Page:Selections from the writings of Kierkegaard.djvu/92

 90 University of Texas Bulletin

worth while for her husband, will hardly arouse any ideal strivings in him. Or, again, the fact that he does not pos- sess her signifies that he is pursuing an ideal. Perchance he loves many, but loving many is also a kind of unrequited love; and yet the ideality of his soul is to be seen in this striving and yearning, and not in the small bits of lovable- ness which make up the sum total of the contributions of all those he loves.

The highest ideality a woman can arouse in a man con- sists, in fact, in the awakening within him of the conscious- ness of immortality. The point of this proof lies in what one might call the necessity of a reply. Just as one may remark about some play that it cannot end without this or that person getting in his say, likewise (says ideality) our existence cannot be all over with death : I demand a reply! This proof is frequently furnished, in a positive fashion, in the public advertiser. I hold that to be entirely proper, for if proof is to be made in the public advertiser it must be made in a positive fashion. Thus: Mrs. Petersen, we learn, has lived a number of years, until in the night of the 24th it pleased Providence, etc. This produces in Mr. Pe- tersen an attack of reminiscences from his courting days or, to express it quite plainly, nothing but seeing her again will ever console him. For this blissful meeting he prepares himself, in the meanwhile, by taking unto himself another wife ; for, to be sure, this marriage is by no means as poetic as the first â€” still it is a good imitation. This is the proof positive. Mr. Petersen is not satisfied with demanding a reply, no, he wants a meeting again in the hereafter.

As is well known, a base metal will often show the gleam of precious metal. This is the brief silver-gleam. With respect to the base metal this is a tragic moment, for it must once for all resign itself to being a base metal. Not so with Mr. Petersen. The possession of ideality is by rights in- herent in every person â€” and now, if I laugh at Mr. Peter- sen it is not because he, being in reality of base metal, had but a single silver-gleam; but, rather, because just this sil- ver-gleam betrays his having become a base metal. Thus does the philistine look most ridiculous when, arrayed in