be surpassed. With the deification of woman love reached
far beyond the beloved into infinitude, and the phenomenon of the
love-death renders all the supposed generic purpose of love impossible.
But even if we ignored love altogether and admitted the existence of the
sexual instinct only, its mysterious endeavour in the interest of the
species would still remain pure imagination, and a conception far
inferior to that of the winged god of love. The instinct does not
possess a trace of "discretion," takes no interest in the weal and woe
of humanity, but is utterly selfish, seeking its own gratification and
nothing else.

The theory which fits so well into Schopenhauer's metaphysics has,
without it, neither sense nor support. There is no instinct of
philoprogenitiveness, but rather a pairing-instinct, and in addition to
this a conscious desire for offspring. The difference between these two
instincts is great, for as a rule, the pairing-instinct is not
accompanied by a wish for children (that it should be so unconsciously
is a theory not worth considering seriously), and the longing for
children very frequently exists without any sexual desire; to
manufacture an instinct out of those two inherently dissimilar impulses
is fantastic metaphysics and not spiritual reality. The history of
antiquity furnishes ample proof of my contention, for in the days of the
remote past the sexual impulse had its special domain, as well as the
wish for progeny, which was often regarded in the light of a duty.

The legend of the instinct of philoprogenitiveness which is to-day so
universally believed, is undoubtedly the result of the general feeling
that sexual intercourse as such is base and degrading. But because of
the more or less clear consciousness that sexual intercourse is really
what is most desired in love, and because of the lack of courage openly
to admit it, attempts are made to justify it from a social standpoint.

The task of establishing the equilibrium between love and sensuousness
has not yet been accomplished. What is so often realised as _the sexual
trouble_ has its origin in the fact that the higher stage has not yet
been finally reached. There is an infinite number of unions, all of
which have a flaw. Witness modern literature with its indefatigable
treatment of eroticism. If a complete unity is ever to be established,
then doubtless it will be the privilege of the Germanic race to achieve
it, for the Neo-Latin nations