Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/599

 that he was far from being quite unsophisticated or—unexpectant. But the two friends seem never to have taken what Platen termed "the last step," even in their passionally affectionate days.

Of himself, at this period Platen writes (June 1813): "I saw no women except of that artificial class that comes to a Court. These could not attract me. So may it have been that my first warmer inclinations went out to a man. I will not say that I had not any understanding of unplatonic love: still, I would rather call what I, felt an intense, inner respect than a special sexual inclination." The "special sexual" attraction for him was to become evident to him presently.

For verily his third homosexual love (distinguished from any contemporary friendships, even if ardent) was certainly of the real tincture; albeit again we have in it far more a process and spell of idealizing, of dreaming, than of interest based on even a slight personal knowledge of the object. It was a wholly one-sided sentiment, due solely to another man's beauty of face and figure. But it was a powerful and unhappy passion. It had a distinct and lasting connection with Platen's sentimental life. It entered immediately into his earlier poetical expirations. He had become an officer in Munich. As it happened, that winter found him unusually solitary, several intimate friends being on duty elsewhere. He speaks of himself as having grown especially indifferent to some recent episodes—the recollection of the young painter Issel, the little feu-follet glow of his feeling for Euphrasie de Boisesson both were completely past. He writes: "In this mood of ardently longing for love, it happened that at a concert on November 12, 1814, was present a young officer of the——Regiment, who caught my attention." The young officer was a certain Captain Friedrich von Brandenstein, a cuirassier. He was blond, quiet-mannered,