Doubtless it is to some extent paradoxical that the
inherently social feeling, anchored in duality, should be experienced
and perfected solitarily, that it should waive all claim to response
and reciprocity, to all appearances the most important elements of love.
The love-death corresponds more completely to the erotic ideal inasmuch
as it is founded on absolute equality in reciprocity. It finds its
climax not in solitude but in the company of the beloved. The idea of
complete abandonment is revolting to the solitarily loving individual;
the lover whose whole soul turns to the beloved cannot understand the
love of the solitary soul; it appears to him unnatural and cold, perhaps
meaningless and crazy. Woman does not know true solitude, the thought of
deification is foreign to her nature; she attains to the supreme only
with and through man; it is easier to her to give herself to her lover
entirely, and even to follow him into death. But in this connection I am
unable to suppress a doubt as to whether the fundamental emotion of the
mystical world-union is altogether present in woman, whether she really
divines behind her lover--eternity.
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