Don Juan, animated by illimitable erotic yearning, is therefore the
undisputed master of the other sex. He has the power of bestowing
absolute happiness, even if only for a brief hour, because in his
boundless love (which is projected on anything but her) a woman receives
the supreme value. Maybe he would be saved if a woman denied herself to
him--maybe he would cease to be a seeker of love and become a
worshipper, for he could not refuse to believe in the woman who
rejected him; but it is his fate that no woman he woos can resist him,
that all throw themselves into his arms without an exception and without
a struggle.
Thus the seeker of love, too, though in a restricted sense, may be
regarded as a metaphysical erotic, for he loathes sexuality--his
portion--and yearns for a higher form of love. He shares this attitude
with the slave of love, who is also a sensualist and a would-be lover.
The slave of love imitates the attitude of the worshipper, but he
infallibly sinks into the sexual sphere.
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