Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/144

★ 134 ★ is a lack of knowing due to a lack, the latter from overabundance of knowledge. The latter tends to have the symptoms of skepticism. But it is an inauthentic skepticism due to an indirect weakness in our cognitive abilities. One is not capable of penetrating the substance or fully enlivening its particular form: a plastic power is not enough. This is the way that the inventive spirit of young people and enthusiasts, as well as the fortuitous attainment by the ingenious beginner or layperson, can easily be explained.

91.   The construction of worlds does not sate the deep urgent need for meaning: But a loving heart satisfies the aspiring spirit.

92. We are in relationships with all parts of the universe, just as with the future and past. It depends only on the direction and duration of our attention which relationship we want to develop especially well, which relationship should become especially meaningful and effective for us. A true method for this practice should be nothing less than that long-desired artistry in inventiveness; it may well be more than this. At every hour, a person proceeds according to its laws and the possibility of discovering them through ingenious self-observation is beyond doubt.

93. The historian organizes historical entities. The data of history are the material the historian gives form through animation. Hence history too is subject to the principles of animation and organization in general, And unless these principles are present in the first place, there are no genuine historical artifacts, only traces here and there of accidental stimulations where involuntary creative power has prevailed.

94. Almost all genius has hitherto been one-sided, the result of a pathological constitution. One type has too much