Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/130

★ 120 ★ 41. We cannot hear enough, cannot speak enough about a beloved object. We look forward to every new, apt, and exalting word. It is not up to us that is does not become the object of all objects.

42. We hold on to lifeless matter because of its connections, its fixed forms. We love the material insofar as it belongs to a beloved being, bears its mark, or is similar to it.

43. A true club is a mixture of institute and society. It has a purpose, like the institute; but not a determinate one, rather, a free indeterminate one: humanity in general. All aims are sincere; the society is absolutely joyful.

44. The objects of social entertainment are nothing but a means of stimulation. This determines their choice, their variation, and their treatment. Society is nothing but communal life: an indivisible thinking and feeling person. Each person is a miniature society.

45. To return to oneself, means for us, to abstract ourselves from the outside world. Earthly existence is analogically known as inner contemplation by the spirits, a going inside oneself, an immanent activity. Thus, earthly life arises from a primordial reflection, a primitive turning inward, a gathering in of oneself, that is as free as our reflection. Conversely, spiritual life in this world arises from breaking through that primitive reflection. The spirit unfurling itself once more, goes out from itself again, transmutes a part of this reflection again, and at this moment says "I" for the first time. One sees here,