To-day the soul of a woman has frequently the same effect on man as
her physical beauty; he enjoys it as a subtile charm instead of
respecting it as a mystery.
I can hardly expect to make my meaning quite clear to the multitude, but
the tendency to enjoy beauty of form or soul as a distinct element
represents a rupture with the principle of synthetic love, the love
which does not separate but realises the personality of the beloved as
an indivisible entity. The enjoyment of beauty as a separate element
pre-supposes a conscious, spiritual division, not only of the beloved,
but also of the lover, and is therefore the destruction of the principle
of unity. Aesthete and libertine alike sink to the lower level of
pleasure, and their emotions become obscene. There is no question of a
division when Tristan in his vision of Isolde exclaims, "How beautiful
thou art!" For great love can create the beauty of the beloved out of
its own soul.
Prudery is based on a similar duality.
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