CHAPTER XXXIIITHE OUTLOOK

“Daily experience among my patients suffering from nervous diseases—patients who were for the most part women and girls—has shown me how extremely important is enlightenment regarding the sexual life for women suffering from nervous disorders.For this reason, I hope the book will have the widest possible circulation among the mothers of daughters about to grow up.If they will employ in a proper manner the knowledge which they will be able to obtain from its contents, in this way an immeasurable quantity of sorrow and misery can be prevented. This use of its teaching will, by itself, suffice to compensate the author and the translator for the scruples they must always feel in giving to the world a book which is likely to be valued by some simply as providing prurient reading matter, and which by such persons will perhaps be circulated for this purpose—a fate to which every book dealing with erotic subjects is exposed, however earnest its style and tendency may be.”

“Daily experience among my patients suffering from nervous diseases—patients who were for the most part women and girls—has shown me how extremely important is enlightenment regarding the sexual life for women suffering from nervous disorders.For this reason, I hope the book will have the widest possible circulation among the mothers of daughters about to grow up.If they will employ in a proper manner the knowledge which they will be able to obtain from its contents, in this way an immeasurable quantity of sorrow and misery can be prevented. This use of its teaching will, by itself, suffice to compensate the author and the translator for the scruples they must always feel in giving to the world a book which is likely to be valued by some simply as providing prurient reading matter, and which by such persons will perhaps be circulated for this purpose—a fate to which every book dealing with erotic subjects is exposed, however earnest its style and tendency may be.”

The lively scientific activity which now animates the department of sexual problems is a matter for rejoicing, since it indicates the advance of knowledge in one of the most important of all vital problems. Whereas earlier none but alienists and neurologists concerned themselves with sexual questions, an interest in these questions is now very generally displayed by the circles of other medical men, of anthropologists, folk-lorists, psychologists, æsthetics, and historians of civilization. One good result of this wide diffusion of interest is, as I have already remarked (pp. 455et seq.), that a one-sided consideration of the problems under investigation will thereby be prevented. Every earnest investigator, to whatever discipline he may personally belong, can here contribute somethingnew, something which will advance knowledge; but most helpful, unquestionably, can thephysicianbe who, as vonSchrenck-Notzing[813]declared, is competent to consider the question in relation to various other departments—those of biology, anthropology, history, belles-lettres, psychology, and forensic medicine.

It would subserve no useful purpose to enumerate once more in this place the works of all the recent authors who have dealtwith the subject of the sexual life. In the text of the present book they have for the most part received sufficientmention.[814]

Of larger monographs upon homosexuality, there still remain to be mentioned those of Havelock Ellis and J. A.Symonds,[815]A.Moll,[816]J.Chevalier,[817]andLaupts.[818]In these works we find extensive reports of cases; and more especially in the two first mentioned do we find a record of all the historical and critical data of homosexuality up to the time of the first publication of the “Annual for Sexual Intermediate Stages” (1899et seq.).

A new work by HavelockEllis[819]recently reached me, the fifth volume of the American edition of his “Studies in the Psychology ofSex,”[820]giving an account of “Erotic Symbolism” (fetichism, exhibitionism, etc.), the “Mechanism of Detumescence,” and the “Psychical Condition during Pregnancy,” with an appendix giving an analysis of the sexual development of various individuals. This book, full of interesting details, will doubtless, like the earlier volumes of his “Studies,” soon appear in a German translation.

The fundamental work of A. Marro on “Puberty in Man and Woman” also deserves especial mention. It can most usefully be consulted in the French edition, “La Puberté chez l’Homme et chez la Femme. Etudiée dans ses Rapports avec l’Anthropologie, la Psychiatrie, la Pedagogie, et la Sociologie” (Paris, 1902; 536 pp.).

Special studies on the subject of the sexual impulse have been published byMoll[821]andFéré.[822]In Moll’s work, of which hitherto the first part only has appeared, the sexual impulse is divided into two components, the “detumescence impulse”—that is, the impulse towards the evacuation of the reproductive products—and the “contrectation impulse”—that is, the impulse towards the other individual; and from these two components the various manifestations of sexuality are explained. Féré, more especially, has made an exhaustive study of the instinctive element of the sexual impulse; and, apart from this, he appears to be the most extreme advocate of the atavistic theory of sexual perversions.

An interesting study of sexual psychology, based upon the doctrine of Freud, has been published by OttoRank.[823]The tendency of this work also is in opposition to the degeneration-phobia.

The work of the Italian psychiatrist Pasquale Penta, “I pervertimenti sessuali nell’ uomo e Vincenzo Verzeni strangolatore di donne” (“The Sexual Perversions observed in Vincenzo Verzeni, the Strangler of Women”), Naples, 1893, contains numerous interesting details. In the first chapter the author gives contributions to a history of psychopathia sexualis; the second chapter contains a detailed report of Verzeni and an account of his lust-murders; in the third chapter Penta discusses the similarities and differences between the sexual impulse in man and in the lower animals; in the fourth chapter he deals with the biological foundations of lust-murder; in the fifth chapter he reviews the different sexual perversions; in the sixth chapter he considers rape; and in the seventh and last chapter he discusses the forensic importance of rape and of sexual perversions.

The recently published work on “Sexual Biology,” by Robert Müller (Berlin, 1907), is written from the standpoint of veterinary medicine, and the sub-title of the book, “Comparative and Evolutionary Studies in the Sexual Life of Man and the Higher Mammals,” indicates the author’s intention to elucidate the general biological roots of sexual phenomena. Thiscomparativeconsideration of the sexual life of man and of the higher mammals throws a new light on many matters, and enables us to understand a number of phenomena of the sexual life which have hitherto seemed obscure.

A comprehensive, general, popular work upon the sexual life is now in course of publication—“Man and Woman.” It is issued by R. Kossmann and J. Weiss, with the collaboration of a number of leading specialists (Stuttgart, 1907). A number of illustrated sections have already been issued.

Finally, two other works must be mentioned which consider the sexual life as a whole, a larger work and a smaller one.Forel’s[824]comprehensive book is distinguished from beginning to end by anoriginal, subjectivegrasp of the question, and by anoptimistic view of the future, as I have pointed out in my review of this book in theDeutsche Aerztezeitung. As such a subjective programme of a future solution of sexual problems, it will ever retain a value; and we can always follow with pleasure the demonstrations of the talented and sympathetic author, although the book is perhaps somewhat monotonous in character. Its merits, moreover, are counterbalanced by the almost complete neglect of the numerous recent researches in almost every department of the sexual life. More particularly the chapter upon syphilis and venereal diseases, the chapter upon homosexuality and sexual perversions, and the chapter upon marriage betray this fault. The chapter on marriage is a mere extract from Westermarck. The author is fully conscious of these defects, and freely admits them; and in spite of them the book must not be ignored, because its value really lies in its subjectivity, and because we find in it so profound a conviction of the great importance ofsocialactivity for the higher development of love. A shorter consideration of sexual problems, but one abounding in paradoxes, is to be found in a book by LeoBerg.[825]

In conclusion, I may give a brief survey of the reviews and other periodical publications which are occupied with sexual questions. A great periodical devoted to theentire provinceof sexual research does not exist. Such periodicals as we have deal with separate departments of the sexual life. A rather insignificant periodical,Vita Sexualis, which appeared for the first time in 1899, seems to have become extinct a few years later. An exceedingly valuable publication, especially occupied with the problems of homosexuality, bisexuality, and sexual intermediate stages, is the one edited by Magnus Hirschfeld, and entitledAnnual for Sexual Intermediate Stages(of this eight volumes have hitherto appeared). Purely popular and belletristic aims are subserved by the homosexual monthly magazineDer Eigene(edited by Adolf Brand). Another annual, not less valuable than the one previously mentioned, is that edited by Friedrich S. Krauss, entitledAnthropophyteia. This treats more especially of folk-lorist research in sexual matters, and is a true treasure-house of new facts andobservations.[826]The periodicals for the study of venereal diseases, such as theArchives of Dermatology and Syphilis, edited by F. J. Pick (hitherto eighty-two volumes), theMonthly Magazine of Practical Dermatology, edited by Unna and Tanzer (hitherto forty-four volumes), theMonthly Magazine for Diseases of the Urinary Organs and Sexual Hygiene, edited by W. Hammer, in succession to K. Ries (hitherto four volumes), and the other German and foreign dermato-urological periodicals, also contain much material regarding venereal diseases and sexual perversions. Interesting contributions to all sexual problems, as well as an extensive case-literature and bibliography, are to be found in theArchives for Criminal Anthropology and Criminology, edited by Hans Gross (hitherto twenty-seven volumes), proceeding largely from the pen of the learned and most original alienist Paul Näcke; also in theMonthly Magazine for Criminal Psychology and Criminal Law Reform, edited by Gustav Aschaffenburg; in the monthly magazineThe Protection of Motherhood; a Magazine for the Reform of Sexual Ethics, edited by Helene Stöcker (vide supra, pp. 270 and 273); in the monthly magazineSex and Society, edited by Karl Vanselow (hitherto two volumes); and in the illustrated magazine, under the same editorship,Beauty(hitherto four volumes). Finally, we have to mention certain periodicals concerned chiefly with the aims of racial hygiene, and containing valuable material—thePolitico-Anthropological Review, edited by Ludwig Woltmann (hitherto five years of issue), and theArchives for Racial and Social Biology, edited by Alfred Ploetz (hitherto three years of issue).

[808]R. von Krafft-Ebing, “Psychopathia Sexualis.” Only Authorized Translation from the Twelfth revised German Edition (Rebman Limited, London, 1906).[809]Cf.my “New Researches concerning the Marquis de Sade,” pp. 437-450 (Berlin, 1904).[810]Recently A. Moll (Enzyklopädische Jahrbücher der gesamten Heilkunde, 1906, vol. xiii., pp. 238, 239) has expressed the “opinion,”without offering the slightest proof in support of his views, that “The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom” is a forgery. But I myself, in my French edition of this work, have given all the historical and critical details regarding its origin; moreover, the original manuscript, as has been shown by the examination of all the experts, (1)dates from the eighteenth century; (2)is throughout in de Sade’s original handwriting; (3)is written in his characteristic style; and, finally, the forgery of this manuscript, a roll 12 metres 12 centimetres in length, written on both sides in letters of microscopic smallness, would be an absolute impossibility. If anything is genuine and authentic, this work is such. Dr. Albert Eulenburg, without doubt one of the most experienced, if not the most experienced, student of de Sade, assured me that this work unquestionably came from de Sade’s pen. I must, therefore, reject Moll’s opinion, which was formed independently of any proof, and without any examination of the original manuscript, asunscientific and utterly futile.[811]In popular writings dealing with the sexual life, I have myself found many interesting remarks, and even many new ideas. Naturally, when I say “popular,” I mean truly popular writings, not hawkers’ literature or garbage literature.[812]A. von Schrenck-Notzing, “Suggestive Therapeutics in Cases of Morbid Manifestations of Sexual Sensibility,” preface, p. ix (Stuttgart, 1892).[813]Von Schrenck-Notzing, “Bibliography of the Psychology and Psychopathology of the Vita Sexualis,” published in theZeitschrift für Hypnotismus, vol. vii., Nos. 1 and 2, p. 121.[814]In order to give an idea of the great interest in sexual science exhibited by the most diverse circles of cultured men of the present day, I shall merely mention in this note a few names, without pretending to give an exhaustive list: R. von Krafft-Ebing, Mantegazza, Ploss-Bartels, A. Eulenburg, von Schrenck-Notzing, Fr. S. Krauss, Tarnowsky, L. Löwenfeld, Havelock Ellis, Magnus Hirschfeld, S. Freud, Georg Hirth, H. Kurella, H. Swoboda, Laurent, A. Hoche, C. Lombroso, P. Fürbringer, E. Carpenter, Rohleder, Alfred Fournier, A. Binet, Marro, J. J. Bachofen, J. Kohler, E. Westermarck, Max Dessoir, Alfred Blaschko, Albert Neisser, Eli Metchnikoff, Fritz Schaudinn, Ducrey, Unna, Oskar Schultze, Wilhelm Waldeyer, V. von Gyurkovechky, Louis Fiaux, Léon Taxil, Wilhelm Fliess, Willy Hellpach, P. J. Möbius, Heinrich Schurtz, B. Friedländer, Eduard von Meyer, Hans Ostwald, R. Kossmann, Otto Adler, W. Hammond, Beard, Wilhelm Erb, Paul Näcke, J. Salgó, H. T. Finck, F. Neugebauer, C. Wagner, H. Ferdy, Rosa Mayreder, Ellen Key, Helene Stöcker, Anna Pappritz, Maria Lischnewska, Lily Braun, and many others.[815]Havelock Ellis and J. A. Symonds, “Contrary Sexual Sensibility.”[816]Albert Moll, “Contrary Sexual Sensibility,” third edition (Berlin, 1899).[817]J. Chevalier, “L’Inversion Sexuelle,” with a preface by A. Lacassagne (Lyons and Paris, 1893).[818]Laupts, “Perversion et Perversité Sexuelles,” preface by Émile Zola (Paris, 1896). (Containing interesting critical, literary, and medical studies upon the subject of homosexuality.)[819]Havelock Ellis, “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” vol. v.: “Erotic Symbolism, etc.” (Philadelphia, 1906).[820]Apart from “Man and Woman” (fourth edition, 1904, revised and enlarged), all Havelock Ellis’s writings on sexual questions are included in the “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” 5 vols. (sixth concluding volume not yet completed), published by the F. A. Davis Company, of Philadelphia, U.S.A.—Translator.[821]A. Moll, “Investigations regarding the Libido Sexualis,” Part I. (Berlin, 1897).[822]Charles Féré, “L’Instinct Sexuel, Évolution et Dissolution” (Paris, 1899).[823]Otto Rank, “The Artist: Contributions to Sexual Psychology” (Vienna and Leipzig, 1907).[824]August Forel, “The Sexual Question” (Rebman, 1908).[825]Leo Berg, “Geschlechter” (Berlin, 1906).[826]Prior to the issue of the first edition of the present work, three volumes ofAnthropophyteiahad appeared, and references to many of the most important papers in these volumes have already been given in the appropriate chapters. While the sixth edition of “The Sexual Life of Our Time” was in the press, in October, 1907, the fourth volume ofAnthropophyteiawas issued, and constitutes an especially weighty section of this work. Among the contributions are the following: A. Mitrović, “Temporary Marriages in Northern Dalmatia”; Fr. S. Krauss, “Selective Marriages in Bosnia”; H. E. Luedecke, “Erotic Tattooing”; W. von Bülow, “The Sexual Life of the Samoans”; F. Wernert, “Tales of the German Peasantry” (of an erotic character); A. Mitrović, “A Visit to a Sorceress in Northern Dalmatia”; Krauss, Mitrović, and Wernert, “The Sense of Smell in the Sexual Life”; B. Laufer, “A Japanese Spring Picture”; O. Knapp, “The ‘ολισβος’ of the Hellenes”; A. Kind, “Coitus and the Sexual Instinct”; K. Amrain, “The Increase of Virile Potency”; H. E. Luedecke, “Eroticism and Numismatics”; V. S. Karadžić, “Erotic and Skatological Proverbs and Locutions of the Servians”; Luedecke, “Elements of Skatology”; Fr. S. Krauss, “Slavonic Popular Traditions regarding Sexual Intercourse.”

[808]R. von Krafft-Ebing, “Psychopathia Sexualis.” Only Authorized Translation from the Twelfth revised German Edition (Rebman Limited, London, 1906).

[809]Cf.my “New Researches concerning the Marquis de Sade,” pp. 437-450 (Berlin, 1904).

[810]Recently A. Moll (Enzyklopädische Jahrbücher der gesamten Heilkunde, 1906, vol. xiii., pp. 238, 239) has expressed the “opinion,”without offering the slightest proof in support of his views, that “The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom” is a forgery. But I myself, in my French edition of this work, have given all the historical and critical details regarding its origin; moreover, the original manuscript, as has been shown by the examination of all the experts, (1)dates from the eighteenth century; (2)is throughout in de Sade’s original handwriting; (3)is written in his characteristic style; and, finally, the forgery of this manuscript, a roll 12 metres 12 centimetres in length, written on both sides in letters of microscopic smallness, would be an absolute impossibility. If anything is genuine and authentic, this work is such. Dr. Albert Eulenburg, without doubt one of the most experienced, if not the most experienced, student of de Sade, assured me that this work unquestionably came from de Sade’s pen. I must, therefore, reject Moll’s opinion, which was formed independently of any proof, and without any examination of the original manuscript, asunscientific and utterly futile.

[811]In popular writings dealing with the sexual life, I have myself found many interesting remarks, and even many new ideas. Naturally, when I say “popular,” I mean truly popular writings, not hawkers’ literature or garbage literature.

[812]A. von Schrenck-Notzing, “Suggestive Therapeutics in Cases of Morbid Manifestations of Sexual Sensibility,” preface, p. ix (Stuttgart, 1892).

[813]Von Schrenck-Notzing, “Bibliography of the Psychology and Psychopathology of the Vita Sexualis,” published in theZeitschrift für Hypnotismus, vol. vii., Nos. 1 and 2, p. 121.

[814]In order to give an idea of the great interest in sexual science exhibited by the most diverse circles of cultured men of the present day, I shall merely mention in this note a few names, without pretending to give an exhaustive list: R. von Krafft-Ebing, Mantegazza, Ploss-Bartels, A. Eulenburg, von Schrenck-Notzing, Fr. S. Krauss, Tarnowsky, L. Löwenfeld, Havelock Ellis, Magnus Hirschfeld, S. Freud, Georg Hirth, H. Kurella, H. Swoboda, Laurent, A. Hoche, C. Lombroso, P. Fürbringer, E. Carpenter, Rohleder, Alfred Fournier, A. Binet, Marro, J. J. Bachofen, J. Kohler, E. Westermarck, Max Dessoir, Alfred Blaschko, Albert Neisser, Eli Metchnikoff, Fritz Schaudinn, Ducrey, Unna, Oskar Schultze, Wilhelm Waldeyer, V. von Gyurkovechky, Louis Fiaux, Léon Taxil, Wilhelm Fliess, Willy Hellpach, P. J. Möbius, Heinrich Schurtz, B. Friedländer, Eduard von Meyer, Hans Ostwald, R. Kossmann, Otto Adler, W. Hammond, Beard, Wilhelm Erb, Paul Näcke, J. Salgó, H. T. Finck, F. Neugebauer, C. Wagner, H. Ferdy, Rosa Mayreder, Ellen Key, Helene Stöcker, Anna Pappritz, Maria Lischnewska, Lily Braun, and many others.

[815]Havelock Ellis and J. A. Symonds, “Contrary Sexual Sensibility.”

[816]Albert Moll, “Contrary Sexual Sensibility,” third edition (Berlin, 1899).

[817]J. Chevalier, “L’Inversion Sexuelle,” with a preface by A. Lacassagne (Lyons and Paris, 1893).

[818]Laupts, “Perversion et Perversité Sexuelles,” preface by Émile Zola (Paris, 1896). (Containing interesting critical, literary, and medical studies upon the subject of homosexuality.)

[819]Havelock Ellis, “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” vol. v.: “Erotic Symbolism, etc.” (Philadelphia, 1906).

[820]Apart from “Man and Woman” (fourth edition, 1904, revised and enlarged), all Havelock Ellis’s writings on sexual questions are included in the “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” 5 vols. (sixth concluding volume not yet completed), published by the F. A. Davis Company, of Philadelphia, U.S.A.—Translator.

[821]A. Moll, “Investigations regarding the Libido Sexualis,” Part I. (Berlin, 1897).

[822]Charles Féré, “L’Instinct Sexuel, Évolution et Dissolution” (Paris, 1899).

[823]Otto Rank, “The Artist: Contributions to Sexual Psychology” (Vienna and Leipzig, 1907).

[824]August Forel, “The Sexual Question” (Rebman, 1908).

[825]Leo Berg, “Geschlechter” (Berlin, 1906).

[826]Prior to the issue of the first edition of the present work, three volumes ofAnthropophyteiahad appeared, and references to many of the most important papers in these volumes have already been given in the appropriate chapters. While the sixth edition of “The Sexual Life of Our Time” was in the press, in October, 1907, the fourth volume ofAnthropophyteiawas issued, and constitutes an especially weighty section of this work. Among the contributions are the following: A. Mitrović, “Temporary Marriages in Northern Dalmatia”; Fr. S. Krauss, “Selective Marriages in Bosnia”; H. E. Luedecke, “Erotic Tattooing”; W. von Bülow, “The Sexual Life of the Samoans”; F. Wernert, “Tales of the German Peasantry” (of an erotic character); A. Mitrović, “A Visit to a Sorceress in Northern Dalmatia”; Krauss, Mitrović, and Wernert, “The Sense of Smell in the Sexual Life”; B. Laufer, “A Japanese Spring Picture”; O. Knapp, “The ‘ολισβος’ of the Hellenes”; A. Kind, “Coitus and the Sexual Instinct”; K. Amrain, “The Increase of Virile Potency”; H. E. Luedecke, “Eroticism and Numismatics”; V. S. Karadžić, “Erotic and Skatological Proverbs and Locutions of the Servians”; Luedecke, “Elements of Skatology”; Fr. S. Krauss, “Slavonic Popular Traditions regarding Sexual Intercourse.”

“A happy man is he who in his individuality possesses an instrument upon which the world can play with all its wealth of powers. To him the sexual will be a means by which he will be enabled to grasp the innermost of life, to understand its most painful sorrows and its most intoxicating delights, to plumb its most frightful abysses and to scale its most shining summits.”—Rosa Mayreder.

The future of human love — Indications of progress and of a happier configuration of the sexual life — Relationship of sexuality to intimate individual love — The categorical imperative of the sexual life — The association of love with the work of life — Love and personality.

Looking backwards over the long road which lies behind us, and which has conducted us past all the heights and deeps of the human amatory and sexual life, we may now endeavour to give a brief answer to the difficult question, What is thefutureof human love? Are we able to recognize the existence of progress towards better things? Are there any indications of a new, nobler, happier configuration of the sexual life? The answer is a confident and joyful “Yes!”

Neverbefore throughout the history of mankind has love evoked so earnest and so profound an interest as to-day; never has it been considered from so eminentlysociala standpoint as now. As I remarked at the first public meeting of the Association for the Protection of Motherhood, the idea of a reform, ennoblement, and more natural configuration of the sexual life harmonizes perfectly with the general tendency of our time, which has in view a resanation of all the relationships of life. It is continually more clearly and widely recognized that in the human sexual life, as in all other departments of human activity, modifications may be effected by means ofconsciousendeavour in the direction of a progressive evolution; that the relationship between man and woman, alike in its individual and in its social aspects, is influenced by the changes and advances of human evolution; and that this relationship cannot be artificially confined by main force within limits which may have been suitable to it one hundred or two hundred years ago.

Our love is of this earth, afflicted with all earthly defects and sorrows. Notwithstanding this, weaffirmit joyfully, in the confident hope that it can be saved from all hostile and destructive influences, and that it can be elevated above the transient and the casual, and manifest itself in its finest form asintimate, individuallove. In the sphinx of the individual, the greatest riddle of all unquestionably lies in the alarming and elemental qualities of the sexual impulse. But the way to liberation is obvious and open. Let us fight courageously with all the hostile forces described in this book, which poison the amatory life of our time; let us destroy all the germs of degeneration, and let us imprint upon our sexual conscience three words—health,purity,responsibility.

One thing more. Why does love at the present day so often threaten to perish amid the general fragmentation of life? Why do the leading spirits and the greatest artists in love complain of the fragile character of all love? Because love is isolated, because it is not associated with thework of life, with the battle forfreedomwhich every man has to fight; because love is not conceived as a union between the lovers for the commonconquest of existence, as a partnership for the purposes ofinward spiritual growth. Far too often the man of the future is opposed to the woman of the past, or the woman of the future to the man of the past; each is to the other asexualbeing, and nothing beyond. And yet individual love is only possible when, passing beyond the aims of mere sexual gratification, and beyond the purposes of reproduction, it subserves the general objects of life, and assists in the performance of all the tasks of the civilization of our time. The most wonderful dreams of the heart cannot suffice to take the place of the positive work which life demands from love.Without free activity there is no love!That is the great saying of a great thinker. And I add to this saying, that without free activity there is norightto love. Such a right is possessed only by thepersonality, the poetic, striving, willing human being, be it man or be it woman. How often the man seeks love from the woman and cannot find it, and yet might have found it so easily!

“... doch wenn ich suchend drückeDie Fänge meines Geistes in ihr Hirn,Dünkt mich, dass hinter dieser hohen StirnEin Etwas liegt, das einstgefehltdem Glücke.”[“But when searchingly I pressThe talons of my spirit into her brain,It seems to me that behind this lofty foreheadSomething lies which has just missed happiness.”]

“... doch wenn ich suchend drückeDie Fänge meines Geistes in ihr Hirn,Dünkt mich, dass hinter dieser hohen StirnEin Etwas liegt, das einstgefehltdem Glücke.”[“But when searchingly I pressThe talons of my spirit into her brain,It seems to me that behind this lofty foreheadSomething lies which has just missed happiness.”]

“... doch wenn ich suchend drückeDie Fänge meines Geistes in ihr Hirn,Dünkt mich, dass hinter dieser hohen StirnEin Etwas liegt, das einstgefehltdem Glücke.”

[“But when searchingly I pressThe talons of my spirit into her brain,It seems to me that behind this lofty foreheadSomething lies which has just missed happiness.”]

In this beautiful verse of Ada Christen’s the secret of all love reveals itself. We must not seek that which is lower in the other sex, in the beloved person; we must seek thehighest, her spiritual essence, her will, her developmental possibilities. Before the eyes of the modern human being, the individual love of two free personalities appears as an ideal, as is poetically expressed by Dingelstedt in the words:

“Und Liebe blüht nur in demDoppel-LebenVerwandter Seelen, die nach oben streben.”[“And Love blossoms only in theduplex-lifeOf two allied souls, which together strive upwards.”]

“Und Liebe blüht nur in demDoppel-LebenVerwandter Seelen, die nach oben streben.”[“And Love blossoms only in theduplex-lifeOf two allied souls, which together strive upwards.”]

“Und Liebe blüht nur in demDoppel-LebenVerwandter Seelen, die nach oben streben.”

[“And Love blossoms only in theduplex-lifeOf two allied souls, which together strive upwards.”]

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