" In another letter he said
that all the world held no further prize for him, since he had found
everything in her. And just as spiritual love approached more and more
the mean of a familiar friendship, so was his sexuality concentrated on
a single woman, on Christiane, in this connection, too, seeking a mean.
But it is an important point that the fundamental dualistic feeling
remained unchanged. There was no woman in Goethe's life in regard to
whom he arrived at, or even aspired to, the blending of both emotions in
a higher intuition.
Even before his friendship with Frau von Stein, at the time of his
engagement to Lili Schoenemann, Goethe experienced a spiritual love for
a girl he had never seen. He calls Countess Auguste Stolberg "his
angel," "his only, only maiden," "his golden child," and says: "I have
an intuition that you will save me from great tribulation, and that no
other being on earth could do it." These letters also contain the
significant passage: "Miserable fate which has denied me a happy mean.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344