Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard 81
work is encountered nowhere else, whether in gods or man ; but it is all the more entertaining to believe her and to add fuel to the fire.
As I remarked, the fun is simply incomparable — indeed, I know it for a fact, because I have at times not been able to sleep at night with the mere thought of what new confu- sions I should live to see, through the agency of my sweet- heart and my humble zeal to please her. Indeed, no one who gambles in a lottery- will meet with more remarkable combinations than he who has a passion for this game. For this is sure, that every woman without exception pos- sesses the same qualifications for being resolved and trans- figured in nonsense with a gracefulness, a nonchalance, an assurance such as befits the weaker sex.
Being a right-minded lover one naturally discovers every possible charm in one's beloved. Now, when discovering genius in the above sense, one ought not to let it remain a mere possibility- but ought, rather, to develop it into vir- tuosity. I do not need to be more specific, and more cannot be said in a general way, yet every one will understand me. Just as one may find entertainment in balancing a cane on one's nose, in swinging a tumbler in a circle w^ithout spill- ing a drop, in dancing between eggs, and in other games as amusing and profitable, likewise, and not otherwise, in liv- ing with his beloved the lover will have a source of incom- parable entertainment and food for most interesting study. In matters pertaining to love let one have absolute belief, not only in her protestations of fidelity — one soon tires of that game — but in all those explosions of inviolable Roman- ticism by which she would probably perish if one did not contrive a safety-valve through which the sighs and the smoke, and "the aria of Romanticism^^" may escape and make her worshipper happy. Let one compare her admir- ingly to Juliet, the difference being only that no person ever as much as thought of touching a hair on her Romeo's head. With regard to intellectual matters, let one hold her capable of all and, if one has been lucky enough to find the right
siQuotation from Wessel's famous comedy of "Love without Stock- ings," III, 3.