Page:Novalis Schriften - Volume 2.djvu/160

★ 150 ★ the form of the monarch? The paper glue that now pastes the people together will dissolve, and the spirit will banish the ghosts that appeared in the letters and emanated from the scattered authors and presses, and fuse all people together like a pair of lovers.

11. The king is the true life principle of the state; just like the sun in the planetary system. First of all, the supreme life in the state generates the atmosphere of light around the life principle. It crystallizes in every citizen to a greater or lesser degree. The citizen's speech in the presence of the king become as shining and thus poetic as possible, or become expressions of the greatest inspiration. In the greatest inspiration, the mind immediately becomes the most engaged, the effects of the mind become reflections, but reflection by its nature is instructive, so the beautiful or perfect reflexion is associated with the greatest inspiration, so also the citizen's speech in the presence of the king will be the highest, most powerfully restrained, speech of keenest sentiment controlled by the most respectful prudence, one whose conduct to kept within the rules.

No court can exist without etiquette. But there is a natural etiquette, which is beautiful, and a phony, faddish, ugly one. The establishment of the former, therefore, is not an unimportant concern for the thinking king, as it will have a significant influence on the taste and love for the monarchy's form.

12. Every citizen is a civil servant. His income is only as such. One does wrong to call the king the first official of the state. The king is not a citizen therefore also not a civil servant. That