Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 91
ideality, he affords fitting occasion to say, with Holberg: "What! does that cow wear a fine dress, too?"*^
The case is this: whenever a woman arouses ideality in man, and thereby the consciousness of immortality, she al- ways does so negatively. He who really became a genius, a hero, a poet, a saint through woman, he has by that very fact seized on the essence of immortality. Now if the in- spiring element were positively present in woman, why, then a man's wife, and only his wife, ought to awaken in him the consciousness of immortality. But the reverse holds true. That is, if she is really to awaken ideality in her husband she must die. Mr. Petersen, to be sure, is not affected, for all that. But if woman, by her death, does awaken man's ideality, then is she indeed the cause of all the great things poetry attributes to her; but note well: that which she did in a positive fashion for him in no wise roused his ideality. In fact, her significance in this regard becomes the more doubtful the longer she lives, because she will at length really begin to wish to signify something positive. However, the more positive the proof the less it proves ; for then Mr. Petersen's longing will be for some past common experiences whose content was, to all intents and purposes, exhausted when they were had. Most posi- tive of all the proof becomes if the object of his longing concerns their marital spooning — that time when they vis- ited the Deer Park together! In the same way one might suddenly feel a longing for the old pair of slippers one used to be so comfortable in; but that proof is not exactly a proof for the immortality of the soul. On the other hand, the more negative the proof, the better it is ; for the nega- tive is higher than the positive, inasmuch as it concerns our immortality, and is thus the only positive value.
Woman's main significance lies in her negative contribu- tion, whereas her positive contributions are as nothing in comparison but, on the contrary, pernicious. It is this truth which life keeps from her, consoling her with an illu- sion which surpasses all that might arise in anj" man's brain.
- i"The Lying-in Room," II, 2.
