not all poetry, from the drinking
song to the tragedy, a deification of woman? All the worse for her and
for him who admires her; for if he does not look out he will, all of a
sudden, have to pull a long face. The beautiful, the excellent, all of
man's achievement, owes its origin to woman, for she inspires him. Woman
is, indeed, the inspiring element in life. How many a lovelorn shepherd
has played on this theme, and how many a shepherdess has listened to it!
Verily, my soul is without envy and feels only gratitude to the gods;
for I would rather be a man, though in humble station, but really so,
than be a woman and an indeterminate quantity, rendered happy by a
delusion - I would rather be a concrete thing, with a small but definite
meaning, than an abstraction which is to mean all.
As I have said, it is through woman that ideality is born into the world
and - what were man without her! There is many a man who has become a
genius through a woman, many a one a hero, many a one a poet, many a one
even a saint; but he did not become a genius through the woman he
married, for through her he only became a privy councillor; he did not
become a hero through the woma