A Higher Language: Novalis on Communion with Animals Author(S): Alice Kuzniar Source: the German Quarterly, Vol

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A Higher Language: Novalis on Communion with Animals Author(s): Alice Kuzniar Source: The German Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 426-442 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of German Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3252241 Accessed: 28/11/2010 18:54

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http://www.jstor.org ALICEKUZNIAR University of North Carolina-ChapelHill

A Higher Language: Novalis on Communion with Animals

Around 1800 Philipp Otto Runge fash- How is it that the dog can be emblematicfor ionedwith scissorsand paper a doggazingup human longing?Does it mean that animals at a full moon.Significantly, the dogholds his share in mankind'sintimations of a higher mouth closed,as if,were he to howl,we might being or immortality?Or is the anthropo- think him a wolf in the wild. Insteadhe is a morphismmore mundane,announcing the domesticateddog, to the point that he even sentimentalizationof the pet seen later in communicateshuman value: like a true Ro- VictorianEngland? mantic,he raiseshis eyes silentlyto the sky, Here,the animalundoubtedly represents his chest filled with a longing for transcen- neitherthe humantrait that Enlightenment dence.Art criticRobert Rosenblum has writ- thinkers conventionallydenied it (i.e., rea- ten that the silhouetteportrays a "strangely son), nor does the dog representthe feature haunting oppositionbetween terrestrialde- that the nineteenth century frequently sire and skyborneinaccessibility" (37). A de- claimedhumans and animals shared(i.e., a cadebefore C. D. Friedrich'snocturnal back baserinstinct). The dogis not an animalin a figures,Runge creates a dogtransfixed by lu- fairytale waitingto be retransfiguredinto a nar light. This substitutionof a dog for this human being and thereby saved from a archetypal Romantic pose is fascinating. beast's existence.Nor is he a talkinganimal who has steppedout of a fable to depicthu- man frailties. Instead the dog possesses a kindof spirituality,a sense of awe. His trans- fixed gaze suggests a bond with a transcen- dent world; perhaps his chest breathes in onenesswith nature.Even in the sparseness of the silhouette (or perhapsbecause of the evocativesublimity of its shorthand),Runge pointsto the mysteriousinterconnectedness of nature.All of natureis sacredand alive,a unity in which the dog participates. I shouldlike to arguethat this particular substitutionof animalfor humanoccurs not insignificantly in Romanticism, and that Novalis (Friedrichvon Hardenberg)was a majorthinker in realigningthe relationship between the two worlds. Of course, much scholarshiphas been devotedto nature,galvanism, and mineralogyin Novalis's writings.1To be sure,there are fewerand less sa- lient referencesto animals than to plants

The German Quarterly 76.4 (Fall 2003) 426 KUZNIAR:Novalis 427 and stones in his work. But what passages The 18th-Century Debates exist are extraordinary for their contra- on Animals dictionof the Enlightenmentdelineation of the boundariesbetween man and animal.If The arm of Descartes'sjudgment on the much Enlightenmentthought set out to de- animalreached far into the Enlightenment. fine the essence of man,then his uniqueness Descartesmaintained that animalswere nat- was often purportedat the expense of non- ural automata, incapable of thought, lan- human creatures.Even in writers such as guage,understanding, and feeling. Although Condillacand Reimaruswho elaboratedon he did not deny them life or sensation,they the similaritiesbetween beast andman, man were supposedlydevoid of soul and immune alwayscrowned the continuityand develop- to pain.Their bodies ran like clockwork.Pre- ment from one speciesto the next. dictably,significant challenges to Descartes's Novalis, by contrast,conceives of an al- mechanisticview of animalsand defensesof most instantaneous, imaginative transfor- their rights were presentedby such impor- mationof man intoan animal,plant, or stone. tant philosophersas Voltaire,Rousseau, and At one stroke, he casts aside the hierarchy Bentham,who in 1780 rephrasedthe semi- that governedthe eighteenth-centurybelief nal question as being not whether animals in the Great Chainof Being. The metamor- couldreason or talk, but whetherthey could phosis itself signifies a state of higher con- suffer.Yet Enlightenmentthinkers repeat- sciousnessthat transcendsthe human.Even edly adheredto the stark Cartesiandivision moreaudaciously, Hardenberg asks whether of man from animal. Even when Leibniz God, since he couldbecome man, could not claimedthat they could not, as monads,be also become a stone, plant, animal, or ele- denied an eternal soul, Hume that they ex- ment, therebyinstating "einefortwihrende pressed dedicationto each other and to hu- Erl6sungin der Natur"(2: 826). In short,in- mans, or Locke that they demonstrated steadof the animalbeing the abjectOther of some capacityto reason,still a fundamental Enlightenmentthought, it becomesthe "Du" separation and hierarchy dominatedtheir of Novalis's radicalpre-Rimbaudian state- classifications.Human reason defined the ment: "Ich bin Du" (2:332). The question essential difference between species.2Ac- then arisesas to whatpermits this shiftin in- cordingto Zedler,for instance, "theiletman tellectualhistory, one that involvesphiloso- die Thiere in verniinftigeund unverniinfti- phy, theology,and science. Could one per- ge, oder in Menschen und Vieh" (1334). haps searchfor an answerin centralRoman- Ironizingthis recurrenteighteenth-century tic tenets, even if they appearat first glance praise of man as animal rationale, Lich- to be far removedfrom the questionof what tenbergwrites that if dogs,wasps, and hor- distinguishes man from beast? In other nets had been gifted with human reason, words,do the Romantictheories on the frag- they would conquer the world (1:706, no. ment, organicity,chaos, pre-reflexive being, 360)!3 and poesispertain or even contributeto this Underscoring the eighteenth-century strikingshift? Are there other thinkers of the faith in reason, Kant in the Metaphysikder periodwith whom Novalis can be aligned? Sitten repeatedlycontrasts "Vernunft"and Can his uniquenessbe claimedby compari- "moralischesGeffihl" to "Thierheit"(6:216, son onlywith Enlightenmentwriters or also 387, 435).4His use of the word "Thierheit" with his contemporaries?These are the carriesa doublemeaning: at times it refersto questionsthis essay intends to address. "andere Naturwesen" (6:400) and at times to part of man himself, out of which he must raise himself, as when Kant says, "Es ist [dem Menschen] Pflicht: sich aus der Rohig- keit seiner Natur, aus der Thierheit (quoad 428 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003 actum), immer mehr zur Menschheit [...] In seeming contrast to Kant's Cartesian empor zu arbeiten" (6:387), or when he con- separation of man from beast, Herder begins trasts "Thiermensch" to "Vernunftmensch" Uber den Ursrpung der Sprache with the (6:435). Masturbation is euphemized as "Be- striking line "Schon als Tier, hat der Mensch friedigung thierischer Triebe" (6:425), "thie- Sprache" (697). This original language is one rische Neigung" (6:425), or "bloBethierische of "Empfindung, die unmittelbares Natur- Lust" (6:424). Yet far from conceptualizing gesetz ist" (698) and one that man shared likeness between the species, Kant's use of with animals. Herder,by opening his treatise such turns of phrase reinforces the differ- with a discussion of pain and its expression, ences between man and the lowly beast. Ac- whether it be in human or nonhuman be- cording to Kant, animals don't have "eine ings, is far from Descartes's mechanistic Wiirde (einen absoluten inneren Wert)" (6: view of animals and his denial that they ex- 435), whereas man is above possessing eco- perience suffering. But unlike Novalis, who nomic value. When Kant opposed cruelty to will later envisage a return to an Edenic lan- animals it was on the grounds that man has a guage common to man and nature, Herder duty to himself (not the animal!), for his demarcates man's progression away from an sense of morality or of his obligations toward instinctual language: what ultimately dis- other humans could be diminished and even- tinguishes man is his "Besonnenheit" (722) tually exterminated (6:444).5 and capacity for reflection, "daBer erkenne, Thus, although Kant cannot be seen as wolle, und wiirke" (719). an advocate of animals' rights, Kant was Because the eighteenth-century debate nevertheless concerned for their welfare.6 In on man's relation to the brutes is so exten- addition, he believed that domesticated ani- sive, it is important to cite some of the more mals should not be overworked and that, prominent contributors, especially those who once they were too old to carry out their func- strongly opposed Descartes, in order better tion, should be treated with gratitude and af- to situate Novalis's departure from even fection. Killing for sport was wrong (27:460). these defenders of animals.8 Georg Friedrich When necessary for human consumption, Meier and Hermann Samuel Reimarus were animals should be slaughtered as quickly the strongest German apologists. Writing in and painlessly as possible (6:443, 27:459-60). 1749, Meier ascribed not only the same sen- Kant similarly abhorred vivisection when it sory perceptions to animals as to man but was performed out of speculation, tortured granted them imagination, memory, wit, in- the animals, or when its goals could be ob- telligence, judgment, language, pleasure, tained by other means (6:443). Kant's eleva- and displeasure (45-46). They were capable tion of man, however, did lead him to begin of love, and their souls lived into eternity, for Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht God cannot destroy anything (48-50). Meier with words demonstrating far less benefi- even compares all animals to children who cence towards animals. Although the brutes die before they can make use of reason (117). have consciousness, their lack of self-con- Indeed, through death animals grow in un- sciousness and ability to make their repre- derstanding and reason and become "Geis- sentations universal led Kant to assume that ter"(118). man could do with them what he pleased: By the early 1760s, Reimarus was argu- "DaB der Mensch in seiner Vorstellung das ing that the diversity, order, and hierarchy Ich haben kann, erhebt ihn unendlich fiber among animals were proof of divine wisdom alle andere auf Erden lebende Wesen. Da- and providence. He observed purposiveness durch ist er eine Person [...] d. i. ein von and perfection in animal nature, and as- Sachen, dergleichen die vernunftlosen Thie- cribed to the brutes, as did Meier, a degree of re sind, mit denen man nach Belieben schal- imagination, memory, and even what he ten und walten kann" (7:127).7 termed "Kunst-Triebe."9 Indeed, the Alige- KUZNIAR:Novalis 429 meine Betrachtungen iiber die Triebe der Being: for all their differences, Leibniz, Rei- Thiere (1760) concludes with the prescrip- marus, Bonnet, Condillac, and Kant all be- tion that the animal instinct for art should lieved in the law of continuity and order in serve as an impetus to man to become more the universe. As we shall see, this dictum of educated!'" Reimarus did not deny animals continuity was jettisoned by Novalis so that souls, and claimed they shared with man the he could freely imagine the interchange- capacity for happiness. They could, more- ability of rocks, plants, animals, and man. over, be happier than man once their appe- Nor was it a question for him of what quali- tites are satiated and because they do not ties animals shared with men, as many apol- worry about the future. However, it is man's ogists, such as Reimarus, argued. A belief in ability to compare past and present and the future life of animal souls (Bonnet, Rei- thereby to extrapolate the future that sets marus, Meier) may have influenced Nova- him apart from the beast and allows him to lis's inclusion of animal life in his discussion strive for betterment. Although the animal of metempsychosis, but he did not make a world may be perfect, only man envisages point of arguing, as these writers did, whe- perfectibility (Triebe der Thiere 406; Wahr- ther animals possessed souls. He was also far heiten der natiirlichen Religion 522). Thus, removed from the eighteenth-century trea- like his contemporaries Kant and Herder, tises on how animals, as social creatures, Reimarus ascribed reason solely to man. communicated with each other and imag- Reimarus's system of a hierarchy of be- ined instead interspecial dialogue. Above all, ings follows closely that of E. B. de Condillac. Novalis remained unconcerned with defin- His Traiti des animaux (1755) begins by jet- ing the essence of man by his rational capa- tisoning Descartes's mechanism and attack- bilities. ing the inconsistencies that follow from Buffon's Cartesian line of reasoning. Buffon had argued that animals were sensate but Animal Metamorphosis still purely material beings. Condillac coun- ters that beasts not only feel, they also com- If for Descartes the animal body obeyed pare, judge, have ideas and memory. He mechanistic laws, then according to Novalis sketches these similarities to man, only to the mechanistic worldview inaugurated by then demonstrate their differences. Man is Descartes had infected, by his own day, even superior for his knowledge of divinity and the assessment of man. Comparing Johan- consciousness of morality (495) and for his nes Kepler's belief in "ein vergeistiges, sitt- ability to communicate his thoughts (530). liches Weltall" to the present, Novalis says His soul is immortal, while the animal spirit that today "es fir Weisheit gehalten wird-- dies with it. As the only one to discern the alles zu ert6dten, das Hohe zu erniedrigen, true and beautiful and develop the arts and statt das Niedre zu erheben--und selber den sciences, man raises himself up to divinity Geist des Menschen unter die Gesetze des (530). Hastings summarizes: "Beasts feel, Mechanismus zu beugen" (2:408). Novalis's act according to their limited ideas, and pos- first step in releasing man from these laws is sess a spiritual but mortal soul which is quite to realign him with nature. Rather than ele- different from man's. [Condillac's] opinion vating man to a position above nature, No- predominates during the remainder of the valis in a sense reverses the hierarchy to see century" (54). nature in a positive light as the reverse image To recapitulate: although "by the end of of mankind--as "jenes einzige Gegenbild der the eighteenth century absolute and essen- Menschheit." The full passage reads: "[D]ie tial superiority of man is rejected" (Hastings Natur wire nicht die Natur, wenn sie keinen 65), most writers, however diverse, still sub- Geist hiitte, nicht jenes einzige Gegenbild scribed to the notion of the Great Chain of der Menschheit nicht die unentbehrliche 430 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003

Antwort dieser geheimni3vollen Frage, oder by divining in her a vitalism or spirit that re- die Frage zu dieser unendlichen Antwort" sponds to a human lack. (1:222) A juxtaposition of these two quota- However conventional it would be to tions reorganizes the relation between man state that vitalism replaces mechanism, dy- and nature so as to attribute mechanization namism classification as the operative mode to man (not the natural world) and to attrib- in Romantic thinking, it is important to ute spirit in all its mysteriousness to nature stress that this shift also applies to the rela- (leaving man to ponder her enigma).11 tion between animals and humans. Intima- The historical gap separating Kepler's tion of the connectedness of beings replaces and Novalis's times is also invoked by the Enlightenment systemization, with the re- merchants in Heinrich von Ofterdingen. sult that one can sense nature or the exterior They speak of earlier times when nature was world "als ein menschliches Wesen" (2:670). more alive and meaningful "lebendiger und Whereas Kant feared that man might give in sinnvoller" (1: 256), when the power of po- to animalistic drives, to the "Thiermensch" etry was so in tune with nature that wild ani- in him, Novalis celebrates the return to incli- mals could be tamed and even stones could nation and feeling, which is not separated be drawn into dance-like movement (1:257). from perception and intellect, all words that Here Novalis bears comparison to a strain of resonate with his use of the term "Sinne": Enlightenment thought, found in Rousseau "[W]ir genieBen die Natur mit vollen Sin- and Herder, that man was no longer close to nen, well sie uns nicht von Sinnen bringt" nature and had lost a sense for the uncompli- (1:213). In a late fragment he writes: "Un- cated, instinctual truth and confidence that sere Sinne sind hdhere Thiere - Aus Ihnen animals display. Rousseau, for instance, saw entsteht ein noch hdherer Animalism" perfectibility not as an advantage but as the (2:825). Given that acute sensorial percep- source of frustration and unhappiness in tion characterizes many animals, Novalis man; beasts were healthier and happier ventures to equate our senses with the ani- (1:90). Yet, unlike the Enlightenment de- mal and thereby to elevate their role. In this tractors of civilized man, Novalis does not set inspired alignment, he transforms both the out to rob man of his self-importance. He realm of the human senses and what he calls thus can be distinguished yet further from "Animalism,"a word I take to refer both to a the eighteenth-century rejection of the Car- heightening of the senses as well as an inten- tesian man-beast distinction: it is not his sified connection to the animal world. aim to satirize church dogma or narrow- When Novalis conjoins man and animal minded moral philosophy on the superiority in a fragment, it is frequently to imagine of man--a critique one finds additionally in their interchangeability, to demonstrate the Voltaire, La Mettrie (who mockingly spoke of human potential for the fullness of animal "l'homme machine") or d'Holbach (who, dis- life, rather than the descent into beastliness. gusted with man's vanity, saw the soul as "Ausdem Menschen wird ein Thier [...] Das materialistic). Indeed, the passage cited Thier ist ein fibersaittigtes Leben" (2:274). above on the current mechanistic view of "Wir leben eigentlich in einem Thiere" (2: mankind would seem to be directed precisely 710). Similarly,rather than follow a Linnean against the influence of the likes of La separation into various genera and species, Mettrie and d'Holbach. Novalis's impetus is Novalis hypothesizes: "Die Pflanze ist ein even further removed from the intent to de- Halbthier" (2:846). He turns animals into grade man by unflattering comparison to the dead plants, humans into dead animals in beast (La Mettrie, for instance, notoriously what resembles a theory of metempsychosis: stated that man, like other creatures, came "Sollte nicht jede[r] Pflanze ein Stein, und from clay). Instead the Romantic writer ein Thier entsprechen?" (2:824). Another seeks to elevate nature (and man with her) enigmatic fragment has the words jotted KUZNIAR:Novalis 431 down: "Mehrere Thiere-Menschen" (2:7 Erl6sung in der Natur" (2:826). It follows 95). Since "Wandelbarkeitgerade ein Vorzug that if man, too, could regenerate in an- h6herer Naturen [ist]" (2:677), Novalis, ac- other form, then he could resemble divin- cording to his notes on his unfinished novel, ity. Redemption then occurs via this trans- planned to transform Heinrich von Ofter- formative ideal.12 Theologically speaking, dingen into a plant, an animal, a stone, and a Novalis's theory of metamorphosis is in- star (1:392). In other words, if, for Rousseau, debted to a Spinozistic pantheism (Deus perfectibility was a suspicious ideal, for No- sive natura), whereby all of nature is in- valis, one could only strive for perfectibility fused with divinity.13 As in Spinoza, it is via this transformation into other forms of not an undifferentiated unity of substance being. Thus the remarkable upshot of the that concerns Novalis but multiple con- Romantic belief in a vitalism pervading na- crete individuations. The infinite multi- ture is that, for Novalis, it permits inter- plicity present in each individual and in- special metamorphosis. terconnecting them is what comprises the Other examples of such metamorphosis One; an infinity of modifications pervades populate Hardenberg's writings. In his mar- nature and is identical and extensive with ginalia to Friedrich Schlegel's Ideen (in a the infinity of God. In the passage quoted passage where Friedrich Schegel defined above, Novalis borrows this Spinozistic mankind), Novalis scribbles: doctrine to whimsically reinterpret the In- carnation. Ich weis nicht warum man immer von ei- When Novalis does seem to place hu- ner abgesonderten Menschheit spricht. mans on a higher plane of development from Gehoren Thiere, Pflanzen und Steine, animals, the distinction is based on a rela- Gestirne und Lifte nicht auch zur Menschheit [...] ? ist sie denn so sehr an- tive, generative scale: for instance, after stat- ders, als die uibrigenNaturgeschlechter? ing "Alles Leben ist ein iberschwdinglicher (2:725) ErneuerungsproceB" (2:345), he says that animals have a doubled life, whereas man The reciprocal move Novalis makes in this has a tripled one ("ein dreyfaches Leben") passage is both to assimilate the natural (2:346). Novalis is still far from anticipating world with its animals, plants, and stars a Darwinian notion of evolution; but he is into man, as part of him, but also to trans- also unlike his contemporary Lamarck, who form the human into another example of is often referred to as heralding Darwin for these other natural beings. Such inter- his theory of mutable species. Whereas La- changeable metamorphosis is also envis- marck upheld the doctrine of a scale of be- aged by the teacher in Die Lehrlinge zu ings--the infinitely graded series of life from Sais: "Bald waren ihm die Sterne Men- lowest to highest-Novalis envisaged ma- schen, bald die Menschen Sterne, die Stei- nipulating to the point ofjettisoning the spe- ne Thiere, die Wolken Pflanzen, er spielte cies categorization. Although Lamarck, like mit den Kraiften und Erscheinungen" Novalis, subscribed to the belief that life (1:202). What is striking about these ongo- arose from collected energies of a vital fluid, ing transmutations is that they are un- Novalis's utilization of such theories comes foreseeable, arbitrary, and infinite. To re- to very different conclusions. Novalis was turn to the passage that opened this essay: not content with letting the presence of a in his very late fragments Novalis even ex- universal life force stand as grounds for mere tends the principle of metamorphosis to analogies between plant and animal; it al- the Godhead: "Wenn Gott Mensch werden lowed him to envisage the total exchange of konnte, kann er auch Stein, Pflanze[,] plant for animal, animal for human, etc. This Thier und Element werden, und vielleicht difference emphasizes that the transmuta- giebt es auf diese Art eine fortwiihrende tions Novalis postulates do not occur as pro- 432 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003 gression or regression along a series: they are natural force, a secret matter, or subtle fluids random, alogical, and unmotivated. His underlying organic and inorganic life was dis- term "ErneuerungsprocelS"suggests that he seminated by such thinkers as Johann Fried- is less interested in seeing a unity, totality, or rich Blumenbach, Friedrich Anton Mesmer, single substance present in nature than in Johann Wilhelm Ritter, and Johann Chris- recognizing nature's dynamism. Striking is tian Reil.15The German late eighteenth cen- the instantaneous quality of the exchange or tury also saw the influence of the Scotsman transformation, as quick as the leap of a ca- John Brown on excitation and irritability in pricious fantasy, which suggests that it is the body.Whether this substance be electric- involuntary.14In fact, metamorphosis arises ity (in the theories of magnetism and galva- from the imaginative desire to conjecture nism) or oxygen (the air of life), whether this odd, accidental resemblances between dispa- process was chemical or physical, it was seen rate, fragmented aspects of nature. Thus to organically structure the world.16 The the- Novalis describes the teacher at Sais: ories on galvanism, in particular, involved Nun fand er iiberall Bekanntes wieder, animating seemingly inert matter. Ritter be- nur wunderlich gemischt, gepaart, und lieved in the "Metamorphose alles Endli- also ordneten sich selbst in ihm oft seltsa- chen" (Oersted 2:19) through this principle me Dinge. Er merkte bald auf die Verbin- of galvanism. Novalis was very familiar with dungen in allem, auf Begegnungen, Zu- his 1798 treatise Beweis, da13ein bestaindiger sammentreffungen. (1:202). Galvanismus den Lebensprozef3im Thierrei- In his advocacy of the freedom of radical che begleite (he possessed two copies). Nova- transformation, Novalis strikingly heralds lis himself wrote: "Der Galv[anism] scheint Gille Deleuze and F6lix Guattari's concept of die allg[emeine] Thditigk[eits] Ursache in "becoming- animal," first mentioned in De- der Natur" (2:793, no. 252). Ritter's experi- leuze's Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature ments included finding that the mimosa re- and then more fully developed in their A sponded to electrical current, which led him Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizo- to refer to this flower as a "Pflanzengestalt" phrenia. Their own stipulations equally ap- ("Elektrische Versuche" 354) or as "das um- ply to Novalis and help articulate that No- gekehrte Thier" (356). Although this study valis, too, is concerned not with identifying was published in 1811, already in the Beweis, with the animal but becoming it, not in a to- Ritter voiced the conviction that the plant tality or unity of substance but in accidental world would respond to galvanism.'7 It is not forms and haecceities: "Not following a logi- inconceivable that Novalis's own postulation cal order,but following alogical consistencies that rocks, plants, and animals were inter- or compatibilities, [...] because no one, not changeable could have inspired his friend even God, can say in advance whether two Ritter to further pursue his investigations. borderlines will string together" (250). What Ritter's metaphor of nature being an "All- for Novalis is a response to Enlightenment Thier" (Beweis 171), in the sense that it was categorization is for Deleuze and Guattari a animate or "quick" in all its manifestations, response to structuralism: "Serialism and strikingly resembles not only Novalis's dy- structuralism either graduate characteris- namic view of nature but also the role he as- tics according to their resemblances, or order signs the animal as embodying this vitality.'8 them according to their differences. Animal Novalis, in fact, connected the terms "Reitz," characteristics can be mythic or scientific. "Stairke,"and "Energie" to (male) animal But we are not interested in characteristics: beauty (2:639). Far from being mechanistic, what interests us are modes of expansion, the animal now represents the life force that propagation" (239). governs the world. But what were Novalis's contemporary In sum, we can see Novalis rejecting sources of reference? The theory of a vital mechanistic laws governing nature, inspired KUZNIAR:Novalis 433 by both a Spinozistic pantheism and by con- with a perceptive openness to the world, he is temporary scientific investigations into gal- also describing the receptivity that bonds vanism as a dynamic vital force inhabiting man to nature. Thus, in Die Lehrlinge zu and interconnecting all of nature. The result Sais Novalis warns that one will not grasp of this union is a reconceptualization of the nature unless one recognizes her every- relation between human and animal which where, feels a diverse kinship with all bodies, is radical for the eighteenth century. Another comingles with all natural beings, and can element fuelling this epistemic shift is a lit- "sich gleichsam in sie hineinffihl[en]" (1: erary one. Clearly, the traditions of Ovid's 229). Metamorphosis and such fairy-tale transfor- The Romantics' understanding of the mations as frog into prince inform Novalis's fragment as the discrete and disjunct relay- thought. Yet the issue is less one of influence ing to an infinite whole resembles their per- than of how Novalis's poetics uniquely moti- ception of nature: each part of nature evokes vates the metamorphoses he envisages. In its diversified entirety, and this connection addition the question arises of not only what permits the transmutation into different life enables this imaginative interchange but forms as well as communication between also what inhibits it. By contemplating the them. The unforeseeable associations that limits of language Novalis explores what the fragment conjures, the arbitrariness of would hinder communication between man the relations it establishes, and the wittiness and beast. of its unusual juxtapositions also characterize the imaginative leap of the interspecial metamorphosis that Novalis postulated. It is A Zooicentric Poetics thus no wonder that Friedrich Schlegel's famous metaphor of the fragment comes from In a letter dated January 12, 1798, to Au- the animal kingdom: "Ein Fragment muB gust Wilhelm Schlegel, Novalis describes po- gleich einem kleinen Kunstwerke von der etry: "Sie ist von Natur Flilssig-allbildsam umgebenden Welt ganz abgesondert und in -und unbeschrinkt-Jeder Reitz bewegt sich selbst vollendet sein wie ein Igel" (2: sie nach allen Seiten [...]. Sie wird gleichsam 197). The hedgehog is hermetic and enig- ein organisches Wesen--dessen ganzer Bau matic (closed into itself and fending offintru- seine Entstehung aus dem Fliissigen, seine sion by its stout spines), yet its very round- urspriinglich elastische Natur, seine Unbe- ness calls forth the plenitude of nature of schrinktheit, seine Allfa•higkeitverrith" (1: which it is both part and microcosm. More- 656-57). The galvanistic references to fluid- over, the comparison of the quintessential ity and stimulus, as well as to poetry's elas- Romantic form to the animal links poetic en- ticity, limitlessness, mutability, and organi- thusiasm with animal life force. In addition, city link Novalis's concept of poetry to a kind in its very clever inspiration, Schlegel's of animal-life dynamism. Reciprocally, his Athendum fragment 206 exemplifies imagi- very fantasizing of interspecial metamor- native transfiguration. The animal/frag- phosis issues from his theory of chaotic, ment represents the essence of the Roman- dream-like poetic production, in the sense tics' constant permutation of the world. that its transgression of empirical reality fol- The other reason Hardenberg's philoso- lows the freedom of association that governs phy of nature ties into poesis is that he con- dreams, fairy tales, and poetic license in gen- ceives the language of nature as a kind of eral.19By imagining striking combinations, higher poetry. Nature sings and its langua- the poet transforms the world. Moreover, in- ges are diverse. "Der Mensch spricht nicht sofar as Novalis prescribes the ideal poetic allein-auch das Universum spricht-alles nature as "eine vielseitige Empfeinglichkeit spricht-unendliche Sprachen" (2:500). In nbthig" (1:385) and depicts his novel's hero a similar evocation of this heterogeneity, 434 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003

Heinrich von Ofterdingen dreams of a cathe- not as self-contained-the vocal but non- dral into which all manner of creatures enter signifying chatter that Hyacinth carries on and express their inner nature "in einer with the animals and birds-but as purpos- eigenthiimlichen Mundart" (1:299).20 Billy ive: it is a language that communicates to O'Brien has observed that, for Hardenberg, man, which is why it is so important for nature babbles (210), which suggests that Novalis that it be understood. not only does nature evoke the multiplicity of Not only does nature utter a language Babel but that her foreign languages are in- ideally comprehensible to man, but man also coherent. In the fairy tale "Hyacinth und intimately addresses nature. Her capacity Rosenbliithe," for instance, nature speaks in for listening serves as a model to humans. both familiar cadences and gibberish. To- From his earliest writing on, Hardenberg re- ward the end of his journey, the flowers and veals an interest in the myth of Orpheus. In a crystal spring greet Hyacinth "freundlich 1789 poem entitled "Geschichte der Poesie," mit bekannten Worten" (1:217). Yet their he notes how animals, birds, and even palm smiles could betoken either friendliness or a branches bend in amazement before the tinge of mockery. Earlier Hyacinth is men- voice of poetry (1:56). And a verse epic of the tioned as chattering constantly with ani- same year on "Orpheus" presents the birds mals, birds, trees, and cliffs, and the narrator and shy animals as harkening to Orpheus's ironically adds that, of course, it was all non- lyre (1:69). The first tale in Heinrich von Of- sense: communication with nature is either terdingen, the so-called Arion-legend, dou- the fantasy of a silly boy or, less cynically, a bly evokes the Ophic myth: the singer pos- type of free, non-goal-oriented language. sesses Orpheus's gift of moving the wild If nature's language is not always so fa- beast and he likewise ascends from the miliar, then as Heinrich von Ofterdingen clutches of death. When he breaks out in suggests, reading her will be an unending voice, all of nature, including the ship's tim- process: "Ewig wird er lesen und sich nicht ber and the waves, resonate in sympathy. satt lesen und tiiglich neue Bedeutungen, Rescuing him from the ocean is a sea crea- neue entziickendere Offenbarungen der ture, whom Novalis evocatively names an liebenden Natur gewahr werden" (1:377). "Unthier," who receives as thanks for his Clearly, if nature speaks, then she must be mission another air.And when the poet sings interpreted. At times, Novalis refers to the about the loss of his jewels, the creature re- enigmatic, hieroglyphic language of nature turns them. Song is thus a form of communi- that, as the Lehrlinge so beautifully puts it, cation understood and appreciated by ani- can be discerned in eggshells, clouds, and mals. Perhaps the dolphin-like beast, in his snow but that can't be decoded (1:201). One capacity for gratitude and response to hu- of the Sais apprentices says that man impro- man need, is unjustly categorized as an ani- vises ("fantasiren") on nature as on an in- mal, and thus called an "Unthier." Or, the strument, yet he cannot understand her (1: designation "Unthier" could mark the ani- 222). Novalis urges comprehension when he mal par excellence-that which must be cast observes that the aim of stones, trees and an- out of the human category; it is abject and imals talking is "um den Menschen sich monstrous (interchangeable with "Unge- selbst fiihlen, sich selbst besinnen zu ma- heuer"). Like the singer himself, the animal chen" (2:360). If Novalis in his uncompleted is unfairly excluded from human society. novel planned to turn Heinrich into a tree, it Novalis transforms the radically Other was not insignificantly into a "klingenden into a familiar being through the Orphic ad- Baum" (1:398-99): in his process of "Bil- dress across the human to other forms ofna- dung" man must become not only a part of ture: "Wird nicht der Fels ein eigenthiim- nature but a nature that speaks. In other liches Du, eben wenn ich ihn anrede?" And words, Novalis sees the language of nature by continuing "Und was bin ich anders, als KUZNIAR:Novalis 435 der Strom?" (1:224), he reverses the trans- imal rights, but the question is: does he pro- formation by becoming the Other himself. vide a path that would lead there? At the very Alluding to Novalis's exchange of the Fich- least one can analyze the implications for tean "NichtIch" to a "Du," Dennis Mahoney animal rights in the contrast between a characterizes this reciprocity as an "I-Thou" Novalisian and Kantian philosophy. In an es- relationship, and, in reference to the fairy say on "Ethical Theory and Animals," ani- tale of Hyacinth and Rosebud, states that na- mal rights activist Tom Regan observes that, ture's language can be unveiled "because hu- although Kant recognizes only indirect, not man beings are themselves part of nature" direct duties to animals, advocates of animal (7). I would agree, though want to stress that rights follow a Kantian lead: "[T]he funda- Novalis envisages a radical metamorphosis mental principle of the rights view (the re- into the consciousness of organic and inor- spect principle) is Kantian in spirit: we are to ganic nature. Although mankind is part of treat individuals [including individual non- nature, nature is respected for its status as human animals] who exist as ends in them- sheer otherness, something man can only be- selves (those who have inherent value) al- gin to fathom by taking leave of his own limi- ways as ends, never merely as means" (17). tations. What Regan sees as Kantian can thus be In an earlier article on self-reflexivity in aligned with Novalis's reverence for nature's Novalis, I noted how he pries open Fichtean apartness. Yet it is also true that Novalis re- ego philosophy to characterize the return to sponds, as it were, to Kant on animals: if the self as an eccentric path that entails leav- Kant elevates man above the beasts by vir- ing the self ("Reassessing Romantic Reflex- tue of his possessing the representation "I," ivity"). Hardenberg's notion of "sich selbst then it follows that by transcending the pre- Uberspringen" (2:345, no. 134) and travel- occupation with self-awareness (through the ling "zu sich selbst wieder heraus" (2:244, act of "sich selbst Uberspringen"), man's re- no. 43) calls for a form of self-alienation, what lationship to animals moves to a different he terms "Selbstfremdmachung-Selbst- plane and hence becomes open to the ex- verdnderung--Selbstbeobachtung" (2:670).21 change Novalis envisions. This exercise in self-negation not only has Does Novalis, however, truly attempt to far-reaching implications for how one as- imagine the consciousness or fullness of the sesses Idealist philosophy and "Bildung.'"22It animal Other? How tangible are his conjec- also impacts what we would call today an tures? Do his mediations on metamorphosis ecologically minded respect for nature's signify merely the inaccessibility of the uniqueness and, particularly, for how we Other-the unattainable desire to be the treat animals as separate yet integral beings creature that does not experience the defi- unto themselves. In other words, we find in ciency of self but lives in the self-reliance of Novalis an intense desire to comprehend the its own being? Does the animal represent a diverse languages of nature combined with a certain presence &soi, a prereflexive ground keen consciousness of the inaccessibility of of being in the here and now, inaccessible to these languages if man does not try to escape us, yet visible through the materiality of its the confines of his familiar, anthrocentric strange body? Were we able to answer such worldview. questions we would come closer to discern- Once creation can be valued independ- ing Novalis's position on the individuality of ently of human interests and animals treat- animals and hence their rights. Yet would he ed as ends in themselves (which Novalis's even allow one to make a distinction between views imply), then the next step would be to animals, plants, and stones? In other words, grant animals freedom from human utiliza- would he allow only animals such rights (and tion (say, as food sources or for medical ex- not stones)? Given Novalis's philosophy of perimentation). Novalis does not address an- their interchangeability, this problem is a 436 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003 priori one neither he nor we can solve. Unde- dressing nature and reading her language, niably, all the references in Hardenberg's conversely, in a witty turn of affairs, nature work are to animals in the abstract, not to converses about man, mirroring this joint particular creatures, despite the crucial ref- discussion. It is not solely that man possesses erence to the "[u]nendliche Individualitaet the active intelligence to reflect on nature, dieser Wesen" (2:761).23Nor are there depic- but nature too can reflect on man. In the tions of their suffering. remnants to Heinrich von Ofterdingen No- Nonetheless, although Novalis does not valis imagines the conversations flowers and address animals in their particularity (in- animals have about humans, religion, na- cluding their distinction from the rest of nature, and science (1:393)! If "Kant believed ture), he does consistently resist anthropo- brutes were capable of pain and pleasure, morphism, in other words, having the term but incapable of happiness or despair" (Na- of reference or measurement be the human ragon 13), how different, then, is Novalis, and human consciousness. He refuses to whose animals seem not just happy but joy- make the animal relative to man, a compari- ous! son which inevitably entails its inferior posi- Despite the bucolic world in which No- tion on the Great Chain of Being. In opposi- valis's flowers and creatures seem to dwell, tion to the Enlightenment, Novalis acknowl- all is not perfect in his vision. Novalis criti- edges that one needs to look beyond human cizes the spiritless mechanization of his age life and its limitations while still remaining by transferring the time in which animals in the phenomenal world. The implications spoke or could be comprehended into either of this recognition of nonhuman sentience a golden-age past or a chiliastic future. The and consciousness are not insignificant for novelty of his project for its time and conse- problems facing ethics and the environment quently its utopian dimension is stressed by today. In fact, perhaps it is not an issue of the fact that Novalis repeatedly bemoans rights (i.e., reciprocity) at all, but rather a re- how the ability to understand the languages spectful acknowledgement of the asymme- of nature has disappeared. Although the try between man and animal. Novalis re- world is for Novalis "eine Mittheilung," its tains their difference in order to recognize meaning has been lost: "Wir sind beym how "eigenthiimlich" this "Du" is. Once Buchstaben stehn geblieben" (2:383). In his again, the metamorphosis occurs not on the notes Hardenberg refers to a time when basis of equality between species but because birds, animals, and trees spoke (2:510). Like- man abandons seeing the Other in his own wise he begins Heinrich von Ofterdingen terms and takes leave of himself. with the protagonist recalling reference to Thus I would argue that the imaginative such a past. And Klingsohr's fairy tale begins metamorphosis, literally the "Selbstverdn- by describing the present as cast in a deep, derung" (2:670), that Novalis promotes is icy spell in which nature remains mute; it is not a colonization or appropriation of nature not the idealized Other. Then, in a late poem, by man. Instead Novalis advocates the aban- he projects Edenic language into a future donment of humanness in order to become kingdom, where "Der Baum nimmt thieri- the stone, flower, or animal. In addition, be- sche Gebehrden / Das Thier soll gar zum cause of this desire for communion, the No- Menschen werden" (1:139). Klingsohr's valisian poet cannot be seen as the isolated fairy tale concludes with animals approach- hermit, self-absorbed in his own relation to ing men with friendly greetings (1:362). In nature. He is involved in a social, communal his poem "Der Mensch," Holderlin more poi- endeavor, as in fact Die Lehrlinge zu Sais gnantly expresses the separation from the intimates by bringing several apprentices animal that characterizes man's present and their teacher together to try to decipher state: nature. Moreover, in addition to man ad- KUZNIAR:Novalis 437

ihn scheun ihr, und wir erblicken sie aufdas Innigste mit Die Thiere,denn ein andererist, wie sie der irdischenNatur verwebt"(1:337). The Der Mensch;nicht dir [MutterErde] passageindicates that a higherworld is now und nicht dem Vater [Helios] present and visible in nature, but we don't Gleichter (1.1:263). realize it. Or, to slightly vary the predica- The question of the role temporality ment, perhaps it is our inability to articulate plays in Novalis's utopia is thus crucial. Its the communion we do sense. Thus earlier urgency marks a desire for the presentness Heinrich says: "daBman gerade wenn man that animals themselves feel. This longing am innigsten mit der Natur vertraut ist am for permanence and a sense of grounding wenigsten von ihr sagen k6nnte und m6ch- lends a certain fragility to Novalis. A precari- te" (1:328). Here the union with nature is in- ousness hovers over all his writings, mir- effable, but Jean Paul suggests it is actually rored in the slender form of the fragment. To our own linguistic deficiency that makes it be able to commune with nature would thus so: "Sprache. Aus der Unmdglichkeit, die entail recovering something lost and signify Thierstimme in Worte zu bringen, seh' ich regaining a native place or abode. Hence the die Armuth an Buchstaben" (173, no. 355). pilgrim Heinrich turns to nature, and the What then does the language of animals novel was to continue with his metamorpho- resemble, if one were to try to characterize sis into a plant, animal, star, etc., after the it? To begin, it is marked by its untranslata- death of his beloved Mathilde. In other bility: as for Walter Benjamin, such a poetic words, her absence sparks the desire for the language would be defined by our not being fullness that nature represents and for inti- able to translate it into ordinary discourse. mate communion with her. Not insignifi- Instead, intuition would be key to making it cantly, the famous lines from the novel, "Wo signify. If in the "Monolog," Novalis identi- gehn wir denn hin? Immer nach Hause" (1: fies language as pure articulation and a 373) hail from the second part and can be in- structure of differentiation with its own interpreted as vocalizing this aspiration for a ner coherence, then perhaps, too, the lan- closer bond with nature. guage of animals would be sheer utterance. Yet, although a deep sense of mutability Indeed, it would be rhythmic and harmoni- pervades Novalis's thinking, there is always ous, similar to music or the plastic arts. the possibility that the Golden Age could Hence the language of the golden age, the arrive immanently, even immediately. This time when one can commune with animals, prospect means that one could extrapolate is when words are used musically and plas- the behavior of fairy-tale animals to real- tically: "Das wird die goldne Zeit seyn, wenn world animals. Heinrich thus muses that, al- alle Worte-Figurenworte-Mythen-und though he had heard of the days when ani- alle Figuren--Sprachfiguren-Hieroglyfen mals spoke to man, he senses as if these times seyn werden-wenn man Figuren sprechen could start "allaugenblicklich" (1:240) and und schreiben-und Worte vollkommen as if he could see by looking at animals what plastisiren, und Musiciren lernt" (2:458). they wanted to say. This moment of commu- Angelika Rauch's characterization of Nova- nion is sublime precisely because it is so ten- lis's definition of language would be appro- uous. Is there a grammar for understanding priate here: "In its nonreferential or pre-rep- animals? Or is it a sense for rhythm, har- resentational function, language exposes its mony, or another form of musical command material literariness" (133). that one requires?24Are there new senses Novalis clearly sees the need to cultivate that one needs to develop in order to commu- one's language, for its mastery opens up the nicate with nature? Heinrich says to Mathil- world and initiates poetry: de: "die hbhere Welt ist uns naiher, als wir gewShnlich denken. Schon hier leben wir in 438 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003

Die Sprache, sagte Heinrich, ist wirklich heraus" and that this escape involves recon- eine kleine Welt in Zeichen und T6nen. ceptualizing the divide between human and Wie der Mensch sie beherrscht, so mochte animal. The Czech writer further muses: er die Welt und gern groBe beherrschen, "No one can give anyone else the gift of the sich frey darinn kinnen. ausdriicken [...] The love between dog and man is (1:335) idyll; idyllic. It knows no conflicts, no hair-raising But how does one vault from the micro- scenes; it knows no development. Karenin cosm of language ("eine kleine Welt") to [the dog] surrounded Tereza and Tomas the macrocosm of the actual world ("die with a life based on repetition, and he ex- groBe Welt")? Animals, it would seem, do pected the same from them. [...]. Human not know such a gap, i.e., the one that fig- time does not turn in a circle;it runs ahead in ural language opens up: they read the a straight line. That is why man cannot be world materially or literally, to borrow happy: happiness is the longing for repeti- from Angelika Rauch's terminology. Yet, tion" (298). Kundera's insight was not one perhaps the imaginative leap that bridges well learned by the character Bertha in Lud- this gulf in metaphor (from the Greek wig Tieck's tale Der blonde Eckbert. Had meta-beyond, over + pherein-to carry) Bertha not left behind the dog Strohmian could conceivably serve as a pattern ac- and her home, had she not strangled her bird cording to which one could also perform that had the human voice, she would have the leap between species. In metaphor the been happy and stayed in her idyllic sur- word becomes what it symbolizes. Accord- roundings that knew no storms and no mea- ing to this paradigm of metaphoricity, to surable passage of time-"So morgen wie address an animal would mean becoming heut / In ewger Zeit" (2:14), as the bird sings. one. Performative language thus has the Bertha's story would have ended, the old potential to lead to metamorphosis. "Wird woman remarks at the close, "gut und sch6n" nicht der Fels ein eigenthiimliches Du, (2:26). The British Romantic writer, William eben wenn ich ihn anrede? Und was bin ich Hazlitt, too, appreciated the goodness and anders, als der Strom?" (1:224). Language comfort offered by the eternal face of Na- is not merely a naming or classification but ture: "Nature is a kind of universal home, a performative address. Similarly, once you and every object it presents to us an old ac- actually speak to an animal, you imagine quaintance with unaltered looks" (4:20). yourself already on the same plane-you Novalis knew with Hazlitt and Kundera speak as an animal-it acquires the face of that Bertha was wrong. Old acquaintances a "Du" and communication arises. The do not need to be uncanny in their familiar- "Unthier" of the Arion-legend was thus ity. On the contrary, Novalis, like Kundera, saluted in the form of a song thanking it. precisely links infinite repetition to love: Such, then, are the possibilities Novalis Heinrich says to Mathilde, "die Liebe ist eine opens regarding the nature of language endlose Wiederholung" (1:338). When No- and the language of nature.25 valis wrote, "Wohin gehn wir denn hin? Im- mer nach Hause" (1:373), he suggested that one desires a return to the same, to a (univer- Longing for Paradise sal) home with its Edenic implications. The longing may be unending and the goal for- Milan Kundera writes in The Unbearable ever beyond our reach. As Kundera says, we Lightness of Being that the longing for Para- still long for Paradise, for time for us does not dise is man's longing not to be man and that turn in a circle. But to long means to hold to dogs were never expelled from Paradise. the promise of happiness, which would in- Kundera comes strikingly close to Novalis's clude a dwelling among animals. To commu- notion that man longs to escape "aus sich nicate with them, to hear them sing in KUZNIAR:Novalis 439

words, like Tieck's bird, is the dream of Ro- discernable from Adolph Freiherr Knigge's manticism and it would suddenly,unfore- 1796 moralistic compendium, Uber den Um- seeably, and accidentally land us in Paradise. gang mit Menschen, where a chapter is devoted the treatment of animals. Knigge writes, "daB Thier eben so schmerzhaft Notes ein Mishandlung, barbarischen MiBbrauch gr6Berer Starke und Wehe fiihlt, wie wir, und vielleicht noch leb- 1Most recently, see Bark. hafter, da seine ganze Existenz auf sinnlichen 2For an excellent overview of the Enlighten- Empfindungen beruht" (743). On various posi- ment discussions on animals see Meyer. tions for and against animal experimentation 3For more on Lichtenberg and animals see Si- in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, mon. see Maehle. For a compendium of eighteenth- 4For more on Kant and animals see Naragon century British texts advocating animal wel- and Wood and O'Neill. fare, see Garrett. 5Rousseau similarly saw the child becoming a 7 Cf. Schopenhauer's response to this passage man through pity for a dying animal; yet sym- in Kant: "so beleidigt die echte Moral der Satz, pathy operates differently for Rousseau than daB die vernunftlosen Wesen (also die Tiere) for Kant. Rousseau writes in Emile: Pour de- Sachen wiren und daher auch bloB als Mittel, viner sensible et pitoyable if faut que l'enfant die nicht zugleich Zweck sind, behandelt wer- sache qu'il y a des etres semblables ta lui, qui den diirften" (690). souffrent ce qu'il a souffert, qui sentent les 8For more on the discussion in France, see douleurs qui'il a senties, et d'autres dont il doit the study by Hester Hastings and the introduc- avoir l'id6e comme pouvant les sentir aussi. En tion by Frangois Dagonet to Condillac, Traitj effet, comment nous laissons-nous 6mouvoir 't des animaux. la piti6, si ce n'est en nous transportant hors de 9Meier also noted that spiders accomplish nous et nous identifiant avec l'animal souf- works of art (91). frant? en quittant pour ainsi dire n8tre 6tre 10The full title of this study is telling: Allge- pour prendre le sien?" (4:505). What marks meine Betrachtungen iiber die Triebe der Thie- Rousseau's difference is this gesture of escap- re, hauptsdchlich iiber ihre Kunst-Triebe: zum ing oneself, so unlike Kant's return to the hu- Erkenntnil3 des Zusammenhanges der Welt, man: although Rousseau sees the birth of com- des Schbpfers und unser Selbst. passion in the recognition of similarity (the 11Cf. Schelling: "Die Natur soll der sichtbare child sees "des etres semblables a lui") he also Geist, der Geist die unsichtbare Natur seyn. acknowledges that one needs to take leave of Hier also, in der absoluten Identitat des Geis- "n6tre 6tre pour prendre le sien." This theoriz- tes in uns und der Natur aul3er uns, muB sich ing otherness becomes central to Novalis's re- das Problem, wie eine Natur auBer uns moglich lation to the animal world, though, unfortu- sey, auflbsen" (1:706). nately, not in specific reference to animal suf- 12Krell would point out that death underlies fering. Rousseau was unique in advocating that this transformation: "Novalis sees the hierar- animals be protected under natural law, al- chy of forms in nature as marked by death-the though they could not understand or acknowl- death of the stone being the life of the plant, the edge it themselves. Knigge opposed cruelty to- death of the plant the life of the animal" (163). wards animals for the same reason as Kant, 13Novalis writes: "Auch im Spinotza lebt namely, "daB Grausamkeit gegen unverniinfti- schon dieser gottlicher Funken des Naturver- ge Wesen uns merklich zur Hirte und Grau- standes" (2:171) and "Spinotza ist ein gott- samkeit gegen unsre vernuinftigen Nebenge- trunkener Mensch" (2:812). schopfe ftihrt" (743). See also Schopenhauer's 14In contrast to the Novalisian instantaneous biting response to Kant: "Also bloB zur Ubung leap into another form ofbeing, in his poems on soll man mit Tieren Mitleid haben, und sie sind the metamorphosis of plants and animals Goe- gleichsam das pathologische Phantom zur the prefers metaphors of gradual generation and Ubung des Mitleids mit Menschen" (691). concatenation ("die geordnete Bildung" [1:202] 6The prevalence of this concern for animal and "Glieder an Glieder gestuft" [1: 200]). welfare by the end of the eighteenth century is 15 Note that Alexander von Humboldt wrote a 440 THE GERMAN QUARTERLY Fall 2003

mythical story about vital energies entitled fallproduktion." 2:693, no. 959: "[Der Traum] "Die Lebenskraftoder der RhodischeGenuis" ist, wie die Poesie bedeutend-aber auch da- (1795). On Romanticscience and its theory of a rum unregelmif3ig bedeutend--durchaus frey." vital force see Wetzels, Gode-vonAesch, Ritter- 2: 696, no. 986: "Ein Mahrchen ist eigentlich bush, and Durner,Moiso, and Jantzen. The no- wie ein Traumbild-ohne Zusammenhang [...] tion that we are made of the same elements and die Natur selbst." that a common breath permeates us all and can 20In the novel see also: "Die Gewichse sind so be traced back to Pythagorus and Sextus, re- die unmittelbarste Sprache des Bodens" (1: spectively. See Sorabji 131. 377) and where the music from the wind in the 16Schelling also hypothesized a cosmic unity trees becomes louder, "so daB zuweilen die of life is in his philosophy of nature, which pos- Endsylben und einzelne Worte einer 'unbe- ited the identity of man with life, in other kannten' menschlichen Sprache hervorzuto- words, the inseparability of subject and object. nen schienen" (1:391). Schelling, however, says surprisingly little 21Cf. "Der Adel des Ich besteht in freyer Erhe- about animals, and when he does, upholds the bung uiber sich selbst" (2:170, no. 508). Also eigtheenth-century distinction between man 2:104, 2:220, 2:364, no. 23, 2:341). and animal. In System des transzendentalen 22See also my article "Hearing Women's Idealismus, for instance, in the section "De- Voices" where I suggest that Heinrich von Of- duktion des Organischen," he assigns animals terdingen's "Bildung" involves the palingene- a less developed form of organization than man sis into a woman. (2:492-93). In Ideen zu einer Philosophie der 23Cf. "Die Individualitaet in der Natur ist ganz Natur he states that one cannot know whether unendlich" (2:826). animals have souls (1:703). See also Aus den 24Cf. "Hat man den Rhythmus der Welt weg- Jahrbiichern derMedezin als Wissenschaft: "es so hat man auch die Welt weg" (2:544). wire zu wiinschen, daB die Verderbtheit im 25By late Romanticism, this idealization of na- Menschen nur bis zur Thierwerdung ginge; ture and the belief in the ability of animals to leider aber konne der Mensch nur unter oder speak is parodied in E. T. A. Hoffmann. Kater uber dem Thiere stehen" (4:254). An excellent Murr is a cat who writes in hackneyed Roman- guide in the history of chemistry, magnetism, tic verse. When the novel opens the cat intones, electricity, galvanism, and physiology (includ- "O Natur, heilige hehre Natur! Wie durch- ing theories on a vital life force) leading up to strimt all deine Wonne, all dein Entziicken Schelling can be found in lengthy articles by meine bewegte Brust" (5:18). Obviously, na- Manfred Durner, Franscesco Moiso, and Jorg ture fills his breast with a joy different from Jantzen in Schelling, Ergdinzungsband. Runge's dog: Hoffmann's feline is contemplat- 17For more on this study see Wetzels, Ritter ing catching a bird. When he fails, Murr paro- 55. On late eighteenth-century explanations of dies the Romantic pose in his lament: "Wie plant physiology and its irritability see Johann selten ist doch in dieser dilrftigen, verstockten, Friedrich Gmelin (1748-1804). In England, liebeleeren Zeit wahre Sympathie der Seelen" George Bell and Thomas Percival of Manches- (5:19). ter postulated that the irritability in plants re- sembled the sensibility of animals, and in 1782 Soame Jenyns compared sensitive plants and Works Cited lower animals in a work entitled "On the Chain of Universal Being." These speculative theories began to be rejected in the early nineteenth cen- Bark, Irene. "'Steine in Potenzen': Konstruktive tury by such biologists as Sir Humphrey Davy. Rezeption der Mineralogie bei Novalis." 18Wetzels considers the term "All-Thier" to Tilbingen: Niemeyer, 1999. embody the essence of Ritter's view of nature Condillac, E. B. de. Traitg des animaux and (Ritter 125). Frangois Dagonet. L'animal selon Condillac. 19See the fragments from Das Aligemeine Paris, Vrin, 1987. Brouillon: 2:692, no. 953: "die ganze Poisie Deleuze, Gilles and F6lix Guattari. A Thousand beruht auf thatiger Id6enassociation-auf Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. selbstthatiger, absichtlicher, idealischer Zu- Trans. Brian Massumi. London:Athlone, 1988. KUZNIAR:Novalis 441

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