Personality has--in principle--become the sole, supreme
source of eroticism. In this stage there is no tyranny of man over
woman--as in the sexual stage--no submission of man to woman--as in the
stage of woman-worship; it is the stage of the complete equality of the
sexes, a mutual giving and taking. If sexuality is infinite as matter,
spiritual love eternal as the metaphysical ideal, the synthesis is human
and personal.
Before the eighteenth century, this new erotic union did not exist as a
phenomenon of civilisation, but occasionally we find it anticipated or
vaguely alluded to. Some of the early German minnesingers (such as
Dietmar von Aist and Kuernberg) sometimes betray, especially when
speaking through the medium of a woman, sentiments prophetic of our
modern sentimental ballads. The following verses by Albrecht of
Johansdorf, express the reciprocity characteristic of modern love:
When two hearts are so united
That their love can never wane,
Then I ween no man should blight it,
Death alone should part the twain.
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