in the first place his sweetheart was herself inclined to a sort of
visionary mysticism, and therefore had an unwholesome influence upon the
youth, who had already been carried too far in that direction. She too
was a lover of solitude and wrote her letters to him in the stillness of
the night, when all others were asleep. There can be no doubt that she
had at least some share in determining his mental activity, especially
his reading. In one of his earliest letters to her he writes: "Weil Du
den Don Carlos liest, will ich ihn auch lesen."[28] It was during this
time too that that he became so ardent an admirer of Schubart and
Ossian. "Da leg' ich meinen Ossian weg und komme zu Dir," he writes in
1788 to his friend Nast. "Ich habe meine Seele geweidet an den Helden
des Barden, habe mit ihm getrauert, wann er trauert über sterbende
Mädchen."[29] There is not a sensuous note in all Hölderlin's poems or
letters to Louise. Typical are the lines which he addresses to her on
his departure from Maulbronn:

Lass sie drohen, die Stürme, die Leiden,
Lass trennen--der Trennung Jahre
Sie trennen uns nicht!
Sie trennen uns nicht!
Denn mein bist du! Und über das Grab hinaus
Soll sie dauren, die unzertrennbare Liebe.

O! wenn's einst da ist
Das grosse selige Jenseits,
Wo die Krone dem leidenden Pilger,
Die Palme dem Sieger blinkt,
Dann Freundin--lohnet auch Freundschaft--
Auch Freundschaft der Ewige.[30]