ich lachen ueber all mein Wissen.  Lieblichkeit und Hoheit, und Ruh und Leben, und Geist und Gemuet und Gestalt ist Ein seeliges Eins in diesem Wesen."[65] And six or eight months later:  “Mein Schoenheitsinn ist nun vor Stoerung sicher.  Er orientiert sich ewig an diesem Madonnenkopfe....  Sie ist schoen wie Engel!  Ein zartes, geistiges, himmlisch reizendes Gesicht!  Ach ich koennte ein Jahrtausend lang mich und alles vergessen bei ihr—­Majestaet und Zaertlichkeit, und Froehlichkeit und Ernst—­und Leben und Geist, alles ist in und an ihr zu einem goettlichen Ganzen vereint."[66] It would be difficult to conceive of a more complete and sublime eulogy of any object of affection than the words just quoted, and yet they do not conceal their author’s etherial quality of thought, his “Uebersinnlichkeit.”  Even his boyish love-affairs seem to have been largely of this character, and were in all likelihood due to the necessity which he felt of bestowing his affection somewhere, rather than to irresistible forces proceeding from the objects of his regard.

Lack of self-restraint, so often characteristic of the poet of Weltschmerz, was not Hoelderlin’s greatest fault.  And yet if his intense devotion to Susette remained undebased by sensual desires, as we know it did, this was not solely due to the practice of heroic self-restraint, but must be attributed in part to the fact that that side of his nature was entirely subordinate to his higher ideals; and these were always a stronger passion with Hoelderlin than his love.  So that Diotima’s judgment of Hyperion is correct when she says:  “O es ist so ganz natuerlich, dass Du nimmer lieben willst, weil Deine groessern Wuensche verschmachten."[67] This consideration at once compels a comparison with Lenau, which must be deferred, however, until the succeeding chapter.  Undoubtedly this year and a half at Frankfurt was the happiest period of his whole life.  It brought him a serenity of mind which he had never before known.  Ardent was the response called forth by his devotion, but its influence was wholesome—­it was soothing to his sensitive nerves.  And because it was altogether more a sublime than an earthly passion, he indulged himself in it with a conscience void of offence.  Doubtless he correctly describes the influence of his relations with Diotima upon his life when he writes:  “Ich sage Dir, lieber Neuffer! ich bin auf dem Wege, ein recht guter Knabe zu werden.... mein Herz ist voll Lust, und wenn das heilige Schicksal mir mein gluecklich Leben erhaelt, so hoff’ ich kuenftig mehr zu thun als bisher."[68] But the happy life was not to continue long.  Rudely the cup was dashed from his lips, and the poet’s pain intensified by one more disappointment—­the bitterest of all he had experienced.  It filled him with thoughts of revenge, which he was powerless to execute.  There can be no question that if his love for Susette had been of a less etherial order, less a thing of the soul, he would have felt much