For the essence of the love-death is contained in the
determination of personality to realise itself in a new and positive
form of existence. It is felt as the final synthesis, exactly as (in
other spheres) the union of the ideal with the personal is seen as the
perfection of human life. How would it be possible at once to annihilate
and to transcend the individual soul, the source of personal love, if
this soul were not first presupposed as the essential and supreme value?
Where personal love does not exist, as in the Orient and Japan, the
thought of the love-death would be an absurdity. The burning of Indian
widows is a phenomenon widely differing from the love-death. The Indian
widow slavishly abandons a life which has become aimless through her
master's death; she does not make a sacrifice in the true sense of the
word, and is not actuated by love.
The complete unity of the lovers is possible on earth for a brief hour
and it will, in most cases, satisfy erotic yearning.
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