536 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



does but hide a desire of power, of exercising our power over 

 another. That this is often the case, may be true ; but, if it is, 

 we are not dealing so much with love as with other sentiments, 

 equally emotional in their nature but less artistic. But can 

 we say of the purest forms of love which genius has symboUsed 

 that there is nothing but egoism in them ? Was there only 

 egoism concealed in the pure love of Gretchen for Faust ? or in 

 the love of BHzabeth for Tannhauser ? or in the love of Tristan 

 and Isolde ? In his beautiful work on the art of Richard Wagner, 

 Alfred Ernst remarks concemiag the scene in " Tannhauser " in 

 which Elizabeth prays for the sinner, and obtaias for him and for 

 the whole world pardon and redemption : " This truly sacred 

 scene . . . will remain ideally chaste, infinitely human and sad, 

 admirably significant alike by reason of the drama which it 

 dominates and by reason of its own grandeur. Those who have 

 suffered, who have learned to know what abandonment and 

 mourning mean, but who have beheved without despairing and 

 who have loved without faihng, wiU hsten passionately to the in- 

 vocation of immortal love, to the prayer of EUzabeth." ^ No, there 

 is something more than mere egoism in this purest of aU forms 

 of art. And M. de Roberty has understood this, and written 

 some admirable pages on the subject. He remarks very truly : 



" A last sesthetic quality, and not the least, distinguishes true love. 

 As every one is aware, the latter is the auxiliary and the most energetic 

 stimulant of action. In this respect love yields nothing to faith, which, 

 we are told, removes mountains ; and the wonders which love has accom- 

 plished, and which have long since become celebrated, are not to be 

 counted. Well, if all this is not art, and the best, the most glorious, the 

 most fundamental, the purest art, I would hke to know what merits the 

 name of art." 2 



^ Alfred Ernst, L'Art de Richard Wagner : L'CEuvre Poetique, p. 376 

 (Paris, Librairie Plon, 1893). It must always remain a subject for poignant 

 regret that Alfred Ernst, one of the most profound disciples of the great 

 master, was so prematurely removed by death, without being able to 

 complete his work. 



^ E. de Roberty, Nouveau Programme, p. 123. 



