ie wrote
him the cruel words: "Eines von uns muss wahnsinnig werden."[100] Only a
few months were needed to decide which of them it should be.

The foregoing illustrations are ample to show what sort of influence
Sophie exerted over the poet's entire nature, and therefore upon his
Weltschmerz. Whereas in their hopeless loves, Hoelderlin and to an even
greater extent Goethe, struggled through to the point of renunciation,
Lenau constantly retrogrades, and allows his baser sensual instincts
more and more to control him. He promises to subdue his wild outbursts a
little,[101] and when he fails he tries to explain,[102] to
apologize.[103] If with Hoelderlin love was to a predominating degree a
thing of the soul, it was with Lenau in an equal measure a matter of
nerves, and as such, under these conditions, it could not but contribute
largely to his physical, mental and moral disruption. With Hoelderlin it
was the rude interruption from without of his quiet and happy
intercourse with Susette, which embittered his soul. With Lenau it was
the feverish, tumultuous nature of the love itself, that deepened his
melancholy.

The charge of affectation in their Weltschmerz would be an entirely
baseless one, both in the case of Hoelderlin and Lenau. But this
difference is readily discovered in the impressions made upon us by
their writings, namely that Hoelderlin's Weltschmerz is absolutely naive
and unconscious, while that of Lenau is at all times self-conscious and
self-centered. Mention has already been made, in speaking of Lenau's
pathological traits,[104] of his confirmed habit of self-diagnosis. This
he applied not only to his physical condition but to his mental
experiences as well. No one knew so well as he how deeply the roots of
melancholy had penetrated his being. "Ich bin ein Melancholiker" he once
wrote to Sophie, "der Kompass meiner Seele zittert immer wieder zurueck
nach dem Schmerze des Lebens."[105] Innumerable illustrations of this
fact might be found in his lyrics, all of which would repeat with
variations the theme of the stanza:

Du geleitest mich durch's Leben
Sinnende Melancholie!
Mag mein Stern sich strebend heben,
Mag er sinken,--weichest nie![106]

The definite purpose with which the poet seeks out and strives to keep
intact his painful impressions is frankly stated in one of his diary
memoranda, as follows: "So gibt es eine Hoehe des Kummers, auf welcher
angelangt wir einer einzelnen Emp