ELAND

But what was the Romantic School in Germany? It was nothing else but the
reawakening of the poetry of the Middle Ages, as it had shown itself in
its songs, images, and architecture, in art and in life. But this poetry
had risen from Christianity; it was a passion-flower which had sprung
from the blood of Christ. I do not know whether the melancholy
passion-flower of Germany is known by that name in France, or whether
popular legend attributes to it the same mystical origin. It is a
strange, unpleasantly colored blossom, in whose calyx we see set forth
the implements which were used in the crucifixion of Christ, such as the
hammer, pincers, and nails--a flower which is not so much ugly as
ghostly, and even whose sight awakens in our soul a shuddering pleasure,
like the convulsively agreeable sensations which come from pain itself.
From this view the flower was indeed the fittest symbol for Christianity
itself, whose most thrilling chain was the luxury of pain.

Though in France only Roman Catholicism is understood by the word
Christianity, I must specially preface that I speak only of the latter.
I speak of that religion in whose first dogmas there is a damnation of
all flesh, and which not only allows to the spirit power over the flesh,
but will also kill this to glorify the spirit. I speak of that religion
by whose unnatural requisitions sin and hypocrisy really came into the
world, in that by the condemnation of the flesh the most innocent
sensuous pleasures became sins, and because the impossibility of a man's
becoming altogether spiritual naturally created hypocrisy. I speak of
that religion which, by teaching the doctrine of the casting away of all
earthly goods and of cultivating a dog-like, abject humility and angelic
patience, became the most approved support of despotism. Men have found
out the real life and meaning (_Wesen_) of this religion, and do not
now content themselves with promises of supping in Paradise; they know
that matter has also its merits, and is not all the devil's, and they
now defend the delights of this world, this beautiful garden of God, our
inalienable inheritance. And therefore, because we have grasped so
entirely all the consequences of that absolute spiritualism, we may
believe that the Christian Catholic view of the world has reached its
end. Every age is a sphinx, which casts itself into the abyss when man
has guessed its riddle.

Yet we do in no wise deny the good results