unspotted women. On the other hand, the
contemners of such a sentiment will be found most fitly represented
by Thersites, who continued to ridicule Achilles for the tender-
heartedness he showed towards the dead queen of the Amazons, until
the hero killed the rancorous scoffer with one blow of his fist.

But, of all the class of men we have been speaking of, no one has
more thoroughly tasted the contents of this relation in personal
experience, or more completely mastered and displayed its secrets by
psychological criticism, than Jacobi. Jacobi sat, for half his life,
in the centre of a sort of Platonic academy of noble women, such as
his own sisters, and the Princess Galitzin, Sophia Delaroche, and
Cornelia Goethe, revolving, both in native feeling and critical
thought, all the treasures of pure affection. Bettine, after a visit
to him, said, "Jacobi is tender as a Psyche awakened too early." In
his two works, "Allwill's Correspondence" and "Woldemar," he unfolds
the true philosophy of Platonic love, in its psychological
foundations and workings, and in all its subtilest ramifications,
more fully than anybody else has ever done it. Jacobi held the glass
before his own bosom, dipped the pen in his own heart, and drew the
noble though fevered Woldemar after the life. The chief characters in
this romance of philosophy and sentiment are Woldemar; his brother
Biderthal, to whom he is passionately attached; Dorenburg; the three
sisters, Caroline, Luise, and Henriette Hornich; and their dear
neighbor and associate, Allwina Clarenau. Caroline and Luise marry
Biderthal and Dorenburg; Allwina becomes Woldemar's wife; but
Henriette becomes his friend. This friendship becomes so
comprehensive and intense in its vitality, that life would be nothing
to them without it. After a while, an element of strange perturbation
and suspicion enters into it; they fear it is becoming love, and are
most wretched. But at length, after much perplexity and distress, all
comes clear; and they are again blessed with a perfect spiritual
sympathy, as serene and pure as that between two seraphs.

The story and many of its separate incidents have been greatly
censured and ridiculed; but Jacobi had an insight, a knowledge, a
mastery, in these delicate matters, far superior to that of his
critics. Whoso really fathoms his exposition must justify and admire
it. The characters of Woldemar and Henriette are extraordinary and
exceptional; they are neverthele