RAINER MARIA RILKE

the individual can clarify them for himself and live clearly, (or
if not the individual, who is too dependent, then at any rate the
solitary man.) He can remember that all beauty in animals and
plants is a quiet enduring form of love and longing, and he can
see the animal, as he sees the plant, patiently and willingly
uniting a‘rllil/wtmg_iudflmd_gmm%_mfiom,physmal
luwwm%&m which
are greatW@amfindmpOWflful than will and
(zpposmon O that man might be more humble in acceptmg
this s¢crm_iwh@migarth is full even in its tiniest creatures,
and more sincere in bearing, enduring and feehng how fright-
fully serious it is, instead of taking it lightly. That he might be
reverent towards his fertility, which is all one whether it be
intellectual or physical ; for intellectual creation too derives from
the physical, is of one substance with it, it is only like a gentler,
more enraptured and everlasting repetition of bodily delight.
“The thought of being a creator, of begetting and forming™ is
nothing without its continual great confirmation and realization
in the world, nothing without the thousandfold assent from
things and animals,—and its enjoyment is so indescribably
beautiful and rich only because it is full of inherited memories
of the begetting and bearing of millions. In one creator’s thought
a thousand forgotten nights of love revive again and fill it full
of loftiness and grandeur. Those who come together in the night
time and entwine in swaying delight perform a serious work
and gather up sweetness, depth and strength for the song of some
poet that is to be, who will rise to tell of unspeakable bliss. And
they summon the future ; and even though they go astray and
embrace blindly, yet the future comes, a new human being
arises, and on the basis of the chance occurrence which here
seems consummated, awakens the law by which a resistant
vigorous seed forces its way to the egg-cell that advances openly
to meet it. Do not let yourself be misled by outward appearances ;
in the depths everything becomes law. And those who live the

secret falsely and badly (and they are very many) only lose it

 

22