Thus Wagner, the greatest and most inspired exponent of love among
modern artists, declared that of all values love was the greatest. His
intuitive genius left all the doctrines formulated by Schopenhauer and
Buddha far behind and definitely rejected pessimism as a creed. There is
an interesting letter from him to Matilda Wesendonk, written while he
was composing the music of _Tristan_, and containing modifications of
Schopenhauer's philosophy which he considered requisite. "It is a
question of pointing out the road to salvation which no philosopher, not
even Schopenhauer, discovered, the road which leads to the perfect
pacification of the will through love; I do not mean abstract love for
all humanity, but true love, based on sexual love, that is to say love
between man and woman."
In _Parsifal_, the last and most mature of all his works, Wagner is
breaking new ground. Here love between man and woman is deposed from the
exalted position it hitherto held, subordinated to the metaphysical
purpose of the world, that is to say, "the purpose of attaining to
perfection," and absorbed in a higher association of ideas.
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