W. von
Humboldt records a conversation which he had in the year of the
Revolution with Schiller. The latter unhesitatingly professed his faith
in the unity of love. "It (the blending of love and sensuality) is
always possible and always there." But Humboldt was diffident, unable
fully to grasp the new conception. "I said that it would sever the most
beautiful, most delicate relationships, that it was too heterogeneous to
admit of coherence; but my principal argument was that in the majority
of cases it was out of the question...."
There is a document from the year 1779 which contains in its entirety
the modern conception of harmonious love, together with its ecstatic
apotheosis, the love-death, a document which puts the later theorising
romanticists and _Lucinda_ completely in the shade. I am referring to
the only one of Gottfried August Buerger's letters to Molly, which has
been preserved. It contains the following passages: "I cannot describe
to you in words how ardently I embrace you in the spirit.
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