could not grasp. His faith was no blissful certainty; he\nknew no more than the dark aspect of things; the imperfection of even\nthe sublimest, of his art and his love.\n\nShakespeare's genius could breathe life into all things human, and he\nfound satisfaction in doing so. Michelangelo's creative, plastic power\nseemed illimitable; he possessed all the gifts an artist could possibly\nhave, but from year to year his conviction of the futility of all\nearthly things grew to a profounder certainty. He had knocked at the\niron gate of humanity with his hammer and his chisel; they had broken\ninto fragments and sorrow made him dumb. There is a stage in the life of\nevery genius when he comes to this gate, when he has to show his\ncredentials and reveal the inmost kernel of his being. Dante attempted\nto grasp the transcendental in one gigantic vision, Goethe timidly\nshrank back from it.\n\nIn examining the prophets and youths in the Sistine Chapel, or the\nchained men in the Louvre, who seem unable to bear existence, and are\ntherefore \"slaves\" of the earth; or in contemplating the half-finished\nslaves in the Boboli Gardens, who seem almost to burst the stone in\ntheir wild longing for a higher life; or in reading his last sonnets, we\ncan conceive a vague idea of the deep melancholy darkening the life of\nthis man, a gloom which was not the melancholy of the individual, but of\nall humanity, unable and unwilling to deceive itself further. Can there\nbe a greater tragedy than the tragedy of this incomparable artist,\nlooking back at the work of his lifetime with despair?\n\n     For art and wit and passion fade and vanish,\n     Countless achievements, ever new and great,\n     Are naught but dross within the sight of heaven.\n\nTo Vasari he sent a sonnet denouncing the artistic passion which\nabandons itself completely to art:\n\n     Now know I well that that fond phantasy\n     Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall\n     Of earthly art is vain.\n\n                          (_Transl. by_ J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nFaith, is to him \"the mercy of mercies,\" for he has never possessed its\ndeepest conviction.\n\nBut the passion which burned in him remained unquelled to the last: his\nsoul is torn between love and the thought of death.\n\n     Flames of love\n     And chill of death are battling in my heart.\n\nHe longed to break away from love and find peace, and he called on death\nfor delivery, but in vain:\n\n     Burdened with years and full of sinfulness\n     With evil customs grown inveterate,\n     Both deaths I dread that both before me wait,\n     Yet feed my heart on poisonous thoughts no less.\n\n                          (_Transl. by_ J.A. SYMONDS.)\n\nAnd later on he thanks love again for being his deliverer, and not\ndeath.\n\nMichelangelo poured all his heart into these last sonnets. We see his\nsolitary and heroic age overshadowed by the thought of death. His whole\nsoul is wrapped in gloom; art is vanity, love is sorrow, the thought of\nthe futility of all things frames the portrait of his love with a wreath\nof black laurel. He ponders on his life, and comes to the conclusion\nthat\n\n     Among the many years not one was his.\n\nThis man, the supremest creative genius the world has known, accused\nhimself of having wasted his life.\n\nNo song of praise ever rose to the Deity from Michelangelo's heart, as\nit did at least once or twice during his lifetime from the heart of\nBeethoven. He never had one hour of true inward peace. He represents the\nmetaphysical world-feeling which (in addition to love) is the foundation\nof the deification of woman, but it has grown into immensity, and has\nbeen lifted to a higher plane; not only love, but all life is felt as\nfragmentary and pointing to a world beyond. If at an earlier stage it\nwas the love of woman which could not find its consummation on earth, it\nis now the whole of our earthly life and all our aspirations which can\nonly attain to their highest meaning and to final truth in a\nmetaphysical existence. The tragedy of metaphysical love has deepened\ninto the supreme tragedy of life.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] The quotations from _Faust_ are from the translation of Anna\nSwanwick.\n\n[3] The quotations from the _Divine Comedy_ are from the translation of\nHenry Francis Cary.\n\n[4] The quotations from Tasso are from the translation of Anna Swanwick.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nPERVERSIONS OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM\n\n_(a) The Brides of Christ_\n\n\nHitherto I have confined myself to the analysis of the emotional life of\nman, but there are two other points which must be taken into account.\nThe first is the question of woman's attitude towards the lofty position\nassigned to her by man; the second and more important one is the\nquestion as to whether the women of that period exhibit in their\nemotional life any traces of a feeling akin to the deification of their\nsex? The reply to the first question is simple enough. Naturally the\nadoration and worship of their lovers could not have been anything but\npleasant to women. There is a poem by the talented Provencal Countess\nBeatrix de Die, which betrays genuine sorrow at the infidelity of her\nfriend, and at the same time leaves no doubt that she--and probably a\ngreat many others--took the eulogies showered upon them by the\nenraptured poets, literally. Once again woman accepts the position\nthrust upon her by man, not this time the position of a drudge, but that\nof a perfect and godlike being. Countess Beatrix credits herself with\nall the qualities with which the imagination of her worshipper had\nendowed her, as if they were unquestionable facts.\n\n     Hence all my songs will be with sadness fraught.\n     My lover fills my soul with bitter woe,\n     And yet is all the happiness I know.\n     My grace and favour all avail me naught.\n     My sparkling wit, my loveliness supreme,\n     They cannot hold his love and tender thought,\n     Of all my lofty worth bereft I seem.\n\nBut far more interesting than this psychological misunderstanding on the\npart of the much-lauded sex, is the question as to whether the emotional\nlife of woman matured anything that can be called a worship of man? The\nanswer to this is a decided \"no.\" At no time in the history of woman do\nwe find even the smallest indication of a parallel phenomenon; the\nprofound and tragic dualism of the Middle Ages--one result of which was\nthe spiritual love of woman--passed her by without touching her. In the\nfeminine soul conflict apparently results not in tragedy and\nproductivity, but in morbidness and hysteria.\n\nIt may be argued that the love of Jesus, which inspired both the nuns of\nthe Middle Ages and those of a later period, represents a type of\nman-worship; but in examining all these more or less famous nuns and\nascetics we find, instead of genuine spirituality, a concealed and often\nmorbid condition, which in some cases degenerated into hysteria. The\ndualistic period, the age of metaphysical love, made no impression upon\nthe female soul. There can be no doubt that the emotional life of woman,\nin strict contrast to the emotional life of man, has had no evolution,\nand can therefore have no history. It is unadulterated nature and, in\nits way, it is perfect.\n\nIn studying the female mystics, we find an imitation of metaphysical\neroticism sufficiently transparent to be easily recognised, even by the\nlayman, as belonging to the domain of pathology. These ecstatics were\nanimated not by a pure, but by an impure spirit. Perverted sensualists,\nthey believed their hearts to be filled with spiritual love. Contrary to\nthe striving of the greater number of the men, who raised their love\ninto heaven so as to keep it pure, and made it one with their religious\naspirations, all the figures and symbols of religion were used by these\nwomen as an outlet and a foil to their sexuality. The loving soul\nrepairing to the nuptial chamber is the transparent veil of desire\nhalf-concealed by religious conceptions. Women have described similar\nsituations in metaphors which--for sensuous passion--leave nothing to be\ndesired, even the famous love-potion of Tristan is not wanting.\n\nThe material is abundant, and I have repeatedly touched upon it in\nprevious chapters. At the period of great mystical enthusiasm (the\ntwelfth and thirteenth centuries) this morbid love of God was a sinister\nattendant phenomenon of true mysticism. Whole convents were seized by\nepidemics of hysteria, the women writhed in convulsions, flogged each\nother, sang hymns day and night and had hallucinations--for all of which\nthe love of God, or the temptation of the devil, were made responsible.\n\nAmong the more notable of these pseudo-mystics are Christine Ebner (the\nauthor of a book entitled, _On the Fullness of Mercy_), and Mary of\nOignies, a passionate worshipper of Christ who mutilated herself in her\necstasies and who, on her deathbed, still sang: \"How beautiful art Thou,\noh, my Lord God!\"\n\nA shining exception among the German nuns of that time was Mechthild of\nMagdeburg, a woman of rare gifts. She was a genuine mystic, but she,\ntoo, revelled in fervent, sensuous metaphors, and it would be an\ninteresting task to separate the two elements in her case; but, having\nadmitted her genuine mysticism in a previous chapter, I will here\nrestrict myself to a few quotations which show her from her other side.\nHer _Dialogue between Love and the Soul_ abounds in passages like the\nfollowing: \"Tell my beloved that his chamber is prepared, and that I am\nsick with love of him.\" \"The closer the embrace, the sweeter the\nkisses.\" \"Then He took the soul into His divine arms, and placing His\nfatherly hand on her bosom, He gazed into her face and kissed her right\nwell.\" Mechthild, too, was ready to die with love.\n\nEveryone of the most celebrated Brides of Christ belonged to the Latin\nrace; they were hysterics, and as such have long been claimed by the\npsychopathist.\n\nThe love of Jesus professed by Catherine of Siena (1347-1388), a clever\npolitician, who was in correspondence with the leading statesmen of her\ntime, found vent in passages like the following:\n\n\"I desire, then, that you withdraw into the open side of the Son of God,\nwho is a bottle so full of perfume that even the things which are sinful\nbecome fragrant. There the bride reclines on a bed of fire and blood.\nThere the secret of the heart of the Son of God is revealed and made\nmanifest. Oh! Thou overflowing cup, refreshing and intoxicating every\nloving and yearning heart.\" \"I long to behold the body of my Lord!\" And\nstraightway the bridegroom appeared to her, opened his side and said to\nher: \"Now drink as much of my blood as thou desirest.\"\n\nBut the saint who enjoyed the greatest fame--partly on account of her\nfrequent portrayal by the plastic arts--was doubtless St. Teresa\n(Teresia de Jesus), a Spanish nun (1515-1582). During childhood and\nearly youth she suffered from serious illnesses, and on one occasion was\neven believed to be dead. \"Before I felt the presence of God,\" she says\nin her biography, \"I experienced for some time a very delightful\nsensation, a sensation which I believe one is partly able to produce at\nwill (!), a pleasure which is neither quite sensuous, nor quite\nspiritual, but which comes from God.\" She describes in her \"Life\" four\nstages of prayer, which gradually lead the soul to God: \"There is no joy\nto be compared with the joy which the Lord giveth to the soul in its\nexile. So great is this delight that frequently it seems that the least\nthing would make it forsake the body for ever.\" \"When the soul seeks God\nin this way,\" the saint feels with supreme delight her strength ebbing\naway and a trance stealing over her until, devoid of breath and all\nphysical strength she can only move her hand with great pain. The\ndelights experienced by her are described in great detail and very\nsensuous language; hysterical conditions, such as painful convulsions,\nand hallucinations, are represented as religious phenomena. \"It is\ndreadful what one has to suffer from confessors who do not understand\nthese things,\" she says in one of her writings with deep regret.\n\nSt. Teresa relates her life with the well-known long-winded\nself-complacency of the hysterical subject. She frequently had visions\nof Jesus, and again and again she emphasised the beauty of his hands.\n\"Standing by my side, he said to me: 'I have come to thee, my daughter,\nI am here; it is I; show me thy hands.' And it seemed to me that he took\nmy hands in his, and laid them in his side. 'Behold my wound,' he said,\n'thou art not separated from me; bear this brief exile on earth....'\"\netc.\n\nOn one occasion she had a vision of an angel whom she describes as\nfollows: \"He was not tall but small, very beautiful, his face so radiant\nthat he seemed to be one of the highest angels, who are, I believe, all\nfire ... in his hand he held a golden spear, at the point of which was a\nlittle flame; he appeared to thrust this spear into my heart again and\nagain; it penetrated my entrails, and as he drew it out he seemed to\ndraw them out also, and leave me on fire with a great love of God. The\npain was so intense that I could not but sigh deeply; yet so surpassing\nwas the sweetness of this pain that it made me wish never to be without\nit. It is not physical, but spiritual pain, although the body often\nsuffers greatly from it. The caressing love between God and the soul is\nso sweet that I implore Him of His mercy to let all those experience it\nwho believe that I am lying.\"\n\nThe treatise _Thoughts of the Love of God on some Words of the Song of\nSongs_ is crowded with purely sensuous passages. In accordance with the\ngeneral custom, she interprets this naively sensual Semitic poem\nallegorically, becomes tremendously excited in meditating on the kiss of\nthe beloved and discusses the question of what the soul should do to\n\"satisfy so sweet a bridegroom.\"\n\nIn the pamphlet _The Fortress of the Soul and its Seven Dwellings_, St.\nTeresa describes similar states of mind: \"The bridegroom commands the\ndoors of the dwellings to be closed and also the gates of the fortress\nand its surrounding walls. In freeing the soul from the body, he stops\nthe body's breathing so that, even if the other senses are not quite\ndeadened, speech is impossible. At other times all sensuous perceptions\ndisappear simultaneously; body and hands grow rigid and it seems as if\nthe soul had left the body, which is scarcely breathing. This condition\nis of short duration. The rigidity passes away to some extent, the body\nslowly regains life, the breath comes and goes, only to die away again\nand thus endow the soul with greater freedom. But this deep trance does\nnot endure long.\" She continues to describe her ecstasies and is careful\nto point out the complete fusion of supreme delight and bodily pain.\nPerhaps no hysterical subject has ever described her states of mind so\nwell. Her avowal (made in a letter to Father Rodrigue Alvarez) of her\ncomplete unconsciousness of her body is quite in harmony with those\nstates of rapture. She wrote a number of spiritual love-songs which are\nsaid to be conspicuous for their ardour and beauty; probably they have\nnever been translated from the original Spanish.\n\nFinally there is the famous Madame Guyon (1648-1717), who--in addition\nto many other works--wrote a very detailed autobiography. She lived with\nher husband, whom she treated with coldness, finding her sole joy in her\nspiritual intercourse with God. \"I desire only the divine love which\nthrills the soul with inexpressible bliss, the love which seems to melt\nmy whole being.\" God burns her with His fire and still trembling with\ndelight, she says to Him: \"Oh, Lord! The greatest libertine, if Thou\ndidst make him experience Thy love as Thou didst make me experience it,\nwould forswear carnal pleasure and strive only after Thy divine love.\"\n\"I was like a person intoxicated with wine or love, unable to think of\nanything but my passion,\" etc. The fact that she sought in this love the\npleasure of the senses is very apparent.\n\nWe are not concerned here with the problem of how far these women may be\nregarded as pathological cases; all of them were filled with a vague\nfeminine desire for self-surrender, which they projected on a celestial\nbeing, either because they did not come into contact with a suitable\nterrestrial object, or because the impulse was abnormal from the\nbeginning. But their spiritual love never rose above empty\nsentimentality and hysterical rapture. All of them, and some of them\nwere highly gifted, were thrilled with the love of Jesus, they had\nvisions of the \"sweet wounds of the Saviour,\" and so on; but their\nemotion did not kindle the smallest spark of creative power. The Queen\nof Heaven, on the other hand, was a free creation of spiritually loving\npoets and monks.\n\nThe women imitated metaphysical love and distorted it; sexual impulse,\narrogantly attempting to reach beyond the earth, reigned in the place of\nspiritual, deifying love.\n\nI have included these phenomena not for their own sakes, but to indicate\nmy boundary-line, for very frequently these women are cited as genuine\nmystics. Even Schopenhauer mentions these \"saints\" in one breath with\nGerman mystics and Indian philosophers; he calls Madame Guyon \"a great\nand beautiful soul whose memory I venerate.\" And yet there can be no\ndoubt that it is not the fictitious object of love which is conclusive,\nbut the emotion of the lover: the sensualist can approach God and the\nVirgin with inflamed senses, but to the lover every woman is divine.\n\nThe result of this chapter is as far as our investigation is concerned,\nnegative. The deifying love of man has no parallel phenomenon in the\nemotional life of woman.\n\n\n(_b_) SEXUAL MYSTICS.\n\nSexual mysticism is a contradiction in itself, because true mysticism\nhas nothing whatever to do with sexuality. But frequently suppressed\nsexuality, secretly luxuriating, takes possession of the whole soul, and\na religious construction is put on the results. The sexually excited\nsubject attributes religious motives to his ecstasy. I have no\nhesitation in asserting that the majority of these ecstasies--especially\nin the case of women--are rooted in sexuality, and that this so-called\nmysticism is nothing but a deviation or wrong interpretation of the\nsexual impulse. The same thing applies to the flagellants of the\ndeclining Middle Ages, and some Protestant sects of modernity. The\nraptures of St. Teresa and Madame Guyon, also, belong to this category,\nhowever much the fact may be concealed by pseudo-religious conceptions.\nI have no doubt that Eastern mysticism, too, grew up on a sexual\nfoundation, but (as I have done all along) I will limit my subject to\nthe civilisation of Europe.\n\nThis counterfeit mysticism, fed from dubious sources and calling itself\nlove of God, taints the pure intuitions of some of the genuine mystics\nand metaphysical erotics; they were not always able to steer clear of\nspurious outgrowths. (Here, too, the psychological naivete of mediaeval\ntimes must to some extent be held responsible.) Conspicuous amongst\nthese is St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who in his _Sermones in Canticum_\ntook the \"Song of Songs\" as a base for mystically-sexual imaginings.\n\nThere is nothing really new in this direction. But I will cite a few\nstanzas written by St. Bernard which might equally well have come from\none of the amorous nuns:\n\n           TO THE SIDE-WOUND OF CHRIST.\n\n     Lord, with my mouth I touch and worship Thee,\n     With all the strength I have I cling to Thee,\n     With all my love I plunge my heart in Thee,\n     My very life blood would I draw from Thee,\n     Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Draw me unto Thee!\n\n     How sweet Thy savour is! Who tastes of Thee,\n     Oh, Jesus Christ, can relish naught but Thee!\n     Who tastes Thy living sweetness lives by Thee;\n     All else is void; the soul must die for Thee,\n     So faints my heart--so would I die for Thee!\n\n                   (_Transl. by_ EMILY MARY SHAPCOTE.)\n\nThe greatest religious poet of all times after St. Bernard was Jacopone\nda Todi, who also, though rarely, revelled in fervid utterances. The\nLatin hymn, _Stabat Mater Speciosa_, ascribed to him, is spurious. I\nquote a translation taken from the Rosary of the B.V.M.\n\n     Other Virgins far transcending,\n     Virgin, be not thou unbending,\n     To thy humble suppliant's suit.\n\n     Grant me then, to thee united,\n     By the love of Christ excited,\n     Here to sing my jubilee.\n\nBut he is undoubtedly the author of the following stanzas:\n\n     Soaring upwards love-enkindled,\n     Does the soul rejoice, afire\n     In her glad triumphant flight.\n     Earthly cares to naught have dwindled,\n     Love's sweet footfall's drawing nigh her\n     To espouse his heart's delight.\n     All transformed and naked quite,\n     Laughing low, with joy imbued,\n     Pure, and like a snake renewed,\n     Love divine will ever tend her.\n\nBut poems like the following undoubtedly originated in a truly religious\nand pure sentiment:\n\n     Enwrapt in love thine arms Him fast enfolding,\n     So closely clasp Him that they loose Him never;\n     And in thy heart His sacred image holding,\n     Far from the path of sin thou'lt journey ever.\n     His death in twain shall blast thy callous heart\n     As once the solid rock He rent apart.\n\nThe most distinguished among the fervid lovers of God of later times\nwere the saints Jean de la Croix, Alfonso da Liguori, and Francois de\nSales. The _Tract of the Love of God_, written by Francois de Sales,\nsurpasses everything ever achieved in this direction.\n\nI will not dilate further on this barren aspect of emotionalism so\neasily traceable through the later centuries in many a Catholic and\nProtestant sentimentalist, but will conclude this chapter with a brief\ndiscussion of Novalis. If I mention this poet in this connexion it is\nnot because I desire to depreciate his genius, but because, possessing\nas he did, in a rare degree, depth of feeling and power of expression,\nhe is an important witness of an unusual type. True, here and there his\npoems are reminiscent of Jacopone, but he is not sufficiently ingenuous,\nand is altogether too morbid to be classed with that ardent fanatic. He\nshares with Jacopone and other poets the yearning to grasp\ntranscendental things with the senses, to approach the Deity with a love\nwhich cannot be called anything but sensuous. Novalis' _Hymns to the\nNight_ are the most magnificent example of this perfect interpenetration\nof sensuous and transcendental love, and at the same time represent a\ncomplete fusion of the love he bore to his fiancee, who died young, and\nthe worship of Mary. Night has opened _infinite eyes_ in us, and we\nbehold the secret of love unfolding itself in the heart of this poet, at\nonce unique and pathetic, lofty and morbid. The whole universe he\nconceives as a female being for whose embrace he is longing. It is a new\nemotion: neither the chaste worship of the Madonna, nor the\nsexually-mystic striving to embrace with the soul. The night gives birth\nto a foreboding which excites and soothes all vague desires. The lover\nthus soliloquises of the night:\n\n     In infinite space.\n     Thou'dst dissolve,\n     If it held thee not,\n     If it bound thee not,\n     And thrilled thee,\n     That afire\n     Thou begettest the world.\n     Verily before thou art I was,\n     With my sex\n     The mother sent me\n     To live in thy world,\n     And to hallow it\n     With love.\n\nHere the ancient, mystical longing to become one with God is conceived\nunder the symbol of the night. (A symbol which we shall meet again,\nmagnified, in Wagner's _Tristan_.)\n\n     Lo! Love has burst its prison.\n     No parting now shall be,\n     And life's full tide has risen\n     Like to a boundless sea.\n     One night of love supernal,\n     Only one golden song,\n     And the face of the Eternal\n     To light our path along.\n\nIn addition, Novalis was a perfect woman-worshipper. He loved the Middle\nAges and Catholicism. \"The reformation killed Christianity; henceforth\nChristianity has ceased to exist.\" \"Catholicism preached nothing but\nlove for the holy, beautiful Lady of Christianity, who, endowed with\ndivine virtue, was able to deliver all loyal hearts from the most\nterrible dangers.\" He wrote hymns to Mary in the style of the pietists,\nemphasising more especially the principle of motherliness:\n\n     Oh, Mary! At thy altar\n     A thousand hearts lie prone,\n     In this drear life of shadows\n     They yearn for thee alone.\n     All hoping to recover\n     From life's distress and smart,\n     If thou, oh holy Mother,\n     Wilt take them to thy heart.\n\nHe idolised his fiancee, who died young. \"Her memory shall be my better\nself, a sacred image in my heart before which a sanctuary lamp is ever\nburning, and which will save me from the temptations of the Evil One.\"\nAnd through the mouth of Heinrich of Ofterdingen he proclaims: \"My\nbeloved is the abbreviation of the universe; the universe is the\nelongation of my beloved.\" \"Heaven has given you to me to worship. I\nadore you, you are a saint, you are divine glory, you are eternal life!\"\n\nThis sentimental worship of woman, combined with an all-transcending\ninsatiable sensuousness, produced the peculiar sexually-mystic\nworld-feeling which is so characteristic of him. Night deeply moves his\nsoul, longing, the memory of the beloved woman, adoration for the\nVirgin, his fantastic conception of an incarnated universe are fused\ninto one great emotion:\n\n     Praise to the Queen of the World!\n     The lofty herald\n     Of the sacred world.\n     The patroness\n     Of rapturous love!\n     Thou art coming, beloved--\n     Night has descended--\n     My soul is ravished--\n     Over is this earthly journey\n     And thou art mine again.\n     I gaze into thy dark, deep eyes,\n     And see naught but love and happiness.\n     We sink down on the altar of the night,\n     The soft couch--\n     The veil falls,\n     And kindled by the rapturous embrace,\n     Glows the pure fire\n     Of the sweet sacrifice.\n\nThe climax and unique example of sensuousness, unsurpassed for its\nsymbols of the physical embrace, is the hymn: \"Few know the Secret of\nLove.\" It is too long to give in full. The following are a few stanzas:\n\n     Would that the ocean\n     Blushed!\n     And in fragrant flesh\n     Melted the rock!\n     Infinite is the sweet repast,\n     Never satisfied is love;\n     Nor close, nor fast enough\n     Can it hold the beloved.\n     By ever more tender lips\n     Transformed, the past ecstasy\n     Grows closer, more intimate.\n     Rapturous love\n     Thrills the soul;\n     Hungrier and thirstier\n     Grows the heart.\n     And thus the transports of love\n     Endure for ever.\n\nHere the remotest limit has been reached--sensuousness seems to flow\ninto eternity, voluptuousness would shatter the world to pieces and\ncreate a new relationship of things. Before this poem all ecstasies of\nsensuousness masquerading as cosmic emotion are dull and timid. The\ntranscendent symbols of Catholicism are used to guide the insatiable\nsensuous imagination to metaphysics. \"Who can say that he understands\nthe nature of blood?\" Novalis may ask this question. It is truly blood,\nhuman blood, longing to gush forth and pulsate through the body of the\nuniverse.\n\n     In time to come all will be body\n     One body;\n     In celestial blood,\n     Float the enraptured twain.\n\nThe human blood has become _celestial blood_; the voluptuousness of man,\nthe voluptuousness of the world, and because the whole world is one\nbody, it needs no duality; sexuality which has become a cosmic law rules\nover humanity, God, Christ and the universe. This hymn is the\nimmortalisation of voluptuousness. If the love-death is the\nimmortalisation of love unable to find satisfaction on earth, so its\ncounterpart, cosmic sensuousness is, in the last sense, orientalism.\nOnly a genius could invent a new, symbolic language to express feelings\nso alien to the European. Earthly sensuality did not satisfy Novalis,\nvoluptuousness detached from man, voluptuousness in itself, was his\ndream and his religion--the supremest creation ever achieved by\nsexuality intensified into a cosmic emotion.\n\nI think that I have now made clear the fact that the emotional life of\nman is rooted in two elements, completely distinct from the beginning:\nthe sexual impulse and personal love. It is in studying the love of the\ntranscendental, that culminating point of so many feelings springing\nfrom various sources, that the inherent contrast between the two\nfundamental principles becomes most apparent; and that we realise why\nthey have always been intermingled both in theory and in reality.\n\nWe have last examined the attempt of sexuality to possess itself of the\nwhole universe; we will now turn our attention to the true union of both\nerotic elements. This union occurred at the time when Goethe and Novalis\nwere bringing spiritual love and cosmic sensuousness to their highest\nsummit.\n\n\n\n\nTHE THIRD STAGE\n\n(The Unity of Sexual Impulse and Love)\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE LONGING FOR THE SYNTHESIS.\n\n\nHumanity inherited the pairing-instinct from the animal-world; but as\ndifferentiation progressed, this instinct tended to restrict itself to a\nfew individuals--sometimes even to a single representative only--of the\nother sex. In the beginning of the twelfth century a new and\nunprecedented emotion--spiritual love of man for woman based on\npersonality--made its appearance, and until modern times the two\nfundamental erotic principles existed side by side without inner\nrelationship. Sexuality with its various manifestations has existed from\nthe beginning; the ultimate object of sexual intercourse is pleasure;\nbut here and there, and parallel with sexual pleasure, there have been,\nin varying degrees of intensity, instances of spiritual love. In the\nsecond half of the eighteenth century there appeared--timidly at first,\nbut gradually gaining in strength and determination--a tendency to find\nthe sole course of every erotic emotion in the personality of the\nbeloved, a longing no longer to dissociate sexual impulse and spiritual\nlove, but to blend them in a harmonious whole. Personality should knit\nbody and soul together in a higher synthesis. The first signs of this\nlonging became apparent in the period of the French revolution; (we find\ntraces of it in the works of Rousseau and in Goethe's _Werther_); it was\ndeveloped by the romanticists and represents the typical form of modern\nlove with all its incompleteness and inexhausted possibilities. The\nachievement of this eagerly desired unity, which would be synonymous\nwith the victory of personality over the limitations of body and soul,\nis the great problem of modern time in the domain of eroticism. The\ncharacteristic of this third stage of eroticism is the complete triumph\nof love over pleasure, the neutralisation of the sexual and the\ngenerative by the spiritual and the personal. The physical and spiritual\nunity of the lovers has become so much supreme erotic reality, that the\nline of demarcation between soul and senses is completely obliterated.\nIn extreme cases--which are not at all rare--the bodily union is not\nrealised as anything distinct, specifically pleasurable; it does not\noccupy a prominent position in the complex of love; sensuous pleasure,\nthe universal inheritance from the animal world, has been vanquished by\npersonality, the supreme treasure of man. The characteristic of the\nfirst stage was the unquestioned sway of one of the elements of erotic\nlife, sensual gratification (this stage has, of course, never ceased to\nexist), as well as the aesthetic pleasure in the beauty of the human\nform. The second stage gave prominence to all those spiritual qualities\nwhich were most appreciated, virtue, purity, kindness, wisdom, etc.,\nbecause love rouses and embraces everything in the human soul which is\nperfect. In the third stage, sensuous pleasure and spiritual love no\nlonger exist as separate elements; the personality of the beloved in its\nindividuality is the only essential, regardless as to whether she be the\nbringer of weal or woe, whether she be good or evil, beautiful or plain,\nwise or foolish. Personality has--in principle--become the sole, supreme\nsource of eroticism. In this stage there is no tyranny of man over\nwoman--as in the sexual stage--no submission of man to woman--as in the\nstage of woman-worship; it is the stage of the complete equality of the\nsexes, a mutual giving and taking. If sexuality is infinite as matter,\nspiritual love eternal as the metaphysical ideal, the synthesis is human\nand personal.\n\nBefore the eighteenth century, this new erotic union did not exist as a\nphenomenon of civilisation, but occasionally we find it anticipated or\nvaguely alluded to. Some of the early German minnesingers (such as\nDietmar von Aist and Kuernberg) sometimes betray, especially when\nspeaking through the medium of a woman, sentiments prophetic of our\nmodern sentimental ballads. The following verses by Albrecht of\nJohansdorf, express the reciprocity characteristic of modern love:\n\n     When two hearts are so united\n     That their love can never wane,\n     Then I ween no man should blight it,\n     Death alone should part the twain.\n\nEven more modern in sentiment are the following stanzas:\n\n     This is love's measure:\n     Two hearts and one pleasure,\n     Two loves one love, nor more nor less,\n     And both right full of happiness.\n     In woe one woe,\n     And neither from the other go.\n\nThough Walter von der Vogelweide adopted the contemporaneous conception\nof love as the source of everything good and noble (\"Tell me what is\nLove?\") he never quite accepted it:\n\n     Love is the ecstasy of two fond hearts,\n     If both share equally, then love is there.\n\nMore ancient evidence even is the definition of marriage by the\nscholastic Hugo of St. Victor, who had leanings towards mysticism:\n\"Marriage is the friendship between man and woman,\" he says.\n\nMy knowledge of the subject cannot, of course, be unexceptional, but I\ndo not believe that personal love of the third stage, that is, the\nblending of both erotic elements, was quite definitely expressed before\nthe second half of the eighteenth century. We may be justified in\nmaintaining that the tension between sexuality and spiritual love had\nbeen slackening in the course of the centuries, that sexuality was\nconceived as less diabolical, and love as less celestial than\nheretofore; but the principle had remained unchanged. Only the female\nportraits of Leonardo da Vinci are deserving of special mention; the\ngreat artist was possibly the first who artistically divined, if he did\nnot achieve, the synthesis. The exceptional position always granted to\nhis women--particularly to his Mona Lisa--must doubtless be ascribed to\nthis premonition. We may be certain that Leonardo not only as artist,\nbut as lover also, was ahead of his time; but he must be regarded as an\nisolated instance. The three stages apply to the eroticism of man only.\nHis emotion soared from brutality to divinity, and then gradually became\nhuman; his feeling alone has a history. The force which seized, moulded\nand transformed him, had no influence over woman. Compared to man, she\nis to-day what she was at the beginning, pure nature. Her lover has\nalways been everything to her; never merely a means for the\ngratification of the senses, nor, on the other hand, a higher being to\nwhom she looked up and whom she worshipped with a purely spiritual love;\nbut at all times he possessed her undivided love, unable in its naive\nsimplicity to differentiate between body and soul. The higher intuition,\nthe object of the supreme erotic yearning of man, for the possession of\nwhich he has struggled for centuries, and even to-day does not fully\npossess, has always been a matter of course to her. She whose truest\nvocation is love, received from nature that which the greatest of men\nhave striven hard to win and only half succeeded in winning. Man's\nprofound dualism is alien to her; her greatness--but also her\nlimitation--lies in the simplicity and infallibility of her instinct,\nwhich has had no evolution and is consequently not liable to produce\natavisms and aberrations. She is hardly conscious of the chasm between\nsexual instinct and personal love. Wherever this is not so, we _may_\nfind intellectual greatness (as for instance in the case of the Empress\nCatherine of Russia), but as a rule we find only morbidness, despondency\nand callousness. To the normal woman the phenomena of dualistic\neroticism appear unintelligible, even unwholesome. The unity of love is\na matter of course to her, so that the third stage is practically male\nacquiescence to female intuition.\n\nEven in our time, when so much is said and written about modern woman\nand her claims, her feeling is still perfect in itself; compared to the\ndiscord and heterogeneity of man, she represents simplicity and harmony.\nBoth purely spiritual worship and undifferentiated sexual desire are\nexceptions as far as she is concerned and must still be regarded as\nabnormal.\n\nThis unbroken, determinative female eroticism may possibly be explained\n(as Weininger explains it) by woman's sexuality, which is absolute, and\ndoes not rise above the horizon of distinct consciousness, but\nWeininger's dualism is in this direction attempting to value and\nstandardise something which in its essence is alien to his standard.\n\nPsycho-physical unity, then, is the basic characteristic of female\neroticism, but the state of affairs in the case of male eroticism is a\nvery different one. A study of the gradual origin of the erotic elements\nwill facilitate a better understanding of the relevant phenomena.\n\nIn the case of woman, the primary sexual instinct pervades the whole\nbeing; it has been refined and purified without any great fluctuations\nor changes; in the case of man it has always been restricted to certain\nregions of his physical and psychical life, and an entirely novel\nexperience was required before it could win to the final form of\npersonal love. This prize, in his case, is therefore enhanced by the\nfact of being the outcome of a long conflict; the reward of a task still\nshowing the traces of the struggle and pain of centuries. The truth of\nthe words \"Pleasure is degrading\" had been established by experience.\n\nA few historical instances, illustrating female eroticism, will uphold\nmy contention. In the remote days of Greek antiquity, we find an example\nof undivided wifely love in Alcestis, whose devotion to her husband sent\nher to voluntary death in order to lengthen his life. Wifely devotion\naccomplished what parental love could not achieve. The _Alcestis_ of\nEuripides represents a feeling very familiar to us. Penelope, the\nfaithful martyr, is a similar instance.\n\nAt the time when spiritual love, accompanied by eccentricities and Latin\ntreatises, gradually, and amidst heavy conflict, struggled into\nexistence, the soul of woman was already glowing with the emotion which\nwe, to-day, realise as love. I have three witnesses to prove this\nstatement. The _Lais_ of the French poetess Marie de France, based on\nBreton and Celtic motifs, are permeated by a sweet sentimentality, very\nnearly related to the sentiment of our popular ballads. They tell of\nsimple feelings, of love and longing and the grief of love. One of her\n_lais_ treats the touching story of Lanval and Guinevere, and another an\nepisode of Tristan and Isolde.\n\n     De Tristan et de la reine,\n     De leur amour qui tant fut fine,\n     Dont ils eurent mainte doulour\n     Puis en moururent en un jour.\n\nThe naive sentiment of these poems forms a delicious contrast to the\ncontemporaneous mature and subtile art of Provence, and the entire\nerudite armoury of love.\n\nA great baron declared that only the man who could carry his daughter in\nhis arms to the summit of a certain mountain--an impossible\nfeat--should win her hand in marriage. No man possessed strength to\ncarry her farther than half way. But the knight whom she loved secretly\nwent out into the world, and after years of searching, discovered a\nmagic potion able to endow him who quaffed it with enormous strength.\nFull of joy he returned home and, his beloved in his arms, began the\nlaborious ascent. Strong and jubilant, he laughed at the potion. But\nafter a while, feeling his strength ebbing away, the maiden implored\nhim: \"Drink, I beseech thee, beloved!\" \"My heart is strong, to drink\nwere waste of time.\" And again she pleaded: \"Drink now, beloved, thy\nstrength is diminishing fast.\" But he, eager to win her only by his own\neffort, staggered on and reached the summit, only to sink to the ground\nand expire. The maiden, throwing herself on his lifeless body, kissed\nhis eyes and lips and died with him.\n\nWe recognise in this simple tale the new form of love, mutual devotion,\nand the thought of the consummation of this love, the _Love-death_,\nwhich was not definitely realised until six hundred years later. It\noriginated in the Celtic soul, as the worship of woman originated in the\nRomanesque (the Teutonic soul shared in the development of both). It was\na dream of the suppressed Celtic race, spending its whole soul in dreams\nand producing visions of such depth and beauty that even we of to-day\ncannot read them without being profoundly moved.\n\nNext there are three love-letters written in Latin by a German woman of\nthe twelfth century. In very touching words she tells her lover that the\nlove of him can never be torn out of her heart. \"I turn to you whom I\nhold for ever enclosed in my inmost heart.\" She promises and claims\nfaithfulness until death: \"Among thousands my heart has chosen you, you\nalone can satisfy my longing, and you will never find my love wanting. I\ntrust myself to you, all my hope is centred in you. I could say a great\ndeal more,\" she concludes, \"but there is no need of it.\" And then\nfollow the charming German stanzas:\n\n     Thou to me and I to thee,\n     Knit for all eternity.\n     In my heart art thou imprisoned,\n     And I threw away the key.\n     Nevermore canst thou be free.\n\nIn the third letter she drops the formal Latin and addresses him in\nintimate, simple German. But the man's replies are clumsy and strange,\nand plainly evidence his uncertainty of himself: \"You have put a human\nhead on a horse's neck, and the beautiful female form ends in an ugly\nfish's tail.\" It looks as if a parting were inevitable.\n\nBut the most touching testimony from the Middle Ages is the famous love\nstory of Abelard and Heloise. We probably possess no older document of\nthe passionate devotion of a woman, differing in nothing from the\nsentiment of the present age, than the letters of Heloise. Abelard\npersuaded her to take the veil and repent in a convent the sin of\nvoluptuousness--but she knows nothing of God--her whole soul is wrapped\nup in her lover: \"I expect no reward from God, for what I did was not\ndone for love of Him.... I wanted nothing from you but yourself; I\ndesired only you, not that which belonged to you; I did not expect\nmarriage or gifts; I did not seek to gratify my desires and do my will,\nbut yours, and well you know that I am speaking the truth! The name of\nwife may seem sacred and honourable to you, but I prefer to be called\nyour mistress or even your harlot. The more I degraded myself for your\nsake, the more I hoped to find grace in your eyes.... I renounced all\nthe pleasures of the world to live only for you; I kept nothing for\nmyself but the desire to belong entirely to you.\" Abelard's replies are\npious sermons and theological treatises; he thinks of the love of the\npast only as _the cursed desires of the flesh_, the snare in which the\ndevil had caught them, and urges Heloise to thank God that henceforth\nthey are safe. \"My love which entangled both of us in sin,\" he says in\none of his letters, \"deserves not the name of love, for it was naught\nbut carnal lust. I sought in you the gratification of my sinful\ndesires,\" etc. He blessed the savage crime committed on him because it\nsaved him for ever from the sin of voluptuousness. What Heloise loved\nand treasured as her sweetest memory, was to him hell and devil's work.\nHe wrote to her almost as if in mockery: \"What splendid interest does\nthe talent of your wisdom bear to the Lord day after day! How many\nspiritual daughters you have borne to Him! What a terrible loss it would\nhave been if you had abandoned yourself to the lust of the flesh, had\nborne, with travail, a few earthly children, while now, with joy, you\nbear a great number of daughters for the kingdom of Heaven. You would\nhave remained a woman like all the rest, but now you are far exalted\neven above men.\" This correspondence plainly reveals the tragedy of the\nlacerated man of the Middle Ages, as compared to the never-varying\nwoman, emerging perfect from the hands of nature. A long and toilsome\nroad still stretches out before him; she had reached the goal, without a\nstruggle, at the outset. How strange is this cry of a mediaeval nun: \"It\nseems as if the world had grown old, as if all men and all living\ncreatures had lost their freshness, as if love had grown cold not in\nmany, but in all hearts.\"\n\nWhat was really the final cause of the hostility to sensuousness\ndisplayed by dualistic mediaeval Christianity? Was it not contained in\neroticism itself?\n\nThis hostility was based on the fact that the world knew as yet only\nspiritual love and its antithesis, the sexuality which man shares with\nthe animals; the only salvation, not merely in the Christian sense, but\nfrom the point of view of every lofty conception of civilisation, lay in\nthe victory over animalism. The contempt of and the struggle against\nthe lower form of eroticism animating the dualistic period was\nabsolutely consistent; asceticism represents the highest form of culture\nattainable by that period. (The rejection of spiritual love was an\ninconsistency on the part of the clergy.) The principle of personality\nwas the fundamental principle of Christianity; this is clearly expressed\nby the fact that Christianity regarded the soul as the supreme value.\nAnd what is the soul but the consciousness of human personality\nconceived naively as substance? In the light of this higher intuition\nsensuousness was bound to appear base and degrading.\n\nIt is therefore historically correct, though essentially an error, to\nregard Christianity as the religion of asceticism, for the asceticism of\nthe Middle Ages was nothing but the immature stage of the principle of\npersonality. Directly spiritual love was no longer in opposition to\nsexuality, directly a synthesis had been effected, Christianity should\nhave drawn the obvious conclusion from its fundamental principle and\nacknowledged love, which united the hostile elements. Protestantism did\nso, half-heartedly. Luther's vacillating attitude towards sexuality is\ntypical of this indecision. At heart he could not justify sexuality; he\nregarded it, in the same way as did the Fathers of the Church, as an\nevil with which one had to make terms. His sanction of marriage was\nnothing but a crooked and ill-founded compromise; and as he remained at\nthe old dualistic standpoint, it could not have been otherwise. But the\nmoment the new sensuous-supersensuous form of love had come into\nexistence, it behoved Christianity, as the religion of personality, to\nacknowledge it.\n\nAfter this digression I return to the period of the inception of the\nthird stage of love. If I were writing a history of eroticism, I should\nnow have to describe the rococo period, a period essentially\nrationalistic and devoted to pleasure, a period which believed in\nnothing but the obvious and understood love only in the sense of sensual\npleasure. If sensuality had hitherto been evil--at least\ntheoretically--it now became obscene. Stripped of every grand and cosmic\nfeature, it degenerated into the principal form of amusement. The\neighteenth century, though instructive and interesting to the student of\neroticism, produced nothing new. Under the undisputed sway of France, a\nperiod of sensuality set in, unparalleled by any other epoch in the\nhistory of the race, except, perhaps, the early oriental epoch; even the\ngynecocratic family of remote antiquity was openly revived by the ladies\nof Paris. Casanova was the sexual hero of the age (as he is to some\nextent the hero of our present impotent epoch). Indefatigable in the\npursuit of woman and successful until old age, he was a well-bred\nsexualist without subtlety or depth. The Vicomte de Valmont, the hero of\nChoderlos de Laclos' famous and realistic novel _Les Liaisons\nDangereuses_, an absolutely cold and cunning seducer, was its god. They\nwere seconded by the pleasure-loving Ninon de l'Enclos, who was still\ndesired at the age of eighty.\n\nThis ultra-refinement was followed by the loathing of civilisation and\nlove of nature expressed by Rousseau, Werther and Hoelderlin; closely\nallied to these passions was sentimental love, the direct precursor of\nour modern conception of love. Its peculiarity lay in the fact that\nalthough spiritual in its source, it yearned for psycho-physical unity,\nand was therefore always slightly discordant. Rousseau was the first\nexponent of this romantic nature cult and sentimental love of woman. He\nrepresents the sharp recoil from the frivolity of the _ancien regime_,\nand the beginning of the third stage of love. His _Nouvelle Heloise_\n(1759) was probably the first work in which sentimental love found\nexpression. In Goethe's _Werther_ (1774), which is a faithful portrayal\nof the poet's personal feelings, it was represented more powerfully.\nWerther's love was purely spiritual at its inception. \"Lotte is sacred\nto me. All desire is silent in her presence.\" But in the end he desires\nher with unconquerable passion; a dream undeceives him about the nature\nof his feelings, and as he clasps her in a passionate embrace he is\nconscious of having reached the summit of his longing. This would seem\nthe goal of modern love, embodying all its previous stages. It is\ninteresting to find embodiments of the extreme poles in two incidental\ncharacters; one has been driven mad by his adoring love for a woman and\nwanders about the fields in November to gather flowers for his queen;\nthe other is a young peasant who kills his rival in jealous rage. But\nWerther himself, steering a middle-course between these two extremes,\nwalks straight into modern love, which means death to him.\n\nBoth the _New Heloise_ and _Werther_ are, sentimentally, efforts to\nreach the synthesis _via_ the soul. Friedrich Schlegel, in his famous\n_Lucinda_ (1799), tried the opposite way. He has been savagely attacked\nfor it by one side and lauded to the skies by the other, and when \"the\nemancipation of the flesh\" became the motto of the day, he was glorified\nas a martyr. The philosopher and theologian Schleiermacher saw in\n_Lucinda_ a delivery from the tyranny of centuries. \"Love has become\nwhole again and of one piece,\" he exclaims, joyfully calling the poem \"a\nvision of a future world God knows how distant.\" \"Love shall come again;\na new life shall unite and animate its broken limbs; it shall rule the\nhearts and works of men in freedom and gladness, and supersede the\nlifeless phantoms of fictitious virtues.\" Schleiermacher also voiced the\nidea of the synthesis: \"And why should we be arrested in this struggle\n(_i.e._, between love as the flower of sensuousness and the intellectual\nmystical component of love), when in all domains we are striving to\nbring the ideas, born by the new development of humanity, into harmony\nwith the result of the work of past ages?\" His _Confidential Letters on\nSchlegel's Lucinda_ have made the Protestant pastor Schleiermacher the\nphilosopher of the third stage of eroticism, as the chaplain Andreas was\nthe theorist of the second. The third stage gained its first footing\namongst the German romanticists. Women were largely instrumental in\nachieving its victory. I will not go into detail but will confine myself\nto mentioning in passing the names of Jean Paul, Henrietta Herz,\nBrentano, Sophy Mereau, Dorothy Vest, Schelling, Friedrich Gentz. W. von\nHumboldt records a conversation which he had in the year of the\nRevolution with Schiller. The latter unhesitatingly professed his faith\nin the unity of love. \"It (the blending of love and sensuality) is\nalways possible and always there.\" But Humboldt was diffident, unable\nfully to grasp the new conception. \"I said that it would sever the most\nbeautiful, most delicate relationships, that it was too heterogeneous to\nadmit of coherence; but my principal argument was that in the majority\nof cases it was out of the question....\"\n\nThere is a document from the year 1779 which contains in its entirety\nthe modern conception of harmonious love, together with its ecstatic\napotheosis, the love-death, a document which puts the later theorising\nromanticists and _Lucinda_ completely in the shade. I am referring to\nthe only one of Gottfried August Buerger's letters to Molly, which has\nbeen preserved. It contains the following passages: \"I cannot describe\nto you in words how ardently I embrace you in the spirit. There is in me\nsuch a tumult of life that frequently after an outburst my spirit and\nsoul are left in such weariness that I seem to be on the point of death.\nEvery brief calm begets more violent storms. Often in the black darkness\nof a stormy, rainy midnight, I long to hasten to you, throw myself into\nyour arms, sink with you into the infinite ocean of delight and--die. Oh\nLove! oh Love! what a strange and wonderful power art thou to hold body\nand soul in such unbreakable bonds!... I let my imagination roam through\nthe whole world, yea, through all the heavens and the Heaven of heavens,\nand examine every delight and compare it to you, but by the Eternal God!\nthere is nothing I desire so ardently as to hold you, sweetest and\nheavenliest of all women, in my arms. If I could win you by walking\nround the earth, naked and barefoot, through thorns and thistles, over\nrocks and snow and ice, and, on the point of death, with the last spark\nof life, sink into your arms and draw new life and happiness from your\nloving bosom, I should consider that I bought you for a trifle.\"\n\nTo adduce more historical evidence of modern love would serve no\npurpose; in the next chapter I shall discuss its metaphysical\nconsummation, the love-death. But I will briefly point out the not quite\nobvious difference between synthetic love and sexuality projected on a\nspecific individual. In several of the higher animals the sexual\ninstinct is to some extent individualised, but nevertheless it is no\nmore than instinct, seeking a suitable mate for its gratification. All\nthe well-known theories of \"sexual attraction,\" from Schopenhauer to\nWeininger, accounting love as nothing but a mutual supplementing of two\nindividuals for the purpose of the best possible reproduction of the\nspecies, do not apply to love in the modern sense, but to the sexual\nimpulse; they completely disregard the individual, and are only aware of\nthe species; they apprehend individualisation as an instrument in the\nservice of the race. But genuine personal love is not kindled by\ninstinct; it is not differentiated sexual impulse; it embraces the\npsycho-physical unity of the beloved without being conscious of sexual\ndesire. It shares with the purely spiritual love the eagerness of man to\nraise and glorify the beloved woman, without ulterior motive or desire.\nThis distinction may be called hair-splitting, and I admit that it is\nfrequently impossible to make it in practice, but it is important in\nprinciple because it goes back to origins and finds in the metaphysical\nclimax of the third stage, the love-death, its practical anti-generic\nproof. But with all this it is of common occurrence that spiritual and\nsensual love are at different times projected on one and the same woman.\n\nSchopenhauer's instinct of philoprogenitiveness has to-day become an\narticle of faith with the learned and unlearned. Schopenhauer was the\nfirst, probably, to conceive the idea that love was the consciousness of\nthe unconscious instincts in the service of the species, and had no\nother content or purpose than the will of the species to produce the\nbest possible offspring. In a chapter of his principal work, entitled\n_The Metaphysics of Love_, he essayed to promulgate and prove his theory\nin detail. \"All love, however ethereal it may pretend to be, is rooted\nsolely in the sexual instinct; it is nothing more nor less than\nspecialised, strictly speaking individualised, sexual desire.\"\nSchopenhauer's conception of love does not rise above this specialised\nimpulse. He calmly ignores all phenomena such as those I have described\nbecause they do not fit his theory. With the exception of his cheap\nobservation that contrasts attract each other (which is the pith of all\nhis \"truths\") he does not adduce the smallest evidence for the truth of\nhis myth of \"the genius of the species spreading his wings over the\ncoming generation.\" However much the results of breeders may be\napplicable to the human species, they have nothing to do with love, and\nthe believers in the theory of the instinct of philoprogenitiveness are\nsilent on the subject of the best and most suitable subject for the\npurpose; is it the law-abiding citizen? the restless reformer? or the\nartist and thinker? Strange to say, the legend of the instinct of\nphiloprogenitiveness, intuitively conscious of the right way, is to-day\naccepted even by scientists who are in sympathy neither with\nSchopenhauer's nor with any other metaphysic. It is taken for granted\nthat love can only serve the purpose of the species; the fact that this\ntheory is both metaphysically and scientifically unsound is ignored. For\neven leaving the genius of the species out of the question, his\nintelligent comprehension of the \"composition of the next generation\" is\nnevertheless devoutly believed in. Even Nietzsche, that\narch-individualist, was completely under the spell of this dogma, as is\nproved by many of his utterances, for instance, by the well-known\nsocialistic definition of marriage as \"the will of twain to create that\nwhich is higher than its creators,\" and also by his theory that man is\nnot an end in himself but a bridge to something else. Nietzsche's\npronouncement that he has not yet found the woman whom he would like to\nbe the mother of his children, echoes the philosophy of Schopenhauer,\nthe superstition of the genius of philoprogenitiveness. The intrinsic\nworth of love without any ulterior motive, without a view to pleasure or\nto offspring, seems to have been unknown to Nietzsche. Schopenhauer's\nhero puts the purport of love not in the actual individual, but in a\nconception, and annihilates the value of the individual and the unique.\nEvery great emotion is an end in itself, and whatever we may read into\nit of \"purposes\" and \"expediencies,\" is an invention, and independent of\nthe emotion itself. The aim of the purely spiritual love of the second\nstage was not propagation, and yet it was an emotion whose loftiness\ncannot easily be surpassed. With the deification of woman love reached\nfar beyond the beloved into infinitude, and the phenomenon of the\nlove-death renders all the supposed generic purpose of love impossible.\nBut even if we ignored love altogether and admitted the existence of the\nsexual instinct only, its mysterious endeavour in the interest of the\nspecies would still remain pure imagination, and a conception far\ninferior to that of the winged god of love. The instinct does not\npossess a trace of \"discretion,\" takes no interest in the weal and woe\nof humanity, but is utterly selfish, seeking its own gratification and\nnothing else.\n\nThe theory which fits so well into Schopenhauer's metaphysics has,\nwithout it, neither sense nor support. There is no instinct of\nphiloprogenitiveness, but rather a pairing-instinct, and in addition to\nthis a conscious desire for offspring. The difference between these two\ninstincts is great, for as a rule, the pairing-instinct is not\naccompanied by a wish for children (that it should be so unconsciously\nis a theory not worth considering seriously), and the longing for\nchildren very frequently exists without any sexual desire; to\nmanufacture an instinct out of those two inherently dissimilar impulses\nis fantastic metaphysics and not spiritual reality. The history of\nantiquity furnishes ample proof of my contention, for in the days of the\nremote past the sexual impulse had its special domain, as well as the\nwish for progeny, which was often regarded in the light of a duty.\n\nThe legend of the instinct of philoprogenitiveness which is to-day so\nuniversally believed, is undoubtedly the result of the general feeling\nthat sexual intercourse as such is base and degrading. But because of\nthe more or less clear consciousness that sexual intercourse is really\nwhat is most desired in love, and because of the lack of courage openly\nto admit it, attempts are made to justify it from a social standpoint.\n\nThe task of establishing the equilibrium between love and sensuousness\nhas not yet been accomplished. What is so often realised as _the sexual\ntrouble_ has its origin in the fact that the higher stage has not yet\nbeen finally reached. There is an infinite number of unions, all of\nwhich have a flaw. Witness modern literature with its indefatigable\ntreatment of eroticism. If a complete unity is ever to be established,\nthen doubtless it will be the privilege of the Germanic race to achieve\nit, for the Neo-Latin nations mean by love either the individualised\ninstinct, or the rare, purely spiritual love. But it is not likely that\nthe third stage will become a universal condition; in all probability it\nwill, for a long time to come, be limited to special individuals, and\neven then only to specific phases of their lives. The feeling of the\ngreat majority of men has not changed; it is primitively sexual; in the\nstate of mind which is called _to be in love_ it is centred on an\nindividual woman, to be, after a time, gradually stifled by other\ninterests. The emotional life of the majority of women, on the other\nhand, is still what it was in remotest antiquity. Love impels woman into\nthe arms of a man to whom she remains faithful, until slowly her\ninstincts are transformed into love for her children. But in the case\neven of the average woman, body and soul are equally affected; there is\nno more terrible moment in a woman's life than the one in which she\ndiscovers that the man to whom she has given herself has merely used her\nas a means for gratification. Harmoniously organised woman has given\nherself to a merely sexual man who sought in her only the satisfaction\nof his senses. This also is the cause of the horror with which the\nnormal woman regards the prostitute, for the latter has made of herself\na means for the gratification of male sexuality, losing thereby her\ninherent harmony and individuality. And it is also the reason why, in\nspite of ethical convictions and logical conclusions, we should have\ndifferent standards for the loyalty of the husband and the loyalty of\nthe wife; in man sexuality is a distinct element, an element, it is\ntrue, which we do not value, but which nevertheless exists and has, as\nwe have seen, a historical root. When a man gives way to his instincts,\nhis individuality is not only not destroyed, but it is hardly affected.\nIt is very different in the case of the woman; with her, emancipated\nsexuality is synonymous with inward annihilation, for it has not the\nsupport of the past and cannot exist independently. A man's spiritual\nannihilation from the emotional sphere is unthinkable because his\norganisation is naturally heterogeneous. The mere sexualist represents a\npast stage of male eroticism which has been largely overcome, but he is\nrarely so completely under the spell of sexuality that he cannot highly\ndevelop other parts of his entity. The _double morality_ has, therefore,\nan objective reason (though perhaps not a higher justification), and\nwould only be unjustifiable if man had achieved a complete erotic unity.\n\nThe more complicated life becomes, the more numerous and complex are the\nrelations between individuals and groups. A man is a member of a trades\nunion; he has political, artistic, sporting and social relations; he may\nbe a collector or interested in certain social phenomena, etc. In modern\ncivilisation every component part of the human personality is separated\nfrom the entire personality and brought into a systematic connection\nwith similar component parts of other entities. Our social principle is\ndivision of labour, not only in the community but also in the\nindividual. With one man one can talk only philosophy, with another\nmusic, with a third personal matters, and so on. But because in this way\nonly one part of man, and never the whole being, can be satisfied at a\ntime, the desire to expend one's whole personality in one great\nachievement, or in connection with another individual, is increasing\nexactly in proportion as specialisation is increasing in the community\nand in the individual. The more richly endowed and synthetic a man, the\nmore inappeasable will be his yearning to find the talents scattered\nbroadcast over humanity combined in one personality, and to give himself\nwholly and entirely to that personality. The splitting up of man caused\nby our social conditions is one of the principal causes of the longing\nfor the great and strong love which we hear so much discussed. The\nyearning for the absolute, for perfection, no longer separating and\nselecting but embracing man as a whole, annihilating body and soul in a\nhigher intuition, the longing for mutual self-surrender, for giving and\nreceiving an undivided self, is growing stronger and stronger. The idea\nof modern love, a love embracing the whole breadth of human development,\nis unequalled in human history. A single person shall stand for all\nmankind. The lover has always been all the world to woman, but man has\npossessed many things in addition to the beloved. Our age claims\n(wherever it understands its own eroticism) that woman, on her part,\nshall give to man all things in existence in a higher and purer form;\nnot only complete satisfaction of the senses, not only the lofty emotion\nof spiritual love, but also friendship as a fellow-man; she shall be to\nhim the friend who meant so much to the Greek and the ancient Teuton. It\nis self-evident that the true erotic of our time has very little to\nspare for friendship, while on the other hand the man who is not erotic\nin the true sense of the word, but merely sexual, has generally a poor\nidea of woman and a great appreciation of male friendship. But modern\nlove does not only seek to combine all human relationships; it would\nfain include work, recreation, art. The instinctive jealousy of every\noccupation which she does not share with her lover, is nothing more than\na loving woman's fear that the things which belong to him exclusively\nmay become a danger to the unity of love. Whether such an all-absorbing\nlove is possible in richly-endowed natures, and whether it will not be\nthe cause of new conflict, are questions which cannot here be entered\nupon. But one thing is certain: the great love cannot find its\nconsummation on earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE LOVE-DEATH\n\n(THE SECOND FORM OF METAPHYSICAL EROTICISM)\n\n\nThe craving for infinitude is latent in love; its essence is the longing\nto reach beyond the attainable, to find the meaning of the world in\necstasy. The great erotic is a man whose inward being rests on emotion,\nwho must bring this emotion to its climax--and who is wrecked on the\nincompleteness of human feeling. We recognise in him one of the tragic\nfigures at the confines of humanity. For it is the final tragedy of a\nsoul impelled by the inexorable will to self-realisation, to be broken\non the wheel of human limitations.\n\nThe tragedy of the great man of action is less conditioned by principle\nthan the tragedy of other types of greatness, because he is not limited\nby the universal restrictions of humanity, but by individual and\naccidental ones. He recognises, partly because of his unmetaphysical\nconstitution, no limits to human activity, and in gaining his individual\nobject, he reaches a relative end. It is otherwise with the thinker, the\nartist, the religious enthusiast and the lover. The thinker possesses\nthe highest intellectual endowments; he represents cognisant humanity,\nand his portion is the anguish of realising that the essence of being\ncannot be grasped by the intellect. The great artist creates a\nmasterpiece; his heart is aglow with the ideal of perfect beauty beheld\nby none but him, but his ideal eternally eludes him; the saint has\nachieved perfection as far as perfection is possible to humanity, and\nstands aghast at the burden of insufficiency which weighs down mankind;\nthe great erotic is the hero in the world of feeling, his soul yearns\nfor the consummation of his love--and already he has reached the\nconfines of life.\n\nThere are various paths by which the erotic may travel towards\nperfection; they correspond to the principal erotic types. I have\ndevoted a special chapter to the seeker of love, or the Don Juan; the\nwoman-worshipper who cannot find satisfaction on earth has been dealt\nwith already. The great and rare lover, however, the exponent of the\nfinal form of love, who loves a woman of flesh and blood with every\nfibre of his being, differs very essentially from either of these types.\nThe profounder the emotional depth of the soul, the greater is the\ndifficulty of finding a complementary being. The erotically\nundifferentiated nature (whose intellectual level may, however, be a\nhigh one) finds, and in case of loss replaces, the complementary being\ncomparatively easily. The difficulty both of finding and of substitution\nincreases in proportion to the differentiation and the intensity of\nfeeling. The true erotic, once he has found his complementary being, is\noverwhelmed by the will to the perfect realisation of his passion. It\nappears with the unanswerable logic of the unique and final, carrying in\nits train supreme happiness and infinite sorrow. A love able to deliver\na soul from its solitude is rare; once there, the whole world is as\nnothing to it. All life is embraced and brought under its spell. (In\nthis connection I need only mention Michelangelo.) A lover of this type\nsurrenders himself to love unconditionally--love shall completely\nannihilate, completely renew him.\n\nBut it is just in this overwhelming love that the impassable barrier\nbecomes apparent. The lovers are two beings and not one indivisible\nentity. The fundamental fact of individuality stands between them as the\nlast obstacle to their complete union. The more intense the emotion, the\nmore desperately it tilts against this barrier, against the\nimpossibility of complete mutual absorption, and the more passionately\nit demands another common form of existence. Individuality and the\neternal duality of being is felt as a curse. The lovers cannot endure\nthe thought of continuing life as distinct personalities.\n\nThe great erotic who, against all expectation, finds the being to whom\nhe can surrender himself unreservedly and with a sense of immortality,\ndiscovers within himself the supreme and only happiness, and by that\nvery fact has himself become the source of his unhappiness. Personality,\nthe greatest gift bestowed upon the children of man, has flashed its\nlight upon the tragedy of life: solitude, eternal duality. The soul\nrecognises with unspeakable dismay in its own fundamental principle the\ncause of its isolation and the impossibility of final union with the\nbeloved. The supreme value of European civilisation, the value of\ncomplete personality, into whose gradual development and perfecting all\nhuman forces had been built, and in whose interest countless sacrifices\nhad been made, knows itself as the cause of supreme suffering, as an\nelement which ought on no account to exist. Not its completion, but its\nannihilation is what should really be desired. We have here arrived at\nthe very confines of humanity. If the great thinker has found the\nboundaries of all knowledge in the limitations of the intellect, and is\nthus the representative of the human mind with its unattainable goal:\nknowledge of the secret of being, the erotic has gone a step further. He\nhas found the boundary in the very perfection of his personality and, to\nhim, the barrier is unendurable. In the rare love of the rare\npersonality is discovered the eternal separateness of the ego; only the\ndestruction of its origin, the annihilation of itself, might, perhaps,\nthrow down the barrier which separates the lovers. Inevitably there\narises in the soul the desire and the will to escape, together with the\nbeloved, the insufferable solitude of existence; to achieve in death\nwhat life denies; to realise another, a higher condition, divined in\ndreams and seen in visions; to become one with the beloved, to transform\nall human existence into a new, divine universal existence: \"Then I\nmyself am the world!\" Everything individual, all life, is blotted out;\nthe death of the lovers from love and through love is the mystic portal\nof a higher state of being. It is the last ecstasy of unity--the\nlove-death--an ecstasy which life cannot give because it must always be\nwrecked on duality. It is the despairing attempt to escape from\nseparateness, to effect a delivery which to human understanding seems\nfinal, and it is characteristic that Wagner, who made the problem of\nredemption peculiarly his own, should have expressed this attempt\nuniquely and with unparalleled grandeur.\n\nIt would be a mistake to read into the idea of the love-death a\nrejection of the European view of life, a denial of the world-feeling of\npersonality, and a victory of the impotent philosophy of the East which\nexalts non-existence above existence (that is to say, individual\nexistence). For the essence of the love-death is contained in the\ndetermination of personality to realise itself in a new and positive\nform of existence. It is felt as the final synthesis, exactly as (in\nother spheres) the union of the ideal with the personal is seen as the\nperfection of human life. How would it be possible at once to annihilate\nand to transcend the individual soul, the source of personal love, if\nthis soul were not first presupposed as the essential and supreme value?\nWhere personal love does not exist, as in the Orient and Japan, the\nthought of the love-death would be an absurdity. The burning of Indian\nwidows is a phenomenon widely differing from the love-death. The Indian\nwidow slavishly abandons a life which has become aimless through her\nmaster's death; she does not make a sacrifice in the true sense of the\nword, and is not actuated by love.\n\nThe complete unity of the lovers is possible on earth for a brief hour\nand it will, in most cases, satisfy erotic yearning. It can be realised\nin two ways: by the blissful rest of the lovers in each other, which\nsilences all desires and apparently robs time of its tyranny.\n\n     The heart is still, and nothing can disturb\n     The deepest thought, the thought to be her own.\n\nsays Goethe; and a newer poet:\n\n     Close around me, wondrous being,\n     Wind thy magic veil oblivion,\n     All my heart from unrest freeing,\n     Let there be untroubled calm.\n\n     Give me peace; the helter skelter\n     Of the wide world has gone by;\n     And this narrow, silent shelter\n     Holds the potent healing balm.\n\nBy the side of this idyllic consummation of the longing for love, there\nis the other, the ecstatic consummation of mutual rapture. It almost\nblots out individual consciousness in the singly (no longer doubly)\nfelt, body and soul entrancing ecstasy; it is such sheer delight that\npleasure is no longer perceived as a distinct element, but rather is\nthere the consciousness of a complete transformation of life. Pleasure,\nwhich, a great psychologist maintains, \"craves eternity\" is annihilated\nin its perfection, knows no more of itself, and is a part of the lovers'\nsense of complete unity. It does not \"crave eternity\"; such a craving is\nits last stage but one, the outer court (further than which Nietzsche as\nfar as eroticism is concerned never penetrated); in the innermost\nsanctuary pleasure disappears; it has no longer any meaning, it becomes\nvoid before the new consciousness. The supreme ecstasy of great love\nproves that the summit of human emotion is beyond pleasure and pain, and\ndoes not acknowledge the limitations of bodily existence. Thus, of\nnecessity, the rapture of love must engender the idea of its own\neternity, the destruction of individual consciousness. I will quote in\nthis connection a few verses by Erika Rheinsch:\n\n     To open now my lips were vain indeed,\n     Nor word nor even kiss could e'er confess\n     What sighs and joy and grief and happiness\n     Would flash from me to you with lightning speed.\n\n     Nor hope nor pray'r can still the soul's desire,\n     For God Himself can never join us twain;\n     My bitter tears fall on my heart like rain\n     And cannot quench its all-consuming fire.\n\n     Oh! Now to break the spell--the storm to breast\n     With broken heart and life-blood ebbing fast,\n     Bearing the pangs of death for you, at last,\n     Dark troubled love--at last thou wert at rest!\n\nWe perceive that love can no longer content itself with the\npenultimate--it must dare the last heroic step which creates beyond body\nand soul something new and final, for \"God Himself can never join us\ntwain.\" The love-death is the last and inevitable conclusion of\nreciprocal love which knows of no value but itself, and is resolved to\nface eternity, so that no alien influence shall reach it. The two\npowers, love and death, tower above human life fatefully and\nmysteriously; an isolated experience cannot appease them, they involve\nthe whole existence. To the individual who loves with an all-absorbing\nlove, and to the individual on the point of death, everything dwindles\ninto insignificance. Before the majesty of the love-death life breaks\ndown, to be laid hold of and transcended in a new (divined) sphere.\n\nThe thought of the love-death, the will that the world should be\ngoverned by love, is the most unconditional postulate of feeling ever\nlaid down. For the love-death is the definite and irrevocable victory of\nemotion; it is ecstasy as a solution of the world-problem and the\nworld-process. It is human to regard love and death as antitheses; to\nconsider them far removed from each other; marriage and funeral are the\npoles of social life. The ecstasy of the love-death, however, owing to\nits all-transcending claim, unites the two poles. The climax of life\nshall also be its end.\n\nIt is here, in the voluntary surrender of life in order to attain a\ndivined unity, and not in the union of begetting and destroying, that\nthe frequently assumed connection between love and death is to be found.\nVoluptuousness and death are not interlinked, as is so frequently\nasserted since Novalis (not on the higher plane of eroticism), but\nvoluptuousness has immolated itself, has been annihilated in the\nlove-death. The view that begetting and destroying are related\nfunctions, is based on the supposition that love is bound up with\npropagation. This is the fateful error of the modern theory of love, a\nrationalistic, metaphysical abstraction, which touches no corresponding\nchord in the human soul. To base the relationship of love and death on\nan association of becoming and declining is a beautiful idea, but\nnothing more. Modern synthetic love produces this relationship in its\nmetaphysical perfection out of itself; it is foreign alike to pure\nsexuality and to spiritual love. (Wherever the desire to destroy is\nfound hand in hand with sensuality, morbid instincts are at play.)\n\nIt frequently occurs that lovers commit suicide together because\nexternal circumstances prevent their union. This is a step corresponding\nto suicide from offended vanity or incurable disease; life has become\nunbearable to the individual haunted by a fixed idea, and he throws it\naway. But this has nothing whatever to do with the love-death; it is a\npurely negative act of despair, whereas the love-death is an altogether\npositive act, namely, the will to win to a higher (and to the intellect\ninconceivable and paradoxical) metaphysical unity. The love-death\naspires to perform a miracle. It has, possibly, never been realised in\nits full greatness; the evidence of the common death of Heinrich von\nKleist and Henrietta Vogel must be rejected. During the last days of his\nlife Kleist was wrapped up in the idea of their common death, and in a\nletter to his cousin, Marie von Kleist, he says: \"If you could only\nrealise how death and love strive to beautify these last moments of my\nlife with heavenly and earthly roses, you would be content to let me\ndie. I swear to you I am supremely happy.\" In the same letter he speaks\nof \"the most voluptuous of deaths.\" And yet it was no real love-death,\nthat is to say, death following as a necessary corollary in order that\nlove may be consummated. Kleist as well as Henrietta had separately\nresolved to commit suicide, and when they--almost accidentally--heard of\nthis mutual intention, they conceived the idea of the new voluptuousness\nof a common death. Love did not play a very great part in this. Kleist\nfurther says in the same letter: \"Her resolution to die with me drew me,\nI cannot tell you with what unspeakable and irresistible power, into her\narms. Do you remember that I asked you more than once to die with me.\nBut you always said 'No.'\" From this and other passages it is clear that\nKleist would have taken his life in any case, and that he only seized\nthis specific opportunity to plunge into the ecstasy of a common death.\n\nThe thought of the love-death is often present in the hearts of\nindividuals who are genuinely in love. We read in Schlegel's _Lucinda_:\n\"There (in a transcendental life) our longings may perhaps be\nsatisfied.\" And in Lenau's letters to Sophy the same thought is more\nthan once apparent.\n\nThe idea reached perfection and immortality in Wagner's \"Tristan and\nIsolde.\" It is Wagner's world-famous deed to have lived through and\nembodied this complex of emotion for the first, and so far for the last\ntime; his lovers are in a superlative degree representative of human\nlove; they typify the climaxes of human emotion. Wagner has immortalised\nthe metaphysical form of synthetic love; his importance to synthetic\nlove surpasses Dante's importance to deification.\n\nAlready in the first act the exchange of love-potion and death-draught\nis profoundly significant: both Tristan and Isolde seek death because\nthey are alarmed by the external obstacles to their love. But the\nthought of death and love, the foreboding that their love can find rest\nonly in the ultimate, in finality, has been in their hearts from the\noutset. Together they receive new life from love, and together love\nleads them, step by step, to death. In the profoundest sense no exchange\nof potions has taken place, but the power of the love-potion has made\nthem conscious of what was latent in their souls, waiting to burst into\nlife. At the very moment when Isolde proffers Tristan the death-draught,\nthe conviction flashes into his soul that she is giving him death\nthrough love: \"When thy dear hand the goblet raised, I recognised that\ndeath thou gav'st.\" And in the same way Isolde: \"From golden day I\nsought to flee, in darkest night draw thee with me, where my heart\ndivined the end of deceit, where illusion's haunting dream should fade,\nto drink eternal love to thee, joined everlastingly, to death I doom'd\nthee.\"\n\nThe second act leads them further and further into the coils of their\nlove; they are more and more convinced that death alone is left to them,\nstep by step they discover the secret of the mystical union--and yet\nthey are still completely imprisoned within the limits of their\npersonalities and cannot quite understand the miracle: \"How to grasp it,\nhow to grasp it, this great gladness, far from daylight, far from\nsadness, far from parting?\" For it is the profoundest secret of the\nworld which here must be guessed by love--the final unity of two souls\nand through it unity with all life. Clearer and clearer and more and\nmore compelling looms the thought of a common death, until it is grasped\nand comprehended; the lovers realise that to be completely one they must\nsurrender their lives, and that by losing life they can lose nothing\nessential. \"All death can destroy is that which divides us.\" Ultimately\nTristan pronounces the final decision, and Isolde repeats it word by\nword, follows it step by step like a sleep-walker, so as to make it\nquite her own. \"Thus should we die no more to part, in endless joy, one\nsoul, one heart, never waking, never haunted by pale fear, in love\nundaunted, each to each united aye, dream of love's eternity.\" The\ngrand, artistic symbol for this state of consciousness touches\nmetaphysic. Wagner introduces night as the visible emblem of an\nexistence in a world--inconceivable by our senses--beyond the grave, in\ncontrast to the earthly day, to \"the day's deceptive glamour.\"\n(Nietzsche later on adopted this symbol \"midnight\" as the emblem of\neverything lofty.) The lovers who in their day-consciousness believed\nthat they hated each other, now that they are walking towards eternal\nnight divine that which is beyond the reach of their separated selves,\nbeyond all illusion and duality. The duality is outwardly expressed by\ntheir different names, separated and united \"by the little word _and_.\"\nAll at once the knowledge dawns upon them that great love cannot be\nconsummated in the day of the world, but that it points to a life\nbeyond. They have discovered the final meaning of life and the\nworld--the annihilation of individual life and death through\nlove--analogous to the last wisdom of the mystic: \"To become God.\" \"I\nmyself am the world.\" Death is the inevitable corollary of supreme love.\nBut as they tremblingly yearn for and await the inconceivable, earth\nonce more stretches out her arms to them, the dream of metaphysical\nexistence melts slowly away. In the orchestration _phantoms of the day,\ndreams of morning_, suppress the new, the divined conception.\n\nAt the opening of the third act the motif for horns and violas gradually\nascending and dying away, expresses the unspeakable dreariness and\nsenselessness of material life, after its profound meaning, the\nre-creation of the world by love, has been lost. This feeling of\nabsolute senselessness dominates the awakening sleeper; Tristan,\ninterpreting it in the sense of Schopenhauer as the universal\naimlessness of the world and of life, is merely expressing the doom of\nhis own longing for the supreme: he has divined and has lost the\nloftiest value. Wagner intuitively perceives that sin is a component\npart of the supreme sublimation of love and personality; Tristan must\ncurse himself and the beloved woman because love, as the last\nconsequence of sin, demands the love-death, which can never find\ncompletion; \"The terrible draught myself I have brewed it! A curse on\nthee, terrible draught! A curse on him who brewed it!\"\n\nIn the music at the end of the third act, which is known by the (not\nquite relevant) title of \"Isolde's Love-death,\" Wagner, after previously\nexpressing by Tristan's last words, \"Do I near light?\" the inadequacy of\nthe physical senses--attempts to describe the metaphysical condition of\nthe unity of love, which to our consciousness can only have the negative\ncharacteristics of the unthinkable and intangible--the unconscious. This\nhe tried to accomplish artistically by making use of the senses, by\ntrying to convey in terms of sound, light, scent, what he understood by\nthis complete immersion in the swirling totality of cosmic life--\"_in\ndes Weltatem's wehendem All_.\" The essence of this condition is that the\nduality of the souls, and finally the multiplicity of the world, is\nresolved in a higher unity. But as we are concerned with the emotional\nlife of the lovers and not with vague metaphysical propositions, we may\nsay that such a death is not a being dead, destroyed, annihilated,\ndispersed, but a being transformed, perfected in love. The amazing\nphenomenon of this complex of feeling is the fact that real life has\nbecome unbearable, and that another life is created without the least\nregard to possibility or truth; it is as if the emotion of the lovers\nwere endowed with divine, creative power.\n\nThose who realise the love-death as a necessity of their inmost being,\nresemble the great ecstatic whom earthly life can no longer satisfy,\nbecause he is conscious of a force compelling him to enter into a higher\ncosmic existence. His inmost experience is the annihilation of the\nindividual soul in God; he aspires to a direct pouring of the soul into\nthe divine love. Those who die in love are directly seeking complete\nunity with each other, and only indirectly, through this unity, the\ndivined annihilation in metaphysical being. The love-death is the\nerotic, bi-human form of mystic ecstasy, and could not be evolved until\nthe highest form of love had been developed.\n\nMetaphysical eroticism is a product of the spirit of Europe, for it is\nlinked to personality whose will is the immortalisation of love.\nOrientalism neither comprehends nor appreciates this emotion, for it\nlacks the foundation of the culture of personality. The Semite, the\nIndian and the Japanese experience only the rapture of the senses; and\ngratification, restlessly revolving round itself between enjoyment and\nexhaustion, is condemned to eternal sterility. All religio-sexual orgies\nof which history tells us are so many attempts of sensuality to possess\nitself of a higher intuition--vain attempts, because casual intercourse\nand the annihilation of the individual can never produce new values.\nAccording to Hegel the immanent sense of everything that happens in the\nworld is the destiny of the individual to grow from slavery into\nfreedom; but is it not rather the meaning of increased culture that man\nshould realise himself as an individual (which is by no means a\ncontradiction to the first proposition)? Metaphysical eroticism is the\ncompletion of personality in love. Simultaneously with the birth of\npersonality originated the deification of woman; the destruction of the\nmost highly evolved personality, the last painful consequence of its\nblessed-unblessed nature, gives birth to the conception of the\nlove-death. Like antique torch-bearing genii the two metaphysical forms\nof love stand at the head and the feet of self-conscious man. Here and\nthere erotic emotion, transcending all limitations, becomes the pathway\nleading to the ultimate secrets of life: deification creates a\nsupernatural female being as the erotic representative of everything\ndivine. This is a productive act, erotic, artistic and religious at the\nsame time. It produces out of its own fulness new forces for the service\nof higher ideals; it creates a new world of emotion with new contents.\n\nSimultaneously with the projection of the love of woman into eternity\nwere sown the seeds of those great things on which the higher spiritual\nlife of to-day is based. Deification demands shape and individuality\nbeyond the earthly sphere, in eternity. But from one side it is love,\nlove without response (unless the lover finds response in and through\nartistic expression), the eroticism of the solitary man, and it occurs\nas such to this day in rare minds. Woman-worship is the natural and the\nhighest form of love for the man who does not seek his own perfection in\nduality--a reciprocal relationship with another being--but solitarily,\nand yet not, as the mystic, shapelessly, but rather in a love definitely\nprojected on another being. The dream of the perfect woman is the only\nerotic dream which reality can never disappoint, for it makes no claim\non reality. Doubtless it is to some extent paradoxical that the\ninherently social feeling, anchored in duality, should be experienced\nand perfected solitarily, that it should waive all claim to response\nand reciprocity, to all appearances the most important elements of love.\n\nThe love-death corresponds more completely to the erotic ideal inasmuch\nas it is founded on absolute equality in reciprocity. It finds its\nclimax not in solitude but in the company of the beloved. The idea of\ncomplete abandonment is revolting to the solitarily loving individual;\nthe lover whose whole soul turns to the beloved cannot understand the\nlove of the solitary soul; it appears to him unnatural and cold, perhaps\nmeaningless and crazy. Woman does not know true solitude, the thought of\ndeification is foreign to her nature; she attains to the supreme only\nwith and through man; it is easier to her to give herself to her lover\nentirely, and even to follow him into death. But in this connection I am\nunable to suppress a doubt as to whether the fundamental emotion of the\nmystical world-union is altogether present in woman, whether she really\ndivines behind her lover--eternity.\n\nWhile deification is universally creative, while it is fresh as the\nspring and full of faith, the love-death with its gloomy pathos demands\nthe entire individual and destroys everything but itself. It has no\ncreative power, for there is nothing beyond it. One may justly maintain\nthat the love-death realises the mystico-ecstatic religious emotion,\nwhile in the deification of woman the religious need to worship finds\nsatisfaction. Both are combinations of love and religion, both are\nmetaphysical eroticism, paradoxical and yet logical conclusions of human\nemotion.\n\nThe overwhelming longing which is connected at least with the first\nstages of a great love, may be interpreted in another, in a social\nsense. Love is the intensest and most direct relationship which can\nexist between two beings, and the impossibility of realising its final\nlonging represents the most genuine tragedy of life among men and women\nof the social world. The need which impels two beings to each other\nlacks, in this union too, the possibility of complete consummation. And\nif the most powerful of all social emotions (and as many believe the\nroot of all others) suffers from an inner duality, to how much greater\nan extent must the less intense feelings which unite individuals share\nthe same lot! Humanity, wherever it is comprehended profoundly and\nspiritually, not economically, carries within itself the germ of its\ntragical imperfection. Whatever social relationship we may enter, we\nfind that it has a flaw, and the more genuine and profound the\nrelationship, the less dictated by utilitarian considerations (which in\nthis connection correspond to the element of sensuality in eroticism),\nthe more painfully does this flaw make itself felt,--whether it be in\nfriendship, in the relationship of master and man, or in free\ncompanionship. Every relationship between individuals is stricken with\nthe curse of incompleteness--even love cannot escape this fate. Love\nenforces in the deification of woman a transcending of earthly life--and\nit throws itself into the last embrace of a common death--that is to\nsay, it shudderingly admits the impossibility of its consummation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE CONFLICT BETWEEN SEXUALITY AND LOVE\n\n_The Seeker of Love and The Slave of Love_\n\n\nIt is obvious that even an equilibrium between sexuality and love cannot\nalways be established, while a genuine and complete unification is very\nunusual and may, perhaps, be called utopian. In the previous chapters I\nhave dealt with the blending of both elements in the highest form of\neroticism; in the following I will attempt to throw light on some of the\nprincipal phenomena resulting from a defective union of sexuality and\nlove, phenomena which I am convinced have never been correctly\ninterpreted. I allude to perversions which are not inherently\npathological, although they are as a rule only observed and described in\ntheir pathological form.\n\nThe fundamental form of so-called sadism may be discovered in an erotic\ntype which I will call the seeker of love. A lover of this type is\ncharacterised by an unappeasable longing for pure, spiritual love; he\npasses from woman to woman in the hope of realising this desire, but\nowing to his own material disposition he is unable to do so. Time after\ntime he succumbs to sexual promptings. Thus groping, frequently quite\nunconsciously--for a fictitious being, he hates every woman whose fate\nit is to rouse his desire, for each one cheats him out of that which he\nseeks. A genuine illusionist, he knows nothing of the woman of flesh and\nblood, and continues seeking his ideal, only to be again and again\ndisappointed. He blames every woman he conquers for what is really his\nown insufficiency; he despises her or revenges himself on her, punishes\nand ill-treats her; we recognise the true Don Juan and his morbid\ncaricature, the sadist. But even the most brutal representative of this\ntype may still be psychologically described as \"a man who seeks\nspiritual love in woman after woman and, finding only sexuality,\nrevenges himself on her.\" Quite a number of men harbour sadistic\nfeelings for only one woman, and that the one to whom they owe their\ngreat disillusionment. Doubtless many men have almost lost the psychical\nroots of their perversions and are completely involved in physical acts.\nThere is nothing remarkable in this fact; it occurs in every sphere of\nhuman life. The vague instinct of revenge on woman animates also, though\nperhaps unconsciously, the pathological sadist.\n\nThere is one thing which the seeker of love and the woman-worshipper\nhave in common: both seek a higher ideal far beyond the woman of\nevery-day life; but while the worshipper safeguards the purity of his\nfeeling by putting the greatest possible distance between him and the\nobject of his worship (and is therefore never disappointed), the seeker\nof love, blinded by the illusion that he has at last found the object of\nhis quest, draws every woman towards him and again and again discovers\nthat he is nothing but a sensualist. Every fresh conquest destroys his\ndream afresh, and he revenges himself, if he is a Don Juan, by despising\nand disgracing the unfortunate victim, and if he is a sadist, by\nmaltreating her. And yet he never entirely loses his illusion; he craves\nfor complete satisfaction, and as he is incapable of self-knowledge, he\nnever abandons the hope of meeting the woman he seeks. He differs very\nlittle from the type represented by Sordello, who loved one woman\nspiritually, but regarded all the others from the standpoint of sex. It\nis the tragedy of Don Juan to revolt from the low erotic sphere which is\nhis portion, and where he rules supreme, and for ever to aspire to a\nrealm from which he is shut out. He is convinced that with the help of a\nwoman he may redeem himself--and sinks deeper and deeper into the slough\nof his own sensuality. He becomes malevolent, cruel and callous; the\npleasure whose slave he is repels him:\n\n     From craving to enjoyment thus I reel,\n     And in enjoyment languish for desire.\n\nHe is insatiable, but not as the primitive hedonist, whose natural\nelement is pleasure, but because he again and again mistakes pleasure\nfor love. He knows only \"women,\" and thus he sins against personality\nand the love which is the outcome of personality.\n\nThe opinion that Don Juan is no more than a votary of pleasure is not\nworthy of criticism; the famous Casanova, for instance, has nothing in\ncommon with him. Casanova was a sensualist without psychical complexity\nand without tragedy. His sole endeavour was to wring the utmost measure\nof enjoyment out of life. He knew the woman of reality and did not waste\nhis time in running after phantoms. In his old age he revelled in the\nafter-taste and settled down to write his memoirs. Don Juan, on the\ncontrary, has such a loathing for all the women he betrays, that he\nhardly remembers them, and certainly has the strongest disinclination to\nevoke their memory. Casanova was an entirely unmetaphysical and\nunproblematical nature. His philosophy is clearly expressed in the\npreface to his Memoirs: \"I always regarded the enjoyment of sensual\npleasures as my principal object; I never knew a more important one.\"\nCasanova, who, strange to say, enjoys such high erotic honours, was\nmerely an ordinary, very successful man of the world, and is of no\nimportance to the subject in hand. But even the greater and wilder\nVicomte de Valmont (the hero of the famous novel of Choderlos de Laclos)\nis in spite of all his art and _esprit_ and perverse principles no\nseeker of love and no Don Juan, but a fop and a braggart, seducing women\nin order to boast of his success. He is moreover only a representative\nof the bored Upper Ten of the _ancien regime_, and not by any means\nunique.\n\nThoughtful critics contend that Don Juan was an autocrat, a destroyer, a\ncriminal nature with satanic tendencies, bent on the enslavement of\nwomen, on their social and moral death; that conquest only, not\nenjoyment, was his passion. I do not altogether reject this\ninterpretation, but it fastens too exclusively on the external and the\nobvious, and overlooks the essential. What is the reason of his\npreposterous procedure? Is he really actuated by the evil desire to\ninjure the women he woos? Such a motive may occur occasionally (the\nVicomte de Valmont was so constituted), but it cannot be regarded as the\nguiding principle of a life--and above everything its pettiness is the\nexact reverse of so great and demoniacal a character as Don Juan. Were\nhe conqueror in the highest sense, then--ascetic and proud--he would be\ncontent with the mere consciousness of victory. But his whole attitude\nbelies the idea of a conqueror; he is not in the least interested in the\nwomen to whom he makes love. They are as necessary to him as \"the air he\nbreathes,\" but they are unable to give him what he seeks. At the moment\nof disappointment he abandons them in disgust, innocent of any despotic\ndesires (which would pre-suppose interest). As far as he is concerned,\nwomen exist only for the purpose of quickening something in his soul.\nBut his soul remains dead; divine love has no part in him, he cannot be\nsaved and is doomed to eternal damnation.\n\nBut what is the reason why women cannot resist him? Let us first settle\nthe point as to why women are attracted to men. I will answer this\nquestion briefly, and though my answer may appear dogmatical, it need\nnot therefore be wrong. Women know very little of man, but there is one\nthing they feel with unfailing certainty, and that is whether their sex\nis of great or of small significance to him. (I am only alluding to the\ngeneral effect of men on women, not to genuine personal love which is\nalways incommensurable.) The greater the importance a man attaches to\nwomen, the more readily do they respond to his influence. They are\nattracted by his erotic will, not by one or the other of his spiritual\nor physical qualities. Women cannot resist a man to whom they mean much,\neverything. It is as if they were compelled to throw themselves into the\nchasm of his vacuity--every fresh victim with the fond hope of filling\nit--but all of them perish. And yet, at the moment of their defeat they\nare supremely happy, for they experience the full intensity of his\npassion and the boundlessness of his longing. The erotic craving of a\nman simply means that women are to him the most important thing in life.\nWomen instinctively yield to that man who most eagerly desires them. The\ncoarse sensualist, to whom all women are alike, attracts sensual women,\nnot exactly because they find in him the satisfaction of their craving,\nbut because they themselves act on him indiscriminately. But a woman\nwill adapt herself with the greatest ease to the needs of the\ndifferentiated erotic (for instance, she will become really sentimental\nto please the man who prefers sentimental women), for she loves to give\nherself to the man who most desires her and as he desires her.\n\nDon Juan, animated by illimitable erotic yearning, is therefore the\nundisputed master of the other sex. He has the power of bestowing\nabsolute happiness, even if only for a brief hour, because in his\nboundless love (which is projected on anything but her) a woman receives\nthe supreme value. Maybe he would be saved if a woman denied herself to\nhim--maybe he would cease to be a seeker of love and become a\nworshipper, for he could not refuse to believe in the woman who\nrejected him; but it is his fate that no woman he woos can resist him,\nthat all throw themselves into his arms without an exception and without\na struggle.\n\nThus the seeker of love, too, though in a restricted sense, may be\nregarded as a metaphysical erotic, for he loathes sexuality--his\nportion--and yearns for a higher form of love. He shares this attitude\nwith the slave of love, who is also a sensualist and a would-be lover.\nThe slave of love imitates the attitude of the worshipper, but he\ninfallibly sinks into the sexual sphere. What the psychopathist since\nKraft-Ebbing designates as masochism, is the pathological degeneration\nof this particular emotion, which is very common and appears in various\nforms, but does not seem to me to be at all morbid. Certainly it is\nmorbid when a man allows himself to be insulted, bound and flogged, but\nit is fairly normal when his passionate admiration is roused by an\nimperious woman, who passes him by like a queen without even noticing\nhis abject adoration; when he longs to kneel down before her and kiss\nher feet, which in reward would spurn him. Quite normal, too, is the\nboyish happiness in serving an admired and adored woman (Kraft-Ebbing\ncalls this pageism) described so beautifully in Dostoievsky's novel, _A\nYoung Hero_, and fairly common among troubadours and minnesingers. (I\nneed only mention Ulrich von Lichtenstein.) There are numerous degrees\nof this feeling--we frequently come across it in the novels of\nDostoievsky, Jacobsen, Strindberg, D'Annunzio, and others--but the\nessence of it is always contained in the fact that the man, although\nyearning to worship the beloved woman, cannot maintain himself in the\nsphere of spiritual love, and aspires to direct physical contact. His\nattitude, which closely imitates purely spiritual love, cannot be other\nthan sexual. The blending of love and sexuality together with the\nincapacity of effecting a real synthesis, the confusion of value and\npleasure is most clearly shown in the masochist--far more clearly than\nin the case of the (rare) seeker of love. The outward modes preferred by\nthe individual are a matter of indifference; for the most part they are\nsymbolical acts, indicating the lover's inferiority and the loftiness\nand power of his mistress. What is really of importance is the spiritual\nattitude which induces him to commit these strange acts, and in these we\nfind the characteristic attitude of the woman-worshipper: that of the\nslave before his queen. The slave of love is a sensualist incapable of\napproaching woman in a normally manly, instinctive and natural way, but\nrequiring the pose of the spiritual worshipper. One might be tempted to\nbelieve that he harboured the secret wish to atone for his incapacity of\nfeeling a pure love by being degraded and ill-treated. Thus from a human\npoint of view the slave of love is a higher type than the seeker of\nlove; all his transgressions, the fault of his morbid disposition, come\nhome to him; he takes the blame of his sin upon his own shoulders, while\nthe seeker of love revenges himself on his victims for his own\nshortcomings. The seeker of love is by nature polygamous, while the\nslave of love is, as a rule, monogamous (and consequently has little\nsuccess with the opposite sex). Both aspire to a union of sensual and\nspiritual eroticism, but in both cases the union is a failure. All the\nrepulsive and terrible manifestations of these perversions which have\nbeen recorded, can easily be shown to fit my theory. In psychological\nresearch it is merely a question of selecting the great types from the\nmass of phenomena and determining them correctly.\n\nThe so-called _fetichist_, too, whose passion is roused by indifferent\nobjects which belonged, or might belong, to the beloved, or in fact to\nany woman, is a variant of the slave of love. The classical\nrepresentative of fetichism is the mediaeval knight who carried a\nhandkerchief, a glove, or any other article of clothing belonging to his\nlady, next to his heart, thus believing himself proof against evil\ninfluences. There we see already spiritual love groping for material\nobjects in order to gain earthly support; not every man is a Dante, not\nevery man is capable of keeping his soul free from the taint of this\nearthly sphere. But even the \"plait-cutter,\" so well known to the reader\nof newspapers, the collector of garters, and similar desperadoes,\nrequire a relic, a fetich which they apparently worship. To the same\ncategory belongs the idolatrous cult which some men, especially\nartists--but also madmen--practise with female pictures and statues\n(more especially with heads). In this case the fundamental feeling of\nthe love of beauty, which we know as an essential factor of purely\nspiritual eroticism, is made to serve sensual purposes. The desired\nillusion of spiritual worship is facilitated, and is protected from\nself-revelation, owing to the fact that a painted head rouses in the\nnormal individual no passion, but inspires him with purely spiritual\nsentiments.\n\nI have briefly touched on this subject because my theory of the two\nroots of eroticism permits of a new, and in my opinion plausible,\nexplanation of erotic perversions; one might even go as far as to say\nthat the existence of perversions follows as a necessary consequence;\nthat they must exist because it obviously cannot _always_ be possible to\nmaintain a harmonious balance of sensuality and love. This chapter is\ntherefore a necessary supplement to the previous ones in which the\nperfection of modern love is dealt with. The seeker of love and the\nslave of love are phenomena of dualistic eroticism incapable of\nattaining to unity. For this reason they neither existed in antiquity,\nnor do we find genuine examples of them in the female sex. All female\nperversions closely examined are hysteria--that is to say, want of inner\nbalance--in various forms; a woman's subjection to the will of a man is\nin very many instances a natural symptom, and cannot be regarded as\nperverse. And thus we again perceive that the eroticism of woman is more\nharmonious and natural than that of the eternally groping and eternally\nerring man.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE REVENGE OF SEXUALITY\n\n_The Demoniacal and the Obscene_\n\n\nIn conclusion I will attempt to elucidate a group of phenomena which\nplay a part, important though often ignored, in the emotional life of\nthe present day. They are related to the subject under discussion,\ninasmuch as they, too, are the result of a lack of harmony between\nsensuousness and love. As long as sensuousness is felt and understood as\na natural element, and one which does not under normal circumstances\nenter consciousness as a distinct principle, the emotional sphere which\nmay be designated as demoniacal-sexual and obscene, does not exist. Not\nuntil sensuousness is confronted by a higher principle, a now solely\nacknowledged spiritual-divine principle, will natural life, and\nparticularly normal sexuality, be stigmatised as low and ungodly, even\nas demoniacal. In proportion as the conception of God became more\nspiritual and divine, the conception of the devil became more horrible;\nthe higher the soul soared, the deeper sank the body. This philosophy of\npure spirituality was expressed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux in the\nfollowing words: \"Oh, soul, stamped with the image of God, adorned with\nHis semblance, espoused to faith, endowed with His spirit, redeemed by\nHis blood, the compeer of angels, invested with reason--what hast thou\nin common with the flesh, for which thou must suffer so much?... And yet\nit is thy dearest companion! Behold, there will come a day when it shall\nbe a miserable, pallid corpse, food for worms! For however beautifully\nit may be adorned, yet it is nothing but flesh!\" The man of the later\nMiddle Ages, and especially the cleric, who was completely dominated by\nthe contrast of the ascetic and the sexual, feared the devil more than\nhe loved God, and regarded the sensual temptations which beset his\nexcited, superstitious and eternally unsatisfied imagination as sent by\nthe devil. The naivete of sensuality had passed away for ever; as\ngoodness was looked upon as divine and supernatural, nature and natural\ninstincts were condemned. Man was torn asunder.\n\nBut the devil was not only feared, he was also worshipped. A\ndevil-worship, the details of which have been little studied, existed\nfrom the tenth to the fourteenth century (when it reached its climax),\nside by side with the worship of God. The greater the dread of heresy\nand witchcraft, the greater became the number of men who, despairing of\nsalvation, prostrated themselves before the devil, whom they seemed\nunable to escape (a single evil thought was sufficient to doom their\nsouls to eternal damnation), in the hope that he would at least save\ntheir bodies from the stake and vouchsafe them the pleasures of this\nworld. Satan promised his worshippers unlimited pleasure; he became the\nredeemer of those whom the clergy persecuted. It is asserted that his\nworship consisted in an obscene parody of the Mass; according to\nMichelet, the body of a female worshipper served as the altar on which a\ntoad was consecrated and partaken of instead of the Host. The adept\nsolemnly renounced Jesus and did homage to Satan by kissing his image.\n\nAsceticism and libertinism always go hand in hand. They are convertible\nprinciples rending their victim. _Temptation_ is the fundamental motif\nof this condition. The devil was believed to send out his servants to\nwin new souls; monks were visited by demons in the shape of a voluptuous\nwoman, the _succubus_; Satan himself, or one of his emissaries,\ndisguised as a fashionable gentleman, the _incubus_, appeared to the\nnuns. Undoubtedly the dreams of over-excited men and women played a very\nimportant part in this connection; many hysterical women felt the\ndevil's kiss and embrace. All these women were themselves convinced of\nthe truth of their hallucinations and imaginings, and once the belief in\nwitchcraft was firmly established (in the thirteenth century) the\nobvious atonement for their hysteria was the stake.\n\nThe fear of witches, which existed parallel with the love of the\nMadonna, was typical of the declining Middle Ages. The first Christian\ncenturies knew neither the Lady of Heaven in the later meaning of the\nword, nor did they know anything of witches. In the reign of Charlemagne\nthe penalty for the belief in witchcraft was death. At all times man has\nexhibited a tendency to see in woman either a celestial or an infernal\nbeing, and nowhere was this tendency more strongly developed than in the\nsoul of the mediaeval dualist: he created the beloved and adored Queen\nof Heaven, the mediator between God and humanity and, as her counterpart\nthe witch, the despised and dreaded seducer, a being between man and\ndevil. Powerless to effect a reconciliation between spiritual love and\nsensuous pleasure, he required two distinct female types as\npersonifications of the two directions of his desire; love and the\npleasure of the senses could have nothing in common, and once the\nhighest value was realised in the spiritual love of woman, pleasure\ncould not appear otherwise than degraded, sinful and diabolical. In this\nrespect, also, woman submitted without a murmur to the dictates of male\nwill.\n\nMary and the devil became more and more the real hostile powers of the\nthirteenth century; the classical time of woman-worship was also the\nclimax of the fear of the devil and witchcraft. The Dominican monks\nwho, above all other orders, contributed to the spread of the cult of\nMary, proceeded, soon after the establishment of the Inquisition,\nagainst the witches, the enemies of Mary. In the second half of the\nthirteenth century the persecution of heresy gradually gave way to the\npersecution of witchcraft.\n\nI will not go into these well-known details, for the psychical position\nis clear enough: to the man whose heart is filled with the love of good\nand the spiritual love of woman, sensuousness will appear as dangerous\nand perilous, and will have at the same time the glamour of the\ndemoniacally-sexual. It is the diabolical element of dualistic\nconsciousness in the sphere of eroticism. Many people of the present day\nwill not be able to understand this feeling, for it pre-supposes a\ncompletely inharmonious emotional life.\n\nThe consciousness of the obscene is allied to the conception of the\ndemoniacal; it accompanies modern synthetic love as its temptation and\nits shadow. In personal love sensuality and soul are no longer\nindependent, contrasted principles; personality, taking the spiritual as\nits foundation, includes the sensuous. In this highest stage all\neroticism not hallowed by mutual affection is felt as unpardonable. The\npurely sexual principle continues to exist, but whenever it appears in\nits impersonal and brutal crudity as an element hostile to personality,\nit creates the consciousness of the obscene. The obscene is, therefore,\nthe purely sexual, not in its naive normality, but as a force inimical\nto a value, as a rule to the value of personality. The obscene expresses\nscorn and hatred for personal love. It is the seduction of the primitive\nwhich is no longer something _earlier_, but something baser (for every\nage must gauge all things by its own standard). The aesthetic\nprinciple--in this connection the sense of the beauty of the human\nform--so powerful an element in naive sensuality as well as in every\nother form of eroticism, is excluded, because in this particular\ncondition the beauty of the human body is not objectively realised, but\nis looked upon with the eyes of the senses. The moment personality is\nacknowledged as the only decisive factor in erotic life, chaotic\nimpersonal sensuality stands condemned. The obscene is the darker aspect\nof modern love, and without modern love it could not exist. Its essence\nis negative, is the tendency to caricature and mock the highest form of\nlove. The photograph of a nude woman is not obscene; but if the face is\nhidden, and thus the personal moment intentionally eliminated in favour\nof the generic element, it approaches the obscene. This accounts for the\nwidely felt pleasure in obscene pictures; the beholder is not personally\nengaged, he can enjoy these pictures without taking upon his shoulders\nany kind of responsibility. Even that minimum of respect which the very\ndregs of humanity may claim is not required of him. The picture is\ncapable of affording pleasure without claiming a grain of human\nkindness. Thus it would seem that sensual pleasure is possible without\nany sacrifice of the inwardly professed higher eroticism, a sacrifice\nwhich might be a bar to a primitive relationship with a woman of flesh\nand blood. Actually, however, it is not possible, for with the surrender\nto the base source of enjoyment, the spiritual position is abandoned,\nand personally conceived humanity inwardly annihilated.\n\nIt follows from the foregoing that the fascination of the obscene can\nonly be fully felt by one who has completely acknowledged the principle\nof personality in eroticism, and who has also latent within him the\npossibility of erotic dualism. The more highly evolved the emotional\nlife of a man (all these considerations apply only to a man in whom the\npossibility of dualism is latent), the more will he realise the purely\nsexual, the emphasis of the element of pleasure, as something unseemly\nand disagreeable; something which he ought to deny himself, but which\nattracts him with the irresistible fascination of the obscene. The man\nwho surrenders himself naively to sensuality does not realise it as\nobscene, but the man who, conscious of his higher concept, strives\nagainst it, experiences the reaction of sensuality with the full force\nof its perverse seduction. Even if only for a brief space, he\nannihilates the higher element and gives himself up to the pleasure of\nthe base and degraded.\n\nIn this connection we are face to face with the strange but still\nlogical fact, that a man who has completely attained to the third stage\nof love, feels even the purely spiritual love as odious in its\nincompleteness. It strikes him as unnatural and forced, a feeling which\nmust, however, not be confused with the ordinary contempt of spiritual\nlove.\n\nPrimitively constituted man knows only undifferentiated sexuality. He\nenjoys the nude, and sees no difference between a Venus by Titian and an\nordinary photograph of a nude figure; the aesthete, and more especially\nthe artist, can never understand that a work of art may be sensually\nstimulating. That it may be so will always be bluntly denied by an\nindividual capable of enjoying a beautiful form, but to the uncultivated\nmind the picture of the female body will only evoke memories of\npleasure. This feeling, however, is quite distinct from the obscene; it\nis neither hostile to the higher spiritual life, nor is it criminal; it\nis natural and harmonious. But the same feeling may become obscene if a\nman, aware of higher aesthetic values, ignores art and enjoys the\npicture merely as a representation of a nude figure. Here, too, the\nseduction lies in a demoniacal element, namely in the destruction of the\naesthetic value. The destructive characteristic of the obscene wars\nagainst all higher conceptions; it is the revenge of chaotic sex\ndeposed by a higher principle, and has the special charm of secret\nwrong-doing.\n\nI might go even further, and maintain that because modern love does not\nadmit pleasure as its foundation and content, and because the craving\nfor pleasure is deeply rooted in human nature, love favours to a high\ndegree the desire to reserve a sphere for pleasure distinct from\npersonal love. This region is the obscene, and one might prophesy that\nit will grow in proportion as the principle of personal love acquires\ndominion; for pleasure will always need an undisturbed retreat\nuntroubled by higher demands. This can only be found in the sphere of\nthe obscene in which the element of personality is entirely eliminated.\n\nModern man is beset by another peculiar temptation. The beauty of woman,\nwhich in the days of the past was regarded as sacred, can be made a\nmeans of pleasure, and thus drawn from the realm of values into the\nrealm of sensuality. This is a breach with the principle of personal\nlove, for to the latter the beauty of a woman is so much part and parcel\nof the whole personality that it cannot be enjoyed separately, that\nindeed it can hardly be noticed as a distinct element. This cleavage has\nbecome so nearly universal that we are hardly conscious of its profound\nperversity. It is the arch-sin of all higher eroticism to realise beauty\nnot as the undetachable and self-evident outward form of a beloved soul,\nbut as a means of heightening pleasure. Although in its essence it is\nthe same thing as the examination of a work of art merely for the sake\nof the pleasure it affords to the senses, the offence is here aggravated\nbecause personality is involved. This degradation of the higher values,\nwhether of nature, art, beauty, knowledge, kindness, religion or the\nhuman soul, to serve the ends of sensual pleasure is the expression of a\nperversity which is possibly the most radical and characteristic of our\nage. To-day the soul of a woman has frequently the same effect on man as\nher physical beauty; he enjoys it as a subtile charm instead of\nrespecting it as a mystery.\n\nI can hardly expect to make my meaning quite clear to the multitude, but\nthe tendency to enjoy beauty of form or soul as a distinct element\nrepresents a rupture with the principle of synthetic love, the love\nwhich does not separate but realises the personality of the beloved as\nan indivisible entity. The enjoyment of beauty as a separate element\npre-supposes a conscious, spiritual division, not only of the beloved,\nbut also of the lover, and is therefore the destruction of the principle\nof unity. Aesthete and libertine alike sink to the lower level of\npleasure, and their emotions become obscene. There is no question of a\ndivision when Tristan in his vision of Isolde exclaims, \"How beautiful\nthou art!\" For great love can create the beauty of the beloved out of\nits own soul.\n\nPrudery is based on a similar duality. It expresses a consciousness that\nthe nude can only be alluring, obscene, \"indecent,\" and should therefore\nbe feared and avoided. It is the defensive weapon of sexually excited,\nfor the most part, slightly hysterical women, against the purely sexual,\nwhose sphere they often extend amazingly. Prudery conceives sexuality as\na distinct, restricted complex in consciousness. Such division is alien\nto woman and, where it exists, a hysterical condition, a condition of\ninner discord, is clearly indicated. We may take it that the obscene\nwhich affects normal men, affects only hysterical, inwardly discordant\nwomen who try to take shelter behind prudery. To the normal woman the\nobscene does not exist as a spiritual principle; she turns with a\nfeeling of displeasure from all the lower sexual manifestations, and\neven finds them absurd. The elimination of personality of eroticism, the\ncharm of which is felt by even the most highly differentiated man, has\nalways been foreign to woman--she lacks the duality of erotic emotion\nwhich man is slowly and laboriously striving to overcome--a still\nfurther proof of the unbroken, synthetic emotion of woman.\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nTHE PSYCHOGENETIC LAW\n\n_The Individual as an Epitome of the Human Race_\n\n\nThe biogenetic law of Ernst Haeckel teaches us that the human embryo\npasses through all the stages of development traversed by its ancestors\nin their evolution from the lower forms of the animal world. Although\neach successive stage completely replaces the preceding one, the latter\nis there as its organic supposition. Man is not born as a human being\nuntil he has travelled over the principal portions of the road to\nevolution. This law, which establishes the natural connection of the\nindividual with the whole chain of organisms, is continued in a\npsychogenetic law, not founded on the heredity of the blood but on the\nheredity of culture (and therefore quite independent of the doctrine of\nthe origin of species). In the course of his development the individual\nrepeats the psycho-spiritual stages through which the species has\npassed. But while the human body cannot sustain life until it is\nperfectly developed, the degrees of psychic perfection vary very\nconsiderably; not every individual reaches perfection; most men attain\nto some degree, but there are others who do not even acquire the\nrudiments.\n\nIt would be an attractive and grateful task to point out the\nhalting-places of the human race in the life of the individual; to fix\nthe moment when for the first time in his life the child says \"I\"--a\nmoment which usually occurs in his second year, and represents the\nhumanisation of the race, the great intuition, when primitive man,\ndivining his spiritual nature, severed himself from the external world;\nto perceive the child--like its primitive ancestors in their\nday--treating all weaker creatures which fall into its hands with almost\nbestial cruelty; to watch the boyish games reflecting the period when\nthe nations lived on war and the chase, their eagerness to draw up rules\nand regulations and create gradations of rank and marks of distinction.\nI am not able to carry out such a task in detail and, moreover, as I am\ndealing with the erotic life only, such a proceeding would be out of\nplace here.\n\nThe psychogenetic law, then, comes to this: Every well-developed male\nindividual of the present day successively passes through the three\nstages of love through which the European races have passed. The three\nstages are not traceable in all men with infallible certainty, there are\nnumerous individuals whose development in this respect has been\narrested, but in the emotional life of every highly differentiated\nmember of the human race they are clearly distinguishable, and the\ngreater the wealth and strength of a soul, the more perfectly will it\nreflect the history of the race. The evolution of every well-endowed\nindividual presents a rough sketch of the history of civilisation; it\nhas its prehistoric, its classical, its mediaeval, and its modern\nperiod. Many men remain imprisoned in the past; others are fragmentary,\nor appear to be suspended in mid-air, rootless. The spirit of humanity\nhas lived through the past and overcome it, so as to be able to create\nits future.\n\nThe gynecocratic stage actually survives to this day in the nursery.\nHere the mother rules supreme; the father is an intruder, the brothers\nare dominated by their sisters, often their juniors. Women mature at an\nearlier age than men; this assertion applies with equal force to\nindividual and sex in connection with the history of civilisation. After\nhe has left the nursery, there follows in the life of the boy a period\nduring which he associates only with his school-friends, shuns the\nsociety of his mother and sisters, and is ashamed of his female\nrelatives. This represents the revival of the men's unions of remote\nantiquity in the life of the individual of the present day.\n\nAt the period of puberty the sexual instinct makes itself felt for the\nfirst time; as a rule, if its nature is not recognised, it is\naccompanied by restlessness and depression. I do not believe that the\ninstinct is, as soon as it appears, directed to the other sex, or\nanything else outside the individual. This fact cannot be explained by\nwant of opportunity, shyness or bad example; there is a positive reason\nfor it; the longing for a member of the other sex is still unfelt.\n\nBetween his twentieth and thirtieth year a man is often dominated by an\nenthusiastic spiritual love quite unconnected with the sensuality which\nhas hitherto ruled his emotions. I will not elaborate the growth of this\nlove and the new feelings which arise in connection with it; just as in\nthe remote past the sense of personality was born as the centre of a new\nconsciousness, so the individual now undergoes a period of purification\nand regeneration; through the love for his mistress he discovers his\ninmost self, of which, until now, he had been practically ignorant. The\ngenerative, undifferentiated impulse is supplanted by the love for an\nindividual and stigmatised as base and contemptible. Guincelli's words\ncharacterising the second erotic stage of the race: _Amor e cor gentil\nsono una cosa_, to-day apply to the second stage in the life of the\nindividual. It also occurs that in the heart of a man whom reality has\nfailed to satisfy an ideal woman gradually wins life and shape.\nSometimes it is the idealised counterpart of an actual woman, but not\ninfrequently it is a vague, unsubstantial shadow. Here we have the\ndeification of the woman reproduced in the heart of the individual. To\nillustrate my point, I will quote the very pertinent conversation\nbetween Foldal, the embittered old clerk, and John Gabriel Borkman\n(Ibsen).\n\n     _Borkman_: Indeed! Can you show me one who is any good?\n\n     _Foldal_: That's just the point. The few women I've known are no\n     good at all.\n\n     _Borkman_: (with a sneer) What's the good of them if you don't know\n     them?\n\n     _Foldal_ (excitedly): Don't say that, John Gabriel! Isn't it a\n     magnificent, an ennobling thought, to know that somewhere, far\n     away, never mind where, the true woman lives?\n\n     _Borkman_ (impatiently): Stop your high falutin' nonsense!\n\n     _Foldal_ (hurt): High falutin' nonsense? You call my most sacred\n     belief high falutin' nonsense?\n\nIn conclusion I should like to mention here that I look upon Otto\nWeininger as a tragic victim of the second stage of love which--in our\ndays--is sick with an almost insurmountable inner insufficiency.\n\nThere is no need to elaborate my subject further and point out that--the\nfirst stage passed--the prime of life brings with it the fusion of\nsexuality and love. This union is the inner meaning of marriage in the\nmodern sense--whether it is rarely or frequently realised is beside the\npoint.\n\nIn previous chapters I have illustrated various phenomena of the\nemotional life by showing their reflections on the lives of two or three\ndistinguished men. In conclusion I will endeavour to point out the\nreproduction of all the erotic stages through which the race has passed,\nin the psychical evolution of Richard Wagner, and their immortalisation\nin his works. We shall recognise in him the erotic representative of\nmodern man, a personality in whom all that which as a rule is vague and\nonly half expressed, has become great and typical. Love has been the\n_leitmotif_ of his life. The concluding phrase of the crude fairy tale\n_Die Feen_ (\"The Fairies\"), composed by the youth of nineteen, is: _the\ninfinite power of love_, and the last words written down two days before\nhis death, were: _love--tragedy_.\n\nThe opera _Das Liebesverbot_ (\"The Prohibition to Love\"), written in\n1834, is eminently symptomatic of the first stage. It is a coarser\nrendering of that bluntest of all Shakespearean plays, _Measure for\nMeasure_; its sole subject is the pursuit of sensual pleasure, in which\nall indulge, and the ridiculing of those who appear to yearn for\nsomething higher. To detail the contents of the text--it cannot be\ncalled a poem--would serve no purpose; biographically, but not\nartistically interesting, it exhibits with amazing candour the first,\npurely sexual, stage of the young man of twenty-one. It was the period\nwhen \"young Germany's\" device was the emancipation of sensuality. Wagner\nhimself says that his \"conception was mainly directed against Puritan\ncant, and led to the bold glorification of unrestrained sensuality. I\nwas determined to understand the grave Shakespearean subject only in\nthis sense.\" And in his \"Autobiographical Sketch\" he says: \"I learned to\nlove matter.\" In addition to this Wagner gives us the following synopsis\nof a (lost) libretto, \"_Die Hochzeit_\" (\"The Wedding\"), written at an\nearlier period: \"A youth, madly in love with his friend's fiancee,\nclimbs through the window into her bedroom, where the latter is awaiting\nthe arrival of her lover; the fiancee struggles with the frenzied youth\nand throws him down into the yard, where he expires.\"\n\nThe second, discordant, stage of love is embodied in _Tannhaeuser_,\ncomposed when Wagner was twenty-nine years of age. There is probably no\nmodern work of art in which the mediaeval feeling of dualism in the\nscheme of the universe has been expressed with greater pathos. We see\nman tossed between heaven and hell, between the worshipped saint and\nseductive sensuality, impersonated by a she-devil. A man of the Middle\nAges would have recognised in this work the tragedy of his soul. Wagner\nhad planned the opera before he had really reached the second period,\nunder the title of _Der Venusberg_ (\"The Mountain of Venus\"), and in\nthis earlier version the purely sexual occupied a far more prominent\nplace, probably in closer conformity with the old legend. For here\nTannhaeuser returns to Venus unsaved and defying the eternal values,\ndetermined to renounce a higher life and give himself up to the pleasure\nof the senses for all eternity. This idea was retained in a later\nversion up to the decisive final turn; the purely spiritual love for\nElizabeth eventually overcomes the unrestrained instinct.\n\nAs the despairing monk of mediaeval times, apparently abandoned by the\nlove of God, turned to Satan and worshipped him, so Tannhaeuser, cast out\nof the Kingdom of Heaven by the words of the Pope, and renounced by\nElizabeth, again gives himself up to sensuality, which is here\ncontrasted with spiritual love, and represented as demoniacal.\nTannhaeuser is not vacillating between the love of two women--a\nspiritualised and a sensual love; he is wavering between the purely\nspiritual love of Elizabeth and promiscuous sexuality represented by\nVenus, not centring on her as an individual, but diffused, as it were,\nthrough her whole kingdom. The dualism which rends the whole universe is\nstrongly and uncompromisingly emphasised in text and music, and Wagner\nhimself explained to the opera singer, Schnorr von Carolsfeld, that the\nmain characteristic of the principal part was \"the intensest expression\nof delight and remorse without any intermediate stage of feeling,\nchanging abruptly and decisively.\" The closing words of the first scene:\n\"My salvation lies in Mary!\" are the real turning point of the drama. As\nabrupt as his desertion of Venus for Mary, is his return to her in the\nthird act. By the side of Mary is placed the more human, the more\nearthly but yet idealised form of Elizabeth, a figure closely resembling\nBeatrice and Margaret.\n\nThe music of _Tannhaeuser_ (more especially the overture) expresses the\ncontrast between the two erotic world-elements with striking\nabruptness. The harmonious and musically perfect motive of religious\nyearning (the chorus of the pilgrims) which forms the beginning and the\nend of the overture, is assailed by the briefer motives of sensuous\nseduction and ecstasy of the middle; the quivering, tickling passages of\nthe violins play round the sacred music of the chorale like so many\nseductive elves. The Venusberg music is probably the most perfect\nexpression of pure sensuality which has ever been reached in the world\nof music; it is the complete translation of sensual craving and sensual\nrapture into the language of music. In the Venusberg music composed for\nthe performance in Paris, this motive is still more richly elaborated,\nand the recently published \"sketches\" for the scene in the Venusberg\ncontain a number of details which were eliminated from the later\nversion. Here bestial and demoniacal sensuality, not content with human\ncouples, nymphs, maenads, sirens and fauns, calls for beings half-brute,\nhalf-human, represented by centaurs and sphinxes, for black goats, cats,\ntigers, panthers, and so on, finally for obscene representations of\nantique legends, such as Leda and the Swan, Europa and the Bull, symbols\nand illustrations of the climax of perversion. It is a magnificent,\npoetico-musical picture of untrammelled sexuality, whose queen is Woman,\nthe priestess of voluptuousness, represented by Venus. Tannhaeuser's\nyearning for humanity and divinely pure love gives to this world a tinge\nof the demoniacal, for the latter is nothing but natural sensuality\nregarded from a higher standpoint, in this case from the point of view\nof spiritual love. Whenever it is opposed to the transcendental, the\nnatural is conceived as dangerous and diabolical. At the moment of the\nabrupt inner change in Tannhaeuser, Venus and her world must vanish like\na phantom of the night. \"A consuming, voluptuous excitement kept my\nblood and nerves tingling while I sketched and composed the music of\n_Tannhaeuser_....\" says Wagner in one place, and in another he confesses\nthat sensual pleasure, while attracting and seducing him, filled him\nwith repugnance. He speaks of his longing to \"satisfy my craving in a\nhigher, nobler element which, unpolluted by the sensuality so\ncharacteristic of modern life and art, appears to me as something pure,\nsomething chaste and virginal, unapproachable and intangible. What else\ncan this longing for love, the noblest feeling I am capable of, be, than\nthe yearning to leave this world of facts behind me and become absorbed\nin an element of infinite, transcendental love, to which death would be\nthe gate....\"\n\nThe dualism in the music of _Tannhaeuser_ is consistently maintained. The\ntwo elements war against each other without ever merging into one. Those\nparts of the music which characterise Elizabeth are full of noble pathos\nand a little sentimental. At the beginning of the second act she is not\nyet herself; she can still laugh like a light-hearted girl, but when she\nagain succumbs to Tannhaeuser's unearthly (and to her fatal) charm, and\nrealises how irrevocably he has surrendered himself to Venus, she rises\nto true greatness and resolutely faces the swords unsheathed to punish\nthe offender. Before our eyes she is transformed into the saint who\nrealises her mission and is ready to take her burden upon her; more\nheroic than Beatrice or Margaret, she points to him \"who laughingly\nstabbed her heart,\" the road to salvation. Like her two predecessors\nElizabeth prays to Mary for the salvation of her lover--the prayer for\nthe beloved has ever been woman's truest and most fervent prayer.\n\nThe thought of achieving a man's salvation through a great and steadfast\nlove, is the subject of the _Flying Dutchman_, and plays, as is well\nknown, an important part with Wagner. Strange to say he has for this\nvery reason frequently been scoffed at by those who call themselves\nadmirers of Goethe. Dante-Goethe's great problem of salvation is\nrepresented in _Tannhaeuser_ with the utmost lucidity. The essence of it\nis that love can positively intervene in the life of a man whose soul is\nturned towards it, but who is confused and beset by temptations. His\nvacillating heart feels the love which is brooding over him and\nultimately abandons itself to it, to be saved by its unswerving loyalty.\nMaybe this is as much a miracle as \"grace,\" but it is also a psychical\nfact, because the love which yearns for the sinner awakens and increases\nnot only his faith in its power to help, but also in his own strength;\ndarkness and evil dismay him and he turns towards the light. In\n_Tannhaeuser_ this spiritual condition, which is of such primary\nimportance in the last scene of _Faust_, is clearly expressed; his love\nfor Elizabeth has been strong enough to kill desire kindled in his heart\nagain and again by Venus; yet again he is on the point of succumbing to\nhis senses. The vision of Venus appears before his eyes, but at\nWolfram's exclamation, \"Elizabeth!\" he realises in a flash that\nElizabeth has been praying for him day and night, and has given her life\nto save him. Before this sudden illumination the power of Venus sinks\ninto nothing; divine love falls into his darkness like a ray of\nlight--\"Oh, sacred love's eternal power!\"--it quickens his own love\nwhich is striving upwards, and with the words: \"Saint Elizabeth, pray\nfor me!\" he sinks to the ground. His way, like Faust's, although\none-sidedly emotional, leads from chaos and sin to pure love and\nsalvation, not through his own strength but by the help vouchsafed to\nhim in the love of his glorified mistress.\n\nBy the side of the struggling, suffering Tannhaeuser, tossed hither and\nthither between God and the devil, between Elizabeth and Venus, stands\nWolfram, the untempted woman-worshipper. The two extremes clash upon\neach other in the contest of the minnesingers. Tannhaeuser, at war with\nhimself, exasperated by the calm, matter-of-fact way in which Wolfram\nsings the praise of spiritual love, rushes to the other extreme and\nbursts into rapturous praise of the goddess of love and the pleasure of\nthe senses. I need not lay stress on the fact that at that time of his\nlife Wagner's own heart was the arena in which the conflict was fought\nout; a work like _Tannhaeuser_ is not _made_, it is conceived in the\ninnermost soul of its creator. Every one of Wagner's great works bears\nthe unmistakable stamp of sincerity and intensity, while with Goethe, on\nthe other hand, it is not difficult to distinguish the genuine ones,\nthat is to say, those which were written under the pressure of a\ncompelling impulse, from those which owed their existence to the\nintellect rather than to the soul.\n\n_Tannhaeuser_ immortalises the adolescence of the European races of\nmankind; the third stage is not even anticipated.\n\n_Lohengrin_, the principal interest of which is other than erotic,\nrepresents a transitional phase between the second and the third stage;\nbody and soul are no longer regarded as warring against each other; a\ngreater harmony beyond either is dimly divined. Lohengrin has set out\nfrom a distant, transcendental kingdom to find earthly happiness in\nElsa's love--but he is doomed to disappointment. I will not analyse the\ntheme, but rather quote a few passages from Wagner: \"Lohengrin is\nseeking the woman who is ready to believe in him; who will not ask him\nwho he is and whence he comes, but love him as he is and because he is\nso.... Lohengrin's only desire is for love, to be loved, to be\nunderstood through love. In spite of the superior development of his\nsenses, in spite of his intense consciousness, he desires nothing more\nthan to live the life of an ordinary citizen of this earth, to love and\nbe loved--to be a perfect specimen of humanity.\" Wagner further speaks\nof his longing to find \"the woman\"; the female principle, quite simply,\nfor ever appearing to him under new forms; the woman for whom the\nFlying Dutchman longed in his unfathomable distress; the woman who, like\na radiant star, guided Tannhaeuser from the voluptuous caverns of the\nVenusberg to the pure regions of the spirit, and drew Lohengrin from his\ndazzling heights to the warm bosom of the earth. We find here the new\nform of love, not yet fully comprehended but desired and anticipated in\nart.\n\nIn _Tristan and Isolde_ it is attained completely and in its highest\nperfection. We possess in Wagner's letters to Matilda Wesendonk, and in\nthe diary written for her, the documents of the personal experience out\nof which Tristan grew, and which unfold one of the most touching\nlove-stories. As I have already discussed _Tristan and Isolde_ in a\nprevious chapter, I will here only quote a passage from a letter written\nby Wagner and addressed to Liszt at the time of his first meeting with\nMatilda; it fully expresses the harmony of the third stage. \"Give me a\nheart, a mind, a woman's love in which I can plunge my whole being--who\nwill fully understand me--how little else I should need in this world!\"\n\nIt is very significant that side by side with _Tristan_ we have _Die\nMeistersinger_, composed a little later on. Here the third stage of love\nis realised in its idyllic possibility; the synthesis has been given the\nshape of middle-class matter-of-factness, that is to say, the fulfilment\nof love in marriage: \"I love a maid and claim her hand!\" For this reason\nthe work, although the fundamental idea is not erotic, is entitled to be\nplaced by the side of _Tristan_ with its demand for the absolute\nmetaphysical consummation of love.\n\nIt is an amazing fact that the same genius should have experienced and\nportrayed both stages so perfectly. Doubtless Tannhaeuser and Tristan are\nthe most personal self-revelations of the great lover, pulsating with\npassion, and far remote from the colossal objective world of the\nNiebelungs, the lofty serenity of Lohengrin and the wisdom of Parsifal.\n\nWagner had finished the _Ring_ before he conceived the idea of _Tristan\nand Isolde_. (It was printed in 1852.) In the former he intentionally\nraised the value of love and its position in the universe to a problem,\nembodying his knowledge of the world, and more especially of the modern\nworld, in supernatural, mythical figures. The greatest ambition of man\nis power and wealth, the symbol of which is a golden ring. Gold in\nitself is innocent--elementary--a bauble at the bottom of the river, a\ntoy for laughing children; but the insatiable thirst for power and\nwealth has robbed it of its harmlessness and made it the tool and symbol\nof tyranny. Only a being completely in the grip of the greed for riches\nand dominion, a being who looks upon the world and all men as objects to\nbe bent to his will, and who has consequently renounced love, could have\nthus enslaved the world. Love does not impair the worth of a\nfellow-creature, but sets him above all things; a lover cannot be\nentirely selfish; his feeling at least for his mistress, and through her\nfor the rest of the world, must be pure and unselfish. The struggle\nbetween these two most powerful instincts, both in the race and in the\nheart of the individual (Wotan), is the incomparable subject of this\ntragedy. The whole world-process is represented as a struggle between\nthe apparently great, who are yet the slaves of gold and authority, and\nthe truly free man who serves love, and on whom ambition has no hold.\n\nThe representatives of the petty, greedy, toiling human vermin, who\nreadily renounced love for the sake of wealth, because the latter will\nalways buy lust and pleasure, are the Niebelungs, the dwellers in the\nNetherworld who never see the sun. They have but one standard: money;\none supreme value: power, the gift of wealth. Mime bewails his people\n(the small tradesmen as it were), as follows; \"Light-hearted smiths we\nused to fashion gems and trinkets for our wives, gorgeous jewels, the\nNiebelungs' pretty trifles--we laughed at the labour.\" But Alberich, the\ncapitalist, through the magic of the ring, has usurped the power and\nenslaved his fellows. \"Now the felon compels us to creep in the heart of\nthe mountains to labour for him. There we must delve and explore and\ndespoil, plunder and smelt and hammer the metal, restlessly toiling to\nincrease his treasure.\" The really daemonic property of the gold is that\neverybody succumbs to its seduction and strives to possess it. The\nformer naive joy of living, embodied in the Rhine-daughters, and their\nnot yet humanised song, which seems to come direct from the heart of\nnature, is destroyed by the theft of the Rhine-gold. What till then had\nbeen a serenely shining \"star of the deep,\" has been transformed into a\nmeans by which to win authority. The programme of the greedy and\ntyrannous never varies; Alberich proclaims it; \"The whole world will I\nwin,\" and it is his daemonic will to depreciate love and set up power as\nthe only value, so that nobody shall doubt his greatness and unique\ngenius. \"As I renounce love, so all shall renounce it, with gold have I\nbought you, for gold shall you crave.\" Love shall die and lust shall\ntake its place; he will force even the wives of the gods to do his will,\nfor his wealth has made him master of the whole world. Compared to his\nrestless activity, the giant \"Fafner\" is \"stupid\"; he is incapable of\ntransforming gold into power; he merely enjoys its possession, content\nwith the consciousness of his wealth.\n\nBut the curse of Alberich, the first who transmuted the shining metal\ninto money, rests on gold and power. \"It shall not bring gladness--who\nhas it be seared by sorrow, who lacks it devoured by envy....\" The curse\nof the eternal concatenation: tyranny--slavery, the care which\naccompanies wealth and the envy of the have-nots, can only be lifted\nfrom the world by a man who is inwardly free, who is neither master nor\nslave. Siegfried understands the song of the birds and the elementary\nbeings, the Rhine-daughters; he is a stranger to human desires and\npassions. \"I inherited nothing but my body--and living it is consumed.\"\nHe is proof against the magic of the ring; the only value he knows is\nlove. Alberich, his opponent, says, in speaking of him: \"My curse has no\nsting for the mettlesome hero, for he knows not the worth of the ring;\nhe squanders his prodigal strength, laughing and glowing with love his\nbody is burning away.\" Half way between Alberich, the inwardly worthless\nwielder of power, and Siegfried, the truly free man, the embodiment of\nall virtue, who is murdered by the powers of darkness, stands Wotan, in\nwhose heart both motives, authority and love, are struggling for\nsupremacy, who will renounce neither love nor power. Artistically and\nsymbolically the salvation of the world from the curse of greed and\ntyranny is brought about by the restitution of the ring, and its\ndissolution in the pure waters of the river from whence it had been\ntaken; the gold is given back to the Rhine-daughters, to fulfil again\nits original purpose, namely, to delight the heart of man with its\ndazzling sheen.\n\nThus Wagner, the greatest and most inspired exponent of love among\nmodern artists, declared that of all values love was the greatest. His\nintuitive genius left all the doctrines formulated by Schopenhauer and\nBuddha far behind and definitely rejected pessimism as a creed. There is\nan interesting letter from him to Matilda Wesendonk, written while he\nwas composing the music of _Tristan_, and containing modifications of\nSchopenhauer's philosophy which he considered requisite. \"It is a\nquestion of pointing out the road to salvation which no philosopher, not\neven Schopenhauer, discovered, the road which leads to the perfect\npacification of the will through love; I do not mean abstract love for\nall humanity, but true love, based on sexual love, that is to say love\nbetween man and woman.\"\n\nIn _Parsifal_, the last and most mature of all his works, Wagner is\nbreaking new ground. Here love between man and woman is deposed from the\nexalted position it hitherto held, subordinated to the metaphysical\npurpose of the world, that is to say, \"the purpose of attaining to\nperfection,\" and absorbed in a higher association of ideas. Sexual love\nhas undergone a change, it is no longer love in the true sense, but the\nunconditional love of the mystic. The enigmatical figure of Kundry is\nnot the impersonation of one woman, she is woman herself. The\nincarnation of everything female, she embodies the sensuous, seductive\nand destructive element together with the contempt of the man who falls\nunder her spell, as well as the motherly, and finally the\nhumbly-administrative principle, which so far had not yet become a part\nof the erotic ideal. She is both positive and negative, a blind tool of\nthe element of evil which prompts man to forget his higher mission\n(reminiscent of the second mediaeval period), and passionately yearning\nfor salvation. She dies before the Holy Grail, the religious ideal made\nvisible. Beside Kundry there are the flower-maidens, naively sensuous\nbeings, who blossom like the flowers and fade again, unconscious and\nirresponsible. I refrain from a discussion of this work, which would\nlead too far, and only maintain that the music, corresponding to the\ntext, is entirely unerotic and unsentimental, absolutely pure and\nreligious. The love of a man for a woman has been superseded by love for\nthe absolute and supernatural. Thus, after Wagner had experienced all\nthe stages of love through which humanity has passed, and embodied them\nin his works, he reached a new point of view, a stage to which we have\nnot yet attained and which, very likely, we are not even able fully to\nunderstand. This fourth stage--not unlike Weininger's ideal--is the\noverthrow of the female and earthly element in man by a voluntary\nsurrender to the metaphysical.\n\nWagner's last position, taken up quite deliberately, permits of two\nexplanations which I will point out without pressing either of them.\nOnly a man possessing both the wisdom of the aged Wagner and a knowledge\nof the evolution of the race, and the road which still stretches out in\nfront of it, would be entitled to speak a decisive word. The first\nobviously is that Wagner divined a last stage in the emotional life of\nman, a period which has outgrown sexual love and replaced it by\nmysticism. In conjecturing a potential fourth stage, the three previous\nones must be regarded as one. The second explanation is that Wagner's\nfeeling in his last work is no longer representative of the feeling of\nthe race, but is, as it were, a personal matter, at least in so far as\nlove is concerned. For although the principal subject in _Parsifal_ is\nnot love, yet it plays a very prominent part in it. I am only touching\nupon these two alternatives. But if the latter debatable point be\nomitted, my analysis of Wagner's emotional life must have shown in which\nsense the inspired man may be rightly regarded as typical of the race.\nHe leads the broadest and at the same time the most personal life, and\nyet he manifests in it something which is far greater, far more\nuniversal and representative.\n\nMy argument proves that the evolution as well as the aberrations of love\nhave affected man alone and, roughly speaking, to this day affect only\nhim. He is the Odysseus, wandering through heaven and hell, ultimately\nto return home, perhaps, to where woman, the unchangeable, is awaiting\nhim. That which has been woman's natural endowment from all beginning,\nthe blending of spiritual and sensual love, man looks upon and desires\nto-day as his highest erotic ideal. His chaotic sexual impulse, the\ninheritance of the past, appears to him low and base in the presence of\nher in whom sexuality has always been blended with love; his worship,\nintensified until it reached the metaphysical, seems to him unfounded\nand eccentric before her who has ever been and ever will be entirely\nhuman, and who is perfect in his eyes because she possesses what he is\nstriving after. This and nothing else is the meaning of the vague\nstatement that in all matters pertaining to love woman occupies a higher\nposition than man. She is always the same; he is always new and\nproblematical; never perfect, he falls into error and sin where she\ncannot err, for her instinct is nature herself, and she knows not the\nmeaning of sin. Whatever burden man has laid upon her, she has borne it\npatiently and silently; she has allowed him to worship her as a goddess\nand stigmatise her as a fiend, while all the time she remained\nproblemless and natural, inwardly remote from the aberrations in which\nher intellect believed so readily. The conclusion which we have to draw,\nand which touches the foundation of the psychology of both sexes, is\nthat only man's emotions have a history, while those of the woman have\nundergone no change.\n\nIf there is a law by which the human race is reproduced in the\nindividual, then the so-called atavism in the shape of abnormality\ncannot be the sudden, or apparently sudden reappearance of conditions\nwhich once were normal and then disappeared; rather must it be the final\narrest of an individual on a previous and lower stage, preventing him\nfrom reaching our standard in one or the other emotional sphere. The\nmore humanity a man has in him, the more perfectly will he repeat in his\nlife the stages through which the race has passed, or, in other words:\nthe oftener that which once quickened the heart of man is repeated and\nsurpassed, the greater is the possibility that new things may grow out\nof it. Atavism therefore is not so much the persistence of the earlier\nas the absence of the later stages. (This agrees with Freud's conception\nof the neurotic subject.)\n\nIt is obvious that the three stages of love are merely the expression of\na period in one definite direction. The emotions of antiquity were\nentirely earthly, obvious and impersonal; the Middle Ages, on the other\nhand, attached value only to the world beyond the grave and matters\npertaining to the soul. The beauty of spring was to them but a reflexion\nof another beauty.\n\n     \"How glorious is life below!\n     What greater glories may the heavens hold!\"\n\nsings Brother John characteristically. But our period is conscious of\nthe need of realising all our desires, and attaining to the highest\npossible spiritual perfection in this earthly life, and this not by\ndestroying the transcendent ideals, but by stripping them of their\nmetaphysical character, and bringing them to bear on this life, so that\nit may become a higher and holier one. The will of our intellectual\nheroes is not the rejection of the doctrine of the survival of the soul,\nbut the comprehension of past transcendental values, so that they may\nbecome a safe guide to us in this earthly life; a more perfect blending\nof realism and idealism; the glorification of life under the aspect of\neternity. This applies to love as well: the thought of the infinite,\neternal love must transfigure and ennoble all that which is natural and\nhuman.\n\nIf my theories are correct, they prove the ontological character of\nhistorical evolution and the value of the study of history for the\ncomprehension of the human soul. I have shown in a specific and highly\nimportant domain that that which we are fond of regarding as the\ncharacteristic quality of man was not present from the beginning, but\nhas gradually been evolved in historical time. In other words: history\ncan and must teach us the origin and evolution of the spirit and soul of\nman, as anthropology teaches us the construction of the body. In\nphilosophically approaching history, it must not be our object to\ndiscover \"what has been,\" but \"what has become, how we became and what\nwe are.\" The science of history which loses sight of its bearing on our\ntime, content with its knowledge of the past, is antiquarian and dead;\nat the most it has aesthetic value, but it is worthless as far as the\nhistory of civilisation is concerned. Only that which has been\nproductive in the past, which has had a quickening influence, producing\nnew values, is historical in the highest sense. It creates a new and\nclose relationship between psychology and history. The principal\npurpose, or one of the principal purposes of psychology, that is the\nknowledge of the construction of the normal human being, has received a\nnew possibility of solution: every essential quality which the human\nrace has evolved in the course of history must be present in every\nnormally developed individual of our time. The normal man of to-day is\nnot the normal man of the past; every successive century finds him\nricher and more complex, but he can always be discovered intuitively in\nhistory. In this sense history is an auxiliary science of psychology, or\nrather, the psychology of the human race, for the evolution of the\npsychology of the individual--which has been studied very little--is\nmerely an abbreviated history of the evolution of the psychology of the\nspecies. A past period of civilisation can be traced in the life of\nevery fully developed man, and _vice versa_ the stages in the life of\nthe individual point the way in history.\n\nIf it can be established that the fundamental emotions of the human\nheart originated in historical time, the widely spread, but unproved,\ntheory that everything great and decisive existed from the beginning\nwill be contradicted. The other complementary assertion that nothing\nwhich once existed ever quite disappears, must be admitted; nothing\nperishes in the soul of man; its position with regard to the whole is\nmerely shifted by newly intervening motives and values; and even when\nit does not change its fundamental character, it becomes a different\nthing in the whole complex of the soul. Sexuality, which in the remote\npast was a matter of course, unassailable by doubt, became problematical\nand demoniacal as soon as it entered into relationship with the new\nfactors of erotic life. An existence in harmony with nature was possible\nas long as the human race was still in evolution, and not yet conscious\nof itself. But as soon as intellect and self-consciousness had been\nevolved, civilisation became possible. Nature has no history in the\nsense of the origin of values; in the case of still uncivilised tribes\nevery new generation is a faithful reproduction of the preceding one.\nCertainly there is modification caused by adaptation to the environment,\nbut there are no moral values, and consequently there is no history.\n\nI have attempted to explain why tragedy is inseparable from love in its\nhighest intensity, to show the limits which check all deep emotion and\nthe yearning which would overstep them. The emotional life of man, which\nis capable of infinite evolution, can only find satisfaction on its\nlower, animal stages. Hunger, thirst, and sexual craving can be\nsatisfied without much difficulty, and therefore no tragic shadow falls\non the first stage. But the emotion which overwhelms the soul cannot be\nappeased. Not only the great thinker's thirst for knowledge, the\nmystic's religious yearning, the aesthetic will of the rare artist, but\nalso the love and longing of the passionate lover must reach beyond the\nattainable to the infinite. This earth is the kingdom of \"mean\" actions,\n\"mean\" emotions and \"mean\" men. And the lover, unable to bear its\nlimits, creates for himself a new world--the world of metaphysical love.","title":"The Evolution of Love","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":91694}