or me!" he sinks to the ground. His way, like Faust's, although
one-sidedly emotional, leads from chaos and sin to pure love and
salvation, not through his own strength but by the help vouchsafed to
him in the love of his glorified mistress.

By the side of the struggling, suffering Tannhaeuser, tossed hither and
thither between God and the devil, between Elizabeth and Venus, stands
Wolfram, the untempted woman-worshipper. The two extremes clash upon
each other in the contest of the minnesingers. Tannhaeuser, at war with
himself, exasperated by the calm, matter-of-fact way in which Wolfram
sings the praise of spiritual love, rushes to the other extreme and
bursts into rapturous praise of the goddess of love and the pleasure of
the senses. I need not lay stress on the fact that at that time of his
life Wagner's own heart was the arena in which the conflict was fought
out; a work like _Tannhaeuser_ is not _made_, it is conceived in the
innermost soul of its creator. Every one of Wagner's great works bears
the unmistakable stamp of sincerity and intensity, while with Goethe, on
the other hand, it is not difficult to distinguish the genuine ones,
that is to say, those which were written under the pressure of a
compelling impulse, from those which owed their existence to the
intellect rather than to the soul.

_Tannhaeuser_ immortalises the adolescence of the European races of
mankind; the third stage is not even anticipated.

_Lohengrin_, the principal interest of which is other than erotic,
represents a transitional phase between the second and the third stage;
body and soul are no longer regarded as warring against each other; a
greater harmony beyond either is dimly divined. Lohengrin has set out
from a distant, transcendental kingdom to find earthly happiness in
Elsa's love--but he is doomed to disappointment. I will not analyse the
theme, but rather quote a few passages from Wagner: "Lohengrin is
seeking the woman who is ready to believe in him; who will not ask him
who he is and whence he comes, but love him as he is and because he is
so.... Lohengrin's only desire is for love, to be loved, to be
understood through love. In spite of the superior development of his
senses, in spite of his intense consciousness, he desires nothing more
than to live the life of an ordinary citizen of this earth, to love and
be loved--to be a perfect specimen of humanity." Wagner further speaks
of his longing to find "the woman"; the fe