In addition, Novalis was a perfect woman-worshipper.  He loved the Middle Ages and Catholicism.  “The reformation killed Christianity; henceforth Christianity has ceased to exist.”  “Catholicism preached nothing but love for the holy, beautiful Lady of Christianity, who, endowed with divine virtue, was able to deliver all loyal hearts from the most terrible dangers.”  He wrote hymns to Mary in the style of the pietists, emphasising more especially the principle of motherliness: 

     Oh, Mary!  At thy altar
     A thousand hearts lie prone,
     In this drear life of shadows
     They yearn for thee alone. 
     All hoping to recover
     From life’s distress and smart,
     If thou, oh holy Mother,
     Wilt take them to thy heart.

He idolised his fiancee, who died young.  “Her memory shall be my better self, a sacred image in my heart before which a sanctuary lamp is ever burning, and which will save me from the temptations of the Evil One.”  And through the mouth of Heinrich of Ofterdingen he proclaims:  “My beloved is the abbreviation of the universe; the universe is the elongation of my beloved.”  “Heaven has given you to me to worship.  I adore you, you are a saint, you are divine glory, you are eternal life!”

This sentimental worship of woman, combined with an all-transcending insatiable sensuousness, produced the peculiar sexually-mystic world-feeling which is so characteristic of him.  Night deeply moves his soul, longing, the memory of the beloved woman, adoration for the Virgin, his fantastic conception of an incarnated universe are fused into one great emotion: 

     Praise to the Queen of the World! 
     The lofty herald
     Of the sacred world. 
     The patroness
     Of rapturous love! 
     Thou art coming, beloved—­
     Night has descended—­
     My soul is ravished—­
     Over is this earthly journey
     And thou art mine again. 
     I gaze into thy dark, deep eyes,
     And see naught but love and happiness. 
     We sink down on the altar of the night,
     The soft couch—­
     The veil falls,
     And kindled by the rapturous embrace,
     Glows the pure fire
     Of the sweet sacrifice.

The climax and unique example of sensuousness, unsurpassed for its symbols of the physical embrace, is the hymn:  “Few know the Secret of Love.”  It is too long to give in full.  The following are a few stanzas: 

     Would that the ocean
     Blushed! 
     And in fragrant flesh
     Melted the rock! 
     Infinite is the sweet repast,
     Never satisfied is love;
     Nor close, nor fast enough
     Can it hold the beloved. 
     By ever more tender lips
     Transformed, the past ecstasy
     Grows closer, more intimate. 
     Rapturous love
     Thrills the soul;
     Hungrier and thirstier
     Grows the heart. 
     And thus the transports of love
     Endure for ever.