The stir of modern life, then, has awakened sensibility, quickened desire, aroused the passion for freedom, disturbed old traditions. Above all, the theological ideals of life have been, for the romantic poet, disturbed, perhaps shattered. His highest good must be sought in his own soul. What is the consequence? First, of course, a sense of splendid independence, a lofty spiritual pride. The joy of freed emotion is equaled by few delights on earth. The self-worship of poetic genius is surpassed by few forms of conceit. Shelley, rejoicing in his strength, writing “The Necessity of Atheism,” and defending, in all innocence of evil, adultery and incest, is a good example of the expression of this spirit. Lavatar’s account of the nature of genius is another instance: “As the apparitions of angels do not come, but are present, do not go away, but are gone, as they strike the innermost marrow, influence by their immortality the immortal in men, vanish and yet still influence, leave behind them sweet shuddering and tears of terror, and on the countenance pale joy, so the operation of genius. Describe genius as you will, — name it fruitfulness of soul, faith, hope, love, — the unlearned, the unlearnable, — the inimitable, the divine, — that is genius. ’Tis inspiration, revelation, that may be felt, but not willed or desired; ’tis art above art, its way is the way of the lightning.”[1] We cannot quote a tenth part of this rhapsody, wherein the self-admiration and the mutual admiration of the young men about Goethe, in the years just before and after 1780, receive a characteristic expression.
- ↑ See the passage at much greater length in Koberstein’s Gesch. der deutschen. Nationalliteratur, bd. iv., p. 26, of the 5th edit.
