Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/128

★ 118 ★ becomes universally interesting and obtains objective worth. Where imagination and judgment meet, wit arises; where rationality and arbitrariness come together, humor. Light banter belongs to humor, but it is one degree lower: it is no longer purely artistic, and much more limited. What Fr. Schlegel so distinctly characterizes as irony is, in my opinion, nothing other than the result, the characteristic of discretion, the true presence of spirit. Schlegel's irony seems to me to be genuine humor. Several names are beneficial to an idea.

30. That which is insignificant, common, raw, ugly, immoral becomes socially acceptable through wit alone. It exists, as it were, only for the sake of wit: its purpose is wit.

32. We are on a mission: we are called to cultivate the earth.

33. If a spirit appeared to us, we would immediately take possession of our own spirituality: we would be inspired through both ourselves and the spirit at the same time. Without inspiration, there is no spiritual revelation. Inspiration is both revelation and counter-revelation, a dedication and an annunciation, at the same time.

34. A person lives, continues to act only in the idea, in the memory of his existence. For now, there is no