ine the emotion
whose reality and influence I have substantiated, from a timeless
standpoint, for my principal point is the psychical, and more
particularly the metaphysical consummation of the emotion of love. The
sole object of the abundant evidence I have been compelled to adduce is
my desire to prove the existence and significance of all the emotions
which stir the soul, and in the later Middle Ages strove so powerfully
to express themselves. My thesis that sexuality and love are opposed
principles will no doubt be rejected, for, under the strong influence of
the theory of evolution, all the world is to-day agreed that love is
nothing but the refinement of the sexual impulse. I maintain that (as
far as man is concerned) they differ very essentially, and I have
attempted to prove their incommensurability by submitting historical
facts. That they may, and will, ultimately merge, is my unalterable
conviction. My assertion that something so fundamental as the personal
love of man and woman did not exist from the beginning, but came into
existence in the course of history, at a not very remote period, may
seem even more strange. My only reply is that instead of advancing
opinions I have brought forward facts and allowed them to speak for
themselves. Moreover, to my mind the realisation of the intimate
connection of love and evolving personality is a far more magnificent
proof of the soundness of the evolutionary theory than the reflection
that we have received all things ready-made from the hands of nature.
Has it not been proved to us that the religious consciousness of the
divinity of the human soul was also evolved in historical time, and has
never again disappeared?

Every strong love which finds no response is fraught with the
possibility of an infinite unfolding; it may powerfully seize the whole
soul and make life a tragedy. But this tragedy is not of the very
essence of tragedy, inasmuch as here we have merely love confronted by
an unsurmountable obstacle, meeting and overwhelming it; the discord is
not inherent. Many a lover suffering from unrequited love, is born with
the tendency to become unhappy, with a secret will to the voluptuousness
of pain and melancholy; he will enjoy his unhappiness, perhaps become
productive through it. Thus, this deliberately unhappy love may be
regarded as an analogy to genuine metaphysical eroticism. For the
worship of woman is in its essence infinite striving; its object is
alwa