Julius tries to find Lucinde where he used to see her - in her room, on their couch - and, not finding her, begins to conduct a strange conversation with her, devoid of a certain content, then surrendering to the will of his fantasies, then resorting to help the sheets that he once wrote, preserved by her caring hands. In this influx of images, he wants first of all to find words and colors to describe the joy and love that connects him with her, that harmony into the depths of which they plunge together, without opening their arms. "I can no longer say" my love "or" your love, "he writes," they are both the same and merged into one, being equally love and reciprocity. "
One of his "waking dreams" he calls the "Allegory of Insolence." In the skillfully cultivated garden he manages to overcome the disgusting monster that has suddenly jumped on him; defeated, it turns into an ordinary frog, and someone standing behind him calls him the name of the phantom. “This is Public Opinion,” he says, “and I am Wit,” Following his new companion, Julius sees amusing and instructive scenes in which, in addition to four young men, the Insolence takes part, at first frightening Julia with his defiant and bold appearance, Delicacy , Decency, Modesty; they walk through the green meadows created by the great sorceress fantasy, and they themselves are brought to life by her will. They change their masks, then reveal their true faces; but it is insolence with its independence and insight that attracts our wanderer more and more. He begins to call himself "the beloved son of Wit", just as a knight, wandering in search of adventure, says to himself: "I am the beloved son of happiness."
“Society,” he says to Lucinde in one of their further conversations, “is chaos that should be harmonized, perhaps only with the help of wit, if not joking and fooling around with the elements of passion, then it thickens into impenetrable masses and obscures all". The youthful years of Julia could serve as an excellent illustration of both the fidelity of this thesis and his own constancy in following him. In those years, his thought was in constant fermentation; every moment he was ready to meet something extraordinary. Nothing could hit him, and least of all his own death. Without wanderings and without a purpose, he wandered between things and people, like a man who awaits with awe something like this, on which his happiness depends. Everything could seduce him, and yet nothing could satisfy him.
Moreover, not one of the manifestations of profligacy could turn into an inalienable habit for him, for there was as much contempt in him as there was frivolity. In the end, this contempt turned him away from his current companions; he remembered the friend of his adolescence, a gentle, sublime and innocent girl; hastening to return to her, he found her already formed, but as noble, thoughtful and proud as before. He decided to possess it, with disgust, rejecting the slightest considerations of morality; but when he almost reached his, a sudden stream of her tears cooled him and aroused in his soul something like remorse. After that, he again plunged for a while into his former way of life; but soon in this whirlpool of amusements he met another girl whom he wanted to possess undividedly, despite the fact that he found her among those who almost openly belong to everyone; she was almost as vicious as she was innocent, and usually in her relations with men, fulfilling what she considered her duty, she remained completely cold; but Julius had the good fortune to please her, and she suddenly became attached to him more than can be expressed in words. Maybe for the first time she stopped liking the environment that until now had completely satisfied her. Julius felt this and was happy about it, but he could not completely overcome the contempt that her profession and her depravity inspired him. When she told him that he would be the father of her child, he considered himself deceived and left her. Her servant called him to her; after much persuasion, he followed him; it was dark in her office, he clung to her - and heard a deep breath, which turned out to be the last; looking at himself, he saw that he was in the blood. In a fit of despair, she inflicted numerous wounds on herself, most of which turned out to be fatal ... This incident filled him with horror and aversion to public prejudice. He repressed repentance through pride, which was only intensified by the feeling of a new, more enduring contempt for the world that he felt in himself.
However, time passed, and he met a woman who delivered him from this disease. She combined courtesy and artistry with self-control and courage; deifying her, he did not consider himself entitled to try to violate her family happiness; the feeling for her became for his spirit a strong focus and foundation of a new world. He again realized in himself a call to divine art; he devoted his passion and his youth to the exalted work of the artist, and gradually a sea of inspiration swallowed the stream of his love feeling.
It happened, however, that he met a young artist who, like him, passionately worshiped the beautiful. They spent only a few days together, and Lucinda surrendered to him forever, revealing to him the whole depth of her soul and all the strength, naturalness and sublimity that lurked in her. For a long time he called passion what he felt for her, and tenderness what she gave him; flashed over two years before he realized that he was infinitely loved and loved himself with no less force. Love, he realized, was not only a secret inner need for the infinite; she is at the same time the sacred pleasure of sharing intimacy. Only in the answer of your “You” can each “I” fully feel its infinite unity.
The highest manifestation of the mind is not to act according to one's intention, but to indulge in the soul of fantasy and not interfere with the amusement of the young mother with her baby. Let the man worship the beloved, the mother - the child and all - the eternal man. And the soul will comprehend the complaint of the nightingale and the smile of the newborn and will understand the meaning of everything that is written in secret letters in flowers and stars; the sacred meaning of life, as well as the eternal language of nature. She will never be able to leave this magic circle, and everything that she creates or pronounces, everything will sound like an amazing romance about the wonderful secrets of the children's world of the gods, accompanied by an enchanting music of feelings and adorned with flowering sweet life full of deep meaning.
