"My dear Emma," interposed Lori, "that is exactly true art! With the aid of paint, rouge, and the sculpture of a laced bodice, one must become a work of art."
"The bride-elect pleases me," said old Baute, wiping his spectacles, "she is natural," added he, with a melancholy glance at his daughters.
Herbart once maintained that everybody at certain points feels cramped by society. Professor Baute often, in the midst of his daughters, had this sensation of being cramped.
"There is something pleasant about her, and certainly it is a healthy nature. She possesses repose and equanimity, and as thus the mutual determination of all ideas is connected through one another, she will also be sensible, she will not give way too much either to strong or weak affections; I believe we may congratulate this Blanden. He himself, however, appears to be of a passionate nature. But passions arise from an immoderately strong or ill-connected mass of conceptions. There are eulogists of passion. But, according to Herbart's and my view, it stands in repulsive contrast to all that really belongs to the well-being of mankind. Passion plays a great part in history. Herbart cautions us against charging the all-providing spirit of the universe with this part, it would otherwise resemble Mephistopheles too closely."
Doctor Reising's lips quivered convulsively; he passed his hand through his hair, and, as soon as Baute again wiped his spectacles, he broke forth indignantly with the words--
"False, all false! How beautifully Hegel says, it is the cunning of Reason that makes use of the passions of mankind for its own purposes. Without passion, nothing great can be done in the world. It is a narrow view that condemns passion because the compass of its wisdom is disturbed thereby."
Euphrasia ventured to touch the fanatical private tutor's coat sleeve in a beseeching manner. Reising understood the slight warning, and tried to stem the storm of indignation which had taken possession of him. But Baute said, with great composure--
"Any one who would solve the difficult question according to the causes of negative judgment, must look upon you, dear Reising, as an original phenomenon."
The young philosopher did not appear to be dissatisfied with the character assigned to him. He sat down, and pressed Euphrasia's hand underneath the table.
"In one thing I quite agree with you," said he, in a conciliatory tone, "my dear Professor, that Fräulein Kalzow is a truly harmonious looking creature. She is a beautiful, inspired, intellectually animated being."